High Noon

Created by High Noon Game, Inc.

An easy-to-learn, tactical Western shoot 'em up for 2 or more players where no two games are ever the same!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Pledge Manager Update (and a Convention!)
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 13, 2021 at 12:52:09 PM

I've been trying to push this update out, but it's been a crazy busy couple of weeks. That said, it seems oddly appropriate, I finally get this published on the 12th. (Waka waka wakaaaaaa!)

Hey everyone! It's been quiet around the comments section, the Facebook page and - heck - even the Discord channel. It's always a bit slow when I have my son for family-first reasons, but this I think has been abnormally so.

Part of that has to do with the fact that the shipping delay has pretty much neutralized much of anything to talk about. We don't have any control over the availability of containers. But we are actively seeking alternative ways to get the game out to you guys. If that opportunity arises, we will jump on it. Not only do we want these games in your hands so you can play High Noon, enjoy it like we do and tell all of your friends so they go out and buy copies, our factory also doesn't like things sitting on pallets in their warehouse, clogging up their real estate. Literally everyone wants these games shipped. If we can get them out, you bet your keister, we will. And that's pretty much all there is to say about it.

As for the pledge manager, we're at 75% completion of surveys with a little less than 200 of our backers still outstanding. We've sent reminders and we'll keep doing so to ensure everyone checks in. But just on the backers we've had so far, we've already raised an additional $20,000! And we haven't even begun our marketing of our pre-order page yet!

Now, before any of us go popping champagne, it's important to understand a lot of this additional funding has been put toward unlocking expansions. If - at the end of the day - we don't achieve enough sell through to unlock those expansions, we'll give everyone the opportunity to move their money toward other items, but ultimately we can't bet on the final fund until cards are charged and it's safe to assume some - or a lot - of backers will pull their extra monies out altogether. So, to those asking what this means for our fixed timeline of unlocked stretch goals, we simply can't make any guarantees until every card has been charged. So, for now, let's keep the excitement going but also stay level-headed about our expectations.

As far as expectations go, however, I'm very optimistic about the near future. Our retailer backers have just started discussing their orders with me and those numbers are really looking nice. Remember, retailer orders contribute to the overall funding and stretch goal unlocks. Also, we begin our pre-order marketing campaign in the next couple of days, and those pre-orders also contribute to the unlocking of stretch goals. And you don't have to wait on our marketing to drive that horse. Feel free to share the pre-order page with your own network of friends, family and local game stores. If your local game store is interested in ordering wholesale, simply have them shoot a message to us with their email address and I'll add them to the pledge manager at the retail level so they can enjoy all of the wholesale prices.

In this downtime, we've also been working with our factory to drill down some more competitive pricing and MOQs. From those efforts, we've been able to squeeze the unlocked expansion goals even tighter, which you should notice in the pledge manager, scraping off up to 100 orders per item needed for unlocks! All these little things can add up pretty quick, which is why I feel very good about the next few weeks.

This weekend, we'll be presenting at the virtual event, Meep Up! Con so if you haven't had a chance to see the game in action or play a round, this is a great opportunity to connect with us and see what all the fuss is about. Admission is free, so be sure and register so you don't miss out on this fun event!

Pledge Manager Smoke Test is a GO!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, May 05, 2021 at 11:46:37 AM

The time has come!


We've begun our Smoke Test of the pledge manager with 5% of our backers getting their links to the pledge manager. This is the first step in going live with the Pledge Manager and will allow us to work out any kinks that may arise during the process. Once the Smoke Test is complete, everyone else will be getting their links as well.


If you received your link as part of the Smoke Test, please complete your pledge asap so we can let everyone else in on the action ;)

LIVE Q&A Tomorrow (5/1/2021) at 10pm EST
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 11:42:34 PM

Tomorrow (Saturday) at 10pm EST, tune in to our Youtube channel or the official Facebook group to join our LIVE Q&A session where we discuss High Noon, the Kickstarter, the pledge manager, and anything else you want to talk about!


Got a question? Drop it here in the comments and we will address it on the show!


Be sure and subscribe to the Youtube channel or join the Facebook group (or both) to get the notification of the stream!

Pledge manager update! (And a couple of other things)
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 03:14:42 AM

I know it seems quiet around here, but I assure you things couldn’t be farther from. I know I spoiled you guys with updates just about every other day during the campaign, but there was a lot to talk about then. I’m not a fan of pushing updates when there’s nothing substantive to talk about. “We’re still working on it! Thanks for your patience!” just isn’t worthy of an update. Maybe that’s just me. That said, a lot has been going on behind the scenes to get the pledge manager up and running for you guys. And while it took longer than I wanted, it’s nearly ready to go live so I figured now is the time to poke my head out and let you all in on what we’ve been up to, where we are at, what we are facing and what the future holds for all of us.

