Interstellar Culpability
over 6 years ago – Mon, Oct 07, 2019 at 02:51:29 AM

First: We're Published! Yay! Digitally, but still!

You've probably received a backerkit email by now, with a link to the .pdf. Which is excellent. If you haven't received it yet, give it a few hours, since the emails go out in waves, but otherwise, Exalted Funeral (www.exaltedfuneral.com) is your target.

Second: Oh, errors. Of course. Why not.

But there were a few typos. Luka wrote the final acknowledgment on Sunday and a stray "a" crept in. A concerned backer also mentioned that Bob Dylan wrote the original All Along the Watchtower. Small, but ... Luka's fixed those in v1.81.

But more seriously, the final credits list of all the patreon backers of the stratometaship UVG as of the end of August 2018 (page 194), when the manuscript of the UVG was published is incomplete. Embarrassingly, Luka's excel spreadsheet fu on the patreon relationship manager data outputs was lacking, with the result that quite a few excellent people were left unnamed! Argh!

Fortunately, we've got a bit of time before we ship the files off to print, and by the Prancing Bear of Jupiter, we'll catch these mistakes.

If you support Luka on patreon (www.patreon.com/wizardthieffighter) please check this screen grab to see that your name or pseudonym has not been missed! If your name is missing, nab Luka either via patreon messages or on Twitter (@stratometaship) or on the discord, if you're there.

This is the error-riddled page.

Now, what next?

Well, Luka's going to catch up on his Korean homework for a few days and Matt is going to set about setting up the printing ... then it's back to assembling the screen and map and postcards and printing those ... then ... well, we'll see what comes then, ok?

Maybe a small surprise to say thank you for your patience?

Who knows.

Not us.

Seriously.

We have no nefarious plans.

—Cheers,

Wizard Thief Funeral Fighter Exalted

Enter Endman
over 6 years ago – Sat, Oct 05, 2019 at 03:12:57 AM

... so, here we are.

The book is done. 

Monday, Exalted is sending the .pdfs off to the printer for final tests and checks. That means we should have rough shipping estimates at some point next week.

But, How Late Are We?

Well, we hoped to be finished in August and now it's October ... after printing and shipping and everything, it looks like we'll be 3—4 months late. This is not great. What was the cause?

• Luka decided to write an entire Near Moon procedural space dungeon, which he didn't warn anybody about. This took a bit of time.
• Luka rebuilding the entire layout created a lot of white spots ... which he decided to fill with extra art. The final UVG has about 222 pieces of color art, instead of the original 100 pieces.
• Coloring all that art took a while. The original had a ratio of about 25% colored art to 75% black and white. All the art is now in full, eye-bleeding color. In retrospect, we should have outsourced layout while Luka colored the art. Things would have been faster.
• There was the funeral and estate to deal with. That was rough and unexpected.

Lessons

With future projects we're going to lay on additional graphic designers, which should help with about 60% of the production bottle-necks. The rest ... well ... we'll just give ourselves longer runways.

Oh, quit it already. When do we get the .pdf?

It'll be a few more days, as we make the final checks to see that everything is in order for the printing, and that we can release it to backers. We're not yet sure when the .pdf will be available for sale — probably together with the physical book. Don't hold us to this ... we literally haven't nailed that bit down yet.

Now, wave something shiny and distracting!

Ok, here are a few screenshots from the book!

Thank you for your patience, everyone!

We're taking a bit of rest now, over the weekend, but we'll be back in touch soon enough. Onwards and forwards, past the mineral seas, to the shores of yore!

—Exalted Wizard

Final Fifty
over 6 years ago – Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 12:59:05 AM

THE END IS NIGHT! [sic]

Welp.

Here we are. Nearly done.

Like cybernetic rubbery fish humans staggering out from the cold waters of a forgotten lake to paw and pad at the memorials of a lost civilization, like the final barbarians trudging across the ivory steppe to gaze upon the rotten-tooth arcologies, the bastions still to be uprooted before the future can be revived to the cries of "Sheh, sheh Midas!"

Not much to add, really. So let's just look at some layouts.

And some art.

So ... what's the timeline now?

