Quick Update - Pledge Manager "smoke test"
about 2 years ago – Sat, Feb 10, 2024 at 09:56:47 AM

Slayers!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Within the last week, some of you (one person from every tier) will have received an invite to complete their Pledge Manager survey. This is called a "smoke test".

This is part of the Backerkit's proofing process which essentially is a mini test run before the Pledge Manager goes live. 

If you have received an invite, I would greatly appreciate your participation so we can get the Pledge Manager/online store open for everyone :).

Very quickly and away from the Pledge Manager, I have received some pre-production samples from the manufacturer. More on these in the February Kickstarter update and on my socials later in the month!!

Best Wishes

Andy

January Progress Update
about 2 years ago – Sat, Jan 27, 2024 at 05:47:35 AM

Slayers!

Hope everyone is doing well and off to a great start in 2024!

Here is the January progress report. 

Manufacturing

I have spent the last few weeks fine tuning the specs/dimensions with the manufacturer which means spending lots of time in Photoshop zooming in on images and lining up many card designs with cutter guides. 

I needed to make some adjustments to my designs along the way, however, I am thrilled to advise that the card and board samples have been ordered, the manufacturer is working on these before they close for a couple of weeks for Chinese New Year!

Pledge Manager

The Pledge Manager has been officially submitted to Backerkit for approval, expect smoke tests very soon! 

I am not sure whether I select who receives the smoke tests, therefore, you may be one of the first to process through the Pledge Manager!

Art

Before I get into the character art, I wanted to upgrade a couple of the assets on the game boards as well as having a dedicated landmark to identify the final boss. I have just received the files, they look great and will be fantastic additions to the maps.

The plan with the character art is to have all remaining Slayers in sketch form to ensure there is a cohesive style before progressing to the final art. Since my last update, advising that the character art had been commissioned, I have received 6 drafts (bringing the total to 9) meaning we are over halfway in the creation of Slayer Art. 

Below is the sketch of the Slayer named Winter who fittingly has a blade of ice!

I am looking forward to sharing the final art and introducing the Slayers properly with their bios.  

Best Wishes

Andy

December Update Sleighers of Eragoth
over 2 years ago – Fri, Dec 22, 2023 at 11:02:17 AM

Slayers! 

(or should i say Sleighers!!) Hope everyone is doing well. Here is the December progress report.

Art

The most exciting news is that all Slayer artwork has been ordered. I am working again with Jurijus Chitrovas who has provided much of the existing character artwork plus the exceptional box art! Look forward to sharing some of the WIP material when available.

Pledge Manager/Preorders

I am thankful for the great people over at BackerKit for their help in setting up the Pledge Manager. The PM is pretty much done, however, due to the Christmas period, I am not expecting their approval until January.

However, the pre-order store for those who missed the Kickstarter should be up and running now, link below!!

https://bookofskulls.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Manufacturing & Fulfilment

I am working with the manufacturer on refining the specs. I received the card cutter guides today so my plan over Christmas is to prepare the files for the initial manufacturing prototypes.

I am going to be testing components whilst the Slayer art is being made as these processes can work independently of each other.

For fulfilment, the formal onboarding process has begun with GamesQuest. I met with my CRM manager yesterday.

For now, if you are celebrating, I wish you a great Christmas, and, to you all, a Happy New Year!

Best Wishes

Andy

WE DID IT!!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 09:30:20 AM

Wow!! 

That was intense, I must have broken the world record for page refreshes in the last few hours!

THANK YOU so much to everyone who backed the game and who has supported me, not just throughout the campaign, but over the course of this entire project. 

I am eternally grateful to the support of my family and friends who really went above and beyond and never let me give up hope.

So, what's next?

Well, first thing is that I will take the rest of the week to decompress and have a break from social media.

On Monday I will be getting straight into the next phase with the artist and manufacturer.

I plan to add official monthly updates on Kickstarter and share my progress on social media/mailing list as appropriate. If you want any information in the interim, you know how to find me!

The next time you will hear from me on Kickstarter will be around mid-December where I will update on the Pledge Manager and my first progress update.

For now, a final but very sincere thank you again. What you have done has a real difference to someone’s life and I can’t wait for us to go on this journey together!

Andy

Last 48 hours!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 28, 2023 at 08:10:22 AM

Slayers!!

Hope everyone is doing well

There are only 48 hours left on the Book of Skulls campaign (where has this month gone?!).

The campaign is 70% funded, WE CAN DO THIS! Do not wait for someone else to back first!

In the last few updates, I have put a character from Eragoth under the spotlight. Today I wanted to do that with myself and my experience with making this game.

For those of you who are new to the project, there is no big company here, my name is Andy and I am the creator of Book of Skulls. I have been told that I represent what Kickstarter was made for, a person who has a great idea, bucket loads of passion, but needs funding to make it a reality.

The journey to this point has been monumental. Around 5 years ago, I arranged a one-shot campaign for my friends, they seemed to like it so I did another. One thing led to another to where I created the world and the now 150+ characters that make up Eragoth and beyond.

For me, this project has been about unconstrained creativity and at the end of it all, I have made the game I wanted to make and wanted to play.

Growing up, I played an unhealthy amount of Zelda, therefore, having boss music seemed like a no-brainer for me. As with everything in this project, I have dreamt big and have hundreds of ideas for the  battle themes.

How many board games can say they come with blast beats?

I have been fortunate to present at conventions over the past couple of years, UKGE 2022 was my first and a real baptism of fire but an experience I will never forget and I am happy to have stayed in contact with many of the people I met there.

I am not an overly confident person and putting myself out here for this Kickstarter was a big deal. I hope my enthusiasm for the game was felt and convinced you of my commitment as I have truly loved making this game. 

I have big plans for the future and hope we can go on this journey together.

Andy