The Advent of the Mat, The Dice Pack Cometh, The Family Comes for a Visit, and Live Stream Recap
about 5 years ago – Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 09:17:57 PM

Hey there, friends! It's another day of madness! Let's see what it's going to bring for us.

First of all, we did another live stream yesterday! It was a ton of fun, and I wanted to thank everyone who joined me. We are likely going to do another one on Saturday at 12pm PST, then all of us are going to hang out for the last couple hours of the campaign on Tuesday (probably starting at 2pm PST)!

If you missed the live stream today, you can watch it right here:

A couple caveats on it, though: the video starts with a very strange orange glow. This goes away after a few minutes when I discovered if I removed my hat it completely changed the color of the video. (I have no answers on why.) The other caveat is, this video is 2-and-a-half hours long. (DANG!) So you probably are going to want to skip around rather than watching the full thing.

But now let's get on to our daily unlocks!

The Family Arrives 

You always wanted a family of your own. But you never imagined it would come like this. 

The portal opens, and they lumber through. A husband, a wife, and two children. You had written about them. You had dreamed about them. But the reality is a nightmare, not a dream. How could you have mistaken them for the loving family that you've always wanted? Now it's too late. They're already here. And they're coming, slowly, implacably, for you. 

Today we get 6 new Finale Encounter cards for Catherine at the Core level, as well as the monstrous, lumbering amalgamation of the Family for Anita at the Otherworld level. The holidays must truly be getting close if the Family is arriving already...

And Now, Some Highly Requested Add-Ons!

There have been a number of requests throughout the campaign, but there were two that kept coming up (in addition to the storage boxes, which we are still taking a vote on to see if we'll do them. If you're interested in the storage boxes, be sure to let us know by clicking here and leaving a comment!) First up, we have the extra dice pack!

These Sentience dice are just like the ones in the core box, but buying this pack will get you 15 more of them. (Perfect for multiplayer games so you don't have to keep passing dice across the table.) As custom as the dice in this game are already, it would be very difficult to do something different with them without making them harder to read, so we decided to stick with the original rather than go crazy with other colors or types in this campaign. 

The next item is one that some have been asking for pretty much since day one. (That's right, Kevin, it's finally here.) May I introduce you to our neoprene game mat!

The neoprene mat will be just like the game board, only in luxurious, squishy, thick, awesome neoprene. It will have stitched edging, too, for that really premium feel and a textured back to keep it from sliding around. Obviously what you see above is just a render with the current version of the game board on it, but the final version will have all of the same revisions as the standard board. As the owner of the only Dawn of Madness neoprene mat currently in existence (based on the Gen Con design), I can safely say that this will be worth it. (Neither the mat nor the extra dice are included in the Gameplay Mostly All-In, as neither one are strictly necessary for play.)

We will have a new, surprise add-on tomorrow as well. It's one I'm pretty excited to show you all that I think you guys will really enjoy. Until then, I hope you like the neoprene mat!

Okay, that's it for this update. (I suppose it's okay to have at least one every once in a while that's kind of short and sweet.) I'm going to try to have two updates today (if I can pull it off), so stay tuned! Have a great day!

Faces of the Sphere, Where We've Been, and a Live Stream Today
about 5 years ago – Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 07:15:29 PM

Today I wanted to dive into one of the expansions we haven't talked about a whole lot before now. I also wanted to show you some of what's coming, and where we've been. And there's also details about the next live stream! So let's get to it!

First, let's check out today's Daily Unlocks! Today we've unlocked 6 new Finale Encounter cards for Emily at the Core level, and 60 Plot tokens for Anita at the Otherworld level! 

What's really exciting, though, is what's coming tomorrow. Stay tuned, because something epic and gruesome is shuffling toward us from around the next bend!

Faces of the Sphere

Today I wanted to showcase one of our expansions that we haven't talked a whole lot about: The Faces of the Sphere. Originally this expansion was featured in our Deep Madness reprint campaign, but it is also fully compatible with Dawn of Madness. Here's what's in it: 

The Faces of the Sphere features the Visages: 9 insane miniatures who are warped distortions of some of Deep Madness's most popular Investigators. These people stumbled into the Otherworld through the Kadath deep sea mining facility and then couldn't find a way back out. They wandered through time and space, lost, preyed upon by their own fears, nightmares, and past, searching for a way home. But now they're here. With us. And they don't seem to be too happy about it.

Are the Visages the shattered, corrupted reflections of the Investigators? Or are they the twisted remains of their souls? It is impossible to know for sure.

