Game Design Update and more!
about 7 years ago – Wed, Apr 05, 2017 at 01:19:00 AM

Greetings, heroes!

I’m back, only a week after the previous update, as promised! Before we dig into things, I want to give you a quick list of what I’m talking about today:

• 1) Overall progress of the game design process
• 2) Talking specifically about how the five OblivAeon heroes work
• 3) How to get that sweet box I talked about last week

But before we get into it, I want to clear up a couple points.

There was some expressed dissatisfaction in response to last week’s update on two notable fronts. First: ugh, the box is delaying the shipping of this game. Second: most of us didn’t back the box so why should we care about this update?

I could certainly understand those complaints. However, both of them make some false assumptions. As I’m about to get into in the next section of this update, the game is REALLY close to done! But it’s not 100% complete. THAT is the main thing delaying the game, not the production of the Ultimate Collector's Case. If the game were actually completely done, we’d be pressuring the factory a lot harder on the case and looking into options involving shipping them separately. Instead, we get ample time to perfect the case, because the game still needs time - everything will be the best it can be at the cost of a few months delay.

I'm not saying that the delay is OK, but I am saying it's necessary for the game and related products to be the best it can be. I am sorry that it is delayed, but it's also the correct decision. And I am thankful that you are sticking with me through this process. The finish line is within sight!

As for the “box orderers are a minority that no one cares about” position: that is just false. In fact, a notable majority of Kickstarter backers also ordered the box! Some of them via the backing levels that included the box, but many more through the BackerKit add-ons and even our webstore. So, an update about the box is certainly an update for the vast majority of backers of this campaign. And good news! If you don’t care about box updates, you needn’t read the whole thing! These updates from me are likely to all be lengthy. Once I get writing, I just sort of keep going.

On that note, let’s move on to possibly the most important part of this update:

Game Design Progress Update

As I mentioned above, the game is not done. However! It is coming along VERY well! Here’s where we are:

• OblivAeon Heroes: 95% complete
• OblivAeon Villain Scenario: 85% complete
• OblivAeon Environments: 95% complete
• Benchmark Mini-Expansion: 100% complete
• Stuntman Mini-Expansion: 100% complete
• Void Guard Mini-Expansion: 99% complete

To give you an idea how complete things are with the mini-expansions, the arts on the cards I showed off last week had been seen by the playtesters much earlier than the update. On the other hand, the arts on the cards that I’ll be sharing in the next part of this update have not yet been seen by the playtesters! They will be surprised to see them.

The two biggest pieces left to complete is the fine tuning of how the OblivAeon fight itself goes - working on reducing the game length without losing any of its richness - and making all of the files. Making files takes a good amount of time, but I’m already well dug in on that process. If I weren’t, I wouldn’t have anything to show off here! The “flavor text” quotes on the bottoms of the cards are the very last thing I write. So any cards with flavor text have fully completed their creation process and are ready to go to print. That’s where anything at the 100% point above is.

With each update I post, I’ll be sure to let you know where we are with this process. The main thing I’m doing at this point is focusing on moving forward, working with playtesters, finishing files, and getting everything done.

Let’s take a look at some of that stuff!

A look at the new heroes!

The first hero is, of course, Luminary.

He is certainly up to some of his old tricks! He has a wide variety of Devices in his deck, but his most notable ones are most certainly his Doomsday Devices. He is a fairly focused and straight-forward character who will surprise you on occasion by turning the tables with a Triple Cross!

Next, let’s look at The Harpy.

She has five “control tokens” in play next to her character cards. Each of them have a “bird” side and a “magic” side, and the game starts with 3 control tokens “magic” side up and two tokens “bird” side up. She works hard to control her powers, and the way they shift back and forth is both a bane and a boon to The Harpy and her allies.

Now, onto the reincarnation of the earth spirit: Akash’Thriya.

