Return to Dark Tower

Insert Clever Update Title Here
about 3 years ago – Fri, Mar 19, 2021 at 01:24:34 AM

In this update, I'm going to show off the insert for the game (with a good look at the current state of the box as well). Basically, an unboxing in jpgs instead of video. It's a lot like an onion: multiple layers, and it'll make you cry (cause it's so beautiful). At the end of the update, I'll bring everyone up to speed on the general state of the project and where we are with various other parts of the game. So, if inserts don't tickle your toes, you can jump straight to the end.

Before we get into it, the usual caveats: This is 99% final, but that means it's 1% not final, which basically means things can still change. Not likely but possible. This goes doubly for the box render and the stuff rendered in the insert, like the punchboard and rules and such. Without further ado, let's start at the top.

Note that swanky contrast between the top lid and the bottom, separated by a crimson shoulder. The Tower and the baddies get top billing on the box cover. But don't worry, the heroes will have something to say about that soon enough.

The first thing you'll see when you open the lid is the rulebook and the "crawl" to set the mood.

We previously showed off the punchboard in Update #38. Eagle-eyed observers will note a couple of minor tweaks, e.g., new shape for the dungeon tokens, different distribution of resources. Nothing major. Also worth mentioning that using the shoulder-style box means the punchboard will just give it some extra "lift". You can discard the sprues after you punch the tokens to give the box its intended profile.

I love how the board snuggles in so perfectly. Looks like the Golden Ratio to me.

If you have the Alliances expansion, the additional player boards will fit in as well.

Custom molded and detailed. These touches don't just look good, but they also give the blister more structural integrity.

Here you'll see wells for the hero and building figures, haggle die, and the skulls. The buildings nest to fit in their wells. You can see some extra space in the skulls well just in case.

This lid also covers the Tower, so you can see how the top blister secures the Tower cover in place.

Here you can see the Tower all nestled in its resting place, along with wells for the tokens and cards. Importantly, you'll also note the large empty well. This is were the punchboard tokens will go with some extra space to accommodate components from Alliances or for folks to distribute the other components from the base game if they find it more accessible.

We showed off the box bottom slip sheet back in update #46. Well, here's what the slip sheet is covering. As you can see, it's a nice counterpoint to the box top. I love how the design is basically a metaphor for the conflict between good and evil in the game.

I hope you all enjoyed a look at the "guts" of the game.

Taking a birds-eye view of the state of things, the last stages of pre-production are coming along nicely. The engineering team is doing the final testing; the graphics team are putting the final tweaks on the print materials. We'll have some real meaty updates coming in the next couple of months, including:

• The app, with tons of screenshots
• Sounds, both from the app and the Tower
• The full Alliances reveal, including rules and components
• Final update on gameplay, including one last tweak we made to combat
• And, of course, a full playthrough once I get the production plastics and Tower

All of these things are 90%+ done. Once we get the last few details nailed down, we'll have a deluge of stuff to show off. Exciting times ahead!

A Closer Look at the Competitive Game
about 3 years ago – Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 03:42:47 AM

For this update, I'll be showing off a bit more of the competitive game. As most of you know, the original game from 1982 was a competitive game. Players raced to defeat the brigands in the Tower. The first one to do it won the game. Early on in our development, we decided to make our restored version cooperative. We think it's more thematic appropriately and mechanically. But we knew some folks would like to be able to play competitively like in the original. We continued to work on it even as we entered the Kickstarter and finally announced we were doing it way back in Update #11.

Then, in a recent update, we posted a late version of the rulebook, which included the rules for competitive play. We've made more tweaks since then, but if you want a full look at the rules, you can check them out there.

For this update, I wanted to go into a bit more depth and show some of the related components.

In the competitive game, each player starts with the Amulet of Hope. This is technically a quest item (so it doesn't count against a player's treasure cap). The effect is subtle but important. In the cooperative game, players have more niche abilities. The players need to work together to maximize what each of them can do. In lower player counts, even in solo play, the additional turns make it easier for players to cover any gaps. But the competitive game is, ultimately, a race game. So we wanted to make sure players could get "up and running" more quickly. The effect also incentivizes players to Battle foes. Without that incentive, foes tend to linger on the board and can spiral out of control.

The other important piece of the puzzle are the private quests. There are four types of private quest.

At the start of the game, each player gains one of each type. Within each type, there are two different objectives, each at different locations within one of the kingdoms.

By structuring the private quests in this way, we can ensure that players have a variety of different types of quests to complete. A player only needs to complete 3 of their 4 tests to move to the endgame. Some of these will play into the hero's unique abilities, e.g., the Relic Hunter will have a leg up on the top two tests in the image. We also liked the little bit of worldbuilding these tests let us do, with their implied narratives, new location names, and the like. Who is Plovo and why does his ghost haunt the plains?

