Faltan 11 días para que finalice el Kickstarter de Mantic Games y llevan 310.000 $ recaudados, en esta oleada de noticias vienen tanto los dados para el DreadBall, nuevos MVP y equipos.
Z'zor are still a relatively new concept and we had a few different bits of art done to see what they'd look like. Since we're currently hunting them down as our $265,000 stretch goal, we thought we'd explore a little bit more about them.
First up, early Z'zor MVP concept art - we want to know what you think!
Z'zor MVP - fondly known as Ludwig in the office but name is subject to change. Have a preference? Let us know in the comments!
“Wild” Z’zor are ruthless and mindlessly violent – with the Z’zor it is kill or be killed. Fortunately the sport was’t stupid enough to put DreadBall stars in that much danger, instead employing the use of genetically modified, mind-controlled drones specially bred to suit DreadBall play... Well, that's how the story goes.
Z'zor Team Concepts - Striker, Guard and Jack
Z’zor Drones are multi-limbed and unpredictable, with a naturally hardened exoskeleton preventing the need for DreadBall armour. Drones that take up the Striker role have scoop-like appendages to catch and throw the ball whilst Guards retain the size of some of the more “natural” creatures back on the Z’zor homeworlds, and nearly all of their temperament. Despite advancements in mind-control it is not uncommon for a Z’zor Guard to see red and charge an opposing player, the result of which is normally deep gashes, slashed armour and crushed limbs.
Despite this the Z’zor are great for entertainment purposes and hence these insectoid teams are allowed to continue playing. Between the alien “ZZZ-ZZZ” the Z’zor emit as they pass the ball and their sudden outbursts of violent play, Z’zor are portrayed as the natural enemy – skeptics claim primarily as a form of propaganda for the war - and stadiums are consistently sold-out whenever there is a team playing.
Early Z'zor Striker concept art
$265,000 – The Z’zor, Season 2 Insectoid Team
The Z'zor team are our next stretch goal and if we hit it we will produce a team for this furious insectoid race. If we hit this goal we will add 1 Z’zor Player to Jack, add 2 Z’zor Players to Striker and add the Z’zor team to our list of our Season 2 Buy One Get One Free Teams!
Update 42
Wow – seems like the Z’zor and the Z’zor MVP are going down well!
Z'zor MVP Concept Art - posted up earlier for your approval!
We’re so pleased that you guys continue to give us feedback – it’s means not only can we continue to give you the miniatures you actually want, it also means we can alter things appropriately before they are produced.
In response to feedback we’ve now done a Black DreadBall T-shirt complete with Coach on the back, Mantic logo on the sleeves and the DreadBall logo on the front!:
We’ve also taken the opportunity to update the team t-shirts to have “Coach” on the back (though if you would prefer the MVP name then we can still do that as well, just message us and let us know!)
The other thing we were also asked to do was a set of generic black DreadBall and a dice bundle – so we have!
The black kickstarter-exclusive DreadBall dice in the phot are prototypes, much like the other dice. We’ve also set up a DreadBall Dice Bundle where you can pick up the four sets of team dice and get a black set free!
If you want to get hold of the Kickstarter exclusive dice and T-shirts then we've made them available in the extras on the main page.
Check them out and make sure you leave us your feedback in the comments!
UPDATE 43
HA! That’s the Z’zor Team fully funded – get in!
The Z’zor team are now in the Buy One Get One Free section in the extras alongside the Female Corporation and the Judwan. We’ve now also added one Z’zor figure to Jack and two to Striker!
Now then - what’s next? Well, we would like to hit two goals today if possible, starting with an update to our next stretch goal…
$270,000 – Coaches
Coaches are a new feature for Season 2 where they will have rules that affect the way your team operates. Could be extra coaching dice, could be a differing game ability – we’re not quite sure until the rules have been written. What we do know is they will have an effect on the game.
Early Concept Art – subject to change! Hoverchairs are in for a start...
