Numbers, Pages, Status
10 months ago – Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 08:11:34 AM

Hey friends - this is going to be a quick, clear, simple update! As of June 1, we are up over 300 pages of content written (about 310 based on layout tests, and our goal is 400 pages), and continuing to work on writing to get this thing on its way to your tables. We wanted to be preparing for print right now, but our team have continued to have some rather garbage luck with illnesses and other non-work life interruptions, so the Spring progress was not at the full speed we aimed for.  We should be looking at locking-in layouts later this Summer.  Art-wise, things are close to wrapping up, just a few spot illustrations remain! Since all the art being worked on at this point is related to story-items later in the chapters/books, we're not showing all of that like we do with the maps, but trust me - it's cute! 

We're doing our best and as always, appreciate patience, good vibes, cats, and really are looking forward to putting this cool thing into your hands. I hope you all are having a good start of Summer and have had a fun Spring :)

Twenty Thousand Spoilers Under the Seas
about 1 year ago – Mon, Apr 10, 2023 at 02:02:37 PM

Ahoy there, space friends. We hope this missive finds you well. It's coming to you at a strange time in the development of this project, a moment in which all of the creative work we're doing is made up of spoilers for the game narrative. But fear not, steady friends! We've redacted any spoiler material below.

Writing Update

We are hard at work on filling in all of the writing for you and your crew to enjoy. Right now, we're working on Chapters 2, 3, and 4 (and an unnumbered Interlude) of one of the Storybooks where you get to explore [REDACTED].  Will you befriend the [REDACTED] to find out the cause of the [REDACTED], or would you rather travel through the [REDACTED] with a daring [REDACTED]? Maybe your plans will be disturbed by a [REDACTED]! Only time (and your choices) will tell!

Numbers-wise, we've worked on approximately 400 writing-entry-units (these vary from a few sentences to a couple paragraphs) since the start of December. Most of these are complete, though some still need an editing pass. Our acceleration of writing continues, and is in line with our goal of doing printing this year.  

Narrative Architecting Update

Between the outlining step of making a Chapter and the writing step of making a Chapter, a process exists where our Narrative Architect (Sarah) inputs the shape of a Chapter into the Database (read more about it here). Each Chapter takes about a week or two to input, with the computer playing it multiple times throughout the process. This lets Sarah easily spot the dreaded typos or uncommon edge cases so she can fix them quickly. 

Art and Design Update

The remaining illustrations that we're working on fall completely into the realm of spoilers, so we won't be posting them for you to look at. We've just completed eight of them, and we're currently working on four more! They are [REDACTED] and we want to [REDACTED] them so much! We think you'll enjoy them too!

Too much redacted? Fine! I can tell you that one of them is green, one is pink and segmented, another has triangles all over its forehead, and one is very space. Such space. Now you know everything. Sheesh.  

Graphic design work to bring the Passport and Storybooks to their final visual forms has been on a pause while we devote all our resources to the writing itself. Graphics will come back to the fore once the Narrative Architecting is complete. 

What's Next?

We're heads-down writing and doing writing work (and of course the DB architecting to allow the writers to input their writings). It's the thing we need to complete to get the game to you, and we're getting there! I hope everyone is having a good start of Spring, and gets to touch Space Grass soon. 

...actually, don't touch the Space Grass. Scans have just indicated it may be a sentient and decidedly shy unknown entity. 

Incoming Transmission for the Printer
about 1 year ago – Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 10:28:19 AM

Greetings space adventurers! The Odysseys crew is back from our New Year holidays with some news for you. Today we have an exciting collaboration between electronics and paper to share with you, as well as some new introductions. 

Special Preview Update

 We brought Storybook 1 Chapter 1 with us to PAX Unplugged and had a great time playing it with a few of you at the convention. This was the first time in years that we've actually had an adventure from the game itself at a convention table, and it was delightful to see a full Chapter in action! Thanks to those of you who stopped by.

