The Final 48
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 03, 2020 at 05:15:44 AM

a quick update today: we're in the last 48 hours of the campaign (ends 2:00 pacific time Tuesday afternoon). Seeing a boost as is normal in the last days of a campaign that feels really great, we just crossed 29k! 

This is a reminder to everyone: change your pledge to what you want right now! If you're downgrading to PDF, do that, if you're upgrading to a complete edition or death agent, do that now. Most importantly, if you are an international backer, make sure you chose an international pledge tier with corrected shipping! There MIGHT be a pledge manager but I'm still weighing some cost options and not wanting to rely on that. There also might be a very small number of Stellar Remnants zines and logo t-shirts available when fulfillment is over if there are print overages but I wouldn't count on that and BOTH are CAMPAIGN EXCLUSIVE so get them now!

Also, please share this campaign one more time with your friends! The url iskickstarter.com/projects/adamxvass/necronautilus or you can use tinyurl.com/spacechamp if its easier to remember. Here are some instagram-story-sized graphics you can use to share around too. I'll get in touch Wednesday or Thursday with the next steps (and hopefully another play report!).

Lastly, stay in touch! I will keep up with this kickstarter page of course, comments and messages, but they are not the most efficient way to reach me. Twitter is great, @WCGameCo. I'm also still releasing smaller games monthly for $5+ at patreon.com/worldchampgameco including August's double-feature game HELL CABIN (an asymmetrical gm-less horror rpg based on Evil Dead). If you're a retailer wanting more copies (or seeing this after the campaign ended), reach me at [email protected]. 

THANK YOU!

-AV

Playlist, Play Report, Playing Around With Shel's Cover
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Aug 01, 2020 at 10:36:39 AM

Thanks as always for backing this project and staying in touch! We end on Tuesday so lets get that final weekend rally going!

Playlist

Yesterday I threw together a Spotify playlist of songs and bands that inspired the game setting and design, it is over 3 hours of hits (mostly doom and stoner metal but a few curveballs included!). Check it out if you'd like to listen and drone out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6oGDboZXBeRFSDhDbij89P?si=yG3HrRYbR16yWdktmZgv-g 

Play Report

I ran another test session yesterday afternoon and it went extremely well, definitely better than last week's where I needed to get some bumps out of the way. I'll be continuing this testing process of writing & refining weekly for the foreseeable future & share play reports on twitter @WCGameCo since I don't wanna be a pest in your inbox after this campaign ends (I'll of course still update you on the ongoing book progress but will compile them into weekly or biweekly digests instead of every day or two).

Our group of Death Agents was sent to an ashy volcanic planet codenamed The Forge where they were to apprehend a slug lord named Karva who was defying Death's rule. They fought bone vultures, using holograms and trickery to escape, before confronting rusted metal scorpion cultists in a steel church under Karva's rule. It was awesome and got a bit bonkers (a player turned their bottom half into a motorcycle at one point) and I loved it. Here are some testimonials from the players:

"Having the sandbox of subjective meanings of words is really awesome, and it makes even failure interesting as you try to figure out what you could do the next time around. And the process of remembering who you were is fascinating, and a really cool storytelling tool"

“I traded in my life force to carbonate someone (Han Solo style) in silver using only a one word spell. If there was a perfect game for a linguistics nerd like me, this would be it.”

Shel's Cover Art

Shel Kahn is working on the cover art that was unlocked as a stretch goal early in the campaign! As mentioned, after crossing the 20k threshold, you will be able to choose which cover you want in your backer survey, Shel's or the rainbow skull I was using to promote the campaign.

This is just a thumbnail NOT THE FINAL, it is very early in development still but I got excited and wanted to share the progress with everybody. There will be a lot more polish and dynamics and detail and everything you'd expect when this goes through further refinement, but this is a nice teaser preview:

more soon, thanks again, peace!

-AV

The Final Week
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 06:16:35 PM

We are approaching the end of this relatively short campaign, set to expire on August 4. We have successfully blown through all the stretch goals, most recently offering up variant covers by crossing the 20k threshold! As mentioned previously, contributors will be getting pay raises now with extra funds, which is fantastic news. 

