Rising 5 - Runes of Asteros

Mission Accomplished
over 7 years ago – Tue, Nov 01, 2016 at 05:53:42 PM

Heroes,

Let me start by saying a big thank you, infact let me do one better and tell it to you directly:

I know I’ve said it many times before but it’s worth saying it again: we couldn’t of done this without your support and we’ll be doing our very best to make sure that you all get a fantastic game in your hands in a few months time!

Rising 5 was a great and unique project and I’m very proud of everything we’ve done so far, and everything we have yet to do! It was always a bit of a black sheep of a game, but it’s a good one made with a lot of passion and dedication and I personally feel very privileged to have been a part of that and also that it will be Holy Grail Games’ first game!

So what’s next? Well first of all some sleep would be nice, a lot of sleep even. After that well now we get down to the process of actually making the game. I’ll be in Korea next week to speak at the Board Game Masterclass event and whilst there I’ll be meeting up with Gary, Evan and Kevin to finalise all the little details of the project as we’ve added quite a bit of content to it so you can imagine that it's important to be certain we make any necessary changes to the original plans (making sure all the SG fit into the box, that kind of thing).

Of course we’ll be keeping you updated with how things are going, including Vincent’s work on the remaining stretch goals and such, the final forms of the models, Production and shipping updates, etc :) We’ll do, at the very least, one update a month although in the immediate future it will probably be more often than that.

The next big step in all this is of course the Pledge Manager. We’re hoping to have this launch mid/end November. For those of you that haven’t used a PM before, this is where we’ll be asking you to provide your postal address and pay for shipping. You can also upgrade your pledge if you so wish. The PM should be open for around 1 month. After that you’ll be able to update your address directly through it if you need to, right up to the day we lock down shipping. This is a quick summary of the Pledge Manager, rest assured there’ll be a more detailed guide to it when it arrives!

Also, we finished on the verge of the next SG, but never fear! We'll be adding any funds raised during the PM to the tally which will no doubt unlock the two new artifact cards and may even go as far as the mission cards! We'll of course let you know how that progresses!

So once again, thank you, every single one of you, from all of us for your help in making this game!

See you on Asteros.

J.

The end is nigh!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Nov 01, 2016 at 04:30:56 PM

Greetings heroes,

A big shout out to all of you that have been showing their support and enthusiasm here and on other sites over the past 24hrs, trust me, it has not gone unnoticed!

So as we move into the final day of the campaign, I wanted to add the last couple of stretch goals we had to the list so that you guys know that there’s still prizes to play for :) On top of that, if we don’t unlock these during the campaign, we’ll keep a tally of the funds raised during the PM and count it towards them!

Also as a reminder there are still some Vincent Dutrait originals up for grabs and we’ve added in those from the different content unlocked during the campaign!

If you want one of these originals message us first to confirm that you’ll get it. These will be attributed on a first come first served basis. Once we’ve confirmed with you that the piece is yours, and then you can add the additional funds to your pledge. This is of course the first batch of many, we'll be releasing the others throughout the campaign.

Note that these will not be shipped with the rest of your pledge, Vincent will be sending them to you personally in a tracked, ensured and protected package. Whilst he’s at it he can of course sign it for you ;)

Once again thank you all or you support!

The school of hard knocks
over 7 years ago – Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 02:44:04 PM

I want to start this post with a big thank you to everyone that’s supported and encouraged us before and during the Rising 5 campaign.

But I also want to thank those that have also expressed doubts about Rising 5.

You see, as I’ve said before, Rising 5 is not your typical KS game. It’s got the app, it’s got a high production value for what is seen as a “short” game and just its genre is unusual. So it’s normal that we’re met with critique, but compared to other projects I’ve seen and worked on I see it, for the majority, as very constructive with most seemingly trying to convince themselves not to pledge rather than the opposite meaning that we do have an interesting and fun project, it’s just lacking a bit for some. I do want to take this opportunity to reassure people that we listen to everyone’s comments (even the silly ones!) and I personally take the time to reflect on everything that is said.

