As wild as the Kickstarter rollercoaster can be, my goal is to celebrate our time in the limelight with you, our fans.
As such, we’ve got amazing gameplay-related stretch goals to knock down as we increase in funding, never-before-seen angel unlocks planned every week, and even a few special surprises in store for you!
Let’s have a great time and be a part of something special together
Soli Deo gloria!
Kind regards,
Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team
The First Deliverance Expansion Launches Tomorrow! 😇
5 months ago
– Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 05:28:05 PM
You Are Invited To Our Launch party!
We’re launching tomorrow, and to celebrate and watch the shenanigans, we’re hosting a launch party on Facebook Live.
The launch party begins at 7am PST / 10am EST / 2pm GMT+0.
I’ll be sharing inside information about the development of Deliverance as well as answering your questions during a live video broadcast on Facebook for the first 30 minutes of launch.
You are the reason we’re doing this, so I’d love to have you there!
If you have not already, follow the campaign page to receive notification as soon as it goes live, and updates as the campaign unfolds.
If you back during the campaign, you'll get a pretty awesome 2-piece Metal XP/Round token for your efforts (displayed below):
My Final Pre-Launch Requests
First off, if you cannot make it to the live event, that is ok! There are other meaningful ways to support our launch! Here are my top 5 things you can do to support our launch to make Deliverance as awesome as it can be:
1) Back as early as possible. Day 1 momentum means so much — if we show that Deliverance is a “success” early, then others will want to join in!
2) Leave a comment on the KS page. This could be as simple as “I’m excited for launch!” or as legitimate as “I have a critical question that needs answering before I commit to X pledge.” In any case, your engagement with our comments (which we’re ready to answer) improves our ranking in KS algorithm.
3) Share with your friends and family. This is subjective, because I’m not specifying *how* to share. I’d love if you shared this with those you love, with those that might love Deliverance, and in whatever online communities you travel in. Please share in whatever way you feel comfortable.
4) Like and comment whenever you see Deliverance stuff online! It might get repetitive seeing our ads and people talking about it, especially if you’re *already* completely sold and all-in. But it makes a huge difference. Our ands and content creators are doing what they can to spread the word, and they get boosted in ranking every time you press that like button!
5) If you pray, please pray for Deliverance and the team behind it. We need every prayer we can get. There is so much to do, and our team needs God’s strength and wisdom to get through this!
Before we launch, I want you to know I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for every kind word of encouragement you have given. Thank you for your prayers. I look forward to what tomorrow brings!
Kind regards,
Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team
Expansion Pledge Tiers & hang on... is that Kirk Cameron?
6 months ago
– Sat, Aug 31, 2024 at 07:49:50 AM
Welcome one and all to a very important and timely update... The one where I share all the pricing and pledge details in a neat package, plus I have some really good pics of the expansion content in this one! Read on for details...
First: Are You Following The Expansion KS Page?
If not, you should do that! Just click here and follow real quick, then come back and read!
That "Project We Love" badge and all of you following makes me so thrilled and excited to press the launch button!
When does the Deliverance expansion launch?
Deliverance: Council of the Fallen is launching September 24 at 9am CST. That's a Tuesday morning.
In case you're not totally familiar with the way Kickstarter's algorithm works, pledging early and seeing an explosive start to a campaign often has a dramatic impact on the trajectory of the campaign's funding. Pledging on day 1 is the most impactful day you can pledge. If you're absolutely convinced that you need more Deliverance in your life, pledging on day 1 is an extra and very meaningful way you can support us.
Sizzle Trailer For Something Unexpected :)
Don't mind the silly look on my face in the thumbnail. The video is just 1 minute long, and worth a watch!
Deliverance needed a theme song. Inspiration struck and had to make it. We even made a mini documentary about it! This is a sizzle trailer for that doc, which is planned for release on October 1 😇
Our theme song will be revealed with our teaser trailer for the Deliverance expansion, which is currently in development!
Big Win: Kirk Cameron and Deliverance
For those of you that don't know who this person is, he is a pretty big deal in the "Christian Influencer" space. My colleague reached out to him on a whim. Kirk was SO excited about Deliverance that I sent a game to him a few days later to play with his kids!
We need to pray that Kirk and his family loves their experience with Deliverance, because an endorsement from him could make a big difference for us in the long-term. We might even have some doors open as a result of that! I'll keep you updated if anything more comes of this, but for now, I'll take a big win making it to the desk of an influencer that might catapult the potential of our upcoming KS campaign that much higher! 🙏
Speaking of that...
