Battles progress: Factory pics! Alpha Testing! Timelines...
almost 7 years ago – Sat, May 26, 2018 at 12:52:28 AM

Hi folks,

How’re you doing? You’re looking well. Is that a new thing you did with your hair? Because it’s working.

...

We’re going to take a wild guess and assume you didn’t click on this update to hear us compliment your hair. No, you clicked to find out more about the Beasts of Balance expansion. 

Well, allow us to fill you in:

Gorgeous New Pieces:  

In one of our last updates, we revealed the final designs for our legendaries. This update, we’re doing one better: we’re revealing the beasts from the factory!

Behold the Anglerfish, who has a mouth more capable than a sword swallowing magician – after all, they can fit a warthog in there. They may not be the most…conventionally beautiful. But look at their dopey face long enough, and you’re bound to smile. 

Next up is our keen, green adorable machine, the Chameleon! You won’t be able to see it, but they have the teeniest, tiniest bit of metal in their nose. No, it’s not a piercing; it’s a balance against their tail, so you can stack the Chameleon on top of other beasts, below them…wherever you like, really.

The third of our fabulous new beasts is the Flamingo. People may look at their legs and think oh god, how is that going to be stable?! But you’d be surprised. This flamboyant beast’s thin legs and slim feet mean they can sneak into a stack more easily than you’d expect.

Moby Brick may not be graceful when they’re tumbling through the sky, but their physical finish is so sleek. Indulge us for a moment as we nerd out on the production process: we had to inject 2 different colours of plastic into the mould at the same time, which is not a typical factory process, and requires a lot more experimentation to finesse. It means that each Moby Brick will be unique. And there’s silver glitter in there too. Because glitter makes everything better.

Here we have everyone’s favourite uppity unicorn. If you look closely, you’ll see there’s light carving spiralling up the horn. To which you may say, so what? Well, we’re suckers for attention to detail, and we get the impression Fancyprance would only want the best (for themselves) too.

Last but not least is our hangry dragon. There’s no beast more furious than Hotbelly, which you’ll see in their crinkle-cut jawline, unwavering glare, and brilliant red body. Their wings may be small, but their ferocity is great, so you should feel a sense of awe when they come into the game.

We’re pretty stoked, folks. They’re shaping up well.

Alpha Testing and more Digital Goodness:

Our Alpha testing period has kicked off! Thank you to everyone who’s signed up, and those who have provided invaluable feedback on our forum. With your help, we’ve been pushing out updates and looking into device compatibility.  

We’re continuing the Alpha for a while longer and adding more people to it regularly, so if you want to join, please sign up here.

If you haven’t been on the Alpha, here’s a bit of what’s been happening on the digital side of the game:

Aside from this, there is course the squashing, splatting, and squishing of bugs, to make the game as polished as possible. We’re excited and hopeful that when you get your hands on the full thing, you’ll love it just as much.

Timeline

So, here’s the thing you’re probably all curious about: the timeline.

We’re going to be honest here. Unfortunately, manufacturing has taken longer than we’d hoped. We conduct rigorous tests on all of our physical pieces in the factory, to make sure they’re safe and high quality when they ship to you. Currently, Fancyprance is being a bit of a diva; they’re so full of unusual shapes and complex curves compared to our older beasts (the tiny horn! The narrow leg joints! The angled arms!), that it’s taking longer than usual to get through this process. We’re doing everything we can to move the process along, but this is the timeline now, taking this into account:

• Next week: Production starts in the factory. This is when the tools will be put into the injection moulds, and the two-week process of Making All the Things will kick off. It’s pretty amazing – see our previous video on the manufacturing process if you don’t believe us. 
• Mid-June: The pieces are put on the first boat from China, to be shipped to distributors.
• Mid-July: The pieces, in their Kickstarter boxes, are shipped out to customers. You’ll receive tracking numbers around then, across all regions. 

This is how we see the timeline now, and unfortunately we have to say that unforeseeable things like getting stuck at customs, or adverse weather conditions that make the voyage across the seas take longer, could change this. We will do everything in our power to make sure the dates don’t move any more than this, but we wanted to be up-front with you about the current situation. The only other thing we can say is that it’ll be worth the wait.  

In the meantime, if you’re in the UK in June, we’ll be at UK Games Expo! We’d love to see you and show you the latest version of Battles. We’ll be in Hall 2, Booth C16 so come say hi if you’re around.

- Team Sensible Object xoxo

Testing, Shipping, Updating: A Timeline for the Beasts of Balance Expansion
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 09:06:22 PM

Hi everyone,  

There’ve been a lot of questions on what’s happening with the expansion in terms of shipping dates. So here is a timeline of what to expect:

April: Alpha testing period – we need your help!

From April, we’re going to run an alpha testing period to see how Battles sits alongside coop on different types of devices. This is going to be a digital-only testing period, so it won’t be testing cards, legendary pieces etc. But it will be the first chance to get a sneak peak at the Battles fabulousness coming your way.

