July
over 2 years ago – Sun, Jul 30, 2023 at 12:28:08 AM

Hey folks! We’ve been in Spain for most of July for a friend’s wedding, and it is hot. We’re keeping cool in the pool, mostly, emerging from the water each evening into the (slightly) cooler night air.

Stickers + Bits

You might’ve seen over on our Instagram we’ve been sharing some behind the scenes videos of the stickers that will come with the physical version of the game. You’ll actually end up with two sheets of stickers, containing all of the confidant icons in the game and some other useful labels for your journal. They’re really cool!

I’ve also finalised the design for the dice, bag, box, cards, tuckbox, postcard and bookmark—meaning that all the physical files are now ready for production (in addition to the book itself, which was ready last month!). I'm excited for you to see all the bits in person—until then, I'll keep them shrouded so you can experience them for the first time when they arrive on your doorstep :)

Release

Though the road to the physical product is still pretty long, it’s been really fun see- ing many of you begin your journeys using the digital version of the game.

The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive! Thank you so much if you’ve taken the time to comment on itch.io or write a review, or even send me pictures of your journal and doodles (lots of this happening on our instagram!). It takes a hell of a lot of work to get these projects out into the world, and seeing your responses makes it all feel worthwhile :)

If you’ve enjoyed the game, I’d really appreciate it if you wrote a comment on the game’s itch.io page and/or left a review (weirdly, written reviews aren’t public on itch.io 🤷 ). It makes a big difference to the game’s visibility, and I’d love to get even more people playing it (we have over 10,000 community copies too, so you can recommend it freely!).

You should all have access to the digital version by now—if you don’t have your code yet:

• 1: Check your emails + spam folders for Backerkit or itch.io emails.
• 2: Go into your survey (go here if you’ve lost your survey link) and you can access all your downloads there (help article).
• 3: If they don’t show up there, drop me an email (jack at mousehole dot press) with your name and I’ll sort it out for you.

What’s next

I’m done with The Slow Knife layout, so now I’m moving on to tidying up the Orbital files. I’m also beginning to play around with ideas for the soundtrack—a little treat for me after so much layout work...

That’s it for now—¡hasta luego, amigos!

Jack

June
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 27, 2023 at 04:43:05 AM

Hello! This is June’s proper update, never mind about that other one.

Koriko Digital Launch!

Yes, the digital version of the game is now live to download! :)

Alongside this update you should receive your code for itch.io via email (it’ll say something like “New Digital Content for Koriko”).

You’ll also have the option to download a zip of the files directly if you don’t want to use itch.io, though I’ll be updating the game on there as the year goes on with other files so I’d encourage you to use that version if possible.

It's out, but not yet complete. Here’s what I’ve got planned for the digital version over the next couple of months:

•  A soundtrack! I'm very excited to start properly making this now :)
•  The Patron confidant, which all Patron backers will get as a printed bonus.
•  Rules for asynchronous play, that will allow you to play the game alongside your friends (in a very loose sense!)
•  Plain text & accessible versions of the game's files (I'm currently learning how to do this in Affinity!)

I haven’t prioritised these yet because I’ve been focused on getting the physical version of the game off to the printers. Let's talk about that!

Prepress Progress

I’m happy to say that the game is now finalised and with the printers, which is a big step towards getting it into your hands. It’s been edited by three different people, file-checked in more ways than I thought possible, and now we’re preparing the first physical proof to make sure it looks good in the real. I can’t wait to share it with you!

We also have an updated schedule to share, which has the books arriving with you in November. This is a couple of months behind schedule, because 1) this book ended up being bigger than I'd planned & the editing cycle also took longer than anticipated and 2) I had to prepare additional assets for the boxed edition. I’m sorry that we won’t hit the estimated September delivery, but I’m confident that the extra time was well spent and you’ll end up with an even better final product.

Just to state the obvious—November is very close to December, which introduces two little wrinkles to the delivery. Firstly, it brings us into the often-chaotic Christmas shipping period, which could lead to a longer delivery time. Secondly, we run the risk (especially if we hit a major, unexpected delay, such as a shipping crisis or some sort of printing issue) of not delivering in time to give the book as a Christmas gift. My hope is that neither of those things will happen, and I’m doing my best to make sure it all goes as smoothly as possible, but I thought I’d flag those potential issues now so you’re in the loop.

