As of today Cretacea second edition (firrst draft) is finaly finished! we placed the final pages into the book and although there are still test prints and some editing to do the book is officially finished and the first complete final format is done. It's been a long and exciting road, as we approached the end we couldn't wait to get to this stage for the gratifying sense of it, the work that's been done and the final product. We're so close to having test prints in our hands now. 

Below is a four page print screen of the book spread out so that you can get a slightly closer glance at the layout and colors, images and artwork that is going into this beautiful tome. It's truly going to be a beautiful book to have on your gaming shelf. 

It is set in the American civil war (ACW), plays on an 8x8 grid,  uses wooden blocks to represent units, and plays in an I go, you go format. In keeping with our company creed of our games being fun and easy we have boiled down unit types to four varieties: infantry, cavalry, artillery, and command.

Our aims and ideas for this game are to give players:

• Enough variance across your force to scratch that itch for some tactical fun.
• Rules that are simplistic and enjoyable.
• A game playable in just half an hour or so.
• For it to all fit in a pretty and practical sized box. 

The idea came from a forum post on the Wargames Website here:

www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/slow-mind-small-games/page/2/

Wherein the writer, a man who beautifully expresses his difficulties with gaming and how he prefers simple and small games, approaches the gaming style in his own way.

​Arthur immediately began thinking on the topic and went delving in the free Wargames Rules site for inspiration. He struck gold with a rule set written and released for free in 2014 called "See the Elephant".

Although its core was a fun rule set, it was dated, riddled with confusing passages and writing faux pas, and we just couldn't get it to work. Inspired by Andrew on The Wargames Website and this rule set on on the Wargames Rules site, we started working on our own game.

Ultimately, we kept little of the original rules other than the unit types (infantry, cavalry, artillery) and the grid, since 8X8 is very accessible. We've both learned in building Wicked Wargames that the inspiration for any idea need not be its end. It can serve its purpose by merely being a catalyst for something more.

The simple game blocks are easy to make, theraputic and enjoyable in apearence. Something about building a complete army in an hour is extremely satisfying.  

The book is currently speeding along as it's an extremely small rule set with few rules. The idea is to present it as a small pamphlet, likely A5, and the cover is designed to look like an old book with a scaly leather effect. Very exciting. Combined with the mottled pages, old imagery and few necessary images, it really pops and is invigorating to read.

It's a small project and likely will be out soon, and we'll keep you updated as we continue our playtests and iron out the kinks.

Keep your eyes peeled for more information soon. We'll have lots of exciting updates on this in the coming weeks.

Lots is going on at Wicked Wargames. The gradual growth of the company and the games (now several in development!), and the approach to release for more than one game is very exciting.

Because of this and the increasing workload, it's becoming harder to put up regular updates, so we thought we'd throw one up this week and confess also that we didn't send out the newsletter last week! This isn't because of a general lack of information, it just slipped our minds amongst our work. We'll get back on track and send it out next week.

As Charles puts the finishing touches on the final page for Cretacea (the quick-play sheet) we turn our attention to expanding the system. The obvious direction is to cover as many dinosaurs as we can, which we will, rest assured.

The system is strong, reliable and very well-designed now. As such, we think it's time to throw a spanner in the works and see how it handles it... what spanner is that you may ask? How about some pesky little humans!

We purchased an order of Copplestone Castings cavemen and will soon be fielding units of three as little compiled units on the table, as opposed to single "edible" miniatures for those big dino's.

The Kickstarter will likely feature them as a stretch goal. Yes, we are aware that cavemen never crossed paths with dinosaurs, but we challenge anyone willing in the first place to play a dinosaur game to not also think "What if I could play dinosaurs against cavemen?" I mean -- we definitely did. 

We've thrown an hour or two into the initial stat composition and card design of the models, and are excited to announce that they will herald the introduction of ranged combat in Cretacea, something the game lacks due to it essentially being a close combat brawler.

The idea of cavemen desperately attempting to scare, manoeuvre and berate a giant Tyrannosaurus rex, or dart and dodge the horns of a Triceratops brings us great joy, and we're sure it will you as well.

As a lead-up to the Cretacea update, below is an almost complete zoomed out preview of the book.

This kind of zoomed-out preview is an Arthur favourite, as we can fully see the scope of the book, the colour, the contents, and the aspiring nature of it compared to the first edition. The file is so thick and large, largely with high-quality images, that even zooming in and out slows down the computer. 

