Hey, folks!

Nothing major to share today, unfortunately. Too much going on over here, and I'm attempting to wrap up a bunch of editing and playtesting, so I want to focus on that. I'll have a lot more done in the next two weeks, so I anticipate having more juicy morsels to chew on for the June update.

It's good being back and being productive again, but man did some plates stop spinning while I was in bad spine shape. Totally my own fault — no one else dropped the ball here, so I'll keep picking up the pieces and getting things finished as soon as possible, but without sacrificing quality! Eye on the prize and all that, right?

I look forward to sharing a bigger update with you all in June!

-Christopher

Hello, everyone!

I considered doing something for April Fools, but with how ridiculous this year has already been, everything I could think of was either 1) too believable, or 2) not as outlandish as reality. That's either a good sign or a terrible one! Either way, I'm just gonna stick to the truth.

For the last two weeks, Chris Burton and I have been doing intensive in-house playtesting of EVERY little piece of Disparation content, and — excuse my language — HOT DAMN! This expansion is GOOD! We're very proud of it.

Honestly, I was expected to sit down to play everything for the first time since the first week of January (ugh) and have it feel only 80% done. Listen, it's been a year to feel pessimistic, even though I've managed to keep my spirits higher than I had any right to. Still, I feared that this content had really fallen apart in the last months. Just negative thinking, turns out, and not at all based on reality. Disparation content is easily 96% done, with the remaining 4% being the last few tough nuts to iron out (that's the expression, right?) but far from insurmountable. The last 10% is always the hardest 10%, but we're well into it and feeling good!

We're working hard on those last few elements Right Now to get them across the finish line, and everything is going to Rae for graphics and layout for print before the end of April, so the next few weeks are crunch time on a surprisingly manageable amount of stuff!

I took a photo of the whiteboard where we were tracking all of our playtesting over the last two weeks... but it's SO full of spoilers. I fear even posting it with it slightly blurred, as I've seen Sentinels fans decode blurred images before. AHEM. Very rude. Rude / impressive. OK, I'm definitely WAY more impressed than offended. You folks are awesome. STILL! This is the most I can show here without giving it all away.

Not much, I know, but that's just because of how dang sleulthy you all are! Also, marvel at my skills as a graphic designer! If you weren't already aware, now you know why Rae and Darrell do all the layout and graphic design. Not me! I do stuff that looks like THAT!

More updates in a month! Until then, keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher, the necro-cyborg-neck-haver

Hey, folks!

I've been getting some things done lately, against all odds, and it feels good to be productive, even if significantly less so. My January and February productivity were almost entirely shot, which makes sense, but it still sucks. However! Surgery on the ol' spine is happening next week, so I'm feeling good about the medium and long term, and the short term is almost over. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery!

Anyway! Darrell made a sweet spinner! I was talking to him about the fact that this set lets you potentially play with SIX Hero character cards at the table, since Darkstrife and Painstake both have their own character card, and he whipped up a sweet looking Hero HP spinner that looks distinct from the 5 in the core game and fits thematically for those edgy demon "twins", but can be used for anyone!

Cool, right? I like it a lot.

OK, now to managing expectations: unsurprisingly, the development of this project is behind. There's stuff I was going to finish up in January that I haven't even started. Go figure. But things are still moving along, and I have a plan for making March more productive than the last two months! (It involves me knocking out a bunch of work this week and the beginning of next so that I can do my surgery recovery without constant stressing about getting stuff done. I'm doing it for my health!) 

So, with that in mind, Disparation won't be shipping in early summer as originally intended. You'll definitely have it before the end of the year (barring any other major nonsense type stuff — please no more of that!) but I don't believe it'll be printed and shipped before Gen Con. I know that "sometime between Gen Con and December" is a wide margin, but that's as much as I can reasonably project from where I stand now, and I'll definitely keep you updated on where things are on a monthly basis with these updates. I am hoping that next month's update will be "surgery recovery was not too bad and I'm finally back in action!" But, even if it's not, know that that Sentinels stuff is my second highest priority right now, falling only slightly behind spine stuff. Gotta get all the Ss in order!

So, bear with us — I apologize for the delays and thank you for your patience. We're excited to wrap this up, and I'm doing my best to make it happen! Until next time, keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher

Hey, folks!

Big thanks to Bailey last month for writing and posting an update for me. I was in NO SHAPE to do anything of the sort, but I was also under the impression that I'd be back in the saddle in a matter of days... a week or two at the absolute worst.

I was incredibly wrong.

