1001 Odysseys

New Year Update
about 1 year ago – Thu, Jan 30, 2025 at 11:08:19 AM

[From Chris: Sorry for the delay in posting this update! It was ready a couple weeks back but I was sick and/or the world was...doing world things, and haven't gotten to editing it until now.] 

Hello friends. 

Thank you to everyone who visited us at PAX Unplugged! We had excerpts of the final Almanac with us this time, and it was good to see Information Officers put the Location and People sections to use as they helped their crews travel around Insula.

For those of you who weren't at the show, we wanted to share a little mock-up of one of the pages from the 'People of Insula' section of the Almanac. 

Writing Update

The writers are working on final narrative and continuity revisions in Storybook 2. We've been reading through each blurb in the context of the entire story and making small adjustments where we find any confusing bits. Hurray for testing! While doing this, we've also been making sure that we have Almanac entries where we need them. Those chapters are being passed off to copyediting as soon as writing revisions are done. 

In the Almanac, we have moved on to working on the alphabetical entries that explain the bits and pieces of Insula. We're polishing the entries we've already written and adding new ones as needed.

Editing Update

Our copy editors have gone through Storybook 1, and we've been applying the suggested changes. We're in the process of final checking of each blurb and then locking it in for print. Storybook 2 copy editing is underway, and as mentioned above, is fueled by completion of playtest edits to chapters. We're pretty much done with playtesting (aside from final checks)!

Gameplay Update

The gameplay is not changing, but based on feedback we are revising the wording of some of the commands listed in the Updates section following each blurb, to make each one a little easier to follow. This is just a database change, and won't have any impact on writing.

What's Next?

After the Almanac is written, the next step for writing is to do a final revision on the Rulebook and the Introduction/Tutorial Chapter in Storybook 1. We've already done some playtesting with it, but we want to make sure that it still works well to lead you into Chapter 1. We want your first time at the table to be fun and not mired in rulebook reading, and we've put a lot of thought + work into making that happen.

Once that is edited and locked, all of the writing will be ready to pull into the final layouts. We'll also run our fancy dataMerge processes to generate all of our Focus and Location Cards for print.

With the holidays, the world, and PAX, copyediting in December/early January was a little slower than anticipated, but things have been at full speed since. We're crusing toward print readiness and getting games to you all! 

Almanac Pics! Wrapping up/Copyediting! Warm Weather?
over 1 year ago – Fri, Nov 01, 2024 at 09:32:30 AM

It's a surprise secret second-summer here in New England. What a place to be! We were witness to one bazillion kiddos trick or treating in 70+ degree weather, and it was adorable times. Do Plumplim trick-or-treat? Maybe they will after learning about this fun Human custom! 

Almanac: Graphics Update

We're excited to share the look of the Almanac, now with shiny graphical polish. We're doing our best to present this trove of information in a way that is both easy to use and delightful to behold. Part of this is to break the Almanac up into sections, with a handy navigation bar on the right side of each spread. There will be an Odyssey Operations Manual (the Rulebook) followed by a section with a spread for each Map, and then illustrated introductions to each of the Federation sentient species that we will encounter. 

All of the Map spreads are written and laid out, but we're only showing you one here. This is Brumigum. Mild spoiler warning: the Almanac does not reveal any important plot information, but it does show all of the Location Features that we use on Focus cards on Brumigum for Storybooks 1 and 2. 

Playtesting Update

While our fancy computer and database tests that every pathway through the game is structurally valid, human beings are an important part of the process. What we've been working on during the summer and early fall is going through all of the major branching pathways, including replay options. This includes the important step of independently reviewing smaller pathways and blurbs. We know that all of the blurbs connect to each other in the way that we want, we're just making sure that the words we've put into each blurb make sense when we string them all together.

It's gone quite well! Humans playtesting have been amused and entertained by the writing, and cats adjacent to playtesting have been aloof and fluffy. These are both the desired results. 

Editing Update

With playtesting wrapping up, we've used the insights and notes to revise the writing in Storybook 1 for improved clarity and fun. We're working on final checks on Storybook 2, and that should wrap in the next couple weeks.

