September Grimmerspace Update
over 3 years ago – Thu, Oct 01, 2020 at 10:48:42 PM

Greetings Grimmers!

This is our September update, and we'll issue an October update later this month. That said, here's the latest from Grimmerspace...

PROGRESS CONTINUES

While we could have wished for even more progress, we're pleased to report that designers delivered all 40 monsters for Xeno Files, our bestiary. These days a bestiary contains more than creatures. Keeping with the Paizo standard, the Grimmerspace Xeno Files book includes: extended setting material, class grafts, new environmental grafts, subtype grafts, template grafts, and rules options. Rules options include a new creature companion, weapons, item properties, and even starship options.

All 40 monsters are in final development, and we expect to start feeding the first 35 of them into the proofreading pipeline early this month. After that, layout!  More about this in the playtesting and production part of the update, below...

PRODUCTION & TRACKING

We've reached the point in the development cycle where we feel it makes more sense to show you progress on a book by book basis by sharing our internal tracking tools, which pops the hood on our production process. Follow this link to view our production tracker web page and check progress on each book in nearly real-time. We'll update this page intermittently throughout the month as we hit new milestones.

PLAYTESTING & PROOFREADING

In our last update we mentioned a number of stall points in the production schedule. A lack of groups available for adventure playtesting has proven our second largest schedule challenge (right after designers failing to meet their contracted deadlines due to COVID). 

However, the Grimmer community responded in overwhelming strength to the issue. Thanks to your hard work on the Grimmerspace forums, you've completed the open class playtest. We are officially closing it Friday, October 9th 12:00AM EST. If you'd like to jump in before then, please do! We can always use more feedback.

Soon after, we will launch a new open playtest for 8 monsters. These beasts from Xeno Files are particularly complicated. Normally we'd put them through their paces when we playtest the adventures in which they appear, but if we get arena-style playtest results before our adventure playtests conclude, we can complete the Xeno Files book and send a PDF of it to all backers sooner.

Check the Grimmerspace forums and register there to participate in the upcoming open monster playtest. We sincerely appreciate your help!

IMMERSIVE BATTLE MAP BOOKS AND STICKER PACKS

Our fulfillment group in Seattle reports that the Yarro Studio's Immersive Battle Maps books have arrived safe and sound! Yarro Studios tells us that a different factory produces the vinyl sticker packs, and we don't have an eta on those just yet. Additionally, Yarro needs to make some adjustments to the digital files before we can send them to backers who are getting the book. That said, we decided that no backer who ordered an Immersive Battle Maps book should have to wait to receive it; therefore we'll ask our fulfillment partner to ship those to you this month (sticker packs will come later). In the meantime, Iron GM Games will absorb any and all costs that might arise from early, separate shipments of the Battle Maps book.

Here are some pictures of the book open on the table at the fulfillment house, some with minis for size comparison. 

 ART SHARE
Finally, art continues to roll in with our stable of curated artists who "get" Grimmerspace, reliably turning in mind-blowing work. We couldn't resist sharing this piece from artist Giorgos Tsolis who we feel perfectly captures this Subaya Matriarch at work fusing pieces of xenotech from disparate alien civilizations into a whole that is something else entirely.

August Grimmerspace Update
over 3 years ago – Wed, Sep 02, 2020 at 10:48:15 AM

We've been laboring so hard on Grimmerspace that we almost didn't remember to look up from our grindstones and give you your August update! So, here's the latest...

PROGRESS CONTINUES ON ALL FRONTS

Adventures are rolling in: Newly hired NY Times Bestselling horror author Dan Wells turned in his first adventure and took on his next. Other authors are turning in their setting work. Newly contracted designers Chris Sims (Alien Archives 2 and 3) and Alex Augunas (Alien Archives 2) are delivering their Grimmerspace monster designs. Rone and Lou are designing, developing, editing, and art directing every day.

In related news, August was the first month in the last six in which we did not lose a designer begging off due to their Covid-related difficulties.

ABATTOIR 8 AVAILABLE ON FANTASY GROUNDS

Smiteworks, the company behind Fantasy Grounds announced they have completed porting the first Grimmerspace adventure, Abattoir 8, to the Fantasy Grounds Add-Ons store and to Fantasy Grounds through Steam. As you may recall, inducing Fantasy Grounds to carry Grimmerspace content was a stretch goal of the Kickstarter that we met by reaching certain backer numbers. As we complete books, adventures, and supplements, Fantasy Grounds puts them into their queue and eventually ports them to their platform where they are available for purchase (we don't sell them). That's the same way d20 Pro works, while we hire our own talent to port content to Roll20.

