PROMOTIONAL SALE!
9 months ago
– Mon, Jun 30, 2025 at 04:09:10 PM
Hello everyone!!!
As we continue to work on our next expansion for SKEPTICS, we wanted to offer a bit of a promotional sale for the original game. In order to reduce some ongoing storage costs, we are running a special for copies of SKEPTICS shipped out of our UK warehouse. Copies shipped from the UK will be $40 USD plus shipping. This offer is limited to the UK to help us move the remaining two dozen copies stored there; this offer ends when our UK stock is depleted.
While we cannot run the same sale for our US stock, we will be offering a $10 discount on US shipped copies. This offer will run through July 31st.
For both locations, our dice packs will be discounted to $5 for Dice Set 1 (Clue and Key) and $10 for Dice Set 2 (Dice Collection).
For those interested, use our form on the Usiak Game and Designs website. To speed up the process, please provide your shipping address in the form so we can provide you with a PayPal invoice with shipping included.
https://usiakgames.com/contact/
Haunted Theater Expansion UPDATE
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 28, 2025 at 08:28:26 AM
Hello there, everyone!
I wanted to give an update on the progress for the upcoming expansion. I posted this on the Skeptics Facebook page the other day, so if you already saw this, feel free to ignore this post.
So I am running into a bit of a time crunch as I continue to work on the next "Haunted Theater" expansion. Since I teach a lot of hours and work some other smaller jobs, my Spring semester is eating up a lot of time. I work on SKEPTICS almost every single day, no matter how big or small (from artwork to maybe a simple email), but time is flying by. We were aiming for a Summer 2025 Kickstarter, but as a one-man art team and with one editor who cannot do much until I have things ready to edit, there is still a lot left to do. So it might be more like an end-of-year Kickstarter this year, or possibly a Summer 2026 Kickstarter (however, it could be sooner than that since I will have most of the Summer this year to work on things.)
I wanted to share with you how much work is still ahead and what I need to have completed by Summer. Below is a quick list (some things will be left unsaid to avoid spoiling any surprises)…
GAME BOARD
The main game board and all side boards are pretty much finished. There will be some minor updates here and there regarding icon positioning and subtleties in art, but otherwise, they are complete. However, I am working on a bit of a surprise for these boards, which will require some additional smaller-time artwork and... some engineering. I want to really make these boards "stand" out.
CARD ART and GHOST CARDS
I am halfway finished with the new items and special items but still need to work on the environment card art and some new card types that will come with the game. I also need artwork for the new ghosts that will come with this Theater expansion.
TOKENS and PUNCHBOARDS
These are mostly done, save for a few smaller tokens I can't create until I finish the Ghost Cards. I also have some additional 3-dimensional token ideas that I am working on, which will be mentioned closer to the Kickstarter.
GAME BOX ART
I want to add artwork to the box for this expansion, so it will take a little more time to finish the front and back of the box, with the back being more difficult because I need to render out the board in my 3D software OR possibly get a photographer this time to showcase the board.
RULEBOOK
The rules are fleshed out and ready to be edited, but still need some artwork in places. More playtesting might adjust some things. It’s another project in itself, but not as time-consuming as the artwork has been.
KICKSTARTER
This will take a while since I have to design the entire page, make an intro video, get some videos of reviewers playing the game, etc. This will also take time.
So I’m sure there are a few things on this list that I didn’t add, like additional stretch goals and other tasks I need to handle, but overall, I still have more to do. I will say, though, that finishing the game boards (after 3 years) has brought this expansion to about 70% completion. The rest of the art is easier and less time-consuming to do. I just need the time to get it all finished.
PLAYTESTING
Of course, this comes before the Kickstarter part, but we are REALLLLLLLLY looking for playtesters to work out any kinks and keep testing new rules, etc.
Thank you! It will get finished, and I still have more exciting plans after!
Project Update and Other things!
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Sep 17, 2024 at 08:37:54 AM
Hello everyone!!
It has been a while since we posted anything here. We wanted to reach out because we occasionally get emails from Kickstarter when backers fill out their Kickstarter Surveys; since the project was over 3 years ago, we are no longer able to see those survey details. While I imagine most of these surveys are just the $1 backers cleaning up their backer pages, we did want to make sure people weren’t still waiting for their games. So, if you recently filled out the Kickstarter Survey to receive your game, please reach out to us directly via Kickstarter Direct Messages or through our website.
In the meantime, we have been posting updates on our Facebook Skeptics page about our upcoming expansion project. Please check it out!
We are always looking for playtesters too, to play on Tabletop Simulator. Feel free to reach out if you want to set up a time to play! We will keep everyone posted as our expansion gets closer and closer to finishing.
Here is a little glance at some of the finish parts of the THEATER game board (minus the icons and Room Name text)...
Jon Usiak
Brian Moats
Usiak Games & Designs
Larger SKEPTICS Game Board Prototype?
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Nov 17, 2023 at 01:41:22 PM
Hello everyone,
We wanted to share some prototypes we are working on for the second print run of the game. First off, we are still hard at work at the expansion, but we realized our first print run stock won't last forever thanks to a recent rush of orders. Therefore, Jon has been working on something we discussed 2~3 months ago after we saw the prototype of the theater map..."what if the original board was bigger?"
Below you will see pictures of a larger prototype of the original game board we are considering. We put together a quick 2 question survey. If you would, we would love your input on it. It is limited because of the free survey monkey account. If you could, answer the questions on the survey and then you can add comments on this update for things not addressed there.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WF8VJZD
The original board stacked onto of the larger prototype
SKEPTICS for Halloween
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Sep 17, 2022 at 05:33:39 AM
Hello everyone!
For those who backed our campaign over a year ago, and received our game, we really hope you are enjoying playing! Feel free to post your spooky game-play experience on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/skepticsgame.
HALLOWEEN Season
If you know of anyone looking for a spooky game to play for the upcoming Halloween season, and you think SKEPTICS would be a good fit for them, please direct them to our website at usiakgames.com to purchase a copy! We still have many Kickstarter versions of the game left to sell, but once they run out the expansions will be separated in future print runs. All Kickstarter versions of the game come with a free ten-card Promo pack. You can also order more dice on this site as well. Just fill out the form and let us know what you want!
SKEPTICS Expansion
We are currently working on the next expansion of the game, which the paper prototype has already been play-tested a few times. Pretty soon we will be getting the game up on Tabletop Simulator and will call upon people to help out! Since we are a two person team it might be a year or two before we finalize the game. It won't take six years this time, but aiming for a late 2023 or 2024 Kickstarter. Having a full time job and other responsibilities limits how much time we can spend working on it. I personally do something for the expansion a few times a week though; whether is it building the game board, working on art, modifying rules, or playtesting. We will keep everyone updated as things unfold.
In the meantime we hope that you are enjoying your day, week, month, season! We would love to hear your thoughts and if you could help us spread the word about the game that would be Spooktacular!
Thank you!
Jon Usiak
Brian Moats
