Upcoming Art from Huckleberry: Magnum Opus
Howdy, pardner!
It's time for another update! I'm pleased to report the Huckleberry train is still rolling steadily down the tracks and the final stop is in sight. Here's what we've been up to:
Playing Cards
Files for both the cards and tuckbox have been finalized. Actually, the majority of the art was finalized a long time ago, but the EU and UK have product safety laws requiring certain markings and information to be visible on the packaging. There's also the extra complication that playing cards are often considered to be a gambling item, instead of a game accessory. The regulations are easy enough to comply with, but it is worth the extra bit of research to ensure we do things right and won't be turned away by customs.
After finalizing the files, they were sent to production! Manufacturing is being handled by the good folks over at Shuffled Ink. We have received physical proofs and we're very happy with the quality of both the material and the print. After seeing how the digital colors translate to ink on the cardstock, George has made some tweaks to the colors in our files. This isn't due to any fault or errors in the printing process, but rather that digital colors don't translate one-to-one when printed. That's the benefit of physical proofs - we can fine tune the results before printing the entire batch. A second set of physical proofs have already shipped and should arrive in the next day or two. I fully expect we'll be approving them as-is. After Shuffled Ink gets the greenlight, it's game on and the full print run begins!
Physical proofs of all 72 cards.
We couldn't resist and self-assembled one of the proofs for the tuckbox!
Dice, ARUS, and Trays
Manufacturing continues for each of the accessories. Production of the dice is going full speed now that Chinese New Year is over. The good folks at All Rolled Up told me they started cutting and sewing the dice bags yesterday, with the trays to follow after that giant task is finished. This morning, I received an email that our patches are entirely finished and shipping out today. Overall, everything is going perfectly to plan with no setbacks or delays to report.
Freight shipping of products might be a different concern, with the current economic conditions. Fortunately, this is a small project in the scheme of things and we won't be needing to rent cargo container space or anything like that. If necessary, we have the more flexible (albeit more expensive) option of air shipping, so we shouldn't encounter any trouble.
As an aside, I'm happy to say that costs for all accessories remained within my estimated budget. These rewards are the most expensive parts of the project, so things are looking especially good for the project in financial terms.
What About the Books??
The main attraction! I'm very happy to report that yesterday I sent over the final notes to Nathan for our corebook. The final print update is OFFICIALLY IN LAYOUT! What an amazing adventure this has been. I was looking through my old emails recently, remembering the early days of Huckleberry, and I realized my first contact with Nathan was almost exactly two years ago!
Since then, Nathan has put together four major updates for the core book and over a half dozen scenarios. Now, we're working on the fifth and final update. This update is probably our biggest yet - maybe half of it is the new chapter, about 7600 words long, written by Dylan Grinder and Kienna Shaw. The rest is quite sprawling, impacting several different sections of the book. 17 new Hostiles are being added, 10 new player Traits, a hyperlinked glossary/index, rules clarifications, and a slew of other odds and ends.
As for the bounty book, good things are happening there too! Playtesting is over and scenario editing is in full swing. All scenario art is complete and when the text is finalized, it'll go straight to Nathan for layout. Hopefully this will coincide with layout wrapping up on the core book. After that, both books go to print. We're in the final stretch and the end is in sight!
Shipping
I have confirmed shipping costs with my distributors and the majority of the shipping survey has been built. I've also done quite a bit of legwork here to ensure we offer fair and competitive shipping worldwide. When I have a firmer grasp on the estimated weight of the books, I'll be finalizing the back end and sending surveys to collect S&H, likely next month.
As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me or join the Discord. Thanks for riding with us!
It's been just about a month since I last posted and, oh my goodness, so much has happened.
The Good
All written content for Huckleberry is complete and in the editing phase! My collaborators really knocked it out of the park with their scenarios and hostiles. I'm very proud of how Huckleberry + Avarice are shaping up. After editing, text combines with each section's art in the layout phase. Speaking of which, George continues to create incredible pieces of art for this game (Check out "The Ugly", below).
This month, accessories are going to manufacturing. The dice manufacturer is already making the molds. These molds will allow them to make our custom six-die sets with the Huckleberry logo replacing the "1" on each die. The All Rolled Up and Dice Trays are officially on the manufacturing schedule with the good folks over at All Rolled Up. Patches are currently being manufactured by a third party, then sent to All Rolled Up, where they'll be affixed to the bags. They should be able to begin production by the end of the month.
