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Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition News

What's Next for Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition?

Hello Hunters!

So, last week we finally released Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition upon you all. Thanks to your support, it’s been our most successful launch in the history of Nomad Games - it’s really blown us away how much feedback, love and suggestions we’ve received from you all. (As the person responsible for looking at all our social media, I can tell you that release day and the following days were pretty overwhelming!)

Now that we’ve had some time to get over the initial release, I’ve sat down with the rest of the team to properly outline what we’ve got planned for the future of Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition. Here at Nomad, we’ve been doing our best to be transparent during development of the game, and we’ll keep that up going forward too! This is one hell of an update, so grab yourself a drink and some snacks and get set for the long haul! We have a lot to cover, so we’ve divided it into sections if you want to skip to specific features.

But as a starting point for transparency, we want to address something that a number of people have already brought up:

[h3]Why have you released the game now, instead of holding off until these features were finished?[/h3]

To answer that question, we need to give you a peek behind the indie game development scene. We have a staff of around 20 people, who we pay to make our games, and we rent out an office here in the UK. When we’re looking at our finances, we look at how much we’re hoping to earn throughout the year and how much we’re going to be spending. If we work out that a certain month is going to be rocky for us, we can rest easy knowing that we have an upcoming game release that will help bolster our finances and keep us afloat - something that we’re more aware of than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As soon as we start pushing back a big game release like Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition, we’re left with a big gap in our financial plans. Remember, we’re only a small studio - it’s not like we can release other content that a different team has been working on. So instead, we made the decision to release the base version of Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition now, with the promise of future updates to add features we know players will want.

And we know that this is a decision that relies on you, the players, trusting us to come through on that promise! We’re well aware that the video game industry is under more scrutiny than ever before, with headlines about loot-boxes, crunch and mistreated workers seemingly hitting front pages with no end. So we know it’s a big ask for you to put your trust in us, but we hope that by fulfilling our promises, we’ll be able to show you we’re deserving of that trust! Also, updating a game as time goes isn’t something new to us at Nomad - 7 years on, we’re still adding new features to Talisman: Digital Edition after community requests!

Turns out giving a transparent answer takes a while! So without further ado, let’s go through everything we’re currently working on and are planning to work on:

[h3]Steam Achievements[/h3]

Probably the most finished thing on this list for Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition, our Steam achievements were just slightly unfinished when we hit release day.

We’ve already got most of the coding done in the back-end, and we’ve now finished making all those lovely little icons that you’ll see when you unlock them in game. Our next step will be to test them to make sure they unlock as they should and are bug-free, and then you’ll be able to get bragging rights over your friends!

[h3]1v4 multiplayer[/h3]

Definitely the most requested feature so far (across Steam reviews, our Discord and social media) is 1v4 multiplayer. We’ve heard you loud and clear, and know that this is the feature most requested across the board.

So, the first thing to do is let you all know exactly where we’re currently at with 1v4. The good news is that we already have 1v4 online in a state where we can test it internally with our QA team. Right now it technically works, and you’d be able to play through an entire game of Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition online if you know what doesn’t work. The moment you start trying to do something that doesn’t work though… that’s when things start to get ugly.

So right now, we have a list of things that need to be updated to properly work in 1v4 multiplayer. This makes our jobs easier, as we can just work through that list and make it smaller and smaller.

A good example of this is the card ‘Speedy Telegraph’. Suddenly throwing out the set order of activations when you need to keep track of 4 different hunters on completely different systems causes a whole heap of edge-cases and issues to arise. This is something we need to make sure works before we roll out 1v4 to you all.

Also, our list of things that need to be updated doesn’t account for bugs and issues that we can’t possibly foresee - which makes it hard for us to judge exactly how long this update will take to come out. As we continue crushing bugs and getting closer to finishing the update though, we’ll be able to give you a definitive release date.

Speaking of, one of the key weapons in our arsenal of bug-crushing are the lovely team of beta testers we’ve had helping us with Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition before release. We still have some things we need to update before we can give the 1v4 multiplayer mode over to our beta testers, but we’re hoping they can start sinking their fangs into it starting in early December.

Now that Steam has rolled out new features to help people beta test their games (you can read more about it here if you’re interested!) we’ll also be in a better position to add more beta testers to the game so we can thoroughly thrash out bugs in 1v4 multiplayer. If we decide we need more beta testers, we’ll be sure to put out a call to the community!

[h3]Rejoining Games[/h3]

Something we’ve got planned to add to Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition after we roll out the 1v4 update, is improving the ability for people to rejoin online games after disconnecting. The reason we’re bringing this up now is that it’s a good example of how adding 1v4 multiplayer is a complicated process!

