We're almost there!
about 8 years ago – Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 12:10:40 AM

This is a quick update to talk about the progress of the project. Next week I promise a new update with more news.

First of all, we finally have all the documentation we need to start the pledge manager platform. We can’t pay backerkit commission until 1st of April, due to taxation issues, but once done, they review and approve the campaign setup in 2 days (maximum). So, we’ll try to send your backerkit invitation the first week of April. 

Paypal will close once and for all the 31st of March. We’ve not reached yet the new miniature stretch goal, but we’re very close, so expect to unlock it once the PM opens.

Some people have been asking us for more add-ons, but we don’t want to offer too much extras, we want and try to maintain the campaign simple and clean. I think the game is quite complete now and we always have time to add more components if you think of any interesting gadget for Pandemonium.

You’ll find lots of add-ons in the PM, so feel free to get anything you like or need, but don’t forget that the Pandemonium game already comes with a whole bunch of amazing components.

Since the kickstarter campaign ended, we’ve continued testing the game and we have made some improvements introducing the unlocked creatures and characters.
We started using some of the monsters as bosses and it works great. For example, in the first adventure you’ll find the Sharknator protecting the Black Lagoon map tile and the Dimensional God will awake in the cemetery and chase the players.
We found this so much fun and added more combinations in further adventures.

Most of the testing is done on the new maps and characters, but once in a while we still try things and find ways to improve the game. One of the last additions is the use of Souls.
In the Elimination mode you use Souls to control creatures and attack other players, or just to recover Health. Now you can also use them in the coop and semi-coop modes.
You get Souls when you kill creatures, cross Portals or fulfill a Pact. Use these Souls to recover Health or Fear, to power up your Attack, Defense or Will or to get an extra Action.

This rewards the player who fights and also allows more control of the Fear bar. It also gives you the chance to modify your current skills during your turn (maybe you need +1 attack to use a weapon) and this improves game strategy.
It’s a videogame like mechanic, but it works really well, it’s fun, useful and very intuitive. It doesn’t change the game at all, but gives the player more options and fits perfectly with Pandemonium’s theme.

Regarding this, and to thank your patience this last month, we’ve decided to add 10 extra red cubes to the game (for a total of 40) and improve the custom dice from printed to engraved.
This implies an extra cost for us, but you get an improved component, more beautiful and durable. I hope you like it.

Project’s progress:

Finished: all miniatures, box art, 9 character illustrations, all cards (310), game rules, 12 maps, all tokens, all character mats, the comic book and most of the add-ons.

To be finished (work in progress): 2 maps, 5 backer’s exclusive cards, game manual corrections, adventures book layout, Andres Aguilar boss miniature, 80 page artbook.

To be done: 6 character illustrations, Crow/Helsing miniature, cards and manual translation, 2017 calendar.

The artbook reward is ready to be sent to all backers who commented or rated during the kickstarter campaign. We’ll wait for the PM to open, as we want to include the pre-order link on the pdf. You’ll receive the artbook download link on your BGG’s mail, so stay tuned.

As you know, we’ve started production. I’ll give you all the manufacturer info in my next update. We’re happy with the professional background and experience of our manufacturer and communication has been great so far.
We, of course, expect some problems, delays and unexpected events in the next months, but right now the project is under control and everything advances just fine.

This being our first project force us to be very careful with every decision we take, and that sometimes slows down the production process. However, it’s important to remember that this has become a big project and we have a relatively tight budget, so we need to think twice before signing agreements, paying services and so.

This said, we’re learning a lot and each step we take prepare us to be a lot more efficient in the future. We’re growing and becoming stronger. And I must thank you for your patience and your great support. I hope Pandemonium will be able to meet everyone’s expectations.

See you next week!

Pledge Manager News
about 8 years ago – Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 11:38:12 PM

Bad news, we have to delay the pledge manager a few days, but don’t worry, everything is ready and it’s just a management matter we expect to solve really soon. The fact is that we need some limited society and bank changes before being able to use Stripe (the payment system used by Backerkit) and we’ve suffered some delays from the administration. We need to finish registration in the Commercial Registry and it’s taking much more time than expected.

This has been a very inconvenient and unexpected problem and I must apologize. Please, understand that we can’t open the PM until this is solved, but they told us this won’t take too long. Fingers crossed…

I’ll publish a big update when launching Backerkit, explaining how to use it and what to do. It’s really easy, so please, don’t worry and I’m sure we’ll find a way to reward your support and patience.

