Stretch Goal #3 Unlocked! Next: A New Card, Stormcharge!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Sep 05, 2022 at 02:28:42 PM

Hey folks,

Another Stretch Goal has been set and surpassed, thanks to you! We've got about a week left in the campaign, so let's see how many more Goals we can knock out before things get crazy!

A linen finish is something that many of you may already be familiar with from other games—and now it will be a part of Ivion! Very nice.

We're heading back to a type of Goal we covered once before, but this one has an entirely different air to it. Let's take a look.

Charging forward at 66K USD raised, Stormcharge aims to electrify the Trait Pack lineup! Avoid high elevations and conductive objects, because a storm is coming that will cause quite a ruckus.

We'll have to see what this card does once we've reached the goal. Consider picking up the Trait Pack now, as Stormcharge will be the 13th card with unique and impactful effects to shake up your Ivion gameplay. Maybe your friend needs one so you can both build heroes with Stormcharge?

There will be more goodies coming after 66K, so stay tuned!

The week is almost over, you got this. Have a good weekend, everyone! 🎉

~ Aislyn

The 5 most exciting changes in Season 2 📈
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 05:38:11 AM

👋 Hey folks, Aaron here.

You all are hitting stretch goals almost as fast as I can make them! Keep it up! We've been seeing a lot of folks talking about Ivion on social media, all we can ask is for that to continue.

Today, I'm going to give y'all a list of the 5 cards I am most excited for in Winter's Bite. These are cards that have either been updated to have stronger effects or are entirely new.

5. Thin Ice

Starting off this list is Thin Ice. While Cryomancer's Advantage playstyle was really well realized in our first edition, their terrain-matters cards didn't really get there too well. Blizzard Winterborn was certainly a playable deck identity, but Freeze Winterborn handedly outperformed it in competitive settings. One of the big reasons was that Cryomancer didn't have an instant suite that really supported a more long-term gameplan. Thin Ice was supposed to give terrain Cryomancer an answer that rewarded players for making terrain, but it didn't quite get there. It was just a little too easy to play around Thin Ice; the only times a Cryomancer could reliably counter with it was when they already were at a significant board advantage.

So in Winter's Bite, we eased off the restriction by allowing Thin Ice to target any cards played by players near terrain. It is much harder to play around Thin Ice when each difficult terrain makes 5 tiles vulnerable to it. We also removed the range, though this was done less as a buff to the card and more as a way to increase clarity. We have found that when card has both a range and restrictions on what tiles it targets, it becomes a lot harder for newer players to figure out. I'm looking at you, Jaunt.

4. Blood Spatter

A subtle, but significant buff to Warrior comes in the form of Blood Spatter. Previously, Warrior only had one tile modifier: Warrior's Banner. This afforded Warrior very little control of the battlefield, and meant that games with Warrior tended to feature less dynamic movement. Blood Spatter gives Warrior a tool to move the flow of battle away from an area, while also providing them with another source of power generation.

3. Shield Wall

When I first saw the design for Shield Wall, I admit I was nonplussed. Another shield card for the "hammer and shield guy" character. But then I played with it. Let me tell you right now, six Mitigate is a LOT. When you finally decide to run this card, a realization soon dawns on you: this is a tempo card. You can play this card in response to an attack to eat nearly all of the damage, but what surprised me is how good this card is when you play it on your turn. For starters, that six Mitigate can instantly turn to damage and stun with Hammerfall and Shield Slam. But additionally, your opponent now has to choose whether it's worth it to go in with an assault. A well-placed Shield Wall can completely mess up your opponent's resource plan, and buy you an entire turn. I don't think many Stewards will run a full three copies of this, but I definitely think it is an excellent two-of that players should strongly consider.

2. Grove

In my Trait Pack Dive, I talk about how we are exploring an "Attach matters" subtheme in the set. This is the driving force behind that. Grove is a peculiar card. It can reattach cards from your discard to yourself (Internally we call these types of cards 'blessings'). What's interesting about this card is the attached cards don't resolve, so effects that happen before the 'attach' clause don't happen (such as damage from Verdant Strike/Slash). This card alone opens up different deck strategies. One of the first ones we've seen explored in our discord community is Grove Saint. Grove Saint utilizes cards like Boon to fill its discard, then Grove to recur Purpose, Dignity, and Druid's suite of Duration cards. I love cards like this that open up entire legions of heroes that wouldn't have worked previously. I can't wait to see what the community does with this card.

1. Savagery

It would be facile and simplistic to say that Savagery singlehandedly fixed Huntsman. But if I could only make one change to first edition Huntsman, it would be adding Savagery. When we first outlined the character fantasy of the Specialization, we wanted them to be the ultimate endurance hunter. We wanted Huntsman to steadily apply moderate damage and control. We also wanted players to feel the need to run from Huntsmen; we wanted them to feel terrifying to end your turn next to. Savagery perfectly hits both of these design goals, and in my opinion truly makes the specialization evoke this fantasy we were looking for.

