Progress Update #4
about 4 years ago
– Sun, Feb 23, 2020 at 02:20:59 AM
Greetings Backers,
It is time to update you on the progress in the past few weeks.
Most of you have filled out your surveys, Thank You! If for any reason you did not receive your survey, or if you need to update your address, you can go to https://big-dumb-objects-schlock-mercenary-book-16.backerkit.com/ and login to fill out your survey. If you've tried that and are still having trouble, email [email protected] and we'll help.
TL;DR: We're behind the schedule we had anticipated, but working hard to make sure what we deliver is the very best it can be. Details on the reasons for delay below, also pictures of space ship models.
Big Dumb Objects book: The cover art is done, the cover design needs Howard to free up a few hours to work on it. Sandra needs to write the introduction and fill in some last white spaces. Because of a page count error, the bonus story has to be reworked completely. Howard needs to find time to do the reworking. We still plan to go to print as soon as we get all these things sorted. There has been nearly no progress here in the past few weeks because Howard has been sick.
Slipcase: The design is done and ready to send to print.
Confelicity/Schadenfreude Coin: Waiting for Howard to free up a couple of hours to work on the design. Also waiting for the factory to be finished with their holiday back log.
Warning Sign Stickers: We found a sticker supplier who is likely to provide a higher quality sticker than the one we'd planned to use. Sandra has ordered a sample kit that will arrive next Tuesday, then we'll make decisions and place the order.
Enamel Pins: Ready to print, but due to corona virus, the factory was shut down for an extra week around their New Year holiday. This has caused a big backlog in production. We're better off waiting for the backlog to clear before placing our order so that our order doesn't get lost in the shuffle. But we intend for this order to be placed before your next update.
Escape From the Friggen Jungle PDF: This is essentially done. Sandra only needs to place two more pieces of art then it can be released. Hopefully the first half of next week. (This would have been done this week, except Sandra's post-convention recovery was compounded by some heavier-than-usual parenting tasks which required meetings with school personnel and then emotional processing.)
Tiny Planet Mercenary: Sandra neglected to ask for a new status report before this Kickstarter update was due. So we'll repeat the last status update as a reference. And next time we'll have even more progress to report.
The team at Gallant Knight Games have this to report: The chassis of TinyD6 for Tiny PM makes getting this book done a lot easier, as the core framework already exists in our space opera game Tiny Frontiers: Revised. We were able to use large swathes of text from there, only updating sophont types to the PM ones, as well as adjusting how Mayhem and weapons work.
- Second draft writing done. Prepping for editing.
- Editing underway on cards (book text will wait until the playtesters are done).
- Playtesting completed.
- Time booked with the layout artist.
- Art assets being selected and determined for suitability.
Once we have a suitable draft of the book, Alan will pass it over to Hypernode Media for approvals and to gather their feedback.
Kitesfear model: On schedule! The mold for the hulls is finalized and the first casts have been made.
We're making a total of about 250 of these for the first run, and the plan is to have them ready to go by the end of April.
More Details:
Health updates: We'd hoped to be able to report Howard's quick return to health, instead he's continued coughing for the past three weeks and was hoarse or had no voice for most of that time. His energy was limited, so we cut back on everything we could. He skipped most of a local convention, and even opted out of some of the scheduled Writing Excuses Recording, allowing guests to step in there. The good news is that after weeks of fatigue, today Howard is feeling closer to normal than he has since mid January. So he's hard at work on building buffer. And trying to not have panic attacks knowing how far behind he is on delivering things to all you wonderful Kickstarter backers.
We still feel badly that we're not working at our usual efficiency and that all of you will have to wait a bit longer, but we are committed to delivering and making sure that what we deliver is worth every penny of your trust in us. The next progress update will be the week of March 9-13.
Thank you so much for backing our project,
Howard and Sandra
Progress Update #3
over 4 years ago
– Sun, Feb 02, 2020 at 01:50:51 AM
Greetings Backers,
It is time to update you on the progress in the past two weeks.
Most of you have filled out your surveys, Thank You! If for any reason you did not receive your survey, you can go to https://big-dumb-objects-schlock-mercenary-book-16.backerkit.com/ and login to fill out your survey. If you've tried that and are still having trouble, email [email protected] and we'll help.