The Slow Knife

With Koriko off my plate (in an active, ‘doing’ sense, anyway!), I’m now moving on to the new Slow Knife layout. Looking over the files has reminded me how much I love this game, and I’m excited that more folks will be able to experience it soon.

On a related note, I’ve actually got an extra crate of The Slow Knife boxes that I’d forgotten about. That means there are an additional 75 boxes available (the version with cards) for you to add onto your order (or switch from a hardback book, if you’d prefer the first printing). I don’t have any more of the printed playset booklets, so this is just the little box with the game itself in it. They’re £32 each.

If you need a refresher on how to edit your order in Backerkit, there's a tutorial in April’s update.

Thanks!

That's it for this month, and I just want to say thanks again for your support. Please, please let me know how you get on with the game—I'd absolutely love to hear your feedback :) And if, by some chance, you spot a typo or equivalent, please let me know as quickly as you can while there's still time to correct it for the print edition (message me at jack at mousehole dot press).

All the best,

Jack

May (huh!?)
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 02, 2023 at 10:29:39 PM

Hey everyone!

Apologies for missing the May update by a few days. I was really hoping to time it with the digital launch of Koriko, but we've still got a little more of the final stage (proofreading) to get through before I can put it out into the world for you all—and I didn't want to delay any further. Shouldn't be long now though!

Here are some spreads from the near-final version of the book:

I'll save my proper update for then, hopefully in a week or so. In the meantime I'll be continuing to work on the boxed edition assets (cards, box inlay, etc) so we can go to print! ☺️ There's still time to upgrade at the Kickstarter price if you'd like—thanks so much to the almost 2000 (!!) of you who've already done so.

All the best for now,

Jack

April
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 25, 2023 at 07:46:16 AM

Hey all! 

It's getting warmer, which means we've been digging out our garden from underneath a winter's worth of crap and mud. It also, sadly, means I've been suffering the arboreal torment of my tree pollen allergies. Still, at least it's a little brighter most days...

Writing

I have about four pages left to write before Koriko is fully-drafted! This book is huge, for me at least—it's more than four times the word count of anything else I've done.

Luckily I've got Will and Luke ensuring that it's as good as everything else I've done too. Will's done some stellar work reviewing the rules, and Luke continues to provide section-by-section, line-by-line critiques which are incisive and inspired.

Writing a book like this is weird, for me at least, because I've spent so much time with these words, alone, that I sometimes worry whether they're actually any good or not. Luckily for my eggshell ego, everyone who's looked at the book so far has been really lovely about it. I hope you all enjoy it too when it's in your hands :)

Manufacturing

With the first draft nearing completion, my focus is starting to shift to fulfilment. That makes it the perfect time to make my Big Announcement, which is that I'll now be printing the book with Panda Game Manufacturing.

The success of this project has been incredible, and it's meant I've had to rethink certain aspects of its delivery. For example, I had initially planned to ship the books myself from home, and now there's no way that me, my family or my house would survive that! It's also meant that certain options which were impossible at my base funding goal are now viable.

As soon as I realised the project was going so big, I started looking at what else I could offer you all. I had stretch goals planned, but I didn't want to commit to anything beyond those before I had done proper research and planning.

Well, that long process has now concluded, and I can announce (with GREAT EXCITEMENT!) that I'm offering a boxed edition of Koriko—with a deck of cards and bag of dice.

Firstly, if this isn't of interest then nothing changes for you. We're still making the book, and it'll be exactly the same book as the one going in the boxes. It's designed to work with any tarot deck, and any (regular-sized) dice. You don't need to do anything—you can skip to the next section!

Otherwise, here's the scoop on the boxed edition:

• A deck of cards. These are a mini-tarot size, 100x65mm. They'll have all of the regular prompts from the book and all the confidants, so you'll often be able to read straight off the cards rather than looking up stuff in the book.
• A bag of dice. There are 21 wooden dice, silk-screened with a custom design. These stack really nicely, and have also been designed for use with our alternative mechanic to stacking for those that need an accessible option. They come in a nice printed cotton bag.
• A box. A two-piece box to keep everything together. It'll likely be around 200x200x50mm, which will be quite a bit slimmer than the mockup above (it's hard to find the exact mockup you want sometimes!)