These 9 Terrors will add significantly more variety to your gameplay experience - and what's more, if you ever end up getting Deep Madness then this expansion will also include cards that are playable in that game. 

Already purchased Faces in the reprint campaign for Deep Madness? Then you will get the new components for Dawn of Madness for free! It's just another way we want to say thank you for being a part of Diemension Games. (And if you missed it in the reprint, you can certainly add it now. ;) 

Faces of the Sphere is available to add to your pledge today for $35. To do that, click on the "Manage your pledge" button:

Next, click on "Change your pledge":

And lastly, add the total of the expansion (in this case $35) to your Pledge amount, and click "Continue". 

We'll figure out what your additional funds were for in the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

A Quick Look at What We've Accomplished Together

So, today we thought it might be fun to just take a quick look at the things that we have unlocked with your help. 

First, here's all of the core-level stuff we've unlocked:

And here's a look at all of the Otherworld stretch goals that have been unlocked:

In addition to this, we have also unlocked 5 extra dice and high quality player aids in every core game, and are about to unlock (or have already unlocked - I have to add everything up) a tutorial chapter for the game through social stretch goals! 

As we head into this final week of the campaign, we thought it would be good to take a look back on all that we have already accomplished together. And, wow, we have accomplished so much! Thank you for being here with us, whether you've been here from the very beginning or you've just joined us in the last day or two. We are incredibly grateful to have you with us, and to have you as a part of this journey. We won't lie: in many ways this has been a tough campaign. But having you with us makes it worth it. =) 

Now, we know that some of you have been really concerned about the funding total slipping the last few days. (It hasn't been all that much fun for us, either.) But we just wanted to reassure you that we are actively working to reverse this trend, and that, in the end, we're all going to end up with a game that is not just another game, but a project that this community helped bring to life in more ways than one - a project that we will hopefully all be proud to call ourselves a part of. We don't take your trust in this campaign lightly: our company literally wouldn't exist without you. So, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you. (And about those stretch goals: don't worry about them. We won't lock anything that we've unlocked already, nor will we leave you guys hanging. And the final 48 hours are still coming up, as is the pledge manager next year!)

Live Stream Today

I'm going to do another live stream today! It was asked that this one be at 4pm PST, so that's what we'll go for this time. If that time doesn't work for you, we'll work to get a time that accommodates you in the next one. (Actually, the next one may be the campaign finale, so it may be a moot point. But, if we do one sooner, we'll definitely work to get a time that'll work well for you if you ask for it.) Maybe this time we'll finally have both Facebook and YouTube working, but if not we'll be over on YouTube again so the folks without Facebook can still participate. Either way, you'll find the video on the campaign page! So, if you're able, come hang out with me! We always have a good time! =)

That's almost it for today - except that we have been negligent in picking winners for our Facebook contest! So let's take care of a couple of those right now: congratulations, ‎Mattias Redbo and Michael Shea! You just won a copy of the Otherworld pledge! 

There's still 6 more copies up for the giveaway, so if you would like to enter go to this post, like it, and share it!

Talk to you all again in a few hours!‎

Today's Unlocks and Exciting Gameplay Updates
about 5 years ago – Tue, Dec 10, 2019 at 09:53:16 PM

Hail, Wanderers! It's another glorious day for madness. 

First let's start with our daily unlocks! Today we unlocked 3 Traumatized Condition cards at the Core level, and 60 Coda cards for Anita at the Otherworld level. 

Some Really Cool Gameplay Developments!

Since we announced that we were going to make some major changes to the game based on your feedback, we've been hard at work on that very thing. And we have made some changes that are extremely exciting to me - and I think they will be exciting to you, as well. 

First of all, we are currently considering majorly enlarging the World Shards, from 57x88mm to 80x120mm. To do this, we will have to make some changes to the game board, essentially removing the spaces for the card decks along the right-hand side. But that won't be as big of a problem as it sounds like, based on the other changes we're working on. =) 

Next, the Malformations will no longer be present at the start of the game. (Nor will they necessarily run on their same three-card system, but could instead be controlled with a card similar to those in the Terror deck.) Instead, they will appear in the events during the Event Phase as well as in the encounters themselves. They will no longer be arbitrarily placed on the board, but will instead be spawned through immersive story sequences. Which will make dealing with the Abomination even more interesting - though not as much as the next change.