TL;DR: We're behind the schedule we had anticipated, but working hard to make sure what we deliver is the very best it can be. Details on the reasons for delay below.
Big Dumb Objects book: The cover art is done, the cover design needs Howard to free up a few hours to work on it. Sandra needs to write the introduction and fill in some last white spaces. Because of a page count error, the bonus story has to be reworked completely. Howard needs to find time to do the reworking. We still plan to go to print as soon as we get all these things sorted.
Slipcase: The design is done and ready to send to print.
Confelicity/Schadenfreude Coin: Waiting for Howard to free up a couple of hours to work on the design.
Warning Sign Stickers: Howard wants to punch up the designs and tighten up the jokes, but he's focusing on Big Dumb Objects first. The good news is that turn around on stickers is only a few weeks, so they'll arrive in our hands first even if they go to print last. It is possible that we'll decide to go with the existing designs rather than reworking them.
Enamel Pins: Complete. Because of post wedding recovery, the order did not get placed before the factory left for their New Year break. Experience has shown us that there is always a backlog following the holiday and we're better off waiting a couple of weeks for the backlog to clear before placing our order so that our order doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Turn around on pins is short enough that they'll still arrive before books.
Escape From the Friggen Jungle PDF: Sandra really wanted to have this done before posting this update, but Howard got sick with the flu which threw all the household patterns off rhythm. Hopefully this will be ready for release within the next couple of weeks.
Tiny Planet Mercenary: The team at Gallant Knight Games have this to report: The chassis of TinyD6 for Tiny PM makes getting this book done a lot easier, as the core framework already exists in our space opera game Tiny Frontiers: Revised. We were able to use large swathes of text from there, only updating sophont types to the PM ones, as well as adjusting how Mayhem and weapons work.
- Second draft writing done. Prepping for editing.
- Editing underway on cards (book text will wait until the playtesters are done).
- Playtesting completed.
- Time booked with the layout artist.
- Art assets being selected and determined for suitability.
Once we have a suitable draft of the book, Alan will pass it over to Hypernode Media for approvals and to gather their feedback.
Kitesfear model: Jeff Zugale is hard at work refining the process and adding detail. He reports that he has the system for making annie plants and surface guns complete. He's still experimenting with options for the hull. He already has a mold ready but is doing some test prints with high end printers to see whether 3D printing or casting results in a better product. Either way, getting the ships made is on schedule.
More Details:
Health updates: Sandra recovered from her emergency room adventures. Then both Howard and Sandra recovered from the wedding (Which was beautiful and joyous.) We were excited at the prospect of finally having a few weeks where no outside events impacted our work schedules. Which is exactly when Howard came down with the flu. He had fevers for five days and continues to be wracked with coughs that make sleeping difficult. At one point the coughs were so bad we ended up in the ER to make sure he hadn't tipped over into pneumonia. (He hadn't.) Both Howard and Sandra had to bend all of their efforts in the past two weeks to making sure that Howard's brief moments of capability were used on creating the daily comic since the buffer had gotten dangerously low.
And therein lies a larger health-related story. Howard has been struggling to get the buffer up to a healthy level ever since last July. (Buffer has been bobbing between an uncomfortably low 12 days, all the way down to a terrifying 3 days.) We can't tell yet whether the struggle is a permanent result of some necessary medication switches, simply the natural impact of constantly living with household upheaval and major life events month after month, or because age forces us to all slow down at some point. All three of these things have been constant for the past 8 months. Obviously we're hoping for the middle option, because it means Howard can be back up to speed as soon as we can prevent outside events from impinging on his schedule. We are both committed to making sure the comic updates every single day all the way until we hit the end of the story. This means when we're allocating Howard's creative time, the buffer comes first until it is a healthy 20 to 30 days deep. This is the major reason for the delay on Kickstarter deliverables. Howard strongly believes that as soon as he kicks this cough, he can be back up to speed.
