Just links this time
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Jun 03, 2020 at 07:09:16 PM

Hey folks. Still working on the game, and we can talk about that another time. Right now, I just wanna say that we support Black Lives Matter and everyone fighting against racism and police brutality. Here's some links:

Split a donation between 39 community bail funds

Mutual Aid Funds: Atlanta, Boston, DC, Los Angeles, Louisville, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis. More available in this Twitter thread and its replies.

Since we're dealing with similar issues in Australia: Here are the practical ways you can support Aboriginal Lives Matter (includes some stuff non-Australians can do)

If you've got more useful links—or Twitter accounts to follow, if you know any good voices that need amplifying—feel free to drop them in the comments.

Wherever you are, I hope you're doing okay. Be safe out there.

Androids and Tunes
almost 6 years ago – Fri, May 01, 2020 at 12:27:42 AM

Hey! It's been a busy month so this one's kind of slipping in under the wire, but here we go! There's two music previews, then some preview text I'd like some opinions on.

Music

First, here's some music. Last time I posted music I used Sprezzatura, a Cowboy Bebop-inspired track. Here's an updated version:

The OST is split into two sides: one with tracks for action scenes, and one with tracks for chiller scenes (whether that's social scenes, shopping, or just roleplay in general). neonshudder is working on the chill side first, so here's another chill one: Café AU ft. Fizzy Drone, for when you're relaxing in a coffee shop or connecting with your friends. It's also got one of the setting's fictional bands in the title, which should make things nice and confusing when neonshudder collabs with actual artists in the action side!

Androids

Finally, a text preview. This one is shorter than last month, because I want feedback on something specific this time. Hit up the itch.io page for the Kickstarter preview, and you'll see a new file, April Preview - Androids. This is the part of the setting chapter that talks about androids, their history, and their place in society.

I've spent far too much time fiddling with this bit to get it right, so I think I could use some fresh eyes on this. If you're keen, give it a read and let me know:

• If it makes sense to you;
• If there's anything missing that you think should be in an overview of androids in the setting;
• that my NPC names are amazing.

Either way, I'll see you next time with more previews!

March preview
about 6 years ago – Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 07:49:24 PM

Hey there! Hope you're doing okay.

I'm doing alright so far and I've even managed to get some work done. Freyja picked up The Virus, but she's recovering. The last month has still been pretty wild, but we're doing okay in the circumstances.

Since most of us are (hopefully) safe indoors anyway, here's a preview to read!

The Preview

If you head over to the itch.io page for the Kickstarter preview, you'll find a new download named March Preview - Setting. This PDF contains most of the text of the third chapter, which explains the setting in more detail. (The KS preview will become a brief first chapter overview before the rules.)

A few notes:

•  Text only. Jay would prefer to lay out the whole book at once, so previews will just be text. The actual layout will look like more the KS preview.
•  Editing not included. The text will get an editing/proofreading pass before publication. I'm not expecting backers to do that labor for me, so don't worry about it.
•  Things it's missing: This chapter will also cover cybernetics, androids, Dreamers, Singularists, other station issues, the state of Earth/orbit, and the law. I want to tweak some of these more and post them together, so they'll be the next preview.
• The "Accelerationist" antagonists mentioned in the KS preview have been renamed to Singularists, which should ultimately get their concept across better.

This will be the main intro to the Hard Wired Island setting, so I'd like to hear your thoughts!

I'll follow it up with the rest of the chapter once it's done, hopefully in the next update. If not, I'll post some more music. See you then!

February update sponsored by Tetsuo Computer Entertainment, Inc.
about 6 years ago – Thu, Feb 13, 2020 at 12:38:39 AM

It's a February update! Last time I gave a broad outline of how things are going, so this time let's talk about some of the details. The above video will be the first thing on the OST (and the image is one of those "aesthetic art" pieces I mentioned, based on 90s game magazine ads), so I'll cover music first.

Music

It's going well! We're aiming to have tracks for any situation groups might find themselves in, from action-packed fight/chase scenes to relaxed everyday scenes, and I think neonshudder's doing a great job with them so far. I've posted a demo of an action track, so here's a WIP of an everyday one:

The main problem right now is the theme for the Dreamers, the weird robot antagonists. I wanted to put something weird in there, probably a quote or a recording of something (à la this Gunship song, though probably a lot shorter since it's meant to be in the background while the group talks), but I'm low on ideas. A Lovecraft quote would fit the Dreamers' aesthetic, but I don't know if I want to quote that guy. I was considering Peter Watts' Blindsight or part of this scene from the 1931 Frankenstein movie, but I'm not sure about the legal situation there. Right now I'm thinking of just having neonshudder put some weird noises in (à la Metroid Prime) and leaving it there. This is a pretty minor problem to have, at least!

