In which we (well, more accurately, I) talk about being anxious, and ask you to check out (and share!) the game on Screentop.
Hello! Time is ruthlessly ticking away, and the time to prepare before we go live on Kickstarter is getting ever shorter. And to cap it all, I am living in a house of chicken pox. As always, I’m Jess, part of the team, and your narrator!
Pre-launch nerves…
Before we get into the update proper, I’d like to share some of my anxiety. We’re planning on going live on 1 March. We’re bringing it forward from the previously planned 8 March, for the simple reason that 2 March is Read Across America Day (in the US) and 3 March is World Book Day (here in the UK) and we’d like to use those days as hooks to promote the Kickstarter. That means that we only have three weeks until we launch!
I’m feeling a lot of butterflies in my stomach. I think we have a great game, and some gorgeous artwork….but do enough people know about the game? I’m not convinced they do! I know that that’s partly because we simply haven’t had the time to put into spreading the word. We all have jobs in non-boardgame related fields. Anything you can do to help would be very much appreciated — whether that is sharing the Kickstarter page on social media or inviting your friends for a game on Screentop. Which leads me neatly on to…
Screentop? What’s that?
It’s a way to play games in a browser window. (Alas, it doesn’t work on a touch screen.) You don’t need to download anything, or to pay for Steam or Tabletop Simulator. You could play Library Labyrinth any time you wish!
To open Screentop, click here. In case you haven’t used similar platforms before, here’s a picture of how it looks once you get into the game.
Before you are able to pick up pieces or move anything around, you’ll need to “join” the game. “Join” is in the top left corner of the screen.
You’ll probably also want to zoom out a bit. That’s in the bottom right of the screen.
All of the rules are in the question mark. I mean, if you click on the “?” in the top right corner of the screen, then you’ll get a set of guides. These guides are:
- Set up
- Quick rules (ie, what would be on a player aid card)
- Full rules & clarifications
- Solo rules
- Controls (ie, how to use Screentop)
The rules are all in these guides. There’s also a link to the PDF document of the rules, in case you prefer that.
Please do share with others! And please do tell us what you think. We have a playtest form for you to fill out, or feel free to email us.
What else have we been been up to?
While I have been perfecting the solo mode, Ella has been animating cards for the Kickstarter video, Sam has been drawing more characters, and Mill has been recording a play through video.
Mill has also been to the Guildhall Games Festival in Portsmouth, where she demonstrated with a real prototype! (Having nice tiles is still a bit new for us.) The first playtest of the prototypes came at a Worthing board game group — and here they are enjoying it!
I’m going to be on Bez’s twitch stream on Tuesday 15 February. It’s 10am in the morning, and I’ll be talking about Library Labyrinth among other things. Do join me for that!
We have a few reviews going out in the next couple of weeks, which is all really exciting. These updates are going to get a little more frequent for the next month or so, as Library Labyrinth completely takes over our lives! Will the Kickstarter be successful? We really, really hope so.
Next steps
Please do remember to sign up on our pre-launch page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dissentgames/library-labyrinth. Please share as far and wide as you can! We launch at the start of March 2022.
Library Labyrinth 