First, the pledge manager. As I’m told, it can take months for a pledge manager to go live. Fortunately that’s not the case with High Noon, but after spending the last 3 weeks plowing through it, I can see why it would take that long for some. This really is the best way to show off all that a Kickstarter project has to offer. It’s like creating your own personal Amazon, complete with various products that all have their own listings with pictures and descriptions, etc. Of course, this meant the necessity of creating all of those images and descriptive content. This was no easy task, but it needed to be done anyway.

One of the great things about our pledge manager, Backerkit, is the ability to include our locked stretch goals in the offering as a 2nd chance to unlock them. By allowing each stretch goal to be its own item in the pledge manager store, this also makes it possible for you the community to choose which stretch goals you want to unlock, vs the fixed model required on Kickstarter (since there really isn’t a stretch goal function on their platform). So what you’re going to see when the pledge manager goes live is all of the planned stretch goals we had for the campaign and how many orders of them are required to go into production. 

If they aren’t unlocked, you won’t get charged, so it’s another risk-free way to get us where we need to be. I also polled the community to see which posses were most important to you and – based on your responses – I created 2 stretch goal bundles to save on the cost and speed up the unlocks.

In the retailer communities I’m in, I’m hearing that a lot of campaigns aren’t providing anything beyond the pledge tiers for retailers to grab. I continue to be amazed at how much retailers reward this bad behavior, but whatever. All of the items in High Noon’s pledge manager will also be available to retailers at wholesale prices and all retailer purchases of stretch goals will contribute to unlocking them. So even if you aren’t a retailer, if you know a retailer in your area, direct them to our Kickstarter page so they can put in their orders to help unlock all of the stretch goals!

The Retailer All-In loot

“But if the Kickstarter is closed, how can they jump in?” Great question, me! Another awesome feature of our pledge manager is that it also has a public pre-order page where anyone can order High Noon games and expansions just like you! They won’t be getting the Kickstarter Exclusives, but they’ll be getting everything else and just like the retailer pledges, all purchases made through the pre-order store will also go towards unlocking the stretch goals. So really you should be telling everyone about it. The more the word spreads around, the wider the audience, the more purchases and the greater the chance of unlocking these awesome expansions!

OK, so about the launch date: We are going into the review phase today. It can take up to 2 business days to pass review. Once it passes, we go live. My objective is to have the pledge manager launch May 1st, 2021 (this Saturday). From there, I will keep the pledge manager open for the month of May and lock everyone’s orders in on June 1st.

So there you have it. There’s the projected launch date of the pledge manager, provided we pass review in time. Keep your fingers crossed.

“But if you’re closing the pledge manager on June 1st, how are we getting our games in May?”

Short answer: You’re probably not. And here comes the bad news portion of this update, so brace yourselves because the past few weeks wasn’t all sunshine.

I’m not at a place right now to point fingers and cast blame anywhere. Right now I want to focus on getting the games to all of you as soon as humanly possible. But here’s the macro of the situation, we hit a hard wall of two problems:

1) This industry really isn’t ready for a crowdfund project that already has product produced. As simple as that concept sounded to us, it was like speaking an alien language to people we have been told and assured are industry experts. This “language barrier” compounded with a  highly questionable - yet widely accepted - standard of doing business that I may dive into in another update has led to an unfortunate delay of nearly two weeks just to get things moving.

2) OK, so believe it or not, there’s actually something to this shipping issue that has become a meme on social media. Brief summary: The whole world ordered a bunch of stuff from China and didn’t send anything back, so now there’s a container shortage crisis. We had a container for our goods, but the moment our logistics partner arranged for multiple containers to go out to the various countries, that went out the window. It’s not their fault, it just is what it is. And apparently this all started back in November of 2020.

No this doesn’t mean you’ll be waiting for the production run of the expansions to get your starter set. The sets have been palletized. They’re in a shipping queue. They’ll go out as soon as an opening shows up. But I don’t have a timeline on that just yet and – as I said earlier – I don’t like to talk about things when there’s nothing to talk about. I’ve been focused on the pledge manager. Now that’s pretty much done, I can turn my attention toward the fulfillment issue and see if I can’t push it along any faster. But that’s where we are currently. I know it’s a buzzkill. But on the bright side, you’ll still be getting High Noon faster than almost every other board game campaign out there.

Last bit of bad news: We failed to unlock the 4th stretch goal.

Unfortunately, it’s true. During the process of charging pledges, we had 19 backers drop out, resulting in a 2,858.00 loss to the final fund, which ended up being $119,547.00, just $453 shy of the stretch goal.

