So, apparently, my back decided to let me know I'm getting old at 45, and for the past two weeks I've mostly been grumbling, complaining, and avoiding unnecessary movement. Wish I could say it was at least a result of creating cardboard terrain - a noble sacrifice for all of you and such. Unfortunately, I was already at the writing and layout design stage of the project at the time, so no glory for me, I'm afraid.
Anyway, I'm pretty much back to business as usual now and will resume working on the layout. I will try to finish in June, but I can't promise I'll make it. I'm mostly re-reading everything now, since the complex layout will make it much harder to correct mistakes or make rewrites in the final file (it's still possible, though).
I originally wanted to share the inspiration for one of the builds in the Zine - the Gnomish Distillery. It was based on an abandoned distillery in Poland. I tried searching for it online, and it turns out there are so many other awesome abandoned distilleries that could all serve as excellent inspiration for a build.
So instead, here's a little game (I really, really hope it's an easy one):
Below is a photo of the Gnomish Distillery, and Google Maps links to three abandoned distilleries in Poland. Can you guess which one was the inspiration?
The build:
And the three candidates: 1. https://maps.app.goo.gl/gJF7oXG33s5NWKM79 2. https://maps.app.goo.gl/yW1i3Ugj89iCtgbv6 3. https://maps.app.goo.gl/TXhiYVFkdUakuX5H8
When I was deciding what kind of projects to include in the zine (somewhere back in February or maybe earlier), I knew I had to include the guide on gnomish distillery (I already had it all planned) and a tree-making guide (by then I had done some experiments to make sure it was doable with only basic materials), plus one more that would complement those two. Since the first two leaned toward fantasy, I went with something more sci-fi and simply wrote "futuristic temple" in my notes.
Months passed, and a few weeks ago, after finishing the distillery and tree guides, I finally sat down to work on the third project. I opened my notes, pretty sure that Martin from the past had made all the necessary preparations, only to find that the entire project's notes were two words long.
"Futuristic Temple" was apparently all I had to work with. I'm glad time works the way it does, cause I'm pretty sure that if I got to meet the Martin from the past, we'd be in for a stern talk. I've spent about a week toying with different ideas for the temple. I didn't want to make another grim Gothic cathedral - plenty of those around. I've also watched a YouTube video about over-the-top movies from the last couple of years, and Mortal Engines (the one with cities riding around the world and devouring each other) was listed among them.
So I leaned into this aesthetic and created my very own small walking temple. In my mind, it's like a smaller structure that traverses the world, not a city, but a single large building able to walk on its own. It made me think about hermit crabs for some reason, and I went with it.
And so here it is: The third guide in the zine will help you build your own crawling temple. I don't know, maybe it's like a missionary vehicle in a dystopian world. This will be the final, most advanced guide and also the one that leaves you with the most options.
Shot this photo a few hours ago. The temple still needs a few final touches (maybe a bit of vegetation and more dark stains from the smoke and the diesel engine in the back), but it's otherwise done, along with EXTENSIVE notes for the future Martin, who will be writing the guide next week.
With that out of the way, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to finalize the text and layout by the end of May. Printing should take only a couple of days (zines are cool that way), so I'm pretty confident I can meet the June deadline. We'll see what the future holds, though, and what the future Martin will have to deal with.
I wanted to keep you in the loop with this short update. We're working on the zine and everything seems on track. Kate has this great idea for super-easy-to-build farm fences made of cardboard and toothpicks, so I've decided to include toothpicks as a potential building material. I think they are well within the “cheap materials” range.
I'm currently creating a set of walls to illustrate the different effects you can achieve from the same basic technique to help you come up with your own custom styles. I'll get back to you next month!
Thank you so much for backing the project. Orcs & Crafts Zine campaign has officially ended, and after the weekend, we're getting to work on the materials. We plan on sending you the printed copies of the zine in June, and the PDFs should reach you around a month earlier.
The campaign has reached the 9k Euro stretch goal in the final minutes, so you will be getting the Spotify Playlists, probably in early April (we'll be driving 40 hours by car at the end of March, so it's a perfect time to find a few additional interesting podcasts).
I had no idea how this project would go. It felt kinda weird to do something other than a role-playing game, but hey, apparently, there are some people interested in making stuff! I'm really over 300 of you decided to give Orcs a chance. I promise to do my best to deliver something interesting and useful to you.
I'm not much of an artist, but I do try to illustrate our games to the best of my abilities. A few months ago, I had an idea for a fantasy game about orcs with a bit of a retro, 80's cheesy B-movie vibe. No idea if I'll ever finish the project, but I made a few illustrations, and I think they're a right fit here.
So, here's your Orcish motivational poster!
If you've backed the project, your cards will probably be charged for the amounts you pledged in the next few hours.
Once we're closer to shipping, we'll open the Backer survey to collect your addresses and shipping fees (if you've chosen the physical reward pledge), but that's still months away, so you don't have to do anything right now.
I'll look over the Hector Shrine guide files over the weekend for any typos and make them available to you next week.
Now for a bit of work, and off to work on the zine!
This is it, the Orcs & Crafts campaign ends today. With over 8600 Euro raised we're about 10 Backers away from the final stretch goal.
