Progress, Gen Con, a Live Stream, and More
over 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 10:56:11 AM

Hey guys! I'm sorry this update is tardy in arriving to you. Time got away from us. However, we do have a few things to go over with you today. First, let's discuss what's going on development-wise right now, then we'll look back at Gen Con, and finally, we'll talk about an upcoming live stream with all sorts of fun stuff. (I'll also throw some new art in at the end of the update, just because. Does it tie into anything being discussed? No, but it's new art!)

Progress Update

Since we got the game sample we showed off last month, the team has been playtesting like fiends. They found several mechanics and rules to refine, tweak, and balance from that testing, which will tighten up the game experience in almost every possible way. (The most significant elements they tweaked were game length, the game's difficulty, and several of the wanderer's actions and abilities. In addition to this, there was also a general refinement and balance across many of the components.) 

We edited all the components that needed changing as a result of that testing and have sent those to the factory. They'll get us a new sample with those revised components, and then they'll send that to me. Once I have it, I should finally be able to film a playthrough of the game for you all! (This will be a FULL SPOILER video when it does come out, so be warned about that.)

I am working on Catherine's endings, while writing is also underway on Claude and Lynas. (See our last update for more info on what's happening with story development.) Perhaps more importantly, we are currently working on editing and formatting the rulebook. Once we finish that, we will finally have the new version to show you all. Hopefully, that won't be much longer, either. 

Oh! Also, the miniature boxes have finished the manufacturing process! Here's a picture:

A Curious Development

A while back, we revealed a new alternate mode for Dawn of Madness where you could play with either two or three wanderers rather than four using support cards. We have always assumed this would be just a variant ruleset that would likely be more difficult and would not be our recommended way to play the game. However, after this most recent round of balancing and testing, a strange thing happened: we discovered using the refined support cards actually made the game easier than playing with four wanderers, with more possible strategies revealing themselves thanks to the extra actions. It just provided a little added flexibility to the game. 

As such, we are no longer considering playing with fewer wanderers as a variant rule. Now, you'll always use two wanderers for one or two players, three wanderers for three players, and four for four. (Of course, you still can play with all four wanderers with fewer players. But it's no longer our recommended way to play the game.) 

Does this really change anything? No. But we thought it was interesting, and decided maybe you would, too.

DG at Gen Con

As mentioned in our last update, I went to Gen Con earlier this month. I conscripted a good chunk of my family to help out and was also joined by some truly fantastic volunteers. (Thanks so much, Curtis, Bill, Jeff, Robert, Marissa, and Sarah! You guys made it possible!) 

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat. It was so great to meet you or see you again. Thank you for all of the warmth and kind words you poured out on us, too. It meant a ton. 

I was hoping to get a lot more content for you guys at Gen Con, but there were some logistical issues that led to me basically running a day behind the entire con. Because of this, I never really got to the point where I could comfortably get a bunch of videos, etc., done for you guys. However, I did still get some pictures of the booth and minis, so I'll post those here.

I was also invited by Seth (one of our awesome backers) to participate in a couple of panels at Gen Con - one on making horror appealing/beautiful and one on gamifying stories.    The first (horror) one is on video and the other (game-to-story) one is on audio, so you can check those out here and here if you'd like to watch/listen to them. (They're an hour long each, so be warned.) I was furthermore interviewed by KoA, which you can find below if you'd like to watch it. 

Last but certainly not least (at least in my book), I became a big TikTok star thanks to this amazing little one-minute video which you can see here. 

So that's what's been happening. But what is coming up? Let's find out!

Live Stream of Epic Awesomeness

Couldn't make it to Gen Con? Or maybe you did, but you just didn't get enough of those sweet, sweet minis. Well, I will be doing a live stream to fill that gap! 

Hankering for some up-close looks at DoM minis or components? My pleasure. Want Deep Madness news? Done. Hoping to see Celestial stuff? You got it! I have so much to show you guys, and I can't wait to do it. 

Right now, I'm thinking of shooting for Saturday, September 24th for the live stream at 1 PM PDT. (8 PM GMT.) I believe this is an hour earlier than the last few we've done, which hopefully will make it easier for people all over the world to tune in. It will be on Facebook and YouTube, but I'll also post a link in an update so you'll be sure to find it. You won't want to miss this one. It will be packed!

New Art

Ah, I also promised you some new art, didn't I? Here it is.

Okay, that's it for this update! We'll talk with you again soon, and I hope to see you on the live stream! Have a great week, my friend!

