Say Hello to Our Furry Friends!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Feb 01, 2020 at 01:51:35 AM

Just a quick update today as we head into the final weekend of the campaign. Let me start off by saying thanks to all of you. This has been a really special effort, and that would not be possible without you. Yes, you, over there! The final 48 hours can be a wild rush, so buckle up.

If you didn't see it, yesterday we posted the second "funsies" video by the Brothers Murph. This time, they brought along Paula Deming of Things Get Dicey to offer some tips on what to do with that Tower when you're not playing the game. Get ready for some Dark Tower Decor!

I'm so glad you all seem to be enjoying these videos. When we commissioned them, we weren't sure if folks would think it was weird to do as part of a Kickstarter campaign. We've always thought that the campaign shouldn't just be about funding the project but building a community, and part of that is just having fun some times. If you'd like to see more of their work, check out the Brothers Murph channel and Paula Deming's channel on YouTube.

Speaking of fun, I thought you all would like to see a couple of special allies. If you're a fan of the original game, they might look familiar. Say hello to Haraswa and Maxim. 

These cuties will show up as guild allies in the Alliances expansion. We talked a little bit about how that works in a prior update. Alliances introduces four guilds (in addition to new rules, treasures, and more). You'll use a new resource, Influence, to, well, influence the guilds to aid you in your effort to vanquish the Tower. One of the ways you can do that is by recruiting allies directly from the guilds. Each guild has 3 allies to choose from. Our majestic Haraswa the Pegasus can be gained from the Arcane Scouts. And if you can persuade the Thieves' Guild to lend you Maxim the Beast, you'll be able to load him up with a host of treasure. This is just one of the small ways the Alliances expansion adds depth and options to the game without layering on a bunch of alien and complex rules. Reminder: The Alliances expansion is included in the "Azkol's Fortune" pledge level. Or you can add it to a "Charge the Tower" pledge now by manually increasing your pledge by $30 or later in BackerKit.

And, finally, time for another Stretch Goal Round-Up.

We unlocked a handy new treasure, the Amulet of the Marid: the confers mastery over the rivers and lakes via the water spirit trapped within. 

We unlocked a custom Dark Tower font you'll be able to use for your personal RTDT Launch Party invitation, making a certificate if you're giving it as a gift before it arrives, wedding, bar mitzvah, doctoral thesis, death metal album cover, or more. (You think I'm joking, but someone just released an album on bandcamp using our Fireball Island font.) 

And, I'm sad to say, we unlocked another corruption to make your lives a little more miserable. When you're Suspicious, there's no way to tell whether that vial contains a potion or poison. 

That's it for today. Not planning on an update over the weekend. Have fun with friends and family or hang out with us in the comments. Either way, see you on Monday, when we'll be doing a big update introducing you to all the artists who helped give this game it's unique look and the process from concept to final illustration. Until then, Keep Charging the Tower.

Ready for Its Close-Up: A Design Diary by Tim Burrell-Saward
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jan 31, 2020 at 01:59:18 AM

Today, we've got a fascinating follow-up by our lead Tower designer, Tim Burrell-Saward on the aesthetic design of the tower. Meanwhile, if you missed the big news, we recently announced we are adding competitive play to go along with the cooperative play previously discussed. We're heading into the home stretch, so keep spreading the word. Take it away, Tim:

In my last post I talked about the work that went into everything inside the tower, so now it’s time for a little story about how the outsides started from nothing and turned into this:

One of the core design pillars that the team set out from the start was that the new game felt spiritually linked to the original game, but didn’t feel like a one-to-one remake or direct sequel. That meant taking a close look at the tower from the 1981 game and figuring out which aesthetic choices we wanted to draw inspiration from and which would be best left behind.

The original tower features a fairly generic medieval castle design, with its sheer walls, crenellated battlements and giant arched doorway. It’s made from a single colour of flat grey plastic, with a subtle mottled texture applied to give the appearance of finely worked rock. The tower sits perched on an outcrop of basalt columns in the same colour, dragon flag blowing in the wind. It's hard to tell how long the tower has stood, as there are no visible signs of age, but even with its fairly rudimentary form it still casts an imposing figure across the table.

I like my work to be narratively driven, meaning that I like to keep the story of the thing in mind whilst I’m designing it. My initial sketches stemmed from the idea that the new tower would be a man-made structure, similar to the original tower, but one that had been warped and twisted by some kind of ancient evil.

