UPDATE 13 ▫️ The One About Music & Digital Release Dates
Hello hello hello,
First of all, apologies for the radio silence - I can assure you all that work has continued on Certain Fathoms and we're very near some finish lines!
Ahead of the jump, the Certain Fathoms PDF will be releasing before the end of September, Hostile Takeover + Viewer Discretion PDFs following shortly behind in late September or early October. From there, Employee of the Month + Echo Chamber PDFs will be in the month of October, followed lastly by the Secret Levels PDF in November.
As for physical releases, all physical vendors have been prepped for files and are ready for them when I send them out. Even though the writing / editing / layout has been a little slower than I would have liked (life, amirite?), rest assured that the fantastic physical vendors we're working with have been standing by for when they're ready. Expect more on this in a couple weeks, before the end of September.
The two things I want to touch on this update are a follow-up for the Certain Fathoms Soundtrack and an explanation of the delays. Read on to find out more.
Certain Fathoms Soundtrack Now Streaming, Lossless Files Coming This Friday (9/11)
Last we chatted, I teased how the soundtrack was going to be streaming on a few major platforms. Well, as it turns out: music distribution is pretty dang easy! And cheap!
So, Certain Fathoms (Original Game Soundtrack) is available basically anywhere that you can get music. You can listen to it on all the big, popular ones. You can listen to it on Pandora like it's 2011. You can even add it to the background of your TikToks, Snapchats, Instagram Reels, etc. Truly, more options than you could ever want.
NOTE: Bandcamp is coming soon - it's the only one on the list that isn't automatically distributed and instead requires a bit of background work. I have to manually set prices for tracks and the entire album, design a page, and do the nitty gritty work to make sure everybody's getting what they paid for.
As for Lossless files, everybody who added the soundtrack to their orders will be getting FLAC, WAV, and updated MP3 files. As a reminder, the soundtrack is officially licensed with CC BY-SA 4.0, which means you can use all fifteen tracks on the release however you want—whether it be in your games or in commercial products.
The only restrictions are that you must give appropriate credit (in this case, it would be Colin Whitehurst and Nate Whittington) and that if you distribute your adaptations or remixes, you must do so under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Since the soundtrack is licensed for reuse, here's the exact credit line to use so you stay compliant and we stay credited. Copy this as-is:
[Track Name]" by Colin Whitehurst and Nate Whittington, from the Certain Fathoms (Original Game Soundtrack), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For the whole album rather than a single track, swap the track name for Certain Fathoms (Original Game Soundtrack).
One more note on the soundtrack: Those of you who have been listening to the original MP3s sent out a while back will notice some differences between those tracks and these updated ones. Those original MP3s you can consider "demo tracks" and the new ones the "official tracks". In creating the lossless files, there was enough editing required across the board that Colin elected to simply re-record the files in all their modular synth beauty.
Some tracks are nearly identical to their originals. Others are quite a bit different. For those who want both versions, you have until this Friday, September 11 to download the MP3s before they're overwritten with the new versions. Call it our gift to you for being so patient with us.
Okay, time for the elephant in the room: obviously we're running a little behind schedule on things.
Part of that is outside of our control, but there's absolutely a bit of it that's on me and that's the communication on the delay. Trust me when I say that releasing things a few months later than what was initially planned IS the right decision, but it's a tough one to make and you ought to be looped in when that happens.
Sorry for keeping you all in the dark on that! Files ARE coming soon, I can promise you that. And as a bit of a peak behind the curtain, here's a couple (relatively) spoiler-free pages ...
... AND the MS Word manuscript final counts (post-edits, pre-final-layout)...
UPDATE 12 ▫️ The One About Streaming & Sharing Music
Hello hello hello,
Work continues on Certain Fathoms! At this point, many of you should have received the first smattering of files (including the soundtrack, which we're talking about below). Regarding the zines, while it is a bit slow-going, I am confident that we're still within our windows and timelines and all that.
More updates to come when there's more than "Still working!" to share. For now, however, I wanted to highlight a few quality of life things regarding the soundtrack.
Certain Fathoms Soundtrack News (FLAC, Streaming Platforms, and Licensing)
For those of you who purchased the soundtrack, new FLAC files will be headed your way in the next week or so! This was part of the initial product promise, so apologies on it being a little late; life's been a bit of a whirlwind.
