October Update
A cheery good spooky-month to everyone, hopefully filled with a quantity of thrills, chills, and sugary treats to suit your respective fancies.
Over the past month we have been refining and polishing the gameplay adjustments mentioned in our previous update, developing the remaining content, and planning the product offerings for the next crowdfunding campaign.
Gameplay adjustments
The gameplay changes (randomized rage, shuffle-building characters and classes, and mushrooms) continue to be quick, varied, and replayable. The graphic design and interfacing, while not finished, is coming along nicely:
The threat cards are dealt into a row after each shuffle, and a number of them (based on current rage marker position) are rotated so that the enraged side (teal) is upright. This keeps each “round” fresh and varied; you never quite know how the leviathan will strike.
Player boards (remember: visuals are work-in-progress!) have a slot for an “always active” climber skill, and your “shuffle-built” deck consists of the 1-3 cards from your chosen climber and 7-9 cards from your chosen class.
Content Development
We’ve completed various levels of development on climbers and classes, so the shuffle-build options will be quite substantial for those who opt for everything when we relaunch (more on that below).
10 out of 10 planned climbers, and 8 out of 10 planned classes. As always, the visuals are 100% placeholder, and the content is subject to change through additional testing and development.
A lot of new leviathan scenarios have been worked on as well. We’ve completed 10 thus far with another 4 in various post-concept stages (more on the way!). Some of the newer ones still need illustration, but we’re advancing that as well:
The Fury
The Hive
We’re quite pleased to be finding a lot of conceptual, mechanical, and strategic variety, so stay tuned for more details on those as we continue.
Story Campaign and Product plan
First off, a huge thanks to those who offered their feedback regarding the story/progression campaign. Many folks seemed quite pleased that the focus is shifting toward one-off play, but there are also those who clearly still want a story and a sense of progression, and that’s very useful info for us.
Keep in mind that theme, worldbuilding, and story will be baked into every part of the game, even if the narrative word count in the core game will be somewhat low. Still, we’ve developed a product plan to satisfy those who are excited about “one and done” while offering additional depth for those interested.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND: 1) These estimates are focused on gameplay content and do not show the full component list of cards, boards, etc. 2) With continued CURRENT EVENTS, manufacturing/pricing has been a bit chaotic, so we’re not quite ready to unveil the estimated costs just yet.
Product Plan
Leviathan Wilds Core Game
The core experience: a puzzly boss-battler with considerable variety, replayability, and a deep respect for your time: set up, played, and back on your shelf in less than an hour.
Featuring 7 climbers and 7 classes (49 shuffle-build combos) with 15 leviathans (each with unique scenario mechanics) in the spiral-bound book.
The Shattered Peak Campaign Expansion
This add-on includes the story campaign along with additional content and mechanics to heighten replay value.
Featuring:
5 more unique leviathans (bringing the total to 20)
Story/campaign book with progression structure
Mementos for each leviathan (player components gained from freeing leviathans)
Mutations for each leviathan (threat components from a given leviathan applied to other leviathans)
Character and Class Pack
2 additional climbers (including meeples) and 2 additional classes (increases total shuffle-build combos from 49 to 81)
Component Upgrade Pack
Fancified versions of various componentry; player boards, cardboard tokens, dice, etc.
Stretch Goals and All-in pledge
We are planning modest stretch goals (to keep the product plan achievable for our tiny team): 1 climber and 1 class (increasing total combos to 100), 2 leviathans (total of 22), and a handful of other minor components, like additional mushroom types.
We’ll also look to provide a “best value” all-in pledge, and we’ll see if we can stretch our budget to offer some additional freebies for our wonderful supporters.
What’s next?
For the next few weeks we’ll be buttoning up the graphic design and presentation, after which we'll update the TTS public preview with the new mechanics and an adjusted set of leviathans (some new ones!).
Until then, feel free to drop by the Discord channel, etc. to ask questions, to join playtesting, or to let us know what you think!
