End of January Update
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 03, 2021 at 04:34:20 PM

Greetings Grimmers!

This is our January update with the latest progress from Grimmerspace:

It official! We’re on the layout team’s calendar starting next Monday, and they’ll put the first slate of rewards into digital and print-ready form. Rewards heading into layout at this time include:

• Xeno Files
• Xeno Deck
• Starfinder Quickstart
• Slipcase

Xeno Files

We've expanded the Xeno Files. While the number of monsters remains the same at 40, we just couldn’t fit the new universal monster rules, grafts, equipment, player options, and more into 96 pages. It’s not a huge increase, but at the end of the day we expect the book to come out of layout *squints and holds up thumb* something less than 16 or so pages bigger. 

The exact length will depend on layout magic, size of art, and other design factors, but the book’s word count needed to grow about 15% to really bring these monsters to life. And of course we’ll eat the increased cost of printing and, as promised, send all backers a digital PDF of the book before it goes to the printers.

The Xeno Files monsters are very setting specific. While creative GMs can always adapt our horror beasties to their campaigns, our creatures clearly belong to Grimmerspace. These are not just generic space horrors. Adventurers will find some of them on Edge space planets like Culimec, Paravesh, or Tarmire. Other monsters hew to the polities, and some your party might encounter anywhere in the Gliding Rim.

But for us as Lead Designers and Developers it meant the act of creating and finalizing the Grimmerspace bestiary was also the act of developing and designing important parts of the setting. Every decision made on a monster established facts in Grimmerspace Settings & Adventures, which we noted and shared with the team.

Grimmerspace Settings and Adventures

The takeaway from that bit of sausage making is that work has proceeded on the Grimmerspace core book, Grimmerspace Settings & Adventures, in parallel with Xeno Files.  Given how closely and necessarily tied the monsters are to the setting we expect the pace of creation to accelerate from here. 

Additionally, we want you to know we've all been hard at work bringing organizations, NPCs, equipment, polity variants, and locations to life. Here's a tasty peek at just some of the content coming your way in the Setting & Adventures book:

We've got Grimmer Tech like the Piecebringer! This short-ranged weapon was the brainchild of artist Victor Maristane. With it, a crypto-monk casts a cable-fastened lockjaw through thin air, yanking incorporeal enemies from their reality into ours so you can beat the everluvin' stuffin' out of 'em. 

Crypto-monk weapons like the piecebringer are of gyretech design, but their construction usually involves cobbling together scrap parts found throughout Gylorran junkyards. You might recall that Gylorrans and Fazhurans are the two primary Grimmerspace cultures that comprise the Thriftic Binary polity... 

And speaking of Fazhurans, check out one of our Citizens of the Gliding Rim, cool-headed serial killer Lorelei Mendlekang... 

If you want to help hunt her down, there's no better Grimmerspace Organization to belong to than the Intercrux Law Force!

Wear their patch and go kick ASH!

But you might have to look far and wide for Lorelei if she takes refuge on some remote Grimmerspace location in Edge Space such as Paravesh, where the mysterious 1000' locha trees are not only the largest living things in the G-Rim...

They're also home to the deadly skraens!

Ongoing Risks

Covid 19 continues to pose challenges. The availability of playtesters and proofreaders remains lower than expected. Adequate playtesting, despite the use of online tools, poses our biggest potential bottleneck and an ongoing challenge. People simply don’t meet to game as often and creating VTT play test versions is itself time-consuming. Playtesters are stepping up, however, and we’re actively recruiting to solve the problem. We don’t intend to let quality slip because playtesting is slow.

Additionally, printing schedules and order volumes remain up in the air as Covid creates staffing issues around the world. Finally, for hardcopy, Covid has created delays, backlogs, and massive price hikes for container shipping the world over, which includes from printers to us and from fulfillment to international backers.

Brexit has further complicated the outlook as our UK shipping and distribution partners implement changes to their supply chains. 

There is little for us (or anyone) to do at the moment other than monitor the situation so as not to miss opportunities, but we’ll keep you posted if anything that affects shipping Grimmerspace rewards to backers develops.

Project Tracking

As usual, we’ve also updated our project tracking spreadsheet. You can view a detailed report of our progress here.

End of December Update
over 3 years ago – Thu, Dec 31, 2020 at 10:45:56 PM

Greetings Grimmers!

