A unique board game set in the ice age that combines worker placement and deck building in an innovative way.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
PPC (Pre-production) vol.2
over 4 years ago
– Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 11:46:51 PM
Greetings, Dear Tribe Members!
We hope you are all having a great summer! Please forgive us for the shortness of this update, but this is because we are still in the PPC process. Although it’s a demanding process and there is a lot of work involved, there isn’t much in the way of news to share with you as we continue to work hard!
PPC (Pre-production)
We are happy to let you know that after some back and forth with the factory, our files of the core game (English version) were finally approved to move forward. We expect the PPC will start this week, and hopefully we’ll have some images to share with you in our next update. We are very happy with how smoothly this process went.
Rulebooks - Development - Playtests
This is the tough part. We admit that the rulebooks in combination with the game’s development turned out to be quite demanding.
We continue to focus hard on the development of the expansions, solo, modules, and promo cards. As they are all interconnected, it is very challenging to achieve the perfect balance between them, but so far our team, alongside the invaluable help of our discord and BGG community, is doing a great job. We are thrilled to see how all these products can be combined and, in many cases, mixed and matched in order to provide an incredible amount of replayability.
Aurora Borealis and alternative Chief abilities were the last things to test. Both of them are now done and they are in the process of playtesting. In our next update we plan to present how-to-plays for both of them.
We are also glad to let you know that the rulebooks of all the side products are done and in the proofing stage. Of course, keeping the proofing process of the core rulebook in mind, this might take several weeks to finish. Our plan is to have everything done on our side this week, and then let our community check them for any additional comments. We endeavor to get the best version of the rulebook and game’s assets to you in order to avoid any future erata. Thus, as we’ve stated, this is turning out to be a challenging and time-consuming process with many back and forth changes.
Having said the above, we should admit that this is the first time we are facing a small delay in our timelines. Our initial goal was to deliver all the assets of the game by the end of the month. It seems that we will need 2-3 more weeks to do so. We will keep you updated.
What’s Next
As you might have guessed, our next step is to finish all of our files ASAP and pass them for PPC and for translation to our licensees. This will be an exciting moment because we’ll be one step closer to the beginning of mass production! We would like to thank you all for taking this journey with us, and we would also like to thank our almost 2K late backers who are still joining our community every day. We always strive to ensure we are going to deliver the game at its best to you, and as always we are here to answer any of your questions.
That’s all for now. Until next time, stay safe and play a lot of board games!
—Fantasia Games
PPC (pre-production) STARTED!
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, Jun 09, 2021 at 01:38:53 AM
Greetings, Dear Tribe Members!
The day has come, and we are excited to tell you that yesterday we shared all of the core files with our manufacturer (except from the solo rulebook). For this reason, this update will be brief since we spent most of our time finalizing and passing the assets of the game to our manufacturer. Over the next couple of days we will make sure that the files are approved. Additionally, during the following weeks we will work hard in order to finalize and deliver the rest of the assets (modules-expansions). Once we are done, a custom copy will be produced and sent to us for proofing. Having said that, we are happy to inform you that we are still on track for our initial plan of a December delivery.
Tournament
Although the tournament was decided literally at the last minute, we are really excited with the outcome of it. We would also like to thank Dale Keefer, who did an amazing job as the tournament’s organizer.
Forty-four gamers around the world participated in the tournament. We had the chance to witness some really great and close games, but, most of all, to witness that the game provided many ways to victory and not just one specific pattern. In the meantime, it helped us refine the benefits of the idol track and the rule of playing culture cards.
All in all the tournament was a success at every level. Congratulations to our winners:
1st place: Demagogue
2nd place: David Houck
3rd place: Grofindel
4th place: Glutbear
Thank you again to all of our participants; we hope you had a great time! And we cannot wait to do this again in the future!
Development
The last few weeks we mostly focused on testing the Cave Paintings expansion and solo, and we are very happy with the results. In our next update we are going to have an extensive presentation on both of them.
Before we go, we are delighted to share with you the thoughts of David (2nd place winner of the tournament) after he playtested some of the expansions and modules with us:
Another day, another playtest of Endless Winter! 😍 I was hoping I could try the Cave Paintings expansion today, but the focus was mainly on testing the Ancestors Expansion... as well as the Canine Familiars Module and the Ceremonial Grounds module. In the interest of time I'll just jot down a couple of takeaways I had from playing with this expanded version of Endless Winter--in order of how excited I was about each one.