HODRAK MINIS

Despite the mini maker having trouble getting anyone to work in the shop during Covid,  2,000 Hodrak minis are cast, in quality control, and heading toward packaging and shipping.

We thought you might enjoy some pictures illustrating the process:

IMMERSIVE BATTLEMAP BOOKS

As mentioned last update, Yarro Studios told us they shipped the books from their manufacturing center in China. We've asked for but do not yet have an ETA from their freight forwarder for when the books will arrive at our subcontracted fulfillment center outside of Seattle. If we're told an ETA before our next update we'll post that info in a comment on this update and in the Grimmerspace Facebook Group.

PLAYTESTING

All five Grimmerspace classes are up and available for playtesting on the Iron GM Games forums. We've reached Phase 2 of the Open Playtest in which we ask for assistance running 1st - 3rd level Grimmerspace characters through specific scenarios. If you want to jump in and give things a test drive, we very much appreciate it. You'll find everything you need in this forum topic, but you'll need to create an account and log in to download material. After Phase 2 we'll issue questionnaires, collect responses, and revise the classes accordingly. Once that's done we can revise class grafts if necessary. 

As discussed in the last update, playtesting during Covid has slowed to a crawl. In addition to the added time burden of making rudimentary VTT versions for playtesting purposes, groups just aren't getting together as often. Despite us adding an additional playtest group since last month, we just don't have access to the same number of tables we did before Covid. Not to mention, finding organized play groups for the last stage of our playtesting process is nearly impossible right now. We are looking at ways to shortcut playtesting without sacrificing quality and also actively seeking additional experienced playtest groups. We'll keep you informed as we go, but playtesting slowness is definitely creating delays on two of our three core books.

OTHER COVID IMPACTS

Proofreading. Another impact from Covid has been the drop in availability of proofreaders as well as slower output from proofreaders who remain available. One might think that more time at home from Covid restrictions would make for more availability and more output, but that's not how it's working out. Perhaps unavailability and slowness are partly due to being home with kids, or maybe it's people having to work twice as hard to keep their day job incomes flowing when their partners are out of work. Regardless, we lost our proofreading team. We're grateful we found replacements, but the new team is smaller and still getting up to speed.

Distributor Orders and the Business of Publishing. Distributors are currently delaying orders and order volume is down an estimated 20-30% due to Covid. Distributors are ordering less because retail stores aren't open or back in full swing. 

Why does this matter to you? Because it impacts publisher's print runs, including ours. While backers will always get their Grimmerspace product first, before it hits retail, for publishers it's always best to order a single print run in the largest possible volume. This is just a reality of the industry and how publishers afford print runs. 

One of the many factors that go into deciding on the size of a print run includes how many books the distributor commits to ordering -- at their crazy-deep distributor discount from eventual MSRP. Other factors include: how many pre-orders have happened post Kickstarter, guesses as to how many books a company thinks they can sell at conventions over the 18 months after printing, when a book will finally hit retail (again, always after backers receive theirs), and how much inventory should the company keep in a warehouse (at what cost) while it tries to sell books online... etc. etc. It's an art, for which we have excellent and experienced advisors.

While print runs of all the books and products needed to satisfy both backers and pre-orders are locked in (never fear you are covered!), no publisher out there wants to do two or three different print runs to also meet distribution and inventory demands. Multiple print runs mean a publisher runs a substantial risk of losing money and/or needing loans to cover the runs.

Which is kind of the exact opposite reason for Kickstarting a business. As a result, distributor decisions about how many books they want -- whatever the volume that they decide to order turns out to be -- might delay submitting print jobs to our printer. We have to add, the uncertainty around the fate of conventions during Covid doesn't make this calculation any easier.

Printers. Despite inquiries, we still don't have a clear picture of what, if any, backlogs printers face and therefore what delays we can expect once we submit our print jobs. Wish we could say for certain, but until we know more there's nothing else to report on this front.

PDFs. As discussed in the last update, we remain committed to releasing the digital version of each book as soon as it leaves layout. This staggered PDF release schedule remains the fastest way we can see to get the digital versions of Grimmerspace books into your hands.

As anticipated, it's still looking like you'll receive digital copies of Xeno Files and Grimmerspace Adventures Vol. 1 before Grimmerspace Settings and Adventures.

