BackerKit - we need your help! Art Update, File Assembly, UKGE 2023
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Apr 03, 2023 at 03:34:27 AM
Hi folks,
I wanted to bring you up to speed on all things Legends Untold.
BackerKit Survey
We made a lot of progress in the first few weeks and achieved about 77% completion of the survey by the deadline of 15 March - thank you! Unfortunately this pace has slowed right down now and we have only moved up to 79% completion in the past few weeks. I do understand the number of options that we have presented in BackerKit has led to some issues for people. We are working through these, please do email me ([email protected]) if you are waiting on clarification (I currently have three open cases which I am trying to resolve).
For the remaining 260 backers who have not responded, please reach out to us if you need any help. We want to get all the files off to the manufacturer as soon as we are able to. It is enormously helpful if we can finalise production numbers as soon as possible. Please note our intention is not to charge cards until 1 May at the earliest and we will confirm beforehand. We just want to confirm productions quantities at this stage.
Art update
Things have moved forward and we now have all of the art we require to go to print with the following exceptions:
- Weeping Caves and Great Sewers Enhanced Editions - The 5 new Location cards in each of these sets remains WIP, we await the prefinals from the artist.
- Illumination of Deepsorrow Core Set - We now have finals for the Skygazer (Feminine) and the Earthguide (Masculine) which I am excited to reveal to you here:
Note the divining stones and dove on the Skygazer and the guide harpoon and lightning tattoos on the Earthguide. For those who are new to Legends Untold the Occupation card forms a base around which you build your character. There are no classes, you can mix and adapt (including across the sets) with very few exceptions. In this case if you wanted to use the Guide Harpoon with a completely different character build (I often do) then that is absolutely fine. It's up to you if you want to create the backstory as to how your character became in possession of such an exotic kit.
This just leaves the Initiate (Masculine) and the Envoy (Feminine) which have moved onwards from WIP sketch to WIP stage in the past month.
- Potions & Preparations Expansion Set - All art complete with the exception of the Apothecary (Feminine) form which has moved from concept to WIP stage.
A note on art and delivery schedule. As I mentioned in the previous update the art collection stage has extended a little bit beyond original plan. We are targeting the end of April for the remaining pieces:
- the 10 Locations for the Enhanced Editions
- the two Occupations for Deepsorrow and the Occupation for Potions & Preps
All of these pieces have been started and are at WIP stage.
Please bear with us, Daniel and Simon have finished their pieces. Steve and Johannes just need a little bit more time to work their magic.
File Assembly Update
Currently we are assembling those files for prototype that we have not seen yet (The Caves and Sewers Enhanced Editions and the three Booster sets). We want to get prototypes made for these sets in May so that we can then do final assembly of all files in June/July (please note Deepsorrow and Potions & Preps are largely complete already).
UKGE
I'm excited to confirm that after a five year absence we will be returning to the place where it all started for us - the UK Games Expo! We will be there with (we hope) prototypes for the Enhanced Editions of Caves and Sewers, all of the new Booster Sets, the dice sets, and of course the Deepsorrow and Potions & Preps for you to see. We will also be running a special demo game over the convention which will let you try out the new sets and celebrates us coming back to UKGE.
For those of you attending UKGE this year please stop by the stand, you will be made most welcome and we will do our best to make sure that every one of you gets to play a demo adventure if you wish to.
Best wishes to you all.
Cheers
IG
Big update! BackerKit Survey, Retailers, Art Update, Post prototype testing, New Player Aid, Indexed Glossary,
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 07, 2023 at 06:37:15 AM
BackerKit Survey
At the time of writing 69% of you have completed the Survey, thanks so much for this it makes our lives considerably easier estimating production volumes. We would also like to add a massive thank you to those of you who have added on additional items to your order. The net impact of this is material for a small publisher like us and really helps us continue to design new content.
Questions
- Timings - A number of you have asked about timings of the Survey. We are looking to establish manufacturing volumes at this stage but not to charge cards. Ideally we would like to have all the answers back by the survey deadline of March 15 2023 (Retailers see below). We can then lock down the surveys thereafter. We would not look to charge cards on BackerKit until 1 May 2023 at the earliest.
- Novice Booster Set 3 (The Cryptic Collection) - A number of you have asked what this set is. Please note we added this set as an option during the campaign. This is a bundle of cool content we want to offer up which we think some of you may find interesting. These are not essential to play the game, but they offer new choices to try out.
The details around the set are in Update 10:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legendsuntold/legends-untold-the-illumination-of-deepsorrow/posts/3682432
We added this set as a way to increase funding for the campaign when we were in a plateau. You asked if it could be offered as a free option instead of Novice Booster 1/Dice/Dividers and that is why it shows as as an option to select on the relevant pledges. It can also be selected as an Add-on.
- Upgrade only kit. For those that want to back the Upgrade Kit and only that the correct pricing is £12 for the set and £7 for worldwide shipping. BackerKit is applying the incorrect base shipping cost of £19 in a few but not all cases. If you are coming across this problem please just let us know and we will rectify it for you. The quickest way to contact us is via email: [email protected]
Please note if you are backing the Quest or New Content pledges you do not need to add the Upgrade kit as an Ad-On (unless you want multiple copies) it will be added for free. Please not if you are backing the Newcomer or All-In pledge you do not need the Upgrade Kit, you will be receiving the Enhanced Edition of the Caves (Newcomer) or Caves + Sewers (All In) so there is nothing to upgrade.
