Hello everyone,

It has been quite some time. The last update was in February, and since then I worked on the game a bit into March, and then from mid-March through April and May, I just could not work on this game. Series of excuses aside, I have struggled just to sit down and look at the whole thing. It is complex, it is hard, and I made it so much harder by adding an extra class at all, let alone starting with 6, and choosing (even after it funded poorly) to make it the complex game I wanted it to be, rather than the smaller, simpler game it should have been when the funds didn't come together fully.

The campaign did not meet its real goal, as I noted after we funded. We barely covered the art budget, without raising any money to manufacture. I then added more to the game and hired the artist back on for even more money. But this also came at a time when there was little to no money in the business. There still is almost no money available right now, so making ends meet is rough.

When the Goblin's Tarot funds, it's going to handle the manufacturing on this project just fine and recoup some down payments I've put on future projects, while covering my bills-- this isn't a huge cost in manufacturing compared to the money that comes in and out from the larger projects. I have zero fears that HISTORIC will be manufactured and ship to you all, so let's get that out of the way now. But delays with both my dice and tarot manufacturers have kept previous projects from shipping on time (they're finally lined up to start shipping shortly), and that has pushed the Goblin's Tarot back again and again.

December last year, I already knew that April and on this year was going to be rough financially over delays to those projects, but they've been delayed even longer, so that's been a frustration for sure.

For the last two and a half months, I have considered finding a way to hire someone else to handle this or at least help me through it. But there's no money to do so. Mentally I settled on a second option, which is I was going to just ignore it forever, then cancel and refund the project to you all as soon as I could, but there's no money to do so, and there won't be until the Goblin's Tarot gives that money over.

And I've already paid in some $14,000 in art for the game, and you've already all been waiting some time. If I find $13,500 to refund you all, it puts me back to nowhere with $14,000 of art sitting and waiting for the game to be finished. Even if I refunded and closed this down, I still have to eventually make the game!

I've thought more than once that the amount I'm putting into this game is too much for one small box game. I'm making a rough amount of work for myself, and trying to work on even one class while keeping in mind the other 6 and making sure they don't overlap and they have unique abilities and-- all that is making me fail to do anything. I considered splitting the game up-- a core game and an expansion, but I've promised you all the content of both now, so I need to get it all done anyways.

And the more I put working on this off, the more I just go with the option at the back of my brain that I'll just cancel it and I should forget it, and the more I will never work on this game again. And the more this gets delayed, the more I realize I can never fund a game again until it's resolved, one way or another.

Finally, yesterday, I had enough.

Okay, our path forward is simple, and I ask for your patience on this one.

I am splitting the game into the core game with the main 4 classes (Caged Wraith, Maker of Hands, Trophy Collector, and Organ Eater), and moving the Glass Artisan, the Malefact Bonecutter, and the Aeon Caller to the first expansion box, which will take some of the cards from the core game that focus on soul position and deals more deeply with the Malefact, Aeons, and the Sunken areas.

When the core game is done, I will make those and ship those to you. Then I will start over with the expansion work. Make it. Launch a new project for the expansion when it's done (I am only launching projects now where the thing is complete-- period!). I will bring all of you into that project with a FREE PLEDGE for the expansion game. Then I will have it manufactured and shipped.

I know this isn't perfect, but it means you're getting all I promised and more, because I will be making new things to go in the expansion box alongside the new classes. It will just be coming in two chunks instead of at once. This also gives me the chance to raise funds for the game overall again, which will help me cover all the uncovered costs of this campaign, and bring in a little extra money to cover new art going in the expansion. I also know some folks will be worried about having to pay shipping twice-- I will be looking into how I can handle that to alleviate your shipping costs the second time around, or outright waive them.

Today is my first marked day on my weekly calendar to have HISTORIC FOCUS. This continues tomorrow. Every week now, Wednesday and Thursday are my HISTORIC FOCUS days. From now on, I will be sharing weekly updates here on what I get done to hold myself accountable and to show you the progress of exactly what I'm doing. No more "I've got a lot of work done" vague updates here. This game needs a lot of attention, and I need to be completely clear on what has been done and how much is left. 

Next week, I'll be sharing my overall timeline after I take today and tomorrow to figure out what I'm including here in the base game, what's moving to later work, and what the outline looks of what needs done.

...and talk in a week.

7DA
your Pub Gob