A solo/co-op sandbox adventure awaits you in the land of Avalon. Explore, mine and craft! Slay monsters, level-up and find rare loot!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Workshop video, special ability cards and 2 new monsters!
almost 8 years ago
– Sun, Oct 02, 2016 at 11:44:30 PM
Hello all! :) Rodger here, and I hope everyone is doing great tonight. This is a very late update, but yesterday was a HUGE family day for us. We live very close to the amusement park Cedar Point, and it was our last time for going this year. So we start out early, and make a huge long day out of it. We stayed there all day and night. So I could not get the update out yesterday, but I really wanted to! Some very cool stuff to share with you guys! :)
New monsters!:
So this weekend we have 2 new champion monsters for you. The Afflicted and Fallen King. We will start with the Afflicted.
A new mysterious disease is sweeping across Avalon. It is believed it evolved from underground tainting the land, and poisoning the livestock thus infecting individuals. Early symptoms are:
--- Sweating
--- Loss of Appetite
--- Hostility
--- Deep redness of the skin
As the illness progresses, the infected individual experiences:
--- Eyes turning solid white
--- Blackness around the eyes
--- Vomiting blood
--- Extreme violent behavior
--- Intent to kill non infected people.
The Afflicted! A level 1 champion monster with a nasty special ability, "Spew Vomit". Your heroes will not want to deal with the aftermath if this special ability hits! ;)
An awesome & outstanding job by the guys at Cornerstone Creative Studios. Jesse, Joseph and Freddy...you knocked the ball outta the park with this incredible creation of yours! Just WOWSA!
Wielding unholy powers from beyond the grave, a Fallen King can have a devastating effect on a party of heroes with it's special ability, "Hand of the Sovereign"...
Fallen King, a Level 3 champion monster! :)
Of course the incredible team at Cornerstone Creative Studios brought this monster to life. A huge thanks to Jesse, Joseph and Freddy for their truly outstanding work on this piece!
There is many, many more monsters, creatures and heroes coming. LOL, I'm not just saying that to say it, I mean I made a HUGE cast for all of us to enjoy in Dungeon Crusade. :)
Special Ability cards and demo of the rogues special ability "Vanish".
So I have been messing around with, and creating a few designs for the heroes special ability cards. I wanted to keep the top half of the cards with the least text as possible, and use icons where possible.
So last weekend I got a hold of the AMAZING artist we have on the development team, Kez, and showed her this design I came up with, and wanted her to recreate it professionally for the final game. Needless to say, she did a stellar job!
Let's take a look at a few of the rogues special ability cards, and understand, the icon on the cards are not the final version, and is simply placeholder for now.
OK, before we get into the demo of Vanish, let's break down a special ability card and understand what everything means on it.
OK...everyone got it? Onto the demo of Vanish!
So here is what is going on in this scenario. Our rogue is being tracked by the guardian Razorfang. As you can see, Razorfang has the tracking 1 token, and the rogue has the matching token. This of course signifies that Razorfang has locked onto our rogue hero, and will continue to pursue her until...
1) If she is 3 quadrants away from Razorfang when her turn ends. (Very hard to do.) 2) She hides in a chamber and passes a hide check. 3) If Razorfang is slain, or the rogue hero is slain. 4) A class 3 hero comes into line of sight of Razorfang, (a wizard or cleric), in that case he would stop pursuing our rogue and pursue one of them. This info is located on Razorfangs monster card in the target priority box.
Notice there is a chamber to the left of her with only a "13" for a hide check! This would be perfect for her to hide in! However, there is a level 4 champion monster within that chamber. Not to advisable.
There is another chamber with a hide check of "19". That's fairly high, and there is a unknown champion monster residing in that chamber. Not really an option there either.
Lucky for our rogue she used enlightenment a few turns ago and gained Vanish. Let's take a look at that special ability card.
So after reading the card, we see at the end there is a chance she could lose a tracking status. It's a 50/50 chance, but we are going to take it! We are at the top of the rogues turn, and remember, heroes have 2 actions per turn, and using a special ability is not considered an action.
Let's activate Vanish now....
Once activated, the rogue vanishes. She may now move 6 spaces and is unseen. Let's plan our move...
We are going to move our rogue south 6 spaces. Our plan is to reappear, and have a success on the D20 roll for Vanish, thus losing the tracking token from Razorfang. Let's make our move!
