Frosthaven Review - Before You Back - (Quackalope Games)

hello welcome to crackle open today we are bringing you a before you back on frost even what we've called the most anticipated game of your generation the millennium and William we'll see certainly in our and our core gaming group it is certainly one of the games we have been looking forward to and ever since it was announced it packs you it's been on our most anticipated list you both have played through core gloom haven yourselves locked alone in a secret room it was very romantic I have just open-ended gloom Haven I am not as well-versed as it in as you all and I think probably my first core full campaign may end up being frost Haven before bloom Haven instead of the one-off scenarios that I've played with you I'm really excited for the core story of this one that being said you're watching crackle oh if you're new to this channel because you're looking for frost David stuff hopefully you've already checked out our preview videos our flavor text videos and potentially the gameplay video that we released the same day today thank you for being here make sure you hit that subscribe button down below the time that goes into producing this content is massive right about 12 to 15 hours per fully produced production video so you taking the time to leave a comment hit the like button and most importantly hit that subscribe button and share really does go a very long way to let groups like Seth with their games know that what we do matters to you so if you appreciate this content if you want to continue seeing more of it or if you want us to have access to cover games that you're passionate about in the future please make sure you become part of this community means a lot more than you could probably guess I mean genuinely it does in this before you back video this is a structure or format I'm still playing with trying to figure out how we give honest reviews of games that still aren't fully produced that aren't currently in our hands so in before you back we're gonna look at seven categories or so that we evaluate when backing games I just crossed the hundred back project lines on Kickstarter so I'm a I'm kind of a Grail backer you all are active on Kickstarter but a little bit more careful with what you support right yes and I can tell you I value this kind of video because the teasers that they put on Kickstarter don't always really tell you about the game they'll guess instantly get you excited they'll get you excited but it's nice to kind of be able to say hey here's what the game is that I also don't always have time to read the rulebook ahead of time like I'd really love to spend the time to read every rulebook of every gun every Kickstarter but again having someone else go through and give a genuine honest first impression usually drives me to decide to back or not more than any other content well and that's the core concept I mean frost Haven is going to get a pile of backers just from namesake alone yes right I what I do and say really isn't gonna sway too many people but for those of you watching that actually want to make sure this is gonna be the right game for you that's our goal we want to help you understand what frost Haven is doing if you're gonna get it to the table and if it's gonna be a game you're in love with I want you to back it and get it played as quickly as possible but if it's one you're really not going to love out of the box I want you to be aware of that as well I don't want you to ride off the hype there's gonna be enough hype around this game anyway trust me I'm not hurting or helping nearly anything I'm just sort of screaming into the wind that being said you both have played through well Marc and Dan yeah introduced him at some point of the game and have built a play through the core of blue Haven and I'm a little bit more new to this genre of game so those are the perspectives were coming at we all are still favorable towards blue Haven yes it is the right type of game for us so through that context let's go ahead and dive into this we're gonna be covering the overview of the game the structure the flow how the game actually plays so you can see if it's the right type of game for you then we're gonna go into the theme this is a section I've basically cut aside specifically for myself I'm a theme the first type of player I learn rules play games and have experiences through the theme the lore and how everything integrates it's really important for me so I decided to make it important for you too we then are going to talk about the gameplay not how to play but the elements that feel different in this case or specifically the things that stand out to us that we're intrigued by next we're going to talk about the accessibility how easy is it going to be to get this game to the table what sources are there to support getting it played and will you ever table this game next we're going to talk about development the prototype that we got in so in context to Kickstarter specifically we get early views of games how fleshed-out was the rulebook how finished is the prototype do we feel like this is ready for people to play out of the box or does it still need a year-and-a-half of development before it's ready to play so we'll touch on that then we're gonna look at the publisher shuffle affair games a little bit of a easy and hard one for us to touch on if I'm gonna be honest they're so massive that I don't have context to the personal side of them outside of my relationship with some of the marketing team behind them but we can also talk towards what they've done with Bloom Haven the support and the foundation that it has as a community and then finally we're gonna talk about value we're recording this before the Kickstarter page actually launches so we can launch it on the Kickstarter day itself but we're gonna talk about are we looking for any bonuses should you just hit all in kind of blanket price or is there some give and take just the core box or the prototype box that we got indicate that there will be enough without adding on a lot of extras yeah so that's the structure of this video if you've stayed through all of this subscriber I'm gonna punch you in the