Development update: We got... Blanks!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 30, 2021 at 04:45:50 PM

Hello Heroes!

The scorching winds of summer are hitting us hard here in Italy, but the Horrible office is still in full swing! After all, the development of our favourite dice throwing dungeon crawler doesn’t stop for such trifles like... holidays… warm sand… bright sun… seagulls singing into the distance… uhm, what were we saying again?

At the moment, we are working closely with the factory to finalise the inner trays and various items. This week we managed to get some “blanks” of the Dungeon Fighter new “core box” (Confused? Check out update #30!) shipped out to the office. These items that we call “blanks” are mock-ups of the final items (but without any printing) that are made by the factory to check technical stuff like tolerances, sizing, and so on. While definitely not eye-catching, they are instrumental to better understand how the game is going to fit in its box and if it’ll ship safely.

Cue production pics:

As usual, this part of the pre-production process involves a lot of back and forth between us and the factory, with prototypes being shipped out, checked, and double checked, approved, and eventually green lightened for mass production (or, in the worst case scenario, discarded and re-developed from scratch). As we announced in the last update, at the moment we still don’t have a clear, fixed date for the fulfilment. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we have more information from the factory, don’t worry!

That’s all for now, enjoy your summer and be safe. We need to seal the window blinds shut now, that pesky sun is peeking in again.

Until next time!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

Production delays and… A big surprise!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 01:45:04 AM

Hello Heroes!

We always hope to never have to give news like this on our Kickstarter projects… but alas, sometimes it is inevitable. We are now officially running a bit late on our production schedule, and won’t be able to fulfill the project this September as initially planned. We’ve been testing the games (and the pre-production components) really, really hard for the past few months, and the testing of the many plastic components in particular has proved to be more challenging than we expected.

The plastic components of the new Dungeon Fighter boxes have completely different requirements than regular miniatures: while the classic plastic figures only need to look nice and stand on their own, the 3d components for Dungeon Fighter need to be functional to the game... and STILL look very nice. We don’t want you trying to throw dice with floppy bone chopsticks, you know.

We’ve been working with the factory on various iterations to deliver on both the design and functionality of the throwing gadgets and the other “unusual” plastic components that were unlocked during the campaign, and while the process is going well, it’s unfortunately taking more time than we initially anticipated.

At this point, it’s still too early to quantify the delay we’ll have on our initially planned September fulfilment, but we’re still aiming for a Q4 2021 fulfilment at this moment. We’ll keep you posted in future updates.

A brand new Dungeon Fighter box?

More than ever, and unlike many other campaigns you may have supported who basically use Kickstarter as a pre-order shop, you’ve truly been supporting a game that was still being developed, and you are helping to shape it from the original concept to the final retail version. As we said above, we’ve been heavily testing each version of Dungeon Fighter for months now, trying new things here and there, balancing the game, and checking that everything works.

The games are all very fun, and each dungeon is extremely characterized with a lot of interesting quirks that makes it play differently from the others. The four boxes that we presented during the campaign have strong identities and theming, as we designed them from the ground up with clear concepts in mind, and veterans of the old Dungeon Fighter (base game and elemental expansions) will find themselves right at home from the get go.

Yet, we’ve been realizing more and more clearly as time went on that something was missing, especially for newcomers:throwing gadgets and special dice are extremely fun, but can be a bit overwhelming for people new to the Dungeon Fighter franchise. We feel a more “easy to pick up” entry point for the series is also needed, a pure, quintessential Dungeon Fighter experience like the one we released back in 2011, but with more modern rules and the fruits of the experience we gathered while creating games for the past decade.

This is why we’re introducing… Dungeon Fighter™ – Second Edition, a brand new “core box” in the new Dungeon Fighter series!

We realize this may be unexpected news, and many of you may be confused right now. Let’s start with a few key facts, then:

• This version is much closer in spirit to the original core box, lots of monsters to fight, lots of weird ways to throw dice at the target, but no “advanced” gadgets, dice or throwing techniques.
   
• The development of this version had no impact whatsoever on the delay for the production of the 4 thematic dungeons that you’ve supported through this campaign (as we said, that is due only to the unexpected technical difficulties with the development of the plastic components).
   
• The four boxes you already know are all still “Stand-alone Expansions”, you don’t need any other box to play. They are just more “advanced” dungeons compared to the new “core box”.
   
• This is the best part: all Kickstarter backers will be receiving a FREE copy of Dungeon Fighter™ – Second Edition when they receive the games they pledged for through this campaign! Yes, you read that right, you are all getting an extra Dungeon Fighter box for free! And enough sleeves to protect it, if you had them originally in your order too.
   
