Check your email for PDFs! Digital edition goes public tomorrow
over 3 years ago – Mon, Dec 07, 2020 at 09:22:27 PM

A short and very sweet update: you all should be receiving emails from itch.io today with download links for Necronautilus and Stellar Remnants. Be sure to check your promotions/spam folders if you don't seem them right away. Later tonight, you should also receive notice from Backerkit with a direct file download in case the itch one doesn't work for any reason. If after a week you still are having troubles with itch and backerkit, you can reach me at [email protected]. Messages or comments here about file delivery issues will likely get missed and cause delays and I want you all playing this game soon as possible so that's the best way to reach me!

Physical books are arriving at my place any day now (eta was the 17th but I've got word that they are at a shipping warehouse in my area so crossing my fingers for an early arrival!) and I'll hit the ground running with shipping. Stellar Remnants zines arrived yesterday and look fantastic. I also picked up the posters this weekend and am really pleased with the results. Images below of all those things!

Please remember to rate the game 5-stars on worldchampgameco.itch.io/necronautilus when you get a chance. Doing so helps me a ton and will hopefully get the game in front of even more people and encourage some additional content creation down the line. Rating even 4 stars or lower can tank a game in itch's algorithm so please keep that in mind. The game goes public tomorrow so I'm hoping for an exciting public launch! Pre-orders for additional physical copies if you decide to upgrade or missed the backerkit will also be live tomorrow at worldchamp.io/store along with all the other print editions of my games. 

THANKS. Next update will be when the book arrives and shipping begins. -AV

November Update: Things are good! Release is near!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 03:29:52 PM

Hey everyone, time once again for the monthly update through the doldrums. Hope everyone is doing as well as can be expected.

Important dates:

• Dec 1: credit cards will be charged on Backerkit. Almost everyone has their survey filled out and  locked so you don't have to do anything unless you got a new card or something in the last month. If for any reason your payment doesn't work, you'll get emails from Backerkit to fix it. Any charges that are still showing errors after two weeks risk having their order postponed so you don't hold up everyone else's shipments.
• Dec 7: Necronautilus Digital Edition goes live. The book will go up on worldchampgameco.itch.io and you'll get download keys in an email from itch. Stellar Remnants will be on itch but will be unlisted, you'll need the email to access it because it is campaign-exclusive. You'll also receive access to the PDFs through backerkit as a redundancy, but downloading/viewing/rating 5 stars on itch helps me a ton get the game in front of new folks who missed this campaign. 
• Dec 10: Shipping Address Lock. Your surveys are already locked down to control the quantities of limited edition items like the t-shirts and variant covers, but you can still change your shipping address by accessing your survey at necronautilus.backerkit.com. On December 10, you won't be able to change it anymore so I can start prepping for fulfillment. If you miss this deadline, do not message or comment about it via Kickstarter, I probably won't see it in time. email [email protected] with your old address and new one explicitly labeled and I can correct it on my end. This is generally true of all support issues, I can stay more organized and on top of things via email. 
• Dec 17: Expected Arrival of physical books at my place/fulfillment begins. These are currently on a boat trekking across the pacific ocean, and as such there is no tracking for me. Once it docks, it goes through customs, then to a courier, then to me. The printer has given me the 17th as the ETA, it may shift a little, but fulfillment will begin immediately. 

That is all of the need-to-know information for now! Here are just some print and art updates:

Shirts are being printed right now by Transfigure Print Co. in Grand Rapids, MI. They look great and will be at my place before the books, ready to ship to those lucky few who ordered one:

Stellar Remnants is now finished and about to go to print. There is some really great stuff in here and I'm super pleased with everyone's contributions! There were some extra allotted pages, so I designed another planet as well as including some video-game-inspired Gamer Trophies that you can award yourselves through play. Here is a glimpse at MALACHANCE, the wilderness planet full of behemoths, bugs, and bounties:

The galaxy map poster is also about finished and going to print soon, here is a cropped preview of that artwork. While you can see some hexes here, they are not to any scale or meant for representative mapping (though I welcome you to make a hack that uses them as such!). this is definitely a cosmetic piece and just a nice FREE print bonus for those of you who got physical books:

If there are extra Stellar Remnants zines, map posters, or shirts after fulfillment has concluded, I'll let you all know before anybody else about purchasing them.

Lastly, I just released a very succinct but stylish game called Arbiter of Hope as a cloth facemask. In addition to the design I'm proud of, it is the comfiest mask in my collection now while still being hearty enough to offer protection. There are only about 20 left of an edition of 100, so check it out at worldchamp.io/store if you wanna pick one up before it's gone! You can also get all my more recent games in print at the store like THIRTEEN (familial horror story game ffo Hereditary and Hill House) or Aurora (a modular hopepunk game for play by post now and play irl when quarantine ends. craft cards, use them to build cities and tell stories of overcoming darkness). 

That is all for now, thanks for your support!

