Raise Your Mead for a Toast ...
over 2 years ago – Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 11:51:10 PM

Hello, Viking Warriors!

We hope that you had a warm Yule filled with tales of exciting exploits, delicious food and drink, and the company of loyal family and friends. Now, with one year coming to a close and another just starting, we wanted to say thank you for the support and trust you have given us, the understanding you have shown us in unprecedented times, and the excitement you have maintained for the game that will be coming to your door in 2022!

Expect an update after we've recovered from the holiday craziness, but for now, please know that we wish you the very happiest of new years and can't wait to see what the coming months bring!

—Ryan & the Modern Games Team

Do Not Eat Your Copy of Raid
over 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 30, 2021 at 11:33:13 PM

Hello, Viking Warriors!

Our narrative Vikings are still sleeping off a massive turkey-and-mead hangover, so we decided to make this month's update without them.

In our last announcement, we shared some milestones that all Kickstarter-launched games touch on their way from the end of a successful campaign to the point where they land in your hands. We are currently well past the first gate (art files have been submitted to the manufacturer) and are pressing on toward the second (manufacturing is complete).

This phase (if you'll recall) is known as "Design Verification," and it involves everything from making sure that the colors look right (they do, thanks be to Odin) to ensuring the initial contract with our manufacturer, Panda, still lines up with the scope of the project (it didn't, thanks to some lovely Kickstarter exclusives and more) to addressing issues that you wouldn't think would be issues but are nevertheless issues that need to be addressed! For instance, our first pre-press report included this tidbit:

Our "choking hazard" warning was 9.33 millimeters when measured from top to bottom. The minimum size for this icon is 10 millimeters. Import officials who inspect products can be very particular--we're talking .67 millimeters particular--so we had to bump it up ever so slightly.

We've also had to make decisions on Brexit-related labeling, centering inside-tray design elements, and minute and technical aspects of production (with cool  Viking-sounding terms like "thumbcut bleed"). 

This is a thumbcut, and "bleed" refers to pushing color or trim in the design past where it will be cut off during manufacturing in order to allow for tiny variations in the trim:

We are happy to report that all of the minor changes needed for the initial art submissions are now complete, and we are working out the remaining details. This keeps us headed down the path of the timeline we reported last month, with digital proofing happening next, followed by the Pre-Production copy, and then Mass Production.

All of this means the warriors snoozing in their little tuck boxes are still prepared to journey your way in the first half of 2022!

To all who routinely nudge us (or push harder) for updates, know that we hear you. We will give more concrete timelines as soon as we have them. 

In the meantime, here's a closer look at everyone's favorite nearly untrappable giant wolf. The sword through the jaw hurts, sure, but it turned out to be a great way to slice pumpkin pie while eating it.

Until next time!

—Ryan & The Modern Games Team

A Meaty Update on Raid Production
over 2 years ago – Sat, Oct 16, 2021 at 03:57:38 AM

Hello Viking Warriors!

The aged crone raises her hand to the skies and eyes a circling raven. She licks her cracked lips and begins to speak: "In the time before—"

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" a warrior bellows from behind her. "GIVE US SOME $*@%^&# MEAT!"

_____________________________________

OK. We have some pretty big news. It's the kind of news and update any backer of a Kickstarter game looks forward to from the moment they decide to click "Back this project."

The Big News

We have uploaded all of the production art files to Panda (our manufacturer). Woot!

There are three key updates that unlock gates along the path to entering the inner sanctum of a Kickstarter game launch: that moment when a brand-new game arrives at your door.

1. All the art files have been submitted to the manufacturer.

2. Manufacturing is complete.

3. The game has shipped to you, the backers.

There are many other milestones before and after each of these key moments along the journey, but these are the ones that should get a backer excited.

We've passed through gate #1.

That means our team has signed off on all aspects of the game. We are excited about the mechanics, love the art, have pored over the words countless times looking for typos, errors, omissions, etc., and we've determined it's time to "press print."