Not to go into it long-form here, but today's episode of the Letters Page podcast is a 20ish minute discussion of my current health state. Spoilers: it's not great! But I have at least a path forward, and am still quite hopeful and optimistic. 

What does this mean for the schedule here? Honestly, I don't know yet. I had intended to get a ton done in January and February, as they are historically quite productive months for me, but obviously that's not the case. Standing at my desk for enough time to check my e-mail and write this update takes the wind out of me, and I can feel my mind turning more slowly under the influence of the frankly embarrassing amount of drugs it takes to bring me down to a mellow 5/10 pain... so, yeah, things are moving more slowly over here than intended, for sure. I'd love to tell you when things would be back to normal, because that would mean I'd know when this hellish torment would release its clutches on me. But, alas, all I know is that SOMETIME in the hopefully near future, I will have surgery on my spine, and that will help. I don't know when yet, but hopefully I'll learn more this week. And I don't know how long the recovery should be, but I don't imagine it'll be MORE terrible than my current state. So, I have hopes to be back in the productive zone SOON, but all I have is hopes. Well, and pain. I also have a lot of that. ANYWAY.

Meanwhile, the good news is that things are NOT at a standstill! Chris Burton has been doing a bunch of work with the playtesters, and Darrell has put together some new designs that we're going back and forth on (unsurprisingly, I am the hold up here) and I look forward to showing you in an upcoming update. So, while my current bad time is certainly messing things up, it's not ruining anything (other than my day-to-day life and sanity and all that). 

Fingers crossed for a way better update next month! Sorry that this is happening and causing problems. I promise I'm doing everything in my power to get back to things here. 

I look forward to writing a way more cheerful update next month!

-Christopher

Greetings, everyone! Bailey here to bring you an update. 

As you probably know, I’m not usually the one to write updates for Sentinels related campaigns. However, a few days ago, Christopher had a somewhat serious medical event and is currently recovering. He’s already back on his feet and the doctor’s are confident that he will have a speedy recovery. Normally, we wouldn’t bother sharing this information, but Christopher wanted you all to understand the reason for this update. I’ve spoken to him, and he indicated that progress on materials for this campaign is still moving along. He’s eager to get back to work and get you all more specific updates soon! But, until then, bear with us. 

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] where we’ll be happy to help! 

Thank you!

-Bailey

Hello, everyone! Bailey here instead of Christopher to give you a little more insight on what's happening with shipments. Christopher (who is not nearly as cool as me, by the way*) can tell you everything about story, components, so on. But I (way cooler, vastly superior*) can tell you what's up with the shipments and other customer service concerns.
 
 If you ordered non-Disparation Definitive Edition items (yes, everything), those items are set to fulfill before the end of December. We're getting the last few orders out as soon as possible and they should be on their way in the coming weeks! But! Some of you with card sleeves and bundles may notice that those are missing. Unfortunately, we were not able to print enough standard size card sleeves in time to fulfill those bundles. Instead of making you wait for sleeves, we're going to ship everything that we can (which is everything else non-Disparation) straight to you! Those sleeves will be shipped to you at a later date - likely as soon as we get them in! We're expecting them in early Q1, but we don't have an exact date as of yet. As soon as we know more, either Christopher or I will update you.
 
Quick recap:

 As always, please let me know if you have any questions! You can comment here or email [email protected] 
 
 Thanks so much and happy holidays!

-Bailey (xir/xir)

 

*Um, Christopher here, just checking in on Bailey’s post. I wanted to say, these points that Bailey made? Absolutely correct. No notes. Carry on.

Good morning, everyone!

After I wrote the first two words of the title of this update, I realized it would be cool if I could make a gif of these spinners spinning... but I do not have those skills. Trevor does! But he's very busy and I didn't even bother asking him. He's got a lot of more important things to do than make gifs for my frivolous wants. ANYWAY.

As promised, I've got spinners to show off! When making this set, I realized we'd need a bunch more HP spinners, since each member of The Ennead have a pile of HP, and the various Demons vying for power in Æternus are not without their own impressive HP numbers, so we wanted a new option to help with those cases. However, we didn't need more of the big Villain HP spinners from the core game or Rook City Renegades, nor did we want a bunch more Hero style HP spinners. Maybe something else could work? Yes, yes it could.

Darrell and I went back and forth on a bunch of different potential options, until he brilliantly came up with this beauty:

So elegant! So straight forward! How many should we include? Well, since The Ennead are A Thing, and there are 9 of them, what if we themed the color schemes of each of these spinners to one of them?