I'm charging £5 to upgrade to this boxed edition. This covers the increase in costs due to all the extra stuff. It's not going to be a huge box, but please consider that it'll bump shipping from a small package to a medium package in most territories which is likely to increase shipping costs by an additional £3-4 when fees are charged. Also, the additional layout/design time might push our reward delivery back by a month or so—though we're still on track to deliver to schedule at this time (it just eats some of our contingency).

The retail price of the boxed edition, which will be the only version available going forward, will be £40.

To upgrade, head back into your BackerKit survey and you'll see a new add-on available—"Koriko Boxed Edition Upgrade". Add that to your order and make sure to confirm (click the big green button!).

If you can't find your survey link, you can recover it here: http://koriko.backerkit.com

If you're a retailer, I'll be upgrading your copies to boxed editions for free.

Why Panda Games?

Working with Panda means that everything is produced in one place, then shipped over by boat to a hub for final delivery to you. This approach results in a ~90% reduction in freight/delivery-related CO2 versus the old approach (I did the maths!). It also results in a ~90% reduction in fulfilment headaches for me 😉

Panda come recommended to me by several other game designers, who have praised their commitment to quality, communication and (BSCI-backed) employee welfare. If you've backed a Kickstarter game before you've probably seen their name, and they have a proven track record of quality delivery.

Unfortunately, we were unable to source premium, FSC-certified recycled paper in sufficient quantities for this project. Instead, we're using a premium paper that has been certified as FSC Mix, which means it's a combination of recycled and FSC-certified/controlled wood.

I was happy to learn that Panda use exclusively environmentally-friendly glues, inks and varnishes—and their cardboard is minimum 30% recycled. A cool thing we've arranged, too, is wrap the rewards (e.g. bookmark, stickers, postcard) together in craft paper rather than shrink plastic. This is going to make fulfilment significantly smoother without putting a load of plastic into landfill.

Overall, I think that working with Panda is a net gain for the environmental impact of this project, the rewards I can provide for you, and the smooth delivery of this project.

Art

Phew! That was a lot. Here's the final chapter piece from Deb to soothe your brain.

-----

That's it for April! See you next month everyone.

Jack

March
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 27, 2023 at 03:51:53 AM

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well! The clocks changed for us this weekend and I'm enjoying the brighter evenings and (artificially) later wake-ups from our kids (we may even reach 7am with our eyes closed one day...).

On with the update.

Playtest feedback

Firstly, a massive thanks to everyone who played and provided feedback on the playtest version of the game. We had over 50 responses and each of them will make the game a little better.

There were lots of common themes, predominantly around when & where the rules get introduced, which is great (always helpful to have consistent feedback!). Everyone reported having a good time with the game, and from reading your journal entries it feels like we're really hitting that 'teen witch drama' vibe.

If anyone is still working through their feedback, I'll need it by the end of the week (31st March) to have time to action it properly.

Again, I really appreciate all of you who took the time to help out :)

Writing progress

Alongside the feedback process I've been continuing to write the game, working through the various content sections and fleshing them out. I've got all the card prompts written now, and all 23 confidants have their first pages done—where you introduce and create them. It's super fun to look through them all and imagine the possibilities for your stories.

I'm currently working through the first drop of feedback from Luke Jordan, who is reviewing the book for me section-by-section. It's always wonderful working with Luke—their critiques and suggestions make the game so much stronger, like a whetstone sharpening all of my prompts and suggestions.

Next up I'll be finishing writing all of the hangouts you can choose from when spending time with confidants, which is the final significant writing task (!). Exciting stuff!

Manufacturing

I have some big, fun news about manufacturing to share with you, but it's not quite confirmed yet and I didn't want to miss the March update. Looking forward to sharing more with you soon.

Art

You can see another rad chapter illustration from Deb at the top of the page, who continues to astound me with their work. I thought I'd also share some of the confidant icons that Rachel's been doing—these will replace those yellow boxes you can see on the spreads in the gif above.

These are going to make each confidant feel really special, and I also plan to make them part of the sticker sheet so you can stick them into your journal when you introduce a confidant.

~

That's it for March, I'll hopefully be back soon with some Fun News!

Jack

p.s. if you're wondering why I haven't sent anything from my newsletter recently, it's because I haven't had much else to say! These updates cover most of what's going on with MHP at the moment—I've been deep into writing and editing Koriko, and I don't have any other stock available to shout about. I think it's a waste of everyone's time to send a newsletter out every month if I haven't got much to say, so when you do hear from me you'll know it's something cool and new. Hope that's ok!