Digital Proofs Approved, Pre-Production Copy Ordered
over 2 years ago – Mon, Aug 09, 2021 at 12:35:16 PM

Hi all,

It's been a busy month of Mutanite! File prep was... kind of insane to be honest. Even though so much was already prepared, there were many, many small changes that needed to happen to make the files properly prepared for the manufacturer. We iterated on files back and forth, and now the digital proofs are approved and the pre-production copy should be here in roughly 3 weeks. The next step after that is reviewing all the physical components and making any needed changes before going into production.

File Adjustments

Here's some of what I've been up to:

• Punchboard standee edges all made rounder and with less small gaps so they'll punch out cleaner and hold up better over time
• The box bottom's sides needed more bleed to look better, so that's added. I also removed the logos on the box bottom's sides for a cleaner look. I don't want to spoil it but it's going to look pretty cool when you pull the box top off :) 
• The boosting bar on the bottom of the power cards was too close to the margin such that the mutanite symbol could get trimmed, so that's adjusted now (along with the boost abilities) for all boost powers.
• Damage icon on character sheets scaled down to better fit within bleed.
• Mutanite row nudged down on character sheets in case of drift. Going to keep an eye on this as the pre-production copy comes in and I can physically try out the plastic clips on the mutanite track.
• Water and Fire tokens vectorized so they'll look better as tokens (before, they were formally only big enough to be icons on the cards!).
• 2- and 3-damage symbols on traits are now more readable.
• Rulebook bleed adjusted, as well as lots of rules changes below.

Rules Changes

One of the trickiest parts of any game is finalizing the rules! I put them through another edit pass with designer friends and made tons of helpful adjustments. Some include:

• New sections: Card Clarifications, FAQ, and Know Your Opponents. The first two were previously going to be online but they are now in their full glory in the rulebook!
• First player advantage is now settled--with a mutanite bonus (e.g. in 2 player, player 2 starts with 1 mutanite)
• Villain Mode life numbers have been finalized from additional testing
• Outer space background added to variants section (Team Mode and Villain Mode) to better differentiate it from normal rules, and to hint at Villain Mode components (you use the outer space side of the character sheets)
• Leader token in Villain Mode is now called the Target token, which goes along with a rule change that cleans up the targeting explanation. Also, the token asset now exists! It uses art that I didn't get to use elsewhere, so it has found a home:

That's all, have a great weekend!

-Andy

P.S. Hey, you're still here? Check out another local Los Angeles publisher's campaign, our friends at Pull the Pin Games that have created a new expansion for The Zorro Dice Game!

Timeline Update, Villain Mode Update
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jul 13, 2021 at 07:46:18 PM

Hi all!

A few updates for you today:

Timeline

I'm estimating that games will be delivered to backers in late March 2022. I know it's after the initially estimated timeline, but a few things are contributing:

• Manufacturing times are longer than normal
• Villain Mode took longer to develop than I thought
• I've started preparing files to upload to our manufacturer, and I'm guessing this process will take me 2 weeks
• Including my estimate for submitting files, the total process to print is 23 weeks (using their conservative numbers below).
• Once the games are printed, it will take ~2 months for them to reach fulfillment centers via ocean freight. Then the games need to be shipped after that.

Here's the Panda timeline in more detail:

In the end, I think everyone will be happy with Panda's quality, and what's most important is getting you all a quality game, not trying to rush something. I'm confident we'll get there. 

Villain Mode Updates 

I've continued to improve on Villain Mode and get closer on villain life numbers for the different player counts. At this point it's not holding up production, since I can continue to test while the file prep / Pre-Production Copy moves in parallel.

