Legends Untold

Art Update
over 7 years ago – Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 11:21:29 PM

 All,

today I want to talk to you about the Art for Legends Untold. Since we funded we have been working extremely hard to try and find the best artists we can find and really give you an amazing game.  Here is some of the improved artwork for the game, some outfits in this case:

We are very happy with the quality of these pieces and feel they fit the game thematically. There has however been a comment made today in our comments section that we feel it is important to address:

Statement from Inspiring Games in response to remarks from Clockwork Games

James Colmer of Clockwork Games has produced the following for Legends Untold: He has coloured one Foe (the Goblin Shaman), and Two Heroes (The Gardener and Neophyte). These three pictures and all of the other pencil drawings in the game (The Sewers Concept art, the Treasure Quest Foes) were drawn by another artist. James has produced 11 existing Location cards, and all of the icons that go with them.

There was a speculative box art that James produced as a demo piece that was not commissioned. When it was reviewed it was felt it was neither suitable nor sympathetic to the games intended theme. The current box art was produced by another artist and is owned by IG.   

All of the work by any artist that has been commissioned has been paid for in full by Inspiring Games.

In addition to this an advance was given to Clockwork Games pre Christmas from personal funds (no Kickstarter proceeds had been received at that point), as a courtesy advance payment for work to come.

After review of the proposed artistic output in respect of James Colmer. IG felt a better use of customer funding would be the use of other artists for loot asset and other card upgrades. We then contacted James to advise of this change of direction and to offer a significant amount of work (although less than the originally indicated amount of work) as we felt his talent was better used on the larger images. We made it very clear this was not a "price chip" tactic and agreed to pay his increased hourly rate which he announced was in effect from the 1st January 2017.

At this point James told me he did not want to do any more work for Inspiring Games. He said the best thing was to refund any funds that IG had sent as upfront payment for the work we wanted and that he would return the advance when he could find other work.

After a number of days of being unable to contact James, IG posted job adverts (to find new artists) with the following thoughts: 

1 - We can not use artworks produced by James if he does not want the work

2 - In which case all of the Heroes we were going to have done were now in the wrong style, we would therefore take this opportunity to give backers a full art upgrade and address comments about the quality of the new Heroes. By way of indication we are commissioning artists that have worked for several large Tabletop Publishing companies. We have had several applicants and we feel these changes will improve upon the overall look and feel of the existing drawn and coloured version of the heroes. 

I then sent a final message to James, trying to give him the additional work to close out the Location cards. At this point I stated that a larger volume of work was still there if he wanted it and the amount of work available would be 70% of the previously communicated amount at the hourly rate that had been specified with potentially more to follow. To be clear this payment was not a price chip, the other 30% of the work has gone to other artists whom we feel are better suited to the game. 

James declined this work.

At this point I stated I had already started to commission other artists who were going to produce cards for Legends. James stated that I may not use the existing art he had produced, I politely requested the down payment to be returned, as James no longer wished previously produced works to be a part of the project.

We are disappointed that after a great relationship so far, that this problem has yet to find a resolution.

We hope that the remainder of the Legends Untold project will result in a quality game for all of our backers, and that those we work with to deliver the game feel as though working with IG has been a positive experience.

We want to continue making this game wonderful and beautiful, that is what you have backed us to do.  We are very grateful of your backing to date and take nothing for granted.  Yes we make mistakes, we have always owned up to them. We also however have to answer all queries made of us and in this case we have tried to do so in a professional and non emotional manner.

Here is an example of the exciting art we want to show you to help build this world. This is a WIP piece from a new artist we are working with.  This piece when finished and fully coloured is the quality of art we wish to provide for you in Legends Untold.

Kevin & the Inspiring Games Team 14 January 2017

Merry Christmas from Inspiring Games
over 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 11:14:55 PM

 Dear all,

The BackerKit functionality will be launched shortly after Christmas and we will be working away on all the good stuff you are aware of from previous updates after a short break for the Christmas period.

At this point we just want to wish all of you a fantastic break and to say sincere thanks for giving us the chance to make our own game and share it with fellow Gamers across the world. Seriously thank you so much, we haven't had this good a Christmas present since we were kids!

For now we will leave you with Noel, and hope that Dave Gnimshka Bennett will put out some nice treats to keep him going until we return.

Have a wonderful holiday guys, best wishes to you and your families.

Cheers

Kev, Hugh and Scott  (and Noel)

Batteries recharged and off we go - proposed improvement to Druid Deck
over 7 years ago – Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 10:46:09 PM

Hi guys,

After we closed last week we had a brief celebration (I finally had that beer I said I would have if we passed £12k) and caught up on sleep.  And there was a lot of sleep to be caught up on!

We caught up on some much needed family time also as our respective families have all been somewhat neglected over the past month. I'm sure you can all understand that, we want to pursue the dream and make amazing games for you, but we have to make that work with our real lives too.

So with batteries recharged we are back on it and making Legends come to life.

First things first is reconciling all that crazy awesome stuff you unlocked over the campaign, and boy did we have fun making that adventure for you!  So I've spent the whole day on the SpreadSheet O'doom to make sure the game we told you you are getting is the one we think you are.

The good news - it is, it all adds up!  

So we are working on those cards right now, and to be clear there are a lot of cards.

Final Count:

Caves deck 153 cards (27 of which are double pokers)

Sewers deck 153 cards (27 of which are double pokers) 

Druid Booster 10 cards (2 of which are double pokers)

Alchemist Booster 10 cards (1 of which is a double poker)

Treasure Booster 12 cards (1 of which is a double poker)

And that is the thing I wanted to draw your attention to.

