They Live : Assault on Cable 54

Samples and Scheduling
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 02:55:06 PM

Hello everyone, we hope you are all well.

This month we’d like to show you some updates on the game and also discuss the schedule, something we know there are questions around.

Sampling:

Today we would like to show you some of our most recent samples and give you some insight into the end quality that we expect. These are factory production samples of the cards that you have previously seen as prototypes.

Please note: This video is only showing some of the materials that we have received with this latest sample pack, and therefore some of the content (for example; resistance cards) is not present. This is not how the final product will be presented when received and as the box size is subject to change as described in the video, allowing for more organised packing and presentation.

Scheduling and delay

As you can see from the samples, quality remains our top priority. Our original plan for this phase was to have most of the team on the ground in China to oversee production and make changes as things were being printed in person.

Sadly, lockdowns and travel restrictions have stopped us from being able to do that, meaning we are relying on a combination of photos, videos, and shipping items backwards and forwards between the team.

This has slowed the process far more than we anticipated. The sample we’ve shown today is the latest and as you will see from the video, while the quality on the majority of everything is to the level we desire, there are still some items that need to be improved to reach that quality threshold. We are waiting for updated samples of these items at present.

We were hoping by now that we would be preparing to show you the final approved production sample, but despite extensive efforts we’re just not quite there yet.

It’s with a heavy heart that today we need to announce a delay until around June/July. This is obviously not something that we wish to do but it will allow us the time needed to meet the quality expected both by you as our backers and by ourselves.

Transparency is important to us, so we will keep you updated as new samples are produced and milestones completed. This means our updates may be more ad-hoc, but we will keep it to a minimum of 1 per month (though we are expecting the frequency to increase!).

We understand that this delay will be as disappointing to you as it is to us. We are making every effort to avoid further delays and each component is locked down for production as soon as we are happy with its quality.

Thank you for your ongoing support and remember:

CONFORM, CONSUME, BACK, SHARE, OBEY

February Update: The Final Assault, Address Changes and more.
about 3 years ago – Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 03:39:11 AM

Hello everyone. This month’s update is going to primarily focus on the final part of our gameplay video series with a video of “The Final Assault”.

As discussed in our January update, the month of February is Chinese New Year. All factories were closed for the majority of the month which means there can be a delay in new information, images, and final sampling. If you require more information on our timeline please refer to the previous update here:   January Update 

The Final Assault:

This video details the process for the final assault for both the main They Live Campaign (4 -6 player) and the 1-3 Player mode. Both are completed in a slightly different way and require a different setup for the final assault.

Address updates:

We’ve had a few more people ask if It is still possible to update their address via our Backerkit system. To change your address you just need to go to your Backerkit survey and update your backer information. If you have lost your Backerkit survey details you can access them through this link: https://they-live-assault-on-cable-54.backerkit.com/

If you have any issues making this update please feel free to drop us a message directly.

We hope you have enjoyed the final assault video and we look forward to showing you more very soon. Thank you for your ongoing support and remember:

CONFORM, CONSUME, BACK, SHARE, OBEY

January Update 2021 - Progress, Production and Box Art
over 3 years ago – Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 02:27:05 AM

Hello everyone, we hope you had a nice holiday period and that you are all safe and well. Today we are going to highlight our progress with the project, where things are at the moment and the next steps moving forward. We will also showcase some things that you may not have seen before like the final box designs and art cards for those at the appropriate pledge level.

Current Progress:

Thank you for all of your support last month regarding the last-minute changes to the game content. All parts of the game including this new artwork are with the sampling team in China and are being produced as we speak. As soon as the sample final copy is produced it will be observed by our person on the ground in China and then sent to us for final inspection.

China is about to go into Chinese New Year (CNY) very soon, this combined with new travel restrictions over there at the moment mean that as of typing today we are unsure if the sample will get to us before or after CNY has concluded. If the timescale is after CNY, then it is more likely that the first production copies of the game will be released towards the end of our March / April estimate.

Timeline:

Here are the current stages we need to complete on our way to final production. Here we have also highlighted the final point where we will lock in addresses so they can no longer be altered before shipping. If you need to update your address this will still be available to you in your Backerkit Survey. If you are having trouble accessing your Survey please use this link to recover your information: https://they-live-assault-on-cable-54.backerkit.com/ 

Final Designs:

As part of the sampling production process, we confirmed the final design for the box and thought it would be a nice opportunity to show some things that previously had not been shown, including the back and sides of the box.

A number of you who backed the “We can't be the only ones who can see” tier will be getting a set of art cards with your game. These are a great way to showcase some of the art in its full format.

This set of cards includes the following images:

Drifter Nada: This was our first test image for the game and became a key part of our design style for the entire game. It seemed only fitting to have this image included in the collection.

