Crown of Ash - March Update
5 months ago – Fri, Mar 01, 2024 at 09:22:51 AM

With Chinese New Year behind us, production has resumed and the rest of the game is coming along nicely.

I will be receiving the final production copy soon to make final checks before assembly begins and the last stages of manufacturing are complete.

I'm not sure of the exact timeline yet but I'm hoping by the next update the games should be finished. 

In the meantime the factory have sent through a few more photos of the production including the main game board and some of the deluxe components.

Also below, are some alternative payer powers I've been working on.

During the downtime I've been working on some alternative player powers.

These haven't been thoroughly play-tested but should be good fun to try out at some upcoming conventions we have planned. Including Airecon in Harrogate UK this March.

I'm planning on creating a BGG thread that people can add their power ideas to as well to create a bank of additional powers that players can experiment with. 

Here are some of the initial ideas. 

That's it for another month, I'm very excited for the next update as it should have a lot of progress!

Thank you all!

Crown of Ash - February Update
6 months ago – Thu, Feb 01, 2024 at 08:01:29 AM

February already! A lot has been going on behind the scenes with Crown of Ash.

The good news is production has been progressing steadily throughout January, although not without its hiccups and I have received some photos and video of production.

The bad news is, we're definitely not going to finish before Chinese New Year now. Production was supposed to be complete in 45 days from ordering (mid Jan) well in advance. But cold weather and pre-CNY demand have extended that a lot. 

The cold weather caused extended drying times and cracking in the wooden components, as well as heavy snowfall causing logistic difficulties.

Although apparently snow at Chinese New Year indicates a good year ahead, and I think I'm feeling optimistic about it too.

So, the factory will shut this week until the 20th of February for celebrations after which the machines will be recalibrated and everything should be finished by the beginning of March. I'm not sure on the freight times yet, but I will have this info by the next update.

Address Updates

Addresses are not yet locked so if you do need to change your shipping address you can do so by logging back in to the pledge manager.

Here's a look at some of the printed materials from earlier this month, which are fully finished now. We're just waiting on the wooden components now.

WARNING VIDEO IS QUITE LOUD

Thank you to everyone for your patience, I can't wait for everyone to get the game to their tables.

And although production will stop for most of February I'm working on a little something extra for next months update which I think everyone will appreciate so keep an eye out for that on the 1st March.

Catch you all next month and happy Chinese New Year to all that celebrate it.

Richard

Crown of Ash - January Update
7 months ago – Mon, Jan 01, 2024 at 09:26:53 AM

Happy new year!

Things are still progressing well with the manufacturing of the game.

I haven't managed to squeeze out any photos of production unfortunately, but the printed materials have been er... printed. The wooden components are well underway. I hope to have a more in-depth update from the manufacture soon but all seems to be going well!

There is a potential issue however. Chinese new year. On the 10th of February China celebrates the new year and the whole country (pretty much) shuts down for celebrations.

Speaking to my fulfilment partner, it's going to be close and it's possible this might cause some delays. This is because the ports are busier leading up to the new year (as everyone want's to ship before) and also after (as the ports catch up). We're trying very hard to get the games on boats before and I will of course update everyone if this isn't possible.

Something a little different

I knew this was likely going to be a light update, so I prepared a little extra content for the coming quiet months.

I (or more my lovely wife) have written a short story within the Crown of Ash universe detailing the origins of the raisable fighters in the game.

The game being language independent means it's incredibly difficult to flesh out the lore and to be really thematic. But this is definitely something I'd love to explore and expand upon further in the future.

This took a lot of time to produce. As with everything I will produce, absolutely no AI was used. But if it's something you enjoy and would like to see more of, let me know in the comments.

First is the titular Ash fighters.

Thank you lovely backers!

Crown of Ash - December Update
8 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
9 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!