NINE new spinners? You better believe it.

Disparation still is in the final throes of development, but it's happening, and I'm really proud of the progress we've made on it, both lately and since its initial concepting. SO! More to come on all of that soon! But for now, keep on saving the Multiverse, and have a happy holidays!

-Christopher

Hey, folks!

I hope you're all doing well! We're rockin' and rollin' over here, working on lots of things and making great progress. Woo!

However, I've gotta be real with you — last month, I unwittingly lied to you. I never want to do that! I truly thought I'd be able to deliver on what I wrote while I was on the road for shows, but I wasn't thinking clearly or holistically about this project. It's true that things are moving along and I'm confident in our process, the schedule, and the product we're making for you. But anything I showed you as a reveal now would either be A) likely to change notably before it went to print, and/or B) some hand-wavy lackluster reveals that aren't all that exciting. I don't love that. I'd rather be always putting our best foot forward, and in the times that we're so in flux in development, put no foot forward. This is a very ambitious expansion with a ton of new content that does different stuff than Sentinels has ever attempted before, so development has been a lot of work, but work that we're very cut out to complete! The point is, in these updates, I don't want to provide just a "good enough" experience here. So, I greatly apologize for getting your hopes up. That was unfair and unkind of me; you deserve better. And I'm doing my best to improve! But our focus continues to be on development and polish, and I'm much better at those than I am at writing updates and marketing. Clearly!

My intention is to show you some cool HP spinners we're making for this set in next month's update, and have the rulebook for you in the update after that, so those are big things to look forward to, neither of which are vague, "I'm gonna reveal something..." claims. If there's more I can confidently show off in those updates, I promise I will! But know that we're making progress, getting stuff done, and very much on track to deliver at our promised time of next summer.

Thank you all for your support — we're making this game for YOU, and I'm so excited to make it happen! So, thanks again, and keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher

Boo! No tricks today!

Yet again, I find myself writing a crowdfunding update while on the road. Today, I'm in Essen, Germany for the Spiel board game convention! The bad news is that means this will be another short update. The good news is that I'm not traveling for work at all after I get home from this show all the way to PAX Unplugged at the beginning of December! That means that next month's update can have WAY more cool stuff in it.

We're still in the process of shipping out non-Disparation stuff that was ordered via this campaign. Apparently, there are a few things that were backordered with our printer, but that stuff should be moving right along. Many of you have already gotten some or even all of your non-Disparation orders. The rest of you should be getting stuff soon!

There were a few questions in the comments of last month's update. Let's get into them!

Q: When are you going to publish/preview the rulebook?

A: Not in the next month or so, but a good long while before you get the physical product in hand, at least!
 
Q: Are people in EU/UK going to face the same issues as with the Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate campaign?

A: They shouldn't! I don't know all the ins and outs of what exactly is going on there, but it will certainly be resolved before we're shipping Disparation.
 
Q: Do you have plans to attend Pax Unplugged?

A: We will be at PAX Unplugged this year! Come say hi!
 
Catch you next month with some previews and hints and teases and such!

-Christopher

Hello, Heroes!

I'm writing this missive to you from the Seattle airport, getting ready to fly back to St. Louis (after a not-brief-enough layover in the Vegas airport, ew) having wrapped up a VERY successful PAX West yesterday! I got to see a bunch of you fantastic folks at the show, and your excitement for what we're doing here is life-giving! I am also very excited about all of this, of course, but getting to hear from backers and supporters and fans is a lovely reminder of just how cool the Sentinels community is!

Things continue to move right along with the Disparation creation process, and in non-Disparation news, I have been assured by People Who Know Things that the shipping of non-Disparation content is beginning! So, that's great. You should have your stuff soon! Other than Disparation, of course, which is still well on-track to deliver by (or... fingers crossed... before?!) the promised delivery date. So! All good news. I love that.

Also, in other non-Disparation but still related news, Trevor is working on a Rook City Renegades video! Kinda like this one but also different. It's far from done, but I'm excited to share it with you when it is! Something to look forward to.

OK! I'm gonna go board a plane. Keep on saving the Multiverse, everyone!

-Christopher

Hey, folks!

I’m actually traveling right now, so just a quick update to say that everything is on track, and that I owe you some reveals since this update is so light. So! Next month’s update will have more reveals, for sure! Other than that, know that Disparation is still moving right along! There’s much more work to be done, but it’s happening and we’re confident in both the product that we’re making here, as well as our ability to deliver it on time. 

Keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher