We’re thrilled we woke this morning to a response from our third and final competition winner: Lilly!
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Congratulations, we’re thrilled to have you as a part of our Sauna!
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A big warm welcome to Lilly!
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SteamWorks next Friday!
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In our last update we mentioned we were going to be hosting a party at SteamWorks, but we got the date wrong…
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We’ll be turning up with the gang next Friday 28th October from 21:00 for DJing, drinks, demos and dancing! Check https://www.steamworks.nl/ for more info.
I don’t think I’ll ever quite fully get over how amazing this whole experience has been. For sure, we faced a bit of negativity that wasn’t fun to see, but I was very thankful to have such a supportive group of backers. Together we’ve turned this little hobby project into a serious gaming adventure and we feel ready to take on the world!
We managed to gain quite some traffic in the last few days, and we’ve had a bunch of requests about late pledges. Luckily, the folks at BackerKit have thought all about this predicament and provide a Pre-Order store connected to Kickstarter, so any late pledges through BackerKit will combine with our Kickstarter pledges and we can fulfill them all in one go.
We’re already filling out a bunch of details preparing the pledge manager for the surveys we’ll be sending out. For a whole bunch of reasons, we’re advised to not do this within the first 14 days, so we’ve pencilled in to send out on Thursday 10th November. Should this date change, we’ll let you all know.
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Competition Winners
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I’m pretty sure this is the part that most of you are waiting to read, so I won’t make you wait any longer.
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We can now reveal that we have drawn 3 winners who will be joining us in the Sauna!
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Announcing 2 of our lucky winners:
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Drake (left) & Greg (right)
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Drake (aka Dan) and Greg, we’re so happy to be inviting you in to join our Sauna! And I know Jose can’t wait to get to work on you For privacy reasons we need to confirm all entries and photos before announcing, so please check your Kickstarter inbox in case you’re our lucky third winner
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BGG
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In our last update we mentioned we got to #13 on BGG’s Hotlist. Well, this morning we somehow got all the way up to #4! Now, since then we’ve disappeared from the list completely, and when I browse BGG it looks like there is some community content that was removed. I can only assume that some negative comments drove a lot of traffic to the BGG game page. Not sure if I’ll ever know – but we’ll be keeping a closer eye over there to be sure.
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Catapulted into the spotlight, only to quickly disappear behind the cloud xD
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Upcoming Events
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We’ve already mentioned we’ll be at SpellenSpektakel on 5th & 6th November with our amazing Demo Team. We’re so happy to be invited to join this event, and can’t wait to demo share this hilarious experience with the public.
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We’re also freaking stoked to announce that next Friday on 28th November, we’re also bringing the team to SteamWorks Sauna in Arnhem. During their Youngsters night, we’ll be doing game demos, chatting with (up) all the visitors and I’ll be doing a DJ set full of fun, bouncy, pop & house!
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Come join us and let’s see how much fun playing Gay Sauna the Board Game in a Gay Sauna can get!!!
Thank you all so so much! We’re completely blown away by reaching so far – we didn’t quite meet our €35k stretch goal, but we came close we’ll be adding the First Player token for all backers!
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We also had a big surprise this morning by finding out we’re #13 on the BoardGameGeek Hotlist at the moment: https://boardgamegeek.com/hotness (that’s so freakin cool we can’t quite comprehend it happening yet…)
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Over the next 24 hours we’ll be pulling all the backer submissions and will announce the winner of our competition tomorrow evening.
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We’re then going to take a few days to process everything, regroup and pick up a bunch of things that have been on hold while this campaign was running. We’ll be adopting a weekly update rhythm for the campaign – even if we’ve not got anything to say, we’ll provide a quick update saying that. We’ll also publish our planning next week in the update to give you an idea of the next steps and what we’ll be busy with.
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We will also be launching our pre-order store very soon – so those who missed out on the campaign can have a chance to join backers. We’ll also be rolling out some options for retailers – so stay tuned for more there.
