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
