Perdition's Mouth: Abyssal Rift - a Horror-Fantasy Co-op
Created by Timo Multamäki @ Arctic Union
A gritty, ruthless dungeon crawl with high replay value that's easy to learn. Elegant mechanics support deep tactical decisions.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
#53: All files submitted
about 8 years ago
– Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 12:02:32 AM
Dear backers,
All files have been submitted for Panda to check and Panda has returned back to work (after the Chinese New Year). We’ve also received initial pre-processing feedback and corrected all that they found. For 90% of materials we’re good to print!
Delays and small problems
We had some delays due to the fact that Finnish or Chinese post decided to misplace two of our miniature master shipments. After a few days of searching one was found and delivered. One remains in limbo. We’ve already taken measures to correct that problem - luckily it only contained a single miniature.
Backer Kit
Some 50 backers haven’t submitted anything to backerkit. Let us know if we could help here in any way. We’d love to get everyone’s information so we’ll know where to send everyone’s rewards.
New Rulebook
We now offer the latest version of the rulebook, it’s almost print-ready. This version 1.4.9 is just short of a few example images and updated miniature renders, but editing-wise it should be very good. Of course, we are not happy with very good and would love to improve towards excellent - but we need your help for that. Please read the rulebook, ask questions, spot errors and typos and let us know. We love suggestions to make it more concise, easier to read and understand. And then send those findings to us!
This month we are having a series of playtesting sessions with a special focus on content which was unlocked during the KS campaign. The feedback we’ve got so far has been both valuable and satisfying. Most playtesters liked the game and they want to have another session including some more friends so they can test PM as well. They said (we’re quoting here) that the game was stressful and funny, that the way the designers have got rid of dice was clever, that players have plenty of options to choose from (meaning alternative ways of behaving on the board) and that the response deck works really great. They all agreed that they haven't played anything similar before and that it was hard to think of a game which can be compared... Not bad for a first time.
Summary
We’re nicely on schedule! We expect to get a white box and color proofs in March or at the latest in early April. We will keep you posted approximately once or twice a month as we have news.
#52: Finish line in sight - and some new art you haven't seen yet!
about 8 years ago
– Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 04:03:20 PM
Dear Backers,
We’re very pleased to tell you that the finish line is in sight and we’re right on schedule.
Everything but the rulebook should be press-ready by the end of February,
meaning that we can progress to color proofs and samples immediately. Meanwhile, the rulebook is undergoing final proof-reading, layout and graphics updates.
Last remaining art pieces
We’re progressing with the last few remaining art pieces with our talented art team.
Matthias Catrein has been producing the last treasures and art for scenarios, with amazing results:
The new scenario templates look so much more “Perdition’s Mouth” than the old, wouldn’t you agree?
It would be really great if you could read through the scenarios linked here and send any feedback or questions to [email protected]. We’d love to have these in flawless shape before printing.
Jamie Noble has been busy with the Hideout’s civilian characters. We think these are just awesome!
Juha Salmijärvi is working on corpses, his real favourite. His gory art skills are clearly in top form:
Finally, Tanja is working on the Witch’s grotto expansion. More on that next week.
.
Backerkit
There was a last minute shape up by the backers, just prior to locking the surveys. But we still have some 60 backers with incomplete Backerkit surveys. We have had to lock the backer names for the rulebook, so those who didn’t complete their survey will unfortunately be left out. But note that you can still update your shipping address if that's going to change in the next few months.
It’s likely that we’ll have pre-orders available until just before August, when shipments should be leaving from China. So tell your friends that it's not entirely too late for them to order a copy.
Finally, just a heads up - We’ll be charging your backerkit upgrades and add-ons soon, as the printing has to be paid for next.
That's all for now... Have a great weekend everyone! And as always, thank you for your support!
#51: Progress on every front -- but one
about 8 years ago
– Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 10:38:14 PM
Today we have a status update on our progress toward manufacturing, and a note about Backerkit closing
Overall Design and Development Status
We’re well past the halfway mark in the final design and development stage!
All the maps for the Abyssal Rift and the Hideout are now done, leaving only Witch’s Grotto maps left to finish up.
