Iron Anvil PNP - Released!
about 9 years ago
– Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 01:32:54 PM
Hello Capes and Villains! As we make some progress with our Backer Creation cards, I'd like to re-introduce you to the mighty Iron Anvil.
How does he play?
He's a bit of a power house in disguise. Iron Anvil is biased towards Tech and plays around stunning his own energy dice in order to upgrade his moves. All of his attacks have that option for you to utilize, though it makes gauging your dice pool a lot more strategic. Full Shields and Sonic Shield also uses this ability to make you a bit beefier while Brace for It rewards you for taking damage much like you would expect if Iron Anvil absorbs your attack to power his own energy core. This introduces the term "re-energize", which lets you take dice that are stunned and re-roll them, immediately putting them into your energy dice pool.
Iron Anvil can take to the skies with Flight, letting you become airborne on any turn (which is useful with cards outside of his set as well.) An obvious combo is using Flight, play an attack, then use the Flash ability to play Flying Charge to crush your enemy. To finish your opponent, see if you can also pull off a Missile Silo and watch them cry or at least beg for mercy before you laugh at them.
Stunning dice also has support from Gattling Gun that penalizes your enemy for any dice you stun. Then you have Lock On and Power Surge that messes with your enemy's energy dice pool as well.
Character Card
Stunning your own dice seems a bit risky, which is why Iron Anvil's character ability is amazing. With a way to re-energize your entire energy dice pool (including what you spend to use his ability), you're basically ready to start pounding some sense into your enemy right away.
As for his Overpower, he becomes a bit more powerful as an attacker, allowing its player to be more aggressive.
To have access to the print and play, you can go to the same link where you can also download and play with Honey Bee and Dr. Cthulhu:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ru7kz4fsa2w8her/AAAZKoJRtJkg0m2_S5flhhMYa?dl=0
I'll see you in the next update!
Long Post with lots of Progress!
about 9 years ago
– Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 04:06:45 PM
Hi Capes and Villains! It's been about a month since the last update and I'd like to announce that our hump is finally getting past us. Since the last post, we have sent all our finalized card files to the printer. This includes all the decks in the core game, all the expansion cards, stretch goal unlocks, infinity gem cards, and promos. I know the process seemed slow, almost like the walking dead "walkers" slow, but re-laying out all 500+ cards turned out to be an uphill battle for just the two of us here, which I sorely underestimated. This was definitely the case of inexperience and having passion without efficiency lead the way.
The box art I had been talking about ended up not finishing in time. The artist kept giving us excuses for his delays so I had to make the decision to just go ahead and use whatever art we had to create a box to turn it in to the manufacture. We got the sketch and that's about it though we had already paid him the deposit. To this day, he says he will finish it... but I won't hold my breath nor will I let this hold us up. So box art is already sent and if we get his piece, I'll just make it downloadable for all of you in its full digital size for print. Here was his sketch was (which was given to us October 1st though our commission began on September 16th):
Art Updates
For those who haven't seen it yet, we had uploaded all the non-backer artwork we created on our website. I wanted you to have this reference when deciding on artwork for your dice bags, posters, and t-shirts. To see all the art, please go here:
http://shingogames.com/card-gallery-2/
For Backer Artwork, we just finished one set recently and are still moving forward with them. I understand that some of you who haven't heard from me or Ayumi yet are frustrated and worried that your art will never get done. To give you a schedule, there are only 6 of you left. For the next 3 backers, we will be working simultaneously on:
You will hear from me this coming week to flesh out your artwork. I think I have a better understanding on how to schedule and organize backer created artwork and better coordinate them with the artists. I was a bit thrown off previously, looking left and right at so many things that I lost focus. Doing things systematically and in sprints will help quite a bit.
Now if you do not see your name, you will be on the next round. Please keep in mind that these backers are creating full capes/villains along with items, super friend combo cards, arch villain, story arcs, and sidekicks/agents/civilians/henchmen. In all honesty, this will take some time before getting to the next group of 3.
Production and Shipping Estimate
By the end of next week, my goal is to complete the rulebook. Thank you all for helping with the continuous revisions of what we currently have. I'll do one last go-over on your recent comments on Monday and will add a glossary to it. There was a lot of good advice about streamlining certain words so we will be introducing words like Striking (discarding from your deck), for example. One of the biggest flaws with the rulebook was just the overall structure and order in which certain sections were. This was difficult for me to grasp personally, because I was reviewing it from the point of view as I wrote it, rather than a new gamer. Stubbornness aside I believe it should flow better the next time you see it.
Since the cards and box are at the printer, they are working on getting me a proof of those. Once the rulebook is done, I'll dropbox it to them and they will then work on that. I hope to get a proof from them in the next 2-3 weeks. I've told them to first send over digital proofs so we wouldn't waste more time with back and forth mailing of physical proofs. Only after we're good to go, then we should receive the physical proof for inspection. After our green light then they will need about 3 weeks for printing, maybe less because I have them already tooling the custom Overpower dice that are included in the game. Shipping will be about 30 days, depending on the holiday schedule. This will put it about the end of January or mid-February before fulfillment. I'm looking to have the manufacture do what's called staggered shipment, allowing them to send out X amount to international hubs first since the US will take the longest to ship overseas (with the exception of Brazil, which I understand takes the longest). By doing staggered shipment, international countries might receive them first or have them processed about the same time as US, which will be a good thing.
Try a game or two each update!
