Production Progress, Lynas's Story, Translation Update, and the Rulebook!
5 months ago – Mon, Nov 13, 2023 at 07:55:39 PM

Hi guys! I hope you had a fantastic Halloween. I realize it’s a bit late, but if you’re still looking for horror recommendations, I highly recommend you check out Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher. And if you enjoy reading (or even if you don’t), I also highly recommend I Found Puppets Living in my Apartment Walls by Ben Farthing. It’s freaking awesome. (Think Sesame Street meets cosmic horror.) Anyway, that’s enough of that. Let’s jump into the update.

Production Progress

We have submitted all the printed materials apart from Lynas’s storybook and cards to the factory, and the mass production process is rolling. Here are a few pictures of the inserts for the Wanderer boxes: 

We should receive more pictures from the factory soon, and we’ll post those for you once we get them.

While we wait for those, who’d like to see the rulebook?

The Rulebook

Here is the finalized rulebook in English. We’ll post it in other languages when we’re sure those are completed. We hope you like it!

Click here to view the rulebook!

Lynas Update

The only parts that haven’t been 100% completed are Lynas’s storybook and some coda card art. All his other components are finalized. Unfortunately, we still need another 1-2 months to finish the rewrite and formatting for Lynas’s story. We are making good progress on it, but the required reworks were quite extensive. As soon as it’s finished, we’ll submit it to the factory to get the last of his stuff printed. (For your reference, I was able to start on the team’s reworked file a week or so into October and am currently about 50% of the way through rewriting it.)

Here are a couple of Lynas’s story segments entirely out of context and some new art. I hope you like them.

Augustus’s Shadow

“I always understood that ignorance was something to stamp out,” a voice rasps behind you. “But it’s humbling to realize I missed how damaging it truly is. Ignorance is the most dangerous threat we face.”

Turning around, you gasp. The shadows are coming alive behind you, condensing into a human shape. You recognize their form.

“Father Augustus?” you say, stepping toward the shadows. “I didn’t see you there.”

The gloom doesn’t produce the abbot, though his voice spills out of it again. “Ignorance, my son,” he continues, his voice strangely gravelly. “Ignorance is our biggest mistake and one of our gravest sins.”

You pause. Then, tentatively, you take a step backward. Something is wrong. Augustus’s shadow form has too many arms. The long, thin, insectoid limbs unfold from the dark, pulling… something out with them. “F-Father?” you stammer. “What’s wrong?”

More of the Augustus monster comes into view. It has two heads: one with Father Gottfried’s face, though his sunken eyes are milky white and his teeth are too long. However, the second head, looming far above the first, is eyeless, too smooth, and barely looks human. “You must seek out the truth, Lynas,” the Augustus monster says from both mouths. “It exists inside you and this island. Both are one, and one is all. I can’t… help you much longer…”

“Oh, Father,” you groan. You feel hot tears welling in your eyes, threatening to spill down your cheeks. “It can’t be. It’s not possible…”

” You must… let the truth out…” the Augustus monster continues in its droning synchronicity. “Let it hatch…”

The Marred Man

The room before you is open, which may be why you can see the person within it, if only dimly. Lifting your candle higher, you squint at the shifting entity. It’s hard to make him out, almost as if he’s halfway between haze and human. However, the longer you focus on him, the more you see. His back faces you, his clothing hanging in tatters over his bony, ethereal body. Perhaps they are the remnants of fine robes. Maybe he was once a high-ranking member of the Society. Wait, what –

Blinking, you shake your head. For just a moment, it seemed he had two sets of arms.

The man turns toward you, and you can see his mangled face. Part of the skin looks like something ripped – or burned – it off. Glancing away from the ghoulish sight, you notice the writing, symbols, and scribblings carved into the walls around him. The marred man babbles quietly to himself as he swivels and etches more characters into the surface, using a piece of chalk – no, not chalk. Bone.

