Rising from the Ashes
over 4 years ago – Wed, Oct 02, 2019 at 01:52:46 AM

Hello, Legends and a happy first day of October to all of you, the spookiest month of the year! 

Maggie here with a small update and a bigger update coming on Friday. This update is to inform you of the progress that we have made over the past two weeks, and the Friday update will be about our timelines moving forward. We are breaking these into two updates because Alex and Chris will be presenting a new chapter build to us on Thursday and we as a team will have a better understanding of how much time it will take to do all of the development work after that.

The Past Two Weeks:

Alex and Chris took the eight chapter story that we were given and essentially dismantled it. They assessed each item individually, starting with the characters. They reviewed the backstories for each character and expanded them slightly from the version that was presented at the beginning of this campaign. These changes were made to allow characters to have more compelling stories and to add in more skills, items, and relics that were unique to each character.

After looking at the characters they began laying out the framework for the story. With all of the maps at their disposal, and while staying true to the goals of Matt and Ben, they could change the places where certain events happen. This led to an important conversation where we had to ask questions like "Does this story feel rushed?" and "Can we add in an additional chapter, or two, to make a player feel more immersed?". And the answers were yes, we did feel rushed and like we wanted to feel more from the game. So Legends of Sleepy Hollow will now take place over the course of 10 Chapters and we will still have two expansion chapters (11 &12)!

Once we had worked on some basic outlining for the chapters, Alex and Chris got to work on monster scaling issues. They took the final chapter scenario, which includes the fully scaled monsters, and played through it with the new character builds to see what was working and what needed to be adjusted still. We completed several playthroughs editing as we went and we did our latest playthrough on Thursday of last week. At the end of it, we all felt that we had a very solid foundation. Alex and Chris are presenting a full version of the final chapter to us on Thursday to do a final test. Once that is completed they will be able to reverse engineer monsters, and players to make sure scaling matches up in all 10 Chapters.

We will have more to share on Friday. As always, Katie and I will be in the comments to answer any questions!

See ya'll soon!
-Maggie

A Step Back
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 03:29:16 AM

Hello, Legends. My name is Jennifer, the Creative Director of Greater Than Games and (now) Project Manager for Legends of Sleepy Hollow. You may have seen my name pop up in a few of the prior updates that Maggie has been posting. I apologize for delaying your update a day, but as you read through the information below, the reason why should become very clear.

As you know through Maggie’s updates, we have experienced some delays in the development process of Legends of Sleepy Hollow. Maggie has been diligent in being as transparent as possible with you based upon all of the knowledge and information she was given. Unfortunately, as we went into what should have been the last step of the process (review and edits from our internal editing staff), we uncovered mechanical and story issues that were egregious enough to make us question the external development process that had been occurring - or in this case, possibly not occuring.

A Little Insight Into The Process

When Greater Than Games works on a product in the Dice Hate Me Studios line, most of the development is done outside of our main office. This means we are clued into large milestone moments of the process and, depending upon the game, we have more or less involvement in the development and design of the game. For example, Homebrewers was a game that involved our internal team in a much more extensive capacity with playtesting, layout, and production being managed and worked on mostly here in St Louis with the help of the game designer and our off-site development staff where appropriate. We were able to get Homebrewers successfully developed and delivered to backers FOUR months early.

  With Legends of Sleepy Hollow, 90% of the development was managed off-site. We were given occasional updates on progress and saw the game when we were together at conventions. Up until Maggie took over the updates on Kickstarter, the development team had been in charge of keeping you, the backers, as well as us abreast of the status of the project. At every meeting and in every update, we were told that progress was being made, the game was being playtested to our requirements and expectations, and the design work was being completed in a way that would live up to our standards at Greater Than Games. A few months ago, we began to have great concerns as we found out the dev team wouldn’t make our initial deadlines. At that point, I stepped into a much more active role with the project and attempted to assist in setting up accurate deadlines for dev and production. I began to have weekly (and sometimes daily) meetings with the factory and the developer in charge of the game. In this capacity, I was still beholden to the information I was given by outside sources and attempted to keep things moving as best as we could, particularly once we have review files in hand.

Uncovering Uncomfortable Truths

The cracks in the facade really began to show during the review process. We started by working through the rulebook. It quickly became clear to us that there were many rules and elements of the game that were not addressed or explained clearly in the rulebook. Rulebooks are notoriously difficult to write, so this was not entirely unexpected, and we were well prepared to handle the rewrites and edits required to make the rulebook as user-friendly and enjoyable as possible. However, it did raise some red flags about mechanics in the game that weren’t quite polished. 