The last part of the competitive game is the endgame. In the original, it was just a matter of watching a series of numbers on the screen slowly get smaller. Honestly, a bit anticlimactic. So we decided to make it a dungeon. This gives players more choices about where to do, when to spend advantages, and how far to press their luck. It also gives a little bit of a catch up mechanic in that it's difficult (but not impossible) to complete on the first run. So players who are a turn behind might still have a chance to pull out the win.

In the end, we're extremely happy with how the competitive game ended up and that it gives you all a lot more bang for your buck with the game.

Let's Check Out the Box Bottom
about 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 04, 2021 at 12:07:53 AM

As we move into this next stage of production, my plan is to post smaller, more regular updates and start showing off some stuff you all haven't seen or that has been updated since the campaign. Today, we're going to take a quick look at the box bottom.

First thing to mention is that it's not really the box bottom at all. The box will, of course, have a bottom, but this ain't it. Bigger picture, we know that you all have paid a lot of money to get this game. Granted, most of the expense is in that beautiful electronic Tower that will sit in the middle of the table. But we want to make sure the rest of the game meets that high bar. Traditionally, a box bottom serves as a marketing piece to attract the eye of someone browsing at the store, and it also has a number of legal requirements, like safety icons and copyright notices. Fine and necessary, but not pretty to look at. So we made the decision to have the traditional box bottom turn into a separate slip sheet that is placed over the box bottom and held into place by the shrinkwrap. When you open the shrink, you can toss the sheet. This meets our needs for the store shelf, but allows you to have a beautiful game box on your shelf at home.

Without further ado, here's the box bottom slip sheet:

I know, I know, now you're all wondering what the actual box bottom looks like. Soon....

Guest Update: Checking in on the Tower with Tim Burrell-Saward
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 12:43:57 AM

I know folks like to get a closer look at the manufacturing process, and there's no one better to fill us in than Tim Burrell-Saward, our project manager and lead engineer.

Before we jump in, Board Game Geek's annual "Most Anticipated" list is underway. Nominations are open for games you're looking forward to this year. If you're willing and able, we'd appreciate your support for our nomination. All you have to do is click here and click the green thumb under the box cover. Thanks!

Without further ado, take it away, Tim:

The last update we shared from the Tower design process was when Justin shared some "first shot" images back at the end of September, which honestly feels about five years ago because 2020 happened. So the team asked me to write another tower update to bring you up to speed on what’s been happening of late.

As Justin detailed in his post, First Shot is the first point in the project where we see actual plastic parts made from the moulds, and it marks the start of a long period of testing and modification that ends with the final production run. To start, here’s a picture of the current Tower prototype, which is officially called Engineering Prototype 2 (EP2 for short): 

If you compare to the Tower in Justin’s update, you’ll see that we’ve gone through some colour changes and are currently favouring a blood-red, semi-transparent material for the crystal parts, and a very dark grey for the stone and doors. Colour is an entirely subjective issue, so it takes a lot of back and forth to come to a consensus. Jason, Lindsay and I spent a lot of time looking at colour swatches, considering things like light transmittance, contrast and how it fits with the palette of the other game components. But obviously the prime concern was to make it look entirely evil, for which red and black really can’t be beat.

If you read my last diary entry back in June you might remember that I was experimenting with natural stone textures for the outer shell. Details like this are another entirely subjective thing, so after a lot of back and forth with the team it was decided to only apply texture to the stone sections, leaving the crystal smooth. The result is a nice juxtaposition between the weathered rock and faceted crystal, making the Tower visually interesting to look at from all angles and chock full of lovely reflective surfaces. The Tower, sat alongside the incredible minis and luscious art of the printed components, is going to look simply stunning on your table.

(if anyone’s interested, I modelled the base forms in Rhino and Solidworks, then textured in ZBrush using brushes by Jonas Ronnegard & Daniel Thiger and Danny Carlone).

Next up I wanted to show you a small but important change to the seals, to demonstrate the test-and-iterate process we apply to the whole design, and also the commitment to quality that we want to deliver. An inherent risk with any rotating mechanism is jamming. Parts getting stuck where they shouldn’t, grinding everything to a halt. In our case, having a bunch of skulls rolling around inside the tower when the levels rotate could create opportunity for, say, a rogue jaw to get stuck on a ridge, or a cheekbone to wedge behind a protrusion. To ensure this doesn't happen we do a heck of a lot of testing under the worst possible conditions (in this case absolutely filling the chutes behind the seals with skulls), and then engineer the parts so that everything still runs smoothly. All so that during the course of normal play you (hopefully) shouldn’t experience anything but normal operation. This is why you’ll notice the backs of the seals now have an extra semi-translucent part, creating a perfectly smooth surface. A small detail, but one that’s come from a lot of testing. Apply this methodology to the entire Tower and you’ll understand why complex projects like this can take time to get right.

