Monthly Update #04
12 months ago – Mon, Apr 24, 2023 at 08:38:43 PM

DJ is now available to play & balance updates!

Month 4 post Kickstarter has been incredibly busy with more playtesting and lots of development! First off, DJ is now available for play on both Screentop and Tabletop Simulator! It's been wonderful seeing people play the game in our discord channel, so if you're interested in playing online, come say hi!

Second, we've made a couple additional balance updates over the last month, so lets go over them:

Painter received a slight consistency buff:

• Painter's passive now says: "I have 1 Holy Shield token. When placed, it stays in its zone until it takes damage (negating the damage). If my Holy Shield token is on the board at the end of the turn, I remove it and Gain a Die."
• Shield of Peace's Intent ability now says: "Move an enemy Standee that is adjacent to a friendly Standee 1 space. All friendly Standees move 1 space. Place a Holy Shield token in any zone."

Painter is our most beginner friendly character, with very low barrier to entry and easy to understand gameplay, and tends to feel very powerful for new players. Unfortunately she becomes a bit lack luster at the competitive stage, so these changes will hopefully do 2 things:

• When trying to block an attack that doesn't target, the block no longer gets wasted (you'll get the dice back if they ignore the block and choose a different target)
• Rolling multiple shield dice won't feel as bad, as you can use shield's Intent ability and get a dice back at the END of the turn. It also now allows you to still put down a block token when normally it would have locked you out of blocking that turn (since you can no longer use it's reaction)

Calligrapher received a consistency buff:

• Closing Ink now says: "I Ink any 1 Artist or Summon. I may remove 1 Ink from 1 Artist or Summon to move it 1 space in the chosen direction OR remove 2 ink to move it 2 spaces in the chosen direction."
• Sheathing Respite's now costs "Remove 2 inks and discard 1 card", and says: "I draw 2 cards, then end my turn."

Calligrapher tended to feel weak previously due to not having any intentions to move for herself, which at a competitive level was interesting, but as the cover character of our game really left a bad taste with new players. The addition of closing ink was meant to address that, but it ended up feeling pretty lack luster, so we're just making it easier to use.

Additionally, moving her draw engine onto an always available ability card allowed her to have less consistency issues, but it was too expensive to use and didn't feel worth it. This buff to Sheathing Respite restores it to the same value it used to have as a deck card, so she'll be back to how she used to operate before the change.

Lots of new art has been completed!

The last month has also been a very busy month for our artists, wickedalucard and loxtix! New Ascended art (like the above Painter), this GORGEOUS set of tarot cards for the Fortune Teller, and new masterpiece art has Re;ACT looking more glossy than ever! It's all just coming along so well~

While the stretch goals of adding new art and a 9th free character has greatly extended the amount of work that would be needed before we can go to manufacturing, I (Brother Ming) have decided to quit my day job to become a board game publisher full time so that I can focus all of my energy on ensuring the timely completion of Re;ACT! So thank you all once again for supporting this dream project of mine, and I hope to make something that will truly have a great life cycle in the world of anime tabletop games. Lack of healthcare and W-2s be damned, I'm gonna make this work!

Second Re;ACT Tournament!

As we approach the end of development with the Story Teller being *almost* ready for play (hopefully within the next 2 weeks), we are going to host a second tournament to help stress test the balance of Re;ACT before we prepare to go to printing!

The date of this next tournament should be late May or early June, and it will be 100% free to sign up this time. All players will receive a tournament exclusive promo card of Calligrapher's character card with alternate art, and anyone who finishes the 4 round tournament with a 3-X record or better will receive a set of the promo playmats!

This tournament will be newbie friendly, as players who already finished with 3-X records in our previous tournament will not be allowed into this general tournament. (They, plus a few regulars, will be invited to a closed single elimination tournament with a much more interesting prize :3c)

Please look forward to sign ups and further details in our next month's update!

Until next time - Ming

Monthly Update #03
about 1 year ago – Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 03:01:40 PM

Post Tournament Balance Updates!

