First Look: Adventure Pack Rulebooks + Punchboards
about 5 years ago – Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 02:35:56 AM

Final Assembly Date Approaches

Greetings, Alliance Heroes!

All of the cards, miniatures, and playmats produced by LudoFact Asia are still in transit to Germany, and should arrive within the next couple of weeks. When they arrive, we will receive a final production assembly date from LudoFact Germany. We had originally hoped that this would be in early May, but now LudoFact informs us that this will more likely be in early June.

Part of the reason for the delay, besides awaiting the arrival of the components from Asia, is that it took us longer to design the punchboard files than we had anticipated. We had trouble coordinating our schedule with that of our graphic designer, who has been under heavy deadlines for other projects, and so in the end I had to learn to create the punchboards myself, meticulously adding all the cutting lines (which I've never done before), so it took me quite a few weeks to accomplish. Fortunately, we were able to fit all the tokens on the correct number of boards, and we've previewed them below if you want to see all the stuff you're adding to your game. It's a lot!

The printer has now officially received and approved all of the files for the game, including the Adventure Pack Rulebooks, and we're sharing them below for you to enjoy as part of this update. As soon as the game is assembled, it will head out from our printer to our European backers, who should receive their copies in mid-June. The other copies will ship out to our fulfillment center in New Jersey and will begin shipping the day after they arrive, which we anticipate will be in late June or early July. I apologize for the delays, but I feel now that we are getting very close to the end!

Adventure Pack Rulebooks

The Adventure Packs will be grouped in two sets: one package will hold Adventure Packs I & II, and the other package will hold Adventure Packs III & IV. Each package will have a short rulebook that explains how the packs are integrated into the game, as well as a brief explanation of how to integrate the bonus cards that will arrive with that pack. Because of this, the two rulebooks are very similar, although with important differences on the last page to explain the bonus cards. We've included both rulebooks below so you can get a sneak peek of what's coming:

Adventure Pack Punchboard Preview

Here are links to the front side of each set of punchboards. These are the actual approval files from the printer. You can click each of the images below for a larger version, but please keep in mind that these are still low resolution files concerned with placement more than image quality. These files will give you a sense of the amount of variety of monsters and encounters you are about to experience, but the monster stats might be considered spoilers to some, so please don't click if that is important to you.

More Story Cards!

It's been a few months since we've shown off more of our Story Cards, so we hope you enjoy the card previews below.

Entering the Final Production Phase
about 5 years ago – Sat, Mar 09, 2019 at 01:56:49 AM

Entering the Final Production Phase

We're now gearing up to produce the final components for Dungeon Alliance. As mentioned during our previous update, we are anticipating delivery of all rewards to our backers during the months of May and June. Final card production for Adventure Packs III & IV is now complete, and all components manufactured by LudoFact Asia, including the painted miniatures sets and playmats, are finally shipping out to Germany. LudoFact Germany will then produce the boxes, punchboards, and rulebooks and assemble everything in early May.

From Germany, the games will head out in two different directions. We will ship the games heading to our European customers right from the printer's headquarters, and ship the rest of the games to our fulfillment center in the US, where they will head out to our remaining customers throughout the world. We are still subject to potential customs inspections throughout this process, but barring a major port delay we are optimistic that your rewards will arrive on the current schedule. We can't wait for you to start playing your first adventures with these new cards!

Dungeon Alliance Webcomic continues!

We are now up to page 10 for both stories of Dungeon Alliance: A Webcomic Adventure, and we've maintained our pace of adding one new page each week. As the stories have developed so far, we've met characters both familiar and unfamiliar, and the theme of exploration and overcoming challenges as a team has continued throughout.

We are grateful for all of your comments on each of the comics pages, and we hope you will be encouraged to comment on the new pages as the stories develop. If you haven't had a chance to read the webcomic yet, please feel free to join us on this new adventure, and please spread the word on social media.

Dungeon Alliance: A Webcomic Adventure

NOTE: On the main page, you can sign up for email updates to stay up to date on the latest additions to our epic narrative.

