A small scale, fast paced and light weight arena skirmish game that brings to life the childhood question, Who would win in a fight?
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Update #7 - Fray - Champions of the Every-Verse
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Oct 28, 2020 at 07:42:38 PM
Warning: This will not be a graphic update, and it is a bit wordy, but it is worth the read.
Thank you, 100x thank you
As always I want to start by saying thank you to our backers and community. This campaign has been absolutely amazing and we owe it all to you. Kickstarter has long been a great way for small independent creators to bring projects to life. What we have discovered, however, is just how much the community can help to build a game into an even better version of itself. We have had countless discussions in the comments, in messages, on social media etc that have helped to form the game into something even better than it was. New characters, rules tweaks, campaign edits and more have all been powered by all of you, and Fray - Champions of the Every-Verse is better for it. We have fallen in love with the Kickstarter process because of the amazing ideas, support and encouragement that we get. It is a platform that is so much more than raising the money to make the game, it develops the game with hundreds of voices. Thank you.
Solo Mode
This has been discussed quite a bit throughout the campaign. As you all know, we have said that we have been working on a solo mode variant for some time, but that we weren't going to really commit to adding it until we felt comfortable that we could get the AI right. I am so happy to say, solo mode is coming. While we still have quite a bit of work to do on balancing and the details, we have found an action sequence structure that makes sense, in a format that makes sense. We are using some outside help and will be working on this pretty hard leading up to production so that it can be in the game itself and not a PDF supplement. Each of the characters will have their action sequences developed and printed on the back of the champion cards so that you can play player champion vs AI champion, as rounds in a tournament, and become the victor of the arena. We look forward to continuing to work with the community on enhancing this experience in the coming months.
Optional Rules
We have also, through discussion, decided to add some optional rules. These are rules that have played really well over the years, but add layers of complexity. The game was always meant to be a quick, fast paced alternative to tabletop gaming, and it is. Certain small tweaks, such as alternating the champion activation can add layers of complexity and strategy which while they play really well, can also slow down the game a little bit at times. Ultimately, we have decided that you all deserve to make that choice yourselves if you decide you are looking for an even deeper competitive experience.
55,000k Stretch Goal - Skill Rings
Mark and I have discussed this, and we are so happy to announce that the $55k stretch goal is now.. unlocked. As those of you who have been with us know, we added some smaller stretch goals in about halfway through the campaign. In doing so, the skill rings (which were a community suggestion) became a personal favorite of ours. They may not be necessary, but they will make an amazing play experience addition that we just feel need to be a part of the game. So now they will be! Unfortunately it doesn't look like we are going to get the mock ups in time to really display them on the campaign page, but they are coming. We will just have to show them off in an update. So, no matter where we may or may not get on the stretch goals, these are being added in, forget the funding amount, this is to make the game better and the cost is easily justified as a way to say thank you to all of our supporters thus far.
Stay in touch
We really want to be able to stay in touch. While we will be doing periodic updates throughout the process of getting the game to fulfillment, that isn't the ideal way to communicate new ideas that you all have, such as new champions etc. We look forward to hearing from you all for some time to come on new champions, new rules, what you would like to see, playtesting some of the new solo elements and the like. We have a Facebook Group for the game and a Discord Server for Brain Sandwich Games... we hope to see you there.
You guys have already done so much, but going into the end of the campaign we could really use your help. We have a lot of things that we are doing to bring attention to the campaign still, but any shares, likes, comments or anything that you would be willing to help us with would be greatly appreciated. We have a real shot at another stretch goal or two and we would love to see them hit!
One last time - Thank you. We still have some time left to make this campaign even stronger, but absolutely none of the opportunities that we have could have happened without each and every one of you. Thank you for helping us to bring this game to life and soon.. to the table.
Brian & Mark
Brain Sandwich Games
Final Few Days to this Incredible Campaign!
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:54:37 PM
Hello to all the Frayers in the Every-verse! We are down to our final few days and what a ride this has been. We are just thrilled at the support all of you have given this project, thank you for your comments, feedback, shares, likes and pledges. We really don't know what else to say but thank you, the community around this game is simply extraordinary! We did this together. You didn't let us down so we won't let you down.