Firstly, a big round of congratulations to the 9 players who ended up with 3-1 or better records in our first ever Re;ACT tournament! They'll all be receiving the gorgeous promotional playmat as a prize! Along with an alternate art version of the Tattooist, which is being sent to all of the participants. If you'd like a chance to win this playmat, we will be hosting "play to win" events at GENCON this year, so be on the look out for that!

New Art Is Being Completed!

As part of our stretch goals, we are giving EVERY single character the deluxe treatment by giving them all a second "Ascended" art to be used on the flip side of their ability cards and character boards. Additionally, Tattooist, Dancer, and Tagger are all receiving new Masterpiece arts, so that their Masterpiece art is not re-used art from other assets! Check it out!

Balance Updates!

Lastly, thanks to the tournament, which was not so secretly an opportunity to do lots of intense playtesting, we've got our first "major" balance update!

Tagger's tiles now say:

When a Standee elsewhere on the board moves into this zone

The word "Elsewhere" was added to better clarify that you cannot use Mural Vault to move to a zone you are already in and trigger the mural. It has to be moving into that zone from a different zone.

Dancer's Diving Step now says:

I move continuously to any zone in my row or column.

The word "Continuously" is added to better clarify that you leave scales on every zone you move through. His passive now also clarifies that when swapping, he only leaves a scale in the space he swapped out of.

Sculptor's Giant Buddy's B intention now says:

If I am on the board, deal 1 damage to the target zone.

While not all standees need to be on the board for their effects to resolve (like Animator's 24 FPS Kun's intent to Animate 1 frame), Giant Buddy's B intent should not resolve if he is no longer on the board. This just helps clarify that as previously only saying "I deal 1 damage" wasn't super clear.

Fortune Teller is being nerfed:

Fortune Teller overall just dominated the tournament with very few close games. Her incredible flexibility combined with a free reaction powered by easy to gain resources just gave her too much power.

• Fortune Manipulation's Sword Tarot now targets a zone
• Fortune Manipulation's Wand tarot now choses a direction
• Sword's Resolution now says "If I am in or adjacent" instead of just adjacent
• Fortune Teller setup now only starts with the Cup tarot card upright, not 2 random tarot cards.

Animator is being nerfed:

Animator's character intent gained a too much flexibility when we buffed him last time to also allow him to animate any 1 frame with his intent, so we're removing it again to bring him back in line.

• Animator's character intent no longer allows him to choose to animate a frame. 

Calligrapher is getting a buff:

Calligrapher consistently gives a bad first impression (both of the professional board game reviewers that reviewed Re;ACT complained about her being underpowered) and in general she tends to underperform at the lower to mid levels of play. 

We're reworking her Sheathing Respite action card to increase the thematic nature of her action cards by replacing it with a third "Ink" card that functions similar to Flowing and Aligning ink, and moving Sheathing Respite into an ability card so that it's always available.

Dancer is getting a buff:

Dancer is pretty great for beginners due to how easy to pick up his abilities are, and he dominates games at a low level. However, he really requires you to place his scales intentionally, and often play in different patterns depending on the match up, to stay competitive at a high level. To help him out, we're making him a bit more forgiving to play even when you misplace too many scales.

• Converging Step now allows you to remove up to 7 scales. Removing 7 scales total will allow you to draw 1 card in addition to summoning a fish in the target zone.

Painter is getting a very slight buff:

Painter is doing pretty great, but the 2 dice shield intent feels really lack luster post ascension, so it's getting a slight buff.

• Shield of Peace, Andrew's Intention ability now moves all friendly standees 1 space, not just 1 friendly standee.

Goals until next month:

We are working hard to get DJ and Storyteller into public beta. DJ's art is currently being worked on, and the discord community is continuing to help us out with continued playtesting and just enjoying the game!

One of our tournament winners has been recording his games and post them on youtube as well! Shoutout to Trio The Holy, please go check out the videos!