Now let’s talk about some (good) news. Borja has finished 8 of the 15 character illustrations and they are looking great in the character mats.

We’ve been playing a lot with the dice tray prototype and have adjusted its structure and functionality. Now it’s working better and looking great. I’ll add a video in the next update. And the deck tray is really useful and we love to use it during Pandemonium sessions.

Production has begun. Miniature molds will take a few months, but cards, cardboards and other components will be much faster to produce. It’s just the beginning, I’ll keep you informed of every step.

We’ll produce most of the add-ons in Europe, so we can maintain the pledge manager open two months (until June) without worrying about more people buying the add-ons, as we can produce them quite fast.

The digital artbook is ready and we’ll send it to all backers who commented or rated on BGG until 22 of November 2015. We’ll contact them via BGG’s private message and provide a download link. This will be done some days after the PM opens, as we want to add links to the Backerkit presale and campaign sites.
Remember this is not the printed 80 page artbook offered as an add-on, it’s a completely different and simpler product, but also a great free Pandemonium complement. I hope you like it.

The $1500 pledge miniature is almost done. We only need some reference photos from Andrés Aguilar to finish the sculpture’s head and I’ll be able to show you the final 3d model. I’m really happy with it and I believe it will be a great addition to the game. Right now it’s the biggest miniature in the game.
Remember this is an exclusive miniature available for all Pandemonium backers. So, enjoy it.

The Van Helsing vs Crow-like character contest is on fire. At the present time this is the score:

There’s still time, until we reach that stretch goal or until we close the molding production (then we’ll close everything and the game won’t accept more changes or additions). If you haven’t voted yet, don’t wait anymore!

http://goo.gl/forms/4mvAy0az3h

And remember that our next stretch goal features these adorable human-devourer creatures called Furmungus. You want them and you know it:

I want to close this update with a mention to the new kickstarter project from our friends at Play Attitude (remember they gave us an exclusive card: the dark fairy). If you like Star Wars, you’ll like this illustrated project:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidgfores/the-ink-harvest-david-g-fores-tribute-to-star-wars

If you travel often, you may also be interested in this kickstarter project by some spanish fellows:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wimbag/wimbag-the-luggage-tracker

See you soon in a few days. We’re veeeeery anxious to launch the pledge manager as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

Mega Update and Pledge Manager info.
over 8 years ago – Sat, Feb 13, 2016 at 11:41:14 PM

Esta actualización puede seguirse en español aquí:
http://www.darkstone.es/index.php?topic=4744.45

First things first. We finished this miniature long time ago and I was waiting for an update to show you. I hope you like the “killer toys” miniature. The inspiration is a mix between Chucky and Stewie.
As they are the size of a toy, this mini is full body because otherwise it would have looked too big or too small.

They attack in group, so when a “Killer toy” is summoned they appear in every portal of the game. Luckily, they are easy to kill, because you can be surrounded quickly if you are not careful.

The same way we reached the Killer Toys stretch goal, we’re approaching the next one and I’m pretty sure when PM opens we’ll unlock that miniature. And you know what that means, because only one can win, and this time it looks like the voting will be much more disputed than with poor “evil twins”.

So, let the voting begin (google form): http://goo.gl/forms/4mvAy0az3h

We’ve been structuring the next stretch goals for the PM. We don’t know if more SG will be unlocked or not during the PM, but I hope so, because that will mean that more people entered the project and we can improve the game. However, one of the new SG is this cute, adorable and creepy human-devourer furball from space.
Its game mechanic is really fun and I hope we can add them to the game.

More promising news: character art is looking great. Borja is working hard and we expect to have all illustrations soon.
I’ll be updating facebook and twitter with them.

We’re also finishing the $1500 pledge custom miniature designed by Andres Aguilar. After much talking we decided to create a great boss instead of a character, because there are too many main characters in the game and a boss is always much more fun :D
This boss is going to act as the main boss of Pandemonium, so you can use it when playing as Evil in the semi-coop mode or just use it when the final battle comes in the coop “normal” mode.
We’ve also been discussing about creating a new adventure for him, but this must be tested and will take some time.

Right now I don’t want to show you any images, but we’re very happy with the miniature and we hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we are enjoying designing it. It will be ready when the PM opens. And speaking of that…

February was the chosen month to close paypal and open the pledge manager. Well, we’ve to announce our first official delay, as we now plan to open the PM the 1st of March and paypal will remain active until then.
That’s for a good reason, as we need to finish some important details before allowing people enter the PM and close their pledges, shipping costs, etc. We want to make sure that everything is ready and you find the best possible experience when using backerkit system.

