Pledge Manager + Late Pledges Closing on October 2nd
3 days ago – Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 12:42:15 PM

In production news, we've officially kicked off the start of tooling for the plastic components. We've finalized all of the designs of the 3D components, and the factory will start making the actual molds. When that's done, we'll get "first shot" samples before they move into final production. In short, we're officially underway!

Reminder, we are locking down the pledge manager and preorder store in BackerKit for regular backers some time on Monday, October 2nd. Please complete your order before that date. If not, we may not be able to guarantee you get your game. You will continue to be able to update your address up until we are ready to start fulfilling next year. As always, if you have any issues, please contact BackerKit support, and they will help you sort it out.

Finally, I'll leave you with this: Yes, that's legendary game designer, Stephen Baker, performing the critical "head test" on the faction bags. Happy to report that they've passed with flying colors.

Full Pledge Manager Launched - All Surveys Out - Detailed Instructions Here
about 2 months ago – Thu, Aug 10, 2023 at 02:42:07 PM

The smoke test was a resounding success, so we have launched the full pledge manager and opened the store in BackerKit for late pledges. Surveys are being sent out to all backers. However, it can take a few days for them all to process, so don't worry if you haven't received your notification yet.

This update should give you all of the information you need to complete your survey. Generally speaking, the survey is pretty straightforward. However, it is a lot of information and can get complicated in places, so please read carefully. Refer back to this update and send a link to other folks if you see they have questions about the process.

In general, your BackerKit experience has two parts. First, you will complete a short survey. Second, you will finalize your order, enter your shipping address, and enter your payment information. This second part is just like shopping at a regular webstore, like Amazon. Items included your Kickstarter pledge level (or if you upgraded to a new pledge in BackerKit) will already be in your "cart", and the money you pledge in Kickstarter will already be in your "account". You can "shop" for additional items as well. Important: You will not actually be charged any additional funds when you finish your survey -- that happens later.

If you have any problems completing your survey in BackerKit, please contact their support staff. They have excellent support and should be able to answer all of your questions. Please do not contact us via email or Kickstarter message with problems in BackerKit. It's not that we want to ignore you. Rather, it's important that we have one channel for dealing with survey issues so we don't miss anything. Rest assured, if BackerKit can't handle whatever issue you're having, they will, in turn, contact us, and we'll step in at that point. Look for the "Need help?" link at any point during your survey.

Your items and funds from Kickstarter will already be in BackerKit. BackerKit imports all of the data from Kickstarter. So whatever items are included in the pledge level you backed on Kickstarter will already be in your cart in BackerKit. Likewise, the money you pledge in Kickstarter will already be in your account. If you are not adding anything beyond what's already included in your pledge level and you included all of the necessary funds in your Kickstarter pledge, you can just "check out". You will see the shipping charges, if any, added at that time.

You can upgrade your pledge level. If you backed at the "Opening Volley" level, you will need to upgrade your pledge level to get the game. You can also upgrade your pledge level if, say, you backed at the "Castle Battle" level and have decided to get the "Warlord Bundle". You can upgrade your pledge level in one of two ways. The easiest way is on the very first screen of your survey, where you'll see a small link to "switch your pledge level".

You can also do it at any time during the survey by clicking on the link under "Your Pledge Level" at the top of the screen. This takes you to a pop-up with your pledge information with another link to "switch pledge levels".

You can add items to your order if you want to. If you want to get add-ons, you need to add them in BackerKit in the Add-Ons page. This is where you can add the Weapons Cache, Builders Bounty, and Faction Bags. You can also use this screen to order multiple copies of the game, if you want to give an extra one as a gift. Important: This page is for adding stuff to your order, not upgrading your pledge.

The gold ammo will already be in your cart. You will see the "gold ammo" in the add-ons section of your cart. If for some reason it's not there, you can contact BackerKit support and they will get it added for you.

We will lock down the surveys around October 1. You will get notification from BackerKit when the date approaches. Until we lock down the surveys, you can continue to go back in and make changes to your order, such as adding or removing items or changing your payment method.

We will run the credit cards after we lock down surveys. This will likely be within 48 hours after we lock down the surveys. These charges will only be for anything you added on and for the shipping charges. If you want us to run your credit card sooner for some reason, please contact BackerKit customer service, and they will be able to do that manually.

You can change your address up until we are ready to ship. Don't worry if you end up moving from your current shipping address. You can continue to go back into your survey and update your shipping address right up until the game is ready to ship.

Retailers have a few changes from these instructions. If you are a verified retailer under the "Supply Lines" pledge level, per the retailer terms, we will hold the pledge manager open for you a little longer and will not run your credit cards until the games are ready to leave the factory. Please remember that you may not offer the game for sale for online customers until after the pledge manager is closed for backers. We will notify you of all these dates before they happen. (For those retailers who backed Thunder Road: Vendetta, we will take extra care to have the shipping charges entered before we run the cards.)

I know this can seem like a lot to take in, but don't worry. It's not as bad as it sounds when you're reading it. And, most importantly, like I said at the top: BackerKit has excellent customer service and will be able to help you if you have any problems. And if you can't get the help you need, you can always contact me directly.

Pledge Manager Status: "Smoke Test" Launched
about 2 months ago – Thu, Aug 03, 2023 at 04:00:42 AM

We have set up the pledge manager in BackerKit and are ready to start sending out surveys so you can complete your order. As we've done with our prior campaigns, we are starting with a "smoke test". The survey first goes out to around 5% of the backers. This will let us identify any problems before we open it to the rest of the backers. If nothing crops up, we'll launch the full pledge manager to all backers next Tuesday. I will post a full update at that time, with a walkthrough of the process.

