Alphas Livestream and Updates!
almost 6 years ago – Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 05:12:07 PM

We will have general update stuff in this update, but look forward to Monday evening at about 4:30 PM Central, Ben and Chris, joined by KLTG's newest Developer... also Ben, as they begin live streaming (without book spoilers) the 1 Vs All Campaign with Chris playing the villains vs the Bens as the heroes! Don't worry though, tomorrow we will drop an update with the live stream link!

General Updates

We want to apologize for Guardians being on schedule and/or ahead of schedule. We want to assure you guys that doesn't mean Alphas is not a priority for us. 

And we think following this update, you will understand why things are moving a little slower.

Shipping Updates

So, good news is, we now have an official KLTG Partner in the UK. This should help all projects, Alphas and beyond, shipping, replacing and whatnot in the UK and EU. Think of this man, Daniel Neal, as an extension of KLTG because he backs and loves our games and knows some of the team. This should help as we explore some more options for shipping partners and here's why.

When we quoted Alphas and began the pledge manager, we accounted for a possible 6-7% increase in the cost of shipping. Without getting into politics or whatever else, the fact is, shipping went up for most carriers, about 10-11%, something no one could have predicted or accounted for that far ahead of time. Now, we had a little bit of a buffer, but not one big enough to make any grave errors on shipping. So to make sure that we have a product delivered to you in the quality we want and the money available, we have so little room for any shipping errors. So, we need to just work through shipping slowly to make sure everything goes as planned and we appreciate the understanding on that.

Digital Proofs

Well, when proofing our digital proofs, we noticed a few margin errors, a few alignment errors in the cards. This is concerning because the amount of time between proofs is long. We know the manufacturer has taken on a few bigger orders, and like Tabula Rasa, we are a bit further back on their list of priorities. When we get the digital proofs that are 100% correct, we will post them and celebrate!

That said, the Comic Book related material, the Buildings (cardboard) and the punch boards all seem on point. 

To the Live Stream!

Now because these updates are a little more boring than we would like, about each month, we would like you to have some time with the design team playing the game and answering questions. So get hyped for the live stream tomorrow!  

General Update
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Dec 17, 2018 at 08:54:22 PM

It has crossed the 1 month mark since our last update, and you know we like to engage with you all on our status at least once a month (outside of the comments and facebook venues).

Lets start off with the general stuff.

Status Update  

The Rulebook Translations are still underway. We were asked about the timeline, but we wanted to stress these are digital, so they should not affect the timelines for the game. 

Manufacturing is, well below we cover it in depth. 

Giveaway Update

So we had only a few backers from here back Guardians... which means no drawing is needed! Everyone wins! We will be sharing details about the samples to be sent out when we have them in hand, but we do want to thank all of you for supporting Guardians that did :D 

Manufacturing Update

So here is where things get less good. We want to give you all the information we have, but we need to put it into context as well.

So to start, we started working with a manufacturer for Tabula Rasa and wanted to use the same one for Alphas. This was great in theory, to work and develop those kind of relationships. The problem though is that Tabula Rasa was missing some possible Token Sheets, as well as had damaged product via our shipper.So, while we are progressing, we are thinking right now a 2-3 Month Delay is likely right now. Not because something is wrong with Alphas or the files, but rather because we want to make sure nothing is wrong. 

With ShipNaked, we had hoped to alleviate some of our shipping stress. But as it turns out, ordering boxes, packing boxes and signing contracts with Fedex is actually easier for North America (Chris and Ben were packing boxes for TR some time ago). This has also led us to look and explore partners for Shipping in the EU and Oceanic Regions that meet our prices as we already priced out shipping. We are hoping with the drop in cost pack boxes ourselves, that money is covering shipping with other partners in the EU and Asia/Australia etc. So far so good, provided we take the time to vet these shippers through our friends and contacts in the board game industry! Also for our NA backers, this will be faster for you, as packing and sending out boxes ourselves will be faster than waiting for our spot in a queue of games. Chris also suggested sending them all to backer Lee Altpeter and trusting he made sure everyone got their copy... though we were convinced he would just keep them all to himself ;) 

With regards to manufacturing, some of the things we saw in the samples for Tabula Rasa looked great when we saw pictures or unboxed it, but then we were not so happy when we got the mass produced copies with a few minor, but important to us things. Like rounded edges on character boards, crystals not being the exact size we originally wanted. Basically, the guys want MORE sampling before finalizing things because we only have one shot at making this the best super hero experience on the table you will have :D And to do that we need more sampling time.

I know this isn't the best news, and I know being SOOOOO far ahead on Guardians made some of you feel like we would be that far ahead on Alphas, but with the added research and time put into the shipping partners now, as well as the sampling, and miniatures taking more attention to detail than say, dice or tokens, we want to get it right.

Now that said, we should have another update coming in early January about this progress. Until then we want to thank you guys for your support and patience. We would prefer to give you a quarter sized heads up on the delay rather than hit you with it in February or March. So thank you again and expect to hear from us just after the Holidays! 

Titan Front "Development Diary" Part 6 and a Give Away!
about 6 years ago – Sun, Nov 04, 2018 at 10:56:44 PM

So first thing villains and heroes is a quick status update. Not too much has changed in the last week, but here is the following.

Status Update

Graphic Changes and Proofs have finished and have been proofed.

The Game Balance has been blind tested more and with astounding approval.