The Bonus story: First, we heard your preferences and there will definitely be a bonus story. Howard always knew that was the better option, but Sandra waffled momentarily because she tracks the schedule. However, the page count issue that Sandra discovered when she went to place the completed comic art into the book means that the story has to be completely reworked. Our current plan is for Howard to rewrite the story as prose with spot illustrations rather than in graphic novel format. Once we thought of taking this approach, we instantly saw how much better this would make the story. More words gives Howard space to tell jokes and story pieces that don't quite work in comic format. We're excited to get it written and to share it with you.
We still feel badly that we're not working at our usual efficiency and that all of you will have to wait a bit longer, but we are committed to delivering and making sure that what we deliver is worth every penny of your trust in us. The next progress update will be the week of February 17-21. It would be a week earlier, but that week is a local convention called LTUE. Howard will be curtailing his attendance at LTUE down to a single day and instead focusing on catching up on creative work. But Sandra (who writes these updates) is committed to attend all three days.
Thank you so much for backing our project,
Howard and Sandra
Progress Update #2
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Jan 09, 2020 at 07:37:37 PM
Greetings Backers,
Thank you for your patience as we're overdue to get this update to you.
Most of you have filled out your surveys, Thank You! If for any reason you did not receive your survey, you can go to https://big-dumb-objects-schlock-mercenary-book-16.backerkit.com/ and login to fill out your survey. If you've tried that and are still having trouble, email [email protected] and we'll help.
TL;DR: The holidays, some medical issues, and our daughters impending wedding have slowed us down more than we expected. We're still getting all the things done, but we're behind the schedule we had anticipated. We've also discovered a page count issue that impacts the bonus story and are evaluating our options. Details below.
Big Dumb Objects book: The cover art is done, the cover design needs Howard to free up a few hours to work on it. Sandra needs to write the introduction and fill in some last white spaces. We've discovered a page count error which impacts the bonus story and are evaluating what to do. We still plan to go to print as soon as we get all these things sorted. But the delay means production will be impacted by Chinese New Year. The factory we work with is good to their workers and they get time off for this important cultural holiday. Because of the holiday, the earliest we can send the book off to print is the first week of February. And honestly with the wedding next week and family starting to arrive, that's probably the soonest we'll get to it.
Slipcase: The design is done and ready to send to print.
Confelicity/Schadenfreude Coin: Waiting for Howard to free up a couple of hours to work on the design.
Warning Sign Stickers: Howard wants to punch up the designs and tighten up the jokes, but he's focusing on Big Dumb Objects first. The good news is that turn around on stickers is only a few weeks, so they'll arrive in our hands first even if they go to print last. It is possible that we'll decide to go with the existing designs rather than reworking them.
Enamel Pins: Complete. The order for these will be placed within the week.
Escape From the Friggen Jungle PDF: All the text is edited and images are done. Sandra just needs to finish the layout.
Tiny Planet Mercenary: The team at Gallant Knight Games have this to report: The chassis of TinyD6 for Tiny PM makes getting this book done a lot easier, as the core framework already exists in our space opera game Tiny Frontiers: Revised. We were able to use large swathes of text from there, only updating sophont types to the PM ones, as well as adjusting how Mayhem and weapons work.
- First draft writing done.
- Editing underway on cards (book text will wait until the playtesters are done).
- Playtesting underway.
- Time booked with the layout artist.
- Art assets being selected and determined for suitability.
Kitesfear model: Jeff Zugale is hard at work refining the process and adding detail. He reports that he has the system for making annie plants and surface guns complete. He's still experimenting with options for the hull. He already has a mold ready but is doing some test prints with high end printers to see whether 3D printing or casting results in a better product. Either way, getting the ships made is on schedule.
More Details:
Sandra is doing much better. The scoping procedure discovered Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EOE) which sounds terrible, but basically means that there is a constriction in the throat because of tissue build up. Causes are usually food allergies or acid reflux. The constriction was stretched out and Sandra hasn't choked since. She's also working to address the acid reflux so there won't be a repeat. Recovery slowed her down for about five days. She'll be back up to full managerial capacity after the wedding next Wednesday. (She's at capacity now, but the wedding is using that up.)
