I want to start with an apology.
I haven't kept up with the dev updates as I should. There are a shocking number of you who follow this project in some fashion, and I need to be better at keeping you up to date. On my end, it's been a weird and wild few months and with the bat bug scouring the globe, things look to get even weirder over the next few weeks or months. At the time of writing, large portions of the US are in some stage of stay-at-home orders, my own state included. While this has caused some serious disruption in my seasonal work, it does represent an opportunity to switch gears and give S&S the last push it really needs to prepare for kickstarter. To that end:
The State of Things
Behind the scenes, we are getting things done. As of now:
- The current draft is about 80% done. Nearly all of it has been written, though it still needs a solid continuity pass before I throw it out to the volunteer editors.
- The forums have been updated. We recently migrated hosts and took the opportunity to update our software. In the process, we killed a whole lot of spam bots that had worked their way in over the years. All of the existing posts are still there, but if you have never posted before your account likely got thrown out with the bathwater. You may have to register a new one. Sorry for the inconvenience.
- Kickstarter is coming. A timeline has been set out and the ground work is being laid for the logistics. I don't want to get into too many details yet, but short of a global economic collapse it's happening this year.
- We have an artist. The amazingly talented Piotr Chrzanowski has signed on and I've already ordered a good chunk of art for the KS campaign. If the latter is successful, he will be handling the rest of the book as well. I couldn't be happier with the results.
Going Forward
The goal now is to get the next update into your hands as soon as possible. To aid in that goal, I've started a patreon. While certainly not a requirement, any funds thrown towards that end are not only providing me some financial security in some very uncertain times, they are buying me time to focus on dev work instead of hustling for freelance gigs. In addition to getting the work done faster, it's going to help keep me accountable for development and communication. Backers will get early access to material as it develops, sneak peak at future art releases, and direct input into where the development efforts go. If you've found value in this project, please consider supporting.
It's been such a long journey, but we're almost there. Thank you all for sticking around. I couldn't do it without you.
(As always, feel free to join the conversation on our discord server.)
