We have a new website!

So...  We're not great at keeping this thing updated.  You all know that.  But we always want our fans to have the access to information about what we're producing and how our games can be played.  So, without further ado, we finally have a new website!

We'll still use this blog to announce events and things, but the site will have all of the information you need to play our games and download our 3D designs.  Oh, and we have the ability to take orders for our products, like Wayfarer: Things Beyond Wonder and Pocket-Tactics.

As always, happy gaming!

Tabletop Simulator + Pocket-Tactics = WAHOO!

So we started our Pocket-Tactics campaign last Monday.  It was AWESOME.  We're playing again right now, in fact, and are having a blast.  And we have pictures and updates and ideas to share with you, our fellow gamers.  But we're putting that off for a week because we have this awesome other announcement that has to take priority....

Thanks to a fan (insert modest smile here), we were introduced this weekend to Tabletop Simulator by Berserk Games.  It's exactly what the name implies, but so, so much more.  We are able to import our 3D models, our tiles, our rules, our character sheets and play Pocket-Tactics on our PC, at home, in our pajamas, against our friends who are at home, in their pajamas, in ANOTHER STATE. 

Truly, we're blown away by the ease of this program. And seeing as how we're already users of Steam, this was a natural progression.  Sure, we love the feel of our 3D printed pieces and will never shy away from rolling some real dice, but we're so happy that Pocket-Tactics will finally be accessible. 

We've got two factions up currently and more to come.  Let us know what you think - we've only been playing around with the program for a couple of days, so suggestions are more than welcome. 

Oh, and if you also prefer the feel of real dice and models, be sure to visit us on Etsy and support us by buying a set or two.  Happy gaming!

Massive Pocket-Tactics Updates + Instructional Video

How massive can the update be for a game that fits into your pocket?  Well, pretty damn big if we do say so ourselves.  First of all, we've revamped the Pocket-Tactics page here on our site, so now it's easy to find the core rules and all the factions in one easy to navigate location.  Cool, right?

Wait...  All the factions?  Yes, there are TONS of them now.  The team has been designing and printing and we'll be posting the new ones as they're introduced.  Remember that new factions likely haven't been played much when they're posted, so if you play 'em, send us an email to let us know how it went.  Then you can consider yourself an official Ill Gotten Game playtester.  Sorry - no tee shirts... yet.



Been playing Pocket-Tactics and still have questions?  Or are you new to 3D printing and the very first thing you downloaded and printed was a set of PT (as it should be) and you have no idea how to play the game?  Well, per fan request, we've created our first in what we hope will be a series of instructional videos to help with some of the questions that have come up.  Board set up, dice mechanic, stat sheets - it's all explained right here.

We're working on a big Pocket-Tactics campaign, one that our team will be playing over the course of the next few weeks.  We'd love to hear how all of you players are tackling unusual PT play - four player games?  Campaigns?  Tournaments?  (Congrats to Ben Toomey for winning our 2014 tournament last month.)

We'd also love to hear what you think our next video should include.  Drop us an email or post a comment.  Happy gaming!

Big Apple and BIGGER NEWS!

 

Last year, Arian was able to visit MakerBot headquarters, meet the amazing staff, and participate in their first annual Make-a-Thon.  He wasn't sure what to expect - he's an artist, not a programmer - but damn if he didn't fit right in and have a blast. 

 

So this weekend Arian and Jeremy are both attending the second Make-a-Thon, ready to learn some new tricks from other makers and certainly spend some time gawking at the beauty that is banks and banks of 3D printers. 

 

 

As if that wasn't excitement enough for this week, we're also insanely excited (as evidenced by the video) to announce our newest Kickstarter - Drakendar!

Drakendar, much like Wayfarer before it, is an RPG setting codex, but this is a classic sword and sorcery adventure game with a unique dice mechanic.  Random character creation keeps us close to our Continuum roots, while the story brings us back to our early days of gaming. 

We can't thank everyone enough for supporting our last venture.  If you liked what you received, be sure to pledge to this one too.   Please. 

PAX Reminder + Awesome Dragon Thing

Just a reminder to all you locals that Arian will be an panelist at PAX tomorrow evening, August 29th at 6:00 in the Wombat Room.  He'd love to see some friendly faces, but you'll also get to see the awesomeness that is the Pit Beast:

He's HUGE, one of the biggest pieces Fred the Makerbot has ever produced.  And you can bet he'll be featured in an upcoming episode of the Lost Agency Archives...

If this guy doesn't scare you away, we hope to see y'all there!

Our supporters kick ass by supporting us on Kickstarter

Well, we did it, and we couldn't have done it without all of you! A gigantic thank you to everyone who pledged to our Wayfarer Kickstarter campaign. This game has been in the oven for ten years, and we couldn't be happier that it's finally going to be played by gaming groups other than our own (not that we haven't had a blast keeping it all to ourselves).