Now one of the things that has come up time and time again is the price/game length so let me talk about that for a minute. What we wanted to do with this project didn’t involve throwing material at you like you get frequently with “kiloplastic” projects. As fun as they may be it’s not something we could do with R5. Instead we wanted to tread the path of a very high quality and polished game that provided an almost luxury and immersive experience which, based on the feedback we’ve had, I believe we managed. Great artwork, a solid app, quality components and production value…In all I think we got that and I’m still adamant that anyone who has had the chance get the game in their hands, play it, and see just what it can do hasn’t been disappointed yet. But admittedly in the midst of all this we did omit a certain “value for money” that some come looking for on Kickstarter.

This is compounded by the fact that it’s “only” a 30 minute game. It is important for us to point out that a game session of Rising 5 rarely lasts “only” 30 minutes. Sure the game can act as a “filler”, it’s easy to learn and quick to set up but that doesn’t mean that’s all it does. If it were then we wouldn’t have put this much work and material in to it. The game is designed to be the “final 30 minutes of a much longer game” as one of our players from Essen so eloquently put, providing a quick build up in tension and generally dramatic finish in the space of a 30min cooperative game. Now, in retrospect, we should have pushed this point more, not that we didn’t, but we should of insisted.

But I digress. Why am I telling you all this? Well that’s because this is how we see the project. But that’s not all that’s important. You guys are the one’s we’ve asked to help up make this project a reality and so your point of view counts too as well as all your feedback. You guys felt that there wasn’t enough value in the box and I have no problem recognising that and attempting to fix it. Now we hoped that the elements we developed and unlocked post-Spiel would be the tipping point for this sentiment but it seems that we’re still falling short so we’re going to come at you with some even more free stuff!

Before I tell you about these extra goodies I’d like to simply say that we are happy with the campaign thus far. We’re funded; the game will be made and, if all goes according to plan, delivered on time which is very important for us especially as this is our first project. We’re pleased with everything we’ve unlocked so far and even if we’re a bit under the top estimations for the campaign (bearing in mind that we weren’t expecting to raisehundreds of thousands with this project) we’re all still proud of the game we’re going to put out.

Now that that’s said, you can thank Mr. Dutrait for this one as it was he that approached (or rather messaged) me this morning with a proposal. You see, Vincent had gone ahead and drawn out the remaining corrupted monsters, which is cool but also a shame as he thought they may not get used in the end. So he proposed to finish them off in his free time for us so that we could offer them to you. I suppose you could call this his thank you from Spiel but it may be too late to call it that now :p

Now for the game this is great as it allows us to complete another part of the gameplay that we were very eager to get out there, that is to say the “Hard Mode”. The corrupted monsters we’d been releasing were all leading up to this. Basically you can now replace all the base monsters in the game with these more difficult ones that represent a more advanced stage of silk corruption.

Now on top of (hopefully) giving you more for your money, these should also reassure those that thought that the game may be too easy. The game already provided a good test of your gaming and cooperative skills before but now you’re in for one hell of a ride with fights being harder to organise in your favour and becoming a lot more action card hungry so you better not waste any!

We’re aware that the addition of 10 cards isn’t going to be enough for everyone but as I’ve said before we do stand by our project. This is more a gesture of good will, to show that we’re as invested in this campaign as all of you , that we really do listen to your feedback and try to make things better for you all where we can!

Once again, a big thank you for all you support these past weeks, we literally couldn’t have done this without you all. Things have been a bit disheartening this morning but I hope, as do many of you by the sounds of it, that the final 48hours will give us a good push in the right direction and make for an exciting finish!

Before I go, we received the 3d models for Eli and Nova this morning! I hope you like them! The rest should hopefully be here before the end of the campaign! Phew!

And finally, one of the corrupted monsters was the next SG so logically we’ve bumped that off and brought down the Trap Cards! These are there to add another layer of variety and difficulty to the game as not only do they have various debilitating effects but they don’t appear just once! After they are revealed you roll the combat dice and they have a chance to be reshuffled into the encounter deck!

Designer’s diary: Bringing Rising 5 to the tabletop.
over 7 years ago – Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 06:04:18 AM

Today I'm passing the mic over to our own Gary Kim as he explains the story behind the creation of Rising 5; Where the project began, what influenced his choices and how the game we know today started out as something very different...

I used to choose one of two paths when designing a game. The first one isdesigning from a mechanic that came to me suddenly. I find the right theme for the game fit for the mechanic. This is quite easy work but it these “flash” moments aren’t so common. After I became a professional game designer, the second way is what I use more. I set up the concept of the game at first. Then I find the right theme for the concept and I develop the mechanic of the game. I designed Rising5 this way and I’d like to tell you the story.

