Newborn Games
CREATOR
Project Update: September Production Update — Revisiting the Roadmap
September is coming to an end, and this month's production update needs to be a little different.
There's been progress.
There's been some absolutely beautiful new artwork.
There's been a lot of work happening behind the scenes.
But September has also made one thing clear:
But September has also made one thing clear:
it's time to revisit the roadmap.
So let's talk about where Silent Læke actually is.
🧵 Book of Threads: Written, But Not Forgotten
Book of Threads is fully written.
But "written" doesn't mean "we never touch it again".
Over the past few weeks, my proofreaders and my sensitive reader have been going through the Book intensely, and their feedback has been invaluable.
There are no massive rewrites happening. The mechanics are there. The structure is there. The Book works.
What I do have is dozens of small decisions still to make.
- Can this rule be explained more clearly?
- Does this example actually help?
- Is this sentence doing too much?
- Does this expression sound natural in English?
- Is the tone right?
- Could two paragraphs become one?
- Should one paragraph become two?
You know.
The glamorous part of game design.
This process is taking time, but it's making the Book considerably better — both mechanically and linguistically.
And that's exactly what proofreading is supposed to do.
🤫 Book of Whispers
Meanwhile, Book of Whispers is being written.
This is where I'm behind the schedule I originally set for myself.
My initial plan was to finish Whispers in August. Instead, I used part of August to properly finish Book of Threads.
Then I entered September with the rather optimistic idea that I could compensate by finishing both Whispers and another Book this month.
That turned out to be a little too optimistic.
I've started Whispers, but I'm nowhere near where I hoped to be by the end of September.
And I've realised that trying to "make up" for one delayed month by cramming two Books into the next one isn't particularly useful.
I'd rather write one good Book than rush through two because an old calendar tells me to.
So I'm changing how I look at the roadmap.
One Book at a time.
🎨 Meanwhile, Silent Læke Is Becoming Beautiful
Remember that little sketch I showed you last month?
Well... Ludmilla V. has now delivered the finished artwork for the Book of Whispers chapter divider.
And...
And...
Holy shit...
Rather than simply showing you the illustration, I thought I'd go one step further.
I dropped it into a mockup of the actual two-page chapter opening, complete with its title and introductory text.
This is still a work in progress. The final layout may change before publication.
But for the first time, you can get a glimpse of what opening one of the Books in the finished Silent Læke core rulebook might actually feel like.
Last month it was a sketch.
This month, it's starting to look like a book.
And I couldn't be happier with it.
🌲 September Was... Complicated
There's also some personal context I think is fair to share.
My mother suffered a serious fall this month and fractured her hip.
Since then, a significant part of my daily routine has temporarily shifted towards hospital visits, managing things at home and preparing the house for her return with reduced mobility.
I'm not telling you this as an excuse.
Life happened. The work continued.
It just continued more slowly than I'd planned.
September was also an extraordinary month for Newborn Games in other ways. We've been invited to workshops, talks about game design and game production, liveplays and other events, and Rolisboa brought us new players, collaborators and some genuinely exciting conversations about the future.
Those are very good problems to have.
But all of this has also made me stop, look at the calendar, and reassess what is realistic.
📅 So... About That Roadmap
Before the crowdfunding campaign began, my original estimate was to have the digital core rulebook ready around October 2026, with physical fulfilment following in 2027.
October is now upon us.
And I can tell you honestly that the first of those estimates is no longer realistic.
Silent Læke grew considerably during the campaign.
We unlocked more content.
More game modes.
More physical components.
More artwork.
More things to write, edit, test, lay out and produce.
And working through Book of Threads with my readers has reinforced something important:
I don't want to rush this game just to satisfy an estimate I made before the crowdfunding campaign even began.
My current target is to have the core manuscript written by the end of 2026.
That's a target — not a new promise carved into a sycamore tree.
Whether the complete final layout will also be finished by then is something I'm not prepared to promise yet.
And I'm also not going to replace the old physical fulfilment estimate with another date until I have enough information to give you one responsibly.
There are still too many variables between a completed manuscript and boxes arriving from manufacturing: editing, proofreading, layout, additional unlocked content, print preparation, proofs, manufacturing and fulfilment itself.
When I know more, you'll know more.
But there's another question I want to ask you.
🃏 What If You Could Play Before the Book Was Finished?
Even if the fully edited, illustrated and laid-out core rulebook isn't ready by the end of the year...
the game itself might be.
And that creates an interesting possibility.
I could prepare a separate Backer Rough Cut Edition of Silent Læke.
Not a replacement for the finished digital corebook.
Not "here's your reward, sorry it isn't finished".
And certainly not an excuse to rush the final book.
And certainly not an excuse to rush the final book.
It would be an additional early-access version, made specifically for those of you who would rather start playing than wait for every illustration and every piece of final layout to fall into place.
It would contain the rules necessary to play the main game, together with Character Sheets, the essential play sheets, and a Print & Play version of Coffee & Shadows containing the cards you need at the table.
And if you don't feel like printing and assembling cards?
The essential sheets and a regular deck of playing cards will still get you into Silent Læke.
In other words:
it wouldn't yet have the finished book.
But it would have the game.
There is another side to this, though.
First impressions matter.
Some of you have already played Silent Læke or Dusk's Embrace. Some have followed development for a long time.
But for others, opening the core rulebook will be your first real encounter with the full game.
And you may prefer that first encounter to have the artwork, atmosphere and presentation we're building for the finished book.
I think that's completely valid.
So rather than deciding for you...
I'm asking you.
Check the attached poll.
📦 And the Physical Rewards?
One final clarification, because I don't want the changing roadmap to create the wrong impression.
Whenever the physical rewards are manufactured, in our hands and ready for fulfilment, you will not have to wait for a convention to receive them.
Shipping will become available as soon as we're ready to fulfil.
Convention pickup will simply remain an optional alternative for anyone who would rather collect their rewards from us in person.
Depending on when manufacturing is completed, future events may provide opportunities for that.
But they're an option. Not something standing between you and your books.
🖤 Where We Are
So no, September didn't go according to the spreadsheet.
Book of Whispers isn't where I wanted it to be.
The October digital-corebook estimate isn't going to happen.
But Book of Threads is written and being carefully refined.
Book of Whispers is underway.
Ludmilla's finished artwork is arriving, and for the first time Silent Læke is beginning to look like the actual book I've had in my head for so long.
The game is being played.
The community around it is growing.
And I'm going to keep building it properly rather than rushing it to satisfy an outdated calendar.
Hopefully, with your blessing, some of you may even get to play it before every last piece of that book is finished.
Thank you, as always, for your patience, your enthusiasm and your trust.
We're getting there. One Book at a time.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
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