throat I mean let's uh as a call out to Philip DeFranco if anyone if anyone knows his subscriber count' boond like 30% when he told people who's going to punch you in the throat I'm gonna try it out let's start with an overview and flow Danmark feel free to take it what's this game doing so the overview the thing that's brought us back to the core gloom Haven was the actual mechanics of the game sure so yes there's story yesterday a vertex yes there's different characters but at the end of the day you have a deck of cards usually somewhere between 8 and 12 you're gonna play two at a time you get a top action and a bottom action and then own that has your initiative figure out who's gonna play first all the monsters you're fighting also have an initiative so you don't necessarily get to plan out 100% okay and usually the top actions are attacks the bombs are your moves with some of your special abilities mixed in between sure and you think that that sounds like a really simple Cormack panic for a game and it is like every single character plays so wildly differently that we were brought back to the game over and over and over again just to explore how that simple mechanic was used for another character so in core gloom Haven you're playing off of your character development I mean you're building and designing the personality of your deck to do those top and bottom actions to move around the board efficiently and have powerful pinpoint attacks when it matters right right what's this game doing different when it comes to that core concept so honestly this game is still capitalizing on that core cons for sure I mean just the characters we played in our playthrough you know some of the ones that are gonna come right out of the box ready to play there definitely seem to be an extra added layer of complexity as far as balancing some sort of resource via the shadows that that guy created or or you know the the positioning of the allies from this one or the the summons that marks character was creating but essentially that's still there it's a it's a relatively simple and management mechanic that's got you know it's like the sky is the limit I mean every character has multiple builds that you can share with them multiple characters multiple scenarios multiple situations you'll find the characters in it's it's like it's one of those games that I just never get tired of playing well and I expect more of the same from this and I would say that the characters that were playing here in frost Haven specifically are a little bit more complex or deeper I mean they're they're the environment of the start six characters yeah it's definitely deeper for the start six then will you get out of the box word and the environment of frost Haven is rugged more advanced kind of grizzled characters show up in this environment that's what the flavor text leading us to believe and these I think do exemplify that it shows growth in game design still using those core elements I mean this is 80% glue Haven right yes I and the stuff that changes is stuff that supplements or enhances the core crew Haven experience and makes it a deeper maybe more gamer focused game without really taking much away so I would say there's kind of two key elements that jumped out at me where it takes chord gloom Haven and a sort of like pun intended levels up okay a couple of aspects of the game and that is in its RPG and light aspect okay in addition to just your characters you're leveling up you're building this town yeah this town let's touch on that real quick so over here on this settlement map you'll see that we have a divided up here we have one zooms in to core frost Aven the outpost and then we have the northern coast that's where frost Haven actually exists now the cool thing with what frost Haven is doing when it comes to the other part of the gameplay instead of having a town of gloom Haven that you return to and do Road events at and get a little bit of boon depending on how the city's doing specifically here you're actually narratively and physically building this little outpost the settlement that you exist in and rotating through a series of seasons so every 15 rounds you're going to be going into winter winter lasts for six months or 15 rounds in this game and during that period of time you're going to be cut off from the outside world on your own dealing with the environments dealing with the creatures that live up in the kind of mountainous region here and doing your best to keep Frost even alive and and well yeah until summer comes back around and continue Boonen you can you building it up again this is a whole nother level from core blue Nathan yes you're doing the Explorer and adventurer but you're also bringing resources back home you know instead of just money you're using those to develop your settlement and what you do in your settlement matters for what you do later on in the game for instance if you develop a blacksmith or kind of grow your blacksmith you're going to have access to higher end are more higher end weapons but it could be at the expense of some city defenses your walls could be weaker the other apothecaries or than potions and magic shop you have could maybe not have as many resources forth and and those decisions matter it can and but that could also be something that might turn somebody off if somebody really just wants to get out there and kill murders and battle they don't really want to do that world of building sure they don't want to spend the extra we don't know how long it's going to take is gonna be an extra five minutes or two or three hours there's definitely intense divisional water ahead so it could be a little bit of a like you yeah but speaking of the materials that you go out and that's the other place where I think they kind of leveled up the dungeon crawler instead of just going out and you know sort of a very 8-bit style you know you go out and you gather a bunch of coins and you come back you go out and you get crafting materials potion materials all kinds of stuff you know they've replaced just the standard coins with this this loot deck deck oh you're throwing up when you pick up a coin you actually draw a loot garden it might be a coin