If we hit this goal we will can four coach sculpts for use with any team. We will then make them available in the Extras as an add-on, where you will be able to get our special bundle - 4 models for $15 (essentially 2 models free!)
$275,000 – Z’zor MVP
Whether he’s called Ludwig, Sting or X’yzzy we’re not quite sure – all we know is he’s one badass bug!
If we hit this goal we will sculpt the Z’zor MVP – and include him free in Jack andStriker!
If we hit these two goals today, then we can start talking about the man behind the silhouette!
Have at it >:D
UPDATE 44
The Z'zor MVP - possibly called Ludwig - and the coaches are in!
Ludwig is a winged monstrosity revered for his grumpiness and sulking. Chants of "Cheer up bug!" are often aimed at him if the opposing team score and he's not averse to leaping into the crowd and letting the fans know "what he thinks" (which usually involves lots of pushing, shoving and occassionally disembowling).
On the pitch Ludwig uses his wings to great effect, often feinting a move only to flit around the other side of a player and slam them to the ground from another direction. Ludwig has defined the Sucker Punch in modern-age DreadBall.
Ludwig has now been added free to Jack and Striker! as well as with every Z'zor team picked up with a pledge of Guard! Coaches are also in and have been added to the extra on the main page!
Right then, let's tackle this bad boy:
$282,500 - Nightshade, Season 2 MVP
Rumored to be the child of former Asterian DreadBall star Iga Kizawa – or as some unsavory individuals in the sport claim, a clone of Iga himself – the Striker known only as Nightshade has quietly been making a name for himself over the last couple of cycles – very quietly in fact, as Nightshade is famed for never making a sound.
The most iconic thing about Nightshade is his sculpted body suit – custom DreadBall armour around which the air shifts and swirls as it moves. Technicians theorize that there is some kind of anti-matter projector that allows Nightshade to manipulate not just the ball but also his very appearance, making it incredibly difficult for him to be caught.
Sowing confusion and fear in opposing players is his primary tactic. Blackouts in stadiums have been momentarily reported only for the floodlights to burst back into life just at the moment that Nightshade has found himself in the Strike zone, hurling the ball into the Strike hex. Officials have tried to question Nightshade about these “events,” but he refuses to speak of them.
Asterian teams in the league have taken a lot of damaging criticism for Nightshade’s questionably immoral take on the sport and distance themselves from him at every mention. Leading Asterian coaches have said they would refuse his services, no matter how many points he has accumulated in his relatively short career.
If we hit this stretch goal we'll sculpt and produce Nightshade - a limited edition Kickstarter MVP (you'll only be able to pick him up on Kickstarter and one or two other places as well) - and we'll add him to Jack and Striker!
The Z’zor team are now in the Buy One Get One Free section in the extras alongside the Female Corporation and the Judwan. We’ve now also added one Z’zor figure to Jack and two to Striker!
Now then - what’s next? Well, we would like to hit two goals today if possible, starting with an update to our next stretch goal…
$270,000 – Coaches
Coaches are a new feature for Season 2 where they will have rules that affect the way your team operates. Could be extra coaching dice, could be a differing game ability – we’re not quite sure until the rules have been written. What we do know is they will have an effect on the game.
Early Concept Art – subject to change! Hoverchairs are in for a start...
If we hit this goal we will can four coach sculpts for use with any team. We will then make them available in the Extras as an add-on, where you will be able to get our special bundle - 4 models for $15 (essentially 2 models free!)
$275,000 – Z’zor MVP
Whether he’s called Ludwig, Sting or X’yzzy we’re not quite sure – all we know is he’s one badass bug!
If we hit this goal we will sculpt the Z’zor MVP – and include him free in Jack andStriker!
If we hit these two goals today, then we can start talking about the man behind the silhouette!
Have at it >:D
UPDATE 44
The Z'zor MVP - possibly called Ludwig - and the coaches are in!
Ludwig is a winged monstrosity revered for his grumpiness and sulking. Chants of "Cheer up bug!" are often aimed at him if the opposing team score and he's not averse to leaping into the crowd and letting the fans know "what he thinks" (which usually involves lots of pushing, shoving and occassionally disembowling).