A quick note on logistics: the FLAC files will be delivered through BackerKit's digital downloads. When they land, you'll find them alongside the files you've already received. If you bought the soundtrack and don't see them by end of July, leave a comment and I'll get it sorted.
For those of you who didn't purchase the soundtrack, I've got great news: the Certain Fathoms Original Soundtrack is coming soon to the following major streaming platforms:
Amazon Music
Apple Music
Bandcamp
Spotify
YouTube Music
Finally, I'm happy to announce that the soundtrack is officially licensed with CC BY-SA 4.0. That means you can use all fifteen tracks on the release however you want—whether it be in your games or in commercial products.
The only restrictions:
You must give appropriate credit (in this case, it would be Colin Whitehurst and Nate Whittington).
If you distribute your adaptations or remixes, you must do so under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Since the soundtrack is licensed for reuse, here's the exact credit line to use so you stay compliant and we stay credited. Copy this as-is:
[Track Name]" by Colin Whitehurst and Nate Whittington, from the Certain Fathoms Original Soundtrack, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For the whole album rather than a single track, swap the track name for Certain Fathoms Original Soundtrack. Go wild.
Reception to the soundtrack has been really stellar and both Colin and I are happy to see folks enjoying it. 150 minutes of ambient, sci-fi music is useful in a lot of different scenarios—we hope that adding it to your Kickstarter video or remixing it for your own releases is another use you can take advantage of!
Been a little while! What turned into a few delayed weeks ended up eating all of May as well. Apologies for the radio silence. Rest assured, work is rapidly accelerating towards the finish line for Certain Fathoms.
This is going to be a relatively short update because really, all I have to update you on is that: it's almost done! I'll go through line by line and illustrate what still needs to happen for each of the goodies.
But first, a bit of a breakdown on what each line item means:
Writing. The actual text of the zines. The meat and potatoes. Most of this is done in Obsidian and ported into InDesign, where it gets moved around for...
Layout. This is where the words link up with the graphics and artwork to make the book look real purty. I usually do this alongside the next step so I can get broad strokes for what a spread (two pages side by side) looks like.
Editing. This is me sending it to one of our talented editors for either development editing or line editing. The former is determining whether the content makes sense from a Mothership mechanical game-y perspective, whereas the latter is making sure I don't put too many commas in a sentence or looking for weird grammatical mistakes.
Production. This is when the files are shipped to printers and the digital becomes physical. Our vendors are in both the UK (the zines and paper products) and in China (the patches), and both have slightly different lead times and vastly different shipping prices.
Got it? Make sense? Cool, let's dig in.
Certain Fathoms
Work on Certain Fathoms has been pretty smooth! The writing and layout has been all me, so once that's done it'll be off with our fantastic editors who will tag-team the remaining work. Then its off to print!
Writing: 100% Complete
Layout: 90% Complete
Editing: 0% Complete
Production: 0% Complete
Hostile Takeover & Viewer Discretion
Layout continues on Hostile Takeover and Viewer Discretion, but thankfully all the writing is complete!
Writing: 100% Complete
Layout: 50% Complete
Editing: 0% Complete
Production: 0% Complete
Employee of the Month, Secret Levels, and Echo Chamber
These three digital zines are in the works, but due to them not having immediate shipping deadlines, they've been placed at the back of the queue. I made a bunch Thankfully, since they're digital files, once they're done - they're done! No need to wait on the mail, just keep an eye on your inbox for your downloads.
Writing: 50% Complete
Layout: 0% Complete
Editing: 0% Complete
Production: N/A
Extras
These are all complete and ready for production (if applicable).
Writing: 100% Complete
Layout: 100% Complete
Editing: 100% Complete
Production: 0% Complete
The general timeline is to have everything ready and with the printer by July. This follows the (re(re))revised timeline, so thankfully nothing is adjusted on that end.
My understanding is that some digital files will also be making their way to you as soon as this week - if so, you'll be getting the Soundtrack, Otto's Buy Bin, and Bookmark files. Then, as the others are completed, they'll be making their way to your inboxes as well.
