Backerkit is almost live!
almost 6 years ago – Tue, Jan 08, 2019 at 12:19:59 AM

Hi, folks! Maggie here. Happy Monday!

As promised, I am very excited to announce that Backerkit is going live tomorrow! 

Backerkit will send an email today to 5% of backers, around 400 people. This is a “smoke test” to ensure that everything is working properly on the back end. Once it is complete, and no errors are found, the remaining backers will receive an email granting them access. We expect that the bulk of Backerkit emails will be sent out by this Wednesday. Then, anyone who missed out on the Kickstarter but wants to join in via the Backerkit can do so at that point.

Throughout the campaign, we received questions and concerns about the shipping and VAT prices. We’ve created a nifty little chart that shows the VAT rate for different countries. If you’re a VAT-eligible backer, this should give you a better idea of what you’re being charged and why. 

VAT FAQs

Q: Wasn’t I already charged shipping?

A: Yes! All European backers were charged $15 shipping.

Q: What is my VAT expense currently?

A: VAT is shipping plus goods sold. Since all backers have paid shipping already, you are only being charged the remaining VAT fee. For example, if you only pledge for the expansion ($79) and are a backer from the UK your remaining VAT fee would be $18.80. 

These are only a couple of questions that we figured might pop-up as the Backerkit slowly goes live, but if you have any further questions or concerns please leave them in the comments below and we will respond as quickly as possible!

See you next month!

- Maggie

Check out what's happening in the world of Jagged Earth!
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Jan 02, 2019 at 12:13:06 AM

Hey folks! Maggie here to wish you a Happy New Year’s day and an awesome start to your 2019 from everyone at Greater Than Games! 

To kick off your year I have a playtesting update from Eric, a small update on the Backerkit situation and more information about the Spirit Island tournaments!  

Playtesting Update  

Hi all! Here's a quick update on how testing is going:

Spirits are mostly out of dynamics testing and into balance tuning. There are still a few borderline cases, but overall the Spirits are much more stable than they were during the Kickstarter - two that were in high flux for much of the past two months (Downpour Drenches the World and Vengeance as a Burning Plague) have settled down considerably. 

 Aspects haven't been getting quite as much testing lately, since the focus has been more on Spirits proper. Some are working great, others want some more attention. 

Which Major and Minor Powers will be included has been tentatively decided. Details may change, but updates have been getting progressively less dramatic; there are more small tweaks or balance/costing improvements than dramatic overhauls. Fear and Blight Cards are approaching a similar state of pleasant stability, with updates usually confined to just a couple of cards each. 

 Events are seeing a bit more change - there are many more Event cards than Fear cards, and 3 events per card. Plus there's the factor of "what events go together on the same card?" to consider. 

 The lower levels of all Adversaries are stable and appropriately painful to deal with, though the Habsburg escalation wants some tweaking. Each Adversary has 1-2 levels (in the mid-to-high range) that are still in some flux, and whenever a level changes it can have ripple-effects on all higher levels. Testing on these is slow right now: balance-tuning Spirits involves playing vs. known-difficulty / not-in-the-middle-of-changing Adversaries. 

Scenarios got a lot of their testing done early, with another chunk done in November. They could use a bit more, but mixing Scenarios with balance-tuning Spirits isn't a great idea, so that'll probably wait a bit. 

Spirits are highest focus/priority overall right now, as they have the most moving pieces of any individual thing, so tend to have the most complex internal dynamics and want the most tuning / balance testing. Adversaries are next most complex due to the layering of rules, but there are far fewer Adversaries, their core concepts / lower levels have been stable for a while, and "balance" is an easier target for them. Then comes everything else in a big pack: some are more internally complex but have few outside dependencies (eg: Scenarios), others are easy to tweak individually but have constraining as-a-set considerations (eg: Power and Event cards). Power Cards are closer to finalized because they were started earlier, which was done because they require art. 

Backerkit Update

We are still waiting for it to go live! I told you this part was small, but I will let you know when it goes live!  

Spirit Island Tournament 

Below is an amazing video featuring footage from our PAX Unplugged tournament and a more in-depth explanation of gameplay from Alex Schmidt, one of the designers of the tournament system.  

Check in next month for a new Spirit summary!

Brief Backerkit update!
almost 6 years ago – Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 12:19:40 AM

Hi folks! Maggie here for a super quick update!  

We promised access to Backerkit at the beginning of December, and we had been holding out hope for access to happen sometime during this month. Unfortunately, that will not be happening.  

We have plans in place to make this happen before the end of January, possible even by our first 2019 update on January 1st.  

We apologize for the delay and hope that you all have an amazing end to your 2018!

 See you next year!  
- Maggie 

Backerkit is almost live!
about 6 years ago – Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 12:32:52 AM

Hi folks! Happy December and welcome to the first of many post campaign updates!  

As the title suggests, we will be talking about Backerkit going live and much more. Most of the Greater Than Games crew just got back from PAX Unplugged yesterday. There, we had the second ever Spirit Island tournament! While we were gone Jenn, our Creative Director, was hard at work and we now have some new card art to show you for Fractured Days Split The Sky!  

Backerkit  

I mentioned above that we just got back from PAX Unplugged; so did the lovely humans that run Backerkit! Once they have had a bit of time to recover and get back in office, our Backerkit for this campaign will go live - probably by the end of this week!  

Once the Backerkit is live, it will transfer all of your Kickstarter information over to it and you will be able to log in. It is super important that you log in and update it with your correct address! You will also be able to let us know through Backerkit about any add-ons you’d like to receive, or any adjustments you’d like to make to your initial pledge! 

You will need to keep your address updated within Backerkit until we lock addresses to ship your game. We anticipate locking address changes in March of 2020, and we will remind you throughout the next 18 months or so to keep them updated.  

Second ever Spirit Island Tournament!  

Several folks commented after the last update asking questions about the tournament and tournament rules. I can’t go into a huge amount of detail yet, but we did record a video that will go into more detail for those of you that are curious. We will have it done by our next update on January 1st, 2019!  

Here’s what I can tell you: the tournament consisted of 4 four-player teams, 16 people in total. The first round had players using core game spirits and no adversary, with a 30 minute time limit. At the end of 30 minutes, all four games were scored and the 2 highest scoring teams advanced.  

The second round threw the teams into the deep end, with an adversary they had never seen: Scotland. It also brought in Branch & Claw components (tokens, fear cards, events), and 2 new spirits, Volcano Looming High and Many Minds Move As One, along with Ocean Hungry Grasp and Sharp Fangs Behind The Leaves.  

All in all, it was an exciting experience and all of the teams did very well! We got to see a lot of impressive Spirit Island players, and we’re very much looking forward to running more tournaments in the future!  

New Card Art 

Below are the awesome new card arts for Fractured Days Split The Sky. These arts were created by Lucas Durham, one of the many amazing artists that have worked to bring the world of Spirit Island to life.  

Check back next month for more Spirit summaries, and more about our tournament system!  

- Maggie

Upcoming sneak peeks and updates!
about 6 years ago – Sat, Nov 17, 2018 at 12:47:28 AM

Hello all you wonderful humans! Holy cow - we cannot believe how quickly this Kickstarter has gone and how much it surpassed all of our goals and expectations! Between funding in under 14 minutes, the number of awesome backers (which is still growing!) and all of the amazing feedback we’ve received from you all, we don’t know what is more awesome!