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Prosperitea: A Game of Artisanal Tea Blending

Created by Al Gonzalez

A simple and elegant card game about blending, selling, and trading loose leaf tea. From the studio that brought you Cantankerous Cats!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

State of the Game: Backerkit Smoke Test!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, May 07, 2021 at 02:49:35 PM

Greetings, Beauteaful people!

This is a quick announcement to let you know that I have received the last batch of edits from Backerkit and we have just launched the "Smoke Test" for the survey! But what does this mean?


5% of you will receive an invitation to fill out your survey for Prosperitea. This is our last chance to make sure I've set everything up correctly and get feedback before sending the survey to ALL backers. If you receive an invitation, please fill out your survey ASAP and let us know if you have any issues!


Backerkit has changed a few things and added features since the last time I have used it, so if there are any points of confusion I would like to squash those before sending the rest of the surveys out. You can leave your feedback here as a comment or reach us directly at:

 [email protected] (Subject: "Backerkit Smoke Test")


Thank you all for your support and patience as we make sure everything is in place. I really appreciate all of your time, energy, and goodwill and want to make sure we take care of you all as best as we can.

<3

Aven Gonzalez

Master Barista of Prosperitea

Prosperitea State of the Game: Final Quotes, Earth Day, Backerkit!
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Apr 26, 2021 at 10:42:41 PM

Greetings, Baristas!

I am emerging from a bit of radio silence to bring you the first post-campaign "State of the Game." It's been a very wild week for me personally (unrelated to the game), so you have my apologies for the dead air. You can check the video update below!

The TL;DW is down below:

Manufacturing Status

We have submitted our final specs to AdMagic! Thanks to all of the stretch goals, there have been a number of changes to the game, so we needed to get a new round of estimates to account for those changes. Once I get the new numbers, we will be deciding the final specs for the game before we send everything out to press. The biggest sticking point is my desire to use RAW chip board and kraft paper wherever possible to emulate the old-world packing of the 1900s. If that proves to be too costly, I'll still do all of the letterpress and embossing techniques I promised, but they will be on more traditional and easier to work with papers for the process. I'll draft a post-mortem on the details for this in the future for the printing and art geeks in our audience. :)

BONUS POINT: I've been scouring the internet for eco-friendly foil methods, and it seems all hot/cold press foil is 100% recyclable once it is on the page! The backing for these foils, however, is still a plastic laminate, so I may have to pass on any foil work to maintain our standards. This is going to be a TBD item based on my conversations with the factory. So I can't make any promises, but I am trying to make it work.


Earth Day and Will Call Pickups

Because life has been crazy here in South Central, I haven't been able to focus on Earth Day. BUT I do want to make one promise to folks in the LA area.

You WILL have an option for Will Call pickup for your order and that Pickup event will double as a volunteer opportunity to help clean one of the local natural spaces in the Los Angeles area! The exact location will be decided once we know when the games will land and I can coordinate with one or two of our local organizations to see if we can make it a thing. Prime candidates are the LA River, Stony Point, Elysian Park, or the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park.

We hope folks in the LA area will take the opportunity to join us and help restore some beauty to our natural urban spaces.


Kickstarter Funds and Backerkit

I just received the notification from Kickstarter that our funds are on the way! This could take up to one more week for everything to get settled, so i expect to have the Backerkit survey up and running by the middle of next week! You will be able to update your addresses, order additional items, and pay for your shipping. I will make a post all about the Backerkit process when the page goes live to help everyone fully understand what's going on. FInally, as promised, some tips to help add more sustainable habits to your life!


Earth Day Sustainability Tips

As promised in the video, here are THREE things you can do in your daily life to help eliminate plastic and toxic waste from your life.


1.  Don't Sleeve Your Cards

Probably the most controversial suggestion on this list. I know people love sleeving their cards for any one of a number of reasons, primarily to protect them from wear and tear. But the fact of the matter is that card sleeves use 100% non-recyclable plastic. And that plastic will eventually find its way into a landfill or the ocean when they are inevitably thrown away or lost. Card sleeves also make your cards take up to 300% of the space they would normally take without sleeves.


