Tag: printing

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Update 30: Princes of the West now fully edited – wow!

Steam Highwayman: Princes of the West

Late on Tuesday night I completed the final corrections and edits to Steam Highwayman IV: Princes of the West.  Final tweaks included standardising a key character’s accent, which was amusing.  She started off a bit too proper and by the end of the book I was writing her in proper Wes’ cunn’ry aaczent so I had to find all the instances of her speech and westify them.  I also wrote a couple of last-minute additions – a sequence that allows you to close up one of the major quests in a more on-stage manner and an encounter with a strange man in a new location, high on Dartmoor.  That was an interesting one – but I’ll write about it another time.  Today you get more news.

That was the key target for the fortnight so reaching it is a big success.  I also completed the Touring Guide and the large maps, so these were sent to the printers…  As were the files for the previous maps and Touring Guide.  These all arrived over the last few days – 28 boxes of printing.

Some of your rewards arrived at my flat on Monday. The A2 flatpacks each contain 250 maps.
And here is the other half of the shipment, arrived on Tuesday. 19 boxes of booklets and folders for the Touring Guides.

I already had the Adventurer’s Logbook printed (three more boxes by my bedside. The only outstanding rewards are now the smaller A4 maps for the new Touring Guide: I have to complete the titling and superimposition of troop movements on the map of the Siege of Tintagel, and then I’ll order the A4 maps too.

The Adventurer’s logbook looks nice in the sunshine too.
Some of the many, many quests to undertake, all graded by difficulty.

The living room is now piled with boxes.  Over the next few weeks, my wife and I will be folding maps and assembling the Touring Guides.  With a nice show on (Ludwig returns in August…) and the children asleep, it’s actually a very pleasant job.

So where does that put the project?  I haven’t had the time to finalise shipping costs to Europe, so that is the next priority.  Once that is done (perhaps before the next fortnightly update), I’ll be sending out postage costs collecting postage payments.  I may delay this for the very beginning of August or may get to it before then.

I also have to complete the Acknowledgements section at the rear of the book – your featured spot, dear backers!  This can take a little while (it isn’t simply a list of names), but once that and a fresh blurb are done for the cover, the book will be complete.  I will certainly be ordering another print proof and then I will get moving with shipments.

Thanks for staying with me all this way.  The book is a great adventure – as are the previous ones – and seeing it and the accompanying paratexts in solid form is deeply exciting.

PS – I suspect there are more of you attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 6 on 5 September than have yet said so.  If you are, you will be able to collect your pledge with no postage to pay – but only if you tell me!  If you’d like to collect at FFF6 and you haven’t yet let me know, please use this form.  So far I’ve only got 8 out of 330 backers collecting.  And let me tell you, collection is also a lot simpler for me!

Next fortnight’s jobs:

  • Complete final postage costs
  • Create postage payment links for each region/country
  • Complete acknowledgements
  • Re-write blurb
  • Chase outstanding Wanted Poster images
  • Complete final A4 map
  • Order A4 maps
  • Order packaging for extras

Next update due: 30.7.26

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Update 28: Print Proof Ordered

Now we’re really steaming.  I completed all the corrections earlier this week and I’ve uploaded the first digital files to Ingram so that I could order a print proof.  It should arrive in the next couple of weeks and you’ll be treated to a photo of me holding it in the next update, if all goes well.

Here’s a screenshot of the print order.  You can see that the print cost of the book implies a large volume…  We’re looking at 438 pages and 2250ish passages.

The book isn’t quite finalised – there are a few gameplay edits still pending, but I want to have a think about these while turning the real pages, and I’ll take the time to have a playthrough as well.  You can always catch a few more errors in print too.

However, having digital files ready is a crucial catalyst for the project: it allows me to get a final print cost and book size and weight, which I need to proceed with the shipping preparations.  I’ll explain more soon, but rather than use the Kickstarter pledge manager, I’m going to be collecting shipping costs directly through Stripe.  It means I can tailor the costs a lot more finely, hopefully keeping shipping to a minimum for all of us!  I’ve begun looking at the costs and overall it seems my estimates were fairly good, despite the time that has passed.

But there is one particular shipping option I want to draw your attention to: collection.  The final costing of the book and extras has shown that the project is within budget and therefore then there is nothing more to pay if you collect your rewards.  When and where?  Howabout at Fighting Fantasy Fest 6, on Saturday 5th September, in London, UK?

