The Longest of Days
over 2 years ago – Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 01:20:00 AM

Hello Frostlanders!

Here in Poland the days are the longest after the summer solstice and can be counted among the most pleasant of all the four seasons… maybe the “golden” autumn being equally awesome (when it doesn’t rain…). Those warm, long afternoons are a great opportunity to spend time outside with friends and family. The schools and kindergartens are closed so many decide to venture out for holiday, something most of us have been robbed of for a few years now. Kids want to spend time with their parents and demand our undivided attention, free of the everyday chores. 

We’re no different, I managed to sneak out for a short trip to the Polish seaside to see how’s the Baltic sea doing:

Our DTP and graphics guru – Krzysztof is on holiday as I write these words and Michał will leave once Krzysztof comes back and after he comes back Rafał will leave his chair/throne to see the outside world (😉). We’re synchronizing our holidays to be sure that there is always a seasoned helmsman on the bridge of this dreadnought! Thanks to this we get to enjoy a little rest and the work on delivering the project moves forward. So here’s a proof in the form of this monthly, right on time, update.

Stuff ticked off our list...

By the end of June, Anez finished her work on the illustrations and went on to catch a breath before she is asked to draw another beautiful board game. We’ve shown you sneak peeks of her workshop where she focused on working on the Generator tile. So now is the time to show you the final effect, it is shown next to the walls for the Crater / Canyon / Flats setups and some exemplary Ruins tokens from the The Fall of Winterhome scenario:

Previously you’ve seen the tiles for the Crags setup, their reverse will hold the graphics for the Dreadnought setup:

Thus we’ve reached the end of the illustrations for this project. Anez we’d like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the effort, talent and wit you’ve given to Frostpunk: The Board Game!

...and items still ongoing.

We are almost in the phase where all the files will be prepared for print – when Krzysztof gets back from his holiday, he and his DTP studio will commence the work. All the loose elements will be bound into print files: cardboard pieces will find their way to the punchboards, card layouts will land in the printing sheets, and rules and scenarios will be gathered to create the rulebook. In the meantime, Krzysztof has prepared files for us to print the final version of the physical prototype (it needs to be printed differently than the main, mass production version, so the files had to be prepared differently and it also took quite some time) see the example with the buildings below:

Tokens:

Board elements:

The prototype is being produced as you read these words. It is a rather tedious and time-consuming process - for the project of our scale especially so. Once the sheets are printed, they need to be layered (the printouts are glued and fitted to cardboard in order to give it sufficient thickness and volume, then they need to dry and be cut out to form (the cutting is not done as in mass production with special blades but with a laser [phew, phew!]). Finally, the burnt dust from laser cutting needs to be cleaned and the components sorted to their categories. We are certain that we will be able to share the pictures of the printed prototype with you come next update! We will show you the core game in all its glory with preproduction meeples and the Generator and all the miniatures. We will also record an inhouse gameplay video with the physical prototype using all the preproduction components we received from our manufacturer!

Naturally the physical copies of the prototype we are producing will serve not only to present the looks but will also allow us to make some final test of the UX. The previous prototypes were too big and took too much space on the table, making the whole experience a bit clumsy. After the big makeover we did in March we’ve addressed the issue of the size of the components and their position on the table and we’re eagerly awaiting to test those changes on physical components that have the right size!

As the production progresses so does the never-ending interest in playing the Frostpunk: The Board Game module on Tabletop Simulator. As you keep squeezing juices from the core scenario (over 8,5k unique users!) and keep sending us some very interesting feedback (your collective win ratio on the Hard Difficulty level is currently 18%), our testers are focusing on the Starting Society cards (taking into account the results you’ve provided from the aforementioned playthroughs) in order to make sure the difficulty level is not too high (no such term in Adam’s dictionary) nor too low. Same goes for the setups and scenarios that are ready. Here is a sneak peek from the scenario testing that you have not seen before - The Arks (setup Frozen Grove):

and The Fall of Winterhome (setup Crags):

We’re planning to finish the tests for the scenarios by the end of the month so that we can finish their descriptions by the next month and put them into the rulebook.

The rulebook itself is nearly ready – we’d like to thank you all for a ton of very useful feedback and notes that significantly influenced the quality of the final text! The file itself is being given a first readthrough by the translators who will be responsible for creating the localized versions. We wanted to give them the chance to get to know the text better as well as the game itself and ask any initial questions or remarks before it goes to print. In its current state it is easier for us to explain stuff or simply to work on the document along with others. Once this stage is finished the translation will begin so that the language partners can begin working on their files as soon as they get translated. Meanwhile we will finish the texts on the cards that will follow the same procedure as the rulebook.

Our manufacturer is creating the forms for the plastic components. Here you can see a part of the Generator walls’ form:

And here is a form with the characteristic shapes of the Resources expansion:

Not all forms are perfect from the first making and if the error is not possible to be corrected the whole form is melted down. Here you can see a picture of how the selection process for the correct forms is being carried out. The failed half of the Worker’s miniature is being marked as failed and the failed tests land in the waste bin:

The process of creating forms is the last stage when the sculpts can be perfected and corrected. Some of you had doubts (expressed in the comments under the Update posted on the 22nd of June) about the stability of the tree from the Resources expansion. We talked it over with the manufacturer and they proposed a solution. Please see the previous version of the tree on the left and the modification on the right:

Here both components can be seen from a different angle to show the change in the size os the base:

So now we are certain that the trees will stand still until the end of the world… Oh wait it’s already here 😉. But in all seriousness, we take each piece of your feedback seriously and to our hearts and we think it over and over to bring you what you are waiting for and what you paid for. Thank you for making this game better together with us!