"Golden Geek Award" Nominations Open

We welcome all of our fans to consider us when casting your Golden Geek Award Nominations at boardgamegeek.com this month, especially in the "Solo Games" category, which has become one of the favorite ways for players to enjoy the game. So many of you have inspired us with your mentions of Dungeon Alliance throughout social media over the past several years, and we are grateful for all your help in spreading the word about our favorite dungeon crawler!

Stretch Goal Card Samples

Here are more samples of cards that were unlocked as Stretch Goals during the Kickstarter campaign!

Adventure Packs Complete + Webcomic Launch + Campaign Tracker App Beta!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Jan 26, 2019 at 12:39:59 AM

Adventure Pack Development Complete!

Work has continued to progress at a steady pace, and we have finished development, testing, and artwork for all of the Adventure Packs. Creating the Adventure Packs took us a bit longer than we had anticipated, but it was important to us that they were thoroughly tested and that they added a truly unique experience to Dungeon Alliance. There are 80 cards per pack (including the extra Stretch Goal cards) for a total of 320 cards(!), all of which are unique except for the 4 reference cards. That's actually more cards than in the base game and the Champions expansion combined!

Now that development is finished, all of the cards for Adventure Packs I & II have been printed, and the cards for Adventure Packs III & IV are currently being printed at the factory. Due to the extra time spent on the Adventure Packs, the printer has informed us that some components that were created in China will not head out to Germany until after Chinese New Year, and that will cause us a few weeks' delay. We are now looking at a release of May/June for the Kickstarter rewards, but we believe the delay was worth it in order to ensure that the design met the standards you have all come to expect from Dungeon Alliance. 

Here are updates for all of the game components so far:

•  Dungeon Alliance Base Game: Miniature and card production complete. All box and punchboard files have been submitted, approved by the printer, and proofed.
•  Dungeon Alliance: Champions Expansion: Miniature and card production complete. All box and punchboard files have been submitted, approved by the printer, and proofed.
•  Adventure Packs I & II: Card and box production complete.
•  Adventure Packs III & IV: Box production complete. Card production in progress.
•  Painted Miniature Sets: Production complete.
•  Dungeon Frame Playmats: Production complete.
•  Campaign Tracker App: Entering beta phase (see article below!)

Dungeon Alliance Webcomic Launches

This week we have officially launched Dungeon Alliance: A Webcomic Adventure. We are proud to present our new webcomic devoted to the characters and stories of Dungeon Alliance. The site is ad-free and meant to spread the word about Dungeon Alliance, so please share the comic link with your friends and family on social media. We hope you enjoy this new method to promote the game and to help players become familiar with their favorite characters.

Dungeon Alliance: A Webcomic Adventure

We begin with two stories: Lair of the Basilisk and Kastrom's Tomb. Each tale begins with 4 pages, and we will update the stories every Wednesday with new content. We encourage you to help us start a community there by leaving comments on the individual comic pages. We plan to introduce plot twists that match some of our fans' ideas, so you can help us develop the story as it progresses.

Campaign Tracker App Enters Beta

Developer Cooperative Shenanigans has been hard at work developing the Dungeon Alliance Campaign Tracker App. We actually used it to help us keep track of statistics during the final playtesting phases of the Adventure Packs, so it has already been through quite a bit of testing. The first phase includes only the Campaign Tracker; the Adventure Pack Tracker will release later this year when you receive your Adventure Pack rewards.

The Campaign Tracker is a web-based app, so you can use it on your phone, tablet, or computer regardless of platform. When calling up the app on your mobile device, you can add it to your home screen, where it features an image of Melinda and Spark.

Campaign Tracker App

We invite you to join in testing the app during the beta test phase. We're interested in your comments regarding overall usability and desired features, as well as squashing any lingering bugs. You can submit comments to our dedicated Campaign Tracker Comments Page.

Stretch Goal Card Samples

We thought we'd end this update by showing you some of the Stretch Goal Cards that were unlocked and that will be included in the Adventure Packs. Enjoy!

