Alright Folks!

I know you're all keen to get your hands on some Kindred, I am certainly keen to get the files out to you, but as its our first time on backerkit, its our first experience with the backend of backerkit, and there are a few timings I wasnt aware of when we started here. They all make sense, but now I can give a proper timeline. We ALSO have some small announcements and things to show off - So thats very exciting too.

Step 1: Payment
Upon the completion of the campaign, roughly $10,000 of pledges were 'failed collections' - Basically whether it be banks, cards, funds, users or platform, someone somewhere said no. Since then, this number has been corrected down to $6300. This is because people have the opportunity to find alternate payment solutions, try other cards, use a prepaid visa etc etc - Whatever alternate solution they find. This is because the payment collections on backerkit are done via stripe, and from what we can see, some banks and financial institutions take umbrage with this, and decide they should be allowed to tell you where and how you can spend your money.
Backerkits guidance on this is to allow everyone TWO WEEKS to correct payment information, because after surveys have gone out, you will nolonger be able to correct your payment and your pledge will be cancelled.

This doesn't mesh particularly well with out in house schedule, and our workdays, so we are instead going to give slightly under two weeks. This means there are 7 days from now remaining to fix any payment issues you might have to secure your pledge.

Step 2: Survey
All campaigns have a survey, and after this window for payment correction closes, we will be launching ours. For most campaigns, this survey collects information about shipping, options on items where required etc. For our campaign, it is mostly a formality. The survey is your entry point into the pledge manager, and allows you to confirm the details of your pledge before proceeding. We do have a few questions for our Commercial License tiered holders who will need to fill out some details, and we also have ONE question related to, well, marketing. We'd love an honest answer to this, as it will help guide our game development after Sisters of the Old Blood.

Much like the payment phase, the survey we do need to allow people time to complete and return. There is a limited window to do this (Two Weeks) so MAKE SURE YOU COMPLETE YOUR SURVEY WHEN YOU RECIEVE IT
This will ensure no further delays to receiving your files.

Step 3: Pledge Manager
Somewhere between Step 2 and 3 (Honestly, its a bit nebulous to me if you get access through the survey or after the survey) - you will be directed to the Pledge manager. Here you can alter your pledge, collect new add ons (if you want) and people will be able to late back. Late backing is more expensive, as the campaign is now finished, but for those late to the party it will be possible to dive in here. At this stage, you will be able to download your files through the backerkit pledge manager. You can return here to access your files any time through your backerkit account.

Summary
So ultimately it will be approximately 3 weeks before you can all download your files, this will be slightly disappointing to some, but for most, entirely normal with crowdfunding campaigns. We will be better prepared and able to forecast and warn people about the post campaign delay for our next campaign. However, with this said, there is a silver lining;

In all likelihood the FIRST Stretch Goal Miniature/s will be available for download alongside the launch minis.

Jackson has commenced sculpting the first unit, we chose this one for specific reasons related to scheduling the rest of the work behind the scenes. Rumor engine style, we are including a tiny snippet of a WIP miniature, you can guess what it is...

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT
That pretty much covers all the launch details, but we promised a few small announcements, so here they are:

We have officially found the sculptor of our bust for the Kindred of the Abyss - Victor Aguilar del Bosque - Victor is an exceptionally gifted professional and award winning sculptor - If you're a fan of the Mini Painting Youtube crowd, you might recognize the name as the sculptor of some of the fantastic wood elves from Miniacs brush box and model campaign and also Squidmars Champions of Sona campaign. Murray, Jenn and Myself have ALL painted models sculpted by Victor, and we love his work. So we were extremely excited to hear he was happy to be onboard.

We have ALSO found our Cutaway artist - You see, in searching for artists in this genre, it became increasingly obvious that this was somewhat of a dying art form. The amazing artists who created the visual dictionaries, star wars fact files etc that kids like me grew up on have either passed on or are working at extremely high positions in major companies, IE: Lucasfilm. So we were so glad to have discovered Juuso Laasonen - Having grown up with the same inspirations, Juuso has become extremely skilled at creating cutaway art - in fact one of his earlier pieces you might be familiar with, i'd certainly seen it around the internet numerous times!

