Hey friends! This update is all about end-of-campaign housekeeping details. We'll throw a Letty photo in to try and keep things cute, but this is mostly business-stuffs. We'll try to keep it brief.

- We won't charge for shipping until closer to fulfillment (we're estimating late-summer this year)
- If you haven't already, please finalize your pledge payment before March 13th
- Once everyone's pledge payments are collected by BackerKit, we'll send out the "survey" which will capture your shipping information, and selection for artwork you may have pledged in to get.

The short story is every prototype we've made of the game, isn't a reliable model for how the final product will ship out. It's solid for generating estimates, but until we receive a "proof" or "preproduction copy" of the game, our shipping estimates will remain estimates. With that in mind, and because a large percentage of y'all are international (yay, thanks fam!) we want to get shipping right. So we will be punting collecting shipping charges until we're closer to actually shipping you the product. There are also a lot of Letty's dog-park-friends' parents that are backers. Which means we could arrange for dog-park pick-up of your pledge rewards (or "thank yous") when the product comes in. Similarly: we'll make all of those arrangements closer to when the final product arrives at our "fulfillment center." (cough Which looks vaguely similar to Mr. Nick's living room. cough cough)

We're at about 80% maybe 90% of completing all of the pledges' payments. If you haven't finalized your pledge payment, please do that before March 13th (next Wednesday). As soon as the pledge payments are collected by BackerKit, the next phase of the project can begin. You can click through this update to the campaign (from your email or wherever you're reading this) and tidy up your payment information to keep things moving along. 
 

So by Wednesday next week, March 13th, please have your pledge information up to date and paid for and then we can move on to...

We alluded to this in an earlier update, but we wanted to break it down for those of you new to crowdfunding. We'll over-simplify this part: campaign ends, pledges are collected, then the creator (us) sends out a "survey" that captures information needed to provide the "thank you" (pledge rewards) for supporting the campaign.

This will include the ability to select which illustration backers would want for their art-print, provide shipping information, and the like. Our product has simple components, so we don't expect a lot of complications with this last necessary piece, but it's smooth sailing from this last step - the "surveys" - through to getting your pledges fulfilled. It's not a complicated survey, just a question or two about preferences and shipping information (not payment for shipping, just "where is Mr. Nick sending stuff").

- We won't charge for shipping until closer to fulfillment (we're estimating late-summer this year)
- If you haven't already, please finalize your pledge payment before March 13th
- Once everyone's pledge payments are collected by BackerKit, we'll send out the "survey" which will capture your shipping information, and selection for artwork you may have pledged in to get.

That's all we have for the moment. We'll add this information to the "FAQs" as well. We also created a support inbox we'll be using for support of the campaign for any questions that aren't already in the FAQ or whatever is on your mind. That email is [email protected].

That's all for today! We've a meeting with our manufacturing partner this afternoon, so all our campaign momentum is being directed right into the printer, like lasers. Pew pew pew!

Much love,
~ The Double Bear Rolled team (& Mr. Nick)

Alright, we did it! Congratulations everyone!

Next steps look like this: we'll finalize how the Pledge Manager is setup, then we'll push hard with our manufacturing partner to get the presses rolling. For those new to crowdfunding, the Pledge Manager is how we finalize everything people will get from the campaign. We'll collect shipping information, preferences for art rewards, and a few other bits and bobs.

Campaigns I've supported typically keep their pledge managers open for about a week, and this also allows some folks to pledge late. We'll provide more details on timing and the like as we roll out the pledge manager. We want things to be smooth, clear, and this'll help keep things moving for meeting our timeline.

Today is a Letty play date, day. To shake off the last minute jitters, Letty and I went on a walk, and now we're cuddling on the couch. You'll have to forgive me for the brief and text only update. (BackerKit may have an auto-generated "campaign funded" email fire, too. We're trying to keep emails and updates to a minimum and focused on fun or essential updates.)