Unsurprisingly, given the field we work in, this direction quickly lead to talk of non-Euclidean geometry, meaning the kind of physics-defying architecture commonly associated with the Cthulhu mythos, MC Escher paintings, or 2019’s excellent Manifold Garden. I’m talking about impossible structures and mathematically illogical shapes that change based on the angle they’re viewed from. Forms that play with scale and perspective, generating feelings of otherworldly malevolence and cosmic dread.

But the problem with impossible forms is that, well, they tend to be impossible. Perhaps not if you’re solely working in digital space, and maybe even not if you’re only making things using 3D printers (where the laws of physics are a little more fluid), but if your aim is to make something using mass manufacturing, then you need to be aware of the limitations that come with those processes. And sadly those processes aren’t quite at the stage of being able to produce full blown architectural nightmares. Not yet anyway. 

For the next iteration we didn’t stray too far from Lovecraftian horrors, this time looking at the idea of the tower being a giant prison for some kind of ancient evil who is determined to escape. Doorways would splinter open to reveal pulsating fleshy tentacles, or perhaps grotesque moving eyes or gnashing teeth. This approach, although obviously ridiculously cool in concept, was eventually dropped due to its obscene manufacturing complications, but the idea of removing parts of the shell to reveal gameplay modifiers remained, eventually becoming the rune system present in the final design.

At this point in the process I skinned a Furby to see how its mechanical eyes worked. I found this to be a surprisingly traumatic experience.

From here we decided that what we really wanted was something that: (a) looked like it had existed since time immemorial, (b) would fit the tone and scale of the rest of the game, (c) avoided any direct pop culture references, and (d) would look cool as heck when lit up from within. And then serendipity struck and I happened to visit a gallery showing some Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) illustrations. Turns out Moebius loved drawing giant, ancient, foreboding crystal monoliths. And with that, I had a direction.

By this point we were confident that we were making progress, but we worried that an entirely crystal structure might be a little boring on the eye. We needed something to break up the form a little, and Jason came up with the idea of incorporating a second material into the design. So we would have a shiny, semi-transparent, smokey black crystal for the upper sections (which would look great when backlit), and a hard, hewn, textured rock for the lower sections. This also gave me opportunity to give a little nod to the original design by using a beautiful hexagonal column pattern to bring some detail to the lower parts.

From this point I moved on to 3D modelling using a combination of Rhino and Fusion 360 to create the forms, in conjunction with a whole heap of 3D printing to test out how the shapes look in real life. At the same time I also looked at how the shell would be made during manufacture, being mindful to make sure it could be easily injection moulded, that it consisted of as small a number of parts as possible, and that the outer shell interfaced with the internal parts suitably. This is an ongoing process and as soon as the Kickstarter campaign ends I’ll begin working with our factory to revise the design further to make it as efficient, reliable and robust as possible.

The output from this stage is what you’ll see in the photos on the campaign page - a handmade and hand painted shell that gives a good idea of how the final piece will look. But I’m not finished with it just yet...

The final phase before the manufacturing process begins proper is all about detailing, which is very likely exactly what I’ll be doing as you’re reading this update. Now that we’re happy with the outer design (bar the very spiky spikes up top, which will need a bit of filing) I can start to add texture, to break up some of those big surfaces and make the piece look a little more ancient, weathered and believable. This is a tricky process as I have to move between different programs and modes of modelling (solid NURBS to surface meshes), and then once I’m done I need to convert everything back in order that the factory can work with the files. 

All being well, the final tower design will have a level of detail something along the lines of this...

That brings us up to the present day, which means the end of this update. I hope you’ve found this interesting and are happy with the design choices we’ve made!? I’ll keep posting updates as things progress and we move into manufacturing, and I’m really looking forward to taking you all on the journey with us. As always I’ll be floating around in the comments if you have any questions or feedback.

Competitive Play Is Now in the Game! Also, Lots of Other Stuff.
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 02:07:15 AM

*Race* to Dark Tower

Let's get to the good part: The game will now include competitive play in addition to the cooperative play you all have seen from the beginning. The way competitive play works is this: Instead of working together to complete the main objective supplied by the featured ally, each hero will get a series of personal quests to complete. The first hero to complete their quests releases the adversary. Any hero who has completed their quests may battle the adversary. The first hero to defeat the adversary wins.

