Production Update + Camps & Spell Gameplay + Cards Spreadsheet
almost 6 years ago – Thu, Jul 05, 2018 at 11:20:02 PM

Hi everyone!

First of all, thank you for the feedback we received in the last month. It's awesome to feel your enthusiasm and see your participation in the project!

Production Timeline

Today we want to share with you the current state of the project! During the last month we had a lot of back and forth with the manufacturer to prepare, review and double-check all files. 

Now, here is our detailed development and production timeline for printing components and miniatures.

PRINTING COMPONENTS

We accumulated some weeks of delay during the process (proofreading, files check, necessary modifications, proofreading again, files check, layout, typos revision, files double-check); it took A LOT to finalize everything.

Anyway, in according to our timeline, we still plan to start fulfillment having all stuff ready to be shipped from the factory within the end of August/early September. Of course, we will keep you updated and we will continue sharing details along the process.

MINIATURES

Towers are here!

Yes, we have minis in our hands! They are pre-production samples received from Whatz Games just a few days ago and... guys, they look absolutely amazing!
We are super-excited and we really need to share some photos with you. 

Camp & Spell Gameplay

Now, as promised, let's talk a little about gameplay. Today we take a look at some new elements we added through the Kickstarter campaign: Camp and Spell tokens.

LOOTING CAMPS

Just like in MOBA videgames, there are Camps that wait to be looted in the Jungle!
Each player in ELO has 2 Camp tokens in their respective half of the board.

When you discard a Jungler card during the Farming phase, in addition to farming resources and get experience, you may loot one of your Camps.
When you loot a Camp, turn the respective token face up to gain the following temporary bonus during combat: every time you play a Hero card as Assault on a Lane adjacent to the looted Camp location, they gain +1 Influence bonus.

At the end of the turn, looted Camps are removed from the board. All removed Camps are restored during the 6th turn as a consequence of the Camp Respawn Event.
This requires to tactically plan "when" and "how" to exploit the Influence buff.

SPELLS

Spell tokens represent an optional rule that adds a further customization element to the game.
Rules are simple for Spells: during the setup of the game, each player may choose and take 2 Spell tokens which represent special powers that can be used once in the game. Each Spell token can be used in a specific phase of the game as explained in the rulebook. 

The effects can be very helpful, especially when combined with specific Hero or Item ability cards. Yes, there is a TON of combos to explore :)

Remember that Spell are throwaway powers. Once you have played a Spell, discard the respective token to indicate you cannot use it anymore. Choose wisely.

Community Resources: Card Texts & FAQ

Last but not least, we are happy to share a spreadsheet (thanks @Referee!) in which all card texts (Heroes, Items, Actions, Monsters etc.) have been collected.
This can be a very helpful reference! Moreover, you will also find a FAQ tab in the document in which we are collecting questions and doubts in view of the game release.

Here is the link: ELO Darkness spreadsheet

That's all for now! We look forward to coming back with more news and production updates.

Have a great day and stay tuned :)  

Reggie Games

TTS release + Rulebook + Monsters Gameplay
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Jun 06, 2018 at 11:03:20 PM

Hey guys!   

Today we want to share with you the complete TTS version (1vs1 mode) of the game! 
Click the image to get to the Steam subscription:

 We hope you will enjoy the digital preview of the full game :)

Note: an official Tabletopia version is in our plan as well; it will be prepared and released in the next months.

Also, here is the link to download the rules!

MONSTERS GAMEPLAY

Now, as you asked, let's dig into some more gameplay detail: let's talk about Monsters!

Everything in ELO is about spending resources making the right choice at the right moment.
The cards you have in your hand stand for Hero abilities and Farming possibilities as well. Furthermore, having more cards in your hand makes you more versatile on the battlefront giving you the opportunity to roam coordinating your Heroes and gank the opponent on the Lanes! On the contrary, sacrificing cards means losing time in terms of game turns to get resources back to your hand. 

During the Monster Objective event you exactly face this choice: will you spend cards to get the Monster? Will you bid more resources than your opponent? Will you bluff? 

Let's have a look at how it works.
At the start of turn 4 and 7, a Monster spawns in the arena!
Players shuffle the Monster deck and reveal the first Monster card: one player could win that card. So, the contest starts! 

Players take 1 Monster token from the supply for each card they have in their hand (with a limit of 5 tokens per player). Then, they secretly bid a certain number of Monster tokens and simultaneously reveal their choice. The player who reveals the highest number of tokens wins but, must discard as many cards from their hand as the number of tokens they bid. 