Art. Curiously, for us at least, Covid did not slow art production. Instead, we've found artists around the world trapped inside, denied access to their studios, and hungry to create. If anything, we received more art than expected more swiftly. So why isn't all of the art in yet, you may ask? Because some of it can't be commissioned until certain writing is finalized as significant changes can still happen post playtest.

FACTION SYMBOLS

We thought you'd enjoy seeing a preview of a few organization and faction symbols created by Victor Maristane, the artistic genius behind the "Delicious Slab of Thunk" and "Keep Them Working" posters.

A BIGGER CORE BOOK

Last but not least we wanted everything in Grimmerspace Settings & Adventures to fit into a 256-page book, but the Grimmers and their galaxy just won't comply. For our adventures, in particular, we've found they need to be longer to accomplish both their cinematic-horror mission and carry the weight of expanding setting through play. Additionally, our setting keeps demanding more breathing room, and then the classes and other player options... At the end of the day, we're expecting to add 30-50 pages of additional content and put bigger books in your hands. This costs us in dollars and, for you, it may add some time from extra writing, playtesting, editing, and proofing--but not too much over all. Regardless, we feel strongly the expanded result will prove well worth it.

July Grimmerspace Update
almost 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 31, 2020 at 07:02:19 PM

QUANTUM SEER IN THE OPEN PLAYTEST

We'd like to start by announcing that we'll be posting the fifth of five character classes, the Quantum Seer, to the open playtest on the Iron GM Games forums in a few days. Please consider joining the forums and giving any or all of the classes a test drive. Your feedback helps us deliver a better product more swiftly. In the near future, we'll be issuing surveys and collecting everyone's feedback to help finalize the classes, but right now there's still time for your insights to make a difference.    

PLAYTESTING DELAYS

Back in May, faced with COVID-19 related delays, we announced steps to expand the team. Unfortunately, COVID and related circumstances affected more designers, and for every person we added... one dropped off. In terms of the number of designers working, we are back to square one since that update, minus the work and time needed to bring everyone up to speed.       An additional issue has cropped up around playtesting. You may recall we have a very thorough approach to playtesting. While we’re sticking to that process, it relied on groups of people getting together to game. That was before the pandemic, which introduced two changes:

• Our playtest teams now game exclusively via VTT
   
• Our playtesters also game less frequently
   

This has slowed our playtest process because we now have to take the additional step of creating an interim VTT version of every adventure suitable for someone other than us to use. And then, once we get the playtest VTT version of an adventure into a GM's hands, it now takes longer for them to host a game and return their feedback.          

We’re not yet sure how much of a delay this will introduce when it comes to finalizing the adventures in our core Grimmerspace Settings & Adventures book and to finalizing Grimmerspace Adventures Vol. 1 because we are in the early stages of playtesting. But we can see right now that playtesting takes longer than it used to before the pandemic.

WHAT WE’RE DOING ABOUT PLAYTESTING

We’re actively recruiting new playtest groups, and we’re doing more playtesting ourselves. You may recall our playtest waterfall looks like this:

• Step 1: Internal playtest (We run games for our internal groups)
   
• Step 2: Playtester level backers (We host a game or games for backers who pledged the Playtester level)
   
• Step 3: Iron GMs (We expand the playtest to Iron GMs who have won or placed highly at our Iron GM gaming tournament)
   
• Step 4: Organized Play (We expand the playtest to Starfinder organized play leaders, ie Venture Captains or Lieutenants)
   

At the end of each step and before moving onto the next, we collect feedback and revise the adventure. Right now we’re running more games at Step 1 ourselves, and we’re recruiting more GMs for Step 3 and Step 4 in hopes of having more playtests run in parallel instead of sequentially.

BOTTOM LINE ON DELAYS

As you all know, our original target date to ship Grimmerspace was July of 2020. In our May update, we explained how the global pandemic had slowed the industry in general and how it affected us in particular, and we revised our estimated delivery date to the end of September.

At that time we did not anticipate extra work setting up playtests on VTT, nor how much harder it would be for playtesting groups to meet during the pandemic. Unless we can speed up playtesting, we are expecting additional delays, although not extensive ones. Seeing that on the horizon, even without a specific measure of the impact, we thought it best to alert you early.

WHAT WE’RE DOING ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE

As mentioned in the May update, we’ve decided to release digital versions of the books as soon as they leave layout. The original plan was to release all the digital files together, not one at a time, and only after first finishing any additional post-layout revisions; ie. just before sending those digital files to the printer.          Getting digital copies to you sooner will create more work for us because we’ll need to send you updated PDFs with any corrections once we finalize the files for the printer. But we feel delivering what we have as soon as we can is the right way to go.        

