Christmas in Kabula - 2022 recap and 2023 news!
about 2 years ago – Tue, Dec 27, 2022 at 02:36:44 AM

Hello everyone!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and got all the presents you wanted. Well. Not all, as you don’t have the bestest game out there in your hands yet. Yes… we mean Kabula. 

It’s been a big year for us here at Stranger Games Studio. So, in our final update of 2022 we would like to give a brief overview of what we have achieved so far and what to expect from us in 2023.

We also have a little gift for you at the end :)

We’ll start off with our greatest accomplishment: Kabula, our first board game as a company, which was successfully funded thanks to all of you. We are very grateful to those of you who stuck around from our first campaign in October '21, which we cancelled one week in, those who joined the campaign in February'22 and those who supported us during pledge manager. All of you, at any pledge level, have been amazing and all your comments and feedback helped making us stronger! Thank you!

Since the successful funding, we have worked tirelessly to revise the game to become the best it possibly can become. This involved countless hours of playtesting online, going through cards over and over again, back and forth with the manufacturer and of course interacting with you to get your feedback on Kabula. We also ran not ONE but TWO giveaways. Much of this happened on a short notice, so if you are interested in extemporary communications, you may consider joining our socials:

Our Instagram and Facebook, as well as our Discord server. So we get the chance to share with you all the exciting upcoming news from us, and you can join us through playtesting to help make our future games even better!

Throughout all the craziness of 2022, we also had to change manufacturer. We did this out of growing concerns over the quality of our communications and we are very glad we did so (though if we had done it 6 months earlier it would have been even better). After starting to work with BangWee, we realized the sculpts for the miniatures needed several adjustments. The 3D artist who made the sculpts, Rod Tinapay, is working on them right now* to make sure you get the best possible Kabula monster and Hero minis! (*he may actually be enjoying family right now, but we swear he is working on them). 

We hope to finish revisions in January so we can roll onto manufacturing ASAP.

In our previous update we mentioned prototype copies which is something very exciting for us because we can finally get to play Kabula in person with a version as close to the real one as possible. Even though we loved working on the online version, having a physical copy helps so much with play sessions and spell checks. Since receiving the prototype, we have played with friends and strangers in homes and cafes. We are not stopping though, we will inform you of any new meetups, so if you are close by, you can join us!

We are currently reviewing the rulebook one final time and finalising the cards to send to BangWee for manufacturing. The situation is looking much better with shipping so we should not have any delays on that…. Hopefully! We will keep you posted on this though in future updates as we get closer to finalizing manufacturing and getting ready for shipping.

To give you a small idea of what to expect in 2023:

We are focusing 90% of our efforts on getting Kabula in your hands but in the meantime, we are slowly working on two new games. One game is a more fast paced and less “heavy” card game whose placeholder name for now is Dice Havoc. As you can tell, it’s not only a card game but also involves dice! The game is based in the Kabula universe and keeps some of the craziness but at a much lower complexity. Hopefully we have this ready by the end of 2023!

The second game is a story driven, campaign board game with some very cool new mechanics. Let's call it Dark Chrone for now. We don’t want to give away too much on this, but we expect to launch this game in 2024/25 so you will definitely want to stay tuned and follow us everywhere to find out first about it!

Finally, we have a little gift to thank you for all the support and for making our first game possible...a gift who is still looking for its twin and may well do so during your Kabula games! Despite not reaching the stretch goal, during sculpt revision we were able to sneak the Weretesticle in, so we are unlocking it for you! Merry Christmas! May its howling warm up your coldest nights!

From all of us at Stranger Games Studios we wish you all a Happy New Year and hope to see you all around in 2023!

A Kabula of November News
over 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 11:56:54 AM

Hello all,

Whether you celebrated Thanksgiving or not, we hope you had a great time! Since, statistically speaking, not all of us can be having a great time all of the time, we at least wish you are keeping your fight stance and pushing through with some optimism!

Here things are reasonably good, we are not as fast as we hoped to but there are continuous progresses :) Today we'll talk about prototypes, events and rules, and how we acted upon your latest feedback. But let's start with some brief news on the manufacturing status! Aaaaaaand...