If you haven’t been, the Fest is the premier convention devoted exclusively to gamebooks – including, of course, the Fighting Fantasy series.  However, it has also become a haven for the independent authors of the gamebook renaissance and a great place to meet heros of the medium both past and present.  It’s organised by the stalwart Jon Green whose work bridges both the original Fighting Fantasy books and modern independent gamebooks.  What a legend.

COLLECTION FORM

If you mean to be there, then use this form to register to collect your rewards in person.  Please try and use the same email that you used for your pledge so that I don’t lose your response!  

If you can’t make it to the convention but would like to arrange collection in London, UK on a date following 5th September, just put a note in the form.

Otherwise, I’ll be sending out links to collect shipping payments and arrange final addresses in about a month for everyone who wants their rewards delivered to their door.  I’ve put a lot of work into shipping costs but they aren’t quite finalised yet.

It was late last year when I first wondered if this was all going to come together in time for FFF6 and I’m pleased to say that I’m on schedule for a complete set of physical rewards by then.  The extra adventures may take a little longer or may also be ready in time – I’m not sure.

So what else needs doing?  Here’s a longer list of the remaining jobs of the project.

– Acknowledgements

– Complete 2 maps (Plymouth and the siege of Tintagel)

– Write short adventures (Dark, Satanic Mills and Harvest of Death) 

– Complete shipping estimates and plan

– Digital decorations for boxes, frames etc

– Look over / improve character sheets

– Codeword check (partly done!)

– Create companion (partly done)

– Order maps

– Complete Touring Guide 2 (about 20 pages to do)

– Draw pubs (at least 3 to draw)

– Order guide folders

– Order guidebooks

– Assemble folders

– Order packaging

– Assemble TG2s

– Order TG1s

– Assemble TG1s

– Chase Wanted Posters

– Create remaining wanted posters

– Set up stripe links for shipping payments

– Update SH1-3 companion

– Update SH1

– Update SH2

– Update SH3

– Update errata

In the next fortnight I’ll be keenly awaiting that print proof, doing the taxes for my wife’s small company (an home education hub) and trying to survive in the heat.  I may get to the drawing of the maps or work on the guide – pretty much all of the remaining jobs are pleasant ones and I’m not pressurising myself now.

What’s in the Steam Highwayman’s tankard?  A pint of Marston’s Pedigree.

Next update due: 2.7.26

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Update 22: Logbook sent to the printer

On Tuesday morning I ordered three hundred copies of the Adventurer’s Logbook with my printer.  That feels great.  To know that one of the many components of the rewards is complete and will soon be in my hands is a big relief – it feels like I am on the downhill slope at last.

It was a lot of fun to create.  Time-consuming, yes, but it meant that I got to skim through all four of my books and check that my notes were accurate, meaning that within the last two or three weeks, I have effectively filled my head with every single Steam Highwayman achievement and escapade – and it makes me very glad and proud.  Sorry, perhaps, that almost ten years’ work can be read in a fortnight, but happy with the quality.

Although I produced hint sequences for the most of Highways and Holloways, there wasn’t space to include this amount of content in the logbook.  I’ll release these digitally later, rather like the 94 things to do in Smog and Ambuscade I created a while ago.  This was also taking a lot of time, so I haven’t yet created full hint sequences for The Reeking Metropolis or Princes of the West.

Still, I was able to grade each achievement on its complexity – largely to do with how many dice rolls or unique items are needed to achieve each one.  A simple system of stars indicates each achievement’s difficulty.

After finishing, I edited some typos and made some corrections to Princes of the West that I had found as I read through it.  The team of proofreaders and playtesters are doing a fab job – thankyou to each of you reading this – and in a few weeks I’ll be collating everything and doing a final edit.

I began editing the Players Companion to update it to include the write-in information for Princes of the West.  There’s a lot!  So far I’ve begun by listing codewords and possession boxes – of which there are around thirty.

So what next?  I mean to continue editing the Companion, hopefully finishing that by next update, together with working on the maps and guidebook.  I might even get to Harvest of Death.

This update is early because I really mean to be offline tomorrow!  It’s been a mega-busy week and today took the biscuit, so I don’t want to have any jobs on my plate when I (eventually) get up tomorrow morning.

Next update due: 10.4.26