Gratitude and as always, much love,
~Mr. Nick 

I owed this kind of update earlier, but we were so excited, I had to convince Melissa to let me have a play date with Letty so we could go on celebratory walks (and maybe enjoy a few treats). Adventuring Letty is happening! And to all of you, regardless of your pledge level, you are a big part of making this happen! We are humbled and very grateful.

I think my intention was to have today's "24 hours to go" update really be focused on more of the design decisions that went into the game, maybe even feature a little bit about the longer roadmap for the game, and something more personal about why I'm even doing any of this game stuffs, but let's keep this one short. I'll share a few ideas with y'all.

First, crowdfunding enables us to manufacture and deliver the game to our "fulfillment center." That's what makes this whole effort - or makes the Adventuring Letty game - feel real. Melissa and I have also discussed how we can give back to our community, support education around dogs, advocate for adoption and animal services and the like. Where we've landed is to make a commitment that a big chunk of the revenue from any copies of the game sold after the conclusion of the campaign will be used to support the Chicago Animal Care and Control group - the folks who found, cared for, and facilitated Letty's adoption by Melissa. Crowdfunding gets us to the first step of having a product, and of course getting you a copy of the game to play.

Everything we do after crowdfunding will have an aspect that ensures other animals who are looking for their forever home can have the best chance at finding their persons, and living long happy lives. We're still in the early stages of sorting out the more mundane aspects of how this will work - paperwork, ensuring we do everything by the book, making sure the way our future contributions will get to the right organization, etc - boring, not fun but necessary work to ensure we're setup to support animals like Letty for the long haul. We're going to try our best. If it wasn't for these organizations, Melissa might not have met Letty, and ---well let's not even go down that route. Letty is great.

Second, let's talk stretch goals. In the beginning, we had left some ideas on the cutting room floor when it came to shaping and designing this product. Some of those things were just out of reach for the minimum order quantity we would have to manufacture, and since I was going to take deliberate approaches to this campaign, some of those ideas would have to wait. As you know we kept our pledge levels low as much of our target audience was new to crowdfunding, but we still wanted to bring a high-quality product. We're not a few folks in a garage tinkering away at a weekend project - we're looking to build out from Adventuring Letty into a wider array of games of all types and themes. We needed to ensure with this first game that we had reasonable expectations and so we didn't go total ham.

That said, if we blast upwards through 20% of our goal - maybe even 15%, I'll need to double check - some of the upgrades to the product will be possible. There's a story for another time about how tight margins are in the gaming industry - more informational than a sob story - and how even little upgrades like card quality or packaging design can have an impact on the manufacturing price. Total rabbit hole: Even changing the quantity of cards in the game, could lead to needing a deeper box, which means fewer copies of the game would fit into the shipping container, and on and on - it's less "house of cards" (ha, puns) and more of a "domino effect" to make small incremental changes. However, as I mentioned, our intention was to make as reasonable and high quality of a product as possible. If you weren't already a fan of Letty (or even Melissa or Mr. Nick) there's a good chance you were drawn into this game based on the illustrations (ha, more puns). We hope our core product will keep that good feeling going straight through to when we land the games at your doors.

So what happens if we make it significantly beyond our goal? Well we've 24 hours, less by the time I'm done editing this, left in the campaign. Let's say if we nudge up 15% past our original goal, we'll put out a poll for what kind of upgrade we should make available to everyone's pledge. No additional cost to any of the pledges, this will be a little something extra built into the final product you'll receive. It'll be something like an increase in card quality, upgraded packaging design, upgraded Letty "token" design, something along those lines. There aren't a lot of components in the game and we don't want a frivolous promise of what's possible. We've options with a slight up-tick in raised funds. Oh and that domino effect I mentioned? We'll ensure whatever options are available to this group doesn't go nuts with shipping. (We won't make a metal-box for the packaging that'll increase the weight of the game to like a backpack of treats, that'd be nuts.) (I also just said "backpack of treats" out loud, and I think she heard me, ha!)