We continue to push forward on multiple fronts but have begun to update our tracking spreadsheet monthly when we create these updates. You can follow the detailed progress here.

Xeno Files

We made solid progress on the Xeno Files bestiary this month. Sixteen monsters have made it to Gold (ready for layout), fourteen are in Beta (ready for proofreaders), and the remaining ten in late stages of development. 

Once all our monsters reach gold, we'll be able to share the layout schedule with you. Our layout team is a bit like a construction crew: you don't want to pay to have them set up, do work, breakdown, leave, and come back. You want to schedule them to be on-site and tackle a bunch of tasks in one go; so when the Xeno Files bestiary goes into layout, we plan to put the Xeno Deck, the premium slipcase, and our Starfinder Quickstart adventure into layout at the same time. Also at that time, we'll submit the Xeno Files to our VTT converters at Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and d20Pro. Additionally, five of our six posters are ready to submit to the printers.

Immersive Battle Maps Books

Many backers have received their books. As mentioned in the last update, because ocean freight lanes are overloaded at the moment, we investigated shipping books to Europe and Australia air freight. It wasn't economical but we decided to ship by air at our own expense anyway, as introducing 40+ day delays just seemed unacceptable.

However, Yarro studios shipped a small number of defective books, binding them upside down and backward. We can't confirm before we ship without breaking the protective plastic seal, so if you receive one of Yarro's misprints, please let us know. We will replace it at no charge, right away.

Pre-Order Store

As explained previously, our pre-order store closes tonight as we usher out the new year. After tonight, no more pre-order prices on add-ons. Grimmerspace products will next be available for purchase at retail, and only after backers have received their rewards.

We wish you all a very good new year and look forward to putting Grimmerspace books in your hand in 2021!

End of November Update
over 3 years ago – Wed, Dec 02, 2020 at 12:39:19 AM

Greetings Grimmers!

As always, progress continues on design, development, editing, proofreading, and art. We've been busy and only just updated the tracking spreadsheet today. You can check it here.

Xeno Files

As we've mentioned in a prior update, our goal is to put the Xeno Files in your hands first. To that end, most of the book's monsters are either in or about to be in Beta (ready for proofreaders). Some have already come back from two proofing passes and entered Gold (ready for layout). Once files enter Beta, they are effectively done, and the amount of work remaining moves comparatively fast.

Once all of the monsters have reached Gold and we know the layout schedule, we'll update you with a delivery estimate for your digital copy of the Xeno Files sci-fi horror bestiary.

Monster Playtest

As posted to our Grimmerspace Facebook group and forums, we've officially closed the monster playtest for our trickiest critters. The feedback we received was all useful. Thank you!

Immersive Battle Maps Books

After an initial delay, the Yarro Studios Immersive Battle Maps books are shipping in batches, and backers have started to receive them, including sticker packs. 

We owe those waiting for their Battle Maps books an explanation for the delay: our fulfillment vendor Gamerati Services asked if we wanted to wait until the sticker packs arrived before they shipped out the books. It seemed silly to send people their map books but make them wait until the rest of Grimmerspace was delivered for sticker packs; so, after checking that sticker packs would arrive in time to be included with the books, we said yes. 

And then backers began reporting that neither books nor notification emails had arrived from Gamerati Services. Made aware of the problem by backers, we inquired and learned what fulfillment hadn't told us: once we said yes to stickers, we lost our place in line. They bumped sending Yarro Battle Map books behind other game companies' shipments and caused a delay.

This should not happen again, as we have made it very clear that they need to inform us whenever any change might delay anything Grimmerspace, even the smallest amount of time.

In the meantime, because the fulfillment house is US-based, US orders are going out first. Gamerati Services reports that they expect to ship Canadian pallets next week. We are still trying to find out when European and South Pacific orders will be fulfilled. Ocean freight lanes are extremely clogged at the moment and could introduce delays of more than a month. However, it may be economical to send pallets air freight to Greece and Australia, and we'll let backers know about that as soon as we have any update from the fulfillment house.

Pre-Order Store

Last update we explained that we would be closing the pre-order store. More than a few gamers emailed asking us to keep the store open a little longer, so we're postponing the closing through December.

