More Packaging Concepts & More Content Your Way Comes
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 02:09:36 AM

Hello, again. We hope you and your loved ones are doing fine and getting ready for a rather unusual-yet-equally great Holiday season.

The team behind The Great Wyrms of Drakha book is still going full-speed ahead, adding the final touches to the adventure created to present the magnificent Aureus Fulgen to you all, so we can deliver it to our valiant editor. Then, there's much toiling going on two other adventures in the book, both of them horror-themed, so we are putting extra care to make them both unique and fun for all. We're busy creating new creatures found in Aureus and Sivax's domains, which your players can exploit or challange... or run from if need be, of course.

On the "Looks Great" front, we have yet another set of proposals for our Great Wyrms of Drakha packaging. Here, have a look!

Corazón Martínez, the Graphic Designer in charge of this particular stage of the project shared with us: "this project in particular is very important for the Draco as a whole, as we're looking for it to cause an impression and the experience for our backers ends up feeling distinctly unique. The process as is quite long because every element must fit well with each other and, as a whole, it must be in visual harmony with everything else we're developing for this line."

Dragonkin Come With The Territory

The Magnifex are certainly one of the most active broods in terms of moving around places other than their brood's native territory, and here we'll show you how we came to create a stunning image of these peculiar (and warlike) travellers that you'll see in the book.

 Then, our art directors Tom Babbey and Daniel Erhli, go over it, agree on the sketch they want to see made, offer suggestions and further visual references to help enhance Dorc's proposal and, after a few more rounds of input and corrections later, Doruk Golcu sent us the finished piece.

This piece will be part of "The Inkling" section in Baastherox's adventure. Pretty nifty, eh? Yes, Magnifex do have this kind of effect on anything they are involed in.

Finally, you and everyone else you like to share this news with, are about to be able to read more content and lore. Pretty soon,  you will get your fill with sneak-peeks, insider notes and stories about all of Draco's games and projects. There are plenty of stories about the azhurmas for us to share with you, and these will have their own place over at the blog we're launching later this week. We hope you'll join us there!

That's it, see you next week for this year's last Red Moon Monday. As always, take care and stay safe if you must travel, wear a mask, and Happy Holidays to you all!

Red Moon Monday: Editing 2 adventures
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 11:36:55 AM

Hello, everyone. Are you ready to start the week, staying warm and healthy, in great spirits? We certainly hope so and wish you accomplish everything you set out to do.

Status Update

The Pledge Manager

Last week we made some big progress on setting up Backerkit, maybe near 40%. We are still looking for sending surveys on January 2021. 

The Miniatures

We are starting exploration for the packaging of the miniatures. This a very early design, but feel free to let us know your thoughts about what would make a great packaging for your miniatures.

The Book

Everything is going at a good pace. The adventures being edited now number 2 (Baastherox at final stages and Kuxcoatl in progress) plus the Introduction for the Great Wyrms of Drakha book. This week is time for us to get Sivax ready for our editor to add to his list. So, yes... busy, busy, busy...

There's something that never fails to inspire us and that is the art created for these adventures that goes perfectly with the lore we've developed for you to enjoy.

Oh, the art! Here, let us tell about the art and the story that inspired it.

 Stonecutter, the Rogue Golem

Deep within the crystalline tunnels leading to Sivax's vault that lies under his majestic spire, a relic from a time long gone wanders and cuts its way across the walls, creating more tunnels and pathways in the maze-like structure, ceaselessly advancing and retracing its footsteps, as if frantically looking for something... or someone.

This construct has become the terror of the Magnifex dragonkin working on the deepest levels inside Sivax's domain, and it is the creation of The Architect... a dragon who was charged by Sivax himself to plot and build the inner sactum and the Vault where Sivax spends much of his time and where he keeps his most prized pieces of art.

To better serve his lord, The Architect applied all his knowledge to the creation of a construct that would help him make paths through the stone and crystals he would later shape into beautiful, intrincate corridors and canals. In order to make it a precise tool, The Architect used his Kadmic runes to transfer a bit of his intellect onto the construct, and together they worked marvels, much to Sivax's delight... and petty envy.

Still, The Architect was dragon whose mind itself was a precious treasure Sivax could neither rule nor own, but the Magnifex azhurma could certainly find a way to contain, and once the grand work was finished, Sivax brought him to the center of the tunnel network, just above the Vault and entombed him within thick, ever-expanding crystal walls, so he could watch his most precious servant whenever he pleased... and soon forgot about him once another object fueled his latest obsession.

Ever since, Stonecutter has been trying to fulfill its master's last, desperate command: "Find  me! Find The Architect!"

So, this is it for this Red Moon Monday's entry.

Be sure to check our social networks or Discord to find a few more news of what's going on over at Draco Studios or have some questions answered.. or to say hi. We're not shy!