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It kind of feels like a goodbye, as we’ve been glued to this campaign and connecting constantly with all of you for this time, but it’s really a HELLO to the world! As everyone keeps telling me: It all starts now!
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And none of this would have been possible without you all!
It’s an exciting evening for us here as we prepare for the final night of our Kickstarter Campaign. We just had an awesome team chat sharing our appreciation for our backers and the support that has enabled us to get this far!
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As a final present for you all to see us through this final sprint, Jose has gifted a new visitor!!!!
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I’m so thrilled to be sharing them with you. For us it was love at first sight and I can’t wait to get to know what makes them tick and what floats their boat. You’ll have to wait some time to hear all about them, but in the meantime you can bathe in their gorgeous fierceness!
We hit the really cool milestone last night: 500 backers of the game! Considering when we started this campaign we were making plans for a modest print run of 500 copies, it’s definitely an understatement when I say we really weren’t expecting to make it this big!
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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SHOWN US THEIR SUPPORT!
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With just 24 hours left before we close this chapter and move on to the next big exciting step in our journey, we’d love to see if we can unlock at least one more stretch goal for you all!
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That also means only 24 hours left to get a chance to enter the competition to be drawn into the game. I’ve had a couple of backers ask me about this – please check your Kickstarter Messages for details from us about the competition, but if you don’t see what you need, please do drop me a line.
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Finally on the competition, I want to reiterate that this is open for all genders, sizes, shapes, sexualities. We run an inclusive Gay Sauna here and we’re open to all.
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Gay Sauna the Board Game is happening, are you coming along for the ride?
Thank you everyone! This is truly an incredible experience for the whole team. We’ve worked so hard to get to this point and it’s amazing to see so many people who want to get their hands on Gay Sauna the Board Game!
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Stretch Goals
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We’ve unlocked a new stretch goal – pimping up the boxes a bit and giving players some help on the tabletop. It might not be the fanciest thing we make, but we’re pretty sure you’ll all appreciate it when playing
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Should we reach the lofty heights of €35k, then we’ll be adding a first player token – and we’re pretty certain that a towel fits the theme perfectly!
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Another Interview
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We’re also honoured to have been published again – this time in Serbia! We met Bojan from Pitchwise.net at Essen and had a great chat about the game and project. He also recorded a short interview they’ve posted alongside an awesome review:
You’ll notice I say “world’s first” in the video, I will admit I was a bit excited and got carried away – I’m aware there are others before me
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Backer Competition
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We’ve had a great response to our Backer Visitor Competition with over 10% of all our backers wanting their chance to be in the game! Please keep the submissions coming in, and if you’re a backer of the Print n Play or the physical game and didn’t receive your invitation details, please do get in touch.
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We’re already over the moon at where we are, and we’ve still got just over 40 hours to go! So please help us by sharing the campaign with everyone you know would be interested
The overall response to the game has been incredible, but standing out of course is the incredible artwork of Jose! His creations are touching fans in all the right places
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We wanted to take a little time to share more of his work-in-progress sketches with you all. These are the initial sketches he makes of new characters while working on the concepts and before all the gorgeous details get filled in.
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You might recognise some of these hotties already, while others are concepts that could potentially make it into the game – please note that we are not promising any of these specific characters will be in the game, we just wanted to share some more concept art
Spiel was last week, but it’s still so fresh of mind for us. We met so many awesome people and there was still so much we wanted to share, so we wrote a blog about it. Check it out on our Gay Sauna the Board Game website:
Our Backer Competition is going great! We’ve got a whole bunch of entries already and more coming in all the time!
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This competition is available for ALL backers of the Print n Play or physical copy of the game – including all gender identities! So if you’d like the chance to be in the game – go for it!
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Please send us a message in case you’re experiencing any problems submitting or if you have pledged for the Print n Play / Physical game and have not received your invitation to join.