Grimmerspace Art

Of the approximately 135 total pieces of art Grimmerspace needs (the exact number may vary for expanded content or last-minute changes to the book plan) for its three books, two card decks, supplements, slipcase, minis, and posters, approximately 125 of these works are completed and purchased. Art orders for the rest have either been sent or are in the works. We're excited by this progress and would like to share a recently acquired piece from American character and creature designer, Molly Brown. 

End of October Update
over 3 years ago – Sun, Nov 01, 2020 at 11:42:22 PM

Greetings Grimmers!

As promised this is our 2nd update of October. Progress continues on design, development, editing, proofreading, and art.

Monster Playtest

The Xeno Files monster playtest went live shortly after the last update. Backers have only just begun to post feedback, which means there's still time to throw a your players in a pit with a few monsters and tell us how their fight for survival goes. You can get the details on how to participate and download the monsters we're looking to test on the forums, here. Additionally, the first of our monsters is ready for proofreading, last stop before layout.

Immersive Battlemap Books

We've delivered a digital version of the Sci-Fi Immersive Battle Map books to the survey inbox of every backer who ordered Yarro Studios' Immersive Battle Map book. Receiving a digital copy, along with the hardcover, was a Kickstarter exclusive only available to Kickstarter and pre-order backers. 

To download the digital versions of the maps, go to your survey page. At the top of your survey page, there's big green button that says "Get Your Digital Downloads." Click the button and it takes you to the download page. There are three files to download: 

• Immersive Battle Maps, Digital 1 of 3
• Immersive Battle Maps, Digital 2 of 3
• Immersive Battle Maps, Digital 3 of 3

Click the download button next to each to download a zip file with jpegs of your maps. 

Meanwhile, our fulfillment center reports they are shipping out the print versions of your Battle Map books this coming week. Finally, Yarro Studios reports they've sent us sticker packs, although we don't have an eta on their arrival.

If you no longer have the link to your survey, you can retrieve your survey here.

Pre-Order Phase Ending

At the end of November, we will stop accepting pre-orders and will close the Grimmerspace pre-order store. That means November is the last month to benefit from pre-order discounts. 

New Adventure Art Arrived Today

Giorgos Tsolis just sent us this stunning depiction of a scene from our core book adventure, Strat Attack!

 Incomplete Surveys    

As of today, 54 Backer surveys still remain uncompleted. Without a completed survey, where we collect delivery addresses, we can't send backers their rewards! We thought we'd try one last time to leave a message about incomplete surveys, in hopes these backers check the updates page and see it. 

If you didn't fill out your survey, please do so! If you want to double check or need to find your survey, you can retrieve it here. If you visit your survey and the very top left indicates "We Got Your Responses" than you are all set!

October Mid-Month Grimmerspace Update
over 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 03:57:23 AM

Hail Grimmers!

We're sending this mid-month update in the hopes that you might be able to lend us a (severed) hand to feed our...

Monster Playtest

Of the forty monsters slithering across the pages of our Xeno Files bestiary, we feel that seven of them in particular would benefit from playtesting. So if you can spare the time and energy, we'd be grateful if you'd head on over to the monster playtest area on our forums, and let us know how these beasties play! You'll need a forum account to download the playtest files, but it's easy to create that when you visit the site.

The Hodraks Are Shipping

Effin' Cool minis reports they've finished making all the Hodrak Warrior minis and are ready to ship them to our fulfillment house. We're just waiting on the final bill from them and then whoosh, out the door to Seattle they go.

Immersive Battlemap Books 

Just a heads up that the Immersive Battlemap Books should start shipping to backers this month. Our fulfillment house will process the list of backer addresses we sent them and then start moving books off pallets, into boxes, and out the door!

A Shout Out To The Suzerain Legends Kickstarter  

Our friends over at Savage Mojo blew past their Suzerain Legends Kickstarter funding goal in just the first five minutes after launch!
 

With only 4 days left to go before the campaign ends, we wanted to help spread the word about their enthralling setting. From their Kickstarter page:  

“Suzerain Legends isn’t one RPG, it’s every RPG. In this new edition of the Suzerain universe, you are a hero battling the invading forces of elemental evil across multiple realms, from high fantasy to the fae lands, from cyberpunk alleyways to the wastelands of the post-apocalypse and more.”

Grimmerspace's own Rone Barton narrated their cinematically gripping Kickstarter video. Don't miss out. Please consider giving it a look and listen!