Kid Tested, Gamer Approved!
about 7 years ago – Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 01:01:46 PM

Print'n Plays

We know you just can't wait to get your hands on your brand new games.  In order to help you get your fix, we've created print'n plays for both Unreal Estate and Stroop. Not only are these available for your playing pleasure, but we encourage you to share them with all of your friends.

GGG in the Wild

I was fortunate to be invited into a friend's classroom for a fun Friday game day. The kids were super excited to play both Unreal Estate and Pocket Ops (even though they were still in prototype form). One of the best things is knowing your games can be engaging enough for adults, but still connect with kids. Here are some pics from that fun afternoon.

Allies to the North

And speaking of great games for kids AND adults, I recently had a great conversation with Helaina Cappel of Kids Table Board Gaming. Having walked this path, she's been a lighthouse in the sometimes stormy night of independent publishing. Bang Wee Games is doing manufacturing for us both and Impressions is handling our distribution, so we've made the decision to have our titles travel overseas together. If you've not already checked out KTBG's Food Fighters and Problem Picnic, take a look at these great games. We consider KTBG good friends, so you'll see more from us jointly in the future.

Be excited Backers. Just a few months until we'll have actual games in hand!

Best,

The Guildmaster

Now and Later
over 7 years ago – Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 04:04:38 PM

 

Hello Backers! Much has gone on in the past 5 weeks, both personally and for the Guild. Let's start with the big one:

The Files are in China!

We delivered the files to Bang Wee a few weeks ago. There was some back and forth, a nip here, a tuck there, and all is moving ahead smoothly. We will of course be run into the Chinese New Year work stop, but have no fear. This was anticipated and built into the June 2017 delivery we are working towards. Sometimes I'm smart (not always).

Holy Sanctuary

We are very proud of what we've done so far with Unreal Estate. We put together an excellent team and we continue to be on track to meet our delivery commitment. However, in every Kickstarter project, a little rain must fall, no?

During the campaign we told you that Gothic Estate and Holy Sanctuary expansions would not be in the box, that they would not go to retail. While that still holds true for Gothic Estate, we have decided to include Holy Sanctuary in the box. It serves the overall project and will make a better experience in every way. So we'd like to say mea culpa and beg forgiveness. We'll continue to do our best by you, our Backers, and hope that this indiscretion is not too great.

Renaissance Man

Jason Slingerland is a man of many talents, filmmaker among them. We are excited to share the trailer for Jason's upcoming film Atrophy, "a steampunk action adventure movie filmed independently in Michigan. When Matt wakes up in another world, he only has a limited time to return home before he's trapped forever. With the help of some wanderers, he must find his way to the Portal while being hunted by three assassins, an army Captain with a mechanical arm and a 7-foot steam-powered killing robot. Check out the trailer."

2017 and beyond

Unreal Estate and Stroop continue to move forward. Pre-orders are live, strong, and will continue for a while yet. I have plans to be at Breakout in Toronto in March, demo'ing the games, as well as be an Exhibitor at Origins in June. The rest of the convention year is still coming together, but we'll be anywhere we can. We are continuing preparations on both Pocket Ops and Endangered. Josh Cappel is hard at work on the art and graphic design for PO. The plan is to launch the PO Kickstarter as soon as you have Unreal Estate and Stroop in hand.

Fondly,

The Guildmaster

Sneak Peeks
over 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 10:43:15 PM

KrakenPrint

The final proofing is complete on "The Art of Unreal Estate" and it is in the hands of the fine folks at KrakenPrint. We should see it in just a few months. Here's what the cover will look like:

You've seen all of the watercolors, and we've shown you some of Corinne's pencil sketches, but we're going to keep all of the interior art under wraps for now. It is so exciting to see these things brought to life!

Thinking ahead

After our campaign closed--see what I did there?--I was approached by a local design team, Afterthought Games, to bring Unreal Estate and Stroop to the online gaming community. I'm excited to announce that we have decided to move ahead, and getting our games on multiple online platforms is now in process. Afterthought brings both the technical expertise and sense of humor that we think will do right in bringing our games to the online community.

As our first supporters, when the time comes we are going to offer you access to beta testing as well as reduced pricing via a soft launch.

Unreal Estate

Progress continues! The rule book is done and being translated into German to fulfill our Spieleschmiede campaign. As soon as we get that, we'll send everything over to our manufacturer to begin the printing process. These are exciting times indeed!

I hope to be in touch with more news before year's end, but if not, we wish you a fantastic holiday season and New Year filled with delicious food, lively conversation, and awesome times around the gaming table. Next year at this time you'll be playing our games!

Of Books & Playtests
over 7 years ago – Mon, Dec 05, 2016 at 05:34:00 PM

Hey everyone! Things are moving steadily forward here at the Guild. The rule book has begun its final round of edits, honing it down for clarity in both the images and writing. We've been passing it among team members, making final tweaks, and we are getting there.

I'll be meeting this week with Travis McIntyre of Source Point Press to finalize details for The Art of Unreal Estate. The book is laid out, and we want to take just one more pass to make sure everything is as it should be before going to print. So exciting...!

While you patiently wait, we'd like to put 2 other books before you for consideration. Check out both Visions of a Thousand Eyes, another fantasy art book you might appreciate, as well as the final installment of Combat Jacks from my friend and comic industry veteran Mark McKenna.

In the meantime, we're laying the foundations for our next 2 projects: Pocket Ops and Endangered.

Both games are developed and ready to move forward, but we are focusing all production efforts on getting Unreal Estate and Stroop into your hands. That is the least we owe to you Backers.

Thoughts, questions, concerns, cheap shots? Don't hesitate to comment on this update or send a message via Kickstarter or Facebook. As always, thank you.

You
over 7 years ago – Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 07:50:05 PM

Happy Thanksgiving (to those who celebrate). It's been a bit longer than I'd wanted to make an update, but before the Guild shuts down for the holiday weekend, I wanted to send you off with some great stuff.

The 11%

According to BackerKit, as of today, 89% of your have completed your surveys. That is well ahead of the expectation, which shows again just how awesome you Backers are. Thank you for being on top of things. If you've not, not a problem, we have time. But if you have a chance to jump on that we'd love it.

Game Progress

Everything is well underway and progressing according to our timeline. Jason and I took another pass at the rule book recently, and it should be done this weekend or shortly thereafter. After that we send it out to Spieleschmeide for German translation--and to some other friends in the community who offered French and Italian rules translations--and we should see the printing process begin in the early part of December.

The Guild Chronicles Lives!

The Guildmaster has a lot to say. Depending on your perspective, some say I just never shut up. Regardless, it's very important to me that as the Guild grows, that you are along for the journey. Back in my old life I used to have insurance clients who would thank me for calling them back or answering their questions. That always made me laugh. I was nothing without my insurance clients, and I'm nothing without all of you. The day I don't pay heed to what my Guild has to say is the day I don't deserve you. Check out my first entry, and please talk back. Comment on the blog and let me know what you want me to write about in future posts by e-mailing [email protected].

Looking ahead

One last thing I want to ask before you head off to your turkey coma: who are your favorite reviewers? You see, we've got plans here at the Guild, and we're looking to launch our next Kickstarter early 2017 for Pocket Ops, designed by Brandon Beran. That means we need to get the games into reviewers' hands before that. And we really want to know whose opinions matter to you. Whether they do blogs, podcasts, or videos, which reviewers are willing to play and write about Kickstarter games? Fill out this form and let us know.