I appreciate all the early reviews and I understand it's a lot of work for you. I can really imagine how much time flows into every single review - just playing the game for the first time is 2 hours - and I appreciate your help. For your review, I will also ship you a copy of the retail version including a Venture Capital Extension as soon as it is available.
Foremost, if you have any questions, shoot me an e-mail to louis (at) meetpointllc.com. I am a fully loaded gadget person and I should be able to answer within minutes or hours during the day, and early next morning at the latest.
Kickstarter ends Monday June 13, in just a few days
It makes a big difference if you get a review out
a few days before that!
If you want, ping me a few days before you post your review, and I try to get you some of the developing artwork that you can post first on your review.
If you get out a review to your readers before June 13th, please point out:
Readers can pre-order the game until June 13th from Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meetpoint/startup-fever-the-board-game-0 This is the only way to get the Kickstarter-only Venture Capital Extension, and they will get $10 off MSRP and free shipping (US only). The games will be shipped in the fall, ready for Christmas and they are great gifts.
High pledge backers will get the Beta Edition as a gift for their generous support. That's the only way to get the current art work with xkcd (other than doing a review :-)
Two questions that came up recently
Slow first rounds. This is by design. It allows first timers to learn the mechanics of the game. They are somewhat different from many other games. If everybody played the game before, those first two or three years will go by really fast.
Too many cylinders. This is an artifact of the beta. We are fixing this for the Retail version, and are still discussing which of several options (all of which are better :-). I decided to not spend too much time on design and wait for a design professional. If you are interested in the options, ping me after you play a game or two.
Some additional information
Game Home Page: http://www.startupfever.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Startup-Fever/118004281613242
First video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO-7iVw8DW0
Second video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIGkCMIOYTA
Artist: Gary Simpson: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/9798/gary-simpson, http://www.linkedin.com/in/gsimpson
The rest of the page contains information about the different versions of the game just FYI and so you know what is changing. There are basically three version of the game. The Alpha is what you have and what is used in ongoing play testing (e.g. for the extension). The Beta will go to Kickstarters only and is identical to the Alpha except for the box. I currently plan to make just 50. The Retail will be available commercially, and is mostly identical in game rules, but different in art and manufacturing. If you have Alien Frontiers or Pandemic: I am using the same manufacturer (Panda), so quality will be identical. I wrote an update about manufacturing.
To play the Retail game, play without lawyers (blue meeples) and shares (nature cubes). Focus on the game mechanics, player interaction, event cards, and ignore the artwork and manufacturing.
Finally, in case you wondered: The xkcd art is creative commons non-commercial with attribution. It can be used for all non-commercial uses. But Gary Simpson will do a lot more than just the board graphics....