The dreadnought form is ready, and first mass production copies are with us! Here is an example with test pre-shading on it:

 And a different angle:

Please let us know if you are you happy with the results!

An enormous bag containing all the Timber City expansion pieces reached us. It is a prototype and it looks like this:

...and this...

 ... and this!

And here with the meeples 😊 :

We think it looks great and fits together nicely. All the “euro-wooden” approach fans should be content 😊 and their last city on Earth will have that wooden feel 😉. But we, just like many of you, are choosing the plastic version for our shelves and tables! 😉

Wooden components for the core box and for the Frostlander expansion are also in the mass production stage.

It seems that’s all for today dear Frostlanders! We tried to have this update shorter, but it seems we failed again, hope you are getting used to it 😉. Enjoy the summer and take care, we will see you next month!

Kuba & GCU Team

GCU Spotlight

Our dear friends, with whom we’ve cooperated on a few occasions and hope to do so again, from The Knights Of Unity (they are a software house but almost every person there is a gamer and they specialize in making video game projects in Unity – hence the name 😉) brewed some high petrol cocktail! I’ve had a chance to see this game personally when it was still a cool concept with a ton of work in front of them. The effort and dedication put into this project by their team resulted in an awesome, high speed and high stakes game for all fans of Mad Max, Carmageddon and all things postapocalyptic. I believe there is some big reveal still in front of us so be sure to check it out!

We’ve mentioned we are avid wargamers and so we recommend these terrains if any of you share our passion for that part of the tabletop world:

We recommend them because we use them ourselves! 😉 Here’s proof:

In a game of WH40K Michał’s Guard faces the TAU led by Marcin! Something smells fishy here as the blue faced aliens hide themselves behind the awesome and sturdy Acid House Terrain set :) Please forgive us the unpainted minis, you know we’ve got a game to deliver and kids to raise 😉.

The Rules of Survival
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Jun 23, 2021 at 01:11:26 AM

Hello Frostlanders,

Today’s update is sponsored by the letter U, like the word unexpected 😊, dad’s jokes aside this update is ahead of schedule by 2 weeks! It is mainly because we’d like to place the game’s manual in your hands as soon as possible. This is a crucial step in the grand scheme of things, and we didn’t want to wait for the regular, monthly update to do so.

The text of the manual is ready. It is not digitally prepared yet, nor is it after the final proofreading since it will happen once your – community proofreading happens 😊. We’d like to ask all of you who feel the need and possess the time and skill to do so to read through the text looking for potential language slips and mistakes but also to provide us feedback if the rules as written are clear, accessible and leave little to no room for doubts. 

So here is the link to a file that lets you leave your feedback and correction suggestions in the form of comments:

To use that bit of overhead time we’d like to send the file to our DTP studio by the end of this week, this gives you a couple days to do as you wish with the file 😊. The next version of the rules/text will be created based on your remarks and feedback and sent to the DTP studio and then for the final proofreading by our veteran proofreaders. The prepared version will be presented to you afterwards before it is sent to print. The final version will include scenarios and set ups’ descriptions. The file available to you today does not have these yet as they do not influence the core ruleset.

We wholeheartedly thank you (in advance 😉) for your remarks, feedback, and keen eyes!

Development and Production Update

Using the fact that we took the liberty to focus your attention we’d like to use that occasion and share some exciting production photos and design news!

Here are the photos of the final, pre-production plastic parts prototypes – based on these mass production molds are being created as we write these words 😊:

 All Wooden pieces are here as well:

And here is a close up of the Dreadnought since we forgot to show it to you last time and this model certainly deserves some attention, shown in its full glory:

Anez is outdoing herself in illustrating the board, here are some WIPs from her work on the central tile and the structures that surround the Generator.

Anez’s pro tip: How to make sure you will get the perspective right if you do not have a gigantic cube tower shaped as a generator at hand (and you are too fast to wait for the publisher to deliver it)? Grab a glass… no not to drink! Use it like this 😉!

The final layout of the buildings around the central tile will be a bit different from this one but we will share it with you in the next update.

Anez is nearing the end of her work on the board, after she finishes the central tile she will focus on the scenario specific buildings and that will be it. This is an example of the set up specific tiles – the ones below are for the Crags set up:

Our brave Devs are deep into the set ups and scenario development. We’ve sneak peeked the Tesla a bit last time and here is a picture from the Canyon set up. Snow be damned, that set up is so different from the core one! It is a completely new challenge, totally different game dynamics throughout the whole playthrough! The experience you’ll have gained playing the Crater set up will need a lot of adjusting for these absolutely new conditions…

Naturally, the walls of the Canyon will be closed but for the tests on TTS such excessive visual aids are not necessary 😉.