Something crunches beneath your foot. Glancing down, you see that more splinters of off-white litter the ground. It’s everywhere.

“Ages upon ages upon ages,” the marred man mutters. “Fire ignited, birthed, and bred. Will burn it all away…”

Looking away from his disfigured, cracking face, you turn toward his work on the walls. As you do, you feel yourself grow lightheaded, the words, symbols, and phrases seeming to come alive, swirling in a whirlpool of intention around you. You sway, dizzy, trying to collect your bearings.

“Consciousness is a sea,” the man continues. “We come from it, and to the sea, we shall return. It laps and curls and rages. Can we escape? Can flames preserve? And what of what lies beyond its shores? What waits curled hungrily in the abyssal dark? No light for it. No heat to stop its progress. It consumes all.”

You stagger, feeling as if a riptide is pulling you down, down, into a vortex that spins, sucking you into the depths…

Why does this feel like something you’ve forgotten? Why must you learn it again? And what will happen if you don’t?

“I… I have to go…” you say. “I can’t stay here. Not now…” Then, turning, you stumble away from the open prison cell and the marred man, your head clutched in your hands.

The sea rages… Its depths are unfathomable. And beyond it…

The Penitent Man

“I can still make this right!” he cries. “I will! You’ll see. I’ll be reunited with my daughter and wife yet!”

“Some sins there is no coming back from,” you say. “Sometimes even the Sacred Fire can’t make wood burn if the sea has saturated it too long.”

“Ah,” the man moans. “Aaah. Ah. Ah. AAAAGHH!” The man’s groans become yells, then screams. The wall between you bulges, splintering before fracturing as the man on the other side expands. You lunge to your feet, your eyes wide in shock. Then, flinging the confessional’s door open, you leap out just as the entire structure collapses.

Whirling around, you see the pile of broken wood shift and rise as something large and pulsing rises from its remains. The man’s body bulges outward, a soft glow radiating through his increasingly stretched skin.

“It’s not true,” he mumbles.

“I’ll make this right,” a second mouth says, projecting from his side.

“This isn’t my fault!” cries a third.

“Why has the Sacred Fire forsaken me?” asks a fourth.

More and more faces press out of the man’s bulk, all talking at once. You can’t keep them straight anymore. Their words are one great mass of anger, fear, confusion, and penitence. The man’s skin stretches thinner and thinner. How long will it be before he simply erupts?

Finally, the various mouths synchronize for one brief moment of clarity. “I gave you everything,” they say, the round mass heaving as if hyperventilating. “My wife. My daughter. My life.” As their arms try to rip through the malleable flesh, they roar, “Why… have you… FORSAKEN ME?”

Lastly regarding Lynas, here are pictures of some of his components. 

Translations

You guys have been very patient in waiting on firm translation news, so here’s an update on where each language currently stands.

French

We have two French translators working simultaneously on the translations.

For the stories, we have finalized Emily’s storybook and finished the initial versions of Claude and Catherine. Currently, the translator is completing Catherine’s final version, and then he’ll finish the last changes for Claude.

Our other translator is working on the rulebook, cards, and the storybooks’ gameplay texts. He is making good progress.

German 

We also have different translators for the stories and the rules in German, though we have more German translators than French.

One translator has finished all but a few tweaks in Emily’s storybook, and we have two more who have started on Claude and Catherine. 

For the rules, cards, and other stuff, we are working with the same translation team who worked with us on Deep Madness. They are currently mid-translation on these components.

Spanish

We have two Spanish translators working simultaneously. One translator has finished the rulebook and Emily’s storybook. He is now working on Claude. The other translator has finalized all but the last few tweaks in Catherine’s story.

We estimate we’ll need about three more months to finish the translation work. No translator has started on Lynas because his story is still being worked on. However, we will send his story to the translators as soon as possible. 

