Clacks has finally arrived!

Phew, we know it took a while, but we finally got there…. You can read our ‘designers diary’ here.
The game Pat ‘The Duck Man’ Harkin told us in 2012 he could imagine kids in the streets of Ankh-Morpork playing it with bottle tops, had its official release at the Irish Discworld Convention in Cork on Saturday 3 October.
We had a short presentation, a few live audience games and finally a live ‘late night poker’ style match, complete with overhead camera (many thanks Tech) in which two delegates got to challenge Pat Harkin, with the final winner being Milena Milojicic.  Clacks illustrator, Amber ‘Nudge’ Grundy was on hand to present and sign a special copy for Milena. 
It was great catching up with everyone; especially Colin Smythe and all the gang from the Discworld Emporium. Happily Ian managed to find time for a game of Clacks too. 
A massive shout of thanks to Siobhan and the whole team for a wonderful convention and to all of you who gave us feedback over the last three years which helped us develop Clacks. We were also delighted with how the Polish version of Clacks turned out. It is being sold by Phalanx

The pre-orders from our website have started the shipping process and all should be completed by Friday 23 October.

Spiel 15, Essen
Strewth, back from the IDWCon on Sunday night and on a plane to Essen Germany for the biggest board game convention in the world on Wednesday morning.  Oh the life of game publishers…demanding. None the less we did it; a complete four man squad of Backspindle Boys to demo, sell, have meetings, mingle and have loads and loads of fun for four of the craziest days of gaming ever.
We also had help which we really appreciate from a lovely German chap called Tobias. Bottom line, everybody loved our games; copies of Guards! Guards! were snapped up, (we guess many gamers do not want to miss it before the final print-run is exhausted), Luchador! the crazy fun wrestling dice game, was once again the loudest game at Spiel (check out this video clip – Luchador! dice fun) and finally Clacks, oh goodness, how the gamers at Spiel loved playing the cooperative race game against the Post Office. Some comments were “It’s so simple, yet challenging” and “We love the way you have to try hard to beat the Post Office in the cooperative race.” Spiel was simply fantastic!

In addition to our games at Spiel, the same week Masqueoca took delivery of the first ever Spanish language editions of Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice.

A ‘Luchador body’ t-shirt. All you need now is your mask.

We also sold a few of our really quirky new Luchador! T-shirts. You can order yours here.

New Game
In preparation for our release of Pocket Codinca for 2016 we also let a few large gaming companies try the simplified rules. They thought it was great too! Here is a mock-up of what it will look a bit like. 

Upcoming events
We are delighted to be supporting Wee Gamers at Heroes and Legends, Eikon Exhibition Centre, Lisburn on 24 & 25 October and again at Belfast Film and Comic Con, SSE Arena, Belfast on 31 October and 1 November.

Clacks box cover

Clacks back of game box

Clacks is coming
Just like in the novel ‘Going Postal’ where the Post Office competed hard against the Clacks, we at Backspindle Games have been working hard for the last year to bring fans another board game given life from the books of Sir Terry Pratchett. 
To all of you who play-tested Clacks over the last few years, thank you so much.
Your feedback has greatly helped transform Clacks into a really good game. There are now three types of games that you can play in the box. There is a ‘player versus player’ game, a ‘co-operative race game against the Post Office’ and an introductory ‘two-player game for children’.  We are extremely pleased with the artwork of Clacks created by The Artful Nudger, a.k.a. Amber Grundy.  Not only is Amber a massive Discworld fan, but she is also a very talented artist as you can see from the box cover and base. .

Pre-order giveaway
At last the wait is nearly over… Some of you, like Cheery in ‘Feet of Clay’, may be trembling with nerves and excitement… others can’t wait to beat your friends playing Clacks. We can confirm the official release of Clacks will be at the Irish Discworld Convention in October 2015 and copies can be ordered for collection there in the pre-order.
In addition we have a very special pre-order ‘giveaway’ for the first initial 300 fans to pre-order Clacks.  Our pre-order shall ‘go live’ on the Clacks page at midnight on Monday 11 May 2015 (GMT).

Polish Version of Clacks
We are also delighted to confirm the Clacks with also be released this year in Polish by PHALANX and it will be called Świat Dysku: Sekary.

Guards! Guards! we salute you…
Four magical years of comments such as “It’s like being in a Discworld story” and “the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off” but sadly 2015 will be the last year we can publish Guards! Guards! A Discworld boardgame.  If you know anyone who has not got a copy, or you feel you may enjoy reading the quotes on the 90 Discworld Character cards included in the game the time for buying is now, before they are all gone…

Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice reprint
We are delighted to confirm that Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice (2nd edition) is being reprinted in 2015 and will be available around October. A pre-order will go live before the summer.

UK Games Expo
If you can’t wait until later in the year for the release of Clacks perhaps you’d like to come along at play the latest demo with us at the UK Games Expo from 29 – 31 May in Birmingham.  Our stand is in the hall of Kings.  We will have a very limited amount of copies of Luchador! and Guards! Guards! for sale at this year’s UK Games Expo so you may wish to visit us on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning.

The Mohican Runner

Mohican Runner
He has always been a fan of our games, a lover of Discworld and lover of Lego, so when the Mohican Runner (a.k.a Richard Hayes) took on a massive fund-raising challenge we felt the least we could do was offer him our support.  For someone who only started running in 2012 to lose weight, by the end of 2014 Richard had raised over £4000 for the NSPCC by running 13 half-marathons in 13 months, a fantastic achievement! Richard has now taken a break from fund-raising and recently completed the London Marathon. We will be delighted to support him in the future. Well done Richard!

