March 2024
6 months ago – Fri, Mar 29, 2024 at 10:20:38 AM

Hello all! The Easter break began for us this week, and helpfully it’s also brought a torrent of grey clouds and rain to really test our child-rearing mettle.

Still, we persevere and get out when we can! Every now and again the rain clears and the sun pokes through, reminding me that warmer days will be here soon. Anyway! Lots to get through today.

Boats! 🚢

Your books and boxes are being loaded onto boats! The smallest shipment, to Australia, is already on its way. The other two, to the US and UK, are loading as I write this update. Soon I'll have tracking codes I can share with you, so you can see them wending their way across the ocean 😊 

I'm currently preparing all the final backer data for the two different fulfilment companies, so that we're all prepped for when the stock arrives. Note that addresses have not been locked yet. You can update your address whenever you like until it's locked (details here) and you'll get 48 hours warning when we do lock them—we're just getting prepared for now ☑️

Patches! 🐈

Your patches arrived last week, and they're glorious!

I've been separating them out this morning to send to the various hubs across the world so they can go out with your orders. They're really lovely to see in person—the colours are fantastic and there's a jazzy sheen to the thread. You can stick them anywhere too, the adhesive seems pretty strong!

Slow Knife MPC 🔪

The hardback version of the Slow Knife is now in full production, and the first copy off the line arrived with me last week to check over. It looks great! I'm really happy with how it turned out 😊. You can see it there on my (messy) desk in the picture above!

Friends at the Table are still playing The Slow Knife at the moment over on their Patreon—it's so great, can't wait for episode three to drop soon!

Koriko Multiplayer Test

I facilitated the first public playtest of the multiplayer Koriko supplement earlier this week, and it went so great! Of course, it also ran roughly twice as long as I thought it might—but we did have five players... We're playing again soon, and then I'll send both supplements over for editing before I publish them for you all ✨

If you were a player in the game, thank you so much & I can't wait for the second session ☺️

Life update

I quit my day job this week! 😱 Scary stuff, but it's been a long time coming. I'm really looking forward to being able to focus more of my energy on this work, and it's truly only down to your support that I'm able to make this change. Thank you all so much!

I've also launched a Patreon to support my move into full-time creative life. I'm hoping to build more of a community there to play games with and share my work—since Twitter died it's felt a lot harder to connect with people who like my stuff... If you'd like to check it out, I also took a punt on (probably too many of) these cute Mousehole Press patches and you'll get one for free if you become a member during the launch 😊

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Phew! That's it for March, everyone. I hope that April is kind to you, wherever you are in the world.

J

February 2024
7 months ago – Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 02:27:52 AM

Good morning all! I hope you've had a good February ☔️

It remains predominantly grey, but we muddle through. Not a whole lot to report this month—your copies of Koriko are currently sat in a warehouse acclimatising, slowly getting them used to the cold and moisture so they don't bend or warp on their ocean travels.

The wizard-school themed A Magical Sandwich content is all written, and should prove a fun alternative if you've already played the regular witchy start a few times. I've got a working version of the multiplayer rules too—it has, err, ballooned in scope into basically a whole other small game (the book is currently 20-30 pages 😅). I think it's going to be really rad though—if you've got a little group of likeminded folks it'll be a great way to play.

This content, along with some updates to the main book and the website (with tutorial videos) is all going to be part of one big update later this year, so watch this space.

That's it for this month! Thanks everyone :)

Jack

p.s. if you've moved and want to change your address, please follow the instructions in this update 🙂

January 2024
8 months ago – Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 04:21:17 AM

Hello all! About half an hour ago, a big heavy box of games arrived at my door. These are the first boxes of Koriko to come off the production line—the same as the ones you'll be getting in a few months when they're being shipped to your doors!

There's not much to report really, which means things have worked as intended (no surprises!). They look very similar to the pre-production copy, except the printing and general level of finish is nicer. I'm very happy with them, and can't wait for you all to start receiving your own copies.

Other than that, I continue to deal with fun spreadsheets as we finalise the details for international freight, I glance nervously at news articles about various international conflicts which might impact the fickle world of ocean shipping, and I spend the rest of my productive hours working away on the Koriko stretch goal content. What a time to be alive!

That's it really! Thanks everyone 💕

Jack

December 2023
9 months ago – Sat, Dec 30, 2023 at 12:51:59 AM

Hey folks, it’s the end of December and time has gotten all gooey and loose. It’ll be a brief update today, mostly pictures too! 

Slow Knife Physical Proof

I got the proof through for the Slow Knife hardback earlier this month, which has come out really nicely. There are a few things to change, but they’re all little details, nothing major. I’ve got a chat with Panda in the new year, and then we can move into production.

Koriko Production

Koriko is about to enter production, and the first box off the line will be express shipped to me in mid-January! How exciting. The full order is due to be completed and ready to ship from China in early March, shortly after the Chinese New Year break. With that timeline confirmed, I’m now working with our fulfilment partners to arrange freight shipping (getting the copies from China to local hubs in the US, UK and Australia via boat) and get their staff ready to ship thousands of boxes to you all! As always, I’ll keep you in the loop as things are confirmed.

Oh, and if you’re moving house soon, don’t sweat. You can change your address at any time by going back into your survey (http://koriko.backerkit.com), and you’ll also get a project update and 48 hour warning from BackerKit before addresses are locked down for shipping, when we get to that stage.

