Status Report - 2018.07.01 - Vampire Lord revealed! Manufacturing to begin soon!
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Jul 02, 2018 at 01:42:19 AM

TL;DR - To our Canadian Backers, Happy Canada Day!  Files are nearly all submitted to the manufacturer.  We are waiting on hero samples and still requesting tweaks here and there from the manufacturer. Vampire Lord Revealed below!  

Vampire Lord

Bio:  The Vampire Lord's power paralyzes even the bravest fighters. No combatant is more vicious. Her rending claws will leave her foes bloody and hemorrhaging. Attempting to resist her mesmerizing gaze or overcome her powerful blood magic will prove deadly for any foolish enough to oppose her!

The Vampire Lord is fueled by her insatiable need for Blood Power. And when she uses that power she is a terror to behold! Whether she is bleeding her enemies, mesmerizing them, drawing more cards, boosting damage or draining the life from her foes to replenish her own health, she is not to be underestimated!  

Graphic Design

We are nearly complete on all graphic design. Nearly all files have been submitted to the manufacturer. The remaining tasks are:

• Battle Chest Box Bottom
• Finalizing Achievement page of the rulebook
• Rulebook tweaks

Hero Samples

We are awaiting the creation of the hero samples. We want to test them out in the flesh before we approve everything.   We will be doing an unboxing of these when we receive them.  Make sure you join the Dice throne Community Facebook Community to see the live unboxings!  We will post the link in the Community group a few days before!   We will also post the unboxing videos in the next update.

Rulebook

The draft of the graphic version of the new rulebook is now complete.  Our playtesting group will provide feedback on it in the next few days.  Once we make these alterations, we will send out a special update to backers to view the near final draft.  We will also link a feedback form to allow for final suggestions and corrections. 

Dice Manufacturing has Begun

The factory has begun manufacturing of the Champion Dice for the Samurai, Gunslinger, Artificer, and Cursed Pirate. The dice manufacturing represents the longest production time, so these need to be done first.

Happy Canada Day

From Roxley, the Canadian half of Team Dice Throne, happy Canada Day!

As always, if you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected].

Keep rollin' Ultimates,  

Gavan, Nate, Manny & Team Roxley

Status Report - 2018.06.17 - Seraph revealed! Playmat sample preview!
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 01:27:45 AM

TL;DR - Happy Father's Day! Seraph component reveal below. Dice Throne Issue One complete. Play mat production samples reviewed. 

The Seraph

Bio: To look into the face of the Seraph is to gaze upon the hand of God. Her blades are infused with holy energy designed to cut evil from the earth. Her crystal wings carry her above the battlefield where her brilliant light blinds all who do not avert their gaze. Humble yourself before her holy presence or die.

The Seraph is a fun, complexity 3 hero with some unique mechanics. We can't wait for you to try her!

Graphic Design & Illustration

This week Gavan will be working on finishing the remaining layout for the new rulebook.  He will then be finishing the Battle Chest graphics.

Comic Book

A truly amazing comic book author has to be a talented writer and artist. Manny is not only both of these things but he also has Dash's ability of super speed! He has worked like a madman to crank out this comic in record time. The first issue has turned out brilliant and we can't wait to continue this story.

We are still wrapping up final editing tweaks, so it's not quite ready for digital download.  But when it is ready, you all will be the first to see it! In the meantime, don't forget to refresh with Issue 0!

Playmat Preview

We received samples of all the playmats this week. They. Are. Sweet. We love everything about them!

Playmat Sample Video

Manny and Nate did an "unboxing" style video of the playmats the other day on Facebook Live. Click the image below to watch it (apologies for those of you who aren't on Facebook).

  

Happy Father's Day From Roxley & Team Dice Throne!

As always, if you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected]  

Keep rollin' sixes,  

Gavan, Nate, Manny & Team Roxley

Status Report - 2018.06.03 - Huntress revealed! Files submitted to manufacturer for samples!
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Jun 04, 2018 at 12:55:49 AM

 TL;DR - Huntress reveal below! All heroes Season Two declared complete. Files submitted to manufacturer. Team Dice Throne at Lilac City Comicon.

