Feed, grow, and push! ... or explode. A bombastic game for 1-4 players with funny art & miniatures from the creators of Dodos Riding Dinos. Redefining area control in a swift but deeply strategic game with a ton of replayability.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Prepress process starts!
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 11:17:11 PM
Hi Kiwi Island!
We have news for you: The development process of Kiwi Chow Down has finished! All art, game design, editing, sculpts and graphic design has been completed.
We are ready for the next step: The prepress process is on the way. We've started to send the game files for revision to the factory. They are sent in two big blocks: Non-printed components and Printed components.
For the Non-printed components, we have an example for you. You know them but you haven't seen them as a miniature:
Here are the pending miniatures. Marchen Atellier finished its work and we 3D printed them. Then, Gio painted Ugh and Mecha Kiwi.
The miniatures above were 3D-printed by us for our own prototype. Once the factory approves the files for the non-printed components, they will start sending samples.
On the other hand, in the Printed components group, we have an improvement for the game: the iconography. William from Draco Studios led Ruben to a better graphic design for the game. Now, we have clearer iconography to support the rules.
The new flock board!
We also want to show you the graphic design for the Objective and Power cards. They will give you a ton of replayability for the Chow Down Madness!
Kiwi power for all!
Choose wisely your objective card for earning more victory points at the end of the game!
Another huge achievement is the Rulebook. It's finished in the English version. Now we'll be able to send it to our localization partners for translations. In fact, it would be great if you can take a look at it. Your comments are very welcome!
You can check the ENGLISH rulebook here. We have started the translation process with the localization partners.
Once the factory approve the files for the printed components, we will receive the digital proofs, and once we approve those, they will send the PPC (Pre-production copy) before moving to mass production.
Here's a prototype punchboard we created for our own prototype:
As mentioned in the previous update, we are still waiting for the freight shipping situation with container shortage to have a clearer panorama before we lock the shipping fees in the pledge manager so we offer you the best fees and as close to the ones indicated in the shipping table in the campaign as possible.
It seems possible that we can start sending the smoke test soon for 5% of the backers, without charging cards yet, just to make sure everything is properly setup in the surveys. Thanks for your patience and understanding, as mentioned before, the pledge manager won't delay the project's development.
Our friends from Draco Studios are in the final 24hrs of their campaign for a very unique asymmetric tabletop game, Dragonbond: Lords of Vaala.
Just as Kiwi Chow Down, this game has some degree of area control, but it has much more than that. Its core mechanic is action programming, with a "push your luck" feel, where all players secretly play cards until one of them passes. Then, actions are solved and adaptability is a key factor. Surprisingly enough, it is not chaotic, but highly strategic instead. Simple rules with a ton of depth.
You can play as a general to raise armies and expand, or as a dragon to raid and devour your enemies. By collecting Power (victory points), you will be able to cast unique spells and abilities (Vaala cards) that are very powerful and unique for each character.
But the most unique aspect in the game design is the signature Dragonbonding mechanic where a dragon player and a general player can attempt to become a team and claim victory together.
It also has a very interesting AI system for solo mode.
On top of that, the price point is very accesible ($49 for the base game + free expansion)
We would like to see them succeed and reach their final stretch goal that will make the free expansion become a standalone game too.
Since Draco Studios is the publisher of Kiwi Chow Down, all of you are considered returning backers to get an additional loyalty reward (oversized rubber mat, card sleeves or extra dice set, whichever you choose). So that's a ton of value for your pledge and even more with the expansions.
That's all for today. We will see you in the next update Kiwi Island, we'll talk about the Pledge Manager.
Kweeeep!!!!
Where's the pledge manager?
almost 3 years ago
– Wed, Jul 14, 2021 at 01:55:11 AM
Hi Kiwi Island! Are you ready for a big update?
We've been working hard to finish development of the stretch goals, Kiwi Chow Down is almost finished. Our goal is to complete all the processes this month. We believe we can start prepress and file verification during Mid August and sending the files for translation to our localization partners. Today we want to show you what we've been doing.
But first, we would like to talk about the pledge manager and the current situation with freight shipping.
If you have backed other Kickstarter projects during the past year, you may already being aware about the current shipping crisis. In short, there's a container shortage and freight shipping has skyrocketed with 4x the usual price.
While this project is still on an early stage and we hope for the best for Dodos Riding Dinos —which is finishing production this month and will most likely have to submit to the increased ocean freight charges— we need to be careful in the pledge manager to set the proper shipping price so we don't undercharge you but also, to avoid high shipping fees for you.