While for many people, Spiel Essen is completely over and they’ve moved on to the next thing in their agenda. For us at Gay Sauna HQ, we’re still very much feeling the impact this event has had on the campaign, the game and our lives.
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Going into the event we were sitting nicely on around 11k, with a steady stream of backers adding around €300-400 per day. Once we started to get some attention during and after the event this tripled, pushing the daily pledges to around €1k! That’s phenominal to us, we still can’t quite believe we’re keeping up this pace and we owe a huge part of this to all the incredible people we met during the event and all the support they’ve given us!
We weren’t really expecting to get any attention from the big K, but on day 1 we faced an incredibly friendly greeting from @jonritter and the Kickstarter team! We saw Jon several times over the next few days, and he even gave me the fantastic opportunity to demo Gay Sauna the Board Game at the Kickstarter booth! It was lots of fun taking the Gay Sauna on a little trip and meeting some folks who we’d likely never have run into. He even found a moment to impart some very useful crowdfunding advice. Thank you for making us all feel welcome!
We were lucky enough to get Daniele Silva’s attention at Essen and he was very kind enough to give us a little more of his time with an Interview. He also brokered the opinions of his team about the game – check out the review from Essen here. They review Gay Sauna the Board Game from 20:50, but I recommend checking out the entire video for their views on a whole bunch of other cool games!
I’ve mentioned Johno before, but I need to repeat myself as the whole BarPig team was fantastic! They were our anchor during the first days as the whole experience was a bit overwhelming, so knowing there were some folks in the next hall who knew our names gave us enough of the Cheers feeling to settle our nerves. Thank you Johno, Sander, Mikhail and the rest of the team!
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BarPig the Great Festival is live on Kickstarter now!
There were people with Dragon Legion t-shirts at our booth often enough we started getting questions about it It was a blast to meet a whole bunch of the team and demo the game. A couple of the cheeky boys also convinced us to get a little more into the sauna mood – leading to some hilarious moments and some great pictures! We look forward to getting close to these guys again!
On Thursday morning as I was making the final preparations I heard a very happy exclamation about being next to the Gay Sauna from our friends next door at The Speechless Bard. Such a nice greeting with a smile, it set the mood for the entire convention. Great to get a moment to talk on Sunday and very happy with my awesome pink dice bag!
In case you didn’t know, I’m a huge Warhammer fan and slightly unbelievable we were within eyesight of the Games Workshop Warhammer booth! So when they gave our team a very reassuring message about our booth and game, it really hit home. Now I know we’re looking at a different target audience, but it’s awesome to know there’s a guy who works for Games Workshop going around in a Gay Sauna the Board Game T-shirt <3
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The Game
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We created a quickplay version of the rules to help make faster demos during the event, and we were pretty amazed that it worked so well we’re going to include this as a “Party Version” in the core rulebook.
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There’s still a bit more playtesting to do on this version, but we’ve got several demos and games events coming up where we’ll give it a good run for its money and iron out all the kinks. Well…maybe not ALL the kinks
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We also received a lot of feedback regarding the graphic design and visual impact of the game as a whole. Jose’s illustrations are clearly much loved by fans and the wider board gaming community. Though there’s still a lot to do for the rooms and cards to provide the right balance. Luckily these were on our list already to improve (the current cruising areas in particular are very much a prototype and need some artistic love). We’re still on time for planning, there’s just an increase in pressure around this part of the game to ensure we get it right and meet everyone’s expectations.
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One of the highlights of the experience was the way the narrative of the game stood out to everyone who played with us. The gameplay is driven through the story of visiting a gay sauna, and as all the mechanics and gameplay decisions are based around this premise, the game holds up really well as a narrative experience. For sure we know that the game isn’t going to compete with the likes of Warhammer for those after a truly deep mechanical challenge, but we feel we’ve hit the right balance between theme and gameplay that we’re giving the world what they’re looking for when they think of Gay Sauna the Board Game.