As a reminder, if you are an international backer, there are new pledge tiers with more accurate shipping information. you must change your pledge to one of these levels before the campaign's end to be sure you'll get your items! I wasn't planning on using a pledge manager for this campaign but I might end up needing it to sort out shipping, especially the way things are changing rapidly in the US postal service, but I'll be sure to disclose that to everyone as soon as I make that decision. It is best to amend your pledges before the campaign ends to get what you want, if you're thinking about upgrading for that t-shirt or downgrading to pdf to save on shipping costs.

Just wanted to share an update in the typical kickstarter slow-down to let everybody know things are still going great and writing/development is happening and feeling good! In the final week of the Kickstarter, I'd love if you would share this campaign--on social media, a text to a friend, whatever you can do to spread the word. We're all fighting the algorithms in every direction these days, so a tweet or a post can get more love than a retweet or a share, let's see how big we can make this project in its final days! There is also a shortened url so you don't have to learn how to spell the game's name: tinyurl.com/spacechamp. 

For now, enjoy this picture of my dog Quincy and I'll be in touch again soon!

Additional Contributors, Play Report, Friends On KS
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 03:44:57 PM

We are only one week into this campaign, time moves different these days, and I can't believe the amount of support we've accrued in such a short time! As always, I am extremely grateful, thank you. Onto the news:

Stretch Goal Unlocked: New Contributors

I was waiting to confirm with someone before announcing this, but y'all funded it while I waited! We crossed the 18k threshold yesterday which means the STELLAR REMNANTS expansion zine is going to get more content! Two more contributors will add their magic to the zine: Aaron King (Patchwork World, The Veil Fantastic) and Maria Mison (101 Games for Survival, The Endless Tales of Endless Beings) will explore new ways to interact with the post-death galaxy. 

As a reminder, everyone at PDF level and higher will get digital files for Stellar Remnants, Complete Edition and higher will have it in a campaign-exclusive printed zine.

The next stretch goal is the final one I have planned for the campaign: at $20,000, I can offer a variant cover, so you'll be able to choose between Shel Kahn's amazing artwork or the warped rainbow skull image I made and was using as a placeholder. It is important to me that no one feels duped by this change and even though I am confident Shel's cover is going to be fantastic, I totally understand that my promo art was your first impression of the book. Additional funding after reaching the final stretch goal will go towards better compensating contributors & myself for their work on the project!

Not Stretch Goal but Additional Contributor

I also want to bring attention to my good friend Viditya Voleti who has signed on in a more formal capacity to be a design consultant on the core book. He is helping fill in some of the design gaps or tinker with tools that could use some polish so we will be sure that the game is as great as it can be. I realized in doing the design, writing, art, and layout myself, that I was leaving the potential for some important aspects of the game to fall by the wayside, so having an extra brain involved is going to be super useful, and I'm only able to do this because of the help of all of you contributing to the campaign! so again: thanks!

Play Report

I ran Necronautilus for a few friends online this week to kick the tires and get some design feedback and we had a blast. Here are a few testimonials from those players:

• "who wouldn’t want to converge their gaseous self into a point, drilling deep into the ground to scare a glowing giant and scoop up some black hole goo for Death personified?"
• "in the first minutes of play we were refracting ultraviolet light through the diamond of our spacecraft to fend off golden fingers of a giant pulling our ship into a planet of pure night"
• "Necronautilus is that perfect alchemy of free-form creativity, and word play that really lets you stretch and bend how we use language in a way that both satisfyingly and incredibly fun. Oh, and you can be a gas person that shoots lasers"

Friends On Kickstarter

There are a ton of other great games projects funding on Kickstarter right now (as I'm sure you're aware if you're already far enough down the rabbit hole to find my work!) and I wanted to highlight a couple RPGs that you should check out if you're able!

