New Years Progress
over 5 years ago – Wed, Jan 02, 2019 at 03:18:11 PM

Happy New Year!

The Free Spacer Kickstarter was the highlight of my 2018. I've been working on this game for a long time and it's amazing seeing it nearly out there in the world. This is all possible due to all of your backing, my playtesters, the artists coming on board, and Lisa - whose been helping out since the beginning.

Surveys

The BackerKit is progressing super well. As of the end of the year, over 90% of you have completed your surveys and paid for your shipping. Many of you have also added Add-ons to your pledges. The most popular Add-ons are: 

• The Sector Archive DriveThruRPG POD Code
• Generous Tips
• Softcover Books

Stretch Goal

As you may know, the BackerKit has an exciting stretch goal - Full colour printing! To reach the Stretch Goal, we need to raise $3000 CAD above shipping. Right now, we've raised a little over $1000 over shipping. Making us a 3rd of the way there. So close that we're making all of the art in colour in preparation. While many of the Kickstarter backers have added Add-ons, there have not been a lot of new backers in the BackerKit Pre-order store, but I am still hoping to bring more people in as we get closer to printing.

Please, tell your friends that they can still get onboard through the Pre-order store and we can all get a full colour book.

Sector Archives

The awesome stretch goal designers and I have been working hard on the Sector Archives. They are looking really cool! I have finished the Ptolemy sector, which is used for examples throughout the book and I'm working on the Abraxas Tau sector; this is a human-only setting for the Mercenary flag. Johnstone Metzger's Lost sector has multiple types of humans, very alien aliens, and will be very cool for Exploration crews. Finally, I've have a concept for the Pirate sector that is really going to make it something special.

Editing  

Last night Karen Twelves sent me her edit of the book. I can't wait to get into the revisions. The book feels so close to being done. With proof reading quickly approaching, we decided to hire Kira Magrann as a Sensitivity reader for the parts of the book specifically dealing with gender, sex, and pronouns. I really want the book to be inclusive, the future is for everyone and so is Free Spacer.

Art

Big Art announcement! We're we're bringing Seth Rutledge onboard to do a series of images for the book. In house, Lisa has been putting together all the assets she needs, while we've been developing the look for the book. We've designed chapter starts, all new styles, interior art drafts,and multiple cover concepts. Finally, Lisa has completed a series of "finished" images for the book. Check this one out and tell us what you think!

Creatures, Launch craft, Shuttles, & Small craft
over 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 01:15:16 AM

Since the Backerkit launched, I've been pretty busy with it, working with Lisa on art direction, doing new layout for the game sheets, and refining the book for the next round of editing.

During this process, I've been working feedback into the the text. This is mostly adding summaries, examples, and clairflying the text, but I have made a couple of changes to the book.

Have a look at the changes and tell me what you think:

Creatures

When I created creature preparation, I made Creatures, like swarms, a stock character - a group character with a difficulty determined by number. The idea was to create a threat that's less significant then Sophonts, but more then swarms. This isn't how it played. Instead swarms and creatures were essentially the same. How did I fix it? I decided to do two things.

• Make composite characters - basically unnamed significant characters.
• Make creature composite characters rather then stock characters.

Launch craft

The ship's launch has always been an issue. It was originally inspired by the flycycles in rimworld, the mule in Firefly, the Mass Effect Mako, and the Star Trek shuttlepod. Its gone through many iterations, but there are still some issues with the preview version:

• Players insist on calling the launch a shuttle, which is confusing.
• Players never prioritise launch upgrades. 
• An upgradable launch makes the Contingency type Corvette feel too ordinary. Most vessels don't work like your ship and crew kit.

The Fix. It is a big one. I decided to change how the launch and other vehicles worked because of this. I made the launch just like any shuttle. You can now call it a shuttle. Like nearly every vessel, the launch craft has fixed stats. Or at least the tug does. To enable the flexibility, I made the Launch Bay itself a Module that prints trailers using Supply to provide the Launch craft flexibility.

Shuttles

Due to the changes I made to the launch craft and the lingering oddness between away and space-scale craft, shuttle needed to be changed too. The Fix. Merge vehicles into shuttles. This change makes a single shuttle an away-scale and multi-section vehicle. When in squadrons, shuttles are space-scale stock characters. This fixes the flow between away-scale and space-scale characters. Before there was a redundancy. I also took away the chance for shuttle to have fold drives to assert the usefulness of small-craft and ships.

