Rival Restaurants: SPORKS Out (Reprint + Expansion)
Created by Gap Closer Games
A board game about competitive restaurant owning. Use your chef's power, cook recipes, and lead your restaurant to gastronomical glory.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Pledge Manager and Christmas Break
20 days ago
– Sun, Dec 01, 2024 at 01:57:01 PM
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! We have much to be thankful for this season as we come off a long and much needed break. As always, we value your time so here’s a brief summary of what this update will include if you don’t want to read through all of it:
Digital Files - Primary Assets Complete, Wrapping up Rulebook and Back-of-the-Box Files.
As of writing this, we have finished all illustrations, and are just compiling the last few assets (Rulebook and Back-Of-The-Box Files). Here’s a sneak peek into the official SPORKS cards as well as some of the newest attacks!
Pledge Manager
Thank you to all of you who have completed the pledge manager! We’re at 75% complete which is just enough to accurately forecast the size of the print run. If you’re part of the 25% yet to complete the pledge manager, please do so ASAP noting we will close surveys on January 15, 2025. We cannot guarantee rewards for any surveys completed after that date as quantities will be locked in by then.
If you're worried that your mailing address may change after then, don't worry - you'll be able to update your address until about a month before "fulfillment" begins. If you can't find the email or simply misplaced it, you can use this link to manually retrieve your survey - just make sure you use the email associated with your Kickstarter account.
Reminders
If you don't complete the survey, we can't fulfill your order.
Your order will be locked and charged automatically as soon as your survey is submitted.
Once submitted, you will not have access to edit your order except for the shipping address. Please be sure your order details are final before submitting your survey.
Want to upgrade your pledge? Click here for detailed instructions on how to do so.
Christmas Break
As the year comes to a close, we like to wind down in style by “shutting off” operations from Christmas through New Year’s Eve and spend that time with our families (hopefully around a game). During this time our communications will be limited and delayed. You’re welcome to drop us a comment/message, and we’ll respond in due time.
Thank you again and until next time,
Rob, Jon, Gary, and Audrey
(Your response is needed) The Pledge Manager is NOW OPEN!
about 1 month ago
– Thu, Nov 14, 2024 at 12:26:27 PM
The Pledge Manager is Open - YOUR ACTION IS REQUIRED
By this point you should have received an email (or should receive it within the hour) from BackerKit to process your order. Please complete it ASAP. The email will come from "Gap Closer Games" with the subject line “Response Needed — Get your reward for Rival Restaurants: SPORKS Out (Reprint + Expansion)". Completing the survey is ESSENTIAL without which we cannot ship your rewards. You will have the chance to do the following:
Provide your Shipping Address
Upgrade your pledge (if you would like to)
Purchase Add-Ons(any add-ons already purchased through Kickstarter will automatically be placed in your cart).
Pay for Shipping and Taxes (if applicable)
The Pledge Manager will be open until January 15, 2025 but the sooner you complete it the better! If you're worried that your mailing address may change after then, don't worry - you'll be able to update your address until about a month before "fulfillment" begins. If you can't find the email or simply misplaced it, you can use this link to manually retrieve your survey - just make sure you use the email associated with your Kickstarter account.
Reminders:
If you don't complete the survey, we can't fulfill your order.
Your order will be locked and charged automatically as soon as your survey is submitted (usually within 24 hours).
Illiterati Add-Ons
For those who are interested, in addition to all the Rival Restaurants content, you will be able to add copies of Illiterati (both Standard and Deluxe Editions). We are printing these alongside Rival Restaurants, so all items will be shipped together. However, if you want Illiterati sooner, you can check our webstore first to see if a specific item is available.
Illiterati is a cooperative survival word game. You and your fellow Librarians must work together to save the world from illiteracy by spelling words and binding books, all while surviving the onslaught of the Illiterati. The game is best described as Bananagrams meets Pandemic with a splash of Scategorries.
If you are using an Apple.ID email address on Kickstarter, the survey cannot be delivered. Please message us with an alternate email address and we'll get you squared away. More information about this issue can be found here.
If you have any other issues, don't hesitate to reach out to us directly through Kickstarter or through our Contact Form.
Thank you again and until next time,
Rob, Jon, Gary, and Audrey
Pledge Manager Launching Soon(ish)
about 2 months ago
– Fri, Nov 01, 2024 at 08:18:34 AM
Another month has passed, and another billion tasks have been completed on our end. As always, we value your time so here’s a brief summary of what this update will include if you don’t want to read through all of it:
Pledge Manager - Prepared and ready to send out. Scheduled for mid-November.
