Cretacea. What's happening?

Hey everyone, Charles here to update you on Cretacea and tell you more about our dinosaurs.

Hey Charles, what's going on with Cretacea?

Well, as mentioned in the post on our Facebook Group, we've decided to relax the focus on Cretacea to allow more time to focus on our two other games, The Momentous Issue of War and Kingdom and Command. To put it simply: those two games are much smaller and easier to create, so even though we've been working on Cretacea for longer, we think we should focus on releasing something sooner to the patient public.

Okay, so is any progress being made on it?

Yes, we've run a few playtests for new dinosaurs, and we've outsourced some work to a hired artist. More on this to come in an upcoming blog post. As mentioned, our main focus has however been on our other games.

Cool! Stuff is happening. What can you tell me for now?

To start, let's talk about what everyone wants to know: the dinosaurs. Which ones are we adding? Well, to speed up the release, we're adding four new dinosaurs to begin with, and the rest will be stretch goals. This will ultimately increase quality by allowing us to work harder on each dinosaur individually.

Let's start with a new dinosaur:

The Spinosaurus

​As mentioned in our last post on the blog and on Facebook, we've revamped the combat system to include more dice, and this will be one of the biggies.

Most of the time, it rolls three attack dice. This is one of the highest rolling dinosaurs in the game. It means that in most instances it could roll in the 3-18 range, whereas some small dinosaurs might only roll 1-6.

Specials are where a dinosaur gets to shine, and we went for a narrative approach with this one, focusing on its supposed amphibian lifestyle, and the strong bite and powerful tail... but you're going to have to wait for release to find out what they do!

Artwork to come.
(Never thought I'd be reading so much about licensing!)

Next up, we have fan-favourite:

The Stegosaurus

​We've worked a lot on game balancing, and personally I'm a big fan of tactical and strategic games, which is why the stegosaurus is one of the most interesting dinosaurs to me.

Its attacks are varied, with a deadly tail on one side and an iddy-biddy head on the other (albeit with a powerfully sharp beak). Its attacks reflect this, meaning that you have to play well to use its best attacks, or else be caught out-manoeuvred!

And, of course, it's just an iconic dinosaur. Writing the specials for this one was fun, especially the Flush Plates rule, which was a Wicked Wargames hypothesis regarding intimidating tactics. The special lets it intimidate hostile dinosaurs.

Lastly, I want to tell you about a personal favourite, and one that comes a little bit out of the left field:

The Dimetrodon

Yes, it's not technically a dinosaur, but it's too cool to omit, and we are mixing dinosaurs from different paleontological eras, after all. Also, if your imagination is running wild right now regarding ways the game could expand, imagine what ours has been doing! (We've been thinking an Ice Age expansion!)

This dinosaur will be a stretch goal, so I won't show the stat card, as it's still open for editing, even though it's been through some playtesting.

I just want to say that I love where this creature fits into the game design: a slow, sneaky boi that bites hard when he gets you, giving a sense of approaching danger. It was hard to decide on a special for the sail-fin, but ultimately we decided to go for a camouflage effect.

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Other updates

Okay that's cool, but -

Yes, it is cool.

No, listen, I have a ques-

Did you see the dinosaurs?

Yes, but about Cretacea and upd-

DINOSAURS!

​

Okay, seriously though... We know we've been quiet, but we have been working. More updates are coming. We remain focused on The Momentous Issue of War and Kingdom & Command as our higher priorities, but Cretacea is still happening.

​For example, we're outsourcing creating some dinosaur artwork for tokens to a professional artist, playtesting continuing when it can, Arthur continues to compile miniatures, and lots, lots more. Stay tuned for more on that.

Warmly,
​Charles