The curious case of Mr. Dreadnought is similar in the fact that it basically offers a different playthrough experience – just like all the other set ups. The steel that is taken out of the behemoths’ innards changes the mechanics of constructing and upgrading buildings thanks to which the way that your city grows is completely different. On the other hand, the starting area is almost entirely covered with snow and thus your priorities shift for the entire playthrough! 

Adam and our Devs are doing an outstanding job here and it is due to your generous and dedicated support that they can work on this game! Thank you <3

The production is in full tilt momentum as well. Packaging for the collector’s miniature Edge of Kinship is designed and will soon hit the manufacturer’s production line so that we can begin shipping the Resin Miniature Pledge soon. This is the foam that will secure the model (please don’t mind the color of the cast it is a test and in no way represents the final look of the miniature 😊):

The posters with Jakub Różalski’s stunning art are in early stages of production, we are running some test prints to choose the best materials, and we will also begin shipping the Poster Pledge soon!

It seems that’s all for today, folks! We hope that you are satisfied with our progress so far and that the game’s manual is written well enough for you to enjoy reading through it – we cherish working with Paul Grogan on it and his help has proven invaluable so far! Stay frosty and stay safe!

Kuba and the GCU Team

GCU Spotlight

Today’s Spotlight is Michał oriented 😉 so you know it will be painted heavily with historical and militaristic tones – you have been warned…

…but Kuba and David also had their say and smuggled in an amazing RPG project!

Michał:

Board games and video games are not the only games we play 😊 Our friends from a local gaming club called “Bolter Cafe”, where we play Warhammer and other war games (SAGA and CMON’s ASOIAF ftw!), are kicking off their own Kickstarter campaign! An extremely ambitious and historically accurate project for a war game set in the Civil War period in the US so please check out the “Gods of War: Lee”!

And our friends from PHALANX are running a campaign for a Napoleonic themed multiplayer wargame with strong diplomatic factors. Very innovative design that merges simple gameplay with very deep strategic planning. But the most important part of the game is cooperation and competition between powers, that leads to building of "Coalitions"!

Dawid & Kuba:

Michał is right, board games and wargames are our passion, but RPGs are equally so! Dawid is not only our marketing wizard but also GCU’s notorious game master (we’ve recently started a Blades in the Dark campaign and it is frickin’ amazing!).

When we saw the campaign for The Defiant RPG, we could not scroll past it! A utopian vision of the world where god-like supernaturals rule the world enclosed in heaven-like cities where their word is law… daaaaamn sounds amazing! We’re backing it!

A Building-site Challenge
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 04, 2021 at 04:33:48 AM

Hello Frostlanders,

We hope that the spring has melted the snow and ice where you live (hopefully not on the South Pole…) and that you take your time to appreciate the sunshine and the blossoming nature. May is particularly beautiful here in Poland with lush, green trees and people smiling more often as the country is slowly coming back to life after the worst waves of the pandemic. Kids are back at school (thus our efficiency is a bit higher 😉) and things are looking good, and we look to the future with a shy smile of optimism.

The previous two updates were dedicated to the design of the game so this one will focus purely on the production aspect of this wonderful endeavor made possible thanks to your support! The last city on Earth has been growing ever since our expedition arrived at the crater, and the building-site has seen many a change!

Buildings, Citizens and Resources

This month we’ve finished the sculpts for buildings, citizens (automatons included) and resources (46 different sculpts altogether). So, what does that mean for the production effort? The sculpts have not only been finished by the artists but were already processed by our manufacturer’s team and remade to be ready for mass production. Our manufacturer did an outstanding job, and we accepted the test samples.

In case you wondered about the process of adapting sculpts/miniatures for mass production… First of all it is all about keeping each element as thin as possible but still strong enough to support its own weight and then some more (so that they don’t break when touched, squeezed or dropped). Secondly, all large empty spaces in between the elements of a sculpt should be removed. This is done so that when the mold is opened with hot plastic inside, the miniature won’t be ripped to pieces by the pressure.

To show you how these two rules affect the final product, we will show you an example of a citizen’s miniature (kids, to be exact). At the top of the picture, you can see the 3d sculpt and at the bottom the corrections introduced by the manufacturer in order to prepare it for mass production. What are the differences? To begin with, some details were thickened (for example the outstretched arm and the handle of the lantern). The kids are now closer to the wall to eliminate the empty space in between.

As you can see for yourselves, the miniature didn’t lose any detail (in some places it is actually more visible now!) and the changes introduced to meet production standards didn’t ruin the overall character of this mini diorama. This is why it is so crucial to work with an experienced manufacturer because only then can you be sure that your sculpts will resemble the quality and detail shown and promised during the campaign.

And what if a miniature has multiple cavities and, due to its character, we don’t want to remove them? Well then that miniature must be created using multiple elements that are assembled and glued in the factory (which unfortunately greatly increases the cost of each unit). A good example of such a model is the Guard Post. The differences in color represent the division of parts which will later be assembled into a complete model. Please notice that as we promised each building has its name visible underneath its base – all buildings will be marked this way – so there won’t be any issues with identifying them.

