Hi all! Here are some exciting updates:
Partnership with Renegade Game Studios
Awesome news: today, Renegade Game Studios announced that we will be co-publishing Apotheca with them! Renegade is the publisher of award-winning games like Lanterns and Gravwell, led by industry veteran (and nice guy) Scott Gaeta. Scott has a ton of experience getting high quality games to the masses, and we are excited to be working with him!
For the most part, Knapsack will handle everything remaining with getting Apotheca to the manufacturer as well as fulfilling Kickstarter rewards. Renegade will handle everything afterwards, such as sales and marketing of the game at retail.
Renegade will also bring our party game Knee Jerk into the fold. We're pumped!
Plastic Gem Renders
We've continued working with our 3D modeler on the Apotheca gems. Below is a render of how they will (hopefully) look! They are designed to mimic the gem illustrations by Eduardo. (Keep in mind these are subject to change.)
Topaz, Ruby and Sapphire
Master of the Market
Matt and I are developing the Master of the Market variant (different from the solo variant) that Apotheca backers unlocked near the end of the campaign. We are very pleased with the latest version. We think it will end up somewhere great. It has a ton of interesting decisions and strategic layers. Here is a synopsis of the current rules:
- One player is the Master of the Market, and everyone else is playing in a team against the Master. The Master must make one of each color match to win (red, blue, gold), and the other players must make any combination of three matches as normal.
- The Master always has a "restricted" color of potion under his/her thumb. The Master can only make a match of the restricted color, and no other player may make a match of that color. The Master must spend an action and a gem of a specific color to change the restricted color, controlling the market as he/she sees fit.
- The Master may use any of the three powers in Apothecary Alley, at a cost of 2 gems each. They are not hired, but instantly used, and they do not cycle out when used by the Master. The other players use hired apothecaries as normal, but they pay their hiring gems to the Master instead of to the gem supply.
- The Master takes a turn after every non-Master's turn.
So far we have tested this in 2- and 3-player. We will see if it's suitable for 4-player. We're tuning the different actions that can be taken, as well as the different gem costs to perform actions. Master of the Market is a more complex but meaty way to play the game - we're excited for it!
Gen Con Approaching
On Wednesday we are headed to Gen Con in Indianapolis, so it may be a little while until our next update. If you're signed up for one of our events, I look forward to seeing you there! If not, and you find yourself wandering the expo floor with an Apotheca itch, head over to the Renegade booth to try a demo!
Thanks,
Andrew