AuZtralia is an adventure/exploration game for up to 4 players set in an alternate reality 1930s. The theme is inspired by Martin Wallace's game A Study in Emerald. It can be played competitively, or as a solo game or as a fully co-operative game.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
We need your vote! Have a say...
over 6 years ago
– Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 03:41:06 AM
Daily Quests
Great! The Day 4 Quest was smashed within hours - thank you. We now have over 850 geek subscribers.
Today's QUEST is below. Click HERE to have your say.
Personality biographies
In case you weren't aware - each of the personalities in the game has a biography. These were documented in the weirdly significant "Eminent Australians" by Timothy Strachey, (1954).
However, the book disappeared from print and only a hand-written copy remains today. Making sense of T. Strachey's badly written manuscript and checking the facts therein has been a painstaking exercise and a work in progress, but you can read them here.
Demos at Cakes N Ladders
Last night, I ran demo sessions at a local Auckland Games Cafe. Kirstin came along to help, and we had a full house!
All three sets were in play, with 12 concurrent players slaying Zombies and preparing for the doom of Cthulhu. One player unearthed Mr Big himself who was lurking quite close to a port! He managed to get the other players to gang up on Cthulhu to eliminate him before he could destroy them all.
Here's a short video highlight of the night.
Finally, I've just received the Western Australia map artwork from James Colmer, so I am going to do a test print and check it out. Can't wait to get it to the table.
Cheers,
Amanda
Cthulhu has landed!
over 6 years ago
– Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 10:25:09 PM
Hello, you wonderful people! With your help, we’ve been able to add greatly to the game. We are thrilled with all the upgrades we’ve achieved – there are still more to come. Many of you have welcomed our approach on Kickstarter - to have game enhancing rewards that benefit everyone. Some of you have disagreed however, arguing that this is a disincentive to backers.
Well, we’ve listened. This new add-on reward is free to you, our Kickstarter Backers. Especially commissioned for us by English jeweller and sculptor Simon Goodall at Alexander Edward in London, our beautiful satin chrome Cthulhu will be added to your copy of AuZtralia when we reach $200,000. We’ve had him in the wings from the beginning but we didn’t know if we could afford him, but now we are confident that we can! A CAD rendering is shown below.
We think it’s wrong to add game features just for bling. With our Big Boy Cthulhu, you can actually put him in play. With him on the board, there will be no doubt in your mind that your days are numbered unless you act fast!
FREE miniature metal Cthulhu for ALL backers once we pass $200,000
• Cthulhu will be added FREE for all Kickstarter backers if we go over $200k
• Sculpted by a British Jeweller, it is being cast in solid metal and chrome plated
• Cthulhu will be in the game box, not shipped separately
• He won’t be in the retail edition, but may be available to buy later if stocks remain. This is a limited edition one-off that won’t be repeated.
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To other matters
German edition - I can confirm the shipping rates in the FAQ are a flat rate, so extra copies will not increase the shipping :)
FAQ updates re shipping charges - The country specific FAQ have been updated with more detailed pricing re the Group Buy and shipping costs. If your situation is not fully detailed yet, please bear with us.
Free shipping for the Group Buy Polish edition! Przy zakupie grupowym (Group Buy) polskiej edycji gry, dostawa w Polsce jest darmowa.
Once again, thanks for backing us!
PS I am taking a couple of days away to attend a close friend's wedding in the deep south. Stay safe until I get back!
Amanda & Martin
The second map is here! Two Quests achieved!
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 04:44:29 PM
Greetings!
Welcome to all the new backers. We are now over 1,870!
AuZtralia WILL be two games in one, if we reach $150k. Different map. Different approach. Different gameplay. Western Australia remains unexplored! This variant will directly address the issues raised about the 2-player game not having enough player interaction. The artwork is almost ready and here is a sneak preview! You can see that starting places for ports are deliberately limited, as are the places to create farms. Help us to achieve this goal - you know how!
AuZtralia - the new map!
UPDATE ON THE DAILY QUESTS
Today's new Quest is to get the Iron up to scratch...
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Two Quests have been completed since my last update: The Poll to decide on the style of the Personality cards was overwhelmingly in favour of borderless. The result was: 216 v 89. The majority rule!
The poll mechanic wasn't great. Facebook kept reordering the items on the page and I saw that many of you had to vote in the comments. If we do another poll it will be through a Google form.
I know many people don't like Facebook, so don't worry, there'll be no more need to go there. With nearly 600 members though, the AuZtralia Group will be a great resource for players in future to discuss the game, check rules questions, boast about their historic victories and so on. Also, if you wanted a closer look at the artwork, James Colmer has been posting some zoomed in views over there.
