By Leo Cunha, Lead Game Designer

Hey, folks! I’m Leo Cunha, Loot’s Head of Gaming and the Lead Game Designer for Relics Untold. We’re excited to kick off this series of Dev Journals where we’ll delve into the creation process of Relics Untold and offer you a behind-the-scenes look at its development.

Today, I’ll be sharing the story of how this game came to be.

The Beginning

When I joined Loot around two years ago, I was tasked with an important mission: to create a game set within Loot’s own ecosystem and intellectual property. As passionate gamers, particularly tabletop enthusiasts, we wanted to create something special.

Naturally, my initial focus was on incorporating Loot’s expertise in miniatures, leading me to explore the world of Wargames. At first, our prototypes resembled typical skirmish wargames, where players put together armies by spending a given number of points and battled on predetermined battlefields. However, we soon realized this approach would make Relics Untold feel like a reskin of existing games. We were determined to create something truly unique.

Miniatures & Cards

Influenced by some CCG (Collectible Card Game) players on our team, we decided to test the integration of cards to the game, combining the elements of deckbuilding and Wargames. This presented its own set of challenges, as these two genres added together brought some product-related challenges.

Spatial movement is something that is not usually covered in card games, while in Wargames we usually have full control of which units you bring to the table, but with a couple of adjustments we managed to create the necessary rules and also easing the learning curve.

For the gameplay itself, we focused on two major aspects: customization and replayability. Although our early playtests were rough around the edges, they proved to be incredibly satisfying and fun. The deckbuilding mechanic underwent significant changes throughout development, but we ultimately achieved what we believe is the best possible version.

By introducing deckbuilding and integrating spells into the game we added elements of surprise and opportunities to disrupt the core gameplay loop with interesting effects. To enhance the gameplay experience even more, we also introduced items that empowered units, leading to more customization and layers of strategies.

Undoubtedly, this task required a large amount of effort, but there was no turning back at this point. We fully embraced the challenge. The whole mechanic of army creation had to be reviewed and new rules implemented. How do these cards become miniatures on the board? When and where can they be deployed? How do the game resources progress and the match escalates? How to deal with the cards that break the game’s rules and in which priority? These are some of the questions and problems that this new feature added to the project, but once they were solved, the game started to run in a completely different way and, I believe, it became a totally new and unique experience as well.

A Replayable Game

We recognized that playing on the same battlefield repeatedly would eventually become monotonous. To address this issue, we added mechanics to customize the battlefield for each gameplay session, allowing players to strategically choose terrain pieces that suited their unique strategies.

This raised the bar even higher, and we felt that the visuals of the board could be improved to match the newfound freedom that the players now had. As a result, we introduced Scatter Terrains as a final layer of customization. With these enhancements, the board became customizable, enjoyable, and visually stunning. We hope you’ll appreciate it as much as we do.

Strategy Over Luck

Of course, the path of a game developer is far from easy, and we also faced significant challenges with our combat system. In its early stages, the game relied heavily on luck and damage spikes. Since our aim was to create a competitive game that emphasized strategy over luck, we knew we had to address this issue.

After countless months, fueled by pizzas and rigorous playtesting, we developed a combat system that retained the essence of our beloved D20 while achieving a delicate balance that mitigated the influence of luck, even with card draws and dice rolls.

Going Physical

As you can see, the development process has been marked by substantial changes and the most significant turning point came when we made a crucial decision. Originally, until the beginning of 2023, Relics Untold was planned for a digital and print-to-play release, however, we realized that by following that path we couldn’t guarantee the same level of quality for the cards as we do for our miniatures.

Consequently, we made the bold choice to go fully physical, producing top-tier cards that serve as the game’s authentication element and deliver the best possible game experience to you, our valued players. Although it is very challenging for a company that was born digital, the product and all game accessories follow Loot’s high-quality standards.

The World of Relics Untold

The game’s content explores magnificently the lore created by Tracy Hickman in this dark fantasy world. Expect to see the fantastic creatures you are used to, but also a lot of original content. At Loot we’ve been focusing on creating original and realistic miniatures, so it wouldn’t be different with Relics Untold.

In this gray vs grey world, there’s no absolute good or evil, but we definitely have some nasty creatures and characters with unique powers and objectives. Stay tuned here while we unfold some of these faces and mysteries in the future.

Final Thoughts

As we approach the end of 2023, there are still adjustments and balancing to be done, as we strive to make the game as fair and competitive as possible. At its current stage, I can confidently say that Relics Untold is already an incredibly enjoyable experience, with multiple layers of strategies and game-changing moments.

Thank you for joining us on this journey, and we look forward to sharing more about Relics Untold in the future. Stay tuned for further updates, and may your adventures in the world of Agnar be epic!