The Druid Booster has two Double pokers in it because one is the Occupation and one is a Scenario.  However having thought about this in the cold light of day, if I were you I would rather have an additional Skill Talent for your Druid than a Scenario which you will play say twice.

As a SUGGESTION, we would propose to swap that Double Poker Scenario Card (the finding the Druid Scenario so to speak) and replace it with a Skill Talent.

We would then of course give you the Scenario Card free of charge as electronic content you can download and print off.  This way you are getting an additional card you can use all the time (the Skill Talent) and you will still get the fun of using the Scenario card to find an unlock the Druid should you so wish.

Please note the electronic delivery method is also the way we intend to do the 'Unlocking the Alchemist' Scenario Card so this proposal simply brings the Druid into line with the Alchemist in that respect. 

We think this is a better deal for you but can anyone who has an issue with this please state so in the comments section below.  We can of course keep it the way it is but we think you will have more fun with a Skill Talent than a Scenario Card.

If we can sort this minor issue quite quickly we can crack on with the remaining Backer Achievements in short order, get the voting done and work towards finalising the card sets ASAP.

We apologise for the confusion caused here, however sometimes in the cold light of day and not in the middle of a campaign you look at something and go "hang on a minute there is a better way to do this!".

Cheers

IG

£105k funding reached! The Novice Rank Treasure Quest continues
over 7 years ago – Sun, Dec 18, 2016 at 05:18:54 AM

Please note we are aware not everyone will wish to join in with the thematic content. If this is the case for you we totally respect that, please proceed to the part entitled REWARD SECTION - where it is clear what all this means.  

For those that wish to participate please read the STORY SECTION first.

STORY SECTION

You probe the hinges carefully and the door creaks open making a great deal of noise, you succeed but you wince at how carelessly you have progressed. Behind the door you start to look around but your head is quickly enveloped by a monstrous thing from above! You feel teeth slashing at your backpack, your robes and your neck. Something must have heard you coming!  

You Trade Blows with the creature, instinctively using your talent with the staff to force your assailant back with a parry and then convert the result into a Strike!  

The creature drops in a pile at your feet. On one side the hide is covered in powerful suckers, on the other a chameleon like mimicry of the sewer ceiling above. You have read of these creatures before, the Celti hunt them in Dorcha Ciuin, they taste exquisite when fried. The Achean Scholars no doubt have a proper name for this animal, but you simply know them as Rockhides. You hack a piece off for future provisions, your knife grates on something solid. You investigate further and free an undigested Conch from the innards of the creature.

With the immediate danger out of the way you look around and find yourself at a crossroad junction. To your right water flows past you from a dark tunnel. You can hear the sound of fast flowing water further into the darkness, the gurgling sound of it moving through some kind of blockage. Straight ahead you see nothing, just the dark, no noise, no clue as to the way ahead. The tunnel is dry compared to the stinking grey water that flows past your feet. To your left the running water flows past you and away. A faint torchlight can be seen in that direction

WHAT NEXT?

Choose which Direction you will take (Straight ahead, Right or Left) and let us know in the comments below. We will need to make the decision quickly (5 mins) so that you can see where you are going next and it makes sense to new backers.

REWARD SECTION

You have just unlocked:

A new Foe - the Rockhide

A new Loot card - the Questing Conch of Florian

The Foe card will be coloured and assembled at the end of the campaign. Here is the completed pencil render for you to enjoy just now.

 The Loot card will be subject to final tweaks, card coding etc.

This Loot card is dedicated to Florian who really took the Alchemy Deck Quest to heart and encouraged others to join in.

Thank you and onwards!

IG

1,000% Funded - help design the Apprentice Rank!
over 7 years ago – Sat, Dec 17, 2016 at 06:54:20 PM

Righto I had my emotional moment at £100k funding so none of that here!

Big thanks, huge thanks, MEGA thanks (see what I did there) to you all, we are so far beyond our expectations we are currently drinking our coffees from the heights of Evermist and watching the world of Mor Nadar come to life - what a blast!

So we have reached 1,000% funded well that needs something pretty special - how about a glimpse into our intention for the Apprentice Rank cards so you can influence how that may look?

We've shown you Discoveries which currently comprise Encounters and Curiosities. 

At Apprentice Rank we want to add a new card type:  Hostile Encounters.

Right now we have shown you Encounters - a card where you can meet something (usually an NPC) interact with them and then a result will occur depending on the results.

Well at Apprentice Rank we intend that some of those Encounters will be a whole lot deeper and meaningful. I don't want to get into the details of the mechanics just now, all you need to know is that some of them will be Hostile Encounters.

We will have a mechanism to give us more card real estate and therefore we can do a lot more with the game.

So this will be our plan to actually let you meet wandering NPCs and go through a more complex discussion or series of results.

So for example you may meet a wandering Newcomer - she starts off being very hostile to you, you have a chance to converse with her and change that conversation. However if you get it wrong she is likely to get hostile and this will lead to this card becoming a Foe.

So budding Lore buffs and Designers, you've seen plenty of our Vision for Legends Untold here is the challenge to you:  

Give us a Hostile Encounter.

Explain it in a paragraph or so,  why it's special and if we think it is fitting, cool and appropriate we'll put it into the world of Mor Nadar!  

We are very happy to look at +1s here and hope you guys see this as a communal "actually what he said is cool go with that" type experience rather than a competition.

If there are multiple entries we can use we will consider them all.  

IG decision has to be final, but the stuff you have suggested in the other Backer Achievements has been amazing so go do your thing folks!  

Go create a Hostile Encounter and we will try and make it for you in the Apprentice Rank!

Thanks

IG