On the pitch Ludwig uses his wings to great effect, often feinting a move only to flit around the other side of a player and slam them to the ground from another direction. Ludwig has defined the Sucker Punch in modern-age DreadBall.
Ludwig has now been added free to Jack and Striker! as well as with every Z'zor team picked up with a pledge of Guard! Coaches are also in and have been added to the extra on the main page!
Right then, let's tackle this bad boy:
$282,500 - Nightshade, Season 2 MVP
Rumored to be the child of former Asterian DreadBall star Iga Kizawa – or as some unsavory individuals in the sport claim, a clone of Iga himself – the Striker known only as Nightshade has quietly been making a name for himself over the last couple of cycles – very quietly in fact, as Nightshade is famed for never making a sound.
The most iconic thing about Nightshade is his sculpted body suit – custom DreadBall armour around which the air shifts and swirls as it moves. Technicians theorize that there is some kind of anti-matter projector that allows Nightshade to manipulate not just the ball but also his very appearance, making it incredibly difficult for him to be caught.
Sowing confusion and fear in opposing players is his primary tactic. Blackouts in stadiums have been momentarily reported only for the floodlights to burst back into life just at the moment that Nightshade has found himself in the Strike zone, hurling the ball into the Strike hex. Officials have tried to question Nightshade about these “events,” but he refuses to speak of them.
Asterian teams in the league have taken a lot of damaging criticism for Nightshade’s questionably immoral take on the sport and distance themselves from him at every mention. Leading Asterian coaches have said they would refuse his services, no matter how many points he has accumulated in his relatively short career.
If we hit this stretch goal we'll sculpt and produce Nightshade - a limited edition Kickstarter MVP (you'll only be able to pick him up on Kickstarter and one or two other places as well) - and we'll add him to Jack and Striker!
UPDATE 45
The DreadBall figures are some of the best we’ve ever produced and we know you’ll want to keep them safe, so we’ve hooked up with Romeo and the great guys at Battle Foam to produce a new custom foam tray for DreadBall!
This DreadBall Foam Tray kit fits the high quality card box that the game comes in meaning you can protect all of your painted teams, pitch, cards and counters and store them safely back in the box to transport it around.
Please note that these items are big! Please add $15 for shipping per item if you are adding them to your pledge.
We’ve also added the Mantic Battle Foam Bag to the extras which also contains three trays of custom DreadBall foam as well as regular sheets to keep all of your miniatures safe!
EDIT! Romeo has just emailed us to let us know that the trays for the DreadBall Boxholds 83 miniatures, the cards, the dice and the tokens! Both the MDF and Acrylic Hexboards fit in the Battle Foam Bag.
On the Limit
DreadBall has been moving quickly - the backer number continues to rise and we're just about to go past our previous high on Kings of War.
We always expected this Kickstarter to be bigger, but with pre-orders coming in and the momentum building, we want to manage everyone's expectations.
We're currently hunting down Nightshade as our $282,500 Stretch!
We are rapidly approaching the end of our first print run and to make absolutely certain that we deliver on all of our promises we've put some caps on the Jack and Striker levels - the two most popular levels for new backers - to ensure that we can meet demand andguarantee that these all ship in time for Christmas. All uncapped pledges (for instance Guard and Cheerleader) are also guaranteed to arrive before Christmas - we're just conscious of the increasing levels we're seeing!
If you've got mates that are looking at this game and are thinking about it, please let them know that know is the time to get in on this once-in-a-lifetime offer!
UPDATE 46
Zzz… zzz… *nudge* - huh? Oh. Oh wow… has the whole world gone mad whilst we’ve been asleep? WOW!
Incredible - with 11 days left to go we’re now less than 100 backers away from totalling Kings of War and yesterday was our second best day of the Kickstarter so far! We’ve also knocked over three stretch goals(!) meaning the following:
1) Coaches are available in the Extras section where you can get four models for $15
2) Ludwig – Z’zor MVP – is available in Jack and Striker!