Our rogue has reappeared, and rolls the D20. We need to roll 11-20 on the D20 to lose the tracking token. The rogue rolls, and gets a result of 12! A success! We may now remove the tracking tokens from the rogues hero card, and Razorfangs monster card. Our rogue is in the clear, and can now proceed with her turn.
If the roll was a fail, of course Razorfang would still be tracking her, and she would have to try something else in this situation.
We see Razorfang almost saying, "Where did she go?!" Our rogue takes her first action and rolls the D6 and adds her base movement of 4 to the roll for a total of 9. This will allow her to gain much distance between her and Razorfang.
In closing, I've truly tried to make all the special abilities very unique to each of the heroes. You will not see another hero with vanish except the rogue.
The Dungeon Crusade dice box workshop video:
And here it is! Last week I spent alot of time putting this video together for everyone. I hope you enjoy it, and find it a very fun project on building your very own Dungeon Crusade dice box. Of course, you can design one how you see fit, and use it for other board games you may have.
And let me explain something about when I filmed this. As some of you may know, I'm a prop builder on the side. I do a free horror show for my community on trick or treat night called Casa De Terror. I didn't do it last year, or this year because of Dungeon Crusade. But I wanted to share another part of me with you guys so there is a few minutes of when we were leaving the house where I show you some of the stuff I built over the years.
LOL, believe me, there is MUCH more. But I didn't want to derail much from the workshop video. In any regard, I hope you enjoy this, as I wanted to make this video enjoyable for everyone.
So as some of you know Shaun has his weekly show on Twitch where you can watch him design loot for Dungeon Crusade. It's every Friday and starts at 4P.M. EST. Here is a link to his channel...
Everyone is still on task with what we have been working on. I'm going to be really knuckling down this week working on a great deal of content and refinement for the game, as last week it was pretty hectic getting the workshop video together for the Dungeon Crusade dice box.
Again, I apologize for the late update, but we did squeak it in right around midnight. I'll be in the update comment section if anyone has anything to ask about, or needs help with creating their dice box.
I hope everyone has a great day, and I'll talk to you soon....Rodger :)
A new mysterious structure in the village and loot cards!
almost 8 years ago
– Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 09:25:08 PM
Hello everyone! :) Rodger here and I hope everyone is having a great weekend. So after that Mega Ultra update last weekend, I do have a few new things to share with you guys.
What is going on right now: --- So first off, myself and David Shearer are still hammering out the encounter card backing. I believe by next weekends update I should have something to post and share with you guys. I sent him a great design doc of what I envision for this, and he is right on track with it.
--- The guys at Cornerstone Creative Studios are hard at work doing the sketches, inking and coloring a bunch of new monsters. The new ones look INCREDIBLE! I think they will have a fresh batch finished for next weekends update. My favorite so far is Fallen King...that just looks nuts! ;)
--- Myself of course am working on quite a few things. The 6 iconic heroes special abilities are finished. What I like about these are they are all very different, and feel at home with each character. Next update I will be doing another picture series like I did with the barbarian with Spear & Chain, this time we will be looking at the rogue hero and her special ability "Vanish" and how it can be used.
I'm also going over the the entire cast of monsters & creatures and tweaking their abilities/health/damage output/warfare values just a little. The heroes can really do some damage to these monsters with their new abilities, so we want to make sure everything feels balanced. Of course the game will ship with normal difficulty monsters & creatures, but expect a fight. I LOVE tough & challenging games, and Dungeon Crusade will be fair, but these monsters will be tough, forcing players to really consider using enlightenment with their heroes and gaining those special abilities ASAP.
The Village board has been updated with a few things. LOL...let's start off with this new mysterious location that has appeared....hmmmmm...what could this be? ;)
Do remember, this is just my prototype work you are seeing. The pro's are coming in to recreate the whole village for the final release. But this is one of the most exciting things I'm really looking forward to!
The final totals for the items and services the heroes can purchase in the village are all set. These really haven't changed much. One change that was changed is at the Tavern located in the northeast part of the village. A hero can rent a room and sleep for 100 gold. That will recharge their essence to a full status. This service is used on celebration day.
I clipped a little part out of the village board for you guys to see. Again, just my prototype work. :)
And truly, I'm just having the best time working on this game! I honestly go to sleep with it on my brain, wake up and back at it. LOL, of course I have to do "real work" before this, but working on Dungeon Crusade is truly a pleasure and joy, and watching all of it come together for all of us. :)
New loot cards and close to final:
OK, I said the following lines in last updates comment section, so I pasted them here, and edited it a bit...so check this out....
"So about these loot cards, and for that matter a few other things.....LOL, Look out, its a " From the heart moment from Rodger!" ;)
When I get REALLY passionate about something, or I see something a certain way, I'm determined as a 3 legged bull to get it done or have it.
I'm working with Shaun on my design for the loot cards to be the final design. I really like the design I created, but of course it needs to be recreated professionally, and that's what we are going to do...
It's like this guys...I want Dungeon Crusade to have alot of the ideas I crafted, developed and spent hours on through the years working on, and give you a game in the purest form from me to you...does that make sense?
This is something I feel very passionate about doing. Do you know in all honesty, the loot card design of mine, I went through creating about 12-13 versions until I really "felt" this was something really cool and unique, and something I truly liked. I would like this design carried over to the final game, but most definitely recreated professionally."
OK, I'm back now...Hopefully that made some sense. I have been working with Shaun on the following design. I truly love this design. It's most definitely a design from the heart, and to me, this just says "Dungeon Crusade" all over it.
Now the fonts will probably be changed, and we may add a few words on them in regards to warfare values and the such. But take a look at this loot card design, and hopefully you enjoy it! :)
And a little promo poster I put together....
So let me explain a few things for you. Shaun thought of a brilliant idea. Notice the black diamond shaped icon on the warfare icon. The number inside tells you the number to add to your warfare roll for combat, whether attacking or defending. I'm bouncing between this system, or having text there that explains it. I truly love the clean design, and it's very easy to understand, but in a way I miss the text there.
Notice also the gem in the corner has a silver base, the knobs on the scroll are silver and there is white text for it's name. This identifies this as a normal or rather standard piece of loot.
Now let's take a look at a piece of Fabled Gear. LOL, you know I wouldn't leave you Crusaders hanging without seeing a piece of Fabled Gear this update right? ;)
OK, first off...this is a pretty freaking awesome weapon! :)
Notice now the gem's base is gold, the knobs on the scroll are gold and the text is gold. This identifies this as a piece of Fabled Gear.
Workshop video next update: The Dungeon Crusade dice box.
So next weekend I will have the video on how to build your very own dice box for Dungeon Crusade. I will be filming it from start to finish on it's construction. It's pretty easy to build to be honest with you. So I will be taking you to a few stores, showing you what materials you will need, we will bring it all home and put it together.
The decals that go on the box will be uploaded to BGG so you can download them from there, print them out and paste them on your box. This should be a fun video, and I'm really looking forward to this!
So this was a fairly short update guys, but I hope you liked everything you saw and read. I will of course be in the comment section over the weekend to chat with you guys and hang out for a bit.
I hope everyone has a great weekend, and enjoy whatever you will be doing. I will be back soon...talk to you then...Rodger :)
MEGA ULTRA Update! New monsters! New Hero ability! Early look at Avalon and more!
almost 8 years ago
– Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 12:53:19 AM
Hello everyone, Rodger here and I hope everyone is having a great weekend! :) Forgive my delay for not getting this update out sooner. I was up until 3:30 a.m. last night working on it, and woke up early to my wife sick this morning. So myself and the kids did some chores and shopping while she rested. But, here I am, seriously fired up, to hang out for a bit with you guys, and share a bunch of stuff with you! :)
I seriously think now, I'm more amped up then I was before! It's just so exciting to see all of this stuff come together for us. I have been really nailing alot of the final content for the game, and tweaking everything. As you know I'm doing a brand new playthrough video. But I'll come back to that. Because I know you want to see what's going on, and I want to show it!
So sit back, grab a soda or something, because this may be a long update....let's start with a little video...
Cornerstone Creative Studios:
I wanted to share with you the talent, creativity and imagination of Jesse Hansen, Joseph Arnold and Freddy Lopez of Cornerstone Creative Studios.
As many of you know, these guys are in charge of bringing to life the heroes and monsters in Dungeon Crusade. I may have created the design docs of what I envisioned these heroes and monsters to look like, but these guys took it WAY to the next level, and totally surpassed what I was expecting, with their own creativity and imagination and the results are simply stunning! :)
So enjoy this little video I put together of the evolution of the Vampiric Assassin, a level 1 champion monster in Dungeon Crusade!
And here is the Vampiric Assassin, in all of her glory!
As you may know also that there are 2 versions of champion monsters. The normal version has just the origin story on the card. But the elite versions have special abilities. The elite Vampiric Assassin has a special called "Fresh Blood". What happens is, if she inflicts any damage in a combat round, she regains 1 health.
