PAX EAST, MATERIAL SAMPLES and MORE
about 5 years ago – Sat, Mar 23, 2019 at 05:52:13 PM

Happy March everyone

We hope that you are all having a great start to your Spring. 

First, we would like to thank you all for your patience and support. We really thought that the project would be coming to a close by now, but we are happy that all of the decisions are being carefully made, and the materials and components are being scrutinized and of high quality. In the last update, there was a mention of perhaps having 100 copies to dropship to PAX East in case any backers were present. Unfortunately, that was overly optimistic and we are not far enough along yet to make that happen. It is in our nature to want to deliver great news to everyone, but from now on unless we are given a true delivery date, we will refrain from guesstimating. Manufacturing is progressing and there is news on that below.

BACKERKIT

Thanks for being awesome and filling out your pledge manager. If you have not completed your Backerkit, please do so. About 85% of you have finished up but that still leaves about 180 people that still need to confirm their info. For your convenience, here is a link to your Backerkit: https://streetsofsteel.backerkit.com/

CONVENTIONS

We will be at PAX EAST March 28-31 along the back wall just at the threshold to the boardgame room (under the skybridge). For most of the day, we will have a prototype of SOS set up. Our plan, depending on who is in the booth at the time, is to run demos for those that want to take a few turns and beat down some baddies. Please note that we will NOT have SOS in the booth between 2-4 PM. KICKSTARTER has invited us to demo up in their room! Gonna be great! (The Kickstarter space “should be” located as you walked into the convention center, take a right, and slightly down the hallway on the left. It’s not in the hall.)

After that, we will be gearing up for an excellent PAX UNPLUGGED.

MANUFACTURING

That said, we received some new material samples this week, helping us decide upon some of the bits and pieces. Check them out:

We are sorting out the best character bases that we can get. Color-wise, we were thinking black initially, since that is what we have been using, but we inquired about clear so that players might see the streets through them. We are digging them! Here are the samples so far (clear only), along with the samples for the minis' bases..

There were also some new chipboard samples for the streets themselves. In the past, the streets were on heavy cardstock. This is what you will see at PAX East. However, thanks to the Kickstarter stretch goals, the streets are being upgraded to thick chipboard. Here we thought that 1.2mm - 1.5mm would be the way to go, but after seeing the newer, thicker, 2mm board, we decided to upgrade all the way to that. Should feel really nice to play with as the streets sidescroll.

One of the other stretch goals allowed us to bling out the four Kickstarter-only cards with some foil. After checking out samples and manufacturing possibilities, we have decided to use a hot-foil technique which will add a thin layer of metal to select elements of the cards to go full metallic! This is not a finish to make paper look "shiny", but a microns-thick layer of actual metal. 

For the vactray and box design, below is the working-plan for layout. It should have some nice features like a scooped dice tray, measurements that allow players to put the popped punchboard frames under the tray to elevate the tray to the inside of the cover (to help stop pieces from slipping around), a deep well for minis (if you have them), and ample room for sleeved cards.

DEAD HEROES

For fun, we have been leaking some of the Dead Hero art to Instagram/Facebook. These were customized per hero thanks to stretch goals and they are really fun. Sorry for the mega post of images, but we thought we could share them all here for those that have not been watching on on social media.

If you made it down this far, thanks for reading! Have a great day and hope to see some of you at PAX East!

Wild Power Games

Massive Update!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 08:41:53 PM

Hello everyone!

PLEASE READ: BackerKit starts today. A subset of backers will receive their surveys first as part of a required "Smoke Test". If that all goes smoothly, the remaining backers will be sent their links tomorrow.

For those not familiar, BackerKit is a pledge management site that allows you to alter your pledges, add add-ons, pay for shipping, and add/update your address. If you have any questions, toss them in the comments or send us a Kickstarter message)

WOO! This has been a REALLY crazed month. Holidays, jobs, freezing rain storms, and most importantly…STREETS OF STEEL! We have lots of news so let's get into it! 

