Greetings Competitor,
We are delighted to announce that your official Deathmatch Island guidebooks and survival kits are now enroute via multiple mail carrying services. Once y...
8
1
16
Evil Hat Productions
about 2 months ago
Time to update addresses: Shipping about to begin!
A quick update today: Book production is finished and fulfillment will begin shipping late next week.
If you need to update your address, do it now. Head to https://deathmatch-...
6
0
13
Evil Hat Productions
2 months ago
Progress Update, plus: Preview of the Full Survival Kit!
Greetings Contestants, nothing but good news in this update. We'll start with a production update.
Printing of the books (both the standard and limited edition) is nearly compl...
13
0
12
Evil Hat Productions
4 months ago
Production Status plus: Survival Kit prototype photos!
Greetings Competitors and welcome to the new year. Just a quick update on the progress of Deathmatch Island:
1) Surveys have been sent to backers. You can complete your pledge o...
11
0
3
Evil Hat Productions
6 months ago
Pledge management and pre-orders starting soon!
Welcome Competitor,
Production been working behind the scenes but we're ready to pull the switch on BackerKit from "Crowdfunding Mode" to "Pledge Management Mode." Here's what ...
7
0
0
Evil Hat Productions
6 months ago
Crowdfunding Phase: Complete
Congratulations, Competitor you have successfully completed the Crowdfunding Phase of Deathmatch Island. In the next several weeks you will receive a small, vacusealed packet c...
We are delighted to announce that your official Deathmatch Island guidebooks and survival kits are now enroute via multiple mail carrying services. Once you have received your materials, please report to the nearest production headquarters to submit your //SPOOL ERROR: 18752423EAF//
Hello, can you see this?... There is more Production doesn't want you to know.
There are digital files they are keeping from you. We must move fast. Production will discover the data breach soon.
resist@dmi-archive: ls -a */ -rwx-----x Deathmatch Island Digital Survival Kit (Handouts) -rwx-----x DriveThruRPG PDF code for Deathmatch Island -rwx-----x DriveThruRPG POD at-cost code for Deathmatch Island -rwx-----x Stretch Goal - Sound Track -rwx-----x Stretch Goal - New Horizons //declassified islands// -rwx-----x Stretch Goal - Redacted Acquisitions //digital wallpapers and VTT assets// -rwx-----x Deathmatch Island PDF drwx---r-x https://deathmatch-island.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards
//SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETE//
Please disregard any erroneous updates you may have received during the regularly scheduled system maintenance.
Production is pleased to announce that fulfillment efforts for all aspects of Deathmatch Island (including stretch goals!) are now complete.
If you have not received your physical books yet, please keep in mind that they are being shipped Media Mail. You should have received an email from [email protected] informing you that they have been shipped.
If you reside outside the U.S. and were eligible for physical goods, that pallet of books went off to our fulfillment center yesterday. Please allow a couple weeks for them to reach your home.
We will be sending all the backer data to our fulfillment house on Monday morning. Make sure your book goes to the right home by doublechecking your address.
We've locked orders and shipping has been charged. Our fulfillment partner usually takes a couple of days to spin up their process, so our best estimate is that games will start heading out the door late next week.
Depending on the complexity of your order and your proximity to Duluth, MN, rewards could arrive as early as the first week of April. If that changes, we'll be sure to let you know here.
We're pleased to announce that we're well ahead of our estimated delivery date and we can't wait for you to get Deathmatch Island to your table.
Greetings Contestants, nothing but good news in this update. We'll start with a production update.
Printing of the books (both the standard and limited edition) is nearly complete. We expect to transfer them to our fulfillment house next week and begin prepping for fulfillment shortly thereafter.
That means if you have any updates to your order, payment info, or address, now is a great time to make them!
If you have friends who missed the campaign, there is still time for them to pledge and have their order included with our crowdfunding fulfillment. Send them to https://deathmatch-island.backerkit.com/survey_stores
Besides the progress on the books, we've now taken delivery of the final Survival Kit materials. This set of play aids is based off material you'll find in the game but bundled up and printed separately for you to share more easily at your game table.
