Crown of Ash - December Update
6 months ago – Fri, Dec 01, 2023 at 03:44:43 PM

It's the last update of 2023, and what a year it's been.

Sorry this update is slightly later in the day than I normally aim for, November was a big month for myself and the game. I got married early on in the month and enjoyed an amazing honeymoon in Japan. But to my new wife's dismay I didn't take much of a break from the production of Crown of Ash.

Which brings me onto my next bit of news... we are officially in production!!

Print proofs have been signed off for the English version and the other languages are mostly done. The last few tweaks have been progressed and deposits have been paid. I'm not sure if I'll get factory photos but I will try.

In the meantime this update will go through the Deluxe Upgrade and the Rising Fighters packs in detail. There have been some minor changes made over the last month with these to make them the best they can be.

Pledge manager will close at the end of the month!

There's still time to grab the Deluxe Upgrade and Rising Fighters Modules via the pledge manager until the end of the month, so if you like what you see below you haven't missed out.

Address changes will still be possible until further notice.

The main tweaks to the base game in the last update were around the insert, which had some fitment issues.

As you can now see from the images above the tiles and player mats now fit perfectly. The factory have even done some tests with card sleeves to check they fit nicely. So I'm really happy with this now.

One other small change requested by my Chinese publisher, the resources will now be slightly thicker too.

Here are some detail shots of the Rising Fighter Module which is looking amazing! The only tweaks made to this are making the box bigger to fit all the goodies in. Other than that it's good to go to production.

The deluxe Upgrade is still going through a few revisions as I work with the factory but it's getting pretty close!

The detail on the wooden tiles isn't quite as crisp as I'd like. The way they are printed means that a white base layer has to be printed first before the colour layers. Although very accurate, it's impossible to be 100% aligned meaning a slight white ghosting appears around the images.

 To combat this I have made the designs simpler and bolder to really allow the design to pop!

The bags have been the hardest part of the whole production. These latest tests are very good but I have a slight issue with the digital print, which doesn't have the boldness I know screen printing has. The issue is, with bags this small screen printing multiple colours is not possible.

To solve this I've made the designs single colour so they can be screen printed nice and big for ultimate impact. I hope you'll agree this look amazing!

The wooden coins are looking beautiful. BUT I think we can make them better. I've been working through samples to make the paint metallic gold instead of matte gold, a small change but I think it's worth it.

Even though the sample I have is incorrectly printed with the same side on each surface 🤦 these are absolutely stunning dice. I had no feedback for the manufacturer (other than print it correctly please!) which considering how picky I am I'm sure they were relieved.

The turn tracker tokens are also things of beauty, I have tweaked the colours very slightly but these are pretty much perfect.

That's all for this update! The next will be in 2024, hasn't it just flown by!

Crown of Ash - November Update
7 months ago – Wed, Nov 01, 2023 at 07:15:58 AM

Quite a big update this month with tons to show.

The pre-production prototype arrived, this is where I can make some final adjustments before it goes into mass production.

As there is a lot to show I'm sticking to the base game in this update, I'll focus on the Deluxe upgrade and Rising Fighters updates in the next update as there is a bit work refinement needed on those before we can start production. 

The box arrived in all it's UV varnish glory. It's a little hard to photograph just how nice this reflective layer looks in person.

I've updated the artwork inside the box top and removed the logo to give it a more authentic 'old book' pattern page vibe.  

This is the first time I'm seeing the box insert in person. I'm pretty impressed, the factory did an amazing job translating the design into vacuum moulded plastic. There are's still some changes to be made to hold all the components, but were' 90% the way there.

The wooden resources look amazing! I'm looking into them being printed double sided but the detail on these is lovely. Very cool to finally have these in hand as the really add to the theme of the game more than cubes did.

Our minions officially now have faces. Just in time for halloween! I love how these came out although I'm not quite happy with the colour so I've selected new Pantone chips for the base colour so they should match the rest of the printed materials a little better.

That's it for October

As you can see, there's not much more to sort before we can get the mass production going. Just altering the insert and adjusting the colours slightly. So I hope to have the base game in production very soon.

One final cool thing to share. Our Chinese publishing partner just sent over the translated game box. I've been very excited to see this, it looks awesome!

Thank you backers!

Crown of Ash - October Update
8 months ago – Sun, Oct 01, 2023 at 07:53:09 AM

Another month has flown by and we're that little bit closer to hitting the button on mass production of the game.

This last month has been print testing and making minor adjustments to the files to put together pre-production prototype. This will be a full copy of the game and the upgrades shipped to me in person for a final once over before production begins. This is due to be finished next week so I'm hoping to have it in my hands before the next update. Fingers crossed!

Getting decent pictures from the factory has been a challenge. They are fantastic printers but terrible product photographers so most of the images they send me when we are working out the details of the production are not showable.

But, we have made some decent progress and I've managed to squeeze some useable photos out of them to show you in this update.

These are one of the components I'm most excited to see. The cubes are long gone and have been replaced with these beauties.

The Ash resources have been rejected by the factory as the grain of the wood was too pronounced so they are being redone.

In the final version I hope to make these double sided but even as tests these are looking amazing! Not only will they enhance the theme of the game but also help make the game even more colourblind friendly. 

Last month the bags included with the deluxe upgrade were not working for me, so we've been back and forth through options and finally landed on something that works!

The graphics need to be resized as I want them much bigger on the final versions, but I'm happy with the size and material of these now.. result!