Digital Files - Few files remain, should wrap up this month.
Pledge Manager
We were hoping to launch the Pledge Manager last week, but we still needed some information from our manufacturer to make sure our numbers were accurate in the system. We now have that information now and just need to spot-check all the data one final time to minimize the risk for errors. The goal is to “release” the Pledge Manager by no later than November 15th, 2024 - That being said, prior to officially launching the pledge manager, we will send out a “Smoke Test” - a way of sending surveys to 5% of backers from each pledge level to catch any errors and make sure everything runs smoothly. Once the smoke test has been completed, we’ll send the survey to all remaining backers. Once it’s live, you will be automatically notified*, and we’ll post and update* here as well.
REMINDER: The email notifying you about the pledge manager being open will go to whatever email you’re using for Kickstarter and will come from “BackerKit.” Be sure to check your spam folder as it might land there!
Digital Files
We’re so close to the finish line, we can almost taste it! Our internal deadline to complete the files was today, but we still need a little more time to wrap things up. Our goal is to get everything out of our hands and into the hands of our manufacturer before the holiday season kicks off as our schedules tend to fill up at that point. We’re moving in the right direction, and are happy to share a few more assets with you!
Transmutation Device is the newest action card to join the Rival Restaurants universe. This FREE bonus card is included in the Frying Saucier Mini Expansion, and is truly a game changer. Garbage in, garbage out? Not in this case! For a mere $300, you can now transmute that unwanted garbage into some beef or cheese - it may not look or smell pretty, but it will get the job done.
Ready, Set, Feast Off! Papa Tio blasts the concept of a food fight into another dimension! As you may recall (From Update #2) in designing his ability, we wanted to create a sense of a slow build-up while still maintaining the spontaneity of the attack. Playing as Papa Tio will cause you to pay close attention to the markets, hedging your bets, and monitoring everyone’s portfolio of ingredients. To build up the 3-Piece Nuclear Missile (S.P.O.R.K.) you simply draw a shelf ingredient and predict what it is out loud. If you’re correct, you keep it and add a missile piece to the Nuclear Silo. If wrong, discard it … but you can try again. Your first attempt is free, but subsequent attempts will cost you! And once the missile has been assembled… you’re now ready to unleash the ultimate weapon of mass deliciousness! “Lunch” the missile to strike one opponent (forcing them to discard 5 ingredients), then watch the mushroom crowd affect the remaining chefs (forcing them to discard up to 2 ingredients from a market of your choice). Playing as Papa Tio requires careful planning and patient waiting. He doesn’t strike often, but when he does–everyone will feel it!
Thank you again and until next time…
Always. Be. Eating.
Rob, Jon, Gary, Audrey and Perrie
Gap Closer Games
The SPORKS samples have landed!
3 months ago
– Tue, Oct 01, 2024 at 07:34:48 AM
It’s been almost one month since the campaign ended, and we’re happy to announce we’ve made considerable progress! Here’s a brief summary of what this update will include:
SPORKs - Received samples from the factory - they look and feel amazing!
Digital Files - We’re still working on them, should wrap up by the end of the month.
Pledge Manager - In development (scheduled for late October release).
SPORK Samples
Seeing as the S.P.O.R.K.s are pretty central in SPORKS Out, we knew we had to get these pieces right. And, wow, the latest prototypes came out amazing! There are a few minor tweaks we still want to make before approving the samples (the UFO slot needs to be cut a little higher so that the ingredient card text is visible) but other than that we are really impressed with how they are turning out. One thing to note (not as obvious in this picture), is that some of the samples are digitally printed, whereas the final product will be screen printed— this will create a better and even cleaner look.
A common question we heard during the campaign is “Do the SPORKS fit in the Base Game Box?” and we are happy to announce that THEY DO! You may not realize it, but there is a not-so-secret compartment under the discard tray that will hold them perfectly! And for those of you who are lucky enough to have the Bento Box, you can store them in the Coin Tray as well. Naturally, if you don’t intend to combine the expansion into the base game, the SPORKS Out box will hold them just fine.
Here are some close-ups of the SPORKs for your viewing pleasure:
Digital Files
We’re probably about 90% done with preparing the files for our manufacturer, and are hoping to have things wrapped up before next month’s update. At this point we have wrapped up all the Restaurants, Chefs, and Recipes, and are working through the SPORK Cards, the Rulebook and the Box. Here’s a sneak peek into some of our favorite recipes:
Pledge Manager
We are in the process of building out the Pledge Manager as we speak, testing it for accuracy, and plan to release it closer to the end of October. The reason it’s taking us longer than usual is because we have to wait for the “Late Pledge” period to wrap up before transferring the data, but otherwise we’re mostly set. Once it’s live, you will be automatically notified*, and we’ll post and update* here as well.
