We're locking orders on Wednesday, 3/25!
about 4 years ago
– Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 04:36:23 PM
Greetings Citizens of Treasure Falls!
First, check it out! Above is the box cover for The Trials of Tolk the Wise Campaign! As an original backer each of you will get The Quest Kids Base Game and The Trials of Tolk the Wise!
LOCKING ORDERS ON WEDNESDAY, 3/25/2020
The last day to make final updates to your Quest Kids order is Wednesday, 3/25. After this date, we will lock your reward selections and charge cards for add-on item purchases, pledge upgrades, and shipping.
Don't worry - you can still update your shipping address up until we lock addresses for shipping later this summer.
If you need to review your information or pledge status (or wish to add additional items), you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://the-quest-kids.backerkit.com.
If you haven't filled out your survey and you miss the deadline you can still submit your information, however your shipment may be delayed.
Thank you all again for being so responsive to answering our BackerKit survey—even though it may not seem like much as an individual backer, you have no idea how tremendously helpful this has been for me when trying to keep track of all 893 of you!
Thanks again for your support and remember a Quest Kids quest is never done!
Dustin
An award, improved rules, coronavirus update, & more!
about 4 years ago
– Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 12:24:35 AM
Greeting Citizens of Treasure Falls!
I hope everyone is healthy and safe out there. I apologize that it has been a while since my last update, but I have a lot of exciting things to share. So, let's get to it!
BEST FAMILY GAME OF 2019
Earlier this year the fine folks over at 90 Second Nerd named The Quest Kids the Best Family Game of 2019! We are truly honored that the 90 Second Nerd team enjoyed our game, because we love their board game content. If you haven't checked out their channel you can watch their Best of 2019 video HERE.
NEW AND IMPROVED RULES
In our last update we asked if any backers would be interested in reviewing our rules and providing some feedback to help us improve the final product. In all honesty I would have been absolutely delighted if we received 10 responses to this request. Well, we had 150 backers respond!
I am blown away by this response. Based on your feedback the rule book was dramatically improved. The Citizens of Treasure Falls have unquestionably helped shape this game for the better and I am working every day to make it an experience we can all be very proud of.
If you'd like to check out the updated rules you can CLICK HERE. The feedback form is still open, so if you are so inclined you can still chime in with any thoughts, questions or confusions.
PRODUCTION UPDATE & THE CORONAVIRUS
I don't think I need to explain to anyone how disruptive the coronavirus is on a worldwide level. Our manufacturing partner, Gameland, is located in China and they have been battling this crisis for quite some time now. Their factories have resumed work, but their productivity is not at full strength because half of their employees are still under quarantine. Usually it would take Gameland about 40 days to complete an order, but at this point that has been moved above 50 days.
Gameland already has all of The Quest Kids Base Game files and all of the files for The Trials of Tolk the Wise campaign will be sent to them this month. Which means that even accounting for the potential delays we are still likely to achieve our September 2020 delivery date. I obviously have no idea what potential new production or shipping complications the coronavirus could create, but as of right now The Quest Kids is not greatly delayed by this very serious situation. If you have any questions about the timeline or production process I am happy to chat more about it in the comments below!
THE TRIALS OF TOLK THE WISE CAMPAIGN UPDATE
As I mentioned above we are very close to completing all of the content for The Trials of Tolk the Wise Adventure Campaign. We have created a ton of new content and I am extremely pleased with the story-driven campaign experience we have created for young players.
The Trials of Tolk the Wise will be in a separate game box from The Quest Kids Base Game and sold separately via retail once the game is released. However, as original backers you will receive both boxes (The Quest Kids Base Game AND The Trials of Tolk the Wise Adventure Campaign) in one shipment.
Here is a final component count for the campaign:
- 53 New Quest Dungeon Tiles (featuring 9 new bad guy characters)
- 55 Campaign Cards
- 4 Ally Cards
- 8 Hero Cards
- 20 Hero and Ally Token Cards
- 3 Sealed Envelopes
- 1 Game Box
- 1 Campaign Guide
GAME PLAY RESOURCES
I want The Quest Kids to be an extremely exciting board game experience for young players, but I also want the process of learning and teaching the game to be as streamlined as possible for the teachers. Concepts like special hero powers and ally cards do add fun new game play decisions, but also a certain degree of complexity.
