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Tuesday
Apr172012

Puzzle Strike on Kickstarter!

Help bring Puzzle Strike to the people with our kickstarter project!

The standalone expansion to Puzzle Strike as well as a redesigned base set have been a long time in the making. The online version at www.fantasystrike.com has been adjusted and adjusted based on both tournament play and casual play, and I'd really like to lock it down and get the physical version totally in sync with the online version.

Puzzle Strike Shadows has 10 new characters, 24 new puzzle chips, new gameplay modes including a free-for-all mode with no player elimination (wowow!), a 2v2 Team battle mode, and a customization mode. Hopefully it will have even more components too, depending on how the stretch goals go. The base set has been retro-fitted with all that same great stuff, and the puzzle chips powered up to be more useful than ever.

Thanks in advance for supporting the kickstarter campaign, current and future Puzzle Strikers!

Reader Comments (13)

Good luck !
At the same time, the're also launching Grim Dawn...
I want to pledge both games T.T

The extra 40$ for international backers will probably push them back a little though. Even if I know that Fantasy Strike is searching to reduce theses costs, maybe you could have some "International rewards" giving the same stuff for a little less than US based backers.

Also some "goals" to reach will be a great incentive for backers : like shadow days for example. I know it also means more extra work, for new chars & stuff, since the game is well balanced, but it helps.

April 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterFroh

What's new in the 3rd edition?

As in, what's my incentive to buy 3rd if I have the current edition? Is there any other way to bring my current game up to the state of the 3rd edition? Is that the upgrade kit?

April 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterRich

Just pledged for the expansion and the strategy guide! But I have two questions:

1) I already have the 2nd edition base set and the upgrade pack. Do I really need to buy the 3rd edition base set?
2) What form does the strategy guide take? Is it a PDF or an actual printed hard copy?

Can't wait to try "Shadows."

April 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterGameShowMan

Awesome! You just had me top my previous highest Kickstarter pledge. (I knew that PS sale was suspicious...)

I'm slightly disappointed the higher levels don't include Print&Play, though. Cards are much more portable than the boxed game, and including it would come at almost no cost to you. Just the same, high-res character art (the mind melts at imagining vector files, but that might be pushing it) would be a really neat bonus.

Obviously, now we need to make it all the way to $30k... Good luck to you, but also to all of us!

April 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterArchon Shiva

Rich: the 3rd Edition has everything reworded to work with the new multiplayer modes. Also the combine chip is different in the expansion, and the 3rd edition base set has that same combine chip and everything adjusted to work best with it. Meanwhile the "upgrage pack" had some adjustments to the 2nd edition, but isn't related to the 3rd edition. Hopefully the 3rd edition will include the boards and screens from it, if we meet the kickstarter stretch goals.

Gameshowman: it's an actual printed guide.

April 17, 2012 | Registered CommenterSirlin

Will you be doing a write up like you did for the upgrade pack for version 3? I'm really interested in hearing about why some (if not all!) of the changes were made. I just bought version 2 with the upgrade but It's very tempting to get Version 3 with the expansion.

April 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterTodd

Todd yeah I'm working on two posts. One is about from a hardcore competitive angle, why the 3rd Edition and Expansion both have -$1 on the Combine chip, meaning if you combine you have less money for that turn's buy. The second post will be from a more casual angle, why the multiplayer modes work differently. I wasn't planning on going over specific changes on the chips though. I *think* you'll mostly get the point of it all just from the concepts discussed in those two (future) posts.

April 17, 2012 | Registered CommenterSirlin

I'm kind of disappointed that there's no "Puzzle Strike 3rd Edition Complete" or something that includes everything all in one container. Having all of the old and new stuff for Flash Duel combined in a single box was totally rad, and I kind of wish I could get the same thing here. No worries though, I'm probably still going to pick up the new 3rd Edition, but just something to keep in mind for when the Yomi expansion comes out. :D

April 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterRyan

Ryan, I think that's a bad idea for three reasons. One is that the game is damn heavy. It is surely the heaviest deckbuilding game and putting double the stuff in a box would be pretty crazy actually. That's like 8 pounds lol.

Second, doing so would create 3 SKUs instead of 2. The only way I'm able to get the costs down as much as we have is to take advantage of economies of scale here by printing it all at once and keeping the form factor exactly the same across both products. Adding a 3rd product would be less efficient and would actually raise the price of the whole thing.

Third, people complain all the time that Yomi is expensive, even though it totally isn't. What they really are saying is "the very existence of this large bundle makes me think the game is expensive, please don't offer such a product. I prefer several smaller products." So if anything, the *opposite* of what Yomi needs is a gigantic box with 20 decks in it. More like several products few fewer decks that, together, add up to all 20. That would reduce the complaining at least.

I hope you enjoy Puzzle Strike 3rd Edition + Shadows anyway, even though you must suffer the fate of two boxes!

April 17, 2012 | Registered CommenterSirlin

Were you expecting such a huge success day one? I'm very happy for you and the future of your games. I'm probably going to cave and buy the Third Edition/Expansion/Strategy guide bundle even though my friends are jerks and rarely want to play.

You know, I was just thinking the other day that maybe you could kickstarter to get the actual fighting game made...

April 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPeter

I really didn't know what to expect. On the one hand, there has been a lot of negativity about there even being a new version. On the other hand, it's a pretty damn good version! So would we get like no support? Or uh, $200k in a few days like Steve Jackson's Ogre is getting? I guess we are a long ways off from that.

Your friends should give it another shot. Maybe just flipping through the strategy guide would interest them, if they are hardcore guys. Or focus on the new FFA mode maybe if it's more laid back.

Kickstarter for the actual fighting game...yeah. To even put that up, a whole lot of ducks have to be in a row. Like exactly who is going to make it and how. And lots of effort put into showing what we have so far. I think it would be an enormous undertaking just to even put that up there. I think it's a great idea, but I'd like to be in a bit better position to do it first. How about we surpass Ogre with the puzzle strike kickstarter, then do one for the next Yomi release, and then for my customizable card game. A track record of successful, way overfunded projects. THEN get the fighting game going. That is a more conservative route to go, than going for the gold right now, but maybe it's better to get the card stuff squared away first.

April 17, 2012 | Registered CommenterSirlin

For the fighting game, I'd say there's a bit of a catch-22 involved: it'd take a non-trivial amount of time and money to get said ducks in a row, which would have to happen BEFORE you'd even put up something on Kickstarter that folks could get behind. Double Fine, inXile and the rest already had a team assembled for the job - not the case here. So you'd basically need a Kickstarter for the Kickstarter to avoid the long and hard road (which isn't going to happen realistically).

April 19, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterpkt-zer0

Or you assemble a coherent plan for the game and bring that - along with your proven game design track record and your devoted fan base - to an existing large game company and partner with them to execute.

April 19, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAtma
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