An Update on the Update
over 2 years ago – Mon, Oct 03, 2022 at 05:36:50 AM

Hey guys! I hope you had a great June. We don't have a full update for you today, but rather an update that a big update is coming. (Basically, we didn't want you to think we'd forgotten about you.) 

We've been working like crazy people recently to get a bunch of card files sent to the factory so we can have samples printed. We're still waiting to get these samples back, though, so we don't have much to show you yet. (We also still have a file or two to send them - specifically, the terror cards, which I'm finishing up the bios/flavor text on.) 

Having said that, we plan on posting an update showing off all the cards as soon as we have them. Assuming all goes according to plan, I think you'll be happy with what you see.  

Some more good news: we've been working on getting all these cards finished at least partially so that we would have them in time for Gen Con, which is coming up at the start of August. This means it won't be much longer before you finally see the game's new version in action! (Whether you can make it to Gen Con or not.) That won't be in this next update, but it will be coming soon. (I'm hoping to film a game played with my test subjects - wait, I mean volunteers - at Gen Con. If that doesn't work out timewise, though, then I'll still get a video up for you not long after that.) 

Also, I know some people have been waiting for a while to hear how many cards this game will actually contain. Well, by Roger's rough calculations, he thinks we'll be somewhere in the vicinity of 1,200(!) cards. (And no, this isn't a deck builder. LOL!)

I realize we don't have many gameplay/progress updates for you today, but we figured we'd show you some more art to tide you over. So, here you go!

Okay, that's it for this update! We'll be back soon with all those sweet, sweet samples to show off!

Some Pictures from the Factory
over 2 years ago – Mon, Oct 03, 2022 at 05:36:16 AM

Hi friend! I hope you've had a great month. We have an update for you today that's low on talking and high on pictures, complete with some fun factory snapshots, the finalized miniatures box, and the sample of the metal tokens. So let's get into it!

A Trip to the Factory

We have begun manufacturing the miniature box. Here are some pictures of that process from the factory:

The Miniature Box Sample

Next, here is a sample of the final assembled miniature box for you to check out!

The Metal Tokens

Also, we've received the samples for the metal tokens! We're pretty happy with them. I hope you like them, too!

Progress Update

Currently, we are still progressing on the actual game. Unfortunately, lockdowns have hampered this process recently, as our main office in China is in one of the locations that have been put back into Covid lockdown. That's quite detrimental at this particular juncture as there's a lot that needs to be done in person, but hopefully, the team will be able to get back in there soon. I am also still working on the stories, which have taken longer than I hoped.

The miniature box will undoubtedly be finished before the printed components, which is not how the manufacturing process usually works for a board game. But we wanted to show you our commitment to this game and remove any remaining doubts that you will get it. Honestly, apart from our frustrations associated with it not being done yet, this project is a joy to work on, and we hope you'll find it a joy to play when you do receive it. (Albeit an incredibly weird, creepy, disturbing one.)

Anyway, that's it for this update. I hope you enjoyed the peek into the goings-on at the factory. Have a great June, and we'll talk to you again soon, my friend!

The Game Board Revealed
over 2 years ago – Mon, Oct 03, 2022 at 05:35:08 AM

Another month down with more progress on Dawn of Madness done! We have an update today that I've been looking forward to giving you for a long time. Just in case the title didn't give it away: the game board is finally finished! This game board features a lot of changes over the previous one and even has ramifications for other game components. So, we're going to break it down bit by bit below.

First off, though, we just received the finalized version of the miniature trays. Here is a picture of them:

The factory will soon begin production of the miniatures and miniature boxes. We'll let you know when that happens. 

Before we move on, here are pictures of the art for the top and bottom of the miniature box:

Now, let's move on to the game board!

The Game Board

You've waited a very long time for this, and we appreciate your patience. But now, at last, here it is in all its glory: the game board!

(If you'd like to see a bigger image of the game board, you can click here to see it larger.)

I honestly don't know how many iterations of the board we've gone through, but there were a LOT. Finally, though, we have something we're all pretty happy with. (I won't lie, actually: I'm thrilled with this board, and I hope you are, too.) This board is big. In fact, it's basically the biggest one we could get to fit in a roughly standard-size box. All told, it measures 900mm x 600mm (35.43in x 23.62in). 