Resistance cards will no longer be available at the start of the game. Instead, you'll have to find them inside the encounters. What's more, the Malformations will now attack the Abomination through these Resistance cards in addition to the Wanderers. And, yes, we just said Wanderers. When a Wanderer finds a Resistance card in an encounter, that card will belong to him, regardless of if he is the Central Wanderer or not. (Though you will be able to trade it with a Fusion action if needed.) These Resistance cards may be used to trigger one of the Malformations (should they currently be on the board), or they may be used to concentrate and weaponize the conscious energy in the Central Wanderer's realm at the Abomination. This means that any Wanderer will be able to attack the Abomination now - provided they have a Resistance card to hit it. Which reveals what is, to me, the glorious downside of this upside: at the start of the game, you won't have any Resistance cards, so you will not be able to hurt the Abomination at all. Until you find Resistance cards to attack it, it will be unstoppable. (For some twisted reason, this almost makes me giddy. Perhaps I'm just that messed up. =D )

Because the Resistance cards now have to be found, we will likely remove the requirement that you must use three Memory Fragments to activate them. (There will also now be more of them in the game.) Instead, when you find them in the stories, you will be given a choice: you can take the Resistance card, or you can gain three Memory Fragments. (So, in this way, perhaps you are still paying three Memory Fragments to activate them.) Memory Fragments will still be a vital resource in the game despite them not being used to activate Resistance cards, by the way: you will still use them to upgrade your Coda limit, enter your Memories, and to activate a variety of other tasks and abilities. 

Now, of course, all of this is still very much in development. Having said that, I hope you will agree with me that these changes are going to make the game waaay more cinematic, tense, and immersive.

So you know what I think of these changes, but what do you think about them? Let us know in the comments! (We're still collecting your input on gameplay terms, by the way, so if you haven't checked out that update you can find it here.)

I'm going to keep this update shorter and more focused today, but maybe I'll be back with a second update if I can get it written in time. (Don't hold me to that, though, just in case. LOL!) Until next time, have a fantastic day!

Social Goals Update, Voting on Boxes, and DoM Becomes (Mostly) KS Exclusive
about 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 09, 2019 at 11:12:31 PM

Hey friends! I hope you had a great weekend. We've got a pretty packed update for you today, so let's get into it!

Memories of Stories Past

Today in our daily unlocks we have unlocked 3 Traumatized Condition cards at the Core level, as well as 20 Memory cards for Anita at the Otherworld level! What will those memories contain? I guess you'll just have to wait to find out! 

Social Stretch Goal Update

I GOT A MASHED POTATO MONSTER! YESSSSS! I'm not sure what your KS name is, SoSadForYou, but thanks for making my dreams a reality. 

We've also gotten some great haikus (and limericks, which, yes, I will count):

• Across the dimensions we race, 
• Fleeing the Beast with no face, 
• Suffice it to say, 
• We didn't get away, 
• A bloody end to the chase.

• Hook handed horror
• Bloody stained steel point teases
• Frosted Window pane

(Thanks, Anthony!)

• My mind unravels.
• As the Sphere beckons closer,
• I get lost within.

(Thanks, NEETocris!)

• No place worse than hell
• I thought the same thing as well
• F---ing doll just moved

• Gripping at my chest.
• Snarled Cold emotionless Black Death.
• Was it all for this?

(Thanks, SoSadForYou!)

• The spider watches
• As you crawl into its lair
• It's time for feeding

(Thanks, Sage Smith!)

Also, I don't think Faizal Kadir intended this as a story entry (and it's not two paragraphs), but I'm counting it as such anyway, because... dang. 

Spiders fluttering. Cobwebs mashed. Murmurs from under the operating table as what i thought was a human baby figure eating rotting placenta. The stench was horrendous but I persevered as i slowly opened the Dawn of Madness artbook given to me in this contest. My name is Emily and I made it to page 2.

I also got our first man eating plant from Nick:

We got more great stuff, too, (including at least one more story from Hayabusa), but I'm kind of out of space right now, so we'll have to do that in a later update. Here's where we are currently:

So, do you realize what this means? It means we just unlocked those high quality player aids! Woohoo! 

Want to help us unlock that intro chapter? Be sure to check out all of the remaining social goals and help us get there! (We're getting close on haikus!) You can also still enter the art book contest, which you can find on the same page as the social goals.

Dawn of Madness Becomes (Mostly) KS-Exclusive 

Switching gears pretty radically from up above, we wanted to discuss the future of Dawn of Madness, and where we're at right now. After long discussions back and forth, talks with a variety of potential partners, and no shortage of calculations, we have come to realize that, just like with Deep Madness, we are going to have to call Dawn of Madness mostly KS-exclusive. It honestly galls me to write that, but the situation is what it is right now. In the end it seems that even the standee version wouldn't be enough to solve the retail cost problem like we had hoped, as the books have pushed the costs up past the point where retail distribution is truly viable for now.

