Overboss: A Boss Monster Adventure

Rise of The Collective
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 10:55:13 PM

Overlords, you've done it! When we started this campaign, we knew our stretch goals were ambitious. Early in the campaign, we started to assume we'd have to set aside some of our ideas for future expansions. But in the past few days the pace of our funding has vastly outstripped our expectations, and now we've been able to achieve everything we hoped to put in this game! When Overlord hits retail, it will be absolutely jam-packed with content, and we couldn't be happier.

Of course, we also wanted to do something special for those of you getting it ahead of the retail release. As we described in yesterday's update, every backer will now receive a free bonus pack that won't be included in the version shipped to stores. It will include 12 Tower terrain tiles, 10 Eye monster tokens, one Crystal... and as of today, one exclusive Boss!

For this last stretch goal, we wanted to create something fun and meaningful. The Collective is an homage to Aaron and Kevin, depicting them in pixelated glory as magnificently bearded cultists. But it's also an homage to you, the Collective who made this game possible! Like the horrific Lovecraftian monsters of the Collective, you've kept your eyes on the prize.

The Collective has a powerful but tricky power: you may reveal it to peek at your opponent's hidden Boss cards. Ideally, you'll draft an early Portal so you can make the most of this power. But don't wait too long, because the earlier you use the ability, the better your chance to thwart their scoring goals. The Collective's flexible scoring goal makes it harder to thwart you in response; even if they deprive you of precious Minibosses, your two-monster bands get a solid boost.

With the bonus pack added to the mix, let's take one more look at everything coming in the game!

Whew, that was a lot of scrolling! Along the way, you might have noticed that our Player's Poll has a winner: purple! As the color of royalty and villainy, it should be no surprise that purple won a decisive victory. We think it's going to look great on your table.

So is this really the end of our stretch goals? Alas, we have to stop somewhere and this is now a very full box of gaming goodness. We can't get more components into the game while still hitting the $44.95 retail price, and we can't design any more content between now and when we need to hand over our production files to the printer. To hit an end-of-October launch date in a year that's been full of unexpected delays, we've got to hustle!

However, this isn't the last you'll be hearing from us. In the last week of this campaign we'll be sharing a closer look at some of the content that you haven't seen yet, we'll hold a Q&A with the designers, and we'll be revealing details about what's for sale in the BackerKit pledge manager. We might not be hitting your inbox every day, but there's still plenty of excitement ahead.

Thanks again for joining us on this journey, and here's to a great final week!

A Towering Achievement
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 01, 2020 at 11:07:53 PM

The Overlord crowdfunding campaign has now surpassed 5,000 backers and $250,000 in pledges. We've more than doubled the amount of gameplay that comes in every box. But as we come to the end of our stretch goals, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this campaign. Now every pledge will receive a special bonus pack containing an all-new terrain type: Towers!

No one knows the origin of these dark towers, which rise above blasted, poisonous wastelands. Perhaps they're the handiwork of aliens who crash-landed on Arcadia, or they were built by the mysterious Boss known only as "The Collective." But none doubt their power!

Towers are a fun example of how tokens and terrain tiles interact in our pixel art illustrations. Any monster token will look good on any type of tile, but matching monsters will always look best. In the case of Towers, adding the Eye really completes the look of your villainous watchtower.

These tiles also bring some really unique gameplay. Like Overlord itself, they're seemingly simple, but have surprising depth. Or in this case, height! You can stack up to three monsters on each Tower. For each monster in the stack, you get a bonus point. That's cool, but the real advantage is the flexibility they give you. Need to complete a disjointed band? Stack the right monster on your Tower. Grabbing another terrain tile that you want to leave open? Put its monster token on the Tower. These tiles literally add a whole new dimension to the game.

Like the Tower Edition, the Tower tiles are something we created specifically for this campaign. Here's a mini FAQ to clarify just how exclusive they are:

• Will Tower tiles be included in every pledge level? Yes. Every copy of the game, from the core $40 purchase to the Retailer Pledge level, will include this special bonus pack.
• Will Tower tiles be included in the retail edition? No.
• Are Tower tiles a Kickstarter exclusive? Not completely. In the future, we may offer them for sale at conventions, on our website, or in special retailer incentive kits. Based on past experience, we don't like the idea of making anything gameplay-oriented 100% exclusive. But you're getting them first, as a free bonus with your purchase. So if you want to call them Kickstarter exclusives, we won't stop you.

Hopefully this strikes a good balance! Tower tiles are a ton of fun, and we're thrilled to be providing them to every backer.

Now we'd better get back to work, because the $260,000 stretch goal is coming fast! It's looking like we'll cross that threshold before we're able to make our next update, but check back tomorrow for one more Limited Edition reward!