As we read the storybook (the scenario manual for each chapter of the game) we reached a point where we had more questions than answers. The story elements weren’t adding up and the scenarios weren’t presenting the exciting and immersive experiences we were expecting. We worked with the lead developer to try to get answers, but ultimately we had to do a week of internal playing of the game to see if we could assess the errors and find out what was going on. Did we simply misunderstand something? Or were there truly issues with the game itself that needed resolved? This is where Maggie posted about a short delay in the review process. We worked feverishly to assess the situation as fast and efficiently as we could in the hopes of getting things back on track.

Tough Decisions

We approached the issues from as many angles as possible. We weighed all of the options we had at hand and finally decided that we could not in good conscience present the game in its current state to you, our loyal and patient backers. Greater Than Games takes great pride in every game that we produce, with a particular focus on highly-thematic and story-driven games. We truly believe in the potential of Legends of Sleepy Hollow and want to produce a game that will provide a compelling and immersive experience with elements of suspense, surprise, strategy, and enjoyment. In order to do this, we have taken the game from our external developer and have brought it in house, making it one of our highest priorities. This means that we now have full control over the development, play testing, design, and production of this game. There will be no more reliance on outside sources for status updates of the game or prodding for files and pushing deadlines. But it also means delays in getting the games to you.

Our Next Steps

On Thursday, we have a meeting to officially nail down exactly what needs to be done to raise this game up to the great product we know it can be. Our in-house Game Developer, Chris Burton, has taken lead on the project and begun reassessing mechanics for enemies and scenarios. He’s already had a full week of game development time and has been able to work with various employees, including Maggie, to begin crafting solutions and tweaks for weaknesses in the game. Christopher and Alex have made extensive notes on story elements that need reworking to create a cohesive and compelling storyline built upon the bones of the original review documents we were given. We have already spoken to Matt and Ben, the original designers of the game, and with their support are excited to work in a closer relationship with them to bring their ideas to fruition. Darrell and I have already begun to re-evaluate layout decisions to ensure that cards and icons are beautiful and effective for players.

We are in the process of establishing realistic timelines that we can then relay to you in the coming updates. Unlike the initial development of the game, we will follow through with true playtesting, relying heavily on our accomplished playtesting network. We will keep all design updates in house so that we can properly track the process of layout and revisions. Luckily a ton of the framework exists, but we have a lot of development and polish to do. We had already gone into production, as previously stated, on minis and dice. That has not changed. The factory will complete that process and then hold all of those elements safely for us until we reach the assembly step of production once again.

What This Means For You

This means that we will be asking you to continue to have faith and work with us as we redevelop parts of this game to make it the game you all know will be great. We’re currently estimating a delivery of Q4 2020. We understand that this is a long delay and appreciate your support through this process. We know that without your investments and trust, this product would not be a reality. We hate to disappoint you with more delays. But we also hope that you understand that this was not something we ever DREAMED would be the situation. We relied upon false information given to us and we have gone to great lengths to correct the problem. 

If you would like to cancel your pledge for a full refund at this time, Katie will be available to assist you in any way possible - just email her at [email protected]. We hope that, even if you do, you will keep an eye out for the game on shelves at the end of next year. Maggie will be back shortly to give you more extensive updates in the future as she is now an integral part of the development process with Chris. She will be able to better answer your questions and give you information that comes directly from the people working on finishing the game.

Thank You For Your Support

Again, we truly appreciate the love and support you’ve shown us so far and we hope that you can continue to place your trust in us to deliver on our promise that this game will absolutely be worth the wait when it comes out. We 100% will be delivering on this Kickstarter campaign and are excited to be in control of the development process going forward. We all know that Legends of Sleepy Hollow can be a great game, and we are going to make sure it is before it hits your doorstep.

Thank you,

Jennifer Closson

Creative Director of Greater Than Games

Staying the course
over 4 years ago – Tue, Sep 03, 2019 at 11:23:08 PM

Hello Legends! Maggie here with your first September update! In this update we will go over our timeline, and show-off our live play through of Legends of Sleepy Hollow Chapter 1 Legendary Mode!

Timeline

As of right now, we are on track in our editing process. We are in week 1 of September and Christopher is beginning his editing pass. 

We do have a small update, the revisions during week 2 of September will be made by Jennifer Closson, our Art Director and Project Manager. This change does not effect our timeline and will increase our accuracy during the revision process because the editors sit in office with Jennifer, so if/when questions come up it will be easier to track down answers. 

Legends of Sleepy Hollow: Chapter 1 Legendary Mode!

Above is a video of Alex Schimdt, an Editor for Legends of Sleepy Hollow, Chris Burton, our Game Designer Manager, Jennifer Closson, our Creative Director, and myself playing through Chapter 1 of Legends of Sleepy Hollow! 

Now, the gang and I had all played through the game a few times so we decided to play on Legendary Mode to make things more interesting. Movement, damage and actions all take place in the same way, but we get to fight off WAY more monsters! Check it out and let us know if you have any questions in the comments below! 

See ya'll in a couple of weeks!

