T=0, We Have Liftoff
almost 9 years ago – Sat, Jul 11, 2015 at 04:06:26 PM

The project is funded, and all but the final stretch goal has been met.

We still have a glimmer of hope on that stretch goal, the T-shirts are yet to go on sale.
We'll be trying out a few new directions on them over the coming week, now that promotional work is no longer taking up a significant portion of time.

What Now?

Well, firstly the updates cool off a bit. For the next few months we'll be in touch about once a week with information on how things are developing, with the rate of updates depending on how much we have to say.

We'll work out the kinks in the T-shirt designs, and make them available for sale.

Hopefully we'll manage to set up somewhere for pre-orders, with slightly less discount than the Kickstarter, so that we can make certain we hit that £12k mark.

Then there's testing our prototype box, to see how well it works. If any problems arise with it, we'll let you all know immediately. We still have backup plans, but if the current design falls through we'll offer refunds for the box to those who no longer want it.

There's a lot of card designing still to do, including a number of backer co-designed cards, which are usually good fun to work on.

Then there's proofreading, for which we will be gratefully accepting the aid of our friends and backers.

There's a little potential for work improving the suit symbols. Artistically they're great, but they aren't clear for everyone in terms of what suit they represent. I've been experimenting with shading to make it clearer, and if I find an appropriate improvement I'll be going through and updating all the cards.

You'll be getting the surveys relatively soon after the project ends this time, because Kickstarter have finally implemented the ability for backers to change their addresses after filling in the survey.

Then, after a few months, you'll get your rewards.

And then? Well... we have a couple of plans, which I'm sure we'll talk about over the coming weeks.

But before all that, I need to get some sleep, and hopefully dream some inspiring dreams. Maybe a little nightcap is in order:

 Be Well

-Ste

Finding the Path: Breaking the Box
almost 9 years ago – Sat, Jul 11, 2015 at 04:05:14 PM

Finding the Path

Tomorrow, for the first time, we'll be taking Concept Cards to a convention as traders.

The con in question is Paizocon UK, a gathering of Pathfinder players. We'll only be there for a short time, over the lunch break, as most of the participants will be engrossed in their games, but if you're one of those players or GMs we'd love to meet you.

We'll also be selling some of the produce of Loz's other business, Mythic Foods: a vegan fudge named Fandita, made with coconut milk and containing no dairy products.

Today's preview card is connected with cookery, though of a rather different sort:

Breaking the Box

Today we received a couple of test wooden boxes. 

They're not quite the right size, and not marked with any sort of logo, because they're just stock boxes of the same basic design as those we'll be using.  

But they're made of the same materials, so we set to work testing how well those materials stood up. At first there were no problems; they didn't splinter, they were significantly more water resistant than we expected (rainfall generally isn't going to be a problem, dropping them in a bath will be).  

But the lack of splinters and the water resistance did decrease somewhat over time... because I hit the box with a hammer. Repeatedly. Then stood on it with both feet. Then hit it with a meat-axe. And tried to pry it apart with a screwdriver.

It's still mostly intact, but it's significantly less waterproof, and there's some splintering on the inside, opposite the points where it was hit with a hammer.

 As mentioned, I got two of these test boxes. If you'd like to see a video of me attempting to destroy one, let me know and I'll tape it next time. :-)

Be Well

-Ste

Distributed Design
almost 9 years ago – Sun, Jul 05, 2015 at 08:20:37 AM

Tonight's update has several post-dated previews, coming from previous decks, but they all share something in common.

In every kickstarter we've run, we've had some backers who wanted to work with us on a card that displayed a concept they liked or featured a character they'd played.

It was most popular on the original Character Cards, as people could directly put their own PCs onto the cards, but in both Location and Plots we had some backers interested.

Until today, no-one backed for the corresponding level on this project. Why? Well, I suppose some of you may actually have answers for that, but for myself I think it's the fact that we designed the pledge level badly. 

We included a full set of all the decks, new and old, in the "design a card" level. But the most likely people to want to design or name a card are those of you who've been around for a while, and know what is we do, and you don't need more of what you already have. And for those that don't know us, the £200 requirement of the Moon-On-A-Stick level is intimidatingly high.

So, having speculated on the problem, we added a new £80 pledge level. Within half an hour of doing so, we received our first pledge at that level, and we have started work on the new cards. That is, however, partly due to a lovely coincidence. 

Our most persistent co-designer had just returned from holiday to see our Kickstarter announcement as we were adding the new level, ensuring that one character would be present (in some form) among every set.

 I look forward to making more such co-designed cards, and I hope that some of you may consider spreading some of your own favourite memories through one of the concept cards, as we do with ours:

Remember, we've only got two days left, so if you are considering getting a card message me, and we can start talking through the process :-D

Be Well

-Ste

Crossing the Streams
almost 9 years ago – Sun, Jul 05, 2015 at 08:20:02 AM

Today's update is longer and (slightly) more business-like than my regular fare.

It's about cross-promotion, where two content creators each promote the other, and it's actually hosted on another website entirely, the UK Roleplay Designers' Collective on Wordpress. 

If that interests you, click on over to read about it. Otherwise scroll down for today's preview card, and a project that is every bit as cute as the Bearowl.

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First off, there's the Baby Bestiary. A collection of baby monster images, that shows just how cute something monstrous can be.

And in keeping with the theme of people selling interesting things, today's preview card is another tome, this time one tied to wealth and trade.

Be Well

-Ste

The Rules of the Games
almost 9 years ago – Sun, Jul 05, 2015 at 08:18:08 AM

Today's update is a short one. We had a quick discussion yesterday, and we realised that that there was really no reason to keep the rules inserts private. 

The games can't be played without having at least one of the decks, and it's good to be able to show off what we make. So, without further ado, here are the rules inserts from all 7 existing decks.

And going with the theme of past decks (and the fact we don't actually have any gaming-related cards written up for Creatures or Treasures) we've got a preview card from Location Cards. It's not new to all of you, but it is to the new backers.

 Be Well

-Ste

p.s. We're in our last week, and not getting many new backers. A large part of this is that because of various events (that you don't need to care about) we've done far less promoting of this project than we'd planned. If you love Concept Cards, please share them with your friends, so that more people have the chance to pick up a set (and we'll be more able to come back and do more kinds in future :-D)

p.p.s. Speaking of sharing cool things, I recently came across a Fantasy Treasure Chest Kickstarter, also based in the UK. I'm picking up a couple for LARP purposes myself, and thought some of you might want to take a look. Unfortunately they don't make a good container for your Concept Cards decks, as most of the drawers won't fit the decks.