That leaves just the official playing cards to be accounted for. These are surprisingly the most complicated to finalize. Playing Cards are recognized by many countries as a gambling accessory, even when made for a tabletop roleplaying game. As such, it's important to make sure we label and package the cards exactly correct, to avoid customs issues and increased tariffs. With that said, I've been working with an EU Agent and other knowledgeable people with experience in international fulfilment. I've finalized all the necessary requirements and should be able to move forward with printing the decks before the end of the month. As I'm learning all of the bureaucracy involved, I find that it's important to remind myself that other people do these things every single day. Just because it's daunting, doesn't mean it's impossible, or even difficult!
The Bad
For the majority of my life, I've been fortunate to never have any major health concerns. However, in late January, I began to notice a significant drop-off in my energy levels and, consequently, productivity. I chalked it up to burnout as I've been working on Huckleberry for years now. Unfortunately, last week I began feeling so exhausted that I could hardly drag myself out of bed. I wasn't able to sleep, I wasn't hungry, and I didn't have the energy to respond to the even simplest of emails. After four days of suffering, I wasn't getting better and I went to the urgent care for help. They immediately sent me to the ER, who told me that my body was in sepsis. I had an internal infection without ever realizing it and that infection spread to my blood stream. I was rushed into an emergency surgery and admitted to the hospital overnight. Fortunately the doctors knew what they were doing and I was given a clean(ish) bill of health and checked out the next day, after 23 hours in the hospital. I spent the weekend resting up, and today I've hit the ground running to try and make up the lost time.
What's this mean for Huckleberry? Honestly, not a lot. I've fallen behind on developmental editing, and consequently those pieces of text are pushed back a couple weeks. But I'm back to work on Huckleberry full-time and I feel better than ever. Fortunately, the vast majority of Huckleberry's work was completed before the BackerKit even went live. Additionally, Huckleberry has a lot of facets. While I might have fallen behind on a few tasks, there are far more items on the list that continue to rumble down the tracks without impact. I don't foresee any major complications for Huckleberry arising from this particular speedbump.
The Ugly
George has been cranking out fantastic pieces for our upcoming scenarios lately. Want to know what happens to cattle that catch Mad Cow disease in the Wyrd West?? Take a look:
This is a piece from the upcoming Huckleberry: Slaughterhouse by Jaime Reyes Mondragón, where a cattle baron looks to cut costs by feeding his cattle with other cattle. Turns out, it doesn't take much for them to develop a taste for flesh!
As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me or join the Discord. We're getting so close to the end of this campaign and I can't wait to get Huckleberry to print and into your hands. Thanks for riding with us!
The holidays are over and work on Huckleberry is back in full swing. If you missed our Christmas update, we've started releasing some of the stretch goal content as playtest material. Today I've added a second full scenario to that document, along with a handful of new Hostiles. The Slaughterhouse by Jaime Reyes Mondragon shows us what happens when Mad Cow Disease crosses with the Wyrd!
As a reminder, these are early drafts of the scenarios and they will have revisions before publishing. They also have not undergone developmental editing, meaning that some mechanics and wording may be inconsistent with the corebook. Of course, they're still fully playable and promise to deliver quite a bit of fun. If you do test the scenarios, please leave feedback through the linked surveys!
Work progresses well on other bits of Huckleberry. I'll be putting in manufacturing orders for our accessories like dice, ARUs, and other pieces soon enough. I am working with experienced fulfillment partners and EU agents now to ensure all product compliance is met before manufacturing so that we won't have any hiccups with customs or shipping later in the process. This being my first major project, I'm learning a lot about international manufacturing and shipping, but this is well-trodden ground for my partners. We're in good hands!
The bulk of new text content has been created, from scenarios to hostiles to the new chapter. Only a few odds and ends remain to be completed. Everything else is undergoing internal playtesting and polish! Now that the scenarios are all completed, I'm able to put in art orders so that George can bring them to life. That's always my favorite stage of production. Seeing the characters, monsters, and world of Huckleberry take real form is such a treat. I'll be sharing some sneak peaks as they come in, of course. ;)
As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me or join the Discord. Huckleberry is coming along nicely and I'm incredibly eager to get this book to print and into your hands. Thanks for riding with us!
Much obliged, Steven
P.S. Are you a "Design a Legend" Backer?
I've not been able to connect with one of you! If you're a backer at this tier, please check the email associated with your BackerKit account or send me an email at [email protected] so that we can get started on making your character. :)
Hope you've been having a good holiday season - I know I have. It's been a whirlwind of friends, family, feasting and Huckleberry. There's been a ton of awesome progress being made behind the scenes. Holidays like to throw a wrench into schedules, but I'm glad to report that there's been no major speed bumps so far.