You'll note that this framework is reminiscent of the play style of the original game, i.e., a race to complete a quest and defeat the bad guy in the tower. So, for folks who have been asking for "classic" play, this might well scratch that itch. And for folks who just want more game in their game, now you have a whole new way to play.

Some important details:

• This is not an add-on; there is no additional charge. This is just a new way to play that you'll select in the app and will likely use a couple of specific components, e.g., personal quest cards.
• You still need the app to play. If having an app was your dealbreaker, this game is still not for you. Competitive play uses the app to handle battles, dungeons, quests, and events.
• As currently designed, you can play competitive with virtually all of the regular features of the game, such as different adversaries, treasures, etc. We're tweaking some effects so they work well for both styles of play.

Finally, I want to make clear that this is mid-development, so the details are very much subject to change. But we are now committed to delivering a satisfying competitive play experience, and we are confident we can do it. Competitive play is something we've known from the beginning folks wanted. However, we had to stay focused on cooperative play to avoid dividing our efforts. It was only recently, as cooperative play really started to get locked into place, that ideas for how to do competitive play began to crystallize. Behind the scenes, we've been working furiously on it for the past couple of months, ideating, playtesting, and iterating. Literally this past week, both Rob and I had satisfying playtests that let us know this will actually work. Rob is a true professional and is always careful not to promise something he isn't confident he can deliver on. I told Rob the ultimate decision on whether we include competitive play in this campaign was his to make. And now it's happening, and we're very excited to share that news with you all.

Here's the thing: It would have been a lot easier to spread that news if we had been able to offer competitive play from the beginning. Based on comments and messages we've seen, we know there are a lot of folks out there who are interested in competitive play who might have tuned out by now. We need you to help spread the word. Get on BGG or social media or talk to your friends who wanted to see this and let them know it's happening!

All the Stretch Goals

As we head into the final week, we wanted to lay out all of the remaining stretch goals that we have planned through the end of the campaign. We think, with the competitive play announcement, the usual final-48 rush, and your help, that we'll be able to meet these fun additions:

• Two Additional Art Prints: We wanted to give some love to the baddies, so we'll put Qistina's amazing brigand illustration in the art print pack. And we'll also run a little survey for backers to pick the last print!
• Lemure: This new foe haunts the living and spreads fear, adding skulls to your buildings. Adds 6 very cool minis to the Dark Horde pack.
• Merch Store Discount: We'll give a 20% discount on merchandise in our webstore. We offer these items through a third-party service, Printify. They're great quality, and Jason designs some very cool stuff. At this discount, we are essentially offering them at cost so you all can get some cool RTDT swag to show off.
• Upsize the Heroes and Brigands: We'll increase the size of the hero and brigand miniatures to 32mm.
• The Gaze Eternal: A new adversary with some cool art and a killer mini, who'll add monstrosity tokens and 2000+ new game scenarios. More than other foes, the Gaze uses the Tower to actively target the players as they work to complete their scheme. 

These are all of the stretch goals we are planning on offering through the end of the campaign. While we have ideas for other tweaks and upgrades that might end up in the final game, we want to make sure we offer stretch goals that fit into our production timeline, so we can make sure we deliver this game to you on time.

Other Important Info

Finally, we want to update you on some other important questions folks have been asking.

Non-English Editions: Unfortunately, I just do not have any concrete news to report. For months, I've been working on trying to get something concrete done. However, given the unique nature of the Tower component and that final engineering has not been completed, we have not been able to finalize any arrangements for such editions. We will not be able to offer non-English editions in this campaign. Given the success of the campaign and the level of interest from other publishers, I am confident that there will ultimately be such editions, but those arrangements are most likely to be finalized over the summer. Once those arrangements are made, including what channel we can offer them in, we will make a formal announcement. Likewise, I cannot promise which add-ons, if any, would be picked up by any foreign-language publishing partners. It is possible that some will take just the base game and some will take the expansions as well.

So, what should you do? If you are dead set on getting the game and could make use of an English edition, the safest thing is to back now in the campaign. On the other hand, if you really need a particular language edition to play the game, the safest thing to do is to wait. You could, as a sort of compromise position, pledge at the $10 "Map to BackerKit" level to ensure you are a backer. You could apply those funds to one of the add-ons that won't be picked up, such as the neoprene mat. I wish I could give you more definitive information, but I also want to make sure I don't give you any misinformation.