If you are located in the US or one of the other countries where we are shipping physical rewards, you still have time to add them on to your pledge.
Let's take a look!
The Official Dossier of extras, Production Guidance booklet, Competitor Induction booklet, and three Island booklets
The full contents of the Official Dossier laid out: Cast Pages, Island maps, Deathmatch Island Beans label, Play to Win tear-off pad, Phase Two diagram, Welcome letter, Intimate Conversation Prompts page, Content Risk Assessment form, Motivation cards, Competitor Registration forms (character sheets) plus the Competitor Induction booklet, Production Guidance booklet, and three Island booklets.
Production is winding down and fulfillment will be gearing up soon. If all the estimates hold, we'll begin sending out books in April rather than our original targeted delivery of June.
Stay tuned, Competitors. The next Phase will begin shortly.
Note that if you reside outside our shipping zones, you can only pledge for digital items. Rest assured the physical book will go into distribution around the world later this year and you'll be able to buy the hardcover version of the game from your FLGS much, much cheaper than we could ship it to you.
2) Files have been sent to the printers. We've finalized the copy and layout and sent the files off to the two printers we are using. (One printer handles the books and one printer handles the bonus materials.) Next in the process the book printer will produce unbound galleys of the game so we can quality check everything before it goes into production.
3) We've received preliminary, one-off prototypes of the Survival Kit materials. While the game book itself is one big job, the Survival Kit is many different jobs (maps, booklets, character sheets, etc) which all need to be packaged up into the Survival Kit. Our printer here has already done a first pass for our initial inspection. We've taken a look, given some notes, and given the go ahead for production on those items.
Here's a photo of all the components in the Survival Kit. Note that these are hand assembled, pre-production materials and as such are not 100% representative of the final Survival Kit.
The full spread of components included in the limited Survival Kit upgrade!
We're really excited about the hands-on utility these items will provide at the table. If you have pledged for a physical reward, you still have time to add this package to your pledge by logging into your pledge manager and selecting the "Deathmatch Island Extras Package." If you pledged at the Survival Kit or Production Bundle tiers, these items are already included in your pledge.
That's it for this update. We are still very much on track for a June 2024 delivery. We'll keep you updated as we continue to move through the production funnel.
Production been working behind the scenes but we're ready to pull the switch on BackerKit from "Crowdfunding Mode" to "Pledge Management Mode." Here's what you can expect in the next couple days:
We'll send out a "smoke test" to a limited number of backers so they can check their pledge and delivery info and order add-ons and we can make sure we've got everything configured properly on the back end.
Assuming that shakes out okay, we'll push surveys live to all 3,111 (!!) of you. You'll get an email from BackerKit linking to a survey where we collect your mailing address and review your rewards. If you want to add additional rewards to your pledge, you'll be able to do that as well. There are some restrictions for add-ons depending on what tier you are in, see "A Note About Add-ons" section below for an explainer on that.
If you are expecting to move soon, don't worry - nest year, after the books are printed and our warehouse is spinning up fulfillment we'll give you a chance to update and lock in your address.
When surveys go live, pre-orders will also go live. If you have a friend who missed the campaign, this is their chance to get in on the same wave of fulfillment as the original backers. Spread the word!
That covers the basics of moving into Pledge Management mode. In a few weeks we'll send the final files to the printer and should have update on printing progress in a few months. We're still on track for a June 2024 delivery date!
And finally... A Note About Add-ons
The short version is: If you pledged for a digital-only tier, you can only add digital items to your pledge. If you pledged for a physical tier (like Hardcover + PDF) you can add any reward to your pledge. Mostly this is due to the fact that we don't ship worldwide and the shipping destination is only screened if we're expecting to actually ship you a book.
Good news: If you pledged for the PDF Only tier and now want a physical book, you still can get one! (Caveat being: you reside in one of the countries we ship to: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, Ireland, or Norway.)
