17 hours to go! All unlocked SGs in a snapshot
over 4 years ago
– Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 03:38:22 PM
Hello CEOs,
Thank you all for being with us throughout this campaign. We can’t believe there are only 17 hours left!
While the clock is ticking, let’s have a look at what ‘goodies’ you guys have unlocked thus far. With all these SGs you’ll have tons of strategic options for managing and growing your business on your way towards global dominance!
24 investor directives, 4 exclusive ones (SGs $75k and $77k)
Directives – one of our favourite new additions to the game! These optional goals bring strategic decision making in Smartphone Inc. to the next level. Each directive rewards players with potential bonus money at the end of the game, depending on their actions while playing. 5-8 random directives are revealed at the start of the game, as public information available to all players. The first player to achieve a goal gains a 12 point bonus, so these directives can significantly change your strategic priorities! 12 points is no small number, especially since a player can complete up to 5 directives per game (one per round, per player). For example, one directive rewards a player for selling products in 5 regions, which may lead you to a rapid expansion strategy ....or push you towards the 4G technology that allows you to sell in regions where you do not have an office. Each directive will have multiple avenues for achieving the goal, and it will be up to the most clever player to find the quickest and most efficient route to success.
New technology on $80k:
When using this technology, you will be able to invest your early profits for further development. The upgrade itself is cheap, and thus easy to utilize for most players. The powerful effect takes place after the planning phase, which allows you to spend production units to supplement either technology or logistics points for that round.
The general influence on the course of the game is also strong - though the competition is somewhat less intense in the beginning, it rapidly increases and leads to a lot of interactions as the game progresses.
The most challenging thing is to know when to stop investing, as at some point it will no longer be beneficial.
New technology on $83k:
When playing with this technology, players are incentivized to invest in technology early, and take as many patents as they can. With this upgrade, players will be able to sell goods to customers in other regions, as long as they hold the patent for the technology that customer is looking for.
This upgrade is less useful for those who prefer low price / high logistics strategy, but it can really boost a high-tech strategy. This is a great choice for players that enjoy less heated interactions, and is at its most interesting with lower player counts when there will be more patents per person.
New technology on $86k:
This is a totally innovative technology that allows players to completely change the game board while playing!
Retailer-covered regions are both a curse and a blessing: they award points at the end of the game, put take away potential sales spots. Without this technology, retailers are only placed out during set up - now they are a dynamic option that can be used for supporting several different types of strategies.
This technology has the potential to drastically change the game, and always makes the final few rounds more intense for all players!
New technologies on $90k, 5 special mini improvement tokens + 5 CEO minis:
Get a long-lasting boost with the new technology, which includes 5 mini-improvement tokens. These mini-improvements will cover one of the blank spaces that you will inevitably have on your planning pads. But you have to hurry, the longer it takes you to learn this technology, the less chance you’ll have to get the most useful improvements. Regardless of the outcome, you will have at least one additional good, and that can be a game changer in the final round!
Another CEO-featured technology provides an alternative logistic option. Now, you not only have to consider where to put a new office, but also where the CEO will go. CEO's have region-changing abilities that can benefit your strategies immensely!
With this technology you will be able to sell in the region with your CEO present in advance, which will greatly benefit players that are not the first to act in the round.
This seemingly simple ability can create powerful combos with other technologies, like the one added to the game from the $83K stretch goal.
To make the game even cooler, we’ve added CEO minis - now each player will have his personal 3D “hipster” that is running their factory and calling the shots.
New technology on $125k + 30 KS exclusive fan tokens
This is another technology that will let you leave your mark on the game board. Now you can work to attract customers who will become devoted fans of your brand, and will now only buy smartphones made by you! This comes at a price as you must spend a technology progress marker to pull it off. But it’s totally worth it! The Fans token that you place on a customer will allow you not only to reserve a spot, but also steal it from your rivals!
This is a very interesting technology that deeply alters the interaction between players, making competition simultaneously both more and less intense depending on the phase.
