While lots of things simmer away here at Darwin Games, we have two bits of very cool news to share with you today.

DEMO GAMES AT VUL-CON PHOENIX

If you are in the US and anywhere near Phoenix, you may be aware that the Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 is coming up very quickly. In fact it will be happening on the 25th and 26th of February at the Phoenix Convention Centre. Why is an Australian company mentioning a Convention in the US?

Well, because Dawn: Rise of the Occulites will be represented there in the form of demo games run by some of Darwin Games’ US friends and playtesters. This will be your first opportunity to see the game demo-ed at a US convention and we hope that those of you who are close by will pop down to say g’day and have a game! I sadly won’t be able to attend (stuck in Australia teaching) but Kelly and Russ are both enthusiastic and have been instrumental in the external playtesting of Dawn, so drop in and say g’day!

For more information on locations and times that the demos will be run, check out http://www.advancedgrafixonline.com/vulconsite/html/lusi.html

At the moment it will be run on both days on table M25. So stop by, check out some of the miniatures and see how the game plays!

If you do get the chance to drop in, we’d love to post any comments, feedback or questions you may have here or on the forums: Darwin Games Forums

COMPETITION TIME!

The second big bit of news is that we are running our first competition!

To enter, you need to create a complete mini-diorama on a base around 40mm – 60mm that has a Luftle on it. You may include other Darwin Games figures if you wish, but you only need to include one Luftle. You then need to take a photo of the diorama and post it online on the Darwin Games Facebook page, on our Darwin Games Forums or link it to the comments section for this article by March 26th. That gives you a month to get it finished.

Please include your name and a title for the diorama to help with the polling to determine a winner.

This competition is open to any and all that have a Luftle model to paint, but if you are in Phoenix and check out the demo of Dawn: Rise of the Occulites, you will receive a free Luftle miniature (while the stock lasts) that you can use for the competition. We do ask that your diorama is completed and painted by you and not done by a painting service. This is an honour system of course.

Once all the entries are in (and the March 26th deadline hits), I will collate and post all the entries on this blog, along with a poll to determine the winner.

The prize is one free Occulite (or Luftle) tribe of your choice, shipped to your door free of charge. If we receive more than 40 entries, the prize will double to two free Occulite (or Luftle) tribes of your choice, shipped to your door free of charge. So spread the word and tell your friends!

Here is an example of what your diorama may look like. But use your imagination and go wild with it!

If you have an questions or comments, please feel free to let me know.

All the best and good luck!

Cheers,
Ben.

Thanks to those that emailed me with their thoughts on which way to go mechanics wise for Dusk – Rise of the Occulites II. Personally, I really enjoy the use of cards and love the way it brings the concept of the Natural Selection Deck back into the second game. This hopefully means that people will be comfortable with the mechanics involved coming from Dawn. But conversely, it will give a solid base to work from for any players that start at Dusk – Rise of the Occulites II and check out first game Dawn afterwards.

In fact, the new format has received some really positive feedback from around here, with suggestions to redo the original deck in this new style. I was thinking and it might be good to have similar formats where similar functions are in the same spaces etc… What do you guys think?

So, anyway, here is the style for the Natural Selection Deck in the second game “Dusk – Rise of the Occulites II”.

Dusk - Rise of the Occulites II Sample Card

So, as you can see, its quite a departure from the Natural Selection Cards from Dawn. Some of the things are the same, others are new. There is no Aggressive (Red) and Defensive (Blue) statistics on the cards, so no smaller numbers are needed (for when using a Blue card as a Red etc…). There remains the number of characters activated and the card effects, but the number down the bottom is new. That is the cost in Tribal Tokens to use that ability. Yes, Tribal Tokens are back. They are a resource you need to manage carefully over the course of the game. Since some of these card effects are quite powerful (including being reborn in your Home Cave), there are costs involved. So how you spend your Tribal Tokens is also important in Dusk.

I decided to keep the immediately important information (aka the Combat value of the card – how many dice the card will let you roll) and the number of blocks you can Activate, to the left of the card. This would allow you to quickly reference these when the cards are fanned out in your hand.