The Deliverance Expansion is SO PRETTY!
Image credit: Brian Hostetler of Unfiltered Gamer
Doesn't that pic look awesome? The barriers are a bit more obvious due to the color palette of the "underground" tiles, which is a complaint that some of our fans had about them. It's not a problem once you see them, but the barriers sometimes went unnoticed by new players.
This pic is from one of our awesome previewers. The Deliverance expansion is in the hands of 11 previewers right now, and will be traveling to a few more as they come around. The channels we currently have video previews, written reviews, and gameplay videos coming are as follows:
Meet Me At The Table
Unfiltered Gamer
The Dice Tower
Rolling Solo
Ant Lab Games
Co-op Guild
Love 2 Hate
Man Vs Meeple
Flipside of Board Games
BoardGameCo
... and more!
This is the start of Mission 1 of the new campaign.
Wait... what is that on the map tile?
And the final pic I'll share is a close-up of Juan's character card. This angel lacks free actions, but has the highest damage AoE (area-of-effect) skill of any angel with his Sign of the Cross.
Incense is a status effect that Juan uses to both benefit allies and power up his skills! This boon is placed on the ground, and whenever an angel shares a space with it, remove it and that angel heals 1 damage. But Juan can make use of Incense in more ways than one!
Juan doesn't have a typical heal, but through Consecrate and his Talents, he enables powerful and satisfying Prayer-focused builds.
If you're coming to Strong Tower Con next week, you can try him out in our booth in the main hall!
Pricing Tiers & Pledge Levels: Chart Edition
This info was first shared on our YouTube Channel earlier this month, but here it is in it's official text and pretty picture form!
If you're a returning backer and want everything new, there is a conveniently titled pledge tier for you that includes all new gameplay and cosmetic upgrades (everything except t-shirts). This includes the upgrade kit for your base game!
For backers of 1st Edition Deliverance, the "upgrade kit" includes:
5th Player Upgrades
New Darkness Board
Remastered Campaign Book
Hateful Fiend Character Board
Misc. Card Fixes
Remastered Angel Talents
Now, for backers that want the "Upgrade Kit" this is VERY important: The upgrade kit is included in all 2nd edition Deliverance games, which is why the chart above does not mark the kit as included for any pledge tier that includes a "Deliverance Base Game."
For those that purchase an expansion, you'll get free shipping on the upgrade kit. If you want to purchase the Upgrade kit by itself, that will be $10 + shipping.
For those of you that want to get the famous (infamous?) Deliverance t-shirts, this campaign is your chance to do that! We're going to reprint them ONCE for backers of this Kickstarter campaign. And for you super hardcore fans, we're going to have at least one NEW design for you all!
Wait... what is that Metal XP/Round Token included in all pledge tiers? And oh snap -- wall minis?! You'll have to wait until we get closer to find out!
Volunteer and Raid At Strong Tower Con!
It's me versus the room on September 7th for our very first Deliverance Raid event. Up to 32 of you will fight in a battle of wills, wit, and angelic steel against the dreaded ANDRAEL.
Here I am. Now come at me, bro!
And if you think this is going to be easy, you're not seeing the whole picture 😇👿
If you are attending Strong Tower Con and would like to register for this event, you can do that by clicking here! But don't delay, because we only have 10 spaces remaining!
Board Game Arena Mod: Play Deliverance Free!
Board Game Arena allows you to play on your web browser or mobile device for free. The game is almost bug-free now, thanks to over 500 people that have been getting games in on BGA!
Want to try Deliverance on BGA? We can add you to our Alpha test of Deliverance -- Just share your BGA username in the comments below (or on our Discord Server), and we'll add you!
We just released a big update to our Deliverance mod - Solo play!
We're getting close to Beta where Deliverance will be ready for everyone. Share your BGA username in the comments below to give Deliverance a test drive or play games over and over!
Project Alert: The Great Commission
The Great Commission is a very punchy tableau engine building card game by the guys behind Word For Word Bible Comic series.
It starts start out simply and builds into an epic puzzle of survival as you make inroads among Gentiles and Jews. I particularly enjoyed the troubles and events that assault your growing church, because to win was an interesting puzzle that you can't easily solve. I look forward to playing this with my wife and the occasional solo, because I don't have anything like it on my shelf. I backed this on KS and am looking forward to playing it.
