September Updates: Pledge Manager, Game Design, and Admin
over 4 years ago – Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 09:46:45 PM

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well. Welcome to the first monthly update for Earthborne Rangers!

Thank you all again for making the campaign a success and for your continued support. It’s been deeply gratifying to hear from those of you who’ve reached out to say how inspired you are by either the mission, the game, the artwork, or all of the above, and to see publishers like Stonemaier Games posting publicly about lessening the environmental impact of their products. A significant part of the mission was to raise awareness in the industry, and so far, that seems to be the case, which is awesome.

Since the conclusion of the campaign, I’ve begun the process of requoting the production costs with manufacturers, connecting with fulfillment services, and speaking with accountants. I’m also doing my best to finally take some time off and play some games (which I have!).

I was very inspired by all of you, our conversations during the campaign, and your reactions to the TTS demo and gameplay videos, and as a result, I’ve also spent some time in the past few weeks writing lore and sketching new concepts, like this one!

Joe has been really bringing the heat with his concepts since the campaign began, and he hasn't let up. He's been turning in a lot of really great stuff, like this!

Evan has begun scouting for artists and has begun to build a list of very talented illustrators that compliment his style, so I’m looking forward to having a lot of new finished artwork to share with you all in the months ahead.

He and Fischer also rebuilt all of our card templates and data sources so that we can quickly and easily output cards for testing purposes. It involved a lot of coding, debugging, and teamwork, but the end result will save us countless hours of manual labor as we start external play testing again next month. For a game with as many cards as Earthborne Rangers, that’s a big deal!

Pledge Manager Update

I know that many of you are looking forward to the pledge manager opening. Here’s an update on where it currently stands.

I had hoped to have the pledge manager up and running shortly after the conclusion of the campaign, but as I began the process of setting it up with a DIY service, I soon realized that it was a more monumental task than I had anticipated. As such, I’ve decided to move forward with Backerkit as the pledge manager, as they’ll be able to offer support to any of you who may have questions after the pledge manager opens, and they’ll also be able to support us as we finish setting everything up.

The only hurdle that needs to be cleared before we launch the pledge manager is having a solution in place for shipping charges. As I mentioned on the campaign page, my hope is to wait to charge for shipping until nearer to fulfillment--which can be a tricky proposition for a pledge manager. It sounds like Backerkit has a promising solution, however, so we should be able to do just that (which will allow us to open the pledge manager without having to settle on shipping costs first). If that’s the case, then you should look forward to the pledge manager opening sometime in the next few weeks. If not, then we will wait until we feel confident with the shipping costs before we open the pledge manager. I will keep you posted in either case!

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Design Update by Andrew Fischer

Thank you all for helping make Earthborne Rangers’ kickstarter such a success! It was really exciting to finally share the game with the world and see you all get hyped about the project with us. For me, it was especially exhilarating (and a bit terrifying) to first share the draft rules and TTS demo of our “vertical slice” with you. Most of my career I worked with studios that kept games tight to their chests until release, so sharing unfinished, in-development game content with the public was a bit nerve-wracking. But in the end, I’m so glad we did.

Not only was sharing the vertical slice valuable for all of you to be able to play the game before deciding whether or not to back the project, but it ended up being a valuable resource for our design team in the sheer amount of feedback you all gave us.

After the Kickstarter wrapped, one of the first things I set out to do was to collect and analyze all of the feedback from emails, forums, and the comments section. From this feedback we’ve made a ton of small fixes and tweaks to the existing rules and content. The feedback has also informed a couple directions we are trying out in testing for certain elements of the game system. I can’t get into everything in detail here, but here are a select few high-level takeaways from your feedback:

• The majority of playthroughs were performed solo. While the majority of players said they planned to play two-player.
• Challenge deck distribution and customization was the most-discussed topic. There was wide support for a lack of an “auto-fail” card in the challenge deck, and there was a lot of interest in being able to customize the deck, especially to make challenge icon distribution more asymmetrical.
• The 16 different aspect + approach icon pairings led to some confusion for players in remembering/seeing which test used which pairing.
• Sometimes the optimal move is to rest with energy still left in your pool. This felt frustrating and counterintuitive to players who wanted to feel like they were using all their resources as optimally as possible.
• There was a lot of curiosity about difficulty scaling in the final game and concern about whether or not the weather cards would prove sufficient to provide a big enough challenge.

These (among many others) are some of the pieces of feedback we’re addressing as we’ve been diving back into content design and development over the last few weeks. As we continue to work, we’ll keep you updated on the solutions and changes we settle on in these updates.