....we're not manufacturing yet :(

Fixing the sculpts is taking longer than planned, we had been overly optimistic thinking things could be fixed in a few weeks. Reasonably, we won't be done before January. What we can say is that things are moving forward every week. Our very trusted Rod Tinapay is back on the project and sculpts are being tended to like babies (not like Isolde's babies, luckily...). Given the current shipping situation, April delivery is still feasible, but please bear in mind this is an estimate, we won't know for real until things are shipped.

Nonetheless, we have not been idle. After a thorough revision of all cards and print components, we sent some copies to print. This has nothing to do with scale manufacturing, we are talking about prototype copies. Nonetheless this is like the beta version of Kabula, all content is supposed to be final. We will be playtesting it live with as many people as possible and fix any issue we may potentially find. The idea is that as soon as the moulds for the miniatures are ready, we'll be able to send everything to print with 100% confidence that the files are perfect.

Playtesting events and presentations of the game are planned in London, Brussels and Palermo. First it will be London, on 10th and 11th December! We were thinking of the Bad Moon Cafe for one of the dates, but nothing in set in stone, please do write us here or in a private message if you have suggestions :)

We also worked on a new version of our rulebook, which as usual, you can comment on! Thanks to all of those who are contributing to make it as good as it can be!

With regards to your feedback following our last update:

1) We added two little arrows on the compasses on the board to show which direction gets priority when two are equally viable for an NPC. They are small, as you are not supposed to look at them for most of the time but should serve as a refresher in case you get confused.

We also included many examples with figures in the rulebook, to make sure everything is as clear as possible.

2) Regarding Clayton, we modified the "farmer" ending to make sure he has one potential positive outcome for the relationship with his dog. We are very happy with it, the previous set of skills for this card was not as unique as the others, and we had been discussing about having the dog almost as a second familio for a long time; great you pushed us to improve this!

Some of you asked us why the sad story with the dog is necessary in the first place and if it shouldn't just be removed altogether. This is the reason why we won't change it:

If you don't like using the Poor Doggy attack, it is ok. Nobody should play a xenophobic lying politician and feel too comfortable while doing so. You are playing a bad character and are doing nasty things. At the same time, some people may not be comfortable playing as a mother sending her kids to fight (they die like flies, 1 hp and no possibility to block) just so that she can steal a magic tree and deprive a whole Island of its Immortality. Similar observation could be made for most heroes, monsters, items etc.

In Kabula, many of the choices that you will make are questionable. The trade off of what you feel like doing is all yours. Will you do what is most convenient to win the game, what you believe is right or just what is sillier?

We hope this doesn't sound defensive, we loved the feedback, it made the game better and we appreciate all comments! Just trying to be transparent on how we choose what is best for the game. Clayton was missing a chance of redemption, which we always try to give (up to a point), turning him into a lovely hero was simply not the intended direction for him :)

This is it for this time! Any comments or questions?

We'll give more info on the events soon and will definitely share some prototype pics for the next update! Thanks for all your support along these months, we hope to make you proud very soon!

Pumpkins and Kabulas
over 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 01, 2022 at 02:46:25 PM

Hello you scary people,

Hope you are having a great Halloween or in any case enjoying life :) 

Today we are giving you some updates on design and production and, as usual, we'll close with our Design Diary. 

Production

As from our previous update, we are still adapting the sculpts for injection moulding. Work is not finished yet, but it moves steadily forward and we have no additional delays to announce. For now we confirm the March/April delivery timeline. Sculpts still look great too, which was our main concern!

We shared many images with our previous newsletter, but here you have a quick example :)

Final Touches

Graphic design for all components is finished, at this stage we just go around fixing typos and organizing files. 

Nonetheless, we are still thinking of alternatives for the item cards background. What would you think about a much lighter one? It's definitely clear, not sure if it's too anonymous. Do you like the table presence of the lighter cards?  

Playtesting and Wording

Playtesting through our discord server is never stopping! In the past weeks we have been exchanging playtests with a few game designers. We had a great time and we'll share their projects with you when they are closer to publishing. Luckily they all enjoyed Kabula and we haven't found anything we need to change. Nonetheless, as the road to perfection is a never-ending one, we spotted some wording that may not be as clear as we thought it was. Let's see what you think!

Whenever figures which are not directly controlled by a player move (wild monsters, guardians, hero automas etc) and two different paths are equally viable, Kabula rules say that the figure will move in "the most clockwise direction". With this we mean the direction further along the clock. In the example above, a wild Polar Rhinoplast is moving towards Hot Springs; North and North East are equally viable options for its first step. Following the rule, the Rhino will move NE, as NE is further along the clock than N. Does our current wording "most clockwise" make any sense to describe this direction? Should we say "further along the clock"?? "Further along the compass in the clockwise direction"??? "To the right of the direction of the movement"????