Her deck is full of “Primordial Seeds”, and she can just play them normally, but to no effect. When played normally, her seeds only have effects when destroyed. However, she has a lot of cards and powers that allow her to put her seeds into the Environment trash and deck, and when her Primordial Seed cards are played from the Environment deck, they have VERY strong effects!

A hero with a dangerous past… and a dangerous future! It’s La Comodora!

La Comodora has access to all the cool stuff on her ship. However, she keeps her ship outside the timestream - not bringing the whole thing into play. Instead, she opens up portals in spacetime, bringing just the elements she needs into reality. As La Comodora, Maria Helena is a strong leader with a lot of vision.

Last but not least, a hero from space: Lifeline.

An alien bloodmage, he uses his own life force to power his abilities, at great cost to himself. However, he has always believed that the cause is worth the cost, and he is very willing to pay that cost. His abilities all lean towards the arcane and esoteric, making him complicated, but powerful.

These heroes are all exciting in new and different ways, and I’m excited to get them out to all of you!

That preview of the giant case was really cool...

Wasn’t it? I mean, I liked it. The Ultimate Collector’s Case is really shaping up to be pretty dang awesome.

As a result of last week’s update, quite a few of you have asked how to add the Ultimate Collector’s Case to your pledge… and I gave out some incorrect information in the comments! I said that you should be able to add it in BackerKit, but apparently, that’s not a thing. No worries! We’ve got it for sale on the GTG webstore!

Those of you who ordered it during the Kickstarter will be getting it with the rest of their order. However, anyone who orders it through our webstore will be getting it in the next wave of shipping. We apologize for this organizational necessity, but we are also happy to reward those who support us. Rest assured, we will be shipping everything out as quickly and efficiently as possible.

There will definitely be another update the first Tuesday of May, and in that update, I plan to show off bits of the comic book that will be included with OblivAeon. However, between now and then, I might also do an unscheduled update if we get particularly notable news from the factory, or if I just feel like showing off art or mechanics of Benchmark or Stuntman or Scions or Environments or whatever. You never know what will happen! See you then!

-Christopher Badell
Editor-in-Chief
Greater Than Games, LLC

A New Sheriff in Town!
about 7 years ago – Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 12:09:59 AM

Howdy, pardners!

It's me, Christopher, designer of Sentinels of the Multiverse! And I'm here to clean up this town.

OK, I'm not really a new sheriff, as the title of this update might have you believe. However, now that Kickstarter allows for "collaborators" in campaigns, we've done a bit of internal restructuring, and I'm going to be taking over the updates and comments here full time. Now, I'm just set as a collaborator here, so I don't get the Kickstarter direct messages, but I will see the comments, and I am able to respond and also post updates! So, look forward to a regularly scheduled first Tuesday of every month update, as well as occasional other updates when I feel they're warranted. Such as this update.

At the beginning of March, we posted a quick update saying that, due to travel and conventions, we'd be posting a mid-March update about stuff. That clearly never happened, and I’m sorry for that. As a result, I’m going to be on-hand and much more available in both updates and the comments. However, the main reason that didn't happen is because of the lengthy ongoing saga of the Ultimate Collector’s Case. I'm going to share that saga with you now.

(Content warning: what you're about to see is a bunch of images with explanation - many of them contain some pretty mangled boxes. So, brace yourselves. Those of you who are faint of heart may want to turn away now. At the end of the update I'll post a few fun things to make up for it.)

The Saga of the Ultimate Collector’s Case!

(AKA, you all wanted more communication? Well, buckle up!)

During the campaign, we showed off this image of our mock-up of the Ultimate Collector’s Case:

Looks nice, right? We're still working to something like that, but for MONTHS now, we've been going back and forth with the printer to make this work.

First off, let's talk about what this thing needs to do.

• Look nice.  
• It's gotta hold a LOT of cards. Well over three-thousand cards, in fact.  
• It also has to hold a bunch of oversized cards. Over fifty of them. Not as impressive, but still notable.  
• It needs space for tokens.  
• There should be a spot for rulebooks.  
• Efficiently open and close while allowing easy organization and access to your cards.
• It needs to not fall apart under its own weight.

