I'm happy to say that printing is done and the books are heading my way. I've been told they should get to me around mid-late June. See below in the Backer-only content for the video the printer sent me. The UV Gloss and the painted edges look fantastic. I was not expecting the painted edges to be metallic, but I honestly like it even more than a matte finish!
Locking Orders: Due to the progress made, I'm going to lock orders at the end of the month. No further add-ons can be selected after they are locked. You'll get a 48 hour notice email from BackerKit beforehand.
Final Surveys: Soon after, a final survey will go out to confirm your mailing address and charge for add-ons, shipping costs, and any applicable taxes. Please complete those quickly as I want to get these books out the door to you!
PDFs: Also, when you complete the final survey you should gain access to the final pdfs (hyperlinked and bookmarked) and the Designer Commentary. The Palace cross-collab class will be uploaded at a later date.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
1. Surveys were sent out a bit ago and 96% of you have filled them out! The remaining 4% keep me up at night, weeping softly while my wife hits me with a pillow intermittently in a bid to silence my wracking sobs. It doesn't work.
If you have yet to fill out your survey, please check your email, spam folder, or log in to BackerKit and click on your profile in the top right, and then Your Pledges & Surveys. Once you do, you will have access to the beta files.
2. My poor printer has dealt with weeks of edits/modifications in response to the arrival of physical proofs of Blightfall and my incessant need for perfectionism, but finally I have given them the go-ahead to print.
The physical proof of Blightfall! The proof does not include embossing, spot UV, or the painted edges that will be present in the final print.
As the books near me, I will begin locking orders and you will need to pay for shipping. I will attempt to delay the payment for shipping as much as I reasonably can to give as accurate an estimate as possible. Already, the United States Postal Service has decided to increase costs for some types of shipping. Boo.
3. Thank you all again for supporting this project. I'll probably keep thanking you every single update. Deal with it.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please reach out!
Smoke tests have been sent out and hopefully you just received a notification that you can download the betas of everything. Once enough smoke tests have been filled, I'll send out the survey to everyone.
- Surveys: Please let me know if there are any issues or errors you encounter!
- Beta Pages and Spreads: These are near-complete except for any changes I might make after seeing physical proofs, as well as some weird page numbering and a lack of bookmarks/hyperlinks. The page numbers and bookmarks/hyperlinks will be fixed in the final!
- Bonus Manifestations: Early Bird Backers should have these in their digital downloads as well.
- Designer Commentary: In-progress.
- Cross-collab Class: Done, but needs playtesting.
- VTT: If there are any issues, let me know.
- Painted Edges: Blight Purple won!
- Shipping and Taxes: Will be charged at a later date, closer to shipping.
Thank you again!
EDIT - I just received word from BackerKit that survey completion is required to access digital rewards. So technically only the people who got the smoke test surveys can access the beta pdfs. I’ll send the survey out to everyone soon once I know the smoke test went well. Apologies for the confusion!
EDIT EDIT - I just sent out surveys for everyone and I've received confirmation from some backers that they can access the digital downloads. If anyone has any issues, please let me know!
It's been nearly two weeks since the campaign ended and I've got some updates for you.
1. The few of you with failed payments have until tomorrow, 3/13/26, to correct them, per BackerKit rules!
2. Progress - Work on the book continues forward! I'm ironing out all the nitty-gritty details with the printer and will soon have proofs to make sure everything looks the way it should. Bringing the book from digital to physical has been quite a fulfilling process as a book sicko.
Here's a peek at the current version of the full cover:
I'm also working on the pledge manager to hopefully send out surveys soon to lock in addresses and allow access to the beta pdfs. Keep an eye out.
3. One of the things I'd like to do is have painted edges on the pages, akin to the pink or green of Eat the Reich or blue of Break!!. This is where you all come in. Take a look at the cover above and decide what painted edge would work best with it. Cast your vote in the poll below!
Zinetopia is officially over and I am so proud of this project! Thank you all for believing in it, from not just the bottom of my heart, but every teeny-tiny corner it possesses.
So what's next?
The Nitty Gritty BackerKit is gradually collecting funds for projects and should release them to me in 2-3 weeks. The second I can pay the printer, I'll get that process started (and send the team their raises!). As we get closer to shipping, I'll send out surveys via the pledge manager and collect shipping costs. I'll send the UK/Europe books to my shipping partner in the UK, and fulfill the rest of the world myself. Apologies in advance to my wife, as I plan on consuming the dining table with books and shipping supplies.
Beta pdfs, play aid pdfs, and the VTT will release to everyone in a few weeks. They'll be pretty close to the final versions, so you can start playing immediately.
I plan to update as we hit major milestones, certainly less often than during the campaign because wow did I get a lot of emails and I'm sure you did, too.
Early Birds and Designer Commentary The core book, play aids, and VTT have my main focus. The bonus manifestations and designer commentary pdfs will be sent out after. The bonus manifestations are already written, I just need to lay them out. The designer commentary needs to be written, but laying it out and getting it done *should* be relatively simple. I'm honestly excited to write loads on a subject matter that I am intimately familiar with. Both should happen relatively quickly after the main stuff is finished.
Cross-Collab I will soon start playtesting for the cross-collab class written by Ella Watts, The Palace. Once I feel assured that it won't break the game, I'll work on laying that out and sending it to people who backed both Blightfall and The Deepest Dark.
The Stretch Goal I'm honestly amazed at how close we got ($315 dollars away!). I'm still going to release Crowns and Swords at a later date, but the how and why will be decided later. Since I'll already be doing a playtest for the cross-collab class, it wouldn't be hard to playtest all the Crowns and Swords content as well. They do pair very nicely together. Once I have a plan, I'll let you all know.
Got Questions? If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know! You can comment here or email me at matthew.ayers.rpg AT gmail DOT com.