• If you pledged for the Collector’s Edition, you will still only receive one single, big box, but the Collector’s Edition of Dungeon Fighter will now include all of the components from 5 boxes, instead of just 4!
   

Even if the brand new box, as we said, didn’t have any impact on the unfortunate delay we’re announcing for the thematic dungeons, a lot of additional work was required to make it happen, and we also needed to rework the list of components for all games, moving some of the previously planned content to the new box, while creating more contents both for the new box and the 4 thematic boxes you already knew about. In total, we created:

• A new Box artwork (duh)
   
• 2 New Heroes (and some old familiar faces)
   
• 2 New Bosses, with new special abilities
   
• A full new Dungeon Deck composed of 21 cards
   
• A new Target Board and a new Monster Life Tracker
   
• 9 New throwing skills (did someone say “ear throw”?)
   
• Around 50 new illustrated cards: Monsters, Weapons and items
   
• 12 new wood d6 dice that are now included in the Labyrinth of Sinister Storms box (as we moved the “classic” plastic d6 dice to the new “core box”)
   

This new product will have its own production line (it has no fancy plastic components apart from the regular dice) and it’ll probably appear in retail stores around the world by the end of the year.

We think that the creation of Dungeon Fighter – Second Edition is needed to guarantee a successful retail life to the Dungeon Fighter franchise for years to come, and while this is not one of the boxes you pledged for during the campaign, this is why we are adding 1 free copy of Dungeon Fighter – Second Edition to your pledges, even if this is a huge cost for us, as you can easily imagine (we’ll also cover any additional shipping fees the added weight will cause, you’ll simply receive it alongside the rest of your pledge with no extra charges whatsoever).

We know this is big and unexpected news, we hope that you recovered from the shock and that you’ll be happy about it!

Now, who wants to take a sneak peek at the new heroes and artworks?

Here some more new content:

Whoa, that was a lot of news! Before we wrap up this update, let’s have a quick recap…

FAQ / TL;DR

- Why is the production delayed?

Plastic components need more time to be both at top quality and top functionality.

- When is the fulfilment going to start?

It’s still too early to tell precisely, but we’re still aiming to fulfil your rewards in Q4 2021.

- Is the newly announced Second Edition game slowing the project down?

No, it’ll have its separate production and it has no custom made plastic components.

- What? A new box? Do I need to pay for a whole new box?

Absolutely no! During the fulfilment of the project, each backer will receive a FREE copy of Dungeon Fighter – Second Edition (a.k.a. The new “core game”) alongside the rewards contained in their pledge level. Your shipping costs won’t change either (we will cover the difference for you).

- Will the Second Edition “core box” be available at retail?

Yes, by the end of the year probably, and it'll be just the Second Edition by then, not the four thematic dungeons showcased during the Kickstarter campaign (whose retail release date is still TBD and will most likely be in mid-late 2022 at the earliest).

- Will the Second Edition “core box” be available at retail before I receive my pledge?

Yes, it’s possible. This box has its own distribution channel and production lane. We’ll continue producing the other four boxes alongside it, but the production will take more time. We still plan to ship out your pledges before that happens anyway, but it’ll be really close.

- What if I added more pledge levels as add-ons? Am I getting a free Second Edition for each “pledge” I purchased as an add-on?

A Second Edition box will be added to each “Pledge bundle” you have in your Backerkit order, so yes, you’ll get 1 Dungeon Fighter Second Edition for each “pledge bundle” you added.

- I read you moved content from the 4 original boxes to the new one, am I still getting all of the Heroes/Items/Monsters/whatever that I liked and wanted to get?

Absolutely yes! No matter which pledge level you chose, you will receive all of the contents that you pledged for, plus a whole bunch of extra contents you still didn't know about. They may just be organized in a slightly different way among the various boxes.

- But I bought some custom sleeves to protect my game!

If you had the Custom Sleeves in your order, you’ll also receive a free extra pack of sleeves to protect your free Dungeon Fighter – Second Edition core box.

- But I have a Collector Pledge!

In that case, you’ll still only receive the single “big box edition” of Dungeon Fighter that you pledged for, but it will also contain all of the new contents from Dungeon Fighter – Second Edition in addition to those from the 4 Standalone Expansion boxes.

- What if I don't want the new free Second Edition game box?

If you really, really don’t want to receive your free copy of Dungeon Fighter – Second Edition, reach out to us at [email protected] and we’ll manually remove it from your order.

- What about [INSERT YOUR QUESTION]?