The final step before putting them into print layout is copyediting, which is where we check for spelling/grammar/typo things. We'll be doing Storybook 1 and then 2 once the final checks on it are complete. 

Writing Update

We're continuing to write the last entries for the back portion of the Almanac. We want your Information Officer to be able to answer questions with confidence, and to show off some neat things you'll encounter as you explore Insula. 

These, thankfully, need less serious testing and will be copyedited right after Storybook 2.

What's Next?

After editing and checking is complete, we'll pull all of the remaining text and art assets into layouts for the Storybooks and cards. We're using .xml files for the text, and DataMerge for the cards to hopefully minimize potential errors. We'll also finalize the Rulebook (the Odyssey Operation Manual) at this time so we can use final graphics in the relevant images. 

And then, the factory will accept all of these files and press them on to "paper", a strange object from the 21st century. It has been a long journey and we thank you all for your support and patience as we wrap up work on this thing we have loved to make. We will be at PAX Unplugged in December, doing demos and selling a very silly quantity of pins. People like pins, it turns out! 

A quick note on AI

We are not using generative AI tools for any reason, on any part of this game. Our artists, writers, and other contributors are all wonderfully skilled in their fields, and we're happy that we have this chance to share their work with you all!

August Update: Closing in on Print Time
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 08:46:28 AM

Greetings! We've been hard at work this summer. With core story writing tasks complete, we've been wrapping up work on editing and testing, and are now turning some of our focus to rulebook & alamanac writing, layout, and print prep.  

Graphics Update

We've taken a little time to bring the Passport, Item Cards, and Chapter Data Sheet graphics in line with the graphics for the Mission Control Board and the Navigation Board. There might be some small tweaks left, but this is pretty much the final look of the equipment for the Information Officer.

SPOILERS WARNING: This is the real Chapter title list for Story 1.

Almanac Update

Now that we know what is in the Storybooks with a high degree of confidence, the writers are adding and improving entries for the Almanac. It will give the Information Officer a bit more information about the Locations your crew will be visiting, helpful reminders about who a person is if you haven't seen them for a while, and descriptions of local flora, fauna, and technology. We also plan to add entries for the game play terms, so the answers to all your questions will be right there in the same book, sorted alphabetically.   

Much of the writing work has been going on while we've written stories. What we're doing now is filling in some blanks and checking through existing entries to ensure consistency.

Playtesting and Editing Update

All Chapters have been played realtime with the Narrative Architect, and additional asynchronous playtesting is ongoing. Early playtests brought us a lot of comments, some of which required some big blurb edits. We ran additional playtest to ensure that those edits worked, and that the flow of the edited chapters worked the way we wanted! Most of those are behind us now, and the revisions we're making are small improvements to the language itself. Things like: Can a blurb be more descriptive, can it be funnier, is it possible to add another pun here?

With many many moving parts, editing has been quite an adventure. We want the flow of the game to be smooth and enjoyable, and we're confident the effort we've put in here will be worth it for you all!  

What's Next?

We're closing in on that big Print button that we've (and you've!) been waiting so very long to press. There're a few outstanding graphic design and small art tasks we're doing right now, and we're also working on the export pipeline from Database to InDesign. While a lot of the process is automated, we need to manually create some spreadsheets to support card creation and such. 

The last major writing milestone will be when we "lock" the database to further story edits. That's rapidly approaching, hurray! Thanks again for all your patience, and we're excited to push buttons and make games! 

Playtesting, Editing, and Almanac Writing
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jun 11, 2024 at 11:26:47 AM

Hello friends and explorers! We have completed our move, which for me personally has soaked up most of the Spring. Luckily, the writers and playtesters have been working throughout. We didn't move far, just a few miles, but moving is the wooooorst. Ivy is pleased with the new porch, which is of course the most important thing. 

Writing

We've done it! All of the blurbs for Storybook 1 and Storybook 2 have been written and included in our handy-dandy database. We have written so many varied endings, so many rich discoveries, and so very many puns. There are approximately 2,500 blurb-paragraph-data-objects! The text data takes....3MB to store. That's almost an entire MP3 :)

Playtesting

Though the writers have been playtesting each Storybook and Chapter as we go, it has been really great to get fresh eyes on our stories. When we're writing, we have access to tons of information about Insula and its people, and we want to make sure that all of the important bits make it through to the player. So far, we've been able to observe varied playthroughs to the end of Storybook 1 and Storybook 2. We're continuing to play through their many, many variations. 