Good news is that we’ve been testing Backerkit a lot and it’s quite complete and useful. The experience for you should be simple and painless. We’ll talk in depth of the PM when time comes, don’t worry.

The main reason to delay this process one month is the necessity to finish all the new add-ons and some other details. We’ve been working and discussing what new add-ons could be interesting for the game. Andres Aguilar, created some time ago a great survey with useful information and also some backers have been asking for specific items.
However, we also need to analyze the viability of any new idea we/you have, because sometimes we want to create great products but realize that we don’t have the money or infrastructure to do so. There’re a lot of combinations that are common in other big company kickstarter projects that we can’t afford and we need to be careful with that. I hope you understand this reality.

In the PM you’ll be able to find all kickstarter add-ons, including the full game and the $160 option with kickstarter add-ons. New add-ons include some miniature packs (with already existing miniatures), a second set of map tiles (some people asked for them), the custom deck tray you saw in the last update and a new custom dice tray.

Here you can see the deck tray prototype: mounting and unmounting, looks and use. Video quality is not great, sorry, but I think it’s quite clear:

Soon I’ll show you dice tray details.
Dice tray is a multi purpose custom box. It’s an octagonal wooden box with a protected interior to avoid dice noise. The interior has an engraved skull and 8 turns marked in roman numbers. This numbers mark the 8 turns of the game and the tray has a ring with an arrow you can move to mark each turn while playing.
The dice tray also comes with a cover (with the Pandemonium logo engraved) so you can store your game components (dice, tokens, miniatures) and keep them protected.

We’re improving many things over this prototype: final one will have thicker walls, a protected ring, interior padding, and the exterior walls will be engraved with 8 different classic horror weapons (also available in the game).
The add-on is very easy to mount (it comes with easy to understand instructions), or you can get it already mounted if you want to miss the fun :)

What we want to know if you like the idea and if you would buy it if available in the PM. We appreciate your feedback, as always.

Also the comic book is complete. Jun Joan did a good job and color pages look great. This comes as an introduction to the adventures book and I’ve had a great time producing it.
I wish we had more time and money to expand it and create other stories; maybe if you like it, it’s something we can do in the near future.

Congratulations to Alberto Camarasa (writer) and Jun Joan (artist), because they are a really professional guys and I recommend them to you if you are searching for talented people to work with.

Last but not least, we’ve improved the icons of the game to give them a bit more unity and a clearer visual feedback. For example, “defense” was a lion shield and now is a standard shield, “attack” was a hammer in flames and now is a crossed machete-axe, “actions” icon was a pair of steps and now is a gear, “exploration” was a kind of Egyptian eye and now is a standard eye, etc…
And the layout of the cards has been improved to give more space to images and introduce bigger text fonts.

Things that need to be finished soon: 4 maps still in the works, correction of the main manual and layout of the adventures book, translation, testing of new elements and creation of the miniature moulds. This last task will take some time to finish, but tomorrow Chinese new year holidays finally end, so we can start working on production again.

Thanks for your support and patience. As always, I’ll keep you informed. Pandemonium is approaching! 

Voting, paypal, new maps, add-ons and more.
over 8 years ago – Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at 11:43:15 PM

Hello, back again with some news.
First of all, the 20 Most Anticipated Board Games of 2016 voting is open. Show some love to Pandemonium and vote here: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/203378/20-most-anticipated-board-games-2016-voting-open-5

All you have to do is mark the game in each nominated category and press VOTE at the end of the list. It’s easy and quick.

Remember that you can vote more than one game and that Pandemonium is nominated in the following categories: Overall, Cooperative, Solitaire, Thematic, Horror and Fantasy.

We’ve designed 5 exclusive cards (1 event, 2 weapons and 2 objects) and we’ll give away 1 card per each category where we finish between the 20 selected projects. So, for example if Pandemonium is #20 in the Horror list, you’ll get 1 card. And so on.
You can also share and retweet this on our facebook and twitter accounts.

We’re finishing the new maps for the game (unlocked during the kickstarter campaign). We’ve made a change on one of the maps, let me explain why.
On the shining movie-inspired map we talked to homage the snowed labyrinth, but we saw that it would be very similar to the Hellraiser Hell scenario, that is also very maze-like. So we redesigned the map to focus on the hotel, which is maybe the most iconic place in the movie.

Soon I’ll show you all new maps. We’re testing them so everything works well when playing the different adventures.