As mentioned above, this is a period to help understand device compatibilities, so we’ll be choosing a few backers to help us test the game based on their devices. It will work in a test app that’s separate to your main app (i.e. the one you downloaded from the app store/google play store/Amazon app store), so you don’t have to worry about it breaking any gameplay you’ve already gotten through. If you’re interested to get a glimpse into Battles and try it out for yourself, please sign up to join our Alpha testing period! You can sign up with this quick form here.

May: Beta testing period, and shipping the physical things!

Then, towards the end of May, we’re shipping all of the physical things! So that’s unicorns, space whales, cursed crosses, dragons, cards and more. There may be a week or so of difference between shipping for different territories (we’ll have more on the logistics of this soon), but nothing that will affect orders massively. Which brings us to…  

June: Getting the physical things! Beta testing those physical things!

In June, Kickstarter backers should be receiving said shipped things. We will (probably!) also come out of the test-app used in April and May, and merge battles into the original Beasts of Balance app. If not, there will still be a way for all Kickstarter backers to access the game. So all backers will be able to play the digital version of Battles, whether they were in the alpha and beta test periods or not.

Even though this is the case, we’ll still be developing things. So, when you receive your box of fabulous beasts (and cards and cursed crosses), not all of them will work in the digital app. You will be able to use Hotbelly and the cards to start with, as well as the 3 new beasts (anglerfish, chameleon, and flamingo), ghost crab, and lalnalion – essentially, all the non-stretch goals will work, so it’s just the stretch goals we’ll need to finish work on.

And we won’t have to stretch for too long! We expect that the rest should follow on over the summer, so you’ll be able to play the other legendaries and more not long after. We’ll make sure to have regular updates to let you know when new pieces become usable as well…it’s gonna be an exciting period!

During this period we would love, love, love you to send us your feedback and any bugs you spot. You could say that at this point, digital-only Battles is out of Beta, but physical-pieces Battles’ beta is sort of beginning, so your feedback during all of this would be amazing.

So, tl;dr:

April: alpha testing of digital-only Battles opens up for Kickstarter backers! Sign up here.

May: More Kickstarter backers join the testing wave as a beta testing period of digital-only Battles.

End of May: We ship the physical things to all Kickstarter backers!  

June: Kickstarter backers around the world receive their physical items! Not all of them will be playable, but Hotbelly, more beasts, and Battles cards will be. The rest (i.e. the stretch goals) will follow soon after!  

Also June: all backers will be able to play Battles through the app!

June onwards: we’re going to keep you updated on when more new expansion pieces unlock to be used in the game. Feedback and reports of bugs are encouraged during that period!

So, this is the plan. We wanted to balance making Beasts of Balance as high quality as possible, and also to get backers their rewards as soon as we can. As with every plan, there are possibilities things may change depending on logistics of shipping, the amount of device testers we can get (and how quickly we can get the feedback we need) etc., but we are going to do our best to stick by this. If any changes do happen, we will of course let you know.  

We’ll be back with more updates in the near future, with info on factory updates from China, sound effects from the new game, and more.

- Team Sensible Object xoxo

Battles progress: Dragons! Card Designs! Livestreams! And more...
about 7 years ago – Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 03:30:01 PM

Hiya folks,  

Happy New Year! It is still early enough to say that, right? Regardless, we hope your 2018 is off to a flying start.

A few of you have asked what we’ve been up to. The answer is: quite a lot!

There’s a fair amount of Battles progress to unpack, so we’re not going to deep dive into it all here (lest you drown in the details). Rest assured, we’re going to post more updates along the way - but for now, some Battles Cliff Notes:

New Pieces:  

Our legendaries have been undergoing some refinement, both in terms of gameplay and physical appearance. We’re still fine-tuning those details (especially around potential exciting ‘unlock requirements’), but for now meet the latest versions of:

Moby Brick

 Hotbelly

 

and Fancyprance.

These are still prototypes, so the colours here aren't quite final, but we are definitely getting there.

Oh, and, yes: the legendary names have changed! As much as we loved the ridiculous glory of names like Sir Sparklehorn Rainbowtrots III, they didn’t roll off the tongue that easily. We feel the new names are just as humorous and delightful - just a little snappier!

Digital progress : 

It’s not all about the physical...it’s also about the digital! 

Lyall has been working hard beautifying everything Battles - from card effects, to guardians, to new beasts. To try and capture that all here would be a foolish mission, so instead we’ll give you some screenshots, and a little bit of context:

We have the new beasts in the game! And nebula-filled skies, which promise an extra layer of depth to Battles that will make elements more interesting.

 We now also have a glorious card cave, where different card powers can be enacted...

Snazzy cards : 

It’s not just on-screen work that’s changed - the cards have too. Some of the names and descriptions have been tweaked, so you can see their final forms below. All in all, we’re really happy with how they’ve turned out!