None, and that's good news. Everything we estimated is still the estimate for delivering on this campaign. While all good news, my biggest insecurity if another container stuck in a major shipping route. Post-campaign we'll be very transparent about how the manufacturing process is going, what shipping details look like (to get to the "fulfillment center") and other key details throughout this journey. The goal is still to have Adventuring Letty in your hands before the big end-of-year holiday rush of games starts hitting your inbox. We want you to have time to play our game before your holiday purchases start taking up your game shelves.

This evening Snakes & Lattes in Chicago is hosting a "Game Designer Night" where aspiring folks like myself will bring their concepts or fleshed out products to test them out with random (unbiased) players. While we put a good 200+ hours of playtesting into Adventuring Letty, it's still fun to play - even with my bias - and watch others play. We'll have one of our demo copies of Adventuring Letty there and be making an effort to teach and play with others. If you're in the Chicago area and want to play some games, stop on by. I'll literally be the only person in an eyepatch unironically, come say hi. (But if you do, I'm going to entice you to play.)

More text than delightful imagery in this update, I'm afraid. Though, I realize if you just read that, it's probably too late, you've already gone through the text. Derp. The post-funded exhale of stress I think might be affecting me - maybe I just need a nap. And a cuddle. And if Letty could type, she'd add "and some treats, please, Mr. Nick."

Gratitude, humility, and excitement cannot be overstated. You helped make this a reality, and I appreciate you.

Much love,
~ Mr. Nick

My inboxes have been riddled with family and friends asking about which Art Prints they can choose from - the add-on that shows up as you're setting up your pledge. For simplicity's sake, that add-on only shows three pieces of art, but throughout this campaign, personal appeals, and even some of the previews, y'all have gotten glimpses at the illustrations Bea Joy Javier put together for this game. I'm a storyteller, and as you can imagine, I could type and talk about these illustrations for hours. But my words will fall short of expressing the gratitude and enthusiasm I have for Bea and the work she's done to bring Letty's everyday adventures to life in this game.

(I may also be at a point where 'adventures' has that semantic satiation - that thing where you say a word too much and then it sounds funny? But moving on...)

I'd like to share with y'all the illustrations we made for this game and briefly call out the story or details behind each. We'll actually do these in the order that Bea and I worked on them, so you'll see a little bit of how our ideas progressed. We did start with a list of cards - or scenes - that we wanted to portray. We didn't focus on any game mechanics, just how to take things that Letty does or experiences and bring them to life in Bea's illustration style. She's awesome, I'll stress that point forever, really.

Nom, Nom, Nom
As mentioned in a previous update, depending on the treat you would offer Letty, she'll run off in celebratory grandeur to enjoy the (bigger) treat. She may be getting wise to  the pattern of giving her a "big" treat before I run off to an errand. Really anything to prevent her from looking back with those "can I go with you" eyes.

Cuddles
If you have a dog, you know. For a long time Letty would share the bed with her mom, usually resting on top of her at the end of the day. Whenever Letty is touching or in contact with her mom, even while sleeping, she seems to be smiling. Those two are truly adorable. Though now, I think Letty believes the bed, the couch, my desk chair, are all hers and takes up all the space; just sprawled out like she owns the place.

Walk in the Park
Bea and I started doing illustrations for the game around Letty's winter season, so many of the reference photos and recent experiences we had was her in her "Melissa-yellow" coat enjoying the snow. (Playing in the snow has to be amongst Letty's favorite things to do.) Ever curious, ever adventurous, Letty in a city park: nailed it.

Belly Rubs
When Letty gets comfortable on the bed, on the couch, anywhere, she goes from a little snuggle bug into a "conqueror of the soft warm places!" And her first decree is usually "pet me!" She only asks for them when she's very comfortable and feeling safe. But yeah, she loves belly rubs.

