Yes, the Adventurer’s Logs have been printed – and delivered! Just not to me… yet.
I took my family away for a break at my in-laws’ caravan for a week, and while we were here Solopress delivered 300 copies of the Adventurer’s Log to my flat back in London. I’m keen to get back and take a look at them – but not keen enough to cut short the much-needed family break.
The booklets were actually meant to arrive last week before we left, but the delivery company struggled to understand some crucial part of their role, ie their responsibility to actually leave the boxes at our flat, rather than return with them to their depot. Who knows what was going on there!
In the meantime, I have to praise and thank the committed team of playtesters and proofreaders who have been trawling through Princes of the West on all our behalf. I’m rather humbled by this attention to my work and we’ve logged a large number of small issues for me to resolve. Thankfully this looks like the major gameplay is working and coherent and the vast majority of corrections are typos and tiny formatting issues.
I haven’t had as much time as I hoped to put into the project from my side, but I have been working on Harvest of Death, drafting on Twine for the first time in several years. The limit on me here has been family responsibility: as well as the break, we’ve had a brief hospital visit, a heavy cold and concomitant broken sleep. Those of you with toddlers, or who remember such a time, know exactly how debilitating that can be!
But I’ve also had chance to interact with the wider gamebook community in the last few weeks, playtesting an interesting take on the open-world gamebook structure by a backer and dipping into a couple of other books I’ve received and not had time to look at. Oh, and concluding my playthrough of Fabled Lands for the March section of the 100 Endings Book Club. And booking my place at Fighting Fantasy Fest 6, which has been announced for September 5 in West London.
Which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about for a while! It looks like I’ll be able to fulfil the project and ship rewards around August time – a little after my initial plan, but not too long. But for anyone attending Fighting Fantasy Fest, I’ll be able to offer a collection option for their rewards, eliminating postage costs – good for your wallets and streamlining admin for me. I suppose I can also offer collection for anyone else willing to travel to East London where I live if they’re not attending the convention – I know a few people online have already mentioned clashes – but it looks like this might come together well.
If you’re not coming to the convention, I intend to publish shipping options in a couple of month’s time, giving you each a tracked and a budget-friendly option, as far as I’m able. I’m still working on these and the prices will depend on the final size of all the packages – but it won’t be a lot longer now.
In this next fortnight I’ll be continuing to work on Harvest of Death as well as pressing on with the maps, guide booklet and updating the player companion.
Next update due: 24.4.26