THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE (SURVEY RESULTS)
almost 2 years ago – Fri, May 06, 2022 at 06:32:25 PM

THE RESULTS

Unlike the previous week, where opinions were split between two options, with the revisions submitted with the last update, the votes were decisive. 

Option 4 has topped most everyone’s list for the book covers. As for the slipcase cover, it was an even more significant margin. Nearly 100% selected Option 2. With that, Nick and I can move ahead to finish these covers. According to the Kickstarter, these will be offered as art inserts for the luxury editions.

WHY NOT…

I am finishing the Paradise layout this weekend. I also decided, what the hell, to add another new race option (yes, I know the term is becoming somewhat obsolete, but it is still the easiest way to convey what’s being added), which consequently will lead to a one or more new monsters. And this is all because Nick decided to finalize these images despite there being no rules on them.

Sooo…here you go, everyone. A new playable race.

The Sentinels.

RELEASE

With the soon-to-be completion of Paradise, I can safely announce the digital release of Affinity will be on Thursday, May 12th. This distribution will be handled through DriveThruRPG, so check your spam folder if you don’t receive your download link by the end of next weekend.

The digital release will include both the color and monochrome edition for those who backed for color.

For those that only opted for the latter, this will be handled separately through Backerkit as I have decided that the monochrome editions will not be available for separate sale. 

This really only affects new customers and not backers, but I felt it was important to mention. The monochrome will also be presented as a low-ink option, meaning while it will still offer illustrations, it will not feature the paper background. 

And just to repeat, everyone that backed for color will be getting the monochrome.

The retail release will also isolate the individual volumes and then offer them as a bundle, which is important for those who only backed a single book. This means that for the majority of you, you’ll receive a download link to a bundle and not one page listing for all three books.

Finally, backers are divided into two categories, those that purchased Affinity as part of Ultramodern5 back in 2019 and those that backed Affinity in 2021. There is carryover between these lists, so many people will likely receive duplicate links.

AUDIOBOOK

The audiobook is proving to be a lengthy process, primarily due to the massive cast of voices involved. I imagine this process will take us into August despite hopes of finishing it by July. It was never going to be a short process. I am happy to report that we only have a few stragglers left to record their lines, with one of the big players, Mark Meer, recording about 85% of his lines a few weeks ago. I have a preview of his astounding talents below. This is raw audio and obviously, conversations are one-sided.

NOVEL

The novel will be released before the audiobook. My guess is June. Thankfully, the novel cover has been completed, and we’re proud to show it off.

ADVENTURES

After the digital release of Affinity, I’ll be pivoting to finish the three adventures and hope to have them released in June as well.

WHAT’S NEXT

I have been open and honest about our future plans, expecting that our next Kickstarter will be a return to our oldest IP, AMETHYST. However, as our company is small, it would be impossible to start the ramp-up of that project until all obligations of Affinity are fulfilled that we have control over. This includes…

The writing, layout, and digital release of the three games.

The writing, layout, and digital release of the novel.

The writing, layout, and digital release of the adventures.

The audiobook is being handled externally by Jon Fink, and the physical production is obviously being handled overseas. 

We also want to hold until we have final prototypes of the books in our hands to confidently depend on this new company for future productions and prevent a repeat of Affinity when we had to drop our printer a year into the project.

But that all being said, it would be economically unwise for DEM to sit on its hands waiting for the slow production and the even longer shipping and distribution process, especially in today’s global environment, before starting our next project. While the goal is to launch Amethyst in July, it won’t until all the conditions mentioned above are met.

I wanted you all to understand our situation and that we simply can’t sit and wait for factors out of our control. That being said, I want to ensure everyone has confidence in our capacity to deliver before starting another campaign, and I believe that a full digital release and physical prototypes should be sufficient.

PRE-ORDER STORE CLOSING

Yes, as we are starting distribution, we are going to be closing the pre-order store on WEDNESDAY, MAY 11th. Addresses won't be locked yet, but that will be the last day anyone can modify their order.  So if you want to upgrade to color from monochrome, digital to physical (which includes digital), or to luxury from standard, that will be the deadline to do it.  

Anyways, me out, have a great weekend

I'll leave you with images from the Paradise layout (not final but almost)

Chris

YET ANOTHER SURVEY (AND MORE COVERS)
about 2 years ago – Sat, Apr 23, 2022 at 11:11:34 PM

I know it hasn't been long, but I got more stuff to update as the gears spin faster and faster…

…get it?

…because Affinity's logo is a gear and…never mind…

LAST UPDATE'S SURVEY

With our last update, I opened up voting for the standard covers of Affinity.

And…well, you didn't pick a winner, but you did pick something you hated.

It came down to a virtual tie between OPTION 2 and OPTION 3. 

Alas, OPTION 1 was not popular enough, so it has been removed. However, enough of you have offered alternative suggestions that I decided to open the voting…yet…again.

What we have done is combine OPTIONS 1 and 2 together and then OPTIONS 2 and 3. I know some people are thinking we should have a combination of all three, using the spine for OPTION 3 with the back cover of OPTION 1, but there is a hurdle we cannot work around, and that's the fact that the two images don't actually bleed into one another that well.

