Proofing Incoming and First Metal Token Images!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 09:21:10 PM

Hey Team!

Happy October to everyone out there; I hope each and every one of you are doing fantastically. I was going to hold off to post this tomorrow (since it would be the 14th, a date I'm apparently keen to post updates on, as Henry pointed out in our comment section last month!), but I wanted to get this out before the weekend.

We have two quick pieces of news for everyone on this wonderful Friday!

Internal Draft Proofing is underway!

I'm extremely happy to announce that we now have nearly all of the new assets from the graphic designer and will be doing our internal proofing of these assets next week!!! This will hopefully be a very quick process, but the three of us are going to go over all of the provided assets with a fine tooth comb to get all the wording and asset placement as perfect as possible with a deadline of notes to the graphic designer by this time next week. 

Once we have our notes out, he will make any updates that we find necessary and give us a second proof set.  This second proof set will be posted (probably via PDFs similarly to the print and play) for all of our backers to look over!  None of our backers should feel obligated to look them over, but I would certainly appreciate any extra sets of eyes to help us polish things to as high a shine as possible.

Once we have that, we're in the real home stretch of getting things in the waiting hands of the manufacturer! Truthfully, I can't wait.

Really Real Metal Wrath Tokens!

Also, we have our first images of the completed metal Wrath Tokens!

 

 

These were taken by the forging company, so I haven't held one yet, but we got these images in yesterday and I really wanted to share ASAP. Each token is 2" across and they look really hefty in these images. I really hope you are happy with how they look because I'm personally beyond pleased.  

I know putting "First Edition" on the back is a bit presumptuous, but I'm a total sucker for first printings of items. The number of "Issue 1" comics that I have is ridiculous and I always get a bit of a thrill about having anything that is an "original" copy. I'm not sure if any of you share this feeling, but I really wanted this token to feel special for all of our backers and I hope this accomplishes that.

They are shipping these proof copies to us now, and as soon as I get them I will take more photos, placing them beside our prototype assets so you can see size and scale.

I would love to know what you think of them!

I hope you are all having a wonderful fall and I wish each and everyone one of you the very best.

Game On!

Ben

Cover Art First Drafts!
over 6 years ago – Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 07:02:25 PM

Hey Team,

Before I go any further, I would like to thank everyone for their engagement and thoughts on the previous update.  I am truly grateful to have such an amazing set of backers and I wanted to let you all know I appreciate each and every one of you.

Thank you.

Box Art, First Draft!

Last week we got some first looks at the new original art work Ruk Trumata will be making us for the box cover.  We gave him a few suggestions on what Minion of Wrath we would like or what look would fit best. Since the Hydra has become the iconic image for Wrathborne Champions, we settled on it being a great starting point.  Beyond that, we told him we wanted the box to express two things to perspective players:

• A sense of scale - It is important to me that the box gives players the impression that they will be fighting big enemies.  Since the first conversations with Randar about the game, scale and scope has always been paramount.
• It needs to show that the game is cooperative - Cooperative games are nothing new; we've all played plenty of them at this point. However, I wanted the art to drive the point home that this is a game where you are working together. One thing I always say when demoing is, "this game is fully cooperative with no competitive element what so ever" and I wanted the art to do that as well. 

Here is the extremely rough drafts that Ruk provided!

As you can see, Ruk really took our suggestions to heart and came up with some amazing first draft ideas.  The first and third really hit the scale and "action combat" feelings while the second has a brilliant "movie poster" feel to it.

There is still a lot of work to do on finding a good logo placement (along with other required graphics), and these are far from final, but I love the starting position that he has provided. We are now working with Ruk and Scott to refine these ideas to meet the original goals we set forth.

What do you think about these first drafts? Do you have a favorite? If so, what makes it stand out to you? Is there one you particularly dislike? If so, what do you dislike about it?

Looking forward to seeing what you think!

Game On

Ben

Wheels keep rolling and an apology
over 6 years ago – Thu, Sep 14, 2017 at 10:35:04 PM

Hey Team!

I want to start this update off with an official apology from myself for the lack of communication lately. As Ron pointed out in our comment section, it's been FAR too long since we posted an official update and he is completely correct.  This is entirely my fault and I want to say I'm sorry to each of you for not keeping everyone in the loop.  This will not happen again and I want you guys and gals to know that.

To put it shortly, the lack of communication is, as I mentioned, completely my fault. I have been holding off because I keep waiting for a piece of news worthy of being an update and we haven't reached one since my last update.  That said, you are each the reason this game is being made a reality and it isn't fair of me to hold to that standard; if progress is being made (even slowly) you all deserve to know.  More importantly, if progress ISN'T being made, you deserve to know even more. With that in mind, here is a rundown:

Graphic Design

Our graphic design is still in progress, though it is certainly taking longer than I had originally hoped. This is completely due to ignorance on my part. We haven't worked with a professional prior to this project and the workload is just proving to take a fair amount of time for a game of this magnitude.