The winner adds the Monster card to their hand which can be played during combat as a Gank card and in some cases it also grants instant bonuses through Monsters "Reward" abilities. 

Note: in the case of a tie, both players discard cards from their hand equal to the number of tokens they bid and the Monster card is reshuffled into the monster deck.
Bluff carefully! ;) 

The Monster Objective leads to a tough decision involving risk, strategy and control of the game.

TILES VARIANT

The Monster tiles introduce an alternative to the Monster Objective event. During game setup, commonly decide if you want to use this variant. If you do, Monster tiles will replace the Monster cards. The rules for the Monster Objectives are changed, as follows.
The winner of the bid, selects a Monster tile and immediately places it to cover all their Laner slots in their own player area.

A Monster tile grants very powerful effects depending on the Lane. Anyway, as most of the advantages you can take over the opponent in ELO, they are not permanent and they stay in the game for only 1 turn. Each turn is a new challenge.
 

NEXT MONTH 

We are still completely focused on the production process dealing with color calibration, tests and inner tray design. Everything is going well and together with any relevant news and updates about that, in the next month we will also talk about other gameplay aspects (write in the comments if you want to explore some particular aspect of the game!).

Have a great day and stay tuned :) 

Reggie Games

Minis Prototype & final Artbook Design
about 6 years ago – Thu, May 03, 2018 at 12:54:11 AM

Hey everyone!

We just want to update you we are proceeding well accordingly to our plans!
Everything about gameplay, artwork, lore and graphics is 100% complete and the manufacturing process has started at the factory from the miniatures tooling which is always the longest process.

In the meantime we are working with Board Game Circus in order to finish language review of all text in cards, artbook and rulebook.
The whole production will take 3-4 months; of course we must take into account that it is the first time we are working together with Whatz Games and there will be a lot of back and forth to double-check everything.

We will publish photos and images along the way :)
Here is a picture of prototype minis directly from the factory! 

Meanwhile, we want to share with you the final graphic design of the Artbook.
It has changed from the initial version and now it contains all Heroes and Monsters in the game including unlocked stretch goals (80 pages!).

Hope you will love it as much as we do.

Background stories and legends are included in the book for each Hero and Monster so that we can totally dive into ELO Darkness' universe.

Last thing: as you asked us, we are also preparing a series of gameplay deepening about Monsters, Camps and Items (we didn't forget about it) and we will post them in next updates. These weeks we are just prioritizing production, print tests and language review.

Have a great day,
Stay tuned :)

Artwork 100% complete!
about 6 years ago – Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 01:41:24 AM

Hey guys!

This is a brief update because we are dedicating ourselves completely to prepare and finalize the files for the game. I simply want to share our progress with you!

Artwork and gameplay (including the solo mode) have been completed!

I cannot make an update without adding some cool new art, so here is a picture including some of the latest illustrations for the Item cards :)

In the meantime I am happy to say the prototypes production for miniatures has started at Whatz Games! We are correcting sizes to fit removable basis. Pictures from the factory are coming soon :)

Now, our current main task is to complete graphical updates for the rulebook as well as characters stories (for the Artbook).
Then we will be ready to finally send all the files to our partner Board Game Circus for the language check and proofreading.

By the way, let me say our friend Daniel (from Board Game Circus), is doing a great job together with the Dragori Games team for their KS campaign for Arena the Contest.
They had a fantastic start and if you haven't yet, I highly recommend to check it out! :)

I like the idea to occasionally show you what we are actually backing, being Kickstarter a way to be part of communities and share great projects.

Pending Request :)

This month I received your request to talk about some gameplay detail in the KS updates and I really like the idea. I am planning to enter into more detail about Monsters, Item cards and more.

Anyway, this requires time and I have to postpone it to when we will have completed all our tasks for the full production process. I am sure you will agree ;)

That's all for today, stay tuned!

Tommaso

Big Update - Project Timeline
about 6 years ago – Wed, Mar 07, 2018 at 12:22:43 AM

Hello guys, 

Finally we want to share with all of you our current timeline for production and fulfillment. Until now we hadn't got complete data, so we didn't want to talk about it without being sure of the actual times. We decided to wait before making any announcement until having concrete details.