3) Nightshade – limited edition Asterian MVP – is now available in Jack and Striker!
Nightshade is in!
Simply amazing!
We need a little time just to pull the next phase together (emergency planning meeting alert, emergency planning meeting alert), in particularly getting the Robot team concept art primed and ready to put out so you guys can let us know what you think. So whilst we do that (and get some coffee – oh boy do we need coffee!), why don’t you guys see if you can tackle this next stretch!
$305,000 - Anne-Marie Helder – Female Human MVP
The DreadBall figures are some of the best we’ve ever produced and we know you’ll want to keep them safe, so we’ve hooked up with Romeo and the great guys at Battle Foam to produce a new custom foam tray for DreadBall!
This DreadBall Foam Tray kit fits the high quality card box that the game comes in meaning you can protect all of your painted teams, pitch, cards and counters and store them safely back in the box to transport it around.
Please note that these items are big! Please add $15 for shipping per item if you are adding them to your pledge.
We’ve also added the Mantic Battle Foam Bag to the extras which also contains three trays of custom DreadBall foam as well as regular sheets to keep all of your miniatures safe!
EDIT! Romeo has just emailed us to let us know that the trays for the DreadBall Boxholds 83 miniatures, the cards, the dice and the tokens! Both the MDF and Acrylic Hexboards fit in the Battle Foam Bag.
On the Limit
DreadBall has been moving quickly - the backer number continues to rise and we're just about to go past our previous high on Kings of War.
We always expected this Kickstarter to be bigger, but with pre-orders coming in and the momentum building, we want to manage everyone's expectations.
We're currently hunting down Nightshade as our $282,500 Stretch!
We are rapidly approaching the end of our first print run and to make absolutely certain that we deliver on all of our promises we've put some caps on the Jack and Striker levels - the two most popular levels for new backers - to ensure that we can meet demand andguarantee that these all ship in time for Christmas. All uncapped pledges (for instance Guard and Cheerleader) are also guaranteed to arrive before Christmas - we're just conscious of the increasing levels we're seeing!
If you've got mates that are looking at this game and are thinking about it, please let them know that know is the time to get in on this once-in-a-lifetime offer!
UPDATE 46
Zzz… zzz… *nudge* - huh? Oh. Oh wow… has the whole world gone mad whilst we’ve been asleep? WOW!
Incredible - with 11 days left to go we’re now less than 100 backers away from totalling Kings of War and yesterday was our second best day of the Kickstarter so far! We’ve also knocked over three stretch goals(!) meaning the following:
1) Coaches are available in the Extras section where you can get four models for $15
2) Ludwig – Z’zor MVP – is available in Jack and Striker!
3) Nightshade – limited edition Asterian MVP – is now available in Jack and Striker!
Nightshade is in!
Simply amazing!
We need a little time just to pull the next phase together (emergency planning meeting alert, emergency planning meeting alert), in particularly getting the Robot team concept art primed and ready to put out so you guys can let us know what you think. So whilst we do that (and get some coffee – oh boy do we need coffee!), why don’t you guys see if you can tackle this next stretch!
$305,000 - Anne-Marie Helder – Female Human MVP
We've got a couple of different options for Helder - why don't you let us know which version you prefer?
You can’t miss Helder on the pitch – she’s the one with a trail of broken bodies in her wake. Despite insisting that she’s ready for the role of Striker (and the glory the role brings with it), whether it’s her uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time or her well-renowned right hook (as commentator Jake "the Jackhammer" Thunder found out during what was called an impromptu interview by the media), Coaches have continually pushed her towards playing the guard position – a position she excels herself in.
As a young player growing up she had an unhealthy obsession with the beast known as Buzzcut and Helder often tries to emulate him in her game. Whilst she lacks the physical presence to match him in pure brute strength, she is surprisingly quick (which her celebrity management company says supports her claims that she could rank up alongside the leading strikers of this decade if given the chance), and her "run-up-and-slams" often catch opposing players unawares.