For the rest of you, we've prepared a packet of .pdf files! This Print and Play includes everything you'll need to enjoy "Welcome to Brumigum" at a table with your very own crew. You can download it from Plumplim.com on the Game tab: Click Here! Full spoiler warning! This is actual game content, and though we reserve the right to edit things if necessary, we're hoping that this story is very similar to what you will find in the final game.  

We're still working on a Tabletop Simulator mod, and we'll be releasing more chapters from the first story in PDF form for you to peruse over the first half of the year. We're not going to release everything as PDFs, but want to give you some things to peek at if you'd like a preview before the game is in your hands! 

Writing Update

We'd like to announce and welcome two new writers to our team! They're going to help us complete the text-based work on the game: 

Coral Alejandra Moore is a writer, an editor, a Jupiter fangirl, and a genetics nerd. She has written nonfiction about gaming and edited Dungeons and Dragons adventures for Kobold Press. Her short fiction has been published in Lightspeed Magazine, Mermaid's Monthly, and Diabolical Plots. Visit her online at http://www.coralmoore.com/

Anaea Lay lives in Chicago where she engages in a numinous love affair with the city. She haunts zoning committee meetings in search of high drama, makes annual pilgrimages to every branch of the public library, and hasn't been outside the city limits since March of 2020. Her lovebird familiar, Allium, stole her feathers from a T-rex. Anaea has written two games for Choice of Games, Gilded Rails, a railroad business sim with too many romance options, and Light Years Apart, a space opera romp with a deeply hidden Bohemian Rhapsody joke. You can find Anaea's short fiction in places such as Apex, Nightmare, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, or upcoming at Zombies Need Brains Presents. For a full bibliography, check out her website, anaealay.com. To talk to her online, find @anaealay on Twitter, or look her up on the Dream Foundry discord server.

Ivy is a cat who is definitely helping write this update and not requesting food loudly and persistently.

We're excited to welcome them to Insula, and we're looking forward to discovering all of the wonderful details they add to the universe. They will be focusing their efforts on the next Storybook, writing from Chapter 1 through to the several endings. 

Art and Graphics Updates

Graphics work continues on the Passport Folder and the Almanac for the Information Officer's Role. We're also adjusting the look of the Storybook so that everything feels lively when you visit Insula. You can get a sneak peak at some of these changes in the Print and Play, but for the storybook in particular, we've kept that presentation simple so that it requires less colored ink to print.

The most spoiler-y bits of art are also coming in and looking very good! These things are going to make great additions to your Passport.

What's Next?

With more writers joining the team, we're looking to finish up the storywriting over the next several months, so that we can print the game and get it to you! The list of remaining art is getting smaller and smaller, and is down to just spot illustrations for Passport cards and achievements. I know it's been a tremendously long journey, but we're coming to the end of it. I appreciate the patience that so many of you have shown, and I understand the frustration of a loooooong project. We're doing our best, and I hope the table experience lives up to your expectations! 

Now Arriving: It's Araveen!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Nov 18, 2022 at 01:41:36 PM

Greetings space fans! Who's ready to set foot (or paw, perhaps?) on a brand new world today? 

Art Update

Welcome to Araveen, the homeworld of the Felisi. This is Trebulin city, the capital city. You'll get to experience this seat of Felisi culture, learning, and science experiments of questionable merit. Enjoy!

 Araveen is the last of the location illustrations that we have planned for the base box. The next step for our artists is to illustrate the Items that you'll be able to add to your Passport as you play through the game. We won't be sharing those spoilers here, but look forward to finding them in Insula!

Graphic Update

Now that we have all ten of the Map illustrations for the base box, we can move forward with other game graphics. Location Cards and Focus Cards are both grouped by Location, and so the backs of these types of cards feature little bits of the Map illustration along with an official seal.

We're also working on a board for Navigation to use. It's smaller than the Mission Control Board, and it provides places to keep the piles of DISCs that the Navigator will use as your crew explores new places, and also for the location cards you'll be putting into play on the map.  

Graphics work will continue with setting up the other sides of the Location, Item, and Contact cards. 