The philosophy the team took when designing it was to (1) make it as simple to use as possible and (2) to consolidate as much into one central, easily accessible (and glanceable) place as they could. For instance, several parts of the game board were separate components in previous versions. However, to reduce fiddliness and streamline the experience as much as possible, the team worked hard to get as many elements on the actual board as was manageable in the space available, cutting clutter and fine-tuning the look until they finally got to this design. Then, of course, they still needed to make the thing creepy and atmospheric. In my (patently biased) opinion, they succeeded.

A lot is going on here, so let's break down what everything does and why. There are four areas on the game board: the mental capacity track (left), the world shard slots (center), the ending score tracks (right), and the game round track (bottom). Let's start with discussing the mental capacity track.

The Mental Capacity Track

Previously, this was along the board's right-hand side with the malformation cards (which are no longer used in the game.) The track had to shrink a bit to make room for everything else, so now it's just big enough. 

During the action phase, the mental capacity trackers' positions on the track will determine the order of the monsters' and wanderers' activations. The figure whose tracker is farthest up the track acts first and performs an action, then drops its tracker down the track a number of spaces equivalent to the amount of mental capacity the action used. The next-highest figure will then activate (even if it's the same figure again) until everyone has reached 0. Here's an example: 

In this example, the Masquerade would take an action next. (Monsters always go first because they frankly don't care about your feelings.) Then, it would drop down the track the number of mental capacity points it spent, and Catherine would take an action before dropping down the number of mental capacity points she spent. After this, players would check the track again to see who goes next, but it would likely be the Mongrel followed by Emily.

In the finalized version, players will use the mental capacity trackers as tokens instead of standees. This is because the tokens can stack, thus saving space, and are also easier to identify on the board from multiple angles. Furthermore, if you are playing with standees, this makes it harder to confuse the two -something which could have been a problem previously. 

The World Shard Slots

The meat of the game board is, of course, the world shard slots. These slots house the world shards that form much of the actual gameplay area. We'll discuss those and the world shard cards next. 

There are 16 world shard slots on the game board, which house the world shard cards that make up the shattered map of the Otherworld you're exploring. The world shard cards will be randomly placed on the slots during game setup to form the game map. (Note: There are 16 pieces of art on the game board by default: one under each slot. The world shard cards will cover them when placed, so these images won't be the actual locations you're playing on during the game.)

As with the previous version, the world shards are connected loosely by wires which show you the paths between the world shards. If a wire connects two slots, then you can travel between them. Otherwise, you will need to find another way around. This network creates a labyrinth that changes with every game session.  

There's one other thing to keep in mind with this board: this is not a standard world that you are exploring. It is a shattered, chaotic mess that used to be a person's consciousness, floating in a conscious, hungry fever dream of an abyss. (It also happens to be part of a shadowy cult's horrific experiments, which is why there's a distinctly... electrode look to everything.)

Here's a look at the game board with all of Emily's world shard cards placed on it:

You can see a better image of the board with world shards on it by clicking here.

The World Shard Cards

The wanderers will maneuver along the paths of world shards collecting domains and items, fighting against monsters, and, most importantly, diving into encounters (the core of the Dawn of Madness experience.) The world shards offer a lot of information on them, so let's break them down again in detail. 

(If you'd like to see this image in more detail, click here.)

On the cards' top-right corner is the world shard's number. Some figures and encounters will be spawned randomly on the board during the game. When this happens, the players need to roll the Otherworld die (the 16-sided die) to determine where to spawn them. The world shard numbers were directly on the game board in previous versions. However, adding them instead to the world shard cards added another layer of unpredictability to the game and kept the game board's aesthetic cleaner. (It also ensures that the world shard cards never accidentally cover up the number, and you will always know where to look for it.) 

On the cards' top-left corner are the world shard's sentience colors. Each world shard in the Otherworld is associated with its own meanings, feelings, energies, and emotions. The card's sentience colors represent these abstract concepts. Each world shard has three sentience color slots which determine what colors of domains wanderers can draw from it using a domain action. When a wanderer performs a domain action, he rolls the sentience dice according to the world shard he currently occupies and gains domains based on the die-roll results. 

The bottom of the card shows the title, description, and storybook entry number for the world shard's default encounter. These world shard encounters represent the surface-level stories for the world you're exploring. You'll have to uncover the deeper encounters hidden within the storybooks as you play.

The Game Round Track

The game round track lies along the bottom of the board, hovering over the top of a highly distressed brain. Ten round trackers will be placed on the track during the game setup in the order laid out in the central wanderer's setup instructions. (Just as a reminder, the central wanderer is the wanderer whose story you're playing through.) 