Outside of the sport, Helder has her own range of cookbooks and is known to bake a mean tri-cal Pie.
If we hit this goal, we will sculpt and produce Helder, the cute, lovable (I dare you to tell her otherwise) and undoubtedly talented Guard/occassional wannabe Striker, MPV and include her free in Jack and Striker!
And there you have it - on your marks! Get set! Go!
(and we'll work on the robots...)
PS - we just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has chosen to support us and this project. You're allowing us to do incredible things.
UPDATE 47
PHEW! It is proving to be one heck of an emergency meeting and the top men that are Roberto Cirillo and Jake Thornton have to come to our rescue, meaning we can talkRobots!
The original DreadBall games were considered, by some, to be a showcase for the prowess of biological organisms. In a world so dominated by machines, it was a throwback to a simpler age – an almost prehistoric urge to fight or flee, and all in the context of a brilliant sporting spectacle. But the robots were bound to come.
Too many big corporations had vested interests in showing off their cybernetic prowess for the lobby to go away, and the first robot team took to the field in the early days of Shemtek SmackDown III. This team, the “Oilers”, caused enormous damage to the opposition and was banned part way through its second game. Digby was buried under lawsuits from the teams, the relatives of the slain players and their many fans. How could they let such objects take to the field? It was a while before the second robot team rolled out onto a neodurium pitch.
The “New Oilers” were different. Their ballistic ceramic casings were covered in gel pads so they caused fewer injuries, and their servos downrated to avoid punching entirely through a human torso in one blow. The crowds were mollified, then excited by this new turn, especially when the Oilers showed off their new twist.
DreadBall’s rules state very clearly that a player must play as a single position, but they never considered that someone could change from one to another within a match. The robots can. They troop out onto the pitch as Jacks, but at the whirr of a servo they can change to a Striker or a Guard, avoiding any infringement of the letter of the rules by only every being a single role at a time, but the spirit of the rules is ridden over roughshod. And the crowd loves it!
PHEW! It is proving to be one heck of an emergency meeting and the top men that are Roberto Cirillo and Jake Thornton have to come to our rescue, meaning we can talkRobots!
The original DreadBall games were considered, by some, to be a showcase for the prowess of biological organisms. In a world so dominated by machines, it was a throwback to a simpler age – an almost prehistoric urge to fight or flee, and all in the context of a brilliant sporting spectacle. But the robots were bound to come.
Too many big corporations had vested interests in showing off their cybernetic prowess for the lobby to go away, and the first robot team took to the field in the early days of Shemtek SmackDown III. This team, the “Oilers”, caused enormous damage to the opposition and was banned part way through its second game. Digby was buried under lawsuits from the teams, the relatives of the slain players and their many fans. How could they let such objects take to the field? It was a while before the second robot team rolled out onto a neodurium pitch.
The “New Oilers” were different. Their ballistic ceramic casings were covered in gel pads so they caused fewer injuries, and their servos downrated to avoid punching entirely through a human torso in one blow. The crowds were mollified, then excited by this new turn, especially when the Oilers showed off their new twist.
DreadBall’s rules state very clearly that a player must play as a single position, but they never considered that someone could change from one to another within a match. The robots can. They troop out onto the pitch as Jacks, but at the whirr of a servo they can change to a Striker or a Guard, avoiding any infringement of the letter of the rules by only every being a single role at a time, but the spirit of the rules is ridden over roughshod. And the crowd loves it!
Draft Concept Art - thank you Roberto!
$325,000 - The Robot Team
If we hit this goal you'll have allowed us to fund a team of transforming bots and we will be able to add 1 Robot Player to Jack, 2 Robot Players to Striker and add the Robot team to our list of our Season 2 Buy One Get One Free Teams!
Cheers guys - we've plenty more to come! New models, new ideas and loads more freebies to finish off Season 1 and Season 2 with. Thanks for supporting us!
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