We finished setting up the pledge manager many weeks ago, but we believe it is prudent to wait a bit and understand better the situation and "forecast" (at least what we can). So the surveys have not been sent yet.
But do not worry, this doesn't mean a delay in the project in any way; this month we have been making progress just as planned to lock development with all the cards of the mini expansion and the new unlocked cards & leaders along with art for them AND a re-design of the board because you all asked for it!
Here, let us show you!
Here's the design path. From prototype (solid colors), to dummy (patterns), to "pre-final" (some elements)
We heard your comments, and you know we love including your feedback in the development of our games. We asked the art team to work on a new island board with more detail and we hope you feel more immersion in Kiwi island. As always, Gnomosapiens have made a great effort, and we're happy with the results. Please take a look:
Work in progress.
Here's a top view without the gameplay icons so you can appreciate better the new illustration
Gnomosapiens is also working on new illustrations for the game, because as you might recall, your game now includes 16 leader cards and we want to have unique art for each ability. So, based on their last update, they will finish the illustrations by the end of July. If you want to know more about the work of Gnomosapiens, they are running a Kickstarter campaign for their game Backyard of Frutabaja.
Meanwhile, we have done all the testing for the abilities; you'll have a lot of fun trying strategies based on your chosen leader. As mentioned before, we love to consider your ideas and suggestions, these abilities weren't the exception.
Thanks David and Steve! WIP*
Do you remember the War for Chicken Island and Dodos riding Dinos crossovers? Sure you do! You voted for them! We've been talking about art, and we want to show them in their colored versions.
Here we go! The alternate art for Chopan and the colored versions for Mecha Kiwi and Ugh & Yuka! WIP
The rulebook is 95% done, we'll finish it this week, and then we'll send it to our localizations partners for translations. We'll share the rulebook as soon as possible. It has been under extensive editing review but we believe this will be the best rulebook from the Creature Kingdoms series!
Once we enter into manufacture, we will resume work in the digital ruleset to merge your 3 games into a single gaming experience.
Ok, Kiwi Island. Did you like the update! Leave us your thoughts in the comment section!
Kweeep!!!
Thank you so much for your support!!! 1830 Kiwi Push!!!
almost 3 years ago
– Sun, May 30, 2021 at 01:01:17 AM
Hi Kiwi Tribe! How are you!
We want to say thank you! Even though we didn't get the last Stretch Goals, we are grateful because, thanks to you, another Creature Kingdoms game will soon be on your tables. We have learned a lot from this campaign. We had the biggest Day-1 launch for our team. Then, there were some mistakes which we tried to correct with your insight. While we didn't get as much exposure for feeding the Chow Down as in the Dino race, we're ready to kweeep pushing for delivering the best game we can offer. You deserve it!And we LOVE KIWI CHOW DOWN! We are already writing to the possible manufacturing factories to review quotations and having more options or see how late pledges and add-ons perform in the pledge manager. We will have news soon.
Meanwhile, there are pending topics:
We're working on the island board redesign. When we have something to show you, we will reveal in a new update.
You unlocked 4 alternate leader's abilities. We will use some of your suggestions. Please give us a little bit of time for this.
You got 2 Community goals and we will be back with news about the crossover cards final design.
Take a look at Dodos riding Dinos
Some of you choose reward tiers that include Dodos riding Dinos. We have good news for you!
Yesterday, the first Dodos riding Dinos from the factory arrived! Roooaaarrr!!!
We want to invite you to the Unboxing live stream next Tuesday, June 1, at 13:00 (GMT-6). Save the date!!! Roooaarr!!!
Next steps
Most of you are already familiar with Kickstarter but for those of you who are not familiar with the platform, haven't backed many campaigns, or have a failed pledge pending to fix, here's what you should do or expect in the next weeks:
Kickstarter will process payments this week and will deposit funds to our account in 2 weeks. Backers with errored pledges must fix their payment (more about that below) within the next 7 days.
We will finish setting up Backerkit (our pledge manager) to send your surveys in 4 weeks. Here, you will be able to add extra items such all the War for Chicken Island content (for a limited time) and the WFCI-DrD crossover. You may also upgrade your pledge level and pay for shipping fees (in case you have physical items in your rewards) as well as letting us know your mailing address. We will accept late pledges for a short time in here (in case you know someone who missed the campaign) but of course, our backers always get the best deals, so late pledges might not have the same price or bundles than the reward tiers but rather, they will be separate items for late pledges.
