Koriko: A Magical Year

Lost & Found Announcement! 🃏
about 1 month ago – Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 11:29:09 PM

Hey folks—I’m on holiday this week, but the marketing machine for my next project has started a little ahead of schedule so I wanted to share it with you.

It’s called The Lost & Found Collection. You can follow the project on Kickstarter now and learn more about the project here. It launches on the 3rd September.

~

The Lost & Found Collection is a set of three card-based story games about objects with a will of their own, for solo or group play. Two of the games, Artefact and Bucket of Bolts, are reworked editions of existing games. The third, Counterpart, is a brand new experience. All three share the same structure, with you creating your central character (an item, ship or robot) and then telling their story through the people they spend time with over a long and eventful existence.

This project wouldn’t be happening without the success of Koriko. I’ve taken everything I’ve learned about solo games and cards since my first project, Artefact, to create a completely new, card-based format for that game—and two others! It’s simpler, richer and more flexible, letting you tell all kinds of stories about strange objects and inhuman perspectives—either on your own or with friends.

It’s worth signing up to be notified, because if you back it within the first 24 hours you’ll get a free mouse patch—and there’s a second, different free mouse patch for returning backers from my previous projects (that’s you!).

The Lost & Found Collection features

• Artefact, which has sold over 10,000 copies to date and been featured in Shut Up & Sit Down, is a game of legendary treasures and the heroes they endure beyond.
• Bucket of Bolts, with returning artist Torben ready to create more weird space stuff than anyone thought was possible, is a game of iconic spaceships and the captains they fly beyond.
• Counterpart, featuring artist Liam Cobb whose graphic novel What Awaits Them was on The Guardian’s Best of 2023 list, is a game of thinking machines and the humans they live beyond.
• All three games are contained within a beautiful illustrated slipcase, featuring possibly the best piece of art I’ve commissioned to date by Mousehole Press logo designer Stacey Thomas. It's such a brilliant piece, actually, that I want people to experience it for the first time when it arrives with them—so I'm only showing sneaky peeks in the previews!
• Each game comes with 24 unique people cards to meet, 12 different ways to end your time with them, and six ways to end your story.
• Each of these 126 jumbo-sized cards (6 x 3.8”) is filled with evocative prompts and oddball lists, and features a unique illustration.
• With the new card-based format, each game can be played solo or with a group with no additional setup (or clumsy book handovers) required.
• It also makes starting play even quicker than the original games—all the rules are on the setup cards, just open the box and start playing.
• Existing owners of Artefact or Bucket of Bolts will get all the new content as a free digital update, including an interactive version of the game.

Koriko update

I’ll be back later in August with a proper update on Koriko! There’s still a few bits to wrap up from that project which will happen alongside the marketing for the L+F Collection.

Thanks folks!

Jack

July 2024
about 2 months ago – Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 10:57:26 PM

It’s July! We’ve had a smattering of sunshine this month, but predominantly overcast and rainy days which permit the time-honoured British tradition of asking your friends, family and postie “isn’t it supposed to be summer?” with a grim smile.

Still, here we are, and it’s not so bad even with the grey. On with the update!

Reception 👏🏻

Koriko has been arriving all over the world this month, and it’s been such a delight to read all of your lovely comments on the finished product.

I’m always a little anxious to see how my games will be received, even though I feel happy with them, but Koriko is perhaps the most unanimously-adored thing I’ve ever made. It’s really lovely, and thank you so much for all of your kind words.

It’s a fantastic way to reach the end of, for me, the most demanding project I’ve delivered so far!

For those of you who didn’t pay for a box upgrade and regret this, I plan to add a limited run of ‘upgrade kits’ (boxes/dice/cards without books) to my order when I eventually need to reprint the game. That’ll be a while though!

ENNIE Awards 🏅

To my surprise and delight, Koriko has been nominated for four ENNIE Awards this year. These are among the most prestigious industry awards, and I’m very happy to be chosen. The categories the judges chose are really lovely too:

• Best Cover Art (thanks Deb!)
• Best Production Values (the ~50 revisions of the box files feel validated now…)
• Best Writing (this is the real treat for me 😍)
• Product of the Year (wow.)

The winners are decided by a public poll, so if you have a few minutes I’d really appreciate you heading here and casting a vote my way.

Shipping Update 📦

We’re almost there...

• US Orders: It’s taken longer than anticipated for them to ship everything out. They now predict being finished by this coming Friday. If you haven’t had a dispatch email by the end of July, or you have an issue with your order, email them at [email protected].
• UK/RoW Orders: Any issues with missed deliveries, damage etc, please email [email protected]. I’m not very impressed with their response times, but I also can’t really do much about it at this stage.
• Brazil / Argentina Orders: I found out fairly late in the process that ShipQuest won’t send products here. We’re going to ship them from the US instead, we’re just getting through the existing backlog first. Sorry for the delay!
• Mousehole Press HQ Shipping: Artefact, Bucket of Bolts and The Slow Knife (boxed) have all been shipped by me, from home. They’re untracked, and can take up to three weeks to arrive. If you’re expecting something and it hasn’t arrived by the end of the month, drop me a message.

Next steps 🔜

This has been another admin-heavy month for me, as I'd had quite a backlog build up during the final stages of Koriko fulfilment. I'm looking forward to having some more space for creative work next month!

Expect to hear more about the soundtrack + more digital upgrades, plus next project stuff (👀), in the August update...

