Beta Art, Delay, & New Ascension
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 09:41:09 AM
Greetings Slayers,
We have Beta Art and some other pics to show you! A few items are holding us up from starting production. We're waiting on a more specific timeline from our manufacturer, but as of now the earliest we can deliver is April. This delay gave us a bit more development time which we spent on more Ascension content, balance tweaks, and storage refinement. On to picture time!
(Below) We have a Beta Art sample, and yes it fits sleeved cards!
(Below) We experimented with a few different ways to save your gold. These themed bags came out better than expected! We're planning to add them to Retail & Collector's editions.
(Below) The exclusives will come in this nifty box. A few of them are taking longer than planned to prototype.
(Below) The Heart Keys are still a work in progress, but so far we like what we see! We're working on a special tool to give the sides a 3d shape.
Delay & Schedule
A few items are holding us up from starting production: mainly trays, foils, merchant playmats, and localization file tweaks. Resolving these issues and waiting for prototypes puts us on track for April at the earliest. Our manufacturer is figuring out where we fit into their schedule and will give us more information soon. Our delivery window should be much clearer by our next update. We'll also have a better idea of when we'll need to charge cards by the next update.
(Above Red) We noticed that item cards don't stay in place when tilting the box, so we need to make the separating walls higher. (Above Blue) We planned this area for Act decks, but it's not working out. It's too big if you don't sleeve, and the sections on the bottom get in the way instead of helping, whether you sleeve or not. New tray prototypes with fixes are on their way!
This phase of a project can be a bit frustrating, where so much of the game is ready to go but small things can hold us back. We're 95% of the way there, please bear with us while we get these final bits right!
Development
Whenever we get more time to tweak the game, we can't help ourselves. Our experienced playtesters asked for more of a challenge at the highest difficulty levels, especially with 3 or 4 players. So we created a 3rd set of even harder Elites for Ascension 12, and added more Ascension 7 enemies.
With these changes, whatever your skill level, there should be a difficulty level that's challenging for your group.
That's all for now!
See you in the Spire,
Prototype Pics! Traditional Chinese!
over 1 year ago
– Sat, Sep 09, 2023 at 10:04:40 AM
Greetings Slayers,
We're now offering Traditional Chinese in the pledge manager! We received the production prototypes and have pics below!
Traditional Chinese
You can now switch your pledge to Traditional Chinese! Everything will be available in Traditional Chinese except for Beta Art. Neow's All-In pledges for Traditional Chinese will come with English Beta Art by default, but you can contact us if you wish to have Beta Art in a different language.
To change your language: access the Pledge Manager (contact us if you've lost your link), click "Edit Your Order", "Edit Your Pledge Question Responses", then go to the language question and change your choice. If you're having trouble switching, you can email [email protected] or message us here on Kickstarter.
Production Prototypes
We received production prototypes from our manufacturer! These prototypes use the same equipment as final production, so they allow us to see exactly how things will look.
(Above) We designed a new HP board with a spot to track 100's (left).
(Below) We added 39 card dividers to make box organization easy.
We're really happy with how the prototypes came out! They're pretty much where we want them except for some tweaks to the trays and colors. We're now waiting on prototypes for the exclusives and working on small items, like packaging for the art sleeves and a Storage Guide.
That's all for now!
See you in the Spire,
Minis and Trays
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Aug 04, 2023 at 10:35:46 AM
Greetings Slayers,
We have minis and trays to show you! The rest of the prototype is coming in a couple of weeks. But for now, it's picture time!
(Above) We went with an orange lower tray to contrast better with the sleeved cards. The sleeved cards are fitting well!
(Above) We finally have minis in the color we want! To give you a sense of how hard this was, below are all the colors that didn't work. The pictures don't quite capture the color accurately, but trust us when we say we nailed it :)
(Above) The upper tray is clear and the token tray fits inside it. (Below) Playmats go underneath the boards in the Collector's Edition.
Production Prototype
We're really excited to see the prototype that's coming soon! It's a production prototype, which means it uses the same equipment that is used in mass production. So if it looks good, we should have no surprises when we hit the final print button.
Pledge Manager
If you backed on Kickstarter and haven't used the Pledge Manager yet, please do so! We can't ship your pledge unless you use the Pledge Manager on Backerkit. If you didn't get an email invitation to Backerkit, please contact [email protected]. (If you Late Pledged, you can disregard this information).
That's all for now! Until next time...
See you in the Spire,
Delivery Estimate February
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Jul 04, 2023 at 01:18:17 PM
Greetings Slayers!
We were hoping to have a final prototype ready to show you by now, but we're hitting some delays getting it ready. Based on the timeline we're on now, our delivery estimate is for February.
If you backed on Kickstarter and haven't used the Pledge Manager, please do so! We can't ship your pledge unless you use the Pledge Manager on Backerkit. If you didn't get an email invitation to Backerkit, please contact [email protected]. (If you Late Pledged, you can disregard this information).
Timeline Details
Everything is currently lining up for mass production to start in August. This puts us on a timeline for February 2024. Longpack (our manufacturer) is working on getting the prototype ready, and working on a few production issues including:
- Token tray lid not fitting
- Ironclad mini color is off
On our side (Contention Games), we're importing and reviewing localization files and preparing them for final production. No small task with 9 languages and over 750 cards.
Pledge Manager
This delay means we'll be shipping later, so the timeline to add shipping costs to the Pledge Manager also moves forward. There will be an update when shipping costs are added, and you'll have at least 30 days to review costs before cards are charged. We currently estimate that this will happen sometime in Autumn.
Development Complete
After over 2 years of work and thousands of hours, development is complete! We're very happy with where things ended up. Our playtesters and developers absolutely SLAYED it!! Thank you so much to everyone who playtested and gave feedback. Everyone is getting a MUCH better game because of you.
That's all for now!
See you in the Spire,
Golden Ticket Winner!!
over 1 year ago
– Sat, Jun 03, 2023 at 10:21:18 AM
Greetings Slayers,
And the winner of the Golden Ticket Beta Art contest is Harrison Owens! Congratulations!! Looks like the Ironclad was in a bit of a rush to get to the Heart.
A special thanks to everyone who submitted art! We were blown away by the creativity in this community. You can check out the other submissions here!
Production Update
We're heads down preparing files for what we hope is our final round of prototypes. Tray molds, updated minis, and more are being made. Once we have final prototypes, we'll know more about our production schedule and have more to show you. In the meantime, here are some box backs!
That's all for now! Until next time...
See you in the Spire,