What's Next?
The next time you get an update from me, it's almost certainly going to be about our Kickstarter campaign's launch.
I'm currently hustling harder than I ever have in my life to get ready for that. I have a lot of really fun surprises planned for you.
I hope you'll be there when we launch on day 1!
Kind regards,
Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team
Power Creep, Deliverance Expansion KS News, Board Game Arena, & More!
7 months ago
– Wed, Jul 31, 2024 at 01:19:41 PM
Hi everyone! Welcome back to another Kickstarter update! This one is going to be important to everyone for different reasons, and to all of you for the same... Check this out!
Follow Deliverance: Council of the Fallen on Kickstarter!
Our project preview just went live today! Now is your first chance to follow the new project!
Watch games in progress, play turn-based or real time games, and more! Also oh snap, I'm a "beginner" 😆
In case you aren't familiar, Board Game Arena is a web-based app that you can play games with others all over the world. It has matchmaking, stats, rankings, and more.
It's also fully custom scripted and automated, sort of like a videogame adaptation of Deliverance on the tabletop!
This took a massive amount of work over the last 8 months. By the grace of God, and through the hands of our awesome BGA developer Kneight Reinagel (kogogarage.com), it's finally here!!!
We're live in what is called "Alpha" -- this means our mod is not yet made public (that's beta, which will go live next month).
Would you like to play right now? I can add you to the Alpha play tester group! We have about 300 people added already. All you have to do is tell me your BGA username in the comments below, and I will invite you to the Deliverance Alpha!
Here are a few screenshots of a 3-angel game in progress against Ba'al, the Silent on BGA:
You can zoom in on anything by scrolling your mouse over it. Soon, tooltips will be added that can be translated in other languages!
The interface tracks your stats for you, calculates damage for you, and even reminds you when you have free actions to use!
Currently, 6 angels are available to play on BGA right now, and "Adventure" difficulty is enabled. We're in progress on the other angels as well as higher difficulty levels! We also have various bugs and improvements to the UI we're working on.
You do not need to be a paid member of Board Game Arena to play, and in fact you can sign up for a new membership just to play Deliverance there! It's a really incredible website. You can even play a game on mobile (though my developer would caution you that it's not well optimized for mobile)!
If you love Board Game Arena, join our Discord Server and find a game in our #looking-for-group channel!
Deliverance: CotF Development Updates
This month, we have been hard at work fleshing out the Deliverance: CotF story, the Campaign missions, and more that relate to printing prototypes for reviewers.
I feel like I'm behind the 8-ball, as the saying goes, because I wanted to have prototypes in reviewer hands right now. I'm late like the rabbit from Alice and Wonderland!
But I have confidence that producing the right offering is going to be much better than sending what I have now off to reviewers. We're focused on showing the first 4 missions of the Campaign to reviewers, as well as making a final balancing pass on the various cards and angels before sending them off. We are really confident that these angels are fun to play and balanced enough that they won't experience any significant "power creep" from the base angels.
In regard to "power creep," this concept is one everyone that loves Deliverance should be concerned about. The problem with games like ours is that new characters can be markedly more powerful than the classic ones. That is not great, but is almost impossible to avoid as the possible angel combinations grow. What do I mean?
Let me pull the curtain back for you all a little bit. Let's use what we call the "50 turn test" with everyone's favorite Archangel, Michael, as an example. Michael deals an average of 7.2 damage to a single demon each round with his "maximum damage skill rotation." This is Overhand + Overhand + Mighty Smite.
Brain-melting calculation time: His base damage for Overhand is 2, and Mighty Smite is 4. He won't be able to Mighty Smite every turn, so his damage will be a bit sporadic. This is how we figure it out: We calculate 50 turns of courage gain and damage from his Overhand actions (x2 per turn). 50 turns, dealing 4 damage from Overhands per turn is 200 damage dealt. Then, we figure out how much Courage is gained. 1 Courage per Overhand used, plus a 57.1% chance to gain a second Courage (due to the 7+ test present in the text of the Overhand skill). Over 50 turns (and 100 overhands -- see? 50 turns makes it simple), Michael would gain +57 Courage on average. Add his starting 2 Courage, and you get 159. Let's round that up to 160 to be simple, and Michael can use Mighty Smite a total of 40 times (+160 damage). The total damage of Overhands + Mighty Smites is 360 damage. Average that over 50 turns, and his actual damage output is 7.2 damage per round.
