(Our ever faithful Lead-Play tester, Alex Nguyen holds down the fort at Reapercon 2024)
Hey all! Our humble gaming studio turned five years old this month! On September 3 2019, this studio silently began. Decades of tabletop game ideas finally started flowing into project documents and streaming out to play-testers and artists. So where were we on 3 September 2024? After dropping Heriberto off at the airport, I was recovering on my couch, braindead in the wake of Reapercon 2024. So here we are two weeks after. Better late than never!
Let’s look at where we started and where we are now.
Project Bastard Sword was our first project. I was a new developer, making mistakes. At a certain size, this project was above my head and forced a pivot. (we will discuss the pivot shortly) After mapping out levels, designing all the traps and encounters of this sprawling dungeon crawler, completing the character progression upgrades and playtesting every. Single. Level. Multiple times, I realized 90% done was really 50% done.
(Yep, that's a baby monitor in the second picture. I love being a new father, even with the challenges it brings to game design)
This last year, I approached it from the ground up. Now it really is 80-90% complete. Learning my lesson from last time, it’s now with a publisher. We are still working out details, but we expect a release in 2026/27. Don’t hold your breath that long but stay tuned.
(Our first humble convention showing in 2021. We didn't even have a booth, just a small table at Reapercon)
We mentioned a pivot, and that is ignition:core (I:C). In six short months I:C went from a blank document to a complete ruleset with the first starter sets landing on people’s doorsteps in October of 2020. I didn’t think I:C would catch on like it has, but here we are! It is the biggest line we carry... so far. And more great stuff is coming.
(Adepticon 2024 was our biggest showing yet. The Model Zero was our most ambitious Mech Kit yet. Ian Markon's entry in the Reapercon 2024 MSP might be the best painted ignition mini that I've seen so far.)
Magical Girl Assault (MGA) brought my sculptor, Heriberto and I into an alliance that would only make us stronger and better. In 2021 MGA was just twelve models in a starter set. Now it has grown and continues to offer more ways to get in on the lightning fast action.
In 2022 we started work on Shining Heroes, an episodic JRPG-tactics style game. Presently the solo/co-op campaign is over 20 scenarios long, and we will be wrapping up six more encounters next year, to complete the story arc we started.
So, what is next for us? Project Exodus has been brewing behind the scenes and that setting (a prequel to I:C) is too big to just be one game. We are still quietly building that setting and hope to announce the first game soon.
Another fantasy dungeon crawler is in early development. Will it be a follow up to Bastard Sword? Or something else? Even we don’t know as every project ends up taking on a life of its own. Here are some early concepts and we will share more later!
I hope this year has been kind to you all! Running a business this small is challenging, but you all make it worthwhile! We hope to see as many of you as possible at Adepticon and Reapercon in 2025! And if you want to help us grow, please browse our store for anything that you might ‘need’ on your hobby desk and gaming table. It all helps, and thank you for your continued support!
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