Ben leads from the front lines!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Nov 30, 2019 at 10:05:51 PM

This is going to be a text heavy Update, while next month expect many pictures of updates and how this text pertains to the game.

Development Log

• The first thing they boys dug into was the overall system, playing through skirmishes to get to the depths of what made the game unique, where the balance was lost and what had happened to the game that needed fixing. 
• Balancing the board in most scenarios has become key. Unless you are playing one of the larger 4 player scenarios, having all 3 boards set up at once is superfluous. They got to work this last month addressing this. The game is getting to a healthier board setup that encourages more engagement with each other, as well as with the environmental objects (manholes anyone?). If you are familiar with the game Kemet, Ben is a large fan of some characters being able to access most parts of the board by use of travel powers and the environmental effects.
• The action economy. This is one thing Ben Pohl and chris clearly neglected to reign in, which is why the problems with a persistent state caused issues. This has been a state of stress with Ben entering, but, it is getting fixed week to week more and more!

Finally, we want to say, we have details going into the new year about our partnership AND next month, work being done on the actual physical production of your Alphas games :D 

NEW Ben has joined the team!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 10:10:35 PM

So it's official!

As of last week, Ben Martin has joined the development team on Alphas to help get this thing across the finish line.

The first day he had to work on it, it was primarily about learning the system (Ben Martin had never really played Alphas beyond an intro to the game), and get his thoughts on anything that could be polished of the thoughts our remote test team in Germany has had. 

Getting him into the loop was their first priority, while next week they begin to dig in on the refinement, but more importantly, the fixes. That being said though, Ben did apparently have a great deal of ideas on how to wrap it together and wrap it up from that play, so we think we were right to bring Martin and his considerable development talents in!

General Musings

• We know this isn't a massive update, but adding Ben means a good deal of work WEEKLY will be able to progress from here on out.
• We have seen and played games like Marvel Strike Teams and what they have told us is that we really owe it to the super hero community to deliver something special.
• To ease Christopher's concerns alone, no, we have not discussed partnering with Golden Bell on anything. The company we are talking to about partnering has a great reputation in the board game community and is interested in seeing what else we can do with the franchise. 

Next update will have detailed notes and dev photos from Ben's next weeks fixing this mess we got ourselves in, as well as possibly some details on the partnership (depending on where we are in that process). 

September Update
over 4 years ago – Tue, Oct 01, 2019 at 03:04:26 AM

Greetings Alphas Fans!

So this month is a month full of teases and good things!

So first things first, the development team will be adding Ben Martin when he gets home from his vacation! This means we will likely have the requisite people in Minnesota to finish the development. While Ben had worked on other KLTG games like Beast Masters Duel, 

What this means for you is that we will be doing some big time dev updates next as to what was corrected and then you will see Ben's impact and foot print nearly immediately.

So there are some things we want to tease. because of legal reasons, we won't be able to talk about it specifically YET, but, we are working out the details to work with a larger publisher to ensure this project gets across the finish line, then partner with them on the expansion. We cannot get into any more specifics, but know we are really excited about it, we think you will be too, and we think that the extra help should alleviate most concerns about our ability to hit the mark and deliver the best super heroes miniature game you have ever seen!

More to come next issue!

August Update
over 4 years ago – Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 03:14:33 AM

Greetings Alphas Fans!

August development was a bit of a slog as we had committed in August 2018 to a local convention and that required a good deal of planning, both in scheduling, setup, etc. That said, for the first 3 weeks, we were still able to establish a back and forth with David (our remote tester)  once but have been finding the final scenarios hard to do remotely as the feel never seems to be right. 

The Good News!

When we first launched Alphas, we used the convention Con of the North in Minnesota and we used it to great success. We met a lot of people there and many locals backed the game. We were fortunate that one's brother made their way to 2D Con and volunteered to help develop with us and finish Alphas, knowing we are under staffed at the moment on the development side. 

After Labor Day it's likely he and Chris will sit down and chat about what he can help with to wrap this puppy up. So that is the good/great news for everyone. While we appreciate David's work remotely, we have learned from Beast Masters Duel: Sun and Stone that our rulebooks, rule sets and games are better for Chris and the team being able to SEE it played and take notes rather than try to translate notes effectively while redesigning and balancing things. 

We also may have in September, some news on a partnership to help us get this across the finish line.

The Alpha Hunters

So we took the feedback and wanted to address it here, in open forum for those who aren't looking BACK at comments but at the current stuff. 

Ken Enos -> I would like to buy these. Even if was just like a hero pack to use in the skirmish mode.

If we are adding the Alpha Hunters, we have Scenario in mind and it would be much shorter. Taking the lessons we have learned from here we would have YOU all demo it before releasing it.

Mathias Rossie -> I would mive to see underground combat, sewers, temples, or vistors from another world stuff, aliens, meteor, robots, mutants, ... or maybe new buildings with objectives. Like defebd a tower or climb a tower....

While these are neat ideas and certainly ambitious... they are not really reasonable at this time. The question was a little ambiguous but was about how we may distribute the Alpha Hunter Model, not creating assets we do not have or making more things to balance. 

Lee Altpeter -> I think Christopher has the right idea. A reprint campaign with additional heroes, scenarios, and the Alpha added in sometime after volume 1 ships.