Hope everybody is doing well as we head into summer! -nate
UPDATE 10 ▫️ The One About The Mega-Pledge Manager
Hello hello hello,
I've been waiting to update everyone on Certain Fathoms due to two factors:
Announcements should be coming from down the mountaintop on the mega-pledge manager this week (possibly as early as today!). I wanted to wait until I had some concrete information on this before I spilled the beans.
I've been writing and re-writing and re-re-writing! Positively in the writing mines. Down in the depths of the writing sea, along with all the other writing fish. What was I talking about? Oh, right, writing. It's happening. A bit slowly, due to some personal stuff (not all bad), but I'll break that down below.
The (New) New Writing Schedule
So, life's been kind of crazy in 2026 huh? Between new shows and games and sickness and work and blah blah blah, writing has been slow but consistent. With time allocated for editing and formatting and everything else, I've adjusted the following delivery dates for:
Certain Fathoms → Pushed to April 2026
Hostile Takeover → Pushed to April 2026
Viewer Discretion → Pushed to April 2026
Secret Levels → Pushed to July 2026
Employee of the Month → Pushed to July 2026
Echo Chamber → Pushed to July 2026
That's... a lot of adjustments! Thankfully, it's mostly due to some extenuating circumstances that are resolved. Also, another thing is that Tuesday Knight Games has an official deadline for writing / deliverability / etc., so things can only get kicked down the road so far.
This isn't a situation where the items will get pushed further and further away, is basically what I'm saying.
For the visual learners:
Stuff Coming (Very) Soon and Getting Back to Work
When the mega pledge manager is available, all the green items (the Soundtrack, Otto's Buy Bin, the Bookmark Reference, and the Welkin Orbital Personnel Dossier) should be available as digital downloads. As new items get published and sent over, you should get an email notifying you of new downloads.
I want to highlight that there is almost guaranteed to be some technical glitches with this so please be patient as the Powers-That-Be figure out which things to turn on and off again, blow the dust out of, or just smack with a wrench.
As for me, it's back to the writing desk! I'll do another update when I've got more stuff to say, likely towards the end of April / beginning of May.
UPDATE 9 ▫️ The One About A New Year & Supporting Friends
Hello hello hello,
Hope everybody has had a good beginning to 2026! Things have been pretty calm over here now, though some family illnesses and daycare closures have thrown a wrench over the course of January. Here's hoping February is a bit less chaotic!
Not a ton to update everyone on this time - work continues on Certain Fathoms and its accessories. As we mentioned at the end of December, all of these are going to be delivered via the mega-pledge manager coming Soon™️from Tuesday Knight Games. Once that's available, you should be able to download what's been completed so far.
As a reminder:
"Ah!", you may be thinking. "Are Secret Levels and Employee of the Month delayed!?"
Well... yes.
But it's for a good reason. Let me explain.
First, Employee of the Month is an expansion that allows for running Certain Fathoms solo (or as a Warden with one player). I have a rough draft of these rules, but there are some folks in the solo-roleplaying space who I would like to show it for potential edits.
The last thing I want to do is make some solo rules that amount to a worse version of what you can get in a generalist book, like Mythic GME or something.
Second, Secret Levels is a collaborative effort between myself, Watt, Snow, Alfred Valley, and Sam Sorensen. If you hadn't noticed, all of those people are either currently running a crowdfunding campaign or are in some phase of fulfilling a crowdfunding campaign.
Not to mention all the personal things on my end that required my attention, we put a little life pause on this while everybody (mostly me) could get their bearings.
That said, things are moving!
Watt has finished their lovely floor, "The Operation", featuring a group of women stuck in an experiment that nobody bothered to tell them was shuttered. And I've gotten confirmation from everyone else that their floors are underway as well.
That said, I'd like to take a moment to shine a spotlight on them because they're so cool and nice and they deserve support:
Sam Sorensen: A FAMILIAR TOWER
Sam Sorensen is providing work on the very cool looking A FAMILIAR TOWER, an escape room / puzzle dungeon adventure for Old-School Essentials.
Snow: SCREAMING METAL: VECTOR SOUL
Snow is (and has been) working on... well, I'll just let her describe it:
Screaming Metal: Vector Soul is a mecha ttrpg about toxic lesbians piloting living machines for exorbitant amounts of money so they can live lavish lifestyles before being torn to shreds by the poisonous arms of hyperspace. Click here to download the playtest and read for yourself!