If you are part of the smoke test and receive an email to complete your survey, please complete it as soon as possible and preferably before Monday. This is your actual survey, so please completely it accurately. You'll be able to throw in any add-ons you would like. In that regard, we have also confirmed the shipping costs for the add-ons as reflected in the table below.

You'll be able to update or modify your survey until we lock it down (tentatively scheduled for October 1). But this lets us identify and fix any problems before we send the surveys out to the rest of the backers. If you get a survey and have any questions or problems, BackerKit has world-class customer service, so don't hesitate to contact them with any issue you might have. (See the "Need Help?" link in the bottom right of the survey?)

Once we confirm the smoke test is a success, we will also open the pre-order store for late pledges when we launch the full pledge manager. So, if you missed the campaign, you'll be able to hop in then.

In the meantime, we're heading off to Gen Con kicks off today. If you're going, please stop by the booth and say hi to the team. We are not demoing Crossbows & Catapults at the show -- the thought of chasing ammo discs down the aisles of the exhibit hall fills me with dread -- but we will have a bunch of other games to buy and demo, including Thunder Road: Vendetta and Unmatched Adventures: Tales To Amaze (demo only). During that time, we might be a little slow in responding to customer service requests, so please be patient until we get back next week.

12 hours to go! Final Designer Diary! What Happens Next?
3 months ago – Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 08:02:24 AM

Wow! You blew through that final stretch goal. Whenever you put a project out, there's always some trepidation. We do our best to forecast, we put our best foot forward, but you can never be sure how it'll go. We're thrilled you all are as excited about bringing back Crossbows & Catapults as we are. Thank you for your support throughout the campaign.

The campaign officially ends at 11:00 PM EST tonight. To confirm, we do not have any additional Bonus Loot bundles to post -- you tapped us all out. We've unlocked all six Bonus Loot bundles adding: 18 tactics cards, 4 blank cards, 10 more bricks, 3 decal sets, 2 terrain sets, painted sanctuaries and balconies, and 2 extra mercenaries. Phew! Given the success of the campaign, we'll definitely be taking a look at some of the other requests you all have made, like the monster figures and castle mats.

In the meantime, after the campaign ends, Kickstarter will begin running your credit cards to collect the money for your pledge. Please keep an eye on your inbox (and spam folder as necessary). During this time, if there are any problems with your credit card, you need to contact Kickstarter directly. I cannot help with that part of the process. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be working to set up the pledge manager in BackerKit. I will notify you when that happens and provide all the instructions on how that works. Nothing to worry about now.

Let's close things out with the final design diary from Stephen Baker:

DIARY 5 – FINAL ENGINEERING
This diary is a little insight into what comes next as we go through the process of pre-production and production.

Bricks and Weapons
As mentioned previously, this is a game that fully depends on the physical performance of the bricks and the weapons. Final small adjustments will be made over the coming weeks. These will be tested and further refined.

We will begin tooling later this year. We have developed a plan that will allow us to dial in the tolerances slowly. When tooling plastic parts, you can add more material; it is more complex to take the material away. Therefore, the initial tolerances will be looser than intended. We can then test molded parts in the right material, having been molded under production conditions. We will gradually iterate to get the tolerances right where we want them.

Miniatures
After selecting from the various sketches, we proceeded to get initial sculpts. These often have detail that will be difficult or impossible to mold. We work closely with our manufacturing partner and sculptor to adjust the sculpts as needed.

We hope you have enjoyed these little insights into the process and our thinking. And thanks again for all of your support to bring back this classic game.  Until next time, FIRE!

Final 48 and Design Diary 4
3 months ago – Sun, Jul 09, 2023 at 07:44:45 AM

We're in the big final 48 hours of the campaign. Thank you everyone for your support and excitement.  Please consider sharing the campaign with friends and family to help us hit that final stretch goal and have a great wrap. We know you're excited to see some of the tactics cards included in Fortress War... here's a peek at most of them. Tactics are a great way to level up the play for more advanced games!

And now - another behind-the-scenes peek from Stephen! 

DIARY 4 – DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND REFINEMENTS
This is the best phase of product development. It is where what you want to do and what you thought would be good collide with the realities of costs and initial playtesting feedback. In navigating these, the goal remains to optimize play value and game experience with costs and reliability.

Brick Building
We continued to find that players sometimes struggled when stacking the bricks or assembling the gate into the long arch. We decided to make a couple of changes.

• The crenelations were moved to the centerline of the bricks. Bricks stacked front to back could make adding the top details, such as turrets and towers, awkward.
• We also removed the indents on the bottom of the bricks. These were a legacy from when we planned to have other connectors. They were also used to locate the gate in place. Again, this proved too fiddly. We adjusted the gate to be free-standing.

At this stage, we worked through the various design options to establish what new brick elements would go into Fortress War.

Figure Sculpts and Brick Detailing
Until now, the bricks and no detail given, we were focused on the fundamental geometry and performance. We explored different designs for the detailing and began character design for the Dwarves and Goblins.  As with all 3D sculpts, you must balance detail with moldability. As this work progressed, we committed to multiple sets of full prototypes for expanded playtesting. With many games, you can make do with proxy models and early graphics. With a physical game like this, your prototypes must be as close to final as possible.

Design Lock
Having completed the playtesting and finalized the game play, we locked on the physical designs. There would still be a lot to do with final engineering. The last diary will be more forward-looking as it is about what we do next as we get into tools.

Until next time, FIRE!