Right now you can rejoin a disconnected game of Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition up to one minute after you disconnect, unless you quit or close the game. But we need to make sure that we code and design 1v4 multiplayer so that it plays nicely with rejoining games. We don’t want to code ourselves into a corner, so we need to do the groundwork now for rejoining online games, which adds time to the development of 1v4 multiplayer.

So, ahead of the 1v4 update we’re going to be looking at things like:
  • How big of a window we’ll allow for people to rejoin after disconnecting
  • Looking at ‘player states’ and how we define whether a player is ‘idle’ or ‘away’ online
  • Giving people the option to wait for disconnected players or swap them to AI if they fail to reconnect

These are all things we need to take into consideration and work on before we can roll out 1v4. We’re confident that we’ll be able to get all these things done, it’ll just take time.

[h3]Text chat[/h3]

Something else that we’ve heard your requests for is text chat! This is slightly lower on our priority list, but is also easier to implement. We’ve already got this feature in a number of our other games, so we understand the process of implementing it very well.

We’re going to add chat to the game room and in game, so you’ll be able to chat before the game starts and during the game as well.

Something we’ve already discussed is if we’d need to keep any chat hidden from Dracula, but we’ve agreed that most of the chat done during a game of Fury of Dracula is open anyway so we don’t need a filter. This fits with how you’d play the physical board game too!

[h3]iOS and Android versions[/h3]

Something else that has been highly requested over the past months has been a release date for the iOS and Android versions of the game. The good news is that we’ve been making the mobile version of Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition in parallel with the PC version, so a huge amount of the work has already been done.

So what still needs to be done? Well, at the moment, we need to:
  • Optimise the user interface
  • Update a bunch of assets so they work better on mobile
  • Fully implement touch screen support
  • Add support for dragging certain items across the screen
  • Add push notification support
  • Implement a ton of smaller updates that pile up

Now that the Steam version has been released, we can start looking at making our way through this list. We know roughly how long things like adding push notifications will take, as we’ve done it in other games before. However, there are still a number of unknowns as we go into the Christmas period and people start taking holidays. So at the moment, we’re still not in a position to share a firm release date, but as we whittle down the list of things that need doing, we’ll be able to share a firm release date with you all!

[h3]More tutorials/guides[/h3]

We’ve made a good number of digital board games over the years, and one thing we know players really care about is that the tutorial is spot on.

Unfortunately for us, the tutorial is always the very last thing you put in a digital board game, because you first need to make sure everything else is finished! For example, we can’t put in a combat tutorial until we make sure that combat is fully fleshed out and working in-game.

So due to that, we only had a limited amount of time to work on the tutorials - so we still have some tutorials that are waiting to be implemented into the game! We’re also going to be adding more interactive guides, so the first time you interact with things you’ll get a handy-dandy reminder about what exactly it does.

At the moment, we’re planning on adding tutorials for:
  • Trading as Hunters
  • Advanced Rules - Lairs
  • Advanced Rules - Rumour Tokens
  • Victory Conditions
  • In-Play Cards
  • Resting and Hunter Health

If there is anything else you’d like to see get a dedicated tutorial, feel free to let us know!

[h3]House rules [/h3]

Something we heard a lot of people request before the game launched was in-game house rules! Fury of Dracula is a game that has been around for 30+ years at this point, so it’s had plenty of time to pick up some community favourite house rules over the years. When making the digital version, we also came up with some of our own ideas for good rules that would enhance the game.

So far, some of the house rules we’re looking forward to implementing the following:
  • ‘Pirate Dracula’ discouragement/prevention measures
  • Allowing hunters to view facedown discarded cards in certain situations
  • Allowing delayed hunters to use their whole turn to become undelayed when Renewed Vigor is in play
  • Dracula being able to choose to not mature cards when a hideout slides off the trail
  • Bat tokens being removed from Hunters when they’re defeated
  • Roadblocks not affecting Dracula moving hunters

We know you all will have suggestions for house rules, so in December we’ll be rolling out an official ‘What House Rules do you want to be added’ questionnaire so your feedback isn’t missed!

This is a feature where we’ll be happy to continue updating Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition with more house rules as time goes on too, so don’t worry if your favourite rule isn’t put in straight away.

[h3]Variations in AI difficulty[/h3]

Something that we’ve had a lot of player feedback on is the AI difficulty in the game. Especially in our Steam reviews, players have been pointing out that the AI in Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition doesn’t pose enough of a challenge for experienced players.

