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State of Tellest, October 2017

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Holy heck! I had no idea it’s been so long since I did a blog post for Tellest. It’s about time to change that up then, I suppose, and what a time it is!

I have got an awful lot to talk about, so let’s get down to business, shall we?

 

Tellest Legends Books

The Tellest Legends project ended up getting a lot bigger than I expected! While Tales of Tellest was a set of novellas, each of these Tellest Legends books is a little bigger. Silver Serpent, the next one up in the queue, is much bigger than the books I’ve done recently.  Intended only to be about 50,000 words for last year’s NaNoWriMo, it ended up becoming a 210,000 word novel. It’s the biggest book I’ve worked on since The Enemy Within, and is nearly as long as The Bindings of Fate.

Now, part of this is awesome news. In my opinion, this is the best book I’ve ever written—not because of the word count, but because of the time and care I put into it. The downside is that there is a lot of work there, and it needs to be carefully curated in order to be ready for release. It’s already put me at a bit of a delay. It’s gone through its first editor pass and come back to me, and I have to clean it up before it gets delivered to our second editor.

Originally, the plan was to get it released last month. That unfortunately will not happen, but it will be out soon. Unfortunately, its delay has impacted the other books that are also coming out—Arise, Heart of the Forest, Stealing Seramore, The Maelstrom and the second short story collection are all coming a little later because of Silver Serpent. I thank everyone for their patience while I get these stories prepared.

 

Quantum Quest

Another big culprit of the writing delays is our upcoming tie-in tabletop game.  Quantum Quest is a massive undertaking spanning almost three years, and we’re trying to give it the best chance it has to shine before we go to Kickstarter with it next month.  We’ve been holding playtests, gathering fans, working on new cards and so on all summer long. As we draw closer and closer to November, you can be sure I’m going to end up losing my mind a little more each day—I can’t wait!

Fans of Tellest are going to get an early preview of our campaign page in the next couple of weeks, but I can give you a preview excerpt right now:

“This is where things start getting really awesome. We’re offering up a pack of adventurer cards that you can only get here on Kickstarter or directly from us when we attend conventions—these will never be available at retail. And that’s just to start—the more we raise, the more you get. “

Suffice it to say, we’re incredibly excited for Kickstarter next month. I feel like we’re batting 1000 with this game, and I can’t wait to show it off some more.  If you’re at PAX Unplugged, definitely consider stopping by our table to play a game yourself!

 

NaNoWriMo 2017

This one ties into Quantum Quest in a big way because… it’s the Quantum Quest novelization!  Yep.  My aim is to get 50,000 or so words cranked out by the end of November that will add some lore and backstory to our upcoming tabletop game. Since we also have the Kickstarter going on, this is the first year where NaNoWriMo has to come secondary, so I’m not 100% certain that it’ll be finished, or that it’ll be 50,000 words.  That said, I’m going to make sure the book is complete and polished by the time Quantum Quest reaches backers in May of 2018.

Here’s another bonus: Everyone who backed the Tellest Legends Kickstarter is going to get a copy of the ebook since it’s pushing off the other books.

 

Short Stories

Short stories are going to continue to fill in the gaps between the big releases.  We have a couple of stories that are currently backlogged, and we have two holiday stories coming as well.  Once Silver Serpent moves onto the second editor, we’ll make sure these stories get their chance to shine.

 

That’s it for now, but you can be certain we’ll be talking a lot in November, on account of the Quantum Quest Kickstarter.  See you soon!

Games, Quantum Quest

Quantum Quest – Final Chambers

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Hey there folks.  It’s time to wrap up our base set of Quantum Quest chambers.  Now don’t you fret.  We still have a whole bunch of stuff to show off as we make our way toward our Kickstarter in November.  With that right around the corner, we’re going to be working harder than ever to bring you some amazing content.

For now though, let’s finish up looking at these chambers!

 

Poison Dart Trap

This set is going to be heavy on the Indiana Jones references, but both times we ended up pulling our Indy (or Indy lookalike) from the set.  I obviously love Indiana Jones, but we’re not sure we’re popular enough yet to start doing the crazy pop culture references.  But I mean, if we hit north of $400,000 at Kickstarter, you can be sure we’re going to start going all out 😉

After we pulled Indy from the piece, you could see just how deadly this long corridor is.  It takes a special kind of adventurer to avoid these traps, so hopefully if you go traipsing through the dungeon, you have an expert!

 

Poison Mist Trap

The Poison Dart Trap’s bigger, meaner, older brother, the Poison Mist Trap is one of our most powerful chambers.  It deals damage to everyone in the room, so you just need one dummy to make a mistake.  Luckily, if you have a necessary hero, they can mitigate some of that damage.

