Wicked Cribbage

A Final Update: Darkleaf Gambit, Mushy Stuff, and Statistics

Hello Friends,

Canadian fulfillment is now finished, bringing this project to 100% complete. What a mountain of joy it’s been to have spent this last year with you all! It feels like there’s so much to say, but I’ll pare it down to three short topics so that you can get back to playing cribbage.

#1: Introducing: Darkleaf Gambit

When Jess and I dreamed up Only Then Studios, we were going to leverage all of our skills to create games, publish books, and animate short stories. Turns out that this bold vision was too sprawling. Given that we’re going to focus all of our energy on games, we’ve updated our logo to match our singular direction.

Let me tell you a bit about our second game, Darkleaf Gambit. Similar to Wicked Cribbage, it uses another game’s components as its base. Unlike Wicked Cribbage, it turns your chessboard into a mythical forest and your pieces into one of six fantastical clans, creating an entirely new game. Rather than both sides aiming for a traditional checkmate, each clan has its own unique movement mechanics, set of abilities, and path to victory. And there are dice. Lots and lots of dice. After a year of early mornings and long nights, we’re ready to launch this May!

Darkleaf Gambit’s pre-launch page is up and running with all the details, including pictures of the game’s prototype. While we know that your #1 passion is cribbage, this game breathes new life into another game that many already have.

If you’d like to do something simple to continue supporting Only Then, click the button below and sign up to get notified when we launch. It’s a huge help for others to see that the project already has followers. And should you decide to back the project in May, you’ll also be signed up to receive a Kickstarter Exclusive.

#2: Mushy Stuff

Before I get to what everyone cares about most (statistics!), I’d like to take a moment to be sappy. Only Then Studios' mission is to spread some smiles and fun into the world. We had all the art, game design, and project management skills under our belts to do this, but had little experience with customer service. Given the state of this world and, particularly, the state of the internet, I assumed this part of the job would be a drag.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Over the past year, Wicked Cribbage attracted support from 2,463 backers. Every interaction that we’ve had with you has left a smile on our faces. What a great community you are! Everyone has been kind in their encouragement and patient when things didn’t go as smoothly as expected. Our faith in humanity has been much restored by this experience, and we wish there was a way to share that feeling with you. We met 2,463 new people this last year, got to interact directly with at least 300, and did not have one negative experience. How unexpectedly cool is that? Don’t ever change! The world is a brighter place because of you.

#3: Statistics!

I was curious to know: where on earth does the most pegging happen? A higher density of Wicked Cribbage backers means more cribbage players. One to one. Totally infallible scientific logic, right?

Wicked Cribbage voyaged to 13 countries, ranging from Australia to Japan, Denmark, and Panama. Far and away, the most sales came from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the USA. I’ll need to adjust slightly skewed numbers for the UK, as we stopped accepting late pledges from non-North American countries in December. With 95 backers from the UK, this contributed to 9% of the initial backer population. Strong showing from the world’s original cribbage players!

Where does that leave Canada and the US? Here are the states/provinces that contributed the highest number of backers. In reverse order, with a drum roll please.

This order rang true to me. However, when I factored in population density (and turned this into a fair fight), the new order had some surprises. Hit that drum roll again.

Vermont takes the cake for most cribbage (at least of the wicked variety) players per overall population. And way to go Yukon Territory!

And, with that, I’ll let you get back to it. Thanks everyone!

Until the next shuffle (or roll of the die, as it may be),

Jamison and Jess