For any other questions or problems, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] as usual!

Last thoughts for this update

We repeat these words for each Kickstarter we do, but this doesn’t make them less true: the support of our backers is INVALUABLE and we want you to have the best experience possible when supporting our projects.We realise that with this latest round of news, the project is changing a lot... but to be fair, we also believe that it’s the nature of the crowdfunding projects to accommodate different solutions during the development. Kickstarter is not a shop or a pre-order store, it is a platform where you can help the ideas of creators from all over the world to grow and develop.

We think that Dungeon Fighter deserves our best efforts to make it the best it can be, and we’re working hard to give everyone the best play experience possible. Regardless, if you don’t want to be a part of the project anymore after these changes, reach out to us and we’ll offer you a full refund of your pledge, no questions asked.

As for the rest of our backers, let us once again thank you for the support, the patience and the love you showed for our silly game. It is an honour and a privilege to have you on board in this Dungeon Fighter adventure, Heroes!

Until next time!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

Development Update: We got stuff!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 11:55:09 PM

Hello Heroes!

While the orders were successfully locked on Backerkit, for the most part, a small number of backers still didn’t complete their survey or had some errors in the credit card payment process. We’re sending out reminders email to these backers, so make sure to double check your inbox and spam folder!

With that said, let's talk about more interesting stuff now, shall we? The development of Dungeon Fighter is going on behind the scenes, and we have a few new things that we can show you!

More artworks from Giulia Ghigini

Our amazing artist Giulia Ghigini is still creating new art for the whole Dungeon Fighter world, with all the oddities and weird fellas you’ve come to expect, and then some more on top for good measure. Check out this small selection:

Testing prototype components!

Production wise, we finally got some nice prototypes in hand, and we’re very happy with the results so far! We used the board and some of the dice from the old 2011 version of Dungeon Fighter to give you a better understand of sizing and proportions, check them out:

These are just white test samples, of course! The final products will be made with colored plastic. We will keep you posted as the development goes on!

 It’s a horrible, horrible guild… 

We recently opened the Guild of the Horribles, the one and only international Facebook group dedicated to all things Horrible Guild! Make sure to visit if you’re craving for delicious news, breath-taking previews, and juicy sneak-peeks! Meet other fellow Horrible enthusiasts like you to talk, share and discuss your delightfully Horrible experiences with your favourite games!

Also, the official Horrible Guild Discord Server is here! You’ll find it at this link.

We aim to build a strong and friendly community of Horrible Guild fans, so consider yourself invited… See you there!

Thanks everyone for your support, and stay safe!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

Orders locking *real* soon, big news for Monstronomicon, and an unexpected crossover!
about 3 years ago – Sun, Mar 14, 2021 at 01:02:38 AM

Dear Backers,

The “order locking” date is in sight, so we think an update to recap some important information is due.

Lock Orders Date: March 15

We’ll be locking down your orders on March 15. After this date, we’ll start charging your payment methods to collect any missing funds (for shipping and add-ons that you only added in the pledge manager), so make sure that your payment method is still valid and everything in your survey is in order by that day.

Collector Box contents and Box sizes

As the production process is being more and more finalized, we can now confirm that the Collector box will contain the complete set of 4 different Life Trackers, one for each core box, and 1 set of regular cardboard tokens (in addition to their premium metal counterparts).

We expect the size of the regular core box and stand-alone expansions to be around 25 x 25 x 7 cm (around 9.8 x 9.8 x 2.7 inches), while the size estimate for the Collector Box is currently 30 x 30 x 15 cm (roughly 11.8 x 11.8 x 5.9 inches).

Monstronomicon is no more! Ready for... one more quest?

We are very excited about the Monstronomicon project. It is our first role-playing game, and it has been growing in scope significantly during the past few months! We can’t wait to tell you more about the game and the people involved with the project… but this growth in scope and resources brought us to an inevitable conclusion. To give Monstronomicon the attention it needs and, even more importantly, to offer a higher quality product to our backers, we decided to pull it from this campaign completely and refund all backers who added it to their pledge (if needed, more on that later).

It was not an easy decision to make for us, but we believe it is the correct one: on one hand, the growing scope of the Monstronomicon project (and the additional development time that this will require) could have risked delaying the fulfillment of the entire Dungeon Fighter project; on the other hand, this will give us the freedom to further expand on the initial idea and make a better role playing game overall.

The most exciting part of this news, though, is that we have big plans for “the project formerly known as Monstronomicon”… so big that it deserves to have a new name and its own Kickstarter campaign! Introducing… ONE MORE QUEST!

