Founders of Gloomhaven

The Pledge Manager is Live: Post Kickstarter Week 9
over 6 years ago – Sat, Oct 14, 2017 at 01:32:51 AM

Hey there, founders of Gllomhaven!

You may have noticed that the BackerKit pledge manager has been sent out. Yay!

You have about a month to get your survey filled out with your address and all that, but try to get it done as soon as possible, as it just makes it easier for everyone. And don't worry if you'll be moving before the game delivers early next year, as address changes will be open up until the games start to ship. I really just need to know how many games to produce.

If you do need to review your information or change your address, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email. And if you don't know where your survey email is, you can request request a  new survey link through the "Lost your survey?" button on the BackerKit project page at https://founders-of-gloomhaven.backerkit.com.  

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://founders-of-gloomhaven.backerkit.com/faq.

And if you have questions about what the heck the "name a building" add-on is, just look at that section of the main Kickstarter page for an explanation.

Oh, and one more thing about the surveys. Apparently people are accidentally ordering a second copy of the game. If you pledged at the $49 level, one copy of the game is already in your cart, so you don't need to select an additional one (unless you want two copies, of course). If you manage to make it through the whole payment process without realizing that you accidentally bought two copies and now want a refund, just contact support at https://founders-of-gloomhaven.backerkit.com/faq, and they will sort you out.

Right, so, what else is going on? Well, Josh has done some refinement of the adviser and action cards, as you can see below:

The rewards for acquiring the card - three points and a lasting influence - are now depicted a little more cleanly.

And we have money tokens!

These are the same 1 coins from Gloomhaven, irregularly produced, but they are a little less worn and damaged, since it is earlier in history. And then we've cut out the 5 coins in Gloomhaven, minted by the merchants guilds, since those guilds are still in their infancy. Instead we have a more rough 3 coin, similar to the 1 coin in its crude minting process.

And Alexandr has finished almost all of the personal building artwork, and a lot of the prestige buildings, as well. It's all getting close to being finished, which is nice.

The plan is to start getting files ready for the printer once I get back from Essen in two weeks.

Yes! Essen! Founders of Gloomhaven will be there. I'll have a copy featuring all the latest graphic updates for you to demo if you'd like. Just come by booth 7-J108!

I think that's all for this week. Sorry the update is a little late. My parents are visiting from out of town, and it threw off my schedule a bit. See you next week!

Active Player Token: Post Kickstarter Week 8
over 6 years ago – Sat, Oct 07, 2017 at 01:04:02 AM

Greetings founders of Gloomhaven!

So, first of all, the pledge manager has NOT gone out yet. For reasons that are not worth going into, I've adjusted the plan to send it out on Monday instead. Just letting you know so you wouldn't get concerned that it hasn't appeared in your inbox yet.

Other than that, there's not too much to report this week. Both Josh and Alexandr have been pretty busy with other stuff, but I do have the active player token to show you:

So this will be a grey piece of wood with black screen printing. Your thoughts, of course, are always welcome.

I actually got a lot of good work this week on making the changes I've been thinking about for a while. I designed the other side of the map board, and it has worked pretty well in testing. I'll post an image of it in an update once the art is finished, but you can see a prototype image of it here if you want.

Basically, the map is much more open and symmetric, which makes the game significantly more friendly if you are playing with more aggressive players. For instance, when I play a three-player game of Founders against myself, I'm a real jerk, and the game can get pretty brutal and drag on a bit because I'm constantly blocking myself off. With the new map, blocking is still possible, of course, but overall there is less of it, and so the game felt smoother.

I've also rebalanced the points on the prestige buildings, changing pretty much every tile in one way or another to make sure that, at most, only 2/3s of the prestige buildings need any one basic resource. It is actually fairly even now, and the overall points available to each resource are still very balanced.

I've also made some minor balance tweaks on a couple of cards, like the Kidnapper, which I felt was too powerful. You can still take advisers without needing the resource, but now you don't get the reward points and influence for doing so.

And finally I've taken the time to balance the points on the achievement cards, so I'm feeling really good about them as well. Previously I had six cards for each type (immediate, mid-game, and end-game), but I've culled that down to five each, because I felt some of them weren't working very well.

Overall, the game continues to come together well, so we'll keep working at it, and keep an eye out for the BackerKit email on Monday!

