April #1: HOPKINS
So, this sprint has been… insane. We released the Explorer’s Build, which has been rapidly iterated on by Alexis to the point that we’re now on 2018.4.j.1, despite having two events and a bunch of international flights between last Monday and now.
But seeing as text is super lame and definitely a dying medium, what better way to tell the additional story than a PHOTO MONTAGE!
Rezzed was a thing! People seemed to dig CS, we recorded a Crate & Crowbar podcast, AK did a talk, and I was included in GI.biz’s Top 100. Yay!
AK honed in on mad coffee, the Children of Silence were by far the most popular cult, and I met up with good friend Haley Uyrus, there demoing Sunless Skies.
Now, onto Develop Reboot in Dubrovnik, for a whirlwind tour! The opening ceremony was amazing, AK did another talk and I did a production panel.
Our Emotional Games Award arrived (!), we went on a pirate ship and had pirate champagne, and I guess we love each other or whatever.Kickstarter backers of Disciple level and above (£35+) will already know we’ve emailed to ask for your mailing addresses, as we are ready to start sending out Alexis’s design notebooks in grimoire-form and – for Gods-who-were-Stone and above (£300+), your mysterious UNUSUAL THING!
All the while, AK’s been working on balance, breadcrumbs to lead players better through the early game, UX improvements and additional card interactions, while Martin’s been doing sterling work on a number of bug fixes, UI improvements, displaying the upcoming deck in certain recipes (e.g. expeditions) and reworking the way zoom works entirely.
Over in artland, Clockwork Cuckoo are in progress with their penultimate pre-launch batch of icons. Take a look at a selection of their wonderful works in progress! 10 points to the person who can identify all of ’em. I am particularly fond of codename: DEATH GRANNY.
Anyway, next sprint should be slightly less bonkers, so we hope to actually get some work done. Well, some more work than multiple daily patches and new art and important marketing events and oh you know. This and that.
Oh my god those last icons are like a fever dream from a blood drenched snake-bone orgy, I LOVE THEM.
You should trademark PENETRATE THE HOUSE. Maybe you could save it for the sequel…
Bledde’s Blade, Alakapurine Shears, Chalice Murmurous, Kingskin Bohdran, Carcass Spark, Poppy Lascelles, Thugs/Hostile Villagers, Younger Sisters, Fretful Dead, Witch and Sister Nuns, and Abbey Monks.
I really hope there will be more ways to interact with Poppy in the final version. She’s a fascinating character.
Bledde’s Blade, Alakapurine Shears, Chalice Murmurous, Kingskin Bohdran, Carcass Spark, Poppy Lascelles, Watchers, SNEK… I mean Younger Sisters, the dead, Death metal grandmas, also known as the Soucoyants and Monks.
– Edward! You are right about NEARLY EVERYTHING, save the thugs and the Witch and Sister nuns.
– Esurnir! You are right also about NEARLY EVERYTHING other than the Watchers. Though SNEK is 100% canon.