Small Craft

Finally small craft. I noticed while watching other Gamemasters running the game that there is a hole in the spacecraft selection that system boats don't obviously fill. The Fix. I am changing its presentation and tweaking system boats to be their own type of vessel, small craft. Small craft are very similar to ships, but have a single section. They are simple vessels, small, quick, and common.

BackerKit Live!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 03:36:53 PM

A month ago the Free Spacer Kickstarter not only funded, but unlocked all the Sector Archive stretch goals. Thank you all for helping me pay Kira, Johnstone, and Melody. Since then, we've been working hard on logistics; finalising shipping, setting up for the archivists, art direction, and branding.

BackerKit is Live

Surveys// Go to BackerKit to fill in your survey and pay any required shipping. You can also upgrade your pledge and add new items. I'll be smoke testing the Survey

Preorder Store// New backers can join the campaign using the Preorder store. Please tell your friends who missed the Kickstarter that they can still join and get a copy of Free Spacer. 

$3,000 CAD - A BackerKit Stretch Goal!

The campaign fell short of the Full Colour Stretch goal. The artists and I really want the book to be in colour. So, we're going to keep the stretch goal going. If we raise $3,000 CAD outside of the shipping fees, I’ll upgrade all books – Printed and PDF – to full colour art and layout. So tell all your friends to grab their own copy of Free Spacer.

We Did it!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 12:23:05 AM

We broke atmo, crew!

The campaign is finished. 633 backers have joined the crew and we raised $24,175 CAD to produce a beautiful book. I am so happy with the result. Before the kickstarter, few of you had heard of me or Free Spacer. Now, thanks to you all, the Kickstarter funded and more!

What's next?

While the Campaign is over, the project continues. From now on, I'm going to be hard at work making Free Spacer an awesome game deserving of your patronage. 

The first step involves a lot of scheduling. Karen Twelves is currently busy with Big Bad Con, but once it is over we'll hammer out the editing schedule. For the Sector Archive, I'll be talking to Kira Magrann, Johnstone Metzger, and Dr Melody Watson about their schedules. 

As for Art and Layout, Lisa and I have already begun to work through the the layout plan, look dev, and the art requirements.

I've put together the initial BackerKit set up, which will include a Preorder store with add ons and upgrades. The Preorder store should be up soon, but do not expect the surveys until next year; I want to make sure your information is all up to date for shipping. I'll send out dates for this as we get closer.

Keep in touch

I will keep you all up to date. I'll post every major announcement on the Kickstarter as an update so watch your feed! If you want to chat about the game, its progress, or have questions you can contact me on social media. All day-to-day updates will be on my twitter, the g+ community, and the Facebook group / page. Plus, the Free Spacer stream will continue for a couple more weeks on EricVulgaris' Twitch channel. If you missed the show, they are archived on my YouTube. 

Thanks again! 

Christoph Sapinsky - Random Alien Games

A Friendly Reminder about Shipping
over 5 years ago – Mon, Sep 17, 2018 at 08:23:39 PM

We've FUNDED! That's super exciting, but also means we need to talk about shipping. Shipping is expensive and no one likes to pay for it. So, I want to be as open as I can on the cost of shipping before the Kickstarter ends. Here are approximations and they are as close as I can figure. More details will come as we progress.

Indie Press Revolution

IPR will be doing the shipping for the United States: approx $6 USD including excellent shipping material to keep your books in pristine condition.

Kixto

Kixto is in the United Kingdom and will handle the shipping in Europe and International. They ensure me that taxes should not be an issue in Europe and the UK. Their shipping methods utilizes a strong corrugated book mailer to ensure the books arrive in good shape.

• United Kingdom: approx £4.50 GBP
• European Union: approx £8 GBP
• Rest of the World: approx £11 GBP

Canada

Okay Canada, I live here too so I understand the frustration related to high shipping costs. As we are printing here, I am looking for a way to ship the books from inside Canada. I don't have an good quote yet, but I'm still tracking down the best options. A quick quote from Canada Post puts it at 17$ CAD plus packaging, but there may be discounts.

Vancouver: I live here and so do many of you. I am planning a Meetup Event at the Main Branch of Vancouver Library so you have the option of picking it up from me in person.

The Printed Sector Archive

The Printed Sector Archive is distinct from the core book. The Printed Sector archive is going to be printed and shipped by DriveThru RPG and the cost of shipping is included in the original pledge.