This day marks the official release day of the Lumberjacks Guild!
Official SFG blogpost: https://steamforged.com/en-eu/blogs/(…)lumberjacks-guild-is-here
For those who missed it a few weeks back:
Here is some additional notes from SFG about the Lumberjacks (from a previous blogpost).
Why the Lumberjacks?
As we said in our last article, as with all new Guild Ball content since the game’s official revival in early 2024, we’ve worked hand in hand with the GBCP on the Lumberjacks Guild.
After working on the yearly update, focus quickly moved over to the next Minor Guild that’d be introduced to the game. The Lamplighter’s Guild were entirely created and designed by the GBCP and are an officially recognised fan Guild, playable in events. This time, we collectively wanted to add something official to the game’s roster of Guilds.
Some of you may remember that when we stopped developing content for Guild Ball back in 2020, we listed the names of the remaining Minor Guilds we would’ve worked on had development continued. The Minor Guild for the Masons named in that list was originally the Moneylenders Guild.
The GBCP were already well on the way to concepting and designing a number of characters for the Lumberjacks Guild. So naturally we needed to have some collaborative discussions about what to do.
The GBCP absolutely blew us away with exceptional design pitch for what the Lumberjacks Guild could be. We loved the idea so much that we were happy to let go of our early concepts for the Moneylenders, and switch lanes into the Lumberjacks. From there on out, we worked in tandem on a design both SFG and the GBCP were fully committed to.
Once agreed on a design direction for the next Minor Guild, Mat and I reconnected with famed Guild Ball artist Doug Telford to create brand new character artwork, and of course Russ and his team couldn’t wait to get started on a team of brand new Guild Ball miniatures.
And the rest is history!
Why Now?
Speaking of history, it’s been quite some time since Guild Ball’s official revival in February last year, over 18 months in fact. Why release the Lumberjacks Guild now?
Well, as we mentioned, when we started working alongside the GBCP on Guild Ball, the first point of order was the annual balance update set for release in March 2024. Since SFG had only really been back on the scene since the start of February, this didn’t give a lot of time so initially our focus was almost exclusively on landing that update.
Beyond the March update, we started having some “look up and ahead” meetings with the GBCP where we discussed all sorts of ideas for the game and setting our next steps into place. We fixed into a place a number of things:
- Firstly, we agreed to continue with balance updates annually in March, there was a balance update in March 2025 and the next one is scheduled for release in March 2026
- Secondly, we agreed to start development on a brand new Game Plan deck, the existing one at the time was several years old at that point and had been pressed into service far longer than it was ever intended to – the new Game Plan deck released in May 2025
- Thirdly, we agreed to work on the next Minor Guild. The minor Guilds are a large and unfinished aspect of Guild Ball. We know it’s something you, the fans, really want. Working through these absolutely makes sense for a method of adding new releases to the game
What that next Minor Guild would be was definitely a topic of some discussion.
While the Alchemists now have the Lamplighters, the Masons, Brewers, and Blacksmiths were all missing their Minor Guilds. There isn’t a strategic reason for releasing the remaining Minor Guilds in a specific order, so it really came down to which concepts we felt were the strongest and most exciting to work on next.
As we mentioned in our last article, we were absolutely blown away by the quality of the idea the GBCP pitched to us for the Lumberjacks Guild and it’s fair to say this is the main reason this is the Guild we went with.
Fans of the Brewers and the Blacksmiths, don’t worry, your turn will come around. We just need longer to work the designs to a standard we’re happy with.
~Steamforged Games, november 7th 2025