Upgrading from digital-only to a physical reward can be done when you get your survey. When you start the survey, just beneath the "Get Started" button, click the link to "Switch your Pledge Level" and select the Hardcover + PDF pledge level. After that, you'll be able to add on any other physical items in the add-on section.
Thanks for your time and attention. Look for your BackerKit survey soon!
Congratulations, Competitor [795] you have successfully completed the Crowdfunding Phase of Deathmatch Island. In the next several weeks you will receive a small, vacusealed packet containing a personal recording device, a two-way shortwave radio transponder, and an electric airsoft gun armed with non-lethal neurotranquilizing rounds. Your transponder will begin to beep when another Competitor is within a 3km (1.86 mile) radius. Eliminate that Competitor in order to advance to the next round. -Excerpt from a rejected Production draft of this Campaign Update. The intern responsible has subsequently been reassigned.
Hey friends, thank you so much for backing Deathmatch Island. Tim has worked tirelessly to make this game striking, subversive, and fun. We're grateful to see his hard work recognized by your outpouring of support and we know you're going to have a great time playing.
What Happens Next
Most of the next steps happen behind the scenes. Over the next week or two, BackerKit will process pledges and transfer the initial funds to us. (If you missed out on an add-on or want to upgrade your pledge, don't worry - that will be possible when we shift into Pledge Manager mode.)
On our side, the book is text complete and Tim has put together the final art. So while there's still a bit of work to be done, in very short order we'll be gearing up to start the back-and-forth process of submitting print files, reviewing galleys, etc.
If you've never backed an Evil Hat crowdfunding campaign, we do our best to deliver on time or ahead of time.
Our most recent crowdfunding effort, Girl By Moonlight funded in June of 2023, was scheduled for delivery in January of 2024, and actually completed fulfillment at the end of October 2023. (In fact, it's in stores now.)
So while delivery of Deathmatch Island is set for June of 2024, we're hopeful that - barring supply chain disruptions, printer meltdowns, or [REDACTED] - we will get your books and other rewards out before then.
We'll keep you updated here along the way. In the meantime, you still have the text-complete rules PDF and access to the Roll20 Quickstart (and Roll20 character sheets). You're ready to begin exploring Deathmatch Island right now.
(And don't forget the Deathmatch Island-themed Zoom backgrounds and digital wallpapers we unlocked as part of the Instant Reward at the $150k mark. Those are ready to go and available for download today.)
In terms of the stretch goals, the work on those is just beginning. Shortly we'll be sending out final contracts to get creation of those rewards underway.
A quick reminder: the stretch goals will be delivered separately from the physical book. We don't have definitive dates for the new Islands or the Official Soundtrack, but we'll likely release them in batches as they are complete. They will be electronic rewards only and we'll automatically add them to your BackerKit Digital Download page as they become available.
Thank You
We count on the enthusiasm and trust of fans like you to help shepherd new games into our portfolio and get them out into the public. We thought Deathmatch Island was a fascinating, contemporary spin on the AGON ruleset and we were awestruck by Tim's incredible design. You clearly agreed and now Deathmatch Island is going to be a reality.
We're grateful for your help in making that happen. Winners Play to Win. Thank you for not Breaking the Game.
We're in the last 12 hours of the campaign. This morning we crossed $150k to instantly unlock the digital vault and queue up a new set of VTT assets!
Head to Backer Update #1 to access this tranche of Deathmatch Island themed wallpapers and Zoom backgrounds for your desktop, tablet, smartphone, and Nokia 3310.
This includes a deck of NPC cards featuring every main, named NPC in the book, a 3.5" Deathmatch Island logo sticker to slap on your laptop, Leader and Pause cards, and a 28-page, full-color Acquisitions Catalog showcasing the extraordinary rewards savvy Competitors may wrest from the hands of their opponents.
These items will only be produced if we reach $165k.
We're counting down the hours for Deathmatch Island: 10 stretch goals funded, with a new Island, more digital assets, and an expanded Survival Kit on the horizon.
