Guest Update: An APP-etizer with Tim Burrell-Saward (and Live Playthrough Next Week!)
almost 3 years ago – Sat, May 22, 2021 at 03:28:53 AM

One critical part of the game we haven't shown much of is the companion app. In fact, our app developer, Porcelain Fortress, headed by the inimitable Björn Elíeser Jónsson, has been working non-stop for more than two years on it. And we're finally ready for you all to have an early look. I tapped Tim Burrell-Saward, our project manager and lead engineer, to do a deep dive on the app's heroic journey to date. As with all of these updates, keep in mind that we are still refining and will continue to refine until the game gets into your hands and beyond. Everything here is still "in progress". Specifically, a lot of the text has not even had an editing pass. Let me make this extra-clear:

THESE APP SCREENS ARE NOT FINAL.

Before we jump in, I want to mention that I will be doing a full, live playthrough of the game on the Dice Tower on Thursday, May 27, at 1:00 PM ET. The video will be available after the live stream for those who can't make it. So be sure and drop by the Dice Tower YouTube channel and check it out.

With the preliminaries out of the way, take it away, Tim:

I’m writing this not from my usual desk in the filthy engine rooms deep within the bowels of the Tower, but rather from the bright and airy flexible working spaces on its upper floors, where the app development happens. It’s much nicer up here. They have a froyo bar, and the air doesn’t burn my lungs. I thought I’d make the long trip up to talk about how the software side of things is shaping up, and to give you a look at some of the work that goes into making a game like this.

The Development Process

Careful integration between the physical board, Tower, and app has always been a crucial thing for us to nail, as there’s a huge amount of opportunity to make truly unique features, but also equal opportunity for things to go wrong. Our chief concerns were as follows:

• To be mindful of where we’re asking players to put their attention, and to carefully manage their focus between the physical board, the Tower, the app and the other players. This isn’t a videogame, so we don’t want you staring at a screen the entire time.
   
• To minimise (or indeed design out entirely) opportunities for the app and the physical game to fall out of sync, by being very select about what game state information the app needs to know. We want you to focus on the game, not on troubleshooting the tech.
   
• To do some really interesting stuff with immersion via the ways things like narrative, sound, mechanics and game flow are metered out.
   
• To remove some of the administrative busy work from players, allowing them to get to the fun bits quicker. This last one has been a huge focus for us.
   

We’re still deep in the development process, but we’re pretty darn confident that we’ve nailed all of the above (and more), and are wholly convinced that we’re making something that’s going to push forward the state-of-the-art for games with digital components. This game is a lot of fun.

Let’s start at the beginning of the app development process, way back in April 2019. Our extremely accomplished, always accommodating and ever patient software developer Bjorn started work on a digital proxy for the physical tower (which was nothing more than a few sketches at the time), so that the game design team could run paper playtests.

Straight after this Bjorn began work on a “greybox” version of the app, meaning something that would be playable from start to finish but with no time spent on aesthetics. We’ve been running this project under the Agile method of software development, meaning we work in quick, iterative bursts of activity (each “sprint” lasting two weeks), before testing out what we’ve made and then making changes. The aim of the game is to work fast, test lots and iterate constantly.

Once the game design team were confident that the basic foundations of the game were solid, in October 2019 we brought in Sam Ballard, an exceptionally talented game artist and UX designer with a penchant for humorous placeholder text (remember "A Literal Box"?).

Since the initial concepting, Sam’s been working with us to develop look and feel, and to help ensure the UI was as user friendly as possible, a task primarily done using a piece of prototyping software called Figma. Here's a zoomed-out tour of our Figma doc. Each coloured square represents a screen in the game, and each tab shows an entirely new iteration of the design. We’re now on iteration number eight.
 

Fast forward a few months and we reach the Kickstarter, where you would have seen this little snippet of the app in the campaign video. Here’s a secret: none of it was real. It was lifted directly from Figma with some light After Effects wizardry, as at the time we were still very much in the design phase.
 

Progress on the app has continued at full speed since the Kickstarter finished, with each and every system undergoing constant change and development as the game design and Tower progressed. So let’s talk about how things are looking today.

Game Setup

Here is the current version of the home screen.

Here is the current version of the Adversary select screen. (Reminder: early drafts of the text.)
 