We have spent the majority of the summer working on a thematically consistent vision for the game that will carry from every card- be it Player Card or Minion Miniboard.  The latter of the two proved to be particularly difficult since it is totally unique to Wrathborne Champions and requires new design standards that traditional playing cards tend to already have.  Balancing the text real estate while still trying to keep the art as pronounced as possible was tough when it came to including the gameplay requirements as well, but I think we have reached a great place with the design.

Here is a quick look at the Miniboard. 

Obviously it is very similar to the original one regarding placement, but we went through over 20 different designs and countless tweaks to get here. While I haven't QCed the content yet (numbers and text), the layout is functional and clean, and we believe it preserves the gameplay requirements in a way that makes me happy.

We are absolutely in clean up mode and the most recently completed Graphic Elements are the Side Boards, Ability Cards. We actually just got the Encounter Cards in today! 

As another thing worth sharing, here is a recent draft of the class cards.  These haven't been QCed yet, but will give a good appraisal of the new looks of the cards:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-2IFA4Q8bUvSzBXVlJ1aUV6VDQ/view?usp=sharing

Regarding what is left, we still have: The Box itself, the Rule Book, Tokens, and Battle Deck.  Once we have these (well, the tokens, Battle Deck, and Rule Book) we are going to send the entire packet out to all of our backers to help us QC the content to help us catch any possible typos or confusion points.  No one is required to help us, of course, but if anyone is interested in lending a hand on that, I would certainly appreciate it!

Metal Token

The metal tokens are fully cast (according to my last update) but I haven't received samples yet and don't have any news on that front other than we are waiting to see the quality to confirm it is up to snuff. I have been sent some wonderful renders of the token itself and have been told the first ones that have been done look brilliant, but I have not yet seen or held one myself and am waiting to get the token to at least share a picture has been an update that hasn't happened yet.

Once this token is in hand, we will be sending pictures out to everyone, and hopefully have a few different finishes to choose from.  At that time, we will make final selections and get all the info to the backers.

Other Notes

Our illustrations are all done and game play updates continue to be refined (we have the time, so I've been hard at work polishing each and ever number), but since the graphic design work isn't done there isn't a new prototype to share for confirmation from everyone, so I've been waiting for that hallmark too.

Truthfully, the vast majority of the work that still needs to be completed is currently out of my hands and I have felt rather... impotent about the progress.  This certainly isn't something that should be taken out on you and is not a proper excuse for my lack of communication.  This is completely on me, and I take full accounting for no update, I just really feel bad about putting an official update that doesn't have anything new or any meat anyone can use.

All of that said, it's been far too long and I'm very sorry.

As we move forward, I promise to be more engaged and regular in my communication, even if the updates are slight. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please feel free to put them in a comment here or send me a message on Kickstarter and I will make sure to answer you as soon as I possibly can; if it is a question that would benefit others, I will make sure to add the question and it's response to the next update so everyone can read it.

I hope all of you are doing wonderfully, and I will absolutely talk to you soon.

Ben

Quick Update on Wrathborne Champions
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jun 07, 2017 at 10:11:10 PM

Hey Team

I wanted to take a moment to give you a quick update on Wrathborne Champions. Things are steaming right along for the team with our contract artists hard at work, getting things ready for production.  We have two major updates to share regarding their progress in this update.

Minion Art Upgrades

As I eluded to in the last update, we were in talks with our artist Ruk to give some minor updates to all of our Minions of Wrath to give the miniboards small artistic differences between the low and high level sides. I'm pleased to announce that we worked out a deal and will be getting this minor tweaks done for the rest of our Minions of Wrath, just like we did for the Ember Dragon.

Just to be clear, we aren't talking about full art redesigns; we think the original pieces are exactly what we want for the game.  What we are working on is small tweaks to the art to make them reflect the mechanical differences between the two sides.

As a small example, the Fortified Brigands have a line of spearmen along the bottom, pestering the players while the archers focus fire. At higher levels, these spearmen suddenly gain DEFENSE, turning them from a relatively easy-to-dispatch annoyance to something that takes dedicated effort to over come. To reflect this change, Ruk has added helmets to each of the spearmen to show off their new defense value.

While it certainly isn't a profound alteration, I really enjoy how the small touch reflects the new mechanics in the enemy. The final product will have these small twists to each Minion of Wrath and we will continue doing this for all additional enemies we add to the game with expansions.

More Graphic Prototype Work

We also wanted to give a quick peak at the quality of the Weapon Cards in our next graphic upgrade update.  This is a first pass at one of our distinct Weapon Cards, now completely overhauled by Jovial Games and Graphics.

I love how heavy and "chunky" these new designs are.  We really want these cards to look weighty in your hands, and I think they are doing a great job of getting that feeling. 

