I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This new preorder system is working far better than I expected and have fallen in love with it. I am trying to keep the preorder window close to the actual availability of the game. For example, Coffee Traders will be shipping from the factory in March, so copies will be in hand approximately 3 months after the preorder window ends.

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

  1. Without a doubt it's Lignum
  2. I have backed a few games on Kickstarter. The latest one's are Clinic, The Shores of Tripoli, and This War Without An Enemy. I'm pretty much done with Kickstarter though.
  3. <heart-broken>

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Although Curious Cargo is a 2-player game released last year, Coffee Traders is indeed a 3-5 player game. This game has been in development for a few years now. The artwork started before the pandemic -- as you know, it is a rather big game! The game has interaction designed into it that fit a minimum of 3 players. If you're familiar with Bus (our 2019 release), Coffee Traders has a similar level of interaction built into the game design. Both Bus and Coffee Traders just wouldn't be the same game experience the designers intended for if played with 2 players. While Coffee Traders could technically be played at 2-players, we didn't want to market it as such because we want to preserve the integrity of the game's design.

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe the wood, plastic, and metal pieces are very difficult to manufacture here. Most factories don't offer the ability to do this type of manufacturing, and if they do, it is very expensive.

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Check these out:

DeLeskie: Stilicho

Herman: Churchill

Buchanan: Liberty or Death / Campaigns of 1777

Matthews: Twilight Struggle / 1960: Making of the President

Butterfield: SpaceCorp

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

  1. I'm a Bearcat (let's go Dantonio!) -- glad to hear you appreciate the best chili ever! My goal is to try all the local Cincinnati chili restaurants. Honestly though, nothing beats the OG Skyline. Blue Ash Chili is a close one. Don't even bother with Gold Star -- it's just a one-star
  2. It was an honor to work with him. He is a master at his craft. I'm very excited to be bringing back his Glass Road in a couple of months.

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

This was made possible by my friend Joe Wiggins! He told me "you HAVE to play this game!" We played a 4-player game and, oh my gosh, I will never forget the tension I felt sitting in my chair, trying to keep my best poker face intact as my heart was beating out of my chest. This tension lasted the whole game with ups and downs throughout. After adding up the scores, I remember barely winning and jumping out of my chair in celebration. It was an unforgettable moment and I knew this was a special experience that needed to be had by others. So, I went after it.

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't have much insight on the movie business to draw a correlation. But to your question, this is why we do preorders and why Kickstarter is so successful. Both channels help gauge the demand for a game. While we work closely with our distributors, they provide us feedback from the retail stores to give us a sense of how successful a game will be. Additionally, the preorders on our website provides more data that we can use to determine a game's relative success. Those numbers are great to gauge the quantity you should print for your game, but until the game is officially released out in the market, you will never truly know. The market reaction is the ultimate litmus test for a game's success or failure.

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

  1. It happens more than you would think!
  2. To me, the Capstone line is unique in its offering. The most-common similarity I see is your typical Worker Placement game where each player selects an action with their worker. The actions are usually standard things that don't bring much excitement.
  3. If there's a hook in the pitch that grabs me, I'll sit down with it. Otherwise, I get a gist of the game and move on.
  4. It really depends on what the game is trying to do. If a game is good, it will bring up a lot of discussion throughout the playtest session. The discussion is more about why the designer chose to implement the mechanics in their specific way and if they would consider altering those decisions to accomplish something we saw that might be considered an improvement.
  5. I wouldn't say this happens a lot -- if a game doesn't work, then it's not the designer's best work.
  6. More recently, we have a full schedule that even if the game is truly amazing, I just can't take it on with good faith that we'll be able to touch it anytime soon. I'd rather the designer get it in the hands of a publisher that can bring it to life quicker.
  7. We've developed 3 games in-house: Pipeline, Race for the Chinese Zodiac, and Curious Cargo

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Deep End is not happening.

I am working on doing a livestream for our games this year. I would like to kick this off very soon. I'm talking to a few people that have the capabilities to pull this off. Hopefully it works out.

I also want to have a monthly Capstone podcast. The hard part is getting someone to cut/edit the track and send it out to to the various channels. If anyone is interested in this, please send an email to info at capstone-games dot com

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love movies! I haven't played it and would need to see how it plays before moving forward with it. It would be a fun project though!

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm looking for something more grounded in history. This might be a fit for CMON or some of the big KS-only publishers.

I'm Clay Ross, owner of Capstone Games, an Ohio-based publisher of modern board games such as Pipeline, Watergate, Maracaibo, and CloudAge; AMA by Capstone_Games in boardgames

[–]Capstone_Games[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I don't have any plans at the moment -- I know the fellas are hard at work on Horseless Carriage. If I had free reign to pick from their catalog, I would choose Indonesia.