This is long overdue, but things have been absolutely crazy since the success of the Kickstarter. A heartfelt thanks to you all; and here are the results of the campaign!

Thank you all so much! We can’t wait to get this game to you.

-Josh and Jordan

This is it, Adventurers!

We are going live on Kickstarter! With your help, we can finally get this game printed and shipped. We’ve had so many people ask us at conventions if they can buy a copy of the game – and now it will be possible with your support. I’ve been awake for nearly 50 hours now (okay I got a 3 hour nap!) trying to get everything ready, and I think we’re there!

To everyone who has ever stopped to say ‘hi’ at a convention, messaged us about the status of the game, texted us remind us that you love us, I am so grateful to have met you, to have gotten to know you, and to have battle the Lord of the Jellies with you. I sincerely can’t say if we will hit our goal, but consider this the last few steps of this long journey. We’re almost home, but there’s just one last mountain to climb over.

Will we make it?

I don’t know.

But I do know that I’ll feel a lot better about the trip if you’re there with us. Just like you’ve always been. Thank you so much, everyone. This is it. It’s time.

See you up top!

-Joshua and Jordan

After many revisions and about a million hours of editing – the demo video is complete! Learn how to play Random Encounters with a run of the first level.

Get ready, adventurers – the Random Encounters Kickstarter launches on July 20th, 2015! Watch our teaser trailer for the campaign and mark your calendars, because this co-operative RPG is almost ready!

We’ve got some new conventions coming up! This will be a great opportunity to come and play Random Encounters if you haven’t been able to try it out. Here are the new cons:

Comicpalooza in Houston, TX : May 23-24, 2015 DONE!

Classic Game Fest in Austin, TX: July 25-26, 2015

Board Game Bash in Austin, TX: August 7-9, 2015

The first seems to be a standard comic convention sort, but with some real fancy names like Jeremy Renner (maybe Hawkeye will want to play as Kai?). Also he was my favorite character from 28 Weeks Later, but I digress!

Classic Game Fest seems REALLY cool, and we are very gracious to them for giving us a table so close to the deadline. This one is going to be in Austin, and focuses on retro gaming, and since early console RPGs were a huge inspiration for Random Encounters, so I really hope that people will take to our little game. We are also looking at getting a table at the Board Game Bash, which was one of our favorite conventions ever. There’s also a toy convention going on in our hometown of Victoria, so we’ll probably be hitting that one up too!

Still no confirmed date on the Kickstarter, but if you want to be among the first to find out the date, then please sign up to our newsletter in the top right corner of our homepage (I believe it’s located at the bottom for mobile devices).

Thanks for reading and stay brave, Adventurers!

-Josh and Jordan

Hey folks,

I always hate when people apologize for not posting enough, but I really have to do just that! Lots of personal things have been going on that have gotten in the way of developing Random Encounters, but for the most part it’s all good! First thing is first – Jordan and I had a nice time at Haven Con! The attendance was fairly low, but for it being a first time event and taking place on Easter weekend I say it went well. More importantly, it was a very important event for those that went, and I salute its focus on being an LGBT event. At first I admittedly didn’t think it was really… necessary? I say that only because convention and gaming conventions have been some of the most welcoming groups I’ve ever met (especially board game conventions)! But concerning the absolute garbage laws being passed in some states (looking at you, Indiana – and even our own Texas has some similar laws), I think events like Haven Con are vital to our community.

This is something that I’ve gone back and forth on since we started Random Encounters, but I guess this is as good a time as any to stick with a decision: Reginald, the Stubborn Spellsword is homosexual and Artina the Enchanting Storyteller is bisexual. We’ve been really nervous about if having this in our game would hurt us – after all Random Encounters is a game aimed at early teens and being family friendly. But just saying that out loud makes me realize that there’s nothing wrong with either of these characters, and it’s a part of what makes them special. As these characters were created, this was something that I had in mind for them, but was worried about actually sharing because it might give us negative attention. It’s a real eye opener to think that I was worried about a potential reaction to a fictional character from an unreleased product vs what an actualy human being has to go through. That’s why Haven Con is important –  to let people know that there is nothing wrong with being themselves.

