Leviathan Workshop
Leviathan Wilds is launching on Kickstarter July 12, and we at Moon Crab Games are thrilled to announce our main event series.
Over the course of the 18 day campaign, Moon Crab Games will create, live test, and live illustrate a brand new leviathan to be featured in the core game, all using community pitches and voting.
Note that this post will serve as the primary information hub, and it will get updated with links and new details during the campaign.
Leviathan Workshop Schedule
Region Poll: July 12 - 14
The workshop begins with choosing our new leviathan’s home region. For context, regions are like “chapters” to the campaign of the game, each containing a few thematically-appropriate leviathans, some extra story, and additional rewards upon completion.
Shortly after launch, we will describe three regions and host a poll on BGG; the region with the most votes when the poll closes will be our leviathan’s home.
Region Poll Result: Bright Coast!
Poll results and Concept Pitches: July 14 - 16
After announcing region results, we will ask the community for their best pitches and suggestions for the new leviathan (for details on what we’re looking for, see below). This will be hosted in a mega-thread on BGG (a little cleaner interface than KS comments). In the evening of the 16th, the Moon Crab team will review and select three of our favorite pitches.
Link to the Pitch Thread. Go make your pitch!
Concept Poll and Results: July 17 - 19
We will host another poll on BGG with the three selections, and the community will vote for their favorite. On July 19th, voting will end, and then the Moon Crab team will get cracking on the first development draft of the winner, including building a map, threat deck, and any special rules that go into creating the new leviathan.
Live PlayTests: July 22, 24, and 25 @ 8am Pacific/11AM Eastern
We will playtest the new leviathan live via the Moon Crab Games Twitch channel three times, with adjustment and iteration between each one. Be warned, this part could get messy! We’re pretty confident, but sometimes development and iteration fails to produce worthwhile content. If that happens, we do have a backup plan (see below).
Live Sketching (and Q/A): July 26 @ 8am Pacific/11AM Eastern
Todd, Justin, and Sam sit down for a live chat while Sam screenshares his efforts to transform our dev prototype into beautiful art. We’ll talk through some of our visual ideas, and then while Sam sketches, we’ll open it up to general chat and Q & A.
a Very Special Final Livestream: July 28 @ 6PM Pacific/9Pm Eastern
We are partnering with One Stop Co-op Shop for the first official public crack at saving our brand-new, community-inspired leviathan. This will happen July 28 at 6PM Pacific/9PM Eastern, at the link below. Stop by to watch their brilliant success or appalling failure!
One Stop CoOp Shop YouTube Stream Link
We will also upload the “final” version of the leviathan to the official Leviathan Wilds Tabletop Simulator Preview for all to enjoy.
What Should the Pitch Contain?
Pitch anything you like when that thread goes live! Go nuts with mechanics, theme, visual concepts, and so on. Please just one pitch per person, try to keep the word count reasonable so that the threads are able to be parsed, and please keep the concepts clean and family-friendly.
We might consider pitches outside of the BGG thread, but if we get a lot of them scattered throughout several social spaces, it’ll be pretty tough to sort through. Also, we’ll make our selections in the evening of July 16. We might be able to consider pitches that come later, but we’re announcing our selections July 17 in the morning, so we will have very limited time.
Keep in mind Moon Crab will select our nominations based on a bunch of criteria, including how well it fits in the game and how feasible it is to make. We have multi-colored scenario tokens to leverage in certain mechanics; we’re fine adding cards to a leviathan for some overlays, but we’ll likely avoid anything that needs unique componentry or a large amount of special rules.
In addition, there might be some overlap in pitches; we may choose to mash a couple of similar concepts together, or make minor mechanical or thematic tweaks to nudge them towards feasibility if we really like the concepts.
Finally, it is possible that pitches will receive some amount of adjustment during the campaign or later during the refinement and testing process before we go to print. This isn’t meant to be a bait and switch; we need the flexibility to keep the spirit of the concept while not being overly shackled to specifics in a way that would hinder the final game.
What If Development and Testing is a Disaster?
We’ve made a lot of games and game content over the past 10 years, so we’re pretty confident that we’ll be able to produce a fun and viable leviathan in the time allotted. However, that same experience tells us something really important: sometimes things just won’t work.
If development and playtesting fails to create something worth illustrating, we’ll pivot and finish out the Workshop with one of our other, currently-unrevealed leviathans (something that’s been ready for illustration for a while). It’ll be a bummer, but this lets us finish out the event with the live illustration and final stream.
If this happens, we will still include our community-selected leviathan in the final game; we’ll want to take our time and sift through why it wasn’t working, make adjustments and run some focused playtests, and so on. Chances are we would try to make some of that public, but we’ll figure out specifics later (hopefully, it’s not even necessary).
Terms and Conditions
Leviathan Workshop
The Leviathan Workshop is a volunteer community discussion to generate suggestions (“submissions”) to be developed into game designs by Moon Crab Games. By participating, you (the “participant”) agree to the following terms.
Ownership
Moon Crab Games is the owner of all rights to Leviathan Wilds (the “game”), which includes all submissions created specifically for the game and any resulting derivative works. Submissions shall not restrict Moon Crab Games from publishing similar designs.
Participants acknowledge that Moon Crab Games is the sole and exclusive owner of the entire right, title, and interest (including all accompanying goodwill) in and to the game. Participants agree not to sue Moon Crab Games in connection with the incorporation of submissions into its products.
Volunteer Basis
Participants volunteer submissions to be considered and developed by Moon Crab Games. If the winning leviathan submission results in viable game content, that participant will be credited in the game’s rulebook. Participants will not otherwise be compensated.
Legal
Indemnification. Participants will defend, indemnify, and hold Moon Crab Games harmless from and against all loss, liability, claims (including claims of IP infringement), suits, actions, proceedings, judgments, awards, damages and expenses (including attorneys’ fees) that they may incur by reason of the participant’s process and completed works. Moon Crab Games holds the participant in good faith that their submissions are original and are consistent with copyright law.
Governing Law. Any dispute arising under or in connection with this Agreement will be governed by the law of the State of Minnesota and be resolved in the state or federal courts of Minnesota.