1. I love the Glacier tokens. With the base game, you're always a little bummed when you have to build a village adjacent to a glacier tile, but now you not only get to go out and explore the bonuses on those tiles, but you also get the immediate bonus for placing a village on those intersections! It makes the terrain board much more interesting, and I know my friend Gary enjoyed chasing after those benefits.
2. I really like the Ceremonial Grounds module. It adds almost nothing to the rules overhead, but it still gives you something to work toward and makes the last few eclipse phases really tense as you hold your breath hoping someone doesn't take the card you wanted. We scored between 10 and 15 points using those cards, so they're pretty important to the game!
3. The Canine familiars weren't anything too groundbreaking, just a neat card you can draw instead of one from your deck when you rest. I did like that you could immediately use those canine cards to bolster your eclipse phase, though! And they're very handy if you use them when you're going to that action, but I don't think I ever ended up using mine during my action phase!
4. I was a little apprehensive about the Prosperity and Strife culture cards (I get a significant benefit, you get a lesser benefit) when I first played with them a month ago, but it seems like they've balanced out those cards a lot and made them more interesting and appealing. I don't know if I enjoy playing them (thereby helping my opponents), but I sure love when someone else plays one!
Thank you again to Fantasia Games for finding time in your very busy schedule to play with us this morning, and thank you to Dimmok for playing again with me! Looking forward to giving that Cave Paintings expansion a try sometime soon!
That’s all for now. Until next time, stay safe and play a lot of board games!
Fantasia Team
One Step Closer!
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, May 19, 2021 at 11:43:27 PM
Greetings, Tribe Members!
We are here, working non stop, every day, 24/7 ! :)
FINALIZING
We are currently facing the busiest and most demanding period of the project, working hard to finalize all of its assets.
Firstly we are happy to announce that the core rulebook is officially done and it will be sent today to our licensees. We want to thank everyone that commented on it and helped us make a better version of it. You can download it and check it out here:
On June 1st we plan to pass all of the core’s assets to Panda in order to start the pre-production. Exciting right? :)
Then we will need to pass the rest of the assets until mid-end of June. We are happy to share with you the current state for each of them:
Ancestors expansion: Mostly done and tested (except for the alt. Chief cards),
River and Rafts expansion: Done and tested.
Rest Module: Done and tested.
Glacier Module: Done and tested.
Canine Module: Done and tested.
Ceremonial Grounds Module: Done and tested.
Solo: Work in progress
Cave Paintings: Work in progress
Aurora Borealis: Work in progress
and..
Promo Animals: Done and tested.
Now we already know that we promised you that we would ask your opinion about their mechanics, but Jon came with some cool ones already that we didn't want to spoil. Have a look for yourself :)
Promo animals
Saber Toothed Squirrel
Setup: Shuffle in top 1/2 Animal deck.
Eclipse: Reveal up to 3 Animal cards, take 1. - Cannot be tipped
The Nut
Setup: Shuffle in bottom 1/2 Animal deck.
Final scoring: Without squirrel -10VP. With Squirrel 10VP. - Cannot be tipped
Yeti
Eclipse: Score 1 Sacred Stone (again) - Cannot be tipped
WASHED MINIS
We just received samples of the washed minis and they look awesome. It took some time to find the effect we were looking for but the result was totally worth it. Take a look for yourself :)
ENDLESS WINTER TOURNAMENT
We are thrilled to announce you the 1st E.W. tournament!!! Yayyy!
The purpose of this tournament is first and foremost to have fun and give the chance to players from all around the world to compete and meet each other! The idea really came out of nowhere a couple of days ago, and we decided to do our best in order to organise it with lighting speed and make it happen. We think it’s a win-win situation since we are all going to have fun, but at the same time stress test the core game before we pass the finalized file to the factory.
If you want to know more about the rules of the tournament follow this discord link:
Final: 30/05-31/05 We will try to stream the final match.
Have you tried the updated TTS version of Endless Winter?
A successful tournament needs some special goodies, so after asking for your opinion about prize ideas, we come back with the following:
1st Place: A full painted set of Chief minis alongside a painted Mammoth.
2nd Place: Chief Pledge
3rd Place: Shaman Pledge
4th Place: Pathfinder Pledge
Painted set of minis
Players that are already backers and win a prize, they can either get their pledge for free or they can add their prize on their pledge. The painted set of minis will be sent separately from the pledge manager.