Work continues and, as of now, we're ahead of schedule, so it won't be long before the books and PDFs are in the (e)mail. Also, we have for your listening enjoyment (if you're the kind of person who enjoys listening to a bunch of nerds do nerd things) a new episode of the Lost Agency Archives. Episode Two: Return to Nexus City.  Better still, the podcast is now available on iTunes, so accessible AND awesome. 

Meanwhile, more art is being created (we'll be contacting anyone who pledged for custom character art shortly). Speaking of art, check out these awesome 3D models by fellow 3D printer and friend of IGG, Andy de Bruin. They're renditions of art by the amazing Austen Zaleski which will be featured in the book.

On the home front, Dutchmogul been cooking up some models of his own. These 3D printable characters are found throughout the Wayfarer codex and are designed at a small scale (close to standard 15mm) so you can use miniatures without taking up too much table space. If you have a 3D printer (or just want to check them out) all of the models in the range can be viewed and downloaded here in this Thingiverse collection.  (If you don't have a 3D printer, email us about custom prints available through our Etsy store.)

Thanks again to all who pledged and/or supported us.  We'll be posting updates here and on Kickstarter every step of the way, including when we decide what our next Kickstarter might be...  Hmm...  Real life is almost as suspenseful as the Wayfarer setting!

New episode of Lost Agency Archives

We've launched episode one of our Lost Agency Archives podcast. We're on iTunes, so be sure and subscribe there and drop us a stellar rating!



In other news, the Wayfarer Kickstarter campaign is trucking past its goal, and we're all extremely grateful for your continued support. There's a full week left to go, so if you know other tabletop gamers, spread the word!

We've passed the goal! We have a podcast! We like exclamation points!

Well, as of today, we've officially reached our Kickstarter goal.  Wanna know what kind of overachievers we are?  We reached it twice!  Okay, that wasn't our doing - someone cancelled their pledge and knocked us back, but someone else pushed us back over the line - but we still are over our goal and therefore preparing the first volume of our Wayfarer codex to send to the printer.  Yay!

But wait, is that it?  Hell no.  We've got news coming out our ears.  We've been working on a bundle of new designs for printing.  We've got a new Twitter handle.  Our artists are continuing to work on new pieces that we'll be able to add to the book when we get some additional bids.

And, perhaps most exciting, we've posted our own gaming sessions as our very own podcast.  The Lost Agency Archives is available here on our site.

Updates - Maker Faire and Kickstarter

Thanks to all for making our first Seattle Mini Maker Faire a resounding success. Although we know why it's defined as "mini," it sure seemed huge and exciting to our little team. We had a blast meeting y'all and talking about Ill Gotten Games' projects.

We've drawn names for the two copies of Pocket-Tactics we were raffling off at the event. If you didn't get an email asking for your address, we're sorry. However, we still have copies for sale on our Etsy site, so certainly check that out or print your own. We'd love to hear your input as you play the game with everyone you know!

Our Kickstarter is kicking along at a decent clip. As of today, we're 79% funded, with 16 days to go. Not too shabby, right? We'd love to exceed the goal so we can get extra books printed, add more art, etc., so please consider pledging if you haven't already. There are some awesome rewards still available, including some of Arian's 3D printed miniatures that you got to see at the event.

If you hear of other events locally that you think would be a good match for what we do, or if you know of a shop in your community who would be interested in a presentation of one of our games, let us know.  We'd love to hear from you!

What an honor!

So, it's hard to have a blog where we talk about our adventures where we don't feel like we're just tooting our own horns.  I mean, we're not walking around with huge egos or anything, but sometimes accolades just fall in our laps and this is our place to talk about them.  So let's just say this...

It's an HONOR for Arian to have been invited to be a guest speaker today at the Microsoft Store at University Village in Seattle.  Makerbot sought him out to be a presenter and he's bringing some of his amazing 3D printed designs.  We hope to see you there, 5 to 7pm!

Oh, and he will have his newest printed marvel there, Baby's First Mace.  It's just too damn cute.

We Went to Hackathon!

It's been a while since we've posted, but it's certainly not because we haven't had anything going on.  We've been BUSY.  There are now 16 factions of Pocket-Tactics, not including a few redesigns lately.  Context is another new game Arian created, a word game this time.  Jeremy and I had a beautiful baby girl, who keeps our hands full and us entertained.  And that's not to mention the hours and hours of development that's been going into three different versions of Continuum - the Continuum Adventure Engine, Continuum Mini, and Continuum Narrative Engine.  More on all of those soon.

