Founders of Gloomhaven

More Conventions: Post-Kickstarter Week 4
over 6 years ago – Sat, Sep 09, 2017 at 02:00:22 AM

Greetings founders of Gloomhaven!

I hope you are doing well. Convention season is in full-swing over here. I spent about half of last week at PAX, and then I'm on my way to a retailer convention (Alliance Open House) as soon as I finish this update.

And then next week I am special guest at Grand Con! Maybe I will see you there!

I was able to get some testing done over the week, though sadly not at PAX, on the achievements and modified racial powers. I'm feeling a little better about the achievement system, with some of their values modified. With enough incentive, going for them becomes an interesting choice.

Also I reworked the Valrath power after some tester feedback. Previously it let you import a new resource cheaply, but it just didn't feel as powerful and useful in the later game as the other powers. Now the power essentially lets you tax the other players, stealing a coin from them for every claim token they have on one of your resources. It can be very powerful and evil in the right circumstances.

But anyway, let's get onto some artwork. Alexandr is nearly finished with the adviser portraits and is beginning work on the racial-specific personal buildings. Josh has been super-busy with his normal job, but he's been able to incorporate Alexandr's art into the adviser cards:

(The cards still need a couple more finishing touches, a different representation of points earned in the bottom right, but I think they still look great).

And Josh also put in some work on the resource tiles, making the banners bigger, and more importantly, color-coding the resources for easier reference. So you can see in these images how both the symbol and color for stone and population match up on the brick tile:

These colors for the basic resources will also match up to the corresponding race that controls that resource by default.

There's still a lot to be done, but we are making progress! I'll try to make some updates to the Tabletop Simulator module, including adding the achievement cards, in the near future so that you can help test as well if you'd like.

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next time!

Continued Progress: Post-Kickstarter Week 3
over 6 years ago – Fri, Sep 01, 2017 at 01:23:03 AM

Good day, founders of Gloomhaven!

Work continues!

I know, I said there'd be more to talk about this week, but it looks like that's about all there is to say.

Alexandr is continuing to work on adviser portraits. He's over halfway done now, after which he will do all the prestige buildings, the race-specific art for the personal buildings, and then the alternate board.

Josh has been busy as well. He tells me so far he just refining stuff, mostly based on the feedback from Gen Con, and he'll have something more substantial to show off next week.

My part at this point is much smaller, but, as I've said before, there are still things that need to be done. This last week, however, got taken up by other responsibilities, but I'll be bringing a prototype with me to PAX this weekend (super excited!). Maybe I'll get some refinement of the the achievements done there, or maybe that will happen after I get back.

Either way, I'll see you again next week for another progress update!

Vacation Time: Post-Kickstarter Week 2
over 6 years ago – Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 01:24:38 AM

Greetings founders of Gloomhaven!

Welcome to your weekly update, now at its regular time (at least for this week). It's only been a few days since we've last talked, and - I'll be honest with you - I don't have much to report. Art and graphic design are still being done, but I've pretty much been on vacation these last few days, taking a little rest after the non-stop whirlwind of the Kickstarter and Gen Con.

I've been playing video games, watching TV, doing a bit of housecleaning, and, well, that's about it. Today is the first day I've done any semblance of work outside of answering emails, so, yeah...

Next week I am sure there will be more to talk about, and I'll be sending the update out on Thursday, since I am taking a last minute trip to PAX West next weekend.

I guess the least I could do is show you some more adviser pictures in the mean time...

Also, Founders of Gloomhaven was deemed the #1 best game of Gen Con by Paste Magazine, so that was super-cool. And if you want to see a video of how the Founders prototype looked a Gen Con, here is a nice video from the Board to Death crew:

All right, wish me luck as I get back into the groove of getting stuff done!

Gen Con and other points of interest: post-Kickstarter week 1
over 6 years ago – Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 01:29:18 AM

Hey there, founders of Gloomhaven!

I am very tired. I've been trying to get work done today, but I just keep falling asleep. Hopefully I'll be able to keep my eyes open long enough to deliver some news to you in this post-Gen Con reality.

If you didn't go to Gen Con, well, it was crazy. The booth was packed with people the entire time, which was great to see. Sure, most of them were there for Gloomhaven, but the Founders of Gloomhaven demos were also running non-stop.

I was happy that everyone who sat down to play picked it up very quickly and seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Most groups didn't play a full game, but those who did managed to get through it in about two hours or less.

So Josh has made significant progress on some of the graphic design leading up to printing off the Gen Con demo copy, making icons bigger on the tiles, cleaning up the player boards, and finalizing a lot of the action card design. There is still a lot to be done, but the progress is good.

One of the main things asked over the weekend was whether the adviser cards will have artwork, and, of course they will. Alexandr has been working hard on that and sent over a batch of the finished works yesterday. They all look great, but here are some of my favorites.

I did also get to play a little with the new achievement system at Gen Con. They still need tweaking, though, because I wasn't really compelled to work toward them. I'll continue to work on them and test them and also make sure every other aspect of the game is top-notch.

We've still got a lot of work ahead of us, but I am pleased with the progress made so far, especially with Gen Con eating up all of last week. I'll see you on Friday for the next regularly-scheduled update!

Success! Important Post-Kickstarter Info
over 6 years ago – Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 12:19:00 AM

Hey there founders of Gloomhaven!

Well, would you look at that! $509,977 raised with 10,254 backers! Very, very nice.

Now that the Kickstarter is officially over, though, let's talk about dates and important stuff moving forward.

First of all, Kickstart is going to spend the next week or so running your credit card. It will make multiple attempts if something fails, so if you get an email from them, just fix the problem and it will automatically try and run it again. There's no need to message me about it. I have no involvement in the payment process. If you ultimately can't fix it, let me know in two weeks, after the full process is complete, and we can work out an alternate payment then.

Now, in case you are wondering when to give me your address, that comes later. Once we are ready to go to print, which will be at least a couple months down the road, then we will send out surveys through BackerKit and you will complete your order and input your address at that time. Don't worry about giving me your address now. I don't need it yet.

So that's really all there is to do on your end. As long as everything goes fine with your card, all you have to do is wait a couple months for the survey to go out. In that survey, you will also be able to add copies to your order or add the $1 reward level if you so choose. You can change it however you like once that time comes.

In the mean time, Josh, Alexandr, and I will be busy getting the game ready for the factory. I anticipate that it will take a little over two months to get all the artwork for the advisers, prestige buildings, and everything else done. By that time, Josh should be done with any graphic design stuff, and I should be done making any game play tweaks and content additions.

We'll do some proofing and then we should be able to start manufacturing by the beginning of November. This means getting the games on boats in December and delivering them to you in January.

Up to the point where manufacturing begins, I will send out weekly updates on the progress of art and design. I'm thinking Friday would be a good day for these, but the first one will likely be posted on Monday the 21st because of Gen Con. Once manufacturing begins, the updates will come every other week, since there will be less exciting things to discuss.

All right, I think that covers the general overview of what to expect moving forward. Thank you so much for making the project the success that it was, and I will talk to you on the 21st! (Or at Gen Con! Booth #2903!)