Now that may sound like easy peasy right? It truly isn't, especially for just one hero. Rally your heroes my friends, and group them together when entering into chambers of the dungeon. Trust me folks, you truly don't want to 1V1 with an elite Vampiric Assassin! ;)
Next monster up is the Massive Viper. A level 1 champion monster. This monster was solely created by Freddy Lopez. This is just an outrageously, incredible piece of fantasy art to be quite blunt with you. Just....WOWSA! The creativity, talent and imagination here is just off the charts.
The elite version of the Massive Viper has a special ability called "Fang Puncture". If this hits, a hero will be stricken with a physical affliction causing them to bleed out! You better have some elixir potions handy! ;)
The picture above of the Massive Viper in the dungeon should be much bigger than what it is. So I sent the pic below along so you could see it more up close.
I can tell you that Jesse messaged me today with 3 more champion monsters he had just got done inking, and he sent them along with the message. Um, yeah...they look pretty epicly, nuts, crazy good! These were Fallen King, Afflicted and a Orc Berserker. These will be going to Freddy for coloring and I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that these "may" be done by next Friday for next weekends update.
And closing out this section I would like to mention something about Jesse, Joseph and Freddy from Cornerstone Creative Studios, and the other artists for that matter. These guys are truly giving Dungeon Crusade it's own look, identity and style that it will be known for. I am just in awe watching all of this come together for all of us to enjoy together next year! :)
EARLY look at a treasure chest card:
Ok, so the amazing Kezrek Laczin, or Kez is in charge of creating the final treasure chest cards. I have supplied here with all of the treasure chest cards I am using for the prototype game, and she of course is recreating them.
We are going to stick to the layout from the placeholder stuff, unless of course she would like to change something for the better. So she is away for the week on some family stuff but she did supply me with a very early look at a treasure chest card. Below is just one of 7 backgrounds that will be on the treasure chest cards. Have a look....
So i took it upon myself to add a few things to it. Of course this is not final, but I thought you would like to see what it would possibly look like. Take a look...
But do remember that these treasure chests hold other things than just gold in Dungeon Crusade! You could find helpful items, empty chests or REALLY bad things inside, or trapped chests that trigger mechanisms in the dungeon that are not good! But you're up for it, right? LOL...watch out for one called " Minora's Gift". Trust me, you DO NOT want that gift! ;)
Shaun Ellis, loot cards:
Shaun is handling alot on the Dungeon Crusade front. He is creating the game world, he and Kez are tag teaming the loot in the game and designing the hero cards. Real quick, the hero cards are looking VERY awesome indeed. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be showing those off for you.
So I'm going to post a few of the loot cards for you to take a look at. A couple of things worth mentioning first...
1) The fonts you will be seeing on the cards are NOT final. A graphic designer will be doing the final fonts and layout. 2) I put these loot cards together, and I believe the background where the gear is, is a little too dark. So i would like to ask Shaun if we could lighten that a bit.
And lastly I thought you would enjoy seeing my placeholder/prototype loot cards, and how Shaun would refer to them, to create the final loot. Just kind of a cool comparison. His loot design, and cards for that matter are just outstanding!
And remember, there is 190 pieces of loot in Dungeon Crusade, so here is just 4 of them...
And as always, Shaun has his Dungeon Crusade streaming show on Twitch every friday at 4:00p.m. (EST) Here is a link to it if you would like to tune in >> https://www.twitch.tv/shmaba
I'm hoping Shaun will be done with the origins dungeon board in the near future, that way I'm going to print it out, and do the new playthrough video on the dungeon board that will be in the final game! :)
Heroes Special Abilities:
Let me tell you, I have REALLY been enjoying tweaking, playing and balancing the heroes special abilities! All of the heroes abilities truly feel unique to them. I'm almost done with the first "iconic" 6 heroes you have been seeing, and have fleshed out the special abilities for the 6 add on heroes.
Each hero has a skill tree, which consists of 9 special abilities. There is 3 in each level. Heroes of course can reach level 3 in Dungeon Crusade. Also, using a special ability does not take one of your actions.
So it truly is my pleasure to show one of them off in the update for you! The one we are going to look at is "Spear & Chain I". This is one of the barbarians special abilities. Let's take a look at the card.
Also, this is just the prototype card we are using, or rather my design I use for working on the game. One of the artists will be making completely new ones. OK! now let;s take a look!
So we see it will cost 3 lifeforce globes to purchase this ability, and 3 essence to activate it. We must use this ability in the dungeon. Sometimes an ability will say dungeon or chamber. But for Spear & Chain I, we must use this in the dungeon.