Each round tracker has a blank side and a side with an entry number. During the event phase (the first phase in a game round), the wanderers will turn to the entry number in the storybook and see what it says, then resolve any game effects it instructs players to do. Then, at the refresh end of the refresh phase (the third and final phase in a round), players will flip over the round tracker to indicate another round has passed. 

Here is a picture of the game board with ten example round trackers placed on it, as well as the round track a few rounds in, with the first four trackers flipped over. (The clock is ticking!)

In a previous update, we showed you a combo round-and-ending-track dial that players used rather than having the track on the game board. We'll have more on why that went away in the next segment. 

The Ending Score Tracks

When playing Dawn of Madness, players will gain points toward each of the current world's four possible endings. During setup, players will place each ending's score tracker on the "0" slot. Then, as the game progresses, they will score points toward the different endings within the encounters, and the scores on the tracks will advance accordingly. Once ten points have been accumulated, players will add a second tracker to the track, which will be placed on the 10 in the middle to indicate that this ending's points now number in the teens. If the first tracker travels around a second time, then another tracker will be added to the middle, reflecting that ending's points now being in the 20s, and so on. 

The right side of the above example indicates the scores for different endings partway through the game: 13 for ending A, 8 for ending B, 21 for ending C, and 6 for ending D. At this point in the game, the wanderers are about to enter the game's finale stage if they can defeat the abomination. With this in mind, they will most likely get into ending C in the finale.

Some of you may remember a previous update where we showed you a round tracker that also tracked the points for each ending. We really liked this contraption (mainly because it looked cool), but we ultimately decided to scrap it because it proved problematic for several fairly significant reasons. Firstly, it was one more thing for players to keep track of, taking up additional tablespace and mental energy. 

However, the second problem was a bigger one - quite literally. You see, we didn't want ending points to be limited to only eight or ten points (there are a lot of encounters that give you points, and limiting that would hurt the game), which meant we then had to increase the size of the dials to accommodate more points. But it wasn't just one dial we had to enlarge, but four. Finally, the size of the round tracker grew to be almost like a second game board. It was a bit like a poorly weighted, ill-shaped frisbee that could cause some real damage if a bad throw made it connect with a player's head. What's more, it still didn't offer us enough ending points, even at this gargantuan size. 

So, we were relieved when we figured out how to work the ending tracks and round track into the game board. We're sorry to see the round tracker go, but the current method's advantages are too significant to discount. This method has a few minor drawbacks, too, but it more than makes up for those with the reduction in fiddliness, table real estate, and bookkeeping that it provides. 

Well, that's it for this in-depth look at the game board! I hope you like the design we've finally settled on, and that this helps you visualize what your own games of DoM will look like in the future. Have a great week, and we'll talk with you again soon!

The DoM Samples
over 2 years ago – Tue, Sep 06, 2022 at 09:28:36 AM

Hi guys! I hope you've had a great month!

I expected to write this sooner, but receiving the samples we mentioned in the last update took a while. However, they have now arrived, and whoo boy, do we have an update for you today! Here's a sneak peek: 

While my sample is currently on the way to Gen Con, Roger was able to shoot several videos of all the various components. You will find those below (condensed into three mega-videos.)

I'm not going to waste any time talking about stuff up-front (I'll do that after the videos.) But I will give a couple of disclaimers.

• First of all, we haven't entirely finalized these components. We're still making a few minor tweaks here or there, such as color corrections, etc. (Though, by and large, we are thrilled with how these turned out.) 
• The second disclaimer is actually two points: This does not contain everything you will receive in the core game. Specifically, this sample focuses on general gameplay components and Emily's stuff. Having said that, I think it's possible you might feel the onset of component overload as you watch these videos. Don't fear, though. You will use many of these bits and bobs at particular times, and the game lets you know when that is. (There will also be a handy storage system so you won't have a hard time finding them - or putting them away.) They are not all used at once, nor do they all need to be on the table at one time. 
• The third is also two points: These videos are long, running between 7 and 14 minutes. So, expect to spend around half an hour if you want to dig into all of them. Also, the first few seconds of the first video have some of the light-bleed issues that the pictures above do. However, it gets better. I promise. 

Okay, enough talk! Let's jump into the videos!

The Sample Videos

This first video shows the punchboards, tokens, and standees.