Emails

You have my apologies if you emailed me and I haven't replied to you yet. I've been working through emails recently, but there are still more to get through. If I haven't replied to you yet, I will. If you need something regarding your pledge, please email me at [email protected]. I can't guarantee I will see your message if you use a different method of reaching us - or at the least, it will take longer for you to get your answer.

Okay, that’s it for this update. We will either send out a new update once we have the latest pictures from the factory or more news for you, whichever comes first. I hope you have a great November, and we’ll talk with you again soon. 

What's in the Box?
7 months ago – Mon, Oct 02, 2023 at 09:02:01 PM

Hey, guys! Well, it wasn't quite before the end of September, but we now have this update ready for you. Let's start with a picture:

The team received the color sample for DoM a few days ago and then got to work on creating this video to walk you through the various components. We hope you like it!

The video's first few minutes are taken with a brief overview of everything, including glimpses at the storybooks. These are followed by a look at the general components at 06:09. Here's a rundown of what each component is:

• 06:09 - Rulebook 
• 06:23 - Abomination cards
• 06:45 - Terror cards
• 07:18 - Abomination family lineage envelopes
• 07:33 - Sentience pad
• 07:47 - Confrontation cards
• 08:23 - Domain cards
• 10:22 - Devour cards and support cards
• 10:44 - Condition cards (there are quite a few varieties of condition cards, which will all get their own decks. But they're all condition cards.)
• 13:02 - Abomination legacy cards
• 13:33 - General components box
• 13:56 - General tokens, mental capacity trackers, dice, sentience markers, and standees (which also go in the components box.)

Next, we move into specific components for each wanderer at 14:07. We start with Catherine, showing where all the components go in her wanderer box. 

• 14:20 - Catherine's tokens and trackers
• 15:03 - Catherine's standees
• 15:18 - Catherine's world shards
• 16:06 - Catherine's malformation and final boss cards
• 16:50 - Catherine's coda cards
• 18:04 - Catherine's encounter cards
• 18:19 - Catherine's butcher card and existence cards
• 18:31 - Catherine's locked domain, existence, and finale legacy cards 
• 19:02 - Catherine's forgotten envelope
• 19:20 - Catherine's Wanderer box

Following Catherine, we come to Claude's components. 

• 20:11 - Claude's tokens and trackers
• 20:34 - Claude's standees
• 20:50 - Claude's world shards
• 21:36 - Claude's malformation and final boss cards
• 22:14 - Claude's coda cards
• 23:19 - Claude's encounter cards
• 23:26 - Claude's Woman in the Coat cards
• 24:08 - Claude's existence cards
• 24:18 - Claude's locked domain, existence, and finale legacy cards
• 24:52 - Claude's forgotten envelope
• 25:05 - Claude's wanderer box

Next, we'll see Emily's components.

• 25:57 - Emily's tokens and trackers
• 26:17 - Emily's standees
• 26:27 - Emily's world shards
• 26:58 - Emily's malformation and final boss cards
• 27:16 - Emily's encounter cards
• 27:44 - Emily's coda cards
• 29:25 - Emily's finale encounter cards
• 29:32 - Emily's treatment cards
• 30:00 - Emily's existence cards
• 30:08 - Emily's locked domain, existence, and finale legacy cards
• 30:24 - Emily's forgotten envelope
• 30:38 - Emily's wanderer box

And that's it for the general components and the first three wanderers! 

I hope you guys like what you see here. We'll be back with more news soon, including updates on production and progress on Lynas and translations. Have a great October!

The Celestial Campaign and an Apology
7 months ago – Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 02:29:14 AM

Hey, guys. So, as some of you know, we decided to launch the campaign for Celestial today - something we have come to realize was a mistake.

Celestial was initially planned to launch after the first wave delivered for DoM, which a few months ago was estimated to be in August. However, due to some setbacks in Claude's and Lynas's story development, we had to rewrite Claude and completely overhaul, restructure, and rewrite Lynas. (As I'm sure you saw in our updates.) I want to stress that these were not delays caused by lack of funds. The most expensive part of the process was creating the miniatures, which happened last year. These were creative issues we had to fix to get you the best product possible. But, thus,  production didn't progress as planned, bringing us to September.