Here’s a shot of the inside of the Tower. Just look at that lovely neat wiring. Figuring out wiring runs comes quite late in the day, once plastic parts are mostly locked. There are two ingredients to make good wiring. The first is to make sure that no rogue wires can get trapped or crushed during assembly. The second is to make it as easy as possible for the factory workers to route them correctly. We’re currently expecting to make about 800 Towers a day during production, so we need to make the assembly process as foolproof as possible.

Most of the other new developments to the internals are too small to see. We’re at the stage where we frequently talk in fractions-of-millimeters, slowly but surely finding and removing gaps, ridges, mismatched joints and weak points. All work that you’d never know happened, but without which the final thing just wouldn’t be as good.

In the photo you should also be able to see the white marking on top of the drums. These are the photo-reflector trigger points I talked about in my last update, to tell the Tower when each drum has rotated correctly. This system has undergone thousands of test rotations to make sure it’s accurate and reliable.

Speaking of testing.... Around November we were happy enough with the prototypes that we started to subject them to the rigorous testing required for the product to meet safety standards. The photo above shows an anechoic chamber, designed to measure electrical noise. Electrical circuits that do anything interesting also produce electrical noise (ie electromagnetic signals). Sometimes they do it intentionally (eg Bluetooth), other times it’s unintentional. If devices emit too much noise unintentionally they could interfere with other devices, or even with communications networks. To avoid this becoming a huge mess and making radio communication impossible there are regulations about how much noise a product can emit and at what frequencies.

The test in the photo is measuring the total emissions of our circuit, both intentional and unintentional. The thing in red is the antenna. The patterns covering the walls are absorbing the radio waves from our circuit board (in the foreground of the photo), preventing reflections from interfering with the measurements. The resulting measurements are compared to the legal thresholds of various countries to make sure we’re compliant.

We’ve also been devoting a whole lot of time testing battery life, which involves creating a custom app that runs the tower for extended periods of time. We’re not quite ready to plant our flag as to exactly how many hours of playtime you’ll get on a fresh set of 3xAA batteries, as we still have some tweaks to make and some more tests to run, but things are looking good so far.

Staying with testing, we’ve also been subjecting the Tower to a suite of physical and chemical tests to make sure it’s safe and robust enough for typical use. These tests include things like dropping from various heights in multiple different orientations, as well as a batch of tests designed to measure strength. Imagine the thing you’ve been working on for years being abused in the most clinically torturous ways possible. Here's a quick video of the testing, featuring, from left to right, tensile test (i.e., crushing), drop test (i.e., Tower goes splat), and compression test (i.e., pulling). This part makes me sad.

Here’s a shot of the current main circuit board design, which has undergone almost weekly development for most of last year. We’re still working on final refinements, to ensure we reach peak performance, reliability and battery life, but it’s pretty much ready to go. The four C shaped boards surrounding it each contain two small LEDs to light up the base, and the rectangular board below the main board contains the power slide switch. Everything will eventually be black, because this isn’t Return to Green Tower.

That’s probably enough for one update I think. I’ve purposely not talked about packaging, as this is large and exciting enough to deserve its own update very soon. I’ve also decided not to include any videos of the Tower in action yet, as that’s what we’re currently working on right now. As soon as we’ve got the Tower-to-app communication protocols finished off I’ll be back with some footage showing the tower in motion.

In terms of project cadence, we’re doing pretty well considering the extra hurdles we’re all having to deal with right now. We have probably two more rounds of prototypes to make before the Tower is ready to move onto production. Alongside this the entire team will be running rigorous real-world gameplay tests to make sure the Tower, app and physical components all work together as best they can. Ensuring sound, light and movement are used to their fullest effect, to bring the experience alive. Carefully balancing player focus between the Tower, the app and the board. Building the app out to be the most polished, satisfying experience possible. Balancing the game design as Restoration does so well. Many levers to pull, many settings to tweak. 

There’s a lot to do over the coming months, but honestly I have no doubt that this team is going to deliver.

IMPORTANT: Production and Fulfillment Timeline Update
over 3 years ago – Tue, Jan 05, 2021 at 10:18:21 PM

Let's get right to it: We are going to miss our original estimate of beginning fulfillment in February 2021. We now expect it to begin in July.

In our continuing commitment to transparency, I will explain the factors that resulted in this delay below along with some additional information about how production and fulfillment will proceed from here.