Be well, stay safe, wear your masks if you go outside and see you next week!

Red Moon Monday: Coatls development
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 08, 2020 at 04:11:48 PM

Hello dragonbonded

We hope you are all doing well and your week starts with plenty of energy, filled with great promise and plenty of health. We at Draco are keeping our good health and back with more news about the project.

Project Status

Pledge Manager: The team is currently working in setting up the pledge manager and we expect to see some great progress by the end of this week. Our goal is to send surveys in January 2nd.

The Book: We have already sent the first of the adventures (Baastherox's) for thorough editorial review and are making all the pertinent changes suggested by our editor. That said , we currently are in the process of delivering the second one (Kuxcoatl's) and the book's Introduction so they can receive the same treatment. This will be going right until the Christmas-New Year break, but for you it means we will have two other adventures sorted out (Aureus' and Sivax's, most likely) before the year ends. Not bad, huh?

Lore of the Great Wyrms

Azhurma Kuxcoatl is the indisputed leader of the Coatl dragons, the brood best known for their constant search for knowledge and insatiable curiosity. While as competitive and as motivated by the acquisition of increasing amounts of power as the rest of dragonkind, the Coatl are also well known to regularly cooperate and compare notes amongst themselves for everything that adds to the brood's collective knowledge, greatly increases the individual Coatl's chances to claim even more power for themselves.

Ideas to Mechanics

Keeping with the Coatl theme of this Red Moon Monday's update, let us tell you about how we came to this particular series of mechanics regarding how magic works—or doesn't—in Drakha.

First, Great Wyrms of Drakha is a book designed to provide you with high level adventures so you can challange your players and enjoy your games sessions with them. In order to do that, Daniel Ehrli—our Creative Director and the master artificer for this project—was adamant to stress the part where we present you with real challenges, and our rationale is that at certain (high) levels, magic becomes something that adventurers greatly favor both as part of their arsenal and as utilitarian elements for their various daring exploits. Why wouldn't they, as these levels of magical resources are both powerful and effective? Magic usually allows for the party to gain a nigh unsurmountable advantage over their opponents or significantly reduces the danger posed by certain conditions and situations.

So, Ehrli reckoned, knowing the Red Moon is devoid of naturally-occuring Vaala and having the Kadmic runes as the main source for Ihrallem Drakir (Draconic Magic), what if we tweak magic a bit so certain of the most powerful spells are not easily available and others work... differently to what the players are accustomed to?

Thus, the nature of the magic available to the player characters in Drakha varies from region to region based on the nature of the brood inhabiting it, and their Azhurma's natural affinities, which in the case of the Coatl means interesting twists and turns for the School of Enchantment  and a "possible" explanation for their unerring teleportation abilities.

And that's a wrap for this week. See you soon for another Red Moon Monday! In the meantime, have a great week, and remember #StaySafe and #PleaseWearYourMask.

The Red Moon comes... each Monday! - Va'ra Crystals
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 01, 2020 at 10:20:00 AM

Hello Dragonbonded!

We hope you start your week with plenty of energy and ready to successfully tackle anything that comes your way. Managing a Kickstarter is fun, and the possibility to stay in touch with you, our backers, who share the excitement for our projects, is definitely something we value a lot. We will aim to have at least 1 update per month but in an effort to have more exciting development news to share with you, we try to have at least 1 per week. 

This is the 1st Red Moon Monday, our weekly update dispatch to keep you in the loop about how the Great Wyrms of Drakha project is advancing.

The Book

Baastherox's adventure has ended its beta stage (the one you all know) with some and few additions, and its on the editor's desk for a thorough pass to make this manuscript the best it can be. This process will be the standard for the other six adventures, so that we can focus on one at a time

Today we want to share Irene Aretia's concept sketckes for the deadly Va'ra weapons featured in Baastherox's adventure.

The Miniatures

Our team is starting packaging design for the plastic version of the miniatures. Once we have some options, we will share those with you.

Pledge Manager

This Thursday, Kickstarter will transfer the funds to us and from there we will be able to start setting up the pledge manager in Backerkit, where you will be able to let us know your mailing address, as well as include add-ons or upgrade your pledge.

See you in the next Red Moon Monday!

End of a successful campaign!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 11:03:26 PM

Dragonbonded, THANK YOU!

With 1,408 backers and $86,065 we were able to unlock another stretch goal, which means, we have new cover art for the book! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

We will create a book that you will be proud to have, and with your support we will also be able to produce plastic dragons to meet mass distribution and create unique 3D models of the lairs. 

The Kickstarter campaign has ended but we promise to keep you posted about the progress and share art pieces and lore as the project advances via project updates like this.

If you wish to have direct communication with us feel free to join our Discord server or our Facebook Ambassadors Group.