or it might be a crafting material or it might be a you know whatever a potion item or you know whatever it might be so the core of gloom Haven is still here so for people that like gloom Haven this is probably one they want to take a closer look at that being said it does bring out or build up on a few elements I think the characters are more complex they're a little bit harder to play it's a deeper puzzle so if you got to the end of gloom Haven and weren't satisfied with what was there this may give you exactly what you want but if you felt like glue Haven was hard and I struggled to get through or like an overwhelmingly challenging game this one is going to be more advanced on top of that you're bringing in this settlement building outer area so you're concerned about your village beyond just your character profiles themselves that's intriguing to me but maybe all you really care about is your Deathwalker as a soul little vagabond if that's the case you do need to examine if the amount of settlement building here is the type of game you want to play but I would out are you even even if you do that you could pull out of the box just go and play well probably probably this nobody's gonna force you how to play or again in the overview of this at this very first point it is important to recognize that this is also going to be another to see game gloom Haven set the foundation and the framework for what our world kind of knows as legacy games right stickers that get pulled off a sheet and placed onto the map as you develop characters that have cards that are modified things that are ripped up storylines that adjust and change and you're never typically playing the same scenario with the same characters in the same situation ever again the box is meant to be opened played for a couple hundred hours and then be a finished piece when you're done with it right and if you really want to get a second or third couple hundred hours out of it you're kind of supposed to have a second or third core box yeah so this is legacy if legacy just Ryles your bones you just can't do it you can't rip a card or place a sticker or it's not the type of game you like it's important to know from the very beginning all the hype and excitement around frost Haven won't change the fact that at its core this is a journeying and adventure and a legacy driven adventure so it's great for me I love these type of games that continue on but I know some people my gaming group that despite what anyone says they just don't like it yeah so important to know that's the overview that's the framework let's talk about the theme what is going on here in frost atha so I love the theme of gloom Haven and now frost Haven again it really sets you up as your adventurers were hired to go help this outpost trudging through the winter arriving in the midst of a battle when the bad guys finally broke through sure and then you're now they're being welcomed in is partially the saviors of this small outpost and then they look at you to then help them solve their problem you're kind of being sent as reinforcements in a way right the first people from summer once the pass is cleared of snow that have been able to get up to frost Haven and see how they're doing and they're not doing well no all right you're coming into a scrappy little abandoned town doing your best to wage war and help them overcome the beast that just overwhelm their ranks and they have new leadership new people they're looking to you for help and asking you to go out journey and adventuring and rebuilding their city that's sort of the play sure of Laden now one element of the theme that is really important to me as a player is how does the theme of each character and theme of Frost Haven itself reinforce the mechanics were playing with I mean the the world itself that you're playing in right shirts it's a fantasy world it's not a space race it's not you know spies and whatever it's it's a fantasy world it's adventurers it's it's not you know tolkien-esque necessarily you know you don't have woodland elves and I mean they even want to develop their own more they have characters yeah and in fact that's one of the things I love about it this game but they kind of take that that that world view of you know the fantasy world but they it's an entirely original spin on it with you know original races of you know beasts and whatever and species or whatever you want to call them original storylines original characteristics that these things have I mean you see you definitely see the fantasy tropes are there if you like a classic fantasy style novel I mean this gives you a whole new genre direct flora right different types of familiar but it's familiar but it's not cooking yeah 100% and I like that they are trying to at least put some kind of a hook for wire these characters here yeah beyond yeah yeah every single character has a backstop to go up the adventure and for example the blink blade they're saying it's very atypical for this type of creature to be up this far north because they're small in size they don't survive in that kind of wilderness very well so there's there's something unique about him that for him to be up there there's something about it well and touching on the core here the map itself and our characters as we dove into these decks the thing I've been paying attention to is does the card play the more advanced structure of the card reinforce the type of character we have do they have to play true to their nature and then also does the idea of settlement building make sense in the context of frost Lu Haven was already a sprawling settlement this you would go in drink some at the bar and leave on an adventure that's the story that it was telling Frost Haven as a far outpost you know you're one of maybe a couple hundred people your impact here the stuff you do things you bring back really would have a massive effect on developing this community and so I like that that is now part of the core game along with that the seasons here in Frost Haven there's only six months of the year that is in summer and six monthly year that's in winter those seasons changing the threat level increasing and that being kind of a variable wheel