Pledge Manager is Coming Soon
about 5 years ago
– Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 02:04:20 AM
Hello Heroes!
This is just a quick update to let you know that all is well. We are continuing to work on many fronts and we’ll touch on some of them here.
We are trying to get the Pledge Manager finished as soon as possible. It is going well and in fact most of it is complete. It is up and running in another form: The Late Pledge Manager. Both of these systems run on BackerKit, both contain descriptions of every item that is available and both calculate shipping fees for any combination of items and any location. The main difference is that the Late Pledge Manager is for completely new backers that have not selected any items or made a pledge. Honestly, there is no need for you to look at it, but we are providing a link so you can see that something is working:
Click here to see the Late Pledge Manager
This work will all be reused in your Pledge Manager, so clearly we have made progress. We need to double check that data (names, pledges, etc) have all been imported from Kickstarter and add the options that start backers with the correct items, based on their reward. This is done too! Right now we are in the review stage, making certain that every route through the PM works.
Work is progressing on the game too.
Most of our work has been to create the cards for the game. There are many, many cards, and we have done a lot of work here. We have several goals:
* Make the cards clear. There is not much room for text and you need to be able to understand the card use and effect the first time you read the text without support from the rule book.
* Make the cards varied and interesting. We do not want too many “+1 Hit” cards, that’s no fun. As well as extending existing cards, we have created brand new effects.
* Make the Characters interesting, different and identifiable. We added many new Characters as stretch goals and we do not want lots of similar, generic characters in the game. But at the same time, we cannot have Characters that are too specific. If the “Healer” only has healing spells, then it will certainly be easy to identify its role and it will be different from the “Tank”, but it will be one-dimensional and boring to play.
* Balance the card effects. No powers should be overwhelming, no power should be too weak or too uninteresting to use, but at the same time level 4 spells and rare items need to be stronger than level 1 and common item, etc. More balancing will be done later as we play the new scenarios, of course.
The art department has been busy too. Their work can be split between new art and improvements. For example, we now have the final art for the Militia, completing all the character art for the core game. There have been other milestones too, for example all Heroes and Witches for the Cursed Fjord expansion are complete. A great deal of time and effort has been put into tweaking the digital sculpts so that they can be cast perfectly.
Here is a great example of what happens when our artists refine their work. We showed you Voskor, who is on the cover of The Witch’s Sabbath expansion, during the Kickstarter and the feedback on the art was very positive. Here’s a before and after close up, clearly showing the changes from the extra work.
Here’s the full image:
And here is a sample Hero Dashboard with new art (ignore the stats and name, they are placeholders):
Our next update will be complete instructions for using the Pledge Manager and in the one after that we’ll show concrete examples of new game components. Until then.…
Pick a side!
We’re Back!
about 5 years ago
– Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 02:56:54 AM
Welcome Witch Masters!
We are back on Kickstarter with a simple update. We have actually been back at work for some time now. We are at that stage of the project where we work hard, get large tasks 80% done and have nothing very exciting to talk about. But we know you want to hear from us, so here we are.
We have been working on the effects and wording for all the new cards, including cards we added to the core and cards in the new add-ons and expansions. As you can imagine, this is a large task, but it needs to be done early in the process so that we can play test and balance everything. Once we are further along in this process we will show you what we have.
The Pledge Manager takes a lot of our time too. Here is a very brief overview of what it does:
- It imports your Kickstarter account, including the full payment you made to Kickstarter which shows as a credit.
- It lists all our products and you can select exactly which products you want. If you need to add more money to cover your selection, you can. If you are a late backer or a $1 Kickstarter backer, you will be able to select a pledge as well as selecting add-ons.
- You can change your delivery address.
- You can select your language version for the game.
- It uses your delivery region and the actual products you select to calculate your delivery charge.
- Finally, you probably will have to add more money anyway, to cover shipping. You don’t physically add money, you are simply charged the outstanding balance once, when we close the Pledge Manager.
We have reviewed our needs and selected BackerKit as our PM. Obviously we have to add all our products and check that you can select them correctly, but a task you may not have thought of is estimating the size and weight of every box and finding shipping rates for all our locations because shipping is calculated in the Pledge Manager, based on your location and selection.
Finally, we have been working on how to take Late Pledges. This will be done through BackerKit too, so if you have friends that want to get in, you can tell them they have to wait a little while.
So I guess the burning question is “When will the Pledge Manager be open?” We think it might take another four weeks, but this is just an estimate because we need to get information from various sources for shipping. We expect it will be open for at least two months, but we will know more when the project moves along a little: it could be open longer.
You do not need to do anything at the moment. You do not have to register with the Pledge Manager, it is all fairly automatic. Once it is ready to go, we will post a detailed update with pictures explaining how to use it. Then BackerKit will send you an e-mail that you will use to access your account.
Pick a side!
Post-KS Round Up
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 10:56:34 PM
Hello Heroes!
I’m leading with “Hello Heroes” because that’s how it feels we ended the campaign. I think we all did really well, both my colleagues here at DGG and you, the backers.