We’re not worried about that first one. Between Jenn and Adam, it’s going to look good. However, that second to last one of this list provides an interesting challenge, given just how much content there is to Sentinels of the Multiverse now. The scariest one? That last one. That’s a lot of weight of cards and such. Thirty-plus pounds of one game. Whew!

A thing we want it to do:

• Hold sleeved cards.

Possibly the most requested feature of this box. Fortunately, that’s easy - it’s just a matter of making sure the dimensions are friendly. We’re good there.

So, let’s dig in to our contestants!

I've had an exciting morning of taking photos of all of the potential cases. Let's get down to business and look at all of them.

These are the four “white-samples” sent to us over the last year as we’ve been going through this process with them. “White-samples” are physical creations that do everything that the final product will do… except with nothing printed on them. This way, we can determine the shape and layout of a thing before we make the art to fit the specific dieline of that thing. We received each of these cases at least a month or two apart from each other, with barrages of notes and requirements going back and forth between us and the factory between each iteration.

Let's take a look at Number 1, or The Progenitor:

This was the one taken exactly from our mock-up. And it illustrates well why we do mock-ups! Everything about this works like our initial vision, but working with it in reality revealed some issues. The drawers all fit a little tight, but that’s easily overcome. The big issue with this one was the top flap.

Seems good, right? Well, guess what happens if you swing that top flap all the way back and just let it hang open?

OH NO! That’s bad! The weight of the lid of the box is so great (due to the excessively sturdy construction materials we’re using for these cases) that it tore through the backing material that acts as a hinge. Not cool. Entirely unacceptable.

So, on to the second iteration, or The Bulldog:

The nickname of this one comes from the way the front flap closure works - if you look closely at the top image of all four cases, you can see that the second one has a bit of an underbite. On this one, the large flap gets closed first, with the short flap folding up over it to secure the case. As cute as having a bulldog box is, that’s not the look we’re going for here, and we’re honestly not sure why the factory went this direction. This is the only iteration with the underbite feature.

For this one, we nixed the top flap, making the top of the box fixed and just using a front flap to close the box. As a result, we made the top compartment a thin, wide drawer. This is for holding tokens and rulebooks.

A good solution, and it makes for a far sturdier box, but it brings with it some problems. See that divided area in the front? The way it connects to the front edge is a weak point, and since you use that edge to pull the drawer out, it results in this: 

See how the pieces are pulling away from each other as I pull on the front of the drawer? Not cool. Also, since the draw is as flat/shallow as it is, that front edge bows a BUNCH. If I opened and closed that drawer a lot, it would warp permanently. And, let’s be real here, we’re all going to open these drawers a lot. It’s gotta be able to stand up to just regular use, right? Heck, look at the other drawers!

They’re already starting to bow out, just from our minimal use here in the office! No thanks. Time to move on from this box.

What’s going on, box number three? I think I’ll call you The Throwback:

For this one, the factory had an idea for a different way to do the top flap, so we gave it a shot. It’s MUCH more securely attached in the back hinge, so that’s good. And it eliminates the top drawer. But does it work for us? (Spoilers: no.)

This is the back edge of the box with the flap fully opened. See how it’s starting to pull away from the back of the box? That’s with not much use. So, yes, that top hinge is now much more secure, but as a result, it’s pulling the entire back of the box apart. Nope! This box needs to last a long time! Also, the flap hinges are made so rigidly that they don’t like being folded back:

The white paper that will eventually be replaced by actual printing has split right at the seam! That’s just from opening the lid all the way back. It doesn’t want to fully fold back on itself. It needs more give and bend allowance.

What we learned here is that the top flap just won’t work. Either it’s too weak and will fall apart, or it’s strong enough to survive, but as a result to rigid to perform without risk of snapping. 