All that to say, Michael is the angel with the highest-damage output against a single target in the game (before talents). If we made an angel that deals 7.5 average damage, that angel better have some serious trade-offs, or that angel is always more powerful than Michael. That is Power Creep.
As a development team, we're doing all we can to avoid forcing players off their favorite characters into the new characters. We want you to love both, but we don't want you to feel inferior to other angels! We'd at least like to give you a leg to stand on in a debate with your friends!
In addition to the anti-power creep stance, we also recognize this is an impossible task. Stuff is going to get stronger. So we need a way to help our classic angels grow with the game! That is why we are introducing brand new Talents for the base game angels in our expansion campaign. You're going to enjoy new skills with your classic angels! Yay! :D
Deliverance is officially an "Award Winning" game!
I never imagined how difficult it would be to claim an award for a board game, but wow there are rather few opportunities to do that in the world, given how many incredible games hit the market every year.
We have reached "Finalist" status multiple times, having earned 5 Golden Geek Award finalist nominations, 2 BGR Meeple's Choice Award finalist nominations, and top 10 solo games by Man vs Meeple, but we finally won a legitimate award!
Deliverance won the Bronze Award for Best Solo game of 2023 by Board Game Revolution Community's "Meeple's Choice Awards" 😇
Deliverance takes the Bronze Award in best Solo Game of 2023!
We were beaten by 2 games that had tens of thousands more copies sold, and we actually managed to beat 8 other games that had tens of thousands more copies sold than us. I'm honored that we made it!
Now, we can add this to our game as well as our marketing efforts. I have no idea if that language will move the needle for people (the most impactful thing to me personally is the 8.7 BGG score), but wow I'll take it!
Have you reviewed Deliverance on BGG?
I haven't beat this drum in a while, but if you wouldn't mind leaving a review for Deliverance on BoardGameGeek, that would be fantastic. If you're short on time or willpower, a simple rating without a comment can work, but comments that explain why (even short) are welcomed!
We're working really hard on our marketing efforts. We have been spending a lot of time and effort (and coin) on Facebook and YouTube ads. If you happen to see any of our things, please give it a like and a comment!
Our communities are seeing a lot of increase, and we're just about 2 months out from our gigantic expansion campaign. I'm currently as busy as I have ever been in my entire life trying to keep as much forward progress happening as possible. I'm praying a lot, and I'm relying heavily on a really incredible team to take ownership of their areas of focus. Thus far, everyone has exceeded my expectations and is really working hard!
And we're still working on a Scenario Pack for you all... We're heading toward the Kickstarter launch like a freight train. September 24, choo choo!!!
Kindest regards,
Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team
Introducing Pirta: Keeper of the Frozen Wind and the Raging Firestorm!
8 months ago
– Mon, Jul 01, 2024 at 02:29:35 PM
A giant image dump from Origins, a brand new playable expansion character is revealed, I ask for your opinion on the price and content of the expansion, and we've been nominated for more awards! Also, I'm a day late in my update 😆 Read on for details!
We ran a total of 56 1-hour demos of the expansion, we sold 66 Deliverance games (that is all the stock we had left, plus some extras that are at my house and being prepped to send this week). Dan and I signed nearly 60 of those games, and I will sign the rest myself before I mail them as requested! We added over 150 new emails to our list, and we gave away 92 copies of our latest Scenario Pack 3: The Raging Firestorm.
I couldn't get as many pics as I wanted, though this is chocked full of pics. We were so busy!
I am so proud of all our booth staff and volunteer army that helped during this event. We couldn't have done it without them, and what I mean by that is that they would still be mopping us up off the floor without them.
On the left, my best Azrael impression. On the right, the Deliverance team: Andrew, Jacob, Kneight, Adam, and Dan.
Our volunteers were Daniel, Steph, Lee, Larry, and members of the Love Thy Nerd crew led by Luke. And our gracious host that enabled us to have so much help without spending an arm and a leg on hotels was Anthony (Just another reason I'm all in on Allies of Majesty when it eventually hits KS - more on that later). Sadly, I failed to get a pic with us all together! Blarg.
Here is a photo dump of lots of people we met at the event. I turned these into collages because nobody would scroll through all these pics, right?! But if you're in a pic and you want it to share, please send me an email ([email protected]) and I'll send it over!
The support from the community was incredible. Every group that played either bought the game at the convention, told me they owned it already, or both.
I got to meet some of my favorite people at the event, but the coolest story from the convention was that lovely couple bottom center in the pic above.
