Hello, fine Boltonauts! It is me, the guy who is making this game, with an update for you on said game!
I had to take a little time for personal stuff (including a bout of covid) but I'm back to work now and trying to hammer out the last details so I can get the whole thing off to print.
One big change that I've introduced is an extra mechanic that allows for additional strategic choice in the game.
Because the game is all about building specific configurations -- and you need certain cards to build them -- and you can only get cards by drawing them -- it became clear that a little something was missing.
Players were too constrained by a bad draw. Even adding ways to cycle your cards more often didn't fully solve that, in my opinion.
It's not fun to end up blocked from being able to do much. What I wanted instead was to enable all players to make big, fun plays!
Updated Card Strategy
I've introduced a new mechanic that gives your cards a secondary ability. If you don't want to play a card onto your creature, you can instead "scrap" that card for a variety of different effects.
This opens up a new dimension of strategy and also allows for the creation of combos that can be really fun to pull off! I think it's a great new wrinkle for the game.
It's all pretty straightforward.
Join Virtual Playtesting With Me
I'm now doing more playtesting to confirm:
That the secondary effect options are interesting without being too overwhelming.
That the effects I've designed are fun, and affect the game flow positively.
That what you can do is clearly explained to players.
To get in more reps with the updated rules, I'm hosting more virtual playtesting this week:
If you've played before, I'd love to have you back! If you've never played, I'd love to have you too!
Unsupervised Playtesting
Pretty soon, I'm going to be sending out the rulebook to folks to confirm it's clear and understandable. Please feel free to sign up here if you want to be on that specific review list!
(If you've signed up for this earlier, I've still got your info and will be in touch soon enough.)
Other Updates
I THOUGHT I was basically done with the art for this game, but then I unfortunately stumbled across thousands of additional vintage images. (As documented here.) This might necessitate some new additions.
I'm going into much more detail on the finer points of game updates and design over on my Discord. Feel free to pop in there to ask any questions or get into the nitty-gritty with me!
If you happen to be in Seattle, I'm also doing in-person playtesting most Wednesdays at the Playtest Northwest meetups. Drop me a line on Discord if you want to connect in-person at one of those.
I'm pretty excited about this game, friends!!
SOME of you have also already received various pledge items; I did one round of advance shipping just because I already had the stuff handy for your rewards. You already know if you are one of these people. I mention it just so everyone else knows that some fulfillment on this project is already complete.
I'll be in touch with further updates as I have them! Thanks everyone!!
The end-game state of the creature first shown at the top of this update
I've had my head down working on more artwork this week, but here's a brief update on what to expect from here:
• I'm going to tunnel into a little hole for a while to crank on the artwork and other elements. My goal is to have everything finished and off to the printer by the end of May.
• You may hear about more playtesting opportunities between now and then! One cool thing to do is to sign up for remote playtesting if you're interested in spending some quality time with the rulebook. I'm not sure when I'll be sending that out for review, but that link is how to be specifically notified when I do.
• You are also welcome to join me on Discord -- I've just added a new games channel specifically for playtesting and sharing updates on Bolted. This includes an announcement of playtesting sessions later this week!
• Pledge manager survey links will probably start going out in June.
• Shipping will probably begin in August or September.
Tariffs, trade wars, etc. are definitely a key concern of mine, but I have a good manufacturer lined up and I'm confident I can get the product made -- the only part still uncertain is the costs that will end up being involved.
That's not something worth fretting over in April though. So much about that can change from day to day that instead, I'm just going to focus on what I can control for a while, and we'll see what the situation is later this summer. Things could be entirely different.
Me and Ryan! Like a decade ago! We look just the same now!!
🌎 WORLD NEWS UPDATE
Going into this campaign, there was already uncertainty swirling about the chance of new tariffs against China, where I am planning to print this game.
So today's ridiculous news -- that increased tariffs on imported goods from China will put a +54% surcharge on manufacturing costs -- is not exactly a surprise, although it is a super huge bummer.
There's a chance this may change by the time the games are finalized, manufactured, and ready to ship. Regardless of what might happen next, I am committed to maintaining my stated pricing on this game.
The tariffs are unpredictable, but there is one other factor that controls the price of manufacturing: Volume. The more games I print, the less expensive each copy is.
I do not want to take a huge risk on a ton of extra inventory. I want to print pretty close to the number I will need.