I've been travelling through the southwestern US over the past week and I love being here. Arizona and New Mexico are two of the most beautiful states to drive through and I'm being flooded with inspiration. How can you look at these views and not imagine yourself riding out on horseback, chasing down bounties or running from the law?
Playtest Material
I've managed to carve out a few hours here and there every couple days to keep Huckleberry on schedule (and capitalize on all of this inspiration!). And I'm not the only one who's been keeping their nose to the grindstone. Eren Ahn, one of our stretch goal writers, has finished their bounty! It's an incredibly fun read and I'm sure you're gonna love it. In fact, I feel so confident about it, that I'm releasing the text now for public playtesting. Merry Huckmas!
Please bear in mind that this is an early draft and will have revisions before publishing. It also has not undergone developmental editing, meaning that some mechanics and wording may be inconsistent with the corebook. With that in mind, the scenario is fully playable and should still deliver a great experience at the table. If you do play the scenario, please leave us feedback through the link in the document. Hearing your thoughts will be immensely helpful as we polish everything.
Art Update
Our fantastic artist, George Sellas, continues to exceed expectations! For some of our stretch goal pieces, we've chosen to continue the "catalogue" theme from the "Your Faithful Steed" poster in the Corral chapter. These pieces are meant to help you visualize various aspects of your character and solidify the mental image of your Maverick. This first companion piece to "Your Faithful Steed" is about Big Irons!
This spread focuses specifically on revolvers, but the options are applicable to almost any Big Iron that your Maverick might wield. It was a lot of fun researching the various historical embellishments a gun might receive, along with brainstorming new options to choose from as well. It always amazes me that I can send George what is essentially a list of word prompts and he returns a masterpiece. That's about it for today's update, as I'm off to more feasting with family. As I sit and reflect on this year, I feel so grateful to you and everyone else who has supported Huckleberry. This game is a dream come true and I'm honored that you've thrown in with me to see it come to life. Thank you for riding for the brand!
There's been so much happening behind the scenes and we've got some big deadlines coming up that we're right on track to hit! Here's the broad strokes:
Scenarios
All three stretch goal scenarios should be fully drafted by next week. They'll immediately go into playtesting, have another period of revisions, then go into editing and art production. I've had sneak peaks at these and there's some real magic being made here. Big props to Eren, Jaime, and Jeff - they're really delivering!
Speaking of playtesting, there's a good chance I'll be looking for more playtesters in the new year. If you're interested, come hang out in our Discord to get first dibs.
New Chapter
Dylan and Kienna's first draft is scheduled to be delivered next week as well. (Next week is gonna be BUSY!) I'll be giving it some playtesting of my own, then sending my feedback for the next draft. This project will take longer than the scenarios as the scope of the chapter is quite ambitious. After the second draft is completed, we'll be sharing it with you all for open playtesting to make sure we get all of the kinks worked out.
Layout
Nathan and I have been going back and forth designing the new layout design for scenarios. This has been a bit tricky, since we first designed the scenarios as digital-only releases. We now need to reformat from US Letter to A5, which has created some unexpected quirks needing to be ironed out. Fortunately for us all, Nathan is extremely talented and our last revision is quite promising. We're currently putting the batch of finished scenarios in this new format to learn all the pain points, then we'll have a short hiatus while we wait for the new scenarios + art to be finished.
Art
George is hard at work on the new spreads for the corebook. Two of the spreads are being formatted like "catalogue" pages, similar to the one we have for mounts. One of them will be themed around Old West hats, coats, and belts. The other highlights the different materials, styles, and designs a Big Iron can be embellished with. They should be finished with perfect timing for us, because I'll be able to send art orders for the new scenarios in a couple weeks.
Even better, one of the new pieces is already complete! It's a cheeky take on a real photo from the era. Well before the age of TikTok trends, cowboys were fond of staging goofy photographs and that's what our Mavericks are doing here. I'm really loving the absolute sass coming from all three Mavs. Awesome work, George!
Some people frown upon keeping a couple Aces up your sleeve.
Reminder that you should've received your PDFs of the corebook + currently finished scenarios already. DriveThruRPG's automated system isn't foolproof, however. If you haven't received yours, please send me an email at [email protected] or hit me up on the Discord.
If you already had the chance to check out your PDFs, please consider giving us a rating or review on DriveThruRPG!
And on a final note, today Jeff uploaded the third and final episode of Adventures in Lollygagging's Veils & Vengeance playthrough to YouTube. If you missed the sessions live, this is a fantastic way to see Huckleberry in action. There's also 4 episodes on the channel of the same crew playing Huckleberry's The Divine Comedy if you're itching for more!