Getting through gate #1 took us a lot longer than we anticipated when we launched the Raid campaign last year. There are a lot of reasons for that. Some of them are related to Raid itself. Others are not. None of them matter all that much, as it took the time it took and we (grossly) underestimated what it was going to take to get here. But WE ARE HERE! And we are as excited as a horde of grisly, war-hungry Vikings about to raid a village.

What's Next?

Glad you asked.

We selected Panda as our manufacturer nearly a year ago because we've played a lot of tabletop games from some of the best game makers in the industry, and many of our favorites happen to be manufactured by Panda—not all of them by any stretch, but enough of them that we've had the opportunity to experience the quality of a Panda-produced game many times over, and we're always impressed.

The quality that drew us to Panda in the first place is the result of their approach to game production, which emphasizes a process that ensures quality is built into each step from the moment we submit files through to the completion of the game assembly.

If you want to read more about their process, here is a link to their website that explains it.

Manufacturing with Panda is an approximately five-month process from where we are today (and Chinese New Year, which occurs in early 2022 will shut them down for three weeks, which adds to the time it will take to manufacture Raid). There is nothing we can do to shorten that timeline.

We are currently in step 2 (Design Verification) with Panda. 

• We expect that next Tuesday, October 19, we will have the initial results of Design Verification. Our production artist was careful to follow the instructions provided by Panda while developing the production art files, and we've even gone back and forth with them a few times prior to officially submitting to ensure we were developing the art properly based on their specs. It's possible they will provide us feedback that requires adjustments to some of the art files, or they could verify them on first pass. We should know by EOD Tuesday.
• If everything checks out, we will move into a digital proofing process, and Panda will provide us with digital renders of the game, which we will review and approve, unless we discover something that requires additional work.
• Once the digital proof is approved, Panda will produce a Pre-Production Copy (PPC) of Raid and ship the physical copy to us. Sign-off on the PPC (step #3) gets us to Mass Production.

At this point, we are officially in the production process and on a path to delivering Raid to you in the first half of 2022. There are still risks and unknowns. We're hoping the global shipping situation improves between now and the time Panda completes Raid, but even if it doesn't, we successfully shipped a container of Beasts of Balance from China to the US West Coast in September, and it has arrived at our warehouse. We have another container that will depart China in about two weeks as well. So, even in uncertain times, we are finding success shipping our products globally (albeit at a significantly higher cost than at any other time in history).

We are excited to get Raid in your hands and will continue working hard to deliver the game as soon as possible!

Look for another update later this month with news on manufacturing progress and images of the final game art. :) 

Closing Thoughts

To those backers who have been by our side, supporting us with words of encouragement as we worked to rewrite the rules, edit the cards, tweak the game boxes, and perfect the game ad infinitum (or at least what felt like ad infinitum to us at times) among the myriad other tasks we've been juggling (scaling our other game, Beasts of Balance) while navigating the complexities of a world in which supply chains are broken, logistics have ground to a halt, and labor shortages abound—as well as working other jobs (because most of the team still has other work obligations), family, etc, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your patience and support.

And to those backers who've been, shall we say, a bit less patient and unabashedly willing to share their desire for us to work faster and communicate better, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your commitment to holding us to the high standards you expect from a quality game creator. We haven't been perfect in our execution or communication and we appreciate your help as we work to improve each day.

We certainly couldn't have reached this particular point in the development of Raid without each and every one of you. And that's the truth.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

—Ryan & The Modern Games Team

Always Moving Forward!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 01, 2021 at 12:17:41 AM

Hello, Viking Warriors!

Thick smoke billows from the fire in the center of the hall, but none of it touches the skald. His voice never wavers as he weaves his tale: a poem populated with heroes, villains, gods, and monsters. Each dancing spark is reflected in his eyes, so that he seems to glow with an inner heat as his words grow in intensity.

“No chain yet made could hold the great wolf Fenrir,” he intones. “The gods themselves feared the beast—this child of Loki—because every bone he gnawed to its sweet marrow, every drop of steaming saliva from his spear-point fangs, every click of his claws against the doomed stones of Asgard as he paced to and fro reminded them of the prophecy looming over their heads.”