• Added Leader card which influences who the villains target and also determines turn order for players. This has been an amazing streamline for higher numbers of players, and shuffles up turn order so players can't always do the most optimal play with spatial manipulation (like Mind Control or Seduction) going first each round. BUT, you do still get those opportunities, especially in lower player counts.
• Limited elemental effects to 3 per zone in villain mode. This helps with rounds where it’s 6 players ganging up on one villain, while keeping it streamlined so the villain isn’t interrupting the player round. Luckily it still feels like you're dominating when you're utilizing the 3 elements in the zone (whether it's water or fire).
• Added outer space background to villain side of character sheets to better differentiate from player side
• Re-ordered power tracks so they're effective in early game AND late game, and have more power-power combos and power-trait combos
• Cleaned up the phases of villain rounds so it’s 2 phases instead of 3
• Re-evaluated all villain life totals     
  • Villains now take multiple rounds in games with higher player counts so they have balanced velocity with the larger number of players
  
  

And a bonus change for all games, including the normal game:

• Added clause that you can redraw your hand if you start with 0 or 3 Pick Up cards. It's better for long term velocity and fairness if the Pick Up cards are split up since you can’t use 3 in a single turn (so you get behind on the draw if you decide to keep one for next turn).

Fulfillment

I've also been looking into fulfillment more so we're set up for freight once the manufacturing is complete.

That's all, have a great weekend!

-Andy

Villain Mode Update + Playtesting Request
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jun 05, 2021 at 10:13:08 PM

Happy June, Mutanoids! There are two main takeaways in this update:

1. Villain Mode is now more streamlined!

2. I could really use your help with playtesting!

Villain Mode Update

We’ve been doing weekly Villain Mode playtests. Last update, I shared the Villain Mode rules. After reflecting on additional playtest results, we determined the mode in that form required too much maintenance, and it overshadowed the fun. So, we retooled it:

• Now, all players take their turns, then all villains take their turns. This helps create a lot more strategy on the player turn, and stops the feeling of being interrupted in between player turns.
• Villains used to be locked to a 4-action-per-turn system. This worked well for balancing powers and dashes, but it was tedious to count villain actions in combination with making villains prioritize dashing clockwise. These rules are somewhat still in, but in a form that prioritizes the meat of what the villain is doing.
  • Now, at the beginning of the Villain Round, all villains gain 1 Mutanite. Then, they all activate a number of POWERS (not actions) equal to their Mutanite level. They take as many dashes as they need to get to their target. Initially I thought this might neuter strategy around player positioning in a way that would hurt gameplay, but we found that the streamlined feel is worth it, and the players still have plenty to strategize about.
• Villains no longer gain powers; they have a villain sheet (on the back side of the normal player sheet) that holds their Power Track and their Traits. This is sooo good for setup time because you just select your villains, put on some clips and tokens and you’re ready to go. You don’t have to go hunting through the power or trait decks to get these specific cards out before or during the game. It also keeps the cards available for players during the game.

• Each villain sheet starts with 2 lock tokens on their traits and a power token on their leftmost power. As the villain unlocks traits by spending Mutanite, you remove the trait tokens (villains gain traits at a cost of 2 mutanite, whereas players have to spend 3; this helps with difficulty ramping). This spending of Mutanite is cool because it also varies the number of power activations from villain turn to villain turn (since power activation comes from mutanite level). Once both traits are unlocked, the villain is able to boost their powers by using their excess Mutanite. The power token keeps track of where the villain is in their power track. 
• Another big win of moving to printed villain sheets is that each villain now has specifically curated powers and traits that are the most streamlined. There was an issue in the last version that maintenance became complicated with certain effects (especially when villains would throw objects), so now that’s ironed out. I still need to add some villain-specific wording to some of the cards on the villain sheets.
• I’ve added a +50 and +100 life block to each villain sheet for the larger life totals in villain mode. This requires more clips in the box but I think it’s elegant and worth it.
• Poison and Frost are now more intuitive when interacting with villains. They both stay on indefinitely. Poison hits them each time their power track loops, and Frost just builds up more and more damage as you keep frosting them. Luckily they aren't overpowered because you still have several different villain targets to hit.

