Alpharius wrote:
Did they actually officially reopen the PM yet?

 DaveC wrote:
Well this pretty much confirms next year looks like they need 5 months to finish the tools which brings it up to CNY so could be Q2 2015

.... speaking from history only. The factory's average has been 3 tools / month. Sometimes its zero, sometimes its up to 8. We have right now... about 15 tools left. Which, if you do the math is really not ok. While I have nothing but praise for the quality and their communication with me has been good. I am upset that their speed is causing such massive delays for everyone. I want, more then anything, to get this project out to everyone ASAP.

 RiTides wrote:
Plenty of time to get practice before this ships . With no estimate given, I'm going to say Q3 2015 for this to be completely fulfilled. Mark me down now!

 Alpharius wrote:
Q3 2015?!?

You had BETTER be wrong!

My patience will have run out long before then!

I'm guessing either and end of year 2014 or, if that gets missed, an end of Q1 2015 shipment date...

 cincydooley wrote:
My big question is whether I add the Lion God and the Lonely Tree.....

 Alpharius wrote:
Did they actually officially reopen the PM yet?

RivenSkull wrote:
I'm just waiting for this to go to retail one day so I can buy the damned thing, since I missed the KS

 gunslingerpro wrote:

RivenSkull wrote:
I'm just waiting for this to go to retail one day so I can buy the damned thing, since I missed the KS

Prepare for your wallet to mutiny.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
How many times can we add stuff though? Are we locked in and finished after we add stuff right now?

3 Lion Gods / Sacred Backer Update #2
38 comments
34 likes

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ATTENTION! LAST UPDATE BEING POSTED AS BACKER ONLY WAS AN ACCIDENT. IF YOU MISSED THE CONTENT, HERE IS WHAT IT SAID:

"Allright!

So this time around I don't have any "milestone" progress to share. It's a vacation week over in china, so we won't have new plastic to share just yet. So I decided to keep it a bit more toned down and have added the first Sacred Backer time post over on the KD Blog.

Join us over there!"

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Dear Backers,

Today I present you with 3 Lion Gods!

The PVC Lion god turned out well detail wise, tho I admit its insanely hard to assemble. The joins ended up being pretty severe since PVC tends to warp each piece differently. The hard plastic lion was scaled up from the original resin version and does assemble MUCH more easily and cleanly then either the resin or PVC version. The creature is on a 100mm base here, so he is rather large!

This update is going to be a combination of Sacred Backer time and a kickstarter update. Just so happened plastics arrived just at the right time.

Sharing Today

It was a busy day! The first round of color proofs arrived and we divided the tasks of checking everything amongst the team here. This round was to ensure the colors matched what the designs intended and they were not printed on their final stock or given the matte coating everything will have. The settlement locations were a big hit!

I am happy to report that the black on black effect looks great for the gear grids! However on the monster control panel the design is not quite as “bold” and I will have to adjust the contrast to make things readable.

Deck Organizers
Not sure I've actually shared these yet. Each deck comes with divider to make your life of managing all the cards easier. Since a monster generally has 4 decks, they get a single divider that lists everything they have.

The rulebook itself is around 70 gigs of data. I am confident to report that the game language is very consistent, the glossary terms are accurate and last but not least, the pages are all in the right order! There are… (counting)…60 full pages pieces of art (not including the comic which is 28 pages) and around 100 unique smaller pieces of art scattered throughout the book.

After checking the rough proofs and the current color proofs we made the final adjustments, tweaks and updates and here it is! The final print revisions, being shipped out tomorrow to the printer! If your curious here is a list of the changes for what we are internally calling version 1.2

Kingdom Death: Monster Core Game V1.2
Final Fixes & Tweaks

Bridge Sized Cards
- Katar Specialization, changed to "cancel reaction".
- Grand Weapon Specialization changed to "cancel reactions".
- Chatter Phoenix AI, changed zone to show correct monster size.
- Tumble, changed to more accurately describe rules. (Thanks DBK!)
- Principles Graves, updated to reflect final play testing. Now grants extra endeavors for deaths during the hunt and showdown. The endeavor on it was dropped.

Gear Cards
- First Aid Kit, overhauled. +3 Survival to all survivors at start of showdown, you ignore disembowled.
- Scavenger Kit, updated to be unique and give 1 basic or monster resource.
- Leather Shield, updated block 1 to works as intended.
- Beacon Shield, updated block 2 to works as intended. - Scrap Sword, moved art, was clipping into keywords.