DELIVERY UPDATE + FREE STUFF FOR LEVEL 2 PURELY PIXELS

When we launched the campaign, we sincerely thought that we could ship the games to you by February. We wanted to have them for PAX East as well so that we can start our path toward distribution and retail. Between with the ladder of add-ons that piled on during the campaign and the day-job intensity, shipping in February is not going to be possible. THAT SAID, we are working with the manufacturer to hopefully drop-ship a hundred or so games to PAX East so that we can fulfill in person to all of you that are present. We will certainly have more updates while production moves forward with regards to timing.

Hot news! We have decided to make Level 2 Purely Pixels a true expand-alone!!! Meaning the game will come with everything needed to play the game by itself! Previously, Kickstarter backers would use items from Level 1 in Level 2, but now you get all of the following in Level 2 Purely Pixels!

 Also, we've changed Level 2 Purely Pixels in a few other areas.

• Level 2 will come in a full size box, same size as Level 1, same insert, same everything!
• With all these additions, Level 2 will now be $40 MSRP, but backers will still be able to get it for $30, now saving $10 instead of $5 off MSRP. This will only last until the BackerKit closes. 

PRESS READY!

At the time of this writing, pretty much all game items are through the production phase and are either in the hands of the manufacturer or being sent in the next day or two. Cards, Boxes, Dice, Vacuum Trays, Rulebooks, Minis, Stands, Mini Bases, Street Tiles, Punchboards,  (oy… punchboard puzzle-time was not fun) are complete. Here is a sample of the elements that were created for manufacturing:

Box Layouts

Dice Layouts

Punchboards for LEVEL 1, LEVEL 1 Kickstarter edition, and LEVEL 2

New mini bases, with manufacturer-requested concavity (for strength and anti-deforming)

Dumb Ape dashboard revisions (original on bottom-right, new on left)

New and improved, manufacturer approved, stay-put, mini base clip (for color assignment)

We have been going over everything with a fine-tooth comb and taking the last moments to improve things that could be better, like some street alternates, a new Dumb Ape, better box art, clearer iconography, crisper dice graphics and more. While they are technically finished, we are doing one last card/rulebook proofread before those suckers lockdown.

BETTER FASTER STRONGER

Remember when we mentioned that we were looking for someone to help with the day-to-day messaging so that we could focus more on the “making”? Happy to say that Alyssa Marshall has joined the team to keep everyone in the loop while the devs make the games. This is good stuff!

Streets of Steel is so close now, and we promise a strong finish to get you the absolute best game possible. And now back to work!

<3 Wild Power Games

PS: One other thing is changing for Level 2 :)

POST-PAX UNPLUGGED UPDATE
over 5 years ago – Sun, Dec 09, 2018 at 10:23:00 PM

Hi everyone!

We know that you just heard from us, right before PAX Unplugged, but we thought that we might shoot out another update based on our trip, and further developments.

PAX U

First, we had a great PAX Unplugged. Thanks so much to all of the backers that came by to chat, see the prototype and even play a round. We had such a good PAX U last year that we opted for a 10’x20‘ booth this year, and it really paid off. We had 2x the demo tables so more players were able to get hands-on with High Heavens, RingChips and our Streets Of Steel prototype. Sadly, our main SOS demo-er got the stomach flu on day one so we were understaffed for the remainder of the event. Our booth staff were real troopers though, and pulled it off!

We were able to sit down and have a great, hour long conversation with our manufacturer. Talking in person was a huge benefit, as usually we are literally half a world away. Here are some interesting bits of note:

MINIS

While we thought we were done with the minis, we learned some new info about the state-of-the-art for manufacturing. Based on past experience, we made our minis with simple, cylindrical bases for easy de-molding. However, we are now urged to a) make them concave, with a ring around the bottom for minimal shrinkage and greater strength and b) we can add sculptural detail to the bases. This means that we can have street/sidewalk etc under the feet of the minis, and even props if we like! So it is a little bit of a one step forward, one step back kinda thing. It should only take a day or two to alter the bases, and then they are back off to the manufacturer.

We are also going with super-stiff plastics, and cradling them in individually shaped trays so they have the minimal risk of bending. We referenced games like Rising Sun, and the manufacturer showed us games that they did with the same or better results. Great!