There are many card changes and new designs coming in Winter's Bite; some big, some small. But each one was made with a definite purpose: to elevate this Season to even greater peaks than its first edition. Many overlooked cards have been given a new lease on life with retuned numbers or additional effects. But you've heard enough from me, I want to hear from you! What has you excited for Season 2? What will you do with Grove? Is Thin Ice too powerful? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time, 

Aaron

Stretch Goal #2 Unlocked! Next: Linen Finishes!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Aug 31, 2022 at 05:43:04 PM

Hey folks,

It seems like only yesterday (oh goodness, it was) since our last Stretch Goal was hit. We're chaining these like some kind of fighter combo, let's go! You guys rock.

I don't have any revelatory reveals for you regarding Stretch Goal #2—but those extra acrylic tokens will be fantastic. If you were holding off on grabbing your first or second Acrylic Token Set add-on, I'd recommend picking it up now. There's a lot more tokens in there that are going to deluxe-ify your Ivion experience.

Our next Stretch Goal is a humble and time-honored addition to any game. Whereas SG#1 and SG#2 focused on add-ons available, this is more about the core experience. Let's take a look.

Coming in at a cool 64K USD raised, we'll be adding a linen finish to both the Learn to Play and Rules Reference booklets for each version within each box. Whether you're just starting out and have it by your side at all times or have need to review that strange, once-in-a-lifetime interaction on your 100th game, your rulebooks will be there in all their textured glory if we can hit this goal.

I'm looking forward to surpassing 64K, because we've got even more excellent Goals making their way down the queue.

Have a good day, everyone!

~ Aislyn

Trait Pack Dive
over 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 06:20:10 PM

Hey folks,  Aaron here.

In celebration of hitting our first stretch goal, I'm going to go into a little detail on some of the Trait Pack traits that we've got in store for y'all!

There are (currently!) 12 traits in the Trait Pack. How many more can we add? Time will tell! Keep spreading the word of Ivion and we'll see if we can add a couple more.

Dilettante

First is my personal favorite inclusion, and the inspiration for the Trait Pack. It was the tail end of spring, and Magic: the Gathering Arena had just added a new format: Explorer. I was theory-crafting a Lutri list and I was just having an absolute blast trying to make a functioning deck with such an intense limitation.

I talked with Aislyn (she's the grand-plan gal) about how I really wanted to make a Lutri-style trait in Ivion. She quickly determined that if we were going to be adding complicated traits like this, we couldn't just add a trait like Dilettante to a core box. Some more discussion and Aislyn began drawing up the plans for a trait "pack". So then we got to work, as a lot of things had to happen before the Kickstarter: playtesting, campaign page renders, and pricing. Not to mention that Aislyn had to commission dozens of new illustrations. It was a LOT of work.
Anyway. Dilettante. 
This is my style of trait all the way. It is confusing, and doesn't betray at all any real advantage that it's conferring you. Why would you want to exchange a trait for a third class? The truth is I don't know, why would you? I just work here. It lets you run double-pip traits in an off-color spec, which is maybe good? Regardless, now it's something you can do, and that makes Ivion just a little more magical.

Inami's Verdict

Where Dilettante struggles to find use, Inami's Verdict has no challenges. There are a couple of things that make Inami's Verdict pretty neat.
First is Charged. Charged is a neat little bit of trait tech we've designed for the Trait Pack. Charged is simple. A Charged trait starts with a number of Charge counters on it, and as an additional cost to play the trait, you must remove a Charge token. This works as a balancing tool for powerful effects, and also saves space over "You may only play this card X times per game". It also creates a shared mechanic that we can reference in the future. 
The second is Reach. Something Aislyn and I have ruminated on for many hours is how to flavorfully differentiate longer weapons, such as an intricate and elegantly long Katana. With Reach, a range one card can target diagonals as though they were melee range. This introduces what is essentially a 1.5 range card, which will have subtly different interactions against range 1 and 2 decks.

Finally, let's talk about the card itself. With only one Charge, you need to be very precise when you decide to render judgment on your foe. We originally had this at 12 damage, and it was wayyyy to lethal. Nine seems to be just right.

Meditate

Yay Meditate! I would like to thank all of you again for helping us reach the Stretch Goal to get this card into the Trait Pack. Meditate, like Inami's Verdict, is one of the 3 single-Charge traits we designed. Meditate offers you a MASSIVE turn, but only if you focus your thoughts on a singular purpose. Action economy is incredibly important in Ivion, so there are vanishingly few ways to gain actions through card effects. This is 2/3 of a turn worth of actions, on demand. I am very excited to see the kinds of decks you all come up with to take advantage of this resource swing.

Aphasia

Possibly the most unsettling trait in the Pack is Aphasia. This shows a slightly different flavor of Charged. Aphasia can be used multiple times in the game, to a total of 3 times. This allows us to make effects that have significant weight behind them, but would be too powerful in a prolonged game if uncapped. When a hero is silenced, it is likely that they can't use about half of their cards until they remove their silence. Being able to precisely and insipidly use Aphasia as an opener is not a polite play, but it's certainly an effective one. 

