April Update
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 09:54:34 PM

April is upon us. 

We talked in the last update about how COVID was effecting us. You should know, the team was lazer focused on testing the content for the base game, because right now, that was what needed to get done. 

Well.... factories have been shut down or limited in production and communication. 

Minnesota remains in a stay at home order. This has prevented the team from testing Alphas in any serious capacity. Proofing wording on cards, sure, rules edits, yes. But no serious play testing could be done at this time.

The minor bit of good news this month though, is that while we have assembled most of the base game things to begin rolling through the minute the Stay At Home Order ends and our work resumes, we have also had the team begin shaping future stuff now that Ben helped revamp all of the game's systems!

Yes! As you saw in the previous update, our scenario sheets have become much more thematic, much more interesting and compelling. We have taken that design focus and applied it to the Alpha Hunter scenarios. We cannot wait to try them out when the base game is closed and ready to go!

Well, that's all this month, until the Stay at Home order in Minnesota ends, expect proofing models (if they can get us any), proofing cards and scenarios to be the focus of these updates!

Alpha's News
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 06:14:34 PM

So first let's get to the good/great stuff!

Let's start with some proofing of the cars (and truck but.. come on).

Not sure why, but the TCPD Car isn't uploading. Rest assured it will be in the next update! Regardless, we had/the dev team continues to, use some pretty low quality Shapeways prints. These are so much better. We always loved the look Ron gave them, but hated the proofs. Now... we do not! On to the development work!

Titans Dev Blog!

• Alphas Game System. We start with the system for the game. Like the basics. We are happy to say these are DONE. Officially. 100%. There are no more tweaks to the overall rules or guidelines for the game. This was the biggest bear to wrestle and consider it... wrestled? We are sticking with that metaphor!
• All 23 Alphas! Okay. So with the game system done, Ben and Chris hammered repeated plays to turn to our remote team of the Heroes and Villains balanced. Not just them, but any cards that come with them (more on that later). Well... not all of them are done. Currently though all but Titan are balanced and ready to roll out into Titan City. She requires a little more care because she literally has 3 Models + 3 Cards, that all have to be justified without being overly complex.
• The Skirmish Rules. We are happy to say we have multiple robust Skirmish rules, playable 2 - 4 currently. These involve things like Escorting, Protecting, Securing and brawling! Most have an A and B objective and function in a unique way. What we are waiting for now is recommended player counts. We have some that function best at 2, one that feels really neat at 4. What we need though is David and the remote team to do this for us at the moment (see the part below about the current world situation). 

Here are some looks at games as of late.

This is a Secure the Area Skirmish in 2 player with a little Rescue frightened Civilians side objective.

Above is testing the final Build of Scenario 1 "City Under Siege"! 

A Preview of Scenario 3 being tested!

Big Game Changes

So we have talked development stuff as of late with some vague statements, but we think the best way to present them is a livestream day to answer dev questions. While we will cover how that might work currently, you can leave your questions below and they will get forwarded to the dev team to address directly. Just know that they will be covering things pretty in depth during said stream so it may get answered in their overview and that may be why it doesn't get answered directly. 

COVID and Us

With our team split between a place in Europe locked down and Minnesota, a State with a Stay at Home Executive Order (also possible school year cancellations), this presents some pretty obvious challenges for us both in continuing to get together to test, as well as remote testing (Europe is not immune to the stay at home orders it seems as well). 

We will keep you updated in April, but our stay at home order here extends into April and in Europe theirs is until May 1st (to be re-evaluated). We think though that this makes April the perfect time for a sitdown with the design team so please, leave your questions below for them, or in general and we will be sure to answer them here! 

Alphas have begun Assembling!
about 4 years ago – Sun, Mar 01, 2020 at 12:57:05 AM

As should be the case, let's do our previews of sculpts before our dev blog!

Who is ready for the development details?

Development Log

• Line of Sight Rules and targeting have been simplified but remain tactical. Essentially there was a great deal of overlap in the characters abilities and so they needed a good deal of clean up. Brief overviews have them currently doing the following; Melee Abilities allow YOU to target a close figure or object. Ranged Abilities allow you to target a space, then your opponent will choose the target (if more than 1), Blast can effect yours or a space some distance away (instead of having burst and blast be different icons and rules), and Line attacks end when changing elevation as to not confuse people and effect less overall targets.
• Cover became a true or false statement. 
• Abilities have become more vibrant and character focused. IN the previous Build there were many characters who overlapped. A good example of this was how Chris and Ben Pohl's design had travel powers feeling relatively similar. So much so, they became a keyword. Now, a good fe examples would be how Prestige and Nightstrike's Teleport looks and feels different, and how Arc and Hotspot's Super Speed feels different. 

Prestige and Nightstrike BOTH can teleport, ignoring Engagement, Objects, Figures and Elevation. So what is different? Well, Prestige moves a little further and can pay to have an Ally in her space move WITH her. Meanwhile, Nightstrike can pay to move before and after rolls, essentially in reaction to events unfolding. 

Arc and Hotspot BOTH can move at Super Speeds, ignoring Engagement, Objects and Figures. While Hotspot moves further than Arc, she has the ability to also swap spots at times, as well as shift spaces during opportune times. Hotspot on the other hand can throw punches before combat, dealing minimal damage but getting in the thick of it faster than her. 

We will highlight more of this as time goes on but the goal was to make every character feel like their personality shone through onto their cards with their abilities. 

• Split phases. This will be something you need to see (more on that later) as opposed to read, but suffice it to say, the PACE of the game has been faster because of this. 
• Power Cards. Characters will now have 1 time powers but these are limited team to team and the timing you use them is key! More on these later as well. 