that also fits really well with the theme and you can't quite tell which came first was it the story in the lore or was it the mechanic itself that inspired it and then we come over here to the characters the Deathwalker or the drifter they exist and play from their deck in a way that reinforces the personalities of their character and then I really think they've done an excellent job at bringing this world to life through the game play them through the core mechanics so as far as theme goes for me I'm of course naturally soul I find that the gameplay is reinforced well by the theme which is really important to me but that theme that core idea itself if you like token esque or you know fantasy tropes that have a spin something unique on that genre new characters and personalities and worlds and lures to explore that are familiar but never quite familiar to the point of being cliche the world that cephalo fair games has built up is something worth exploring so that's the theme the only caveat to that but if you're the type of person that doesn't like to go out and mindlessly attacking other species of creatures that are around in your area for again depending on how well it's written into the story into the plot you probably might not really catch the hook for the game because at the end of the day it is about going out with your character and attacking and being attacked by monsters so if that type of game with that type of genre doesn't appeal to you then this might be a Miss but again if you really like puzzles and mechanics and how you do that system says the man that just slaughtered like three gorillas on the on the map here deserved it so that's the theme let's go ahead and talk about the gameplay itself what elements are you looking at that may convince you to back or not back frost Haven specifically so beyond we already hit a little bit on some of the core mechanic of the game again you're at the end of the day playing those two cars top to bottom action we don't need to go any more that but inside of the gameplay they snuck in little gems like there's supposedly a puzzle inside of the game that hits on almost like an escape room asking is something that we don't have too much information no information on yeah whatsoever for what that is and I personally love exit games okay my wife and I play them all the time together and that just is just one more little thing that they snuck into a game that is already fantastic well the stuff we know is that it could be clues or coded symbols or items that reveal that you're looking for a specific pattern in colors right and so you have some of this information like maybe the lore or the text from Frost Haven and you're figuring out this story as you go along and some of the stuff you've had from the very beginning you won't know how to read it until you get the piece of information that you're looking for knowing that it's all the purple elements that go together or this symbol exactly what I'm saying I think that it sends us that was kind of the the concept that it gave us now this is something I haven't seen any work on specifically I don't have to play it anything I haven't seen it produced we were sent a kind of scenario driven and core game driven prototype the concept is very intriguing so that's new in here and as far as core gloom Haven goes we didn't see much of that no we saw them make an attempt at it to try to sneak in different patterns and symbols okay that you would then decode into another storyline or plot to expand out some other scenarios but to me it was always a little bit of distraction we never really got into it they also had town records book that did add a little bit to a story okay and stuff like that a little it wasn't really a puzzle it's just you do this thing you move to the next thing you get to this level you go to the next thing you beat this scenario you move to the next thing so there wasn't really found it sounds like they really flushed it out and really made it a part of the game you Sherman and you're excited about that oh I'm personally eustatic about it yeah if it is as advertised it's going to be a great addition but it's a great addition that now takes more time for a game that already takes a lot of time sure what should be is exciting okay but if you're again just out there wanting to get through the core mechanics now it's just one more layer of potentially stuff one other worry about one of the gameplay elements for me that I think I was always missing a little bit from core blue Haven is that continuous line of war the writing's good like the flavor has always been nice the world development if you dig into it has always been there for you to dig into but the narrative the progression the why my heroes exist outside of their own personal story wasn't ever quite it did never quite sell me I'm really hoping that with the integration of the settlement building mechanic and the more advanced and personalized characters we start seeing that maybe run a little bit of a deeper chord um it feels like they've touched on it with the intro I already feel connected and immersed in this world that we exist in and I know that this settlement it being alive and healthy is heavily dependent on me being alive and healthy as well I like that I like that balance definitely the hooks before you venturing in this area and now gave the opportunity for us to take agency and the development of that town yeah and so for me as far as gameplay goes I'm really really hopeful for that part specifically what about you dad so for me it's it's a co-op game yeah I love co-op game sure I'm a big fan of co-op games I like I like the way that you know you and your friends can kind of interact with each other toward a common goal and in the case of a co-op game like this I really enjoy how the different characters interplay with each other and play on each other and the synergies they can get from the different character so these more advanced character decks and yeah yes see them we and and how I mean that's one of my favorite things you know playing core gloom Haven with mark over the past year or so is is you know we set each other you know set them up and knock them down right