Final-FINAL assets sent to printer
over 2 years ago – Wed, Aug 10, 2022 at 06:41:56 AM

I finished updating the Worldbreakers assets according to LongPack's feedback. Briefly, the copyright, card number, and illustrator line on the bottom of the card was too low, so I had to move it up in all of the card Illustrator files. I am now waiting for the confirmation from LongPack, and we should enter the printing queue soon!

-- Elli (he/they) and the Worldbreakers Team

PS Apologies for the short update. I am in the process of relocating my family to a new state. I promise that the next update will be more exciting ;)

Pre-production review, standing at the production starting line!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jul 27, 2022 at 05:37:22 PM

I spent the past two weeks fixing all of the issues that Jamie and I identified in the pre-production sample. We ended up with 64 tasks, and thankfully most of them were quite small: typos, missing hyphens, moving pieces of text by a few pixels at a time, and the like. I sent the updated assets to LongPack on Monday and their artistic team is now reviewing the PDFs for the last time. As soon as they give the green light, production will begin!

Bigger & Better Turn Tracker

One change which I am particularly proud of is a size increase for the turn tracker. When Jamie and I played our first ever game of Worldbreakers using the pre-production sample (Jamie won ;-)) we both noticed that the turn tracker is somewhat humble. The board should be more of a centerpiece! We agreed that it should be bigger. I am very grateful to LongPack, who agreed to such a big change. The new tracker is twice the size of the original design:

A brief design history: I originally planned to package Worldbreakers in a teeny tiny 6.5" x 4" box. I loved the idea of a small box that you could keep in your backpack or easily lug around conventions. The biggest turn tracker that I could squeeze in that box was 6" x 2", and that was the size of the tracker throughout development. Due to all of the additional cards (a 54-card solo campaign deck, an additional copy of the 20 neutral cards, and another ~20 cards such as the promos), I had to increase the box size to 8.5" x 5". Increasing the tracker size to 8.2" x 3" seems like an obvious next step now.

If all goes according to plan, my next update will be about beginning production. Will keep you posted ;)

— Elli (he/they) and the Worldbreakers Team

The Worldbreakers pre-production sample has arrived!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jul 15, 2022 at 06:47:55 PM

It's here!

I collected the Worldbreakers pre-production sample this past Thursday, and it's BEAUTIFUL!

Yesterday (Monday) I flew from NJ to Jamie's so that the two of us can review all of the components together. We ended up with 54 changes, almost all of them tiny (for example, "Muhandasat Savior" has a typo in the title). There are several alignment issues and I will reach out to LongPack to ask if they're cause for concern or an expected artifact from the digital printing of the pre-production sample.

After a long day of work, we even got a game in ...

... which Jamie won a decisive 10-3. Jamie then won the following three games as well ;-) thankfully I managed to pilot a 10-8 win on our fifth game. With a spreadsheetful of changes and a 1-4 record, I merrily hopped on a plane back home.

As of today, we are still six weeks ahead of schedule! Assuming no delays due to alignment issues (... or COVID ...), Worldbreakers should definitely reach your gaming table by the March deadline.

— Elli (he/they) and the Worldbreakers Team

Two production issues caught and fixed
over 2 years ago – Tue, Jun 28, 2022 at 12:26:07 AM

Thanks to LongPack's diligence, we identified and fixed two production issues. First, their production team created a white sample version of Worldbreakers:

This sample does not involved any printing, using blank cardboard for all of the components. Its purpose is to verify that all of the components fit in the box. In our case, they didn't:

Previously, the Worldbreakers box was 38 mm high (1.5 inches). That red arrow plus a safety margin translates to about 8 millimeter of missing box height, so the new box height is 46 mm (1.8 inches).

Next, during the printing of the pre-production sample, LongPack noticed an alignment mismatch with the punch board that includes the game counters:

As I discussed in a previous blog post, cutting alignment is notoriously difficult to get right. LongPack has an excellent reputation on that front, and I'm relieved that they noticed this problem even before shipping the pre-production sample to me. Fixing the issue took LongPack a couple of days, while waiting until I get the package and then starting to address it could have resulted in a much more significant production delay.

The good news is that the pre-production sample should be done in the next few days! Here are a few photos from Laura, our agent there:

We are getting closer to production, 8mm at a time ;-)

-- Elli (he/they) and the Worldbreakers Team

More markers + waiting for the digital sample
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Jun 13, 2022 at 04:16:06 PM

I sent all of the Worldbreakers assets to LongPack about two weeks ago and I am now waiting for them to print the digital sample. According to their estimate, it should be shipped to me within 1-2 weeks. As soon as I receive it, I will review it for any typos, coloring mismatches, or any other issues, update the files accordingly, send them to LongPack, and proceed with printing. All of which to say, we are still six weeks ahead of schedule, and just waiting on the printer to produce the digital samples.

More markers!

Meanwhile, I would like to tell you about a small, cool change to the box contents. Worldbreakers includes a large Khutulun +1 Strength marker, which is used alongside the special ability on the Khutulun, the True Daughter Worldbreaker card:

When you attack, you can place the Khutulun marker on the follower that gets the strength bonus.

Alongside the Khutulun marker, the punch boards in the Worldbreakers box include many more components. I initially planned to have one punch board with the Khutulun marker and a few other counters and two additional punch boards with just counters. During my discussion with LongPack I discovered that the most cost-efficient way to print punch boards is to stick to one design:

This means that Worldbreakers will now come with THREE hexagonal markers! The second marker will be used for Auspicious Smuggler:

Auspicious Smuggler includes one of the few memory-dependent effects in Worldbreakers. During playtesting, players pointed out that they sometimes forget the ability. You can now keep the marker in front of you as a reminder for the Smuggler's extra action.

The third marker is for Cunning Reclaimer:

I decided on this third marker as a treat for solo players. During the campaign, the automaton can play the Cunning Reclaimer and use her special ability when attacking you. This marker is helpful to keep track of the follower that can't block as you plan your defense and your next turn. Of course, you are more than welcome to use the marker in the two-player game as well.

-- Elli (he/they) and the Worldbreakers Team