The amazing private funding campaign for Mythic Legions Tactics: War of the Aetherblade wrapped up earlier this year. Tell us a little about what the team has been working on since the end of that campaign.
The private campaign was a great experience. We were really happy with the level of backing, and the overall general enthusiasm of the community. It’s not always the easiest road to break new ground, and we did this on 2 fronts with both the introduction of a totally different experience with gaming, but also with introducing the Horsemen’s own private crowdfunding platform with The Forge. So it was a lot for people to get comfortable with early on. We’re super happy people got into it and became Forge Founders. Stay tuned for more interesting things on that front.
I am sure there have been a number of “OMG” moments during the development of the game. Can you share one moment or reveal that totally blew you away?
There have been many for sure! Just being toy geeks and collectors ourselves it’s incredibly cool to see a physical action figure come to life on the screen. Each week there’s a “OMG” factor when we review the latest materials with the team. And that’s probably because we have an amazing group of artists and developers on Mythic Legions Tactics who have worked on some of the most visually stunning games in the industry, including Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Everyone has their favorite moments, but sometimes it’s the most simple things. Seeing the weapons and the armor come to life with such detail is always awesome, especially when we start playing with colors and textures. When you get guys who have seen it all like Jim, Eric and CB to say “wow”, you know you have something special.
That first campaign was your first real taste of the Mythic Legions community. Tell us a bit about the reception you’ve received from that community so far.
It’s been AMAZING! Can’t underscore that enough. We’ve had great feedback thus far and we really haven’t even begun to show anything yet! We’re amazed at the community vibe that's going on here. From having worked with a number of brands and properties in the space, I can tell you it’s truly special.
And we certainly learned a lot from the private campaign about what the fans want. And of course we’ve been very appreciative of people like yourself, Walter, the LegionsCast guys who have a big voice in the community and have really embraced this new extension.
But, we also recognize that not everyone in the community is a gamer. So it’s become a mission for us to build things into the game that everyone will enjoy like the pre-viz customizer and the storyline-driven content. In fact, one of the stretch goals of the Kickstarter is to include an “auto chess” feature that will allow people to build characters and teams, and then have the game Ai simulate the battles along the storyline so it will literally be like watching a Mythic Legions movie with the characters you’ve created.
What has it been like working with the Horsemen so far?
Will say it again - AMAZING! Working with them on a weekly basis is everything you would want it to be - collaborative, creatively challenging (in a good way), and most of all we’re having a lot of fun making this game. Having known the reputation of the Horsemen in the toy industry we didn’t know what to fully expect, but it’s been like meeting your favorite rock band and finding out they’re the coolest guys ever. And we can tell you every major decision is made with the conversation “what will the fans like”. That’s awesome.
The big news is obviously the launch of the Kickstarter campaign for the game. Tell us a bit about how this campaign will differ from the first one.
So as I mentioned before the Forge Founder campaign was to help establish a new platform for private offers directly to the Legionnaires from the Horsemen, much like a version of Hasbro Pulse or Lego Ideas. And we have big plans for the Forge in the future. This time around though we are going with Kickstarter as we’re trying to bring in a larger audience, and in particular, the gaming audience. Having a game that already has a physical toy line is very appealing for people who back the development of video games. So we feel Kickstarter is the right platform for this 2nd stage of development. Also, it will be a little different from the Forge campaign in that any pledge you make on Kickstarter will only hit your credit card if we reach the funding goal.
What can fans expect in terms of rewards and stretch goals this time around?
We have some really great rewards and stretch goals lined up for this campaign. We will also be launching some social goals throughout the campaign that can unlock exclusive rewards which will be fun. In addition to the rewards that will carry over from the Forge campaign (sorry, no bonus heads in this one), we have a really special reward that we will be announcing that is a real show stopper. And we will announce it to the Mythic Legions community before the campaign is live so the Legionnaires can get in on it first. Trust me - you won’t want to miss it!
Tell us about the Discord server you are setting up for backers of this new campaign, as well as the first one, and how that will help keep fans in the loop.
Discord is a great platform for fan engagement and the preferred platform for the gaming community. We want everyone to join the Mythic Legions Tactics Discord server so you can see game updates and video of game footage as we build to launch. Think of it as “the Cabal for all things Mythic Legions Tactics”. We will still pop in to the Cabal and the Mythic Legions channels with updates, but we want to be respectful of the group and it’s focus on the toy line.
Anything else fans should know about this new campaign or what we can all expect from Mythic Legions Tactics?
We will certainly be sharing more of the visuals of the characters, weapons, locations, etc from the game and also more on the game mechanics as we launch the Kickstarter and are now further in development. Including behind-the-scenes and “making of” type content. We think fans will really love the way we’ve designed the character customization with the Horsemen to capture the essence of what makes the toy line so great. We also have a number of innovative game mechanics that have not been seen before in tactics games that will be unique to Mythic Legions Tactics, such as limb attacks, class meldings and how you can play out the storyline from different faction perspectives. It’s really going to be a fun experience to get inside the world of Mythic Legions whether you're a gamer or not, so we just hope all the Legionnaires come in and give it a shot!
NOTE: Images shown in this article are in development renders meant to show ongoing progress in the creation of the game. These are NOT final game graphics.
Published on 07.27.21