When I told someone about Reginald, they made the comment “but he doesn’t look gay”. Just think about that for a moment: we are so used to being able to immediately identify if a character is homosexual because of their expressions and outfits are overly flamboyant. We need more characters to be diverse. NOT for the sake of diversity, but for the sake of having interesting characters. Their sexuality is just ONE aspect of their character, and it’s a shame that homosexuality isn’t fully accepted as being more than a character stereotype in our entertainment medium. We met a lot of fun folks at Haven Con and are looking forward to going back again next year (with more than just a demo)! So a big thanks to Shane and all the volunteers of the event for making us feel so welcome!

You can watch a video that the Austin Statesmen filmed here (sorry about the ad v_v).

We’ll post a photo gallery and give you an update on the Kickstarter’s status soon. We’ve sent out more prototype copies and are expecting to get some reviews soon!

Thanks for sticking with us through this ride!

-Joshua and Jordan

They came in and they look pretty darn good! They were made with www.printplaygames.com  – USE these folks when you are making your prototypes. It feels really cool to get your own box in your hands. This is the first printout we’ve ordered that actually had tokens. Previously we’ve used all sorts of things, but most recently we used small glass gems in different colors and they worked superbly, but they aren’t exactly color-blind friendly, which is a growing concern in the board game community. Let us know if you have any questions about our order. We’ve sent out prototypes to the following sites, so add them to your favorites and you might just see us pop up!

Board Game Quest

Board Game Reviews by Josh (but not me!)

Eduardo Baraf 

Recently we received an email stating that we did not get accepted into PAX South. A bummer, but it’s gotten us to look at other conventions taking place around the same time.

UPDATE: After some searching and emails – here are some events that I’ll be at.

CONFIRMED:

Chupacabra Con: Jan. 9-11, 2015 in Austin, TX

Victoria Comic Con: Jan. 17-18, 2015 in Victoria, TX

Haven Con: April 4, 2015 in Austin, TX

And according to the VCC’s website we are industry professionals – how cool is that?

We’re industry professionals.

Come say hi to us at one of these events!

-Josh

We are getting ready to place an order for prototype copies of Random Encounters! I’m really satisfied with the latest version of the game and how things flow. I’ll be ordering the prototypes from Print & Play Productions and will be sending them out to several board game previewers. It’s cool that there are actually folks out there who will take the time to look at a board game that isn’t officially ‘out’ yet. Hopefully we can get some cool quotes to put on the finished box art! ^_^

I wonder if they’ll point any flaws that haven’t been discovered – good to nip that sort of thing before release. I remember waaay back when – and getting Dead or Alive 2 for the Xbox and inside the game’s manual they had an extra sheet printed out that fell out when you opened the manual. On that page was a reprinting of Zack’s movelist. “How can you mess that up!?” I say, naively gloating before releasing a printed product. I’m sure there’s actually any number of reasons that this could have happened. What if the moves were changed at the last minute in-game and they had to come out with an extra page to adapt it? The manuals must have already been printed for them to include an insert like that.

Basically what I’m trying to say is wish us luck so that there aren’t any insert pages in our own manual!

-Josh

New templates are on the way for all the cards, so now I can make edits faster and I won’t have a gazillion broken layers in the Photoshop files slowing me down. These new templates are clean, have bigger numbers and are overall brighter to help compensate for the darkening that occurs during the printing process.

The Encounter side of things is finished, next will be loot, and then I’ll go back and finish the character cards. Just about everyone is getting a buff in their abilities – we want players to always WANT to use their abilities when the opportunity arises.

I believe we have also decided on our box size, and it will be the same as the Carcassonne box (or as I affectionately call it, “Cracker-Son”). This is a rectangular box, which I like more than the square styled ones. For one, it will fit in a backpack more easily! And 2… nope, that’s about it. Random Encounters is a game I would have taken with me to school if I had it as a kid, and so I want the game to be able to fit in an easily transported container.

Anyway, here’s a look at the templates in their current form!

-Josh