Third Thursday Update - February
about 2 years ago – Thu, Feb 17, 2022 at 11:28:14 PM

Hey everyone! 

English - All files have been finalized and are being sent to the printer! We are so thrilled with all the new graphical updates the game received during this time, and can't wait to get the game in your hands! We'll update you next month on the status of production! 

French files are still in translation with files being reviewed by our team for approval and corrections being made. We hope to have these files at the printer right behind the English ones.

In the meantime, ThinkerThemer rated Almanac: Crystal Peaks #5 in their top 10 Kickstarters of 2021! 

Featured on BoardGameCo's channel, Maggie and Amy discuss why Almanac is one they really love, check it out below!  

Also be sure to follow them with their BG journey,  really fantastic content that we highly recommend! 

That's all for now, but we'll see ya next month, same time and place :) 

- Kolossal Games 

Third Thursday Update - January 2022
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jan 22, 2022 at 02:48:43 PM

Hey everyone! 

We hope everyone is having a wonderful new year and it looks like 2022 is going to be a really great and exciting year for us at Kolossal. We've got some BIG projects we are working on and some fun and casual stuff you haven't or would even quite think Kolossal would be known for, which is even more exciting for us to push all those boundaries of what we're known for! 

Our lead graphic designer has been working hard on finalizing all the files for Almanac: Crystal Peaks and we wanted to share very briefly today a few more of the "before and after" pages of the game! Not too much to report other than the English files are almost done and will be sending to print soon, so expect more of an update with that in February.

French files are in translation at the moment and will be coming to us for proofing soon. We'll keep you posted!

That's all for now, but we'll be in touch in February, same time and place!

- Kolossal Games

Third Thursday Update - December
over 2 years ago – Sun, Dec 19, 2021 at 11:07:53 AM

Greetings Merchants!

We are happy to report that all of the completed files have been submitted to the printers. Now we wait for them to return the printer proofs to review and begin the final approval process. This is the last major step before we can hit print on Almanac. 

While we wait for those proofs we wanted to take some time this month to highlight all of the efforts that went into finishing Almanac: The Crystal Peaks. Every component in Crystal Peaks had a final polishing pass to some degree, but where it really shows is with the token design and the gamebook. 

Starting with the gamebook. 

We went through a complete top to bottom, front to back. overhaul of the graphics and layout for each page to fit the setting better, rather than use the same graphics found in the Dragon Road gamebook.  

On the rules side of each page, we took a look at each page with fresh eyes updating rules text and adding tokens to improve the overall gameplay experience when possible. Page 9 - Oak Valley, is one of the pages that greatly benefitted from this update. One of the unique twists in Oak Valley is that players have the opportunity to work the local vineyards, collecting grapes and earning gold for the different combinations of grapes they have. With the original rules and design, players had to keep track of which grapes they had by constantly referencing the spaces on the board and looking to see which grapes were associated with the workers they had placed. In addition to that, players also had to keep track of where the other players had their workers placed and which blends they could make.  It was a lot of mental energy that had no real payoff.  The solution to this tracking nightmare was a simple one, make grape tokens. Now, players take a grape token that matches the icon connected to their space which makes it far easier to see at a glance how you and the other players are doing.   

On the map side of each page in the gamebook, we completely updated the presentation of the spaces on all 19 maps found in the book. Taking a similar approach to the way that the spaces were represented in Almanac: The Dragon Roads, whenever possible we wanted the boundaries to work with the artwork rather than against it. In doing so we feel that we are able to highlight the artwork on the page while still providing the key gameplay information that players need.  A perfect example of this starts right on page 1 of the Crystal Peaks gamebook, Trader's Village.

With just the relatively minor change to the way the spaces are laid out, following the shape of the buildings, the artwork suddenly pops on the page.  

Finally, the other area of the game that saw the greatest focus is the page components. On top of the new tokens that were added, every single token has been updated which can be seen here on the component reference. Our favorite token update though has to be the Key to the City tokens. We had originally planned on using the same key token from Almanac: the Dragon Road, however, we felt that it didn't quite make sense given the fact that the Crystal Peak paths end at either Highfrost or Two Twins City. So we added not 1 but 2 Keys to the City tokens, 1 for each ending location in the Crystal Peaks.  

It took a lot of time and effort, but we think it was well worth it to make Crystal Peaks look as great as possible! 

- Kolossal Games

Third Thursday Update - November
over 2 years ago – Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 10:27:12 PM

Hello adventurers! 

We are preparing for that final trek to the Crystal Peaks by proofing the files one last time before sending them off to print, we're hoping for a smooth journey from there! 

One of our favorites, Board Game Steph, a few months ago did a live stream of one of the only protos we received of the game, and if you didn't get a chance to check it out, it's linked below!

Third Thursday - October
over 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 21, 2021 at 07:07:45 PM

Hello travelers! 

Not too much to report today other than one important announcement for our EU backers.  We appreciate the constant support and in this case, no news is good news and everything is moving along swimmingly!

EU Backers- Please note. VAT will be charged on the 25th. We've been made aware that it did not appear when checking out. This has been fixed. Using your link you can log in and see your VAT before it charges.

In other news, our graphic designer is doing a massive overhaul of the icons, layout, and other aspects of the game so that it better matches the quality of the Dragon Road. We'll share some pictures as soon as we can.

- Kolossal Games