Kickstarter Roundup

Posted on by Paul Beakley

Kickstarter Roundup

Small-press rpg projects that have yet to deliver, from oldest forward:

Ryuutama: It’s really close. PDF is available for download.

Timewatch: Noooo idea. Last update was May. I guess Pelgrane is taking a more active hand in development. You can only crack the whip so hard, though.

Project: Dark: Noooo idea. Am I allowed to make critical comments about this yet? 

Urban Shadows: Excellent communication and lots of hype in the community. This is how it’s done. Late but 100% confident it’s going the right direction.

Feng Shui 2: PDFs are available, everyone’s a big name, communication has been solid. Big shrug, it gets here when it gets here. I’m actually kind of cooled off on wanting to play it now, too.

Other World Mapper: Unexpectedly slow, but this is also the first time I’ve backed software. Probably this is typical? They send emails out quarterly. Kind of forgot about it.

The Last Days of Anglekite: Mark Diaz Truman says I bought all the books, but that transaction is still lost time so I assume it happened during an alien abduction.. I haven’t heard about when they’re getting printed, not that I recall. Again, shrug, they’ll get here. Also very cooled off on actually running Dungeon World any time soon. Might be time to write my “why I hate Dungeon World” post that’ll make half my people block/mute/report me.

Blades in the Dark: I’m on-purpose not following this one, but I see mentions once in a while so I think it’s going to be fine. Someday. I’m sure it’ll be lovely.

Uncharted Worlds: I actually got a note from Sean Gomes about this yesterday! And here I was sure that fatherhood had completely swallowed him. So, cool, I can be patient for this one.

Epyllion: Went quiet back in May but Marissa Kelly posts about it once in a while, so I assume it’s doing whatever it needs to do. Estimated delivery is September so, cool, it’s in the crockpot. 

The Fall of Magic: Due November. Went quiet but whatever.

Undying: Still going strong. With 20 days to go this is the quiet stretch of the campaign, I think. Probably in the final 3 days things will go crazy. I have every confidence Jason Morningstar will get to deliver on his piece at $20k.

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Published by Paul Beakley

I founded the Indie Game Reading Club in 2010. I've written and developed RPGs since the mid-90s, now I mostly talk about playing them.

0 thoughts on “Kickstarter Roundup”

  2. Urban Shadows pre-final .pdf dropped yesterday. Solid work. 

    Last Days of Anglekite should have a .pdf to you, even if you’re waiting (as I am) for all the books.

  8. Don’t start the “longest undelivered project” or I will go to Power Chords. 

    Oh wait, I already did. 

    Also, I too will read all Dungeon World hate. And probably add to it.

  9. Paul Beakley 4 on your list. I like to help my friends and I am a cheap bastard.

    Full disclosure – the other two are Undying (no problems) and Blades in the Dark, which became so massive it will indeed take a while. I’m committed to a thing for it and have been working on it, but no contract and no deadlines yet. It’ll be fine.

  10. I know Will is working on Dark (and has shared some of the art and maps and stuff that’s getting finalized on Twitter, at least). I didn’t back so I don’t know how well he’s communicating through KSer, tho.

  13. Fatherhood hasn’t completely swallowed me, though I will admit that working a 9-to-5 job + fatherhood does mean that an entire day will vanish without a chance to even go on the computer, let alone write anything. But it’s sooooo worth it. The laughter, the angelic sleep, even the crying and diapers.

    That said, I have roughly 2.5 chapters left to write, and I”m starting the editing process on the chapters that are written in July, and August will be layout and finalization. I’m still committed to holding to the (admittedly ambitious) Kickstarter promise, and getting this book out before the end of September.

  14. Sean Gomes I would only advise that you put feedback and testing way, way before hitting arbitrary delivery deadlines. 

    I’ll take a late awesome game over an on-time undercooked game. That said I have no idea what your feedback/testing regime looks like so maybe I’m dumb and should shut up.

