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Episode 9: Scrapyard Empire and Reading Rainbow!
June 15th, 2014
Fanboy on Kickstarter, something for you, something for everyone!
Welcome back to Fanboy on Kickstarter, the column that tries to clue you into the can't-miss fanboy fantastic opportunities in the world of crowd sourcing. Nine episodes in, and many of our earlier recommendations have already completed and are in the process of development and delivery, which is always exciting to monitor. For more information, check out the archive!
Sometimes it's not just about getting in on the ground floor of a product for yourself, sometimes it's really about doing something for a more global community. This week, you get both.
Let's start off with Bringing Back Reading Rainbow!
 Right now, 1 in 4 children in the USA grow up illiterate. Students who can't read by grade 4 are 400% more likely to drop out of school. America is the only free-market country where the current generation is less well educated than the one before. Reading is fundamental to turning this around, and it may be no coincidence that programming like Reading Rainbow, which was broadcast between 1983 and 2006, has been missing for the latest group of students in this fragile young age group.
Reading Rainbow
Star Trek's Levar Burton was fundamental in making the original show a treat for kids learning to read, and now he's the backbone of this effort to bring it back. And on Kickstarter, you can contribute as little as a few dollars towards the revival of this program.
The goal here is to fund at five million dollars to provide subscriptions to over 7,500 classrooms. You can be a part of this for as little as $5
So let's take a look.
Seriously folks, this is about giving. There are rewards of course, but this is at it's heart a chance to help improve the future, to increase the happiness and success of children, and for the cost of a couple of comic books to be part of this amazing project. The original goal was blown past so fast that they raised the funding and project goals amazingly.
And if you'd like to go past that, there will be live recording sessions featuring your favorite crew of your favorite starship.
First, the powerhouse men of Star Trek.
Then the delighful ladies of Star Trek.
And completing the third and fourth episodes of the series, the
captains battle it out in friendly competition.
Of course these sessions are at fairly pricey levels, but it's heartening to know that the content generated by these sessions will be a big part of the revival.
Let's look at the stats, because that's what we do here.
Name |
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Bring Reading Rainbow Back for Every Child, Everywhere. |
Summary |
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A movement to promote literacy in the next generation of school children, and perhaps a fair amount of the current generation. |
Sweet Spot Donor Level |
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Give what you can. For as little as $5 you can be mentioned on their site as a backer and you get news updates on how the program is going and you'll be among the first to hear about new developments. |
Funding Status |
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The original goal was $1,000,000. They are at $3,800,000 at the time of this writing. If they can reach $5,000,000 they'll be expanding their coverage in schools substantially. |
Background |
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LeVar Burton was Kunta Kinte in Roots, and Geordi La Forge in Star Trek - The Next Generation. He's also know for his 30-year journey hosting and producing Reading Rainbow. He is the steward of the Reading Rainbow mission: ensuring that new generations of children develop a passion for reading and a love of the written word. |
Links |
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Kickstarter page
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readigrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh
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Again, consider giving what you can to this worthy cause. You have until July 2nd to contribute during the project.
And now for some fun.
Scrapyard Empire
Scrapyard Empire is a steam-punky game of building inventions, sabotaging your competitors, and eventually becoming heir to the billionaire philanthropist's estate. Never before seen blueprints will guide you to assembling parts, and even smaller inventions, into larger amazing inventions.
A game for 1-4 players, with a quick solitaire play version, provides a lot of game for thirty to sixty minutes. Card play with resources and inventions done (hopefully) in secret are ploys that advance your inventions and put them into play. Each inventor has a unique personality and special ability that allows them to "bend" some of the rules to their advantage.
Beautifully stylized illustrations and very cool detailed pieces complete this game with a definite air of 1900's inventing and inventions, with just a tad more imagination than was actually present. Dive into the scrapyard for resources, or work to sabotage your competition, you have the flexibility of deciding your strategy and play.
But let's check out the stats to give you a background in the game first.
Name |
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Scrapyard Empire: Strategic Card Game |
Summary |
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A game of invention, sabotage, and strategic development of fantastic inventions. |
Sweet Spot Donor Level |
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I'm really mixed on this. Currently I'm funding at the $25 level which gets the game, the stretch goals, and a print-and-play deck. Plus it looks like there's no benefit to going larger if you're primarily interested in the solitaire game.
However, the Deluxe version at $65 has really cool figures, additional card play variations, and a center board (which looks like it's just a place to put decks and discards.) But it's possible to get the add-ons somewhat piecemeal, so for example if you just wanted to add the figures, they're only $10 more. You have to check things out there and decide for yourself. |
Funding Status |
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With 30 days left as of this writing they're about $2000 under their goal of $15,000. It seems likely they'll hit that and a few stretch goals, the buzz on this game is already pretty good. |
Background |
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This is Galliant Games/Dennis Consorte's second Kickstarter project. It raises our confidence in his project to see fairly detailed plans and production schedule on the very first update page for the project. That's missing in too many Kickstarters. |
Links |
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Kickstarter page
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/galliantgames/scrapyard-empire-strategic-card-game-for-one-to-fo
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So I'm pretty satisfied by the low price of entry to get the game and stretch goals, and tempted by some of the higher levels and may adjust my funding higher to get those upon further review of updates. That's another reason to fund projects you're not certain about, as most have a $1 or so level that will provide you with production information and updates, as well as forum conversations with other funders. So keep that in mind.
Scrapyard Empire will fund on July 16th, so there's plenty of time to investigate whether this one is for you.
That's it for this month. Again, send us your feedback and your own Kickstarter picks via the Fanboy Planet Facebook page!
Note: For simplicity's sake, these articles typically refer to delivery conditions and pricing within the US. Most Kickstarter projects handle world-wide delivery, which you can review on the individual project pages.
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