Troll Lord Games
CREATOR
7 days ago
Project Update: Castle Zagyg Act 1 Shipping Update
Greetings from the Dens!
We are late back from Gary Con and can now turn our attention to catching up on updates and bringing everyone up to speed.
As you know we have Castle Zagyg Act 2 ready to launch in a few short weeks. It has been our plan to have the first three volumes of Castle Zagyg Act 1 at the printer and with luck shipping in April. The April date was important for three reasons: 1) backers of the first CZ campaign could be assured that books were going to be in their hand before the second campaign ended; 2) it allowed us to join the CZ Act 2 campaign with the Megadungeon Month promotion that Backerkit had put together; 3) we avoided our printer’s Year Book season, which begins in April and lasts through the first week of June.
We are late back from Gary Con and can now turn our attention to catching up on updates and bringing everyone up to speed.
As you know we have Castle Zagyg Act 2 ready to launch in a few short weeks. It has been our plan to have the first three volumes of Castle Zagyg Act 1 at the printer and with luck shipping in April. The April date was important for three reasons: 1) backers of the first CZ campaign could be assured that books were going to be in their hand before the second campaign ended; 2) it allowed us to join the CZ Act 2 campaign with the Megadungeon Month promotion that Backerkit had put together; 3) we avoided our printer’s Year Book season, which begins in April and lasts through the first week of June.
Sadly, we are going to miss the April deadline. Though volumes 1 and 2 are completed and in layout, the 3rd volume did not hit its intended goal. The why is important.
The original intent was to take Gary’s notes and, following the path he set out for us with Levels 1-4, condense his maps and notes into one large map. That was completed on Level 1-4 with his guidance so we were comfortable with that. We had these maps on hand before the first CZ campaign began. Once we received the original maps and began sorting through them, we realized the scope of the condensing approach. Level 2, with Gary’s guidance, was one solid sized map. As it turned out that was only ONE map of FOUR that he originally marked (back in the 70s) as Level 2. As we got deeper into the notes and maps, and as writing unfolded, this began to present an ever greater problem. What to do with all this extra content we knew was created by Gary.
About November of last year, with the problem nagging me continually, Davis and I sat down and discussed it. Both of us decided after a long discussion that we had to include all the mapping and incorporate the notes. Without Gary’s sure hand to guide us with what he wanted (which I suspect was to condense this down to a more manageable level for the CK/DM), it felt too dangerous to try to second guess him.
What this required was a rewriting of the completed levels 2 and 3. That included incorporating his original game notes with room occupants from the manifest he sent me in 2003 that detailed what he wanted each level to be like, all the while maintaining his ‘realistic approach’ to the dungeon and its occupants, traps, dangers, etc.
What this did was increase the size of the first 4 levels four-fold. Knowing what this entailed, we plunged in. We brought Jeremy Farkas over to help Mike Stewart and Chase actually hammer it out and begin co-writing (I was reluctant to do this, as Jeremy has many troll tasks to do, which are now on hold). By February that proved not to be enough and we brought in Nick Kirkland to assist Jeremy.
It still has not proven enough. Simply deciphering Gary’s notes has been a challenge, particularly with Ernie’s passing as he was old enough to remember a great deal. Luke is helping as best he can, but he was very young when Melf was slaying orcs!
So the bad news.
The original intent was to take Gary’s notes and, following the path he set out for us with Levels 1-4, condense his maps and notes into one large map. That was completed on Level 1-4 with his guidance so we were comfortable with that. We had these maps on hand before the first CZ campaign began. Once we received the original maps and began sorting through them, we realized the scope of the condensing approach. Level 2, with Gary’s guidance, was one solid sized map. As it turned out that was only ONE map of FOUR that he originally marked (back in the 70s) as Level 2. As we got deeper into the notes and maps, and as writing unfolded, this began to present an ever greater problem. What to do with all this extra content we knew was created by Gary.
About November of last year, with the problem nagging me continually, Davis and I sat down and discussed it. Both of us decided after a long discussion that we had to include all the mapping and incorporate the notes. Without Gary’s sure hand to guide us with what he wanted (which I suspect was to condense this down to a more manageable level for the CK/DM), it felt too dangerous to try to second guess him.
What this required was a rewriting of the completed levels 2 and 3. That included incorporating his original game notes with room occupants from the manifest he sent me in 2003 that detailed what he wanted each level to be like, all the while maintaining his ‘realistic approach’ to the dungeon and its occupants, traps, dangers, etc.
What this did was increase the size of the first 4 levels four-fold. Knowing what this entailed, we plunged in. We brought Jeremy Farkas over to help Mike Stewart and Chase actually hammer it out and begin co-writing (I was reluctant to do this, as Jeremy has many troll tasks to do, which are now on hold). By February that proved not to be enough and we brought in Nick Kirkland to assist Jeremy.
It still has not proven enough. Simply deciphering Gary’s notes has been a challenge, particularly with Ernie’s passing as he was old enough to remember a great deal. Luke is helping as best he can, but he was very young when Melf was slaying orcs!
So the bad news.
All of this is to say that we are not going to have Volume 3 ready for print before April. We are deep into the rewriting of Dungeon Level 3a and wrapping up 3. Four and Five are still lingering. We should have them all down by end of April, but that lands us squarely into Walsworth’s yearbook season, and though we will get them to the printer, they will simply queue them up for rolling out in June/July.
The bad news gets a little worse.
We are locked in and cannot pull out of the Backerkit Megadungeon campaign. Not only have contracts been signed, but TLG is a major contributor to that and other publishers would suffer for it.
So, all that long is to say in short, we are going to launch Act 2 on April 7 of this year. IF you do not feel comfortable backing it because of this delay in the fulfillment of our first campaign, please do not. Do not do anything with your hard-earned money to put yourself in a bad way or commit to something you are not sure of. I will only say TLG has conducted 40 crowdfunding campaigns and delivered on 40 of them (well, that’s not true as we have two outstanding!).
My apologies for the longwinded update but we wanted to be crystal clear and upfront with everyone. You can be certain sure you will get these books.
In the immediate future we are going to send you Volume 2 in PDF (should be this week) and Level 2 of Volume 3 (should be next week). This is to show you our progress.
Thank you and I hope to see you in the twisted corridors of that Mad Mage’s dungeons before too long!
The bad news gets a little worse.
We are locked in and cannot pull out of the Backerkit Megadungeon campaign. Not only have contracts been signed, but TLG is a major contributor to that and other publishers would suffer for it.
So, all that long is to say in short, we are going to launch Act 2 on April 7 of this year. IF you do not feel comfortable backing it because of this delay in the fulfillment of our first campaign, please do not. Do not do anything with your hard-earned money to put yourself in a bad way or commit to something you are not sure of. I will only say TLG has conducted 40 crowdfunding campaigns and delivered on 40 of them (well, that’s not true as we have two outstanding!).
My apologies for the longwinded update but we wanted to be crystal clear and upfront with everyone. You can be certain sure you will get these books.
In the immediate future we are going to send you Volume 2 in PDF (should be this week) and Level 2 of Volume 3 (should be next week). This is to show you our progress.
Thank you and I hope to see you in the twisted corridors of that Mad Mage’s dungeons before too long!
Have a wonderful day!
Stephen Cheanult
Stephen Cheanult
Troll Lord Games
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