Fried Egg
Every morning with her breakfast Letty gets a fried egg! I don't presume to know the science or even theory behind it, but it helps her coat - I think - stay soft? She's already a short-haired dog so it's not like she really sheds a whole lot or has a rough coat. Also, she's been getting fried eggs as long as I've known her (since 4 days after she went home with her forever friend), so maybe my frame of reference is missing. She is very vocal when that egg is cooking, she's so excited. I also hear that "Grandpa" (Melissa's dad) makes the "best fried eggs," but I can't tell if Letty's a good judge when it comes to picking one fried egg for breakfast.

Dinner Dreams
When Letty sleeps, she sometimes does that little flinching thing that dogs tend to do. I never know what she's dreaming about, but sometimes I like to think it's about food. This was all I gave Bea to go off of to create this card illustration. While cropped a little bit in this preview, this card features a fried-egg-spaceship beaming Letty down into the land of kibble and chicken amongst the fried egg mountains. So creative, and this end result is among my favorite illustrations in the game.

Tug of Rawr
This is actually the genesis of the whole game. A random afternoon in the fall, Melissa and Letty were playing with Letty's toys before her dinner time. Letty was being a bit vocal about getting food, so Melissa started playing with her by tossing her toys around. Sometimes Letty would chew at the toy - probably more to take it to say "your hands are free, it's dinner time!" - and sometimes Letty would take a toy and run off to gnaw away at its squeaker. Among Letty's favorite toys is "Mr Fox," pictured here.

Bath Time
Betrayal. Every reference photo I have of Letty related to bath time just has her dagger-to-the-heart eyes with a look of betrayal. Letty loves to roll around when she's outside playing, so you can imagine Bath Time is a very regular thing at her house. As you'll see on the campaign's page previews, too, this illustration has perfectly captured that sentiment. Letty expresses that "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed you trapped me in the tub and got me all wet" kind of looks. But hey, then she's clean and those daily fried eggs means she's extra soft! (I think, again, I don't know about things, like, science.)

Go Get It
When Bea first put together the illustrations for "Tug of Rawr" she gave me two options. They were both awesome, so we said let's make both. The opposite perspective from the genesis of the game as well as the "Tug of Rawr" narrative, sometimes Letty gets a toy and takes off to play by herself. Say any of her keywords ("dubya," "tee-argh-ee-eh-tee," and more) and she'll forget that toy even exists. But until then, she's super happy with her Mr Fox.

Adventure Dreams
There were two "I'm sleeping" cards I wanted to build into the game. And the second one, this one, was meant to capture those times when Letty would do that little puppy park and move her legs like she was running around, somewhere. Again, I don't know what puppies dream of, but I'd like to think it's running around with their friends and family. The days when Bea and I were talking about this illustration, Letty had a run of play dates with her friend Ivy. So naturally we thought it made sense that Letty would be dreaming about Ivy, snow, and other non-descript-friends because "Ivy! Snow!" God, I love her.

Car Ride
Oh does she love car rides. I honestly can't tell if it's because she's with me (or her mom, or both of us), or just to be in the car. The prospect of jumping in the back seat and cuddling into a ball to snooze is just cuteness overload. In Chicago, even without being in the center of the city, there are a lot of lights, a lot of traffic, and things can be stop and go. When that happens, Letty typically perks up, asks politely for some windows to go down, and then smells all of the things of - well - wherever we are. She definitely can tell when we're near her home, my home, or the park.

All My Friends
I know we just had an update yesterday about Letty's friends, but that was more to talk about some of the specific dogs we've tried to bake into the game. Lani, Ivy, Letty, Saint, and Lemon were the core group of dog park friends Letty made when she first started going to the park. I didn't meet all of these dogs at the same time, but I always imagined all of them, ready for adventure - but really excited to go on an adventure together.