The Huntress

Below is the Huntress. We don't want to get too spoilery in case you'd rather wait to get the hero in hand, so we'll simply tell you a little bit about her components. The Huntress has a sabertooth tiger named Nyra, who raised her. They are one. Nyra has a separate health dial that resides on the leaflet. Playing the Huntress feels extremely unique and is an emotional experience filled with tough decisions. If you'd like to investigate more, click the image below to inspect her components in greater detail.

Hero print files submitted to printer for samples

We are getting full samples created for all Season 2 heroes. It is important that we receive full samples to ensure that everything works in practice. Specifically, we need to ensure that all the heroes fit into the vac trays well and that the vac trays fit well into the Boxes / Battle Chest.

We will be providing images of the samples we receive in the coming weeks. The full hero samples we hope to receive in ~3 weeks.  

Illustrations

Manny and Nick Malara celebrated finishing off the last Dice Throne Season Two Illustration two weeks ago. There are a ton of unique illustrations for every heroes' abilities and action cards, as well as on the boards, leaflets, and play mats.  Manny and Nick powered through and finished them all off in time for the May 21 file submission! Great work!

Beta Playtesting

Nate & Manny held nightly play test sessions with our amazing beta test group for months prior to submitting the files to the manufacturer.  These tests are to ensure that the heroes are all as balanced as our team can make them and that all content is clear and understandable. Toward the end, these tests were running into the wee hours of the morning. We are incredibly thankful to the volunteers who helped us beta test this baby prior to submission to ensure the game is as polished and balanced as we can make it. Please join us in giving a huge round of applause to the following rockstars who submitted beta test game reports this season: Aaron Hein, John Heidrich, Jonathan Herrera-Thomas, Adam Thies, Aaron Waltmann, Jacob Thies, Kevin Heidrich, Kevin Nguyen, Kriston Broxson, Colin Weir, and Leo Settipani.

Graphic Design

Unfortunately, the graphic design is the last part of any project to be completed, because it requires final content and illustrations. This meant Gavan, and the rest of the team needed to put in multiple all-nighters to ensure we hit our initial file submission deadline.

What we're working on now

Rulebook - Gavan is now working on the graphical layout for the rulebook & Nate will do the final editing pass.

Battle Chest - Gavan is working on the final graphic design for the Battle Chest

Season Two comic book - Manny is working on the comic book. We will give you a few samples of Manny's work sprinkled throughout these updates. Speaking of which:

Dice Throne at Lilac City Comicon

Manny, Daniel Tolczyk, Aaron Hein, and Adam Thies attended Lilac City Comicon to show off Dice Throne. Unfortunately, we don't quite have samples yet for Season Two, so only Season One was on display. Thanks so much for all the team's work representing at our local con!

Fortnightly Updates

One more thing! Some had noticed that this update is a week late. There is no big conspiratorial reason for the delay. The truth is, I (Gavan) was on a much needed family vacation last weekend. Apologies that this update is a week late. We are absolutely committed to continuing to provide an update every two weeks, regardless of length.

Status Report - 2018.05.13 - Working toward initial submission to manufacturer
almost 6 years ago – Mon, May 14, 2018 at 01:38:43 AM

TL;DR - Short update. Our team is extremely busy working on the initial print file submission & balancing the heroes. Samples of the dice, vac trays, sleeves, battle chest and a full Samurai V Gunslinger set have been requested from the manufacturer. There are no major hurdles or challenges... there's just a LOT of work. :)

Illustrations

Manny and Nick Malara are working hard to finish off the last of the illustrations.  

Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel. When they finish these, they will move on to the comic book, which we hope to submit to the manufacturer for mid June!

Graphic Design

Gavan is hard at work finishing the rest of the hero board implementations. All of the iconography and styling has been completed, it's just a matter of labor now. Once Gavan finishes off all the graphic design for the heroes, he will submit them all to the manufacturer. He will then get to work on the graphical layout for the new rulebook, which will now occur in the first half of June.

Balance Testing

Nate & Manny have been playing HUNDREDS of games with all Season Two heroes (literally). We play nearly every day for hours and hours to try and get this right. And we are so incredibly fortunate and thankful to have an amazing beta test crew. We'll do a more thorough recognition of that team in the future, but we just wanted to say THANK YOU!