After we accepted the digital models and the changes made to their sculpts, later those were printed as actual miniatures so that we could evaluate them directly, in their physical form. This part of the whole process is super important! We were able to catch a mistake that we made with how the snow on the bases was designed. Each part of the snowy landscape was too thick so instead of Frostpunk we got Minecraft 😊. Neither we nor our sculptors nor the dev team noticed this (not even the manufacturer at first), but once the miniatures reached us in their physical form it was clear. Check it out for yourselves:

Thankfully, this is still the stage when we can make adjustments without any major costs. (We had to pay for another set of miniatures to be printed to check if the revision of the sculpts solved the problem.) The sculpts were all corrected and the effects of it are visible in the picture below. The snow looks like proper… snow 😊:

This is why making board games is no small feat 😉 with pitfalls aplenty and possible costly mistakes. The only thing that can save you is an experienced team, reliable partners and a procedure of quality assurance both internal and external (manufacturer).

As we dealt with the “chunky snow” syndrome we also created the miniatures for all the items in the Resources Expansion. They went through the same procedure as described earlier and we will be happy to share the results in our next update. 

Where do we go from here in terms of the production process? The metal molds for mass production will be made – they are cut from blocks of solid aluminum or steel and processed with CNC machines. It is an extraordinarily complex and time-consuming process that is already ongoing as you read these words.

Generator Tower

Since we like to play the game on hard mode, we worked on the model of the Generator tower simultaneously – please remember that it will be included in every copy of the game! After we sobered up from the celebrations that took place when we were 100% certain that the interior works as intended, we got down to giving some extra love to the exterior of this magnificent piece of engineering. Our sculptors made sure that the edges of all the “metal” elements look realistic, as well as the rivet heads, maintenance doors for the furnace and all the valves. The inner obsessive, perfectionist nerd that is a part of most people in our team 😊 was satisfied and we gave it the GCU seal of approval! The Generator looks amazing and will not only serve as a crucial part of your playthrough but also an eye catching centerpiece for the optimal Frostpunk experience!

This model, composed of eighteen (that’s right 18!) parts, has also been accepted for mass production, and metal molds for it are being cut as we speak.

Wooden Pieces

Let’s stay in the Core Box components section for a bit longer. Taking double shifts to finish the plastic parts on time, we were able to carve some wood as well 😉. We’ve shown you some of the models in the update posted on the 30th of March, but back then many models were not finished and the colors for them were also not final. We wanted to make sure that all the colors of the components matched their corresponding areas or icons on the board.

So, here they are, all of the wooden pieces that you will find in the game (Core Game and Frostlander parts are mixed here):

We will show you more photos in one of the next updates, as we have ordered a few complete sets for our physical prototypes (to provide you some real-world gameplay videos, at last).

We had to make some color adjustments in comparison to what we showed you in the update on March 30th. The color of the Worker meeple was changed to a more orange tone, the Tree meeple is now a lot whiter, the Automaton has a metallic shine to it… some could say these are minor details, but we’re picky and we pay a lot of attention to such details. After all, we want the game to look great on your tables!

How does one design the shapes and colors for such pretty meeples? They are first created as simple vector graphics, with their size precisely described. The colors are described using a pantone pallet and the overall design must be approved by the manufacturer to be certain that the fancy shapes we envisioned are actually possible to produce on a mass scale. Then, as usually the prototypes are created for physical approval, each sample is checked for uneven edges, possible damage and the colors are compared with the pantone samples. You’d be surprised how different colors can look on 3D objects when compared to a 2D pallet! Once the feedback is gathered and corrections are made, mass production begins! This is how our meeple template looks (the corrections are marked in magenta):

The Artwork

Anez has finished the first major stages of her work for this project – all the buildings are now illustrated, and the same goes for the resources. In the previous updates we’ve presented some of her works. Below you will find another sneak peek into some completely new illustrations:

Currently, Anez is working on the central tile and the surrounding tiles (including the special one for the Crags or the Dreadnought) as well as the outer rim tiles. Last but not least, the illustration that will fill the playmat will be composed out of those pieces. 😊 This is how a brief for an artist looks (this one was written for the tiles). It determines the shape and size of the elements that need to be illustrated. Specific contents are presented in a document that is filled with descriptions, intentions and mood boards often based on the screenshots from the original, digital Frostpunk.

Since the core game components are finished when it comes to their contents, our graphic design studio has the capacity to focus on the final graphic design and layout of the game. As they have many times before, our friends from 11 bit studios came to our aid and provided us with 1.8 terabytes of illustrations and art from the digital game. Based on that vast library of beautiful art, each Leader and each Citizen will come with a unique illustration, a unique face and we will have more than enough to illustrate practically any part of the game that we deem should receive dedicated artwork. In a licensed project like this one, a good relationship and communication with the license holder is the key to a successful project. We often ask the team at 11 bit studios for feedback, requesting specific info or art and 3D models. The good folk of 11bs are always quick to provide substantial answers, saving us time and potential discrepancies. :)

Design, Development, and Tests

For about a month now you’ve been testing the revised version of the game on Tabletop Simulator. This new module already has 3.5k subscribers who have played hundreds of playthroughs and sent us 129 completed feedback surveys.