Unfortunately, we are very sorry to say we are delayed with respect to our initial estimates and we won't be able to complete production and fulfillment within next May. Despite our original plans were honest, I have to say we didn't correctly take into account the possibility of adding such a massive amount of stretch goals to the game. 
In fact, during the last months it took us a lot of extra time and work to balance all the new gameplay content. We chose to make no compromises on the final quality of the game and being this our first Kickstarter project, we are super anxious about doing everything at best.
I know we have disappointed your expectations and I am so sorry for making you wait longer for ELO. I hope you will accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience.

On the good side, I am proud to say we are producing something really unique with a truly impressive variety and replay value.
We don't want ELO Darkness to be remembered only as a successful Kickstarter campaign, but we also want this game to hit your table for a long time.

Well, let's start and get into more details about the timeline. 

The Timeline  

These are the steps and the project important dates. I want to remark that it is not a "maybe-we-can-do-it" estimate, but it is a concrete and reasonable timeline built after talking to our partners and taking into account the entire develop and production cycle. 

From the last consultation with our manufacturer (WhatzGames), if no additional issues will spawn during the process, we have hope to shorten production times and have all the stuff ready to be shipped from China within July. Of course, don't take this as a promise, because it's the first time we are working together and we will have a lot of back and forth through the process in order to double-check every production detail.

Minis Production 

Since miniatures design is finished and the models are ready to be manufactured we are trying to speed things up beginning with the miniature tooling (which is always the longest process). We are aiming to have protoypes as soon as possible and if everything goes well we hope this could be a factor in reducing the whole production times.

Project State

Here is a scheme of the current state of the project.

You never know the unexpected until you get your hands on it. Along the way, after working for about 3 years on ELO, we encountered so many issues that slowed the development, but each time it happened the project turned out to be stronger and us as well. From the game design to the graphic details and art, it's been a very long way.
Now we are very excited to be so close to enter the final production. 

Art & Graphic Design

Art is almost complete. The only elements that need to be finalized are the remaining Item cards with their respective upgraded versions. Below, you can find the latest artwork including Action cards (let's welcome colors!) and Monsters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the graphic design side, we decided to work and further improve the board. Following suggestions after tests we added more info-graphics on the Experience and Influence tracks.

Another aspect that required extra time was the perfection of the card design: Ultimate ability cards have been refined in order to become even more distinguishable from the Normal abilities and Solo mode cards have been revised following the respective game design changes and improvements.
Then, since the Team selection (through the initial draft) is a central element in the game, we have also refined the Hero Draft cards, which give you a simple and efficient overview of the characters including a suggestion about the Item deck construction.
We are sure these will be very usefull when approaching the deckbuilding aspect of the game for the first times.

What's still missing?
One thing that will take much time this month, it will be the box inner tray design.
As promised, we want to provide a box in which all the components can be stored and organized (even when the cards are sleeved). We are not satisfied with the standard tray samples and we are going to design our custom tray. Of course, we will be happy to post images and previews soon. 

As you know, the Kickstarter campaign allowed us to add 20 Heroes to the game (while the Core Set itself initially contained 30 of them!) as well as 15 new Items, a solo mode and other new gameplay elements. That means an incredible value in terms of gameplay.

After the campaign ended we realized that, along with balancing the new stuff, we also had the opportunity to go deeper into the mechanics using the new unlocked elements to further improve the whole game.
I am not just talking about the new Heroes and Items, but I am also thinking about the Merchant tile (with the associated possibility to have 5 Items during the game), the Monster tiles to differentiate the Boss spawn events, Camp tokens and Spells.

Here is a preview of some of those elements. 

On the Lore side we are completing the 50 character backgrounds adding stories for Monsters and locations of the Arena too. The Artbook is aimed to be an inspirational resource giving life to the Heroes and to the ELO Darkness' universe.
The development is well advanced (75% done), but it still requires time to be refined.

Let me conclude this update announcing that we will release the official TTS version of the game next May. This way you will be able to have a taste of the game before getting it to the table. Of course, I know it's not enough to balance the delay announcement, but I hope you will appreciate it anyway.

Very soon we will also update the google spreadsheet created by the backer Referee, inserting the final card texts. This way, with the community help, we will be able to start a shared text translation. (Thanks @Referee) 

Once again, I want to apologize for the project delay and say we are doing our best to shorten the current fulfillment times.

We will be back in a couple of weeks with the next update.
Thank you for joining us and being part of this project,

Tommaso