Rival Restaurants: SPORKS Out (Reprint + Expansion)

Only 2 Days to go! Plus, are you excited for the FREE Mini Expansion that’s “out of this world?”
4 months ago – Tue, Sep 03, 2024 at 07:45:49 AM

With less than 60 hours to go, we can already smell the finish line. But you won’t catch us celebrating early as we know how important it is to finish strong!

As we’ve shared throughout the campaign, each copy of SPORKS Out will come with a FREE copy of the Frying Saucer Mini Expansion. That’s our way of saying thanks to you, our backers, for believing in us and making this project a reality. 

There are 28 different ingredients in Rival Restaurants. However, one of them is truly unique and perhaps even out of this world: Alien Goo.

Alien Goo is something you should never eat, but boy does it make cooking easier (Alien Goo replaces any ingredient in a recipe when cooking). And with that - an idea was born - could we create a Chef and Restaurant Pairing that felt EXTRA(terrestrial)? Of course we could... and we did. 

Introducing Phoebe & Jay: The Space Twinvaders

If you’ve ever heard of UFO sightings that seemed too believable to ignore, odds are it was Phoebe & Jay and their Frying Saucer. 

The UFO (Unidentified Frying Object)

While the Mystery Mart is kryptonite to the average earthling chef (location powers don’t work there), Phoebe & Jay are all about it! With the ability to fold space and time, Phoebe & Jay can beam a Mystery Mart ingredient onto their UFO (Unidentified Frying Object - their SPORK) without having to even travel there! Now - as the technology hasn’t been perfected - doing so results in some space junk (1 garbage) to accompany said ingredient, but that’s a small price to pay. Then, like two peas in a pod, the Space Twinvaders simply discard 2 “twin” (same) ingredients, and voila - that Mystery Mart ingredient is all theirs!

The Frying Saucer - The Cosmic Kitchen

The Frying Saucer is a cosmic kitchen that can be seen from a mile (make that 1,000,000 miles) away. Always on the lookout for Alien Goo, restaurateurs can hold a commanding lead once the tubs get flowing. Like the Greasy Bucket, The Frying Saucer does not benefit from a cuisine bonus, as no cuisine could contain its awesome sauce. Instead, by incentivizing players to lean into an Alien Goo strategy, this restaurant is guaranteed to churn dishes out at record (light)speed!

Bonus Action Card - Transmutation Device

Believed to be the same devices used to make McYouKnowWho’s Chicken Nuggets, The Transmutation Device can also turn Meow Mix into Fancy Feast. For a small fee ($300), you can now transmute that unwanted garbage into the shellfish you’ve been dying for, and the dish will taste just as delicious. 

Summary of Chefs and SPORK Powers

As we come to the almost conclusion of the campaign, we wanted to round up all the chefs into one graphic and highlight their new powers. Here you go!

Add-On Spotlight: Acrylic Chefs

The verdict is in, acrylic is the new cardboard! We always debated making our standees acrylic, but didn’t think there would be much demand for it. 

We. Were. Wrong. 

With over 800 (and counting) backers swooning for these chefs, if you want to elevate your game night to the next level, be sure to throw in the Premium Acrylic Chefs ($49), featuring all 27 chefs (including the new ones!) housed in a beautiful magnetic box! Now you can battle for kitchen supremacy in style as these highly aesthetic, extremely durable acrylic chefs will take your cooking to new heights!

Designer Q&A (With Rob Chew)

Q. What games have had the biggest influence on your designs? 

Many games influenced the development of Rival Restaurants but the games which had the biggest influence on our design was 7 Wonders, Small World/Smash Up, Kings of Tokyo, Settlers of Catan and Pirates Cove. 7 Wonders influenced the concept of restaurant boards along with different level of powers. Small World and Smash Up gave us the idea of asymmetry and melting chef and restaurant powers for unique player combinations. Kings of Tokyo influence the comical, whimsical and take that nature of the game as well as artistic influence. Settlers of Catan inspired the trading and negotiating of the Buy and Barter Phase and set collection. Pirate's Cove gave us the idea for simultaneous movement using a wheel and restaurant level upgrades. And then we took all those ideas, threw him in a blender until something tasted delicious.

