New Celestial Art and More Minions in your Print and Play!
about 7 years ago – Sat, Apr 01, 2017 at 12:20:55 AM

Hey Team

I'm beyond excited to share the latest piece of art: the first color pass for the Fallen Celestial!

I personally love the colors we are seeing with this terrifying enemy.  It has always been my hope that we offer a lot of color contrast between our different Minions of Wrath.  I want each of them to feel unique and special, and I really believe that Ruk has a handle on that vision; each of these is colored with a unique touch that makes them stand out brilliantly (at least, in my opinion). 

Also, you might have noticed that she has been given a second shield. After seeing how she was laid out, we decided that the "Sword Hilt" sector wasn't positioned correctly, while the extra hand was perfectly on display.  Considering how nicely the first buckler fit, a second buckler worked perfectly in that space. Now she has a better visual balance and the two shields really fit the EXTREMELY tanky nature of the boss.

I didn't expect this would be the result when I sent it out, but I honestly think this is perfect now; this is that wonderful part of the collaborative process that I mentioned in previous updates.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

More Minions Available Now!

Along side the the first color pass of the Fallen Celestial, I am beyond happy to announce that we have the final three Minions of Wrath available for the backer Print and Play!

If you follow the second link that I emailed out you will be able to see these new files in the same folder as the rest of the Prototype Print and Play files.  Be sure to also grab the "MoW Encounter Sheet Add On" for the 6 new encounter cards for these three so you can get the full feeling of them.

One fair bit of warning, the balance on these three still needs a bit of tweaking to get as polished as the other seven, so I may have minor updates to them over the next week.  This is actually something you could do a great deal to help us with. If you play with any of these three new Minions of Wrath, please let us know how they feel. 

The Decaying Dead and Fallen Celestial both incorporate the new "Permanent State" effect alluded to in the Beta Manual and their heavy focus on using States means they are much harder to balance on pure math.  Don't be surprised if they are extremely tough, even to the point of being insultingly difficult; some of our testers have had quite a time with these two in particular.

Finally, I'm still plugging away at the 3.7 rule update and truly hope to have that soon, along with a sneak peak at the new Minion of Wrath Miniboard overlay from our graphic designer! Keep an eye out.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and Game On!

Ben

Fallen Celestial First Look, Aggiecon, and Rule Update!
about 7 years ago – Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 10:08:42 PM

Hey Team!

I'm super happy to share some news with you: we have received our first sketch for the Fallen Celestial!

Check her out!

I love seeing new sketches from Ruk; they are always so detailed and unexpected!  He has a great eye for getting what we need where we need it while still capturing a particular motion to it all.  Sorry if I feel like I'm fawning over it a bit, but it always feels a bit like Christmas when we get a new piece of art and I wanted to share.

We are making a few minor adjustments to the art from this point forward for mechanic and thematic reasons and we are making a few minor adjustments to the Fallen Celestial mechanics to match the art!  This is the fun part of marrying the image to the game that I've learned to enjoy during the process of making Wrathborne Champions.

When we get our next update to this piece (which is the base color step) it should be ready for testing!

Aggiecon 48

Starting tomorrow, we will be demoing Wrathborne Champions (along with our other games) at Aggiecon 48 in Bryan, Texas.  If you are in the area, we would love for you to stop by and say hello! We will be right up front near the entrance (or so I am told).

Rule Update

In a recent comment on the project page, one of our backers pointed out some issues with the challenge level of moving from one Minion battle to the next, which reminded me of another update coming in Beta Rules 3.7 (thanks John!).

Here is a quick run down from my comment reply regarding a new "between Minions" step.  We have been testing this for some time internally, and we wanted to add it here for all of you to try out with your Print and Plays!

Between Minions of Wrath there is a "Prepare or Heal" step. Once the Minion is defeated, as the next Minion is being set up, players draw up to 5 cards. They may then discard as many cards as they want and HEAL 1 for each card discarded. After this, they draw up to a max hand size and start the next Minion.

This allows all players to get up to a 20% heal to prepare for the next fight (up to 5 cards out of a 25 card deck, though this percentage does go down slightly as cards are added to the deck). However, if they get extremely powerful card in their hands (stuns, good attack, defense, etc) they can choose to keep those cards in hand instead of discarding all 5. This means the more prepared they are (keeping good cards) the less they heal, but if they want to, they can heal more and cycle the deck faster with the hope of getting a good card anyways (or drawing into the Fabled card they just acquired).

I think this is a fair approach to mitigating some of that Minion-to-Minion difficulty that has played out very nicely in our testing.  Let me know what you think!

