Lead your colony to salvation from a treacherous alien planet. A strategic bunker building and exploration board game for 1-4 players.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Manufacturing Is Go, Timeline Estimate & Card Sleeves!
almost 2 years ago
– Sat, Jun 25, 2022 at 05:34:00 AM
Greetings all! It's been a little while since the last update and for that I do apologise. It turns out learning to drive, planning a wedding, starting a new job and all the while publishing a board game, can keep a person quite busy! Who would have thought it, eh? But never fear, I am now officially a driver, in two weeks I shall be wed and I've pretty much settled into the new job. The rest of the year should be a bit more straight forward!
Anywho, enough about my silly life, on with the important stuff! I have lots to tell...
Manufacturing Is Go!
The biggest news to report is that we've finished playtesting and making our final tweaks to the game. Arkosa is now fully signed off with the manufacturer and production has begun! I promised you an unboxing video last week, but alas my schedule has not prohibited it. However here is a whole bunch of pictures for you to eyeball. I've made a few notes on each where we've implemented changes. Take a looksee:
That gap on the back of the box has now been filled with your usual barcode, safety markings and such. Otherwise we're very happy with the box, the white borders look great!
Bunker room tiles are all looking good - here's a couple of illustrations that may not have be present in the prototypes.
Bribe cards - the white borders are a bit too deep. The final version will have artwork a little bigger and the borders a little smaller.
The resource dice - originally we thought these would be engraved shapes but turns out we can print straight onto the dice - and a good thing too - much more readable and looks great!
Colonist cards - as per the bribe cards, the white borders are a little too wide and will be reduced - we've also be upped the size of the iconography at the top of the cards so symbols are easier to decipher.
Colony Leader Board - original idea to change this into two cards was scrapped, but now they are made of a rigid card rather than punchboard. This resolves our too much punchboard issue we encountered earlier in the year.
Resource tokens - differentiating between the single and triple tokens proved tricky during testing. We've lightened the colours on the triple tokens to make them stand out more in the final version.
Event Cards - includes the wondrous Super Moonshine that was unlocked via a social stretch goal! These are all as they are, albeit with a new raid card back background (now an Arkosan beastie looming in the dark).
Bunker board and various tokens - a few of the bunker rooms have been spruced up a bit - illustrations looking nice and crisp now. There were a couple of little misprints on the bunker boards which we picked up and resolved.
Board, box, rulebook, quick guide sheet - quad-fold game board fits nicely in the box and the quality is really nice.
Game Board - the details on the illustrations throughout Arkosa's landscape have been tidied up - here's a close up of the research outpost location.
Timeline
Now manufacturing has commenced, we've been able to sit down and take a look at the timeline for the rest of the campaign. We've been able to make some estimates on when fulfilment may begin to different parts of the world. We'll be splitting the games between two freights, one heading to the US and one heading to the UK. Copies on the UK freight will fulfil to Europe and ROW; copies to the US will fulfil to the US, Canada and Australia. The US freight has a slightly shorter journey time than the UK one so you lucky duckies over the pond may well see the first copies arrive.
The good news in all this is that we are still on track to get everyones' games delivered before Christmas. Nice!
Card Sleeves
A request for card sizes for the purpose of sleeving was made recently made. Here's a breakdown of the numbers of cards of each size that you'll find in the Arkosa box:
63x88mm - 108 cards
56x87mm - 65 cards
44x63mm - 20 cards
On the subject of card sleeves, it is my hearty recommendation you check out Vault X! They are Arkosa's official sponsor and ruddy lovely people too. They have been helping us out with all the logistics of getting the games to your door. We would love it if you considered using their sleeves to protect Arkosa's many fine colonists. They'd look lovely in a Vault X sleeve I'm sure 😉
Until the next transmission...
That's all for now, folks! Thanks for your patience as I traverse a somewhat hectic period of my life! It's very exciting that copies of Arkosa are being made as we speak. Hopefully the next update will bring news of a completed production run and ships ready to set sail!
As always, if you have any questions, just fire a a message my way. But for now...
*Tentacle High Five!*
~Angela
PPC En Route
about 2 years ago
– Thu, May 05, 2022 at 06:53:32 PM
Greetings all! Apologies this latest check-in is slightly late. I was awaiting the arrival of the PPC before sending this next update, however it's taking a smidge longer than expected. But never fear, it is en route! I just wanted to give you all a quick update to let you know that things are still progressing!
As per my last update, all artwork was sent over to the factory on April 9th, and since then, it's just been a waiting game for the sample copy to be completed and shipped over to us. Who fancies a sneak preview...?
Photos From The Factory
WinGo have kindly sent me a few preview pics (see below) of the sample copy that is currently flying over to the UK! It's very exciting to see the game in all it's cardboardy glory. Especially that new box design that you all voted for. 😍😍😍
Once the game arrives, we'll be carefully checking the artwork and making sure we're happy with the colours of everything, and scouring all the text for any typos we may have missed. I'll also be showing the game to Mattie so they can check they are happy with all the illustrations, and submit any last minute tweaks if necessary.
After a final few rounds of playtesting, we will get everything signed off, and then the mass production can begin!
Until the next transmission...
This is a short but sweet update, but the next one will be very exciting indeed! There will be lots more pictures to come and I will do a little unboxing video so you can see all the lovely content you'll be getting in your copy of Arkosa. Providing there are no glaring issues with the sample copy, I should be able to finalise timelines further too, and we can start looking at whether we will hit the expected delivery date (it's looking good so far!) 🚀
That's all for now, folks!
