Friday Update

Hello, Cory here to do the UPDATE!

I know we covered this a bit in the last update, but I wanted to talk a little more about GenCon.

HEX had a great showing at GenCon. It was really amazing to meet new members of the HEX community and give them long awkward hugs. I take these hugs pretty seriously, Ben Stoll told me you have to hug for 12 seconds if you want the proper chemical bond to set in, connecting you emotional to the other person. SO if you see me get ready for warm embrace and a SLOW count to an even dozen!

The amount of love and support we receive from this community always amazes me. I know I talk about it A LOT, but it really is unlike anything I have experienced over the last 20 years working in the games industry. And it’s not just in person. It’s the message boards, Twitter, and numerous other social media outlets. The number of people willing to invest their own time to make this game great and be so incredibly inviting to new players is nothing short of miraculous.

I think it has something to do with how different this gaming concept is and how each of us feels about the opportunity to help make it reality. The birth that this game received from Kickstarter gave it 15,000 moms and dads. That “parental” love shines through in the community and nothing could make me happier.

With this in mind, I want to announce the Exalted program! Occasionally, as recognition of outstanding contributions to the community and the overall development and promotion of HEX, we will be immortalizing a player as an Exalted. An Exalted player will have their vanity card art given to them as a one of a kind sleeve. They will also be enshrined in the game in our Hall of the Exalted.

Other perks and benefits will be added later, but high on the list of things you get RIGHT NOW is my total thanks and deep appreciation for going so far above and beyond for this game we love so much.

I would also like to announce the first recipient of this award:

Colin McRavey!

I am sure this is not much of a surprise to our players. Colin has consistently been a central part of the HEX community and has tirelessly worked to make it amazing. Beyond the incredibly generous gifts he has bestowed on members of the community (such as flying them to shows to see HEX in person, giving out slacker backer accounts, or just spending his time teaching new players about the game), Colin is also an endless source of enthusiasm and optimism for what HEX can and will achieve.

I am proud that I have become friends with Colin in a very real sense, above and beyond our shared passion for HEX. I can say with zero hesitation that Colin is a kind and generous person and having been the beneficiary of those amazing traits, it thrills me that we could do a little something to recognize that contribution.

Thank you Colin, our first EXALTED!

Ok, onto other news … SET 2!

As the lucky HEX fans that attended GenCon can attest, Set 2 (also known as Shattered Destiny) is getting close to launch and looks to be an amazing second half to what I believe is the best first set of a TCG in history. Sadly, we will not be launching Set 2 in August (I am sure this is surprising to absolutely nobody). We are getting close and development is speeding along (the last 10% of a set is always the hardest to code as it typically requires new engineering elements or interface design).

We also made the decision to delay the release of Set 2 until after Open Beta is launched. That way our influx of new players will still have a sense of getting into the game before a giant new chunk of content is dropped on them. Don’t expect this to be much of a delay. I know I am as anxious as anyone to get Set 2 into the draft rotation. I’m calling it now, Induction Coil! HOT RARE on the auction house! Speculators better start buying now!

Speaking of Open Beta, you may have noticed some new players in the game. That may have something to do with the 20,000 invites we sent out this week! Over the last year, roughly 100,000 gamers have signed up for a beta key, and in the next couple of weeks we will be sending out invites to these players.

I realize that some of the new player elements are pretty rough right now. It’s always a battle between making a good first impression and giving players a chance to see what we have been up to. But I felt like it was time (and with Open Beta coming very shortly) to let some of those closed beta requests be fulfilled. And for me to have someone to draft against at 3AM!

Please help make the new player experience a bit better by offering a hand to the new HEX players. The player you help today may be the player that buys your Legendary in the AH for 3000 platinum tomorrow.

Finally, I want to give you an update on the posters / shirts, etc.

We will be selling these via the Amazon.com store (rather than Cryptozoic’s store). This will allow international players to purchase them and get reasonable shipping rates (and take advantage of Amazon Prime). We’ll announce the date and time when posters will go on sale in next Friday’s update.

And an EXTRA finally…

This week we hired a Director of Communications/community manager! This is the person that will be handling the community element of the game. As much I want to introduce him now, we are going to give it a week so he can get his feet underneath him. Now you have something to look forward to in next week’s update!

Thanks for reading this. I will be Blogging on Wednesday (and spoiling a couple of cards). Oh yeah, I spoiled a card on twitter, @coryhudsonjones. I guess I better stop spoiling cards with our fun (but VERY rarely used) mechanic/flavor element! I did not expect that reaction in our forums, but honestly at this point I should be aware that ALL reactions are viable and likely (I would like to apologize to the guy that reported “shitting a brick”, I never meant for my post to cause that kind of bowel trauma). Be aware this is not something we will be using often, it’s just a bit of fun and we will NOT overdo it.

See you Wednesday…

Love, Cory

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