Our plan currently is to release regular updates to the AI that will improve it over time, as we have more information to work with and more time to improve it. This means that if you play Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition every single day, these changes might be harder to spot - but as time goes on, the AI will become more robust and intelligent.

We’re also going to be adding 3 different difficulty levels for the AI! We’re ready to test this internally, and while we’re working on the game we can have an AI vs AI match up on a second monitor to keep an eye on what they’re doing. This is quite therapeutic actually, as we can just watch the AI do their best to outsmart each other.

[h3]The Journal[/h3]

What is a hunter without their journal? We’re currently working on a ‘log’ feature for Fury that will keep track of every action that has happened in the game. We’re hoping that it’ll come in handy if you miss something or need a reminder of what happened a few turns back.

However, we don’t just want something that gives you a list of actions - not in a game like Fury of Dracula! Our idea for the Journal is that it’ll be a narrative tool as well, inspired by the fact the original Dracula novel itself was composed of news reports and letters.

Instead of just saying “Mina Harker moved to London and entered combat with a Reckless Vampire. The Reckless Vampire was defeated and Mina Harker suffered 3 damage due to combat.” we want something that captures the theme of the original novel! So in the journal, this would appear as “Mina Harker arrived in London, following rumours of Dracula from local police. The rumours proved to be true, as we can report she was attacked by a Reckless Vampire while investigating an abandoned apartment in Whitechapel. Luckily she escaped with her life, only suffering minor injuries (3 damage).

We’re going to spend a good amount of time making sure the Journal flows correctly, so that each game of Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition ends up creating a unique story for you to read through once you’ve finished the game.

Also, unlike games where all information is publicly available, the log in Fury of Dracula is going to be different for every single player, and we don’t want hunters deducing anything from an update that should only be seen by Dracula for example. So this does add a bit more extra development time!

[h3]Friends Support for User Accounts[/h3]

As part of bringing the game to mobile, we want to make it super easy to play with your friends in whatever way works best for you. We know it’s not easy to expect 5 people to all have PCs and to all be online at the same time, which is why we’re working on adding cross-platform friend support to the game.

Once you’ve signed into your Nomad Account, you’ll be able to see and add other friends, regardless of the platform they’re on. Not only will this mean you’ll be able to compare your stats with your friends, you’ll be able to invite them to games!

[h3]Translations[/h3]

Once we have the time to do so, we’re planning to properly sit down and evaluate what languages we want to translate Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition into. The good news is that we have a whole heap of information to inform that decision, including:
  • How well the physical game has sold in different languages
  • How well the physical game has sold in different countries
  • How many members of the community have requested different languages
  • Languages the physical board game has already been translated into
  • How well languages have been adopted in our other games

So we’re very confident that we’ll be able to make smart decisions about where to focus our efforts for translation so that it’ll have the most positive impact!

[h3]Other platforms[/h3]

At the moment, we’re focusing on bringing the game to mobile because we know for sure that there is a large audience there. We’ve also had a lot of historical success on mobile, which means we can be confident that Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition will perform well there.

When it comes to other platforms like MacOS and Nintendo Switch, we’re a lot less confident in how Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition will perform. Because of this, we need to take the time to sit down and properly evaluate the risks and benefits of bringing Fury to each platform to make sure that it’s a decision that makes sense, business-wise.

As soon as we have time to do that (on top of everything else we’re doing), we’ll be in a much better position to confirm or deny what platforms we want to bring Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition to. Of course, letting us know you’re keen for a certain platform puts it on our radar too! So if you’re holding out for that Sega Game Gear version, let us know!

[h3]What else are you working on?[/h3]

Right now, our immediate concern is squashing bugs that you’ve all been kind enough to point out over the past week. We’ve still got a few to get though, but thanks to everyone who submitted detailed reports of what issues they’ve encountered, we’ve been able to make great progress.

We’ll hopefully be pushing out bug-fixing patches regularly between now and Christmas, so stay tuned to our Steam announcements for patch notes. We'll also be keeping a close eye on the community - so if there is anything that hasn't been answered here, please let us know! We'll do our best to answer any questions you have. You can reach out to us here on Steam or via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or if you’d like, you can bolster the ranks of hunters on our Discord and chat more directly to the devs!

We've already asked for questions from the community here on Steam, and I'll be making a separate post that answers community questions.

And finally, I want to thank everyone who has purchased the game and supported us on behalf of the entire Nomad Games team. This has been the most successful launch in the history of the company, and that wouldn’t be the case without you telling your friends, leaving Steam reviews and generally supporting us.