Another thing I believe would be a nice change of pace, is to re-introduce these decks and characters to you. It's been too long since we last shared working decks with you and since the last time, we've revamped all of our decks and character mechanics per many of your suggestions after playtesting the initial PNPs. So what I hope to achieve to rebuild communication with you all, is to offer up new decks as PNPs every two weeks. You can download and try (or at least review them) to get a feel for the different styles of play. Here are the first two decks:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ru7kz4fsa2w8her/AAAZKoJRtJkg0m2_S5flhhMYa?dl=0
Honey Bee
To give you an idea on Honey Bee's deck strategy, she's all about stick and move. Moves like Bumble Punch and The Bee's Knees play well with combos and recycling your moves. Honey Blast and Zip Zagger are great ways of capitalizing on self-discarding since you can bring back your cards through combos and cards like Just Missed. Though her attack power isn't that great, your strategy is creating a flurry of combo and hits, much like a certain Scarlet Spider would do. Her Tactics are also very thematic to her character, like Witty Banter which can be a double edged sword.
Honey Bee's character ability works very well in pulling back all your discarded cards, recycling them back into your hand once again, making her a very quick character to play with or against. Her Overpower card is what we'd consider an above average in difficulty, giving her a little power edge to balance her speed when going against 2 players.
Dr. Cthulhu
For power, he is your average character but with a lot of variety of moves. With his powerful combo of Rising Columns + 8-Point Axis + Ground and Pound, his tentacles make sure to tenderize his enemies. 8-Point Axis also introduces the word "Grab", which prevents an enemy from playing an attack the turn it was played (unless they have a card that breaks free from Grabs) and keeps an enemy in their current spacial status (airborne, normal, or underground). They will stay that way until the player that played the grab plays a move or ability (then the grab is over).
You'll also notice that the good doctor has several moves that reflect with Honey Bee (since they're mortal enemies) such as Deadly Pistons and Day of the Tentacle. Kraken Bombs will be your best friend as they are recyclable projectiles that really annoy your enemy. Give Me That and My Trap Is Set also introduce effects that highlight Locations, Items and Civilians (which are cards outside of the core game which you'll be receiving in promos/expansions). I would say the biggest change with Dr. Cthulhu has been the Titarian Upgrade and The End Game (thank you Dagda for your suggestions after your playtest a long while ago).
The Character and Overpower cards are pretty biased with Mystic and Tech, penalizing others for using it while rewarding himself for using Mystic. Overall they play to their decks very well and it'll be very interesting to see what strategies you use against your enemies!
Once again, to playtest these decks, go here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ru7kz4fsa2w8her/AAAZKoJRtJkg0m2_S5flhhMYa?dl=0
Keep in mind that the word "Projectile" was accidentally left out on the cards in the PNP for some reason. We triple checked to make sure the ones we sent to the printer has them (like they do on the cards from this post).
Looking forward to making this a regular thing rather than keeping everyone hanging a month. With all the layouts done (and to the printers ) I'm going to finally enjoy working with you on your Backer Created cards!
Website Update!
about 9 years ago
– Fri, Oct 16, 2015 at 11:20:18 PM
Hello Capes and Villains,
Just a quick update to let you know that our website is now up to date with all of our artwork for each deck, expansion, and promo cards. We took off all the text/card mechanics so you can see what the artwork looks like in their untouched form. This way, you can refer to them to see if they're a good fit for your dice bags, posters, or T-Shirts.
Since the last time you checked our website the updated illustrations are:
- Wonder Spy Deck
- Lu Bu Deck
- Hua Mulan Deck
- Double Agent Cards
- With Great Power Expansion
- Agents of Gauntlet Expansion
- Dangerous Room Expansion
- Story Arc Expansion
- Sidekicks and Henchmen Expansion
- Kickstarter Campaign Promo Cards
Check out the new illustrations here:
http://shingogames.com/card-gallery-2/
We got really creative during the design phase and have origin storylines for all of the characters you see on each of these cards. Quite a few of these characters were from suggestions you had during the campaign that we thought would look cool in the ShingoVerse. Thank you all once again for helping us create this universe from the ground up!
Final Approvals to the Rulebook
about 9 years ago
– Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 10:30:14 PM
Hello Capes and Villains!
We are getting our last box art piece complete within a week and will start getting the rulebook and box ready for print. Thank you for helping review the rulebooks for errors and things that may sound confusing or misplaced. For those who haven't seen the rulebook but would love to give it a once-over, you can find it here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19DcP01jhGsmL_u6o87hsFbKWGwleN7X6xNcESOxN_9Y/edit?usp=sharing
Once we receive the final graphics, we'll start putting in the current rulebook content into the final, graphic form. We'll then create the PDF of the box rulebook and share it so you can all see what it will look like. Once this is ready, we'll be sending everything to print. I really want everything to go to print no later than November after all corrections. I was initially hoping to make it for before the holidays for fulfillment but I've since taken your advice an decided not to rush things and make careless mistakes. Let's get it done right the first time around!
If all files are sent to the printer, let's say November 15th, it will take about 2 weeks for them to send us a proof. Following, about 1 week of corrections and after approvals 1 month of setting sail at sea. Once we have things sent to the printer, I'll make sure to incorporate a way on our website for you all to be able to follow along with us at tracking our progress to your doorsteps.
Backer Creations
Currently, we have about 7 more backers to reach out to for backer creations. Of course, these are the backers who have many exciting characters and their special moves to offer. If any of you are ok with us sharing your creations, please let me know and we'll add in to our website in a new "Backers" section we intend to add if the response is there. Looking forward to working with you in developing your creations to their entirety!
Gameplay Video
I think gameplay video revamp is overdue. Once we get our box/rulebook tasks complete, we'll get onto it so that once your games come in, you can have another place to refer to for your gameplay needs. Any requests on which 2 characters (from the base game) you'd like to see in our demo?
