Weekly Store Update: 4 September

By Stone Valley | September 4, 2022

The end of summer is now officially nigh, with days getting shorter and the heat index dropping. I guess it's time to start prepping for Halloween!? Too early for you? Ha! It's all good. Around here we've shuffled and dealt our way thru another wonderful week, and we've launched our September board game giveaway! Make sure to check that out, along with our other news!

INTRO

Welcome to our weekly newsletter! For our new readers I'm Eric, and Wendy and I run Stone Valley Games. This newsletter is our way to share both local and world-wide gaming news of interest that popped up last week. It also provides our subscribers, both local and remote, some information on the going's on around here so everyone feels like part of the action. At the bottom of this newsletter we show you the restocks, new items, and preorders added to the store last week. All in all it's not too difficult to navigate, so let's get to it!

SEPTEMBER BOARD GAME GIVEAWAY

The summer draws to a close and is semi-officially ushered out with the Labor Day holiday. It is not a stretch to associate Labor Day with a working theme, and instead of farming - this year we're going to pivot to factory work. Not the 40-hour a week kind, no. The fun kind with Fantastic Factories! Not just the base game either, we're giving away the entire lineup, from base game thru playmat. Hey, we're working hard to manufacture fun around here!

In Fantastic Factories, you race to manufacture the most goods or build the most prestigious buildings. There are elements of dice rolling, worker placement, engine building, resource management, tableau building, simultaneous play, and some card drafting.

CLICK HERE to go to the sign in page and find out more about it. The winner will be drawn on 17 September and contacted via the email address they provide. We'd be tickled pink if you would share this opportunity with friends and family. Let's work it together!

WHAT'S ON THE MENU?

Last week we tweaked the webstore a bit more. We were initially going to implement a 'super menu' to allow more flexibility in the drop-down.

While it sounded great, in practice there were just so many different levels it just didn't flow well on mobile devices. A little too much hunting. So, we reverted back to the original menu style, but changed things up and streamlined everything in the original format.

As you can see, it's hardly even noticeable, but with the subtle adjustments we think it flows well and recategorizes based on interest or need.

One day we may go back and re-look the super menu concept, but I think we're good for some time with what we have now.

TO THE SWAMP

In our continuing art series, we're heading to the swamp region of the Stone Valley Pangea next. After talking about the concept with our artist, and he came up with the following initial sketch.

His concept was a normal looking merchant with a roadside stand. However, upon closer look, there would be eerie items hanging from the cart hooks and other clues around that gave away just how sinister the merchant really was.

While that is definitely something we can leverage in other parts of the Stone Valley Pangea, I had something much more sinister in mind for the swamp region.

My concept is, imagine what humans could mutate into given about 600,000 years of evolution with the swamp as their primary environment. They might very well not look very humanlike at all, and their "mounts" would be tamed creatures from our worst nightmares.

He took those suggestions and went back to the drawing board. We're interested in seeing what he comes up with. It should be something that really fits in to the upcoming Halloween theme quite well!

LABOR DAY HOURS

We are going to be closed to foot traffic on Monday, 6 September for Labor Day. This is the first year we'll be closed on Labor Day. However, with the family growing ever larger, and most of the adults working full-time schedules, we don't have many opportunities to get together and catch up. So, we're going to take this opportunity to do just that. We'll see you all soon!

THE WRAP UP

Okay, enough news for this week! Below are the Restocks, New Items, and Preorders added to the shop last week. You can click on the item to learn more, and many of the products have review and gameplay videos so you can see the game in action. If you're visiting our page and you'd like to keep up with our giveaways, sales, new products, and articles like this one just create an account here. Once created you will be subscribed to our newsletter and become enrolled in our loyalty system, instantly earning 50 Stones that you can use on your very first order. A Stone? One Stone is equivalent to One Cent. That doesn't sound like much, but you earn 2 Stones for every dollar spent and 5 for each product review, so though it may seem small, those savings add up fast! Redeem your Stones upon checkout, and they can save you up to 10% off your cart total. Loyalty Matters!