This is the one and only reason why we always use the highest quality playing card stock for our games and design our boxes to be as tight of a fit as possible. No Mentha Designs game will ever be designed to support sleeves, but I always make sure to use the best quality cards possible so they survive multiple play sessions and stay easy to shuffle.


2.  Make your own Surface cleaners!

Cleaning products produce A LOT of plastic waste. And you can easily make alternatives in your own home. I use a lot of baking soda (usually packaged in wholly recyclable paper!), vinegar (often available in glass bottles), and lemon zest for just about everything. I have a small stash of Simple Green JUST in case I need to do heavy duty cleaning. This link from Good Housekeeping has a few great places to start.


3. Say no to take out!

This is a tough one during the Pandemic, but take out food is the most wasteful way to eat that we don't really notice because the trash is not always tossed away in our home. Most takeout that I have encountered in LA uses some form of plastic to package their food and that plastic often finds its way into a local park, street, or waterway. Dine in whenever you can if you are going out. If you must use takeout, make a point to spend your money at places that use paper alternatives to plastic.


There is a lot more you can do to lighten your personal impact on the world around you, but these are things that I have been able to manage as a person of modest means in one of the most expensive cities in the country, so I feel confident that they can be replicated if folks keep an open and flexible mind.


Thank you all again for your continued support and patience as we work through the less exciting parts of the Kickstarter process. The next update will be another Friendly Friday showcasing some fantastic eco-minded art from one of my college cohorts!

<3

Aven Gonzalez

Master Barista of Prosperitea

Post Campaign Housekeeping: Credit Cards, BackerKit, Manufacturing Quotes
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Apr 14, 2021 at 11:16:41 PM

Greetings, Beauteaful People!

In today's update, I just want to very quickly go over the next few steps for our project so you know what's going on and I make sure we are accountable to you, our backers. Transparency is a HUGE thing for me as a professional and while I won't go over every single detail of the process in these updates, I will do my best to give you a brief, top-level view of what's going on so you know that work is being done and games are getting made.


Credit Card Processing

A Kickstarter campaign has more than a number of "hidden fees" that are not visible to the end user, but Kickstarter is not responsible for. One of those hidden fees is loss of funds due to failed credit card transactions. So please take a look at your billing information in Kickstarter and make sure your credit cards are up to date!

Thankfully, it looks like we don't have many so far. Our failed transactions are at 3%, which is well UNDER the average! But that means we are out about $1,000. For a project as small as ours, that is a whole other bill we can pay.

But sadly, it also means those people won't receive the games they thought they ordered, which has definitely led to angry feedback in past projects for both me and Jason. And we don't like having to publicly state "I am sorry your credit card failed and that is why you don't have a game right now." to respond to a comment on a social media channel. It doesn't feel good for anyone, so please double check your billing info if you did not receive a confirmation of your card being charged from Kickstarter!


Pledge Manager: BackerKit

As announced in the campaign, we have decided to run with BackerKit for our pledge manager once again. We will have this activated once all of the funds from the campaign have been deposited into our account (usually in 2-3 weeks). The Pledge manager will basically be a gateway to BackerKit's online store where you can confirm your order, provide your shipping info, and purchase more copies of the game or Add-Ons!


We will also collect shipping fees here. And we will have a very optional tip jar setup for folks who would like to help cover the cost of our sustainable shipping supplies from eco-enclose. I will go over all of this in detail on a post dedicated to the BackerKit experience.


If you have folks who missed the campaign, they will be able to Pre-Order the RETAIL game on our website through Shopify. It will be $25 + Shipping and Sales Tax and will NOT come with any of the extras and exclusives. This will launch a couple of weeks after we send out the BackerKit invites.


Manufacturing Quotes

Finally, now that we have our final list of stretch goals and order, it's time for one last round of quoting and confirming with our manufacturer so we can start the process of getting this game out for production! This is the most exciting time for me, but also the most boring time for updates as the process is a lot of back and forth, but I will try to keep it interesting with simple video journals during the process for those that want to learn more about how printing and manufacturing happens.


We will also be wrapping up some business type conversations that will determine how/when we reach out to Friendly Local Game Stores (FLGS) to see what our real order is going to look like, which could delay things a bit. But I will be open about the process as much as I am able.