While it’s way too early to define a timeframe for the new campaign, you’ll be among the first to hear more news about it in future updates here on the Dungeon Fighter campaign. We also prepared a special landing page on our website, if you want to spread the word around: it will be updated in the future with more details as development progresses.

A couple of nitty-gritty details regarding this cancellation: if you added any Monstronomicon items to your pledge (either in physical or digital form), your orders have already been updated to remove the canceled add-ons and adjust your due payments and shipping costs. NO FURTHER ACTION IS NEEDED ON YOUR SIDE. Most of you won’t even need a refund, because we still didn’t charge your cards (this will only happen when we will lock the pledge manager next week, as explained above).

Some of you, however, had already added funds for Monstronomicon manually directly on Kickstarter, while the campaign was still live. If this is your case, WE WILL NEED TO ISSUE YOU A REFUND. We will be contacting these backers directly in the next few days, and they’ll be given the chance to spend their funds for other products in the pledge manager or to receive a full refund for any Monstronomicon-related items you may have already paid for.

We know this may not be the news you were expecting to receive, but we hope to see all the RPG fans among you again for the new One More Quest campaign... we’ll have plenty of surprises for you!

 A familiar face in an unfamiliar place...

Lastly, it appears that one of the mighty heroes from Dungeon Fighter managed to get a nice merchandise distribution contract… One of his action figures just appeared in the weirdest place, with a matching themed car too!

Tiny Turbo Cars, our latest Kickstarter project, is frantic racing game where you use sliding puzzles to program the movements of your remote controlled toy cars! If you want to help this familiar looking "Monster Hunter" win some races, and help some fellow backers to unlock more stretch goals while you are at it, make sure to check it out!

Until next time!

Sincerely

the Horrible Team

Development Update: 3D, artworks and… A new adventure begins!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 12:13:21 AM

Dear backers,

First things first: after the last update, more than 90% of the project backers managed to complete their pledge manager survey. Still, a small percentage of you didn’t fill their survey yet, so if this is your case, please make sure to do it as soon as possible!

If you didn’t receive your Pledge Manager invitation email, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected], we’ll send you the link to your survey.

+++ IMPORTANT +++

We’ll be locking down your orders and late pledges on March 15. After this date, we’ll start charge your payment methods to collect any missing funds (for shipping and add-ons that you may added in the pledge manager), so make sure that your payment method is still valid and everything in your survey is in order by that day!

And now for some actual developments on the pre-production of the game: we officially have a close-to-final draft of the Collector Box! Here’s a 3d concept and the most up-to-date version of the artwork for the cover:

Just to refresh your memory, it’ll be a magnetically sealed "big box" edition of Dungeon Fighter, containing the (non overlapping) components of all 4 versions, the Kickstarter-exclusive metal Party Leader token, the Metal Upgrade Pack, the Silicone Trays Pack, the Embroidered Cloth Bags Pack, plus all the stretch goals unlocked during the campaign. In short… the deluxe Dungeon Fighter experience!

Also, take a look at this quick preview of the fancy 3d printed prototypes of some of the throwing gadgets that will be included in the final products:

Keep in mind that these pictures show the first, rough prototype tests from the factory… but we hope that you’ll like them as much as we do! These are just the first steps in the pre-production process that’ll lead us to the final (and much fancier) product.

Speaking of fancy, we also reworked the layout of the monster cards:

As you can see in the new version on the right, we removed the framing and extended the art up to the borders of the cards: this will give us more space to show the artwork from Giulia Ghigini in all its splendour!

And what if we tell you that the KS is over but we're still coming up with new stuff?

We decided to add a new type to the items: “Lost Relics”. These special items can be found in Shops just like the others, but when you buy them they will grant a permanent ability to the whole party (not just a single Hero) for the rest of the game! There will be 3 different Lost Relics in each version of the game (for a total of 12). Below you can see the layout of this new kind of card, with examples of the kind of effects that you will find on them:

Keep in mind that all these images are still Work in Progress of course, so some details might change in the future during production.

Finally, since we at Horrible Guild feel like true heroes (let’s be honest though, just the scruffy looking ones, not knights in shiny armors), we decided to jump into another adventure!

A brand new world of vehicular chaos, frantic puzzle solving, and… Tiny Turbo Cars, the new puzzle-racing game from 4Brains4Games and Hjalmar Hach, published by yours truly at the Horrible Guild! The project is currently live on kickstarter and we are already funded! We’ll be honoured to have you at our side once again for this new crazy adventure.

Until next time!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team