The game select system is one of the first unique things you’ll notice about how Return to Dark Tower plays. Upon starting a new game you’ll be prompted to pick from one of nine Main Objectives, which determine the overarching narrative of the game as well as the types of quests you’ll be going on. Choose Miras the Horse Lord and you’ll be fighting to stop a trio of caravans from delivering evil relics to the tower. Aid Yana the Assassin in eliminating some tricky targets in exchange for the map to a secret path into the Tower. Or search out sacred treasures for Zaida the Efreet in order to expel the great evil from the Tower.
After this you’ll be asked to pick from eight unique Adversaries. These ancient evils reside within the tower and, as the game progresses, will do their best to thwart your attempts at completing the Main Objective. Should you complete this quest they will be drawn out of the Tower to be fought in a final, epic showdown. Choose the Empress of Shades and have plagues unleashed across your kingdoms. Or Utuk-Ku the Ice Herald, who lowers the number of advantages players can use by bringing early winter. Or maybe decide to face the Gaze Eternal, an otherworldly terror who can manipulate the Tower itself.
Whatever your decision, the important thing to note is that the choices you make work together to create unique play experiences, So whilst you may know what each of the main quests entails, the adversary you choose will mean that the path to achieving your goals can look very different.
And the really great thing: the app handles all the data crunching for you, so you can focus on playing.

Game Play

Battling is a major part of the game. Here's a look at the current battle flow. (Looking pretty slick, but still a work in progress.)
 

The Battle system has gone through the largest number of changes of all the digital components in the game. Each Foe or Adversary you fight has a virtual deck of cards, which you draw from to determine the losses your forces are about to take, unless you mitigate them by applying Advantages. You won’t know what these losses will be until you commit to the fight, and crucially these cards can be modified as the game progresses. This is one of the great advantages of having a digital component as, unlike a physical deck of cards, we can make changes depending on other game conditions, meaning you’ll never have perfect knowledge of what’s about to happen.
Quests are also delivered through the app - the Main Objective at the beginning of the game and optional timed Ally and Adversary quests that players have a single in-game month to complete. Completing these quests might gain you new companions and treasures, and may stop the Adversary from making your life harder, but equally failing them can leave you with more fires to put out as the game continues (in the case of the Ashstrider, these fires are literal).
The feeling of inhabiting a living, breathing world populated by evils set on stopping you from completing your goals is something we’ve tried really hard to capture in the way the game flows. Each month starts with two new quests being revealed (one concerned with the Adversary, another for the Ally). New Foes might spawn onto the map, or may level up in power if you’ve not been keeping them under control. Then at the end of each player’s turn (signified by dropping a skull into the tower), more events may trigger. Perhaps the tower will rotate, spilling skulls into your kingdom. Or maybe a new Seal will be removed, revealing behind it a glowing glyph that’ll hamper the actions you can take. Or perhaps you’ll be lucky and Gleb the Mercenary will donate some warriors to bolster your ranks. We’re not bombarding you with so many changing variables that you’re unable to strategise, more creating the feeling of a living, changing world not entirely within your control.

The dungeon system is currently being worked on, so there aren’t any pretty visuals to show just yet. But just so you know, dungeons are great. Seriously, they’re one of my most favourite parts of the game. Each one is it’s own little maze to navigate, full of traps and surprises (some good, most bad). The aim is to eek out your resources in order to find the exit/treasure/mcguffin, but as with all other aspects of the game, if you find you don’t have enough of a currency (warriors, spirit, items, etc) to fulfil an event in the dungeon, you gain a corruption. Three corruptions and its game over for everyone. So tread carefully, but remember that you can always escape the dungeon and, because they’re persistent, another player can always pick up where you left off.
This post is once again super long, so the last thing I wanted to mention is that we’re planning out a list of accessibility settings (eg larger text options, individual control of sound and music volume, ensuring color signifiers are coupled with visual cues to aid with color blindness). If there’s anything we can add to the app to make your experience with the game more comfortable, please drop a note in the comments and we’ll do our best to address them.
To sign-off, I’ll leave you with a teaser for a future update on sound and music. Introducing the Empress of Shades….
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12CoQzxkJHGFH5rjEOSoPYSwhkqDD5MHx/view 

 
Fulfillment Timeline Status

We have a lot more updates coming up, including really fun ones about sound, dungeons, and the Alliances expansion. I know you all most want to know how things are going with regard to production. So I'm going close out this and all future updates with a specific update on that.
As some of you recently might have seen on twitter or in the comments, we did run into another bump in the road. There is a worldwide shortage of technical materials, e.g., things like circuit board "wafers". This shortage is owing to a variety of factors, ranging from increased demand from cryptocurrency miners to pandemic-related production disruptions. Just yesterday, Ford announced they were shutting down production due to these shortages. When we first got wind of these disruptions, we immediately looked to finalize procurement of the materials for production. At the outset of the project, we retained Andrew Sung, as our local liaison with Capable. In addition to his work on numerous other aspects of the project, he was able to act quickly to help locate alternate sources. I am happy to report that we have secured all of the necessary materials. We are still looking to confirm any impact to the unit cost and timeline. There is likely to be some, but we believe we've avoided the worst case scenario and the impact should be modest. As soon as we have this information, we will let everyone know. (And, to be perfectly clear, the impact to the unit cost will not affect your orders but is likely to increase the final MSRP.) We should have a timeline specific update in the next couple of weeks.