• With about 50 pieces left to color, mostly small things and NPC portraits, we're almost certain to have the .pdf ready for backers by next Sunday. And the .pdf heading off to the printers. That's the slowest part of the production.
• Then it's the GM screen panorama and table layout. That'll be a week or so. Together with the big map, they'll head off to print, too.
• At that point it's just setting up the postcards, and shipping them off, too. We have the templates already, but ... we should probably do a poll to find your favorite locations.
• And then, once books arrive, we lock Exalted Funeral in their warehouse-slash-garage for the shipping, while Luka records a yoga video. On a mountain. Hopefully it's not winter yet at that point.

Do you want to behold more art, faster?

• Luka regularly shares small pieces as they're ready on the Stratometaship Twitter, and sometimes (like earlier today), also unveils a bunch on his patreon. Often freely accessible. Like those over theres.

Once more, thank you for your patience and support, everyone!

You are the rock stars of this campaign.

Merci.

—WTF Studio and Exalted Funeral Press

99 Pictures On The Wall
over 6 years ago – Sat, Sep 21, 2019 at 03:21:01 AM

Carry On, Color

A simple progress update. Luka continues coloring. 99 pictures left to color.

We'll let some screenshots of the finished layout do the talking.

Status

Well, the art goes on. We've also got some news from beyond the horizon of the UVG. As part of Luka's patreon (https://patreon.com/wizardthieffighter) project, Longwinter, we've talked with an incredibly talented graphic designer (Double Proficiency) about joining the Wizard Exalted Thief Funeral Fighter crew to help us speed up the production of future books (and make them prettier). This is a draft spread from Longwinter (please note, it still has to visit the editors):

Because if there's one thing we've learned, it's that putting all the writing and arting [sic] and layout on one person is ... a bit of a bottleneck. Culpa, culpa!

Once Again

Thank you for your patience ... and soon, probably next update, we'll also get to share photos of the dice, waiting patiently to join their books!

Sincerely and keenly,

EF and WTF

Coloured Too Late
over 6 years ago – Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 03:31:30 AM

Well, we're officially late

But since it's because of a funeral, well, we're just going to be officially late and that's that.

To be completely transparent, Luka got much much less done in August than planned—even after the funeral—because settling the estate and all the relevant paperwork turned out to be much more involved than planned. There are whole stories in there, but he said he'll share what went down once the memories have scabbed over a bit more.

Then, to top it off, the return to Seoul took him out of the loop a bit with a bout of the 8-hour jet lag and the start of a semester of Korean classes. Adapting, adapting, well, it must take a while. But, let's say that's all done and we're back in business.

Ok, so what's the status?

• Book: One layout change: updating dedication page. Luka is now coloring the art again. 134 pieces left to color ... that's about half, but most of them are spot art. Big pieces are mainly done. Yeah, the book's going to have nearly 300 pieces of art. That said, the folder of finished ink drawings is at 380 ... so ... art's getting cut from the final book. Who knows, maybe we'll do an art / scene book eventually.
• Digital DM screen: Saker Tarsos of Tarsos Theorem is completing the digital screen and it looks super cool. Essentially, every table from the UVG has been digitized and combined with a randomizer, so ... yeah, as the referee you'll be able to run it quite digitally.
• Physical Map: Luka need's to change how it fits the print dimensions, and then see about adding some art to the borders ... since it looks like there'll be room for that.
• Physical DM screen: well, once the art's colored, Luka will assemble it. And do the art for it. So this one's hanging out on the back burner.
• Dice: they're in the Exalted Funeral "warehouse", waiting on the rest of things.
• T-shirts: they're in the same "warehouse", and of course the cats look best.
• Post-cards: same boat as the physical DM screen.

134 Pieces of Art?! That's Terrible! You'll Never Finish!

Actually it'll be faster than you think, but yeah ... it'll take a bit longer than we'd hoped. Luka's going to update on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stratometaship) every time another piece is done. Along with some annoyed quip or possibly some song he listened to while finishing it.

Current (12.09.19) estimate on books, screen, maps printed and ready for shipping in the Exalted Funeral "warehouse": November 2019. Two months late.

Thank you again, for your understanding everyone

—Wizard and Exalted