First up: Slayers by Spencer Campbell is an asymmetrical monster hunting game. They blew through stretch goals super fast, which means the book has some great additional writing and art and is now in a hardcover format! Spencer has become a good friend through designstorming and I'm really excited to see this spruced-up version of Slayers.

Next: Jiangshi: Blood In The Banquet Hall by Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim. An rpg about Chinese families who run restaurants in the day and stave off threatening vampires at night. Banana and I teamed up in the past on Cobwebs and they are one of the most talented and prolific writers I know, this game looks absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to explore it more deeply.

Finally: Monster Care Squad from Sandy Pug Games is a beautiful peaceful game about exploring and helping monsters. I'm a sucker for any game that has Miyazaki films as a touchstone, but beyond that association, this game looks fantastic and has an incredible team. Sandy Pug is consistently doing great innovative work in the community space of RPGs and the Ald-Amura Historical Grant Fund (which uses funds raised to support creators making new games & content in a shared world) is a really fascinating model I hope to see more game makers use in the future! 

Thanks once more to everyone involved in this project and its ongoing success!

-AV

Stretch Goal Unlocked! New Goal announcements, cover explanation, & international shipping issues
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 22, 2020 at 07:25:16 PM

This campaign continues to blow me away, thank you so much. My most successful game Kickstarter ever was my conspiracy investigation game Cobwebs that went up earlier this year, this project has already made almost as much in just two days!

First Stretch Goal Unlocked + Cover Update

When I woke up yesterday, I discovered we already blew past our first stretch goal, so Shel Kahn will be taking over cover art duties for the book! I know whatever they come up with is going to blow everybody's mind and be extremely awesome and evocative. 

I have heard a few comments about concerns that the existing placeholder cover is going away and been trying to figure out what to do about that. I can assure you it will exist in some form, whether that be the back of the book, the interior end pages, or whatever makes sense when we have all the finished book pieces. I'll also go ahead and make a new stretch goal announcement that I was planning to hold until later: at $20,000, I will offer variant covers, meaning you can get Shel's design or mine! It adds to the cost of printing a bit but I don't want anyone to be disappointed or feel duped. I do think you'll fall in love with Shel's cover when it is revealed but I totally understand that this change was not made clear from the get go. 

New Stretch Goal Announcement

BUT before we get that far, here is a new stretch goal that is closer in reach! At $16,000, the game will include a galaxy map. For print editions, this will be an 11x17" printed poster, digital editions will get a png and pdf file. It will include some cool art, prepopulated with the planets from the book, and plenty of space to catalogue/draw/write the planets you discover in your journey, letting each group create a unique relic of their time in space.

International Shipping Issue, intl backers please update your pledges!

It is no secret that this book is not finished, that's what the kickstarter is helping to fund. And in getting shipping estimates with similar books in my collection, I came up with a shipping cost that felt okay to allow for international backers (though I disallowed t-shirts for intl backers to keep this price down). WELL, I botched it and underestimated the additional shipping cost by about 25% which is an amount I won't be able to eat myself, so a couple things are gonna happen:

• I added a new tiers for international backers. these include the correct shipping price. I know it is a lot, but unfortunately the US postal service is going through it and those prices are the best I can get. If you already pledged and are outside the US, please change your pledge to the international reward to get charged the correct shipping amount. This is still subsidized, it doesn't account for fees or packaging or my labor, but I would be losing $6-8 for every international backer with the existing prices.
• If the new shipping prices are too brutal for you, I get it, don't feel bad! You can still pledge at the PDF level to get the game and show your support.
• If you're an international backer who misses this update or otherwise chooses not to change, I'll message you when the campaign ends to either send an invoice for the price difference in shipping or offer a refund of your pledge. 
• Because I have a better grasp on the shipping costs, I've now opened up an international tier that allows you to get the logo t-shirt! I heard from many of you who wanted it but couldn't get it outside the US, now you can. No pressure to upgrade of course but the option is now available to you!

I know this sucks, I'm sorry to do it especially after the campaign launched, but Kickstarter doesn't let you make changes to rewards after people have pledged for them and this was the simplest solution to not lose hundreds of dollars on shipping when this thing ends.