BOX

We were able to work out some new, preliminary designs for the box. It was important to us that those who went with the pixel-art standees had a nice “unboxing” experience when they open the game, however, we also want to have a nice spot for the plastic minis for those that opted to upgrade. Together, the manufacturer and Wild Power were able to come up with a design that we think will make both groups happy.

We also want to attempt to design the tray so that players can pop the chits out, and then discarded the chipboard frame under the tray so that the tray’s top touches the box, creating a nice seal so no bits or chits go flying around.

BACKERKIT

Today’s update was sort of unplanned, so as far as Backerkit goes, it is still in review (as we mentioned last week in the previous Update). More info soon, when it launches.

BLUE TO PURPLE

This is no biggie, but thought you might like to know that in order to better differentiate between WILD POWER (light blue) and KICK DICE (dark blue), we are shifting the KICK DICE to purple.

We continue to process our print-ready files for manufacture, and proofread, proofread, proofread.

Thanks again everyone!

-Wild Power Games

FIRST ITEMS OFF TO MANUFACTURER, RINGCHIPS & PAX UNPLUGGED
over 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 08:01:42 PM

Good Morning!

PLASTICS ARE SENT OFF

We are excited to say that we have begun the process of sending game elements to the manufacturer! We are starting with the most difficult bits, the plastic minis, but each of the other elements will fall in line as well. Miniatures take a long time to creat, as steel "tools" are made (for injection molding) so it is important to get those off to the manufacturer as soon as possible. Other elements are in the final quality assurance phase, soon to be sent to the manufacturer as well.

PAX UNPLUGGED

We have a booth at PAX Unplugged this weekend. If you are there, come by and say hi! Wild Power Games will be up front in booth 1801. Come take a peek at the prototype Streets Of Steel, which we used to playtest the game and craft the Kickstarter video.

We are also, of course,  bringing High Heavens and all of its expansions, as well as some limited-run tuckboxes of our RingChips, sold separately. A full blown RingChip campaign is planned for the near future, but so many people ask us to buy RingChips for use as counters in other games,that we wanted to make them available. These packs were created in small quantities, during the manufacturing of High Heavens.

BACKERKIT

As mentioned in a past Update, we have brought on some help to tackle some of the non-game-making efforts. Thanks to our pal Jon, we are submitting the campaign for final review by Backerkit, and it will be available to you all after PAX Unplugged. (We considered rushing it out before PAX, but did not want to go live with it while we were all on the show floor and unavailable to dive in, in case there were issues). 

That is all for now. Off to PAX U!

- Wild Power Games

MORE PRODUCTION ITEMS COMPLETED + RULEBOOK & CARD PREVIEW
over 5 years ago – Sat, Oct 27, 2018 at 07:28:18 PM

Hello everyone!

We are moving nicely towards full completion, though a little slower than we had hoped. Unfortunately Ryan’s “day job” making video games has kicked into full “crunch” mode as that team pushes to ship their new video game. By putting in all those extra hours at work, it has pulled him away from finishing his elements of SOS. (If you are following the lashback against “crunch” in gaming news, don’t worry, ours has been very reasonable and humane). This period of crunch is coming to an end, which should facilitate speedy production for the remaining items. Even so, recognizing that we want to move faster, we are signing a contract with an individual that will help wrap things up on the manufacturing and Backerkit threads so they move quicker while the rest of us keep truckin’.

This week is Rhode Island Comicon, so that will occupy a bunch of our time, but after that it is smooth sailing until PAX Unplugged, end of November.

WHAT’S LEFT?

Here is the same list of the items reported as "remaining", pasted from one of the last Updates, but with their current status:

• Telekinetikid mini and all minis (COMPLETE) 
• Rulebook finalized (IN PROOFING PHASE) 
• Boxes designed (covers and sides are COMPLETE, back in layout phase) 
• Card “Iconification” pass (COMPLETE) 
• Final design for vacuum tray (This will likely be the last item complete) 
• Wild Power Surprise (IN PROGRESS)

OK, time to head back to working on Streets Of Steel. As we go, here is a preview of the LEVEL 1 manual cover, some inner pages, and the new “iconofied” card layout.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wild Power Games