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Our Lives
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In the long term, the most impactful thing about Spiel was the acceptance by the board gaming community. We had fully prepared to be shunned or ignored by everyone given the theme of the game is something folks haven’t seen before.
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Not only was everyone we interacted with overwhelmingly positive, but we were able to validate the game (and other future games we’re thinking of) have a place in the industry. This is really helping to define the future of Gay Sauna the Board Game and ReRoll Works and that future is looking bright!
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It’s also delightful to see we’re building a team that can support the game and help to bring it up to the next level. Not only adding Craig to the core team, but also having some awesome friends and an unbelievably patient husband means the world to me and I’m so grateful for their support!
We’ve reached over €25000 and over 400 backers and we’ve still got several more days to go before we close this campaign and kickstart the next phase of the project. The overwhelming response from you all has been incredible, and I can say for sure my outlook on Gay Sauna the Board Game has become amazingly positive as we’ve seen how people react to the game both on and offline.
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Stretch Goals
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Reaching €25k means we’ve unlocked the latest stretch goal: Choose your own stats! With this little upgrade, players will be able to take their own custom player boards (unlocked early on in the campaign) and add their own choice of role, kinks and likes. All with the helping hand of a couple of new icon tokens to visualise your fantasy in front of you.
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We can also now reveal the next stretch goal at €30k: Deck Management!
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No, this doesn’t mean we’ve turned into a CCG…we’ll be including a component in the box that you can use during your games to keep the draw and discard piles for all the cards you need in the game. It’ll be fully integrated into the board graphics, so it’ll be right at home looking after all your sauna opportunities and memories.
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SpellenSpektakel in Utrecht
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We’re still stunned by the reaction to Gay Sauna the Board Game at Spiel, Essen. We had such a great time demoing the game to everyone that we’re heading back out to the gaming tables. We’ll be hosting our steamy booth at SpellenSpektakel in Utrecht on November 5th and 6th! Please do come and say Hi, play a game and laugh with us!
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The Sauna Team
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A huge part of our success at Essen was down to my brother Craig. Seeing as I’m one of those strange people who doesn’t drive, a convention even as close as Essen to my home in Amsterdam, doesn’t make the challenge easier had it been the other side of the world. Craig, being the ever supportive older brother, jumped on a plane to join us for a week and made sure everything made it to the venue. It would have been fantastic had his contribution stopped there, but he jumped into the world of Gay Sauna the Board Game so completely, manning the booth with the kind of enthusiasm and energy not normally known in the Gay Sauna! With lots of discussions throughout the week, we’re delighted to let you all know Craig will be joining the Sauna team! With a focus mostly on Sales and Events, with his help we’ll get to spread the load a little more and improve all the things we can do for you all – especially get out to all those events and meet everyone!
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Competition
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A couple of weeks ago, we ran an Instagram competition where we randomly picked a new visitor to join the gang in the game and we’re so thrilled to announce @bsurbeck as the winner and introduce Beau to the gang! Everybody say hello to Beau!
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We also haven’t forgotten that we mention there might be other ways to get access to this exclusive Sauna!
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From today until the end of the campaign, all backers of the game (this includes all Print n Play backers too) will be eligible to enter the draw. Check your Kickstarter inbox for more information about how to enter.
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* We’ll send details to new backers within 12 hours of backing and submissions will be accepted for a minimum of 24 hours after you receive the invitation.
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We will be drawing at least 2 new visitors to join the gang from our awesome community of supporters!
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For privacy reasons we need to confirm all entries and photos before announcing, so please check your Kickstarter inbox in case you’re our lucky third winner 
It was a blast to meet a whole bunch of the team and demo the game. A couple of the cheeky boys also convinced us to get a little more into the sauna mood – leading to some hilarious moments and some great pictures! We look forward to getting close to these guys again! 