That's it for this month, thank you all again for your support, and we'll see you all on next month's update!

Re;ACT Promo Playmat Reveal!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 10, 2023 at 06:49:14 PM

Last day to sign up for the first Re;ACT Tournament!

WOW! wickedalucard once again has absolutely blown us away with his incredible art. The strong gaze of Calligrapher radiates with her strong ideals while the calculating look of the Fortune Teller reflects her disinterest in morality. Every artist has their own reason to fight, and so begins our first ever Re;ACT tournament!

Tomorrow at 1pm EST, over 30 players have signed up to compete and prove their mastery! Every player who wins at least 3 rounds in this 4 round tournament will receive this pair of promotional playmats for free!! 

Don't miss out, Sign Up Here! 

This special promotional playmat will not be available for direct sale online, but will be only available as a prize through tournaments or other events. We will however have them for sale at our convention booths whenever we attend a con so make sure to come see us at Pax Unplugged or GenCon this year!

We will also be selling tournament kits with these mats as prize support for ANYONE who wants to host a tournament locally so if you've got access to a game store or appropriate space that can host tournaments for awesome indie dueling games, let us know below! Especially if you've got ideas for what else you'd like to see in a tournament kit!

Once we've settled on what the tournament kit will look like, they'll be available on backerkit for you to add to your pledge.

Re;ACT Digital Tournament Next Saturday!!! (Win exclusive playmats!)
about 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 03, 2023 at 11:58:41 AM

 Sign up for the tournament here!

Saturday, March 11th - 1 PM EST

Held on the Brother Ming Games Discord and played via Screentop. Voice chat and English will be required for the tournament. (We currently have 16 players already, so come on out and join the fun!)

•  ALL PARTICIPANTS will receive an tournament exclusive art card featuring wickedalucard's adorable Tattooist thank you art! 
•  PLAYERS WITH 3 OR MORE WINS will receive our season one promotional playmat set! A pair of two 14 x 28 inch playmats with a connected design.

The tournament itself will be 4 rounds. Each round will last 60 minutes, and ALL players with at least 3 wins will win a set of promotional playmats! (The playmat design will be based on the second most popular playmat design in our KS Deluxe Ed playmat design vote, seen below!)

Each round of the tournament will be a 1 vs 1 best of 3 match. At the start of the round, each player will select 2 characters to play during the match. You must win a game with BOTH characters in order to win the round. (ex: You pick Tagger and Dancer. If you win your first game with Tagger, you must play your next game(s) with Dancer, you cannot play with a character you've already won a game with.)

Please show up to the discord at least 15 minutes before the tournament (12:45pm EST on March 11th). Rules of the tournament will be given before play begins.

Please make sure you are familiar with the game for the tournament! You can playtest all of the 8 characters in the base game (only base game characters will be in this tournament) now on both TTS and Screentop. 

Monthly Update #2
about 1 year ago – Thu, Feb 23, 2023 at 11:34:13 AM

The DJ Revealed!

The DJ is now in development and wickedalucard has once again worked his magic to update our original design from over 5 years ago! What would her DJ name be I wonder...

The DJ will fight by maneuvering two large speakers around the board to blast her foes with powerful constructive interference.

Tattooist and Fortune Teller now available!

We've been working hard since the end of the campaign to finish up development on all 8 characters, and both Tattooist and Fortune Teller are finally ready to leave internal testing! You can now play with all 8 characters on both Screentop and Tabletop Simulator!

The Tattooist is a highly reactive and agile melee fighter that can't take damage! You'll need to defeat her precious wonderland bunnies in order to defeat this blood-ink tattoo artist.

The Fortune Teller can place face down reactions on the reaction chain, playing mind games with her opponent to force them into unwinnable situations.

If you try them out, please let us know what you think about them on my discord channel! The Tattooist and Fortune Teller are the hardest and most complex characters of the roster to learn and use, but we think they'll be the perfect pick for certain gamers.

Chinese localization pre-sales are open now!

If you've got friends in China, let them know about it!