Dungeon Tryouts: The Party Game of Fantasy Misadventure

Dungeon Tryouts artwork is 100% complete!
16 days ago – Fri, Sep 25, 2026 at 07:21:07 AM

Hello backers!

We’re excited to share an huge milestone for Dungeon Tryouts and to introduce you to a member of the creative team you haven’t met yet!

Here's what we're covering in this update:

• All Dungeon Tryouts artwork is now complete
• What happens next in the production timeline
• Introducing our sensitivity reviewer

Art update

We're thrilled to report that after a huge push from Andy, we have completed 100% of the art for Dungeon Tryouts!

Andy really dove into the final set of Big Jobs Expansion illustrations and produced some stunning work.

As we mentioned in the last update, we think that Big Jobs Expansion is some of the best work Andy has done on Dungeon Tryouts, and he kept that quality going right to the last card.

We owe a huge thank you to Andy for giving us such a strong finish. Hand-creating 740 unique illustrations is such an absolutely monumental undertaking, and we couldn't be happier with the artwork we received. We can't wait for you to get a look at the full collection of cards.

Speaking of which…

What happens next in the production timeline

All the artwork is done! So what's next?

• Final editorial pass: reviewing all text prompts and card artwork a final time to make sure everything is as polished as possible
• Art revisions: if we identify any issues with the art or cards that need a rewrite that involves supporting artwork, we'll get Andy to make changes to a select number of cards.
• Graphic design: we have a quick system for loading cards from our writers' spreadsheet into InDesign, but only when we're finished with art and editorial changes will we do a final import. Then we do a card-by-card review to fine-tune the size and alignment of illustrations and any custom text layouts needed for specific cards.
• Proofreading: once graphic layout is complete, we export print-quality PDFs to send to a team of 3 proofreaders to catch typos, layout problems, export issues, and anything else we don't want going to print.
• Final changes and export for print: We input any proofreader changes and usually send them back to double-confirm the changes were entered correctly. Then we do a final export and send our files to the printer.

There's an additional set of steps once the printer has our files that we'll get into in our next update. Also, the print-and-play PDFs require special exporting and formatting to make them print well on home printers and fit neatly on standard paper.

I'm happy to report that we used the time while Andy was finishing Big Jobs to get ahead on many of these editorial steps for as many print assets as we could.

Some rewards didn't require us to wait for art revisions (like rulebooks and boxes), so we already put them through editorial, art revisions, and graphic design ahead of time to get them ready for the proofreaders.

Other rewards (like the pins, stickers, and T-shirts) have already gone through all stages and are now with the printer.

For the cards themselves, we divided the deck and expansions into blocks of cards that we reviewed as we passed different milestones, although we'll still need to do a final pass now that we have all cards ready for review together at the same time.

We are still forecasting that final print-and-play PDFs of the main deck and all expansions will be ready to deliver in November.

We are also still expecting that the game will deliver later than the original estimated timeline of April 2027, but we are holding off on providing new estimated dates until the printer moves our files through pre-production and we can start planning what our new freight and fulfillment timelines look like.

Also, there's one additional review phase we managed to complete while art was being finished that we wanted to share with you: sensitivity review.

What is sensitivity review?

As your beta feedback has been coming in and Andy was finishing up the last handful of expansion illustrations, we’ve been working with Sehar Manji, a talented writer, comedian, improviser, and sensitivity consultant, to do a sensitivity review of the game.

Sensitivity review is a stage of creative development where you bring in outside consultants to look at a story or game and give notes on how your game materials could tread into sensitive areas, especially when you're depicting the lived experiences of communities that are often misrepresented or discriminated against.

This has been a part of our development process for every release since our Deck of Worlds Kickstarter, and we’ve found it’s a step that makes our decks better, clearer, and more accessible to a wider variety of users.

Going into this project, we'd been thinking a lot about how to approach sensitivity review for Dungeon Tryouts.

You see, Dungeon Tryouts is a really different project from our decks of storytelling and worldbuilding prompts.

If you’ve backed our projects before, you’ll know that most people use our decks for solo creation. That means that players have time to think about their creative choices, revise their decisions, and consider how to proceed if their creative choices take them into sensitive territory.

Dungeon Tryouts is different. It’s a living, collaborative game where your creative decisions happen in real-time.

So how do you do a sensitivity review for a game where anything can happen at a moment’s notice?

You find the right collaborator.

Meet Sehar Manji

We knew that for Dungeon Tryouts, we’d need a collaborator who understands and loves improv and comedy. Sehar was the perfect candidate.

We found out about her work through her TedX talk about improv as a space that encourages creativity, risk-taking, and being willing to make "mistakes."