LAST FEW DAYS
We have a few things dropping tonight and Wednesday to hopefully give us an end-of-campaign push. As many of you know Kickstarter projects tend to pick up (after a mid-campaign lull) right at the end. Since we are funded and into stretch goals the hope here is that we can get enough momentum to move into even more stretch goals! Each one makes the game presentation that much better. It's hard to ask you to do more than you have already done but any support helps. A retweet, a Facebook like, a share, telling your friends about the project, liking us on BGG, following us on Instagram, whatever you can do on whatever platform you use. Each little push moves us forward towards a strong finish.
MEET OUR NEW FRIEND ZOMBIE!
We have been working on the sculpts for the unlocked Necromancer and Zombie. The zombie is now ready to meet the world...and eat your brains! If you have any ideas on what to name the zombie please post them in the comments or contact us directly. I was thinking maybe Erggh (haha) but we'd like to give him and the Dark Lord of the Dead an appropriately cool name and backstory. Take a look and sound away!
Zombie Draft Sculpt
REINFORCEMENT PACK OVERVIEW
We've been asked to provide more details about the characters and content in the Reinforcement pack and to that we say...we'd love to! The Reinforcement Pack is offered in our Watcher pledge level and contains 6 New Characters, 1 Companion, extra dice, and new item cards (one type for each new champion) and a totally new mechanic called Perils.
Perils are an environmental affect that can completely upend a round. Perils cards are shuffled into the item deck and drawn as normal. When a player draws a Peril the effects resolve immediately. The effects range from the ground giving way to a pit of spikes, or an electrical storm, quick sand and more. The peril scatters around the board and are interacted with in similar ways to terrain and serve as forces that can both help and hinder you. Some rounds you may be in the clear, others could be Peril after Peril disrupting your well laid plans or putting the final nail in your enemies coffin. The Peril tiles and Rule set will be included in the Reinforcement Box.
On to the characters! The new characters are designed to flesh out "teams" for three of the archetypes that exist in the main game. The teams are "Steampunk", "Shogun" and "Pirates".
The new steampunk characters joining Gadget the Tinkerer are plague doctor Dr. Covington and Skyship Captain Amelia Wright. Dr. Covington uses his knowledge of biological weapons to imbue madness, sickness and death on all foes that approach him while the wily Captain Wright uses her cunning to counter-attack. She can also enhance her attacks with the support of her crew making her formidable in team play.
The Shogun team joining Mitsu the Samurai are Tamashii the Ninja and Nanshi the Ronin who is joined by his pet kitsune Mikata. Tamashii is a master of shadows, with abilities to disrupt the flow of combat by sneaking in and out for quick strikes and slashes. Nanshi is a lone warrior wandering the countryside that uses strength, speed and a little bit of luck to disable oncoming opponents. He uses his kitsune to trick the opponent, swapping places with Mikata or having Mikata steal resources for him.
The Pirate team joining Captain Redbeard are Keg the Gunner and Coral O'Malley the first mate. Pirates are plunderers at heart and both new characters have synergies with Red Beard's own impressive loot control abilities. Keg is the muscle. He carries a cannon so suffice it to say he's pretty deadly, if not always accurate. Coral is crafty, relying an deceptions or some reckless acrobatics to escape opponents who close in and strike back while they are confused.
Each of the these champions come with their own item cards to be added into the main item card deck. These bring new thematic instant abilities that all champions can use turn the tide of the battle.
A SHOUTOUT TO OUR CEREBRAL FOOD BROTHERS-IN-ARMS AND THEIR GREAT PROJECT!
Banana Hammock by Mind Ramen Games
We got to talking to the team at Mind Ramen Games, because... Mind Ramen, Brain Sandwich - amazing. They have a Mark, we have a Mark. Great Minds think alike. As we started talking we discovered that, like us, this is the type of creator Kickstarter really helps to shine.
Banana Hammock is a fast and frenetic game set as a day in the life of a Banana Grabbers Packing Co employee. You'll make bunches of bananas and put them into your crate. Make the most bunches and you just may end up as employee of the month. Watch out though because even the best laid plans can fall prey to monkey business!
We hopefully will have another update coming before the end of the campaign but we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you again. Our community is absolutely amazing. There are so many great supporters for this game and we couldn't have done it without you. Thank you all.