Art

All the base pregen characters are done, which means the Iconic backer tier pregens are next. Lo is doing them all for consistency, so they'll look like these:

Once we get enough layout done, I'm going to figure out how much more art we need and hire an extra artist or two.

Writing

Two-thirds of the freelance content is finalised, from a bunch of rad locations to a couple of big scenarios I commissioned. At this rate we might even be a little under budget, which is good!

My own writing is doing fine. My current problem is a pretty tame one, all things considered: what else should go in the chapter that gives an overview of Grand Cross. Striking a balance between "things a GM would find useful" and "Sleep-inducing" is tougher when you're writing about politics and the economy, it turns out.

I'm sending a big chunk of the book to Jay for layout soon, and when it's done I'll post the first preview document. Hopefully that'll be in the next update or two. (There's no specific schedule besides "at least one in every month", so I might drop the next update near the end of March if that lets me include the preview.)

In The Meantime

Those of you who follow my Twitter (or are in the Discord) are probably aware that I do freelance work on the side to help pay the bills. (I just contributed something to Jay's Voidheart Symphony, which you can preorder now.) I'm currently signed on for a couple of Zine Quest Kickstarters: Shannon Strucci's INSIDE OUT and Adrian Thoen's QUEST SQUIRES. If you'd like to see more of my writing, check those out! (My commission will probably go towards new glasses, because I haven't been tested in years and I sat on mine yesterday.)

The next update will have either the preview or (if there are complications) some more cool art and music. I'll see you then!

The Year Is 2020
about 6 years ago – Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 12:07:05 AM

Welcome to the distant future of 2020! Hope your holidays went well. Mine have been pretty busy.

Open Call Update

As I mentioned last year, we got a ton of submissions for the open writing call. Originally, my plan was to hire some writers and commission 1-3 pages each. However, a lot of submissions were for things like locations that could fit in much less than a page, so instead I decided to commission a few longer pieces and a lot of smaller ones. In the end we got a little under 50.

The work I've received so far is pretty great, and I think that was the right call. On the other hand, it's a lot more work - communicating, proofreading, requests, recruiting sensitivity readers, and so on. I was expecting that though, and I think the work is worth it to get so many cool voices and ideas on the project, so we're all good here.

I also set the deadline for most of these to be the end of 2019. I am pretty flexible really, but it seemed like a nice easy date to remember. I did not expect what happens when you ask a load of people to all send you their work in December, somehow, even though in hindsight it is pretty obvious.

It took a little longer than I expected, but we should be all good now. There's still a few things I'm waiting on, but that's fine - like I said, I'm flexible. That should all be squared away in time to get the book out.

Check This Out

If you have the preview doc, you might have noticed a spread with an outline of the station on p.8-9. I'm trying to get a bunch of cool spreads like that, and while I'm at it I'm getting that one updated. The final book will have an updated station that more accurately reflects the dimensions of an O'Neill cylinder (keeping in mind that it's a fictional version of a hypothetical space station).

Here's a work-in-progress:

I'm very into Magnus (@Magnus_TheMage)'s work here. All the complicated little details and interlinked parts give me Ghost In The Shell vibes.

I'm aiming to make the interior art a mix of background art (that shows you what the setting looks like), educational art (that explain specific parts of it), and aesthetic art (that shows you what it feels like). The art pieces on the campaign page are background, the scenario map I posted in an earlier update is educational and aesthetic art, and this spread will hopefully be all three.

Future Plans

Finally, here's our plans for the coming months:

•  Mechanics: Freyja is almost done, and will probably be finished before anything else.
•  Layout: Jay's schedule is clearing up soon, so she's going to do a lot of it in early 2020.
•  Setting: Now that I've got most of the freelance bits out of the way, I'm getting stuck into the setting. I aim to have most of the book ready for layout in February.
•  Art: Sample character art and most of the big pieces are locked in. I'm recruiting more artists to make sure we're done in time for a 2020 launch, so expect more art announcements soon.
•  Music: This is going well but I'm skipping over this until the next update, because it's very cool.

So far, so good! I am waiting for layout before I post a preview, just in case it necessitates rewrites. For now I'll keep posting WIPs (roughly) once a month to keep you in the loop.

That's all for now, so I'll see you next update!