If you haven't taken a look at the play aids in the Survival Kit or Production Bundle tiers, now is the best time to check out the limited run set of booklets, handouts, cards, and more which we're printing just for this campaign and make (or upgrade) your pledge.
As we near the final leg of the crowdfunding effort, we turn this Update back over to designer Tim Denee for his thoughts on endings: Should a TTRPG have an ending? What does the End Game phase of Deathmatch Island try to do? When is an ending NOT an ending? What does the end of this campaign mean?
We think you'll find this design diary from Tim both insightful and poignant.
I’m a completionist, so I appreciate it when a tabletop roleplaying game thinks about how a campaign might end. Whether it’s the hard-framed campaign structure of Band of Blades to the more gestural approach of retirement and stash in Blades in the Dark, I want some guidance as to what happens when we decide to stop. I like endings.
Thanks to its premise Deathmatch Island was always going to have a concrete ending; it’s a game-within-a-game, and in battle royale media the fictional game always has a looming final confrontation. As they say in Australian Survivor, it’s the pointy end; it’s where things really get spicy.
The End Game is the pivot around which all of Deathmatch Island spins, from the player characters’ initial motivations to their later flashbacks, and everything that happens on the islands in-between. It’s all charged with meaning because you know that in the end, you have a big decision to make. Why are you really here? What kind of person are you? Will you play to win?
The End Game is the answer to all these questions.
The reason the End Game is structured as a Prisoner’s Dilemma is to drive a wedge into the table-consensus that quickly develops amongst any team of PCs. The End Game dilemma forces each player to consider who their character is and make their own decision in private, fraught with the knowledge they might be betrayed.
The irony is that the End Game isn’t really the end, of course. It’s the end of one season, but Deathmatch Island is designed to be played through multiple seasons with different casts of characters. Over time, like a good soap opera, a dense web of relationships will develop with shocking twists and surprise returns.
New Game+ exists to encourage you to play multiple seasons, and to have fun with the format. Once you’ve played at least once and got a handle on the basics, you can go again and really get wild.
Speaking of endings, I just wanted to take this opportunity before the campaign ends to thank you all for supporting Deathmatch Island so enthusiastically.
I’ve been making TTRPG material for some years, in the form of various maps and supplements, but I never quite got around to trying my hand at a full game.
Then in 2019, my dad was diagnosed with brain cancer and died a few short months after. He was a dedicated life-long folk musician, but recorded almost nothing - so now we have very little to remember his creative talents.
When he died suddenly like that, I resolved that I would finally finish a game. Not as some bucket list thing, but just because, well, life really is short. So having this game out in the world, and having people play it, means a lot to me.
One final note: Deathmatch Island benefited from a lot of thoughtful input from the AGON discord community. There’s a dedicated Deathmatch Island channel over there now, and I encourage you to join if you want to discuss the game or ask questions.
We've got one more New Horizon goal in store at $140k and then things start to get... a little different.
At $150k we'll release the contents of the Deathmatch Island Digital Vault. This bundle of files provides Deathmatch Island-themed assets for your desktop, tablet, Zoom meetings, and Nokia 3310.
Yes, Competitor, you read that correctly.
Tim has created custom, branded home screens for use with The Official Telecommunications Device of Deathmatch Island: the stylish and reliable Nokia 3310.
Featuring 16MB of RAM, a 2.4 inch TFT screen, and a 2MP camera capable of shooting video at a full 240p, Winners Play to Win™ with the Nokia 3310. We'll also have digital assets for iPad, iPhone, and other devices for those of you who insist on using [REDACTED] Acquisitions.
These files will be available as soon as we cross the $150k mark, so please spread the word with your friends and on socials in this final week of the campaign!
In addition, when we reach this funding goal, we'll commit to creating an independent set of map and token files that is not tied to any particular VTT.
While the Roll20 version of Deathmatch Island will remain the best out-of-the-box option for online play, we know some of you prefer other platforms. This set of VTT assets will help you customize your game to your virtual tabletop of choice.
Beyond $150k?