There is a lot of iteration to do on this before we hit final, but I'm extremely pleased with the progress and hope you guys and gals are happy with the progress.

Personal Note

I'm profoundly sorry to end this update on a down-note, but I wanted to be straightforward with everyone about something we've been dealing with at Randover Games.

As many of you know, I'm a huge animal lover.  I started working with animals professionally when I was 16 at a pet store,and by the time I was 25 I was running a vet clinic.  When I was 20 I worked at a vet clinic where I adopted a pair of abandoned stray kittens who weren't even a month old yet. Over the last 16 years, these two kittens have grown into wonderful, loving cats that have been a permanent fixture in my and Pantic's life.

Shortly after the last update, one of these two became very sick and, after a bit of testing, we found out she had cancer. We spent the last month trying to treat her, but it developed very quickly and, in spite of her and our best efforts, became unrecoverable. We said good-bye to her at the end of last week.

I mention this because I wanted everyone to know why I haven't been quite as responsive lately.  Thankfully almost all of the heavy lifting right now is currently in the hands of our talented, professional artists, which gave me the freedom to focus on her as much as I did without impacting our timeline. I just wanted everyone to know.

I wish all of you the very best and hope you are doing well. If you are an animal lover who has pets of your own, I would encourage you to give them some extra love tonight.

Thanks

Ben

Celestial Final, Graphic Updates, Survey's Incoming, and More!
almost 7 years ago – Wed, May 10, 2017 at 11:24:04 PM

Hey Team!

I hope everyone is doing wonderfully out there!  I have a ton of amazing news for Wrathborne Champions that I'm extremely excited to share with everyone!

The Fallen Celestial

First off, I am profoundly happy to announce that Ruk has completed the Fallen Celestial! Check her out!

As you can see, she is no longer a square piece of art, but instead a 16:9 ratio full piece! We were so impressed with everyone's interest in her that we decided she should be the dimension of a desktop background (the art that is, the miniboard will still be square)

I hope you guys and gals like the way she turned out.  I may be biased, but I personally think she is amazing and she is certainly one of my favorite pieces of art in the entire game.

What do you think?

Digital Upgrades

Since we took the time to make the Fallen Celestial a full desktop piece, we have decided to give all of our backers a special digital thank you. In addition to the game files, when we send out the Production Print and Play files (to all Scholar level backers and higher) we will be including three computer backgrounds: the Hydra, the Ember Dragon, and the Fallen Angel. 

Two of these were planned to be social stretch goal rewards, but if I'm being honest, I already took the time to make them and (since there isn't any production cost) I really want all of our backers to have them. It seems silly not to share with everyone since the extra work to get the Celestial ready is extremely minimal while we wait for graphic design work to be done.

I'm not sure if they will be 1080 or 4k, but look for those three files when the Print and Play is ready! 

Graphic Progress

Speaking of the graphic upgrades, Scott from Jovial Graphics and Games is hard at work getting all the new card templates done and I figured you all might like to get a look at some of his work!

Please keep in mind, none of this is final, however I have wanted to share for a while and figured everyone might be curious! All of the icons seen on the Kickstarter Campaign and the Prototype Print and Play were sourced from www.Game-icons.net (which is an amazing resource for indie developers, by the way), and while they were great, seeing these amazing new hand-crafted icons for Wrathborne Champions is really incredible.

Man, I love seeing new work from talented artists (something I've NEVER had, myself).

Art Upgrades

This is NOT a promise, but I really want to share since we've been radio silent for so long.  Because of how much time the graphic overhaul requires, I've started talks with Ruk to give the game another extra bit of polish.

If you've looked at the Ember Dragon, you've seen that the art on the two sides are different, with one's mouth glowing like it's about to breathe fire and the other one not.

It's a small flourish, but I thought it added something to the overall presentation.  Anyways, since we have the time, I am hoping we will be able to do a small artistic tweak to all of the Minions to help make them special from one side to the other.

Once again, we're still in the "talking" phase and I'm not sure if he (and we) will have time, but I'm going to see what we can do, even if it's something small.

Survey Time!

Last, but certainly not least, we are ready to send surveys out to everyone!

Please keep an eye out for an email from Backerkit tomorrow with all of the required survey information!

This will be the first step towards us knowing exactly how many of each item we need to order, so please fill that out as soon as it is convenient. In addition to the shipping information, we have all of our Randover Games and Wrathborne Champions add-ons available, so if you missed out during the campaign, you can grab them now!

Alright, I know this is a beast of an update, but I'm glad you made it all the way through! As we near "art complete" for the production assets, I plan to call out a "Two week notice" on testing, so keep an eye out for that in a future update.  When I call this out it will give two final weekends for any tweaks or testing input before we lock everything down for printing.

I hope you're all doing wonderfully and I wish you and yours the very best as we move through spring!

Game On!

Ben