Yesterday I promised you a round-up, so I am back in the saddle, writing another update. Let’s start with the Stretch Goals that you unlocked after our last SG Update.
Magenta, Witch Hunter, is a distant ancestor of Magenta, Vampire Hunter. Being bad ass runs in the family. Magenta was definitely my favorite character in OVH and I am so glad she is guest starring in Dark Rituals.
I’ll do the next two out of order. Alternate sculpts are common in miniatures based games with basic “troops”. They make things a bit more interesting to look at and are more fun for the painter. We could have unlocked these earlier in the campaign, but that’s not the way we roll. We wanted to lead with Stretch Goals that gave you new game play, so we tucked these away in case we really needed something at the end of the project if it took off. So now, the core box has two sculpts for all three Minions from Neemoss.
We conjured up a surprise Stretch Goal at $666K, and made it suitably Demonic. Click here to read the details, we described it as it unlocked. Have fun annoying your table-mates with this card.
Golus was also described before. For full details of the dumb but deadly Demon, click here for the update. Here’s the CliffsNotes: this Demon has no mind of its own and can only be activated when he has a rider. A combination of the Demon Activation Cards and other rules control who gets to be in the driving seat, but yes, Heroes can ride him too.
The $700K SG unlocked another Demon, this one is a little more feminine. A little.
We had two very popular updates: The Customization Kit announcement and the Witches’ Sabbath update, where we showed Champion level game play. These 4 bonus Champion Attribute Cards, with new Champion Powers, can be used in several ways, most of which will need a little home brewing.
· Owners of the Witches’ Sabbath now have more choice over their Champion Power.
· Everyone can use these cards to get a little taste of being a Champion. It should be easy for you to balance both sides.
· Anyone that wants to home-brew longer Campaigns has these cards to allow their Heroes to become Champions and break the Level 4 limit on Heroes’ Attributes.
· Finally, if any home brewer publishes a longer Campaign using these, all of you can play it! It just takes one backer to post a new Campaign for you all to make use of these!
Finally poor Skeetor, my favorite Creature, did not get unlocked. Yet. We will put late backer pledges towards unlocking this crazy sculpt. Part mosquito, part bat and part elephant as Jim the Collector said, “It’s perfect!” Spoiler: in our experience with late backers, he will definitely be unlocked.
So that’s the end of the line for Stretch Goals. With Skeetor, it’s exactly 60 unlocks, some upgrades, some minis. Want some other numbers? (These are not legally binding but I think they are correct.)
Our most popular pledge was the Attacking Hordes. This will come with 96 miniatures with 60 unique sculpts.
Many of you went all in (thanks again!) and that comes to 134 miniatures with 76 unique sculpts (not including the 3D plastic tokens).
We have not counted the cards and spells yet.
Perhaps now I’ll try to take that break! We’ll return soon!
Pick a side!
Thank You All
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 01:16:34 AM
Welcome Heroes! Welcome Witch Masters!
Poor Skeetor! Don’t worry, if the total goes up in the Pledge Manager, we will unlock Skeetor! He’s too cute to leave out of the game.
For once, we did not prepare this update in advance. You are getting an honest, heartfelt thanks from some very tired games creators. We’ll keep it short.
Has it only been 4 weeks? What an amazing month. From the rush of the first few days, through the pleasure of showing you the details of our game, to the utter craziness of the final 48 hours, we have enjoyed every moment. It has truly been a pleasure.
Thank you for your support! With you as backers and Kickstarter as our altar, we have summoned Dark Rituals into existence. More, we have created a great community. It was wonderful to see you all helping each other when questions came up. I am sure our community will grow on BGG.
What’s next? Tomorrow, we’ll recount all the Stretch Goals you opened with this last push. Then we might take a little rest! Don't worry, you have not seen the last of us. We will be back with regular updates to tell you about our progress. One of the first topics will be when the Pledge Manager opens. And we’ll have final versions of WIP sculpts to show soon.
We’ve had fun on this project teasing you. Why not one last time?
No need to pick a side! We are all winners!
666! A Demon Appears!
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 12:53:43 AM
Welcome Heroes!
This single KS Exclusive card does not get shuffled into a deck. If you agree to use it in your Campaign, place it face down within reach of everyone, where its Demonic powers can taunt the players.
This card can be played once per Campaign, by either the Heroes or the Witch Master, at any point in an Encounter. However, the Aura of Evil must be 5 (max) for the Witch Master to use it, and a Hero’s Alchemy must be 4 (max) for that Hero’s Player to play it. This is not an Action and costs no Stamina.
Say the name of a Demon three times and flip the card. The Demon is drawn to your locale by the magical energies circulating from the confrontation.
You will be given instructions on how to construct a Demon Activation Deck that is biased against the side that chooses to play the card. For example, if the Witch Master plays the card, the deck will give control of the Demon to the Heroes more often than normal.
You should only play this card when you are losing. Because of the bias, you will probably lose, and lose big. But there is a small chance that, with some good draws, the Demon Activation Deck will turn the game your way. Can you take advantage of the Demon’s chaos?
Pick a side!