PC Compatibility / Steam: We are not going to promise this functionality during the campaign. Since we are still in the middle of the app development, there are too many variables for us to definitively promise this. It is something we will revisit and might be possible down the road after we finish the app.

AirPlay / Chromecast: We are happy to report that the app will natively support these features so you can easily play the app on a large screen from your device. This is not an add-on; no additional charge.

Audio Features: We are happy to report that the game will feature a wide range of composed audio effects, including music and some light narration. We are not likely to have full narration of all the text in the game as we just don't think it will work well in practice and it poses a number of issues for updates and localization. However, we will have some voice features like grunts, shouts, and mysterious incantations that will greatly add to the ambiance of the game. This is not an add-on; no additional charge.

There you have it. If there are other questions you have, feel free to post them here or in the comments. In the meantime, Keep Charging the Tower ... and, while you're at it, see if you can round up a few friends to help you.

A Little Help from Our Friends
over 4 years ago – Tue, Jan 28, 2020 at 01:37:53 AM

Happy Monday, everybody! Let's start by acknowledging that number over there. $3 million! Wow! You all are amazing. As we roll into the final full week of this campaign, it's a good time to have a quick look back and take a deep breath as we sprint forward to the finish line.

A big part of the game comes in the form of allies. As you know, each game, one ally will offer the main objective to access the Tower. In addition to this important role, allies can also become available to recruit as companions during the game. When you recruit an ally, they provide powerful benefits like treasures. There are also a number of allies in the Alliances expansion you can recruit directly through the guilds. One of those, is a new member of the Arcane Scouts, Berat the Magus.

What's neat about allies is that the app knows when you recruit them, which means two things: The ally will seed events into the queue, and the ally's abilities can interact directly with the app. During the game, Berat will occasionally pop up with a handy spell. And when you delve into a dungeon, he can divine the final room, saving you precious resources (and give you advantages to get by the dungeon's traps and pitfalls).

(And, of course, I need to plant the disclaimer flag pretty clearly here that the mechanics are subject to change as we finish up development.)

As the campaign has marched onward, we've unlocked a number of foes and their corresponding miniatures for the Dark Horde add-on. If you haven't scanned through the ever-growing main page you might have missed the amazing 3D modeling from our good friends at Punga Miniatures. Say hello to the striga, orek, Tribe of Neuri, widowmade assassin, and, of course, the Dragon!

And now it's time for another edition of Stretch Goal Round-Up.

Bust out your Member's Only jacket and get ready for some sweet retro tunes. You will now be able to to turn on an option to give your game 80s 8-bit sounds. We'll be looking at some of the classic ditties and, because we've got a whole lot more memory to play with, probably a few more too. Should be a lot of fun.

If you've added the art prints to your pledge, you just got two more prints: the Archwright and the Haunted Recluse. These are glossy, 8x10, foil-enhanced prints that will spruce up your game room.

And we just unlocked a new add-on: custom card sleeves. This is a full set of premium quality sleeves for all the cards in the base game and Alliances expansion for both the large and mini cards. 108 standard and 84 minis plus some extras of each for safe measure.  The sleeves will feature a custom "partial art" design by Jason Taylor. (We'll show off that art in the new few days after get the clearance from the manufacturer.) The sleeves are $20 for the full set and are no additional shipping as long as you get at least one copy of the base game.

Probably a good time to point you to this earlier update about add-ons if you have questions on how they work. Short version: You can add funds now in Kickstarter to account for the add-ons you want to get, or you can wait and add them on in BackerKit.

Big update tomorrow, where we hope to reveal the rest of our stretch goals and answer most of the big questions you all have been asking. And now that we've got a little support from our allies and the end is in sight, it's time to Keep Charging the Tower!

Dungeons & Deals: A Game Design Diary by Brian Neff
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jan 24, 2020 at 01:29:13 AM

In an earlier update, I (Justin) talked about the quest/event system in general and how many scenarios it can generate. Today, I dragged one of our designers, Brian Neff, away from his massive quest spreadsheet to give you all some more information about some of the different types of things you'll be doing in the game and the different narratives that the various allies and adversaries bring with them. Take it away, Brian:

As in any game with digital components, during the design process we run into mechanics that we have to design around until we can get a digital prototype working. Things that we know we want in the game and that we know how they are going to work, but they have to take a backseat to the core functionality of the game. If you saw Return to Dark Tower at Gen Con or PAX Unplugged, then you saw a lot of the cool stuff that the app can do. But some savvy backers have pointed out two things we’ve talked about that playtesters haven’t seen yet: Dungeons and Deals. These are two things that we wanted to include in the game to make sure we leverage the app in as many cool ways as possible, and I’d like to take you on a quick tour.