and and as you learn how to play the different characters you learn how to play the different characters off of each other hmm and to me that's one of the the most rewarding parts of the game and I'm really excited about what this what what this promises to bring to the table in that respect for some of these couple complex new characters that you know despite a hundred new scenarios and a deeper richer kind of side game going on here with with the town outpost we get a bunch of new characters with a bunch of more you know a bunch more complexity that we really get to dive into and play off of each other and and that's probably the thing that I am single-handedly most excited about is just more characters to dive into so if you made it through the elements that we are excited about the reasons we are potentially backing this game the things we're looking for let's move on to the accessibility um and in this conversation we have a little bit of a two-fold conversation right like we can talk towards Frost Haven to a degree but I think we'll probably be looking back on gloom Haven specifically I know I personally owned a core of glue Haven for well over a year before I ever played it yes I don't regret owning a core of blue Haven for over a year I'm super glad I have it and have it on hand and am able to get it to the table at some point but these games are not easy to table unless you're purposeful like you guys have been so let's talk about player count how you guys got it to the table and what people can expect from something that is the size and scope and scale of glucose so from an accessibility standpoint it's definitely I mean even with Mark and I making it a point to regularly get it to the table you know we've got full-time jobs we've got you know a whole life outside of unfortunately a whole life outside of just playing games all day for a night and and it's you know we have to like dedicate hey once a month we're gonna get her on the table 1 and sometimes it's every couple months with my go without getting table because there is a lot of overhead as I said earlier there's a lot of setup and teardown there's a lot of pieces there's map building there's some paperwork aspects because it is you know it does have a very real RPG element to it where you're building a character you're you know buying buying equipment and and you to have been really purposeful about that kind of setup and getting the table type of mechanic right so we actually took the time to invest in a better organization of the game and thank goodness there's a great community ground around glue Havel with the helper apps and things like that that really streamlined gameplay but again we focused on getting the two of us to the room and the game plays great to player yeah and we invited other friends and one thing that worked really well so even if it is hard to get to the table if you do have other friends that want to come in and out their characters can come in and out mhm we'll just upgrade the scenario to a three player scenario and they might be at a lower level but then it downgrades the hardness mhm to account for that they might miss out on then some of the lore some of the story well why are we going to fight this guy or what happened to that building and if that's something they really want to be a part of and now you need to get three people together on a regular basis and I would say every single one of our sessions were minimum two or three hours because when we do get together we want to play a couple of we want to play through a couple of scenarios right we don't want to bring it all out driver so we had done something I would encourage people to consider when deciding to back this game first off if you are solo gamer Frost Haven and gloom Haven both are going to be able to be fully tabled solo you can play the core game and feel rewarded and supported and really have a great time if you already know that you know how to solo a game and you enjoyed solo and gloom Haven at sea no qualms in it if you're not sure if you know how to solo a game go pick up a few classic solo games see if you can enjoy time at a table by yourself and then possibly examine frost daemon and see if it's the right type of game for you and one that you want to dedicate a decent amount of time to because if you like soloing these are some of the best games on the market for that style of play if you like a story driven thing the other thing that I want to encourage is if you're not a solo gamer like when it comes to legacy games I usually am NOT I want to see them with a friend or with a story more often than not this game is going to exist best at two players just like you guys did it's gonna be the easiest way to get it to the table easiest way to kind of structure a routine that allows you to play it with a friend or two popping in or out if you have a core game group of at least one other person this may be something you both want to dedicate a significant amount of time to or if you have a core gaming group of three or four or five maybe one person wants to have it and you all want to dip into the story and maybe not see every part of it but continue the campaign along there's various ways to play this in various ways to not do what I did which is leave it on the shelf for well over a year which again I don't regret I'm glad I've got to see and witness this and I wanted to make sure I had a copy of it to do so because I know what type of gamer I am but it is something to consider yeah and and it is definitely I mean as much as I love this game you know this game being gloom Haven slash frost Aven in this case I can't deny if you're if you're averse to solo experiences yeah or if you don't have somebody to really kind of dedicate and sink their teeth into it with you and get it back to the table you're gonna have a hard time getting this to the table sure yeah that's true and it's one of those games that some people try to leave set up in a dedicated space like it takes up it takes up table room it takes up hours of the day I mean it is an event to actually do it and if you have it doesn't mean it's not worth it if you have a cat isn't a giant box full of cat toys that's true that's