Pouty Puppy
Letty is more food-motivated than toy-motivated. When she does get toy motivated, she always seems to get that one toy stuck under the couch. And I don't always notice that her toy is missing. Letty lays down, tail wagging in happiness, staring at the thing she wants or me as a way to get her toy back. She does this, too, when she wants dinner early, or would rather watch animal documentaries than space exploration on the evenings we spend indoors. Actually, on that note, she pouts a lot when I put on those sci-fi shows, maybe she is just impatient for her mom to come pick her up from a play date.

Puppy Park
For this card, I expressed to Bea that I wanted to create some place where she and her friend Ivy would go and play with all of their dog park friends and make some new ones. What Bea came up with was this beautiful depiction of obvious and subtle diversions for the girls. While a bit cropped for the sake of this preview, get this: Ivy and Letty are playing in a ball pit, at a puppy park designed like a tennis ball planet, with a puppy-print footpath, jungle-gym, tennis ball fountain, and dog-bone fence! Bea's shared her creative process with me, but I'll still ask "How does she come up with these creative ideas?!" It's cause she's awesome, that's the real answer.

Neighborhood Stroll
This is my favorite illustration from the core game. Melissa takes Letty on long involved walks. cough Mr. Nick? Not so much. cough cough We typically do a few blocks around home, or a lap around the dog park. It's not far, but there are plenty of smells and things to explore. The colors of this illustration, adding of the tulips (a favorite flower), and even the butterflies, all create this composition that I'll be putting on my wall after the campaign ends. I love it. (Did you read the bit about Letty's relationship with butterflies? It's in the backer-exclusive portion of the first update, check it out.)

Head Rubs
I won't even pose to you such an obvious question. Letty. Letty's a good girl. From boops on the nose to ear scratches to head rubs, Letty loves affection. I think her mom knows of that "perfect spot" behind her ears, too. Letty'll ask me for head rubs, but when she's home with her mom, there are different satisfied grunts and kisses Letty gives her mom from head rubs that I don't seem to manage. Aww, writing all of this without Letty here with me now is making me miss that girl.

Munch, munch, munch
Similar to the "Tug of Rawr" and "Go Get It" cards, the two treat cards, this being the second, highlight Letty's behavior when offered a treat. There are these frozen duck and beef treats that she really enjoys and - if I'm being honest and hoping her mom doesn't read this - I will shower Letty with those treats. So that became the concept for this illustration! View from inside the bag of treats raining down on the best girl in the world!

Come here love
Oftentimes before a nap, Letty will do her "big stretch" as she climbs up onto the couch. Sometimes that stretch turns more into Letty teasing if she wants to play or cuddle up on the couch. In either case, it brings Letty closer, and who wouldn't want to be closer to Letty?

Up, up, up
Yes, ok, sometimes she needs extra encouragement to come hang out. And yes, also, ok, Bea made two adorable adaptations of what I was going for in this illustration and I just said "all of them, please!" I don't know if it's happy or hopeful, but inviting Letty to do anything (without saying her keywords) tends to put a smile on her face.

Template of Treats
There was a higher-end pet supply store near me that I would take Letty to after we'd go to the park. Even with her mom in tow, we would spend time at the park, maybe grab a coffee, but stop off at this store to get some Letty supplies. (Fine, I admit it, I mean "treats" but I'm going to say "supplies" so it doesn't seem like I spoil her. I realize what I just wrote, yeah.) When we would go, there was one staff member there who developed a relationship with Letty. Letty would always be happy to see her, and would obey all the right commands because she knew this staffer had a big jar of treats behind the counter. Letty would behave so well it was like she was at her place of worship. So, naturally, Bea and I tried to come up with a slightly different presentation of this card that celebrated one of Letty's favorite places.

Play Time
The Letty "token" is this two-sided card that passes between players. The one side features "Play Time" which informs players when they can play particular cards. We tried to dream up what the pose or scene would be when Letty was saying she's "ready for play time." Bea came up with this idea that Letty was mid-roll at the park, looking up at you saying any variety of "can I roll, more?" or "can I have belly rubs?" or even "no, I don't need a bath, come play!"