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Thanks for you patience—delivering a project at this scale with international production and fulfilment has been a significant learning experience for us. Although it’s been stressful and daunting at times, I’m happy to have gained so much experience and I’m confident that things will go a lot smoother (even smoother? 😉) behind the scenes next time around!

I’m really proud of how this game has turned out, and as I say in the credits page—it couldn’t have happened without you all 💕

Cheers!

Jack

November
10 months ago – Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 06:04:28 AM

Hey folks!

Gosh it's gotten real cold, real fast here in the UK. We had snow this morning! It's dark all the time! It can feel a bit grim, especially with the state of the world at the moment, but I hope wherever you are you can find a little warmth and joy. If nothing else, it's a good excuse to stay inside and play games 🤓

On with the update!

PPC PART TWO 💕

After much too and fro-ing and colour frustrations, I finally got the second set of physical proofs for the game in the post this week. Hoorah! 

I noticed two more very minor changes to make to the files from this prototype (I had to increase the size of a couple of barcodes, and add some admin info to the back of the book) but we are now ready to print! 

I should get my place in the queue confirmed early next week, and then we'll be on our way 🚂

It's delightful to see how everything has come together, and in particular I'm really happy with the paper wrapping. It looks super smart and yeah, just, why would you want to wrap your books in single-use plastic when you could do this? Big thanks to the team at Panda for being on-board with my many requests for environmentally-friendly options.

SHIPPING UPDATE 🚢

With everything lining up for printing, it's now time for me to lock orders and charge shipping. Here's an update on costs depending on where you are in the world:

•  🇬🇧 If you're a UK customer, hello! The fulfilment house we're using only send stuff tracked within the UK, so it's going to cost me about £7 to send you a book. This is more than double the £3 I'd estimated, and I'm not going to increase it by that much. I'm going to charge £5, hopefully that seems fair to you. It also means your order will be sent tracked, which is a nice bonus.
   
•  🇪🇺 If you're an EU customer, your order will be sent DDP (delivered duties paid), so you won't get any nasty customs fees. Your order will also be sent tracked, since I have now learned we must provide tracking information for the IOSS system to work properly. I had originally estimated £7 for book shipping, but as they need to be sent tracked I'm now spending £13-18 (depending on country). This is a lot more than my estimate, and I'm not going to increase it by that much. I'm going to charge £10, hopefully that seems fair to you. It also means your order will be sent tracked, which is a nice bonus
   
•  🇺🇸 If you're a US customer, my estimate of £10 for shipping your book still stands, and your orders will be tracked. Neato!
   
•  🌏 If you're not in the UK, EU or US, boy howdy it can be expensive to ship things to you with the way the world is at the moment (often £20-30!). Fortunately the number of orders going to these countries is relatively small, so I can soak up most of the difference. I am going to bump the base book shipping cost up to £12 though, to soften the blow a little. I hope that's ok.

Okay, with those updates out of the way, let's get on with the costs. BackerKit will provide you with shipping costs based on the weight of your orders, but here are the costs for the two most common items:

Koriko Book Only 📖

• UK: £5
• EU: £10
• US: £10
• RoW: £12

Koriko Box Only 🎁

• UK: £10
• EU: £15
• US: £16
• RoW: £18

Add-ons will increase the weight of your order, and might push your order into a new band depending on how much you've added. For example, if you're a US customer and you've got a Koriko book and a hardback copy of The Slow Knife in your order, this pushes your order into the 0.5 to 1kg band—so your total shipping cost would be £16.

I'm adding these costs into BackerKit now, and they should show up in the next day or so if you want to check early. Otherwise, you can wait until you get an email from me next week, which will give you advanced notice of the final cost.

If you notice anything strange about your shipping costs, please let me know. Sending me a message on Kickstarter tends to work best, as I can see all your order info alongside your message :)

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS NEXT ⏭️

Early next week, you'll get an email from BackerKit notifying you that your order will be locked in 48 hours. This means you have two days to make any changes to the contents your order, such as adding or removing items. It's also your last chance to upgrade to the boxed edition for £5! You should see the shipping price update accordingly as your order weight changes.

Once your order is locked, I'll be charging the cards that you have saved in BackerKit. If your card is declined for any reason, you'll be notified and you can go in and update it.

Neither of these actions affects your shipping address—you can continue to edit that until addresses are locked, which won't be until we're ready to ship. If you need to update your address at any point, head to http://koriko.backerkit.com/ and recover your survey link (I wrote a little guide in a previous update).

OTHER STUFF 🥪🎹📦

I've been continue to work on the bonus content this month, and A Magical Sandwich (the wizard-themed alternate content) is almost finished. It's been fun to dive back into the prompts again, though I am never doing rhyming suggestions ever again 😅 

I've also been noodling away on the soundtrack, but I'm finding that much harder to work on (getting long blocks of quiet time in our house is a challenge!). I have a rough sketch for most of the tracks now, though. Working on my little portable synth on the sofa is very helpful.

Oh, and we've also been wrapping orders for the stock that I'm sending from home (the card-based version of the Slow Knife and the small number of Artefact zines I have here). It's pretty painstaking work, and completely impractical at scale, but there is a part of me that will always miss the little touches that you can add when you're packing stuff yourself. I'd quite like to do Kickstarter's make/100 project one year, just as an excuse to make something with my hands.

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Right! That's it for this month. Expect an order locking email next week, with cards charging soon afterwards. Thanks again!

Jack