Production Timeline & New Kickstarter: Dark Harbor & FREE Gothic Horror Fiction Novel
over 5 years ago
– Sat, Oct 03, 2020 at 02:30:37 PM
Production Timeline
Here's a mini-State of the Realm update: Following the release of v1.1 of Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm which expanded the world's largest bestiary by 60 additional monsters, we continue to make HUGE progress on a number of items in the pipeline.
The remainder of 2020 should see ABRE: OSR/DCC, the Conversion Guide, Monsters of Aquilae, the ABRE Master Index, DO1: Collectors Edition, Mystery of Brushgather Farm, and the Solo Adventuring Toolkit published at minimum. AA3 and other projects that have been long waiting will follow shortly.
I've said it a number of places, but the hugeness of the impact bears underscoring: Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm consumed more than TWO YEARS more time than I had originally planned, due mostly to a lack of automation where I had anticipated being able to automate things (but my Day Job and COVID certainly didn't help).
With this enormous project now nearly off my plate, I get to focus fully on fulfilling the backlog of committed work, and let me tell you, I'm even more excited to do that than you are to receive it.
That segues us to...
It's Ravenloft meets Planescape, by way of Saw. If that doesn't spark some interest, then skip the rest of this message and have a great weekend.
Between the timing of the season, and the enormity of progress and the tens of thousands of pages of work that's been accomplished lately, I felt the time was right to formally initialize the next thing in line. Check it out here. I'm also switching to an official honest-to-goodness business Kickstarter account for Infinium Game Studio.
A few things of interest here:
1: No Impact to the Pipeline
There will be zero impact to the timeline of existing committed work. Dark Harbor will ONLY deliver AFTER all existing committed work is delivered. I am keenly, keenly aware that I owe a great deal of stuff to a great many people, all of whom have collectively made doing what I love most possible to begin with. I am working as hard as is physically possible to deliver hundreds of pages of content each month, a pace which I hope to keep up going forward.
2: Target of Halloween 2021
It's gothic horror, so launching in October and delivering on Halloween next year makes a helluva lot of thematic sense.
The main reason I'm launching now is that I want to have a lot of artwork in this. The stuff I have in the Kickstarter is representative, but it takes a huge amount of lead time: the dozen or so pieces I have already completed were the result of organizing things with artists over the past 2 years in the background. So I'd love to get a sense of what the collective interest level, and my budget, will allow.
Also, based on my throughput over the last year or so, I fully expect that I completing my entire backlog of work by October 2021 will be entirely feasible, so the timing makes sense from that standpoint as well.
3: Free Novel
Years ago, I finished a horror novel set in the present day situated in the mythology of the Dark Harbor campaign setting. Dark Harbor the novel is not quite the same thing asDark Harbor the RPG concept, not least of which because the former is present-day and the latter is swords and sorcery, but the basic structures are there, and if nothing else, it'll give you a feel for things if you're interested but on the fence.
4: Who Gets What
If you're a backer of Dark Obelisk 2, Gauntlets & Gaslight, or Western Realm Gazetteer, or are otherwise already entitled to "Dark Harbor", fear not: you will automatically receive all digital products from the campaign; no pledge or additional involvement necessary. There's more detail in the Kickstarter campaign description but you get the idea.
FREE Gothic Horror Fiction Novel
Grab your FREE PDF of the Dark Harbor fiction novel here. Despite having published over 50 RPG products spanning tens of thousands of pages, I'm actually somewhat embarrassed and shy about my actual fiction writing, which is why I've only finished 3 novels of which one is entirely unpublished because it's semi-autobiographical, so take it easy on me in the feedback department with this book. :)
Onward!
IGS State of the Realm Q2(ish) 2020
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Sep 03, 2020 at 07:07:08 AM
Okay, so "Q2" is probably stretching it a bit; the just-published State of the Realm update has been long overdue.
Updated Project Targets
This has been the overwhelming most popular request: for the stuff that's taking longer than expected initially, what's the new vision for timing? In the past, I've tried to avoid saying anything explicit if I wasn't very, very certain; in my management day job, I've usually worked in climates where citing a revised date and then missing that is viewed as worse than just being honest and vague about what a reasonable target might be. But I recognize that this is not a management day job, and that people want to understand, and that a best guess is often better than open-ended ambiguity. So, I've added targets in the SotR update.
I want to stress, and thank you for, the overwhelming amount of optimistic, understanding, sympathetic, and generally positive feedback I've received. Most of you seem to be super thrilled; many of you are eager to hear more, and I do respect that some of you are frustrated.
I have always delivered, and I will continue to deliver, as rapidly, and as completely, as I am capable of. I thank you for your patience, now in this bizarre 2020 situation more than ever, and for the nearly 10,000 of you who have received at least one IGS product already, I'm always eager to hear your feedback!
Thank You!
Thank you as always for your patience, support, and constructive feedback. 2020 has been a heck of a year for us all, and yet, IGS has continued to produce a TON of products spanning thousands and thousands of pages and over a dozen books.
We're looking forward to much, much more yet in what has already been a record-breaking year of productivity for our teeny-tiny indie geekfest company. None of this would be remotely possible without you, your support, and your own passion.
So: Thank you!
Onward!
State of the Realm Q2 2020 Update Coming Soon!
over 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 06, 2020 at 03:06:56 PM
A very quick update to note that the IGS "State of the Realm" update for Q2 2020 will be coming shortly. It's a bit overdue, as with July we're now technically into Q3, but I've been wanting to complete work on the Bestiary books, as well as to get some finalized artwork commissions from artists new and old, to provide a more well-rounded picture of things.
So much has happened so far in 2019 and 2020, between the much-longer-than-anticipated-to-lay-out Bestiary books, and of course the global pandemic, that my targets and estimates for most things in the pipeline are completely shot, and I'd like to provide an honest, updated sense of where things stand and what I'm working on, when.
As part of the State of the Realm, I'll be providing an updated estimate for all outstanding work.
So stay tuned... and as always, thank you for your patience and support!
Onward!
Fulfillment of Current Version!
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 07:45:04 PM
Hi folks! Quick update; I've synched up the BackerKit log with my personal fulfillment tracker, and I've sent out copies of all published products to everyone who's entitled to them. If you believe you're owed something and haven't gotten a notification from DriveThruRPG, please message me, email me, or comment below and I'll investigate.
The one wrinkle is that when I went to sent most of you a copy of the Premium Atlas PDF, DTRPG balked, and wouldn't let me. This is bizarre since that book has been published and untouched for years now, so I have a request in to DTRPG customer support. As soon as it's resolved, I'll shoot that out too.
One final note: I'm currently running a weekly, 8-PC Pathfinder run of Dark Obelisk 1: Berinncorte on Roll20, and I must say, it's an absolute blast. In particular, the high-res map files are fantastically useful in a VTT setting.
Despite everything else going on in my pipeline, and COVID-19, I should actually (gasp!) be ON-TRACK for fulfilling the Collector's Edition on time as targeted. Fingers crossed!
Onward!
BackerKit Surveys Sent!
almost 6 years ago
– Wed, May 06, 2020 at 08:34:20 PM
Just a quick note that the BackerKit surveys have been sent out.
If you didn't receive one, please let me know. Otherwise, let me know if you have questions as to the Add-Ons or other options.
A number of you had asked during the campaign if you could pledge at $1 during the campaign, and then upgrade / change your pledge; yes, you can in the BackerKit survey.
Onward!