Let''s take a look at a situation that could arise in a game of Dungeon Crusade, and how the barbarian could use Spear & Chain I.
So it is the hero phase right now in the game, and the barbarian is next to activate. We see the green Orc Siegebreaker has converted into a raiding minion and has 2 health remaining, and is heading out of the dungeon to raid the village, and in turn will raise the terror level!
To make matters worse, Orc Siegebreakers have a special ability called "Rampage". Once they are in the village, rampage could activate, and raise the terror level by 2 instead of 1! We cannot let him escape! However he is only 4 spaces away from the exit.
All heroes have 2 actions. They can move twice, they can move and attack or attack then move. A barbarian has 2 for base movement, plus the roll of 1D6. Let's hope for the best, and roll. If we get a result of 5, that would be a total of 7 for movement. We move, end our movement adjacent to the Orc Siegebreaker and attack!
The barbarians roll was not that good. A roll of 2, plus his base movement of 2 only gives him 4. So the barbarian advances 4 spaces. The barbarian now only has one more action left. Luckily he used enlightenment a few turns ago and gained the Spear & Chain I special ability.
Looking at the Spear & Chain I special ability card, we see the barbarian meets all the requirements to use it. The minion is within line of sight and is within 4 spaces. The little red arrow pointing down on the card means we must "channel" this card after use. Basically turn it upside down, and it cannot be used again until after the next upkeep phase, when it becomes "unchanneled" and available for use again.
The barbarian activates Spear & Chain I and pulls the Orc Siegebreaker adjacent to him. Notice on the card it says he is stunned for the rest of this turn also. However, we are going to use the last remaining action to attack the Orc Siegebreaker, and attempt to slay him.
The Orc Siegebreaker is versed in physical/chaos/mythical warfare, which is perfect! The barbarian is versed in chaos and physical warfare and has a weapon in each hand. After the warfare combat roll, we find the barbarian scored hits in both of those phases, doing 1 damage in each one, resulting in 2 damage. This being enough to kill the Orc Siegebreaker!
Hopefully you enjoyed this little demo of one of the heroes special abilities in action. All of the heroes special abilities are truly easy to use, and understand. I personally HATE games where abilities are sort of ambiguous, or there is a level of uncertainty how to use them.
I wanted to make sure special abilities in Dungeon Crusade were clear & concise, and you know exactly how to use them. I'll be sharing some more with you guys in the following weeks.
Also I wanted to point out that in the new playthrough video you will see how combat has been tweaked so heroes can now attack in any phase of combat, regardless of what weapon they have equipped. So you can choose to play Dungeon Crusade the original way, which is quite challenging, or the new way! :)
Damien Mammoliti and the Avalon Adventure board game map:
So a few days ago, Damien sent me a VERY early look at the map of Avalon. He is looking at the map of Avalon that I created, and recreating it through his eyes.
For those of you who don't know, Damien was on the development team for last years game of the year "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt", where he made the map for that game world. Do yourself a favor and go look at that map...WOWSA! ;)
So he stressed to me this is a WIP, (work in progress), and a VERY early look at it. I was just blown away guys. Even in this early stage, it looked awesome. And it got me thinking on how fun it will be to play the Avalon Adventure board game on this map!
So I chatted with him about showing it off in the update. He said it was totally cool, but stressed it is a work in progress. I also included my map of Avalon so you guys could reference that along side his. Take a look....
I wish it was bigger for you guys to see, but hopefully you can see how freaking AWESOME this looks! He of course has to add the locations to it, and touch up many parts of it.
Now the Avalon Adventure board game is going to measure about 19x15 inches. Another thing we discussed is the board for this game. He will be using my game board as reference, and will just recreate this as well so everything for the Avalon Adventure board game looks very cohesive and well integrated together.
I will of course share it's progress with you as Damien gets more of it completed.
In closing:
David Shearer is working on the encounter card backing and treasure chest card backings. I'm guessing maybe those should be done late next week?
Me personally I'm of course on the heroes special abilities, I'm transferring all of the final encounter card art to the cards for the playthrough video, and still on design docs. LOL, yes busy, but loving every minute of it! :)
My goal for this playthrough video is to have some of this final content done to show off in the video, most importantly that final origins dungeon board!