Trait cards, expansion campaign sheets, Hero Shield stickers, save sheets, the scenario tuckbox, and over half of the scenarios are press ready, with the rest just needing layout work.
All hero sheets are done and the symbol sheet requires only the map legend side be finished. Here's a partial peek at the symbol side:
The larger, complete side is available here if you want to see it.
Rulebook
The updated 1.3.1 rulebook contains pretty much all of the required material and just needs a level of polish. Many of the images are old versions, or placeholders, but we’ve been working to integrate the new ones. All symbols will be updated to production versions in the next iteration.
We’d like everyone to take a good look at this release to ferret out any remaining ambiguous text that needs improvement. Typos? Please report. Missing examples? Make sure to let us know. We need your feedback no later than Friday the 19th of February for this version. Email us at [email protected]
Beside the rulebook, we’re working hard with the last few art elements, such as tokens for “Weakest hero” etc. But even more importantly, next week we'll be working on the final production versions of Hero, Wound and Treasure cards. Mostly it’s just updating the InDesign scripts and running them to get the final layout and text into press ready files. Texts, art and such is ready.
We need to also make the box, soon. We’ve determined that a 12” x 12” x 4” box will just fit everything, so that is what we’ll be using.
Playtesting Needed!
We still need more playtesting on a few scenarios. Those will be printed last, so we can tweak anything in need of last minute adjustments. We have until the 15th of April to finalize the scenario sheets, so please find a little time to read, edit and playtest as many scenarios as you can. If you aren’t sure where to start, contact us at [email protected] and we’ll assign some scenarios for you to focus on!
Pledge manager - the only area where progress has been slow
Surveys will close on Monday, February 15th, at 6:00pm PST (2:00am UTC).
If we do not receive a survey response from you by that time, we will not be able to include you in our list of supporters that every owner of the game and visitor to the website will see.
If you’re having any problems receiving or completing it, please let us know as soon as possible so we can work on the issue. We would hate for a technical problem to get in the way of gaming goodness!
We are very thankful for your help in bringing Perdition's Mouth to life and want to properly reward you for your support.
And it should be said that there are still quite a few who need to complete their pledge manager. Most are $1 pledges, but there are over 20 paid-for game pledges still waiting for delivery details! All-in-all we still are less than 90% complete, survey-wise.
If you know another backer who hasn’t completed their survey, please help us and remind them to take a moment to do so.
We have reason to believe that every survey not completed will create another cultist... Don’t let the Cult win - act now!
#50: New rondels, bribes divided and more
about 8 years ago
– Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 06:56:19 PM
No rest for the wicked, it seems. We’ve been busy once again and are happy to show you the results.
New rondels!
You told us that our older rondels were not good enough. We agreed and aimed to make noticeable improvements. We locked Jamie in a dark room and promised to only feed him when the rondels were something worth playing with. Yesterday, we were presented with amazing art that blew our minds (and Jamie finally got to eat). We believe that these are definitively an improvement over the old… do you agree?
Most anticipated games 2016 ended and bribes were given out
You have done a great job in the voting round of BoardGameGeek’s 20 Most Anticipated Board Games of 2016, so thank you! No additional benefits were earned, but as we did get a into the Top 20 category for “Horror”, I became a softie and decided to add an extra items to Hideout. So, let’s hope you were intending to get it! Then, the much coveted bribes that we promised:
Five lucky winners will receive a copy of our hacker-themed game, Black Hat:
Gene Pribula #3/6
Leanne Klocke
Stijn De Vleesschauwer aka IluvatarIrmo
Janet Jones
Stephen Shedden
We will contact you via email.
BackerKit
86% of you have replied- that means exactly 99 surveys are still not completed. We sincerely hope that you’ll fill your backerkit ASAP. The close date for surveys is Sunday the 14th of February. Please let us know if you have not received your survey or require any assistance.
Miniatures
Recently our painting team noticed the need for two small changes to our miniature master copies. We’ve implemented those changes and are now producing new masters. We shipped all miniature masters on earlier today and those are expected in Hong Kong on Tuesday, February 2nd, and we’re happy to let you know that mold production have already been paid for. That is expected to take the longest by-far .