The bonus story for this book was seriously impacted by our five year summer. We got final pages from our artist in early November, but when Sandra went to place those pages into the book, she realized that she had miscounted the available number of pages, an error which would have been caught much sooner if Sandra hadn't spent the entire summer being a general contractor to repair our house. This mismatch has required a complete re-tooling of the bonus story and threw the job back onto Howard's already over-full plate. This leaves us with a challenging decision, whether to delay the book waiting on the re-tooled bonus story, or whether to yank the bonus story and go to print only a little behind schedule.
Holidays always impact our schedule. Not just because of the increase in time away from work for social events, but also in the brain space required to plan and execute on those plans. During the holiday season Sandra has to ship five times as many packages as usual which is a blessing because it seems like we spend five times as much money as usual during the month of December, but it is a significant change to her time commitments. December also is the month when Sandra meets with our tax accountant to find out what financial moves Tayler Corp needs to make by the end of the year to best position ourselves for tax season.
The wedding is next Wednesday. Early in the planning process we decided to spend money with reliable small businesses in order to save ourselves stress. We've seen many family and friends run themselves ragged with DIY wedding options. Even so, there are still many tasks that fill up our brains, people to pick up from airports, housing to arrange, last check-ins with vendors. On the upside, seeing the bride and groom together makes us very happy so we're glad to spend the money and stress.
We feel badly that we're not working at our usual efficiency and that all of you will have to wait a bit longer, but we are committed to delivering and making sure that what we deliver is worth every penny of your trust in us. The next progress update will be the week of January 27-31.
Thank you so much for backing our project,
Howard and Sandra
Quick Update
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Jan 03, 2020 at 01:14:25 AM
Greetings Backers,
We're overdue to give you a full progress update. Sandra was set to put that together this week and instead we landed in the ER on New Year's Day and have a follow up procedure scheduled for tomorrow.* This combined with a more-hectic-than-usual holiday season and our daughter's impending wedding means we have spent every minute of creative time working on the comic or Kickstarter deliverables instead of on writing reports on our progress with those deliverables. We plan to correct the lack of progress updates by next Tuesday.
Thank you so much for your patience with us and our lack of reporting.
Howard and Sandra
*ER visit was for a long-standing issue that Sandra has with swallowing which suddenly flared up in a life-threatening way. Fortunately the ER people were smart and knew exactly how to restore normality. Procedure tomorrow is sending a camera down her throat to figure out exactly why it got so bad we ended up in the ER, and possibly to apply a real fix, because it turns out that we can probably get a "normal" which is far better than the one Sandra has had for the past two years.
Survey Errata
over 4 years ago
– Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 05:33:08 PM
Greetings Backers,
As you've all been filling out your surveys, we've discovered some errors we've now fixed and would like to alert you about. A full progress update is still coming later in the week.
Artist's Choice Sketch option. I missed putting Artist's Choice as one of the sketch options until some one brought it to my attention on Saturday morning. If you want Artist's Choice as your sketch, but didn't see the option when you answered your survey, you can click back over to your survey and add it now.
$1 Just Watching pledge level. If you are in this pledge level and you want to purchase physical rewards, you'll need to email [email protected] and I'll switch you to a level which allows sending physical rewards. This switch has to happen for the correct calculation of shipping.
Tiny PM Mayhem Deck. If you want a physical print version of the Tiny Planet Mercenary Mayhem Deck, you'll have to add it on. A PDF version of the deck is included with every Tiny PM purchase. I missed making this deck available until it was brought to my attention this morning. The deck is available now, so if you want one, you can log back into your survey and add it to your order.
Book 12 Force Multiplication. Behind the scenes in setting up a backerkit survey, there are dozens of little check boxes for every single product I put into the Add On store. I missed checking one of these boxes for Force Multiplication and that prevented it from showing up for a couple of pledge levels. I believe I have it corrected now. If you want a copy of Force Multiplication, you should be able to log back in and add it to your order now.
Those are all the errors we've heard about so far. There are probably more that are as yet undiscovered. If you're missing an option you think you should have, or are confused about something in your survey, please feel free to email [email protected] and I'll help you get it straightened out. Sorry for any inconvenience the errors thus far have caused.
Sandra Tayler