Of course, we can't read through every single one of the thousands (millions? hurray math!) of possible pathways through each Chapter, so the supercomputer is once again helping us by checking for missing updates, missing blurbs, and other things that would make the game stop. There has only been one such thing recently, but it's good to have a safety net that covers the furthest edge cases. It does not appreciate the puns though.

Editing

The primary writing focus right now is on edits. We're continuing to edit Storybook 1 and Storybook 2. This gives us a chance to fold in relevant comments from the playtesting, as well as small inconsistencies that the writers notice as we read over our work. We've also taken advantage of the opportunity to make a few small tweaks to the narrative structure to really make sure the choices we offer you are the choices that we deliver in later blurbs. 

Almanac

Now that we mostly know which words will be included in the Storybooks, we're making sure that we have almanac entries for everything that needs it. Everything will be presented alphabetically, with full-color illustrations of the Federation sentient species. We're also putting together a pronunciation guide to help you through some of these new words. It'll be usable and amusing too!

Rulebook

We're also working on the Rulebook, which will serve as the operating manual for your starship, the Odyssey. You'll be able to look up game terms alphabetically. For learning and onboarding, there will be the complete Rulebook and also a full "Chapter 0" tutorial, which gives both the backstory and fully teaches you and your crew the game. 

This is very important to us! We want you to open the box and be able to more or less immediately start reading cool stories, not watching hours of YouTube videos on how to assemble your spaceship. 

What's Next?

We are approaching the finish line! Our playtests have gone fantastically - the quantity of laughter I've heard is truly exciting after all the work the writers and artists have put in to this over the past several years. This box of stories is just about ready to go to print, and arrive on your table. Thank you for your infinite patience, and if any local folks are still looking for playtests (or to continue their playtests!) feel free to reach out. We're happy to run the game as often as we can :) 

Writing, Reviewing, and Revising
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Apr 05, 2024 at 12:55:21 PM

Greetings! Spring has arrived, departed, and arrived again here in the Boston area. In the meantime, we are almost finished pulling together all of the many pieces that will combine to form 1001 Odysseys!

Narrative Architecting Update

The narrative trees are fully grown. This means that all of the Updates that you will encounter at the end of any blurb have been entered into our database in a way that lets our system run the game as though playing through each possible pathway. The result is close to 3000 blurbs (2846 right now, to be exact!) that each contain a chunk of writing that will weave together based on your crew's choices. This might change by a couple blurbs as we playtest and revise later Chapters and add in a few additional blurbs to help pull you back into the story if you misplace a Passport Item or something, but it's very close to the final form. 

Writing Update

Writing in the Storybooks is quickly reaching its many ends. We're working on the last two Chapters, with the rest of the Chapters in various stages of playtesting, review, and revision. So far all the playtesting we've done has gone super well! A handful of typos, and some revisions to the tutorial, but smooth sailing otherwise.

As we continue to review and playtest the Storybooks, we'll also be adding, writing, and editing entries for the Almanac. The Almanac is your Information Officer's source of facts from around Insula, during play. Need to look up a word, location, alien species, or fancy plant? The Almanac's the place! 

Design Update

We now have a full set of lovely Location Feature icons to use on the Focus and Location Cards. We'll be doing a final double-check on the list of all of the Location Cards in the game, and then using the magic of datamerge in inDesign to generate all of the cards that will reveal the new locations you will discover on the Maps. 

The selection above is a small subset of the many, many icons that span all of our various world maps. Each icon represents something you can Focus on during your adventures.   

We're also bringing a final level of polish to the Passport, Item Cards, and Contact Cards so they can best show off the delightful artwork of the various items and people you will encounter in Insula. 

What's Next?

With writing now wrapping up, and playtesting underway, we're closing in on completion. We're going to playtest the heck out of the later chapters, finish up the Almanac, and then get the game to you!