The first game published by GaryKimGames was ‘The DOME’ which is a card game for 2-4 players. The second one was ‘The GATE’ which is LCG style deck-building game. There are characters called “Crackers” who are hackers. (Sounds like Android Netrunner? Right!) I was planning “The CODE” as the third game in the series. I wanted to make hacking themed game with a deduction mechanic.

The main idea of ‘The CODE’ was a ‘Deduction game working with a mobile App.” When I saw “Alchemist” by CGE in 2014 at Essen, the game shocked me. People playing a board game while using their mobile phone! I thought it would be the future of table gaming. Of course I bought it at Essen and enjoyed a lot. However, I found several matters needed to be improved. All players needed his/her mobile phone which has same version of the application. I saw this as an inconvenient setup process. Also, the playing time was too long. I enjoy long games but some of my friends were very tired by the time we’d finished the game. It made this great game a benchwarmer.

So, I set my two main conditions of “the CODE”:

1. Players need only 1 mobile device to play the game.

2. The playing time should be shorter, so normal players could try to beat it more than once per session.

The main reason that Alchemist requires a mobile phone to play is that the game is a competitive deduction game. But what if the game is cooperative deduction game? We can share a mobile phone and share all info. And it would make the setup time shorter.

OK, I have a picture of the game I want to design. Now, it’s time to decide the core mechanic of the game. This is the most difficult part in the design of a game. As the goal was a cooperative deduction game, the main mechanic should be “deduction”. Other minor mechanics can be adjusted as I develop the game. I needed a reasonable and indispensable reason to use the mobile app and the main mechanic must be worked into the app.

People like deduction game play. One of my previous game “Abraca…What?” even looks like a deduction game. Actually it is a random picking game that’s not a real deduction. People feel like it’s deduction when they select a number based on possibilities. But I wanted to make a real deduction game this time, but not a difficult one.

Finally, I developed the “Rune Mechanic” idea. The Rune mechanic is a kind of twist of the traditional deduction game called “Master Mind”. Players choose several Runes and use the camera of the phone to get several clues.

I don’t know anything about application programing. I needed an expert in this area, so I asked the professor Eui-chul Lee of Sangmyeong Univ. who holds the patent of Data programming based on camera recognition. They developed the core programing library of the camera recognition.

Like this I finished the deduction part of this game, then I tried to develop the cooperation part. I researched other cooperative games. Good cooperative games have this scenario: Players choose their characters (roles) and they communicate with each other to decide the actions of each player, order of priority and combinations of character’s abilities to win against the game. The best cooperation “Pandemic” is a good example of that. Communication is the essence of cooperative games. However, what if we could control any character we want? I thought that would expand the role of each player and increase the fun of the game. So, I developed the part of cooperation with the undecided role of players. A player can control any character in the game by playing character cards from their hand.

I developed the game with these 2 major mechanics. Like always, it was a long journey with tests and revision of rules. Many things were changed during the development, but I could keep the main concepts: deduction and cooperation.

I found the problem was that there were 2 major mechanics. Which mechanic should be more important in this game? Usually, we need to focus to emphasize a major mechanic to appeal to players clearly.

I had a chance to test the prototype of Rising5 during Essen Spiel 2015 with Bruno Cathala, Cédrick Chaboussit and Cedrick & Anne-Cécil of Ludonaute. After the test, they advised me to do two things. The deduction part was too complicated. And the game play with the mix of deduction and cooperation should be revised. Their advice was very helpful and I used it to make a better game. I’d like to thank them again for this!

The deduction part could be revised in simple way but we couldn’t easily decide what was the best balance of the two mechanics. We considered giving up ont he cooperative game play but the game would just be a normal or a Master Mind style game with app if we gave up the cooperative mechanic part. So, we kept trying to find the right combination of 2 mechanics.

To make a good cooperation game with an adventure, we should have the reason and motivation for players to take part: a good story. The story should be strong enough to leave players immersed in their mission and the action. We needed a good background story for the game.

To create a good story, I believed the characters should be the core the story and that a series of games would allow us to make the most of the story and world. To achieve this, I needed 2 things. A different concept for each game in the series and stunning artworks to visualize the story.

