October Update - Spoopy Season is Upon Us...
6 months ago
– Tue, Oct 01, 2024 at 01:51:02 PM
A Spoopy update for Spoopy season!
Hello Adventurers! We're just back from Edmonton Fan Expo and Dragon Days, with Magic Con Las Vegas on the horizon :D Despite the travel, we're still marching towards final drafts and finishing up artwork. We'll be sharing a little bit of both in this update, so read on!
As a reminder, if you would like to join the Quest Chest Discord to chat with each other, as well as ask any questions you might have, you can find it here - https://discord.gg/KUYaNQaPcJ
This is a great place if you want an up-to-the-moment update on things, or just have a question to ask us :) We definitely encourage you to head over there!
Project Update
Backerkit Survey!
Backerkit is locked! We haven't charged yet, but we will definitely give you a heads up before we do. We'd like to charge a little closer to shipment date, since it doesn't make sense to us to have the shipping cash sitting in our bank account rather than yours for the intervening time. As a reminder, our initially projected ship date for the full campaign chest was December this year. We're not quite to that point yet, and we appreciate your patience as we work to ensure that you get the best possible adventure(s).
Departmental Updates
- Writing - Edits, the very important and also very boring part we're currently grinding through. It's not very exciting, and unfortunately that means there isn't a lot to update everyone on here. That being said! In honour of my favourite month, I'm going to be including a bit of the intro for Box 4, arguably our spookiest box in the whole campaign chest, below!
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Layout - Our physical sample copy hasn't arrived yet; we were hoping it would be here in time to post some images of how things turned out for the layout on this update, but it'll have to be part of a different one! At the last minute we decided to get creative with some elements of the layout template, and, while we can't say much at this stage, people who know our love for puzzles and riddles will understand when we say how excited we are for you folks to start reading through the guidebooks :)
- Art - Just like with writing, getting the bad guys right is huge for artwork. Too menacing and they become a caricature, but not scary enough and they have no teeth. We've gone through several iterations of a few of our villains, but we're getting to final drafts now for most of them. Later on in this update you'll see a concept image for our primary Box 4 villain, Morvaiel.
- Distribution - Nothing new to report here. This is good news!
- Manufacturing - Still waiting on samples! Otherwise, not much to update here :D
Manufacturing
We're still manufacturing two of the boxes! Hooray!
The Fun Stuff
Alright folks, if you made it this far we have some stuff we think is a pretty great reward for sticking with us :D
Box 4, The Broken Bar, is the box we devoted to scary happenings and a more horror theme. We have a frighteningly powerful and inhuman villain twisting the fabric of reality, a tavern full of civilians, and cultists on the loose. We'd like to give you a preview of a portion of the introduction to this box, and some concept images of our baddie, Morvaiel.
"You’ve been on the trail for days, feeling yourself closing in on your quarry when vicious storm clouds boil up from behind, seemingly pursuing you just as you pursue Oliver Harrogate. The storm descends just as your party enters the Avellan region and into a large forest of dense trees. Frigid rain lances down around you, fingers of ice clawing their way down your neck, soaking your clothes, and finding every inch of exposed skin. Even the surrounding forest does nothing to protect you from this onslaught, sheets of water pouring down through the treetops and a bitter wind whipping the raindrops sideways through the trunks into your cold-numbed faces.
Two days of navigating the darkness of the trees and rain on low rations has left you all exhausted and hungry, only the knowledge of looming disaster continuing to drive you forwards. Every few minutes your eyes drift shut on their own, and only the growl and ache of your stomach allows you to force them open again. At almost the very moment you feel you can’t continue on and you’ll have to find the driest place possible to call a rest, you see a small golden glint through the trees. You almost think it a mirage, or some delusion born of desperation and hope, but as you paw water out of your tired eyes the lights remain.
Your horses finally break the tree line into a rainswept field and a large cobblestone and wood building rises before you. A swinging sign protected by an awning and lit by torch proclaims this to be the Waystone Inn and promises food, drink, and rest to weary travelers. The stable around the side is welcoming and warm, and as you dismount and hand your horses off to the stable hands, the enticing smell of spiced meats and fresh baked bread draw you towards the front door."
Without giving too much away, the primary antagonist for The Broken Bar is Morvaiel, a truly ancient Spirit of Death with no love for mortals. We've worked very hard to create a creature that is new and fresh, but still brushes on all those little touchstones that we think of when death comes to call.
Thank you!
As always, thank you all so much for your support! It means the world to us as we build a world for you :)
Michael and Austin
September Early (or August Late!) Update!