But the big news is that Arian traveled across the country and got to participate in Hackathon at MakerBot Headquarters in Brooklyn, NY.  Holy hell. He got to see rooms filled with MakerBot printers while meeting 3D printing enthusiasts across the country who have actually played Pocket-Tactics.  So cool.

Arian's team came in second for the competition at the Hackathon.

He came home inspired and has been pounding out the codex work ever since.  We're still exploring options for printing Pocket-Tactics in a more cost-effective way, but in the meantime there are so many other projects nearing completion.

For more timely updates, be sure you friend Ill Gotten Games on Facebook!

Another new game...

Yep, Arian and his creativity have been at it again.  We're excited to announce another new table top game, completely unique and printed on the faithful MakerBot Replicator.  Once play-tested and perfected, we'll have copies available through the Etsy shop, but for now...

Coming soon from Ill Gotten Games: Hover Derby, a fast-paced, hyper-competitive game in which two to four players race hover cars through the futuristic city of Cosmopolis!

The splash page, as well as all the components for the game, were created in TinkerCad.  Check back soon for some pics!

And the winner is....

Well, it's been a few weeks since the contest to create the perfect Pocket-Tactics logo ended.  There's no excuse for the delay in announcing the winner, aside from being really busy being featured on the radio and making crazy progress revising .  Without further adieu...

The winner of the Pocket-Tactics logo design contest is TinkerCad user Michael Wortman!!

We love the streamlined look, the pocket-y design, and we fully intend to make the piece into a belt buckle to wear proudly to our next gaming convention.  The designer will receive a hand printed and painted copy of the game, as well as design credit when we get the Kickstarter campaign going.

Honorable mentions, too, for some of our other favorites:

Tinkercad user Badger

Tinkercad user Mr TinCans

Michael Wortman again

We really had some amazing entries into the contest and we really appreciate the time and effort that everyone put into creating art for our game.  We're already brainstorming ideas for more contests in the future.

Speaking of logos, our amazing artist friend Austen Zaleski took a jumble of ideas that we emailed him and designed our new Ill Gotten Games logo.  It's exactly as we'd envisioned, but somehow even cooler and better.  HUGE thank you to Austen for his creativity and attention to detail (sounds like a report card, and we think he gets an A).

Wired Magazine Features Pocket-Tactics. YAY!

It happens really, really rarely.  All three of us tend to be pretty verbose.  But we're humbled and speechless to be featured on Wired Magazine's website today.  Wow.

Huge thank you to Joseph Flaherty for writing such an awesome article and promoting Ill Gotten Games, Pocket-Tactics, and 3D printing.

Wow.

Hey Turkeys! We Won the Black Dynamite Design Contest!

So, Arian happened upon something epic on the Thingiverse.  One of our favorite things to do at Ill Gotten Games, when we're not playing or designing games, is to watch movies or TV shows - the more independent, obscure, or cult-y the better.  So yes, we'd seen and enjoyed Black Dynamite before.  We recite quotes from it frequently.  For the Thingiverse to announce a contest to create the a 3D model that represented the cult classic was uncanny.

As many of you know, Arian has been designing like crazy, specifically working on Pocket-Tactics.  So what better way for him to enter the contest than to create a few larger than life versions of Black Dynamite, some of his enemies, and New York themed tiles and turn Black Dynamite into Pocket-Tactics.  In 2 days. And so Black Dynamite: Throwdown Showdown was born.

He didn't do it alone, mind you.  Jeremy has been busy working on the models for another Pocket-Tactics faction for future release and Laurel has been coordinating schedules for our Kickstarter video, which we recorded this weekend.  But Black Dynamite was Arian's focus, so he enlisted the brilliant help of his little brother, Cameron, to create some 2D art (in MS Paint!!) to accompany his contest submission.
    

Talented family, right??

So, all those long, manic hours of designing, printing, and painting paid off yesterday when the MakerBot blog announced their big winner, complete with a footnoted disclaimer that they're really and truly not in cahoots with Arian somehow - their last two posts have been about his work on Pocket-Tactics.

We're looking forward to some swag, but really just more recognition about our little game is the best part of the win.  Stay tuned for more news soon - about our Pocket-Tactics contest winner and the upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

Win a Copy of Pocket-Tactics!

We're thrilled to announce IGG's very first contest! Where you can win something super rad!

