Bust update and new deck added to all pledge levels
about 4 years ago – Mon, Apr 18, 2022 at 12:09:39 AM

Hi everyone,

First of all, I'm sorry to say there has been a delay in getting the bust sent out. I want to apologise to you for this. This past month has been difficult for a number of reasons - illness in the team, unsatisfactory packaging (which needed to be  reordered) and a couple of other things. I'm truly so sorry for the delay. On a positive note, we are now ready to ship the item this week and I'll post another update once they've all been sent out to confirm. 

If you have ordered a copy of the bust and have not completed your pledge manager, please be sure to do so. If you've not received a link to do this please send me a DM and I will get this sorted for you.

The closing date for the painting competition will be put back a month to account for the delay.

Now onto some more positive news to share with you all...

Haunt Revamp

Since the end of the Kickstarter my team and I have been working really hard on the game, making all manner of changes and tweaks to improve the experience. One of the biggest changes we've made to the game has been to the Haunt system. Previously, slain players would simply choose from one of 5 powers to play each turn, as shown below:

I was never truly satisfied with this and felt like it could be improved. I was getting a lot of feedback from slain players that playing The Haunt wasn't really a satisfying experience. So we took it back to the drawing board and started testing new ideas. This aspect of the game is without doubt the one that has taken the longest, but I am very happy to say that we've arrived at a place where I think we've really nailed it. 

This new version of The Haunt uses a deck of Tarot cards that slain players draw to trigger different effects, while attempting to progress along a 'resurrection' track in order to return to the game. 

Here's the new Haunt board:

To make this work, we've added a deck of 9 tarot style cards: 3 Vengeance, 2 Blood, 2 Madness, and 2 Death cards. The slain player now deals three cards face up and attempts to make a matching pair, with the effect for achieving the pair shown in the image above. If they so choose, the player can choose to draw another card to replace one of the ones they've already drawn. They can do this up to two times. However, if they draw a Death card, their turn ends, a Deathknell card is revealed, and they move their resurrection tracker down by 1.

Another facet of this new system is that three of the nine cards have the number '6' printed on them. If a player is able to match the three '6s' during their turn then they are returned to the game at the beginning of their next turn. The other way for players to return to the game is by advancing their resurrection counter to the top of the tracker.

The feedback for this has been really positive. It's something that really ties into the game from a thematic point of view and has been praised as being far more engaging than the way we had it originally.

Just to be totally clear, the additional cost of this new addition will be covered by me - it will be completely free for all backers. I took the decision to go with this because I feel it works so well and I truly want you all to have the best version of the game I can make.

Here are the cards:

Descent Tracker

Another consequence of this new direction is we've been able to improve the way that the Descent tracker functions. Prior to this change the game took place across four 'acts' - The Arrival, Nightfall, The Descent, The Fall. During testing, upon reaching 'The Descent' we were finding that players would frequently forget to advance the 'Descent Tracker'. So this was something else I was looking to address and we've been fortunate in that the change to The Haunt has proved to be the solution to this problem also. Because Deathknell cards are activated more frequently now, we can use these as a tracker. Now, when all five Deathknell cards are active, the game enters The Fall.

It all just really seemed to click into place with this change. I hope you all like it.

Next steps

As mentioned above, I'll be sending another update once all the busts have been posted. As part of that update I'll go into more detail on the other changes to the game that have been made and the thought process behind each one. The game is playing really well and everything else is on track for an August delivery.

I hope you've all enjoyed a lovely Easter weekend so far and I'll be in touch again soon.

Best wishes,

Kris

Ready to ship Count Dracula Resin Bust Addon, Painting Competition and more...
about 4 years ago – Fri, Mar 11, 2022 at 04:27:29 PM

If you backed for a COPY OF CORE PLEDGE + EXPANSION + BUST  or added the Count Dracula Resin Bust as an addon now is the time to ensure your address is in Backerkit, because we're shipping this item soon!

We have collected them from the manufacturer and will proceed to LOCK the top tier pledge and remove the addon from Backerkit. 

We will allow 5 days for all of you who wanted this addon to complete your address in Backerkit before doing so.  (16th of March 21:00 BST)

For those of you who asked about shipping previously, we just wanted to remind you all that the bust includes free shipping. 

About the Bust

A high-quality resin bust for collectors and painters. The bust is based on 'The Vampire' from the board game, Damnation: The Gothic Game.  It contains five separate pieces and is supplied unpainted and unassembled. 

The busts have been individually cast and is not a toy. 

The height of the bust is 68mm to the top of the collar and the width is 50mm to the elbow.

You can find assemble instructions here

*You need filler, hobby clippers, a file, a sharp knife, and some superglue. 