Speaking of “Late Pledges”, if you have friends who missed out on the campaign feel free to share this campaign with them so they can get in on the action. We anticipate the “Kickstarter Late Pledge” period to close in about 2 weeks.
*The email notifying you about the pledge manager being open will go to whatever email you’re using for Kickstarter and will come from “BackerKit.” Be sure to check your spam folder as it might land there! But don't fret, we will post an update once the notifications go out with a detailed description of how to use the system and how to troubleshoot most common issues.
Thank you again and until next time…
Always. Be. Eating.
Rob, Jon, Gary, Audrey and Perrie
Gap Closer Games
Check please! And that’s a wrap!
4 months ago
– Thu, Sep 05, 2024 at 09:11:04 PM
Renowned chef Julia Child once said:
As the creators of a board game about cooking, we’d have to agree with Mrs. Child. But if we could make one tweak on her take, it’d be this:
People who support creators are always the best people.
Thank you once again for bringing our dreams to reality, and for helping us push out this latest round of Rival Restaurants content. You showed up when we needed you most, and now it’s our turn to return the favor. The campaign may be over, but our work is just getting started. Whether this was your first Kickstarter campaign or you’re a veteran backer, please read the following section for a detailed breakdown of what to expect over the next few months:
Communication Expectations
Post-campaign, we like to keep our Kickstarter updates to about once a month, only providing information that is actionable or valuable to you. That being said, we also realize “no news isn’t necessarily good news” when it comes to Kickstarter, so you can always message/comment/email us between updates, as we try to keep an open line of communication.
NEXT STEPS
Phase 1: Cards Charged and Payment Collected through Kickstarter
Kickstarter will automatically charge the card you have on file. 99 out of 100 times, you don’t have to do anything. However, in the event your card is declined, you will get a notification.
PER KICKSTARTER: “If your pledge has been declined, you’ll need to log in to your Kickstarter account and click the “Fix payment” button in the banner at the top of your screen. This will guide you through the process of changing or retrying your payment method.”
Kickstarter will send you an email every 48 hours with a direct link to correct the issue. Please note we are not involved in this process and unfortunately can’t do anything to help resolve the issue. Feel free to message us, but most likely we’ll have to redirect you to Kickstarter.
Phase 2: BackerKit Pledge Manager Invitation
Now that the Kickstarter campaign is over, you might be wondering, “so how do I get my game?” BackerKit, the pledge manager we’re using, gives you the opportunity to verify the items you'll receive from your pledge, upgrade your pledge, add on extras, pay for shipping/taxes, and provide us your shipping address. There's nothing for you to do now, but keep an eye out for an email around October/November. NOTE: This email will go to whatever email you’re using for Kickstarter and will come from “BackerKit.” Be sure to check your spam folder as it might land there! Don't fret, we will post an update once the notifications go out with a detailed description of how to use the system and how to troubleshoot most common issues.
Phase 3: Production (a VERY brief overview)
Over the next several weeks we’ll go through internally and finalize all of the files, clean up the instructions, and proofread everything. Once we are satisfied with everything, the files will be prepped and submitted to our manufacturer (digitally), who will provide us with a physical sample (Pre-Production Copy), before we proceed with “Mass Production.” Our updates over the next few months will provide a detailed "sneak peek" into the process, at which point we'll expound on this further.
Phase 4: Freight & Fulfillment
Once manufacturing and assembly are complete, all packages will be shipped (literally) to their respective fulfillment hubs and will start making their way to your doorsteps. Given the global nature of the project, backers will receive their pledges at different times, but we try to keep things as close together as possible.
That’s it for now. As mentioned, our “DM’s” are always open, so feel free to reach out to us with any questions. But before we go (for a little while) we leave you with one final Designer Diary.
Designer Q&A (With Rob Chew)
Q. What's a genre/theme you would love to explore in a future design?
That's a classified secret . . . but I will say there have been whispers across the Gap Closer universe about vast expansions for Illiterati. We also really like the themes of travel, treasure hunting and getting elected world leader. Some of our favorite mechanisms that we definitely hope to put into future games are push your luck, action queuing, engine building and 3D multi level boards.
