A fantasy worker placement game from Haakon Hoel Gaarder, designer & illustrator of Villagers, Streets, and Moon.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Days 23 - 24: SOLO MODE & new reveals!
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Aug 08, 2024 at 03:25:16 AM
Hello there!
Solo players, assemble! In groups of... one, I guess?
We're finally ready to show you Yonder's single player mode! We're working to have a solo version up & running on Tabletop Simulator before the end of the campaign (probably not including all the final art). More details on that as soon as it's ready.
So here's Haakon to tell us about Yonder's shiny new solo mode.
Solo Mode Revealed
In solo mode the player plays against the one eyed ogre, Olos. Olos is a pirate captain that will interact with you in every way a real opponent would. Driven by a small deck of cards his henchmen will take over spots in the city and trade counterfeit Arcana.
Olos will deliver his stolen goods to envoys, commandeer ships and even send Ogre bullies to your settlement to eat your food! To win the game you must earn more gold than the pirates, who get a head start with a massive treasury that will grow through the game.
The solo mode aims to recreate all the tension of the multiplayer game with minimal management and rules overhead required from the player. With three difficulty levels the solo mode provides a nice experience for solo players of all levels.
After you've done your turn, the pirates will do three things, typically placing a worker then discarding a building and an envoy card from the board. In addition some random spots in the city will already be claimed by the pirates at the start of the round, and after four turns the pirates will claim a ship from the harbour. Starting from the fifth turn each round the pirates will earn gold for every turn the player takes. Play efficiently to win with few workers, or gather a large workforce to outperform a high pirate score.
Day 23 Reveal: Razor's Edge
"C" envoys, like the Alchemists we showed yesterday, can let you do some truly gross things. Their biggest limitation is that they can generally only be delivered to once, unless that is, you're delivering with the mighty Razor's Edge! Particularly potent at the end of the game, and arriving with bonus meat - probably the most valuable type of food in the game, this ship is absolutely one to watch out for.
Day 24 Reveal: Smokehouse
Having to sell your fish at the end of each round is a bittersweet moment in Yonder. On the one hand, points are points. On the other hand, particularly in the early game, you might well have preferred to hang onto the extra food. The Smokehouse changes this dynamic, because two gold for one fish is huge. Target selling three or four fish every round, and look out for efficient ways of generating them, such as the Sea Ogres, Fishing Boats, or the 'gain three fish' spot in the Upper City.
So that's it for another update. I'd just like to say a quick hello to everyone who joined us following Yonder's appearance on The Dice Tower's Crowd Surfing video yesterday. Tom Vasel and Chris Yi certainly seemed very positive about the game, AND THEY WERE RIGHT TO BE, IT'S GREAT, TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
OK I've clearly had more than enough coffee this morning so I'm done here. Until next time, my friends...
Days 19-22: Dwarven Fish Smugglers, etc.
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Aug 06, 2024 at 04:24:57 AM
Hello!
It's been a busy few days here at Sinister HQ, with a certain small person's birthday and a house full of people, and my social battery wiped out. I watched from afar as GenCon happened, and I hope any of you who attended had an amazing time - we will make it out there one day I promise!
Yonder Demos
If you have a copy of Tabletop Simulator and you'd like our developer extraordinaire Anthony to run you through a game of Yonder, just make yourself known on our Discord channel and he'll try to accommodate you.
Now let's catch up with those daily reveals...
Day 19: Drawing Board
Run out of things to build? Could it be time to go back to the Drawing Board? There are not many ways to aquire new buildings in the game, and the primary method - the Architect space in the city, requires sending a worker that will not return to you. It's painful to spend workers to get buildings because the more buildings you have, the more workers you need. This building solves that problem. Now you can get more buildings while holding on to your workers as well!
Day 20: Fish Cages
There may be plenty more fish in the sea, but it's still nice to know exactly where some of them are. Envoys that require fish each round can be a bit of a drag because excess fish are sold at the end of each round. You'll need to catch them fresh each time, and on some rounds you'll have other things for your workers to do. Fish Cages lets you put some fish away for a rainy day, and scores you points for doing so.
Day 21: Smugglers Hut
A cheeky little building that opens up the possiblity space of your turn consdierably. The limitation of only getting to make one delivery is not much of a hinderance to the effectiveness of the Smuggler's Hut. The most powerful envoys in the game are limited to max one or two deliveries anyway. Target those envoys with this building, and you'll be getting almost full value from it, without having to keep fullfilling that envoy across mutliple rounds, and without commiting one of your precious boats.
Day 22: Dwarven Alchemists
Getting arcana has never been this easy. Expect to be pulling the same face the Dwarven Alchemists are when you realise you're in a position to take this envoy!
And that brings us up to date. Stay tuned for more additions!
You stand a good chance of finding people to play with (and maybe even teach you the game) on the Sinister Fish Discord server.
So anyway, are you ready to reveal some more goodies? That's what I thought - let's begin!
