Future campaign - Would love to hear from the fans!
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 12:59:43 AM
Hellooooo again everyone! First, we wanted to say thank you, still, for your continued support throughout this campaign! The funding keeps rising to new levels and we would not be this far without YOU, the backers!
Second, I wanted to make an announcement that I, Jon, am already in 'a' design phase for the next expansion. Some of you may ask "Why start a new one when this one is not out there yet?" Well, the short answer is that I am just getting the ideas down. I am a 3d modeler, I am an artist, this project is and will always be a grand hobby of mine. This is not work! THIS is fun and I enjoy every minute of it! I also want to get my ideas flowing while I am in that ZONE, so I can begin working on this as soon as the manufacturer finishes this first SKEPTICS game for you to enjoy! Since I had time the other day (while at the airport and Hotel all night), I sat and drew up plans for the next map(s).
What are these new Environment maps you ask?! I cannot disclose that at the moment :) But that will be announced late this Fall (however, I bet there are some messages going around this campaign where I hinted at Something. You just have to look around.)
So with that said, even though we have our plans for the next expansion already in progress, we wanted to hear your thoughts on boards you would like to see someday? I know many of you have not played the game yet and are waiting to see what this is all about, but I want to build up this excitement for it. I want to hear about Visions YOU have of some cool type of game boards that might be awesome in this Skeptics Universe! We already had some pretty fantastic ideas already! There is no right or wrong answer! This is just brainstorming with the Fans!
Thanks again! (Give away update coming tomorrow).
Jonathan Usiak and Brian Moats
Usiak Games and Designs
New Stretch Goal and Add-Ons!
almost 5 years ago
– Sat, Jun 26, 2021 at 11:03:38 AM
Hello everyone, we finally got the numbers back from the manufacturer, and we are happy to announce a new stretch goal and optional add-ons.
New Stretch Goal
Time to get your friends and family to back SKEPTICS. If we can hit 33k, we will be upgrading all of the cards to a European Black Core with a linen finish. We believe of all of the suggestions provided this provides the best quality upgrade without impacting the schedule. We hope you all look forward to unlocking this new stretch goal.
We know there were a lot of ideas for minis and acrylic standees, but the costs of those would drive up the cost of the game and push out the schedule. During a future Kickstarter, we will likely create an optional upgrade pack combining some of the best suggestions the community has provided.
Add-Ons
Additionally, we have decided to offer two optional add-ons. If some of you are like me, I really enjoy having extra sets of dice with my games; they help reduce the frequency of passing dice around. Even a single extra set shared between two players can help.
Since the Clue and Key Dice are used most often, we have created an add-on for $8 to get a full set of those two types of dice (9 dice in total); this is probably the best choice for most groups as it is a small additional cost but provides the most frequently rolled dice.
However, if you are like me and a bit of a dice hoarder, you may not be happy only having extras of those two types. For $14, you can buy an entire extra set of the SKEPTICS dice (17 dice in total which includes the Entity’s additional Summon Die).
Again, these add-ons are entirely optional and likely will only appeal to a small percentage of backers. It was very easy for us to offer these add-ons to the dice hoarding backers who would appreciate the convenience of additional dice.
We hope these new additions to the campaign are welcome surprise. We would love to offer everything you wanted, but we believe we have a pretty solid first game to provide you all. We can’t wait to send in the order next month to begin the manufacturing and get these games one step closer to getting these games into your hands.
Thank you again everyone!
Jon Usiak and Brian Moats
Usiak Games and Designs
Boardgame Run Down Interview/Usurp the King
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 04:38:08 PM
Hello everyone! I just wanted to give two Very Quick updates!
First, I did a second Interview with the Boardgame Run Down the other day (first one back in November). The Section about SKEPTICS is at the 27 minute mark! These guys are Awesome and have a Great channel! https://youtu.be/bTiioiXVPxs
The link is also on the Kickstarter page.
Second, I wanted to give a Shout Out to my friend Dan Hundycz of DPH Games Inc. Dan is the one who helped Playtest SKEPTICS a few times and during the early stages of design he helped come up with the idea of how the Ghost appears in a Room each hour! Just with one simple sentence he helped change the game to something awesome! Thanks to Dan, the game is what it is today!