Want to help us?
We’ve found magnificient help among our backers in the form of some InDesign wizards. That has pretty much taken care of that need. But, we still need play testing and editing help for a few scenarios to make sure they make complete sense to players and convey our intent. These remaining scenarios are mostly ‘Hard’ scenarios and some can be outright punishing for beginners.
If you feel that you can help, please contact us! And many thanks to the dozen or so active backers who’ve edited our materials and provided amazing feedback. You’re helping us to make PM better for everyone.
P.S. I recently noticed Fleet Commander in KS. I’m not affiliated with that project in any way, but I have to say that they have some very, very similar ideas that I had in mind for Singularity Sky.
So similar that I had to take that project back to drawing board! No need to make a copy of something existing…
And of course I had to back that project, to see their game more closely. Looks cool!
#49: Most anticipated with bribes, all miniatures completed and progress on other fronts
over 8 years ago
– Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 07:15:10 PM
Dear backers,
This has been a busy week.
Most anticipated games 2016
You have done a great job in the voting round of BoardGameGeek’s 20 Most Anticipated Board Games of 2016, so thank you! There are two days still left and we urge everyone to vote. It’s an easy, quick and painless way to show your support :)
Just click here to go to the polling page and place your vote for us in various categories. If you’re short on time, you can focus on the key categories of overall, innovative, cooperative, and horror. But we’re also nominated for solitaire, thematic, and fantasy, and every vote counts!
Free games and additions to Perdition’s Mouth are still up for grabs. Activity pays off!
Scenarios
We have completed designing all of the main campaign scenarios, including the extras, stand-alones and such. And remember that we will be releasing the scenario sheet digitally for all backers, allowing you to create your own scenarios. You can also submit your scenarios for feedback from the designers, and we plan to offer the best submissions as PDFs through BGG and our own website.
From the beginning, Perdition’s Mouth was designed to be easily extendable and understandable, so that you can make your own modules, scenarios, enemies and even complete campaigns.
BackerKit update
85% of our backers have replied to their surveys, but that means over 100 of you have not even opened it yet. We will also try to reach out to those who haven’t still completed their surveys through Kickstarter and direct email.
The current estimated close date for surveys is Sunday the 14th of February.
We have completed the final design for all miniatures, including the redesigned rotikka, a hybrid horror of cultist and insectoid. We will be able to ship all master copies for molding next week - two weeks earlier than we predicted.
Rotikka were once human - lowly acolytes who were given for The Change. Instead of becoming Guards, they became something far worse. Rotikka are the eyes and feet of the God. They’re everywhere, and by nature are restless and very interested in everything. Rotikka are semi-sentient, can still understand some speech and maintain some aspects of their former humanity. The transformation is a sacred rite through which two humans are merged to form a single rotikka. One provides the physical components while the other provides the “life force”. The rite itself is performed by a third acolyte (who is the only one of the three who will survive the rite intact). After the rite is performed, the full transformation takes a month, and so the rites are typically performed en masse, creating 20 to 30 rotikkas at a time. Of course the rites don’t require a month of actual work. It’s just that the transformation takes a month. The rites at the beginning and end of the process are complicated and each takes 6 to 8 long and rather messy hours.
Rotikka’s coloration and details are affected by the nuances of the transformation, resulting in very individual coloring of each one (like the mixed inherited coloring of puppies). Unlike dogs, this also applies to the number and placement of limbs, spikes and other physical characteristics.
Rotikka caretakers are the lowest of the acolytes, as they were not deemed worthy to become Rotikkas themselves. But caretakers and rotikkas often form close relationships not unlike a man and his dog. Only in this case it’s not clear which is man and which is dog.
Rotikkas eat anything rats and cockroaches would eat - meaning *anything*.
Summary
All in all, we’re well within schedule. We’ve sent the first files to Panda for checking (all of the small form factor cards). We are aware that waiting for the game to be ready can be excruciating, so we’ve even more positive news for you:
We would like to get your feedback on the first expansion material - let us hear what do you think in this BGG thread.