Play Mat Samples

We did receive some factory samples of the playmats. We've taken them around to local game stores and the response has been incredible. "Those are huge!" "They look amazing!" "You made 17 different playmats!?!?!?!" 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mothers day to all the Dice Throne moms out there!

As always, if you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected]  

Keep rollin' sixes,     

Gavan, Nate, Manny & Team Roxley

Status Report - 2018.04.29 - Initial prepress timeline presented. Battle Chest design improvement.
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 01:45:33 AM

TL;DR - We are busy completing remaining art and requesting samples from the factory to push toward submitting final files.  Initial project timelines shown below. Battle Chest design improved.  

Prepress Project Timeline

Above is the initial project timeline for the prepress section of production.  Essentially this is when our team works to complete any remaining artwork, graphic design, play-test stress testing.    The above dates and tasks WILL change throughout the course of the project if and when we face complications and delays.  

At Roxley, we have a strong belief in transparency: we feel that you as a backer deserve to know not only when we succeed, but also when we struggle and what we are doing to overcome these struggles.  Manufacturing and logistics can be complex, but we will do our best to ensure that you are informed every step of the way, and work diligently to overcome whatever hurdles are placed before us as efficiently as possible.

Battle Chest Design Update

When we posted the Battle Chest initial design we had stated that we would ensure that the trays were easy to take out of the box right in the graphic. Despite this, we still received about 100 messages of people asking if the trays would be too hard to take out.  

The truth was we already had a new design modification idea that we were currently getting quoted from the manufacturer so we didn't want to post the updated design until we knew it was possible.   Noah Adelman from Game Trayz was kind enough to create a quick rendering of the idea.

Essentially the idea is that the box lid will have another box lid inside it, and the box bottom will be cut down.  This will mean that when you take the lid off, the trays will hang out the top by 1" so that you can grab them from the sides.  This is done quite often with boxes.

As we've said throughout the entire project, we want this box to be awesome in every aspect, especially usability.  Our intention was never to sell you "just a box".  The cost of this box also insane, and as a result will likely only be available for direct purchase (Website, conventions and Kickstarter), as it is simply too expensive for retail settings.  We do however feel that you backers absolutely deserve something this special because you believe in us.   The factory is currently working on what is called a "white sample" for this box.  This is essentially a white (unprinted) mockup of the box that will allow us to test usability in real life.  I am personally extremely excited about this box and can't wait to have it for myself.  

Note: The lid will of course not be clear.  It is simply clear in this rendering to allow you to better understand how the box works.

Season One Early Shipping Deadline May 3, 2018

We have offered an option for early shipping of Season One for Canada, USA, China, and Hong Kong in the pledge manager.   This option was supposed to end tomorrow.  However, we have decided to extend this a until May 3rd so that we can provide you with one final chance to make a decision on it.

EU Season One Early Shipping - We have had many requests from EU backers for early delivery, so our team has researched whether there is a reasonable way to do this.  Long story short, because we would need to airfreight the games there, there is no real economical way for us to do this.  We have however come up with a plan for those of you in the EU who MUST have Season One early.  So, if you would like early shipping for Season One and you reside in the EU, please email us at [email protected] for details.  The deadline for EU early shipping requests will be Friday May 4, 2018.

Roxley @ Calgary Expo  

Team Roxley is repping in our home town of Calgary Alberta this weekend at the Calgary Expo. Yesterday something amazing happened. Christopher Lloyd signed a Dr. Braun Steampunk Rally promo card, which pays homage to Doc Brown from Back To The Future! Great Scott! I think we need this framed!

We also had the amazing Wil Wheaton visit our booth!  We were star struck, and completely gobsmacked when he told us: "I just want to thank you guys for putting awesome out into the world."   These kind words meant so much to our team and we are massively humbled and in still in shock.  

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Happy Belated Tabletop Day!  

As I'm sure you all know, yesterday was International Tabletop Day. We hope each and every one of you are able to disconnect to spend some time with your friends and family playing tabletop games!  

As always, if you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected]  

Keep rollin' sixes,  

Gavan, Nate, Manny & Team Roxley