The fourth quarter of each year typically sees numerous major projects launching on Kickstarter, making it a very competitive period. We had already delayed Celestial two years from 2021 to 2023 and didn't want to miss another year. So, seeing our window slipping away, we panicked and made the hasty decision to launch Celestial in September - without the proper ramp-up, notice, or, most importantly,  consideration for the feelings of our backers. We sincerely apologize for this. (John, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. And the same goes for every other backer we unintentionally hurt by launching this campaign.)

All that to say, we have decided to cancel the Celestial campaign, and we won't relaunch it until after DoM's first wave is delivered.

As a refresher, here is the current status of DoM's production:

1. The miniatures have been sitting in the warehouse for over a year.

2. Accessories like metal tokens, dice, mats, and others are in production and will be completed within the next month.

3. The base game will be split into two parts, with the first part (excluding the contents in Lynas's box) already in pre-production and set to start full production after the Chinese holidays on October 10th. The second part (namely, Lynas's portion) is expected to enter production as soon as we finish and submit it.

We take our backers' trust very seriously, and hopefully, this proves that. Sometimes (often), we stumble, but hopefully, more often than not, we get back up again. We will not let you guys down: you will get your game.

We also just received our full-color sample of the game, so stay tuned for that update. But in the meantime, once again, we're sorry for damaging your trust in us and hope this can help to rebuild it.

Production Pics and Update
7 months ago – Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 01:22:33 PM

Hey, my friend! Sorry it's been a while since our last update, but we had a big one coming, and we wanted to wait until we had as much together for it as possible. That time has now arrived, so let's dive in.

It's finally official: The mass production process has begun at the factory! WOOHOO! We will go into all the various components below, but I wanted to get that out right from the jump. Now, let's take a look at some of the components!

Non-Printed Components

Dice

As you'll see in the pictures below, all the dice are currently undergoing the first part of their production journey. In these pictures, you may notice that five sides have been carved, and one side is blank. That's because these are the dice for all five sentience colors, and each color has a different sixth side. So, once the phase-one dice production is finished, the factory will divide them into groups, use a laser carving technique for the final side, and then color them. 

We have also received our final production sample of the dice, which look like this: 

Plastic Standee Stands

The plastic standee stands are mat translucent. Here are two pictures of them, too: 

Sentience Markers

Now, look at the base game's plastic sentience markers. 

Metal Tokens

Here are the unfinished metal bases for the tokens. Next, the images will be printed on the tokens, and then they'll receive a resin coating on top to seal the image and give the tokens a nice feel in hand.

Neoprene Mat

And lastly, here's the neoprene mat!

Printed Materials

Now, let's move on to the printed materials.  You will notice that we don't have the breakdown for each wanderer's progress in this update. That's because we have submitted all of the files for the first three wanderers and all the files for the general components, such as the terrors and abominations. The only things missing currently are Lynas's storybook and some of his cards (mainly due to a few still needing art.)

The factory will begin production on the universal components and each wanderer's box of goodies. Then, once they get to Lynas's, we should hopefully have those files submitted to them to finish up the process. 

The White Sample

We have received the finalized white sample, which you can see below. These components are the final size and shape that will be in your box, just without any of the printing on them. Still, they can help show you the scale and give you an idea of what to expect.

Okay, that's all of the pictures from the white box sample.  We should receive the full-colored version within the next week or two, and we'll post another update as soon as we get it. 

The Schedule

We still plan to finish production in October. However, this will depend on how quickly we can finish Lynas's storybook. We'll let you know how everything is progressing as we go, so stay tuned. That said, production is now in full swing for this project, 12 hours per day, seven days per week, until it's done. We are getting there, and that light at the tunnel's end is getting bigger every day.

