Packing begins! I have some 350 zines and stickers ready to stick into envelopes, label, and send out!
I'm locking addresses (with notice) today, meaning you have two days to make sure I'm gonna mail things to the right place. I have done the packing of the bulk of items today and will print labels once that's all set. So, start looking for your books in the mail within about a week or so! As an unsurprising heads-up, more complicated packages may take a little bit longer.
Thank you all so much for coming along on this ride with me! I'm looking forward to a nice long galaxy exploration and getting to work on wrapping up our next game: Kung Fu Kittens! In this trick-taking game, you’ll compete with other elemental cat martial-artists at the eternal tournament to win the most scratches. It's easy to learn and really dynamic, and we're really proud of this one.
It's been kind of an insane month. I've been in the process of a move, finally got replacement glasses, got sick, surprise-exhibited at MoComCon, helped judge the Cardboard Edison Awards, and have finally put in enough work to qualify a first finished layout draft that definitely still needs some work, but is like 90% complete.
So today's update is to let you know that we're in the homestretch. A little bit of proofing, maybe some edits, and making some barcodes and whatnot and I'll place the order. We're basically on-target for our timeline and the order of printed zines should be arriving and turning around in early May.
This could get disrupted. I saw a notice from the USPS that shipping is going up in price, so that's awesome. And the move isn't yet finished, but in good news this should be a pretty easy packing and shipping job, so as long as I don't do silly things like forget my label printer in the wrong place, it should be okay.
I also put together a silly thing for y'all who have access to a 3D printer: A silly little printable hexagon template! I don't know if it works! This is entirely un-tested (but should also be really fast to print, so nbd). I'm gonna click send on that digital distribution right after I send this update out, so if it's in your interest, look for another email about logging in to find that digital download.
F#$% I am a Sucker for 3D Printed Hexagons
I'll send another update out when the PDF goes live, which should also be about when we have sent out the order for physical copies of the zines. Hopefully within about a week!
One day of AwesomeCon is down, and tonight I'm running demos of FSHS.
The pledge manager is finished and I've sent out the "smoke test" which helps ensure that everything is working as intended. Following that test period, surveys for everyone else will be sent out on Monday.
I won't be locking addresses or anything until I have zines in hand, ready to send out. So, even if your address is up in the air in the short-term, please go ahead and fill out the survey as soon as you can.
Playtesters! You should have access to draft star charting rules in your digital rewards space. They also add some alternate wormhole procedures and I'd love to hear what you think of that. I'm also working on another complex table that's focused on sticking around in a hex for an extra turn or more. Thanks for that feedback! It's a great idea, and I'll toss it up for you all to look at when it's draft-complete. In the meantime, love to hear your thoughts on how the star charts are modeled and if/how it addresses your various desires for more hex-crawl feels.
Thank you all so much. Everyone who backed, everyone who visited the page to see, and everyone who read through it and decided this game wasn't for them. I am deeply appreciative.
So: let's quick go over the next steps! I've got a bunch of work to do to set up the pledge manager. I've also still got some star chart info to send out and playtest before doing a closer read of the playtest notes and doing revisions on the manuscript. Playtester-level backers: if you haven't submitted feedback yet, there is STILL TIME, and new bits coming to look at!
I don't remember if I mentioned this, but my glasses broke about a month ago, and the new ones are finally scheduled to show up TODAY. And the portions of my daily life that have anything to do with reading are a solid degree more difficult. Tape, glue and janky repairs have gotten me only so far.
In other news, I'm going to be attending the AWP Conference & Bookfair in Baltimore, MD this week March 4-7th, and running games at AwesomeCon in Washington, D.C. March 13-15th. If you're attending either of these events, feel free to ping me on the socials (@games.mothspire.com or @ogreteeth.com on BlueSky).
So, in between all these things, I'm going to be pretty heads-down in pledge manager preparation, revisions, editing, and layout. I'm aiming to have the pledge manager finished before AwesomeCon, and be shipping PDFs and placing the order for books by April 1.
I'll keep checking in to let you know how things are going, and if anything new crops up. Until then, see you in space!
This last poll has been absolutely unequivocal. More than 30 votes for an uncensored option, and none against.
Good enough for me. There is now an option for an uncensored version pledge level, same price, same details. Feel free to switch now or you'll also be able to change it up in the pledge manager later.
