Stormsunder: Heirs of Ruin

First Miniature Samples! Excavation Earth Kickstarter Ending Soon!
about 4 years ago – Sat, May 02, 2020 at 01:41:06 AM

Hello, folks!

Last update I talked about getting final production miniatures from three different manufacturers (basically, have them make molds for PVC to see what they can do). Well, it’s five now and all should be sending us final PVC samples by the end of the month. Below are the first ones we received, both from the same factory. These are without any changes or optimizations on our part, but it looks like we’re off to a great start. From the outset it was important to us that we get the best possible quality for Stormsunder’s miniatures, so the final product reflected the amazing work from our sculptors.

This update is more of a check-in than anything else, we’ll be back later in May with a firmer status update, with the Design-a-Hero results, more PVC samples and maybe even a final decision on the manufacturer.

Excavation Earth

In other news, our friends at Mighty Boards have a new Kickstarter campaign running for their upcoming board game, Excavation Earth:

In Excavation Earth, you lead a race of alien explorers on their quest to excavate human artifacts and curate the ultimate art collection. You must manage your drafted hand of cards to unearth artifacts in excavation sites around the world, deploy traders in markets, manipulate market prices to sell at the right time for the highest profit, complete themed sets of artifacts for your collection, and work the black market to grab the elusive perfect artifact.

Mighty Boards has also releasedfree 1-2 player versions of some of their games as Print and Play pdfs, with a 1-2 player PnP version of Excavation Earth coming to backers soon, so you can jump right into the alien action!

Excavation Earth is already funded and unlocking stretch goals as they close in on the final 48 hours of the campaign; head over to the KS page and check it out.

That's it for now, we'll see you in the Storm soon. Probably after all that sand stops flying everywhere.

- LSG

Design-A-Hero Finalists, Equipment Set Results and More!
about 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 02:11:16 AM

Hello, folks!

We’re back with a beefy update for Stormsunder, live from the Storm, AKA my basement after my daughter has been playing down here for a few minutes. We have some fun things to go over, so let’s get right to it:

Equipment Set Vote

You might recall we had you fine folks submit ideas for equipment cards and then we decided to make a bunch of them instead of having you vote and you would actually vote on which three would be made into sets. Here are the three winners via your votes:

Card Sizes

We had some folks ask for the various card sizes in Stormsunder. I won’t be putting numbers of cards here as I fully expect them to change (I’m guessing we’re going to have more):

(sizes in mm)
Adversary, Equipment & Signature Skills – 63 x 88
Consumables, Initiative, Injury, Loot and Abilities – 50 x 70
Heroes – 178 x 130
Enemies – 148 x 121

COVID-19 (and the Pledge Manager)

The worldwide pandemic we all know and love actually started causing issues for Stormsunder even before we launched. China was getting hit hard before the campaign, making the selection of a factory a difficult task (given with what we wanted to achieve). After the campaign, its impact is still there, but nothing to worry about at the moment (aside from the totally appropriate amount of worrying you may already be doing). Playtesting will be more difficult with folks staying at home, getting test miniatures from factories will take longer than expected, etc, but we’re fine for now.

The one casualty will be the pledge manager, as I expected to launch it much sooner than we likely will. For perspective, Wild Assent’s PM launched 6-7 months after the campaign, and we won’t be waiting that long. That said, we don’t want to launch before we’ve picked a factory (see our progress on that below) and can provide precise shipping costs (which is affected by weight… another reason we need a factory). Besides, with folks losing their jobs and general anxiety, it’s not the right time to launch anyway. You will still have plenty of time to mull things over, upgrade your pledge, etc before we close the PM. Just look for it to launch later than expected.

Late Pledge

All that previous stuff said, the Stormsunder Late Pledge has launched, but its not for backers of the Kickstarter campaign, like you. It's for folks who missed the KS campaign entirely, so please don't use it, poke it or stare at it with a menacing demeanor. If you have a friend who didn't back and thinks dying in the desert sounds like fun, they can find it here.