*Tentacle High Five!*
~Angela
P.S. Literally as I was about to press the publish button, look what arrived! Woohoo! 🥳🥳🥳
The Founders' Shrine + Artwork Heading For Production
about 2 years ago
– Fri, Apr 01, 2022 at 03:33:29 AM
Hello everyone! Hope the month of March has treated you well. Arkosa progress has been good despite the dreaded Covid finally catching me (I'm battling through!). Here's what we've been up to...
The Founders' Shrine
The great monument to our Founders' backers is complete! Mattie had the excellent idea to inscribe the names into one of the cliff faces on the game board. So not only are the names featured in the rulebook but you can also see them on the planet itself while you are playing the game! You can spot your inscription on the image below. If you want to zoom in a bit more, you can find the names in the latest version of the rulebook here (pg. 26-27).
If you have any issues with your inscription (e.g. spot a typo) then throw me a message. There is still time to edit the shrine before the game goes into mass production.
Artwork Heading To Manufacturer
Huzzah! The plan was to be sending off artwork by the end of Q3 and we just about made it 🥳 Enough illustrations are now optimised for us to send everything off to the manufacturer for the making of the PPC version of Arkosa. We have started this process already and hope to have everything sent over in the next couple of days. Once everything is approved and that process has begun, we'll take a closer look at timelines and see if we're still on track for that December 2022 delivery date. I'll endeavour to give you a visual guide of all the checkpoints in the next update!
Until the next transmission...
It's really exciting to get to this point and get the ball rolling on making the PPC. Can't wait to see this thing in all it's cardboardy glory!
Thanks for all your continued support and also for filling out those BackerKit surveys. 85% are now completed, including all the Founders backers, which allowed us to create your great monument! Excellent work 👍
There's still plenty of time if you haven't filled out your survey yet, so don't panic! If you're having trouble accessing BackerKit just drop me a message. I've managed to help a few people out with that so far ☺️
That's all to for now, Earthlings!
*Tentacle High Five!*
~Angela
Last Call For Founders Pledges + Further Artwork Enhancements
about 2 years ago
– Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 11:58:57 PM
Greetings one and all! Hope you are having a top notch February. In the world of Arkosa things are progressing nicely... 🚀
Founders Pledges
Founders Pledge backers! If you are reading this update and are yet to complete your Backerkit survey then hop to it! If you can't find the relevant email, use this link here.
I will soon be inscribing all 150 backers' names into the Founders shrine in the rulebook (wish me luck!). At the moment I have 138 / 150 names. So close! I'll be giving the remaining 12 of you a nudge. If you could get those surveys completed at your earliest convenience, that would be a great help. With the aim to have all artwork completed and ready to go by the end of Q1, the inscribing will need to start soon!
Artwork Sprucing
Mattie is continuing with the quality control of all the illustrations in the game. All the hard work they are putting in is going to make for a much more polished version of Arkosa than you saw in the videos featuring the prototypes. I'm really excited to see the game in it's final form!
The box art and some of the characters that appear on it were given some attention over the last few weeks. I also finished up the back of the box design. Here's a little preview of how both sides will look! I don't know about you but I think this is going to look rather lovely on the shelf 😍
Until the next transmission...
As mentioned in January's update, not too much to report in this one but hopefully March will bring some more exciting progress to report as we aim to finish up quality control and get all artwork delivered to the manufacturer.
Until then, thanks once again for your ongoing support, and also a big hello to anyone reading this who's popped in a late pledge through Backerkit. We've had a whole bunch of people doing so and it's great to have even more folks getting involved with our bunker building board game project ☺️ Thank you! ❤️
That's all to report for now!
*Tentacle High Five!*
~Angela
Surveys, Surveys, Surveys!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 04:30:38 AM
A belated happy new year everyone! I hope your 2022 has started wonderfully ☺️
In the world of Arkosa, things are going well. Mattie is continuing to put finishing touches to artwork (some examples below) and I have been working with WinGo to overcome some of the hurdles I spoke about in the last transmission! All is proceeding according to plan and we have now reached the point we can fully open the pledge manager and send out surveys.
Surveys, Surveys, Surveys!
Each backer should now have an email from BackerKit. Don't forget to check those spam folders if you can't see yours! If you think your email got lost in the post, you can use this link here to request a new one.
Through the pledge manager, you can pay for shipping, add your address and purchase any add-on copies of the game. If you backed for a Founders' pledge, you will also be asked for the name you wish to be inscribed into Arkosan rock! It's up to you what to go for. It could be your name, a friend's name, your pet's name... as long as it's no more than 30 characters then it's all good. Oh, and keep it clean! 😉
Founders' pledge backers will need to complete their surveys before artwork is sent off to the manufacturer, so if you could do this at your earliest convenience, it would be much appreciated! Reminders will head your way as we get closer to that deadline.
When adding your shipping address, make sure it is the relevant address for when your games are delivered in December 2022. If your address changes between now and then, you should still be able to go back and edit it later. Details won't be locked in until closer to the fulfilment date.
Until the next transmission
If anyone has any issues or questions with the pledge manager, then please do send me a message, but it looks like it's all working well so far! Over 25% of surveys have already been completed, with lots of lovely people leaving a tip too, you rock! ❤️
We're aiming to have all artwork sent off to the manufacturer by the end of Q1 this year. So you can expect more talk about spruced up artwork in the February update, but come March we should have some more exciting progress to report 🚀
