Exalt is in production

We've just sent all our final art and assets to our manufacturer for printing! It feels as daunting as it does exciting, knowing that mixed in amongst all the stuff we're proud of, there are bound to be some typos and things we'll wish we'd caught. But it's also liberating knowing we have so many more fun game ideas to unpack.

What's changed

Exalt has changed a lot since we set out on this journey. At the beginning, there were many more 'things' and over the course of its design, we've simplified many aspects to make room for more emergent complexity. It has often felt tempting to **add** in order to make the game feel richer, but often this can end up constraining how people play and gating playstyles behind prescriptive actions and strategies.

One of the defining design approaches we took with Exalt was to create a game with simple core mechanics (3 actions per turn, 3 kinds of actions in the game) but allow for layers on top of those foundations that create character (the diversity of Heroes). 

A huge part of what's helped us balance and refine the game was the playtesting we did. We ran lots of small group and individual sessions to get the game into a playable state, but then we held our public playtest event in Queenstown to get more open-ended feedback and sentiments from a wider group of people. As a result of the public playtest (and some of the recent smaller sessions), here's a quick list of some key changes:

Heroes

Dendr:

• Replaced mechanic of Minions regrown from saplings with the ability for Dendr to use a movement action and take the place of any sapling on the board.
• Sacrificed saplings now protect Dendr's Minions from an attack, not Dendr.

Kersi:

• Tightened wording around movement splitting to make it clearer and note he can double back.

Mariseld:

• Shapeshift is no longer a form but simply a special ability that allows for a joint movement and attack, at the cost of movement speed for the turn.
• Replaced passive regeneration with recovery of a hitpoint for any final blows that Mariseld lands on a Minion or Hero.

Tildeg:

• Rather than Tildeg's nearest Minion being the Apprentice as a constant check, the Apprentice is now set at the start of the turn, which means it can travel far from Tildeg and still be exploded.

Wrellio:

• Wrellio's own ability protection can also be afforded to a Minion.
  

Design note: Many of the changes we made to the Heroes were either to improve balance or to reduce any mechanics that encouraged protracted games of cat and mouse (e.g. Mariseld's regen, Dendr's sapling protection).

Components

Spirits:

• The small Spirit tokens have been replaced by bigger (and prettier) art cards, which allows their description to be available to the person who's using it (see below).
  

The Temple Door:

• Related to the above change, we no longer need the door to house the little tokens. Instead it will be a solid wooden meeple with a coloured design printed on, like the Heroes and Minions.
  

The Spirit Lanterns:

• These are a new wooden component used for tracking the turns of Spirit Power use. They're placed on top of the Spirit cards.

Design note: We always want to ensure our physical interactions aren't fiddly, which led us to change the Spirit tokens and Temple Door. This also helped make the Spirit information more accessible.

The core gameplay hasn't changed hugely, so if you've had a go at the game already, you'll be prepped for the real thing when it lands in Q3.

Design previews

Our assets are away with the manufacturer but here's a sample of where our art and designs landed.

The Heroes

 

The Minions

 

The Spirits

What next?

Pre-orders open July 1st, and we're still aiming for a Q3 release (Aug/Sept).

Once we approve the initial proof version of Exalt, it heads to mass production, then ships to our fulfilment partners and to us in NZ. When it's here, our website will reflect it for sale and some NZ local shops will stock it. Exalt is being manufactured by Longpack Games, who are based in Shanghai, and they've been so lovely and supportive. 

We've also added a bunch of game lore to our site. So if you had a favourite Hero from playing or from the art, go and check out their story and profile!

We're incredibly grateful to everyone who has played Exalt and provided their input. So much of it has helped us refine and polish the game, right up to the very end. It's been really heartening to see such a mix of ages, languages, and gaming backgrounds all engage with Exalt. We're already progressing well on our next game too, so Queenstown locals, keep your eyes peeled for the next public playtest.