true so that's touching on the accessibility though there's one more element of accessibility I'd actually like to a little bit okay this isn't an overly complex game to play the rules overhead itself when it comes to gloom Haven how hard was it for you all to learn and play and get started I think and with this being maybe 20% more advanced we can kind of equate it I know fairly approachable so we did have to negate some time to it okay I had to read through the rules and just accept the fact that we were going to make some mistakes fair enough yeah but again the community around glue Haven is phenomenal and I'm expecting that community to translate into frost tape I do too yeah and there's little how-to is like one of the hardest thing to get right was the monster moves yeah okay so we just accepted the fact that we made mistakes and moved on because you're still great and we still lost some games anyway you don't really cheated by not no no but there is there is a bit of rule overhead you will have to spend some time reading it you'll probably run to a video to of combo mistakes yeah but the cool thing is that there will be from initial launch a community there you can be a part of yes and one there that is ready to engage with and answer questions and be available for some of the challenges you face I've never not been able to get an answer man which is cool I mean it's something that if you're going to go head over heels into a game right having that support there already that Network that community is immensely valuable let's go ahead and move over into the development okay so let's talk about the context that we have is going to be the prototype that we were sent but where do we feel it is from the components the artwork the the way the cards and mechanics are playing like what's your sense of core frost Haven from what we've been given my gut reaction is it's very well thought out and very well developed the map overview the map right there is beautiful oh I love it yeah it's like tactically feels hurry as your art looks fantastic everything is clear looks wonderful some of the colors here probably gonna be improved a little bit hard to read the backs of some of these sure so maybe the initial maybe edit some of the initial printing maybe fill it up make it a little bit bigger of a text the minis that we're not showing you in this video are amazing actually because this video is going live on the thing they have seen b-roll of this okay the minute you're just not on the table in front of us right I was very impressed with the four minutes and we got they I personally thought they looked cleaner than some of the minis sure but the original one maybe there's a resin so the actual molds might look a little worse when he goes mass-producing I don't know and I didn't feel like there's anything broken in this character hmm I felt like it was a balance of high initiative low initiative I always want lower initiative but you know you can't always have what you want so I felt like the balance of our characters was about right where it was hard we felt like we might lose and then crescendo to an epic end this was the perfect is the correct pretend okay I have to say the six characters that we have here the ones that we've been able to dive into they feel healthy and built out and developed now that being said we didn't get sent everything in a core box right I would be willing to bet there's still development being made on late game and mid game stuff probably I like where they've started though I feel very confident by the stuff that they've given me has left me feeling very confident in the product that they're producing and the things that they're changing from core Blue Haven into frosted oh yeah and based on the six characters we've seen and based on nightmares of gloom Haven I personally have very little doubt that the development is where it needs to be a true point in the in the department cycles and the Kickstarter process clone maven didn't disappoint you know if you if you look at character build spoiler type things and impaired to what ultimately came in the box there might be a couple of things that were a rabbit or tweeked you know as they made made their way to mass production but I I am confident that what comes out of the box on release day is going to be and look at these things yeah things are great art is amazing the art and emphasize and decide that's awesome they are epic giant monsters compared to the size of the originals like an you can tell they've already thought out gives it a very like old-school Final Fantasy feel you know not idea your characters are these little teeny tiny things against these and these aren't the like the big boxes cream no there's like things in the North that are coming to destroy they just exist yeah yeah and again they they clearly put thought behind the size of those and I want to see them I want to see more of them you want one that's like a dragon egg I want to drag in that big okay thanks reasonable else I'll let uh I'll let the team's specific okay uh that's a good place for us to branch off on like there's not too much we can dive into the prototype here right we all we have is our limited context the few scenarios have sent us and the characters literally like one percent of the game but part of our conversation there is also around the publisher itself shuffle affair games the stuff they've put out what's your sense of this fixture I mean you are we going into this gift shorter feeling confident in the publisher their communication habits their ability to deliver on time you know I mean they designed a game that is rated number one on bgg for the past year yeah for the past couple years what is our sense going into this do you feel like can we go in confident in what they've delivered what they're willing what you know what they're able to produce will they deliver on time what's the gamble for me so my understanding was when they came out with glue hey they're relatively unknown and by that I mean completely unknown and they just hit an absolute home run like an absolute home rather the perfect balance of everything to give me everything they were looking yeah and I just I have to