Happy Valentine's Day! Custom Recipes UNLOCKED, all 8 Restaurants sneak peek, and a NEW Stretch Goal!
about 5 years ago – Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 01:23:25 AM

This Valentine's Day...

Anyway, on behalf of all of us at Gap Closer Games, we send our love to you! We can't believe the milestones we're hitting with just 4 days to go... thank you so much for believing in Rival Restaurants and helping us bring it to the world!

Blank Recipes UNLOCKED!

We've already heard some absolutely delicious suggestions for custom recipes...

Pappa al Pomodoro... Loco Moco... "Green Spaghetti"... and more! We can't wait to see what else you dream up once you receive your 3 Basic and 3 Gourmet blank recipes. Speaking of dreaming up new creations...

New Stretch Goal: Blank Restaurant!

You asked for it, we delivered. Your new Stretch Goal is a blank restaurant board (with its very own color scheme)! Now you'll be able to add your own restaurant AND level-up bonuses! If that's not in the entrepreneurial spirit of Rival Restaurants, we don't know what is! 

To give you some inspiration for the level-up bonuses (and to show you what's already in the game), here are the restaurants that make up Rival Restaurants!

Which one's your favorite?

Which are you most excited to use?

What restaurant will you be adding to your game? 

Let us know in the comments below!

Until next time...

- Team Gap Closer

iOS/Android Companion App UNLOCKED, Orccon 2019, and a new Stretch Goal!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 11:07:30 PM

6 more days!

That's all that remains until the Rival Restaurants Kickstarter is officially over! It's hard to believe that there's less than 1 week to go... where has the time gone?! Speaking of time...

Variable Timer Companion App UNLOCKED

The Rival Restaurants Companion App has been unlocked! We're still in the process of writing and developing the app, but here are some of the features we're planning to add:

•  Variable Timer: Rival Restaurants comes with a 1-minute sand timer that's used during the most exciting phase of the game: Buy and Barter. With the companion app's variable timer, you'll be able to adjust that time to match your group's size and/or preferences. Some players prefer to have more time to get deeper into the trading aspect, while others want less time to crank the tension to the max! With the variable timer, you can try both.
•  Audible Alarm: During the hustle and bustle of Buy and Barter, sometimes it's hard to keep track of when the sand timer is up. But with the companion app, everyone will hear an audible alarm signifying that the round is over.
•  Links: The app will contain direct links to our How to play video, gameplay FAQ's, chef bios/backstories, and more.

What features would you like to see in the app?

We will be at Orccon (Strategicon) this weekend (Feb 15 - Feb 17) at LAX!

If you're in the LA area and want to try Rival Restaurants, please come play with us on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday! Tickets are available here.

New Stretch Goal: 6 Blank Recipe Cards (3 Basic and 3 Gourmet)

It's your turn to cook! With 6 blank recipe cards, you'll be able to add any dish you want to your game! 

Fancy some fusion? Craving some custom? Hankering for some homemade? Now you can! Here's a full list of the ingredients in case you're wondering what you can cook with:

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

- Team Gap Closer

The ADD-ON is Finally Here!
about 5 years ago – Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 12:36:37 AM

Introducing the "Bento Box"

They say that “good things come to those who wait.” 

We hope you’ll agree once you see what we’ve been cooking! For the past few months, we’ve been working hard with our good friends at SBG to create the perfect add-on for Rival Restaurants. Now, the wait is over. We give you, the Bento Box! 

Quite simply, it is a thing of beauty.

From the gorgeous, laser-etched logos to the incredibly thoughtful and practical design, the Bento Box is part art, part organizer—all Kickstarter Exclusive. The “cutting board” aesthetic integrates perfectly with our theme (food and cooking), resulting in something that will make all your friends say “wow” at your next game night. 

The Bento Box will be shipped with your game (shipping is included in the price) and requires some assembly (putting it together is half the fun)! You’ll still be getting the standard game organizer that all copies of Rival Restaurants come with. The standard game organizer is made from a high quality vacuum-formed plastic that has all the same functionality as the Bento Box. In other words, you do not need the Bento Box to play Rival Restaurants; it is simply a component upgrade (but a really nice one at that).

How to add the Bento Box to your pledge

If you would like to add the Bento Box to your pledge (available for both Deluxe and Retail), simply visit our main Kickstarter page and click “Manage your pledge” in the upper right corner of your screen. Afterwards, click “Change your pledge.” Then, you can manually add “$35 USD” to your current pledge. If you are an international backer, we have included a conversion chart for you to use at your convenience. If your currency is not listed above, simply use an online calculator and we’ll make the necessary adjustments via the Pledge Manager if needed. 

You will also be able to add the Bento Box using the Pledge Manager once the Kickstarter campaign is over.

We are so excited to finally share this with all of you! Thank you so much to all of our wonderful backers for being so patient as we prepared for this announcement. Your excitement and enthusiasm for Rival Restaurants is what keeps us going!

If you have any questions, feel free to message us. Thanks and have a delicious weekend!

- Team Gap Closer

2-Player Mode, 3 more KSE Action Cards, and a Shoutout from Dice Tower!
about 5 years ago – Sat, Feb 09, 2019 at 12:47:07 AM

Kitchen Squad: 2-Player Mode 

You guys did it! Kitchen Squad (Rival Restaurant's 2-Player Mode) has officially been unlocked! We can't even tell you how excited we are about the way it turned out! 

