Surveys & Pre-Order Store!
almost 6 years ago – Sat, Dec 22, 2018 at 01:18:18 AM

Hi all!

The first set of surveys through BackerKit is out! If there's any issues, please let us know. They only go out to 5% of you for a test run, then get sent out to the rest of the crew after a brief test period! Yay!

Also, our pre-order store and add-ons exist now! Here is the link:  https://turn.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders Please share and all! It was a bit of a tricky deal but we're so happy to have it live! 

Three things:

First payments are out to all contributors! Everyone's at work. My edit responses are almost finished - Tracy will have a bunch more work soon (they've been paid for consulting and first editing too!). I'll be doing all the editing for the stretch goals to balance out some work, so I intend to be pretty done with Turn soon.

I'd like your input! We planned to put up the stretch goal towns as a purchaseable product alongside the main book. Many times Kickstarter stretch goals are exclusive, but I don't want the diversity of Turn to be kept only to those lucky enough to have funds when the Kickstarter was live! I hope you agree. What I'm not sure about is how to price it - and I figured I'd enlist all you superbackers. If you know of people who have sold stretch goals as supplements for their products, let me know and share thoughts on their price points! I value your perspective.

Also, our beast artist, Rhis, had schedule complications and had to step away from the project. We wish them the best with their continued work, but we need to find a replacement artist. 

We are looking for someone with similar style to Rhis but obviously with their own personal flair, and a strong ability to draw realistic animals with highly expressive faces and flavorful design. We also need someone who can complete all of the planned art by the end of February (we will provide details to anyone interested, but it's around 9 pieces remaining), who is willing to work closely with John as art director and myself as final word. We operate under fair pay rates for sure, and can pay guaranteed as we have the Kickstarter funds. Email [email protected] with a portfolio showcasing relevant work as soon as you're able, if you're interested, and feel free to share this Kickstarter post with anyone who is interested if you aren't! 

Thank you so much for your continued support! We're so happy to be making Turn real for all of us to love and play!

Enjoy any break you're getting right now, I hope it's awesome!

Best,

Brie

P.S. Expect an updated beta in January!

Update & Turn Edits on Twitch
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 12:01:26 AM

Hey all,

Brie here! I wanted to let you know we'll have draft contracts out for approval this week, then final agreements sent out as soon as the Kickstarter releases the funds!

We also plan to open BackerKit as soon as we can pay the funds, including add-ons (PDF, Print, Bison Community copies) and preorder (ditto), plus detailed surveys so we can properly fulfill your rewards. I'm trying to set it up as smoothly as I can! I would have had it sooner, but we had no startup funds. Soon tho!

Work will begin in earnest on stretch goals after contracts are signed, though rest assured the creators are enthusiastic and asking questions about how to best fulfill already.

I have read the edits/comments from Tracy and I hope to grind through them this week before my leave. Tomorrow (12/10) around 12pm Eastern I plan to stream writing some of the needed new content at twitch.tv/BrieBeau. I'll be focusing on a section detailing the rules and definitions! It will likely run about an hour. Please stop by if you can!

Thanks again for your continued support and enthusiasm! We're working hard to make this the best it can be!

Best,

Brie

Final Hours!!
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Dec 03, 2018 at 09:27:01 AM

Final Hours!

We are in our final hours and I couldn't be more excited! We are just hundreds of dollars from $20,000 where we'll unlock Jaye Foster's Harmouth, South Devon, with Badgers! and Seagulls! and human roles to go along with, and also a Moose! A majestic Big 'Un by me, Brie, to play in places like Canada and Maine. 

Make sure to share, and remember those Otter levels where John, Gerrit, or me will run a session of Turn for you. Gerrit promises two sessions in Halver if you back as an Otter and choose him as your GM! How exciting!

We also wanted to drop another piece of art by John W. Sheldon here today, The Beastborn! The Beastborn is an essential role in Turn, and we've seen it explored as Ravens, as Wolves, and hopefully soon will see Moose, Badger, and more!

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and enthusiasm! This project has become more than I ever imagined, and we have just hours to go before it's confirmed, and we can make it real! That's because of you! 

Best,

Brie

TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, Y'ALL
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Dec 03, 2018 at 09:26:56 AM

$20k - Harmouth, South Devon and a Moose!

Thank you all so, so so much! 

