January Update (also, check this out)
about 4 years ago – Sat, Jan 08, 2022 at 01:47:33 PM

Hey folks! First off, if you'd like to see more cyberpunk stuff from me, I'm doing some cyberpunk content for Ariadne and Bob: a game about a know-it-all and her trusty sidekick going on adventures (à la Holmes and Watson, Laurel and Hardy, Rick and Morty, etc.). It's currently crowdfunding, so if that interests you (or you'd just like to donate to the Ettin Will Probably Need A New PC When Graphics Cards Are Cheaper Fund), please check it out.

Anyway, here's roughly where we're at:

• Those copies I mentioned last time are shipping. I think the EU/UK backer copies got pushed back to after Christmas, but I can at least confirm that they have arrived in the UK and are ready to be distributed. (This also includes copies for backers in Australia/Asia).
• The US copies were sent out a while ago, but they'll take a while to get there. That is a whole other shitshow and I am choosing not to perceive it right now.
• I'm aiming to post the behind-the-scenes PDF this month. It'll be distributed to backers only, but I might make it an addon for future campaigns (or release it late in the year). Either way, it's a backer-only treat for now.
• I'm still planning to post a followup campaign for Stories For L5, that scenario collection I mentioned earlier. I haven't decided exactly when, but likely within a month. Probably less.

That's all for now! I'll see you whenever I have an update for at least one of those.

Hard Wired Island shipping now
over 4 years ago – Fri, Dec 10, 2021 at 03:16:36 AM

Hey! I've held off on announcing this for a couple weeks because last-minute issues keep coming up, but here's some good news: print copies of Hard Wired Island are shipping now.

I'll skip the details because they're boring, but can I just say that printing and shipping in the current not-really-post-pandemic climate is fucked? Everything costs way more than we budgeted for now. We'll be fine, but if anyone has several thousand dollars lying around that they'd like to give me, that would be fantastic.

Anyway, here's some rough timelines:

• The EU/UK backer copies should start shipping from our fulfilment service in the UK this week. Residents of TERF Island may get theirs before Christmas, but we'll see. The other EU backers should get theirs in however much time it normally takes them to get stuff from the UK.
• The NA backer copies (along with the copies that aren't spoken for) are being sent to Studio 2 Publishing, who will handle US/Canadian backers and then sell the rest through their website. We had to sacrifice time for affordability, which is a fancy way of saying it's going to be an extra month until the copies get there.
• Copies for Australian/Asian backers are going to me. That's right: I have to personally mail fifty of these fucking books. Am I going to sign them? Am I going to pad out each box with Pokémon cards and the terrible card games my relatives keep buying me as gifts? Am I going to include huge poster prints of that one image of Soyeong doing the My Little Pogchamp meme that I commissioned for a bit in the behind-the-scenes PDF that got cut? It's a mystery. I mean, I'm probably just signing them, but you never know. 

Anyway, that's all for now. Mina is still settling in post-move and tidying up that behind-the-scenes PDF,  so hopefully the next update will include that. After that, we'll start talking about future projects. 

Oh, and I might not post again this year, so happy holidays! See you in 2022.

General update, updating BackerKit, and more Hard Wired Island content
over 4 years ago – Fri, Oct 29, 2021 at 12:36:19 AM

Hey there! Here's an update.

Print Update

So if you've been following RPG news, you may have noticed that doing anything involving shipping or printing is kind of weird right now. The bad but hopefully unsurprising news is it's going to be a while before the books are out. The good news is that I finally have dates now.

If everything goes well, the books should be hitting our fulfilment partner in the UK in mid-December. All backer copies will be going out from there. The rest of the print run will be shipped to our other partner in the US for sale.

BackerKit Updates

Some of you may need to update your address in BackerKit. If you need help with that, feel free to message me. I can update locked addresses for you.

If you still haven't completed your BackerKit for some reason, I am going to send you one more message to try getting you sorted.

Behind The Scenes PDF

This one's also been set back, but not much longer. Mina (our layout artist) is currently moving countries; the plan was to finish it on her laptop during the move, but it's not been up to the task. Once she settles in enough to use her desktop, it'll be finished. Expect it early November.

Also, Announcing More Hard Wired Island

I don't have much else to do besides wait, so I've been working on more Hard Wired Island content.

I'm not interested in doing another print book in the current climate, so I'm doing a smaller thing first. The next project will be Hard Wired Island: Stories From L5, a collection of scenarios/campaign frames in PDF format. There will be adventures, new characters, some cats, all the classics.

I'm waiting for the behind-the-scenes PDF to be finished before I go any further, but I might put this up in November/December while I wait for those print books. We'll see what happens.

Either way, the next post will be the behind-the-scenes book. Hope to see you soon!

Status update, LIVE☆STYLE stream!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 12:11:18 AM

Hey there! First, check this out: fanart a friend commissioned from @doloyume.

That said, we've sold more than 1000 post-KS copies now! In fact we've sold over 1337, the greatest number of the mid-00s.

Anyway:

So, The Update

Short version: Still sitting on my hands here, but not for too long!

• The behind-the-scenes PDF just needs layout. Mina is currently wrapping up some other work, so once she's done with that she can wrap up this backer reward. It will go up in the next update.
• As for print: Contracts are signed, arrangements have been made, etc. Currently we're in a chain of deals where everybody involved needs information from somebody else, who needs something from somebody else, and I'm waiting on one final response at the end to move to the next step. Sorry for how long this is taking, but I don't have much control over this part of the project.

In the meantime: Do you like VTubers? If so, LIVE☆STYLE is running a game of Hard Wired Island hosted by Freyja!

LIVE☆STYLE is a collective of independent transgender and nonbinary virtual talents, likely the first of its kind. This group was created to shake up the Vtubing community in a big way: spreading positivity by uplifting the voices of its trans and nonbinary members and promoting their success.

You can check out the first stream here!

 Next Update

That's all for now! I'll update in October with whatever I have by then.

Quick update
over 4 years ago – Mon, Jul 12, 2021 at 04:41:25 PM

Hey there! It's time for another quick update.

Print Status

Still working on this, sort of. At the moment we're basically in a liminal space, where everything is sorted out in theory but getting it done in practice requires people responding to my emails. That means I'm just sitting on my hands right now, but at least there aren't any major problems.

In the meantime, I've had a few backers message me about changing their address on Backerkit. That's fine! Let me know if you need an address change, and I'll fix things up on my end.

Behind The Scenes

This is coming along! I've had a bit of trouble figuring out exactly what I want to say in this thing—or at least, which of the many things I could say are actually interesting enough to print—so as you've probably noticed, I'm pushing this back a bit. I have everything else I need, so once I figure that out it's done.

Other Things

A couple other things worth mentioning:

• The RPG stream All Nerds Here is playing Hard Wired Island this season! The first episode starts here and continues here.
• Down here in Australia, Hard Wired Island was a finalist in the 2021 Freeplay Independent Games Festival Awards (in the Excellence in Narrative and Non-Digital Game Award categories). 

That's all for now! Now that the book is out and there's less to talk about these updates may get spaced out a little more, but we'll see how things go.