 Releasing digital versions one-by-one as they are finished also has the following implication: you might receive digital copies of Xeno Files and Adventures Volume 1 before Grimmerspace Settings and Adventures because those two are “lower hanging fruit” and currently closer to completion.

Additionally, we are hiring more designers and developers, regardless of cost. Having more competent hands working simultaneously will speed delivery.

PROGRESS REPORT

Here’s a summary of progress on the main Grimmerspace books:

Xeno Files

• All the monster art is in hand and final
   
• We estimate about 1/3 of the book is done, and the rest is in development. We expect the book to proceed smoothly to completion.
   
• With the monster art in hand and when monster design finishes, we'll  have what we need to send the Xeno Deck to layout right beside the Xeno Files
   

Settings and Adventures

• Art and cartography continue to flow in
   
• Drafts of all the polities are complete and in development
   
• Progress has been made on all sections of the book
   
• We’ve received another initial draft adventure, bringing the total in hand to 12. Of the 8 adventures we sent back to designers with development notes, 6 have returned and we are finalizing them for playtest.
   
• 2 adventures have already entered internal playtesting
   

Grimmerspace Adventures Volume 1

• Art and Cartography continue to flow in
   
•  Scavenger’s Voice, the second of three adventures in the book, is in Step 3 of playtesting with 3 different Iron GMs, one of whom has completed it and provided feedback
   
• The third and final adventure for Vol 1. has been through development, been returned with revisions, and is now in the final stages before playtesting. Final art orders are out and with the artists for this adventure.
   
• After playtesting, when the third adventure is complete, with art and cartography in hand, the entire book will be ready for proofing and layout.
   

Immersive Battlemap Books

Yarro Studios reports that the Grimmerspace exclusive sci-fi Immersive Battle Map books and sticker packs are on a ship and heading for our fulfillment house in Washington state. Once they arrive, we'll ship copies to all backers who selected and paid for early delivery.

New Team Members

We are pleased to announce two new additions to the Grimmerspace team: NY Times bestselling science fiction and horror author Dan Wells joins us for adventure design, and 2020 Aurealis award-winning Australian science-fiction author Shauna O'Meara joins us for world-building and development.

ART

As mentioned, our national and international artists and cartographers continue to execute in a timely fashion, bringing Grimmerspace to life. While at this juncture we want to save most of the art for the books alone, we couldn't help but share one of the amazing pieces of environment art from the phenomenal Giorgos Tsolis, an artist living and working in Greece.

UNFINISHED SURVEYS      As of today, 54 Backer surveys remain uncompleted. Without a completed survey, where we collect your delivery address, we can't send backers their rewards. Nearly everyone who contacted us had indeed filled their survey out. For anyone who hasn't yet, it only takes a few minutes. And if you haven't received your Grimmerspace survey, and it's not in your spam, please let us know. We'll resend it to you right away!

June Update
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Jun 20, 2020 at 09:54:12 PM

Welcome to the June update!

We'd like to start by letting you know we've posted the fourth of five Grimmerspace classes on the open playtest. The Crypto-Monk is now available to download. We've really enjoyed and benefitted from the feedback so far. Please keep testing them and letting us know what to think. We'll eventually circulate a survey to gather answers to specific questions that concern us. The more you play and report the more data we have.

In the meantime, the project progresses. Here some details on the three core books:

XENO FILES

• 38 of 40 art pieces are complete.
• Monster write-ups, builds, and internal playtesting is underway.

SETTINGS AND ADVENTURES

• Drafts of four of our five polities are complete
• NPC drafts are complete 
• Four of five classes are posted to the forums and in playtest
• Races are in development; drafts are in or in process for many additional sections: equipment, travel and propulsion, magic, and more
• All other chapters are in various stages of draft and development 
• Of the 14 adventures in the book, we await drafts on 3; designers have delivered initial drafts for 11
• Of the 11 drafts we've received, 8 have passed through varying stages of development and are back with designers for revisions, and we are readying 2 of them to playtest

GRIMMERSPACE ADVENTURES VOL 1

• The 1.0 draft of the entire volume is now in hand.
• Greg Vaughan handed over his draft of the third and final adventure in Aventures Vol 1, and this 48-pager is now in development.
•  Scavenger's Voice, the second of three adventures in the book, completed internal playtesting with groups that include some of our Playtester backers.
•  Scavenger's Voice was revised in response and is now in the hands of external playtesting groups. We expect to gather those results soon.
• The art for Scavenger's Voice is all complete and in our hands, some of it by Joseph Diaz whom we've spotlighted at the end of the update!

