The Strange is in layout, ahead of a press date that is bearing down on the creative team like the proverbial freight train. A freight train that’s full of awesome gaming goodness, to torture this metaphor a bit, but one that’s still rushing toward us at breakneck speed.
That said, The Strange is turning into an absolutely incredible (and incredible-looking) game. The 416 pages of text, scores of pieces of art, and two poster-sized maps have all come together exceptionally well, and we’re really proud of the game you’ll have in your hands in a few months!
But: If you’re one of our Kickstarter backers, will your name be in it?
Only 71% of our backers have gone to BackerKit and completed the necessary data there. Among other things, this is where we confirm how your name will appear in the corebook as a supporter of The Strange. And since the book is now in layout, we need those names ASAP. Like, in the next few days. 11 April is our drop-dead date to turn the list of backers over to layout.
If you haven’t logged into BackerKit and filled out the surveys there, do it now. If you don’t, your name will not appear in the corebook. We really, really want to thank all the backers who made The Strange a reality, but we can’t do that without your help. (While you’re there, be sure to double-check how you spell, punctuate, and capitalize your name. Sorry to sound condescending, but there’s someone every time who misspells his or her own name. We use the text exactly as you enter it, and there’s nothing we can do about it if it’s wrong.)
As of this writing, there are exactly 507 backers who are due to get their name in the book, but won’t because they haven’t gone to BackerKit. If you’re one of them—if you might be one of them—please fix this now! We really don’t want you to be disappointed in August!
Pitch Room Access: If you pledged at a level that includes access to the Pitch Room, sorry that we’re running a tad late on this. The Pitch Room is almost completely set up, but we still have a round of testing to make sure everything works as we want. We’ve pushed that back a couple of weeks due to the crush of work getting The Strange wrapped up. But that’s probably OK—given their recent workload, it’s unlikely the creative team could have paid much attention to the Pitch Room over the past few weeks. We promised you’d have our ear, so opening the Pitch Room before we were ready to listen wouldn’t really serve the point anyway.
All Those Other Great Rewards: As the corebook and Player’s Guide have wound their way toward completion, we haven’t forgotten the other stuff. Design work on the XP Deck and Strange dice are nearly complete. (The dice go into production in just a few weeks!) We’re currently laying out components of the Fan Kit, and the Player’s Kit components will be ordered in another couple of weeks. Planning is underway for the recursions web site and online character generator. And of course we’re already looking ahead toward the next books in the line, with writing on The Dark Spiral well underway!
Communicating with MCG: Trying to reach us? Please don’t rely on the Kickstarter comment threads. These are awesome for keeping everyone up to date during the Kickstarter campaign, but afterword we focus our conversation on the MCG and The Strange Facebook pages. Commenting there is a much more reliably way of getting in touch with us!
Updates: Yesterday was the first Monday of April. Our plan, generally, is to provide you with an update on the first Monday of every month (sorry this one was a tad late). Check your email each month for an in-depth look at how the game is coming, sneak peeks at game mechanics and the world(s) of The Strange as they are finalized, and new art!
The Strange. Explore. Defend. Create.