We’ve closed the “new miniature” voting. As you see the “Killer toys” miniature is the winner and we’ve already started to work on it. As an additional info, the twins got 11 extra votes and the Toys 7, in the last update comments.

I want to open a new survey.
As you may remember we unlocked a last 14th map during the campaign. But we never told where it would be located. I want that you give us ideas and I’ll create a new survey with the 3 options most commented.
Think in movies, books, etc, and a related place. For example: Big Trouble in Little China (David Lo Pan's palace), Ghostbusters (Headquarters), Nightmare on Elm Street (Dreamworld), The Texas chain saw massacre (Sawyer's family house)…

I also wanted to ask if you’d like an alternate cover, limited and individually numbered, as a new add-on. What I need to know is how many people should be interested in something like this.
We’re thinking about what add-ons could be interesting for the game and our backers. If you have ideas, let me know.

Jun Joan is coloring the last 2 pages of the comic book. Some retouches must be done, but this is something we’ll close in a week or two. We’re also finishing the adventures book layout and text, so we’ll integrate everything and see the look of the booklet and send it for correction and translation. Manuals are going to take a little more time, as they must be revised several times before translation.

Last but not least, we’ll close Paypal at the end of January. I’ll inform you on the total amount received through paypal.
On February backerkit will open and you’ll be able to manage your pledge and confirm details. We’ll use that information to start with game production. Our intention is to have the game ready for summer, but I believe that international shipping may delay the project until end of summer. We’ll see and keep you informed, as always.

Thanks for your support and happy new year!
Marc

Merry Christmas & News galore!
over 8 years ago – Sat, Dec 26, 2015 at 10:55:00 PM

Happy Holydays!
A month has passed since the end of Pandemonium kickstarter campaign and I have some hot news, but first of all we need your help to wreak some havoc in this edition of BGG’s 20 Most Anticipated Games of 2016. You just need to thumb up the game here: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/201632/item/4338826#item4338826

Ok, and now for the good news: we sent a bunch of our creatures to Santa Claus lair to force some of his elves to buy the game and I can officially announce that we got more that $2500 through paypal, which means that the “New Creature” stretch goal has been unlocked and a new miniature will be available for you all.
Now, you must decide which enemy should be added to the game: the Killer Toys or the Creepy Twins.

You can vote for your favorite creature here:
https://goo.gl/QEE116

It’s a google form, so you need a google account (this way you can only vote once). If you don’t have a google account you can just comment your choice right here in this kickstarter update.

It's important to remember that those characters will serve only as inspiration and that the final miniature can't and won't be the same as the references used. They're just the main inspiration for the sculptor, so expect changes when comparing Pandemonium characters and those used for inspiration from movies, comics, literature, etc. Take that into consideration when voting.

We’ve been working on this deck tray that you can mount/unmount and has space for all Pandemonium card decks identified by a semitransparent icon. It’s just a prototype and we’re improving some things, but I’d like to know if you like it as an add-on or not. You can comment here your impressions.

I’ve also been working with Timo Multamäki to finish the creature conversion from Pandemonium to Perdition’s Mouth and vice versa, as we announced the crossover during our respective campaigns last November. I’m excited to see some of our creatures working in Perdition's Mouth. I expect this to be finished really soon. Stay tunned!

More news: the comic book is almost ready. Jun Joan is now working on the color and I expect the whole comic book to be finished at the end of January.
As you may remember it’s just a 7 page comic book that serves as introduction to the adventures book. It doesn’t explain the complete story behind Pandemonium, but it narrates some key elements that may help you understand better the main idea of the game. It also describes one of the main characters motivations and personality (in this case, the preacher).

I’ve also contacted the illustrator to start working on the character illustrations (as that was one of the last stretch goals to be unlocked, if you remember). I believe they will look great and I’ll be showing you all of those illustrations as soon as I receive them.
By the way, the character mats have been reworked and are now clearer and easier to use. Below is just a prototype as we’re still working on some new icons and combinations:

As you know we’re going to use Backerkit as our pledge manager (unless we encounter unexpected surprises) and I’m working so everything is ready when February arrives.

We’re now working to finish the game manuals and adventures book. I’m selecting the final 310 cards that made it into the game and ensuring that everything is ok and adapts to the design of the different decks (which need some slight modifications also). I’ll keep you informed on any news about the production progress.

Thanks for your support and have a good end of year celebration and prepare for a great new year!
Merry Christmas from Pandemonium!

Marc Ripoll
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