Get out the Maps
over 3 years ago – Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 11:06:42 PM

Hello friends and explorers! In today's update, we're going to tell you a bit about what we've been working on. We're also going to share some new artwork!

Artwork

We're very happy to present to you fully painted illustrations of both Urvellion and Flimwait. Please enjoy.

Map Status

Schematic Underlays for Betelgeuse (the misty homeworld of the Mindweavers) and Araveen (the arid homeworld of the Felisi) are complete. We use these simple underlays to determine where the Location Cards will fit in the background. They're very abstract in this phase so that we can move locations around until they all fit on the page without overlapping. Once this is done, we pass them on to the Artists who turn them into the beautiful illustrations we all love to explore. We've already started the underlays for Bassilas and Cullicut, our last two locations for this release, so the end of this process is on the radar.

Writing Status

The Chapter Mission Outlines are now at 84% complete overall. We've been expanding Storybook 3 and developing the sentient species we'll be spending a lot of time with in its 10 Chapters.

We're also developing some entries for our Almanac, the guide that will help you understand all the fantastic new sentients, places, and things you'll encounter on your voyage through Insula. We're writing them from the point of view of a friendly and well-traveled Elemens who has made a career out of sharing her knowledge with others. Thinking about what she would tell visitors to new worlds about it helps us get a better understanding of what we should be sure to share with our players.  As an example, here's part of the Araveen entry.

Production and Schedule Update, from Chris

Hello spacefriends! As we continue through November, the 36th month of the year 2020, I am here to talk to you about our overall schedule and production plans. When all of this *motions to entire world* started this spring, it felt like we'd be more or less back to normal by the end of the year, with conventions, factories, distribution, stores, and game nights working the way they should. Obviously given the state of things right now, that's not happening. Asmadi Games as a whole is pushing all of our 2020 releases (One Deck Galaxy, Good Puppers, 1001 Odysseys, Aegean Sea) to 2021. The downside of course is that we all have to wait longer to play the cool games we want to be playing. The upside is that we've had much more time to work on these games and make them better! For Odysseys, this has meant more time creating beautiful maps and architecting the story scaffolding that will make playing and replaying satisfying. For the other games, well, let's just say that LOTS of dice have been rolled for One Deck Galaxy.

It's frustrating for you all as backers to have to wait, and I apologize that we didn't make our original estimate. We encountered the exciting double-whammy of "Uh oh - this will take longer than we thought" and also "Oh no, the world is exploding." For things like Aegean, Galaxy and Puppers we could just say "Eh, we're done. Print it!" because the only things changing there are the game's mechanics and balance. The mechanics for Odysseys are done! We're working now on all the things that support those mechanics (Stories, art, etc). Sorry for being late, sorry for all the apologies, and sorry that this update doesn't contain a picture of a cat yet.

There! Fixed!

Have a safe Thanksgiving, all, and if anyone's doing the virtual BGGCon this weekend and wants to chat, come say hello! I'll be in the Asmadi Games text room all weekend :)

AwSHUX Livestream this Saturday at 2PM Eastern, and some BackerKit FAQs
over 3 years ago – Sun, Oct 18, 2020 at 08:28:46 PM

Hello friends! A quick administrative update for a couple things going on this week.

AwSHUX Livestream

We're sponsoring and participating in the AwSHUX digital convention this weekend, and as part of that, we'll be on the Main Stage on Saturday, playing the 1001 Odysseys demo with Matt from SD&SU. The stream will be on their channel, https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown at 2PM Eastern. Julia, Sarah, and our friend Maggi will be joining the fun as we play through our demo mission, the Admiral's Request. 

At the end of the stream, we'll be showing off mostly-finished versions of Urvellion and Flimwait's maps :)

We'll also be demoing Good Puppers and One Deck Galaxy, or just around on the Discord. Feel free to come and say hi if you're attending! 

BackerKit FAQ

I wanted to address a couple questions we've gotten a few times on the BackerKit, with regard to when credit cards will be charged. Basically, we won't be charging any cards on BackerKit until it's shipping time. If you specifically request us to charge your card early (in an email or message), we can do that, if it's more convenient for you. 

If you request a refund/cancellation, and you had items in your BackerKit cart, they're simply removed since they were never charged. 

Happy October everyone! We'll have a normal update (spoooooky October action? Pumpkins? Plumplims dressed as pumpkins??) later this month, as usual.

A Little Bit of Color
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 09:18:55 PM

Hello friends and adventurous explorers! Today, we're here with a brief missive to let you know what is going on in your favorite whimsical corner of the galaxy.

Writing Status

Since the last update, we've put in a good amount of work on the Chapter Mission Outlines, the bits where we determine just exactly what our intrepid crews will be doing in each Chapter of the Story Book. 71% of them are now complete!

Storyboarding for Book 2 has been completed! This Book will take you down into the depths of the Flimwaiter ocean, where you'll visit the Flimwaiter dolphins' sparkling underwater cities and befriend all kinds of undersea creatures

We've also done a lot of work on settings and cultures for two more small locations. They'll be ready for a schematic design soon.  We'll get into the last two locations shortly as part of our focus on Story Book 3, including Cullicut, the homeworld of the intrepid Timtillawinks.

Cullicut: A place where danger lurks around every corner, because we specifically placed dangers in every corner. Megafauna with mega-fangs, plants with personal vendettas, a complete lack of regard for seatbelts, cities built level by level, you name it. The Timtillawinks can shrug off a venomous bite or a shattered limb (just hack it off and replace it!), but what can you Humans do to protect yourselves? Poor squishy dears.

Artwork Status

Our artists are in the process of bringing the previously inked maps into the beautiful world of color. We're sharing sneak peeks today of little bits of these maps so you can see how things are going.

