Stream From The Ultraviolet Heavens
almost 7 years ago – Thu, Jun 06, 2019 at 02:21:05 AM

Slow. So slow. Close. So closer.

The end is now truly in sight. Last week was exceptionally productive and as the final moments of layout hove into sight, Luka realized an interesting thing: there was indeed enough space to include the skeleton of the S.E.A.C.A.T. roleplaying system within the UVG itself. So he put it in.

This means:

•  a little bit of unexpected work for the editors, because some of this is new content.
• a UVG themed character sheet is joining the caravan sheet. Between the two character sheets that's another 2 pages.
• the big map is going to be a bit condensed in the book, so it takes up just 6 pages (teehee, a bit condensed).
• the index is going to take another 2–4 pages.
• and don't forget the thank yous for the heroes of the patreon.
• so after all that there's only about 7 pages left to actually layout. The rest is basically dropping in text and doing minimal tidying up. Which is super cool.

Reorganizing the book a wee bit

As Luka got close to the end of layout, he also decided that it made sense to reorganize the book and put the wildness of the UVG front and center, add just enough in the way of sidebar explanations for the casual reader to comprehend, then load up all the rules after the 32 locations (yes, the manuscript had 30, one oversized location got split into 3).

This meant appendices instead ended up closer to where they belonged, as expanded locations or location generators:

And the gritty long-distance caravan travel rules and the detailed breakdown of mechanics ended up way further along, in their own section.

And, as a bonus, after clamor from the heroes ... game masters now get a fun little table for themselves, to determine what their title in a given campaign or session should be.

Where Next?

So, what's next? Well, Exalted Funeral sent the t-shirt designs off to the printers, so that's great. Luka's new monitor is arriving tomorrow, so the eyes won't be burning anymore. The drawing machine has been fixed, faster than expected, so there shouldn't be delays on the coloring. The editors are booked to get their noses ground into the book from the middle of next week.

Things still left to do:

• The generic weather and mutations tables (if they'll fit) (half a day).
• A carousing table for the Spectrum Satraps and the Black City (if they'll fit) (a few more hours).
• Layout the glossary, the historical period generator, the discovery generator, and the languages and cultures section (half a day).
• Briefly describe the twenty odd spells mentioned around the UVG (if they'll fit), such as The Active Astral Voyage of Nilbreg the Technoduke and Stoyevod’s Irreducible Crystalisation of the Ego Complex (a day).
• Revise the caravan sheet (that'll take a day).
• Revise the big map (that'll take a day or two).

And that wraps up the priority work on the book! Barring something weird, we're ... a fat week out from having that all done.

• Complete the coloring of the art (1 week)
• Design the front and end papers (another day).
• Design the book plate for the limited edition books, with space for custom art (another day).
• Insert the art into the book (two days tops).

Which means that after the edited book comes back ... well, the book will be ready to ship to the printers in a few days. Yay!

And then?

• First, time for a small breather. Writing a bit of Longwinter.
• Then, a couple of days to draw the 4:1 art for the referee screen.
• And a three or four days to lay it out with tables from the book, test it all and check for typos.
• Then a couple of days to layout the final map for print.
• A couple of days to check it for typos.
• Then a week to do the postcards.
• Hmmm ... wait.
• Am I missing something here? Is that all? Matt? Help?

Whoops, and we're back to third person voice. So, on Exalted's side, Matt's been finalizing all the production deals, getting all the numbers together, sending out orders, and so on (also, heads up! About 50 people still haven't notified Exalted Funeral about their addresses and orders. Please email them as soon as possible.). On Saker Tarsos' side, I'm sure they're hard at work figuring out the code and such. More news on that once we're over the book hump.

Ok, finally, here's a war squirrel with an acorn gun. Cheers!