Personal Buildings: Post-Kickstarter Week 7
over 6 years ago – Sat, Sep 30, 2017 at 01:36:29 AM

Hey founders of Gloomhaven!

Progress continues! The plan is to start getting all the files ready for the printer in about three weeks. Things are looking a little tight, especially with all the artwork that needs to be done and the fact that we haven't started designing the rule book at all, but both Alexandr and Josh have said getting everything done in the next three weeks is doable, so it looks like that plan is still good.

Some work is still required on my part, and I've been slacking a little on that, but I'm getting the rule book revised and ready for Josh. And once it's all laid out, there will be an editing process that includes all of you as well.

So, yeah, in the coming weeks, I am hoping there will be more to show you, but for now, Alexandr has finished some of the single-space personal buildings, and they look pretty great!

There is some color-coding to the art right now, but that may still be revised a bit once the colors of the races are finalized.

And thanks for all the feedback on the meeples. There was some concern from the factory about some of the smaller protrusions on them, so we're working on seeing what exactly needs to be changed, and then we'll make some revisions.

It'll all be coming together soon, and so that also means that I'll be sending out the pledge manager before too long. I think I will be launching the BackerKit survey in about a week, coinciding with the next update. So just continue to be patient about that for now, and we'll talk more about it next week.

Until then!

Meeples: Post-Kickstarter Week 6
over 6 years ago – Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 01:47:30 AM

Hello there, founders of Gloomhaven!

Well, I had a great time at GrandCon last weekend. I ended up doing four full demos of Founders, and everyone seemed to have a good time with it.

I know I'm biased, but every time I see a new group of people play the game, I become more excited about getting the game out to all of you. I think the game accomplishes so well what I set out for it to do.

And I am happier with the achievements now as well. We used them in all four demos, and even though they may have been too much extra information for some first-time players, they were interesting to me, and I could see first-hand how they made some of the decisions more complex in a meaningful way.

But anyway, let's talk about meeple designs!

So my initial impression of these was that I wasn't sure about the consistent shape of all of them. I was thinking about a more unique design for each, but the more I think about it, the more I like having a consistent shape that matches the worker icons in the rest of the game. Each race is still very distinct, and the designs convey character.

The colors (which will also be the colors of the basic resources) are not finalized yet, so we'll probably do a little fiddling with that to make each color stand out from the rest (and do our best to be colorblind friendly), but otherwise, let us know what you think of them!

On the art front, we are officially done with advisers and Alexandr is start to churn out some of the prestige building pieces, like the wonderful "Travailing Troubadour":

Everything is coming alive! There is still a significant amount of artwork left, and I will be working next week on redistributing some of the resources scored by the prestige buildings. This is based on the idea that no single basic resource (or any of the resources it makes) should be needed in too many of prestige buildings, making them slightly easier to complete.

So, yeah, we welcome your feedback on the meeples, and they'll be more exciting stuff next week!

Grand Con and Gen Con Coverage: Post-Kickstarter Week 5
over 6 years ago – Fri, Sep 15, 2017 at 01:47:30 AM

Greetings, founders of Gloomhaven!

So another week has gone by, eh? Art continues to come in from Alexandr, and Josh and I continue to work on other parts of the game. Everything is going well!

Josh worked over the week making all the icon colors and shapes consistent (some were mirrored previously), including on the player boards. He also reworked the "Call to Vote" card, which didn't have the correct flow of information before, and he's started working on meeple designs and some other stuff.

Hopefully next week we'll be able to show you some of the meeples. And also some of the house artwork from Alexandr.

Also I've been getting some messages from people concerned about their addresses, so I just want to remind you that we're still about a month out from sending out the pledge manager, so there is no need to worry about anything at this point. Just wait for that to happen.

I know I've said this last week, but I also just wanted to remind people that I will be at Grand Con this weekend (which is why this update is early), and I will have my prototype of Founders with me. If you want to meet up and demo the game, you are more than welcome to. Just send me a message on Kickstarter or BGG and I'll try to arrange something.

And speaking of conventions, I also wanted to share with you some more of the coverage Founders received at Gen Con. Check out these videos from Cardboard Vault and Meeple Mountain:

Okay! I hope to see you at Grand Con, but if not, I'll see you next week with more stuff!