Looking Ahead

As the season changes here from summer to fall, we are looking at a spookier tone with Story Book 3. What will you encounter on an abandoned asteroid? Something long forgotten lies in wait…

Deep Space Reconnaissance! Mission Status and Update
over 3 years ago – Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 11:44:50 PM

Greetings, friends - we are here to talk about Progress!

An update on the Roadmap to Insula

Back at the beginning of February of this year, we posted an update here on Kickstarter with a plan for getting 1001 Odysseys written and sent off to the publishers by the end of August. We built this plan using observations from our previous work on Book 4, and it seemed like a plan that we could accomplish. We went to PAX East at the end of February, had some great demos and felt really good about how things were going along.

By now, just about everyone has been touched by the world-wide events of 2020, so you'll know that it took some time to get back into a steady working rhythm. And then once we did, we discovered an important thing that makes Book 4 different from the other three books. It uses fewer locations. As we developed branching outlines for Book 2, we realized that we were going to need to spend longer than anticipated to flesh out the physical locations and cultures of the several different worlds we will be visiting in this box of 1001 Odysseys. Locations need to be coordinated across books before we can give the technical mockups to the artists, so we had to change our plans. We're now doing full branching Book outlines for every chapter in all four Books first, along with Mission outlines. This gives us schematic location layouts that we can pass on to the artists. We've made a lot of progress at this level, and it's very hard to share without literally spoiling the whole story, but we'll try.

We're shifting our focus to reporting this progress rather than a planned schedule. So let's take a look at the most important aspects of the game and where they are:

Writing Status

1: Book Outlines (a flowchart that shows Chapter to Chapter flow, Passport Items and Contacts discovery and usage, Maps that will be used, and key story beats):

Book 1: 100%

Book 2: 100%

Book 3: 70% - We're still working out some branch conclusions here.

Book 4: 100%

2: Chapter Mission Outlines (Flowcharts and notes that show mission names, detailed story beats, essential grid locations and characters): 63% finished and documented. Here's an example (note: this is a made-up chapter! It's purely for illustrating what our outlines look like.):

3: Detailed Chapter Outlines (Flowcharts that include every choice that can be made in the entire chapter and everything that can happen as a result): 24% marked out.

4: Written Paragraphs (The final product: What you will read in the Books): Estimated 15%.

5: Almanac Entries (Information about sentient species and locations around Insula): We have a big wiki full of information! This will be distilled down to entries for most Insula-related things we mention in paragraphs.

6: Rules: We intend to write and format these at the end of development, so we can take in any last minute changes. We do have a working draft.

Artwork Status

We also have the artwork for 3 large maps completed, and artwork for 1 small map completed. We have two more maps that are ready for color. Our artists have also set us up with several illustrations for the Storybooks, and illustrations for the Almanacs. There are adorable pictures for some of the Passport Items too. Our original plan was to have 6 large maps (24"x11"). Instead, we'll have 4 large maps and 6 small maps (8.5"x11"). This means we'll get to visit more locations in the stories, with less-frequently visited locations requiring less art overhead.

Large maps: 3 complete (inked + painted), 1 incomplete (inked)

Small maps: 1 complete (inked + painted), 1 incomplete (inked), 4 remaining

Graphic Design Status

And in Graphic Design we've made a lot of progress in how the cards look and how they work. Much of the layout for the books will be automated once the paragraphs are in our database, but we'll need to do some tweaking to adjust page breaks and the like.

Looking Ahead

This has been a large project (even larger than we'd thought!) and we're committed to launching this ship as soon as we can. We're advancing the book flowcharts and chapter flowcharts (the technical bits that tell us what needs to be written for every single choice in the game) at a steady pace. We've developed wonderful cultures that are both familiar and fantastic for more than half a dozen sentient species with enough detail to give us a pack of characters for you to meet. We have two Maps working through pencils and inks and more in schematic development that will be wonderful to explore. And last but not least, we have an enthusiastic core of backers and community members who have supported us with kindness and understanding. It's not possible to thank you enough. Many of you have volunteered to test, and we hope to be starting that process before long - we'll contact folks when we need your help! 

BackerKit

We opened the BackerKit for 1001 Odysseys earlier this year, both for pre-orders and for add-ons by backers. When the game is complete and ready to ship, we'll start charging the cards that BackerKit has on file. We'll update everyone with a warning a couple weeks before that happens. As always, if you need to cancel your pledge and need a refund, we'll do it with no questions asked or processing fees. We hope you stick around, because we're excited to deliver an amazing game experience to you all!

Presenting: The Odyssey
almost 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 03, 2020 at 10:16:42 PM

My favorite type of Kickstarter update is when we get to share very cool art with you all. Today that art is the Odyssey - the biggest, best, fanciest ship humanity has ever constructed! 

The Odyssey is designed for deep-space exploration in style - with decks full of the crew's living quarters, science facilities, big windows, and recreational areas. These rooms are spread across the core section of the ship and the enormous actuated wings. For a crew that'll be away from the comforts of Earth for possibly years, it's important to have enough space to stretch out and relax at times!

So, what role does this Odyssey art play in the game, you might ask? It's a map! In addition to the wonderfully vibrant worlds of Insula, some of the action in the stories we're telling takes place on the Odyssey itself. In some chapters, you'll have the Odyssey map out next to the core map for a planet - in others, you might spend the whole chapter doing things in space! 

The Almanac will contain more detailed information and dimensions of the ship, which your Information Officer will be happy to share with you at the most useful moments: "Commander! Did you know how many lemons can fit inside Cargo Bay 2? Because I do."

What's next?

Our next update, in late July, will be about our roadmap, where we're at, and with some more information about Gen Con, PAX Online, aw-SHUX, BGGCon's online replacement, and other conventions we won't be going to, but will be instead enjoying from the safety of our homes!