We think, many of these things, targeting and cover and the like, add to the "story" of the game vs before, a by the numbers game. What these key changes have done is allow us to find a real visceral balance between when things are numerically balance and when they feel balanced and fun. 

Big Step

We put a system in front of people last month and are doing it again this month so expect news on this. On top of that, we want to leave you with this part of the update feeling very positive. We believe, talking with our soon to be Partner, that releasing the Alpha Hunter Scenario with some of the heroes we didn't unlock post release is looking brighter and brighter because of these system changes!

We also know that many of you are backing Marvel United, so another thing we want to make available, is our character creation psd files, so that you may homebrew incorporate your United Characters into Titan City!

2020 and the Alphas of Titan City!
about 4 years ago – Fri, Jan 31, 2020 at 09:22:12 PM

Let's start with some proofs before we jump into the Dev Blog stuff!

The Magi has completed his training and is ready!

Fire Street Gang Thugs are roamin'!

Average Jane Bystanders have entered the city (unfortunately for them!).

Now onto some Development stuffs!

Development Log

• At this point, Ben is familiar with Alphas and is helping to secure a GREAT game for you. Things were going so good by the way, we were able to hold our first big public play test session of the new system in a huge 4 player game.

• This system features a unique and improved activation system, a much smoother dice system and more grading between the characters so that none if not one or two, are jack of all trade characters.

This was also a wonderful experience for the team to get the game in front of people in MN to get a real feel on the systems. 

• There were some hiccups but one shining light. We have a system. before turning it over to the remote team, Ben and Chris will be refining it over the coming weeks. 

The Question for the Month

We know many have been asking publicly and privately about our plans given the upcoming campaign of Marvel United from CMON. And we wanted to be frank.

Super heroes in the board gaming hobby outside of Marvel/DC are still a bit niche (see Hour of Need from Blacklist games and the Sadlers). We have no real plans to compete with CMON and Marvel, not just because we cannot hope to compete with such brands, but also because their game has 100% coop. Ours has elements of all game types built into our modes, but the game was originally designed to have human players against each other. Cooperative was simply something that worked out in the process and was not the main or sole focus like it was in United. 

We hope that answers everything and if not be sure to post it below and when we jump back on, we will be sure to answer it for you :D 

Titan City's New Dawn
over 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 31, 2019 at 09:38:02 PM

First, we wanted to say thank you all so much for your patience in 2019. 2020 should be looked at incredibly positively though and we are here to break down "how" :D

First, let's talk about the nuts and bolts before the exciting stuff!

Development Log

• Last month was really about Ben familiarizing himself with the Alphas universe, the old and current systems. After that, the guys took December to work on refining what would be the final system in the game. We can say, that the system is officially set. Now the guys are spending January tweaking the values and making sure the game does a few core things discussed below, but the word scaling will come up a few times.

One thing we want to say on this point to is, we only have one chance to launch a game. We looked at a game we were very excited about that had some neat miniatures (Yokai Quest), where the minis were indeed cool, but the game system wasn't popping for people. The development is very important to us because of some plans to be announced in the coming 3 months or so, and releasing a bad product game wise is not an option.

• The problem that our remote teams were finding to a stunning degree were in the campaign. So the scaling of rewards for sides in the campaign were something that needed to be addressed in the system itself, which did not lend itself to this organically.... well, it did, but the variance and snow ball effect of them was troubling the further remote testers got. Leading to really dull and anti-climatic battles in the end of a campaign? This was and is antithetical to the goals of a campaign in a game. Development here has been started as the system is set.

Another point is, we are not working from square one per say. There were systems in place that didn't need to be tweaked much (like interaction objects and the way buildings serve purpose in the game).

• Keywords have mostly been removed by integrating them into each Characters powers. This has already made the players at the table feel much better in that not only are the characters unique, but it's easier to digest.

The removal of Keywords has also allowed us to remove the cheat sheet made for keywords. This will help us stave off power creep and the addition of new powers moving forward.... there will still obviously be new powers, but tailored to each character. Like now, Flight for Iconic and her power suit is a bit different than it is for Blackbird and his Glider.

• The action economy now scales. Not only does it apparently scale to players (allowing the variable counts), but is also scaling based on # of units and is becoming balanced. This is arguably the largest win because this is the system that will allow the game to expand to say Alpha Hunting battles ;) (ie less units but actions of more weight so to speak).

So in summary, things are moving much better development wise. The reason we are not saying anything concrete is because of January 11th 2020. This is a day we have set up for people who have never played Alphas to come play the new system. If all goes well, expect it in the hands of our remote team soon there after when the guys have finished balancing most things :D Once that happens we should look to set up some play videos with the guys for you all and some summaries of the system and how it is altered.

Partnership

We will have a few meeting related things during our Q1 this year that we will announce and talk about when they are done. Just know that what we teased is something still in progress. Of course the holiday season in the US leads to most companies and such being postponed a bit. 

Cool Stuff!

Now, because development is underway towards the finish line, it's time we start proofing the finals of everything else. So, here are some shots of games in progress for the new system.

And here are yes, some proofs of the plastics :D

First ever Captain Liberty and Black Mamba!

For Lee Altpeter, THEE Alphas Super Fan, I was told to put a rush on getting these proofs out, as they were critical for him and his enjoyment of the game, 

We hope this update shows you guys how much we have been putting in the time and work to get this thing done right. We cannot thank you all enough for your patience and your understanding throughout 2019 as we work to create something really special. 

Thank you Alphas!