Nap Time
Similarly, the other side of that two-sided "token" is when Letty is tuckered out. When either of us are working from our respective homes, Letty has a very specific places, blankets, and nesting rituals to get comfy and settle down for a nap. In this illustration we used the design from her mom's "Letty-napzone-area" and the blanket from "Mr. Nick's office" to paint the picture that - hey, this girl is tuckered out and snoozing. 

That's a bit behind the illustrations that are in the game. Each of these illustrations is in the core game at differing frequencies (based on the mechanics of each card). However! Each of these illustrations will be an available option for those opting for any kind of art-related add-on or pledge. Naturally after this week when we have the pledge manager available you'll see each of these options.

We have more bits and bobs to share out this final week of the campaign. Thank you all for supporting Adventuring Letty and if you haven't already, share the campaign with your friends so they can enjoy Letty's adventures, too!

Much love,
~Mr. Nick

Hey everyone, been a bit under the weather and this last week has been a lot of naps. Like a Letty-quantity of naps. We've a lot of catching up to do, and a lot has happened this past week.

We did want to share a little bit more about Letty's friends, though, so let's dive in! You may have seen a few illustrations - or those of you who were part of playtesting and preview groups have noticed - Letty has a core group of dog-friends she goes with on adventures. Letty meets many of her friends at the dog park and their adventures and friendship continue beyond the park.

One of Letty's earliest friends is Ivy. Ivy and Letty usually have adventures in the way of play dates. Playing with toys and wrestling on the couch, and giving those "hey can we have treats, now?" eyes to their moms. Ivy makes appearances in the core game and in the Play Dates adventures.

Sweet Lani is one of Letty's favorites. The two of them together starts out with a ton of energy and discussion between the those two girls quickly turns into a tag-team competition of who much room they can take on the couch from their moms. Lani shows off how cuddy she is in the Play Dates adventures as well as making an appearance in the core game.

What do Lemon and Letty love in common? Is it car rides? Yes. The park? Also yes. The beach?! Heck yes! Lemon is one of Letty's mild-mannered friends who both takes and gives play time cues. I'm sure Lemon's cuddly, too, but to be honest, I don't think I've ever seen Lemon not be active or instigating Letty and friends to jump around and play. Lemon joins Letty in the core game and in the Beach Days adventures.

Rue is one of Letty's friends who she sees every morning at the dog park. Rue's very activity motivated and she keeps Letty on her toes running around the park. On play dates, these two play off one another's interests: from car rides to super secret adventures to get ice---I've already said too much. Rue's mom will be reading this, I'm sure. Rue's an endearing and quiet puppy who makes appearances in Play Dates and In the City adventures.

Did I save Saint for last to drive her mom bonkers? Nah. Is Saint a trouble maker? Absolutely not. Did she try to do dental work on me last time I saw her at the dog park? 100% yes. No way, that doesn't sound like Saint! Saint is probably the friend who Letty gets to see most often. When at the dog park, when Saint sees Letty, she lays down, waiting for the right moment to jump up and greet Letty. (I mean, she does it smack in the middle of the park, there's no way Letty doesn't see her. But the tradition is appreciated, Saint. We love you.) When Letty sees Saint at the park, all bets are off. With her mom's permission Letty bolts across the park to see her friend. They chase each other around and play for a solid block of time before both of them hold up and "guard" the rest of the dog park friends. It's only in those last 2 minutes of everyone leaving the park together does it seem a week's worth of energy comes out of these two as they continue to play as their moms try to leave the park. There are so many stories and adventures I could share about Saint and Letty, we'll save those for another time. Saint herself makes appearances in the core game, Beach Day, In the City, and Play Dates adventures.

I know I haven't mentioned a lot about Letty's friends' parents, rest assured they're all great. They're friends with Letty's mom and often get everyone together to be social. Like I said, the humans, they're probably great, but these dogs? Be still my heart.