 

Rolling Boulder

Here’s our other Indy reference.  I loved that sequence in Raiders, and I thought it would be a cool idea to integrate into Quantum Quest.  And it does spruce up the game in some pretty cool ways.

Here you can see we’ve moved on from our Indy cosplayer, and put one of our other characters in his place.  Rolling Boulder not only deals damage to the party, but also displaces them from their spot in the dungeon.

 

Sacrificial Altar

This is one of those cards that can either be a boon or a curse.  When you enter the room with this altar, your adventurers will be compelled to sacrifice one among them, but it isn’t without reward. Another adventurer will be delivered to the party in their stead.

 

Shadow Door

This is supposed to be kind of a nod to the Fable series with their demon doors.  These doors can be a huge pain in the butt, especially if you don’t have a wily rogue in the party who can spot their inherent danger.  The shadow door whisks the player ahead through the dungeon, where they encounter even more dangers!

 

Sludge Beast’s Pit

How’s this for an RPG staple? Slimes are the go-to enemy for a lot of old adventure games, and we couldn’t open up our base set without including one of these guys in it.  These ones aren’t exactly a pushover though.  Coming into contact with one of them is sure to slow your progress.

 

Soul Sapper

Oof.  This chamber hits you while you’re down.  It’s one of our most powerful rooms, because if another player owns it, they get rewarded for it.

 

Spectral Hand

The opposite of the Shadow Door, the Spectral Hand pulls you back through the dungeon.  Luckily, this ghostly hand doesn’t damage you further when it drops you off.

 

Whirling Blades

Arguably one of our most damaging chambers, this room dumps you into a mess of pain.  But if that wasn’t enough, it forces you further through the dungeon as well, where you’re prone to incur even more damage!

The first version of the card looked a little too much like a 3D dungeon crawler, so we ended up making a 2D variation that felt a little more “Quantum Quest.”

 

Whirlwind

Here it is ladies and gentlemen, our final chamber.  A little bit like Whirling Blades, but not nearly as punishing, Whirlwind does a tiny bit of damage to a few characters before whisking them off, further into the dungeon.

 

Well, that’ll about do it for our awesome chambers.  We’ll be back in a couple of weeks to show off some more pieces of the game, and then before you know it, the Kickstarter will be here!

See you soon!

Games, Quantum Quest

Quantum Quest, Fourth Chamber Set

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Hello, dungeon divers!  We’re almost done with our look at the various dungeon chambers in Quantum Quest, but we’ve still got more to show off.  Take a seat, and look at the dangers the living dungeon will throw at you:

Lich’s Lair

One of the more attractive cards, for sure, the Lich’s Lair is especially damaging to clerics and mages.  And this particular lich is no joke.  He’s willing to take both casters on at once, just to prove he’s tough!

 

Lightning Spire

The Lightning Spire is a card that’s changed a lot since its inception. Originally, it was kind of like a proximity shock.  Whenever the player who owned it passed it, he could put a token on it that would shock a passing player.

We’re not quite ready enough to make the game that complicated, so we did something a little different.  Now it either deals two damage or drains two mana.  Still brutal!

 

Lingering Apparition

Yet another undead fiend!  This one is a bit of a pushover if you’ve got a warrior in your party.  If you don’t, and you don’t have a cleric who can claim the room, he can deal a decent amount of damage to one of your adventurers, especially if its owned by a player who haunts the chamber!

 

Mana Burn

This was a strange journey for us.  We’re actually going to take you backwards…

…because…

…we ended up…

…using…

…the very first version of the art that Sergei did for us.  We should have known better than to question him.

Mana burn ends up burning up your mana.  Simple enough concept!

 

Mimic Chamber

Here’s another truth for you: thieves can’t resist treasure!  We ended up liking the way this looked, but had to concede that it looked a little too out of place, and not enough like a proper sprite.

We went with this instead.  Sure, it looks a little cartoony, but it fits the bill that much better, I think!

 

Necromantic Aether

Rounding out this set is a card that’s pretty brutal, but not entirely unforgiving.  This is one of the very rare cards that won’t leave you completely screwed as it damages every one of your adventurers. Though it hits hard, it also allows you to bring a dead hero back to life with a single hp.

 

That’s it for this set, but we have one final look at our basic cards coming up next month.  Stay tuned!

Games, Quantum Quest

Quantum Quest, Third Chambers Set

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Greetings, Quantum Questers!  We’re back with another look at some of the assets that make our upcoming tabletop card game such a nice breath of fresh air.  Although the artwork is sure to have you going through some bouts of nostalgia, I think you’ll agree everything looks beautiful as well!