All the best! J

June 2024
3 months ago – Thu, Jun 13, 2024 at 09:02:35 AM

Hey everyone! How are we doing? I am tiiiiiiiirrred.

Koriko has been arriving around the world though, and it's been an absolute delight to read your comments. It's been one heck of a journey, and I'm very happy to be approaching the finish line in such good form 😊

Shipping Update 📦

First, a brief update on shipping. The big message here is: at this point, you probably don't need to email/message me about your order! All I'd be doing is forwarding your request on to the relevant fulfilment place, who will help you out. Details below!

Mousehole Press HQ Shipping! 🏡

I'm still sat next to a big stack of boxes. If you're wondering where your copy of Artefact, Bucket of Bolts or The Slow Knife is with your Koriko order, it's here!

Turns out, because I hadn't used my Royal Mail account in over a year they shut it down. I've been going through the slow & painful process of setting up a new account with them. I've only got one more step to go, though, and then I can label all the boxes and get them sent out. Should be next week, fingers crossed.

UK + EU + AU + NZ Orders 🇬🇧🇪🇺🇦🇺🇳🇿

Everything has shipped at this point! If you have a problem with your order, your best bet is to email [email protected]. They can sort you out with replacements if you've got a damaged product, or help you track down a missing delivery.

US Orders 🇺🇸

These are shipping out in batches, as the lovely folks at Heart of the Deernicorn work through the masses of boxes and books going out. They'll still be working through them for the next couple of weeks, but if you'd like to try and change your address or deal with a damaged/missing delivery, you can email them at [email protected].

Rest of World Orders 🌍

If you're not in the above countries, your order has also been shipped from the folks at ShipQuest. There's a very small handful of orders that I need to resolve, due to shipping restrictions and the like. I'll be in contact next week if you're one of these folks and we can figure out how to proceed! Otherwise, as above, email [email protected] for issues with damage or missing-in-transit parcels.

Digital Update 1.1

I published the first update to Koriko's digital files today, which includes some little fixes to the main book (that are also fixed in the first printing!) and the bonus written content. This includes:

• Flying Together, rules for playing the game with your friends.
• A Magical Sandwich, an alternative start for a student wizard.
• The Patron, the special confidant included with Patron backer rewards.
• It also includes a digital tabletop for playing the game on your computer.

You can find the updated files over on itch.io. If you can't find your digital download key, head to the BackerKit site and go back into your survey—you can view all of your digital content there :)

I think that's it for the moment! I'm trying to rest and recharge a bit, but please keep sharing your packages as they arrive—it's really powering me up to get ready for a new project 😊

All the best,

Jack

May 2024
4 months ago – Thu, May 23, 2024 at 11:28:03 PM

Hello! It’s been another busy month here at Mousehole HQ so I’ll make this quick 😊

Shipping 📦

It brings me no small amount of joy and relief to finally be able to say, orders across the world will begin shipping from Monday!

Our partners in the US, UK and Australia will be packing and posting, and I’ve also got parcels to send from home for those of you who ordered some of my existing stock (Slow Knife boxes & Artefact zines)

There are a lot of packages to get through, so please don’t ask me where your stuff is until at least next month’s update. Both of the distributors I’m working with have dedicated support emails too so I’ll share them at that time—they’ll know more than I will!

At this point, too, there’s a good chance it might be too late to change your address. I’ll still do my best, though!

Digital files update 💿

I’ll also be updating the game’s digital files on itch.io in the couple of weeks, including the bonus written content and fixes to the main book that we caught during the pre-press print process. It’ll also include links to the (free!) digital tabletop version of the game, which quite frankly rocks imo.

I’d hoped to have the game’s tutorial website, koriko.guide, ready for you all when the books arrived but we’ve been dealing with snotty & feverish kids all week and haven’t felt 100% ourselves. Next week is half term (😅), but the week after that it’s my #1 priority.

UKGE 🛒

If you’re at the UK Games Expo next weekend, come say hi! My stall number is 1-1165. It would be lovely to meet you :)

That’s it for this month!

Cheers, J

April 2024
5 months ago – Tue, Apr 23, 2024 at 07:13:47 AM

Hello! We survived the Easter holidays, and even had some sunny weather to boot!

Right. Update time!

Address Locking 🔒

We're (finally!) at the point where we need to lock addresses for your orders!

You should get an email from BackerKit shortly letting you know you have 48hrs to edit your address, if necessary. You can also update it yourself, following the instructions in this post.

Please check that your delivery address has a full name (including surname) and valid phone number—it can make it difficult for you to collect a missed parcel otherwise!

Non-US orders—you will get a separate email from ShipQuest (the fulfilment company) just before your order ships, giving you another chance to edit your address, but it's a good idea to make sure it's all correct now.

Where are the boats? 🚢

I've been advised by the fulfilment companies that it's actually not very helpful to try and track the boats carrying your games. Turns out there are a number of factors (most commonly, containers are transferred between boats one or more times over the course of a journey!) that make it a pretty unreliable way to know what's going on 🤷🏻‍♂️

So anyway, what they have told me is that the Australian stock is being processed on-shore and should be shipping pretty soon, and the US and UK-bound shipments are due to arrive into port in the next 2-3 weeks. They'll need to clear customs and get delivered to the warehouses, but we're getting there! 😅

Anything else? 📋

• All the written bonus content is now complete and with the editors 😊
• I've got sketches for most of the songs on the soundtrack 🎶
• I've also been working on the digital implementation of Koriko (a free update) 🃏
• My Patreon launch went really well, cheers for all of you who signed up 🐭