Blood Hunger || Blood Hunt

Making double-faced cards is something Aislyn and I are pretty excited to explore in Ivion's future. They allow us to more viscerally represent your character changing, and for us to tell stories through our art. Blood Hunger is a card that rewards you for consistently playing attacks, by giving you more attacks. This trait works especially well because it costs 0 actions. I think the most common lines you will see with blood hunger is playing two -1/+1 attacks, which then perfectly pays for your hunt.

Lightning Spear

There's a lot going on in Lighting Spear. Aislyn is really happy with how the art turned out, and is quite excited to run this in her own decks. In an unscheduled interview, I turned to Aislyn to get the scoop on this card. What's so exciting about it? Why is Lightning Spear your favorite card in the Pack? Here's what she had to say:

I have to say I think I agree with her, it's a pretty meaty effect at a good rate. Only getting 2 uses per game is something you need to keep in mind while deck building, but 5 damage and a stun at range is worth the price of admission.

Mute

Okay, I'll be honest. This one scares Aislyn and I a bit, and we're going to put this through the ringer in our post-KS balance finalization. Control (the archetype, not the Ivion mechanic) in card games is inherently a touchy subject. Many players would be perfectly happy to never see another counterspell as long as they live, but just as many players really enjoy the nuanced challenge of running an answer-focused deck that relies on only a few threats to claim victory. 

Mute is undeniably a control card. When a deck is playing Mute, you can be near certain they are going to play it when they can stack you to 8 or 9 silence. Ultimately, Aislyn and I believe control is a healthy and necessary archetype in every game. We believe Mute is going to open up a style of deck in a color that doesn't have a lot of control options, but should.

Three Wishes

One of the other goals of making the Trait Pack is to make good on our promise in 2020 to increase diversity in Ivion arts. Since many of the arts in Season 2 are reprints, we could only do so much to change the representation in Winter's Bite. But in the Trait Pack, we could go anywhere! And I'm glad we did, because it means that this mustachioed gentleman has been able to grace us with his presence.

Three Wishes is a flavorful way to play with Charged, and was one of the first designs we added to the Pack. Perhaps the biggest challenge in making this card was figuring out the formatting. We really had to get clever with the effects listed, and tragically we had to cut the mode that wished for more wishes.

This is a very solid utility card, and one that I think will see a lot of play in our monthly Discord tournaments. What's interesting about Three Wishes to me is that instead of having Charged offset a more intense card effect, we are using Charged to offset a more wide card effect. 

Mark

Mark's design was inspired by the unrelenting pursuit of a bounty hunter. And the trait does not mess around with that flavor. Once you've chosen your mark you can't waver even a little bit. The first thing we discovered with this card is that it's really hard to make a deck that completely obeys Mark. You can't Travel or Attach cards to target tiles, you can't counter target cards. Your interaction has to be in the form of targeted effects such as Goad or Wonder from Season 2. 

But oh, does the upside feel good. An extra initiative is such a huge advantage it makes it worth it. And the mitigate allows you to maintain your single-minded assault. In my playtesting, I don't think it's very possible to make a deck that never loses its Mark; I find myself having to play it 2 or 3 times each game because I've needed to target something else. But I'm still up on Mark, it's got legs for sure.

Nurture

9 out of 20 cards in Druid are Attach cards, so it should be fairly easy to always find something with Nurture. This (and the new Grove card in Druid) are our exploration of an "Attach matters" subtheme.  Another angle you can take advantage of with Nurture is "when ~ is put into your discard" effects, such as flare, providence, Verdant Burst, or basically every Survivalist card.  At 0/-1, this is a very low cost way of keeping your hand full.

Tricks and Toys

As any self-respecting trap should be, Tricks and Toys is a very subtle card. One of the least-common color pairings for terrain-focused decks is green and gray. We want to give players a tool that can enable them to explore a different style of play. By taking advantage of forced movement effects such as Challenge or Vine Snap, you can leverage the fact that Tricks and Toys triggers on either turn and use it as a way to open your assault without spending actions. It will always be something your opponent will have to keep in mind, because it makes closing the distance just the teensiest bit harder.

Third Wind

The first thing that comes to mind with Third Wind is Second Wind synergies such as Season 1's Spellwake. Third Wind and Spellwake not only gives you 2 Second Winds, but guarantees 10 damage from the feat zone. But even if you don't take a Second Wind synergy card, Third Wind gives you a guaranteed reprieve in the final turns of the game, which may be exactly what you need to seize your victory!

And there you have it! If we unlock any more Traits for the Pack, you can check the comments to this update to see my thoughts on the additions! But remember, these are only my thoughts on these traits. I want to hear your thoughts. What Trait has you most excited for this add-on? Is Dilettante any good? Am I way off-base about Mute? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

Aaron

Reddit AMA 9.5.22 — Ask Me (Us) Anything!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 12:29:37 PM

Hey folks,

We'll be hosting an AMA on r/boardgames Monday, September 5th starting at 8 AM Pacific. We'll be answering questions about anything you'd like, so stop by up until 3 Pacific that day! If you're still unsure about whether to back the game, please join us, ask some questions and we may be able to point you in the direction of some videos or reviews that could also help you make your decision.

Thanks, and have a great day!

~ Aislyn