give them the benefit of the doubt if you can do that as a first design first publish I expect them to eat know that know yeah sure the expectation for me is is really quite high one of the things that I can talk towards and I didn't back initial gloom Haven but I can talk towards the people I've dealt with when it comes to cephalo fair games specifically they have and I don't know if they have had a history of communication being a rough thing usually with new public hit it out of the park that balance of how much feedback you give the community how quickly you respond I mean it becomes overwhelming very quickly they have a individual who has been hired on the team price has been absolutely fantastic he's been my contact point for getting access to this prototype putting up content you know early developing getting it questions answered when it comes to rules and clarifications throughout this entire process and so in context to that I'm excited by the individuals that I know of in the team itself I feel very confident in their ability to interact with fans give feedback and support and hopefully integrate some of the things fans have been talking about and the ideas they have into the structure and development process of the game and also again you know with my experience with this publisher really just being gloomy Aven right I think the world of them I mean the product is amazing they have little Easter eggs throughout it that that invoke you know the the artists creativity the designers creativity a little there's personality and sure you know they let the the artists and the designers personality shine if you mark if you remember the original gloom Haven there was that additional hidden envelope that was like stuck to the bottom of the game tray in the box that we didn't know what was there for the first few months and we somehow stumbled upon it and it was nice just these little things up grab the trades like oh yeah these little these little things that really bring personality out in the game itself and just I just make it a joy and for a company to be able to do that and still make like the number one game and get it to retail shelves and make it available and yes there was there was a shortage fixed on the immense popularity right out of the gates that they had but they did another printing they caught up sure they got it out so that everybody who wanted one can get one I have I would have no reservations about confidently backing this on Kickstarter and being confident that I was going to get the product that I was mr. Wynn I was bounced it now one one thing I do want to touch on though because games like this bring a whole new audience to the Kickstarter platform people that haven't backed 100 titles like I have right um I would honestly be surprised if Frost Haven shows up exactly when they expect it to whatever their guesstimated date is I mean with the chaos that's happening right now in the world with production in China and the variable process that goes into final development final art assets printing over in China getting all the plastic kind of molded and finished and mailed over here and then distribution across the world Kickstarter's are always a risk now in frost avens case the risk isn't will it arrive or will it be a finished game which in some cases they are right in frost Damon's case the only real risk I see this win is honestly win and I genuinely would be shocked and surprised if it was on the date specifically so they probably should say when I when I say getting what I expected when I accept I should copy out that when I expect that I don't think a Kickstarter is ever I've seen some that are somehow ready to print the moment but there are other things that are outside of their control sometimes and well so what I mean by that is I have the utmost confidence that it's not going to be a situation where the company takes your money hmm drops the ball in the production process finds themselves in over their head and suddenly can't make shipments well and that's that's why we'll very what I wanted okay so for all of you deciding if this is something to back your risk when it comes to Kickstarter as far as and I've had games where I have lost money on them right like I know that experience that sucks I feel no I have no problem saying frost David will not be one of those as low risk this is low risk when it comes to that the only debate is around when you actually get to put it on the table and I think it'll take like I don't know when they're estimated date is and it'll probably be more one of those like quarter or wave sure yeah I genuinely no matter what they say I genuinely would be surprised if it hits exactly by the date they're promising you not that not that they can't estimate well but just it's the nature of the beast uh if you're hopping on to the Kickstarter if you're backing it it will show up at your door be patient be gracious just be you know I'd say extend a little bit of charity in terms of when the games actually gonna arrive granted I'm also a kingdom deaf fan like you are and so I'm still waiting on years the piles of stuff years of delays so I'm they're great when they get there no that's true but but my and my capacity for for patience is may be extended a bit I'm not sure so the last thing we want to touch on after all of these elements are discussion around this is going to come down to the value um I know this game is going to be a hundred plus shipping so a hundred ish what's our cents at the core value of the game should people back it at that price and if there was any other things tick starters sometimes have exclusives or upgrades or inserts and things that they maybe have learned along the process is there anything we should maybe would be willing to put extra money behind keeping our eyes out for or like a hundred flat on the core game and don't touch any of the like extra stuff what's our sense of things so I think you know yes 100 seems like a lot of money to spend on a game but honestly when you take into consideration the quality of the components the quality of the gameplay and the sheer number of hours of gameplay and fun that you get out of this game if you table the entirety