 This second video features many of the game's cards.

 This third video looks at more cards, the wanderer dashboards, and Emily's storybook!

I hope you enjoyed the videos! Now, let's chat. =)

Diemension Games at Gen Con

First of all, I'll be at Gen Con next week! So if you'll be in Indianapolis the 4th-7th, come by and say "Hi." I'd love to meet you - or see you again! We will be at booth #2671, near the far-back upper-right corner of the convention hall. It's a walk, but hopefully, it's one you'll find worth making. 

I will be showing off Dawn of Madness as well as some stuff from our upcoming game, Celestial, and our last game, Twisted Fables. (I might even have some stuff to show for those who've been patiently awaiting news of our long-promised Deep Madness reprint!) We'll have some fun extra stuff there, too, so stop on by! (Including a book on tape. No, I didn't make a mistake in writing that: I meant exactly what I said.) 

Can't make it to Gen Con? No worries. I'll try to take lots of videos and pictures while I'm there and then post those for you, likely in our next update. I'll also have some other fun stuff to show before long, such as some merch! (I'm wearing my new Dawn of Madness shirt right now, in fact, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.)

But enough about Gen Con. Instead, let's talk about progress.

Where We're at Now

Hopefully, you can see in this update that we're making good progress. However, we're not there yet - though we are getting closer every day. A few months ago, I mentioned there was a possibility that we wouldn't make delivery this October, but it likely wouldn't be more than a few months past that point. This is looking to be the case.

The factory has finished the production of the core game's plastic miniatures. As you can see in this update, we're also nearly there or finished on a number of the printed components. The things we still need to complete are the stories and their gameplay elements. 

Before we talk more about that, though, I don't think I've laid out properly the scope of this game or what you'll be getting. I'm sure you realize this is a big game. But in talking with some people this week, I realized you might not understand quite how big it is. 

For reference, the average story-driven core game contains one book between 40,000-70,000 words. (80,000 at the high end.) But Emily's storybook is approximately 100,000 words (I think the final count for it squeaked by just under that count.) And Emily's storybook is only 1/4 of the total content you're getting in the core game. (Which does NOT include the wave two stuff.) Let that sink in for a moment: in one book, you're getting more content than in most epic story games, and that's only a fraction of the total potential gameplay. (You don't have to uncover it all, of course. You could just play through one game and feel satisfied. But it's there if you want it.) All that said, THIS GAME IS FREAKING HUGE, and I'm not sure we've properly conveyed just how big it is before now.

So, what's the current status? Currently, Emily is 100% done, while Catherine is right around 95% done. We also have good chunks completed for Lynas and Claude, but they are where we will direct the remainder of our energies before you finally get this game. 

But why aren't I done writing yet, considering I thought (and said) I would be by this point? Well, for starters, it turns out I'm wildly optimistic, and my drive far exceeds my capacity. Another reason is that we ended up rewriting about 60% of Catherine's stories. The team just didn't feel the overall narrative was cohesive enough (and it was also very, very weird), so we went back to the drawing board on many of the story's foundational elements and reworked them. (I alluded to this in a previous update, but these are the nuts-and-bolts details of what happened.) Probably the most significant benefit from this is that Catherine went from being our most unrelatable character (for reasons) to one of our most sympathetic ones, so it was the right call to make - even if it set us back further.

So, what are we doing to mitigate this? First, the team is all-hands-on-deck for this game right now. (Some of us are currently working on it seven days a week.) We have three designers working on it, as well as several artists and others who we have contracted. And this brings me to the second thing we're doing to get this game to you faster: we're contracting additional writers to help us finish this up as quickly as possible. We probably should have done it sooner, but at least they'll be here to get us over the finish line now. (One other thing this could potentially do is help free me up to spend more time interacting with you through social media and the various outlets.) So, all-in-all, it should be a good thing.

For some reason, that feels like a strange place to end this update, but I can't think of any other news right now off the top of my head. So, I think I'll stop here. I hope you've enjoyed this update, and, as I said, we'll be back with some more cool stuff soon. We'll also start the final layout on the rulebook before long, so we'll be able to show that off to you in short order. I'm also hoping to do a live stream again for you guys at some point (a suggestion made by one of our awesome backers - thanks, Russ!), though obviously, that will be after I've recovered from Gen Con. (LOL!) 

Okay, that's it for today. Have a great August! I hope to see some of you at Gen Con next week, and I'll talk to the rest of you again soon. Bye for now!