As a result, the Hero/Villain/Scion/Environment Complexity/Difficulty chart that we were going to print on the top flap will have to be a rulebook-like booklet that lives in that top drawer. Honestly, I’m relieved by this change - there’s so much info I want to put on that chart that I was concerned that it was going to have to be tiny to fit on the top flap, and you’d only be able to read it by peering closely at a flap attached to the top of the box. Not elegant at all. This way, you’ll get all the info in a much more portable and legible presentation.

This brings us to our most recent iteration, The Paragon: 

Looks pretty good, right? No risky top flap. No odd underbite. The top flap folds all the way back without splitting. If you look at the first image of all four, you can tell that this one is slightly bigger. That's good! Space for everything. None of the drawers are bowed out, and that’s with a LOT of opening and closing. Even the top drawer seems to be holding up well!

But it’s not:

Once again, it’s coming apart at that joint. Note though, it bows much less, and you can’t tell from the picture, but it’s very resilient - it springs back into position without taking on permanent warp!

Take a look at this drawer:

Like the other drawers, it can be pulled out all the way so you can just set it right on the table. Useful! See where I’m pointing? That point there is the solution to the “pulling apart” problem. If we move the thumb-cut-out to that side and turn the drawer around, making it so the end that you pull on doesn’t have a divider along one side, that removes the fight between the part you pull on and the divider that wants to remain affixed in place. Solid!

Also, all the drawers in this version have a bit more give in their homes. Meaning, these drawers slide in and out MUCH more smoothly. No catching or stressing the drawer fronts or sides. Very good!

This case is looking to be our best one yet! Let’s torture it.

So, we filled this case full of the thousands of cards that want to live in such a case. Whoof, this is a heavy case now! So, naturally, we dropped it. On purpose. I held the full case just a couple inches over the surface of a table and let it fall flat. And fall flat it did:

Bam! Split down the side! Not cool!

Look here, case. You’re not going to do anyone any good if you can’t hold up to the regular usage gamers are going to subject you to. You’ve gotta be ready for heroics, and that often involves taking some damage in order to save the day!

So, that brings us to a case not pictured in the group shot above, The Prospect! 

This case is still in China. Hence the different sort of photo - this one wasn't taken on my phone. We were hoping to have it in hand in time for an update, but this process is not a swift one. So, we asked for an action shot of it. This is the internal construction of the back, showing how everything goes together. This will have the front flap, drawers with plenty of wiggle room without being concerningly loose, the rotated top drawer, and - most importantly - reinforced corners. Now that we’re finally dialing it in on the design of the box, we need to make sure it’s strong enough to stand up to the rigors of combat. And we’re getting there! 

While Paul and Jenn and Mara and I were at the GAMA Trade Show at the beginning of the month, we met with a couple of representatives of our print company in person. There we talked through all of the details that I spelled out above, and stressed the importance of getting this done right - it has to be good enough for us before we can even consider going ahead on production of a thing for all of you. They definitely got what were were talking about with the drawers, the strength, and the weight of the content, so we’re feeling good about what comes next.

Whew! So, that’s where our saga is, currently. We’re very close to a satisfactory conclusion, but we still have some more box dropping to do before that point. And drop boxes we shall! 

When will I get everything?

At this point, our very realistic shipping expectation is that we will have everything out to everyone before the end of July. We’re shooting for that date SO HARD, because we want to also be able to show off OblivAeon and the Ultimate Collector’s Case and everything else at Gen Con, and we will not take those things with us to sell there if you all don’t have it yet. You are the people that made this game happen, and you will have it first.

As promised, something fun.

Congrats! You either read through ALL OF THAT (yikes!) or you just skipped right to the end. Either way, congratulations are in order. 

I did promise something fun as a chaser, so here we are. I thought you might like to see a card from each of the Void Guard decks, showing off what these four are about:

Adam and I are both very pleased about how those decks ended up, and we’re eager to get them out to you!

Next week is the first week of April, and so I will be posting another update then. I’d love to have new box news for you by then, but it’s unlikely. I mean, I told you everything I know up to today, and I’ll be surprised if we get a new case in the next few days. However! When we do, I’ll definitely tell you all about it.