So with OPTION 1 removed, we are back with TWO MORE OPTIONS TO VOTE ON.

And that's not all. We ALSO got some options with our standard slipcase.

We also have a few color varieties outside the black used on the render with that last option.

CONESTOGA

Last week, we finished the layout for Torus. This week, we finished Conestoga. So YES. Two out of the three books are finished. Like I said before, all three must be completed before a digital release, but obviously, this will come faster than you may think.

AUDIOBOOK

Last week, we finally got the great Mark Meer (Commander Shephard, Mass Effect) to sit down in front of a mic to record his lines for the audiobook. He was one of the big ones to nail down, and…wow. I had shivers. Ignoring any quality of the writing, Mark brought his "A" game.

RATIOS

When this project began, only one book was mostly written, Paradise, and its setting was so in-depth that I assumed the other two would be smaller. 

As it turns out, we unlocked so many stretch goals, the inverse occurred, putting Conestoga, thought to be the smallest, as the largest. I attempted to keep these books at around the same page count, and as a result, the ratio of content changes with each volume. 

I previously said that the proportion of magic and technology shifts from 80% magic / 20% tech for Paradise, 80% tech / 20% magic for Conestoga, and 50% / 50% for Torus. However, the ratio of story to game mechanics also changes. Conestoga has the most mechanics but the least amount of setting content, Paradise has the most setting content but least amount of mechanics, and Torus falls somewhere in between.

STREAMING

I'll be doing another stream soon, probably next week, going over the layout of Conestoga and Paradise.  Meanwhile, here is the stream for Torus where I go through the book page by page.

GAMING VIDEOS

Our gameplay videos for the Affinity adventures go up every few weeks. Audio isn't that great, but these are fun.

THAT'S IT FOR THIS WEEK

Post your votes for both your favorite COVER and SLIPCASE. Make sure you indicate which is which...and for those that opted for the leather edition, NONE of that matters as the luxury is leather, but your vote still matters!

Be back soon!

Chris.

A MASSIVE UPDATE (and opinions wanted)
about 2 years ago – Fri, Apr 15, 2022 at 10:09:56 PM

Hey everyone!

I’m entirely lasered in my work; as I probably mentioned before, it’s those few situations when ADHD becomes a borderline superpower. All the artwork has finally been submitted, and with Paradise finishing up editing, I was able to finally get my headspace into layout.

After a couple restarts and redoes, I finally got into a style that appears to work. After that, it only took a few days to finish Torus. Conestoga should be even faster, leading to a digital release HOPEFULLY by the end of the month.

Does that mean Torus is soon to be released?

No. I stated from the beginning that all three books would be released on the same day, but given how fast I did the layout on one, the other two shouldn’t take long.

PAGE COUNT

I admit this is a bit of a weird observation. Later in this update, I’ll be showing off a comparison between the old variation of Affinity designed last year and the new one, compliments of this Kickstarter. The last one employed a somewhat antiquated layout program; the new one uses fancy InDesign. I had asked the Discord audience about preferences in font, and despite an initial desire to use a fancy “handwritten” typeface to push the theme of the setting, readability was a contention, and we dropped that in favor of a more traditional font. In fact, we are using as close to the official D&D typeface as we could get.

Part of this week was discovering the selected font size was too low, so I increased it, forcing me to redo a lot of work (it happens). But even with the increase in text size, I was shocked to discover that with artwork, the new layout places Torus at nearly the same page as the old edition. And that’s odd given the amount of added content, thanks to stretch goals. But of course, I expect I will have to redo everything again once the files hit China.

THE THEME

So, with that out of the way, I wanted to discuss theming. As mentioned often, the Affinity books represent a bizarre chimera—being a hybrid of a campaign book as well as an in-setting tome. Illustrations were meant to appear “painted” directly onto the page with intentional mistakes and paint drops thrown in. While text would have to wrap around these illustrations, I made the argument that the images were made first and the text written later.

However, another effect I carried over from Amethyst employed fictional book excerpts, often presented as separate pieces of paper seemingly “floating” off the page. While I was initially going to replicate that here, I couldn’t absolve the discrepancy that the book text wouldn’t wrap around these attached fragments. So, Nick and I worked out a solution. He provided more paper varieties as well as “tape” while I figured these fragments would cover up sketches with only hints of the concealed image popping out from underneath.

For those curious, and perhaps as a bit of a spoiler (so, skip this paragraph if you don’t want to know), the taped pages cover-up illustrations from the other two volumes, accentuating the theme of the trilogy and offering the idea that someone is covering up connections between all three books.

Here are some examples of old pages from the previous edition and new ones from the final edition.

PRINTER UPDATE

Yes, thankfully, we found a new printer, and one I am hoping to work with going forward. They have been super communicative regarding every aspect of production, even to the extent of sending me videos and images, allowing me to customize every aspect of the final books. This includes the metal corners, leather type, and even the color of the satin bookmark (something I couldn’t select with previous Kickstarters).