- Brian, Mark and the Brain Sandwich Games team
Update #5 - Necromancer Unlocked!
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 06:53:20 PM
As always, the first thing we wanted to say is thank you! Our whole backer community has been absolutely amazing, and the support has been overwhelming. This game that has been in the works for a long time is coming to life, and we owe it all to you guys. Again, thank you.
First Two Stretch Goals Unlocked!
The first stretch goal unlocked was an extra set of battle dice. Anyone who has ever been frustrated with sharing dice and having to find where on the table the other person put them will appreciate this one! It's a great quality improvement and there are more to come if we are lucky enough to get there. That said the stretch goal everyone was waiting for was #2....
Necromancer & Zombie Unlocked
Yesterday we did it! We will be adding the Necromancer and his 'pet' Zombie to the game as our most recently unlocked stretch goal! We are finishing the sculpts for these two now and should be able to show them off shortly.
While we have the rules sketched out for these two, they are by no means too late to change, so we want to ask our backers - What sort of things would you like to see from the Necromancer in play? You all have already helped to get him added to the game, we would love to open his ruleset to the community as well. Let us know in the comments what you would like to see!
Sculpts coming soon!
Next Stretch Goals
Next up we are adding UV coating to a ton of the components of the game. Everything we can zap, we will zap. I like to assume they use a giant ray gun to do it. Don't rain on my parade.
After that is a big one. A GameTrayz system. We spoke to the team over there at the beginning of the year before the first campaign and instantly we knew we wanted this. Their systems are absolutely amazing. If you have any other games that have used them, then you know how exciting this one is. We can do it guys!
New Review
Mark and I spent some time with Justin over at The Battlecast. We played a couple of games, and Justin did a great review from a competitive wargamer's perspective. You can see it at thYouTube channel below.
We get asked about this pretty much every day in the comments, so I wanted to take a moment to address it here for the wider audience. We have been working on a solo mode for quite some time. Mark and I are both solo gamers ourselves, and have always seen the value in this. There has long been a struggle in designing the action sequence of the champions themselves, something was always felt 'off' and they just always seemed too scripted. While the game is very casual and simple, there are layers of decisions to be made that have made so many of the games I have played fun. I have played with wargamers and casual gamers alike and Fray - Champions of the Every-Verse has its place with both for sure. Getting the AI to "react" to your moves is challenging to say the least.
To let you all know where we are at with this - We are working on writing AI rules for the champions individually with a completely different action sequence than the typical dice rolls. This system would allow you to fight one on one against any of the champions. This would allow you to play solo either as exhibition matches, or structured into small scale "Tournament of Champions" games that would consist of three rounds. This system would allow us to release the solo rules with the game as it stands, simply adding value to what already exists. We would update the rulebook as soon as possible and make this available to everyone.
Add-Ons
We have been asked about this quite a bit. We are thrilled that you guys are requesting even more content! We have been going back and forth with the factory for two weeks now to try to get this done. Unfortunately, we can't seem to make the add-ons make sense this late in the campaign. With the minimum print runs on things, we can only estimate that we would be looking at large amounts of surplus inventory on any of these items. We want to keep our focus on the game itself, and the campaign itself for the time being. With so few options for what we could get designed and rendered in the next 10 days, we feel it is unfortunately best to back away from trying to get this done for now. We can always potentially introduce some items in the pledge manager.
The view from the top of this horse...
In regards to Add-Ons and Solo Mode, there is one underlying factor that rules them both. We absolutely won't rush and compromise quality of the content for a pledge grab. It has taken years to get to where we are now, and we don't want to taint anything by not putting in the time and care that we think it needs. We can see so many places to eventually go with the game, and we are excited that we have such a supportive community ready to go down this road with us. We want to make all of your requests available if we could, but we need to do some real quality control as well, and it just takes more time than we have left in the campaign to ensure that.
Thank you -
Brian & The Brain Sandwich Games Team
Update #4 - Fray - Champions of the Every-Verse
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Oct 11, 2020 at 09:00:18 AM
112% and counting!
As always, we want to start off by saying thank you for all of the amazing support. The campaign has come so far, and we still have plenty of time to get into the stretch goals. We are working hard to get more people in to help get that Necromancer!