—WTF Studio and Exalted Funeral

Don't Let 'Em Grind You Down to 81.8%
almost 7 years ago – Wed, May 29, 2019 at 02:23:44 AM

Can't believe it's been two weeks O_O

So, first the bad news 

We didn't update you last week, which isn't cool. We had some disease (Exalted) and burnout (Wizard) to deal with. On the layout side, Luka realized last Wednesday that he had to step aside for a bit ... after spending five hours laying out one page. On orders from his wife, he had to take a holiday so he decided to go hiking ... but then a 33°C heat wave hit NE Asia (yay, anthropogenic climate crisis) and the fine dust pollution levels spiked (yay, air mask in high heat!) ... so he spent four days holed up playing Stellaris and ignoring the world. On the production side, Exalted's family went through doctors, antibiotics, and a first hand lesson in why we live in a better world than our pre-scientific-medicine-era ancestors.

This also means we're now in marginal time for hitting our end-of-August shipping target. It will happen if stars align, if they don't ... we'll keep updating on what's happening. We hope you'll bear with us.

Now, the good news

• 81.8% (157 of 192 pages) of layout is done. After the spouse-enforced break, Luka completed 30-odd pages and completed the entire story section of the UVG. All that's left is the appendices,  fitting in the caravan sheet and map, and seeing if ... maybe, just maybe ... there's room left for an abbreviated introduction to the SEACAT game system. This is kinda great.
• 95% of copy editing and re-writing is also done. Things left to do is a player-facing way of tracking how well they're doing, some global weather and environment tables for the referee, a random discovery generator, and ... uh ... the index.
• A number of very good folks volunteered to join us as Typohunters over on the Stratometaship discord, and they've been ... embarrassing Luka at every step, but making the final UVG that much better. They've really been the best.
• And, super-cool, we've got the numbers sorted and the first of the production orders went out. That means that shortly Q-workshop is going to start grinding out those sweet eye-melting dice! And, to make Exalted that much happier: bagging is included in the price. You'd better believe it that Exalted was terrified of spending a week sorting dice into little packets.

So, what's next?

Well, on Luka's side: he finishes layout and sets about coloring stuff. There's a snag there, though: the tablet he's using for coloring is going to have to get repaired (factory problem) and ... well, hopefully it won't take too long, because if he has to use his old tablet instead, oh ... you're going to hear him complaining.

While that coloring proceeds, the MoonRats will perform their magic, making a last editing pass and hunting down the last of the errors and assembling the index.

Then, we slap it all together, ship it off to the printers, and ... set about finishing the referee screen and the map for production. Oh, good news on those: we've also nailed down the printer there.

Ah, yes, and T-shirts. The high res files are heading off to the printers tomorrow.

---/---

Peace and electromagnificence unto the ineluctable world,

WTF Studio & Exalted Funeral

House of Rush, Amun, Rush.
almost 7 years ago – Tue, May 14, 2019 at 09:20:11 PM

The next update from the layout mines

Hey good folks, Luka here again, representing the WTF Studio side. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since the last layout update. I'll be very honest: on my side they weren't 2 particularly interesting weeks. I was also off on my timeline—I'm currently on page 108 of 192 for layout, not 192 as I had initially planned. That's 56% of layout done, which ... isn't as much as I'd hoped.

Why did this happen?!

This is where I lay out the excuses and ... well, there basically aren't any. The layout is going more slowly for one major reason: I'm both implementing editing changes, doing layout, and adding additional clarifying content as I go to make the book more cohesive. There are no major changes and no major additional writing, but it's the switching between layout mode, editing mode, and creative mode, that is really exhausting—which makes for a brain that gets tired faster, and slows down faster. Switching between creative writing (new description for an NPC, yay!) and meticulous kerning (got to just fit this sentence in here ...). Examples:

• Figured out how to simplify Misfortune mechanic to a single role at the table. Replaces 30 lists with 30 tables. Probably ten hours extra.
• Destination and Discovery mechanic wasn't clear. Added two tables to clarify. Two hours spent.
• Added spread explaining rules and mechanics referenced in the text. Probably six–eight hours.
• Converted all equipment lists to tables, probably four hours.
• Streamlined trade route mechanic into single multi-column table, probably four hours.
• Broke over-size Three Sticks Lake destination into three separate areas, probably eight extra hours.