Production is underway!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Dec 06, 2018 at 01:36:23 AM

Production is underway!

Greetings, adventurers!

Our noses have been positioned inches away from the grindstone for the past two months, but we thought we'd emerge from our caves to let you know about all the wonderful progress going on for Dungeon Alliance!

• Base Game: All miniatures have been produced and will be assembled into their own separate "inner boxes" next week. Card and Box Top files have been submitted, approved, and proofed.
• Champions Expansion: All miniatures have been produced. Card and Box Top files have been submitted, approved, and proofed.
• Adventure Pack I - The Lost Alliance: All cards designed, fully playtested, and art complete. Card files have been submitted, approved, and proofed.
• Adventure Pack II - War in the Deep: All cards designed, fully playtested, and art complete. Card files have been submitted, approved, and proofed.
• Adventure Pack III - The Gilded Prison: Cards 50% designed. Art complete.
• Adventure Pack IV - The Titan Awakens: Art 75% complete.
• Painted Miniature Sets: All miniatures have been produced. Painting in progress.
• Dungeon Frame Playmats: Production is complete!
• Campaign Tracker App: Pre-production wireframes in progress.

Dungeon Alliance: A Web Comic Adventure

Starting in January, we will be promoting Dungeon Alliance with two new web comic adventure stories. Although we removed these as Stretch Goals during the campaign, we continued to appreciate their potential value as a marketing tool... and also how much fun they'd be to make!

Next month, we will release the first 4 pages of two different stories, and then we will try to follow up with 1 new page for each issue every week going forward.

The first story, "Lair of the Basilisk," features art by Jim Parks and includes Taio the Warrior Mage with his intelligent sword Apollyon; Melinda the Gnome Druid and her pet Spark the Fox; Krolt the Dwarf Warrior, and Petra the Dwarf Scholar. We'll even get to see how Petra meets her pet Lumpy the Earth Elemental for the first time. Below you can see the first panel of the comic, which you can click to see a preview of the first page.

The second story, "Kastrom's Tomb," features art by EJ Dela Cruz and includes Lorna the Half-Orc Priest, Holgar the Paladin, Mysterios the Fire Wizard, and Krom the Half-Orc Assassin. Below is the first panel of the comic, which you can click to see a preview of the first page.

Story Card Previews

As we have done for the last two issues, we will end by spoiling a few more Story Cards from the upcoming Adventure Packs!

Pledge Manager Closing Soon!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 02:21:35 AM

Pledge Manager Closes October 15

Greetings, adventurers!

90% of our backers have filled out their BackerKit surveys and are ready for us to lock orders. Huzzah!

That does mean, unfortunately, that nearly 200 backers still have not completed their surveys. If you have not done so, please fill out your survey as soon as possible. We will be closing the Pledge Manager on Monday, October 15. If you have not filled out your survey, we cannot guarantee that you will receive your rewards.

Survey? What survey?

Some email addresses, such as hotmail.com, tend to reject BackerKit surveys. If you have not received your survey (or have not located it in your spam folder), please email me right away at [email protected] and I will reply with a direct link to your survey.

What if my mailing address changes?

If your mailing address changes after October 15, you will still be able to update your mailing address until right before we ship your rewards in Spring 2019. We will send an email a couple days before we lock addresses, but please update your address in BackerKit as soon as it changes to ensure that we are up to date and your rewards arrive at the correct dungeon.

More Story Card Samples

As promised, here are some more Story Card samples to tide you over until our next update!

Production Updates

• Game Development: We are continuing to develop all of the new material unlocked during the Kickstarter Campaign. Preliminary design is complete for the Lost Alliance Adventure Pack, which we are now testing. Cards are currently being developed for War in the Deep.

• Artwork: All artwork is complete for The Lost Alliance, and art is 75% complete for War in the Deep and The Gilded Prison.

• Production: Our printer LudoFact began production of the Miniature Sets (painted and unpainted) in early September. In late September, the printer started production work on the Dungeon Frame Playmats; we hope to receive samples for these by the end of November.