7 months ago
– Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 11:37:26 PM
Con Season Is Upon Us!
Hello Adventurers! Hope you're all doing well in your various quests throughout the world! We're at PAX this weekend, Rose City Comic Con the weekend after that, then Edmonton and Regina. September is a crazy month xD We've been heads down on testing samples and prepping some exciting music stuff, so we did somehow manage to miss the August update. We're here a couple of days early with the September update though :D Please read through everything to get a snapshot of where we stand!
As a reminder, if you would like to join the Quest Chest Discord to chat with each other, as well as ask any questions you might have, you can find it here - https://discord.gg/KUYaNQaPcJ
This is a great place if you want an up-to-the-moment update on things, or just have a question to ask us :) We definitely encourage you to head over there!
Project Update
Backerkit Survey!
Backerkit is locked! We haven't charged yet, but we will definitely give you a heads up before we do. We'd like to charge a little closer to shipment date, since it doesn't make sense to us to have the shipping cash sitting in our bank account rather than yours for the intervening time. As a reminder, our initially projected ship date for the full campaign chest was December this year. We're not quite to that point yet, and we appreciate your patience as we work to ensure that you get the best possible adventure(s).
Departmental Updates
- Writing - Bad guys. There's probably not a ton more satisfying that writing bad guys. Our big bad for box 5 is about as bad as it gets, mostly because he genuinely truly believes he's doing the right thing, and you're standing in the way. He's waited a long time to save the world, and you're doing your best to work against him >:D Box 5 is where a whole bunch of clues, props, and storylines converge, and getting to the end and the payoff here is both wonderful and also a bit sad for me. Pretty excited to be one more step closer, but I'll also miss these characters.
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Layout - The layout template is fully complete and we've got the first couple of guidebooks squared away. We're going to be getting a physical copy very shortly from manufacturing, so that's exciting! We changed up a couple of things from the original example that we posted here, including maybe adding in a few easter eggs here and there ;)
- Art - With the largest prop/art piece completed last month, it's been on to more, if smaller pieces. There are many many character portraits, landscapes, creatures, and more that are going into each guidebook and we want to capture them all in exceptional detail. We'll be sharing a bit more of that in the next couple of updates!
- Distribution - Nothing new to report here. This is good news!
- Manufacturing - Our UV problem is solved! We also identified a colour issue with both the stamp, and inside colouring of one of the boxes before manufacturing began (good news!) so we've gotten those corrected, and the new samples are on their way to us now. Once they all come in we'll post some pictures so that you can celebrate along with us! We may also have found a workaround for the tea, but it needs testing, so we're chugging away there too!
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The Less Good News - We're looking at our expected runway in relation to some timelines our manufacturer has given us, and we think it's likely we're going to overrun our initial shipment expectation. Not by a ton, but we'd rather you knew now. We'd initially expected to be one of the very rare Kickstarter projects that delivers right on the projected date, ufortunately it looks like that won't be possible. Our adjusted target is shipping Q1 in the new year; probably only a month or two late. We'd rather ensure that the manufacturing isn't rushed and everyone is truly happy with what they receive, than force a crunch and possibly end up with boxes that disappoint. We're very proud of our work, and we know you'll be thrilled when the Campaign Chest arrives :)
Manufacturing
We're still manufacturing two of the boxes! Hooray!
Thank you!
As always, thank you all so much for your support! It means the world to us as we build a world for you :)
Michael and Austin
July Update - Happy Summer!
9 months ago
– Wed, Jul 03, 2024 at 06:46:19 PM
Happy July!
Hello Adventurers! Happy summer to everyone :D We hope you're having some great time out in the sun and enjoying all the awesome summer activities. For our part, we're taking our writing and artwork outside as much as possible to soak in the sun while we work!
As a reminder, if you would like to join the Quest Chest Discord to chat with each other, as well as ask any questions you might have, you can find it here - https://discord.gg/KUYaNQaPcJ
Project Update
Backerkit Survey!
Backerkit is locked, and we'll be charging shortly! If there's anything else you decide you'd like to order please shoot us an email so we can add things to your pledge :)
Departmental Updates
- Writing - Box 4 is a beast. Every box we work on I spend a good amount of time saying "this one, this one is my favourite" but man oh man, this box is exciting to me. It's requiring a lot in terms of moving pieces, and I think it may be the most ambitious of the full set, but once you get it you're going to see how worth it the work has been! We're also into a project that's kind of a hybrid writing/art piece, which is layout!