That is why I am including QR codes in The Trials of Tolk the Wise campaign guide and on some Dungeon Tiles that link to an online Quest Kids knowledge base. I have created blogs that discuss each of the Ally Cards and Hero Cards in great detail, and I will be adding blogs with videos explaining the setup for each of the five quests in the campaign.
The campaign guide that comes with The Trials of Tolk the Wise will certainly cover all of these topics, but these blogs are meant to answer any question you could possibly have AND provide a space for you to ask any questions I did not think of answering.
The Hero Cards and Ally Cards blogs are live now (I needed them live to test the QR code links before printing). Feel free to take a look, but please be aware that there are spoilers contained in these posts (like new characters and future hero abilities). I do a good job of warning you on the blog before you get to any spoilers, so you are safe to click over and read a bit about the concepts as a whole before getting to any spoiler material.
If you don't really care about spoilers please take a look at the blogs and let me know in the blog comments if you have any questions on how the cards work.
PLEDGE MANAGER UPDATE
Over 90% of backers have completed their survey! The delay caused by the coronavirus has allowed us to keep the survey open for a bit longer, but it will close this month. If you haven't filled out your survey you can do that by CLICKING HERE.
Also, we still have late pledges available. If you know someone who may enjoy The Quest Kids please send them a link.
Thanks as always for your support. In addition to finalizing The Trials of Tolk the Wise campaign I have been working on a couple of other exciting Quest Kids projects that I will be able to share soon.
Stay safe and remember a Quest Kids quest is never done!
Dustin
Review the rules. Win another copy of The Quest Kids!
over 4 years ago
– Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 12:25:25 AM
Good Evening Citizens of Treasure Falls,
We have completed the first draft of our rule book! We are happy with where it is right now, however we'd love to get your feedback. You can review the rule book by CLICKING HERE.
To make things a bit easier we have created a quick five question feedback form that we are asking interested parties to complete after reviewing the rules. Not only does this form help us streamline the process of finding weaknesses in our rules and clearing up confusing bits, but we are going to giveaway a copy of The Quest Kids to one lucky participant later this month!
I realize that you fine backers already have a copy of The Quest Kids headed your way, but if you do win the prize I am sure you can find another little dungeon crawler who would enjoy a fantasy adventure.
I want to thank you in advance for taking the time to review the rules with a critical eye. We can still easily tweak the rules right now without delaying the production at all. I obviously want the rule book to be as simple to understand as possible for all future players of The Quest Kids.
You can find a link to the RULES and the FEEDBACK FORM by CLICKING HERE.
A Quest Kids quest is never done!
Dustin
Story Time Cards and New Character Art!
over 4 years ago
– Tue, Jan 07, 2020 at 11:28:46 PM
Happy 2020 Citizens of Treasure Falls!
I hope you had a tremendous Holiday season and a happy New Year's. HONEY BEARD (our new Bear Pirate character pictured above) drank a bit too much honey over the Holidays, but that is a pretty common occurrence for ol' Honey Beard.
I have three quick things to cover in this update: new character illustrations, an example of a STORY TIME card from the campaign and a production/pledge manager update. Let's go!
NEW BAD GUY ART
Our artist Apolline has been extremely busy creating amazing new bad guys for the base game and the TRIALS OF TOLK THE WISE campaign. Like, seriously busy. Like, she has created 16 NEW CHARACTERS! You saw Charlie the Charmer in our last update and met Honey Beard just a while ago. I don't want to spoil all of the creatures that await our adventurers in Tolk's Cave, however here's a look at two more:
Meet GOLD FLAME. A Treasure Dragon from Spirit Valley, Gold Flame spends most of his time in Tolk's Cave napping in huge piles of coins and breathing fire at anyone who interrupts his golden slumber.
Not all of our new characters are bad guys. Meet TINK - an ally of The Quest Kids! Tink is a merchant from Treasure Falls and will support our team of heroes during their adventures. Old Tink has the ability cards you need, as long as you have the treasure to pay.