-AV

October Update: No News Is Good News
over 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 23, 2020 at 09:05:12 AM

hey everyone! It's been about a month since the last one so wanted to send an update, but there isn't much to report. This is a good thing and was expected. The core book is at the printer, the proofs have been approved and we're just waiting for manufacturing and shipping now. Expecting these in-hand mid-December now at which point they'll be promptly stuffed in envelopes and sent your way. T-shirts are also at the printer with a December expected delivery. Stellar Remnants is at the tail end of writing, then I'll spend a bit doing art & layout for that and getting it printed in November. The galaxy poster stretch goal is sort of pending til the rest is done since it will be printed locally and have the shortest turnaround time, but the art for that is in-progress.

That's really the status of everything! A couple reminders:

• Surveys are locked down now. You'll still be able to change your address until December. Your cards won't be charged until December either (I had said mid-october before but didn't realize that's not the preferred method of Backerkit utility so waiting til closer to shipping date). Almost everyone with physical rewards has finished their survey (THANK YOU), but those few stragglers: I can't guarantee that I will have a variant cover or shirt size if you didn't finish your survey by the last warning. I'll do my best to accommodate but those orders have been placed.
• I'm releasing monthly games at patreon.com/worldchampgameco. October's game is THIRTEEN a horror story game for 3-6 players inspired by Hereditary. It's presented as a 23"x15" newsprint poster with art on one side and all the rules/map on the b-side. Leftovers are available for purchase now at worldchamp.io/store. 

Thanks as always! I'll post another update in a month to keep everyone informed but the real action won't happen til December.

-AV

Backerkit Lockdown THIS FRIDAY
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 03:17:57 PM

a short update: we're approaching the print date which means the Backerkit is locking orders! You have until friday to finish your survey, select your cover/any add-ons, pay shipping defecits, and otherwise make sure your pledge is correct. necronautilus.backerkit.com. 

Orders are locked down on Friday, then your cards will be charged Sunday. You'll still be able to change your shipping address through November as we wait for the printed books to come through. I've mentioned a few times but another for safety: if you don't finish your survey on time, you can miss out on variant covers, shirt sizes, and any other campaign-exclusive stuff cause I can't guarantee item quantities that aren't confirmed through your surveys. similarly, again mentioned many times, if you pledged for multiple copies of Stellar Remnants zine, you'll be charged for them this weekend! I emailed everyone who did this and posted multiple updates to make sure it was not an error and you do want multiple copies, in which case you have nothing to change.

everything else is going smoothly, the text is all edited and I'm deep in art and layout, we're about ready to begin the printing process which is mostly passive waiting, during which I can work on the map and Stellar Remnants zine, all is well in the Necronautilus camp. Here is another art preview from the book to make this update less boring:

-AV

Survey reminders & schedule + Art preview
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 12, 2020 at 07:25:04 PM

Hey gang, things are going really well. Layout is halfway through the book, writing is a few days from the finish line, and editing is in line with all that (even with our editor's are being stricken by the crazy temperature drop and resulting power outages this week). 

Survey reminders (deadline and stellar remnants zine)

Surveys lock down in two weeks. There are still about 100 people who haven't filled out their survey, mostly PDF folks so I get it, but please do that as soon as you can! You should be receiving reminder emails from Backerkit to get this done. A couple days later, cards will be charged and the books will be ordered, so as a reminder: if you don't finish your survey by Sept 15, variant covers and tshirt sizes are NOT guaranteed! I can only account for the information I have, so while I'll try to accommodate every request, it is on you to supply the information on time. You will still be able to update your shipping address through November!

Also as a reminder from last update: if you backed at the $32 level or higher, your pledge includes the Stellar Remnants supplement zine! Feel free to add additional copies in Backerkit if you want them, but make sure you didn't accidentally get extra copies you don't want in your cart! There are still about 40 people who added on but already have one included in their pledge. Again, surveys get locked down in two weeks, so make sure you have exactly what you want in there! 

Once that all happens, the books go to print and take 8-10 weeks before they get here, so I'd say our shipping estimate is more December than November now, but I'll be prepared when that shipment arrives to get going fast. Map posters and Stellar Remnants zines will go to print in October, and PDFs should go out early November. 

Art

This update is very dry so let me share some art from the book. As mentioned during the campaign, I'm doing the whole thing by myself, which is a ton of work but very rewarding. Doing layout for the game I designed to combine the words I wrote with pictures I painted is very cool and when I'm not drowning in the work, I can take a step back and say "hell yeah." I don't want to give too much away cause the book has a lot of varied art in it but here is a preview of some favorites from this week!:

Most of the illustrations are traditional with ink on paper, a handful of digital ones fill out the rest of the book. When this is all over, maybe I'll sell or raffle off some of these original pieces too, they are pretty gorgeous if I do say so myself. Anyway, thanks for your ongoing support, please fill out your surveys, and talk soon!

-AV