Player's Poll, new stretch goal, on a roll
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 01, 2020 at 10:51:45 PM

The middle of a Kickstarter campaign is typically a slow time, a period of doldrums between the early adopters who pledge on Day One and the latecomers who wait till the end of the campaign. Last week this time, we thought we were headed in that direction, but the past few days have been awesome! Yesterday, we unlocked a big stretch goal: a premium insert designed by Game Trayz. Today, we want your input on the color of the tray.

We've set up the poll on Facebook. Just go to our latest Boss Monster post and click one of the reactions to vote. Green = Thumb, Purple = Heart, Yellow = Laugh, Black = Wow.

We understand that this is a silly way to vote for something, but we thought it would be fun. If you don't have a Facebook account or don't want to deal with logging in, we'll also count any votes written in the comments below.

Our next stretch goal will round out our selection of Bosses with two more cards: Kirax and Explodo. Fans of Boss Monster may recognize these Bosses as "The Golden Dragon" and "The Bombassador." Here's a closer look at Kirax, Empress of the Overworld.

Our $235,000 stretch goal is to add more illustrations to the game, creating 12 unique pieces of art for every terrain type (except for Dungeons, which only have 8 tiles, and Camps, which have 6 pairs of matching artwork for gameplay reasons). Our pixel artists have been hard at work on new art, and here's a look at an updated prototype that includes some of the new pieces!

It's awesome to see everything coming together, and it feels great to have momentum at this point in a campaign. We have just two more stretch goals left to reveal, but both will unlock Limited Edition content that won't be part of the regular retail release. Check back soon for more details!

No Stretch Goal is Safe!
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 12:19:58 AM

Good morning, Overlords! We hope you had a great weekend, because we sure did. The Overlord campaign is on a rampage, and no stretch goal is safe! Here's what we've knocked out since Friday:

Pretty awesome stuff, guys. We have now DOUBLED the number of terrain tiles in this game. With 10 possible tilesets, choosing 5 each time (plus Dungeon Entrances every time), the replay value is huge!

So if you're going to keep all these components organized, you're going to want something better than a standard box. Luckily, we live in a world where premium board game inserts have been raised to an art form. The masters of that art are the fine folks at GameTrayz. They design trays for popular board games, designed minimize set-up and clean-up. Using thick, durable plastic which is 3-5 times thicker than your standard plastic insert, all Game Trayz products are built to last and control your chaos.

With all the stretch goals, this campaign has been a bit of a moving target. But we've been working with GameTrayz to come up with a solution that fits perfectly in the box while organizing every component for the easiest possible setup. Here's a work-in-progress render of the tile-and-token tray:

Everything slots into easy-to-access tile wells, with the tokens tucked underneath their corresponding tiles. Command and Boss cards fit into the center. The tray leaves room for the tile tower and player boards to fit inside the box, too. The design (and color) aren't finalized, but if we unlock this stretch goal, every copy of our first printing will include the GameTrayz premium insert!

With the momentum of the campaign in the last few days, we're getting close to the end of our stretch goals. But stay tuned for a couple more, including some Limited Edition components designed to reward Kickstarter backers for believing in Overlord from the beginning.

Here Among the Clouds
almost 4 years ago – Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 12:39:54 AM

Happy Saturday, Overlords! This weekend marks the midpoint of our campaign, and we’ve accomplished a lot! Yesterday, you guys unlocked our fourth additional terrain option: Cloud Islands.

Cloud Islands start with a Power score of 7. But for each non-Cloud terrain type you add to your board, you lose one point. Maybe those harpies just have a superiority complex, but the bottom line is that Cloud Islands reward you for specializing.

You always play with five terrain types and the Dungeon Entrance tiles. We recommend that you play your first games with the “Classic” tiles: Forests, Swamps, Graveyards, Camps, and Caves. Then you can start to swap in the other terrain types, so every game is different and you can experience all the different interactions! Like Volcanos, Cloud Islands can be tricky for first-timers, but really fun for experienced players.

On Thursday, we mentioned that we’d be revealing another stretch goal featuring Boss cards. Today we posted this image, giving you a peek at all four Bosses. Cerebellus, Cleopatra, Kazanna, and Porkus are all waiting with new once-per-game and and end-of-game powers. 

Here's a closer look at Cerebellus, the Father Brain. His minions form a hive mind, so his scoring power rewards you for collecting a lot of the same monster type. His once-per-game "reveal" ability allows you to hunt for exactly the right tokens -- or deny your opponents some desired tokens -- by refreshing the Market.

Of course, before we can unlock those Bosses we have another really important stretch goal: 5-Player Mode! As a company that has consistently released 4-player games, we’re excited that Overlord has a chance to accommodate more play groups. One thing to note is that to keep everything balanced, all five players will need to use the Classic (3x4) board. Because Overlord plays quickly and is so accessible, we think 5-player mode will be a hit at board game nights. So let’s keep going and unlock this one!

Thanks for everything, have a great weekend, and here’s to 10 exciting days left in this campaign!