That's it for this housekeeping update! Thank you all so very much for the copious amounts of support shown during this campaign. It is really validating for a small business when we see people believe in the work we are doing and I am excited to bring this project to you as quickly as possible, but without rushing it. We have a reputation for quality art and production and I want to keep it that way for all of you.


<3

Aven

Master Barista of Prosperitea

Alpha Hoomin of Cantankerous Cats

We Did It!!!
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 12:07:34 AM

Congratulations, everyone! We did the thing!!

It's been a crazy seven months for us and I am overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. I will be taking a couple of days off to recharge and wind down, but this week we will IMMEDEATELY begin the work on starting the next phase of this project: Getting our pledge manager up and running so we are ready for you when all of the funds clear.


In the next update, I will have some housekeeping posts to make regarding the immediate next steps and what everyone can do to help things transition smoothly for now, it's time to relax, cheer, and cry ters of happiness into my dog's face.


Thank you all for choosing to support us on our journey. I sincerely appreciate each and every one of you and wish I had the words to properly express that gratitude. But for now, "Thank You." is all I can muster.


Be well, take care of each other, and spread as much joy as you can.

<3

Aven Gonzalez

The Final 48: Metal Coins, Bonus Stretch Goal, Spread the Word! [Video Update]
almost 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 11, 2021 at 09:40:54 PM

Greetings, Beauteaful Hoomins!

Today I am taking a break from "Friendly Friday" to focus on the task at hand: It is the final weekend to score Kickstarter goodies! I've recorded a short video to give you the rundown. (please forgive my slightly disheveled look. I just got my 2nd shot of COVID vaccine and it has been a bit of a doozy!)

If video isn't your thing, here is the rundown in short text form!


30k! So Close to Metal Coins!

As of the typing of this update, we are at $30,156! That is so good! We are very likely going to unlock the Metal Coin Add-On, which would be AMAZING! That being said, it's time to recap what that means (not covered in the video)

You will be able to ADD Metal Coins to your order for $10USD! That is a set of FIFTY coins!

The cost to manufacture aluminum coins is not insignificant, so we can't offer them for free. But we can offer them for cheap, which is what we are doing! You will basically be able to add metal coins to ANY purchase of Prosperitea for a modest markup over what is costs us to have them manufactured and shipped. The ONLY tier that gets the coins for free will be the "Bespoke Blend."

(because that tier basically offers one of everything we sell in one package with some customization and personal face time with the team)

We will base the run of coins on how many people order them, so the final cost is TBD, but $10 is based on the lowest amount we would run to make each set affordable. Still with me? Then Read On!


Boost the Signal

The final weekend is critical for any campaign, and we could use your help to spread the word! The two links below:

Kickstarter Shortened Link: https://bit.ly/PteaKS21

Facebook Page Shortened Link: https://bit.ly/PtFaceB

That's it! Sharing either of these links helps us out a bunch. Direct links to the Kickstarter are fantastic, but the FB page helps us out both now and in the long run. Please share with your friends and social groups, but please don't be spammy!


New Stretch Goal: Metal Favor Tokens!

Bonus Stretch Goal!

So we've been talking amongst ourselves and Jason convinced me to commit to one final SUPER EXTRA stretch goal. If we can hit 35k we will produce metal favor tokens! I still have no idea how much this is EXACTLY going to cost, but we have a guess based on the cost of our other coins. The price is TBD, BUT...well...I am hoping adding 12 coins to the project is affordable enough that we could make it work for a lot of folks for no extra cost if we shuffle some things around. I can't promise anything, but we're going to try.


Live Play with Unfiltered Gamer!

We have one final Live play Planned for Saturday, April 10 at 6:00PM! Jason and I will be making the trek to Orange County to hang out and play Prosperitea and Moonshell! You can head over to the Unfiltered Gamer Facebook or Twitch channel to hang out with us.

Unfiltered Gamer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/URandG

Unfiltered Games Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/unfiltered_games


And that about does it for this update! I've got a REALLY long day tomorrow, but I will see you all on the Unfiltered twitch. Thank you for all of your support, kindness, and generosity. This is going to be an amazing project and I can't wait to get everything into your hands as soon as possible!

<3

Aven Gonzalez

Master Barista of Prosperitea