Black Armada Games
CREATOR
7 months ago
Project Update: Sample copy, unboxing video, and a question
Hey everyone!
The sample copy of Lovecraftesque arrived today. It's hard to express how exciting it is when a game you made shows up in physical form for the first time, and this was extra special because it's our first boxed game.
Pictures, and an unboxing video, are below. These are prototype versions, so not quite as good as the finished version will be - but close. I'm keeping them backer-only for now, as I don't really want pictures of a final-looking but not-actually-final version sharing publicly. It's looking gorgeous, and although there's a handful of minor things to fix, it mostly looks like we can proceed to the next stage quite quickly.
However! There is one more medium-sized snag. Currently the box is clearly too small. Here's the deal: everything fits inside the box. But the box comes with a lovely standing card library which makes it easy to put the cards away and get them out, including grabbing the scenario you want, without hunting around. When you stand up the core cards, and efficiently pack the other components, the box is 16mm short of closing snugly. If you add the expansions too, it's 30mm short. This is basically a product of us not having made a boxed game before and underestimating how much space we'd need - though I am slightly disappointed that our manufacturer didn't highlight it as an issue.
We have three options here I think:
The sample copy of Lovecraftesque arrived today. It's hard to express how exciting it is when a game you made shows up in physical form for the first time, and this was extra special because it's our first boxed game.
Pictures, and an unboxing video, are below. These are prototype versions, so not quite as good as the finished version will be - but close. I'm keeping them backer-only for now, as I don't really want pictures of a final-looking but not-actually-final version sharing publicly. It's looking gorgeous, and although there's a handful of minor things to fix, it mostly looks like we can proceed to the next stage quite quickly.
However! There is one more medium-sized snag. Currently the box is clearly too small. Here's the deal: everything fits inside the box. But the box comes with a lovely standing card library which makes it easy to put the cards away and get them out, including grabbing the scenario you want, without hunting around. When you stand up the core cards, and efficiently pack the other components, the box is 16mm short of closing snugly. If you add the expansions too, it's 30mm short. This is basically a product of us not having made a boxed game before and underestimating how much space we'd need - though I am slightly disappointed that our manufacturer didn't highlight it as an issue.
We have three options here I think:
- Make the box bigger. This will make the game pretty hecking chonky: currently it's 230mmx230mm and just under 70mm thick, it would need to be 16mm thicker to comfortably fit the core set standing, 30mm thicker to fit everything with the expansions standing too. We don't *think* this will increase your postage costs, because it shouldn't change the weight much or take us over any size thresholds, but we can't entirely rule it out.
- Ditch the standing card library. This might actually save a little money, but will mean it's a bit harder to find what you need, and just looks a little less cool.
- Leave it as is and live with the fact that the box doesn't fully close. It's functional but a bit ugly, of course.
We want to know what you prefer. I've set up a poll so you can easily give us your view, but please do also comment if you've got more detailed thoughts.
Once changes are made - and these shouldn't take too long - we'd expect to get a mass production-quality sample in the second half of June. All being well we can then get the factories going.
In addition, the Roll20 playroom assets for the expansions are now ready, and I'll be setting them up on DrivethruRPG and sending them out to you in the next 48 hours or so. I'll do another short update when that happens.
Yours
Josh (and Becky)
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