#ninthworld

Our two big self-published games, the Apocrypha Adventure Card Game and The Ninth World, took massive steps forward this month. Below, you'll see where we are on both. But first some news blips:

We sent Betrayal at House on the Hill: Widow's Walk to the printer. Reaction to the game has been overwhelmingly positive. People have told us that they've been waiting for it for a decade. Well, so have we. It'll be in stores in October. Here's a preview.

Pathfinder Adventures is out and fantastic. It's based on our Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. We've never had one of our games turned into a smash digital game before, and we like that feeling quite a bit.

Speaking of Pathfinder, we're very close to done with Mummy's Mask. More on that real soon now. Meanwhile, we're halfway through Season of the Runelords, our adventure path based on Dynamite's Pathfinder Comics.

Here are our events at Gen Con. You'll see previews of our upcoming games Thornwatch and Sausage Party, plus a lot more.

If you want to hear Lone Shark stalwarts Mike Selinker, Paul Peterson, James Ernest, and Marie Poole chat with all their industry friends for nine hours, check out the podcasts on the Lone Shark Live: Origins by Night page. It's an entertaining time.

We'll have something big to say about The Maze of Games next time. For now, very hush hush.

Here's where all of Apocrypha is right now.

Rules: All rule sections are written and edited. And OMG there are a lot of them. It's at least 100 pages of content, including at least 72 pages of chapter material. We're real close on this. We should be done with rules text in the next week or so. 

Card game text: Most everything is in spreadsheets, much is edited, and a lot is tested. Honestly, we would test this thing forever if we could. In the next few weeks, we will call it done and send it to editing and layout.

Fragments and flavor text: Most of the fragments are written and edited, though we still have a couple big sets to do. Now that the story sections are all done, my next big project is all the flavor text on the cards. Hoping for early July on this.

Art: Almost everything is done. We have over 500 pieces in final form and at least half of the remaining 70 in close-to-final form. There are a few stragglers, but we think we'll be done with all of our art in early July as well.

Layout: We have a basic card design, but the real work here will be done in late June and July. We're not sure how long that will take. And laying out the rules is also a big task. We've underestimated this step before, so we're being cautious. 

Printing: Obviously, this can't start till all of the above is done. But we have a printer and a plan which we'll keep mum about until it's final.

We promised you pretty pictures, so here they are: the first half of your saints, all illustrated by the brilliant Mark Molnar and Pixoloid.

Frank Block, bad cop

Ophelia Willows, karmacologist

Dr. Zeez, unlicensed necrosurgeon

Evangeline Rose, sunslinger

Sam Yee, black hat

Israel Diaz, paleoherpetologist

Gabriella Vargas, one-percenter

Leroy Bonneville, gator wrassler

Innertubes the Clown, circus attraction

Here's where all of The Ninth World is right now.

Characters: All 12 are designed, illustrated (see below), and in playtest.

Regions: We've gotten all of the base set region cards drafted and in playtest. A bunch of region cards are illustrated, though not anywhere near all of them. We haven't started the Beyond preview cards yet; we want to finish the Steadfast first.

Powers cards: We have a set of about 40 that we're playing with. That will get larger soon.

Town and wilderness cards: Our next task is to expand these. We're also planning an overhaul of the ones in the print and play soon.

Rules: Competitive, solo, and co-op rules are solid and in final playtests. 

So we're getting there. The game's playing great and we think you'll love it.

Meanwhile, here's all of your characters, illustrated by the fabulous Shane Tyree. 

Nlixa, a Learned Nano

Selis, a Charming Glaive

Ara, a Stealthy Nano

Kwaidyno, a Tough Jack

Baltin, a Stealthy Jack

Vranth, a Tough Nano

Zari, a Clever Jack

Naktis, a Learned Glaive

Jenza, a Charming Nano

Branoc Aur, a Clever Glaive

Rorke, a Learned Jack

Skalli, a Stealthy Glaive