When we were designing the 2-Player Mode, we knew 2 things: 

1) We wanted to maintain the original game's excitement.

2) We wanted to leverage the unique abilities of our chefs more because using your chef's power to gain an edge is one of the most fun aspects of playing Rival Restaurants. And with 12 chefs to choose from, each with his/her unique ability, we knew that chef powers needed to be featured even more prominently in our 2-Player Mode.

So, without getting too far into the details, here are the two main innovations for Kitchen Squad:

1)  You will have three chefs at your disposal instead of just one. 

Think of them as members of a tag team that you control. You can still only use one chef per day, but having three different chefs to choose from drastically changes the way that you strategize your moves. 

2)  You will also decide the movement for an NPC (non-plating chef). 

You can think of your NPC as a quasi-ally whose purpose is to 

• disrupt your opponent 
• help you make purchases (at an extra cost) 

The NPC's all have locational powers, meaning, their powers come into effect when another chef is in the same location as them. This means that in Kitchen Squad, you're not only trying to complete your own recipes... but you're also trying to make it as hard as possible for your opponent to complete theirs!

The full rules for the 2-Player Mode will be included in the final version of the rulebook (we're still working on them), but we wanted to give you a taste of what it will feel like to play. But believe us when we say that it is a blast and enjoyable in an entirely different way than the original game!

Social Media Achivements Have Been COMPLETED!

1,000 Facebook likes...

100 Facebook shares...

100 shares/retweets on Twitter...

100 fans on BoardGameGeek.com...

50 comments on our Kickstarter page...

50 Instagram posts...

JOB. WELL. DONE. Thank you so much for helping to get the word out about Rival Restaurants all over social media! In the past two weeks, our game has blown up and all of us here at Gap Closer Games are so encouraged and thankful for each and every one of you. As our way of saying thanks (and because you earned it!), here are the last three of the six Kickstarter Exclusive Deluxe Action Cards!

Dice Tower Love!

Dice Tower is one of the biggest names in board games, and in case you missed it, Rival Restaurants was just named Tom Vasel's "Kickstarter Pick of the Week!" You can check out the recording of their live episode of "Crowdsurfing Live with Tom Vasel" here!

We also got a FOMO score of 4.3/5 making it an "Automatic Buy!" from Robert Geistlinger (Dice Tower contributor). See the FOMO preview here!

Thanks again everyone! And for all of you who have been asking about updates regarding the add-on, thank you for being so patient! We are justtt about done with the details for the add-on and should be making an announcement by tomorrow! So stay tuned! (And we may have a few more Stretch Goals in the works as well...) :) It won't be additional recipes or minis as some of you have been asking about, but we think you'll be excited about them all the same!

Always cooking,

Team Gap Closer

FULLY STRETCHED!!! But we're still cooking!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 05, 2019 at 12:20:59 AM

Rival Restaurants is FULLY STRETCHED!

We did it! You did it! We all did it! Rival Restaurants is fully stretched and is now in its most glorious form! The stretch goals you've unlocked this past week aren't just cosmetic touch ups—they are significant upgrades that will physically improve Rival Restaurant's durability so that you can enjoy it for years to come. We can't believe we hit this milestone with two weeks to spare! Thank you for helping us get to where we are today. But don't worry, we are not done yet! 

What We're Cooking Up Next (works in progress)

Even though we're fully stretched, that doesn't mean we've stopped working. In fact, we have a lot of exciting things in the works that we'd like to share:

1) 2-Player Mode

When we originally designed Rival Restaurants, we envisioned a highly interactive and entertaining game made for 3 players or more. And from what our hundreds of play-testers told us, we were able to accomplish exactly that. But almost as soon as we launched on Kickstarter, we started getting flooded with requests for a 2-player mode.

Initially, we had doubts whether it could be done. But to make a long story short, we are so glad that we were so wrong. The 2-player mode we've been testing and working on is VERY EXCITING and we can't wait to tell you about it! We're almost done finalizing the rules and should have an update within a week or so, so stay tuned!

2) Français & Italiano

Thanks to two of our amazing backers—Benoît Pepermans (francais) and Stefano Lo Cascio (italiano)—Rival Restaurants is on its way to being translated into French and Italian! The rulebook will be translated into French and Italian and will be available as digital downloads from our website. These digital, translated rulebooks will also have a list of all action cards, restaurants, and any other game components that are necessary for gameplay. Although we will not be printing the translated rulebooks, they will be available as PDFs so you are more than welcome to print them at your convenience.

Thank you again to Benoît and Stefano for generously volunteering your time!

3) Add-on

Now that Rival Restaurants is fully stretched, we are turning our attention to finalizing and announcing an exciting add-on that we hope to share by the end of the week. Be on the look out for more details later!

We Will Be Using A Pledge Manager!

When it comes to pledge managers, Backerkit is one of the most trusted names in Kickstarter, so partnering with them was an easy choice for us. With a pledge manager, all backers will be able to adjust their pledges even after the campaign is finished. This also means that you'll be able to include add-ons, purchase additional copies of Rival Restaurants, as well as manage your shipping and delivery preferences.

We Are "thissss close" to Unlocking All Social Media Achievements!

If you haven't done so already, please help us unlock the remaining Social Media Achievements. We are thissss close to finishing a few of them!

Facebook: 2 more!

Twitter: 22 away!

Instagram: 8 more posts!

Thank you everyone! Keep up the great work! There's two weeks left until the campaign is over! Let's finish STRONG!!!

Grateful,

Team Gap Closer