All that just adds up.

I'm really grateful to my editors for their input, and to the volunteer typo hunters who're helping along the way, but it is a pain-staking process.

So what does this mean?

We might be looking at a 2 week delay in delivery. If our book printer has a backlog when we submit the .pdf, that will bump delivery back. This isn't good and isn't making me a happy camper, but what can you do.

Because all this tail-backs together, I've cancelled my summer vacation plans to make sure I'm available for any and all last minute editing and communication with printers.

There is a silver lining ...

Well, all those pretty tables are making the eventual DM screen layout much easier. Because they're already tables :P

And the grinding work at the layout mines is forcing me to figure out how to deal with the next chapter of Longwinter, which is a whole separate thing, but anyway, while taking a break from layout I ended up writing a nifty start to a procedural card-game / survival adventure mechanic for that role-playing module, which is cool ... and I also drew an initial illustration.

Well, onwards and upwards, per aspera

So, yeah, last week I hoped that I'd announce today that all layout work is finished. Instead, I get to announce that 20 destinations are done, with 32 more to go, which will round out to ... well, 2 more than in the manuscript. These last few should be faster and require fewer rewrites.

After that, it's just appendices and glossary, and maybe a stripped-down character generation mechanic for the UVG. Heck, it already introduces the S.E.A.C.A.T. Skeleton (the RPG system) on two pages, might add two more to generate and level characters.

Once again, thank you one and all

Heroes and backers, without you, none of this would have been possible, and it is a great pleasure to be able to make this book for you ... even if sometimes the layout is making me want to smash a conveniently placed odd fruit with the keyboard.

Cheers,

Luka

P.S. - and you've heard from Exalted, right? Finished up the last of the surveys? If anything remains muddy or messy, send an email!

When The Sun Burns Red
almost 7 years ago – Tue, May 07, 2019 at 07:19:18 PM

No Fluff here just info:

• We are in the last 24 hours of the preorder store, we need to lock in the numbers.
• Card Charges are tomorrow for shipping and add ons. 
• If you backed digital you do not need to fill out a survey. 
• Below you will see the link to request your survey if you have not got it yet. 

Survey Link: https://the-ultraviolet-grasslands.backerkit.com/

Pre Order Store Link:  https://the-ultraviolet-grasslands.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/ 

You Are Bewitched... with deadlines.
almost 7 years ago – Fri, May 03, 2019 at 03:08:30 AM

 Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects.
 

Time to put the Time Lord to rest and embrace the eclipse faithful. We need to lock the orders and pre orders and get the numbers for manufacturing. 

So here we go: 

• About 15% of the you scum dogs of the universe have yet to respond to the survey. THE SURVEY DEMANDS OBEDIENCE AND COMPLIANCE... but really please check your spam folder or email us to get a link if you need it at [email protected]
• Pre Order Store is shuttering the doors for manufacturing next Wednesday (5/8).
• We don't want to jinx it but we are right on schedule with layout and such. 
• SEE YOU NEXT WEDNESDAY (who gets this joke ?) speaking of we will start to charge your cards then for shipping and add ons. We gotta start cutting checks and getting this stuff made! 
• Sector 7 is still closed until further investigation, we apologize for the inconvenience. 
• Once again... we cannot combine items from our store or anyone else's store. You have to get Cat shirts here and Troika (sold out.... sorry) there (Exalted FUNeral). 

If you need anything at all please message us at [email protected]

You can also find us on all the soul devouring social media. We are here to help 

*special note Luka and Co do all the sweet images and graphics and we just pull heavy objects from orbit for delivery so we are sorry this post doesnt have any fancy coloured sci fi pictographs to explain but here is a super sweet canticle about overdosing on yourself with a hot rockin riff that never lets up. 

BUT WE DO MAKE MEMES