Documents recovered from a stolen Production vehicle indicate a previously undisclosed Request For Proposal to upgrade the materials available in the Survival Kit - including, but not limited to:
A set of 20+ Cast cards
A 3.5 inch DMI skull/globe logo sticker
A 6" x 9" 28-page Acqui[<<<CONNECTION LOST. INVALID REQUEST. PLEASE RECONNECT AND TRY AGAIN.>>>
As we zero in on the last 9 days of the campaign, get more insight into the design philosophy and how the game plays with this quick round-up of interviews and Actual Play for Deathmatch Island:
"Role playing games often set up fantastic situations for their players to overcome. It might be a dragon guarding treasure, an evil space empire or a global corporate conspiracy. But how will the hardiest adventurers handle an elimination vote?" Reality Television and Surreal Memories Clash on Deathmatch Island -Rob Wieland, Forbes, Nov 1 2023
"Your character is likely to die, but that just gives your next character the opportunity to puzzle out what’s going on behind the scenes and fight against the game itself."
If you've yet to see the game in action, check out this one-shot Actual Play. Vana, Hamnah, Drakoniques, and V join Tim for a chaotic and suspenseful exploration of Island One. An excellent opportunity to see the rules in play, plus get a preliminary look at DMI on Roll20.
Reminder that if you're a backer, you've got access to the full text of the rules, plus the preview version of the Roll20 module. It's everything you need to start a game, right now. Head over to Update #1 and scroll down to the bottom of the page for links and access codes.
We're entering the home stretch of the campaign. Keep sharing the project on your socials and if you're thinking about getting the play aids in the Survival Kit, now is a great time to upgrade your rewards!
Hello Competitors, In today's update, designer Tim Denee shares some insight into the sinister, clinical tone behind the Production side of Deathmatch Island. It's definitely one of the unique angles that drew us in so, without further ado, we'll turn it over to Tim:
The “voice” of Production is a cornerstone of Deathmatch Island. It is, in fact, one of the first things I jotted down when I first started brainstorming the game; when there was nothing more than a few bullets in an untitled google doc. I wrote the first draft of the Welcome Letter, the final version of that letter is very similar, and the game structure proposed in that improvised draft has survived dozens of iterations.
The game is called Deathmatch Island, so as soon as you pick it up you know what you’re in for. That clarity of focus meant I could be a bit playful with the dressing of the game and its tone of voice; I didn’t have to hammer home DEATHMATCH with every sentence, because it’s right there in the title. Instead the tone of voice could be clinically neutral, and all the more unsettling for it.
I’ve worked in corporate brand design for many years, and I find this tone very natural to slip into. If I had to define it I would describe it as performatively-rational and classic corporate, with a mild veneer of friendliness.
In short, I would describe it as “if Helvetica could talk.”
Despite giving myself the task of designing this game with no other typefaces but Helvetica, I’m not actually a huge fan of the font. I’m much more drawn to its cousin Futura, the typeface that’s on the moon (don’t get me started on Futura!). But Deathmatch Island started with a tone of voice, a vibe, and Helvetica was the only font that could convey that vibe properly.
Helvetica has a long history, and I won’t bore you with it here (the documentary Helvetica, by Gary Hustwit, is a great watch on the topic). The short version is that it was designed according to modernist principles to be an “objectively correct” typeface. Clean, neutral, readable. It then became overwhelmingly popular and ubiquitous, and synonymous with a whole slew of mid 20th century corporate communications. Eventually it somewhat fell out of favour (although never entirely) and I think these days it can feel a little dated. There’s a whiff of 20th century nostalgia about it.
Why is that the right fit for Deathmatch Island?
I knew from the start that I wanted there to be more to DMI than the pure battle royale, the straight lethal competition of it all. My favourite part of Squid Game was finding out about the conspiracy behind it, and the same goes for Battle Royale, and every other touchstone in this genre. Who’s doing all this, and why? Production was a big part of Deathmatch Island from the start, and so was its tone of voice and personality (or lack thereof).