Always eating,

Team GCG

Feeling bland? Make way for Sultan Pepper Shakrh and his Moroccan Crave of Wonders.
4 months ago – Fri, Aug 30, 2024 at 07:12:28 AM

Actual footage of us every time we load our Kickstarter page!  As we move into the final week of the campaign, we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge how grateful we are for each and every one of you. Whether you’ve been here since Day 1 or if you’re just joining us today, we are still giddy with gratitude for all your excitement and support. Thank you for allowing us to keep bringing new games to life. 

Meet Sultan Pepper Shakrh

Nobody would mistake Sultan Pepper Shakrh for some ordinary “riff-raff, street rat”, but that wasn’t always the case. A true rags to riches story, The Spiceroy has entered the Rival Restaurants universe, and he’s bringing his Moroccan Crave of Wonders with him!

Sultan Pepper Shakrh is here to spice things up! Armed with his trusty Salt and Pepper Shakers (his SPORKs), Sultan will have even the sharpest gamers second guessing their judgment. Each turn, Sultan can place either the Salt OR Pepper Shaker (face down) on any ingredient in any market besides the Mystery Mart (Sultan does not need to be at that market). If any chef besides Sultan buys that ingredient, they get whatever is shown on the bottom of the shaker ($200 or 1 Garbage). But if nobody buys the ingredient, Sultan gets the prize/penalty. Will you be able to outsmart the competition by luring them into your traps? Or can you trick them into forgoing your treasures? 

 Let Us Share This Whole New World With You…

Odds are you aren’t as familiar with Moroccan food as the other cuisines, so let us introduce you to its subtle spices, aromatic flavors, and captivating combinations. Most dishes are cooked in a tagine, a two-piece cookware traditionally made of clay or ceramic. The base is a wide, shallow circular dish, while the top is distinctively shaped into a rounded dome or cone. Coincidentally, the most famous Moroccan dish is also called tagine, a savory stew over couscous. 

Rival Restaurants is as much about rivalries, as it is about alliances. Trading has always been the core mechanism in the game, and the Crave of Wonders elevates that to new levels. Your ability to barter in the Moroccan souks (markets) will now earn you a nice bonus reward, but the real key is enticing your opponents with mystery (face down) ingredients!

Video Highlight: Good Time Society

Often, the best compliment we can receive is an unsolicited shout-out by a board game enthusiast. This week, we wanted to highlight Good Time Society who featured SPORS Out in a segment during Good Morning Society. Check it out, and be sure to follow their content. They get bonus points for being local to us too, so that's a nice plus!

Designer Q&A (With Rob Chew)

Q. How do you choose which restaurants to include in expansions?

A. So we set up a dart board . . . just kidding. It's always tough to decide what to add to each expansion. There are so many cuisines from around the world, but we can only put so many in. When we pick, we try to strike a balance between (1) cuisines that are popular in the global food scene, (2) cuisines that have recipes that help maintain our balance ratios (we're looking at you avocado :)) and (3) restaurants that we have fun concepts, designs and of course, puns that would make our dads proud. We always wanted to add restaurants that aren't tied to a specific cuisine, (Greasy Bucket and Frying Saucer) but instead have different playstyles that add different kinds of variety and we were stoked that we were able to do it this time around. But at the same time, the hope is to add culinary diversity, as well as diverse restaurant designs as well as unique level up bonuses. For each expansion we've done so far, it's always sad to have to cut a restaurant , but it's always a possibility to add it in the future. Perhaps we'll see a Filipino restaurant one day.

Labor Day Weekend

Lastly, please note most of our team will be out of town over the weekend as we spend some time with our families. We’ll continue to monitor comments and messages, but it may take us a little longer than usual to respond. Don’t worry, we’ll pick things right up when we return on Tuesday!

Always eating,

Team GCG.

Spiceberg Ahead! Sink the Competition with the Thai-Tanic, A Noodle Boat like no other...
4 months ago – Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 07:16:33 AM

Spoiler Alert: She did in fact let go (almost immediately after). 

Unlike Rose, here at Gap Closer Games, when we make a promise, we keep it! We wanted to start this update by briefly highlighting our Replacement Part Policy. At GCG, we like to think of ourselves as a family. And as someone who's bought one of our games, you are now a part of that family! That's why we strive to provide you with the highest level of customer service we can. We're not a big game company (yet), but if something's not right with your order, or if you just need an extra component, then we'll do our best to serve you with free replacement parts for life. Whether it was an issue at the factory, drama with your mail-carrier or a kid armed with scissors and a sharpie, we’re here to make it right. Requests can be made quickly and easily directly on our website.

