05: Special Delivery
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Oct 18, 2022 at 12:36:15 AM

Good morning all, and welcome to another Koriko update. It's been a week since the last one, so I'm glad to be back again to sprinkle a little magic into your Monday.

We met the 🎗 double ribbon 🎗 stretch goal yesterday, and I'm excited to talk about the next one. Triple ribbons! No, no, not really. Two is enough.

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Stretch Goal #8: A Magical Sandwich

Koriko is a game about witches. But, more than that, Koriko is a game about teenagers who are both outsiders and a little bit magical. I'm excited to see what kinds of hacks people make with the game when it's released, but there's a small one that I'd like to include as part of this campaign.

Please note that this will be a digital stretch goal, so it won't be printed in the book. It will be just as loved, and unrestrained by page count concerns.

A Magical Sandwich is a silly name for a fun idea. I tried to think of something better, but in truth I didn't try that hard—part of me just wanted to write 'A Magical Sandwich' in big bold letters. Anyway—in the UK we have this idea of a 'sandwich year', where you break your three-year undergraduate study with a year spent in industry. That's basically what we're doing here (it'll be fun, I promise!).

You'll get an alternate setup for the game where, instead of a witch, you'll create a budding young wizard studying at some faraway magical college. Forced by their professors (for their own good, of course) to leave the warm embrace of their charming dormitory, you'll tell the story of the challenging 'year in industry' they spend in Koriko. Most of the prompts and structure of the game will remain unchanged, but a few parts will be lightly hacked to fit this new framing. Mostly, though, it's a chance to tell a different kind of story within the same game. I think it will be fun!

If we hit £160k, I'll add this to the digital downloads for the game when it launches (or shortly afterwards).

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The Slow Knife—Now available to add-on!

I had a small amount of boxed copies of The Slow Knife left over from my previous campaign, but they ran out almost immediately (to my surprise & delight!)

I'm happy to announce that the game is now available to add to your order (in an unlimited quantity)!

However, this reprint is going to look a little different. I'll, briefly as I can, explain what the game is and what the book is going to look like. Please ask away in the comments if you have further questions—I love talking about TSK :)

The Pitch

The Slow Knife is a story game for 2-4 players, inspired by tales of patient revenge like The Count of Monte Cristo. You'll tell the decades-long tale of a young soul's revenge against those who betrayed them, all from the perspective of the villains. You'll answer card prompts about your scoundrel's life as you add notes and connections to a growing pinboard of sin and scandal—which will become their undoing as The Knife, the victim of their long-ago crime, returns.

By the end of the game you'll have each constructed the conspiracy that destroys your wretched character as they find themselves broken and utterly ruined.

It's a serious game, in that it's about wretched rich folk ruining someone's life, but it's also (I've found) a deeply, darkly humorous game. The way you entangle your awful, self-serving characters in their creeping demise is entertaining and strangely cathartic—in the real world our villains rarely get such poetic comeuppance. It's also easy to play, requiring almost no rules explanation, and it produces the most incredible artefact of play—the conspiracy board.

If you want a better understanding of the game, you can watch an actual-play I did with the folks at Plus One Exp. I had a blast telling stories with them, and it should give you a great idea of what it's like to play.

The Book

‌Now, formats. The original printing came in a small box containing 80 cards and a compact pair of booklets. I really like this edition, but it's proven pretty tricky to produce. In short: card games that are made in an environmentally-friendly and labour-ethical manner are expensive, and the one place that I could find to do it left me with a few frustrations.

So, instead, I'm now offering the game as a hardback book. It's the same game, and it also contains the three playsets (quick-starts) that previously came in separate booklets. Instead of a deck of custom-printed cards, you'll need 13 cards from a standard deck (or a tarot!) to draw and correlate to the prompts for each Act. 

I think that's a pretty good trade-off for being able to provide this game at £24—almost half the price of the boxed game.

It'll be printed with Solent Design like everything else, and the base spec of the book will be A5, laminated, foiled, smyth-sewn with recycled paper. If enough people pre-order the book, I have a few further print upgrades I'd like to add (of course!).

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First chapter sketch

Thanks for making it this far! Here's a treat for you—the first sketch from Deb for the chapter art they're making. Even at this stage I'm pretty elated with how it looks—I can't wait to see it developed further :)

Truly, commissioning art is one of my favourite parts of making these project. Thanks to all of you for making it possible.

J

04: Freshly Baked
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Oct 10, 2022 at 02:30:34 AM

Hey everyone, I hope you had a good weekend. Ours was a typical mix of breakfasts, lego and chaos.