Anyway, that’s probably enough for now but I hope this sparks an interest in Dusk, the second game in the Rise of the Occulites series. As always, if you have any questions or comments they are most welcome below. Or you can email me on benATdarwin-games.com.au

As the sun begins to go down on the internal playtesting and prototype development of Dusk, the external playtesting call creeps ever closer. External testing will begin with two Tribes at first, with three quickly following and then the last two… yes that’s right, Dusk will end up with seven Tribes… Palaudis, Hydris, Floris, Ignis, Nimbus, Silicus and Tundris…

If you are excited about the Rise of the Occulites setting and the games based on it, then please consider spreading the news and telling your friends about us. We’d love to be able to share the Rise of the Occulites story with as many people as possible. So please, spread the word!

Cheers and thanks again for supporting Darwin Games!
Ben.

Darwin Games Forums

Darwin Games Facebook Page

I’m continuing to playtest the second game in the Rise of the Occulites series: Dusk – Rise of the Occulites II and I am finding myself at a crossroad.

I just had a quick question to gauge your opinions on the combat mechanics of Dusk should operate. I’ve designed two different options and am trying to choose which one to move forward with. Both work well, but one is more involved, the other is a little less strategic, but easier to pick up.

Option A: Uses D6s, in combat roll a number of D6s equal to the Combat value on the block. Each 4+ counts as a success. Defender has less successes, block is removed.
PROS: Much faster and easier to teach/learn/play
CONS: Less strategy and tactical plays possible

Option B: Natural Selection Deck tailored for use with Dusk. Combat value on the blocks is what needs to be rolled under on D10s. Card deck with standard cards and then cards from each tribe participating in the game is shuffled through. Cards can be used for combat and also effects. Cards from “Your Tribe” give you bonuses if you use them, but can be used less effectively by your opponent. Combats become more tactical and cards can be played for effects. Cardplay becomes just as important (if not more) than dice rolling.
PROS: More tactical, cardplay provides interesting decisions/choices, effects will create interesting situations to overcome and tribe specific cards add to the flavour of each tribe. Much more differences between tribes.
CONS: A bit more complex, adds a little bit to the playing time and more components.

I know without the rules its not that much to go on, so if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask before sharing your thoughts. Or if you’d like, feel free to post as many or as few thoughts as you like.

I’d really like Dusk to be more approachable than Dawn, but at the same time, retain solid depth and playability to preserve its long term replayability.

Cheers,
Ben.

Feel free to post below, or you can head over the forum and join the discussion

http://riseoftheocculites.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=dawndiscussion2&action=display&thread=35#ixzz1k56ikRgn

Recently, I have received a number of emails asking about what is happening with Dawn: Rise of the Occulites. This is because, as you may have noticed, the updates for it have been a bit few and far between lately. I have previously mentioned that this is for a positive reason.

To put any rumours to bed that Dawn has gone into “The Long Dark” early, I’d like to reassure everyone that Dawn: Rise of the Occulites is in fact very much alive and well. The reason the updates have stopped is because we are currently in discussions with a publishing company about how the release of Dawn: Rise of the Occulites may take shape.

Thanks for all of your ongoing support. I will keep you all in the loop and will post more updates as soon as I have information I can share.

So stay tuned for all the exciting developments to come in the first game of the Rise of the Occulites series – ‘Dawn’.

Cheers,
Ben.

Here is the full blockset for the Palaudis Tribe for Dusk – Rise of the Occulites II. The only things missing are the 6 other Creatures all the Tribes get to choose from. This Palaudis Tribe has selected to take the Luftle Chief Creature.

Palaudis Blocks for Dusk - Rise of the Occulites II (minus 6 Creature blocks) - Click on the photo to enlarge it.

I can’t wait to get some games in with the new components! I will be asking for external playtesters for Dusk – Rise of the Occulites II in the near future, so look out for an announcement soon.

Cheers,

Ben.

As you have noticed (and some have emailed me about – and rightly so) the December release for Dawn – Rise of the Occulites did not happen. While this may look like bad news, it is in fact quite the opposite. Exciting things are in motion for Dawn, which will be announced when we have more information to share. Just know that it is a positive delay. We are also taking this time to refine the rules, add in examples and more scenarios to the game (which is always a good thing!). Look for more information on the release of Dawn soon.