Before that, I want to apologize for the delay. I imagine most of you are not surprised. It seems a common mindset these days to expect a delay. Honestly, that disappoints us.  There is inherent uncertainty in producing a game through Kickstarter. If you want to make sure your backers are able to voice their thoughts on the game, it can't be "in the can" when you launch the campaign. At that point, it’s little more than a preorder. On the other hand, you don’t want to present something half-baked with too much uncertainty. It can be a tough needle to thread. I mention all of this just to say that, while it can seem like a foregone conclusion that a big KS campaign will be delayed, it's not intentional. Ultimately though, we estimated one date, and it's going to be later than that. That's our responsibility, and we're sorry for this delay.

When we estimate the fulfillment window, we know there are going to be a variety of pitfalls that can cause a delay. To combat that, we do build in some cushion. In fact, given the scope and complexity of the project, we built in a little bigger cushion than we normally would have. And we did, indeed, have a number of "ordinary" pitfalls. These are things like: tweaking the building sculpts to make them easier to use in play, changes to the testing app as we put it through its paces, and all sorts of engineering adjustments to make sure the Tower runs as smoothly as possible. If it had just been those sorts of things, we'd most likely be delivering on time.

So, what caused the delay resulting in the new fulfillment timeline for this campaign? There are three main reasons: COVID-19, a co-manufacturing agreement, and Chinese New Year. I'm going to explain these in a little more detail.

COVID-19: No surprise that a global pandemic would throw a monkey wrench into the plan. The pandemic peaked in China right around their Chinese New Year and delayed the reopening of the factories after the holiday. This was during the time when our Tower engineering team (Tim, Andrew, and Charlie) was doing the ordinary refinement process. And there have continued to be periodic slowdowns at the factory due to lockdowns and work restrictions. But the most surprising impact of the virus came in playtesting. We expected to be able to get a good number of playtest cycles done over the summer both in-house and at conventions with the physical Tower. That just wasn’t possible due to the pandemic. So we had to pivot to on-line testing with a virtual tower largely in Tabletop Simulator. We just couldn’t get enough data quickly enough to lock in the design on our original timetable, and we are never going to be willing to send out a game that hasn’t been tested to our satisfaction.

Co-Manufacturing Arrangement: Throughout the project, we had been working with Capable Toys to manufacture the game. Our project manager, Tim, previously worked with them on Beasts of Balance, and they’re experts at the “intelligent toy” that the Tower will be. However, they do not generally manufacture “regular” board games. As some of you might know, we’ve worked with Panda for almost all of our games. They do excellent work with peerless quality control and customer service. But they don’t manufacture electronics. Shortly after the campaign ended, we decided to use a “co-manufacturing” approach, where Panda would produce the miniatures and printed materials and forward those to Capable to produce the Tower and assemble the final game. Panda will also be manufacturing all of the expansions and ancillary products, and it makes things much easier for, say, future expansions. The downside is that it did require us to coordinate production timelines between two manufacturers and also necessitated additional delivery time for the components to get from Panda to Capable. We believe this gives us the best of both worlds and the best end product for you.

Chinese New Year: The final element is pretty straightforward. For those who don’t know, Chinese New Year runs for about two weeks in February. The whole country pretty much shuts down. Altogether, with the timing of certain production elements and backlogs that can result, CNY can cause a month’s delay or so. Our original timeline had us getting the games on the water before CNY. With the other delays, we ended up bumping into it and incurring the subsequent delay.

With the disappointing news out of the way, I do want to mention a couple more things.

One of the reasons this update is coming later than originally planned is that we wanted to have a high degree of certainty that there would be no further delays. That said, there is still always a chance something unforeseen could happen, and we’ll notify you all immediately if it does. It’s also worth mentioning that the estimate is when fulfillment will start, with the hubs nearest the factory getting theirs first. It’s likely that U.S. fulfillment won’t start until August. Given the complexity of the game and scope of the project, it will take weeks to get all the games into everyone’s hands.

Understandably, I am getting a lot of questions about shipping addresses. We will notify you all when we are ready to lock down the addresses for final shipping. You do not need to worry about updating your address until that. That said, you can update your shipping address by going into BackerKit and updating the address in your survey. If you have trouble doing so, you can reach out to BackerKit customer support and they will assist you. Importantly, your address in Kickstarter does not matter. You must make sure your shipping address in BackerKit is correct when we are ready to lock down addresses.

We’re excited to get back to more fun updates over the next few months: production-quality Towers, final app screenshots, sounds and music, the custom insert, an Alliances surprise, streaming some full playthroughs, and more.

Happy to answer any questions you might have. We really appreciate all of the support and positivity we have received from you all during this journey, and we’re excited to get this game to you.