Stretch Goal #7: A Second Ribbon

We hit the endpaper stretch goal over the weekend, and we're well on our way to the next one. At £140,000, I'll add a second ribbon to the physical book. This book is not so complicated that it needs two ribbons and a bookmark to navigate—in fact I'm putting a lot of work into making sure you'll do as little flipping around as possible as you play. But for those moments where you do need to refer back to a different section, it will be even easier if we hit this goal. Plus I think that ribbons just look fancy, especially in a couple of colours that compliment the beautiful cover illustration.

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Good vibes 

I just wanted to explicitly thank you all for being so kind and considerate in your comments on this project. It's been lovely reading through them each morning, even those that raise valid questions or feedback. For those of you who missed it, I talked a little about my expectations for communication in my first update—I'd encourage you to read it so we're all on the same page (though, as I said, so far so good!).

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Retailers

I've had a few messages about a retailer pledge—basically a wholesale preorder, for those of you who aren't familiar. I love visiting independent game stores and I'm happy to say I've now created a pledge that offers 5 copies of the Koriko book at a heavily discounted retailer price. I'll need to confirm shipping costs when I have the books, and it will be charged in BackerKit like everyone else (I'll ensure it's as inexpensive as possible).

Please note that retailer pledges are only available to actual retailers. You will be asked to present your company organisation number when confirming your pledge in the pledge manager.

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That's all for now, thanks everyone.

Jack

03: Clear Skies
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Oct 08, 2022 at 04:14:37 PM

Hey folks! We're three days into this campaign now, and as we go into the weekend it feels like that point on a flight when the ear-popping, turbulent climb is over and things get a little more refined. 

Drinks, anyone?

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Stretch goals

We've passed another one of the stretch goals I revealed in my previous update, and I'm very excited to be able to commission even more art from Deb. It's all thanks to you and your support!

By Monday when I check back here, I hope we'll have passed the £110,000 mark too (which is wild) and I can add printed endpapers to the spec. It'll be nice to start the experience of reading the book with a bit of surprise beauty, right?

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Back catalogue

I should also, hopefully, have my previous games Artefact, Bucket of Bolts and The Slow Knife available to add to your pledges again next week once I get final pricing from the printers. I'm looking forward to talking more about my plans for them, as I think they're gonna be pretty cool :)

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Two more things...

Just two more quick things before I leave you to your weekend:

Artefact and Bucket of Bolts (my other two solo games) are currently available in a 'Bundle of Holding'—a collection of digital titles at a reduced cost. Of particular note to you all, the bundle also includes a copy of Apothecaria, Anna Blackwell's solo potion-making RPG.

Ross Cowman and Taylor Dow are currently crowdfunding a card game here on Kickstarter, which you should definitely check out. They made BFF! together a few years ago, a beautiful game about friendship and adventure. This game has a very different tone, but it looks to have the same characterful artwork and tight design. Richard Garfield says it's good, so...

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Right, that's it for now all. Speak to you soon.

Jack

02: Record Highs
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 07, 2022 at 01:06:42 PM

Good morning everyone! 

I woke up today to discover that Koriko has now become my most-funded project to date, and we're not even one day in. We're also a Kickstarter 'Project We Love', which is a real compliment.

Thanks so much to all of you, especially those leaving lovely comments—it's really nice reading through them all :)

Right, stickers & chapter illustrations are in—let's talk about what's next!

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Stretch Goal #4: Audiobook Rules & Soundtrack 

The next stretch goal, at £70,000 (well, we actually hit this one already overnight! ), is all to do with audio.

Something I've done with my previous solo games is get the rules professionally read by a voice actor. Audiobook rules are great for a few reasons—they're fun, preferable for a lot of people over reading the book, and they makes the game more accessible.

I'll also be recording original ambient music for the game, to act as a companion as you play through each season. I really enjoyed dipping a toe into musical waters again when I made the track for the video at the top of the page, and I'm looking forward to doing some more. My long-time musical collaborator Christopher Michael Roberts will be helping produce the tracks, making sure they sound their best and helping me navigate the (overwhelming) world of DAWs.

The digital files (that everyone gets) will now include both of these audio offerings. Just a heads-up, they usually trail the main release of the game by a few months as we get things recorded and produced.

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Stretch Goal #5: More artwork!

At £90,000 (!), I can commission Deb to do a series of smaller, single-colour illustrations to fill the margins of the book and (ahem) fix awkward layout problems. I leave these illustrations until I've got the text finalised and laid out, but I am envisioning ten small pieces as part of this stretch goal. As before, I'm excited to be able to commission more of their beautiful work—thanks to all of you for making it a possibility!

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Stretch Goal #6: Printed endpapers 

Since we're going at quite a pace, I thought I'd reveal a third goal here too. At £110,000 (!!), I'll upgrade the specification of the physical book to include printed endpapers. If you're a normal person, you might rightly ask 'what the heck are those?'. Well, they're the thicker bits of paper that adhere between the case (cover) of a hardback and the interior pages at the front and back of the book.

