BackerKit surveys are coming!
almost 6 years ago – Wed, May 30, 2018 at 01:01:24 AM

Hello Everyone!

Soon, you’ll receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards.

You will receive an email with a unique link to your survey.

When you click the link, please select "Switch Your Pledge Level" and select the pledge level and language edition you want to to receive. If you want to switch your pledge level to ALL-IN PLEDGE, please do this in this step. This will help us determine the correct shipping costs for your language edition and location.

Step 1:

 Step 2:

Step 3:

...Continue with the survey, enter your shipping address, pay for shipping, and click "Place Order" and you'll be all set.

You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!

After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, 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://uboot-the-board-game.backerkit.com.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://uboot-the-board-game.backerkit.com/faq.

Thank you, and happy gaming!

IWS & PHX

Memorial Day
almost 6 years ago – Tue, May 29, 2018 at 02:06:44 AM

Hello Everyone!

Due to holidays in the US, we have no choice but to postpone the launch of the pledge manager until Wednesday. The long weekend in the United States has thrown a spanner in our works regarding system implementation, as BackerKit HQ is located in the US. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience.

To make it up to you, we are sharing the contents of the parcel we have just received. We will post a longer update on Wednesday, together with the launch of the pledge manager.

Please note, that these are the Navigator's miniatures, so their bases will be green.

First Officer's miniatures, with blue bases.

Chief Engineer's miniatures - their bases will be brown.

The Captain's miniatures. Their bases must be white. :)

There are few small issues with these prototypes, but they can be easily fixed. Overall impression is fantastic. You will be able to see them at UK Games Expo this week (stand 1-H14)!

Happy gaming!

IWS & PHX

P.S. Many of you have emailed us saying that you got interested in the game because your grandfathers either served on U-boats or fought them. These were very moving stories. Let us live our lives so that neither us, nor our children will ever have to die for their country. Wars are best fought on the board.

WOLFE "The battle of the Atlantic"
almost 6 years ago – Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 02:21:34 AM

Hello everyone,

One of our backers, Roberto Sanchez from Scale75, is running now a Kickstarter campaign that you may find interesting. Please check WOLFE "The battle of the Atlantic", if you are interested in historical or modelling aspects of German World War II submarines.

The campaign is already funded. One of the future add-ons is a 1/72 scale u-boot conning tower crew, that may be complementary with our U-BOOT model.

Happy gaming!

Iron Wolf Studio & PHALANX

Some of the tweaks that we have applied.
almost 6 years ago – Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 01:45:32 AM

Hello everybody,

Here is the latest news update straight from our shipyard.

Language editions

We have already concluded contracts with the publishers of the French, Spanish, Italian and Russian editions. The English and Polish editions will be published by PHALANX. We have already finalized negotiations regarding the German edition and we will be signing the deal within the next few days. All in all, it seems that U-BOOT will have a total of 7 different language editions. We would like to thank you very much for your support, as it would not have been possible without you!

Pledge Manager delayed

The opening of the pledge manager has to wait until the aforementioned contract is signed. It does not affect the lead time of the project in any way, it will simply put the pledge manager launch a tiny bit back. The products have already been configured and all that is left to do is to seal the deal on the German edition. We are also awaiting final shipping quotes from local markets. According to our current estimations, we should be able to launch the pledge manager in the first half of May.

 Game development

In our last update, we said we would reveal more information on game development. As promised, we carefully studied all the feedback that we had received and focused our work on a few specific areas. Below are just some of the tweaks that we have applied.

First of all, we have improved the Order/Morale track mechanic. The way it works now allows for a more balanced distribution of orders between the first and the second watch. It also gives the Captain yet another layer of strategic planning, as the new rules for resetting the order track allow them to maintain better operational capacity by keeping away from the end of the Order Track.

What is more, we have taken a close look at the Chief Engineer’s role in order to increase the number of interesting choices they can make with their repair crews. The Chief Engineer will be using a completely new resource type, allowing them to approach each repair situation from a couple of different optimization perspectives. The hull breach puzzle mechanic has also received a few finishing touches and will require careful management of supplies to make the best of the bad situation.

We are also finalizing our tests with the new Morale, Event, and Captain’s cards. When designing them, we focused on bringing in more variety, but also a bit more control over how the situation develops.

Last, but not least, there are a few changes in the core rules to improve balance and gameplay experience. One of them is a simplified watch change variant that will make for easier and smoother transitions between the watches. The final version of the game will also give players more opportunities to control their sailors’ activation levels, so that they don’t end up completely exhausted just when you need them most. So, how about getting out of that bloody can for a quick smoke? After surviving a long depth charge attack, some of your men may really need this to regain their composure. Unless you never get back to the surface...

All in all, we are conducting tons of tests and the rulebook is nearing completion. The rules are undergoing a major rehaul too, but not as much in terms of big changes, as when it comes to better organization, clarity, etc. They also need to incorporate all the new features unlocked during the campaign, all the graphic examples need to be redone, and there will also be a few designer notes here and there to explain certain details. The rulebook is almost ready, and we hope that it will serve you well.

App development

As you already know, the app is being rebuilt from the ground up. The map we will be using in the final game is much bigger, and so the game ‘world’ needs to be resized. All the distance, time, and speed variables are being calculated once more to make sure they reflect real world data as much as possible. Another reason we are starting from scratch is that we are introducing a genuine real-time mode. Time compression will still be an important part of the game, but we are rebuilding the app with the 1:1 time mode in focus so as to allow for more strategizing as well as smoother introduction for new players.