Running a Kickstarter campaign is always exciting, and luckily, we are now a big team at Draco Studios, so there is no need for us to rest for a few days after the campaign, we will keep working to move fast and fulfill on time. 

Here's another piece we received while the campaign was live. Thanks to you we are able to produce our visualization of Drakha, the red moon. 

We can't wait for you to receive your miniatures and book to read your stories.Have you tried the free sample of Baastherox adventure? Let us know! 

As you may be aware of, Great Wyrms of Drakha is part of a larger universe we have been developing for the past 2 years: Dragonbond. The next adventure for Dragonbond will be a Kickstarter run by LAIR (subsidiary company of Draco Studios) for 3D printable files of the 3rd and 4th armies of the Dragonbond wargame.

Here's a special sneak peek at one of the sculpted units, the giants of Ysval, the Hmyr:

Next steps

Now that the campaign finished, here's what will happen in the upcoming weeks:

• Kickstarter will process payments and to deposit the funds to our account in 2 weeks. Backers with errored pledges must fix their payment (more about that below) within the next 7 days.
• On December, we will set up Backerkit (our pledge manager) to send your surveys in January. Here, you will be able to add extra items or allocate extra funds and pay for shipping fees and letting us know your mailing address (if you selected physical rewards). Loyalty rewards will be reflected here and you will be able to choose which dragons you want. 
• We plan to share the progress with you and to deliver your digital rewards as soon as we have collected the info. 

Errored pledges  

As usual, some backers had run into issues with Kickstarter charging your credit or debit cards. If you received a Kickstarter e-mail about this or think this might be your case follow these steps:  

1. Identify the source of the problem and provide the solution:   

• Your card has no funds: Transfer funds to it.  
• Another Kickstarter project ended on the same day: Your bank blocked the card for security by thinking it was a duplicated charge.  
• Your card is incompatible with Kickstarter US charge hub: Try using a different card (yours or from a friend).

2. On a web browser (not in the app) go to https://www.kickstarter.com/ and log into your account.

3. You will see a red band at the top of the website saying you have an errored pledge. Click on "Fix Payment"

4. Try again with the proper card (see the first step: Identify the source of the problem)  

5. There may be a bug on which Kickstarter states you have successfully fixed your pledge even though it might haven't worked. The best way to confirm is to refresh the page and not having the red band on the top; alternatively, try looking in your mail for the proper confirmation.    

6. Backers with errored pledges have 7 days to fix it. If you are not able to fix it within that time your pledge will be automatically marked as dropped. Don't worry you will still have 2 opportunities to fix it: 

• The first will be when we send the surveys (in about 5 weeks). Backerkit may be able to charge your card properly.
• The next will be two months after Backerkit surveys arrive when we will be able to enable PayPal payments.

We will be here to provide support. But rest assured that your pledge info is still on record and you will have some opportunities to fix payment in the future. However, the best would be to fix the payment in Kickstarter so that you still receive the project updates directly.   Having said all of this, your last resource is to ask someone else (a friend or family member) for their card so you can try different cards Visa, American Express, Master Card until the payment is successful.

Pledge manager

We will fully cover this topic later on, in upcoming updates, but just to point the basics for newcomers:

Now that the campaign has finished we need to know how many miniatures we are going to manufacture and which dragon(s) each backer wants. This is done by filling you a Backerkit survey (in 5 weeks) that you need to fill as soon as possible.

You will also share with us some details from your order such as the number of dragons, your selection of dragons and add-ons, your mailing address (to send your rewards), and e-mail for digital rewards.

Your shipping fee will be calculated automatically based on weight and you will pay for shipping fees there and may add extra funds for other items. 

FAQ

• About the modular lairs STL files in Townbuilder

You will be able to choose this variant in Backerkit for just $5 extra on top of the STL pack cost.

•  Choosing add-ons, sharing mailing address, paying for shipping, sharing proof of business (retailers) 

You will be able to let us know all of this in the pledge manager once it goes live. 

•  Pledge Manager / Late pledges dates 

We plan to setup during December, launch in January and lock and charge in late February. Pledge manager and late pledges will remain open until manufacture finishes but it will help us greatly to know the final numbers before starting manufacture in March.

• Digital distributions for existing STL files

We planned to fulfill after locking Backerkit in late February but we are considering the possibility of fulfilling early the existing STL files for Dragons of the Red Moon and Dragonbond: Battles of Valerna tied to reward tiers. No promises yet, but it is definitely something we are considering. 

• About the other dragons (the ones not unlocked)

We are here for the long run, we have plans to make the rest of the dragons available in plastic in the future. We will keep you posted.

--

Thanks again for all your support! You can follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Discord) and we will be back soon with more news in another project update! 

Choose to fight! Your battles will become legend!