Besides working on Dawn over the holidays, I’ve taken up the opportunity to work a bit on Dusk (the second game in the Rise of the Occulites series). The gameplay is really smooth now, but I decided to upgrade my prototype a bit with some artwork. So I have been sketching and colouring on the PC to print out some 19mm x 19mm stickers to affix onto 20mm x 20mm coloured blocks.Here is a sample of some of the artwork I’m using for my prototype…

Dusk – Rise of the Occulites II is a fast and fun boardgame for two players which takes place further into the Occulites timeline. The Occulite Tribes are now much more advanced. The simple family of five members has been forced out of existence as Occulite numbers swell. With this swelling of numbers, comes the need to expand their territories. Dusk sees you take control of an Occulite Tribe and tactically manoeuvre its members to achieve a series of secret objectives before your opponent does.

The Luftles Tribes appear to have been suppressed by this quick expansion of Occulite numbers and they now only appear as auxiliaries available to all Tribes.

This currently leaves 5 Tribes competing for dominance:

The Palaudis, Floris, Hydris, Ignis and Nimbus. Each of these Tribes have 31 blocks available to them for each game.

These 31 blocks consist of: 1x Tribal Chief (this is a mandatory selection, but you have two different Chiefs to choose from depending on your strategy – represented by the same block)
7x Creature blocks, which are available to all Tribes. (1 of which is selected for each game – unless you are playing the Clash of the Creatures scenario)

5x Band 3 Characters (3 of which are selected for each game)

9x Band 2 Characters (5 of which are selected for each game)

9x Band 1 Characters (5 of which are selected for each game)

Stickers are applied to only one side of the block, so there is a strong fog of war element. Some of the Character’s abilities require you to ‘reveal’ your Character to activate their ability and so positioning and careful strategy is very important.

Palaudis Youngling Block

The blocks available to each Tribe are different depending on their Tribe’s focus, but are all taken from a pool of 6 different Band 3 Characters, 5 different Band 2 Characters and 4 different Band 1 Characters. So for example, the Palaudis Tribe have 3 Luftle Rangers, 3 Luftles, 1 Youngling and 2 Tribe Members available to them in Band 1, of which 5 blocks will be chosen. This reflects the strong bond the Palaudis have formed with the Luftles.

Whereas the Floris Tribe has only 2 Luftles, 1 Luftle Ranger, 1 Youngling and 5 Tribe Members available to them in Band 1.You can quickly see how the different numbers of blocks available to each Tribe changes the overall feel of the Tribe.In addition to this, each Tribe has its own Innate Ability that further defines them.

Luftle Chief Creature Block

The board is also modular and is created at the start of the game, with the players having some choice over which terrain appears, so that it can be exploited. You can also purchase “Natural Selection cards” (that are represented differently from Dawn) by spending Tribal Tokens to gain benefits or instil disadvantages on your rival Tribe.

Games are played until between 1 and 3 (chosen at the start of the game) secret objectives have been completed by one Tribe, in which case that Tribe is victorious.

Palaudis Rebornling Block

Games of Dusk – Rise of the Occulites are played out in 20-40 minutes depending on the number of objectives and are very easy to pick up. With all Band Characters being drawn from the same pool of Characters, it is easy to regularly swap Tribes, without having to learn a whole Tribes worth of new special actions. It is a very accessible game, which I hope everyone will enjoy when its released.

Dusk has been extensively tested within Darwin Games, but external Playtesting will begin early this year. Dawn is of course still the focus for the moment. I just wanted to give you all a little insight into what Dusk is about. If you have any questions or may be interested in playtesting further down the track, please don’t hesitate to email me on benATdarwin-games.com.au or reply to this post.

Cheers,
Ben.

Just letting you know that the Ignis and Nimbus tribes have been added onto the Darwin Games webstore, so feel free to jump on and grab yourself a set of each!

You can find them here: DARWIN GAMES WEBSTORE

I will have some more updates for you guys in the near future. Another chapter of the background story and some sketches of some of the predators that may be found in the land of Crepusculum. Until then guys – all the best and spread the word!

Cheers,
Ben.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I have been totally swamped with writing reports for work (Primary teacher). Let me assure you all that there is stuff going on in the background though.

I do have two photos to share with you all. The Ignis and Nimbus painted tribes. I have come home from picking them up and taken these right away during a thunderstorm that hit here, so the lighting isn’t great. I will endeavour to get some more shots in the natural light sometime over the weekend.

The Ignis Tribe

The Nimbus Tribe (Orange-Bellied Parrot* scheme)

Well, what do you guys think?