Stretch Goals
When we lined up the stretch goals for this campaign, we picked some great things that would add value to the game. We wanted to add champions, so we did. What we didn't consider originally was that , our stretch goals were spaced out too much. Now, new characters are quite the expense and we can't necessarily just move them closer together, but what we can do are add some things in to break up these 10k jumps that will enhance or add to the components of the game. To be honest with you, if it is one of the "new" stretch goals, we have probably been asked about it in the comments or in a message from one of you. I promise we are listening, and we can't argue with a great idea. In a way, us leaving these goals out originally and focusing on the BIG ones, was a happy accident that allowed us to adapt the campaign. The new Stretch Goal graphic will be on the campaign page shortly, but here it is with some notes below it...
35K - Extra Set of Battle Dice - Because although I am sure we are all good at sharing, it is so much easier not to have to.
45k - UV Coating - This would be across the printed components and adds a layer of protection not achieved any other way.
55k - 12 Skill Rings - 4 sets of 3 skill rings in different colors. The models' bases will fit into the rings, helping keep those champions more easily identifiable. Especially useful for 3 or 4 player games.
Add-Ons
Another thing that we have been asked about quite a bit is add-ons. I think we didn't want to ask for any more money than we needed to bring the project to life, but some have made it clear that you want 'MORE' bling, swag, stuff. We are working on some options, like the frequently asked for Card Sleeves. More will follow as we finish speaking with the factory.
Other Languages
It can't all be great news. Unfortunately, our factory has gotten back to us that in order to do print runs in other languages, we need to do another print run entirely. What does that mean? The likelihood that we will have enough interest in any other language to be able to do a full run is pretty slim. We have been racking our brains about how to overcome this, and the only possible option is language PDFs for the rulebook and to translate the rules of the champion cards. We sort of feel as though this isn't the most elegant solution, and while we are open to doing it, we would still need some level of interest in order to be able to justify the translation costs. Please, Please, Please, if you would like to see this as an option, let us know in the comments on this update to see if we can pull it off. If we get the demand for it, it is absolutely an option.
Thank you
Again, we cannot say it enough... thank you. It has been absolutely amazing to see such a strong community develop around the project. We now know that Fray - Champions of the Every-Verse is coming to life, and that it will be found all over the world. Words cannot express how grateful we are for the outpouring of people who have joined us to make this happen, and have worked alongside us to help us. We still have almost 3 weeks, and we will be doing everything that we can to help drive the project even further. We take our commitment to making the best possible version of this game we can seriously, so please keep the comments, messages, emails, smoke signals, carrier pigeons - keep them coming. We look forward to seeing just how far this campaign can bring the game!
The Brain Sandwich Team
Update #3 - Fray - Champions of the Every-Verse is FUNDED!
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Oct 06, 2020 at 02:52:59 PM
Just a brief update to say....
We crossed over 100% of our goal!
We did it! Thank you, this has been an amazing week and we couldn't have done it without you. Last night in the middle of the night (for us at least) we crossed over 100%. As I write this we are already starting to chip away towards our first stretch goal. The support and encouragement that we have received has been amazing, and we are excited to bring Fray - Champions of the Every-Verse to life, and to get the opportunity to share it with so many gamers out there. We are thrilled, and thanks to all of you, we did it!
Stretch Goals
We are on our way to start trying to dig into the stretch goals. The necromancer and zombie are being sculpted as we speak, and I will have the renderings to show off soon hopefully! We are pretty excited, and I think we stand a good chance of getting there. The follow up to that is upgrading to GameTrayz for inserts which for many of you needs no explanation. Finally, it may be a bit early, but... later down the road we have new champions that will be voted on by our backers. I have been asked a few times how that is going to work, and since the process will start fairly soon, I wanted to touch upon it now...
1. We will be sending out a backer update to gather information about which genres you would like to see represented, and accepting "open" submissions for new champions. Let us know what you want to see. This will take a little while to compile, so we want to get it started well in advance.
2. From that survey we will compile a "short list" of Champions.
3. When we hit a stretch goal looking for a community voted champion, we will use the most popular choices to have a vote from the backers in order to select who it will be!
Hopefully we can all dive into these goals, we still have 3 weeks to go to make the game even better, and I want to thank you all in advance for your help. We have built an amazing community around the game, and I look forward to all the things to come.