The online rules have been updated.

After these Villain Mode rules are just a little more confirmed, I can get a new quote from the manufacturer and proceed with the manufacturing process (the added tokens may alter the size of the punchboard sheets). This confirmation will come from more playtesting (see below!).

Playtesting Request

I've updated the Tabletop Simulator version of the game with the new rules, villain sheets and tokens. It would be really helpful if you could please playtest any of the following:

• Any Villain Mode games at 3 or more players
• 4-6 player Free-for-All (to test neighbor targeting)
• 6 player team variant

I am still hoping to hit December for delivery of the game. The Villain Mode has taken me longer than I thought it would. I think you all will be satisfied with the new updates!

Thanks!

-Andy

Big Rules Update: 4-6 player Free-for-All, Coop Villain Mode, 6 player Team Mode
about 3 years ago – Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 08:02:19 AM

Hi all!

It's been 2 months since the campaign ended. Thank you to everyone that has completed their BackerKit surveys so far, we're at 82% completion. If you have not completed your survey, please do so before April 12. If you lost your survey, get another one here.

I've been working on a bunch of additions to the rules from the content we unlocked during the campaign. I'm excited to announce that the following is playable today on Tabletop Simulator:

• 4-6 player free-for-all
• Villain Mode (1-6 player cooperative mode)
• 6 player team mode

I would love your help testing the new content. ANY testing of the 3 additions above would be helpful. In Villain Mode, there are some player counts I haven't tested, so the villain life numbers definitely need to be balanced. Please post any feedback/questions in the campaign comments.

A lot of the rules were restructured to make those work cleanly. I've also made a bunch of other tweaks to the rules:

• Fire and water are no longer unlimited, they are moved from other zones if they have run out and you're trying to spawn one. This limits the elements from getting out of control in games with lots of players and keeps the zone "shapes" dynamic (rather than "everything is dangerous" in late game).
• Cleaned up how exhausting the power deck works - now players get 1 bonus mutanite per turn if the city is out of powers, so folks get traits or easy boosting of powers late in the game with lots of players
• Cleaned up confusion around gaining poison while simply picking up powers (you shouldn't, but that wasn't clear for some players, rightly so from how the rules were sequenced)

On some other rules topics:

• I have opted to keep Player Elimination in the normal free-for-all game. The amount of time that eliminated players are out of the game is minimal, and thematically it feels right. Even in a 6 player game, the game is already quite ramped up when someone gets eliminated--the dominoes fall quite quickly after that. Also, the solves for player elimination introduced undesirable effects, especially in larger player counts.
• I have not addressed First Player Advantage, I'm still weighing the options on this one. It was higher priority for me to get rulesets in for the large variety of ways to play so you guys have them to test. If you want to try this out in 2 player, I'd suggest having the second player start with 1 mutanite, or the first player start with a smaller hand.

I look forward to hearing your feedback, thanks!

-Andy

Pledge Manager Surveys, Rulebook Work
about 3 years ago – Sat, Feb 13, 2021 at 05:46:31 AM

Hi all! Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate!

Pledge Manager Surveys

It's been two weeks since the campaign ended, so I'm starting to send out surveys for the pledge manager. This is where you'll fill in your address, add additional copies of the game, and pay for shipping. I'm still planning for the game to ship by December, this just gives me an idea upfront how many copies I should manufacture and ship to different regions. BackerKit requires a "smoke test" of 5% surveys sent out first, so a few of you will receive surveys before the full blast goes out. If you think your address might change, you'll be able to update it through the pledge manager. It will be open through April 12, but there's a long time between April and December, so I'll likely check in again on any further address changes.

Rulebook Work

I've been working on restructuring the rules to accommodate the additions from the campaign. In addition to playtesting, actually writing out the new rules lets me wrap my head around the full implications of certain complexities. I'll let you know when I have something concrete for you to try out.

Have a great weekend! (Long weekend for those in the US!)

-Andy