We are hoping to start play testing of the core set content later next month (October). Thank you to everyone who has reached out with interest in testing. We probably won't be able to use everyone, but we will be reaching out to a select group in the coming weeks to recruit our initial pool of testers.

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If you have any questions or concerns (or you just want to say hi!) please send me a DM here on Kickstarter or send us an email at [email protected]. If not, we'll see you again next month! Until then!

Much love,

Andrew

Thank you!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 01, 2021 at 04:56:43 PM

Hi everyone!

Thank you all so much for your support and your enthusiasm throughout the campaign. The past three weeks have been incredible. The team and I are extremely grateful to all of you for the energy and effort you've put into its success.

In the final 24 hours, we unlocked regional manufacturing for the U.S., and we made a great push for regional manufacturing in Europe. Even though we fell a short of the goal in Europe, given the large number of $5 backers the project has, I'm reasonably confident that we'll be able to make up ground in the months ahead in the pledge manager. I believe in the many benefits of regional manufacturing, and it's clear from the success of this campaign that you do too. We'll continue to work toward that goal together, and we'll see if we can bring a regional production of Earthborne Rangers to Europe before it's all said and done.

Going forward, you can expect monthly updates on our progress. The updates will focus primarily on our progress toward completing the game, including new details and insights on the rules, cards, campaign, writing, art, and graphic design. We'll also share more details on add-ons as they emerge, including excerpts from the World of Earthborne Rangers art & lore book, deluxe energy and ranger token tooling and casting, playmat and map design, and more. Lastly, we're planning on sharing everything that we learn in the months ahead about sustainability and what it means for the tabletop industry, so that we can all increase our knowledge on the subject and share that knowledge with others.

A couple other items:

• We'll keep the Tabletop Simulator demo up and running for another two weeks, sealing it away at the end of the day on Tuesday, August 31st. If you would like to share your experience with the demo, please email us your feedback at [email protected].
• We will finish setting up the pledge manager in the next couple of days. We'll let you all know as soon as it's live!
• We will be sure to let you know if and when additional localized editions become available between now and fulfillment.

Thank you all again for your kindness and support. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to connect with you all, and I look forward to continuing the journey together in the months and years ahead.

Much love,

Andrew

Design Notes - The Mechanical Ecology
over 4 years ago – Tue, Aug 24, 2021 at 09:13:38 PM

Hi everyone!

Before I hand it off to Brooks Flugaur-Leavitt for our final Design Notes update of the campaign, I want to say how grateful I am to all of you for your continued support. Today's my birthday, and even though I spent most of it in the same place I've spent the last two weeks, thanks to all of you it's been a very, very happy one. Thank you all! I'm going to go eat some cake!

Much love,

Andrew

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Hello Rangers!

I’m Brooks Flugaur-Leavitt, one of the designers on the project.  In today's update I want to share with you how the thematic interactions between the organisms and the natural environments of the world of Earthborne inspired the design of the game’s “mechanical ecology.”

The Valley's "Engine"

When I played Earthborne Rangers for the first time last summer, what immediately captured my imagination was how the environment itself felt like an active participant in the game.  The challenge effects allowed cards in play to spontaneously interact with not just the Rangers, but each other as well, giving the impression of a living world in which the player was not the only agent of change. The basic predator-prey effects in the prototype convinced me that we could create a compelling and challenging experience that didn't depend on every card being inherently hostile to the players.

Predator, Prey, Plant, Terrain

To convey the sense of exploration and discovery at the heart of the setting, it was important for each new location and environment to offer something unique.  At the same time, the game needed enough mechanical consistency for players to be able to strategize.  For that to be the case, each set needed cards that covered certain essential roles that were powered by challenge effects, representing the core interactions players would experience wherever they went in the Valley.

To reinforce and remind myself of these I adopted the mantra of "Predator, Prey, Plant, Terrain" for each new card set. Each fills an important role:

•  Predators are beings that pose a threat to prey, but also to the Rangers. They are almost always a source of danger to the player, but they also hunt prey. When they do, it can meaningfully alter the board-state.
•  Prey are potential targets for predators and in turn will consume the flora in the region.
•  Plants (Flora) are the plant life of the region. As a target for prey, their presence is essential to depicting a living, natural environment, and their specific in-game effects vary widely. Many flora are beneficial and offer helpful effects in certain situations.
•  Terrain represents the topography of the region and sets the scene for your journey.  It is often an obstacle to travel, and occasionally a serious hazard, but it also offers opportunities to interact with and alter the board-state in ways that aren't available elsewhere.
   