Born and raised in Nairobi, Sehar Manji is a veteran improvisor turned actor, writer, comedian, instructor/workshop facilitator, and TEDx speaker who has been a longtime force in Montreal’s improv scene. Her body of work spans script, stage, and screen, from major comedy festivals across North America such as Just For Laughs/OFF-JFL and the Vancouver International Improv Festival to a spot in CBC’s Kim’s Convenience Emerging Writers’ Room. As an immigrant, woman of color, and longtime arts educator, she brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her work reviewing content for cultural sensitivity, representation, and inclusivity. She helps creators develop work that is authentic, thoughtful, and engaging for diverse audiences.

Sehar has been helping us review our prompts and artwork to make sure we're not inadvertently punching down with our writing, while also working with us to make sure our game creates a space where players can have fun making mistakes.

It's been an eye-opening and creatively stimulating process!

That's all for now!

We're continuing to work full-speed on editorial to try to get the game ready for print as quickly as we can without cutting any corners or important quality checks.

We'll keep you in the loop as we pass key milestones and refine our updated timeline for delivery next year.

Art and Production Update + Revising the Delivery Timeline
about 2 months ago – Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 07:47:13 AM

Hello backers!

We’re back to share some massive art milestones and give you an updated timeline for delivering the final PDFs of the main deck and all expansions.

Here’s what we’re covering in this update:

• Update on artwork progress (heads up, we’ve hit some delays)
• Our new timeline for delivering final PDFs of all expansions is November
• We’re re-examining our timelines for physical rewards

Let’s dive into it!

Update on artwork progress

The good news is that AC Stuart (Andy) just finished 100% of the final illustrations for the main deck, NSFW Expansion, and D&D Expansion!

The bad news is that he ran into some delays with the Big Jobs Expansion. It's mostly been due to the fact that these illustrations are, well, a BIG JOB in and of themselves.

What’s been going on exactly?

When we built the project timeline last year, we asked Andy to do several batches of art and built a schedule for him based on how long it took him to complete illustrations. We've had a couple hiccups with the schedule, but Andy always managed to get caught up if he fell behind on artwork. We stayed on track until earlier in the summer, when we started including more Big Jobs in the batches.

Big Jobs is taking significantly longer to finish than we were expecting. Andy loves getting to work with the bigger canvas for these jumbo full-page art cards, and he’s been going all-out on making these cards as sumptuously illustrated as possible. That, along with a couple of scheduling disruptions slowed down progress on Dungeon Tryouts artwork.

The quality of the work speaks for itself. His recent illustrations have been his finest work to date.

When we sat down with Andy and looked at the schedule to see if there was any way to speed up the illustrations, we realized we didn’t want him to rush or cut corners in the final leg of the art marathon—especially not for the most art-heavy expansion.

We decided to wait until all other card types were complete to reforecast the schedule.

At time of writing, Andy has illustrated all 700 cards from the main deck, NSFW Expansion, and D&D Expansion, and is now exclusively working on the remainder of Big Jobs in earnest. After that, we’ll have a round of card revisions, plus a few supplemental illustrations to complete, and then Dungeon Tryouts art will be 100% finished.

So where does that leave us for our timelines?

Update on PDF delivery timelines

To give ourselves time for final review of the artwork, art revisions, graphic design, sensitivity review, and proofreading, we’re now forecasting that we'll be delivering the final PDFs for the main deck and all expansions in November.

We'd wanted to deliver by the end of summer, but that won't be possible without cutting corners, and we'd rather give you the best dang game we can.

Update on physical delivery timelines

We will need to push back our projected delivery timeline, which originally had us shipping rewards by April of 2027. Our original production timeline was based on specific time-of-year contingencies like factory availability, freight/port congestion, and our own seasonal work volume here at The Story Engine, so that will no longer hold true with development work continuing into the fall.

We are going to wait until we've passed some key milestones in physical production before we offer new dates so we can give you firmer estimates.

The good news is that we've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to mitigate any delays.

Rather than waiting to have all of our assets ready at the same time to start working on production samples, last month we started pre-production on as many non-deck/expansion rewards as possible. We sent our files for all of the stickers, T-shirts, and pins to the factory last month, and we've already got samples of each arriving this week.

We also accelerated our content review schedule by sending advance batches of completed cards through the review process as they became ready so we could move this process along while waiting on Andy to finish work on the expansions.

That's all our updates for now

Sorry for the bad news, and thanks for your patience as we work to make the game as good as we can possibly make it! 

We're leaving addresses unlocked in BackerKit, which means that you'll have lots of time to update your address if our delivery timeline affects which address you'd like your game shipping to. Here's how you can update your address.

We're never happy introducing delays, but we're glad Andy has the time he needs to deliver his best work, and his artwork is very much the heart of the game.