The tests provide us expected and correct results and your feedback is overwhelmingly positive (especially when it comes to the changes from the previous version), and we think that the design of the core game is finished. Obviously we are still tweaking and fixing any bugs that we occasionally stumble upon or that are reported to us by you or our test groups, but this is just polishing the game. Honestly, the longer it lasts the better for the game (within reason of course 😉), since each mistake noticed and fixed is one less inside the game that will land on your tables!

Have no fear! This does not mean our brave design and development team is on vacation! On the contrary 😉, they are working at 110% capacity, creating the content for scenarios and setups. (Just a reminder: the core scenario – “A New Home” takes place in the setup we call “The Crater”.) Currently on our projects desks, we have the following scenarios: Ruins of Tesla City, The Fall of Winterhome and The Arks. They’re accompanied by the setups: Flats, Canyon, Crags, Dreadnought and Frozen Grove. The focus of the design intentions for these aspects of the game is to deliver a completely new experience with each kind of scenario or setup (when compared to the core game). We just can’t wait to tell you more about each one. We will shed more light on this topic in the upcoming updates. Meanwhile, we’d like to share a little teaser for Tesla City:

Aspects of the game being in the works alongside those mentioned above:

• starting society cards, in order to provide varied (but always playable) starting conditions that will offer a spectrum of difficulty levels for maximum replayability;
• revised scoring chart – we want the sum of the victory points gained after successfully completing a playthrough to reflect the actual course of the game that has just finished;
• game rules – final editorial and proofreading so that the files can be prepared for print;
• text on the cards, scenario descriptions – fluff for the fluff throne!

Phew, this concludes the most important news from the production front.

We’ve said a few times but we just feel it must be said a lot more 😊, Thank you! For being a part of this journey and for the amazing feedback and support you keep showing us, be it in the comments or personal messages or tests on TTS. Together we will make it not only the last but also the greatest city on Earth (technically the last is the greatest but you get my meaning 😉)!

Jakub & GCU Team

GCU Spotlight

In case you were frozen in a block of ice or hiding in a postapo shelter of your own making. You must have already heard about the Kickstarter campaign for The Witcher: Old World by Łukasz Woźniak. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he will break all records with this campaign, and we wish him and his team all the sleep they can get afterwards. 😉 

Changes, changes all around us.
almost 3 years ago – Sat, May 01, 2021 at 12:45:05 AM

Hello Frostlanders!

Today’s update will feature the updated Tabletop Simulator module as well as revised rules – just as mentioned in our last communication. We do hope that the changes we introduced will be to your liking – we are extremely excited about it! Please give a big shout out to Adam and to our dev team (Rafał, Grzesiek, Bartek and Paweł) thanks to whom Frostpunk: The Board Game is an even better game than before! The most essential changes were described in the last update so if you missed it we highly recommend acquainting yourself with it (it’s not short but it is packed to the brim with important information!), oh and don’t forget to come back to this update once you’re done reading 😉.

Here is the link to the updated Tabletop Simulator module:

The previous version of the TTS module was cleared of all content and we would kindly ask you to subscribe to the current (new) workshop so that you will be informed about all the future updates and revisions.

The changes are far going and we just can’t wait to hear your feedback. So please after you have managed to play take those few extra minutes to fill out the survey we’ve inserted into the module. Analyzing the data from the surveys helps us to constantly improve the game and its balance and hey as we all know there is no such thing as too many tests 😉. The survey itself has also been updated to match the module and changes introduced.

Please keep in mind that this module represents the Hard difficulty level and it is a real tough nut to crack with the proposed setup so don’t expect easy victories… but then when did an easy win taste sweet? To aim for victory you need to acquaint yourselves with the changes and the mechanics and have at least a few playthroughs finished to be able to analyze why you failed earlier.

Speaking about the rules, please find the updated rule book here:

Big thanks and big hugs to Paul Grogan and Derek Allgire for their unwavering support and input in creating this updated version of the game and its rules. Please don’t shy from commenting on any mistakes or just providing feedback to the rule book if you find something unclear or badly written. No matter how awesome the help we get, nothing will compare to thousands of eyes checking the rules! This ruleset is the basis for creating the final version of the game’s manual.

So please come and join us for a game! Should you wish to communicate with us, or other people interested in this project, for example to find people to play it with, please join our community on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/frostpunktheboardgame

Discord: https://discord.gg/NYSEXrB332

Board Game Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2646485/tts-module-just-updated

New gameplay videos

For those of you who would like to see the updated game before you play it, we’ve prepared a few recorded sessions from our participation in SHUX Expo 2021. 

One of the playthrough can be found on YouTube:

and the rest on our Twitch channel, where we’ve collected them all 😉:

https://www.twitch.tv/glasscannonunplugged

We highly recommend watching any of the videos, especially to those of you who do not use Tabletop Simulator and would like to be up to speed with the game’s development. We must warn you that these videos contain some spoilers especially to the scenario goals and its twists.

Publishing partners and distributors

Last week we closed our Pledge Manager so if any of you would like to make some changes to your pledge please contact our Support Team under this address: https://glasscannonunplugged.com/customer-support/

Please remember that you still can access your pledge to modify the shipping address via our Pledge Manager, this option will be available up until all the games are packed and ready to ship to you. Of course, we will remind you about this in advance before we lock the option to change the addresses and it won’t happen sooner than late Fall.