That being said, it’s time to introduce the 4th chef in SPORKS Out - Pam Knee You - and as her name suggests, she’s here to knock out her competition. 

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.” Like Muhammad Ali, Pam Knee You stays on her toes, bobbing and weaving, plotting and cleaving. As she visits each corner of the board (Chop Shop, Dairy King, Vegetable Land, and Fruit Stand), she leaves behind a Boxing Ring Post (her SPORKS). Once all 4 posts have been placed, Pam unlocks her trusty Boxing Gloves - Dough Hook and Knuckle Sandwich - and the real fun begins! With her gloves locked and loaded, she then starts to move in on her opponents, ready to land her punches. Knuckle Sandwich knocks out a chef at her location (can’t do anything but trade) as she steals 1 ingredient from them, while Dough Hook makes her $500 richer, and another chef at her location $500 poorer! Similar to Papa Tio, playing as Pam Knee You is all about timing your attacks and stalking your prey. And once those gloves come on, you definitely don’t want to find yourself in the same market as her.

A few years ago we ran a poll asking “What cuisines would you like to see in future expansion(s)?”and Thailand was the #1 requested country by a mile (or maybe kilometer)? And frankly - we can understand why! Thai food is known for its unique combination of sweet, savory, sour and spicy, resulting in mouth-watering dishes like  Beef Satay, Pad Thai, Pad See Ew and Mango Sticky Rice. 

Often praised for their big portions and small prices, Thai restaurants are often seen as epitomes of efficiency, serving up great deals to frugal customers for decades. Thus, as an homage to the cost-efficient eaters out there, we designed the Thai restaurant around this notion of lean efficiency. The less money you have at the end of the day, the more you’ll see the full power of the Thai-Tanic.

Add-On Spotlight: Deluxe Upgrade Pack

For those of you who own the Retail Edition (non-deluxe) of Rival Restaurants and want to increase the player count to 8, add acrylic coins and garbage tokens and secure the KSE Action Cards, the Deluxe Upgrade Pack is for you! You're welcome to upgrade your pledge now, or simply wait until the campaign is over and do so through the pledge manager. “Note - Pledges that include the Base Game (Deluxe Edition) do not need this pack as it already includes these upgraded and extra components.

Designer Q&A (With Rob Chew)

Q. Gap Closer seeks to bridge the gap between people through games. Can you describe some ways you've attempted to do so when creating Rival Restaurants and its expansions?

We got into games because of their potential to bring people together. We spend lots of time around our screens, but we felt that board games are special because they bring people together in the same room. We named our company Gap Closer because (1) a ‘gap closer’ is a gaming term where you quickly close a gap between two units, such as a knight in chess, and (2) we want to close the gap between people through games. Some of the ways we've sought to do that is through picking themes and ideas that the average person can easily understand, such as restaurant owning and reading books, and then adding a degree of whimsy, silliness and wonder that will make people go, “oh, I get that…that sounds fun!” We tried to make game mechanisms that will keep everyone engaged. At least in our first two games, Rival Restaurants and Illiterati both feature simultaneous gameplay which means that you never have to wait for someone else’s turn to end because it’s always your turn. We also try to fill our games with tons of Easter eggs, puns and pop culture references so that everyone can get a good laugh even when you're just looking at the cards and components. We designed the art style to be fun, light-hearted, yet intriguing. All our games are designed to thrive on player-to-player interaction because we think that the human element is something that is special to board games. We really hope that people will leave our games with the feeling that they had a meaningful human experience, rather than merely a strategic game of wits.

Always eating,

Team GCG.

Title: One man’s garbage is another man’s gumbo. Welcome to Sloppy Joe’s Greasy Bucket.
4 months ago – Fri, Aug 23, 2024 at 07:29:47 AM

Fun Fact: The US isn’t even in the top 5 countries with the most Michelin-starred restaurants. That list is led by France, Italy, Japan, Germany and Spain. But that’s all about to change once they get a whiff of Sloppy Joe and The Greasy Bucket!

Waste not, want not. As frugal as they come, Sloppy Joe and his trusted companion Scraps the Raccoon (Joe’s SPORK) are always on the lookout for ways to save time and money. By sending Scraps to cover a market slot in the discard tray, Joe starts building a repository of rubbish that doubles as a private pantry! As his dumpster starts to fill with an assortment of ingredients, Joe can grab one each day at the cost of taking one garbage along with it. As long as you’re willing to get your paws a little dirty, Sloppy Joe’s power can clean up the competition! 