Here's a screenshot straight from Kickstarter

Obviously I have mixed feelings about this. A lot of people reached out to me about their current life situations and I get it, things happen. But there were some people who claimed they were going to step up and they didn’t. They definitely stepped somewhere, just not here. We aren’t entitled to their support, of course. But it doesn’t help soothe the burn.

I’ve done a lot of soul searching on this issue. We worked so hard to stretch every nickel we could, to make the stretch goals as achievable as possible without going bankrupt. There simply isn’t any more juice to squeeze. But you guys also put your money where your mouth was. We all worked as a team to get where we are today and sacrifice went around the table. After meeting with the team, we all agreed it wouldn’t be right to switch things up so dramatically on everyone so here’s the deal…

We are producing Father Franklin.

I’m going out of pocket on this one. I’ll cover the difference required to get him on the production line. That means everyone who is all-in will be getting Father Franklin as planned. Everyone else can purchase him as an add-on. So that doesn’t change.

FREE with the all-in pledge!

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to give everyone that extra add-on. And I’m really sorry about that. I really wanted to do it. But we didn’t make the goal and at some point, I have to draw the line.

I know it’s a punch in the gut. But there’s always next time. If you’re all-in, you’re getting everything we make in the future and just to show you there IS a future, here’s a sneak peak at the next expansion coming down the line…

There's another character in the works, but his artwork isn't done yet. This will be a Worker Placement posse where you can choose to have characters on the battlefield duking it out, or keep them in the Montorro Range mines, digging for gold and other precious resources to forge into powerful upgrades for your posse!

Look, guys, I don’t want this to be doom-and-gloom. Yes, some expectations are taking a hit. But these things happen. This was our first campaign and I still believe it was a massive success. We still have a lot to prove to you all and the rest of the world that not only is High Noon a great game worthy of spotlight, but that the team behind the game isn’t just another fly-by-night scam or disappointment but rather a team that backers can look forward to in future campaigns.

Some guys launch unheard-of projects with absolutely nothing but a deck of cards and for whatever reason, nobody questions their value and they wake up to half-a-million dollars. That kind of fortune has never been the case for us. We have always had to not only work insanely hard for what we get but also face down unrelenting doubt and accusations from the outside world until we show up and prove ourselves. Would the lazy side of our lizard brains prefer the easy path? Sure. But it’s this kind of adversity and grit that has made us who we are, strengthening our resolve and integrity.

We got a lot of heat from people who don’t know us, calling us out as “first time creators.” No we’re not. This may be our first Kickstarter rodeo, but it’s not remotely the first time we’ve ever created or launched an idea/product/service into the public sphere. We proved ourselves to those who know us and we’ll prove ourselves to you and the rest of the world by getting you not just the High Noon game, but also the premium service that comes with being a member of the High Noon posse.

And once we prove ourselves, we’ll come back with a campaign that is bigger and better than ever. We’ll have a multi-million dollar campaign one day. When that happens, it’ll be because we earned it, and it’ll be successful because the value will justify it.

Until then, I do thank you for your patience as we get through these teething issues, finding our feet in this wild west crowdfunding industry.

That's a Wrap! 200% Funded! Success x2! (Now What?)
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 06, 2021 at 02:50:04 AM

This last month has been unlike anything I have ever experienced nor could put to justice in words. It was humbling, thrilling and exhausting all at once and probably the most efficient weight loss program I've ever participated in. 😅

We set out to raise the capital needed to produce the first 4 expansions and right out of the gate, our loyal gang rode in and funded the entire run in just under 7 hours. Sure, it wasn't "funded in seconds!" But our goal wasn't fake and artificially low beyond all manner of reason either. Our goal was exactly what it needed to be to dutifully produce what we'd promised and we did it. You did it.

But you didn't stop there. You kept pledging, kept supporting this enterprise. You kept the energy alive in the comments on the main page and in the updates. You spread the word far and wide in Facebook groups, on Board Game Geek, and everywhere you could to get the message to people to hear.

Despite all of the gate-keeping involved to keep High Noon out of the public eye by those in power, you fought back and fought hard and let them know you can't stop the signal, Mal.

It was an arduous adventure full of ups and downs - literally. We gained ground only to lose it the next day, even going days without any progress at all. Some had doubts we would unlock any of our stretch goals. But by the end, with less than 2 hours left in the campaign, we had unlocked not just 1 but 4 stretch goals, including the first stretch goal of the last campaign (that we failed to reach, by the way), Father Franklin. As if it couldn't be more poetic, the machine gun preacher was unlocked on Easter Sunday.