Rulebook
- Game Over Page, updated text so it does not break the game.
- Glossary, updated rules for block.
- Glossary, destroy armor was updated
- Replaced instances of armor levels with armor points.
- Table of contents updated, story event entries now point you to the rules side and not the art side of the spread.

Monster Control Panel
- Contrast increased, is currently too hard to read.

Production Update

Screaming Fur Armor is complete! Here are some photos of the assembled kits. The screaming fur kit is where all the rare gear in the game lives. The armor kit compatible butchers cleavers, lantern halberd etc.

The Lion God is also finished. Here are some photos showing off its grand and bizarre majesty!

Here is a little teaser from the Lion Gods, expanded Expansion. Upon defeating the monster, your survivors will encounter a strange parasite that calls itself the "Necromancer"! Perhaps they should take it home with them...?

Factory News
The factory has finished the Dung Beetle Knight, the leather armor set and the phoenix armor set. I do not have them in hand yet, so I cannot check them and strike them from the list. The man-hunter and the white lion kit are currently getting finished up and I just approved the layout for spidicules. I think the layout for the dragon king is next. I fear how many sprues that is going to be.

Last Sacred Backer Update Question:"In regards to tabletop miniature gaming, which gameplay element do you feel is the most important and why?"

It was really interesting to read everyone's response to my question. If I were to answer based on all the very solid and very different responses I received, I would say the most important gameplay aspect is to have fun, in the way you like to have fun. While that answer sort of embodies, the spirit and the definition of the word "play", it is a mere observation seeing just how important very different aspects of the "game" and "play" experience can mean to people.

However, I will share my own unique perspective as both a gamer and creator. In specific to tabletop miniature gaming, I would say the most important gameplay element is movement. First and foremost, we are talking about a tabletop miniature game, so actors/pieces within this game all have a physical representation. Looking at some ancient games like GO or Mancala, it tells me that physical pieces, how you move them and where they are placed is a very fundamental part of gaming around a tabletop. We could increase the scope a little more and say that even card games as where they cards are, their placement if you will, are generally the foundation of the game. But, lets not go that far, I'll focus back in on specifically miniature tabletop games.

Movement is generally the only time you physically touch your miniature. So its when you are most connected with your gaming piece and most often will have a change of state.

Movement and placement is the heart and soul of any good tabletop miniature strategy game. If its not, then the game will feel very static and you'll begin to wonder why you have miniatures at all. Why would we play a game on a huge table... when nothing on it moves. Or worse yet, the rules that govern movement are difficult / unsatisfying to us personally.

My theory is that the better and more satisfying the movement rules are, the better a miniature tabletop game will be. I won't use the word intuitive, since thats more like one of those dreaded gaming buzz words these days. What is intuitive to one individual may or may not be to another. The best you can do, is build solid rules that layer well without requiring too much back and forth in a game book to learn. Tabletop miniatures are usually quite complex, much more so then candy land where you move along a single track. Part of the enjoyment is the flexibility and in the moment developments that can happen. But when it takes either too much deliberation or research to determine the outcome of something exciting... it goes from fun to frustrating and finally to boring.

Did we perfect movement in Kingdom Death: Monster?
Heh, surely not. However we did keep these fundamental ideals close as we developed, broke, repaired and polished the game system and its many automated monster fights. There is a lot of movement in the game, and its a rare turn that passes where you won't think about how best to take advantage of moving in some way or another.

After all, we are not playing whack a mole. Although if we were, we could use a much smaller game board!!!

Much like last time, I will leave everyone with another question!

Are you more of a hobbyist or more of a gamer? And why do you think that is?

KD Store! We released some new stuff on the store! Of the new releases only the Great Game Hunter Rogue is left. This is a resin collectors edition, so there are no game rules / content and if you have never worked with resin before, he is a pretty simple character to put together.

Lol, its now 12:30am!

I gotta get on the call with the factory now, I will however keep my eye on the comments until around 4am or so when I need to pass out. See you again in 2 weeks!!

P.S. This has not been spell checked, proof read, or even reread by me for the sake of speed.

Sinful Hero wrote:Not too impressed with the heads in the Screaming Fur kit myself. Things seem to be progressing at least.

Alpharius wrote:The artwork showing the defeated Lion God certainly give the right scale impression too!