  21. Paul Beakley Oh playtesting and updates have been ongoing since before the Kickstarter! The last round of adjustments (as mentioned in Project Update 20) were for relatively minor aspects like the Ship Rooms and such. At this point, I actually feel that I need to stop making changes and actually get the dang thing published. Otherwise I could be tweaking and playtesting this thing for another two years.

  24. My oldest undelivered are Monsterhearts Second Skins (the first thing I ever backed) and Rosemont Bay. I know the creators have had some health issues though.

  29. There were all kinds of Timewatch sessions on the GenCon schedule, which suggests you may see some action on that front soon. 

    Also, I look forward to your Dungeon World rant with morbid curiosity.

  30. This day just keeps getting better and better.

    It’s like I posted a picture of my vestigal tail or something. Look upon the ancestor who played Metamorphosis Alpha before your parents met, and weep.

  34. I’m curious about the DW unlove too!

    lemme see, my oldest, MIA KS… Fucking Far West! RPG! WHERE THE FUCK IS MY SHIT!!!!
    Fuckit! I backed 6th Gun. I’ll have it come GenCon.

    Ahem, sorry. Yeah, Black Monks. 1966. Go civilization!

  36. I got Dwimmermount this year, so I have faith in kickstarter. Also, it’s really no sweat at all for me to do a large font version of the NewMexiCon game menus.

  40. Thanks for the kudos on Urban Shadows. It’s been a long process, but I’ve also really enjoyed the community and the experience. Andrew Medeiros is the best design/development partner evar. 

    As for Anglekite, Brendan Conway is hard at work on the second volume, The Cold Ruins of Lastlife. Playtesting is pretty much done, so all that’s left is writing the text. We expect to see that one out before the end of summer. The final volume might take a bit longer, but Brendan’s hoping to have them all written and in layout before the fall.

    For folks who bought all three books, we’re holding off on shipping Anglekite until the other books are ready. We’ll have copies of Anglekite at GenCon, so anyone who wants to pick up their copy can do so. (We’ll send out a google form through the KS page.)

  41. I’m turning in my stuff for Second Skins this week, so there’s that. Slowly gamedesigning myself out of the red.

  43. Brendan Conway is the worst a smart guy and I have total faith that he’ll turn in something good.

    Like I said, actually playing DW is way-low on my list at this point. Which is weird/interesting because when I backed Anglekite I was pumped out of my skull to run it.

  46. Jason Morningstar I remember that! Damn, guess I have to complain about not getting my ice hells. Then again, as a contributing designer I don’t think I actually backed the project, because Sage told me not to. Hmm.

  49. Paul Beakley Yeah, he’s in my circles and is having a really hard time of it so I’m not worrying about it too much.

  55. Well well, as if by magic, a Timewatch update arrived this morning. It’s full of “70% complete” and “47,792 words to go” and such.

    This is the worst kind of update. I hate it. I’m not buying words by the pound here, people. This is the kind of update that tells me you’ve actually done nothing interesting.

  56. Paul Beakley – I totally hear you. At the same time, I know that in the middle of Urban Shadows, word count was a rough barometer of progress for me as we worked through each chapter. What would be a better way to phrase this kind of update? Stuff like “This week, we finished up Chapter 5 and here are a few cool things from it!”?

  57. To be fair, once the content is complete and laid out and you now need to edit it, I am not sure how you can make it interesting:

    “Today we identified three missing Oxford commas and quashed a dangling participle.”

    😜

  58. Mark Diaz Truman the preview stuff you’re providing is a smart way to go. Just keep talking about what has you excited to work on the project, share secret previews and photos, and remind everyone you’re still keeping at it. That’s all you need to do.

  59. I agree with Matt Wilson​ here. I give not one shit about percentages and numbers of words. Previews and teasers, awesome! What’s exciting you, awesome!

    When I hear a precise word count, the vibe I get is “I am so burned out that I’ve reduced this project to a word count.”

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