Books have landed!
5 months ago – Sun, Dec 10, 2023 at 07:30:38 PM

Good news, everyone! Apart from a box that is still stranded in customs, ATTACK FROM SPACE has arrived at Cryptid Hollow! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - The paper is perfect - I really wanted paper stock that captured the feel and weight of old-school textbooks and magazines and I think it nailed that - the color printing on it pops and really makes all of the ephemera look hand-applied to the pages. The endsheets have a little deeper glue trough than I'd hoped, (An unfortunate side effect of the paper stock, shorter book length and cover issues) but overall, I think they turned out awesome. 

Now that they've arrived, I can officially finish shipping rates and finalize the design sizes for the Mork Bork Mutation kit. I'll get them ordered in the next week and get the pledge manager launched so everyone can finalize shipping. 

Rewards will go out in January. We had planned to start shipping this month, but considering the delays and package damage we've already seen from holiday shipping, even if the peripherals get here when they are supposed to, we feel like it'd be a better idea to wait until after the Christmas shipping logjam. (Our dogs are also having puppies in the next week or so and that's likely gonna be a crazy time that would have thrown off the schedule too.)  

I'll be back with an update once the pledge manager is live! 

Kris

All Hallows Update!
7 months ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2023 at 05:16:58 PM

Well Met, knights! I hope the season of pumpkins, fall leaves and autumn allergies is treating you well. This is our first year in our new place in Pennsylvania and, while the odd weather has resulted in a less-than-spectacular fall according to the neighbors, it has been lovely. 

Attack from Space has hit its fair share of speedbumps the last two months on the manufacturing side. It was printed with a page out of sequence, resulting in a plethora of incorrect spreads and white pages, then during their Golden Week holiday, the factory got a new customs inspector that instituted a change in customs policy, requiring them to redo the way the ISBN was presented. (I confess that I have NO idea what all of that was about - we hit some serious language barriers during that conversation) It forced us to reprint the entire run again to make the correct adjustments. 

Observe a video of the final print run book! Or ten quick seconds, anyway! 

But PRINTING IS FINALLY COMPLETE! As of yesterday I have paid the final shipping costs and our books are slogging their slow way across the ocean to us. It usually takes about a month to arrive and we are hoping it stays that course, though holidays and customs interference are a real possibility now, unfortunately. If all goes smoothly, we should be shipping out the books in December. 

Stretch goals are being compiled and finished up too.

I have been all in on Mörk Borg the last four weeks, re-familiarizing myself with the system and working to convert Attack From Space and I think the mutation kit should be really fun. And maybe a little nerve-wracking to do such things to a book. Now that the mutation is almost done, I'll go in and make a MB version of the Ditto Edition for folks as well and get the stickers/papers/ephemera printed for the packs. 

Speaking of Mörk Borg, contributor Alan Bahr and I have projects live or lurking that are both Mörk Borg related!

Alan has written a super rad hack of MB that is based on 90's era wrestling. HodagRPG did the art and I did the layouts, shooting for an aesthetic that matched the extreme wrestling magazines of that era. It's fast, furious and fun and is only live on Crowdfundr for about 30 hours, so back it soon if you want a copy! It's only ten bucks and you don't need Mörk Borg to play! Back GLORIFY VIOLENCE WRESTLING HERE!

I do a Krampus-themed project every year, usually including a holiday card and enamel pin and reflecting the stuff I'd done the year previously art-wise. This year, since everything has been so RPG-focused and because I was working on the MB Mutation for this game, I wrote a little Mörk Borg adventure for the project, then realized that it lent itself to a full Holiday Horror Hack of the system so well, that I decided to dip into my collection of previous Krampus art and vintage Christmas Cards to turn it into a full book. I shot for a look that balances between the vibe of Mörk Borg and classic holiday cards and I think it turned out really fun. GRUSS VOM KRAMPUS goes live tomorrow!

In the meantime, we hope you have an excellent Halloween evening. Don't trust anyone giving out circus peanuts! I'll be back in November with our boat progress and alien kill update. 

Kris & Alan

Test Print, Mutations and Pledge Manager Notes
8 months ago – Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 05:46:05 AM

Greeting, Knights!

ATTACK FROM SPACE is officially being printed as I type this. We received the test print and it looks great - the color reproduction and size really matches the original pages and looks a lot like you are reading handmade pages as you browse. I'm very happy with it.

NOTE: This test proof was made and assembled without the printed endsheets in the layout they will ultimately be and as a result, the page spreads are also off by one page, so the final layout of the printed book will be different from these photos. 

I went around in circles with the final cover for quite some time, but I'm ultimately really glad we ended up with the version we did. It stands out amongst the other books on the shelf, but still looks at home. 