As a result, all backers (of the Starter Set and up) will be rewarded with a free upgrade pack of chips and gold, 27 Kickstarter Exclusive loot cards and a free unlocked expansion posse of their choice!

So what happens now?

With the Kickstarter completed, I've gotten inundated with messages all over the page, our Discord server and our Facebook group asking what the next steps are,  when games will be shipped out and how they can select their free expansion, etc.

So let me explain a little bit about what's going to happen next...

  • First, Kickstarter hasn't released any funds to us at this time. It usually takes 2 to 3 weeks to clear. 
  • Second, our fulfillment partner requested we break our shipment up among multiple fulfillment centers in the various regions around the world. This delayed our shipment process a bit (but not by much) so things are just now getting moving on that front.  I don't like to make predictions while there are still unknown variables at play, but we did set things up on the front end for this exact possibility, which is why the expected delivery of the Starter Set is May 2021 and not April 2021. While anything can still happen to throw a wrench in that plan, I still feel confident that - despite the delays - we are still on target for that delivery. That said, I'll be keeping you guys all updated on that front so you're not left in the dark.
  • Third, I wasn't given access to the pledge manager until the campaign concluded. I've been working non-stop on building that out. I'm wrestling with balancing this and daddy-duty at the moment, but I'm going to try and have it live in the next week.  I will say this, it's looking soooooo goooooooooooooood....

What's this pledge manager thing anyway?

For those of you who are knew to Kickstarter (like me), the pledge manager is how you actually get what you pledged for. See, Kickstarter doesn't actually keep track of exactly what you were pledging money for. They just track how much money you pledged. After a Kickstarter campaign ends, it's up to you what you actually assign that money to. It seems like double work because it is. That's what pledge managers are for.

There are a few pledge managers to choose from. In our case, we partnered with BackerKit who has been a tremendous help and their pledge manager is simply amazing.

Not only is the layout gorgeously simple, there are also some incredible features we'll be taking advantage of. Such as choose-your-own-stretch-goals.

That's right! Not only will every stretch goal we didn't unlock in the campaign be available to unlock in the pledge manager, it will be entirely chosen by you the backers.

Some of these expansions will be solo while others will be bundled together. Here is a sneak peak at one of those stretch goals within the pledge manager.

Draft only! Price and goal may change

This way you'll all have a second chance to unlock those posses you've been salivating over! What's more, by essentially acting as a pre-order/stretch goal hybrid, you'll only be charged for for these items if there are enough backers to unlock it.

It's like we said, we're 100% focused on growing our brand and offering and all of our resources are being reinvested into that effort to ensure we unlock as many of these posses in the shortest amount of time to become available for all of you in the All-In Ride or Die program.  Did you think you missed your chance to join the Ride or Die program? Don't worry. You can still hop onboard in the pledge manager. Upgrading your pledge to the Everything & the Stove pledge will lock you in to get everything we unlock in the pledge manager and roll out in the future.

So how will that work with the optional stretch goals such as the one listed above? 

Simple: We still have a fixed timeline for the stretch goals as well. For instance, Grizzly Greenwood is set to unlock at $135,000. Let's say that a bunch of backers either upgrade to the Ride or Die program or add a bunch of stuff to their pledges, but we don't get the 600 orders of the bundle above that would have unlocked Grizzly. Well, if the overall pledge total is $135,000 he will be unlocked anyway.

Think of it as a whichever-comes-first scenario.

Wait. If I upgrade to the Ride or Die, what happens if I also purchase the bundle above?

As you might expect, if the bundle above gets unlocked, you'll be getting two of it. If it doesn't, you won't be charged for it. And then, when they eventually get produced, you'll be getting them anyway.

So I'm just paying for two then? This doesn't make any sense. If I just upgrade to the Ride or Die then I won't have to purchase the bund-oooooooooooooh...

You're catching on! 🤠 But that's enough about the Ride or Die. Ultimately, with this pledge manager, you'll be able to design your High Noon experience however you want and that's really what High Noon has always been about.

So there's a snapshot of the very near future of High Noon! I've been working on the pledge manager all weekend and I wanted to take a moment from that to catch you all up to speed. I didn't want to go more than a day after the Kickstarter's end without giving you all an update. A lot of campaigns out there drop off the face of the Earth after their campaigns end, leaving people completely in the dark and that's simply not acceptable for a High Noon experience.

I'm going to be super busy on getting all of this post-Kickstarter stuff set up for you all, but if you ever need me for any reason, I'm here to answer your questions and concerns. As always, I'm also in the Discord Server and the Facebook page, so if you haven't joined those yet, feel free to do so. And subscribe to the YouTube channel for other updates, live streams and gameplay videos!

Until the next update!