Five by Five Board Game
Five by Five is a board game where you place and manipulate dice on a shared board to complete objectives.
of 12,500 USD Goal
Backers
The Preface
After 5+ years of tinkering with this game, I'm finally ready to roll the dice (see what I did there?) with a Kickstarter campaign. I'm excited and scared, but I really believe that this is a game that is easy to learn and will appeal to so many including board game enthusiasts and casual gamers alike. So, let's get to it...
The Game
In a world where dice have been taken for granted... wait... no, I don't need a corny intro like that. Simply put, Five by Five is a game about rolling and manipulating dice on a shared board to complete objectives in your hand. Completing objectives earns you points. It's that simple.
How Do You Play?
On each turn, a player will do these three things:
- Play an action card to either place a die or manipulate dice
- Play any completed objectives for points
- Restock their hand with cards
Once the board is full of dice, the game ends and you tally up the points. Easy peasy!*
*There are a few more nuances in the official rules, but you get the gist!
What Do You Get?
If you back the full game, inside the shiny (okay, it's a matte finish) square box, you'll get the following:
- 40 dice (10 of each color)
- 60 action cards (10 of each color plus 4 of each special action)
- 33 objective cards
- 3 special objective cards
- rules
Depending on the level, you'll receive a print-and-play edition that's optimized to be played with a single die.
What Are The Specs?
- 2-5 players (campaign goal unlocked for 1-player mode)
- approximately 30 minutes
- ages 8 and up
When Will You Get It?
That's a trickier question, but here's a rough outline of the post-campaign timeline:
- Campaign will last 45 days
- Pledge manager will open within 3 weeks of campaign end and will be open for at least 3 weeks
- Mass production will begin shortly after the pledge manager closes and will take anywhere from 11-14 weeks
- Shipping from the factory will be by ship, which also takes time (estimate will be updated when details are solidified)
- Once received locally, games will be shipped to backers (Note: While we will be eating some of the fulfillment costs, backers are responsible for paying shipping at then-current rates and any applicable local taxes.)
Why Back Five By Five?
Look, I understand there are TONS of other games to back here. The fact that you're even looking at my game means the world to me. I've been designing games for over 10 years at this point and this is my first Kickstarter (life always seems to get in the way, right?).
A successful campaign opens the door for me to explore and create more games to share with the world!
Seriously, thank you for checking out this project.
♥ Tim @ Red Mitten Games
Accolades and Reviews
Five by Five is 'Community Verified' on The Game Crafter, a popular board game prototyping manufacturer and seller, receiving a score of 114 of 120 over 40 votes.
"Played this with 7, 10, and 12-year olds, along with a few adults. Took very little time to explain, and being able to play one quick game or multiple games with cumulative scoring is a big plus with different kids and social groups. Quite pleased we picked this up, and it'll be a regular in our game rotation." - Gene Z. in WI
Another Europe Update, Five By Five Remix, and Gnome Ore Update
2024-12-23 21:38:50Hi everyone!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to those who celebrate this time of the year!
I just wanted to send out a quick update since it has been a few weeks.
Europe Update
I really feel bad about how the Europe portion has played out. I know hindsight is twenty-twenty, but had I known that this route (freight to Greece then off to Poland) would have taken so long, I would have went with a different option. Unfortunately, the ship was delayed and then there were delays at customs and then more delays with DHL getting the cases (which I did pay for expedited shipping) getting from Greece to Poland. I sent an email to Green this morning to follow up.
Last week, Hive sent them an update as well and they assured me that they would do their best to get it out quickly when it arrives. They do work on Christmas Eve until 2 PM, so maybe we'll get lucky and some games will be sent tomorrow. I would expect them early in the new year, though.
Again, I'm really sorry that this has been delayed so much.
Five By Five Remix
The brain is always churning with new ideas and variations on what I already have out there. I had an idea for an expansion to Five By Five, which I'm lovingly calling 'Five By Five: Remix' (for now at least).
The idea is that instead of placing dice on the board, the board gets filled right away (by some mechanism that's yet to be determined). What makes this game different is that you'd only have special purple action cards in your hand and you'd need to manipulate the dice to complete your objectives.
So far, I've come up with the following extra special action cards:
- Rotate: Turn a block of 4 dice clockwise or counterclockwise.
- Shuffle: Remove an entire row of dice and rearrange their order.
- Teleport: Swap the position of two non-adjacent dice.
- Shift: Move an entire row left or right (or up or down). The die that falls off the edge gets placed where the empty spot is.
Can you think of any other fun ways to manipulate the dice on the board?
What's cool about this is that I would only need to have cards manufactured in order to make this game work. I suspect I'll be playing around with this a bit over the holidays.
Gnome Ore Prototype
In my last update, I mentioned that I would be getting the prototype of Gnome Ore from The Game Crafter. I got it and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This game has gone through a lot of tweaks in the past month or two and I'm really enjoying how it plays now.
The idea is that you're digging down into a mine in an attempt to get ore. The further you go, the more ore you will find, but it also adds to the risk. As you dig deeper, you increase the number you must roll in order to safely walk away with the ore. At any point during your turn, you can choose to cash out and hit the forge for a chance to turn your ore into gems. Whoever has the most gems after the mine collapse wins the game.
I'm really excited about this game and I hope to have it ready for crowdfunding in 2025!
General Tidbits
Before I wrap up, I just wanted to share a few things here:
Rate Five By Five on BGG
One of the best gifts I could ask for is good reviews of the game. If you have an account on BoardGameGeek, would you please consider taking some time and leaving a positive review. It would mean a ton to me and would help me to sell more games (which will help me to create more games)! Thank you! <3
Five By Five Tweak
Jordan, a backer, suggested this rule tweak and while it's not an official rule change, it could spice up the game if you're looking for a variation. I took the liberty of tweaking the tweak a bit, though. Thanks Jordan.
Here's how it works... When the game starts, announce that you're playing this variation. When the board fills up, if the last die rolled is an even number, the game ends like normal. If, however, the last number rolled is odd, then all players have the ability to continue manipulating the board with their special purple action cards. When everyone has played all of their special actions, then the game is officially over after all completed objectives have been played.
Let me know if you try it! It could add a little extra excitement to the game!
Wrap Up
That'll do it for now. Thank you all again for being amazing and for backing Five By Five. It means so much.
Until next time...
Tim at Red Mitten Games
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