Special Preview

In our previous update, we mentioned a plan to print some of the content of the game by the end of the year. Our thoughts were to try and print a mini-box with a preview of parts or all of Storybook 1, but as we looked into the logistics of doing so, the print costs were just too high for a short run. We're going to focus on delivering a preview digitally instead.

You'll have three options on how to consume this delicious demo preview! 

1) A print and play of maps, cards, and tokens, with a PDF of the text portions of the first half of Storybook 1 (you can print it, or use a tablet/phone to read paragraphs). 

2) A TTS (Tabletop Simulator) module which you can play through on your own, or with your friends.

3) A TTS live demo with us during Special Preview Times - we'll schedule slots that folks can sign up for, and we'll help you through using TTS.  We'll start scheduling slots in January, much like we did for our events the year that Gen Con was virtual. It was fun to hang out with game friends, and it'll be exciting to do it again! 

4) Secret fourth option: We'll have a demo table at our booth in the PAX Unplugged expo hall, although we do note that masks are required, and reading many paragraphs out-loud can get to be a little exhausting in that situation. At a minimum, you can always come peek at the cool components :) 

Update Schedule + PAX Unplugged

As mentioned above, we'll be at PAX Unplugged in December. Our next KS update will come after that in the middle of December, as we move toward sharing preview chapters with you all! In the meantime, we're continuing our writing efforts so we can get this game to your real table in addition to your virtual one!

That New Spaceship Smell
over 1 year ago – Wed, Sep 28, 2022 at 11:59:00 AM

Greetings fellow spacefarers! There's nothing quite like clambering through an airlock into a spaceship for the first time, is there? You've got the open universe in front of you, your friends in comfortable chairs around you, and that new spaceship smell wafting up from all of the fresh control panels. 

Graphics Update

Over the past few months, we've been buffing and polishing the Odyssey's dashboard. You'll notice that the colors on the Mission Control Board now neatly match the colors of the Odyssey itself, giving you one cohesive spaceship experience from inside to out. It's our plan to use this as the final game graphics (barring minor post-proofing adjustments of course). 

We also took another pass at the Momentum Cards. The fresh icons are meant to clearly convey the meaning of each different type of Momentum, so you can plug them into your Mission Control Board with confidence. 

The more Momentum you add, the livelier your board becomes. Your Operations Officer can track one, two, or even three missions at a time. There's even space for Focus cards to sit on the board so you can keep track of what's next.

Graphics work will continue into the purview of the Navigator next. This includes things like polished graphics for all of the Maps and the Location Cards.   

Art Update

Speaking of Maps, work on the final Map is progressing. We've got a watercolor-layering preview for you:

Still more color to be added, but it's shaping up nicely! With this and the MCB, we're approaching a point where all the biggest art assets are completed. Exciting :)

Writing and Stories Update

Writing continues with a special focus on Storybook 1. Chapters 7 and 8 have been getting some intense writing time. We're also running internal playthroughs of earlier chapters to keep increasing the level of polish and consistency throughout the whole story. Once the earlier parts of the story are ready, we'll send Chapter 9 of Storybook 1 into the supercomputer. 

We also have some exciting news! Our writing crew grew this summer, please welcome Mimi Mondal:

Mimi has been thoroughly vetted by Zibzab Writing Value Analysts (as you may expect, they score you based on your work's total scrabble value), and of course our own team. She'll be helping us with our push to get more stories onto your table. She's begun work on Storybook 2, since introducing someone late into the Storybook 1 efforts would be, according to the Zibzab, "anti-counter-nega-productive", a rare triple negative!

What's Next?

We're working hard to get stories ready for print so that we can produce Physical Game Objects this year, which remains our goal and target. At the end of October, we're going to evaluate what we could feasibly print at year's end and make a decision on how to proceed. This may involve a short run (exclusively for backers) of a playable Storybook 1. We're looking into multiple options with our factory and printing partners to make this happen! 

This would not affect the delivery of the full game + expansion, it would be a gift to our backers for putting up with our much-longer-than-anticipated production time for the game. We appreciate your patience, understanding, kindness, apples, and look forward to finally sharing this thing!