So I like to help out a fellow game designer, as he has helped me. He has a game out now on Kickstarter called Usurp the King! It is a very cool social deduction all about bribery, murder, and disloyalty in a medieval court. I had the pleasure to play this game at a convention and it was quite fun! Definitely check out his game here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dphgames/usurp-the-king
His game is nearly funded and just needs a boost! He helped promote Skeptics and I want to return the favor! And because he is a great guy!
Jon Usiak
Stretch Goals...What's Next?
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, Jun 23, 2021 at 03:05:01 PM
Sorry for the incoming wordy update; lots to discuss.
So many of you may be wondering, “What is the next stretch goal for SKEPTICS now that we have unlocked the last visible goal?” To be honest, we didn’t expect to unlock everything half way through the campaign and didn’t plan beyond the current stretch goals. When we first brought SKEPTICS to Kickstarter last October with the goal of 25k and failed to get even 13k, we knew we needed to focus on marketing more and that is what we did. We (and the former backers) all seemed very happy with the game and what was offered. However, we did create the Story Book mode and focused on the improved insert tray since we had time on our hands.
So now that we have unlocked all of the content-based additions, we are now looking and quality upgrades. We are already using 290gsm Grey Core for the cards, but we could do a Stretch Goals to move to 310 gsm Black Core cards. We are looking at other quality upgrades as well, but we don’t have any set-in stone yet. We are considering creating an Extra Dice add-on so those wanting extra sets of dice could add those to their order. Let us know if any of those things would be of interest to you as our community. We are also looking into alternate language options for the game; we will have more on that later this week.
While I know it may be disappointing that we don’t have another map at this time, our focus is ensuring that we have the game ready to send to the manufacturer shortly after the campaign ends, and if we were to try to add in new content, that would only push the game back. We do plan on working on the first SKEPTICS expansion that will add another map board, new ghosts, new investigators, items, and a few other surprises. I also plan to push that all of this new content will fit into the existing box because, as a gamer, that is something important to me. We have many of these ideas sketched out for the next two expansions, but they will require playtesting and balancing. We believe by the time this game is reaching you, we will be already deep into playtest the expansion (maybe with your help).
What we have provided in this Kickstarter is two maps, eight ghosts, and a variety of special items that can be swapped in as your three “tools” in each game. The ghost and board alone provides 16 unique experiences, and even more combinations when you factor in the items, the random board setup, and the order the rooms are revealed. We have the story mode that creates a mini-campaign that can be played in whatever order after the first playthrough, and this mode added in Investigator abilities, which was highly requested in the last Kickstarter Campaign.
Also, we realized this may not have been obvious on the Kickstarter page since it was only in a single sentence, but by being the first to support the creation of the SKEPTICS universe, you are receiving the 10-card promo pack (which have been slowing revealing themselves in the components section) and the first Ghost expansion pack (Entity and TWiiNS) with your pledge. These are things that will not be offered in the base game box during print runs after the first. The Ghost expansion will be a separate purchase, and the promo pack may not get printed again unless we decide to do it for a special occasion.
We are excited that so many of you are looking forward to this game, and we can’t wait to see your posts on social media telling us about your experience when you receive and enjoy the game with friends and family.
Let us know what you think about the component quality upgrades as Stretch Goals.
Also, I have been hearing rumors about a dark entity lurking around a local asylum; we may need to send some investigators to look into that here real soon…
Stretch Goal #5 - INSERT TRAY UNLOCKED!
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, Jun 23, 2021 at 04:15:55 AM
Wow, we have managed to unlock all five stretch goals in just 15 days! The Insert Tray is the fifth Stretch Goal to Unlock!
As the two Ghost expansions were being developed we wanted a tray that would hold the components better. We had an original design that did accommodate for the extra components (which you see in the unboxing video), however there were a few things that were in the way. The Ghost Cards were covering the Card Compartments leaving little room for stacking and we were not using the space wisely.
So with the new design, Our amazing Tray designer, MATT HEALEY, worked with us to push the Investigators down, slide the Ghost Cards over, widen the two outside compartments for sleeved cards, and gave a bit more room from the top of the tray to the box cover for a future expansion board.
We hope this new addition is a satisfying stretch goal and may all your components rest properly in Peace :)
Thank you to everyone for the continued support! We would NOT have been this far without you!
Jon Usiak and Brian Moats
Usiak Games and Designs