The final reason for such a thorough rebuild of the app is that we really had to make serious sacrifices in order to fit the preview version of the app in the initial budget and project timescale. Now, thanks to Kickstarter funding our IT team has doubled and we can finally explore certain possibilities that we had to skip on while preparing the preview version of the game.

First of all, the app will calculate the relative positions of all objects in full 3D. The preview version still worked somewhat like a board game, with the submarine ‘submerging’ due to a simple algorithm along the lines of a card effect ;) The hit probability of a depth charge attack was calculated with a template, quite similar to what you would find in, say, Warhammer. There was no land, no day and night, and no weather conditions.

The new version of the app will be much more advanced. We are already working on visible land and on reimplementing the game mechanics in three-dimensional world. All the explosions, sonar beams, and other area effects will be fully modeled in 3D, allowing for more realistic combat simulation. I guess it is already safe to say that you won’t recognize the new app once you see it. Everything from the interface to ship models will receive proper treatment and the app will finally begin to look the way it was meant to be :)

Production

Production is going according to plan. The final layout of the punchboard is ready, and we will soon have the first metal punching die to test on the material that we intend to print the U-boat hull on. It will allow us to see how the material takes it and if it behaves as expected. If it is anything less than perfect, then we will improve the design, rinse and repeat. However, as we are working with a highly experienced team, we hope that corrections won’t be necessary. As soon as we receive the model, we will share photos and our impressions with you. This is a laser-cut version of the recent U-boat model, waiting for final approval before we produce a metal die:

Crew tile artwork is moving forward, and here are a few new sailors in our happy bunch:

As you can see, a few youngsters have joined our crew, as promised before. Please note that these images are still work in progress, that is why the ‘Kriegsmarine’ inscription on one of the sailors’ hats is mirrored out.

3D model artwork is also nearing completion. We are waiting for the final design of the punching die to compare it with the artwork, apply corrections where necessary, and print the first prototype to see how a printed, punched out model looks like. Here you can see the control room’s floor and walls:

We are still working on player panel and token art.

As we have already finished designing all the plastic pieces, they are currently with the producer and are being prepared to meet production specifications. Moreover, the producer is already making prototypes of all the plastic bits in the game, so we should be able to show you their photos in our next update. We will also bring them to UK Games Expo to let you have a look for yourselves.

As for the other minis, then we already have the first resin miniature prototypes. Here are their first photos (3D prints and resin prototypes):

Hope you like them!

As a small bonus, here’s what you can achieve in one evening using the simplest painting techniques:

Alright, that’s all for the latest update. As you can see, everything is going smoothly and we are focusing all our efforts on keeping it that way :)

All best and happy gaming!

Iron Wolf Studio and PHALANX

News from the shipyard
about 6 years ago – Fri, Mar 23, 2018 at 01:56:27 AM

Hello everyone,

Thanks to your support, production is going full speed ahead. Steel plates are being cut, equipment is being delivered by subcontractors, and the crew is being assembled. We can already share some of the material with you, so please read on if you would like to catch a glimpse of how things are going.

The interior

Interior artwork is being redone from the ground up, based on a digital 3D model. The result we are aiming for is for all the constituent elements to be perfectly matched (the floors, the ceilings, the bulkheads, etc.). The measurements of particular sections will all be to scale, at the same time ensuring that each element is exactly where it is supposed to be. This is how a part of the raw 3D model looks like:

And here is how it looks like after applying textures and sample lighting:

The appropriately colored and lit 3D model will be the basis for creating 2D artwork for each and every piece that will make its way into the punchboards. Below you can see the layout of our old punchboard that was made for the purpose of the Kickstarter prototype:

That above design is currently being improved to accommodate the stretch goals that were reached during the campaign (such as mounting holes to attach the periscopes and deck guns to the model), as well as feedback from the printing company, and from several dozen tests that have been carried out in the meantime.

The crew

Here are the first drawings that will replace the designers’ photos on the crew tiles (which is a pity, right? :p). We are working together with leading artists in the field and we are very happy with their initial offerings:

The miniatures

We are also finalizing our work on the new models that you unlocked during the campaign. You could already see deck gun and periscope models back then, and we are now presenting the Navigator’s tactical map miniature models. Please bear in mind that their length ranges from 12 to 30mm, hence their adequate level of detail :)

Once we are in possession of all the required 3D model designs, we will be able to go into production (which will be happening soon). We are currently awaiting final quotes from the leading producers on the market, i.e. companies that produce plastic pieces for the likes of Hasbro, CMON, or Awaken Realms.

The add-ons

In order to avoid any problems with card sleeve sizes, we have obtained from the printer a card produced with the same punch die that will be used for UBOOT. The photo below shows how well it fits together with the sleeves that were offered during the campaign:

The resin pieces, on the other hand, are being refined to comply with the manufacturer’s specifications. Once we receive the final designs, we will order the printing of 3D master copies. Once we are happy with their quality, we will proceed with ordering forms for casting them en masse.

The app

The game’s app is undergoing a major rehaul, with each of its constituent elements being reworked before we start applying any new solutions. From the grid system, through time compression, and finishing with enemy AI: everything has undergone a very close scrutiny and is currently being refined, with further development (the unlocked stretch goals, first and foremost) in mind.

The Pledge Manager

We have already started configuring the pledge manager so that it launches according to plan (i.e. in the middle of April). This is also when we will be publishing our next update, focusing on that very subject. We will be sending out notifications, as well as invitations to the pledge manager in order to make absolutely sure you won’t miss it.

Right, so that is everything we can share with you at this point. We would like to thank you very much once again for being with us! Please stay tuned, as further updates will be revealing a lot more about our progress, including important details regarding the pledge manager, as well as a lot more about the game’s development progress.

All best and happy gaming!

Iron Wolf Studio and PHALANX