Publishing Era
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 12:42:14 AM
Hi Backers,
While this game’s budget has always been on a razor’s edge, several months
ago the budget for Era went clearly into the red. I have tried to spend that
time between then and now searching for assistance from a new publisher.
I went to GenCon but did not complete a deal there. There is a still a lot
of work to be done, but despite this, I still want you as backers to get what
you pledged for.
While my search for a publisher continues, my next step is to find a new
graphic designer to create a finalized, full-color print and play of all 15
decks. Though I realize few will make a copy of their own, I at least want
everyone to see that the game is completed and ready to play.
This new search for the graphic designer might take some time. I had to
break with my previous graphic designer due to his rate. He recently gave me a quote to lay out all the
game’s 900 cards. He estimated 80 hours at $60 an hour. (In 2014, his rate was
$35 an hour. I thought non-creative work, such as arranging assets, would be
even cheaper). The cost of laying out the cards ($4800) will be more than the actual
icons, card backgrounds, and box I had designed last year. This situation could
have been avoided if I had lined up several backups at a pre-determined hourly
rate when this project completed.
Other factors that affected our budget include rising paper costs in China, having free shipping for
U.S. recipients, our stretch goals, and spending too high a portion of the project’s budget on the
art and graphic design (the main one). Almost all of these factors were in my
control and should not have happened.
So to recap, I will be working on finding a new publisher for Era, and
getting all of the game’s assets into files for everyone to look at, or play
with.
I will provide updates on these two items as they become available.
Thanks,
-Steve
(If any one of you have a graphic designer you can suggest, please have them contact me at [email protected].)
Wild West Era Deck Overview
almost 8 years ago
– Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 12:25:38 AM
Hi Backers,
We've made some good progress with the graphic design for the cards and will be moving onto our final items soon: back of the box, punchouts, rulebook, and final card layouts. In the meantime I thought I would share a strategy overview of the Wild West deck to get you all more excited about gameplay.
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Strategy Overview
Here is a rough outline of some (but not all) of the cards you can play in the Wild West deck, and what times in the game you will likely play them:
Familarity with the game's rules will be helpful (see here), but regardless, I think the story this particular deck is trying to tell is apparent. You will be choosing early on from cards that provide simple resources, building a Town as soon as you can afford, and branching off into late-game cards that will score you points.
If you have no familiarity with the rules at all, there are two important symbols you should understand: the compass symbol (seen on the Mayor, Pony Express, etc.) provides 1 point at the beginning of your turn. You need 15 points to win the game. So if you had 2 Pony Express cards sitting in front of you at the beginning of your turn, you would score 2 points, 1 for each Pony Express card.
The second most important symbol is the lock/unlock symbols. If you have a card in play with a large key, it allows you to play other cards that show smaller keys. (In the final version of the game, it will be a key and padlock for better visual clarity. Look at the Conquistador card on the main Era campaign page to see what the small padlocks will look like).
You'll notice the Mayor, Sheriff, Pony Express, and Bank have a double-key next to their card title. This means they cannot be played until you have a card in play with the large double-key. The only card with a large double-key in its symbols area is the Town. So you must have a Town in play first to have permission to play the Mayor, Sheriff, Pony Express, or Bank.
More rules explanation: The number in the right hand corner is the card's cost. The numbers at the bottom of the card, next to the skull or shield symbol, is that card's defense against those attack types, respectively.
Going back to our early options, you can see that the Wild West player has essentially 3 ways to help get his Town built. The Settler is the cheapest and weakest option, providing 1 harvest symbol. Without explaining it in full, the harvest symbol requires careful timing to make the most of its ability. The Gold Panner is the next cheapest option and provides 1 money. Money is a versatile resource that can help you pay for new cards or boost attacks.
Finally, the Miner is the most expensive option and is the sturdiest against attacks. His single build symbol allows you to flip over 1 card from your draw deck and gain resources equal to the number of conflict stars shown in the upper left hand corner of the card. (Cards can have 1-5 stars on them. Again, keep in mind that not all the cards are pictured here).
Once you have 12 resources and have a Town available to play, you can play the Town during your build phase. Now, for all turns going forward, you will receive 1 point at the beginning of your turn, since the Town card has 1 of the compass symbols on it.
Wait, the Town has 3 compass symbols on it, not 1! -- you might be thinking. You are correct, but we ignore any symbols that are displayed to the right of the forward slash. The additional 2 compass symbols shown after the forward slash happens if you build multiple Town cards, called "flourishing."
To flourish a card, you play it on top of a card with the same title. The cost to flourish a card is often different than the cost to play it the first time. For example, the Town costs 12 resources the first time it is played, but only 8 resources the next time you play (or "flourish" it) on top of another Town card.
So to go back to our confusion earlier, if you had 1 Town card and another Town card flourished on top of it (i.e., 2 Town cards), you would indeed gain 3 points at the beginning of your turn!
Once your Town is built, what will you build next? Likely, your opponent is already scoring points of their own, and since the Wild West deck takes some time to ramp up properly, it's essential that your next card picks give you the best combination of points and utility.
Let's look at your options...
The Mayor card gives you 1 vision symbol, 1 point, and 1 unlock key for a cost of 4 resources. The vision symbol essentially lets you store away cards for later use, which can be useful in the end game when you want to be playing exactly the right cards you need. The Mayor also gives 1 point, which is good, but more critical is the unlock key it provides.
Why? Look back at the Town card. Notice how next to the 8 resource cost in the upper right hand corner, is a small little key. That small little key (which again, will be a padlock in the final graphic design) prevents you from "flourishing" the Town. In other words, you can build 1 Town as long as you have 12 resources, but if you want to flourish the Town for 8 resources, you must have a Mayor in play with the unlock key. Your new Town isn't going to grow and prosper without some leadership, after all.
Your next option is the Sheriff. The Sheriff gives you 1 point and 1 attack, and flourishing extra Sheriffs (for the same symbols) can be done for 4 resources instead of 5. The Sheriff will give you a great way to score points while also attacking the Bandits (not pictured) your opponent will be playing against you.
Another option is the Pony Express. This is the most cost efficient way to earn points at the end of the game, and the card is quite versatile. It is, however, vulnerable to the attacks of the Bandits. If you build Pony Express cards, you may also want to play a Sheriff to attack the Bandits.
Finally, there is the Bank Card. It is the cheapest card you can play late game, but it is for special situations. It offers no points, but it will give you 2 attack symbols that specifically target your opponent's "Drought" card (not pictured), that can easily wipe out your early cards such as the Settler, Gold Panner, and potentially the Miner. The Bank also gives 2 money symbols. So play a Bank to protect against Droughts, keep your early cards alive, and access more money to build additional Towns, Sheriffs, or Pony Express cards.
There is much, much more that could be covered with this deck, but I think this overview should give you a good feel of the choices you will face when playing it.
Hope you enjoyed this update! I will post again as more news of progress becomes available.
Thank you Backers,
Steve