This week has been amazing!
This week has been amazing! An unbelievable amount of Twitter action at @backspindlegame with loads and loads of happy Kickstarter backers sharing pictures of their copy of Luchador!
Our distributor in the UK, Esdevium Games had 600 copies, and had allocated all of them within the week….. We were delighted when they advised us of the buzz!
They had to limit stores to a small amount before they all went…whao!
Game Salute have approximately 900 copies to sell for us in the United States. Hopefully our games will be loved there just as they have been on this side of the Atlantic.
We also got a big increase of followers on our Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice Facebook page, most of them Kickstarter backers.  Thank you very much everyone!

The Backspindle Boys Leonard and David were recently guests at the Replay Games Club, in Bangor, Co Down. (Thanks Gareth). There they ran a Luchador! tag-team tournament. It was great fun with lots of crazy team names, smack-talking and PIN shouting.
The eventual winners were ‘We Don’t Know’ who triumphed in the final over the Replay Rancheros. We Don’t know were delighted and received a copy of the Luchador! second edition each from Leonard.
Finally we did sell a few games today and do have some in stock if you know anyone who likes a easy to learn, fun, award winning family game for Christmas you know where to send them.

Thank you all so much for the great BUZZ you have created!

Tag-team champions – We Don’t Know

What a fantastic 2014 for our wee company. Best Family Game of the Year award for Luchador! at the UK Games Expo, a very successful Kickstarter project for the second edition complete with 3D wrestling ring, Championship Belts, New Wrestlers, Advance Fighting rules and more..
We sold out of all games at Spiel, Essen, are making great progress with our 2015 Discworld release, Clacks, and are well on the way to making an app for Codinca….phew.
There are many people to thank, including Mark Rivera, Meowgod, our Kickstarter backers, Esdevium Games, Game Salute and Spiral Galaxy Games. Then of course there are our play-testers, local gaming groups (particularly Wee Gamers and Lisburn Gaming Club, friends and respective families, our game demoers, our IT support and video editor; nearly too many to mention.
All of this support has meant we are delivering copies of Luchador (2nd edition) to Kickstarter backers two weeks ahead of the scheduled date (See, it can be done).
Ok before we write an Oscar acceptance speech and get all teary eyed…..we just better get on with this and show you the sort of emotion we like to see when gamers play Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice.

If you want a piece of the action you can order your copy here. US, South American and Canadian customers can order from Game Salute.
In addition we may also have Luchador published in different languages in 2015.

Discworld Clacks is getting closer to release; indeed we plan to go to print in March 2015 with a release in the summer. We have a talented illustrator on board and have just updated the latest prototypes.

For two weeks we also have a Hogswatch Special Offer for Guards! Guards!

That’s all for now folks. We’ll keep you posted as more happens.

Welcome to our new website!

We are delighted our new Backspindle Games website is now LIVE.
Just in time to tell you that Luchador! (second edition) has now been sent off for printing. We keep our fingers crossed for no delays.  Thank you to all the wonderful backers. If you haven’t already done so, please complete your survey on Kickstarter as soon as possible.
Guards! Guards! was due to arrive with us today, but due to no fault of our own we are most likely to received the pre-order copies on Monday and aim to dispatch them on Tuesday of next week.  By way of apology we will enclose a second beautifully illustrated Discworld character bookmark by Stephen Player with each pre-ordered game.

On 18-20 July we will be attending BroCon, in Limerick where we will be play-testing Clacks and hosting a Luchador! Tag-Team Tournament. The game was once again a great success last week at the Wrestling.ie event in Newtownards.

Real wrestlers enjoying Luchador! with their young fans in Newtownards

Over the next few months we will be doing more work on Clacks and attending DWCon 2014. At this event you can play Discworld Clacks and Guards! Guards! both the board game version and the ‘run around the convention version.’

Development work is still ongoing with an app for Codinca. This is a new venture for us and hopefully will be completed and then enjoyed by many.

Have a wonderful summer!

‘Just one day to go’ and we have tablesmashed our funding goal on our UK Games Expo Best Family Game of the Year 2014, Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice.  You can jump in the ring now and you get everything!

Thanks so much to all our backers. You have been fantastic!

Te damos el Charro Negro

Carlsberg don’t make weekends – but if they did I think we just had one.

Three Fantastic days of meeting amazing game fans and some of the loudest and most enjoyable games of Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice, as designer Mark Rivera and the Backspindle Boys showed the UK gaming the public the ropes – and the head locks – and the table slams.

It was great to see so many of our UK backers coming along to meet us. It was even better that so many people who had not known about the game have now pledged after playing Luchador!  On Saturday 31 May we passed the $10,000 mark which is fantastic, and just to put a great big fat cherry on top of that Luchador! won the 2014 UK Games Expo award for Best New Family Game.

Backspindle Boys Leo & David sharing the glory with Ross Jepson & Andreas Stein of Steve Jackson Games who won the award for Best New Abstract Game with “Castellan”.

By 3 June we had 343 backers and are over 75% funded after just 8 days.  We can’t thank you guys enough. We said in the introduction video on this campaign that we wanted to make Luchador! bigger and better. The enjoyment of all the fans who played Luchador! in Birmingham this weekend  (not to mention the nice new shiny Award Certificate that says “BEST FAMILY GAME” on it) has told us we are on the right track. We are working now to get the last bits and pieces prepared for the second edition and are on schedule to have it ready to go to print as soon as this KickStarter closes.  So keep sharing, keep tweeting and spreading the word guys. (If you don’t use social media then just open the nearest window and shout Viva Luchador! at a random passer-by). Thanks everyone Viva Luchador! 

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