Please enlighten us with your backer wisdom!    

Design Diary

 Our design diary today is about Clayton, one of the most influential figures in modern politics.

After many tough years of not doing much, and sophisticated studies in my dad pays the bill, Clayton was eventually summoned to the Island of the Kabula, and realized it was the right moment to share his skills with the natives! He joined KNP, the Kabula Nationalist Party, and his mission is getting all those annoying Earthlings out of the Island. Let's admit it: Things were better before they arrived!

Clayton's skills are just as devious as his mindset. He got a dog mostly to get votes, but he treats it so poorly that it hurts to watch. This is literally his weapon.

Unlike for physical attacks, which roll for aim and can be blocked by armors, the only way to defend against Poor Doggy is spending a brain token. As wild monsters and guardians do not play by spending Parts, this translate into unblockable damage for them, and also for heroes this is quite an annoying attack to deal with (if it wasn't clear already, brains are not THAT common in the Island...)

His unique hero power Opportunistic also allows him to get any Part he may need by discarding two other Parts from his mat. Quite convenient!

Let's have a look at his personality cards :)

#creepy/#practical: This is just what you'd expect he may become. Never taking responsibility for any problem and blaming somebody else instead of taking action, with this personality Clayton unlocks It's THEIR fault, Get them! With this he can redirect an attack towards another target in range. It costs you a Raging Brain, but oh boy if it's worth it :) 

As you may have noticed, the artwork is an obvious tribute to V for Vendetta!

#generous/#lazy: This personality is the exact opposite of the previous one …which somehow doesn't really make it that much better :) As an Idealistic, Clayton is engrossed by any little thing that is not exactly as it should be. And he ends up doing nothing about it, you never know somebody may get offended otherwise. Good thing is that everybody loves him, his Bodyguards will sacrifice themselves erasing all incoming attacks, if he gives a good enough speech! Fun fact, with his Inconsequential Outrage, you can make this personality trending faster, simply by placing a Brain in your Rage Box and doing nothing with it.

#naturelover/#romantic: Ok, you can indeed play Clayton as more of a nice guy...he just has to leave any political ambition to do so! Probably his happiest ending, with this personality card he drops his political career and starts working for real as a farmer! But his cheaty nature never dies, what about planting the Kabula in his garden just to get bigger carrots? Thanks to Homegrown, Clayton's familio gets pretty beefed up, both in attack and defense, while at the same time Clayton becomes more resistant to Monsters and Guardians!

Disclaimer: If Clayton reminds you of one specific public figure, you should watch the news more often. They all learnt from Clayton!

As always, thanks for your dedication to this project! Next KS update on the 28th November, but we hope to hear from you before then too :)

Getting ready to print some vegan hot dogs
over 2 years ago – Tue, Oct 04, 2022 at 02:57:27 AM

Today is our 25th Update! 

But alas, twenty five updates are far too few among such excellent and admirable backers. We don't know half of you half as well as we would like and we like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

While waiting for a copyright infringement lawsuit for this intro, we are going to talk about manufacturing and shipping date, content revisions and we'll close with a design diary about Jessika, the most irritable vegan among vegans with cannibalistic tendencies.

Manufacturing & Shipping

As we told you two weeks ago in our newsletter, BangWee sent us the list of corrections required to make the 3D sculpts mouldable. Since then, we managed to find a 3D modeler with good experience in the manufacturing process. We are working in a very interactive way with him and our project manager at Bangwee to make sure everything goes smoothly and the design remains as close as possible to the original. Out of our 32 models , 8 have been re-submitted and 7 are being revised now. We are swiftly moving on to the remaining ones. 

We are very satisfied with how quickly we are going through this process, nonetheless it will take us some more weeks and we were already on the line to deliver in February. 

We have to assume our delivery will be postponed to March/April. 

We apologize for this, we should have changed manufacturer in Spring when the first problems started arising. We'll keep you updated as soon as we have more info! 

Revisions

While the 3D sculpts are getting fixed we are finalizing the files for printing. In the usual folder you will find a new version of the rulebook (v16). This is almost final, so if you want to comment this is your chance! Please note that the images still have to be updated, so please focus your comments on the text :) Thanks so much for your support!