With this stretch goal reached, we're now unlocking Harmouth, South Devon by Jaye Foster,

Harmouth is a town of two thousand on the South Devon coast. It's once busy harbour is shelter to now only a few fishing boats. The town instead survives as a home for office workers who commute to the city. During the summer the town is almost overwhelmed by working class tourists on holiday to the long thin beach. The locals dislike that their town's economy is dependent on the uncouth and noisy northerners. To the south is the Atlantic Ocean and from it come rain-clouds and seagulls. Upriver is the city, an ever growing conurbation that is seeping downstream, consuming the farmland homes of the badgers.  

Harmouth will include NPCs, a new or altered town type, new or altered beast archetypes, and a new or altered human role.

And a Moose, a new beast archetype by me, Brie. 

Moose are immense, majestic, and solitary, wandering the wilderness and imposing on highways throughout the northernmost Americas. They are sometimes called forest gods, here long after their time. One might think they are on the way out...well, that's just bull.

We are incredibly grateful for this investment into this project, and hope everything is just as you wished or better when it comes through in production. Just a few hours to go! Thank you so much!

$20,708! THANK YOU! We Did It! What Now?
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Dec 03, 2018 at 09:26:51 AM

We did it!  

Thank you to all of you who have backed the Kickstarter, shared it on social media, voiced your enthusiasm, and performed all other ways of support throughout this Kickstarter for Turn and all of its stretch goals! It means everything to me and has made Turn into a real, honest product that I can put in your hands after the course of production.  

I’d like to thank my team:  

John, thank you for being my partner in this, and for your hard work. Gorgeous art, and endless support of me through this stressful, important experience.  

Tracy, thank you for being my consultant and support on a project that’s a first for both of us, and for understanding why I have to do things my way.  

Rhis and A.J., thank you for providing amazing art and poetry for Turn, and for signing on to make more and make this beautiful!  

Anders, Ezio, Lavinia, Meguey, Gerrit, and Jaye, thank you for signing onto this and lending your voices to Turn, and for your enthusiasm and faith!  

I would also like to thank my partner Dillon, who has helped carry my stress and encouraged me. It means so much.  

An additional thanks to James Mendez Hodes for creating the crossover event, without which we may not have reached such success!  

I’d also like to voice my thanks for all of the podcasters and bloggers who featured Turn on their programs and pages, letting me speak my truth about a game I truly love, and raising awareness. To all of you who shared those promotions, I greatly appreciate it!  

I want to do an overview of how the next bit of time will go and our timeline for the project. This is a bit of information, but it's all important. Again, THANK YOU.  

Downtime

Over the next few days, myself and the rest of the team will be taking some downtime. I’ll still keep an eye out for emergencies, but the Kickstarter project has been a lot of time and energy, and a break is a necessity. Until around Tuesday, we may be quiet on the field. 

Please also keep in mind that time on social media, etc., is different than time working on the Kickstarter and the game – if you see someone tweeting but not responding, it may be a matter of energy levels or access to information at the time, so be patient. All will be addressed in good time.  

December

Kickstarter starts a process of collecting pledges at the close of the campaign, but it can take time, and the funds aren’t released until two weeks after the campaign ends. Around this time, I also get the backer data. I’ll start working on BackerKit prep between campaign close and when I receive the funds, and then send out BackerKit when it’s ready.  

BackerKit is a third-party platform that lets you confirm your information that we need to fulfil your pledge. I plan to include add-ons for additional books and community copies. You’ll get a notification about BackerKit when it’s ready.  

Note: You need to sign into BackerKit to get your rewards. We don’t get complete information from Kickstarter in an easily processed way for our fulfillment, so please make sure to respond to the survey! It’s super necessary, and if you don’t respond, we can’t fulfill your rewards. Tragic!  

During this time is when I’ll also work with James to resolve the Thousand Arrow crossover, confirming the list of coinciding backers. I’ll also be resolving editorial comments from Tracy starting on the 3rd.  

Once the BackerKit goes out, we’ll be into the development phase. However, mid-December to the end of December, I will be officially “on vacation” – read, not doing any major project work. I’ve been kind of overloaded this year and I’m still dealing with health issues, so I’ll only be dealing with high priority crises during that time. It’ll allow me some time to work on creative projects (including Turn) for some of it, and to rest for the rest of it. That’ll make getting back to work in January a lot easier!  