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Layout - It isn't enough to just write a bunch of words and do a bunch of art, however fun those things might be! There's an art and a science to making books as accessible and readable as possible, while ensuring that everything is pleasing to the eye. This is a time and labour intensive process, but we're into it now! In fact, we have small sneak peek of a NOT FINALIZED page to show you all at the bottom of this update :D
- Art - Probably the most ambitious prop we have in the entire Campaign Chest is the full Major Arcana. As we've said before, this prop comes piecemeal throughout each of the 5 boxes. Each single card has a purpose and an effect on their own, but each can also be combined with others to create larger and larger effects. This means that each card has to be cool on its own, but also has to connect into, theoretically, any other card via the artwork. This is now fully complete!
- Distribution - Nothing new to report here. This is good news!
- Manufacturing - Small hiccup with the a couple of our props; it's really important to us that each prop that helps you tell the story is perfect, and we're very focused on the attention to detail required to make sure your players have the best experience possible with every prop in every box. While we love almost everything in the samples that we got back, the UV isn't where we want it to be in terms of brightness, so we're going to be experimenting with other methods for this particular set of props. We've also hit a small snag with the tea as well, but we're confident we can get that one solved well before it's needed!
Manufacturing
We're into manufacturing for two of the boxes! This is very exciting for us! Huzzah!
Layout Example Page!
For this update, we thought you might like to see an example of a page that's gone through layout and formatting! Austin has been hard at work codifying the "rules" for how everything will appear on the page, so that everything is consistent page to page and book to book. You should always know what you're looking at and understanding the coding of colour and format should be reflexive as quickly as possible. Without further ado, check this out!
Thank you!
As always, thank you all so much for your support! It means the world to us as we build a world for you :)
Michael and Austin
June Update!
10 months ago
– Sun, Jun 09, 2024 at 10:39:22 AM
June Update!
Hello Adventurers! We've got some really exciting things to share in the update this month; for some really cool visual reveals, read on!
First off though, we know it's been quiet for a couple of months. We've been doing a lot of travel for cons, and getting a ton of art done, but we're back to our update schedule now :D
As a reminder, if you would like to join the Quest Chest Discord to chat with each other, as well as ask any questions you might have, you can find it here - https://discord.gg/KUYaNQaPcJ
Project Update
Backerkit Survey!
Backerkit is locked, and we'll be charging shortly! If there's anything else you decide you'd like to order please shoot us an email so we can add things to your pledge :)
Departmental Updates
- Writing - We've been working on formatting! It's a time xD There's so much great art that we want to include to help you and your players visualize the world, and that means making sure the words we have on the page are arranged appropriately so that we don't have a million page booklet for each box. We're beginning to really tinker with box 4, which is a really fun extended horror(ish) based dungeon run, so lots of maps, lots of encounters, and lots of spooky!
- Art - This is the update where we share a small sliver of one of the coolest art pieces for this project! We've been really excited to design and work on a physical prop/mechanic/art piece(s) that you'll be getting in each box/all the boxes, and this is the first partial reveal :D We'll not be giving away secrets here, but you'll get a glimpse below!
- Distribution - Nothing new to report here. This is good news!
- Manufacturing - Two of the boxes are now in manufacturing, which means 5 to go! Samples should begin arriving to us shortly, and then we begin the process of tiny changes to ensure that everything is perfect with every prop.
Manufacturing
We're into manufacturing for two of the boxes! This is very exciting for us! Huzzah!
Art Time!
One of the coolest things we've come up with for the boxes is a functional Major Arcana tarot deck. We say functional because in each box you'll be getting 4-5 cards, each of which have a purpose, and which can be used in several ways. If you're getting the full campaign chest this gets even more expansive and cool, but we won't spoil that secret just yet ;) For the moment we'd love to release an exclusive glimpse into the first of these cards -
That's all for this update folks :D Thank you so much as always!
Locking Orders and Charging Cards!
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Mar 23, 2024 at 07:25:48 PM
Heads up!
Hey adventurers! We wanted to give you all a heads up, we will be setting the wheels in motion to lock orders and charge cards as of this Monday the 25th. This will be the last chance to add things to your pledges! After this point you'll just be able to hit the pre-order store and place new orders.
Please make sure you have updated everything, that your payment info is correct, and that you're happy with your pledges! We're very excited to be advancing in our timeline, and this is one step closer to getting the boxes to your table, and all those sweet physical props into the hands of your players :D
We won't be locking addresses just yet, so if you move or don't yet know where you need to ship things that's ok, you've got time for that!
Happy adventuring all!
