by Dan Pettersen, Game Designer

It’s been a while since we’ve hopped on that portal to Adepticon, and after taking some time to recollect ourselves from an amazing event and compile what we’ve learned, I can say somewhat confidently that most of us managed to get back home in one piece. Sure, we’ve lost a wing or two on our friendly spellbound Units on our way back, but our mages at the Conclave assured me that’s an occupational hazard. 

On to the less morbid stuff, I’m glad to say that the event was a great success. We are overjoyed with all the positivity and enthusiasm from the players, and our Discord community is already looking lively as more people get to know and fall in love with our game. After working on this project for such a long time, seeing the reactions of our players in person was a huge boost of confidence. It became clear that we are crafting something truly special, and I cannot thank you enough for your support.

The mixing of card game elements with a miniatures game through deck customization that we’ve been calling MCG (Miniatures Card Game) was, as expected, the major highlight, but we’ve also managed to convey other strong points of the experience. The fact that you are constantly drawing resources instead of deploying everything that you have from the start like what most skirmish games do, means that you don’t have to deal with an overload of information from the get-go, and also guarantees that no match is the same. Through the use of spell cards that can be played out of your turn and alternate activation of Units, we managed to create a game where you are constantly engaged with the experience, being able to keep your opponents on the edge and take them by surprise instead of just watching and waiting for them to finish their turn.

Another innovation that gathered a lot of attention was being able to deploy Units as reinforcements between rounds. In our game, every Unit miniature works as a moving deploy zone, and you can manifest allies from your hand adjacent to them as long as they are out of combat. This means that you are constantly gaining ground instead of starting with your Units all the way back at your starting area and that you can prevent opponents from deploying their allies advanced by engaging in combat with your enemies, making strategic positioning between rounds much more rewarding.

While this layer of hidden information and luck of the draw makes for a game that is full of surprises, we’ve also made sure that players are rewarded for their efforts by having a damage system where Units will always deal damage. Each Unit has two damage values on its card, representing the damage that it deals when you hit and the damage that you deal when your attack roll fails to beat an enemy’s defense. This means that the game is always progressing, furthering fast-paced matches driven by cards with a hi-power level, trimming the long hours that wargames usually take to finish, and reducing it to matches that last for about an hour. This makes Relics Untold a great entry experience for those looking to get into the universe of wargaming.

During the event, we got to playtest our new Terrains for the first time, and our “giant” (name yet to be disclosed) thing in the pool of blood gathered a lot of attention. Units entering or activating inside this Terrain Piece suffer 3 points of damage, and creative plays using knockback and pull abilities were a constant throughout the games. This was a validation that this new approach not only increases the impact of the Terrain on the gameplay but better highlights the dark fantasy elements of the Malediction and helps our game stand out. With the success of this test, we are now making the final adjustments on the four Terrains that will be available to you in the base version of our product. 

Another surprise for players at the event was finally revealing our vision for 2v2 matches. This was a game mode that we always enjoyed playing at the company, but never truly explained to our players since it is a subject of constant tweaking and balancing, given its increased pool of possible interactions over 1v1 matches. While the basic goals of defeating Enemies and claiming Relics are mostly the same as in the regular game, cooperating with someone else and discussing your strategy with a teammate made for some loud and fun moments that caught the attention of players in the ballroom.

Some players were so excited that we even decided to host a competitive game with demo kits as a prize. This was by far one of my favorite matches at the event, which ended up with the players so confident in their skills that they challenged me and Nick (a.k.a The Game Design Team™) to a game. It was a tough battle… But we won. I mean, come on, we are awesome at this thing! That said, I’m not so sure we can keep the crown if we keep getting challenged by fierce opponents at these events. I promise you that this will be a lot of fun to see, and I hope that you can join us next time!