I can see this important question from Aonline (thanks) so I will answer here to the benefit of all:
Question:
Please remind me, for returning backers, I know for sure we are getting the new cards and aids in the upgrade kit, but are we getting pdf/digital access to Caves and Sewers: Updated Core Rules and Intro Scenario? How about the books for Weeping Caves: A new Core Rulebook in A4 format not the original A5.
A tweaked Campaign book with two revised Adventures
A new Contents Almanac in A4 format.
Answer:
I just want to make sure I am answering this correctly. So for an £88 New Content request you would indeed receive an Upgrade pack which upgrades the first printing Weeping Caves and Great Sewers sets with the key components from the new second printing. The contents of this are:
2x Readiness tracker double poker cards
2x Punchboards from the Weeping Caves reprint
2x Punchboards from the Great Sewers reprint
2 replacement cards for the Caves and Sewers that have slight errors in them
2x replacement Adventures for the Weeping Caves set
PDFs of the Core Rulebook
30 cards from the Weeping Caves Enhanced Edition
30 cards from the Great Sewers Enhanced Edition
You will not require a copy of the new Core Rulebook as it is the same A4 format book you will receive in the Deepsorrow set. Likewise the same answer for the Almanac, you will be able to see any Almanac components from your Deepsorrow set.
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Retailers - please note it is is much simpler for us to deal with this off platform and give you the flexibility you desire when ordering case quantities. You are not required to complete the survey. We will be in touch shortly to arrange things.
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Art update
We have made a lot of progress in the past few weeks. Here is the current status at time of writing:
- Illumination of Deepsorrow Core Set - All art collected apart from the 4 reverses of the Occupation cards. Details as follows:
Earthguide (Masculine) - at WIP sketch stage
Initiate (Masculine) at WIP sketch stage
Skygazer (Feminine) at concept stage
Envoy (Feminine) at WIP sketch stage
Here is the Envoy WIP sketch below:
Note the jade motifs and finery confirming this character is an educated Envoy travelling form the Jade Realms. Steve will continue to add detail as he renders the piece, you can see the two pole cats here mirroring the masculine form of the Occupation card. The addition of realistic and historically grounded equipment and clothing is important to us. We have always wanted Mor Nadar to feel like you can easily slip in and out of it. I'm really excited to see the final for this card, I think we will end up with another stunning Envoy to compliment the existing form that we already have.
- The Weeping Caves Enhanced Edition Core Set. This is a reprint but also includes 20% more cards and therefore this art required to be collected.
All art with the exception of the 5 new Location cards (which are WIP) has now been collected.
Here is the detail from the new 'Draich Spine' Booby Trap card that you helped to unlock:
- The Great Sewers Enhanced Edition Core Set. This is a reprint but also includes 20% more cards and therefore this art required to be collected.
All art with the exception of the 5 new Location cards (which are WIP) has now been collected.
Here is the detail from the new 'Glow-worm' Booby Trap card that you helped to unlock:
- Potions & Preparations Expansion Set - All art complete with the exception of the Apothecary (Feminine) form which is at concept stage.
I am very excited to share some detail from the final form Stone Scout that you helped us design. Note we have incorporated protective goggles, the geode, a loupe for inspecting the geode and a gem lantern (out of shot in this detail) to give us our Gnimshka scout.
- Novice Booster 1 (Alchemist, Druid & Treasure Novice Booster) - All art complete prior to launch (this is a reprint)
- Novice Booster 2 (A Trove of Treasures) - All art collected in March 2023
Here are a couple of the pieces we have collected since the previous update:
For those that like big clobbering weapons and don't care so much about defence (you know who you are people) we are excited to share the Maul.
And for those that do care about defence, It is our pleasure to share the new Hoplite Armour Outfit that has been completed. This is an interesting one as we actually had the piece at the time of launch but in my head I was always looking for another render level just to sharpen up the scales on the linothorax. If you look at the left (previous) and right (new) images you can see that we are just tightening up a few of the images to make the product the very best that we can make it for you. In particular Outfits have a big image that sits in front of you for the whole game so if we can make improvements in the time we have then we will do so.
- Novice Booster 3 (The Cryptic Collection) - All art collected in Feb 2023
A note on art and delivery schedule. I have endeavoured to demonstrate above the progress we are making and how close we are to completing this stage. Steve, Daniel, Simon and Johannes are working really hard to make everything look 'just so' for the game. However it looks like we are going to need just a little extra time to close out the remaining Occupation and Location cards. I can not confirm for definite yet but I think end of March may actually be of April for final art collation.
I am mentioning this now so that there is no surprise at the end of the month (which was the deadline we announced for art collation in the Kickstarter). Please bear with us, art completion estimates are always just that, and I would hope you would agree that the pieces which have been produced will make for an amazing game.