Prints for the pre-production prototype are coming along nicely. We had to make some adjustments to the punchboards to ensure clear space and I resized the coins to be a little bigger in the final game. 

I've redesigned the turn tracker to be a little clearer for 1/2 player games on recommendation from my German publishing partner.

I'm removing the logo from the inner box print as I want it to feel like the pattern pages from old hardback books so they are reprinting that.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the game with the Spot UV varnish layer which we're doing tests on at the moment too.

That's it for another month!

Fingers crossed this next month should be significant!  will of course update you all whatever the weather. 

PS.

One more thing. I have updated the TTS mod to include the latest components and player powers so it now represents the final game much better than the previous version did.

Check it out here

Thank you to all the backers!

Crown of Ash - September Update
9 months ago – Fri, Sep 01, 2023 at 11:33:51 AM

It's September and for those in the Northern Hemisphere that means shorter days, longer nights and more time spent inside playing games!

The game is still with our partners for translation, but we have received the artwork from Tlama Games who are producing the Czech version of the game, which was offered through the Kickstarter.

I've been finishing off the final bits of print artwork and working closely with our manufacturer to advance the parts of the game that weren't finalised before the campaign. This mainly includes the components that won't be made in-house at our printer, including the metal tokens and cloth bags. 

Just as anticipated a lot of the photos I'm being send by my manufacturers aren't fit for public consumption. Serious potato quality for the most part! But I did hassle them for some decent shots to show everyone some of the progress and managed to obtain a few.

There are still a few hundred backers yet to fill out the pledge manager. If you haven't filled out the PM and have any issues or questions, please do get in touch with me on Kickstarter and I will sort ASAP.

To our Czech backers you can read the translated rulebook  HERE courtesy of Tlama Games who did an amazing job!

As mentioned I've been working with my manufactuer to progress some of the externally produced components. They sent over the first tests of the enamel turn tracker tokens that come with the Deluxe Upgrade kit. There are still some refinement to be done and the colours aren't quite right but I think these are looking fantastic.

I think Helen, my manufacture, might have quite small hands because these look quite big in the photos, but they are 20mm in diameter so the fine detail here is amazing.

Less successful was the initial bag tests. The white bag that will house the standees is quite nice although it will need some further tests to get the sizing perfect.

The coloured bags on the other hand are no good. My printer sourced these little fuzzy things just to do some initial tests. But I have rejected them. I'm not happy with the material, colour or print so we will be back with some better options soon.

I was lucky enough to attend Norwich Games Con in my home town of Norwich, England and demo Crown of Ash in a beautiful 14th Century former friary church.

Had an absolute amazing time and we had the highest scoring structure yet at 14 points, that's twice what the citadel was worth, a  hisk risk high reward strategy for sure.

Not much on the print front this time. I've tweaked the artwork for the player screens for the Rising Fighters module. Looking forward to seeing these printed.

That's it for another month!

We're getting much closer to pushing the button. So thank you all again for following along and supporting the project as we approach this mile-stone, I really appreciate every one of you!

Cheers,

Richard

PS. special shout-out to Felix who sent me a photo of the 3D printed mini they produced using the sliced file below.

A fully supported sliced file can be downloaded HERE

I still can't track down the original STL file. If anyone knows of a way to reverse a slicer file back to a 3D file, let me know.

Crown of Ash - August Update
10 months ago – Tue, Aug 01, 2023 at 08:51:50 AM

How on earth is it August already! We haven't really had summer in the UK yet, so plenty of time for me to stay in and work away at the many tasks needed to get you your game intact and on time.

The game is currently with our foreign language partners for translation, I expect these to be finished by mid-September.

I've been busy designing the remaining assets to supply to the manufacturer before we start the prototyping components. To speed up this part, I did a lot before the campaign began, including picking the paper stocks, speccing different finishes, perfecting the Minons etc. But there are still a bunch of components added in stretch goals that I want to test before pressing the button on production.

I'm anticipating that next few months update might be a little lighter than usual as I wait for samples to arrive.

I will try to get my manufacturer to take some photos in advance, but in my experience so far, they are amazing at producing boardgames... terrible at photography. But, I will share everything I get with you all.

Thank you to everyone who has filled out their details on the pledge manager.

We will be charging cards today for anyone who has filled out the PM already. but the PM is still open, and will be for a little while yet, so If you need to change address you can still do so.

There are still a few hundred backers yet to fill out the PM. If you have any issues just drop me a message through Kickstarter.

Also, anyone with an encrypted apple email, please message me if you haven't done-so already.

Little bonus this month.

A while ago I produced a 3D printable mini for the big bad strength 6 blood fighter (It's since had it's wings clipped). I wanted to give everyone the STL file, but I've managed to lose it and didn't want to delay this update looking for it.

But I have the Chitubox slicer file, specifically for an Elegoo Mars Pro 2, but I'm sure will also work on other machines.

It's fully supported already and the file can be downloaded HERE

If you do print it, send me over a photo, I would love to see it.

I've been working with my manufacturer to design a custom insert for the game. It's still in early stages and will require some tinkering to get everything perfect and also practical for mass production. But it gives you a good idea of what I'm trying to achieve.

For those who love the extra detail. Here's a sneak peak at the remaining print files produced for the game.

That's it for another month!

So far we're well on track, I will of course let you all know if anything changes. 

Cheers,

Richard

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