Hi folks, we have an update about Starline Hill's Kickstarter. We have made the difficult decision to suspend our campaign. 🧵

When the Sky becomes full, one or both players are often left without any legal moves. If we assume Red has a higher Point total than Yellow, it would be to their benefit to not claim Etana. If they did so, it would open up lines for Yellow to Claim Hevonen, swinging the game in their favor.

In this example of a central opening, Red found a strong first Claim of Etana on the periphery of the active board – Yellow can’t immediately Draw a Line over the Neutral Stars that are left behind. Link in bio to back our Kickstarter project!

Some players prefer to open by placing their Stars next to each other, typically in the center. This leads to a more combative early-game, where finding a Claim that can’t be capitalized on by your opponent is key.

Some players prefer to open by placing their Stars far apart from each other – the outcome of this playstyle usually tends to be more ‘random,’ – without interference, the Constellation cards that are drawn have a significant impact on which player will be able to score faster.

Though 3-Point Constellations are the least efficient in terms of Points-per-Star, they are effective in the middle- to late-game for ‘evacuating’ awkwardly placed Stars to replenish your supply!

Your Stars are a limited resource; you will need to carefully manage the ebb and flow of your supply as you Draw Lines and Claim Constellations. In this position, Yellow has found a good time to claim Kristalli, as Red does not have enough Stars remaining to capitalize on their threat!

Edge spaces tend to be a bit more flexible than corners, while still offering some of their defensive benefits. Use these spaces effectively in the mid-game to dominate a region of the Sky! Reminder that our Kickstarter is still live with 16 days left! www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

Corner spaces are very defensive – they cannot be surrounded by your opponent’s Stars, so they are often effective as anchors. Remember, once a corner is used in a Claim, it becomes dead! Make sure to back our Kickstarter project today! www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

Stars in the center of the Sky board make it easy to build out Constellation patterns in any direction and create more opportunities for Line Draws in any direction. Your Stars in the center can be a long-term investment, so think carefully before using them in a Claim!

Hi folks! Sending you a reminder our project, Starline Hill, is still live on Kickstarter with 19 days to go! www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut... Here are some of the exclusives we’re offering!

When designing a box, everything must be exactly the right size; you need to consider things like logo placement and folds in the design – we wanted a box where the box illustration wrapped around the box top, which added even more complexity. Our illustrator, Ellen Zhang, handled it all in stride!

After Michael put together an initial mood board, he and Megan took to a pretty thorough dissection of a number of visual references to determine precisely which aspects to carry over. Early references included art from Hollow Knight, Ghibli films, and Disney’s Atlantis, among others.

Today's Starline Hill preview comes from @assortedmeeples.bsky.social! Thank you, friends! youtu.be/rHpYBo_ZwsQ?... Our project is still live and we'd love to get to $7k by the end of the week! Will you help us? www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

Once we had a more firm idea of how our constellation patterns would look on the cards, we needed to make sure our font choices, shading, and alignment added to the look without interfering with readability. Link in our bio to back our Kickstarter for Starline Hill!

In our first prototype of Starline Hill, the constellations were simple shapes on dry-erase cards. Since cards are critical to our gameplay, our priority was to make sure the constellation pattern information was conveyed in a readable way on top of the more contextual thematic art on the card.

Our Starline Hill preview this week comes from @danistandring.bsky.social! www.tiktok.com/@dani_standr... Thank you for the awesome review, Dani! Our project is still live and we'd love to get to $7,000 funded by the end of the week! Will you help us? www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

Because of the mechanics of Drawing Lines, corners and adjacent edges that become Neutral Stars can never be Drawn over, and thus become ‘dead’ for the remainder of the game. After Yellow’s claim in this example, 8 spaces in the bottom-right corner are made dead.

we gotta get this to goal, gang! this is a really beautiful game with a lot of heart. Check it out <3

Drawing a Line over 5 or more Neutral Stars at once is very tempting! Watch out, however, for the ‘big line trap.’ Highly linear positions aren’t often conducive to claiming many Constellations – there may be better ways to utilize your limited supply of Stars.

We're also showing off a little more strategy around the game! Yellow’s position is somewhat poisoned here, but with a well-placed Line Draw, they can claim Rapu without opening their position to Red’s attacks, at least as much as they would have otherwise.

