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We’ve made it to the finish line! Or one finish line, that is. A few days ago we received the pre-production proof, and yesterday we finished packaging up the final print files for Oath. In case you don’t know me, I’m Josh, a developer and editor on Oath.

Yesterday, we got a very exciting box from our manufacturer that contained a pre-production copy of Oath. No matter how many times I go through this process, packages like this still make me giddy.

Over the past few weeks, the whole team has been working hard on finishing the game. On the development side, our work has been mostly limited to small adjustments to a few key systems, some alterations to card balance, and seeing through the end of our final usability study. On the graphic design front, everyone has been pushing the files into final layout and Kyle has been producing some amazing art pieces.

Last Friday, we received most of Fort’s first printing to our North American fulfillment partner, Atlas Games, and the rest was sent from the factory to other region-based fulfillment partners: Fulfillment EU, VFI, and VR Distribution. All regions combined, we have over 3000 pre-orders to fulfill. Due to COVID-19 and how fulfillment works, we can’t ship every order simultaneously. We have timed shipments in each region as closely as possible while respecting that region’s bandwidth, ability to ship with limited options in ocean and air freight, and changes in practices due to the virus.

In mid July, Oath crossed a major development milestone: design lock. This means that all of the core systems are no longer subject to any change. I still have some work on the solo game ahead of me and want to take the cards through another round of editing, but the game is getting very close to being fully done.

At Leder Games we spend a lot of time thinking about form factor and presentation, this diary is focused on finally sharing all that effort with you! Fort may technically be a "smaller" game for us but you'll notice we still pulled out all the stops.

We’ve spent the last few weeks discussing Forts development process. focusing mainly on the mechanics, rules and usability. This week it’s time to discuss theme and art! So without further ado...

When developing Fort, I think the icon system and layout were easily the most important parts of my job. Having played SPQF, I knew the mechanical structure of the game was already rock solid, but as I shared the game with others it became clear that the icons and layout often tripped new players up. Because they were spending so much time trying to parse their cards, they had less time to think about the actual gameplay.

Yesterday, Leder Games withdrew from participation in Origins Online. We made this choice for two reasons. First, we wanted to make it clear that there was no room for silence on matters of inclusion and police brutality.