Hope y'all had a lovely Valentine's weekend, <3 It's Chris Airiau, back again for your monthly update on Flatline progress. And it's a sexy update with layout spreads to share, check it out:
The Lighthouse, by Scott Garriott
The Playhouse, by Kyle Tam
Anthill, by Julius "Kin" Karajos
Green Zone, by Reece Carter
Layout Work
Jet McFin and Jordan Boschman have finished their round of copyediting, and now we've moved on to the layout-fit copyedits. As you can see, these spreads aren't entirely finished. The boxes are spots for Scragend to fill with artwork, and there are numerous "pg. xx" references throughout, which will be of course be fully clickable in the final draft (alongside a plaintext PDF version).
Our goal is to get you a pre-proof PDFin next month's update. It will be like these spreads above, without all the finished art, and come alongside a google form to report typos we've missed.
Ripley Matthews Maps
We cannot overstate how thrilled and amazed all of us are to have Ripley Matthews work on these maps. She is doing an AMAZING job. We have an eclectic mix of Blocks, which feeds into the cartography necessitating a flowing, by the Block stylization. I tried to pick spreads that evoke the different kinds of maps and illustrations that Ripley has been working on, and here's another four to show how those differences matter.
Maps by Ripley Matthews. Clockwise from top-left: Amorph Row by Amanda P., Trak-Blok by Waco Matrixo, Milan Commons by Ben King, Warship Museum by Julius "Kin" Karajos.
The top row employs, as Ripley herself said it, a "90s Lucasarts point and click 'fuck perspective' sort of thing" for Blocks that emphasize mood and abstract space rather than Blocks that require a more classic (though still abstracted) top-down dungeon style for play, as we see on the bottom row. We even have weirder, more illustrative Blocks, like the Anthill which functions with a procedure based on the Flux Space procedure.
Zine Month Projects
Zine Month is still on! Check out these three Mothership RPG projects by members of the Spinal Crux Warriors:
Twisting Unseen: A scissors-and-glue, build-the-dungeon zine of teleportation gates and the cursed beings living behind them. By Chris Airiau.
Cain Sun: Play as parasitic aliens controlling the fatally curious Dr. Abelsson. Like Everyone is John, except EVERYONE IS WORM. By Waco Matrixo.
Worms Worms Worms!:Three authors, including Scott Garriott, deliver a wormy tri-fold anthology of five pamphlets in a slimy little box.
Future Updates
The Spinal Crux Warriors are committed to sending an update on this project's progress on the second-to-last Monday of each month. Like this month, we'll be sure to share any other projects the Warriors are working on.
The pre-order store may be opening soon. We've done our bit for Tuesday Knight Games in order for them to get our Flatline wares onto the BackerKit pre-order store; the required materials were due at the end of January. If the pre-order store goes live far from 23 March, we'll send out an update ahead of schedule to let you know.
