The Stygian Society - A Kevin Wilson Cube Tower Adventure

It's Wednesday - Time for an Update!
about 5 years ago – Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 12:00:29 AM

Well, it's A Wednesday. Anyway, a couple of folks have asked for an update, so here it goes!

First, I'm floored by the scale of this game. I'm pretty sure the base game is the largest I've ever done - there are a ton of cards, mats, and other components to put together. But the two expansions together more or less double that!

Things are moving swiftly forward, though. My goal is to have games by August, though it'll probably mean air-shipping games to Gen Con for pick up.

Here's a bit more art. First, the bonus Kickstarter wizard Eigenstein.

Note that the wizard cards, like the room cards that I featured in the last update, are expanded to include spaces for the enemy figures. This also allows more room for text, which is slightly larger for readability. 

Next, here's a sample enemy card for Cursed Library. 

As in the base game, the various room cards describe the enemies present on the floor. In the Cursed Library expansion, these enemies are books. Once defeated, the card is set aside and flipped to its character side. Here it may be purchased by a hero for its ink price. Character cards may used as skills to assist the players, but any damage taken is assigned to the characters!

This yellow enemy is the Big Bad Wolf, and has 6 health. The flying saucer indicates the genre. Many hero skills have affect enemies or characters of certain genres. The player defeating the BBW gains one ink and the card is flipped to the character side, Red Riding Hood. 

Alright, it's very late and I'm very tired. More new art next time!

Component and Progress Update
over 5 years ago – Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 03:09:14 PM

Someone asked to see some of the component changes. You asked for more art on the skill cards, so we added the hero to each card. This means that the hero cards (in the base game) will be double-sided - one side with the male hero and the other with the female hero art.

We also changed the room cards, which are now almost twice the size, and contain space to easily add the enemy figures. 

 Here's the latest development progress chart. I've spent most of my time over the last few weeks on production and testing the base game and expansion, but several bars still moved! 

The Chinese New Year lasts until mid-February, so I have until then to get everything done. I'm not concerned about anything yet. The tower is the long pole, as I need the factory's help and they'll be out until after their break.

That's all for now! I'll do another progress update in 2-3 weeks.

Cursed Library Villain Sketches
over 5 years ago – Sat, Dec 22, 2018 at 11:46:37 PM

One more post before the holidays. I got these sketches in from Leah for the villains in The Cursed Library expansion. Also find some Tower Laboratory item sketches.

These are great, but I can't wait to see the final versions!

Development Status Update
over 5 years ago – Sun, Dec 16, 2018 at 01:43:33 AM

We've been very busy since the last update.

• The hunter figure is taking shape. We have skills centered around objects from our Dark is the Night game, including the crossbow, leg of mutton, bell trap, flaming arrows, and even the campfire! We tested a few levels with her today and it felt like how the hunter would play as a member of The Stygian Society!
• We also played the other new hero that I talked about in the last update. We feel comfortable with most of the skills and are down to tweaking the details.
• We have played a few more games with the two-player rules. We still need to work the single-player rules.
• Phil duBarry has created a mid-boss and top-level boss for the Tower Laboratory expansion.

At the same time, we're meeting with the printer about the cube tower and other aspects of the game (plastic molds, acrylic cubes, etc.) Nothing new to report or show there.

We'll have the last week of December to work almost exclusively on finishing up the rest of these items so that we can get it all out to the printer. We're still on track for hitting Gen Con!

Here's an updated progress chart:

Development Status Update
over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 03, 2018 at 01:11:22 AM

We've gotten more plays in and are inching closer to being printer-ready.

• The new hero class, the Seer has some interesting traits. First, she has a line of Flying Supernal skills that get more powerful, the more she has. The catch is that these skills require hero colors that she doesn't drop. So she either needs to use luck points or have another player help to set her up. Higher level versions of Flying Supernal skills can even pull enemy cubes from the field!
• The wizard we created is Eigenstein, the Austrian Illusionist. Eigenstein raised the spirit sisters Rita and Delores (described in the last update, who became the new mid-bosses), and is a formidable opponent. Any cubes that fall into the crypt are considered black cubes, and black cubes add daemons to the board. Not only do daemons do a lot of damage to the party, but they also add more black cubes to the field!
• We also got more testing in with the treasures and the mid-boss (Rita and Delores).