Having said that, let me quantify what "mostly" means. Basically, it means that at some point down the road we might sell any remaining stock of the games (if any exists) on our own website (when we have one) or potentially at conventions. Also, we would like to leave the door open for non-English, localized versions of the game - especially for those countries that don't really use Kickstarter. While we don't have any of these partners yet, we also don't want to close off this avenue if we don't have to. Last of all, if there was ever a (pretty successful) reprint somewhere in the unseen eons ahead (which, we'll grant you, is a pretty big "if" when looking that far in the future), then we might reassess if retail looked like a feasible option at that point. But, apart from those few caveats, Kickstarter will now be the only place to get this game.

Why are we telling you this now? Because we have a policy of being open with our community and our backers, and we wanted to be up-front about this. We also wanted to set expectations for the future: at this point retail ambitions look grim at best. As someone who fought to not have any KS-exclusive stuff in this campaign, this is certainly something that pains me to write. But it is what it is, and you have a right to know. 

Now, we know that some people have been on the fence as to if this game is right for them. What we would encourage you to do is to back for $1. Then you would be able to gauge the game's progress as we move forward over the next year developing, playtesting, and refining it. You would have plenty of time to evaluate if this game is right for you - and, if it ends up not being something you're interested in, even $1 will help us create the best game we can and would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for being with us, my friend.

Once More to the Crossover

There have been some questions about the Deep Madness crossover, so we thought we would clarify our previous update here. (In case you missed the previous update, we will be offering one free Deep Madness crossover pack to people at the Otherworld level, and two free Deep Madness crossover packs at the Gameplay Mostly All-In level.)  We'll do this as a short Q&A.

Q: I was a late backer on Deep Madness, or I bought it from someone else. Can I still get the cards? A: Yes. In the pledge manager we will have a question asking if you need the cards, so you'll just tell us that you do and we'll include them in your order.

Q: What if I plan to get Deep Madness in the next reprint? Can I still get the cards? A: Yes. See question one above. =)

Q: Will you offer these as an add-on for those who are at the Core level or who just want a couple of expansions rather than the Gameplay Mostly All-In? A: Yes. We will make these available as an add-on. They will be $10 per pack. You can add them to your pledge now if you want. 

Q: Will more monsters or Wanderers be added to the packs? At this point it isn't too likely, as the reason they weren't put in to begin with was because of complications in importing them into Deep Madness. Having said that, I suppose nothing is completely outside the realm of possibility, no matter how slim the chances.

For more info on the crossover pack, check out the original update right here.

What Do You Think About Storage Boxes?

To finish off this update I wanted to ask you a question.

We have had a number of requests for a storage solution similar to the one we offered in the Deep Madness reprint campaign. As you have likely seen, we want to help our backers to have the best game experience possible, and we are always listening. But the thing is, we got soured a bit on Monstrum in the reprint (it was a logistical nightmare, in essence), so we are a little wary of jumping on it right out of the gate here. Next of all, in the reprint we offered Profundum as a stretch goal, but in this campaign we wouldn't be able to do that - which means that a similar two-box storage solution would be more expensive in this campaign than in the last one. (For reference, the printed component box would likely be around $30, and the miniature box would be around $45. Shipping would also be pretty high on these, as these boxes would be huge: probably around $10 for the printed component box and $15 for the miniatures box to most countries.)

All of that to say, before we offered this storage solution we would need to know how many people are interested in it. So, our question is: if this storage solution was offered, would you buy it? 

Would you buy the storage box? The miniature box? Or both? Let us know in the comments for this update, and if we get enough interest to meet the minimum order requirements then we will make one or both parts of the storage solution a reality. 

Also, be sure to let us know if you're an Italian backer who would like Dawn of Madness translated into Italian! We need quite a few more of you to say you want it before we could make that a reality. So, if you want DoM in Italian, be sure to click here to let us know.

Okay, that's it for this update! Talk to you again soon, and have a great day!

Through the Blocked Door, Live Stream Recap, and the Antagonist
about 5 years ago – Sun, Dec 08, 2019 at 10:54:30 PM

Hi, friend! I hope you had a great Saturday. 

For everyone who came to hang out with me on the live stream today, thanks so much! We had a blast, and covered a ton of ground. If you missed it, you can watch the recording below. I will say, it is two hours long, so you may want to jump around in it rather than try to watch the whole thing. Because... dang.  