This is arguably the most feasible way to do it we think. After the first, more modest campaign finally ships out, let people digest it a little, then look at releasing the Alpha Hunter. Though we are not sure right now on the reprint idea, after already paying for the molds, it may be worth it. 

Christopher -> Can it be released in a reopening on the pledge manager? Or in a reprint Kickstarter once you have shipped the game? If you have the finished game ready and the selling points for the ks is     add-ons hopefully it would be smaller work for you and get the game out wider faster than otherwise?

So the reason something can not be added into a pledge manager like this in a dollars and cents manner is simple. Minimum Order Quantity and Mold Costs. Let's say we allowed people to add it and 20 people did so... well that wouldn't be even close to the amount needed to cover those costs, so then we wouldn't be able to deliver what was promised.

We also recieved a comment in the general comments that we wanted to address if we may;

Frank Lazzarino -> "Hey guys, we're short staffed and overworked, so lots of delays on this product!" Also:"Hey guys, we now have your emails. Here's some spam email for our new project. This won't split our resources further!"

To clarify, the delays on this project are, as we have made clear, for a number of factors. Clearly we did not suffer those same delays on Beast Masters Duel: Sun and Stone, it is not indicative of each project being behind. We have different designers and developers and remote development teams on each project. And we also work projects in advance at times with different people and remote groups. So when we have an issue here that causes a delay, say Guardians, which is wrapping up about on time, may not ever see that because there are different moving parts in that game. Also remember, the scope of this game in terms of 3 game modes. Now that said, yes, we launch projects from time to time and put out a mailer to people about say preorders for Guardians. The only people who are supposed to be on that list are those that said YES in our backerkit surveys. If you feel you did not say yes or should not be in it, rather than voice discontent, we would encourage you to accept our apology and simply unsubscribe from it (found in the center of the mail at the very bottom). We would never want you to feel spammed, which is why our mailer goes out once per month, and only to people Backerkit told us said "Yes" to that question in their survey. We thank you all for your patience and understanding in this manner. 

To Summarize

The love and patience you all have had is amazing and we are excited to add to development here locally, allowing us to finish the project and the promise we made when we launched it. September should be a good month, we may have some dev pictures if they can get rolling and we may have the guys do a live stream. Will have to see how the month shapes up! :) 

Of course, if you have any other questions, we would be happy to answer those in the comment section below. 

July Update
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 11:58:46 PM

Greeting Alphas fans!

This July update is going to look for some feedback as well, so be on the lookout for that at the end, but until then, let's talk development over the last month!

Development Schedule

So given the smaller team, basically, our development team has went back and forth with our blind groups once per week. Our team will get alterations into their hands on a Sunday Night (our time), and they will have it for 5-6 days, taking time to get in 3-4 plays (with only a free copy as their payment), testing the scenarios and breaking it down for us with feedback notes from all players.

This is actually how we gauge "feel" of each character and scenario. While things have seemed kind of bleak since Tabula Rasa shipped late last year into January, things are looking up. We can confirm at this time, only the last 2 scenarios are being balanced. We have no current time table for when those will be completed as they are the final scenarios and of course have the most variation.

We can also say, that all characters, old and unlocked have been balanced to a "T" and are done.

So this preview of the new card we did a while back is the final design, and each figures card has been finalized. One thing that was a sticking point was getting the bystanders and thugs to work in this system. Forcing players to spend activating the Bystanders as seen here;

made the game "feel" better, but required changes to the conditions and setup of the scenarios as players would have to be able to activate so many bystanders per round as well. 

The same applies to all terrain and objects in the game. In fact, the only thing currently needing work is the values, conditions and setup for the final 2 scenarios so PROGRESS!!!! 

Printing

While we will not be starting manufacturing until we have a set date for our manufacturer for the scenario books because of their refusal to store our stuff until they finish, which we understand is reasonable on their part, we have had them proof every aspect of the game as they have been finished, so that when we finish the books balance, we are greenlit and ready!

Delays and Timelines

When we launched this kickstarter, our goal was  to have the game shipping by the end of March 2019 (for some reason people see March 2019 and think by the 1st?), and obviously we have not met that goal for a variety of reasons. We did deliver Tabula Rasa, though about 6 months late. Beast Masters Duel shipped 6 months early and Guardians is rolling on time. Clearly, we still have a lot of learning to do, and we wanted to say, when we do these development updates, we do not relish sending them anymore than you may hate seeing them, but we committed to updates once a month, even to say what we have progressed on and we stand by that.

We though with TR's manufacturing delays (same manufacturer here) that we would be safe pushing back the release, but of course, a litany of issues caught up to the project. So right now, while we had thought a 3-4 month delay when Ben left was reasonable, we are unsure if giving a specific date is the right path. We are committed to releasing the game and updating you as we go, and given TR, Beast Masters Duel and Guardians, obviously we have no intention of not getting across the finish line with any of our titles.

So right now, know that we wish we could move faster, but unless 3-4 of you want to move to Minnesota, it just isn't feasible for a project of this size. Now while you might say "Well your Duel game and Guardians came out on time or way early, what's the deal?", we can only say this project is far grander in size, scope and design than both of them put together so each one is in a vacuum of it's own challenges. 

Opinions

We wanted to close this out with the Alpha Hunter Scenarios and models. Right now we do not have the capital to add it to this project or release it on it's own, so post Alphas, how would you like to see the Alpha Hunters move forward? Sound off below!