Anybody that knows me knows this is right up my alley. Might even get to play it with some folks soon!
Alfred Valley: BRUTE FORT
Alfred ran a campaign for BRUTE FORT late last year that's still accepting late pledges last I checked!
Exactly what you'd expect from the Valley of Alfred: stylish, clean, deadly simple to pick up and play. Plus you know I can't help myself when I see a soundtrack...
Watt: RUST WINGS
On March 3rd, Watt's launching the crowdfunding campaign for Rust Wings, a ghibli-inspired adventure ttrpg where you play as misfit teens who build and pilot their own planes from the scrap around them. Abandoned cities, sky pirates, and more await!
The inspirations (Castle in the Sky, Arcane, and Mega-Man) got me curious but the fact that it's an adaptation of the Mausritter rules has my attention. Very excited to see this!
Also, just have to shout out Watt for fulfilling all the Cloud Empress stuff - two campaigns! We always have to give creators a hand when they deliver on what was promised. Also the books are gorgeous and dripping with flavor and inspiration.
Obviously we live in a world of things costing an exorbitant amount - and increasing all the time. But when we have the opportunity to support indie creators, especially ones associated with the work we do, it's on us to show support in any way we can.
If you have the discretionary funds, please consider backing one (or all) of these projects!
Samand Snow's projects are currently underway as a part of Zinetopia 2026 here on BackerKit, so now's your chance to get some of the goods while they're hot!
Meanwhile, Alfred'sproject is taking late pledges like I mentioned!
Following Rust Wings from Watt will ensure it has the strongest possible start when it kicks off.
If money's tight, there's other support you can give! Just sharing the projects around, getting the word out, and even reaching out to ask how you can help may make a big difference.
Anyway, that's about it for the update this month: continuing to work on Certain Fathoms, getting things ready for the mega-pledge manager, and trying to stay warm & healthy.
Oh, and finally getting around to trying Expedition 33 - what a game!
UPDATE 8 ▫️ The One About December's Digital Downloads
Wake up, crew! New update on the loose!
It's the very last day of the very last month of the year and I've got an update that has 75% great news and 25% middling news.
Let's start with the good stuff.
The digital files, according to our RevisedTimeline, are good to go! That means:
The Certain Fathoms Soundtrack (MP3s)
Otto's Buy Bin (PDF)
Reference Bookmark (PDF)
Welkin Orbital Personnel Dossier (PDF)
Will be available to backers! ...
(here's the middling news)
... juuuuust as soon as the mega-pledge manager is available.
A Quick Aside about Pledge Managers
So, you may have read in other places how Mothership Month projects are handling the pledge manager - the place where you can include add-ons to your order, catch items you may have missed during the campaign, etc.
In Mothership Month, we're doing a mega-pledge manager.
Which will allow you to do everything I listed above but for all your Mothership Month projects.
As far as we're aware, the mega-pledge manager is being built out specifically for Mothership Month (much like 2024's MoshMo was the first collaborative campaign on the platform). That means we're not just the first ones to use the mega-pledge manager - it's literally being built for us on the BackerKit backend.
(This is why you weren't given an email about surveys or filling out shipping information yet, in case you were curious.)
But! The wait is almost over. My understanding is that the mega-pledge manager is finished - it's just a matter of TKG putting in everyone's SKUs so that people have the right items attributed to them. I don't want to assume how long that will take, but my guess is that it will be Soon™.
All that said, you'll have to wait just a little bit longer for the files. As much as I would like to share the files some other way, I think best practice is to just wait until the manager is available and we can distribute files in an official capacity.
What I can do is give you a little peek at the files that are available so you can get an idea of what's coming to you shortly. That will be below, reserved exclusively for backers.
Closing and Next Update Timeline
I hope you've all had wonderful holidays or, at the very least, some ample time off to play some games and spend time with loved ones. Maybe getting some Mothership in, hm?
In terms of scheduling updates, from here on out I think it makes sense to move to a once-a-month update. No doubt we're all getting enough emails as it is and frankly you don't need me telling you every week "Yep, still working on stuff!".
