Back from Essen! It was crazy! Voting is back as well!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 20, 2021 at 03:50:40 PM

Essen was awesome!

It was so fun meeting and playing Roll Camera with many of you - if you're reading this because you came by, played the game, and then became a backer - THANKS!! You are great. We all had a blast.

Last year, when I made the order for the first run of Roll Camera, I knew I wanted to come to Essen and ordered 200 extra copies. I gotta admit, when we first stocked the booth, I thought I'd made a mistake. I couldn't imagine selling that many games. I figured we'd be trucking a few cartons back home with us. 

Well - by Friday evening we had SOLD OUT ALL of those 200 copies!!

I had to ask the warehouse to send over everything we had left - just 40 copies of the clapper box, which we sold out by noon the next day. Luckily we have a reprint Kickstarter running at the same time, huh?! 

Unreal - the response was just amazing. Everyone was so enthusiastic and excited to play and have the game. So much fun!

And you know what, although I am now completely exhausted - it was one of my favorite weekends all year. I have to admit, sometimes this gig is a bit lonely. Backers like you can easily disappear behind email addresses and internet avatars. Conventions like Essen Spiel are a great way to put a human face to the players of the games we make. I am always DELIGHTED to meet anyone and everyone that comes up. It's incredibly motivating.

So, the next time you're at a con we're at - definitely come say hi. It means a lot to me.

Voting is back!

We've got a movie to make, people!!

For those of you just joining us (and you are many, considering how much the campaign has jumped since the last update - wow!): most days of the campaign we'll be having a vote for which upgrades you want to add to the B-Movie Expansion. In doing so, we "shoot" a "movie" that more or less makes sense along the way! So far it's got zombies, aliens, dragons, spiders...will it also have robots?? You decide!

That's it for now!

See you tomorrow!

Your pal,

Mal

Ruel @RahdoRunsThrough Stream Starting Soon!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 20, 2021 at 03:49:49 PM

Sorry for the second update folks, but I forgot to mention this (still a bit braindead from Essen): Ruel from Rahdo Runs Through will be streaming a playthrough of Roll Camera and the B-Movie Expansion in 40 min - 11am Pacific Time! It'll be a great way to see how the expansion plays. Of course you can also watch the replay later on.

Thanks!

Mal

Day 6 of voting is up! TTS mod fixed! Essen!
about 3 years ago – Mon, Oct 11, 2021 at 02:02:04 AM

Act One of our film is in the can!

And what an act one it is. Kings, dragons, meteors, zombies, aliens...!!! This b-movie truly has it all. Now we've just hit what's called the "break into two" - or the break into Act Two. Here be dragons...so to speak. What will actually be here? You decide!

Voting will then take a break until October 19

...because next week I'm going to be at Essen Spiel!

Our booth is #5C111 (even got our logo in the book ^_^) - if you'll be there, I'd love to meet you. 

I will still be active here in the comments and I'll probably send out an update or two. But voting will be on hold until we're back on the 19th.

Luckily,

The Tabletop Simulator mod has been fixed!

If you want to play Roll Camera before it arrives - or just take a gander through some of the components - the fantastic Mike Belsole scripted it all beautifully. It had some bugs, but now he reports it should be working again. 

If you want to find someone to play online with, try asking in the Keen Bean Studio Discord! There are lots of friendly folks there.

Last time we talked about b-movies, but

what good movies (b-movie or not) have you seen recently? I saw the Father with Anthony Hopkins - wow. Easily my favorite film of the year. They do so much with so little - and it's terrifying. Not in a spooky zombie way, but in a real-world way. Just an incredible film.

I also saw Dune, and liked it quite a lot - I'm a fan of all of Denis Villeneuve's work, and this was no exception. Made me want to read the book again. My favorite thing about it was the design. Sci-fi always looks so generic, you know? Villeneuve is the right man to bring an edge of weirdness to the sci-fi design of Dune, separate it from everything that came before. Something about it being just one half of the story kinda made it feel a bit untethered, but it was fine. I liked it.

I also saw No Time to Die, the last Craig Bond film, and yeah it was a nice wrap-up to his series, I think. I like that the Craig Bonds have a whole arc, beginning to end, much unlike the previous generations of Bonds. I think that was an interesting take. It's definitely silly ("NOW HACKING BLOFELD'S BIONIC EYE" lol), but James Bond is silly. I'm okay with that. I wonder where they'll take the franchise from here though. It just doesn't feel like you could dress anyone up in a tux and go back to the old antics. I feel like we've moved on from that...but if you change too much, it's not really Bond anymore, is it? I guess we'll see!

Hmm, you know...we did unlock "community vote" genre Scene cards - maybe Spy could be one of the options? Any other good subgenre ideas?

Your pal

Mal

Voting day 5 is up! Spotlight: Equipment cards! TTS update!
about 3 years ago – Sun, Oct 10, 2021 at 06:11:27 PM

More voting, more B-Movie Expansion upgrades!

All right filmmakers, we are well through the first act of our little b-movie about kings and dragons and zombies, and along the way we've added and upgraded the expansion in lots of delightful ways. It's always useful, from a publishing perspective, to see what kind of upgrades people actually want! 

And what about today? Head over to vote on how our heroes are going to deal with this zombie problem!

Spotlight: Equipment Cards

There was some talk yesterday regarding the equipment cards that people were voting for more of something they didn't know much about. Equipment cards are indeed a new addition to the game through the B-Movie Expansion - and they're awesome. So what ARE they about?

In short, Equipment cards are powerful, public, single-use bonus actions. 3 are drawn at the start of the game, and they are placed face-up near the board, where everyone can see them. To use them, like with any action space, just place the indicated dice on the action space and trigger the effect. Once used, they are flipped over and you cannot use them again.

They are like Idea cards in that they provide bonuses to help you out, but unlike Ideas, their effects are not hidden from other players. What that means is that you can consciously work towards Equipment card effects over several turns (or even the whole game). If Idea cards are more tactical reactions to the game state, Equipment cards are their more strategic, long-term counterparts. 

We introduced these cards to help balance out the significant challenge increase presented by the new genre mechanic. If however you prefer the game to be difficult, you can of course choose to use fewer Equipment cards - or even none! But we love the way they increase player engagement and interaction, as well as changing slightly how you approach the game strategically. 

I told you, they're awesome!

And if you have Tabletop Simulator, you can try them out right now right here!

But Mal, the TTS mod is broken :(

Yes, we've heard about the bugs - thanks for letting us know. The mod's developer and I are on the case. We have determined that the problem is only with the multiplayer setup for some reason - single player and hotseat games of the Roll Camera TTS mod work fine. Obviously that's not ideal if you want to play with your friends, we know - we're working on it, and thanks for your patience!

Enjoy your weekend!

Your pal

Mal

Voting day 4 is up! Zombies vs vampires!!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 01:37:43 AM

Ooh, our story's getting interesting now! With yesterday's vote we secured 5 more Idea cards for the expansion, and we indicated that something otherworldly is about to happen in this not-so-peaceful kingdom. Why is a mysterious meteor a problem? Vote to decide! (Hint: it's zombies or vampires. The ultimate showdown!)

So which is better in a b-movie?

Zombies? Vampires?? Ooh trick this one, because a cheesy zombie is JUST as good as a cheesy vampire. Have there ever been zombie vampires?? 

Important questions for your Friday.

Your pal

Mal