We’ll get right to it:

 

Guardian of the Void

 

Our Guardian of the Void is supposed to be a pseudo reference to one of the characters in the short story Keeper of the Void, which sort of bookended the other stories in Tales of Tellest.  In that tale, a fellow named Vedas with cobalt skin and golden armor led the thief Rhys through the Void, which is a central place where time flows through.

Unfortunately, our description ended up making the game’s guardian look a little too much like the Night King from Game of Thrones.

We decided to make this guardian a different color, and we messed around with some of the colors a few times before we landed where we wanted to.

Because the guardians aren’t necessarily evil, we decided to go with a bit of white along with the copious amounts of red.  Above all else, they’re supposed to protect the stream of time.  With all those heroes coming from all over Tellest, and from different points of time, this fellow has a lot of work ahead of him.

 

Hand of Fate

Hand of Fate is one of our special cards.  It isn’t one that can be owned, and it has some game-changing effects.  It essentially removes one of the heroes from the living dungeon, and swaps them out with another one from Tellest’s vast timeline.  It can be incredibly helpful if you’re doing poorly, but if you have a tight, well-functioning group, losing one of you more important pieces can be a real pain!

 

Icy Aetherite

Tellest’s aetherites are a magic-based race that essentially make up the genies and a few lesser known people.  We may see these characters crop up as playable adventurers way down the line, but for now, there are a few who have been trapped in the living dungeon for far longer than they would have liked.  That kind of isolation and punishment can drive you mad, and this poor fellow has no problem letting out his frustration on the adventurers who want to control the dungeon in order to ensure their survival.

 

Ironbark Arborescent

This was another one of the chambers that we ended up changing a little bit.  The arborescents are Tellest’s treefolk, and it makes up things like treants, dryads, and so forth.  This particular tree person is a big, mean sentinel in the dungeon, suffering the same madness that our poor aetherite is.

We needed to make a few changes to this dendroid, however.  He has his face a bit lower than what I would have expected, and he’s got a little bit of a butt on him.  As it stands, too much of his head is in his torso, so we ended up asking Sergei for some changes.

He ended up touching up the arborescent nicely, and thinned him out as well.  The change ends up making him look a little peeved off, too, which just ended up helping us with the feeling we were trying to convey.

 

Libra’s Scales

Somewhat in line with that Hand of Fate chamber we showed you earlier, Libra’s Scales is kind of a lite version of that.  While you don’t switch out heroes here, you do harm one for the benefit of another. This can be a huge burden if you’re down to two heroes, and one only has a single health to his name.  On the other side, if you’ve got an adventurer who is replete with life force, he can lend a hand to a flagging ally.

 

That’s it for us today, but we’ll be back in about three weeks to show off our penultimate set of chambers.  Stay tuned!

Games, Quantum Quest

Quantum Quest, Second Chambers Set

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Hello out there all you fans of fantasy.  Today we’re back with another Quantum Quest feature.  A few weeks ago we showed off some of our dungeon chambers, and we’re back with another cool set.  The Kickstarter for this cool card game is right around the corner, so we’re going to start pulling the cards away from our chest!

Check out some of the places you’ll find in the dungeon:

 

Antimagic Chamber

First up today, we have our antimagic chamber.  Adventurers can’t use any of their special abilities in this room, which is already a hit in the gut, but it also prevents you from getting a lucky roll and gaining extra mana.  And of course it also damages one member of your party.

This variation of the card is kind of cool because it has a promotional sprite in it.  We opted to take him out because we felt like this version of Kaos didn’t really fit with what we were trying to do.

Instead, we gave one of our other characters a chance at the spotlight.

Berras Ames is one of our gnome adventurers, and he typically has a shining lantern atop his implement.  Because of the antimagic chamber, though, that light has been snuffed out!

 

Blood Demon

Gross.  This blood demon is made of—and hungers for—that lovely crimson life force.  While most perils in the dungeon have an equal chance to deal damage to just about anyone, this denizen of the underworld takes its aim at the healthiest heroes.  They have the most blood to spare, after all.

 

Chain Lightning

This is one of my favorite dungeon chambers.  Every now and again, your adventurers have a chance to set off a spell, and this one in particular can be kind of rough.  It’s one of the more powerful rooms in the game, and when you own it, it can be a real game changer.

 

Chronomancer

This set is actually full of some of my favorites.  I really like the way Sergei put this fellow together.  Usually, when you’re trying to gain control of the dungeon, you’re moving forward.  The second you confront this guy though, he has you moving backward instead.

 

Corruption

This is one of the worst chambers to land in.  When you do, you instantly lose control of one of your other chambers.  The good news is that its too powerful to be controlled by any player.