We also achieved the upgrade from black cubes to realistic coal pieces. Miners helmets at the ready!
We need your help! We are in the low traffic part of the campaign now, so we are doing all we can to spread the word. Please help by sharing the campaign link with your friends. We may not be able to reach all potential fellow AuZtraliens, but you can help us to.
Do stay tuned in. There's a lot more goodies to come.
Thank you!
Until next time.
Amanda & Martin
Triple Quests have landed!
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 04:02:20 PM
Hi again!
First, welcome to all the new backers who joined us today. Great to see you here!
First some good news for those wanting a French edition in Canada. Our partner Nuts! has said: Premièrement, une mise à jour sur l'expédition au Canada. Québec : 1 boîte 15€ (24CA$), 2 boîtes 25€ (40CA$).
Game Improvements Three Quests were added to the page today...
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QUEST # 3.1 Unlocks the first two cards in a small deck of around ten Solo Objectives. As well as stay alive/beat the Old Ones you have a specific objective which, if met, gives a decent amount of extra points (15/20) - the exact amount may change.
Slowly losing your mind: You start with all 13 Sanity tokens and must make them last until the end of the game. No recovering your Sanity between fights! If Count Jago shows up, he is dismissed and replaced. This is my personal favourite!
Railroader: Try to place ALL 20 of your railways: they cost one Time Point less than usual and you start with double the usual coal/iron for your difficulty level. As an ex railway transport planner, this one also appeals to me!
QUEST 3.2 is self explanatory. Show us your disguises. There is an exception: if you have no child or pet, you can submit a Selfie! We have already had some participation, thanks Nathan and Álvaro!
Don't forget when you post your picture, to tag SchilMil and include a link to the campaign page. We need 48 more photos to get the binoculars shiny.
Quest 3.3 The Second map. Go west young Zombie! When we hit $150,000 we will put a second map on the back of the game board. This is not just a different configuration of hexes. This is a very different alternative game that has been going through testing for a while now. We've commissioned the artwork, so it could be ready to look at properly next week.
The rule changes for this map will result in more player interaction across all player counts because:
The inland desert cannot be farmed AND the coastal areas can now take all three types of farm - they are going to be in tight demand,
At the far end of the desert are some valuable places that when mined give extra Victory Points, if you are the first to get to them.
There are very few starting locations. Players are permitted to start their ports adjacent to each other.
Please help us reach this target and unlock the second map, by sharing the AuZtralia campaign link with your friends on your Facebook, Twitter, etc
We have lots more great stuff to unwrap day by day. There will be at least one new Quest added to the page every day.
Meanwhile, don't forget - grab your kids, dress up your pets or pose for us. I want to see all the pictures when I wake up in the morning :)
Amanda
Bonjour! Guten Tag! Ciao a tutti! Dzień Dobry! Olá! Hola! and Hi!
over 6 years ago
– Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 01:43:15 AM
Over 200% Funded!
It’s fantastic to see all our foreign language backers joining us here at AuZtralia. I’m using tonight’s update say a special hello to you. Welcome – we are delighted you are here!
We’re proud to have seven highly respected publishers working with us to produce the English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese editions. We are talking with them daily as we work to finalise the game and we want to hear from you too! Here at SchilMil Games (the AuZ HQ), we have Martin, I and the team responsible for the game you will finally receive. We are listening to you!
Our European partners are undertaking the translation of each edition and will be responsible for fulfilment and distribution to you in their respective countries. In the USA and elsewhere we are partnering with Stronghold Games to fulfil and deliver the English edition of AuZtralia in the USA and further afield.
We want you to know that your funding here on Kickstarter will directly fund all our partners too, to produce and deliver AuZtralia to your door, in your language, at the least cost possible!
So please, have a say! Your comments and suggestions are welcome. If we don’t understand your language, we’ll find someone on the team that does! Talk away, join our Facebook group, make suggestions, have a chat! The more feedback we get, the better the game will be.
We’ve put together a list of the local language resources that we already know about below – please be sure to check them out.
If you have a question about your language edition, shipping or pickup, please check the FAQ for your country.
An update on the photo Quest (3.2) - I understand if you may be reluctant to shame your pet or child in public, so the criteria is now widened. Instead you can either..
Post a selfie - disguised as an Old One or
Construct an Old One from everyday things (toast, lego, shaving foam or anything else). In this category every Shoggoth will count as two for the total, as they could be harder to construct!
To count towards the Quest you'll need to post your photo to Facebook or Twitter etc, tag SchilMil and include the link to the campaign page.
Artwork developments Finally, heres a new concept for the backs of the Old One tiles: nb these are not the exact colours, they will be coded to the Old One levels on the map.