So if you're on the fence about this game, I urge you to back it today so I can realize the best volume pricing on the overall print run!
This is, after all, the only print run that's guaranteed to happen. If these tariffs go up any further, why would I print more copies later.
ONE OTHER THING ABOUT THE NEWS
Like, things suck right now. Generally speaking.
I sometimes feel very sheepish talking about this silly game, With All That's Going On Right Now.
But there are a few reasons why I keep banging this drum:
It's my job. No getting around that one. Making things for people to enjoy is my livelihood.
But also, it's fun. Working on and playing this game is really fun. Both in a "this is a nice distraction" sort of way -- but also, for me at least, the creativity I'm putting into it is invigorating.
I like making these weird characters. I really like working with all the art to make all the different cards, trying out different combinations of things and seeing how they all fit together.
In my livestream with Ryan, we'll be looking more closely at some of the cards and deciding which ones should go into the game.
Fun is necessary. Fun is energizing. Fun is productive.
So here are some of the cards that I've had fun making recently:
ENERGIZE CARDS
REWARD CARDS
PARTS CARDS
I don't even think those hybrid pieces make sense -- they create too many weird rule situations and they look more unnatural than usual -- but they were pretty fun to make.
HALF A DAY LEFT ON THIS CAMPAIGN! Thanks very much for your backing; for your championing and your referrals; or for your kind attention.
This isn't going in the game but it's a funny thing I found while looking for artwork for the game:
Hi, Bolted pals! A couple quick updates from me, the guy who is behind this project!!
LESS THAN 48 HOURS REMAIN
Thank you everyone for being on board this project!!
We have less than 2 days before the Backerkit campaign reaches its conclusion. I'm so grateful for your support and I am thrilled to see that the game will be printed.
I'll use Backerkit's special functionality to keep pre-orders open after the campaign, for anyone who comes in late -- but the higher, limited pledge levels won't be available then.
STRETCH GOAL REACHED
We have surpassed $18k in funding, which means we have UNLOCKED spot gloss printing on the box! This will give it a VERY fancy look; it will be a very dramatic effect.
There is one further stretch goal. If we reach $23k in funding, all backers will receive free downloads of my Wondermark comic collection ebooks! There is sometimes a surge at the end of a campaign, maybe we'll get all the way there!! It would be super cool if so.
BONUS CARDS UPDATE
Unfortunately, my cross-collab partner project Centipede failed to meet its funding goal. They'll regroup and perhaps launch their game again in the future. However, a few people have asked what this means for the special Centipede bonus card that I created for Bolted:
I have been using this card in my playtests recently and it's really fun.
I had to downscale it from 6 "leg" connectors to 4, just because the cards were having a hard time fitting onto all of them:
It's a risky card to play, because you're penalized for every connector you leave open, but it also opens up a lot of chaotic possibilities.
So, in honor of the fallen Centipede project, I have PROMOTED this card to a REGULAR GAME CARD and it will be included in the base game!
The other two bonus cards - Gax Head and Piranhamoose Antlers - will continue to be given FREE to those who qualify for them (early bird backers and repeat backers respectively), but I'll also make them available for purchase as add-ons when the time comes to fill out your final surveys.
PLAYTESTING
I'm already super happy with how the game plays, but all the rounds of playtesting have also been very helpful at identifying edge cases and putting new tweaks through their paces.
And it's also been really fun to meet folks and play the game with them!
Here are the times I'll be hosting virtual playtest sessions this week:
I am ALSO just about ready to start opening up UNSUPERVISED playtesting, which means, you get to read the rules and play the game by yourself.
The goal of that is to provide feedback to me on how clearly the rules are written.
If you’d like to play with your own group — we use a web browser, so you can either play remotely via video chat, or you can play IRL if everyone has a laptop — you can sign up for that here and I’ll follow up with detailed instructions shortly.
DESIGN DIARY
ICYMI, I did a short post on the Wondermark blog this week about some of the design choices going into the game cards.
tl;dr It's been really fun to design these cards. I keep going back into the ones that feel too "normal" to make them just a bit weirder. They can't ALL be wackadoodle, of course, but SOME of them should be.
As I work on the artwork for the game, I'm at the point where I'm ready to replace the placeholder connector icons with vintage-style artwork.
However, the original icons are very simple and clear and I'm debating whether to just keep the simpler style for clarity's sake, at the cost of some thematic immersion.