of this game or again you're making like you're paying that fifty cents an hour at the dollar per hour amount is insane this game is it's a bargain height I think the value proposition Haven and frost Haven is amazing no no the best you're gonna find despite its large volume and despite its three digit price tag it's one of the best bang for your buck you're gonna find if you'll table it and Mack and we always able that's what we became thriller this video now me personally I'm the type of backer that Scrolls down to the bottom of the line and hits that all in button no matter what I just done it's the type of person I am I hate knowing that there's something I didn't get so for me in my head I would not be looking at sleeving everything here you know I would sleeve every I know I don't know get out of here I because this is a legacy game I'm not stressing sleeving too much I'm willing to let the components work that being said I I love metal coins I already know I'm gonna need an insert or an organizer to help structure the box so and and the app that they have for gloom Haven that I think fans developed was a giant boon to the accessibility of them yes so those are the three things I personally would be looking at putting more money for like hoping there's a stretch goal that hits I want them to park it I want them to partner with broken token or another kind of insert company and give me the option to get a fully developed insert and ready to go right from Ground Zero because if I break this open and have everything in baggies it just takes so much to like get into the table without that extra support I would love an app I'd love for them to partner with the fans or get the fans a core game of this way ahead of time so that they can actually develop and refine that core gloom Haven app and make it something we can table frost Haven with the mechanics on paperwork well they do but if you're playing solo that's where I really think it comes in and like I mean you almost have to just to do all the accounting all the paperwork all the little numbers games so you're not adding up you know you're not pausing every 30 seconds to do all the addition and subtraction and then I just really like metal coins and like upgraded little mini components so if they had that if they had some upgraded tokens if they had some terrain pieces or if they had like collector's edition metal gloom Haven or Frost Haven coins I would probably be willing to invest in those because I like that tactile feel what are the things that I mean are you thinking or only or well when I backed it I did get an extra set of the minis sure way if I want to paint one I could still play my care yeah where I could pull them out better than have the time and still have the options of doing that or I all sort of suck at painting minis I want through the primarily errors and stuff like that okay would you be looking at doing the same thing I probably would have an extra set of a mile so like that they had some of the the core characters they have a little sandy character versions of them so if something like your dog chewed Germany wants a cardboard standee character they had them and they turned out to be helpful and to be honest actually stole them from other game cool to use this things like that but I'll say I don't think you have to buy anything extra there's already anything extra is gonna come down into how easy it is the table yeah uh and how pretty or tactile you write the game that you already know you're gonna love to be absolutely so I'm perfectly fine with all standees I like the resin minis of the actual hero characters I'm fine with standards I actually really enjoy the Arcana my I think that's cool I agree I do think and and I'm not it's strange we got despite the fact that I am an avid member of the Church of slaves and I sleep mmm-hmm I'm I'm not huge on necessarily metal coins and stuff but I would like little 3d logs yeah those would be super quieting that my super cool terrain elements that just kind of yeah they're just gonna make it 3d I agree I would love to see like the little core minis box that is just terrain supplemental stuff right I buy that I'm sure that Kickstarter there is some that stuff available through I I'm talking core Kickstarter like the fan gems canary yeah the fans are always gonna create stuff that supports the game right that being said if you've watched to this point of the video odds are you're gonna be like me and you're gonna scroll down to the bottom and hit be all or nothing button cuz you're 50 minutes in and you probably watch some over other stuff here's what you can do if you've watched at this point it means something here was worth staying tuned for share this video really I'm gonna assume you've already subscribed because if you've watched to hear its kind of the way you can say thank you for the time we've put into producing this and I'll say you're welcome but really if you're here the couple hundred or dozen of you that made it to this point share this on whatever platform a community you exist in whether that's your core game group chat to five or six other people whether that's a Facebook page you're a big part of so that they know a trusted source is sharing something that you found valuable bgg board game Atlas reddit wherever you're engaged with people let them know that we're making content that matters we're still the reality is we're still a small duck in a very big pond and doing our very best to learn how to quack so we appreciate you being here whatever you do though whether you do all of that or none of it I still appreciate you being here whatever you do remember do do the important thing get out and play some games we'll see you next time thank you

Channel: Quackalope

Views: 31,650

Keywords: boardgames, games, tabletop, tabletopgames, player, play, gamer, quack, quackalope, kickstarter, ian, ttg, flgs, howtoplay, unboxing, gameplay, game, middara, jrpg, rpg, overview, boardgamegeek, bgg, manvsmeeple, meeplegamers, review, preview, Quackalope, right / wrong, frosthaven, gloomhaven, frost, before you back, ks

Id: u-_FhsSXkv0

Length: 48min 38sec (2918 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 31 2020