If you still want to back the project, the time is now. If you're not sure, come have a look at the campaign and all the stuff we've managed to unlock!
So, apparently, my back decided to let me know I'm getting old at 45, and for the past two weeks I've mostly been grumbling, complaining, and avoiding unnecessary movement. Wish I could say it was at least a result of creating cardboard terrain - a noble sacrifice for all of you and such. Unfortunately, I was already at the writing and layout design stage of the project at the time, so no glory for me, I'm afraid.
Anyway, I'm pretty much back to business as usual now and will resume working on the layout. I will try to finish in June, but I can't promise I'll make it. I'm mostly re-reading everything now, since the complex layout will make it much harder to correct mistakes or make rewrites in the final file (it's still possible, though).
I originally wanted to share the inspiration for one of the builds in the Zine - the Gnomish Distillery. It was based on an abandoned distillery in Poland. I tried searching for it online, and it turns out there are so many other awesome abandoned distilleries that could all serve as excellent inspiration for a build.
So instead, here's a little game (I really, really hope it's an easy one):
Below is a photo of the Gnomish Distillery, and Google Maps links to three abandoned distilleries in Poland. Can you guess which one was the inspiration?
The build:
And the three candidates: 1. https://maps.app.goo.gl/gJF7oXG33s5NWKM79 2. https://maps.app.goo.gl/yW1i3Ugj89iCtgbv6 3. https://maps.app.goo.gl/TXhiYVFkdUakuX5H8
When I was deciding what kind of projects to include in the zine (somewhere back in February or maybe earlier), I knew I had to include the guide on gnomish distillery (I already had it all planned) and a tree-making guide (by then I had done some experiments to make sure it was doable with only basic materials), plus one more that would complement those two. Since the first two leaned toward fantasy, I went with something more sci-fi and simply wrote "futuristic temple" in my notes.
Months passed, and a few weeks ago, after finishing the distillery and tree guides, I finally sat down to work on the third project. I opened my notes, pretty sure that Martin from the past had made all the necessary preparations, only to find that the entire project's notes were two words long.
"Futuristic Temple" was apparently all I had to work with. I'm glad time works the way it does, cause I'm pretty sure that if I got to meet the Martin from the past, we'd be in for a stern talk. I've spent about a week toying with different ideas for the temple. I didn't want to make another grim Gothic cathedral - plenty of those around. I've also watched a YouTube video about over-the-top movies from the last couple of years, and Mortal Engines (the one with cities riding around the world and devouring each other) was listed among them.
So I leaned into this aesthetic and created my very own small walking temple. In my mind, it's like a smaller structure that traverses the world, not a city, but a single large building able to walk on its own. It made me think about hermit crabs for some reason, and I went with it.
And so here it is: The third guide in the zine will help you build your own crawling temple. I don't know, maybe it's like a missionary vehicle in a dystopian world. This will be the final, most advanced guide and also the one that leaves you with the most options.
Shot this photo a few hours ago. The temple still needs a few final touches (maybe a bit of vegetation and more dark stains from the smoke and the diesel engine in the back), but it's otherwise done, along with EXTENSIVE notes for the future Martin, who will be writing the guide next week.
With that out of the way, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to finalize the text and layout by the end of May. Printing should take only a couple of days (zines are cool that way), so I'm pretty confident I can meet the June deadline. We'll see what the future holds, though, and what the future Martin will have to deal with.
I wanted to keep you in the loop with this short update. We're working on the zine and everything seems on track. Kate has this great idea for super-easy-to-build farm fences made of cardboard and toothpicks, so I've decided to include toothpicks as a potential building material. I think they are well within the “cheap materials” range.
I'm currently creating a set of walls to illustrate the different effects you can achieve from the same basic technique to help you come up with your own custom styles. I'll get back to you next month!
Thank you so much for backing the project. Orcs & Crafts Zine campaign has officially ended, and after the weekend, we're getting to work on the materials. We plan on sending you the printed copies of the zine in June, and the PDFs should reach you around a month earlier.
The campaign has reached the 9k Euro stretch goal in the final minutes, so you will be getting the Spotify Playlists, probably in early April (we'll be driving 40 hours by car at the end of March, so it's a perfect time to find a few additional interesting podcasts).
I had no idea how this project would go. It felt kinda weird to do something other than a role-playing game, but hey, apparently, there are some people interested in making stuff! I'm really over 300 of you decided to give Orcs a chance. I promise to do my best to deliver something interesting and useful to you.
I'm not much of an artist, but I do try to illustrate our games to the best of my abilities. A few months ago, I had an idea for a fantasy game about orcs with a bit of a retro, 80's cheesy B-movie vibe. No idea if I'll ever finish the project, but I made a few illustrations, and I think they're a right fit here.
So, here's your Orcish motivational poster!
If you've backed the project, your cards will probably be charged for the amounts you pledged in the next few hours.
Once we're closer to shipping, we'll open the Backer survey to collect your addresses and shipping fees (if you've chosen the physical reward pledge), but that's still months away, so you don't have to do anything right now.
I'll look over the Hector Shrine guide files over the weekend for any typos and make them available to you next week.
Now for a bit of work, and off to work on the zine!
