ZeroDay.exe - A Cooperative, Deck Building, Dungeon Crawler

August Update - New Artwork (More Mods!) + Gen Con recap
about 1 year ago – Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 11:42:16 AM

Hey Hackers!

After getting a bit of con-crud from Gen Con, we are finally on the mends and getting back to normal. Besides that, Gen Con was fantastic as always! We were running constant demos of ZeroDay with almost no breaks in between for most of the con. I genuinely don't think a single person walked away not having enjoyed the game! We were also excited to meet those of you who backed the game and stopped by the booth to say hello. It was truly a great time and made us even more excited for ZeroDay!

We've jumped right back into play testing and getting new artwork. We also picked up a few new members in the Discord who have been play testing the game and giving a ton of feedback. Playtesting and feedback is invaluable in making the game the best it can be, so we wanted to thank those of you who have been helping with that!

Kyushi Enterprises - Military Mods

This corp creates military-grade cybernetics, usually only available for gov. contracts (but we know a guy). These sleek mods can do everything - manipulate your shift tiles, use your life to draw extra cards, or even deal damage back to enemies when they cause you to lose life! Check out a couple of our favorites below, along with the illustrations for each Kyushi Mod!

New Enemy Standees

We also recently updated our enemy standees to make them look cleaner and more polished from our prototypes. We think these new standees give the enemies more personality and make them come alive on the board!

Next update we are hoping to have a couple more miniatures to show you, along with more artwork with the "Hanzo Corporation" mods being completed!

Is there something you want to get some info on in the next updates? Let us know in the comments!
 

-Hacker Kat & Zach

July Update - Testing, Testing, and more testing + Gen Con + Bosses!
about 1 year ago – Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 02:58:42 PM

Hey Hackers!

We've been very busy the past couple months working on ZeroDay and getting ready for 
Gen Con, so we apologies for the delayed update. Let's jump right in!

Play Testing

We have been focusing hard on play testing and so far, it's been going great! We did notice that when T. is in the game, operations seem a bit easier, but not in a fun way. He's started boiling down to run in, stand in the middle, and take hits - which isn't very fun or interesting. So our focus over the next couple weeks is going to be finding a way to make T. a bit more interesting while also giving him a slight decrease in his defensive power. We've already tested a couple changes and we feel we are already on the right track to making this happen! Outside of that, we'll continue to play through each operation to make sure the balance is perfect for each one.

If anyone is interested in play testing, we definitely would love more eyes and opinions on the game's play and balance! We are hoping to be able to get at least one day of play testing in on the weekends with discord users. If you're interested, please join our discord and send a message in the "play test chat" channel saying you'd like to play test! If you are only available on weeknights, we can also schedule something to make that happen!

Gen Con

We will be at Gen Con again this year at booth 2133. We will have an early protoype of ZeroDay that we will be demoing at our booth. If you'll be there, we'd love for you to stop by and say hello!

Boss Artwork!

We recently received the artwork for the 3 bosses and are excited to share them with you. We love how they turned out and think you will too!

That's all we've got for now. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask in the comments!

-Hacker Kat & Zach

Pledge Manager Incoming!
over 1 year ago – Thu, May 29, 2025 at 05:40:16 AM

The smoke test hasn't revealed any issues on the survey, so we'll be sending out the surveys for the BackerKit Pledge Manager to everyone today! 

You should be receiving an email with a link to your survey soon! It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards!

Once you receive your email, click the link and answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you'd like.

If you'd like to change your pledge level - for example, if you're a $1 backer who now wants to get the base game - you'll need to click the "Switch your Pledge Level" link below the big green "Get Started!" button on your survey.

If you backed the "PudKat Games Collector's Pledge", the sooner you complete this survey and add your address, the sooner we can ship your copy of Davy Jones' Locker to you!

After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys. The surveys will stay open until we are ready to begin manufacturing, so you will have plenty of time to make any changes.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email. If you ever cannot find your survey email/link, you can get it here ->  https://zerodayexe.backerkit.com. Please note that you do not need a Backerkit account to complete the survey.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out in the comments or message us directly here on Kickstarter!

