Premium, Custom Deep Deck Tray by Dog Might Games
about 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 02:07:08 AM

Hi Backers, 

We have a new add-on, and it's a doozy. Dog Might Games, maker of premium game accessories, reached out to say they'd created a deck tray for the Deep deck. They sent us pictures, which were stunning:  

This tray holds both the Deep deck and the two face up Deep cards that are out each game. It holds both sleeved and unsleeved cards. 

It's built using Culry Birch and features the Oceans logo fully sculpted into the wood and Dog Might's custom Azul stain. The Trays measure 12 x 3.25 x 2.75" and, like all Dog Might products, the Trays come with a lifetime guarantee. 

You can now add this on to your your pledge for $49. Shipping will be charged in the pledge manager. 

Note these trays will be fulfilled separately from the rest of your pledge, direct from Dog Might Games. Here are shipping estimates to common locations: 

• US- $15.00
• Canada- $25.00
• EU- $35.00
• AU-$40.00

As ever, If you like what we're doing and feel we're treating you right, we'd love it if you shared this campaign with others. It helps tremendously.

Thanks,

Nick Bentley, campaign manager and one of Oceans' designers.

An upgrade to Oceans' Deluxe Edition
about 5 years ago – Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 12:18:30 AM

Hi Backers,

A few days ago we showed off improved, illustrated cardboard fish tokens for Oceans' standard edition:

The response was crazy positive, which was great. But it caused an odd problem: backers of the deluxe edition were jealous. Understandable, because those fish are sexy. 

We don't want to leave you deluxe backers stewing in envy, so we're making a change: 

The deluxe edition will now include the illustrated cardboard fish, in addition to the deluxe acrylic fish. 

So you can choose which fish to play with. Enjoy!

As ever, If you like what we're doing and feel we're treating you right, we'd love it if you shared this campaign with others. It helps tremendously.

Nick Bentley, campaign manager and one of Oceans' designers

Acrylic Fish and 3rd party coverage of Oceans
about 5 years ago – Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 12:34:52 AM

Hi Backers,

In our last update, we teased Meeple Source fish meeples (feeples?). However, there are still details to finalize, so we're extending the tease til next week. Thanks for your patience.

In the meantime, here's another update we've been meaning make.

Acrylic Fish

First, we have imagery of prototype acrylic fish for Oceans' Deluxe Edition:  

These are more durable and easier to handle than the cardboard fish of the standard edition, and they refract light beautifully. Note they aren't final:

• The final colors may not match what you see here.
• The final shapes will have beveled edges, to make them feel and look as tasty as possible (but please don't eat them). 

Coverage

Previews, reviews, and interviews are rolling in and we're sharing what we have below. Note all coverage is of prototypes and the final game may differ. Here you go:

Podcasts

• Blue Peg, Pink Peg (starts at 26:20) - "If you're a player who likes interesting, unique, varied styles of player interaction within your game, then I think this is something you should very much consider. Love the line. Love the game. The art is exquisite. It's a just really exceptional title, one I that think you should think very seriously about backing." 
• Board's Alive (starts at 1:21:20) - "It's really good. I really had fun with it. If you played Evolution and you're like 'this is a good game' but it's kind of not as deep as I want...this game is that but better. It's a similar system but everything feels like it interlocks better."  
• Rolling Dice and Taking Names (starts at 40:54) - "Overall, I think it's an excellent change to the series." 
• Dukes of Dice (starts at 4:25) - An interview with our own Dominic Crapuchettes. 
• Dragon's Demize (starts at 13:45) - Another interview with Dominic. 

Writing

• Lorehound - "Oceans is a game with straightforward game play. It’s fairly easy to learn, but has enormous depth in devising a winning strategy. The variations introduced by the deep cards and the scenario decks should mean that no two games are ever quite alike...Whether you own Evolution or not, Oceans is a great game and an excellent addition to your cardboard collection." 
• GeekDad - "It’s fantastic when you discover a powerful combination, and then devastating when another player finds a way to circumvent your carefully crafted systems. Because there are so many Deep cards, there’s no guarantee that you can rely on the same combinations each time you play." 
• Space Biff - "In place of another Evolution, Oceans is far more than a sequel, and far better." 
• What's Eric Playing - "I’m super excited about another game in the Evolution series and this one doesn’t disappoint" 
• Bleeding Cool - "Some of the things you can do in this game are insane and will make you freak out as to what you can create." 

Videos 

As ever, If you like what we're doing and feel we're treating you right, we'd love it if you shared this campaign with others. It helps tremendously.

Thanks,

Nick Bentley, campaign manager and one of Oceans' designers.

New Fish, Part One
about 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 01:51:21 AM

Hi Backers,

This campaign has been live for two weeks, and it's our most successful to date, by far. It's hard to put into words how grateful we feel. Thank you. 

Now, an improvement. 

We learned Catherine Hamilton, the brilliant nature artist behind Oceans' look, has a break in her schedule and can work more on Oceans. So we asked if she'd illustrate the cardboard fish tokens in the standard edition. She agreed! 

Here's the first photo she sent us of her work-in-progress:

We made mockups to give you an idea of what these will look like on a species. For reference, here's a mockup of the old look in standard edition:

...and here's a mockup of the current look:

Bear in mind this isn't final. We hope you like where we're headed here.

MORE FISH INCOMING

This isn't the end of fish token news. More coming in our next update. Teaser: 

Twitter Stretch Goal

There's a big stretch goal we want to make sure to unlock, so I'm bringing it to your attention: 1500 followers for Dominic Crapuchettes' Twitter account will unlock the Exoskeleton Deep trait, the Shallow Gene Pool scenario card, and the Massive Fins Deep card:

As ever, If you like what we're doing and feel we're treating you right, we'd love it if you shared this campaign with others. Your enthusiasm is the life-blood of our work. 

Thanks,

Nick Bentley, campaign manager and one of Oceans' designers. 

New species board design, based on your feedback
about 5 years ago – Mon, Apr 08, 2019 at 02:07:52 AM

Hi Backers, 

You asked us to work on the species boards for Oceans, so we've been doing that. The original species boards were double-sided, with the following image on both sides:   

Below you can see the new scheme we're toying with. It's not final and could change based on further study and feedback. But we want to run it by you. The new boards would also double-sided, but would have a slightly different image on each side:    

This way, you can choose whether you want your species to look light or dark. One thing we like about this is that, if we make an expansion for Oceans, the board could indicate if a species lives near the surface or at depth. So it gives us a nice design option we wouldn't otherwise have. Thanks for the suggestion! 

You'll also notice there's a big "1" where some eggs used to be. This is a functional change that makes it easier for players to remember that they automatically get 1 population when starting a new species. 

We'd like to make these look a little more "watercolory" to better match the aesthetic of Catherine Hamilton's art. Haven't gotten to that yet. 

What's with the Bubbles?

Finally, the population spots in this new design are marked by bubbles instead of fish. Why? We can't tell you, except to say: we've got a surprise coming that may make the species boards work better this way. It depends on how the surprise we're working on develops. 

Here again, your feedback has been invaluable. We're humbled at all this interest. Keep sharing your opinions and we'll keep listening. 

We'll leave the original species board image up on the campaign page until we've finalized our new ones. 

As ever, we're grateful to those of you willing to share this campaign with others. 

Thanks,

Nick Bentley, campaign manager and one of Oceans' designers.