Yes, I know, most Kickstarter creators don’t share all of this, but I always do for the sake of transparency…

COVER WRAPS (OPINIONS WANTED)

BUUUUUT, that does mean we have to start finalizing print designs, specifically our cover wraps. Now, the covers for the Affinity books were designed (by this point) two years ago, but we never had the official wraps (front and back) figured out. We have a couple to select, and as I always support the democratization of crowdfunding, please comment with your preferred design (Option 1, 2 or 3) below. And in case you were curious, only one answer, please, as I won't use Option 1 with one book but Option 2 with another (for example). I mean that may sound obvious, but you never know... 

That being said, if you like ideas in different options, be sure to mention that as well.

As for the leather editions, we are getting to the final designs of those as well…

AUDIOBOOK

Every week, we continue working on our audiobook, being produced by Jon Fink, featuring a bevy of the professional screen and voice actors. We don’t have any finalized audio to share, but I wanted to let people peek into the process, so I am including two audio pieces. One is from our table reads, where actors simply read out their lines for the first time (as such, the Narrator often skips most of his). It’s rough with questionable audio quality. Many actors are reading their lines for the first time.

The second is a rough cut without music or audio effects.

STREAMING

I am finally getting back to rescheduling my streaming Q&A. I will be walking through all of Torus and answering any questions offered here, in our discord, and live during the event.

It will be held at 12:00 PM (PST) on Sunday, April 17th.

PHEW…that’s it!

I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

My next update should detail the final release dates of all three digital books.

Enjoy your weekend!

Chris

Shifting Printers
about 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 04:13:11 AM

Hey everyone!

Usually, I like to have updates ready before a month has elapsed to keep everyone informed, but recent events delayed such a post. Nothing has happened that should concern anyone. It's all behind-the-scenes type stuff, but here's the whole story in the effort of transparency.

Last year, when we started this Kickstarter, I decided to drop my previous printer, which handled Ultramodern5. I moved on to a new company that appeared promising. However, in the past few months, we have encountered hurdle after hurdle, including an incapacity to handle whatever PDFs we send them, including the ones from the previous Kickstarter the prior company never found an issue with.

As we are closing in on our publication date, we must lock this situation down, so I have started fielding quotes from about a dozen competing companies. Hopefully, we'll get this sorted out as soon as possible to prevent a disruption in our plans. One company is in the lead. They actually have a live feed of their production, which instills some confidence.

Thankfully, the artwork is nearly finished, and all our final edits push us closer to a digital release in just a few weeks…which means we are close to closing the pre-order shop. I have not locked down a date yet, but it will be soon. Locking addresses won't be required for at least another month.

I wish I had more news to offer, but I wanted to tell everyone that this shift in printers should not cause any delays once we move onto that phase.

MEANWHILE

In the meantime, we have finally got on track with our playtest sessions.

Hopefully, the audio quality will improve. We had an issue as one player broke a wrist and two--not one, TWO--people contracted COVID.

ILLUSTRATIONS

And we got a bunch of new illustrations.

I'LL HAVE ANOTHER UPDATE SOON

Chris.

FEEDBACK AND MORE ART
about 2 years ago – Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 11:13:59 PM

Hey everyone!

There's a lot to talk about, so let's get into it.

LAYOUT

As the edit and artwork are being finalized, I took this week to start layout.

And boy, do I like this new publishing program. Earlier this year, I took time to set all my styles and learn the ins and outs, so when it finally came time to work on the layout of the first book, it only took me four days (which is when my ADHD becomes a superpower). What you are seeing below are current builds, which look dramatically better than the original pages we were showing off last year.

Now, a lot of artwork is still required to be inserted, but this gives an idea of our direction.

FEEDBACK

I received a lot of feedback before getting into layout and made certain additions/changes to various books.

I felt the modular weapon systems in Conestoga lacked particle beam and sonic weapons, so I added a new driver, the Ion, which means the number of potential weapon combinations just increased by…I don’t know, I think 600.

We also redesigned the maker class for Conestoga, changing how powers are reset. Instead of a countdown, we are now employing a variant of the recharging mechanic already found in 5E monsters.

In Torus, apparently, I thought 100+ weapons weren’t enough, and based on some fan recommendations, new rules have been added for ­air rifles and other weird bespoke firearms (all thanks to Ian McCollum from Forgotten Firearms).

However, the most significant inclusion was deciding to incorporate all the new rules from Ultramodern5required to play Affinity. Obviously, we won’t carry over the weapons, armor, vehicles, classes, and backgrounds from that book, but I did put in all the new rules, potentially offering someone the capability of playing Affinity with just traditional 5E books. I still highly recommend someone acquire UM5 as it offers a bunch of new classes and races, but you shouldn’t have to flip between books during play to find out what particular weapon and armor properties are. Besides, some rules (like crafting) are heavily revised, so inclu­­­ding all of them was easier.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The speed I completed the layout on the first book points to a rapid turnaround to publication once the final edits and artwork are added. I have (tried) to enforce hard deadlines in hopes of getting this in print in the spring. The digital will, of course, be released much earlier.

I leave this update with finalized art and sketches until next time…­­

FINALIZED ARTWORK

SKETCHES