 I will do another live stream next Wednesday. I have thus far done them around 3pm PST, but if there is a better time for folks let me know. (I want the largest part of the world to be able to see it as possible.)

Now, let's see what decision was arrived at in the last story update! This one was pretty close, but in the end the blocked door pulled slightly ahead. So, let's see what's behind door number 2!  (And if you missed the first part, check it out here first!)

Through the Blocked Door

With great effort you cast aside the pile of refuse collected in front of the door and are at last able to open it. Swinging the door wide, you flick on the light switch and enter.

The room is filled with derelict hospital beds and stretchers. They are stacked on top of each other, and dumped in piles in the corners. There is other equipment, too: discarded medical apparatuses, harnesses, straightjackets, and more.

Stepping amidst the graveyard of beds, you feel your heart beating faster in your chest. Why? Why would this room do that to you –

Reality shimmers, and then cracks. The beds are all full of people. They squirm and writhe and moan, blood pulsing from wounds and hacking out of their mouths. The light is throbbing in the room. It is red. It is electric. You scream.

The patients in the beds all swivel to look at you. Most of them are tied down with leather straps, but some are not. Sitting up, they turn toward you, extend their arms to embrace you. Their mouths open: inside those gaping maws you see utter oblivion.

“No,” you say. “No! Get out of my head! Get away from me!” You grab a scalpel that is lying on a nearby tray and close your eyes. Then you begin stabbing at the apparitions. You stab over and over and over. You feel the knife enter flesh. You feel blood splatter up onto your face and shirt. Letting out a primal yell, you whirl around, cutting anything that gets too close to you, feeling the life splash from their wraith-like bodies. Something grabs you, and you thrust the knife downward –

You open your eyes again. You’re alone. There are no groping patients in beds, no dead bodies from your cuts and thrusts and stabs. Even so, your shirt and face are soaked in blood.

Looking down at the knife, you discover that it is embedded into a dirty straightjacket. A shiver slithers down your body. Why does that bring back memories? Why does that straightjacket call to you?

Casting aside the knife, you pick up the straightjacket. A strange power seems to emanate from it. Quickly, you scramble to put the straightjacket on. It covers your chest, and you sigh. Perhaps now you’re safe.

You give the room one more cursory glance. Then, turning, you stumble out of the room for the elevator.

--

Well would you look at that! We just got ourselves a fancy straight jacket! Awesome! Who couldn't use a gently used straight jacket in near mint condition? (In-game this would be a Coda card with useful effects and resources that we just earned and could now equip.)

In addition, we just gained more story points toward Emily's Red Door ending (which is the worst one, by the way.) 

So what would we have met if we had gone the other way? Here's a hint: 

(This entry was simplified somewhat, too, as there are a couple tests in the actual game to get in here as well as to successfully fight against the patients.)

In the coming days we're going to start alternating between doing closer looks at the Wanderers who make up Dawn of Madness, as well as more story content. Stay tuned!

Persona Antagonist

Every good story needs a villain. You've always known that. But you were never very good at fleshing out those characters, and the villain always seemed slightly one-note. This most recent antagonist is taking on a life of its own, though. It's developing quicker than you ever could have expected. In fact, it's almost like it's about to pull itself free of the printed page. 

Today we unlock 3 Traumatized Condition cards at the Core level, and Persona Antagonist at the Otherworld level! All three of Anita's Terrors are now unlocked, and next we'll move onto some story content for her! And looming on the horizon is something big. Something horrific. There's only a few more days until it hits! 

Social Goals

We've unlocked our first social stretch goal! How cool is that?! This means that we will now add 5 extra dice to every core game!

We've had a number of haikus (and a limerick or two, also) come through already. I've been pleasantly surprised by this, actually. I'll collect some of them to share with you all in the next update. We've had some other fun stuff, too, which I'll collect and show you guys soon. (My dreams for mashed potato Masquerades haven't been met yet, but I still have hope.) Here's where we are on some of the goals:

• DM FB page likes: 103 of 150
• DMU FB Group Joins: 108 of 100 - UNLOCKED! 
• DG FB page likes: 124 of 150
• DG Instagram follows: 88 of 100
• DG Twitter follows: 112 of 50 - UNLOCKED! 

Help us unlock more social stretch goals! Check out the full list right here, and get to posting! Let's see if we can unlock those player aids and tutorial chapter! Also, don't forget to weigh in on some of the gameplay tweaks we've been talking about recently! 

We'll talk to you again tomorrow! Have a great day!