The game's random event cards have undergone a lot of change already, and we simplified the system to focus on a Hollywood style of lookin' good over realism. For example, we won't get bogged down in the differences between a WW2 German Spandau versus the Bren Gun. We have heavy and light machine guns for everyone and let the players do the story telling.

The unit stats have been similarly universalised, which allows you to come up with stats for any type of model. We've also given an allowance for various weapon strengths by classing them in a three-tiered system, which again gives more agency to the player in their story telling and imagination. It's a universal system, so our aim here is balance and application to any model a player might have.

We also made the decision to use measuring dowels instead of tape measures, the first decision of its kind for the company. They smooth gameplay right out and speed it up too. It's an exciting concept for us, and although it is not new to the industry, it's done less so these days, so in it's own way it's a quaint addition to the game. 

The graphic design of the rule set looks basic presently, so we have a fun idea to theme every page differently: swashbucklers on one, Napoleonics on another, sci-fi on another, etc. Until then, instead of sharing a zoomed-out shot of the plain black and white pages, we share the character creation examples that we currently have:

This post was beginning to get a little long, so check back tomorrow afternoon (UK time) for more info on a new game in development, and also updates on our correspondence roleplay game Kingdom & Command, for which we have some new artwork being worked on by a very talented artist, a brand new layout, and a big addition to the character creation guide.

As the process of formatting Cretacea closes in on its end, we now come to the meticulous part of the work, such as compiling attributions and final formatting so the book looks lovely and neat, but that's not what we're here to tell you about...

Today we want to talk about the starter set stat cards. Every backer of the Kickstarter campaign will get a set of starter cards, and we'll be selling them separately, in herbivore and predator packs, and hopefully individually, as per people's needs and printing practicality.

We'll print them on shiny and hopefully drywipe plastic., and if our third party printer can't do that (though we're sure they can) then we'll also sell card sleeves in the appropriate size. 

We'll soon be sending the book off for a test print, and we can't wait! It's so exciting to be this close to having books in our hands after months of work!

Keep your eyes peeled on the blog for more info and make sure to fill in the newsletter form on the home page for fortnightly updates!

We are extremely close to our test prints for Cretacea. The process has been long and exciting and we are now close to finishing.

As a finishing touch, we purchased some amazing illustrated imagery for our cover and to upgrade some images in the book. Note the new cover image: iconic and memorable for sure. (The actual layout of the cover is pending.)

Our main obstacle at this late stage is exporting the Word file to PDF. Although we have it saved in high-res. Word won't let us export it and we are working to find a solution. The file is massive, over a few gigabytes, comically large for a book. We are however on the cusp of achieving this. 

As mentioned in some blog posts, the new version of the book is more of a re-molding than a re-write, although we've implemented many big changes and revamped some sections completely, we've strived to retain the look and feel of The Game of Gargantuan Survival.

These last few weeks have been a meticulous attention to detail and layout. For example, the new background of pretty salmon pink sand adds a soft touch, and the newly-coloured rules boxes to go along with it now match the gradient direction of the designers' notes; it's all coming along, and we're really excited to show you!

The new clarification pictures are gorgeous. They add so much flavour, detail and streamlining to the originally questionable rules in many sections of the 1st edition. In the 2nd edition, simple but effective graphics line its pages. 

We've cut down on vector art. Although we enjoy it thoroughly, we ended up leaning into a more finessed art style, as seen on the cover. Regardless, we kept a few, such as this awesome Theropod roaring over our turn phases page. Just beautiful. 

Some of the new rules in the book, though simple, add much to the game in way of depth and narrative, such as the entrapment rule, given life with this exciting graphic. 

The new stat cards, one of the longest and most detailed updates for the book, are now finished in their entirety.

This allows us to get a breather on that very long process and look toward new dinosaurs. It's our aim to provide stretch goals for some of the most iconic dinosaurs that we didn't get room to feature in the book. The original 11 dinosaurs from the first book make a revamped return but on the horizon we have Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus and more!

We've upgraded and added to the painting section (although the page on the right requires final lighting and colour adjustments.)

The crafting section of the book is extensive, with almost as many pages as the actual rules. It's hefty, crafty, and full of fantastic content. 

At the moment we're stuck in a wrestle with technology. We want Cretacea released as soon as possible and we've done the majority of the work. There is no new writing to be completed, just a render/export of the book and a test print.

We're very close and we aim to get more news in the next week or two. We simply can't wait to hold the finished version in our hands. It's a very exciting time. 

Check back for more soon.