The Hunt for Stormsunder’s Manufacturer

We are currently in the process of securing a manufacturer for Stormsunder. We’re getting final production miniatures made by three different factories at the moment, to see who can offer us the best quality possible. THE PICTURES BELOW ARE NOT THAT. They are tests, master sculpts, etc, but they show where we’re at (and they’re pretty), so here they are:

Design-A-Hero Vote

We’ve combed through your bounty of hero ideas and selected three for you to vote on. There were a lot of great concepts, but we have settled on these three (to vote, respond in the comments of this update with a simple “1”, “2” or “3”):

Thanks to \[T]/ SOLAIRE \[T]/ for #1, Morgan Jones & CthulhuStoleChristmas for #2 and Blueeyes!, Kyruz, MEQQA, Marko and anyone else who suggested an Alchemist for #3. Keep in mind that we’ll be using the look of the character; story and abilities will be crafted by us so they fit in the world of Stormsunder.

The Faceless Expansion

Finally, we owe you a sculpt or two, so let’s start by showing off the entire Faceless expansion, including their new leader, Bakeal:

That's it for now, we'll keep you posted on development and production at regular intervals moving forward. Feel free to stop by the comments or head over to the totally unauthorized Stormsunder Discord at https://discordapp.com/channels/686647150519648270/686647151694053382. 

Until then, stay safe and we'll see you in the Storm... We can practice social distancing from the Unsated chasing us.

- LSG

We're Funded! Thank You All!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 05, 2020 at 11:28:58 PM

Hello, folks!

It’s been a wild ride (and its only just beginning). Thank you all so much for digging deep and deciding to go on this adventure with us. You’re all official members of the Clan of the Horned Golem, a thing we just totally made up, like, this morning (it’s a huge honor). 

As members of good standing, you should consider hoisting your colors:

Some house-keeping items. You may have noticed that Elise is absent from the page. Here she is, for posterity:

We can’t change the Kickstarter page after the campaign ends, so we popped in and removed the image so folks who go to the page from now on don’t think they will get Elise for free if they late pledge (you all still will, of course).

You also unlocked every single stretch goal we put in front of you. Here are the ones you unlocked since the last update:

Including the Retann Fireslingers:

And the most ridiculous (and yet still awesome) sculpt we have, the monkey-driven Runecannon:

So, what happens now? Well, sleep sounds like a great idea (and getting the LSG taxes prepared… sigh). But, after that, we’ll get to working on making Stormsunder a reality, focusing on Heirs of Ruin and the rest of Wave 1 first. We’ll keep you informed of our progress, set up a testing group so you can help us balance the game and generally let you know what’s going in and around the Storm. We’re woefully behind on comments, messages and every other form of communication, so getting caught up on that will also be a pretty important priority (and a lot quicker than finishing the game).

Thank you so much (again), and we’ll see you in the Storm (we have too now, it's in the bylaws)!

Lorelei Unlocked! Only 12 Hours to Go!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 05, 2020 at 01:26:32 AM

Well, folks, you've done it again. You crushed the Stretch Goals with wild abandon. 

 You unlocked the the Fire Spirits and the Wild Assent crossover, the Horned Golem:

But, most importantly, you unlocked her:

Is she not the best? Below are the last two stretch goals. We weren't going to do the expansion miniatures, but you all tapped us out. I don't know where our funding total will finish, but I do know we earned it together. 

With 12 hours to go, we'll see you in the Storm, but because you made sure there could be a Storm. Which kind of makes you the villain of Stormsunder, if you do (or don't) think about it.

- LSG

Less than 30 Hours to Go! More Stretch Goals!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 05, 2020 at 12:04:43 AM

Hello, folks!

You've put together some exciting hero ideas; we've been pouring over them and some of them are quite inventive. Due to time constraints, we will likely post the concepts for your to vote on after the campaign. 

Now, let's talk stretch goals:

You've unlocked the Desert Dogs and another Origin Quest! Grats!

Here are your next set of Stretch Goals:

Lorelei Blackburn marks the first miniature that will only be available to A Pharaoh's Wrath pledgers. We had backed away from having expansion-only characters, but we've stretched our remaining sculpts as far as we can and we're down to some super awesome ones that simply won't fit in the core game (thematically or physically, at this point). Lorelei will be in the A Pharaoh's Wrath box as a villain, so if your plan is eventually to get the expansion, this is still a win for you.

That's it for now, we'll see you in the Storm (or under it. I hear there's some stuff going on down below).

- LSG