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: JOSEPH DIAZ

When searching for an artist capable of masterfully rendering one of our most iconic monsters, we came across the portfolio of Joseph Diaz and knew instantly that we’d discovered our newest dark star. Since joining the team he’s handed in many pieces that promise to add, and indelibly so, a distinctly vivid new dimension to Grimmerspace art.

1. Joseph, tell us something about yourself!

I’m a fantasy and science fiction artist based in Barcelona, Spain. I started working professionally as a concept artist in the movie industry in 2008 and during the past decade, I’ve contributed with art and design to more than 40 movies and shows like Warcraft, Game of Thrones, Lost in Space, A Monster Calls and the upcoming Netflix’s The Irregulars and Disney’s Jungle Cruise.

During the past five years, I have contributed to several tabletop and RPG games mostly centered around the sci-fi horror genre, which is my favorite one.

Besides painting, I like to spend my time playing electric guitar and recording music, reading graphic novels and books, and practicing martial arts. I’m also preparing at the moment my first short film as director. It will be a dark/horror fairytale with lots of visual effects.

2. Despite our different artists each bringing their own special something to Grimmerspace, we’ve attempted to coax their varied talents toward a kind of similar enough shared aesthetic so that we’re conveying a generally recognizable “Grimmerspace look.” How do you think we’re doing on that front?

The most important thing in that regard, in my opinión, is art direction. In this case, Rone is transmitting to us, the artists, the essence of the game and controlling the output quality. He is doing an amazing job and Grimmerspace is evolving into one of the most visually appealing games I’ve ever seen.

3. You’re already quite accomplished at transforming nightmares into art, but did creating for Grimmerspace present you with any challenges that expanded your range, or are these assignments we’re raining down upon you simply a cakewalk?

Every illustration is a challenge for me. If you don’t challenge yourself in every work there’s no evolution as an artist. In this case, I try to communicate as well as I can the spirit and atmosphere of the game. Creating a new sci-fi universe and new characters so detailed as Grimmerspace is hard but also very rewarding.

4. What excited you most about pitching in to help construct our sinister corner of the universe?

Since I was a little kid I’ve been a huge fan of sci-fi horror. Alien is one of my favorite movies and I remember that my main inspiration to become a fantasy artist, back when I was a kid, was discovering that behind the monster there was a Swiss painter called H. R. Giger. I wanted to do that for a living.

I’ve been lucky to be part of some amazing projects during my professional carrier, but I always feel fortunate to be an artist when a Project like Grimmerspace comes along.

5. What are your favorite aspects of creating for Grimmerspace?

The most engaging aspect of creating scenes or characters for Grimmerspace for me is the conception stage. When the brief for a new illustration arrives and I stare at the blank canvas is always an exciting moment, that opens for me a universe of possibilities.

Besides, I always love to design and paint monsters. It’s the thing I enjoy the most of being an artist and Grimmerspace gives me the chance to do exactly that.

6. Of your Grimmerspace contributions to date, which is your favorite?

My favorite contribution to Grimmerspace to date is the illustration for the Vigilant Ascendant. I really like to design unique monsters with unique textures and Vigilant Ascendant presented some unique challenges that I enjoyed solving

7. Might we expect to see new Diazian marvels continue to visually define Grimmerspace in the years to come? 

Yes, Of course. I would love to be a part of this amazing universe and keep having fun designing and painting these awesome scenes and creatures. And, of course, I will enjoy playing Grimmerspace once it’s released.

Check out Joseph’s other works:

- Lovecraft – The Fear from Beyond:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YyPNK

- Time-Space Traveller:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XO9Bl

- Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/w8am4V

- Mecha Ronin:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/AZ1Dy

- Cthulhu Rising

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RY1PYD

- The Memory Remains III:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/dO06a3

- Mechamuto:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/PmozkZ

Links:

https://www.artstation.com/josephdiaz

https://www.instagram.com/jdiaz_art/

Announcing an Open Playtest and the Impact of Covid-19
almost 4 years ago – Mon, May 11, 2020 at 10:02:33 AM

First, and most importantly, we hope you and your loved ones stay safe and healthy. This pandemic is affecting everyone in every industry, but so far most of our friends and family who contracted Covid-19 have all recovered. We earnestly hope this remains true for you as well.