As a natural consequence we are closing the pre-orders that were available through our Pledge Manager. With the closing of this chapter, we are passing the distribution of Frostpunk: The Board Game (retail version) to our publishing partners and distributors. We are sincerely proud of the fact that so many of them want to distribute our game. The list is as follows:

• Bazilian edition - Galapagos Jogos (retail only)
• Chinese edition (traditional / simplified) - CMON (retail only)
• Czech edition - Albi
• English edition - Glass Cannon Unplugged (obviously 😉)
• French edition - Asyncron
• German edition - Frosted Games
• Hungarian edition - Delta Vision (retail only)
• Italian edition - Pendragon
• Japanese edition - CMON (retail only)
• Korean edition - Lotus Frog Games
• Polish edition - Rebel
• Russian edition - Hobby World
• Spanish edition - Maldito
• Taiwanese edition - CMON (retail only)

Few of these editions were not available during the Kickstarter campaign nor the Pledge Manager period. These editions are going to be available in retail distribution only (Brazilian, Hungarian, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese). We cannot give access to them to our backers, sorry. However, if any of you would like to cancel their English version of the game to get a Brazilian, Hungarian, Japanese, Chinese or Taiwanese retail edition in the future please contact our Support Team – the link is above. Please keep in mind that the retail edition does not include pre-shaded miniatures (that are free only to Kickstarter backers and is an exclusive to those fine people 😉) nor does it contain the Frostlander Expansion that is only free to our Kickstarter backers – the MSRP of this expansion in retail will be 20 EUR.

The English edition of Frostpunk: The Board Game will be globally distributed by the following companies:

• Asmodee Asia
• Asmodee The Netherlands
• Asmodee Nordic
• Asmodee United Kingdom
• Asmodee USA
• Blackfire
• Lion Rampant
• Rebel
• VR Distribution

If you run a board game store and would like to add Frostpunk: The Board Game to your offer, please contact one of the abovementioned companies that is operating in your region.

Meantime in the production department…

… hmm maybe it will be better if we talk about it more in the next update 😉, we need to let the dev and sales teams recuperate a bit after this update so we will focus on production. See you all wonderful souls in a month and once again thank you for being a part of this endeavor!

Jakub & GCU Team

GCU Spotlight

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Pledge Manager - new products & last call to fill out the survey! / Delay / Changes in the game
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 01:25:57 AM

Hello Frostlanders!

We are grateful for your participation in filling the survey posted in our previous update. More than 3000 backers filled the survey. A bit over 2000 of you declared the demand for the hold-it-all box and a bit over a 1000 said they will be getting the wooden meeples depicting buildings. Due to the number of answers and your feedback we’ve just added both add-ons to the pledge manager and you can now add them to your baskets if you will. Both add-ons are also available for the late pledgers.

If you’d like to exchange your Miniatures Expansion for Timber City Expansion, pick up a new add-on called “Change your Miniatures Expansion to Timber City Expansion”. This will change all instances of Miniatures Expansion in your base pledge into Timber City expansion. The difference in the price - 10 Euro - will be refunded to you in the form of additional credit before the Pledge Manager closes. For those of you who picked multiple copies of the game there’s also an option to switch from Miniatures Expansion to Timber City Expansion simply by editing your basket. 

Because the interest and demand for the Iceberg Box proved high we were able to reduce its price from 35 to 30 Euro, since the print run will be larger. As most of you know – the cost lowers (to some point) as the print run grows. Thank you for being so active and responsive!

In case of any questions according these items, please contact our Support Team directly: https://glasscannonunplugged.com/customer-support/

90% of backers filled their pledge manager surveys - the last call to fill the survey if you still have not!

Due to the fact that we’ve just added 2 new products to the pledge manager we have decided to prolong the period when it is still open until the 16th of April. We will be closing the pledge manager by the end of the day (CET) on the 16th of April and your cards will be charged on the next day - 17th of April.

Your pledges will then be saved and closed but you will be able to edit your shipping address up until a few weeks before we ship the game to you. So please don’t worry to put your current address in the pledge manager survey even if you suspect it might change in the nearest future – since you will be able to change it yourself in the BackerKit system without the need of notifying us. We will remind you all about making sure your addresses are up to date in an update we will post a month before we start the first wave of shipments – please mark it in your calendars 😉.

We kindly ask you to fill out your surveys and decide on the final shape and size of your orders in the pledge manager. As we write these words 90% of you did fill the surveys. On the 16th of April we will close the pledge manager without any further delays. Therefore, we ask of you to proceed with the discipline worthy of the citizens of the last city on Earth! 😊

So, what’s the plan?

Since we know exactly when the pledge manager closes the obvious question arises: what are the next steps – how is the completion of this project going to look? We will describe the steps below, but we must first say that we will be late – we can now say it with all certainty. With the feedback we received from our partners and manufacturer we won’t be able to deliver the games to you this Fall. We are sorry to keep you frozen in the ice for this year’s winter without the generators to warm your shelters but do not despair, as usual the Spring will bring a new hope and the ice will melt. We will be delivering the games to you in Spring 2022. Please find the project realization schedule we received from the manufacturer, with a note that it is a realistic timeline in the COVID-ridden reality we all face - the industry is facing delays on multiple fronts with lacking workforce as well as raw materials.