In order to be eligible for participation players should:
a) know the rules of E.W. (core game) and how the game is played beforehand
b) have a Tabletop Simulator account
c) have a Discord account
We hope you are excited as we are. Let’s have some endless fun together! Follow this link in order to participate in the tournament:
As you might have correctly guessed, we will keep on finalizing all the assets of the game as we are heading towards the pre production. The next 30 days we will be literally on fire, so wish us some luck :)
Stay safe and see you at the tournament!
—Fantasia
Tournament Rules:
Players can enter the tournament by writing their full name, discord profile and their country in the "registrations" text channel.
(Ex: Thanos Argiris - Thanos#7981 - Cyprus)
In order to be eligible for participation players should:
a) know the rules of E.W. and how the game is played beforehand
This tournament will use only the core game and none of the expansions available. - Registrations will be open until Wednesday 19/05/21. - On Thursday 20/05/21 all the teams will be announced on the "program" text channel.
Depending on the number of participants there will be 3 or 4 stages of games until the final. - The games of the 1st phase will be of a 3-4 player count. After the announcement of the program for the 1st phase players will have to arrange a common day and time for their game through discord until the ending date given for the specific phase.
If a player is unresponsive to the discord messages please contact Dale (find his details on discord) This player will be disqualified from the competition.
The winners of each game advance to the next phase. After each game players should upload their scores and a screenshot of the table. If any of the winners of the 1st phase cannot participate in the next phase please contact Dale. His or her place will be taken to the highest 2nd place finisher of the 1st phase. If there are multiple players who share the same high score the player will be determined by a draw.
Players can use the voice channels of this server and they may stream their games if they wish.
Let's all have an amazing tournament with joy, respect and healthy competition And may the best tribe member win!!!
RIVERS & RAFTS Expansion, Modules, and more
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 03:37:40 AM
Greetings, Tribe Members!
We are full speed ahead working hard in finalizing the core rulebook, making some final tweaks, and developing the expansions and modules. The whole team of Fantasia is on fire. Here is a recap of what’s happened in the last three weeks.
Rest Action, Animal Iconography, and New Setup Cards
Firstly, we’ve had some graphic design updates achieving a more streamlined experience. Here are a few of these updates:
We’ve renamed the Eclipse action to Rest action. Eclipse action seemed to be misleading since it gave the impression that it’s connected with the Eclipse phase when it actually wasn’t. By renaming it as Rest action, it now represents the idea that a player may go there in order to gain basic resources and come back in the following turn. So we’re quite happy with this change as it makes things sound cleaner.
Rest Action
The animal type iconography was not only difficult to recognize, but it was restrictive for the new animals that we are including in the expansions. Therefore, we’ve created a more minimalistic approach that is effective for all the animals of the same color and not just the core ones.
Updated Animal iconography
This gave us the idea to rework our setup cards by using only icons. This way the core setup cards will be functional for all the expansions. Everything is clean and tidy now!
Updated Setup Cards
Finally, we made some adjustments to the number of animal cards in the game (to avoid having them running out during play). Instead of 45, we now have 60 for the core game (and 60 more in the Ancestors expansion). Please note: we removed the extra setup cards planned for Ancestors since, with the new Animal icons noted above, they would be redundant.
TTS Updated
Some of you might have noticed that we have updated our official TTS game with the deluxe components, because why not? 😊 We’ve also added a “one piece” rulebook to make your life easier. Nevertheless, for those who know the updated rules already, we’ve highlighted some rules we modified over the weekend.
We’re excited to share with you some components from the expansions and modules we’ve done so far. If you want more information about them, you can check Jonny’s overview. We’ve also uploaded them on TTS, and the team is in the process of heavily playtesting them. This material will continue to be worked internally for now, but expect us to share it for your feedback sometime soon.
Rest Tokens (ex Eclipse Tokens) - Module
These are rewards for the first player to use a Rest action during a round. It’s similar to the benefits players get for being the first to use an Action Column, but now there is a unique benefit for the first player to use the Rest action too.
Rest tokens module
Glacier Tokens - Module
When a Camp is moved onto a glacier Terrain tile with a face-down glacier token, flip it face up. When you build a Village that influences a glacier tile, immediately gain the bonus depicted on the glacier token. This adds a lot of variability to the map, and makes glaciers—which used to be “nothing”—into something pretty exciting.
Glacier tokens module
Rivers and Rafts: Expansion
The following images are from a TTS playtest we had the other day. This expansion makes the Terrain of the game super fun. Jonny did an excellent job with it. If you want to know a bit more, scroll down to his notes.