-Maggie 

The Adventure Begins- Legends of Sleepy Hollow Live Stream @ 3 PM today!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Aug 20, 2019 at 07:29:27 PM

Good afternoon Legends!

Maggie here with your mid-August update! Today we will talk about timeline updates, the wicked cool package that was waiting on my desk this morning and our live stream taking place at 3 PM CDT today.

Timeline Update

We are currently 3 weeks behind schedule in the revision and editing process. This means that our estimated assembly will move from December to the second week of January. Assembly will take an estimated 3 weeks pushing us into Chinese New Year, which will delay us another 2-3 weeks. Our current estimated delivery date is mid-April 2020. 

Below I will go into more detail about our updated timeline, but I want to let everyone know how sorry we are to be announcing additional delays. We spent the better part of this morning double and triple checking the timeline I have laid out below with the help of our Creative Director, Jennifer, to ensure that it is the most accurate information we have.

Refunds are available by emailing [email protected]. 

August

The August 7 update stated that we were on track to finish revisions by the end of the month, and at the time that was accurate. The team member responsible for revisions underestimated the amount of time it would take him to provide our editors with content. Our current expectations is that Alex, our first editor, will receive all content by August 28. Alex has already begun editing Chapters 1-6 and will continue editing for the rest of August. 

September

Week 1

Alex will finish editing by September 3 and will pass content Christopher Badell, Greater Than Games Editor-In-Chief. Christopher will edit content from September 3-6.

Week 2

All edited content will be given to Chris Kirkman for revisions from September 9-13.

Week 3

Revised content will go through a final round of edits from September 16-18. Final revisions will be done by Chris Kirkman September 19-20.

Week 4

September 23 files will be sent to the factory and prepress processing will begin. 

October

Prepress processing will continue into the second week of October. The Print Production Copy, or PPC, will be made during this time. This is a one off, handmade sample sent from the factory for our approval. We are expecting to receive and approve the PPC during the third week of October. 

Once we have approved the PPC, production will begin. Production is currently estimated to take 10 weeks.  As we stated in the July 16 update, we have already begun some of this step with the minis, wooden components and dice. We will hopefully save some time, but the quoted estimate is 10 weeks.

Mass production will begin by the fourth week of October.

November

Mass Production continues.

December

Mass Production continues. 

January

Mass Production finishes during the first week of January. We will receive the Mass Production Copy during during the first week of January for approval. Once the MPC is approved assembly will begin and will take an estimated 3 weeks due to the complexity of the game.

 Assembly begins during the second week of January and continues during the third week. The fourth week of January will be a break for Chinese New Year. 

February

Chinese New Year will continue for the first two weeks of February and the third week of February assembly continues. The game will begin the shipping process during the fourth week of February.

March 

The game is on the ocean to us.

April

The game will arrive to our warehouse during the first week of April and will begin being shipped out to backers. 

We will continue to keep you updated to any changes to this timeline as we move forward. 

The Wicked Cool Package

After Gen Con, all Legends of Sleepy Hollow pre-production copies went to North Carolina to live with Chris Kirkman, but I have one copy back in office for the live stream later today. 

 This is exciting for two reasons: 1) They're going to be featured on the live stream using our closeup go-pro so everyone will be able to see how cool and spooky the minis and dice look. 2) Trevor, our brilliant Media Producer, will do another Legends of Sleepy Hollow photo shoot with mass production minis and components for the next update on September 3!

 
 3 PM CDT Live Stream on Twitch

Today at 3 PM CDT we will be live streaming from our Twitch account.We will be playing through Chapter 1 of Legends of Sleepy Hollow,showing off all of the awesome components and answering questions! Click here to follow us on Twitch and get notified when we go live!

A recording of this live stream will be available on our YouTube page and included in the next update for those who can't join us later today! 

See ya'll in an hour!

Maggie 

The Legends come to life! Announcing the August 20th live stream!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Aug 08, 2019 at 01:30:20 AM

Good afternoon Legends!

Maggie here with your bi-weekly update! This update is going to be a little brief because the team is still recovering from Gen Con. We will be going over production updates, photos from Gen Con production copy miniatures, dice and wooden components, and our upcoming live stream! 

Production Update

We are still on track with our revision and review process. Our current timeline estimates that we will be finished by the end of August. We will be able to go into more detail in the next update about where exactly we are at in the review process. 

Gen Con

We had an amazing convention! Our demos went extremely well and we were able to show off the production items in our display cases, which you can see below. 

Live Stream

We received a few comments over the past month or so asking to see a playthrough of our Chapter 1 demo. We decided the best way to present this to everyone would be as a live stream where folks can ask questions about how gameplay works as the game is unfolding. We will record the live stream to be viewed on YouTube after. The livestream will take place on Tuesday, August 20th at 3 PM CST on our Twitch channel! 

This is also the date of our next update so you’ll receive a reminder from me in the morning :) 

See ya'll next time!

- Maggie