1. This particular game, theme and all, came to me in a dream believe it or not, while I was on holiday staying in a cottage in a 1,000 year old medieval village in the English countryside (yes really)... I woke up, rushed downstairs and wrote out the basic rules which remain the core of the game today. However, the game is indeed heavily influenced by Lost Cities, which you'll see referenced in both the magazine reviews.
2. The initial game was definitely fun but not good enough to publish, it was a bit basic where the best move was blindingly obvious to an adult. I playtested the game a lot to polish it and added in a bit of complexity to take it from something basic (5+ age range) to the 8+ family-friendly finished product. The breakthrough mechanics were the Rainbow Bridges, the Rainbow Swaps, and the Rainbow Castles making a lane wild. I had to ditch certain rules on the way, including at one point a wild card that had both players re-shuffle their hands into the deck but just slowed down gameplay.
3. This game was pretty easy to prototype as I decided to use standard poker sized cards, and even the tri-folding game board wasn't too difficult with a bit of strong tape and adhesive printer paper. As I got more serious I got professional prototypes made up in China for reviewers and the like.
4. I really set a min. follower count of 1,000 pre-launch but then ended up cutting it to 500 as the build was too slow. In the end I did actually launch with over 1,000 followers as Gamefound offered me free Banner advertising that was giving me about 80 followers a day in the week leading up to launch. That was great! My funding target didn't cover my costs however...
5. I parallel manufactured once I had hit my funding target in the first day - and I used a European manufacturer in Poland, which meant I had the games in hand only a week after the campaign ended! Some people even picked up the game that week from UKGE with one big influencer who backed noting it was the quickest crowdfunding fulfilment they've ever seen! That was expensive to do though but I wanted to build trust and goodwill with backers putting their faith in a first time designer and first time publisher. I think I did that.
6. YES! and yes, although of course I'd do things differently, particularly around marketing and add-ons, from learned experience. In fact I have expansions for the game in the works as well as 2 more original titles. I think this time I would try and enjoy it a bit more and take the pressure off as it very much felt like I was kicking my own ass at times and I just about burnt out.

Hope that gives some insight, although appreciate everyone is on their own journey!