I love the way this one looks, too.  It almost feels like if you look at that darkness in the center, it spreads.  It’s a really cool effect.

 

Death Knight’s Tomb

This guy holds one heck of a grudge, it seems.  Perhaps he’s a little upset that one of his cleric buddies didn’t do enough to keep him alive.  In any case, he takes his rage out on healers more than any other party member.  Good luck to whatever clerics come through this room!

 

Demon Portal

Here, we have a very similar room.  These demons know that the mages who venture into the dungeon have the power to send them back to whatever realm they came from, though, so they target the various arcanists that they find.  That’s incredibly dangerous too, since mages are known to be among the squishiest of all the adventurers.

 

Disintegration Ray

Another room that has a connection to one of the others.  Whereas the blood demon hammers away at the healthiest heroes, this spell trap weans away the health of the meekest adventurers.  This can really disappoint you if you’re down to one hit point and you’re trying to keep your character safe to score one more room.

 

The Entrance

Arguably the most important room in the game, this is where you start, and where your characters continue their journey.  Every time your heroes think that they’ve made it through the dungeon, they end up back at the start.  But it’s not all bad news.  The Entrance sort of acts like Monopoly’s Go.  It’s a safe place, and it gives players mana, the currency of the game.  Unfortunately, the only way for the adventurers to make their way home is to gain control of the dungeon, so in through those doors once more they must go.

 

Golem Foundry

This is a heavy hitter, for sure.  Golems are known for packing a punch, but the good news is that they don’t usually care unless a lot is going on at once.  If you’ve got a small party, you’ll make it through without catching the attention of one of these big brutes.  But if you have a larger force, you can be sure one of them is going to take a hefty bit of damage.  And if you’re playing with more than two players, and this room is haunted, it’s almost a guarantee that one of your adventurers is going to bite the dust.

 

Green Dragon’s Lair

It’s like the Golem Foundry, but worse.  This particular dragon doesn’t care how many people show up—he just wants some carnage.  He deals just as much damage as a golem, too.  This is definitely one of the more important chambers to gain control of as you play the game!

 

Well, that’s it for this set, but before the end of the month, we’ll be back with another set of chambers.  What dangers do you think you’ll see before we launch our Kickstarter?  Stay tuned!

Games, Quantum Quest

Quantum Quest – First Chambers Set

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Howdy folks.  As we move forward into new adventures for Tellest, we’ve been showing off some pretty cool things for our upcoming card game, Quantum Quest.  You’ve already seen all of the characters our game has to offer (minus some exclusives that we’re keeping under wraps for now), but it’s time to see what else we have in store for you gamers out there.

 

Healing Fountain

First up, we have one of the more beneficial rooms in our dungeon. If your adventurers happen upon a healing fountain, they’re in for some rest.  It’ll refresh their vigor, and give them a new chance at tackling the dangers of the dungeon.

You’ll also see that we have two different variations of the chamber. Since we have so many different races, we thought some might like the more sinister looking symbol.

Our artist gave us a slightly different version of this fountain as well, and we chose the one that looked a little cleaner.

 

Magic Portal

Part of the dangers of going through the living dungeon in Quantum Quest is that you run out of people you can depend on. Unfortunately, when you’re trying to take over a dungeon in order to survive, you need all the help you can get.  That’s where the magic portal comes into play.  If heroes manage to find this chamber, they can call on allies from distant lands across time and space.

 

Mana Pool

Mana is the primary resource in Quantum Quest.  When you’re running low, all kinds of bad things can happen.  Meanwhile, if you’ve an overabundance of the stuff, you can sway the dungeon to your favor, and even cast incredible spells.

 

Mana Storm

If a mana pool is beneficial, then a mana storm has got to be the opposite.  It’s what happens when you lean too heavily on magic all at once.  Not only do you lose hold over the arcane, but you also feel your mind overcome.  Not a pretty picture.

We chose to go with a slightly more askew version of the art for the final piece.  Plus it’s got some added rocks to add to the feel that things are really chaotic!

 

Pit Trap

One of the quintessential traps in every dungeon, the pit trap damages you and rubs some salt in the wound by making you have to climb your way out.  This could be a valuable waste of time, however, as even being stuck in a pit could be seen as a brief respite from the dungeons many other dangers.

 

Rat’s Den

Another popular fantasy game archetype, rats make up a good portion of opening enemies, letting you learn the ropes while you lay the smack down on enemies that can’t really hurt you all too badly.

 

 

 

That’s it for our first set of chambers, but be on the lookout in the weeks to come when we show off more of what makes our dungeon tick!