That's it for this mega update. However, as I said, stay tuned, as we will post another one as soon as we receive the color sample. So, if all goes according to plan, you may very well receive two updates this month. Have a great day, and we'll talk with you again soon!

August Progress Update
8 months ago – Sat, Aug 12, 2023 at 09:59:03 PM

Hi guys! It's been a crazy few weeks, but we're finally back with a new update. Let's jump in. 

Gen Con

Last week (and early this week), I was in Indianapolis for Gen Con. It was a hectic, insane time but also a ton of fun. Massive shoutout to our awesome backers, Bill (Ninjaoffduty) and Jim (Bobosavenger), for your help at the booth. Without you guys, it wouldn't have been possible. Thank you. =)

Also, thanks to all of you who stopped by and said hi! It was great to meet you or see you again in person. 

Couldn't make it to Gen Con? No worries. I will do a live stream likely next month covering new stuff we had there and just hanging out with you guys. (It will probably be September at the soonest so that I can focus on getting as much DoM stuff ready for the factory as possible.) Also, all of our new things for the con were focused on our next game, Celestial, so you didn't miss any DoM-specific content. 

Things were so crazy that I pretty much completely forgot to take pictures or videos of Gen Con or the booth (my bad. LOL.) But I did at least get a few (unfortunately glary and photo-bombed) pictures of our display case. Here they are!

Anyway, my apologies that these are the only pictures I got from Gen Con, and they weren't better quality. Hopefully, you still enjoyed these (admittedly crummy) images.

Manufacturing Progress

We received the first white box test sample from the factory, which is the last step in confirming the final components' quantity, quality, format, etc. We planned to include some pictures of the sample, but we discovered a few problems with it. So, expect to see those in the next update instead. 

Likewise, we learned that the metal token and neoprene game mat progress has been delayed slightly. We received news from the manufacturer that their production will start in the second half of August. So, perhaps we'll have samples for them in our next update, too. 

Speaking of our next update, it will be quite soon and relatively brief, focusing on the factory's samples.

Development Progress

Now let's jump into our current development progress. 

Claude

All of Claude's art is officially finished. Likewise, all of his component layouts have been finalized except his storybook. That is currently 50% laid out, and we made significant progress on it today. 

• Character designs: Completed. 
• The wander stage story writing: Completed. 
• The finale stage gameplay: Completed. 
• The finale stage story writing: Completed. 
• Art: 100% Completed. 
• Components layout: 90% Completed. (The only thing left is the storybook layout.)

Catherine

Catherine's art has also been finished, as have the layouts for all of her components apart from her storybook. Like Claude's, her storybook's layout work is approximately 50% finished. It awaits her final two endings from me, which I should have over to the team likely this next week. 

• Character designs: Completed. 
• The wander stage story writing: Completed. 
• The finale stage gameplay: Completed. 
• The finale stage story writing: Two more endings to be put into the storybook. 
• Art: 100% Completed. 
• Components layout: 90% Completed. (The only thing left is the storybook layout.)

Lynas

We are still editing Lynas's storybook, creating more of his art, and laying out his components. He will be the final piece of the whole core game. As mentioned previously, we will send all the other printed materials to the printer first and begin the manufacturing process on them as soon as possible, then send Lynas's components once they're finished. This will save us some time and keep everything moving. 

• Character designs: Completed. 
• The wander stage story writing: Completed. Needs further editing and proofreading. 
• The finale stage gameplay: Completed. 
• The finale stage story writing: Completed. Needs further editing and proofreading. 
• Art: 50% Completed. 
• Components layout: 30% Completed. 

We also continue to progress steadily on the translation work for all wanderers.

New Art

Let's finish off this update with some new art. This may be the last you see from Claude and Catherine until the core game is in your hands.

Okay, that's it for this update! As I mentioned above, our next update will come sooner rather than later and will feature a few samples from the factory. So stay tuned for that. Have a great August, my friends, and we'll talk with you again soon!