STORY TIME CARD EXAMPLE
The bulk of the work I have put into The Quest Kids since the Kickstarter campaign ended has been focused on creating the content for the TRIALS OF TOLK THE WISE campaign. This campaign will consist of about 53 new Dungeon Tiles and 61 new Campaign Cards!
The new Dungeon Tiles are used to bring quest specific elements and characters into Tolk's Cave and the Campaign Cards are used to tell the ongoing story, introduce new mechanics, and represent items found throughout the adventure.
One of the most common Campaign Card types are STORY TIME cards. These cards will be read aloud to the players and introduce the quests and experiences found in the TRIALS OF TOLK THE WISE. Below is an example of a STORY TIME card. If you want to stay 100% spoiler free you can skip reading the card below, however this will be the first card you read to begin the TRIALS OF TOLK THE WISE campaign.
What was the piece of paper at the bottom of the chest? You'll need to reveal Campaign Card 2 to find out!
PRODUCTION/PLEDGE MANAGER UPDATE
Over 87% of our backer surveys have been completed! Thanks to everyone who has taken this important step. If you haven't filled out the link through Backerkit just go here: https://the-quest-kids.backerkit.com, enter your Kickstarter email address, and click on the "Get My Survey" button. You will be sent a new email with a link to your account.
We are going to lock the pledge manager at the beginning of February 2020.
As for our timeline we are right on schedule. The Chinese New Year is about to begin, which shuts down the production for all Chinese game manufacturers for about a month. However, our plan has always been to send our team at Gameland all of our final print-ready files the week they return in early February.
Thanks as always for your support of The Quest Kids! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new characters and the STORY TIME card below.
It is the year 2020 - the year you will play The Quest Kids!
Until that day a Quest Kids quest is never done.
Dustin
New Bad Guy Art + BackerKit Survey Update!
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Nov 29, 2019 at 11:26:34 PM
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend Citizens of Treasure Falls!
It has been a while since I checked in with an update, but I promise I will not take too much of your time so you can get back to playing games with your family.
BACKERKIT SURVEY UPDATE
We've had over 81% of our backers respond to the survey! That is a terrific response. Thanks to everyone has taken the time to respond - it helps us tremendously when projecting how many copies of The Quest Kids we need to send to different parts of the word.
At this point every backer should have received an email from BackerKit asking for your response to their survey. If you can't find the email from BackerKit simply go here: https://the-quest-kids.backerkit.com, enter your Kickstarter email address, and click on the "Get My Survey" button. You will be sent a new email with a link to your account.
We will be closing the survey in mid-January 2020. That gives you right around 50 days to update your shipping information, upgrade your pledge (if you so wish), or add on additional items. But, why wait? Go ahead and knock it our right now! :)
If you have any questions about BackerKit please let me know in the comments below. You can also head over to https://www.backerkit.com/faq_backer, or email the team directly at [email protected]. They’re happy to help!
UPDATE ON THE QUEST KIDS PROGRESS
As we all know by now a Quest Kids quest is never done and we have been working hard to bring our family-friendly dungeon crawler to you as soon as possible.
The biggest news we have to share is after a lengthy bid process we have chosen a manufacturing partner. We're thrilled to be working with Gameland Games! Their experience in the industry is extraordinary and their component quality is first class. However, what really sets them apart from the competition is their willingness to interact with us as basically a member of the Treasure Falls Games team (vs. a company placing a manufacturing bid). They have already brought tremendous value to The Quest Kids and I am confident they will produce a game we can all be proud of.
Apolline has also been working hard on the new bad guy designs we unlocked as stretch goals! A lot of the new characters are surprises that you'll discover while playing THE TRIALS OF TOLK THE WISE campaign. However, I can show you one new bad guy that will be added to the base game.
Here's a look at Charlie the Charmer:
Charlie (brother of Chompy) is a bear sorcerer who attempts to use his powers of magic and charm to get what he wants whenever he wants. He has varying degrees of success with this strategy.
Thanks again for your continued support of The Quest Kids! Let me know if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions in the comments below and to those of you in the US have a tremendous Thanksgiving Holiday!
Dustin