So from the whole team, thank you! ːheartː

Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition is out now!

Hello Hunters!

The big day is finally here! We got through a slight delay, worked hard alongside our wonderful beta testers and spent a whole year working hard on Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition through a global pandemic, and now it's finally available to purchase!

To celebrate, we're offering a week long launch discount, where you'll be able to grab the game for 10% off. And as thanks to everyone who has already supported our small studio, we're also offering everyone who owns Talisman: Digital Edition an extra 10% off the game! We wouldn't be where we are today without the support you've all given us over the years, so this is our way of saying thanks. ːheartː

We're also offering a discounted bundle for Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition that includes both the game and the official soundtrack. Our in-house composer has been working to make the perfect soundtrack for Fury of Dracula, and you can read more about it here if you're interested!

[h3]What happens now the game is released?[/h3]

First of all, we're going to all celebrate here at Nomad! We still can't all go into the office, so releasing a game feels a lot weirder than it normally would. We're sure we'll find a way to celebrate the release, but it definitely won't be our usual trip to the local pub! We'll also be keeping an eye on outlets for their reviews and coverage, and the community as well.

We're also not finished with Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition development! We'll be keeping a close eye on feedback and bug reports from our lovely community for things that need fixing, and we've already got a list of things we're going to be rolling out in future updates.

These include, but are not limited to:
  • More tutorials/guides
  • House rules
  • Variations in AI difficulty
  • 1v4 multiplayer
  • iOS and Android support

We'll be putting together a fully fledged What's Next for Fury of Dracula? blog soon, to share a much more detailed update with you all. We're very open to suggestions on what you'd like to see, so please reach out to us if you have ideas!

You can chat to us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or if you’d like, you can bolster the ranks of hunters on our Discord

And finally, we want to thank everyone who has supported us in the run-up to launching Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition. It looks set to be the biggest launch in our history as a games studio, and that wouldn't be the case without your support. ːheartː

Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition launches on November 12th

Hello hunters!

Back in October, we announced that we would be slightly delaying the release of Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition (if you missed the official announcement, you can find it here).

Well, today we're pleased to announced we have a new official release date of November 12th!

We've taken the time we needed to polish up the game ready for release, and will just be bug testing between now and release day. We're also going to be reaching out once more to press, streamers and influencers so they know to take a look at the game ahead of it releasing.

We know a lot of you were understanding of why we felt the need to delay the game, but we want to take another chance to say just how much we appreciate the kind words and appreciation we've received from you all over the past 2 weeks. We hope you all enjoy sinking your fangs into Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition on November 12th! :heart:

Soundtrack Announcement + Composer Interview!

Want to listen to the Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition soundtrack outside of the game? Or play it while you play the physical board game? We've got you covered with the Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition Soundtrack!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1454610/Fury_of_Dracula_Digital_Edition_Soundtrack/

On launch day, you’ll be able to grab a bundle that includes the game and the soundtrack too, if you want to take the Fury experience with you!

As part of this announcement, we thought we’d sit down with Dan Meadowcroft, the composer and performer behind the Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition soundtrack. Below he talks about how he created the music for the game, and his process for creating the soundtrack!

So, let’s start from the beginning! What were your inspirations for the soundtrack?

I started off looking at the theme of the game, and then music styles that fitted that theme. The soundtracks to Hammer Horror films was an obvious first call, but the less obvious thing to look at were the soundtracks for Sherlock Holmes media.

A lot of Sherlock soundtracks have a ‘detective theme’ with a Victorian influence, which fits perfectly for Fury of Dracula. I also looked at a lot of film noir soundtracks, as I wanted to make sure that the mystery element of the game didn’t get lost beneath the horror. For example, I found that vibraphones were used heavily in film noir, so I could use them to create the mysterious sound I wanted when I leaned into the detective elements of the game.

So I dove in to listening to tons of soundtracks to get an idea of the kind of sound I wanted.

In the end, the soundtrack for Fury is a fusion of 50s horror, gothic Victorian and noir detective that words really well - if I do say so!

So were those soundtracks how you picked which instruments are in the soundtrack?

Pretty much! Thanks to modern technology, I have a huge amount of instruments at my fingertips for when I’m composing and creating music digitally. But just because I have the ability to use something, doesn’t mean using it is the right call. Not every soundtrack needs more cowbell.

I took all the research I’d done and made a list of the instruments I should definitely use and the instruments I could use. I ended up with a strong list that would fit with the horror/detective theme I was going for, and carrying them through the entire soundtrack helps to keep it consistent while you listen.