We will of course continue on all the other pre-manufacturing work in parallel with any delayed art completion work to minimise disruption to the delivery schedule.
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Post prototype testing
We have now completed post -prototype testing of the Potions & Preps Set (note we had already done this with Deepsorrow which arrived earlier in the design process). Multiple scenarios were tested including high and low-level builds, party play and lone-wolf play and in Caves and Sewers.
I am pleased to say the set performed exactly as we intended and the changes from the pre-prototype rough (which were largely to do with simplifying the UI) worked perfectly.
For those that want to see shots please forgive these quick and dirty captures I made while taking notes:
This one shows perhaps my favourite Ability in the new set. Mechanically speaking if you begin with a Kit rather than a Weapon at L1 (likely with a Crafting build) you are going to have limited combat options so being able to use those pruning shears to deadly effect comes in very handy. This is also a nod to any fellow gardeners out there and of course to the Gardener Occupation in the Novice Booster 1 set:
And here is the character build for this low level Apothecary.
A Higher level Apothecary build - note the 4 Recipes. He has successfully gathered 6 different Plant Resources at this point.
And the Higher Level build alongside the rest of the party so you can see how the tableau differs for each. Note the Goblin Shaman still nearly managed a TPK so I am comfortable that Foe remains a tough one!
In another Adventure I came across a Newcomer Knight armed with my trusty pruning shears and a Pretty Fern - it was messy! The Herbs (and Gems for Glyptographers) that you add in to the Adventure and Treasure decks work really well though. They absolutely will encourage any Hero who is a crafter to want to go through those Barriers and find all the things they can use to craft their recipes.
Finally here is a quick one of the Stone Scout at a low level.
I did not have any stones remaining to throw against the Dripping Grimm - I sorely wanted to! Somewhere out there there is a Grimm guarding all that stuff...and a little Gnimshka who is determined to claim it.
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New player Aid
Whilst testing Potions & Preps the one thing I did think would be useful for some would be a little player aid to sit beside your character tableau. This information is already in the rules book that comes with the set but instead of you having to look it up, it is all there in front of you. We are still finalising but we propose to include this aid as a double sided poker card in the Pots & Preps set and put in two copies so that you have them to hand. (Please note the Card Codes at the bottom are not final, this was something Morgan kindly put together at short notice).
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Indexed Glossary
You may remember that Daniel at the Dungeon Dive expressed a desire to see an Index in the game. We are working on this just now by adapting the current Glossary to make it a more comprehensive reference with key page entries added and a refinement of some of the game terms where required.
That's it for now folks, a beast of an update but I hope I have covered everything off.
Best wishes to you all.
Cheers
IG
BackerKit surveys are coming!
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 12:13:34 PM
Hey folks!
You will shortly receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfil your rewards.
You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!
After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.
If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://lu-deepsorrow.backerkit.com/
If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://lu-deepsorrow.backerkit.com/faq
What happens next?
Via BackerKit we will conduct a 'smoke test' which sends out the survey to 5% of people in each tier to establish if there are any bugs in the survey / pledge manager set up. After that the remaining 95% of invites are sent out.
We have been through extensive testing with BackerKit but there are a lot of variables at play here. Please bear with us if something is not working the way it should. We will of course remedy any problems to ensure that you all receive the rewards that you want.
I'd also like to apologise for the two week delay in getting this out. It really has been a journey this time compared to the first campaign, accommodating all of the choices has certainly been a challenge to overcome. We now hope you will have a survey that is easy to fill in, accommodates all of the options available and enables others to join us on the journey via late pledges.
Best wishes to you all
Cheers
IG
Pledgemanager survey at review stage, Card Dividers mock up
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 03:43:12 AM
Hi folks,
I wanted to let you know that the pledgemanager survey is now at the formal review stage with BackerKit. It has been a lot more work to complete this time because of:
- the flexible reward options we have added
- the upgrade kit as a free thing with most pledges but as a separate add-on with no postage and then as as a separate pledge with the reduced £7 postage
- The option to take the French language version of Deepsorrow as a separate SKU published by another party
All of these things are easy to solve if we were at a con and handing you the rewards however we are coordinating this globally and need to apply rules for the pledgemanager to follow. These things are stretching the functionality of the standard options on BackerKit but we are working hand in hand with them to come up with an easy to use tool for you all.
There are only a few outstanding edge cases that the review has found, we hope we can solve these early next week and then launch.
Apologies for the delay folks!
In the meantime I thought some of you might like to see the mock up of the Card Dividers that we added during the campaign. The index tab at the top will sit above any sleeves on the cards for ease of reading.
We are fully aware that indexing cards is a personal thing, some like to do divider then cards some the other way round. Also some people like to index by Set then card Type, others like to do it the other way round. We believe this solution will cover these situations and also give you the added benefit of showing the applicable Environments for cards where it is appropriate (Caves, Sewers etc.).
We are trying to be forward thinking here in that if we went on and made other Environments (Crypts, Works, Urban, Wilderness) they could all follow the same system.
For Peter A - I'm not sure which Environments we would mark 'Lich' under - for most folks Crypts...for you everywhere? :D
Cheers
IG
