Updates, apologies and gifts
almost 2 years ago
– Tue, Jun 21, 2022 at 12:39:54 AM
Hi adventurers!
There's been some time since the last update, so here is one. We've been working on Orbtale and are excited to share the progress with you, we also have a surprise at the end! 🎁
Translation process
All the translations are already completed and in a proofreading state. We are being very careful, double checking everything and as soon as we finish we'll send all the docs to begin manufacturing. We'll send another update as soon as we know specific dates.
More on the miniatures
"Add some miniatures, they are not that hard to produce" they said 🤦🏻♂️... after several iterations of the miniatures' 3D models, we are getting close to make them fully printable, and we made them cooler on the way! Have a look at them, they're gorgeous:
Tabletop Creator updates
In order to speed up the pre-production process, we iterated on some Tabletop Creator features and started working on new ones, like translation support. For those not familiar with TC, it's the application we use to develop tabletop games and we developed it ourselves! If you are thinking about creating a tabletop game you may be interested in checking it out.
Apologies and gifts: free PnP version available NOW!
We know that you had to wait way more than we originally expected and for that we offer our sincerest apologies. It's the first time we develop a tabletop game and at the same time we took a very special approach to it (eg: building tools for it along the way). At the same time, we didn't communicate the progress of the development as often as we'd have liked. 🙇🏻♂️
To compensate for this and in order that you can play the game ASAP until you get your physical copy, we are releasing a free Print&Play version so you can play TODAY!
Hope you enjoy playing Orbtale as much as we are enjoying developing it 💗
Download!
Production phase update
about 2 years ago
– Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 12:23:14 AM
Hi adventurers!
As announced in our last update, we are working on setting everything ready to move forward with the game production, keeping quality as our main priority. This means:
- Game Design testing sessions, performed by an editorial partner.
- "Sudden death" mechanic test (for two player cases).
- Review and update of all components' text, ensuring its homogeneity (including the game manual).
- Last components graphic design.
Once this is done, the next steps are to translate all components, exporting the assets (according to our manufacturer specifications) and reviewing the final product before sending it to you, as we want to have a clear picture of what you are going to get at your homes!
We are looking forward to sending the game and hoping you love to play it 😍
- The Pixelatto Team -
Development update
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Dec 18, 2021 at 03:02:27 PM
Hi again adventurers!
As you might know, our initial approach was to distribute Orbtale before 2021 ended, but since the logistics crysis made that impossible, we've shifted our focus on playtesting and improving the design as much as possible. The game has grown a lot since then, we've iterated through dozens of different versions of almost every card and some of the core mechanics.
While we are still on this polishing phase, we want to move as fast as possible so we can start production in early 2022. In the meantime, here are some exciting changes in the current version!
New hero skills
The 22 heroes are a core part of the game and one of the elements that adds a lot of variation between plays due to their unique and contrasted skills. When designing them, we always focus on 2 things: first, we want them to be fun to play with; second, we want them to feel extremely overpowered in specific situations, for each to have "their special moment". Here are some examples:
Card type "flavours"
The main rock-paper-scissors mechanic for combats still applies, but we've added what we call "flavours" to each type:
-
Attack cards generally do damage and go to your inventory after being successfully played.
-
Defense cards give you a strategic advantage and return to your hand after being played.
-
Equipment cards (formerly known as "strategy") become "equipped" facing up in front of your character, granting a permanent skill to your hero.
Here are some examples of the new equipment type cards and the abilities they grant:
The orb type has been removed for the sake of simplicity (orbs are now equipment type) so combat rules have become even more simple, with no "wildcard" exceptions.
Equipment and improved inventory
We found on our playtesting sessions that almost every player always tried to keep their inventory empty at all times to avoid the tie-breaking penalty in combat. We wanted the inventory to become a more relevant and balanced feature, so we expanded the concept a little with the addition of equipment cards.
Your inventory now includes 2 types of cards:
- Cards facing down are called your "stored" cards. These are cards you don't want to discard, to use them on later game chapters.
- Cards facing up are your "equipped" cards. These are the green equpment cards you've sucessfully equipped by winning a combat. The grant you an special ability but also weigh you down, as they are also considered part of your inventory.
When tie-breaking, the inventory card count is considered your equipped+stored cards, so the number adds a lot of more variation and an interesting rubberbanding effect.
Orb Synergies
We had another design problem that we solved recently, which was the game duration taking way longer than our target game duration (around 20-30 minutes per game). We also wanted to give more importance to the roles in game, to really shake the table when they come into play.
After playing around with many ideas, we came up with something that addressed both of these issues: Orb Synergies.
As you can see, the orbs now become more powerful when they are together. This makes the game progress faster as more orbs come into play and also give an important advantage to the player owning them. Now, a player harnessing the power of 3 orbs can feel almost unstoppable, but on the other hand... he'll have to face the alliance of the rest of the players joining forces against him.
We've released Tabletop Creator, our secret weapon!
On other news, we've officially launched Tabletop Creator on Steam, the application we built to create Orbtale. If you are planning on designing your own tabletop game you may want to give it a look (there's a free demo version available too!):
Try it here!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/861590/Tabletop_Creator/
Wish you have a good end of year with your family and friends.
- The Pixelatto Team -