Speaking of humans, though, we met some great ones, recently. We made some digital friends with a gaming group called Improper Perspectives. This small group of friends has been exploring live streaming their weekly gaming sessions, and in one such session we all started talking about the game. Greg and Atom offered to introduce the game to their friends, and streamed their experience last week. While these friends play a variety of games, they were kind enough to give the game a go, and you can watch them explore the game on their Twitch.tv channel. They also shared with me they're planning on streaming a variety of other games in the coming months. It was nice to see some folks outside of our playtesting group taking on the game and giving it a go. Thanks new friends!

We've some big news coming up in this final week of the campaign.  Typically there's a bigger nudge towards a campaign's funding goal near the last weekend and you should expect to see some surprises on that front. We also added a few more pledge levels for some specific people who requested other ways to support the campaign, including a few retailers jumping on the campaign. Those new pledge levels will have their post-campaign details sorted after the campaign. Speaking of pledge levels, we'll have another update tomorrow (now that all the naps are behind us) to share with you all of the illustrations available for the Art Prints pledge, too. (It'll be a selection of any card illustration in the core game, but we'd still like to spell it out for those who haven't seen everything, yet.)

We spent a lot of time in the sun today, well, Saturday, so it's probably time to call it a night. Now that we're back to healthy and into the last week of the campaign, you'll see a final push from us here on BackerKit and in inboxes.

Thanks for joining us on this gaming adventure!

Much love,
~Mr. Nick

Hey friends! We have some updates on Letty things we'd like to share.

For those of you in the Chicagoland area, Letty will be making an appearance at Horner Park on Wednesday. Her mom will be with her and they will be giving out special Valentine's Day cards. Well, cards for the dog parents, but special treats for her friends!

We partnered with Barry Sweets, a local Chicago baker who makes wonderful human-treats, and irresistible dog treats. Part of the sweetness includes how Barry Sweets repurposes leftover grains from breweries into flour for their creations. Since Letty and her core group of friends like spending time at dog-friendly breweries, we kept running into places in Chicago that had Barry Sweets' dog treats, so we said "HEY! Let's get a LOT!" (And then Letty's mom gave me a glare and I had to scramble and repurpose an idea (from one of our own backers, here) to create Valentine's treats. So here we go!) You can check out more about Barry Sweets over on Instagram. Letty's @AdventuringLetty account is already a follower over there, you could drop a follow, too. (Just not when you're hungry, though, it's a tough account to browse if you're hungry.)

Here's a little preview of what we'll give the dog parents. We're hoping sharing the love at the dog park will also help us push closer to our campaign goal. But for those of you already here, here's a little gem about Adventuring Letty after the campaign.

Our campaign is on track to be successful, slow and steady, but we're on our way. After we're successful and all of our backers have received their rewards, we'll start digging into the second phase of Adventuring Letty. We have planned out a handful of mini "Adventures" that we'll want to make after the core game. Think of this campaign as building the "everyday adventures" of Letty (and Melissa). These other "Adventures" are more specialty things that Letty and Melissa do, together. Our BackerKit Exclusive sticker, for example, the one of Letty sunbathing, that's from a "Camping Adventure." Ghost stories by the fire, cuddling in the text, lifeguarding mom while she swims in the river, (and more!) are all apart of that adventure. In these Valentines (above) we're using an illustration from "Beach Day" where Letty's chasing her friends. And we're using two images from the "Play Dates" adventure, where Letty and her friends are cuddling on the couch, and enjoying treats!

In our next update I'll share a bunch of the greatness about Letty's friends.

Oh also in some good news: we had a few folks express interest in a retail-level pledge to both support the campaign and get a few extra copies of the game to sell at a retail level after the campaign is successful. As a general rule of thumb, anyone looking for more than a dozen copies of the game will be encouraged to utilize the retail pledge. (Right now there are only 3 of you, and that's ok. We're just excited about the interest.) We'll have an added pledge level for retailers before our next update.

