Hello Objective Hex! I'm Jeff “Gearbox” Mitchell and I had a great time at GenCon 2024 this past weekend. Jamie Perkins is the Product Owner responsible for Godtear at Steamforged Games. He was kind enough to give me an hour of his time for an interview about Godtear on Sunday afternoon. Those of you who have been to the GenCon Exhibitors hall know that there is no space to maneuver and that it's loud; too loud to record a full conversation for accurate quotes. As such, quotes will be rare and I will be paraphrasing Jamie quite often in his responses. All quotes will be in actual quotation marks, and all paraphrasing will be as close to original responses as my notes will allow.
Jamie Perkins after four long days of demos
1. How has the vision for Godtear evolved since release? Has the Warmachine acquisition evolved it further?
Our vision for Godtear has evolved such that we want to add more lore. Not an overarching tapestry and history like we did for Guild Ball, but short stories and vignettes. We did one for Fenra not too long ago, and a Rangosh one last Christmas (which we want to make more widely available now) and we want to have that insight into the characters of all the champions. We actually have a new one focused on Titus coming out soon!
2. How did Godtear come to be?
Mat Hart, Creative Director at Steamforged Games, has had a concept of Godtear since the first release of Guild Ball. We spent two years on creative development, throwing everything we wanted into the brainstorming and then cutting that down to the essence that is Godtear. Then we took an early prototype to Steamcon in 2016 and got loads of player feedback that helped us to develop the initial release that has grown into the game it is today.
3. What would you say to a new player who is curious about Godtear to entice them to try it?
“Godtear is easy to learn; yet tactically deep.”
Godtear was always meant to be a bridging game between Miniatures gamers and Board gamers.
Board gamers tend to bounce off of miniatures games for a couple of reasons; mainly free movement, line of sight rules, the intimidating depth of building a list, and keeping track of all the buffs and debuffs that are in play at any given time. Godtear uses hexes, has no line of sight rules, an easy approach to list building, and Boons and Blights to provide guard rails around these issues. That's not to say that Godtear is simple. Far from it. The existence of Objective Hex itself is testament to how tactically deep Godtear is.
Miniatures gamers, on the other hand, just need a demo. They can generally feel for themselves how easy it is to learn and how deep the tactics can be.
4. Can you tell us anything about the future of Godtear lore? We have a map and some tidbits, but is there any interest in developing an overarching narrative?
I touched on this earlier, that we don't have any plans for an overarching story for Godtear, but we do want to share the character of the champions more. We want to keep doing short stories like the Jaak and Rangosh ones. And the upcoming Titus one! Look for the Titus story coming soon.
5. Do you have a favorite Godtear miniature from a purely aesthetic perspective?
“My gut says Rangosh but everyone says Rangosh.” Thinking hard for a minute. Shayle and Landslide! I like big robots, and Landslide reminds me of those big robots. And the sculpts are wonderful. Landslide really feels like the powerful rock golem that he is.
6. What gameplay mechanics in Godtear do you find the most fun and interesting?
“Grimgut as a Champion.” How he moves and redeploys his followers. My favorite part of any miniatures game is clever positioning, and Grimgut and his abilities allow for some quite clever positioning that I find really rewarding.
7. Are there plans to expand the number of champions beyond 28?
We're always rolling forward with Champion development. Steve Margetson, the Lead Developer of Godtear, has 6-8 champion concepts bouncing around in his head at any given time. The challenge we have is getting him the bandwidth to develop those concepts alongside his other design responsibilities. He works with half of the dev team on Monster Hunter, Guild Ball, Rivet Wars, and other projects as yet unannounced. Speaking of which, this half of the team is not responsible for Warmachine in the day to day. “I know that there has been a question from the Godtear community, whether Warmachine has taken up my team’s day to day bandwidth. I want to answer that question directly. No.”
8. Are there plans for new scenarios? Is the construction scenario still in beta?
The Construction scenario has finished its beta testing and our intention is to add it to the Organized Play packet, removing one scenario so that there are still six. The one most likely to be removed is Quest, at least, that's what we're thinking at the moment. Now, I don't have my timeline and spreadsheets here at GenCon but we plan on updating the Organized Play packet before the end of this calendar year.
