We've been admittedly pretty quiet since we showed the game at Gen Con and then PAX back in August. There's been a fair bit of speculation about it. So I guess first I'll clear some stuff up.
We won't be releasing the game in fall 2015... and that's a good thing!
Time for context!
Back when we started this project, I worked out the scope of the game with the execs at Obsidian. André Nguyen created a great mockup of gameplay in Flash that helped get everyone at Obsidian and at Paizo on board (I may share some screens from that version at some point). We agreed on a pretty limited set of features to begin with—enough so that you could play through the Base deck of Rise of the Runelords. I knew a three-scenario game would be enough to prove the game out, but not enough to bring to market. As development continued and our confidence in the product grew, we kept building upon what we had piece by piece, carefully increasing the scope over time. With each additional piece, we added a lot more content and improved presentation—well beyond our original plans.
So that brings us up to today, and more importantly, a release date that we're moving to early 2016. Why is that a good thing?
Well, behind the scenes at Obsidian, we are now planning a better, stronger launch than ever before. And I gotta tell you, I'm excited! There are so many cool things in the works, including some that will let you experience the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game in new ways. First, there's this cool new...
Feargus (CEO, Obsidian Entertainment): Davis! Not yet!
Ah, right. There's a whole plan for talking about this.
In the meantime, I think there are some new things I can "leak."
We've been working closely with Paizo and Lone Shark to make this game as awesome as possible. In most cases, that means staying true to the original rules and intent. There are times where the limitations of interface (over a tabletop) mean it's better if we change the mechanics of the card to fit our game. A simple example of this comes from the "Cloud" spells.
"Don't you know that you're toxic?" ...yep, the card game blog got a Britney reference.
From a mechanics perspective, we removed the "when a character encounters" part of the spell and made it work more like other displayed spells such as Strength and Glibness. It’s a minor change in functionality, but a large benefit for our interface: instead of stopping gameplay whenever a bane is encountered in order to see if the character with this spell wants to play it, it’s now available before or after an exploration or on a combat check. You’ll also notice that we've made some changes to the card layout; for the most part, we've done this to give the card art a bit more room. We also introduced icons for the different card types, as there are places where our user interface really benefits from that. And Paizo has updated the wording where appropriate.
The folks at Paizo have also given us opportunities to add cards here and there that are unique to the digital game. Here are some of my favorites so far:
Rusted Chain doesn't care about your armor proficiency.
The original game has a lot of standard chain mail. We switched out some of them with minor mechanical changes and art revisions. As you know from playing the game, anything that adds to the thrill of discovery is a good thing.
And speaking of thrilling, our artist, Lindsey Laney, was inspired to create the art for a new card in her free time. I can only describe it as a move for gender equality.
In case you ever wondered what a half-orc with high Charisma looks like.
Now let me tell you about who's playable in the tutorial...
Feargus: Davis! Back to work!
Alrighty! Gotta go! More information to come.
Nathan Davis
Multiclass Designer-Producer
Obsidian Entertainment
@nathan_J_davis
(Previously Harsk in Rise of the Runelords and Ranzak in Skull & Shackles; currently Alain in Wrath of the Righteous)