The Rulebook Translations are still underway. We were asked about the timeline, but we wanted to stress these are digital, so they should not affect the timelines for the game.

The Miniatures have been reviewed and are looking good! 

The Miniatures are right where they were. 

Giveaway Time

It has come to the attention of us at KLTG that some of you have backed Guardians of Wayword, our next project. We can't thank you enough. But then Chris and Ben got to thinking, what if we could? What if, for the backers of Alphas that decided to take the journey to Guardians with us got to say, enter a giveaway? 

So we started looking at these models below.

And the samples we have coming soon and thinking. The Monday after Guardians of Wayword closes, we will be doing a drawing for the backers of both. If you backed both projects, you will be entered to win models from Samples, from the original Prints. We hope that expresses the love we have for you supporting us in our projects! If you are interested, look below at Guardians and click on through!

Well fellow Alphas, back to saving Titan City for us, and you!

Titan Front "Development Diary" Part 5
about 6 years ago – Sun, Oct 28, 2018 at 05:29:10 PM

Welcome back heroes and villains alike!

Titan Front is putting out another issue of the final development steps. At the bottom of the update you can see the status of everything, but before that we are going to preview a few things for you. 

1 vs All/Many Alphas + Cooperative Alphas

Last update we showed how the Thugs and Bystanders worked when playing cooperatively. We decided the next update, while writing that one was going to preview the Super Villains for you but with a caveat. We wanted to highlight both the Competitive version and the cooperative so you could get some idea of how they differ.

So as you can see from this Arc, as the game progresses, she will get stronger. It is entirely possible you never see her level 3, but that is the fun part of the campaign. One choice can bring about her level 2, while one choice can bring her level 3 instead, giving the Villain Player a more powerful arsenal. 

Now here we see the difference between a player at the helm and the AI of the Cooperative Deck.

On to the Campaign!!!

So I wanted to tee up the work done here because from Issue #1, because it impacts the story of Alphas as a whole. So reading through here I am sure you can see a few story beats we setup from the get go. But we want to hear your thoughts below, things you think we are setting up for the future!

Status Time!

Graphic Changes and Proofs have finished and are being proofed for mass production to begin. Some alterations to bleed etc were needed and fixed.

The Game Balance has been completed and we are happy with the state of the game and the meta we see developing in the competitive game, as well as the interactions and story told in the campaign, for both heroes and villains.

The Rulebook Translations are still underway. Based on their time lines, we imagine this will continue until after the New Year.

The Miniatures are being reviewed for any final tweaks before mass production and we should have samples of them in the coming weeks (I know these are one of the more exciting parts).  

The MDF Buildings were done per our last update, however, Byron should be starting on them in December when we get the final numbers needed.  

The next update should be equally as juicy and if we can get Ben and Chris to do a play through, we absolutely will before the next update. Our hope is that it is an example of the cooperative ruleset, since you guys have seen Chris crush Ben enough by now.

Well fellow Alphas, it's time we get back to saving Titan City! Hope this finds you well and we look forward to the next diary.

Titan Front "Development Diary" Part 4
about 6 years ago – Sun, Sep 30, 2018 at 08:09:26 PM

Hello fellow heroes (and villains we guess..)!

Today we have many topics to break down for you so let's jump right into it!

Let's talk first, about the AI and how it works;

Cooperative Alphas

Alphas can be played Solo or Cooperative. We thought from the very beginning, that was important to figure out how to do. And the guys really had a system in place. But when concerns for the games life cycle came about after the Kickstarter, they had to go back to the drawing board.

But when they came about onto the Deck Building Portion of the development, it just clicked. This would not only make the game more fun for players, while keeping effectively everything you loved, it also made the Solo Cooperative Mode better!

At Level 1, so when a card is played from the Baddie Deck, each figure activates that power. When a Fighting Card is flipped, the Enforcers perform the Wild Swing! You can see when an Impact card is flipped, Headcracker gets employed, or with a Durability, Burn It Down happens.

So how does this happen? Well, the AI Deck is effectively a modified starter deck from what we saw in the previous updates :D 

Also, with the added sculpts, we have the 2nd Sculpt with their own abilities in this system. 

When you amazing people unlocked the 2nd Thug Sculpt, we had no real big differences in mind because of the system and how it was built. But this new framework, we have the space to make all the sculpts completely different. 

We also altered the Bystanders a bit to make them have more impact and tense in terms of gameplay. Now the next update is going to preview the Villains, and should be much sooner than the space between this and the previous update. Suffice to say, the feeling of playing the villains is really cool. I would expect a few play throughs this late fall and early winter as the samples filter in.

So stay tuned on that!

Conventions

You all know we have been at Origins and 2D Con with Alphas, promoting and teaching the game, getting so much love for the brand.We also had the excellent privilege of attending LionCon here in MN this last weekend :D

 Now what is the status of Alphas as is?

Status Time!

So we are moving through the final Graphic Changes and Proofs and Imagine our editor should be done within the next month.

The Game Balance was being blind tested and should be done now. 

The Rulebook Translations are underway now and should be done well before this fulfills. 

The Miniatures are proofed and ready to roll so we have been told, and now we are just waiting on the remaining files before we get our final production samples.

The Final Proofing of the MDF Buildings is 100% done. 

Right now those are the most important updates we have, more to come in the next update! 

Well folks, it's time we get back to saving Titan City! Hope this finds you well and we look forward to the next diary :D