Finally, I am sorry for the delay on getting the Celestial testing card to you (along with 3.7, and the other Minions), but things have been profoundly busy and getting it all ready is taking longer than I hoped.  That said, I do promise to keep you all in the loop about the timings on these with updates just as soon as I have them (and hopefully more assets for you to try out as soon as downtime allows)!

I wish all of you the very best!

Game On!

Ben

The Fallen Celestial is Joining the Game!
about 7 years ago – Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 05:32:03 PM

Hey Team!

It has been decided, The Fallen Celestial is joining the base game of Wrathborne Champions!

Thank you so much for helping us pick the next Minion of Wrath! If you were hoping for the Dark Ritual (or the Black Knight or any of the other options) don't worry, you will see them soon! We will be starting on our first official expansion just as soon as the base game is off to the printer, with these will be at the top of the list.

Next Step

Now that we have selected the final Minion for the base game, we are going to send the template off to Ruk so he can get started on the final illustration. Additionally, we are shifting our internal testing efforts into balancing the Fallen Celestial double time; this is something you can help us with!

Early next week we will be adding the final three Minions of Wrath to the Prototype Print and Play folder so you guys and gals can start playing with them. At this same time (or shortly after) the 3.7 Beta Rule Set should be done and updated on the website for everyone.

As a sneak preview, here is an image of one of our recent templates for the Fallen Celestial.

Generally speaking, this is how all of our playable templates look before heading off to Ruk for illustrations. After I come up with an idea and mock it up in Photoshop, I search for images online that appear similar to what I'm looking for to help give a visual aid to Ruk and our play testers.

While the angel in this picture is a bit more on-the-nose than we will want for our "Fallen Celestial", she does a fair job of putting the right image assets in the right locations. I did a few changes from the original, such as dropping the sword down into a one-handed version of a long tail guard pose, in addition to adding a bit more clothing for the vestments.

It is quite remarkable seeing what Ruk can do in translating the layouts and art samples I provide into something far more evocative than I ever expect.  As a quick example, here is what I provided him for the Minotaur along side what he came up with.

As a quick personal note, I have family visiting this weekend, so if I'm a bit harder to reach than normal, that is why.  Additionally, this might put a delay on the next update since we have plans all weekend, but now that we have a direction to run, there is a lot of work to do to keep us busy in the free moments!

I hope you are all enjoying the Print and Play and I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts (in addition to sending the other three enemies your way.

Game On!

Ben

Campaign Complete and a Stretch Goal Unlocked at the wire.
about 7 years ago – Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 09:24:57 PM

Hey Team

Thank You

That is something I've said throughout this campaign, but you can be quite certain I mean it as sincerely now as I ever have (or will). You have all blown us away with your support and interest in our game.  I can't quite find the words to express how much this means to me.

That up there ^^^ that is because of you.  Thank you.

Stretch Goal at the Wire

As we reached the end of the campaign, you pushed us across yet another stretch goal, officially unlocking the Pick Your Path Scenarios!

Most of the information on these scenarios was covered in a previous update that you can check out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/396939535/wrathborne-champions/posts/1817841

I will go much more in depth as we move forward on these, however if you have any questions, please drop them in the comment section and I will answer them in my overly verbose style as soon as I am able.

Picking the Next Minion and Prototype Print and Play

I will be falling asleep shortly after this update from a mild case of shock and exhaustion mixed with a large dose of euphoria, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows that the next update will be on Thursday night of this week.

During this update I will provide backers with a link to a poll to help us pick which Minion of Wrath will be included in the base game since you guys and gals crushed that stretch goal.

Additionally, I will be sending the Prototype Print and Play files out that same night so everyone can get their hands on the game itself. You will need to keep an eye on your Kickstarter messages to find the link after I send that out.

Oh... one final thing..

.

Thank you again, I can't wait to go on this production journey with you all.

Game On

Ben

5 Hours Left and Reminders!
about 7 years ago – Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 03:34:12 PM

Hey Team!

We only have five hours left in the campaign and we are at a whooping 670 backers and a campaign total of $43,651!

As a quick reminder to everyone who might have missed it, since we are using BackerKit as a pledge manager we upgraded our Artisan Champions level to give 2 bonus items instead of one!  This deal will not be available after the campaign ends, and I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the the change since we can't alter the pledge level on the campaign page.

If you are interested in our art prints, the calendar, or the mouse pad, this is your chance to get a large discount! Read more on Update #15.

There are some issues with Kickstarter right now, so I will have to leave this one short and sweet without any pictures. 

Almost there everyone, lets do this!

Game On!

Ben