Latest from the Creator
Jason Miceli
2 days ago
Robot and golem naming poll!
The naming continues!... Ok - we got some great new ideas for robot and golem names (and resurfaced some old ones as well). I can't add a multi-question poll here on BackerK...
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Jason Miceli
3 days ago
What's in a name?? EVERYTHING! Let's have some fun!!
Happy Saturday!  Hope you're all planning some great gaming time this weekend - I sure am ;) It's time for a super fun topic - robot names! As you likely know, when you com...
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Jason Miceli
4 days ago
Yet another awesome review DROPS!!
Widget's Workshop approved by both gamer and non-gamer - woot!!
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Jason Miceli
5 days ago
Continued development on the cardstock bay mini-mats
Here's a slight riff on that last idea for the cardstock bay mini-mats: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0615/1438/3575/files/Widget_s_Workshop_small_mat_tests.png?v=1742475774 Added the smaller part icons to the 4 other parts there. They are very small when printed, but st...
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Jason Miceli
6 days ago
Super high praise from Michael Wright during his review for Widget's Workshop!
"It's a simple game, really, with a unique concept and a cool aspect that only Phase Shift Games does!"
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Jason Miceli
7 days ago
Neoprene mat alternatives and storage solutions
Hey all! As promised, I played around with a few different neoprene mat alternatives and storage solution options. You can see all of it here: Here's the chapter time ind...
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Hey everyone - now that I've eaten following our epic livestream, I'm back and responding to questions and pushing out more social posts. So stoked that we're nearing our funding goal!! 

Please share the campaign page with your friends!:

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/phase-shift-games/widgets-workshop-drop-style-game?ref=phaseshift

Cheers!!
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PROJECT UPDATE
Jason Miceli
CREATOR
3 days ago

Project Update: What's in a name?? EVERYTHING! Let's have some fun!!

Happy Saturday! 

Hope you're all planning some great gaming time this weekend - I sure am ;)

It's time for a super fun topic - robot names! As you likely know, when you complete any of the over 1 million possible constructs, they each have a unique picture AND name. Some examples:

 
Well, each of the letter combinations for the names actually originate from 16 "pure" robots & golems, such as:
VOLCANO!



Below is the table of each of our 16 pure names. Obviously they are meant to be thematic to the element, archetype, and makeup for each of those 16 core constructs.



You may notice there are different colors, fonts, and capitalizations going on - here's the principle: 
  • Element: This drives the color - green earth, gray air, red fire, blue water.
  • Archetype: This drives the capitalization - capital letters for strength, lower case letters for speed.
  • Makeup: This drives the font - Komika Display for organic, Futura PT for mechanical.

Now, the names themselves are what we're really here to discuss. We are open to renaming some of these, if better names present themselves! That's where you come in - we'd love to hear any creative ideas you may have for any or all of these. Of course we want to keep with the theme for each, but that doesn't mean that we're locked in with any of the names we already have.

There are some rules we need to follow:
  • The legs need to be vowels, including Y. It's possible to have double letters in the legs, even though we only have one instance of that so far (b oo st e r).
  • The arms and torso need to be mostly consonants, such that the entire name is pronounceable (even if strange sounding!). You will see that some of the right arms do still contain vowels, such as IT or LIN or NE...  that's generally fine, as long as the combined sound is something that can follow the right leg vowels. 
  • In general, we'd like to keep to 2 letters or less for each placement. The only current offender here is zeppelin, with the LIN ending. We just haven't thought of a better name yet for that Air-Speed-Mechanical robot. 
  • We will not allow letter combinations that will allow overly mature or any form of racist or hate words. Hence, CK and GG in the middle will never be allowed (which sadly rules out ROCKET as a cool robot name), and even having a P in the left arm position would allow several words starting with PORN, which we would like to avoid. 
  • We would favor diversity in the letters, so that the widest array of wacky names can be formed. Meaning, let's try not to have too many duplicates (like RN in the middle) in the same column. 
  • Bonus points if we can weave in some special characters, such as Os or Es with accents over them!

In the end, what we have here already works fine, so who knows where this will go...  maybe we're already close to the perfect array, but we wanted to open this up for you all to start playing with. So...

GO! 
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PROJECT UPDATE
Jason Miceli
CREATOR
7 days ago

Project Update: Neoprene mat alternatives and storage solutions

Hey all!

As promised, I played around with a few different neoprene mat alternatives and storage solution options. You can see all of it here:



Here's the chapter time index:
  • 00:00 - Intro and overview
  • 01:45 - Playing without any mats
  • 05:00 - Small cardstock mat ideas
  • 13:50 - Neoprene mat storage options
  • 24:23 - In conclusion

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on any or all of the options presented! Cheers!!
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PROJECT UPDATE
Jason Miceli
CREATOR
2 days ago

Project Update: Robot and golem naming poll!

The naming continues!...

Ok - we got some great new ideas for robot and golem names (and resurfaced some old ones as well). I can't add a multi-question poll here on BackerKit, so please head over to BoardGameGeek to respond to the poll: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3483641/article/45848145

Note that some of the name ideas are intentionally repeated, since they may better relate to one combination or another. It will also help us understand which names might be favored over which others...

Also note that there may be multiple waves to this process. This first poll will help us gauge general excitement for some of these names, and then we'll see how the overall table looks after some changes. If it's warranted and appropriate, we'll run another poll to clean up any loose ends. And of course, go ahead and leave comments with any new ideas that come to mind as you're thinking about it.

Thanks for your ideas and feedback!
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Here's a slight riff on that last idea for the cardstock bay mini-mats:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0615/1438/3575/files/Widget_s_Workshop_small_mat_tests.png?v=1742475774

Added the smaller part icons to the 4 other parts there. They are very small when printed, but still distinguishable...  and they would be fully covered when you place an actual part there, which is nice. I think this may be a good improvement.
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