-Hacker Kat & Zach

May Update + Smoke-test for BackerKit Pledge Manager
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 14, 2025 at 06:21:06 PM

Hey Hackers!

Just a quick update to let you know that we are starting a "smoke-test" with the BackerKit pledge manager tomorrow. This means about 5% of backers will receive their surveys over the next few days, as a way to make sure everything is good to go before sending out to everyone. If you are one of those who do receive the survey, please let us know if you have any issues so we can get them resolved! We've also updated our page with a link to late pledges and have opened them up for those who may have missed the campaign or are ready to jump in now!

As for progress with ZeroDay, we have been working with Black Magic Inserts on our custom insert designed, as well as finishing up the miniature sculpts. We have 3 big focuses with the tray - minimizing set-up/tear-down time, saving campaign progress, and fitting components (including sleeved cards) nicely. We've worked with Bryce at Black Magic inserts previously and know he'll be able to nail it on all 3 fronts! 🦾

We are continuing to work through the art and we've gotten a few more mods completed! There are 4 Corporations that create the mods in the game - Kyushi Enterprises, Hanzo Cybernetics, Calypso Corp, and Iris Solutions. Each corporation has its own style, from the salvage-looking Calypso Corp to the sleek, almost alien design of Hanzo Cybernetics, each will have a distinct look. Below are 8 new Calypso Corp mods ready for install!

If you have any questions, want to give input or play test, or just come chat, we encourage you to join our discord!

Until Next Time!
- Hacker Kat & Zach

 

THANK YOU - We did it! 2 New Stretch Goals unlocked + Pledge Manager/Late Pledges
over 1 year ago – Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 09:42:48 AM

WE DID IT!

Thank you all so much for your support throughout the campaign! We really appreciate each and every one of you and are so excited to start bringing ZeroDay.exe to your tables!

Over the last few days, we gained many new hackers and were able to unlock 2 new Stretch Goals - The custom insert and new enemy level cards!
 

Black Magic Custom Insert

We will be working with Black Magic Inserts (who we worked with on our previous campaign, Curse of the Ghost Ships) on this and have some great plans in place! The biggest benefits this will bring is allowing players to save their campaign progress using trays that will store their decks, mods, and items, as well as their player boards! We are also going to be using a tray system for any tokens and tiles, allowing us to reduce setup and tear-down time to just a few minutes! We'll be updating you as the design progress and if there is anything specific you feel should be included in the design, please feel free to share it with us!

New Enemy Level Cards

Each enemy has 9 level cards - 3 for each level (1, 2, and 3), and each of which has 2 abilities. The ability the enemy uses is decided by its Initiative. As you progress through an Operation and gain Threat from Initiative, enemies will begin to upgrade and become stronger. Each enemy has 3 "paths" of upgrades, but since they are randomly selected at the start of the Operation, they will rarely follow a single direct upgrade path, instead jumping to different paths and changing up their play-style as the Operation progresses.

With this stretch goal, each enemy will not have an additional "Upgrade Path", adding more variety to each enemy and more strategic thinking from players as they level up!

Late Pledges and Pledge Manager

Over the next week, we will be making our final decision on which platform to use for our pledge manager - whether that is staying right here on Kickstarter, using BackerKit as we have in the past, or going over to the GameFound platform. There are benefits to each, but we want to make sure we choose the one that will be best for ZeroDay and hopefully allow us to bring in more backers as we finish designing the game. After we've made our choice, we are hoping to have it open within a couple of weeks!

For now, late pledges are available right here on the Kickstarter page.  Backers can still pledge for the Base, Deluxe, and All-In reward tiers and we will keep this open until we close the pledge manager and we are ready to fulfill!

Thank you all again for your support and for helping us bring this game to life. We seriously cannot do this without you and we are forever grateful!

- Hacker Kat & Zach