Ballistic’s Report: Week Ending May 7

This week had a lot of writing for my SJGames project, even more writing and polishing for Delvers to Grow, and the launch of the Delvers to Grow campaign. And a bunch more.

• Down to one backer yet to respond on Character Collections.
• All of the basic stuff for CC is more or less in house. I’m still missing two boxes of counters, but all of the card decks are in my wife’s car.
• Still tracking down missing international packages from More Perilous Journeys; this is incredibly irksome
• There’s a hiccup with the labeling on the DtG counters. I was told that you can be a bit vague about company address, but now I’m being told otherwise. Need to come up with a plan here.
• Delvers to Grow launched at 10am today (Friday May 7) and will run though May 25. We crossed $6,000 of the $22,000 funding level in about two hours, and average pledge level is running higher than planned. Stretch goals are still by backer count, so the key bit is getting the word out!
• Gaming Ballistic made it’s first guest appearance on the Attack of Opportunity podcast last night. Jeff was a great host and I hope to see him again on his show. Video to come soon.

Gaming Ballistic Patreon

To help with ongoing funding of art and speed eventual time to delivery, Gaming Ballistic started a Patreon in January 2021. Here’s the weekly update on Patreon status.

• Membership status: 44 patrons and $301 per month.
• Special Content: This week was light on content as I did the run-up to DtG launch, but I’ve got a few things in mind for this month that should make up for it.
• Note: Still lagging on Patreon goals.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

Project where hardcopies and PDFs are going out, or scheduled to do so.

• Counters, cards, boxes, and books are all mostly in hand. Fulfillment for the larger “more than books” orders starts this weekend.
• I actually picked up the cards myself, as the manufacturer is 30 minutes north of my house. The Outback was pretty full.

Crowdfunding

TFT Character Collection (Launched Friday Feb 19; Closed on Tuesday, March 9 at 9pm Central)

• As noted, gearing up for final fulfillment of all domestic packages
• International packages are awaiting closing the final details with CE Mark with STC.

Delvers to Grow (Launchd Friday May 7 at 10am Central Time)

• Campaign launched to a very strong start. About 30% funding in two hours.
• Kickstarter has opened up add-ons for this project, but I think it only allows physical add-ons with a physical base pledge, so you can’t (I don’t think) add on a print book to a PDF pledge.
• I will be doing digital fulfillment with DriveThruRPG this time to see if we can take advantage of their fan base.
• Stretch goals are by backer count. So tell all your friends to pledge

Product Announcements

No new uploads this week.

In Development

Writing and content creation for announced projects. Some of this may be cryptic.

• Finalizing the Delvers to Grow main manuscript, including starting to work on the example characters. We’re very close to finishing it, but there’s drudge-work yet to do on things like wizard spell lists, which are high-effort activities
• Krysuvik made more headway; I’ve seen sample characters (made with DtG and then tweaked), and Glynn provided a sketch map of the 10-mile hex in which the adventure takes place
• I’m about 80% done with my project for SJGames. I need to finish that up this weekend. I did, however, commission my own map (also by Glynn) because I really wanted to make sure of a few things.

Friction

Bits of news and items that put a monkey in the wrench.

• The labeling thing on the counters is super-troubling. I was told that I didn’t need to be quite as specific as they’re asking for, and now I’m paying for it. This makes me grumpy.
• The pricing on both the China and USA product testing came in roughly double what they’d originally quoted. I suppose I should not have been surprised. The limited number of orders I’m filling makes me question “stuff to Europe” completely. “Books to Europe” is still fine.
• Not writing as fast as I’d like on the SJGames project
• Feeling like I’ve been pounded flat this last week, but things going OK

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• April ended with the strongest month ever on DriveThru
• Had a great interview with the Attack of Opportunity podcast yesterday. It’s already live for audio-only, and as he cleans up the video that’ll go live too. It was a great conversation and I look forward to more.
• The method we’re using to spool out sample characters is really effective. This will work out very well for the Nordlond Bestiary too. Yay.