But where Sloppy Joe really shines (probably from all that grease) is when he’s at home in his element – knee deep in the Greasy Bucket. For the first time ever in Rival Restaurants, we are introducing a restaurant without recipes or a cuisine bonus. Instead, we cranked up the powers by changing one’s perception of garbage – not necessarily as a punishment but sometimes even as a reward. But beware, while the Greasy Bucket doesn’t mind a little trash here and there, if you’re not careful you’ll end up buried in more garbage than you can handle. 

New to Rival Restaurants? Learn To Play In 5 Minutes

Designer Q&A (With Rob Chew)

Q. What is the inspiration behind the character backstories in Rival Restaurants?

Inspiration in the character backstories comes from taking the chef I want from a country, and spontaneously generating as many goofy puns, dad jokes and pop culture references as possible, slamming it all together into family-friendly, accessible packages that hopefully have a bit of wit to them as well. I think that the simulation component of board games is very important, and writing the backstories helps us here at Gap Closer Games to develop a world or universe in which each of our board games exist. We like to poke fun at things that people can relate to and understand while simultaneously encouraging everyone to not take everything too seriously–especially when it comes to the fun-filled world of competitive restaurant owning like in Rival Restaurants.

As always, if you have any questions or comments for us, leave them down below! Until next time…

Always be eating,

Team GCG

Lights. Camera. Action Auction!
4 months ago – Tue, Aug 20, 2024 at 09:53:38 AM

Hello backers! 

Can you believe it’s already week 2 of the campaign? As we move into the second week of SPORKS Out, we wanted to highlight a brand new, exciting phase in Rival Restaurants: The Action Auction. In Rival Restaurants, Action Cards serve as powerful one-time abilities that can elevate you to new heights or drag your rivals through the dumpster. With cards like Raiders of the Lost Pork (steal 1 ingredient from any chef), Dumpster Fire (force chefs to take 2 garbage), and Trojan Horse (take back a trade, but keep what you got) -- not to mention the other 25+ unique Action Cards that span Rival Restaurants and Back for Seconds -- players always have to remain on their toes if they want to stay ahead of the pack.

Because of the fun interactions that Action Cards tend to create in Rival Restaurants, we wanted to give them more room to shine in SPORKS Out. After all, sometimes going to The Island just to buy an Action Card is too much of an opportunity and resource cost. That’s why we decided to create the Action Auction Phase, from which the game-changing Snackle Box was born! During this exciting new phase (which occurs before Money and Move), chefs will get to bid with their leftover money from the previous day to buy 1-2 Action Cards from the mighty Snackle Box. 

This is designed to encourage Action Card usage without having to sacrifice precious time visiting The Island. Also, by holding the auction at the start of each day (before Money and Move), players will have to think even more strategically about how they spend their money so they can get the most bang for their buck! 

Expansion Highlight: What’s in Back For Seconds (the first expansion for Rival Restaurants)?

Back for Seconds adds more of what you love to the culinary world of Rival Restaurants. Originally released in 2020 (yep, the year we’ve all blotted out of our memory) this expansion adds 8 Chefs, 6 Restaurants, and 50 mouth-watering Recipes.

But aside from that, what sets Back for Seconds apart is THE EVENT DECK!

You can think of the Event Deck as a global action card. The event will apply to all players at the beginning of every other day. You might be "Rolling in the Dough" one day... or "Oh Snap!" you better cook fast because tomorrow, half your ingredients are gonna get destroyed! For anyone who can’t get enough of Rival Restaurants and/or wants to collect all the new cuisines, Back for Seconds is a must try.

Designer Q&A (With Rob Chew)

Q. If you could bring any restaurant(s) in the Rival Restaurants universe to real life, which one(s) would you be most excited about?

A. Dude, honestly if any of these restaurants become real, I would be absolutely over-the-moon excited! I love Japanese food, so it's hard to not want to pick the Rising Sun but I think one of the restaurants that most pops out to me is Gyro to Hero. And I love Greek food! But yeah, if I can gush for a moment here, I just think all the restaurants are so beautifully drawn, and I think Audrey has done an outstanding job illustrating not only the restaurants but the entire body of art for our games. I truly think we're spoiled to have such a talented in-house artist on the team. I think it would be really cool if one day someone had the brains and business acumen to make a food hall that was themed after all our restaurants. Sounds like an idea for a future Kickstarter… 😜

Always eating,

Team GCG