Along those lines, the official Dungeon Crusade web site will be going live at the time of the playthrough or shortly after. Jesse of Cornerstone Creative Studios is a wizard of the web and he will be personally building up the page and maintaining it for us. We spoke a few days ago about this, and he has confirmed that we will have a section for everyone to upload your quests and scenarios to, as well as downloading the blank templates for the quest cards, scenario pages and other players quest and scenarios. This will take some time to implement of course, but it will be there.
In the next few weeks (maybe next weekend), we will be doing that workshop video on how to build your very own Dungeon Crusade dice box. I'm really looking forward to that with you guys and see your creations!
OK...WHEW! That was a MEGA Ultra update! I hope you enjoyed all of that, and trust me...there is MUCH, much more on the way. LOL, I think it's hitting me now just how massive this game is. But I freaking love it, and I truly thrive on it.
I will of course be on here tomorrow in the comments sections for anything you want to ask me. I really want to get to that playthrough video!!! I want it to be like it was when we were all on kickstarter and the comment section was alive and kicking. We are getting there, one day at a time. ;)
Have a great day guys, talk to you soon....Rodger :)
Comical outtake from the update....... ;)
A very brief update, but MUCH on the horizon for us!
almost 8 years ago
– Sat, Sep 10, 2016 at 12:14:13 AM
Hello everyone, Rodger here and welcome to the weekend! :) Is it just me, or did it seem like a super long week? But most important I hope everyone is doing great.
So we have had a few mega updates these past few weeks, but this week is pretty light, sort of....
So there's nothing new to show for right now, but alot to tell everyone on what's going on, and what is incoming soon.
Treasure Chest Cards:
So right now the amazing artist Kezrek (Kez) is working on the final treasure chest cards for the game. She has shown me one of them so far, but it is unfinished. It looked really awesome! She may have these done by next week she said, so hopefully in next weeks update I'll throw some on here for you guys to check out.
Just as a reminder on what these are, you place 10 treasure chest tokens around the dungeon. When a hero lands on one, he or she can pick a card from the treasure chest deck. But remember...it's the ultimate in risk and reward. You could find 2000 gold, an empty chest, a trapped chest where arrows shoot from the walls, a hero could be banished from the dungeon for a period of time, or maybe find a legendary piece of gear, plus much more!
Encounter Card and Treasure Chest Card backings:
So our graphic design artist David Shearer is working on these card backings. If you remember from last update, he did the monster card backings, so you know these are in great hands.
We had a call last night where we discussed what the encounter cards were, and almost instantly he knew exactly what this backing should look like, and described it to me. I'm hoping to have this for the next update as well.
Cornerstone Creative Studios new monsters:
Jesse, Joseph and Freddy have been really cranking the art out like mad men over there! Jesse ran a bunch of new proofs passed me and they looked truly stunning. Alot of them have been inked, and are awaiting coloring from Freddy. So next Friday there should be a few to show you on that front.
LOL, I was going to tell you which ones you will be seeing, but I'll keep it a surprise until then. ;) Trust me, it's a great bunch!
Shaun Ellis: Dungeon board & hero cards:
So besides doing the loot cards (him and Kez actually), Shaun is of course creating the dungeons we will be hacking & slashing in. Just tonight he sent me the origins board and how much is completed thus far. It looks pretty darn epic awesome! :)
I mean it is totally "under construction", but there were some parts that are getting close to being finished. One thing we truly accomplished though is the layout of the dungeon is WAY more easy to figure out. What I mean is the quadrants are easy to find, which greatly helps when setting up the quests at the start of the game.
If you remember when I showed you my early work on Castle Blackwood, it's similar to that. The dungeon board is just more "visually digestible", for lack of a better term.
And I'll tell you what I'm really hoping for, is for Shaun to be done with it for the new playthrough video I'll be doing. I would love nothing more than to let you guys see a game taking place on that. I will of course keep you updated on it's progress and show parts of it off as it gets completed.
The other thing he is doing is the hero card design. He has shown me a rough draft of what they will look like, and we are working on the layout a bit. We are trying to figure out where to put the small icons for the heroes affliction resistance values. These hero cards are probably a few weeks out from being completed.
And do remember Shaun has his weekly show on Twitch where he creates content for Dungeon Crusade. It starts at 4 p.m. eastern standard time, and goes for a few hours. Here is a few videos from his live stream
What I have been doing is a few different things. I have been working on the final special abilities for the heroes, updating the final stats for the loot cards, (I'm on the Fabled Gear ones as of right now, then all loot is completed), design docs for the level 4 champion monsters for Cornerstone Creative Studios, and preparing some of the quests that will be in the final game.