 

 

Development Work:

Behind these beautiful cards and screenshots is a lot of development work. A lot. Thanks to Bryan, George and F:

• Almost all of the cards are working in-app.  
• Player turns work smoothly.  
• Flamingo, Anglerfish, Chameleon and Hotbelly(!!) are working like a dream in the game.

 These are major leaps and bounds for us. This should be evident from the points above - but if you haaave to put numbers on it, there’ve been 1301 commits by the dev team since the Kickstarter finished. 1301.  

There’s a lot more in the works as well (Tutorial designs! Sound design collaborations! Narrative for the Guardians!), but we won’t elaborate on it all just yet. Expect some more on these things in future updates, though.

The timeline from here:  

As you might have gathered from the overview above, there’s been a lot to work on - and there still is. We’re not going to beat around the bush; we’re not going to make our March shipping deadline.  

Our team wants to deliver the best expansion possible, and because of the time needed for polish, along with other timing issues (Chinese New Year plays a big part in when physical pieces can be manufactured and shipped), this means the game will be shipping to backers in May.  

The news isn’t ideal, but we wanted to tell you sooner rather than later. All we can say for now is another huge thank you to all our backers who’ve been so supportive and understanding so far, and that in the long run we think it’ll be worth the wait!

What else has been happening:  

If you’re curious what else we’ve been up to outside of Battles development, we’ve got you covered:

Events!  

As we mentioned in our last update, we went to PAX Unplugged at the end of last year, and were at CES at the beginning of this one. They’re pretty different kinds of events, but we were lucky to get people testing out Battles at both.  

At PAX Unplugged we had a much less slick, largely human-run version of Battles. By the time we were at CES, the app could pretty much take care of the game. In both cases we’ve been thrilled (and relieved!) to find that the player response is positive. It turns out that although people enjoy playing nice, sometimes they also enjoying stealing, booby-trapping and smiting each other. Who’d have thought!

Playtests!  

The other thing we’ve being busy with is playtests. We’re really thankful to all of our playtesters who have dropped by the studio each week to test the newest Battles builds. Whether it’s input on legendary stacking difficulty, or feedback on understanding card powers, it’s all been invaluable information.

We’re also really grateful to Soho Parish Primary school for letting us visit and playtest Battles with students. It’s helped us make sure Battles is a game that will be fun for all ages.  

If you’re a backer living in London, we’d love for you to join future playtests - tickets are free, and there’s also free pizza and drinks. Just follow the link to book a place! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beasts-of-balance-playtest-wednesdays-tickets-41390445938

Livestream/Let’s Play and Q+A  

If you don’t live in London (or even if you do) we’re planning to do a Kickstarter Live next Tuesday at 5pm GMT. So if you have any questions about Battles, or just want to see the expansion in action, we’ll be around to play Battles and A your Qs then!

Phew. That about covers it. Until the next one!  

- Team Sensible Object xoxo

Australian and ROW Shipping
over 7 years ago – Thu, Dec 07, 2017 at 01:49:54 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Things We’re Thankful For
over 7 years ago – Thu, Nov 23, 2017 at 12:27:39 AM

Hi folks,  

We’re not from the US (a fact you’d clock onto if you heard any of us speak for more than one second), but we are fans of stepping back for a moment and being thankful for things. So here is our slightly early, slightly less turkey-full version of Thanksgiving:

Thing we’re thankful for #1: Getting to go to awesome events!  

We’ve had a blast going to a bunch of different events this year, the most recent ones being PAX Unplugged and Digital Kids.  

Showing Beasts of Balance to people for the first time (and getting to see their first moment realising, yes, you can cross a Toucan with a Shark, and yes, it will have an adorably odd name) never gets old. Neither does meeting existing stackers, who often end up teaching us a thing or two about the best ways to stack a tower. Combined with our own mad runs around each convention to play as many games as we can, going to events is something we are very thankful for.  

Thing we’re thankful for #2: being nominated for Game of the Year  

The prestigious Toy of the Year Awards have been announced, and we’re thrilled to be nominated for their Game of the Year 2018!  

That being said, before we start popping open the champagne, there’s still a while to go before the winner is decided – and that lies largely in your hands! This is because the winner is decided in part by public vote, so we need your help before voting closes. We’re thankful for the nomination, but (cheekily) we’d be even more thankful to win the award ;-).  

Follow this link to vote: http://www.toyawards.org/toyaward/custom/GameToy.aspx

Thing we’re thankful for #3: Our backers  

Last but certainly not least, we’re thankful for our backers. Yes, it’s a smidge cliché, but we wouldn’t have any of the things above – or a freaking game about stacking bizarre animals – without your help.  

So, thank you. Keep sharing your Beasts of Balance experiences and thoughts with us, and whether you’re from the US or not, we hope you have a Thursday worth being thankful for.  

- Team Sensible Object xoxo