New technology on $150k
This technology is the only one in the game that gives you an additional point scoring option. Streamline your production, manufacture goods heavily, and get 2 extra VP for each product sold in the region of your choice due to the government subsidies. The question is - what would you do: fight for majority in multiple regions or leave them to your competitors while massively selling in the chosen one? Once obtained, this tech will be super rewarding if you combine it with other majority & CEO technologies, making the resource management even more exciting. This is definitely the type of upgrade you have to commit to, and will alter player strategies in a major way.
New technology for $165
This technology continues the tradition of additional production, typical for this slot, but develops it in a completely new, more interactive way. Now you can manufacture additional products not only for planning your actions, but for the number of controlled territories. This tech perfectly fits the strategy of small and medium prices and has amazing synergy with the action of logistics and early regions capture. In other words, now you can reconsider the game model and try to build your strategy on early mass production with a bias in logistics, knowing that this technology will help you ramp up consistently throughout the rest of the game.
Hardcore Mode + 10 KS exclusive alternative player pads
In the hardcore mode every decision has a price. Instead of focusing solely on revenue, you will now operate with an eye on your profit - the difference between revenue and costs. This mode challenges players to forecast even better: calculate the total income from technology development or relying on lower prices, and plan accordingly. Each decision has its price now - you have to pay for each unit produced, every development action and cut costs with improvements and product quality management. It’s a whole new world!
Due to the Kickstarter you get both the hardcore mode and exclusive new tablets with a different icons arrangement and cost of actions applied to them. With these new pads you can enrich your game experience, no matter what mode you chose - a hardcore or a standard one. Different icons arrangement double the total number of planning combinations. With the hardcore mode, the strategy in the game goes to a whole new level. We hope you are ready for a challenging puzzle :)
New technology on $195
This technology will allow you to literally “break” one of the main rules of the game. Once you have upgraded to this technology, you may now ignore buyers’ demand and sell your goods to everybody within the region. You can do this in any region containing both your office marker and CEO (unless paired with another technology allowing you to sell in regions without an office).
This technology couples well with several other upgrades and goals to create some truly awesome combos. For example, combined with the Wi-Fi that gives an extra 2 VP for each sold unit, you can get up to 16 bonus VP per round!
Additionally, this technology can instigate some tricky interactions, such as sneaking into developed regions and stealing your opponents’ planned sales! But don’t think this technology adds significantly more of a “take that” element - clever players can easily predict intervention and act accordingly. Finally, this upgrade can be utilized to support an early game rush strategy: you can squeeze in heavy points with high prices early game, and then switch to a low-price blocking strategy at the end to ensure your point lead.
Special bonus: 1-3 player game board
This game board is more than a reduced version of the base one, it's a totally new game experience. On this new map, we have completely changed the regional demand structure - now you'll be forced to keep up with the demand for smartphones in different ways, leading to a new level of intense confrontation.
Hiding behind the technology is not an option on this map - you will need to dig deeper into the marketing research of your customers needs, and more actively adapt to changing prices. Think twice before taking action! Just a low price without any further investments may no longer guarantee you control over a region.
Now ALL of you have a choice to make every time you bring Smartphone to the table - which 'game mode' will you play? A normal game, taking place on a large game board, or a tougher challenge, unfolding on this small corporate “battlefield”?
KS exclusive scenario pack:
Each scenario will create a unique game atmosphere and immerse you in the global manufacturing processes. As CEO you will now be faced with ecological problems, lobbyism, and globalization. These challenges will require difficult decisions that will affect the game world every round.
Most importantly - you guys are involved in the development process. We are still accepting votes on the community chosen 5th scenario. Please share your vote with us: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TTLWM3K
We will need some time to develop, test, and proofread this new exclusive; however, our main focus is getting you guys this game on schedule. As such, we will add any and all components needed for this Kickstarter exclusive gift with your pledge shipment, and as soon as all scenarios rulebook will be ready (February-March 2020), we will send you a PDF online version of the scenarios themselves. Do not worry, we will make the process easy and convenient to manage!
That’s it for now, but there is still time to unlock more! We’ve done our best to provide you with variable additional content that benefits replayability, and creates the most true-to-life gaming atmosphere. We’ve spent a lot of time play testing each SG, and we know fans of this game are going to love them. Ivan and the whole team has done a great job and we hope you will enjoy them as much as we do!
Warmly,
Cosmodrome Games Team.