The skald pauses a moment to sip his mead, then describes the gods’ plot to fetter the great beast, involving deception, dwarves, and a list of unlikely materials: the breath of a fish, the roots of a mountain, the beard of a woman, and more ...

* * *

We may not have to locate a cat’s footsteps and then hammer them into an unbreakable link, but we are still hard at work on Raid. Yes, we’re still making progress, we’re still enthusiastic, and we’re still being driven by our passion for creating a beautiful, complex, and accessible game.

There are no significant updates for September,  but we wanted to send out this message all the same, especially since we promised you a monthly check-in. Yes, it still counts as September,  because there are still more than … four whole hours until Oct. 1 (or, as I like to call it, the First of Halloween) where we are on the U.S. West Coast.

As we continue to prepare Raid for its arrival on your doorstep, please know that we appreciate and read every comment from our backers. We hope you are enjoying a lovely autumn so far and are able to savor the change in the air. Every one of these crisp fall days brings us closer to Raid being a tangible reality.

Now we just need to get our hands on some sinews of a bear and spittle of a bird ...

Until our next encounter,

—Ryan and the Modern Games Team

A Quick August Update ...
over 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 08:16:21 AM

Hello, Viking Warriors!

The scout should have been back hours ago. When she first slipped into the forest, trunks as thick and tall as frost giants, the rest of the party hunkered down to wait for a sign. Now, the group has grown restless, with short and cautious breaths lengthening into sighs and low rumblings of unease. The jarl hears muttered questions, low curses, and snatches of hoarsely whispered phrases: "ambush" ... "danger" ... "disappeared" ...

One warrior—young and not yet battle tested—looks especially nervous, his hands sweaty on the haft of his spear. His eyes flick from the treeline to the boat to his fellow raiders and back to the trees. He tenses, the muscles in his legs preparing to launch him forward, when a low whistle cuts through the silence. Once. Twice. Three times.

"No danger," the scout is saying, "but hold fast. Hold fast."

* * *

We have no major news to report this month, although we are excited that the rules edits were completed as expected—and, as a bonus, we also had the editor perform a final review for all of the copy and content on the cards, magnetic game boxes, and tuck boxes. The card edits in particular were done in concert with the rules rewrite. Together, these edits make it much easier for everyone to understand what actions to take when playing each card and how to play Raid overall. 

We do have a minor (but fancy) update that will significantly improve ease of play: All flavor text on the cards will now be printed in a gold-colored font, and all action/rules text on the cards will appear in either blue or white, depending on the background color behind the text. Using such contrast to make the words as easy to read as possible seems like a pretty obvious design choice, but our recent rule and game art review revealed that our original card designs weren't consistent in their application of font color.

We're really excited about all of the improvements to the game we've been making, and we now feel confident in moving forward in the production process. Rules editing is officially a wrap!

To that end, our production designer is crossing the ᛏ's and dotting the ... I don't think there are any runes that have a dot on them? ... to ensure all of the changes have been rolled out across all of the production files. Once this phase is complete, we'll move into the Design Verification phase with our manufacturing partner, followed by the Pre-Production phase. 

We will post an update in September on how the Design Verification / Pre-Production process is going, so listen for those whistles from the scout in the forest!

In the meantime, we wanted to show you a little something else. A while back, we shared a few of the God card sketches from the conceptualization process for the God illustrations, and everyone seemed to like that. Here, then, are a couple more of those sketches: 

Finally, between raging fires on one coast and a drenching hurricane on the other, it can feel like Ragnarok is at hand. These are trying times for many, to be sure, but last we checked Bifrost was still in one piece, Sköll and Hati have not devoured the sun and moon, and the chain that Fenrir strains against is still holding fast. We hope that you are safe, wherever you are, and we look forward to connecting with you again soon ...

Until our next encounter,

—Ryan and the Modern Games Team