Either way, you can look forward to an update next week with more things from our production process as well as more finished cards, like those four above. 

Have something in particular you’d like me to talk about then? Say so in the comments on this update! I am eager to keep up communication with all ten-thousand-plus of you!

Now to get back to saving - and ending - the Multiverse!

-Christopher Badell
Editor-in-Chief
Greater Than Games, LLC

Mini-Update From PAX EAST!
about 7 years ago – Tue, Mar 07, 2017 at 11:16:55 PM

Greetings from Boston, where we are setting up for PAX East! A huge amount of game development progress has happened this month, as I’m sure our playtesters would agree! However, because Christopher is out of the country, we won’t have a more detailed update until the middle of this month when he returns. We are also expecting the final white sample of the Ultimate Storage Case when we get back from PAX - as soon as we have one, we’ll share pictures with you here as well!

If you happen to be at PAX East, come visit us at booth C-2625!

Environments, Podcasts, and more!
about 7 years ago – Tue, Feb 07, 2017 at 10:41:35 PM

Hail hail, Sentinels all!

It's Christopher again, just here to talk about, well, a lot of things! Before we jump into those things, though, I want to talk about a thing that I won't be talking about this update, which is the Ultimate Collector Case. The factories are all in radio silence mode, as it's currently Chinese New Years time over there and they all go quiet for quite some time as a result. So, we don't have any new news on the beautiful storage solution box. However! We are eager to share details with you when we have them, so look forward to future updates!

Now that I've talked about what I'm not talking about, on to what I'm talking about!

New Environments

First off, those environments I told you about. We've got three of them. They're pretty dang cool. We're very proud of them. And that's it!

...

Wait, no, I guess I'll tell you more than that. Let's start on the more lighthearted side of things, with:

Champion Studios in San Alonso!

Sunny San Alonso has long been the place where movie magic is made! But what happens when it gets mixed with REAL magic? A series of villains have taken over the studios, and movie magic has been replaced by movie mayhem! The threats are so very real, and the actors - and the heroes - are all in grave peril. Will the heroes play their part? Or will the movie turn out to be a bomb at the box office? A REAL BOMB!

Maerynian Refuge

There are under a hundred of Tempest’s people left. After their harried flight from their homeworld of Vognild Prime, and the attack on their escape ships by the Thorathian fleet, it's a miracle that any survived at all! Fortunately the few dozen remaining Maerynians have found refuge on Planet Earth. They have worked together and used their considerable power to raise a section of submerged coral to create an atoll island in the middle of the North Atlantic. The name of their new home "Plavu'Col" is a Maerynian compound word meaning both "shelter" and "hope". To protect themselves from outside threats or even prying eyes, Maerynian Stormspeakers have surrounded the island with gale force winds, keeping their new home in the eye of a hurricane. However, many are still drawn to the great power there. Heroes, you must aid the Maerynians - help them preserve their new home!

Mordengrad

The Mordengrad capitol is home to scores of Blade Battalions, walking technological terrors, and numerous doomsday devices. Any villain who stands against the heroes here will have much support, but only the true leader of Mordengrad can take the greatest advantage of its glorious might.

---

Along with the Nexus of the Void and Fort Adamant, these environments will make up the impressive collection of locales in the OblivAeon box!

The Letters Page Podcast

Over two and a half years ago, Adam and I claimed that we were starting a podcast where we answered letters written by Sentinels fans who had questions about the characters and events of Sentinels of the Multiverse. Now, we meant it, but we also had a lot of game making and company running and convention attending that was more immediately pressing. However, with the help of Trevor who makes our Kickstarter videos and other great media (like the video of me reading names for four hours), we finally have gotten this podcast off the ground!

The Letters Page podcast releases new episodes every Tuesday morning, with occasional Thursday interludes to cover side notes and discuss plans and such. The main episodes of the Letters Page are each focused on a specific character and last for around an hour, covering that character's backstory and important events, before moving on to the Q&A section, and then briefly discussing their future (without getting into SPOILERS).