Now that I have the final pages in hand, I have started the task of going through each page and prepping the Mork Borg Mutation Kit, which will be an envelope with a combination of stickers, inserts, pages, and scribbled instructions that will result in a totally different beast of a book. 

Printing is in progress. I know we have entered the queue, and once complete, I will be back with dates for shipping from the printer to us and the fulfillment plans. We are also able to set up shipping costs now that we have a book for weight/packaging/etc. The pledge manager will be set up and smoke tests will start going out in the next week or so. 

In other dungeons: 

We also have a project running right now for my new book imprint, Octopress Books, which will be focused on printing designs from other awesome creators, with art and layout by me. The first book, TOMBPUNK was written by my pal Alan Bahr and features some of my personal favorite design and artwork I've done to date. 

It is only LIVE for another 24 hours or so, so go check it out and give it a pledge if it looks cool to you. The system is focused on Lo-fi, high-action adventures and is really easy to dive into and start playing. We've been running a campaign for it in our Tuesday group and it's gotten WILD at times. PLEDGE HERE.

That brings us to the close of another update. I am STOKED about getting this book finished and out to all of you awesome folks!

Kris

Printer Acquired!
9 months ago – Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 07:43:00 AM

Sorry about the radio silence, folks. It's been a challenge to source quotes and decide on a new printer, but we've finally locked one in, paid the initial payment and the test print of the book is on its way here as I write this! I haven't worked with the manufacturer before, but I found some good reviews and my rep has been incredibly responsive. (It's also cool because they also do board game manufacturing, so that opens up the door for more elaborate extras for future projects.)

There have been a few changes made - I've tweaked the page layout just a bit to read better from the current digital version and after a LOT of back and forth with the design of the cover, I decided that the specialized elements actually hurt the look of the book too much - I had a few test prints made up and the foil/finishes just ended up looking garish and out of place on the cover. I apologize for dropping them, but I think the new, simpler,  - but still hand-collaged and assembled - cover fits so much better. 

I have also been working on getting the extras in line. The bonus print and character sheets are all here and once the test print arrives I can go about making the Mork Borg Mutation pack. I'll also have a solid idea of the weight so that we can get shipping sorted and finish the backerkit page! 

I'll be back once the test print arrives with pictures and a solid timeline on the books.

Thanks,

Kris

Irons in Fires - Both Figurative and Literal
11 months ago – Fri, Jul 07, 2023 at 06:26:39 AM

Hail, Knights!

Time for an update - I have some good and bad news here, but the long story short is that the printed book is delayed - The dreaded Kickstarter lateness goblin has struck - but it is in progress and Stretch Goals are coming!

PRINTING

The bad news - WingZen Graphics & Manufacturing, which we had contracted to print the book, had a massive fire in their paper storage facilities and as a result have shuttered all publishing for at least six months. The good news is that we'd signed contracts and done the formatting to start the proofing process, but hadn't paid the full deposit yet, so we aren't beholden to WZ. I've spent the last month reaching out to a number of other publishers for quotes and they've started rolling in. 

Unfortunately, quite a few are notably higher than our original quote or they aren't able to do all of the cover embellishments we'd planned, so I am making a rather outsized chart to try and find the best balance for options. We may end up having to modify the plans slightly to fit the new publisher, once selected, but I'm still confident we will get an amazing book out of it. I just want to apologize for it taking longer to get to you than I'd like. 

Luckily - most printers use the same basic guidelines for publishing, so once we find one, it should move fast from there.

STRETCH GOALS

These are all in progress! Lester's just needs formatting to distribute, Alan is working on the art for his, I have the manuscript for Harry's (and it's WILD) and Marren is in template mode. 

I plan to get the first of them out to you all next week. 

Digital Copies

Everyone should have the final versions of the digital book by now - if you don't have it, reach out to me and I'll get it sent again.

Shipping and Backerkit

This will be delayed a bit - with us needing a new printer, I want to make sure we have the costs/weights correct before setting the shipping rates. This was a relatively small project in the realm of TTRPG books and we don't have much buffer for if we figure shipping rates incorrectly.

Elsewhere in the kingdom...

I have the 'zine editions of the game and I've been spending my evenings doing sketches inside and hand-punching labels. I'm also hard at work on some art for a handful of other upcoming games. (Including the second edition of Cold Shadows that I am very excited about) 

Squid Ink also released the Mothership variant of Station Xeno - it's LIVE NOW on Kickstarter and is really cool - I personally think the module fits Mothership better than Death In Space, so I've been hounding Cannon & MJ to convert it for a while.

I think that brings us current. I'll be back in about a week with Stretch Goals.

Kris