Tectonic Treads (Patreon)

Greetings everyone!

Sure as the ground you stand on, these boots will keep you rock steady. The Tectonic Treads are an exciting creation for us as strangely enough, it's our first pair of boots. They have a multitude of uses in and out of combat and present a new type of movement as well! 

Our patrons get early access to all of these items as well as additional formats that are easily usable in both physical and online play. Additionally they get high-res art exports, easy to use text exports, behind the scenes updates, and a lot more.

If that strikes your fancy, consider becoming a Patron

Design notes from Matthew:

I love the idea of giving our items several useful benefits for different states of the adventure and one of the more obvious ways to do that is by giving the items states that can be cycled through by the user. I really enjoy two state items as they give some tactical choice to the player. I’m all about player agency, so any time I can put more interesting decision making into their hands I’m happy to do so.

These boots initially didn’t have the spike property on them where it would cause a pillar to jut from the ground. Fernando mentioned that it could probably use something a bit more offensive than just the passive defenses and exploratory bonuses that were offered by the rest of the boots. He was definitely right. We needed something to give it a little kick, if you will.

I’m in love with the visual of riding on a wave of rock while you use the Landslide state. Something about that is so evocative for me. I really love how these came out.

Illustration notes from Fernando:

Items with two states are a ton of fun to create, but tough to illustrate since it’s just a static image.  It would be easier if we animated them or did like a comic book style blur or panels, but that wouldn’t come even remotely close to fitting with our brand.

When Matt came up with this item the first mental picture I had was of two big lumps of rock blending into the ground, of course releasing “boots” that just look like a couple of boulders wouldn’t be much fun so that’s when I had the idea to include just the top part of the boots inside the stone.  It also works to add a sense of scale and makes the character look like they have oversized feet which I think looks cool and fun.

By this time in history so many things have been done in pop-culture that it’s hard to come up with something that someone else hasn’t already made a similar version of.  I know the stone spikes mechanic is not the most original one (Right now I’m playing not one but two video games with characters that have that mechanic) but it feels like a natural fit for this item, and gives it that last extra “oomph” to get it past the finished line for us.

Rewards for Patrons!

Kraken's Kohorts ($3 tier)

Kraken's Kompanions ($6 tier)

Kraken's Kollaborators ($10 Tier)

Thanks so much and we'll see you soon with our latest item!

- Fernando & Matthew