Far Away: Corporate Espionage is coming to GameFound soon. You can check out the preview page today! Following the project will get you a discount on the actual campaign, so you should do that!
We’ve had some questions from fans about the project that I think are best served by the medium of blog. I’ll do my best to consolidate various answers I’ve given on various platforms here. If there’s something I missed, please keep the conversation going in the comments.
Why an expansion?
We’ve had enough positive feedback and requests for such a thing that this doesn’t feel like a foolish endeavor. The crowdfunding campaign should prove that one way or another.
We definitely think there are more stories to tell in the Far Away universe. No part of this has felt obligatory or forced. Far Away was designed to be a modular system with each mission toying with a different part of play. So far, every new mission manages to feel unique and distinct.
Why aren’t the AI CARDs part of the base game?
We are aware that Far Away’s roleplaying-like creature behavior is a polarizing mechanic. For every person who dislikes it, another finds it amazing. We want that experience to be forever encoded into the game. We think it makes for a unique experience you’re not going to get in another game (not to boast, but I haven’t seen anything similar outside of indie story games – please let me know if other board games are using roleplaying in such a way). If we added the AI CARDs to the core experience, many people would miss out on playing with an emergent ecosystem of their own creation. I think that’s a bummer.
Okay, but you offer the AI CARDs as a free print-and-play download. Can you sell a professionally printed version of that?
This is more of a business and costing thing than an ethical dilemma. First, we have no idea what the demand for this would be, which makes determining the pricing. There’s a spectrum from “make a bunch at a factory” to “one-off on-demand prints” with a significant price difference between the two. This isn’t a unique problem (this is much of the crowdfunding experience), but it bleeds into the other part of this dilemma: duplicating expansion content.
The AI CARDs will always be part of the expansion. There’s no world where we can offer two versions: the confusion for customers would be too great. We already experienced this with the inlay upgrade for the original print run (tl;dr: we still have a bunch, lose money on shipping, and have had people order it for the new version where it’s included by mistake). So, we hope everyone finds the amount of additional content in the expansion worth the $35 GameFound price tag ($30 if you follow the preview now).
Other Questions?
Leave a comment and I’ll do my best to provide an open and honest answer. Please have the comments be about the game, so I’m not sharing life secrets.
—Alex