Day 15: Beef Trees
Legend tells that the first Beef Tree seeds fell from the stars long ago.
The spot in the city that lets you advance on the favour track is one of the most quickly taken spaces in the game. Beef Trees lets you sidestep this competition, avoid the rush to advance on the favour track as early as possible, and instead move it along it at your own leisure, waiting for the right moment to get maximum utility out of each space. For best results, send dwarves here to use the building for free. But even if you need to spend the meat it's a great deal, whichever way you slice it!
Day 16: Great Statue
Some endgame buildings reward going all-in on collecting a specific thing, be it resources, a type of worker, or something else. Some C buildings ask much less of you, either scoring straight points, or rewarding you for something you probably have already, like buildings or ships. Get enough of these less specialised buildings together, and you can reap a huge reward from the Great Statue, without ever feeling like you are being pulled in different directions.
Day 17: Elven Lords
Gaining a worker of any kind is one of the most powerful effects in the game. There are very few problems it cannot solve. Somebody took a spot you wanted? Grab an elf and go there too. Need some resources? Grab an ogre. Need workers to activate your buidlings? A skeleton is probably a good bet. Need to build something this turn? Grab a dwarf. Elven Lords require some work to set up - it is not cheap. But deliver to it once or twice, and the chances are good that you'll accomplish everything else you needed to this turn as well.
Day 18: Prometheus
If you took a really busted turn in Yonder, it was probably because you spent an arcana. The flexibility arcana offers you is limited by the fact that each space in the Upper City can only be taken once. But Prometheus gets you an arcana and circumvents this limitation all in one go. It's an incredibly powerful vessel, and in the right situation might be worth locking up a turn or two early to take.
And we're all caught up. Have a great weekend, and we'll speak again soon!
Day 13 & 14 Reveals / Yonder Online
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 03:12:30 PM
Greetings, traveller.
The temperature is over 20°C (68°F) here in the United Kingdom, so of course everything is melting because we are not set up for any weather vaguely outside of cloud & occasional rain. Seriously though, it's 11pm now and I'm still uncomfortably hot. Is there some kind of invisible night sun nobody told me about?
Despite the mildly inconvenient heat, we are still here for you, dear backers! Today we bring you two more reveals - a new ship and a new building card no less. But before that, something very cool...
This TTS mod is set up to begin playing immediately with 2-4 players. And if you've got the rules handy and want a true random start, you can always reset things yourself.
If you're looking for other players, you could do a lot worse than joining the official Sinister Fish Discord channel. We're also looking for playtesters for upcoming games, so please apply within!
We're working on a version of Yonder for Tabletopia, which should be ready before the end of this campaign.
Day 13 Reveal: Gemini
Particularly strong in the early game when copying resource saving/generating ships like the Nautilus and Scrooge. Particuarly strong in the late game when copying point generating ships like the Argo and the Sea Pickle. Gemini is a great pick no matter when you sail it!
The four starting ships. You get one assigned randomly each game.
Day 14 Reveal: Camp
One of the nice things about the countryside is that there's a lot more space. Grab a seat by the fire and let me tell you about the Camp - the only building in the game with space for more than one worker. The Camp's relatively modest effect belies its power. Sometimes in Yonder you'll have workers left in your supply and have nothing to do with them. You'll want to keep them for later in the game, as new workers will stop arriving in your settlement after the third round, but if they are sat in your supply, all they're going to be doing is eating your food. The camp is a great place to put them to use, with space for up to 3 workers and up to 3 elves to work productively. Also, if you can get a group of skeletons together, they can churn out resources from round to round at camp without putting a dent in your food stores. Who knew there were actually advantages to camping out!
That ends our offering for today, and there is so much more still to come! Until next time...
Day 11 & 12 Reveals: Things Get Meaty
over 1 year ago
– Sat, Jul 27, 2024 at 01:52:47 PM
Hello, Cleveland!
Who wants more cards for Yonder? I said who wants more cards for Yonder!!? I CAN"T HEAR YOU!! Oh sorry my hearing aid isn't switched on, here's the cards...
What better way to meat your neighbours? The Butcher Shop functions as an efficient point generating engine, particularly in the early game. The decision on when to use it is key. Use it too early, and your opponent will put the extra meat they recieve to good use. Use it after an opponent has locked up, and they'll get to keep the meat for next round. But, give them the gift of meat just before they lock up, when they've already acquired the food they need, and they'll end up wasting the extra meat you give them, leaving you with lots of points, and no downside. That's a spicy meatball!
It's best not to ask what happens to the happy, healthy, plump, meaty workers you send off to the Skeleton Converters. Try instead to enjoy a bountiful supply of the only food source in the game that is not lost at the end of a round. The only problem you'll have is finding a use for all that grain. Works well with the Elven Bakery and/or the Goblin Brewery for this reason.
That concludes our business for today. Coming up next week we (hopefully) have a closer look at Solo Mode, and the grand opening of the public Tabletop Simulator mod for Yonder! Exciting stuff!