So, with that said, the next update will be at the tail-end of January in the new year. After that will be another one in February, then March, and so on. And then, before you know it, you'll be getting a very big, very magenta box on your doorstep, full to the brim with awesome stuff to run one hell of a Pound of Flesh campaign.
First of all, apologies for the radio silence - I can assure you all that work has continued on Certain Fathoms and we're very near some finish lines!
Ahead of the jump, the Certain Fathoms PDF will be releasing before the end of September, Hostile Takeover + Viewer Discretion PDFs following shortly behind in late September or early October. From there, Employee of the Month + Echo Chamber PDFs will be in the month of October, followed lastly by the Secret Levels PDF in November.
As for physical releases, all physical vendors have been prepped for files and are ready for them when I send them out. Even though the writing / editing / layout has been a little slower than I would have liked (life, amirite?), rest assured that the fantastic physical vendors we're working with have been standing by for when they're ready. Expect more on this in a couple weeks, before the end of September.
The two things I want to touch on this update are a follow-up for the Certain Fathoms Soundtrack and an explanation of the delays. Read on to find out more.
Certain Fathoms Soundtrack Now Streaming, Lossless Files Coming This Friday (9/11)
Last we chatted, I teased how the soundtrack was going to be streaming on a few major platforms. Well, as it turns out: music distribution is pretty dang easy! And cheap!
So, Certain Fathoms (Original Game Soundtrack) is available basically anywhere that you can get music. You can listen to it on all the big, popular ones. You can listen to it on Pandora like it's 2011. You can even add it to the background of your TikToks, Snapchats, Instagram Reels, etc. Truly, more options than you could ever want.
NOTE: Bandcamp is coming soon - it's the only one on the list that isn't automatically distributed and instead requires a bit of background work. I have to manually set prices for tracks and the entire album, design a page, and do the nitty gritty work to make sure everybody's getting what they paid for.
As for Lossless files, everybody who added the soundtrack to their orders will be getting FLAC, WAV, and updated MP3 files. As a reminder, the soundtrack is officially licensed with CC BY-SA 4.0, which means you can use all fifteen tracks on the release however you want—whether it be in your games or in commercial products.
The only restrictions are that you must give appropriate credit (in this case, it would be Colin Whitehurst and Nate Whittington) and that if you distribute your adaptations or remixes, you must do so under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Since the soundtrack is licensed for reuse, here's the exact credit line to use so you stay compliant and we stay credited. Copy this as-is:
[Track Name]" by Colin Whitehurst and Nate Whittington, from the Certain Fathoms (Original Game Soundtrack), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For the whole album rather than a single track, swap the track name for Certain Fathoms (Original Game Soundtrack).
One more note on the soundtrack: Those of you who have been listening to the original MP3s sent out a while back will notice some differences between those tracks and these updated ones. Those original MP3s you can consider "demo tracks" and the new ones the "official tracks". In creating the lossless files, there was enough editing required across the board that Colin elected to simply re-record the files in all their modular synth beauty.
Some tracks are nearly identical to their originals. Others are quite a bit different. For those who want both versions, you have until this Friday, September 11 to download the MP3s before they're overwritten with the new versions. Call it our gift to you for being so patient with us.
Okay, time for the elephant in the room: obviously we're running a little behind schedule on things.
Part of that is outside of our control, but there's absolutely a bit of it that's on me and that's the communication on the delay. Trust me when I say that releasing things a few months later than what was initially planned IS the right decision, but it's a tough one to make and you ought to be looped in when that happens.
Sorry for keeping you all in the dark on that! Files ARE coming soon, I can promise you that. And as a bit of a peak behind the curtain, here's a couple (relatively) spoiler-free pages ...
... AND the MS Word manuscript final counts (post-edits, pre-final-layout)...
Work continues on Certain Fathoms! At this point, many of you should have received the first smattering of files (including the soundtrack, which we're talking about below). Regarding the zines, while it is a bit slow-going, I am confident that we're still within our windows and timelines and all that.
More updates to come when there's more than "Still working!" to share. For now, however, I wanted to highlight a few quality of life things regarding the soundtrack.
Certain Fathoms Soundtrack News (FLAC, Streaming Platforms, and Licensing)
For those of you who purchased the soundtrack, new FLAC files will be headed your way in the next week or so! This was part of the initial product promise, so apologies on it being a little late; life's been a bit of a whirlwind.