I spent quite long time to determining what “different concepts for each game” would be. There are a lot of games which have series, but usually they have the same main mechanics. I’d like to have a game series with continuous story but totally different game systems. It would be difficult to design, but it would increase the enjoyment of the players!

The artworks of the game were getting more and more important. Gamers would need to be drawn in by the game’s art, not the story. We got the first impression of the game from the box. I like the box artworks of the DOME and the GATE, but they look almost identical on store shelves. I wanted to have stunning artworks which shows the story of the game.

Vincent Dutrait was in my mind since I started developing this game. He is the one of the most popular game illustrator these days and I really love his art. He created a lot of wonderful artworks in fantasy, ancient, middle age and modern theme. However, I couldn't find Sci-fi among his portfolio. I thought it could be a hook! If we had the first Sci-fi art of Vincent Dutrait? That would be news in the gaming community! Luckily, he lives in Korea! I wrote him an e-mail about the project “the CODE” and he joined. Because of Vincent, we could decide the theme and create the beautiful game universe. Vincent showed us the fantastic characters, creatures and planet that were in my imagination! Thank you Vincent!

A Game with a mobile app, mixed styles of cooperation and deduction, a series with every game using a different system and joined together by one of the world’s best illustrators….I realized the project was getting too big to handle everything by myself. Usually, I designed the game mechanics the publisher handles everything until the game released. But I would be doing many tasks beyond game design without a publisher. So, I decided to team up with right people. First of all, I need a producing & marketing expert to make the right product and to find regional distributors in other countries. I asked this of Kevin Kichan Kim. He had worked at Korea Boardgames as the head of game development and international business. After he resigned from Korea Boardgames he started his own venture ‘Mandoo Games’. As he is the most experienced producer in Korean boardgame industry and has global network of contacts, I decided to work with Mandoo Games. Thanks to Kevin, we could have nice production samples and introduce Rising 5 to the world.

Secondly, I needed a help to finish the game mechanics. Evan Dae-eun Song was a new game designer who was in the same office as me. I had a high opinion of Evan because I saw his ability, assiduity and passion about game design while we worked together on ‘The GATE’. I asked him to help me and he accepted immediately. As a game author, seing just my name on the box is good for the ego but I really think I made the right choice of going with a co-author. Without Evan, I couldn’t finish this project, Evan made many contributions to the mobile app development, game testing, balancing and so on. Honestly, I thought it would be fun if I could collaborate with different authors for future games in the series. I gave up on that idea. Because I can’t imagine developing the next Rising 5 without Evan!

Until I had these friends on the team, it was called “the CODE”. But we thought the title were not relevant to the story anymore. There were other candidates such as Seekers, the Gatherers and Rune Code, but we didn’t like them. One day I proposed “Rising 5” to the team because there are 5 characters in the story of the game and everybody liked it. We believed it is a good title for this space opera and it is intended to tell the story of the 5 characters’ growth.

Finally, we met Jamie and Olivier of Holy Grail Games for KickStarter campaign. They introduced Rising 5 on TricTrac and then proposed the KS to us. We were very pleased because they loved Rising 5 and they are the people we needed for a KS. As a Korean, KS campaigns are quite difficult to run. There’re matters such as legal issue and the language problem. Originally, we considered publishing and distributing Rising 5 in the traditional way. We were looking for possible ways to do a KS and they appeared in front of us! Jamie and Oliver are crazy gamers full of passion and dreams. We had unforgettable time when they visited Seoul to meet up and make the promotional videos.

Well, I think we’re ready to show this game to you and we wanted to share this journey with you too!

Thank you all for helping us make our project a reality!

Word of Mouth
over 7 years ago – Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 05:10:12 PM

So if there’s one major issue we had in the run up to the capaign, it was the post office. Now that seems weird I know but hear me out. We’d originally planned for 3 reviews to reveal during the campaign, the first of which, Rahdo, received his box without issue. The two others however, well we began to wonder if there addresses really existed…Well they did of course, it was just the French postal services messing things up time and again which held them back!

Anyhow, they eventually received them so as we wait on the last one, I can at least show you all this one from Nick Meenachan of Board Game Brawl!

On top of that, during the campaign we were contacted by Jeff Beck of YourTablesOnFire for an interview on his podcast which you can find here.

Our apologies for the delay of getting these out to you, hopefully it will help for those that are still on the fence about backing the game :)