This particular piece was considered, paraphrasing here - "A fun sketch for myself that I was hesitant to post"

Juuso has worked on heaps of 40k Fanart, which was certainly one way we knew we were right for each other, but he has worked on a huge catalogue of work, from commissions, to sketches, to passion projects

Check out his art here



That is all for today, we will be back with an update next Monday, which should be the Survey links for you to start filling out!
Thanks - Dave

ITS ALMOST OVER!

Thats right, the campaign is nearly done, its been an exciting ride - But really, it means the journey is just beginning. Thanks to all of your support, the Kindred are going to become a fully fledged faction, everything we need for our mystery game system. A lot of people have pondered what kind of game its going to be, with the main question being "Full Wargame" or "Skirmish Game" - We cant give away much yet, and a lot is subject to change, but the simplest answer, which will also explain the scope of units in this campaign is "Somewhere inbetween"

We strive to create a game with a little bit more complexity, uniqueness and depth within its units, more reminiscent of classic Warhammer, however at a scope and scale that is manageable to build, collect and importantly, play. In house, I (Dave) have been referring to it as "Platoon Scale" - The forces at work in our universe rarely muster in large armies, and are more focused as raiding warbands. The presence of vehicles alone should suggest this will not be a 6-10 model skirmish game.

We have just revealed our final bonus stretch goals - However, we consider all of these a blessing and a boon - We had optimistically planned on our original 55k final stretch goal as being 'everything we need to make what we want' - And now we are in a victory lap of making things we want, but we didn't necessarily need. Cutaway art, An Artist Bust, conversion parts for darker more religious toned bitz for using our models in other games - Its fun stuff that is as much for us as you - And every single one we hit is just an awesome bonus.

We've Been Busy
While for the duration of the campaign we are limited in our capacity to push forward with the project (The point of crowdfunding is to raise the funds to do just that) we have given Alysha the go ahead to start working on some art, and we wanted to share some Bingi with you today. What is a Bingi? What is a Bingus Boy? What is this goal we unlocked?

Exactly.

Its time to find out, while we share in development concept art, through to a completed work done by Alysha Lowery.

So heres the scoop - The Bingus Boys started as a joke, an in house comment when I (Dave) was riffing to Vaughn and Alysha about characters for the game and what we should name the faction. A fan of ranting about nonsense, I threw the name "The Bingus Boys" into the mix, as an absolute joke. (Thats right, the Kindred of the Abyss started their life in production as The Bingus Boys.) However the name stuck, people liked it, we laughed about it, and eventually it created its own kind of reality. We imagined what Bingus Boys could possibly be, could we include this production in house joke in the faction and not destroy the integrity of the project? Of course we could.

We conceptualized the idea of a duo, brothers in the Kindred, and imagined them being troublemakers, with Kindred shaking their fist shouting "THOSE DANG BINGUS BOYS" as they caused some new mayhem. Like a dirty foul underwater Dukes of Hazzard, the Bingus boys slowly developed an identity.

We wanted to create a dynamic of a weaselly Kindred Reaver, the older brother who manipulates his Malformed brother into all kinds of heinous tasks. The simpler brother being somewhat like Lenny from of mice and men, not knowing of his own strength and compromised of intelligence.

We went through multiple iterations, playing with this idea of Nascar drivers, hillbilly stereotypes, dodgy gamblers, truckers, moving through various incarnations and never landing on something solid. Ultimately, we decided the boys were just too silly to fit in the setting, as models, as gameplay pieces in the faction. So we decided to adapt them.

The Bingus boys of old still exist, we imagine their distraught neighbors shouting after them as kids and teenagers, getting up to mischief and misadventure, but those days are gone. Now the boys are reavers, leading a particularly savage raiding band of some renown, known as being some of the most wild and vicious Kindred out there. Gus, the big lad, wields a Harpoon cannon usually mounted on ships and submarines, whereas Ben, the cruel older brother, has a penchant for hunting targets from afar. The annoyed cries of Ben and Gus eventually contracting into Bengus, then Bingus, and with some nice art, great models and a paintjob, the Bingus Boyz will be wreaking havoc on your tabletops soon.

