Hey folks, Alex here! It's been a hot minute since we first teased Redsky: The Boardgame.
In case you missed the teaser, Redsky: The Boardgame is an epic civilization / engine-building experience for 1-4 players (with 1-2 additional Overseer players in the deluxe edition of the game). Games run for 1.5 - 4 hours, depending on the player count and game mode.
Settle cities and place villages across a dynamic and randomly generated world map. Play as one of Redsky's six iron-age peoples. Gather resources, and then customize your own unique culture with Redsky's six Elements. Lead your armies to victory, and boldly face the apocalyptic Redsky Era.
Announcements!
Today is a huge day for the boardgame. Today's the day that we get to announce that Redsky: The Boardgame will be launching on Kickstarter in the fall of 2024!
I'm even more excited to announce that the boardgame's landing page goes live today! Go check it out! We will be using the landing page to build steam from now until late summer, and updating it with more and more final assets as they roll in. So stay tuned!
Setup & Gameplay
We teased the rough contours of play last year, so today I'd like to give you a better idea of what you're in for in a game of Redsky: The Boardgame (without spoiling too much)! At the start of the game, the world map is randomized using modular land tiles. The number and size of the land tiles selected from the game box depends on the number of players in your game as well as the result of a random die roll.
These land tiles are then assembled to form the center of your world map.
Players then place their own starting peninsulas using one 2-hex and one 3-hex land tile, arranging them however they like.
(All images below are either temporary renders or images from the prototype. Stay tuned for the final art as it comes in!)
Once everyone is finished placing their peninsulas, the world map is revealed!
Players then pick a faction, gain their starting resources, and place their starting city.
During each round of play, an event card is drawn. Each player has a turn taking up to 2 actions. Once every player has had the chance to have 2 turns (i.e. take 4 actions), the round ends.
There are 8 rounds in a standard game, and 5 rounds in a quick game.
Your actions are how you expand and improve your civilization.
On the world map, you can develop new villages, settle new cities, and upgrade your existing cities to gain additional resources and unique abilities.
Players compete on the world map for resources and territory.
The other essential area of play is the Element board. In addition to the randomization of the world map, this is where a lot of the game's depth and replay value is.
The Element board is where players can customize their civilization's culture and acquire powerful Virtue and Vice cards.
First, players spend their culture resources to align with one of Redsky's Elements. Each Element belongs to one of three alignment tracks.
1. On the Emotional Alignment track, if you align with:
Fire: Your culture becomes more passionate and adventurous.
Water: Your culture becomes more conscientious and principled.
2. On the Intellectual Alignment track, if you align with:
Air: Your culture becomes more spontaneous and creative.
Earth: Your culture becomes more organized and systematic.
3. On the Social Alignment track, if you align with:
Void: Your culture becomes more individualistic and free.
Aether: Your culture becomes more communal and secure.
As your culture aligns with an Element, you gain access to that Element's Virtues and Vices.
There are four cards per Element: two Virtue cards and two Vices. Each card's unique benefits are tailored to its Element's theme.
At each level along an Element's alignment track, one of that Element's four cards becomes accessible. The level 4 Virtue and the level 3 Vice are the most powerful.
Virtue cards always have a resource cost. Each is worth 1 Virtue Point during final scoring, and comes with useful abilities.
Vice cards never cost resources. They usually come with free resources, in addition to immediate and aggressive military bonuses. The downside is that each is worth -1 Virtue Points during final scoring.
Players combine the effects of multiple cards to build powerful engines, propelling them to victory.
At the end of the final round, the winner of the game is the survivor with the most Virtue Points.
To win the game, a player first has to survive the devastating event cards drawn during the last 1-2 rounds -- the Redsky Era apocalypse -- as well as attacks from other players. Then, among the players who survive, the final winner is the player with the most Virtue Points.
One way to win is to defend your civilization while focusing on Virtue cards. A completely different strategy is to use powerful Vice cards to eliminate every other player.
This can lead to some interesting multiplayer scenarios, with one player often choosing to become an aggressive, expansionist empire (by picking up Vice cards), and other players forming alliances to defend their more peaceful civilizations (while investing in Virtue cards).
The Road to Launch
My incredible team (Sarah, Brandon, Matt, and I) rallied in a big way at the beginning of the new year, and have been hard at work on the production of Redsky: The Boardgame since.
Although we've come a long way since January, there's still a long road to launch!
Right now, I'm putting the final touches on an abridged codex of Redsky's lore from our 5e Core Book. My goal has been to adapt the lore to help players immerse themselves in the story of their civilization. A digital version will be available to all backers, with a printed version included in the game box of the deluxe edition.
Matt's currently working on the boardgame's Virtue and Vice card designs, as well as the 4 Era icons for the backs of the Event cards. He's also wrapping up art direction on our new hex map art, which we can't wait to show you!
Meanwhile, Brandon and Sarah are busy getting our rulebook into a review-ready state.
We're hoping to have all the major assets necessary for a print run of review copies ready by early May. From there, we're expecting around 3 months to get review copies of the boardgame into the hands of reviewers, and another 6 weeks to receive their reviews.
Over those 4-5 months, we'll be finalizing our Kickstarter trailer and story, polishing and improving on our materials for the final release, and going into marketing overdrive.
To help get more eyes on Redsky: The Boardgame, Sarah and I have a LOT of work to do between now and the fall. You can help us out by sharing this announcement post with any friends you have that are curious about Redsky, or love boardgames.
As everything falls into place, we are on schedule to launch by the fall of 2024.
Until then, stay tuned! We can't wait to show you our progress.
-Alex