Gen Con's Coming - Save Some Time to Try Out Warzone Eternal!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Jul 31, 2023 at 08:27:32 PM

Hey folks,

With Res Nova's attendance at Gen Con a very informal affair this year, I've set up a Calendly for the event to help coordinate times for those of you interested in checking out a Warzone Eternal demo or just chatting about the game and our plans for it.  Check that out here:

https://calendly.com/resnovagames/warzone-eternal-demos-w-res-nova-gen-con-1

These are scheduled to run during the day, Thursday - Saturday, but getting together in the evenings is an option too, for those so inclined.  Send us a message and we'll get something sorted.

See you in just a couple of days!

Alex / Res Nova Games

Backerkit Update and GenCon!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jul 28, 2023 at 09:01:44 AM

GenCon

Next week is GenCon, the "Best Four Days in Gaming" and my absolute favorite show of the year.  It was 28 years ago at a GenCon in Milwaukee that I first stumbled across a small booth previewing a brand new miniatures game to be released later that year, and I've been smitten with Warzone ever since.

While Res Nova will not have a booth this year (it's a much, MUCH bigger show than 28 years ago, and the wait to get a booth can be very long), Bryan and I will both be attending and I'm intending to run periodic demos in the open gaming hall.  If any of you are going to be in attendance, let us know when you've got some open time so we can make sure to have a demo available for you.  Otherwise, keep an eye on our social media accounts (@resnovagames) for updates on where and when we'll be set up.

I hope to see some of you there! 

Backerkit

The Backerkit pledge manager is nearly complete.  With a multitude of pledge levels, early bird variants, and a slew of Add-Ons, it's a complicated inventory.  Additionally, as we want completed entries for every item at the time of release, this also means that finalized mock-ups of the decal sheets need to be first finished.  These sheets can hold a lot of decals, so as opposed to simply repeating the faction logos (there will be plenty of those still, and of varying sizes), our artists are working on a number of additional designs pulled from classic Mutant Chronicles and Warzone imagery.  We hope to have these wrapped sometime next week, which should complete all of the item preparation for the pledge manager.

With those in hand, we'll be off to Backerkit review and then the smoke test (pledge management testing by a small percentage of our backers) before release.  While I had been planning for a release by the end of July, it looks like mid-August is more likely. 

Rules PDF

With a batch of new playtesters joining our team, and the corresponding fresh set of eyes, we've been working our way through a number of small wording changes resulting in an even tighter document.  This final iteration is going to sit with the playtest group to allow some further rumination and potential identification of previously unidentified issues before distribution to the backers.  Expect to see that document, along with stats for all of the core Kickstarter-released units shortly after GenCon.

As always, comment below with any questions you may have and I to see you at GenCon!

Alex / Res Nova Games

Post Kickstarter Update #1
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jun 27, 2023 at 06:59:48 PM

Hey folks, with a bit less than a month since the Kickstarter campaign's conclusion, I wanted to send out an update to let you know the current state of the project.  I anticipate doing this at least monthly until fulfillment, or more frequently during those times when we cross significant milestones or have exciting news to share.

Origins & GenCon

Bryan and I just got back from Origins where we manned the Res Nova booth for 4 days of gaming bliss, running demos of Warzone Eternal and showing off the starter box miniatures.  We got to talk to a number of our backers as well as introduce the game to a range of people unfamiliar with Warzone or the Mutant Chronicles universe.  The response was overwhelmingly positive, which was great to hear!

We'll next be at GenCon in August.  Res Nova will not have a booth but we will be running demos during the convention in the main gaming hall.  We'll be posting details to our socials about times and locations, so for those of you attending, keep an eye out.

Backerkit

With funds and a final backer list in hand from Kickstarter shortly before we departed for Origins, work on the Backerkit pledge manager has begun in earnest this week.  There are a few set-up complications we're working our way through (primarily, the ability to exchange your primary pledge level for a la carte credit), but we anticipate the pledge manager to be out in July.  We're not sure when in that month, but we'll of course give you a heads up beforehand.

Retailers

For our retail backers, we would appreciate getting a head start on verification of your retail status.  To do so, we're asking that you send the following to [email protected]:

1. Kickstarter account used for your retail backer pledge
2. Address of your store
3. Store's website or Facebook page
4. Photograph of your store location
5. Business license or tax ID
6. List of distributors you currently work with

Production Status

Finally, to address the topic in which most of you are interested, the pre-production work is already up and running.  Our casting partner is reviewing the sculpts for any necessary modifications to help mitigate inevitable mold-making complications.  Final files for all of the acrylic tokens are with Muse on Minis.  The forewords for the fiction compilation are being drafted and the stories are going through a final round of editing.  And the rules manuscript has just been updated to the latest draft for circulation to our play-test team, including material for the few units the campaign added in its final days.  As suggested in a few places already, our goal is to have those final draft rules in backer hands sometime in August.

That's all for now, but I'll be back in touch soon.

Alex / Res Nova Games

Warzone Returns!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jun 01, 2023 at 12:59:24 PM

Hi everybody, first of all THANK YOU!  This has been a heck of a month and a long last few years.  As a long time miniatures hobbyist, I had some sense of the complexities of miniatures production, but the reality of it is something entirely different.  And, at the end, it's uncertain whether you've produced something that will interest people - and that perhaps goes doubly so for a property with a passionate fanbase like Warzone/Mutant Chronicles.

So the interest shown by your support of this campaign - to the tune of 233% of our funding goal - has been immensely gratifying.  For those of you who provided constructive criticism that helped us build from last year's attempt, participated in playtesting, or just silently backed us on this campaign, thank you!

There are a bunch of things that now happen in rapid succession - Kickstarter collects money, fulfillment reports are generated, data is transferred to Backerkit, the pledge manager needs to be created, pre-production meetings need to be scheduled now that we have a firmer grasp on production numbers, etc. - that are going to be consuming my attention.  And, frankly, Bryan and I could use a breather.  So we may appear slightly less active for a week or so around here and on the Facebook group.

But we'll pick back up with updates here shortly.  KS updates in fact will be our primary means of communicating to you the status of this campaign as we move forward.  We know opinions vary on the preferred cadence for such updates, but I imagine we'll find a happy middle ground soon enough.

Thanks again and talk to you soon,

Alex / Res Nova Games

In the home stretch!
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 31, 2023 at 03:13:14 PM

Well that Cartel Agent followed the Nepharite pretty quickly!  Thanks again everyone - this campaign looks to be wrapping up on a great note.

Up next are two more fiction-related items.

First, at $157,500, all backers will receive an electronic copy of the short story, Night Watch, by Jake Krajeski.  The horrors of the Mutant Chronicles universe have been well depicted across the planets of humanity.  But those pale in comparison to the terror of the inky void of deep space.

Then, at $160,000, we'll be bundling all of the short stories unlocked so far, and adding a seventh, in a Kickstarter exclusive softcover print compilation.  Our license generally applies only to gaming material related to Warzone, but Heroic Signatures granted us an exception to produce a limited run of this book.  There may be limited copies remaining from the Kickstarter print run available at conventions attended by Res Nova, but after that this book will be full unavailable.

Now I need to dash as I'll be joining Rick Ankney and GenCon TV for Path of Brush at 7pm ET.  Hopefully some of you will join us there!

GenCon TV on Twitch

Alex / Res Nova Games