Another thing I am doing is since all of the encounter card art is final, I'm placing it on the encounter cards for the playthrough we will be doing. I thought you guys would enjoy seeing some of these cards in action, and check out some of the awesome art Camron has provided us with.
And actually, whatever content gets done before the playthrough, i would like all of that in there as well for you guys to see.
So in closing, we are all busy. To me, it is totally fun busy! I'm truly having a great time with everyone getting the game finished and watching it evolve right before our eyes. Still alot of work to do, but I truly believe we are making excellent progress towards completion.
Actually, I almost forgot! Damien is working of course on the Avalon Adventure board game map/board. I'm going to reach out to him and see if there is anything I can post next week for everyone.
OK guys, it's about 2:52 a.m. right now, I'm going to finish up some of the fabled gear cards and call it a night. I'll be in the comment section this weekend just to hang out for a bit if anyone has any questions or comments.
I hope you guys have a great day and a awesome weekend...I'll be talking to you soon....Rodger :)
Final monster card backings, workshop videos, and more!
almost 8 years ago
– Sun, Sep 04, 2016 at 09:59:25 PM
Hello everyone! :) Rodger here and I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! And do please forgive me for the delay with the update. Friday night I had a planned night out with the family which was really needed! And the next day, some new art was coming in that I wanted to finish up and show you guys. So this is going to be a fairly brief update, but some good stuff for sure....
Let's start of with this for you. Compliments of Jesse from Cornerstone Creative Studios.
So this is the collective work of Jesse Hansen, Joseph Arnold and Freddy Lopez from Cornerstone Creative Studios. Jesse sort of surprised me with this, putting it all together. Truly a very striking piece of just a few of the monsters and creatures they have finished for Dungeon Crusade.
Believe me, they have shown me tons of inked pieces awaiting to be colored. There is just a TON of monsters, creatures and heroes in Dungeon Crusade! :)
The Dawnstar Stone
The Dawnstar Stone
Wow! What can I say about the Dawnstar Stone! Well, ???? ??? ? ????? ???? ???! ?????? ?? ? ???? ? ???????? ??? ?? ????????? ????? ???? ?? ? ????? ??? ???? ???? ????????! ???? ?? ???????? ?? ????? ?? ??????????? ? ????? ? ????????? ?? ???? ? ?????? ??? ? ??????????! :)
So that is what you can expect from the Dawnstar Stone!
(Hey...I have to keep a few surprises for you right? ;) )
Level 3 Champion Monster: Skeletal Archer
So this piece comes from the incredible artist Freddy Lopez. The Skeletal Archer went through a few quick revisions before the one you see here. My favorite monsters in fantasy games are skeletal types of monsters, and I truly LOVE what Freddy has created with this one.
Quick note...some of you may know I created 2 versions of champion monsters. Normal and elite. The elite skeletal archer has a nasty special ability called "Serrated Arrow". When the heroes first encounter an elite version, they have to make an agility check to dodge the arrow.
On a fail, they must roll the D4. The result is damage taken. Also, they must test their physical resistance. If that is a fail, they are stricken with a physical affliction known as bleeding. What that means is at the start of every upkeep phase, they will receive 1 damage. If a hero drinks an elixir potion, they can rid themselves of all afflictions. Note to self...Bring along a few elixir potions!! ;)
Minion: Skeletal Grunt
My all time FAVORITE type of monster in fantasy games! Hands down!
OK...I got to tell you guys this story. Skeleton warriors are my most favorite types of monsters in fantasy games. And there are a few reasons why I really love this one. For one, this piece was done by Jesse, Joseph and Freddy. They did a stellar job on it I believe.
Second of all, I compared the art style to my all time favorite board game, the 1980's Dungeonquest. I swear, this could almost pass as one of those monsters from that game. I love what they have done with it, and made it their own design though. LOL, anything that reminds me of Dungeonquest, is a good thing in my book. :)
The last reason are the videos that are below. I know there are some backers out there who have seen the mega, epic, awesome Jason and the Argonauts movie from back in the day. When I saw the battle with Jason and his comrades in the movie, I was simply blown away by that. LOL, to this day, I think that has to be one of the coolest battle scenes, and hence my love for skeletal warriors. Enjoy the clips below of this classic movie! Heck, the skeletal grunts in Dungeon Crusade have a special ability called shield deflect I got from this movie! ;) Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_Fi7x93PY&list=PL7BCK-7OKXbzXO3A4EOQmYGWiOuT55dSa Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOZK4MiIMZM&index=4&list=PL7BCK-7OKXbzXO3A4EOQmYGWiOuT55dSa
And in closing from that, the skeletal grunts have a special ability called shield deflect. If this ability is activated, they take no damage that round of combat!
