Ballistic’s Report for Week Ending June 4
This week’s report got lost in the last day of school, plus the Memorial Day holiday meant that basically I had no idea what day of the week it was. In any case, this week was surprisingly productive given the massive chaos of the last week of school.
- I shipped off all of the US and Canadian packages for Character Collections, picked an international shipping agent, and boxed up just shy of 80 lbs of books, cards, and counterrs. Also in this batch are some reships from More Perilous Journeys that never arrived.
- I finished, edited, revised, and finalized my entry for the GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge. I am told it was an easy edit, so go me.
- I finished editing and laid out in preliminary fashion Crypt of Krysuvik. It is now standing at a minimum of 34 pages, and I haven’t added the internal dungeon maps yet. I have added a bunch of full-page pre-gens, and so I’ll need some art to go with those. Monsters and finalizing some undone tables on Sunday, then I can really get going on art direction.
- On the other hand, I did send out some direction for the Crypt of Krysuvik cover. I haven’t heard back from the artist (she’d be a new addition), but we’ll see.
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: 47 patrons and $323 per month.
- Special Content: Members got to see the prelinary layout of Crypt, as well as a glimpse at my art direction process this week.
Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping
Project where hardcopies and PDFs are going out or scheduled to do so.
- Character collections US and Canada fulfillment has all gone out. I arranged to put the international orders into the system on Monday, via DHL pickup first to Greece, then mailed throughout the world.
Crowdfunding
TFT Character Collection (Launched Friday Feb 19; Closed on Tuesday, March 9 at 9pm Central)
Just for fun I checked the original schedule from the campaign:
- Campaign End: Tuesday, March 9 (5pm Central Time)
- Backerkit Phase: April, 2021
- Production: May, 2021
- PDF Distribution: June 2021
- Printing and Physical Good Manufacture: August 2021
- Shipping, Fulfillment, and Delivery: September-October 2021
PDF distribution was initiated by the end of March. Print books happened by mid-April. Stuff started going out in early May. Final domestic and Canadian distribution completed early June. I’m hopeful that now that we’re in international land, that we’ll be all delivered by the end of August.
Delvers to Grow (Launched Friday May 7 at 10am Central Time, Ended May 25 at 9pm Central)
- The campaign completed at 448 backers successfully charged. We dropped three, and hopefully we’ll pick them up in Backerkit.
Product Announcements
No new uploads this week.
In Development
Writing and content creation for announced projects. Some of this may be cryptic.
- I’ve got some slight work ahead of me finalizing Delvers to Grow’s main book. I’m all-in on getting Krysuvik to the art stage. I’m a bit behind on getting the books of sample characters where I want them, but honestly the art is already underway (we defined what the characters would look like before we made them), so even though this is technically behind, I’m not concerned yet.
Friction
Bits of news and items that put a monkey in the wrench.
- As a result of the lukewarm reception for Delvers, the plans for the Bestiary had to be changed. I’m now going to do small volumes, probably 32 pages, of monsters, with a mix of types in each volume. I may not do stretch goals, and just focus on getting these done, the art done, and at the very end, when I’ve got all 200+ monsters in hand, I’ll look into a special omnibus bestiary that’s an all-or-nothing doorstop tome.
- I haven’t done a full reckoning, but I’d be surprised if, after CE Mark testing and the morass that is international shipping, I actually made money internationally. If I have to get the products tested for each batch (and you’re supposed to!), that adds up to the equivalent of $80–$100 PER ORDER in testing fees. That’s just not sustainable. Books are still fine, but “stuff” needs a re-think.
Fair Winds
Information about things that move GB forward.
- Things actually went really well given how chaotic this week was. My wife was away on business all week, which left me as full-time dad, and the kids were off-and-on virtual and home-bound this week, or had special stuff going on with timing and whatnot that mucked up our pattern. Even so, a lot got done.
- Getting Character Collections off my desk (at times literally) and my part of it done a full 3-4 months ahead of the predicted schedule is a real win.
- Responses to the shipments has thus far been good.