Rivers & Rafts expansion
Rivers & Rafts expansion
Mammoth - Module
Players can now also move the Mammoth instead of their Camps. The Mammoth is placed in a similar fashion as Villages, and it casts Influence on all three of the Terrain hexes it touches. If you have an equal or greater amount of Influence on a tile with the Mammoth, you gain double the tile’s benefits—but if your influence is lower, you gain nothing. The Mammoth's Influence is always equal to the round’s number, meaning in Round 1, the Mammoth casts 1 Influence on each of the three Terrain hexes it touches; in Round 2, it casts 2 Influence—and so on.
Special Announcement! Unconscious Mind
This Special Announcement section was created to give us a space to share some Fantasia Games news that is not always related to Endless Winter. After the announcement of Sarah Shah becoming Fantasia’s Community Manager, we are excited to share the final cover art of our next game “Unconscious Mind.” We’ve been working on it for the last two years. We are so honored to have two prominent artists: Andrew Bosley (Everdell) and Vincent Dutrait (Lewis & Clark) working on it. All of the artwork of the game, including the cover, is created in equal parts, with Andrew illustrating the dream world and Vincent illustrating the real world.
If you want to learn more, please follow this BGG link—and if you like what you see, feel free to subscribe:
We are extremely happy to see the video game website TheGamer, which has over three million followers on Facebook, suggesting Endless Winter among some other great upcoming board game titles. Have a look here:
Also our friends from Overboard Games will have a live discussion, Q&A with Drake Villareal. If you have questions regarding Endless Winter solo, Canine and Ceremonial Ground modules, make sure to join the discussion.
What’s Next
The plan for the following few weeks is pretty much the same. Working, working, and working some more in order to finalize everything—especially the expansions. Our current schedule is to pass the core rulebook and card titles to our localization partners for translation by the end of this month. Then by the end of May, we will deliver the English version files to Panda to start the PCC, and all the remaining assets to our licensees in order to complete their translations. One thing is for sure, the next month will be quite a marathon!
That’s all for now!
Happy Gaming,
—Fantasia
Expansions & Modules — Jonny Pac’s notes
Rest Tokens Module
Setup: Shuffle the 5 Eclipse tokens and randomly reveal 1 face up.
Play: The first player to use the Rest action can either choose to take the face-up tile, or choose one of the remaining face-down tokens (and discard the face-up one). They immediately gain the benefits shown on the token, as well as the usual Rest-action benefits (draw 1 card and/or tip 1 animal). At the start of the next round, a new Rest token is revealed. It’s simple, but it makes going to the Rest action much more interesting—and powerful! We highly recommend playing with it in every game.
Glaciers Tokens Module
Setup: Shuffle the glacier tokens and randomly place 1 face down on each glacier Terrain tile on the map.
Play: When a Camp is moved onto a glacier tile with a face-down glacier token, flip it face up. When you build a Village on a glacier tile, immediately gain the bonus shown.
Mammoth Module
Setup: Place the Mammoth figure near the Terrain map.
Play: Whenever you trigger a move-Camp action, you may forgo moving a Camp and instead move the Mammoth. When you move the Mammoth, it can be placed directly on any vacant 3-tile juncture.
Effect: The Mammoth casts Influence on all three hex tiles it touches equal to the current round (i.e. Round 1 = 1 Influence; Round 3 = 3 Influence, etc)
If the Mammoth has the most Influence on a tile, it prevents the tile from giving the player(s) any of the normal Eclipse benefits (printed on the tile). However, if a player has equal or greater Influence as the Mammoth, they gain the tile’s benefit(s) twice! For example, a player could gain two Tools instead of just one from a Tool-producing tile. High risk, high reward!
Rivers & Rafts Expansion
Setup and rules summary: The River runs through the Terrain map, with a Headwaters (start tile) and Delta (end tile). Players’ Rafts begin on the Delta tile at the start of each round.
The map can support 1-3 Landmarks (of the five included in the game). These are placed during setup, and will affect the game each Eclipse phase. The corresponding Landmark cards show the special scoring criteria, for easy reference. The player(s) with the most Influence on a given Landmark can gain the points shown on the card. For example, the Volcano gives you 1 point per Camp still on your player board.
Once the Terrain map is set up and player order is determined, each player places a Base tile along the outer edge of the map (with one Camp on it). This is done in reverse player order.
You may use the place-Camps action to either place your Camps on your own Base tile—or on the same hex as your Raft. Your Raft is like a moving starting space for Camp-placement.