Our 5-member Deliverance team had no idea that we would be so slammed on Thursday -- we did not have any time to get food! This lovely couple figured that out, and opened up their epic 24-slot bag and gave us bananas, protein bars, and more. My team survived on that food until dinner, and was so thankful for their kindness. But what's even better is that the next day they came by with a gigantic container of nuts and a box of cookies! They bought a bunch of shirts and a game, and I am *their* biggest fan. Thank you if you're reading this!!
Much more happened, but I'm going to spare you all the text (as you know I can be long-winded as it is). Let's get into more fun stuff!
Introducing Pirta, Keeper of the Frozen Wind
Pirta is a playable angel in Deliverance: Council of the Fallen!
Pirta rides upon the frozen north winds and utilizes her control of the icy gales to assault foes and protect herself. By her skillful placement of squalls, she can boost her icy damage and speed the progress of allies across the battlefield.
Squall is a brand new boon (aka status effect) for the angels to leverage against the hordes of darkness. Angels will place squall between spaces on the battlefield. Angel movement through a squall is boosted by 1 space.
Pirta is a very damage-focused angel with a significantly powerful and costly heal, but her ability to support allies through this new movement enhancing effect makes her a powerful addition to any team!
Pirta's current iteration of her angel card -- Origins players might notice a few choice adjustments! 😇
Pirta's Inspiration
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. Psalm 147:16-18
Pirta’s design was originally inspired by a very popular Disney princess as well as the frost-wielding characters popularized by a certain MMORPG. However, the end result was much more influenced by how the the Bible regards with great respect the Lord’s command over frost. In addition, the power of glaciers cutting through mountains influenced Pirta’s design heavily. Truly the aftermath of these monstrous slow-moving objects is a sight to behold. Pirta’s name is translated “blizzard,” and several of her skills were inspired by the Inuit language, which uses over 50 words to describe varying types of snow!
I have questions for you all -- As my insiders, I am really having a tough time with a decision, and I need your input!
I'm getting manufacturing quotes, and I'm now really hesitating about something... NOW is the time we need to decide to make this box filled to the brim with awesomeness (like the base game), or if we should instead make it a more humble box with less content so it's more affordable.
We're talking a $69 price versus an $89 price (at the high end). My questions to you in this Google form relate to that in particular.
We're still aiming for an "expansion all in" of $100-130 for this campaign, in addition to re-printing the base game and add-ons from the first campaign.
Here is the link to make your opinion known: https://forms.gle/aCng92mQeHe9Ttnm9
Deliverance Is a Finalist For BGR Meeple's Choice Awards!!
Board Game Revolution's 5th annual Meeple's Choice Awards is live, and it's time to vote once again!
Deliverance is a finalist for 2 awards! Woot :D
We have been nominated for best Thematic game as well as best Solo game!
Voting is a very simple process -- just click the link below or in the image and you'll be redirected to a quick Google form!
Earning a finalist spot is an honor. Two is incredible! But what if we could win?! They award bronze, silver, and gold for top 3!
This might feel like Deja Vu, because BoardGameGeek's awards just happened as well, but it's a new award, and winners are chosen by the community. Thank you for voting!
The Raging Firestorm Scenario Pack
The newest scenario pack was released in June! It adds 2 very flavorful missions to Deliverance, and BOTH are very tough. Good luck and godspeed!
The rules will be polished and printed in the expansion rules as well as in our Deliverance base game reprint rulebook.
What's Next?
I was talking to a reviewer at Origins about how amazing crowdfunding is -- You all have supported the dream of Deliverance coming to life, and are actively fueling the future of Deliverance with your support online, through purchases, and by supporting our Kickstarter effort. Without your support, Deliverance would cease to exist. But because you are so invested in seeing this project through with me, it's going to grow!
I try to show my appreciation for that in as many ways as I can think of, from new Scenario Packs to sharing everything like an open book.
But one thing I try not to lose sight of, and why I feel our particular fanbase is the best in the world -- I might be in the front of the parade as the leader, but it is you, my Insiders, that make this thing happen. I have the perspective that although I am leading, I am not standing far ahead waiving a light for you all to follow, but I am walking with you all, as a fellow fan of this game, listening and relying on you for help. I have been metaphorically carried by you on many occasions!
Thank you guys for your dedication. It's my honor getting to work with you to bring Deliverance: Council of the Fallen to life.
