"FATE" will be Late - "Razor Coast" Also Slips

The latest "FATE Core" update:


Short Term News on Fate Core

Update #37 · Apr 15, 2013 · 14 comments  
Hello, Fate Corps!

We wanted to get a quick note out to y'all covering a few short topics. Let's get to it.

Re-Estimated

We've got our final art buy for Fate Core underway. The second round of feedback is getting worked into the text as we speak. The good news here is that these are both (aside from maybe a typo-check on the final) looking like the final prior-to-press efforts for getting book ready to go.

Some of you have asked about our estimated April delivery for Fate Core. Feedback was more extensive than originally planned for; revisions from the first round made enough changes that we needed a full second round of feedback, which you guys supplied. Thanks! It also means that it's bumped things out by a month-ish, but that month is carpeted in wall-to-wall quality improvements for the text. So in a way this is very much as designed -- delivery targets for a Kickstarter are always a work-in-progress, even if Kickstarter doesn't let you continually revise those dates on the reward tier descriptions themselves. :)

Based on our past experience with a 6-week window for print production, and with our interior edit/art/layout efforts expected to wrap up this month, we're most likely looking at a May delivery of the official PDF, and early June delivery of the books and other digital formats, depending in great part on how quickly the print manufacture and shipping part of the process goes. We'll have somewhere around 6000 physical copies of Fate Core to ship, which will take a somewhat predictably un-small amount of time to get delivered!

We're hoping to make Fate Accelerated a part of that same ship-out effort; the softcover should take less time to produce, and getting its art and layout done should be quite speedy indeed. As such we're projecting both FAE and Core will emerge from their printers at around the same time.


The Latest Razor Coast update:


Razor Coast Update

Update #40 · Apr 13, 2013 · 7 comments  
It has been a while since we last did an official update. We have a handful of things to tell you. But before I do, I want to preface it with you have no idea how frustrating it is for us to tell you that this project is going to be delayed. (It is like the work Kickstarter = Delay). We worked very very hard before we even set up the Kickstarter so that things were in place to be done on time. We took certain measures and factor in even more wiggle room time for delays when choosing the estimated delivery date. In fact I even threaten Lou & Skeeter with physical harm if I had to send an email to our backers saying this one was going to be late. Alas, here I am (Skeeter with a black eye and Lou with a bloody nose) having to write this email. Sigh. So the printing on the books is indeed going to be later than May. Let me explain:

The page count coming in much higher really affected the price on the books. So much so that it looked like the increase in cost wouldn't be covered by the funds received on the kickstarter (after other costs were taken out of course). So we began looking for another printer. This all happened the first week of April where we were already lined up with our regular printer. Files were loaded and ready to go but when we received the final price on it we had to pull the plug. After some searching we have found another printer that will print at the specification we set for top quality while providing a price in our budget. This printer though is over seas so the print time is much longer. This is our first overseas print job as we have always printed all our books here in the USA. We do plan to continue printing future books in the USA but with the size and color of this project it isn't within budget.

Therefore, the print files have been sent to the new printer already. Nick should be receiving the endsheets soon to sign and return for the higher pledges. We are slated to have the first books go to print on April 26th. Because this is a new printer we can't approve proofs via online as we normally do so the first copies will be mailed to us to approve in person. This takes more time. We won't see those until early May. Then the whole job will print and will be packaged for delivery to Seattle ports. They estimate the whole process taking 12 weeks. Therefore we won't be able to begin fulfilling physical orders until the end of June. This will put us 1 month delayed but since it is in the middle of Convention season, it might slip into July.

The good news is most of the Swords & Wizardry books will indeed be shipped with the pathfinder ones in June. We should have the completion of the PDFs within the next two weeks. One caveat however, is the Fire As She Bears SW. Matt Finch and Skeeter Green are play testing it now and have found several things that once removed throws the rules off. Therefore, they are going to be spending more time on this book. We do not have a date yet for this book but all the others will print and ship with the Pathfinder books.

In other news, the Map Folio PDF and Mind of the Man are now up on the pledge landing pages. PLEASE look in your kickstarter inbox to retrieve your password and login information for the base pledges. We sent the original message on March 4th. Kickstarter does not delete messages from the platform, so trust me when I say it is there. Every time I have to look one up it takes time away from other projects.

This latest update should finalize the electronic portion for many of the pathfinder pledge levels. I will be typing up some notes on the kickstarter itself and sending those in a private update. We are very happy with the way the book turned out and will celebrate when it is all said and done!

Last, check out this post-interview with Lou Agresta, Steven D. Russell, and Owen K.C. Stephens: http://demiplaneofgaming.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-demiplane-of-gaming-21-razor-coast.html

Thank You, Blonde Frog

Guess you can't complain too much with detailed updates like these :)