Final Engineering Prototype and Detailed Plastic Photos
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 10, 2021 at 04:05:42 AM

As some of you might have seen, the team received a slew of FEPs this past week. "FEP" stands for "final engineering prototype". Sometimes also referred to as a "mass-production copy", it's the first full "game" comprising all of the final files intended to be used for mass production. It's one last check to find any last little problem before we hit the big red button that says: spend a million dollars and make 25,000 copies of this game.

I have to say, it's an extremely rewarding milestone. This is a project that I've been working on for three years. To open a box and see an actual playable game, is pretty amazing. But it's also a bit tense. It's a major checkpoint, where you're likely to run into issues that need addressing. You're just hoping that they're all manageable.

That's basically what happened here. As a team, we thoroughly reviewed every aspect of the game. We identified a dozen or so minor issues that are pretty easy to address. Mostly these are simply notes to pay attention to during final assembly. For example,  my Tower was missing one of it's rubber footpads. So we make a note to the manufacturer to do a check for that.

We did identify a few more significant issues that require an actual solution. For example, we noticed that the placement of the board in the pack out was putting pressure on the box and causing wear. That's something you can't identify until you get a complete game shipped to you. No need to worry, of course. Finding these sorts of problems is precisely why we do the FEP. And the team is already finalizing solutions to them.

As far as timeline goes, we expect to sort this all out with the manufacturer next week. There is always a chance that one of these solutions might necessitate an engineering change that results in a delay to the timeline. We'll let everyone know if that happens.

Finally, I tried to take some more detailed photos of some of the plastic parts of the game, including the Tower. Enjoy:

Call for Playtesters and a Look at the Hero Minis
about 3 years ago – Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 12:04:50 AM

We continue to make steady progress in the production process. All of the print materials have been locked down. Plastic production by Panda is underway. I've got a sweet photo of those hero minis for you in a minute.

But first, I'm putting out a call for playtesters. With the print materials locked down, we're looking to refine the data in the app to further balance the game and make it more fun. These playtests will be done in Tabletop Simulator (on Steam) and (unlike prior playtests) will use the actual app (with a built-in Tower simulator). We know some of you signed up for and did some playtesting for us last year. But circumstances can change -- especially during current events these days. So, even if you signed up before, if you're still interested in testing, please sign up again. To playtest, you will need access to Tabletop Simulator and an Android or iOS device to run the app. You would be able to playtest remotely, but it would be easier if you have a group that can get together in person to share the app device.

If that's you and you've got the time and interest to playtest, please sign up with this  FORM.

As for the hero minis, Lindsay took a sweet photo of them with their bases and wash applied. Take a look at this all-star lineup:

And, as promised, this is your regular reassurance that we have not had any slippage on the current production timeline. Still a few final hurdles before we cross the finish line, and lots of different facets are all coming together at the same time. It's exciting, and we can't wait for you all to get your games.

* IMPORTANT: Mobile Devices Survey - PLEASE FILL OUT *
about 3 years ago – Wed, Apr 07, 2021 at 09:26:34 PM

Listen, some updates are less exciting than others. Although I don't have anything sexy to show off, this is a very important update. The app infrastructure is nearly built. We'll then be moving into testing (and data editing). It would be extremely helpful to know what devices you all are planning on using to play the final game. This will help us make sure that the final version of the app is thoroughly tested for those devices. We'll have a deep dive update on the app with lots of gorgeous screen shots, but in the mean time, please go to this link, preferably with your device in hand, and complete this very brief, 4-question survey: MOBILE DEVICES SURVEY LINK

You may complete the survey once for each device you plan on playing the game with.

Ok, fine, one screenshot to tide you over (as always, not final).

Quick Board Meeting
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 11:56:31 PM

As I've mentioned, I'm planning on doing more, shorter updates on a regular basis, punctuated by longer, more in-depth updates when something important happens. Today, I've got a quickie.

As you know, we are in the very final stages of the Tower engineering before we sign off and manufacturing begins. Even then, they'll need to test the Towers to make sure they're working. That's easy for the other components: are the cards printed correctly, do the minis look good, etc. But how do you test an electronic Tower?

The answer is a test board.

So our lead engineer has designed a test board. The Tower boards are then hooked up to the test board to make sure everything is working properly. It's the board to test the boards.

And, like a lot of the stuff on this project, it looks pretty freaking cool. This will mean a lot more to some of you than others, but here's what the test board looks like.

Nothing else exciting to report. Panda will be starting on the print and plastic materials real soon. Once I get a set of the final plastics in hand, I'll set up a full play stream.