Dungeons are mentioned briefly in the rulebook. Fundamentally, they work like combat. You go into a space with a Dungeon, you pick some cards, bad things happen, and you want a bunch of advantages. There are some key differences though.

First, you use the Quest action instead of the Battle action. This can obviously trigger different effects from virtues, items, and the like.

Second, you complete the dungeon by finding the exit. Cards in dungeons represent locations in it and, as such, are locked in a set pattern and don’t move around. One of those cards is the entrance. You'll start there, exploring each location, each card, as you go. One of those cards is the goal for that dungeon. When you find it, boom, dungeon completed.

Third, you draw and resolve cards individually as you explore. Unlike a battle, you take losses from each card as you go, rather than adding them all up at the end. You use your advantages as you go as well. The decision of when to use your advantages can be less tactical and more strategic. Your first room is a spike trap that makes you lose 8 warriors? Sure, you can use your stealth advantage to take no losses, but is the next room going to be worse?

Finally, you can leave a dungeon without finishing it. If the first few rooms beat you up, you can decide that discretion is the better part of valor and flee the dungeon. You won’t get your 2 spirit, and you’ll still take the losses from the cards you drew, but it is better than taking a corruption, right? Since the locations are fixed, the next person to delve into that dungeon sees the explored areas and can follow a different path.

Dungeons let us leverage the power of the app to create new quests and side objectives, and make the Four Kingdoms feel more populated and alive. From caves that are crawling with Beasts, to tombs full of vicious Undead, to fortresses staffed by highly skilled humanoids, Dungeons will give players a new way to approach their objectives, and deadlier challenges to face. (And for folks who've been looking for where we put the tombs and ruins, those show up as some of the types of dungeons you'll discover in the game.)

Deals are another way we wanted to utilize the app, but for a different purpose. One of the design goals that Rob had early on was to find ways to make the tower feel more alive. We had a long conversation about what each of the Adversaries wanted, and how they were going to get it. He wanted the malevolent being inside the tower to feel as different as possible from game to game. Sometimes that means they are a being of wanton destruction, merely wreaking havoc around the Four Kingdoms. But sometimes, we wanted the adversary to feel a little more … devious. This is where Deals come into play.

Some adversaries will offer you deals to further their own goals. Isa the Exile didn’t get to be as powerful as he is without making some deals along the way. Sometimes he will offer to bribe you to not ruin his plans for the month. Sometimes he will come at you with a hard choice: Give up a companion or he will unleash a mighty Titan on the landscape. When and how these deals come out changes from game to game and will help Isa feel different each time you oppose him.

Ashstrider, on the other hand, wants to cause some chaos. He’s devilishly smart, and will sometimes let you pick your poison. Do you want everyone to lose 10 warriors, or do you want to set all the bazaars on fire? Quick, better pick in the next 20 seconds, or he will do both.

Deals let us add a new dimension to the Adversaries that we wouldn’t be able to without the app. Thanks for coming with me on a journey behind the curtain. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a message below, and I’ll answer as best I can.

As a final treat, I got the crew to work up these tables show the "loglines" for each of the allies and adversaries you'll find in the game. For the allies, they'll each offer you a different way to access the Tower. For Miras, you'll have a literal tower defense game to manage, keeping enemy supplies from reaching it. For Letha, you'll need to grow a massive forest and protect it from fire and disease. For Hakan, you'll have to gather exotic ingredients from the deepest dungeons to build a bomb to breach the Tower. And many more.

Meanwhile, each of the adversaries has their own plot to destroy the Four Kingdoms and their own special abilities and assets to see it to fruition. The Bane of Omens is a legendary assassin, who seeks to take out a specific hero. Utuk'ku spreads glaciers across the land to turn the world to ice. Gravemaw seeks to breed and populate the world with her twisted progeny. 

Each of these allies and adversaries also brings a collection of events related to their scheme that magnify the effects they create. And how the ally and adversary in a particular game sync up can make for some fascinating interactions. All in all, each game should feel fresh and challenging.

Please keep in mind that we're continuing to tweak as finish up development, so some of this stuff is subject to change. And don't pay any attention to those TBD's. Nothing to see there. Until later, Keep Charging the Tower!