Another Starline Hill preview! This time from our friends at @tabletopvibes.bsky.social - youtu.be/yfQEdKSFtvw?... Our project is 28% funded, can you help us get to 30% today? Back us here! www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

A really awesome game made by awesome and talented ppl. Please consider backing Starline Hill!! ✨

We also have a BONUS animation evolution video collab with @prosanic.bsky.social! We absolutely love it.

Day 3 of our campaign and we have an amazing preview from our friends at @boardgameco.bsky.social! youtu.be/TUeEVFWEPkM?... Link to our Kickstarter is in our bio, make sure you back today!

We're also back with a livestream tomorrow, Thursday March 27th at 8pm EDT! Tune in to watch Michael (@michaelburrowes.bsky.social) play Starline Hill live.

We're into day 2 of our Kickstarter project and we have a lovely review from our friends at @fosterthemeeple.bsky.social! youtu.be/BTSPRLRvxJ0 Don't forget to back our project! www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

Another GMG Member making things happen! Please consider backing.

Hi folks, Starline Hill is now LIVE on Kickstarter! Make sure to back us so we can make Starline Hill a success! www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

Our project, Starline Hill, is launching tomorrow on Kickstarter at 10am EDT / 7am PDT! We have spent the better part of a year playtesting and building this game, and we're so happy to finally see it go live! Follow along until tomorrow! www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

Our project for Starline Hill launches on Tuesday! We’re highlighting some of our Kickstarter exclusives which will be offered in some of our tiers in anticipation of our launch, so make sure to follow along in our bio!

We’re at BOINGA today in downtown Boston!

the Kickstarter for @automagarden.com 's boardgame STARLINE HILL is going LIVE on Tuesday, and I'm so proud that it was labeled KS Projects We Love. I did graphic design for the KS and rulebook, and I love this team. Please consider following & pledging! www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

Michael fills up the board in his match against Travis, triggering the endgame state! Can Travis bring it back?

Michael shares his thoughts on score differentials – even if you’re behind a full constellation’s worth of points, you can still make a comeback! We have almost 300 people on our Kickstarter pre-launch before our March 25th launch next week! Click the link in our bio to follow along!

Yellow’s position is somewhat poisoned here, but with a well-placed Line Draw, they can claim Rapu without opening their position to Red’s attacks, at least as much as they would have otherwise.

GMG Members are keeping busy this month!

Funded in just 9 minutes! Way to go, Emily!

We woke up this morning to six episodes of Good Time on the Clocktower! We are so excited to be able to make this project come to life and are infinitely grateful to you all. www.kickstarter.com/projects/goo...

Let’s support these awesome creators!

An announcement from us!! Starline Hill will be coming to BOINGA Spring this Saturday, 3/22 in downtown Boston! This will be our last in-person event before our Kickstarter campaign launches on Tuesday, 3/25. Tickets are still available for this all-day festival of indie board games!

More highlights from our Twitch streams! Every game of Starline Hill feels entirely different – even after only a few constellation claims! And don't forget to click the link in our bio to follow our upcoming Kickstarter!

Michael gives up control of the center early, accounting for Travis’s limited options after recapturing it! Make sure you follow our Kickstarter prelaunch before our March 25th launch! We're so close to 300 followers, let's reach that goal before our launch. www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...

More strategy info! Yellow has a lot of control in this position, but that doesn’t mean Red can’t find ways to interfere. By placing here, two of Yellow’s more central Stars have become ‘poisoned’ – if they’re used in a Claim, Red is threatening to Draw a Line and cut off Yellow’s position.

As Michael sometimes says, the opening of a match is often ‘vibes-based’... We'll be streaming Starline Hill again TONIGHT at 9pm ET on our Twitch channel! twitch.tv/automagarden

By placing in this corner this turn, Red has created a ‘farm’, a region of the board in which Red will easily be able to Claim and re-Draw lines to quickly earn a lot of points without interference. Keep an eye out for opportunities to form farms, and prevent your opponent from doing so!

Starline Hill was very fun to play at Boston FIG this year, excited to see the final version!

Starline Hill is such a cool game! I am excited for Michael and @automagarden.com getting this to the masses.

Hi everyone, we'll be streaming again this coming Thursday, March 13th at 9pm ET on our Twitch channel! Make sure to follow us at twitch.tv/automagarden to see Michael play Starline Hill before our Kickstarter launch on March 25th!

Joshua sneaks a late-game 13-point Constellation, swinging the game in his favor!