Did you like the updates? We plan to continue sharing the development progress with you. You can expect a couple of updates per month and as we approach production, it might be closer to 1 monthly update to keep you in the loop about the status of the project.
Errored pledges
If you had issues from Kickstarter charging your credit or debit card, (you can tell if you received an e-mail about it) follow this steps:
Identify the source of the problem and provide the solution: 1. Your card has no funds: Transfer funds to it. 2. Another Kickstarter project you backed ended on the same day: Your bank blocked the card for security by thinking it was a duplicated charge. 3. Your card is incompatible with Kickstarter US charge hub: Try using a different card (yours or from a friend).
You will see a red banner at the top of the website saying you have an errored pledge. Click on "Fix Payment"
Try again with the proper card (see the first step: Identify the source of the problem)
There is a bug on which Kickstarter states you have successfully fixed your pledge even though it might haven't worked. The best way to confirm is to refresh the page and not having the red banner on the top; alternatively try looking in your mail for the proper confirmation. Backers with errored pledges have 7 days to fix it and Kickstarter will automatically retry at the end of the 7-day window. If you are not able to fix it within that time, your pledge will be automatically marked as dropped. Don't worry, you will still have 2 opportunities to fix it:
The first will be when we send the surveys (in about 3 weeks). We may be able to charge your card properly in our platform.
The next will be some months after the surveys are sent, we will be able to enable PayPal payments.
We will be here to provide support. But rest assured that your pledge info is still on record and you will have some opportunities to fix payment in the future. However, it is better to fix the payment in Kickstarter so that you still receive the project updates directly. Having said all of this, your last resource is to ask someone else (a friend or family member) for their card so you can try different cards Visa, American Express, Master Card until the payment is successful.
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Once again, on behalf of everyone in Detestable Games and Draco Studios, we want to thank you with all our hearts for trusting and joining us on this new adventure for delivering a very polished game with beautiful components but most of all, a game that will bring fun to your table.
See you soon!!
Kweeeeepp!!!
20 hours left!!! And the Kiwi rider winner is...!!!
almost 3 years ago
– Thu, May 27, 2021 at 01:00:15 AM
Hi Kiwi Tribe!!! Are you having fun in the Final Chow Down?! We certainly are.
The poll had a photo finish. There were strong competitors, but for now, only one can join the Kiwi Chow Down.
Ok ok, we know we are here to...
...ohh!
We're heading to Kingdoms
And still we stand tall
'Cause maybe they've seen us
And welcome us all...
Yeah
With so many lightyears to go
And things to be found
(Come on everybody) To be found
I'm sure that we all miss her so!
It's the Kiwi rider Chow Down!
Welcome to the Kiwi Chow Down Mammoth!!! It was a very close competition... Mammoth is adorable, but we love Archaeopteryx and we have the same feelings for Plesiosaur, this is so confusing! But you know us, we're always looking for how to make things happen. Is there something the team could do for having both? Maybe if we change the question we could get a better answer.
In fact, some backers are asking for an option to get them all... we'll take into account your suggestions for future releases.
Right now, our minds and efforts are focused on the Final Chow Down!
In fact, the similarities with the previous voting with close results, disturb us a little bit...
Maybe the return of contenders is really an option.
Who may know?
...
...
What do you think Gelatinous Kiwi?
Will Gelatinous Kiwi be our last SG right after the wider Kiwi tokens?
Kweeeep!!! Help us and help Gelationous Kiwi for becoming the 8th Kiwi leader. Lets explode this Kiwistarter!!! Help us sharing in social media!
It's the Final Chow Down!!! 48 hours left and we need to choose a Kiwi Rider!!!
almost 3 years ago
– Wed, May 26, 2021 at 11:21:29 PM
Hi Kiwi Tribe, it's time to sing!!!
We're leaving together.
But still it's farewell
And maybe we'll comeback
To CKverse, who can tell?
I guess there is no one to blame
We're leaving ground
Will things ever be the same again?
It's the Final Chow Down!
Now, we want to take advantage you have music in your head, for taking a tough decision: Which Kiwi rider should be the next leader in Kiwi Chow Down. This one will also be playable in Dodos Riding Dinos. We have amazing sketches for you!
Please vote for your favorite one in the main comment section! This will help us to gain momentum in platforms like Kicktraq. We need your push for spreading the Kiwi to a great final! So, kweeep doing the green button thing!
We can do it!!! Kweeep!!! There are also additional cards we can unlock, don't stop feeding the community goals. We're pretty close!!
We are in the final 48 hours of the campaign! Let's complete the social goals and spread the word!