We're confident Dungeon Tryouts is going to be worth the wait.

Last week to provide beta feedback + why your input matters!
3 months ago – Mon, Jul 13, 2026 at 11:29:38 AM

Hi everyone!

With just 5 days left to submit feedback on the Dungeon Tryouts beta, I wanted to send a reminder to submit your feedback via the Google Form by July 17. I also wanted to share some stories about how playtests and feedback shaped Dungeon Tryouts' journey from an unlikely idea in the corner of a notebook to a full-fledged Kickstarter release!

To me, it feels like Dungeon Tryouts was both:

• never supposed to happen, but also
• an underdog that was always going to fight its way to the top of The Story Engine's release calendar

It's definitely a different sort of beast from the decks of writing and TTRPG storytelling prompts we've become known for at The Story Engine.

I originally started developing Dungeon Tryouts as a just-for-fun project in my spare time. Mostly I was just brainstorming zany adventurer ideas in notebooks.

Once every 12-18 months, Miroki and I sit down to go over potential next projects. We review what our community has been requesting, and I also show her whatever I've been noodling with for fun.

Dungeon Tryouts was at the bottom of my "is this anything?" pile, but Miroki saw potential in it and encouraged me to keep workshopping it between other projects, so I did.

When we met half a year later for a week of in-person work, Dungeon Tryouts was still a bottom priority, but I had a chance to throw together a quick'n'dirty homemade demo with a data merge in InDesign. We happened to have a couple of hours free on our penultimate night working together, so we sat down to play it with Eric and my wife.

None of us expected what happened next.

The game worked!

Sure, it could benefit from some refinements, but the core concept and gameplay clicked almost instantly despite the lack of polish. We were belly-laughing within five minutes and ended up getting in so deep we played well past the time we originally intended to stop.

The next day we triaged our existing development plans and moved Dungeon Tryouts to the top of the priority list. We knew we had something special, but we also knew we needed more perspectives. 

So, we started running playtests that grew in scale and scope as we got more encouragement that yes, this game was as much fun for others as it was for us, along with suggestions for refining the game.

Our battery of playtests included:

• A lot of small-group informal playtests
• 3 large-scale focus tests in Halifax and Toronto
• A secret printable alpha test sent to friends and family
• A secret printable alpha test sent to some of the Story Engine community
• An in-depth rules-focused in-person playtest with players who were already familiar with the game

For all of these, we collected tons of feedback in person and through online forms, and we got tons of suggestions on how to make the game better, plus encouragement that we had something special.

Here are just a few ways that feedback shaped key development decisions or game features, from my first small playtest with Eric and Miroki to larger-scale community playtests:

• Illustrated cards (originally the game was text-only)
• The idea to refine game content to be fun for all kinds of players and not just hardcore D&D nerds
• The optional rule to provide a 1/2 point to give kudos to pitches that didn't win but were absolutely delightful nonetheless
• All 3 expansions were developed from ideas that popped up in individual playtests
• The name Dungeon Tryouts, originally meant as a project placeholder, got cemented through player feedback
• Plus a ton of individual cards inspired by player pitches or ridiculous hypotheticals that came up

And more than anything, it was thanks to community feedback that Dungeon Tryouts grew from a "wouldn't this be ridiculous?" notebook idea into the beta game we sent out last month.

So thank you! Some of these characters have been living in my head for at least 2 years. Now they're your problem!

And if you have time to provide us with some feedback, please do! Here's the form link again!

If you need a reminder on how to access the beta, check out the "How to Access the Beta" section of our most recent project update.

And if you have your own weird pet project you've been working on, consider this your sign from the universe to dust it off and take another look at it. It just might be your next great adventure waiting to happen.

Thanks so much!

Peter

Beta Release + Feedback Form + Launch Party!
4 months ago – Fri, Jun 12, 2026 at 04:47:21 AM

The PDF Beta Is Here!

We did it! After a whole lotta coffee and many research trips into the dungeon, we are thrilled to announce that the Dungeon Tryouts PDF Beta is complete! 

We’ll walk you through the details in a moment, but first we want to give a HUGE thank you to artist AC Stuart and graphic designer Zach Schuster for getting us through the final stretch and putting the finishing touches on all the cards in time for launch. This beta doesn't happen without them, and we're honored to be sharing the adventure!

Here’s what we have for you today: 

• What to expect (when you're expecting betas)  
• Feedback Form 
• Accessing the PDFs 
• Livestream Launch Party!

We Want Your Feedback  

A beta is an important part of development where we send out a rough, non-final version of the game to get feedback and fine tune details before heading to print.