Pursuit Chopper: This is the full art for one of the game's most deadly enemies that you will encounter. This art is scaled back for its appearance on its enemy tile and the art cards allow you to see the painting of the chopper in more detail.

The News Desk: Breaking News and propaganda are a huge part of our game and the They Live experience and this card really highlights those themes. (I also personally intend to use this card as a place to stack my Breaking News deck next to my game board - Andy).

Kick-Ass and Chew Bubble Gum Nada: It wouldn't be They Live without the classic bank scene, and this was our opportunity to show our rendition of that iconic moment.

We hope you have enjoyed today's look at the things to come. We are incredibly thankful for your patience and support of our They Live project. We are incredibly grateful for all of the support and encouragement we have received as this project has progressed. We will be sticking to monthly updates as per usual going forward, however, if we have extra things to show or alternatively things happen sooner than estimated you may receive more frequent updates.

We hope you have all had a great start to 2021, and remember:

CONFORM, CONSUME, BACK, SHARE, OBEY

New Character Updates and Reference Sheet
over 3 years ago – Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 02:38:57 AM

Our first announcement is related to our military based character. His look, name, and style have been updated, so today we would like to introduce you to Kyo Masami Morita.

Kyo shares the likeness of Peter Shinkoda, who featured in amazing projects such as Daredevil / Falling Skies / The Predator and many more. Peter is a friend of the team and stepped in to lend some ideas for Kyo’s look as well as his likeness.

Here is Kyo’s full character card and stats:

Quick Reference Guide.

Today we would also like to show you our quick reference guide. We have previously discussed this and also found it to be a great asset for new players to use when playing the game. We will include 4 copies of this double-sided sheet with the full release of the game.

The reference guide is sectioned into two themed sides, an Invader styled turn order/tips page and a Resistance themed icon guide. This will give players a key visual indicator, showing which side of the document they should be using, (because we all know Invaders want you to CONFORM and OBEY the rules).

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to everyone, as always thank you for your ongoing support, and remember:

CONFORM, CONSUME, BACK, SHARE, OBEY

Character Change Statement (Update to follow)
over 3 years ago – Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 02:22:16 AM

This is a strange update, but we need to make the community aware of the current situation regarding the pledge level to a character in the game, an unfair backer chargeback, and the changes to the game that will be a result of this issue.

As part of the campaign, we offered a pledge level for £6000 that involved being a character in the game, assisting with story elements of that character, and also receiving extra copies of the game.

The person who backed us with this pledge assisted in the likeness, naming, and creation of the character named Rob Vardaro to be featured in the game. The backer informed us about having a transaction issue with Kickstarter and so opted to make all payments via Paypal before the work took place.

The backer confirmed being very happy with the art, story, and the credits that were applied to this character and stating, "l love it". This was all confirmed in writing.

As an additional thank you from the team at Iconiq we also allowed this backer to have a family member appear in some art that would also be featured on other character cards free of charge. This isn't something we would normally do, however with the amount of support we’d received from the backer we decided to take that extra step.

Shortly after we announced that the game had been sent to the factory for production, and completely out of the blue, the backer decided to file disputes with Paypal for “unreceived items”.

We had no communication or any indication at all to state dissatisfaction with anything but instead just 10 days earlier the backer had confirmed the final aspects relating to the character in the game.

We have attempted to reach out to the backer several times using all the methods of communication that we had previously used for confirmations but sadly we have not had any response back at all.

We explained the details of this to Paypal but despite the fact that they supported us, the backer’s card issuer still decided to side with the backer and refund this pledge.

We strongly disagree with this because the work has both been completed and approved by the backer but due to the nature of this, we have had to make a decision on how to move forward from here.

The easiest option would have been to proceed with everything already submitted for production and allow the backer to have this character in the game despite not paying for it. However, we felt that the game would have been tainted by this and none of the team wanted to take this route.

We also felt it would be unfair to remove a character and content that was shown to you all.

Because of this, we have decided to redesign the affected character art and likenesses, including changing the names and some defining features explained on those cards (we will not be identifying the specific characters we are altering for obvious reasons, so there may be a few edits to some of the content overall). This will require some cards to be overhauled and re-sent to our sampling team.

This is obviously a blow to the team; financially, time constraint wise, and also with the emotional and creative impact that it has had on us, including calls to each other in the early hours of the morning trying to resolve this issue. We want you all to know that we will not let this setback harm the development of this game, however we all feel that it is very important to be clear about the situation and our development process as part of our Kickstarter.

We also very much wanted to produce a positive result from this negative action and we believe that we have managed to accomplish this.

In the next few hours, we will make an announcement regarding the new revised character art and the details moving forward.

Thank you for your support.

Team Iconiq