One of the coolest things about the Fury of Dracula soundtrack is how the soundtrack changes based on Dracula’s influence. How did you go about doing that?

So, when I compose any music I always start by playing it on piano first. I use it as a ‘baseline’ for each track, and then build upon it by adding more instruments until I have the complete track.

By doing this, I could make sure that the core of each track increased in intensity with Dracula’s influence. It wasn’t just a case of ‘adding more intensity’ to an existing track, but making sure that each one was composed from the bottom up to reflect that increasing feeling of dread.

Was it a similar process for the sound effects in the game then?

Sort of! For the sound effects in the game I wanted to make sure it was more suited to what was happening in the moment, instead of fitting the overall theme of the game.

I wanted to make sure that the sound effects were gritty and visceral to fit the horror theme again, but also to fit the animations we have in the game. A lot of the combat animations can be quite gruesome, so having sound effects that amplify the shock of seeing that violence was super important.

I also implemented a lot of mechanical sounds, in order to bring through the feeling of being in the industrial revolution. When used in the right way, mechanical sounds can be quite unnerving, which of course adds to the horror as you play.

How long does it normally take you to make a soundtrack? Did Fury of Dracula take longer than usual?

I can give you the information about exactly how many hours it took me to make the soundtrack, but the actual process of making music is a lot longer than that.

A huge amount of time goes into the understanding of music, which then informs the music you create. All the time studying music theory, the time thinking about the music before you actually start putting it down and composing it all counts too. You can’t just sit down and make a soundtrack sadly - there is a huge amount of work you need to put in before you even ‘begin’.

Think about it like a house. When the house is finished, you can appreciate how nice it is without seeing all of the framework and foundations that were put in. But without that strong foundation, the whole house would come crashing down. Composing music is very similar.

You need to make sure that you put in the work to build a strong foundation to work from in order to make sure the finished product stands up.

How do you find working solo on a soundtrack?

It definitely has its perks! Doing the entire soundtrack and the sound effects myself means it’s a lot easier to keep the soundtrack consistent from start to finish. Once I nail down the theme and the type of sound I want the soundtrack to have, I can make sure it flows through the whole game from start to finish.

Of course, there are limits on what I can do solo. I can’t exactly play every single instrument on the soundtrack, even if I wanted to.

Also, it was quite nice to have a change of theme to work with. Previously I’d worked on the soundtracks for Talisman and Mystic Vale which do have their differences, but they do still fall into the ‘fantasy’ theme. Creating a horror/mystery fusion definitely meant I could flex some creative muscles I haven’t used in a while, which was nice.

Finally, if someone reads this and wants to know more about game soundtracks or how to start making their own, what would you recommend?

First of all, I’d be entirely honest with them - there is a very high bar of entry for making video game soundtracks. All that work I talked about that goes into making a soundtrack beforehand? A lot of the academic and music theory you’ve got to put in before you even get the job. It’s easier if you can work as a composer, but even then it’s a lot of work.

Understanding how different instruments work is a great way to get to grips with what you’ll need to know. Nowadays you can recreate a huge range of instruments digitally, so making sure you have a wide knowledge of how and when to use them will be massively useful to you.

Thanks for taking the time to chat Dan!

Hey no worries, hopefully that gives people an idea of what it was like putting together the soundtrack for Fury of Dracula.

Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition Release Delayed

Hello hunters!

We have decided to move the launch of Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition from October 29th to mid-November.

This of course was a decision we didn't take lightly. Months ago when we were planning out how long Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition would take to develop and get ready, we realised we could hit a Halloween release date. After lots of talking within our team, we decided that it was too good an opportunity to miss for a horror themed board game. Over the last month our small team has been working hard from our home offices to get the game ready, and sadly we've decided that we're not happy to release the game in its current state.

At the time of writing, Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition is finished both content and gameplay-wise. However, we're still working to make the tutorials the best we can for new players. We're ironing out bugs in order to make sure that the game is a smooth, polished experience when you finally get your hands on it. We're also polishing up the online experience, so that even if you can't see friends from across the table to play board games together, you can still stay connected by playing Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition across the internet.

We know that many of you are putting your trust in us to make the best adaptation of Fury of Dracula that we can, and that going back on our announced release date puts that trust into question. We hope that you can understand why we've made this decision, and that our open and honest communication shows our commitment to deserving your trust.

If you've got questions, feel free to reach out to us anytime!

Thank you for your patience and love - The Nomad Games Team ːheartː