We posted the first episode on January 17th, and of course, it was about Legacy. The next Tuesday covered The Wraith, and the following was all about Baron Blade. This morning, an episode about Expatriette went live! And we've even posted a couple of interludes, as well!

So, give us a listen! Have questions for us? Please send us those questions using our handy form!

Now, a few folks have asked if this is the reason for the OblivAeon delay. Not to worry! The Letters Page is actually making OblivAeon vastly better! Without it, we wouldn't have realized that San Alonso, the Maerynian Refuge, and Mordengrad were ideal environments and that it would be a mistake to not include them in the OblivAeon expansion. The delays of OblivAeon have much more to do with the fact that it is a creative endeavor, and creative endeavors take a lot of work. Adam and I are working on OblivAeon every day, and we're excited about how it's going, but it will take as long as it takes. Fortunately, that looks to be not terribly longer! Thanks for bearing with us as we finish the thing we started in 2010 in a way that we're happy with and proud of.

Other Kickstarters?!

There are so many great things happening on Kickstarter, and before I left you today, I wanted to talk about a few of them. (Both of the following Kickstarters are campaigns that I have personally backed and I am eager to get the rewards when they are done!)

First, a campaign that funded right off the bat by a clever first-time Kickstarter creator, it's the Puzzle Keyring!

 

Richard Malena has put together something that I am absolutely delighted by. Have you done an escape room before? Or participated in an ARG (such as the OblivAeon lead-up ARG, for instance)? These finely crafted and expertly written cards are the Swiss Army Knife of solving puzzles. And the Limited "Puzzle Master" level is going to be REALLY nice. I can't wait.

I mentioned that this campaign funded right away, and it's even broken through two of its planned stretch goals! If you're the puzzling sort, or would like to be, I highly recommend the Puzzle Keyring!

---

The second Kickstarter I want to talk about is for a game called Wrathborne Champions!

I met the folks behind this game at the first PAX South YEARS ago, and they showed me an early version of what would some day become Wrathborne Champions. And dang, I was HOOKED. It played like a Diablo bossfight - the opponents were dangerous, but the heroes were powerful. We had to work together to take down the threats. Oh, yeah, I should have started with: this is a highly thematic co-op, so of course I was interested. There are so many cool heroes to play as and weapons to use, each of which vastly changes the gameplay. You can play the same villain scenario over and over without running into repetitive combat - in fact, I have! 

Go check it out. This campaign hasn't funded yet, but it's well over half way, and they still have 3 weeks to go! Speaking as someone who loves both games, the type of gamer that likes playing Sentinels of the Multiverse will enjoy Wrathborne Champions. So, what I'm saying is, I think this game is for you.

---

Last but not least is a game that is not on Kickstarter... yet! At the very end of this month, Greater Than Games will be launching a very cool game designed by the great folks at Cardboard Edison called Dubai: Rebuild the Ruins. Find out more info here!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

-Christopher

Happy New Year!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Jan 03, 2017 at 05:49:09 PM

Hey, everyone!

It's a new year, and a big one at that! We hope you enjoyed the start of it. Let's dig in, shall we?

Last month, Christopher talked a little about production schedules and such. I don't have a whole lot to add to that just yet, but we do still have some news to share.

Mainly, we've been shipping the out-of-stock items to folks who backed at the Everything levels! Many of you have already received those, and you should be getting them soon if you haven't already. Christopher was hard at work packing and shipping those last week!

 Now, those of you who have received this package may have noticed something... interesting. It wasn't two boxes, even though it was two expansions. Well, we've done with Shattered Timelines and Wrath of the Cosmos what we did with Rook City and Infernal Relics. It's now a combined box of both expansions! And doesn't that cover art look nice?

 Thanks so much, everyone. We hope your year is a great one, and we can't wait to get this game in your hands!