A quick note on logistics: the FLAC files will be delivered through BackerKit's digital downloads. When they land, you'll find them alongside the files you've already received. If you bought the soundtrack and don't see them by end of July, leave a comment and I'll get it sorted.
For those of you who didn't purchase the soundtrack, I've got great news: the Certain Fathoms Original Soundtrack is coming soon to the following major streaming platforms:
Amazon Music
Apple Music
Bandcamp
Spotify
YouTube Music
Finally, I'm happy to announce that the soundtrack is officially licensed with CC BY-SA 4.0. That means you can use all fifteen tracks on the release however you want—whether it be in your games or in commercial products.
The only restrictions:
You must give appropriate credit (in this case, it would be Colin Whitehurst and Nate Whittington).
If you distribute your adaptations or remixes, you must do so under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Since the soundtrack is licensed for reuse, here's the exact credit line to use so you stay compliant and we stay credited. Copy this as-is:
[Track Name]" by Colin Whitehurst and Nate Whittington, from the Certain Fathoms Original Soundtrack, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For the whole album rather than a single track, swap the track name for Certain Fathoms Original Soundtrack. Go wild.
Reception to the soundtrack has been really stellar and both Colin and I are happy to see folks enjoying it. 150 minutes of ambient, sci-fi music is useful in a lot of different scenarios—we hope that adding it to your Kickstarter video or remixing it for your own releases is another use you can take advantage of!
Been a little while! What turned into a few delayed weeks ended up eating all of May as well. Apologies for the radio silence. Rest assured, work is rapidly accelerating towards the finish line for Certain Fathoms.
This is going to be a relatively short update because really, all I have to update you on is that: it's almost done! I'll go through line by line and illustrate what still needs to happen for each of the goodies.
But first, a bit of a breakdown on what each line item means:
Writing. The actual text of the zines. The meat and potatoes. Most of this is done in Obsidian and ported into InDesign, where it gets moved around for...
Layout. This is where the words link up with the graphics and artwork to make the book look real purty. I usually do this alongside the next step so I can get broad strokes for what a spread (two pages side by side) looks like.
Editing. This is me sending it to one of our talented editors for either development editing or line editing. The former is determining whether the content makes sense from a Mothership mechanical game-y perspective, whereas the latter is making sure I don't put too many commas in a sentence or looking for weird grammatical mistakes.
Production. This is when the files are shipped to printers and the digital becomes physical. Our vendors are in both the UK (the zines and paper products) and in China (the patches), and both have slightly different lead times and vastly different shipping prices.
Got it? Make sense? Cool, let's dig in.
Certain Fathoms
Work on Certain Fathoms has been pretty smooth! The writing and layout has been all me, so once that's done it'll be off with our fantastic editors who will tag-team the remaining work. Then its off to print!
Writing: 100% Complete
Layout: 90% Complete
Editing: 0% Complete
Production: 0% Complete
Hostile Takeover & Viewer Discretion
Layout continues on Hostile Takeover and Viewer Discretion, but thankfully all the writing is complete!
Writing: 100% Complete
Layout: 50% Complete
Editing: 0% Complete
Production: 0% Complete
Employee of the Month, Secret Levels, and Echo Chamber
These three digital zines are in the works, but due to them not having immediate shipping deadlines, they've been placed at the back of the queue. I made a bunch Thankfully, since they're digital files, once they're done - they're done! No need to wait on the mail, just keep an eye on your inbox for your downloads.
Writing: 50% Complete
Layout: 0% Complete
Editing: 0% Complete
Production: N/A
Extras
These are all complete and ready for production (if applicable).
Writing: 100% Complete
Layout: 100% Complete
Editing: 100% Complete
Production: 0% Complete
The general timeline is to have everything ready and with the printer by July. This follows the (re(re))revised timeline, so thankfully nothing is adjusted on that end.
My understanding is that some digital files will also be making their way to you as soon as this week - if so, you'll be getting the Soundtrack, Otto's Buy Bin, and Bookmark files. Then, as the others are completed, they'll be making their way to your inboxes as well.
Hope everybody is doing well as we head into summer! -nate