• By the end of March 2021 – miniature’s files modification;
• April 2021 - miniatures samples creation and approval;
• May and June 2021 - miniatures molds making, printing files drafts received by the printing house;
• July 2021- miniatures molds testing and approval of production prototypes, making samples of printing files;
• August - November 2021- mass production of miniatures, approvals and printing of printing files (cards, tokens, boards);
• December 2021 - confection of game components;
• January and February 2022 – packaging and container shipping to destination HUBs;

Please be aware that this is JUST a plan. We must take into consideration two crucial points in a Chinese yearly manufacturing process – October 2021 is the celebration of the Golden Week holiday and February 2022 is the Chinese New Year. The October’s celebrations will take place directly in the middle of the production process and will simply stretch it out in time. Now the Chinese New Year in 2022 is tricky since we either make it according to the plan and all the games are packed neatly into the containers or we don’t and the process of container shipping will start in March 2022. Even for an experienced crew the current situation on the global markets is tragically unpredictable. The COVID caused delays in the worldwide logistics are significant (like a ship that clogged a certain canal 😉) and the biggest logistics operators are facing a backlog of shipments that is hard to process even by their immense structure. We know this is not an easy pill to swallow but we want to be completely honest with you. This is why we will keep communicating with you directly and regularly with monthly updates that will include honest and relevant information on how the project is proceeding without any sugar coating. You will have full insight into our work and its effects and you will be able to review it as we go. Of course, as we have done before, during and post campaign we will listen to your feedback and react.

We are upset that none of us possess the powers to bend time and space. We are deeply sorry, and we wholeheartedly apologize for this delay. We feel it is our personal responsibility as the creators of this project. At the same time, we are committed to our most important obligation – by backing this campaign you have allowed us to bring an amazing game to this world – and the game keeps getting better and better but more on this late. Please be assured that all the language versions will be sent along with the English version of the game without any significant time intervals.

Changes in the game

The global pandemic is not the only cause for the delay. The second reason for it lays in our internal drive to deliver a worthy experience into your hands. Having received a ginormous dose of feedback during and after the campaign, also thanks to hundreds of anonymous testers who playtested the game on Tabletop Simulator, we were able to pinpoint the areas of the gameplay that needed improvement. We started working on those troublesome aspects of the game just a few days after the campaign has ended.

The area that caused a lot of concerns was the sickness track. Many of you didn’t like the fact that the population of your city was getting sick on itself only if there were other sick citizens present. On the other hand, the momentum of the game needed the players to act under constant threat of sickness – a case where everyone is in perfect health and the players could simply forget about this aspect of the game is simply unthinkable. In relation to this we had the idea that the sickness mechanics could be removed from the sickness track as an automatic effect (sickness spreading) and instead we tied it to the current heating level of the city to see how many new citizens get sick. Boy oh, boy it works as a well-oiled automaton right now! The Generator board now has an additional area that shows the number (no counting needed!) of people who will get sick on a given heating level. Of course if you will be able to provide enough Coal to heat the city to the maximum level no one will get sick… but this doesn’t happen very often 😉… so the new sick will appear in the ranks of your citizens as the time passes. Yet this is no longer an automatic process it became a consequence of a choice. You will all have to face a dilemma how to distribute the workforce at hand and what demand needs to be satisfied first. Another relevant decision connected to the Generator’s mechanics and a welcome one!

The Generator itself has been greatly improved as well. The changes we did are in regards to the way the heating value is indicated and how it operates – thus making it generally more comprehensible. We’ve added a temperature track to the Generator board where the drops connected with the Weather cards are now shown. This new track is also the place where you operate the heating level token – trying to catch up with it to the temperature marker. Naturally, the closer you want to raise the heating level to match the current temperature marker the more Coal you will have feed to the Generator. The distance between these two markers defines: the heating range, which building types will be heated (due to their insulation levels) and the mentioned above number of citizens that will get sick. We’ve connected the markers together, we joined them physically (earlier they were only joined by the rules) thanks to this there is less manual manipulation of these components and the general clarity of this aspect of the game is improved.

You will learn how far reaching the consequences of this choice are once you play the game (more on that later - TTS), we are big fans of this solution since now every Coal cube thrown into the Generator matters. It matters because it can cause a slight change in the amount of potential new sick citizens and this is often the margin of error that can see your city survive or fall. The struggle then is no longer only to heat a certain area of the city or a given type of building it literally is a struggle for every level between the temperature marker and the heating marker. So, it is exactly as it should be!

The improvement of the Generator mechanics impacted some changes on the Weather cards – we were able to make the Blizzard and its consequences simpler. The cogwheel symbol was removed from the Generator track because now the malfunction and drop in efficiency is marked immediately as you move the temperature marker.