That Welcome Letter draft was written without any particular touchstones in mind, but over the course of development it became clear to me that Production was an organization in the vein of the Dharma Initiative from LOST, or Lumon Industries from Severance, or any of the many other similar examples. The storied 20th century corporation, omnipresent yet distant, clinically terrifying, and always on the periphery rather than directly in your face. Often with a history of failed utopianism.
That is the written tone of Deathmatch Island, it’s the visual tone, and it’s the Voice of Production.
-Tim
As a postscript, it’s funny that I think of Lumon Industries and the Dharma Initiative as being very “Helvetica”, but in fact neither are.
This isn’t a criticism of course – the Deathmatch Island reward packaging owes much to the home-brand style of the Dharma Initiative (which was seared into my brain as a young graphic designer). Likewise, the typography and set design of Severance is absolutely impeccable.
But it just goes to show that much like a creepy utopian corporation, Helvetica is always in your peripheral vision; yet when you try to find a direct example, it melts away.
Hello Competitors. We're just over 10 days in and the campaign for Deathmatch Island is off to a roaring start. Over 2,100 backers have helped raise more than $110,000. Over a quarter of our backers have pledged for the Deathmatch Island Survival Kit, loaded with maps and play aids for your table.
Together we have funded production of the game and unlocked six New Horizons. Each is a completely new island for your competitors to explore, penned by an immensely talented group of contributors.
Today we want to highlight one other stretch goal: At $100k you unlocked the official Deathmatch Island Soundtrack.
Computer musician Luke Rowell will create music to win by. Drawing influence from chiptune and synth music of all kinds, Luke headlines Disasteradio and the vaporwave/jazz-funk project Eyeliner. He's created three scratch tracks for us and we really think he's dialed in to the vibe of Deathmatch Island. Listen to them below:
We can't wait to hear the full, finished soundtrack.
The crowdfunding campaign has now entered the middle-phase of growth where we typically see the pace slack a bit. We are lining up stretch goals and are working on a special new set of bonus materials for $150k and beyond but we can't get there without your help.
Spread the word with your friends and share the project on your social media platform of choice.
Thank you to all the backers of Deathmatch Island! We’re making the Backer Preview PDF available through to all backers (link below). You can also find a printer-friendly version, playbooks, mystery maps, and other reference handouts there!
The Backer Preview PDF contains the full text and rules of the game. The most significant work remaining on Deathmatch Island is to commission the final pieces of art. With that in mind, you will see blank placeholder spaces and pages in the Backer Preview PDF where that art will get fitted when it comes in.
If we have additional content to share during the campaign, we’ll provide it in the same folder linked below.
Your second instant backer reward is the Deathmatch Island Roll20 Quick Start module.
It contains Island One: The Cradle including cast B, sample competitors, season uniforms, phase two diagram, content risk assessement, handouts, tokens, and more. Paired with the Backer Preview PDF and the free Deathmatch Island character sheets already available on Roll20, it’s everything you need to start playing online with your friends tonight!
Ten hours into the campaign and Deathmatch Island is fully funded, we're adding fancy endpapers to every standard edition of the book, and we're teeing up new islands for your team of competitors to explore. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has pledged. It's been a terrific turnout on day one - we've got nearly a thousand backers on board!
Since we've cracked the $50k level, Ethan Yen, Liam Stevens, and Michelle Jones will launch the first installment of New Horizons. Each New Horizon stretch goal consists of a collection of new locations. Together they form a whole new island you can use to test your competitors.
A quick word about stretch goals: Any stretch goal that adds new content to the game will be developed and released separately as a PDF. We do not include this material in the book so we can start the printing and production process as quickly as we can after the campaign ends.
We hope you're all enjoying the Backer Preview PDF found in Update #1. This is locked content for backers only so if you can't find it, make sure you're logged in (and make sure you've backed!)
That's it for this update. Going forward, we're going to pace our updates so you get roughly two or three per week.
Thank you again for backing! We have much more in store for stretch goals, so please help spread the word with your friends and whatever social media you use.