Development & Timeline  

The deliverables we have for you are:  

Turn, PDF & Turn, Print 6” x 9” softcover book, duotone

• By Brie Beau Sheldon with essay by Alicia Foster Scales  
• Edited by Tracy Barnett  
• Beast art by Rhis Harris 
• Human art by John W. Sheldon 
• Poetry by A.J. Odasso 

Stretch Goals, PDF 

• “In Zion’s Outstretched Stakes” by Anders Smith 
• “Giro d’Italia” by Ezio Melega & Lavinia Fantini 
• “Smeed Hill” by Meguey Baker 
• “Halver, Germany” by Gerrit Reininghaus 
• “Harmouth, South Devon” by Jaye Foster 
• An Opossum by Brie Beau Sheldon 
• A Moose by Brie Beau Sheldon 
• The Confidante by Brie Beau Sheldon 

Snake Backer Level Beast Archetypes (5) 

Cougar Backer Level Towns (10) 

Otter Backer Level 

Our hopeful date for fulfillment of the PDF is in March 2019. The print copy and stretch goals will follow that likely by May 2019. If things get done early, awesome! If something puts a hitch in it, we’ll deal with it as we can and keep everyone well-informed. I will always prioritize the health of my creators and myself over a project, as I said in the initial risks, so that is absolutely always something on my mind when looking at deadlines. But, I think that we can do this. We’re planning on using an established printer (they’ve done a couple other major books like Dialect), and the game itself is really just being organized better, and we’re adding in example text and clarifications. The beta version of Turn will stay live on the Kickstarter page until we go into fulfillment and deliver the books. 

I’ll be sending the contracts out to the stretch goal writers over the next couple weeks, and full disclosure: I intend to use a payment model that includes up front pay. This is something I try to seek as a freelancer, I call it “keep the lights on” pay model, where you always pay at least 25% up front to hired creatives. While this does create risk, but I’ve hired people that I trust and respect, and who I believe have enthusiasm and desire to do the work. I have found that “keep the lights on” pay model encourages people to work – they can eat meals, for example – and makes the work higher quality. I hope you appreciate it too! 

During the development period, I will try to occasionally share updates on the process, edited versions of Turn, and so on, but it may be quiet for lengths of time. If you have questions, use the comments or messaging on Kickstarter. Rest assured we’ll all be working on our respective parts of the project, and that we still do genuinely appreciate your investment into Turn – that’s why we need to focus. Check updates when they pop into your inbox, though, in case there’s important news! 

Fulfillment

If you correctly fill out your BackerKit information, the process for fulfillment should be smooth! I’ll send out a reminder to double check your address in BackerKit shortly before we get to shipment, and to confirm your email address for when we handle the PDF content. If you run into problems during the process, just communicate with us, and we will do our utmost to resolve it. We can’t promise perfection, but we will always do our best. 

Special Pledge Levels 

For the Bison backers who ordered community copies and for those who add them onto the BackerKit, we’ll be putting out a survey at the start of the new year to identify marginalized community members who would like to get a copy of Turn. During this time, we’ll ask you to ensure that any specific marginalized community member you hoped would get a copy also fill it out the survey and add you in as a referrer (that way we know where they came from). When the time for fulfillment comes, we’ll use this information to distribute our many community copies from you super generous backers! 

For the Snake backers, I’ll be following up after pledges process to talk to you about your dream beast archetypes and work out the details. Once I’ve designed these and got them laid out, they’ll become part of the packet of stretch goals, and released to you and your fellow backers. 

For the Cougar backers, I’ll follow up with you after the pledges process to plan our meeting/discussion to build your town together – paced out over the next few months. I’ll write up the associated description and NPCs, and lay the town out in a nice sheet like those in the One Shot Guidance, and it’ll be yours to keep, to share publicly if you wish. 

For the Otter backers, I’ll follow up with you after the pledges process to find out when you would like to play and who you would like as your Town Manager. I’ll help to coordinate the schedule as we can make that work! 

All of the special pledge levels are intended to be fulfilled by May, barring any huge crises. If the scheduling doesn’t work for you for your special level, we’ll still do our best to make what we promised happen, whether we have to delay or approach it differently.  

Final Thoughts

This has been an adventure! I am so grateful for each and every one of you, your generosity, your positive energy, and your trust in me and my team to make a product that will be truly enjoyable and fun! Turn is a bit of a leap of faith, and to see you all take that jump with me means more than I could possibly explain. I will do my utmost to meet your expectations, and to make the best game I can, and I know the others will do so along with me. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, but know that we’ll be doing the mentioned downtime for a few days. I hope I have answered any potential queries already, but we’ll see! 

 In our hearts, we are all human, we are all beasts, and we are all beautiful. 

 THANK YOU SO MUCH! 

Best,

Brie