To move your Raft, forgo 1 move-Camp action and move your Raft instead. If your Raft is moving downstream (towards the Delta), you may move it as far as you wish with just 1 Camp-movement. However, if you are moving your Raft upriver (back towards the Headwaters), it costs 1 Camp-movement per hex, like usual Camp-movement.
If your Raft is nearest to (or on) the Delta tile during the Eclipse phase, gain 1 point per Camp you have on a river hex.
Rafts act like Camps for Influence, Landmark/Delta/Sacred Stone scoring, and building Villages. If you use your Raft as one of the three Camps to form a Village, simply return it to the Headwaters (instead of your player board like a Camp).
The River hexes have Fish icons on them. When you resolve the Eclipse phase and have the most (or tied) Influence on a River hex, draw 1 random Fish token from the face-down supply, then immediately gain the benefits shown on it.
The 15 new Warrior Tribe cards can replace the supply of 15 Pathfinders. They allow you to either move one of your own Camps—or an opponent’s Camp—during the Eclipse phase. Of course, if this playstyle is too aggressive for your group, you can always stick with the nice old Pathfinders.
There is a new kind of animal: the Sea Cow. These five cards are shuffled into the Animal deck during setup. If you Tip a Sea Cow, draw 2 Fish tokens, and immediately gain the benefits shown.
ONE STEP CLOSER! :)
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, Apr 07, 2021 at 05:10:06 PM
Greetings, Tribe Members!
How are you? We hope you are all well and playing board games while the spring weather starts to warm our days. 😊
Pledge Manager is Closed
As you know, the PM is officially closed now. Nevertheless, backers who already have a pledge other than $1 can still complete their surveys. In the following days, these backers will receive email reminders from us. We are happy to say that 95% of the backers have successfully completed their surveys.
Chief Bases
We noticed a loose fit on some of Chief miniatures' bases. We contacted our manufacturer, and they sent us some adjusted samples. The bases are now snapping great onto all minis. We are very happy with the results.
All Artwork Done!
Yes! The Mico has completed all of the art assets of the game. We are thrilled with the work, but since a picture is equal to 1000 words—let’s just have a look at some of them:
Aurora Borealis - Module
Prosperity Pack - Culture cards
Strife Pack - Culture cards
Cave Painting Pack - Culture cards
Expansions
Jonny Pac is on fire. Working alongside Paul Grogan (Gaming Rules!) for the updated version of the core rulebook, he finished rules drafts for the expansions. We cannot wait to talk about them in more detail in our next update. Stay tuned!
Solo and Modules
Drake and Jonny also did an awesome job streamlining the solo version of the core game, and adjusting it with the updated rules. They also made sure to integrate the solo mode with all the expansions and modules. Expect to hear more about it in our next update.
TTS Updated
The Tabletop Simulator version is updated with all the new rules. After testing it with many playtest groups, we arranged a “best of” game where the playtesters with the best scores thus far competed with each other. This was one of the most interesting plays we have seen so far—and it was very competitive with scores ranging from 85 to 105 points. Having said that, we are happy to announce that the core game is officially done. Yay!! If there are any last minute changes, they will be pretty minor.
Deposit to Panda
As you might already know, there is a huge increase in paper cost in China. For this reason, we are relieved that we already sent half the production costs to Panda to lock in our prices. Panda has been kind enough to absorb most of the cost difference until now. It’s such a pleasure to work with a factory that watches your back.
We are excited to announce that Sarah Shah is officially part of the growing Fantasia team. Most of you might already know Sarah from her awesome “Board Games in a Minute” TikTok and YouTube channels. But in case you don’t already know her, you can see her work here:
Sarah will be the “face” of Fantasia in front of the camera and on social media in general. She will be a content creator of our company, a representative in interviews and future conventions, an editor for our updates (in fact, this update was edited by her!), and an in-house playtester—since she is a great mid-weight gamer, too. In addition to all of this, she will always be happy to answer any questions you might have concerning our games or the studio.
Once more we welcome Sarah, and we are happy to have her in the Fantasia family!
Social Media
Before we go, we are happy to see Paul of Gaming Rules! placed Endless Winter as his #3 most anticipated game of 2021. Thank you, Paul!
What’s Next
In the following weeks we plan to focus heavily on the final development of the expansions and editing the rulebooks. Having said that, in the near future expect to see the expansions uploaded on TTS so you all can test them out and share your feedback with us. Hopefully if everything goes according to plan, by the end of this month, all the files will be finalized and prepared to send to our international licensees for their translations.