GRIMMERSPACE OPEN PLAYTEST

Grimmers with the time and interest may wish to pitch in on our Grimmerspace Player Options Open Playtest. We didn't plan to host an open playtest, initially, but we feel involving the community in the development of classes and races will accomplish three things: it will free up much needed internal playtesting resources for adventures, it will improve the quality of races and classes, and it will give backers "early access" to these player options. 

As of this post, you'll find the Recombinator and the Voti Marine classes ready to download on the newly launched Iron GM Games forum, with more options available in the next few days. Owen K.C. Stephens (Design Lead for the Starfinder Core Rulebook, Development Lead for the Character Operations Manual), author of our Grimmerspace classes and races, will run the playtest. To participate and get a first look just register with the forums and jump right in.

Additionally, in late April and March we started taking additional steps to soften the impact of the pandemic: 

Hired Authors. To make up for lost time and work, we have hired additional writers, whose work we know and trust, and assigned more to these outside authors than originally planned. While this increases our costs, it allows more to be written in parallel and prevents the three of us from being the bottleneck. Of course, Sean, Rone and Lou still need to review, develop, and edit every word, but it's always faster to edit a strong author's work written to our concepts and outlines than to create from scratch.

Added Artists. We invested time in replacing and expanding our stable of artists. Art Director Rone's standards are exacting, but in the past month, we added enough artists to feel confident that art will not prove a bottleneck on delivery.

WE STILL ANTICIPATE DELAYS 

The pandemic has led a number of our writers to fall behind on their deadlines while others broke their contracts entirely. Additionally, while none of us has contracted the disease, we were forced to spend time helping sick family members and addressing immediate financial hardships. The same holds true for artists. Covid-19 has also led some artists to deliver far more slowly while others we signed are no longer available for the foreseeable future, particularly artists from continental Europe.

As you all know, the Kickstarter targeted shipping products in July 2020. Despite adding content creators and leaning into the community to playtest player options, at this time we now feel the end of September is a more realistic target for digital delivery, and we are unable to predict exactly when physical product will ship (although it most certainly will).

PRINTER BACKLOGS POSE SCHEDULING RISKS TO INDUSTRY

Additionally, both our industry partners and prospective printers report a backlog of projects in both Europe and China. Essentially, with their regions on lockdown, printers have not been printing and the waitlist of projects has piled up. If we're lucky, printers might clear their backlogs by the time we are ready to transmit files to them, or they might still be wrestling with accumulated backorders. 

Until our files are ready to send, there's will be no way to tell for sure when any given printer can start printing our books. All we can do is keep you apprised every step of the way and, once the files are ready, ship your physical copies as soon as a quality printer will print them. While it might be a different story even a month from now, today uncertainty around printing schedules is something the entire tabletop role-playing game industry faces.

CHANGING THE RELEASE PLAN

Our original plan called for sending backers one email containing all the digital copies (PDFs) of Grimmerspace products, but only after all the galley proofs from all of those products came back from the printers. For those who might be wondering, a galley proof comes after layout and is a preliminary hardcopy from the printer. It is a publisher's last chance to proof and change the text before all the books, decks, etc. get made. If you don't catch a problem in the galley proof, too late. It's in the book!

While it will create some administrative burden for us, the best way we can think to accelerate delivery is to release digital products individually, as they finish layout, and not wait for galley proofs from the printer. If we spot an error on a galley proof, we will update and then reissue the PDF with the fix.

WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING?

We are also pleased to announce backers who pledged at the Playtest level are now scheduled to begin playing Scavenger's Voice, the sequel to Abattoir 8 from Grimmerspace Adventures Vol. 1 on May 15th and May 16th, starting each day at 5 pm EST.

•  Art continues to roll in. We have 13 new Xeno Files monsters in hand, along with cartography and adventure art. Here's a small sample:

• Effin Cool Minis began pouring and packaging Hodrak minis
• ARCop's Pieces are now in production.

• SmiteWorks recently informed us that Abattoir 8 will hit their store in the next 1-2 weeks, so keep an eye out Fantasy Ground users!

UNFINISHED SURVEYS
   As of today, 57 Backer surveys remain uncompleted. That means seven backers who hadn't filled out their surveys responded! Unfortunately without a completed survey, where we collect your delivery address, we can't send backers their rewards. If you haven't received your Grimmerspace survey, and it's not in your spam, please let us know. We'll resend it right away!

EXTENSION ON LATE PLEDGES THROUGH BACKERKIT
   Because we have to extend the delivery deadline, it makes sense to extend accepting late pledges; so, while pledge bundles from the Kickstarter are no longer available, we're still accepting late backer pledges through the Backerkit store.