These will be up on the store soon, but if you really can’t wait, you can email me on ben@darwin-games.com.au and I will send you a Paypal invoice. Both of these tribes sell for $42 + shipping and are of course not painted. What colour will you paint yours?

Cheers,
Ben.

*The Orange Bellied Parrot is a Critically Endangered Australian bird, with estimates of no more than 100-200 individuals left in the wild. I chose this scheme for the first painted Nimbus tribe as a sort of dedication to a beautiful bird that sadly, through no fault of its own, is on the brink of extinction.

I hope you have been enjoying reading the background story, but I also wanted to share some more painted photos.

This time it is alternative colour schemes for the Floris (their Autumn colouration) and the Hydris (a Clown Fish inspired tribe). All the Occulite species Darwin notes come in a variety of colourations. What are yours going to look like?

Floris Occulite Tribe Autumn Tones

Hydris Occulite Tribe Clown Fish Inspired Tones

Cheers,
Ben.

A few days had passed since I had thought about telling Pa. But as much as I had wanted to, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it… not yet. There had been so many new developments since the storm – all happening so close together, it had become overwhelming. Besides, it could wait. I wanted to find out as much as I could before showing him.

I looked out over the bush from Pa’s veranda while I munched on my Vegemite toast. I could hear the bell birds chiming happily from the trees as a lone cloud, fluffy and white slowly shuffled across the blue sky. I glanced at Pa, sitting on the other side of the table and smiled.

Winking at me, he took another bite of his toast. “Are you up for a picnic today mate?” he asked between chews. “It looks like it will be a great day for it.”

I gulped down the last of my glass of milk, then nodded. “Sounds good Pa, whereabouts?”

He relaxed back into his chair, “I thought I could take you up to the ridge today. I don’t think you’ve seen that yet have you?”

I hadn’t been to the ridge, let alone even heard of it. “No, I haven’t – where is it?”

“Well, instead of heading towards the creek…” he explained. “You head north through those trees for a few clicks. It’s a solid walk, but worth it. You up for it?”

I nod enthusiastically. “That would be great thanks Pa”

He takes a sip of his tea, his eyes going glassy as he wistfully looks through the trees, the creases at the edge of his mouth crinkle and his cheeks rise. It was obviously a special place to him.

“Alright. It’s settled then mate. I’ll make some sandwiches, get some lamingtons ready and we’ll head off around eleven thirty. You should bring your sketch book. It’s a great place.”

I stand up, taking the empty plates with me. “I will, thanks Pa.” I reply, walking inside… the window rock weighing in my pocket as I move. “Let’s see what we can find.”

——————————–

The ground was becoming a bit steeper and the path we had been following was becoming narrower and more overgrown with every step. Greyish rocks began to litter the landscape, peeking out from the ground, watching us walk with ancient eyes.

Pa walks strongly, without hesitation, despite these impediments and I have to take a few quick steps every now and then just to keep up. He knows the land well, striding ahead confidently. He speaks little, but at one point I think I spot the sunlight reflect off damp eyes.

“Are you ok Pa?” I ask, trying to catch my breath.

He comes to a stop, but doesn’t turn around. “I used to come up here with your grandmother. I haven’t been up this path since she passed away.”

I don’t know what to say. My mouth opens, but no words escape. My brain fumbles for what to do, but to no avail. Without thinking, I move up next to Pa, who is staring ahead, lips trembling and hug him tightly. His eyes twitch, trying to stem the flow of tears. But to no avail. My eyes fill with tears too as memories of my parents flood back.

We stay there hugging for a moment until Pa breaks the silence with a huge sigh.

“Stuff the sandwiches… I feel like having some lamingtons.” He laughs, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve. “Let’s get going. We’re almost there.”

Looming in front of us was a broad rock face several meters high. Moss clung to it like a mother to a babe and ferns burst forth from cracks and crevices. We followed the path to the left as it curved up and around the side of the rock face. It was steep, and the path was muddy, but there were strong grey stones dotted along the path which made it easier.

Without stopping, Pa calls out from ahead. “I put the stones on the path after your grandmother broke her arm in sixty four.”

As I rounded the last corner, the path opened out onto a large plateau covered in small ferns, moss and rocks. Two large rocks, firmly embedded in the earth sat next to each other, as if nature was providing seating for the view down the hill.

“The ridge.” Sighed Pa, sitting down on one of the rocks. “Now, about those lamingtons.” He smiled opening his bag.