Final monster card backings:
The fonts may change a bit on these cards.
I know right. This is INSANE I tell you. David Shearer has completed for the most part the final monster card backings. These things look UBER epic awesome! Outstanding job David! Now the fonts may change just a little, but this is pretty much what's going to be in the game.
David will also be doing all of the backings for the cards in the game. He truly has some great ideas for all of them. And with these monster card backings as a statement of his work, I think the rest of the card backings are in more than capable hands. :)
Shaun's friday night Dungeon Crusade stream:
Here is 2 pieces Shaun did for his stream on Twitch from a few weeks ago. The Peace Keeper and the Staff of Dark Twilight. He is always on at 4:00pm eastern standard time on fridays. Here is his channel if you would like to view some time... https://www.twitch.tv/shmaba
I couldn't make it this past friday with Shaun, as I'm always in there watching what he creates. But I truly find it fascinating to just watch all this loot to come alive right before my eyes. I have a very sincere love, and truly admire people with the skill to create art like these guys can do.
So what I'm going to do is show you how I am going to paint my custom set. Not I'm not one of those masters at painting like David Lockwood! But what I'm going to do, is fire up my camera, and start from my home and go to my local hobby store, buy the paint, come home and show you how I'm going to paint mine. It is going to be very basic, but I thought it would be fun to do with you guys.
Understand, the minions must be color coded using red, blue and green. So there are 3 minions per group, and they must each have one of those colors. I'm really looking forward to do this video! I should be starting it in a few weeks from now. But I will of course give you the heads up on when it will be up for viewing.
The really other awesome workshop video I will be doing is showing you how to make the Dungeon Crusade dice tray you saw in the videos. Same as the painting video, I'm going to start from my home, and make a few trips to some stores and get what we need to make your very own Dungeon Crusade dice tray. Don't worry, this is very cheap to make, and really easy. Please excuse the fuzzy picture!
Excuse the fuzzy pic!
The decals you see on mine above will be uploaded to our dropbox for you to download, print out and adhere to your dice box. That video will be in a few weeks also. I'm also looking forward into hanging out with you guys and making dice boxes. It should be a fun time for sure.
So these are the 2 "workshop videos" I have planned thus far.
And all the other stuff:
So we can discuss in closing what else is going on with the game. As you know, I will be doing a brand new playthrough of Dungeon Crusade showing you all the tweaks and streamlining that has been implemented in the game. I'm trying to get the rest of the design docs done for the artists, while updating all of the game content for the playthrough. I have gotten alot done so far.
All of the treasure chest cards are fully updated, plus some REALLY awesome new items the heroes can find within the chests. Maybe a few will pop up in the playthrough? ;) You will also see the debut of the dungeon U. I. board. Remember the U. I. on the dungeon board itself? That has been totally removed, as there is the dungeon U.I. board to hold all of the tracks, cards and tokens. I totally remade the guardian spawn track, and it looks REALLY awesome. Having this U I board really saves alot of space I believe.
Also, Camron is fully finished with all of the encounter card art! WOOT! That was one big task that has been completed. He did a stellar job on all 70 unique art pieces for the encounter cards. I believe i will be putting that art on the encounter cards, so you will see those in action in the playthrough video.
Shaun is also working on a great hero card design. It is very rough right now, but just from this rough draft, I can tell it's going to look incredible. Hopefully by next update i will have something to show you on those.
As I said earlier, Cornerstone Creative Studios is just blasting through these monsters and getting them done. Expect a few more monsters next week.
I know also Damien is working on the Avalon Adventure board game map. Now that is something I am very curious to see! The map he did for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt looked amazing, and I'm thrilled to see what he has drawn up for the land of Avalon.
So in closing, everything is going perfectly for Dungeon Crusade! Everyone is busy on some aspect of the game, and we are getting it done for all of us. I'm really trying to get to this new playthrough, and hopefully before then, I will have my collection of Reaper minis to use in the game. That way you guys can see what they look like with the game.
OK, I'm out...the clock on the wall says 6:19 A.M....and I think the sun may be coming up soon...I better get to bed. But I love hanging out here and telling you guys what's going on with the game. I'll be on later tonight to hang out a bit and answer some questions you may have.
I hope everyone has a great day, and have fun in whatever you may be doing! Talk to you soon...Rodger :)