In the meanwhile, Dario is doing a lot of little improvements and redrawing. These were not really planned but we thought some of the artwork was a bit muted in our previous version, hope you like how things are turning out.

Design Diary

Last time we spoke about Zack, this time we are back with the one and only Jessika, the most feared animal-lover in the Island!

Jessika is a core hero, so no matter what package you got, you will have a chance to play her. Lucky you!

Jessika represents those who behave in a certain way not because they think is right, but because they want to feel better than the others who don't.

Always been a fervent vegan, when Jessika arrived to the Island and saw that everybody else was as well (the Kabula revives monsters after they are killed, no time to eat them!) she had a nervous breakdown.

Since then she goes around with a big flail, the Schlong Crusher, and her special power is being Irritable, which allows her to move one Part in her rage Box every time she Rests. This ties up very well with Under My Heel, an attack allowed by her Leather Boots. This attack is not as powerful as the Schlong Crusher, but it's an action which does not end your turn, which means you can combo it with other attacks, or simply go on with doing something different after attacking an enemy. Jessika is probably the most aggressive and damage oriented hero in the game. Unfortunately, she starts with the lowest hp and no active defense, which makes her very bad at surviving dungeons. Only hitting her on her boots (aim at Legs) will trigger some passive defense!

violent/creepy: The most iconic of her three personalities is maybe the Cannibal. With this personality she unlocks the power to eat her enemies, and recover 1 hp for each 1 hp of damage that she inflicts on other heroes.

generous/naturelover: At the absolute opposite of the spectrum, she fully embraces the naturelover in her to become a real forest princess! With this personality she unlocks the possibility of taming monsters as familios without killing them. This is quite a unique skill, and the only one in the whole game which allows to get a familio AFTER the Kabula has been stolen, when reviving is not an option any more.

lazy/practical: When good intentions clash with the effort required to hold true to them, it's when this Undecided personality arises! Opening a monster shelter is a great idea, but a costly one. Turning those who don't get adopted into sausages is a good option to sustain the business! With this pretty realistic personality, Jessika unlocks Repressed Anger, which gives her attacks a +1 damage for each Part in her rage Box. Pretty good power to have, when you are already Irritable to start with!

As a side note, the last two cards sync in a very peculiar way until one of the two personality is unlocked. Usually, placing one hashtag on a card, unlocks a power to get more hashtags on that same card. For example if you start being creepy or violent, you will get a #creepy every time you attack a hero. On the other hand, when you start being generous/naturelover, you will get a #lazy any time you attack a monster. To get a #naturelover, you will need to spawn a monster and not attack it, but this is a power which you unlock in the lazy/practical card!

Once again, the path of the just is not as easy as it looks!

New Games

As already announced through our newsletter, we started working on two new games! 

One is based on the same Universe as Kabula, but will be mostly card based and with completely different mechanics. 

The other one is a story driven campaign with dark vibes, and won't be ready before another 2-3 years.

We may occasionally give you some updates on how things are going with these projects, but you can believe us when we say that delivering Kabula is our first priority...we didn't even have time to give these projects names, as busy as we were getting things ready for manufacturing!!

Speak to you soon and thanks for your ongoing support!

Quickest update in Kabula's history!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Sep 06, 2022 at 05:49:46 AM

Hi all,

Hope you are doing amazing! This update will be very quick as 1) we are super busy (mostly working for you!) and 2) we only spoke last week :) So we will skip the design diary, which will be back in the next newsletter! 

STL Bundle

Everybody who completed their survey and had the STL bundle in their pledge, should have received it! If that is not the case, please let us know. 

We are looking forward to see your printed minis, painted or not, please do send us pics!!

Chastity

As already announced, orders for Chastity are closed, for both backers and new supporters. 

Weretesticle

Though it was not unlocked, since we changed manufacturer we are looking into ways to fit it in anyway. We cannot promise anything beside the fact that we will do out best.

Pledge Manager/Pre-order store

If you are a backer and have not completed your survey yet, you can still do it.

Pre-orders are closed. After manufacturing is complete, they will open again with limited number of items.

Playtesting

We will have quite a few open play sessions throughout September on our discord channel and we would welcome anyone into joining us! 

Thanks for reading, see you next time!