In our stock specification, they will be plain white paper which is perfectly serviceable. But if we hit this goal, they'll instead be printed with a beautiful, colourful design. This work will be done by Rachel, my partner, who has done the patch designs and some other cool bits we've yet to reveal. Let's hope we make it that far!

Okay, so that's stretch goals dealt with for a while!

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What do you need to play?

A few of you have asked about what you need to play Koriko. Whether you're using the PDF, printing out your own copy or getting the book, the requirements are mostly the same. In addition to the book, you'll need two things:

1. A tarot deck. 

The game uses both the Major and Minor arcana during play to introduce a random element to your story. If you don't already have a deck, they're one of those things that you can get very cheaply or spend a lot on.

I've got a classic Rider-Waite deck which I picked up a few years ago from a local game store for £5, and I've also got a few nicer ones. I've been using the Pacific Northwest and Tarot of the Divine decks during development of the game, and I also really like the look of this Modern Witch deck. Watch out for fakes if you're looking for these, Etsy is full of people stealing artist's work and printing it cheaply as their own!

Several folks have also commented on the project with their recommendations, so take a look if you're interested!

You can also hack a standard deck of playing cards to make a tarot, or use an online tarot generator. It won't be as seamless or special, but it's a good option if you're looking for something cheaper/free.

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2. ~20 regular, six-sided dice of a similar size.

As well as the cards you'll be building towers of dice (a bit like Jenga) that will eventually fall, signifying a mishap or failure in your witch's journey. Depending on how dextrous you are (!), you'll need around 20 of these. If you don't have any dice, you can get them really cheaply all over the place (as they aren't special D&D dice or anything). I've been using a Chessex dice block for testing, which is perfect (they're pretty, and available everywhere).

The dice stacking is the part of the game design that is most 'in flux' still (mostly me testing whether it's better to have one or two towers), but I won't suddenly be adding lots of weird and wonderful polyhedral dice to the design.

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You can usually find all these things at your local game shop. If you've never been to one, you can hopefully find one close to you using this site (US) or this one (UK). I can't vouch for individual stores on those sites of course, but I've always had great experiences supporting local places (rather than giving more money to Amazon).

For those of you who've asked, we did consider doing custom dice and decks as part of this campaign. I know they'd sell well, but they're a lot of extra work and coordination and we decided that they would ultimately stretch our little operation too far.

We want to bring you something brilliant, beautiful and unique, but we also need to be able to deliver it alongside raising a family and doing our day jobs 😊 part of that math is leaving some things on the table. I hope you understand.

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Finally, it's worth mentioning here that accessibility in my games extends beyond screen-reader friendly documents and plain-text formats. Each part of the game's design (in particular, those that require manual dexterity like dice stacking) is considered, with alternative options provided. Currently I'm testing an escalating 'roll under' dice mechanic to replace the tower, to provide tension without stacking (dice rolls can be simulated digitally if rolling/sight is also an issue). As a non-disabled person, there might be a bit of back and forth on the design with those of you who would benefit from these modifications, but that's all part of the process.

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That's it for this update, sorry it was a bit of a bigger one. Thanks again, everyone :)

Jack

01: Feeling Okay
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Oct 05, 2022 at 01:18:33 AM

wowweeeeeeee, feeling okay here!

This is now my second-biggest project to date, and it's been running for.. errrr... two and a half hours 🤯 thank you so much to all of you who've backed, shared, commented and all the rest, your support means so much to me, and is going to make this book amazing.

The bookmark is in!

Almost as soon as I posted the update, we hit our first stretch goal. Your books will contain a lovely bookmark, to help you keep your place and navigate the book. Hooray!

Stretch goal #2: Chapter Art

I need to write this quick, because it looks like we're about to hit our second stretch goal already (!). At £40,000, I'll commission Deb to illustrate four more pieces in the same style as the cover art to mark each of the four major chapters. Deb's art is amazing, and filling the book with more of their work brings me a lot of joy.

Stretch goal #3: Map Stickers

I thought I'd better announce a third goal here, to give your inboxes a rest 😅

As your witch spends time in Koriko, you'll create lots of different places and people that they encounter. You'll track this with a map, which can either be a big single sheet or several spreads in a notebook. To make this process a little more fun, I'd like to include a custom A5 sticker sheet with little labels that you can stick into your journal. You'll get this sheet alongside your book (and bookmark!), if we hit the next stretch goal at £50,000.

Over to you...

That's it for now, but I'd love to know if there's anything you'd like to ask me? I'll have a fair few of these updates to write over the coming weeks, so if there's something you'd like me to talk about let me know in the comments.

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Until then,

J