No doubt 2020 was a challenging year for many. We saw great changes in the way we work, travel, and play but it was also the year that REDLINE was born so that has to mean something. 😉
It was early in pre COVID 2020 when the idea for what would become REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat first started and thanks in part to the social distancing of the pandemic we were able to develop the game and the successful Kickstarter that followed which has brought us here.
We hope, like so many, that 2021 brings a semblance of normalcy back to our lives as we look forward to returning to family gatherings and game nights with friends.
2021 is also when we expect big things to come from REDLINE as Saving Throw Studios has been working hard to follow through on the vision we have for the game. And it is more of that vison that we wanted to share with our fans today, the first day of the New Year.
REDLINE IN EARLY PRODUCTION
Admittingly, it may have taken us a little longer to get to this point than we first envisioned, but we are happy to share that REDLINE has entered the beginning steps of production! Game files are submitted and the prototype is being developed as you read this.
Even better, and I hope this doesn’t come back to bite us, but we are actually on track to hopefully deliver AHEAD of our proposed Kickstarter ship date of May 2021.Not by much mind you, but April is in our sights if everything falls into place!
We also have 79% of backer shipping fees accounted for so if you know you haven’t confirmed your shipping yet, make it your New Year resolution to lock it in today on our CrowdOx pledge manager.
LATE PLEDGES ENDING JAN 8th While we were working to get everything REDLINE in order for production, we kept our CrowdOx late pledges open. But since we are now moving away from our post Kickstarter environment we will be shutting down late pledges in one week, Jan 8th.
Do not miss your chance to save on all our sweet REDLINE bundles and offers before they go. Add ons like the alt art anime generals, efreet miniatures bundles and the discounted efreet designer package will no longer be available after Jan 8th as we move the Core Set and select miniatures over to the main website going forward.
THE CORE SET
When we first started, REDLINE was about as old school as Kickstarters get. We were a young and new team of game designers sharing our vision of what a sci-fi tactical card game could be to the world. The version of REDLINE we had for the Kickstarter, though thoroughly developed, was not quite a finished product and more a vision of what it could be with fan support.
Which means the game at the time was close to where we wanted it but also so far away. So we have spent the time since to further refine and test and tweak to not only make the Core Set a fun gaming experience, but also to set a strong foundation to build REDLINE off of going forward.
As such, many of the cards we’ve shared before to promote the game have had small balance adjustments made and so we have taken them off the website’s card image gallery and will return them in their proper forms in the future.
There have also been small tweaks to the rules meant to refine gameplay and which are fully posted online, but which we wanted to share some of the more impactful changes here with you today.
Heroic Cards In order to better highlight unique individuals and technologies in the REDLINE universe we have added a new card subtype, called heroic.
To make these legendary cards stand out and feel important to the player, heroic cards are easily identified by their gold borders. Any card type can be heroic, from generals, to pilots, to efreets and weapons.
Players can have up to four copies of any one heroic card in their deck, but only one in play at a time. Opposing players may also play their own version of the same heroic cards without penalty so no need to worry about anybody else’s deck list but your own!
Upgrade 2.0 Being honest, our initial efreet upgrade system was a bit clunky. By only allowing certain efreets to accept certain weapon types as indicated by their equipment slots, too often you were stuck with dead cards in hand, a laser for example with no laser efreets to equip it onto.
That’s changed with the addition of equipment upgrade costs. Now, if you have a piece of equipment that matches with an efreet equipment slot, you can deploy that card straight onto the unit from your hand it for its deploy cost. Doing so is fast and efficient.
However once equipment has been played it can be moved onto any efreet for the upgrade cost located next to the gear symbol on the card, regardless of efreet equipment slots.
For example, now, you can shoe horn an Avenger cannon onto an efreet with no cannon slots for first deploying it for 3 onto the battlefield then equipping it for 2. Watch out because the Avenger hits hard! Roll for crit!
Capture Damage One of the biggest hurdles we faced during REDLINE design was in keeping the focus of play on the game’s mission cards while still providing for interactivity with your opponent’s board state. Focusing on one always ended up taking attention off the other. Not great.
The fun in the game was always in planning and executing attacks on the mission cards, so we wanted a system that kept that core as the focus. We did so with the addition of capture damage.
Now, whenever you successfully capture a mission you can assign capture damage equal to the mission’s capture cost to targets in your opponent’s baseline. For example, capturing the Fallen Satellite above with a capture cost of 3 will also deal 3 capture damage to an enemy deck, general, or other possible targets in the future… Hmmm.
Capture damage keeps the gameplay on mission planning and rewards action while still allowing flexible player interaction with opposing board states. Even better, it provides the clock we wanted as drawn out engagements will eventually exhaust players of resources and bring games to an inevitable end as decks get targeted by capture damage and evaporate into the scrapyard.
Even better, it opens up new design space in the future for more types of cards that can be affected by it. Resources with armor that can be attacked perhaps? Strategies? Tokens?
PRESSING FORWARD
Now that the design and development stages of the Core Set are winding down it will soon be time to look ahead to the future of REDLINE and that will be.
With late pledges shutting down and future orders moving to the main website we aim to begin posting weekly articles there as well that will dive further into the REDLINE’s release, universe and updates. We would like redlinegame.com to grow and become the main hub for everything REDLINE so consolidating is a goal in the new year.
And though we are not quite there yet, we already have some ideas on the first REDLINE expansions and what they will take shape as. New generals. New efreets. New weapons. New missions. You may even be able to find some clues hidden as to what we have in store in the FREE Upgrade Pack cards that comes with every initial Core Set.
2020 was a difficult year, but the outpouring of support from the REDLINE community was one of the personal highlights for us at Saving Throw Studios. We’ve come such a long way in a short amount of time and if the past is any indication, the sky is the limit for the game going forward.
While we were working to get everything REDLINE in order for production, we kept our 
Being honest, our initial efreet upgrade system was a bit clunky. By only allowing certain efreets to accept certain weapon types as indicated by their equipment slots, too often you were stuck with dead cards in hand, a laser for example with no laser efreets to equip it onto. 
One of the biggest hurdles we faced during REDLINE design was in keeping the focus of play on the game’s mission cards while still providing for interactivity with your opponent’s board state. Focusing on one always ended up taking attention off the other. Not great. 