Predator, prey, flora, and terrain are far from the only card traits in the game. These four traits, however, are the most prevalent, and are integral to the experience of journeying through the wilderness.

The Ecology in Action

Since these ecological roles are present in every trail set, the more content we created, the more we began to explore abilities powered by the challenge effect "engine."  In the process, each challenge icon took on a general theme, tied to certain game effects that ensured they would be compatible with one another. Giving them each a general theme also helps players know at least a little of what to expect when they see them arrayed on the table.

The crest came to symbolize immediacy and danger. When this icon is revealed, Rangers and the people of the Valley are often attacked or threatened by predators or other hazards.

The mountain often represents the natural life cycle of the wilderness. When this icon is revealed, plants may grow, prey may eat them, predators eat *them*, and other ecological interactions and events may occur.

The sun became associated with weather and the passage of time. When this icon is revealed weather effects often trigger, and there may also be thematic shifts in the activity and behavior of the predators, prey, or flora on the table.

Assigning effects to challenge icons isn't only an exercise in theme.  Categorizing them as part of the design process helps ensure that they interact with each other as intended.  For example, almost all predators have a crest challenge effect that threatens Rangers when they are within reach.  If the common prey challenge effect also triggered on the crest, the queue of effects to resolve would be much more complicated.  Resolving the prey effect on the mountain icon instead keeps these interactions separate, so that they don't conflict with one another.

Similarly, positioning cards either along the way or within reach changes the order in which their challenge effects resolve.  Cards representing humans usually come into play along the way, and they typically have crest challenge effects that trigger only in the presence of danger, usually in the form of a predator within reach of a Ranger. Since challenge effects along the way trigger before challenge effects within reach, predators will attack the friendly people of the Valley before they have a chance to fatigue or injure you--creating a situation that requires you to be proactive about protecting them.

In addition to exhausting or clearing cards to nullify those challenge effects, you can protect the people of the Valley with abilities that move cards to different zones on the table, changing the order and even the timing of their challenge effects.  For example, moving a friendly human to within reach of you to sit alongside a predator will mean that you’ll be able to choose the order in which the crest effects trigger, protecting them from harm while putting yourself at risk!

This flexibility allows us to create a multitude different interactions between cards, both within a given set and across the breadth of the game.  Their entwined interactions create an emergent narrative, and provide organic storytelling opportunities that enhance the hand-crafted moments you’ll read from the campaign log.

So keep your eyes peeled as you travel through the Valley, you never know what you might encounter next!

Until next time!

Brooks Flugaur-Leavitt

Today's Gameplay Livestream is Now Live!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 10:05:53 AM

Hi everyone!

It's time to join Zach and Steven of Team Covenant as they continue their search for Quisi Vos! You can watch it right here. If you miss the livestream, you'll be able to watch the archive using the same link once YouTube finishes processing the video. I will also post a link on the campaign page.

Like last week, I'll be in the YouTube live chat to answer any questions you may have.

I hope to see you there!

Also, we're extremely close to unlocking the regional manufacturing stretch goals. As of this writing, we only need a little over a hundred more backers at the $80 pledge level or higher to set the race toward regional manufacturing in motion.

And! We'll be making the demo that Zach and Steven are playing today available on Tabletop Simulator this week on Steam. Stay tuned!

Much love,

Andrew

The Final Gameplay Livestream is Live!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 09:02:25 PM

Hi everyone!

The final gameplay livestream of the Kickstarter campaign is live! You can watch it right here:

I've had a great time watching Zach and Steven learn the game and explore the Valley. I hope you have too! As with the previous livestreams, I'll be in the YouTube chat along with the rest of the team to answer any questions you may have, or just to say hello. We hope to see you there!

Regional Manufacturing Stretch Goal Progress

We've made great progress this week toward unlocking regional manufacturing. As of this morning, the U.S. and Canada were less than 100 backers away from ensuring a print run here in the States. Europe has more of the mountain yet to climb, but the total number of backers in Europe has increased significantly the past couple of days. If we can make a strong enough push here in the last 24 hours, and come close enough to the target, we'll be able to keep climbing that mountain in the pledge manager, and see if we can make a production in Europe happen before it's all said and done.

I will update the numbers in the morning and then again after the campaign concludes tomorrow afternoon. They're looking great!

After nearly three weeks, it feels surreal to be nearing the end of the campaign. Thank you all so much for making it such an amazing and wonderful experience. It's been a lot of fun.

Until tomorrow!

Much love,

Andrew