9. How has community feedback influenced the direction of the game?
“The beta test for Construction was helpful, useful, and direct player feedback.” We also look at champion pick rates. This examination of the meta helps us develop champions that impact the current meta.
For example, the new Guardian we teased recently is intended to be a strong counter to Raith’Marid, with an intentional weakness against Morrigan. What intentional weakness, you ask? Well, this Guardian has the highest base health of any champion we've ever released, but has defensive stats intended to be vulnerable to Snowball’s Chance.
10. Godtear has been released for over four years, fielded eleven expansions, and has never had an errata. Despite this, the game feels pretty well balanced. How have you achieved this and what is the SFG pov on a potential errata in the future?
Our point of view on game balance as a company evolved between the release of Guild Ball and the release of Godtear. We used to perceive balance as a laser thin line that every model needed to hit. That if power was measured on a 1-10 scale, we needed every model to be a 5. We used to think that any 6 or 4 was just out of balance and so we designed on a knife's edge. With Godtear, we realized that balance is a range of power, and that if we use that same scale, it's okay to have some 7s and 3s. This is especially true in Godtear because of the inbuilt strengths and weaknesses of each champion, the champion combos that help compensate for gaps in what the individual champions bring to the table, and the variance in how each champion performs on each scenario. You can look at the new Guardian as an example of this. In the matchup against Morrigan it's a liability, but against Raith’Marid it's almost a hard counter.
11. Godtear developers talk about the goal of creating cinematic moments in gameplay. Have you had any particularly fun ones playing this game?
There are the common ones that everyone has. Rangosh Brutal Charging a Champion, landing a Jawbreaker and sending the KO’d enemy reeling back to the sidelines. Similar things when Skullbreaker uses Finisher on someone. Personally, I love it when Grimgut encircles an enemy champion with Retchlings; “it reminds me of a Necromancer throwing a pile of zombies at a problem they just don't want to deal with.”
12. What, if anything, can you tell us about the upcoming expansion. We know it’s a guardian and that there’s a trait which denies placement. Can you add further context or detail?
Well, we already talked about its health being the highest we've ever published in Godtear, its intended weakness to Morrigan and strength into Raith’Marid… It also has abilities that allow it to regenerate its large health pool! And one of its offensive skills takes hits in excess of the target's dodge and turns them into damage dice. So if you hit Rhodri with 5 hits on the accuracy dice, you get to roll 3 more damage dice than printed on the card. The trait we teased is on the four small based followers. It's also from the forest background and is Ent-like. Oh, and the ultimate guide for the Champion is being written right now. That means we have final cards, sculpts, and artwork, so expect a release date to be announced in that post when it goes live on the SFG website soon!
13. What’s your message to Godtear players who want to see the game grow and thrive but who remain uncertain about the game’s future?
"Personally I'm a big believer that the thing that grows minis games is seeing it being played and word of mouth. Any chance you have to play the game at a store/club/con is a chance for someone to see the game and ask 'what's that?' The voice of a fan that is passionate about the game is always more compelling than a paid staff member.
To add onto that: We are intending to attend Adepticon next year! Be on the lookout for Godtear events on the Adepticon website. “(Note that when we last attended Adepticon we know that we were late to get those events up. We’re already talking to Adepticon about events right now, so they should be available sooner.)"
14. Was there anything you wanted to say to the Godtear Community?
"Just that I personally want to apologize, because I feel like we've been quieter on Godtear than we should have been for the last 6-12 months. Thank you for sticking with the game and persevering, and believing in us. I really hope that you see the upcoming Champion release, Organized Play update, and Titus lore drop as a reward for your patience and a sign of things to come.”
So there you have it. Some great news for Godtear out of GenCon 2024. The new Guardian is soon to be fully revealed in an ultimate guide on SFG’s website. There's a new short story featuring Titus coming to the same place. The organized play packet is being updated before the end of 2024. And perhaps most excitingly for me, SFG is planning on bringing Godtear back to Adepticon in 2025!
Thank you to Jamie Perkins for taking the time to speak with me. It was a fantastic hour and probably the highlight of my GenCon experience! I hope you enjoyed this article and I will see you in the Shattered Plains.
Jeff “Gearbox” Mitchell
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