The Technology mechanics also saw a large number of changes and improvements. Until now it was an aspect of the game that was significantly less impactful than the Laws and we didn’t feel OK with this dissonance. Afterall it is technology that is going to save mankind from extinction, right? What we did is reflected in the increase of the “power level” of the Technology cards so now their implementation is longer and more impactful. Just like in the original Frostpunk the number of Engineers involved in the project reflects on the time it takes for a given technology to be introduced. Now you can base your entire playthrough on an idea deriving from a Technology card that you possess and put the burden of your survival in the skilled hands of your engineers.

The 7th turn syndrome was successfully removed! The 7th turn syndrome (for those of you who hear about it for the first time) was happening during some playthroughs where experienced players could tell by the end of the 7th or 8th turn if the whole playthrough will be a win or a loss. For us it was a major issue because we value the epicness of each playthrough and the emotions that follow and when you know what will happen it is hard to raise your emotions 😉. To solve this, we had to change how the resources are placed on the board, change the “power level” of actions on given buildings and change the dismantle action entirely. We noticed that players instead of expanding their city were mostly trying to limit its size and the wood they got back from dismantling was often to blame. This led to a policy similar to modern no-waste economy, that certainly is a smart solution but does not feel very epic – especially while building and expanding the last city on Earth that should accommodate what remains of humanity! The dismantle action was changed, it no longer provides wood after you dismantle a building to make some space for a new project. This is a simple change, but it had a significant, positive impact on Wood usage and city expansion. The demand for Wood does not drop over time, it remains high until the very last moments of a playthrough. For the good of gameplay, we had to make a change in regards to the original Frostpunk, where dismantling provided some of the resources used for construction back – as we all know not all mechanics are adaptable and not all mechanics should be adapted and this is a fine example. Food gathering and hunting underwent some changes too. New incentives for uncovering more tiles of the board are present, the same can be said about the Expeditions. The Upgrades system has also been affected and the building costs of individual buildings didn’t dodge the bullet with the word “development” inscribed on it 😉.

Balancing this bulk of changes and improvements took us many weeks but our devs did it! The game now works as intended – it creates a challenge from the moment you start up until the moment you finish. The outcome of the game can no longer be calculated in turns 7-8 or any other amount 😉. Having that Sizyf’s work behind us we can now focus on the content. What does it mean? The Events need polishing (since we are Polish, we know what we’re saying 😉) same is true for Dusk cards, Laws, Technology, Expeditions. The setups and scenarios can now be written as we have a very strong core game that provides a solid foundation for various gameplay modifications we want to present to you. These tasks should be completed in June so that we can smoothly enter the manufacturing schedule. We cannot cross out any delays on our side, a complete lockdown has just been announced in Poland due to the highest ever rate of new infections and the virus now attacking much younger people. Those of us who have kids are locked in our houses with our little darlings and it isn’t like we can propose some law for them to help us at work… or can we? 😉

Fortunately, for now the whole team is safe and in good health and we are eager to develop and deliver the game you are all waiting for!

The changes mentioned above are not everything that has happened in the game but the most impactful ones. Mid-April we will be happy to share the bulk of it with you. We plan to post the revised rulebook along with the updated Tabletop Simulator module. Most of it is ready but awaits final revision and proofreading.

What else is new?

Adding two new products, many of you requested for, to the pledge manager does not influence our work on the game or any of its aspects, in no negative way. Please find the production events that happened since the previous production related update:

The pre-production prototype of the Dreadnought is in our hands. It looks equally awesome on the real-life board as on the renders. But don’t take our words for it and take a look at some photos:

Anez is tirelessly at work on the illustrations, she breaths detail and life into the game!

The prototypes of meeples are also given form and shape. We have placed a rather challenging task in front of the ambitious team of Ningbo Eastar manufacturer since the meeples we have for citizens are rather complex and full of details, we were afraid that the manufacturer would ask us to simplify them. Fortunately, they didn’t, and they attached some first photos of the prototype meeples. These look equally cool as our visualizations during the campaign! We simply can’t wait to see the prototypes of the tokens are with us and when we can finally place it all on a prototype of the board! 😊 #boardgamegeekdreams

Many of you ask about the set-up of the boxes and how will the component trays be placed in the hold-it-all box. We are on it as well! Please see below the previous version of the boxes with the old, white prototypes of the boxes. Think of them as of a rough visualization of how things could be arranged inside – they do not have the right size yet, just shapes that show the relations between the boxes, how they could be arranged in the final packaging.

Please treat these photos as already outdated because our goal is to fit all the components of the game into boxes that have the same width and height but different depth – so that they look as one when you store them. Speaking about storage… we want them to fit in your Kallax shelves😉. This is important to many of you and was very clearly stated in your comments.

Phew, this update is long enough so let us finish here. We are ready to receive your feedback after you’ve read this text and we hope the message that goes through it is clear: “We deeply regret the delay. We accept the blame, and we want you all to know that our top priority is to deliver a great game to you. Not a good one, not a mediocre one but a one worthy of your support and expectations”. While the whole team hopes that the reasons we provided are sufficient to explain this, I am personally hopeful that you will show mercy… since we all know what happens with leaders who allow the discontent to go too high… so don’t go building that platform yet, ok team? 😉

Stay safe and stay healthy!

Jakub & GCU Team