Painting Competition 

Because the bust comes unpainted, we wanted to run a PAINTING COMPETITION. 

We will choose 3 winners  who will receive

• a £50 voucher to their favorite friendly local gaming store.

and 1 winner who will receive

• a £150 voucher to their favorite friendly local gaming store.

In order to participate in this competition, you must post a picture of your painted bust on socials and tag our socials so we can see it and use the hashtag #PaintMiniDracula

We will close the competition on 30th of JUNE at 23:59 BST, and announce a winner on our account on 10th of JULY at 18:00 BST. We hope that this will give you enough time to paint your Count Dracula Resin Bust. If you are the winner, we will reach out to you using the respective social media channel. 

I hope this will be a lot of fun and I can't wait to see what you can all do with the bust :) 

Final word

The main focus of this update has been the bust, but rest assured work is continuing apace on all other aspects of the game. Things are really busy as we continue to refine and fine tune the game. I'm going to post a dedicated update on this in the future, but we've made a few really positive tweaks that have improved the experience that I'm so excited to share with you all. I'll wait until all these changes are completely locked in first though, but it's shaping up really well.

Thank again for all your support and best wishes to you all,

Kris

Late pledge store is now open and The Occultist is revealed!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Feb 03, 2022 at 07:33:34 PM

We are delighted to announce that the Pre Order for Damnation the Gothic Game is now open!

If you missed out on the campaign, or you'd like to purchase any additional items head on over to Backerkit to secure your copy of Damnation the Gothic Game.

We will soon be ready to send out the Dracula Busts, so if you are wanting to get one, be sure to secure it right away. 

New Character Added

The Occultist approaches the castle

As revealed in the previous update, The Occultist was the most popular request as a character to be added to the game. Our amazingly talented illustrator (Hue Teo) has already drawn the character and I hope you like it as much as I do!

The big thing I really wanted to convey with this character is that it could be anyone behind the mask. Who they are, their backstory is really up to you with this one. We've started playtesting the character and I'll provide some more insight into their talents once we've spent a little more time developing them, but suffice to say I think they're going to make for a really interesting addition to our cast of villains!

Final word

Everything is moving forwards at a good pace. I'm going to have an update on the Dracula busts early next week - I'm due to collect them from the manufacturer tomorrow, so I'll take some photos! 

Best wishes everyone,

Kris

[Damnation The Gothic Game] Pledge Manager is now open!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Feb 03, 2022 at 12:23:48 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

New character announcement, surveys and late pledges
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 10:05:04 PM

Hi everyone,

It's been an incredibly busy few weeks with lots happening. Without further ado, here's a quick breakdown on where we're at with everything.

New Character Announcement: 

The Occultist is being added to the Damnation: The Gothic Game core game

Those of you that have been following the updates will know that we've been running a survey to allow you the community to decide on the 8th character to be added to the core game alongside The Professor. The survey is now closed and the votes are in - the winner is The Occultist with 27% of the vote.

I'm super excited for this character, who will fit the game perfectly! They will be heavily themed around mysticism and all things occult! 

In terms of gameplay, in the first instance I'll be experimenting with different ways that The Occultist can use 'Souls' in the game - there are no other characters that do anything similar in that regard so I think this will give them a unique playstyle that's highly thematic. I can't wait to test out the ideas we already have in mind. The brief for the artwork is now with Hue and I'll keep everyone updated as we progress.

Thank you to everyone that voted.

Pledge Manager Survey

We've began to send out the pledge manager survey so keep an eye on your inboxes over the next week or so. This is done in a couple of stages just for safeguarding purposes, so please don't be alarmed if people receive these at different times. For those of you who aren't aware, the pledge manager will be used to coordinate payment and fulfilment and to help ensure the process of getting the game across to you runs as smoothly as possible.

Pre-order store coming next week

A lot of people have been asking about late pledges. We're going to be opening up a pre order store through Backerkit next week, at which point I'll send out a dedicated update with more information as well as a link to the store. Watch this space!

Bust Coming Soon

The manufacture of the bust is well underway and I'm aiming to send these out in the next couple of weeks. It's taken a little longer to get these produced for the simple reason the campaign exceeded our expectations! I'm actually heading to the company's premises on Thursday, so I'm hoping I can take some photos of the production so you can see what that all looks like :) 

There will be a more thorough update about this in the next week or two.

Those are the major updates I wanted to share, but there's lots more happening, including:

• Lots of playtesting and balancing
• The first draft of the novel is due in the next few days (can't tell you how excited I am for that!)
• I've received the first track from the soundtrack and it's fantastic

I'll have more news on these in a future update

Very best wishes to everyone and I'll be in touch again soon,

Kris