This version of the game has not yet received a sensitivity review or professional proofreading, and may contain typos or sensitive material. With that in mind, please reach out through our beta feedback form if you spot any typos, errors, inappropriate jokes, or other issues in the beta.

You will have until July 17 to  provide feedback through the beta feedback form.

What's in the Beta

The Dungeon Tryouts Beta will be a digital, non-final version of the main game, and will NOT include expansions.  

They will include two print-and-play versions, one with art and one without:

HQ (High Quality)

• Artwork included on all cards
• 360 adventurers, 88 quests
• 8 cards per page 

Eco (Ecologically & Economically Friendly) 

• Artwork NOT included 
• 400 adventurers & 100 quests *full length of the final game
• 16 cards per page

A note about the beta: 

We’re still figuring out what cards would work best in the main deck versus in expansions, so some beta cards may end up in the expansions when we go to print if the content is a better fit.

How to Access the Beta

The beta will be delivered via BackerKit’s “Digital Download” system to every backer or pre-order customer who pledged for a PDF or physical copy of the main game.

Please note, your survey must be locked and payment confirmed in order to receive PDFs.

You can access the PDFs through the digital downloads section of your pledge, or follow Backerkit’s digital download instructions here.

If you don't know how to find your survey, use the BackerKit survey recovery tool here. 

Don't forget you can still place a pre-order to receive the PDF beta once your order is locked and processed! 

Can't Access the Files?

If you’re having trouble accessing your survey or your files, please reach out through our contact form and we’ll be happy to help troubleshoot the issue.

Ready, Set, Quest!

We will officially release the PDF beta during our livestream today at 2:30 ET. Tune in to help us count down to launch, ask any questions, and see how our heroes fare in a Dungeon Tryouts x Story Engine Mashup

Grab your party hats and help us celebrate our party game's big debut!

Locking surveys + Charging cards for shipping/taxes/extras + Beta PDFs + June 12 livestream
4 months ago – Thu, Jun 04, 2026 at 01:33:50 PM

Let the Adventure Begin!  

We have lots of news and a few important deadlines in today’s update! Here's what's coming:

• Locking surveys June 6-8 + charging cards for shipping/taxes/post-campaign extras on June 9
• Beta PDFs launch on June 12 
• Livestream release party on June 12

So let's dive in! 

Locking Pledges 

🔒 We'll begin locking pledges on June 6th, at which point BackerKit will send you a notification and you will have 48 hours to make any final changes to your pledge.

What does this mean for you?

Head to your pledge to make sure your survey is complete, choose any add-ons, and confirm that your payment information is up to date. It is still possible to make changes and add items to your pledge after we charge cards, but you will have to contact us through our contact form to do so.

If you don't know how to find your survey, use the BackerKit survey recovery tool here. 

We will NOT be locking your address yet.

You can still make changes to your address after surveys are locked as long as it is within the same shipping region. If you need to change your address to a different shipping region, reach out through our contact form and we can coordinate those changes with BackerKit. 
 

Charging Cards 

We will be charging cards for post-campaign charges on Tuesday, June 9th. So far, we have only collected payment for the original base pledge and add-ons you committed to during the crowdfunding campaign in July-August of last year.

This round of payments will cover any post-campaign charges that were previewed to you when you completed your reward, including:

• shipping charges
• taxes (where applicable)
• post-campaign add-ons
• post-campaign pledge upgrades

If your payment fails, BackerKit will automatically notify you by email and provide instructions for updating your payment information. BackerKit will also periodically re-attempt to charge the provided card that failed.

If you run into any issues with payment, reach out via our contact form and please provide your BackerKit name and email so we can identify you in the system and work on solutions with you.

Open Beta PDFs 🎯

We're so excited to announce that Beta PDFs are coming Friday, June 12th!  

We're finally ready to hand the adventure over to all of you, and we can't wait for you to make your first official foray into Dungeon Tryouts. 

Who, what, when, where? 

Beta files will be distributed to all backers whose pledges include the respective physical decks and/or PDFs, as well as anyone who pre-ordered them following the campaign. 

And don't worry! There's still time to get your name on the list if you don't want to miss out on the fun. Just place a pre-order and you'll receive the Betas along with everyone else on June 12th. ⚡️

We’ll have another update the day of the release with more details about the Beta, instructions for accessing the PDFs, and info for troubleshooting any issues.

Adventurers are going live! 🎉

Join us live on YouTube Friday June 12th at 2:30pm ET for the Dungeon Tryouts official beta release party!  We’ll launch the betas, reveal new cards, and put our adventurers to the test in a Dungeon Tryouts x Story Engine Mashup. ⚔️⚙️

Get ready to give us your best pitches, make suggestions, and ask any questions you have about the game. It will be a jam-packed celebration you won’t want to miss! 🔥