My hands are currently covered in peanut butter and I may have ruined this keyboard. I've some Valentine's Cards to package up. Oh and finalizing the "How to play" video! That's taken me entirely too long but should be coming real quick.

No backer-exclusive sneak-peaks today. (If you're a backer, the last two updates have backer-exclusive content. It's cute, too. You should check it out!) This is the whole update. <3 

I will reiterate what I do every update and interaction: sharing out the campaign to your network helps us immensely. Please consider sharing the Letty love with your people!

Much Love,
-Mr. Nick

Hey friends! We're making progress! And welcome new backers!

This morning we crossed that 20% milestone, and are well on our way to bringing Adventuring Letty to life! Thank you!

Please be sure to share the campaign to your game- and dog-loving friends!

Letty would like me to tell you about what happened yesterday. Before you read on, see if you can figure out what transpired just from looking at her reactions.

If you guessed "asking for a treat," "Mr Nick's Betrayal," and "Car ride?!" you're right. Letty and I spent some time together yesterday, did a few walks, some naps, but she knows it's my house where the treats are usually stashed. Needless to say we did make a run out for some treats and picked up some of her favorites. She was a happy puppy by the time our play date was over.

Tying this all back to the game, there are two card illustrations that embody what happens when Letty gets a treat. Named for the sounds I think she makes, "Munch, Munch, Munch" and "Nom, Nom, Nom" call attention to Letty getting small (Letty-)bite-sized treats and getting a more savory snack.

When Letty gets a bully stick or bone, she bounds off to enjoy it in her special place. At my house, that's the center of the living room (but only after using her momentum to move the rug in every direction). When she gets a little snack, she stays close, gives you those big puppy dog eyes and patiently waits for more.

The mechanics in the game work the same way. When someone plays the "Nom, Nom, Nom" card, the Letty token moves to another player (not the person who played it). Alternatively, when someone plays the "Munch, Munch, Munch" card, the Letty token moves to that player. The goal of the game is to have the Letty token in front of you when someone runs out of cards. Carefully crafting your plan to engage with Letty (well, the Letty token) to encourage her to move while chipping away at your (or another player's) hand of cards is all part of the fun of Adventuring Letty.

Hey but you'll see this for yourself when you get a copy of the game! Speaking of which: obligatory "share this with your friends!" The more each we have, the higher chances of meeting our goal. You're awesome for even just being here, we thank you.

Absolutely first order of business: a huge thank you to everyone here! We're chipping away at our goal and are grateful that you're here helping us make this happen!

We had a rocky start, launching a few hours later than intended, but hey, what stress can't be solved with some Letty cuddles, right? Actually this update, too, is late. I meant to send this earlier during my Friday but I had a chance to hang out with Letty today and we were (ahem) "busy" watching nature shows, going on walks in the neighborhood, and pretending like we weren't begging for treats. Ok, less me on the last one. Maybe. But it's big a big first day, you all made a big dent in our goal, and we are very excited!

Actually that's a segue into talking a little about the artwork. I'll be sure to have some future updates that also call out some of the illustrations we've done for this game. If you're this far into the campaign, you've probably gleamed that in designing Adventuring Letty the goal was to take the "everyday" adventures and themes, and work them into some kind of game mechanic.

Probably one of my favorite illustration in this game belongs to the Neighborhood Stroll card. The concept behind the card is no secret: we're taking Letty for a short walk. In this illustration, it's actually meant to be spring, I think? Or maybe we decided that tulips can bloom in the summer? No matter: it's not a Chicago winter, that's for sure. From the colors, to the details, to the curious nature of Letty and the butterflies. The illustration steals my heart every time. (More on this topic down below, exclusive to backers.)

As we push closer to our goal, we humbly ask that you share out the campaign with your network, let's make this project happen! (Obviously we've told all of Letty's friends, but most of them don't have thumbs, and getting them to back has been problematic.)