Design a 3D logo for Pocket-Tactics! The chosen logo will not only earn you honor and bragging rights, but you'll also win your very own, custom-painted copy of the game.  Here's the fine print:

• - All entries should be in STL format.  (For those of you new to 3D design, Tinkercad is a great program for beginners and experienced designers alike.)
• - The winning entry will look amazing in 3D, but a snapshot will need to be clear and legible for printed marketing purposes in 2D as well.
• - Entries must be received by 6:00 pm PST on August 31, 2012
• - Entries will be judged by the Ill Gotten Games group exclusively
• - Entries must fit inside a small felt bag, so shouldn't be larger than 3" by 4" square (it doesn't need to be square though!), with a maximum height of 1/2 an inch or so.  (We have to have room in the bag for the game pieces, too!)
• - You may enter as many times as you like, but we prefer quality over quantity..

Here's the scoop... We think a lot about design at Ill Gotten Games, and we've decided we want to spend the next month or so working on additional forces for Pocket-Tactics and play testing.  Our goal is to not only develop fans of our little game, but also to encourage people to enter the maker community.  

Email us with questions, and with links to your entry when you're ready!

Introducing Pocket-Tactics!

So, without further adieu, we'd like to introduce Ill Gotten Games' first fully-realized board game: Pocket-Tactics! 

 Pocket-Tactics is a tile-based strategy game in which fantasy forces battle for control of the world. The game is fast-paced (most games lasting between 20-45 minutes) and is so small that it all fits in a little felt bag and the play area rarely takes up more than a square foot of table space. The system is dynamic though resolution is quick and there aren't a ton of rules to track or memorize, making it ideal for advanced and casual gamers alike. 

Gotta give mad props to Makerbot Industries and Tinkercad for allowing us to turn this fun little game into a reality, especially in such a short time. Arian conceived the game on a Tuesday and by that Friday morning had a working, fully painted copy. Now that's rapid prototyping! 

Still working out some kinks, though in the meantime you can see (and download!) the beta version of the game on the Thingiverse here. We're going to be marketing the game, though in the spirit of the maker community we'd like to keep it free to our fellow 3D printing enthusiasts. 

Legion of the High King

The first set, Legion of the High King against the Tribes of the Dark Forest, is hopefully just the first in an ever-expanding universe of fantastic characters from genres ranging from fantasy to science fiction. We've started with fantasy (the origins of Arian's nerdly obsessions and similar to the setting in his novel) and we'll start with a good smattering of common sword-and-sorcery concepts (thanks to Misters Tolkien, E. Howard and Leiber). 

Tribes of the Dark Forest

There's a lot of excitement over here at Ill Gotten Games and we know this game is going places. We're eager to hear from anyone who's played or is interested in playing, so if you have any questions or feedback drop us a line. 

For those of you who don't have your own 3D printer and Arian's painting skills, the full game will be available on the Etsy account soon. Check back regularly for expansions, new versions, and, of course, more (brilliant) games.

Extra Extra!

As reported in the Nexus Gazette: 

Entropy! The Nexus City Sports Authority reports that in mixed 400 D-league, the Lost Agency Liberators defeated the Mercer Maulers 10-4 in the Liberators' first ever match. This achievement qualifies the Liberators to participate in the upcoming mixed 400 C-league round-robbin tournament. After their contest the Liberators and the Maulers whooped it up all night at one Jaana Hynninen's clinic turned temporary speak-easy. A good time was had by all. 

 Our first Entropy test was a success! 

The game ran smoothly and seemed to capture the essence of combat within Continuum without killing characters or npc's. A game within a game... pretty fun!

Look What Else We Made!

One of the most recent modeling endeavors Ill Gotten Games has undertaken is to design 3D models through computer aided design programs like Tinkercad.  The next step in that process is to actually send these designs through our Shapeways store into production.  For those of us that have been working with (and admiring the detail on) gaming models for years, this is a dream come true.


Shapeways allows us to order the figures in a number of different materials, but to start out we ordered in their base product - a white, strong, flexible plastic material.  Not only was this an inexpensive way to test things out, but our models are also going to be painted anyway.  

Here is our own sprue that Arian designed to modify some 15mm models for the game.  The sprue contains both left and right arms and they totally technoed out our Splintered Light ghoul models perfectly:






But why aim for a couple of arms when we can build whole models?  From scratch?  Without glue??  The Servitor Mech was one of the most complex models that we've yet designed on the computer.

So imagine how stoked we were to discover just how cool the actual model turned out!  We ordered two of these, with differing detail, and both were totally tabletop worthy (in our humble opinion).    

 

But why stop at a single small model when we can build a whole ship?  A whole ship with it's own docking stand, built and ordered separately?  And so, our latest creation is the Roosevelt:

 

 Stay tuned for lots, lots more of these to come.  And check back to our Tinkercad link regularly...  We're very excited about some of the creatures we're creating.  We are rolling random creatures through the Continuum generator, then able to build these beings in 3D the next day, order them through Shapeways, and game with them within a week or so.  It's so cool living in the future.