Greetings Backers!
Firstly I would like to thank everyone for their patience. There has been a lot of upheaval in Tabletop Time Land, with Jenn and Myself having a new baby who came early, to some lean times at the studio leading to layoffs and re-adjustment to new roles - With that said, everything to be included in the campaign is and always has been secure - And as promised, we've got more! We had dearly hoped to get all models out prior to the launch of the Sisters, our next faction, however the early arrival of my son made that impossible. That said - We are closer than ever

COMMAND SQUAD TIME

Today everyone can download the Kindred Command Squad and Specialists - These models make up a special diver command staff, including veteran scourges and special operatives with unique battlefield skills. They are gloriously ridiculous, over the top and wonderful, and as always Jackson from Golden Dragon has done a fantastic job realising Alyshas concept art.

Here are some example builds and models from the set - But there are more, including a periscope operator and a comms operator and more weapon options and configurations for veterans.

LANDSUB UPDATE
The landsub is sculpted, and we can share some images of it - However it is still being test printed and checked over. This is the largest most complicated 3D print model we've ever made, and it is a doozy. We can't wait for it to be in your hands, it wont be too much longer now.

BONUS MODELS
I never felt the Zealot pack complete - And as a bit of a sculpting mission and for some fun world building, I expanded the Zealot pack to include options for the in universe faction of "Fathom" - This deep city strays on the edge of madness, drawn to a deep elder god calling to them from the great trenches of the ocean. They strive to better their deep diving vessels, hoping to one day touch that which reaches toward their minds.
This proximity causes strange... changes.
So with additional parts sculpted by me, David McLennan on top of Jacksons helmets - I also present today the Fathom Zealot additional parts.

Also - The less insane Fathom warriors enjoy transporting snacks and found treasures in their helmet cages. Occasionally stray crabs too. Or using them as lobster pots on long missions! Crafty fellows!

SISTERS OF THE OLD BLOOD

If you backed the Kindred of the Abyss because you wanted to get on board and support Tabletop Times future game universe - Well, the Sisters of the Old Blood campaign has just launched. The Sisters are the second faction in our slowly growing universe, the custodians of a Victorian-esque dark society in the midst of its own industrial revolution. This powerful but archaic order of religious fanatics fights infused with the supernatural power of the old blood, what is old blood? Well it belongs to the old ones... Fathom Kindred might be jealous.

The campaigns initial offering of 4 units is already funded, with two stretch goals unlocked so far - and we would love your support taking it as far as we took kindred.

Support the campaign here: Sisters Campaign

Some images of some of the initial sisters models are below: 

Thankyou everyone! 
Small final note:
Landsub almost with you
Scatter Terrain commencing
Art largely done - needs to be set up for distribution
Lore PDF to be compiled once all minis finished, painted and we can put the booklet together
Cutaway Art - With the sub finished, Juuso can commence the second cutaway art, but with such a huge delay his schedule is very full so this may be a bit of a delay. 

Greetings Everyone!

Our next Stretch goal is now available for download - This is a painters bust that captures the grim and horrible nature of the Kindred, raiding villages on the coast for all manner of goods to take back below into their harrowing cities.

The bust has been sculpted by Victor Aguilar and has been made with two major options. The first, a Kindred at rest, contemplating his raid, preparing for violence or perhaps a spot of harpoon fishing.

There is also a cut off version for easier mounting on plinths or if you prefer that artificial framing for your busts.

The second version of the model showcases our original vision for the Kindred, but we understand the subject matter might be a little more confrontational for some. And that is our depiction of the bust and its title
"Unexpected Find"
We feel it captures the lack of humanity the Kindred so often display, with soft look of confusion and contemplation, and none of the delicacy required when handling such an innocent being.
For the child, its future cut short - Destined to become one of the Kindred itself, brought below the water and integrated into their society and robbed of the life it might have known.
Thankfully for the child, they save their cannibalistic tendencies for less useful and more resistant coast dwellers. 

We hope you enjoy this powerful and understandably dark piece, and are excited to see your takes on this piece - Murray is working on one right now!
Remember you can download your files right here on backerkit, just navigate to your account!
We will be back with more soon!
Cheers
Tabletop Time