State of the Break - June
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jul 01, 2022 at 03:16:45 PM

Hello, Backers!

Brief check-in and progress report. Last update we talked about some of the creatures we're adapting and adding to the Taxonomic Database such as the Great Sailshell. That in mind let's take a closer look at some of the peripheral tools (available in the Oceanographer's Kit and in the digital print-from-home resources) fledgling xenobiologists will use while exploring the reefs of Gliese 667Cc.

First up is the Specimen Sample Card. These standard playing card size sheets are designed to track each creature you encounter. Each time a player successfully studies a creature or collects a sample, Wardens can provide the PCs with some insight into the creature. Sometimes this will reveal a mechanical statistic such as the creature's Instinct, Wounds, or the characteristic Tags. Sometimes these insights can help to upgrade your gear.

Which leads us to one of the most iconic and recognizable aspects of In Other Waters: the AI's User Interface. 

This simple but elegant interface acted as the lens for players to safely visit the waters of Gliese 667Cc. Much in the same way, we are creating a player-facing Dive Suit Sheet. This is a detailed equipment sheet that uses dice-based trackers for your suit's Oxygen and Power and its current Dive Rating - which notes how far down one can delve before being crushed.

As your Crew explores the reef, you can use the Specimen Sample Cards with specific Tags to upgrade your suit, replenishing Oxygen and Power, upgrading your Sample Storage Capacity, Dive Rating, and more!

While work on this is coming along, we're a little behind on our internal schedule as we're not quite at the point with our art and layout or the manuscript tweaks to be ready for our physical proofs. However, we intentionally set our milestones to allow for some flexibility in this area. That in mind, we are still on track for our fulfillment milestone in Q4 of this year as indicated in the campaign. 

Thank you all for your support and I can't stress enough how encouraging it is to see the anticipation from you as players in the various Discords and forums we check on occasion. Well, that's it for now and see you in the next State Of The Break!

Communiques

Just a brief reminder, we're endeavoring to keep our “State of the Break” check-ins to a minimum of once-a-month. Due to the scope of this project and the small team behind it, we will do our best to answer all of your questions. However, if we are not able to promptly answer any direct messages, please review Updates and FAQs to see if your question has already been answered.

Thank you again for your patience!

Pledge Manager and Pre-Orders...

Pledge Manager and Pre-Orders is still in the works. I apologize that this has taken some time to enable but with so many moving parts we want to make sure we get it right! As soon as Pre-Orders are available we will have a stand-alone update with more details.

State of the Break - May
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Jun 02, 2022 at 07:58:31 PM

Hello, backers!

Brief check-in and progress report. Development on the manuscript is progressing as we are shifting from rules development into the art and design phase of the project. While finishing touches are done on the rules text we're working on the art in tandem to make sure layout works with the word count as well as to let the art and text inform our design decisions.

Last time we talked about Creature Tags and some of the Biomes your divers will be exploring but now we finally get to show off some of the art. Here's a quick peak at some of the remarkable work in progress!

This handsome critter is one of several specimens Gareth is developing for the brand new area, codenamed The Farfields. We're adapting a creature that didn't quite make it into the original game but those familiar with A Study Of Gliese 667Cc might recognize: The Great Sailshell.

While we're hard at work on the development we'll continue to share updates and progress as we enter into the next phase of the project. That's it for now. Thank you as always and see you in the next State Of The Break!

Communiques

Just a brief reminder, we're endeavoring to keep our “State of the Break” check-ins to a minimum of once-a-month. Due to the scope of this project and the small team behind it, we will do our best to answer all of your questions. However, if we are not able to promptly answer any direct messages, please review Updates and FAQs to see if your question has already been answered. 

Thank you again for your patience!

Pledge Manager and Pre-Orders...

Pledge Manager and Pre-Orders is still in the works. We will have a stand-alone update once that has been resolved so keep an eye out for that. Sorry for the wait and thanks in advance for your patience.

State of the Break - April
about 2 years ago – Sun, May 01, 2022 at 05:54:37 AM

Hello, Backers!

Wanted to do a brief check in on the progress and development of In Other Waters: Tidebreak. Our focus this month has been diving deep into rules and game development. 

Tidebreak is going to primarily be a grid crawl focusing on several existing biomes from the original game as well as some new ones. Returning xenobiologists will find the familiar waters of the Central Reef, the Pillar Gardens, the Slopes, Brine Pools, and the Bloom welcoming. Initially we were looking to have each grid separated into several layers or planes, each stacked on top of one another. From there you would have with pre-designated points that allow you to dive between depths. 

Instead, we realized it might be best, and would more accurately mirror the original game, if we work off a single plane. Instead we gave each Biome 1-2 different Depth Ratings (which we'll explain in detail in the module and possibly another State Of The Break). This affords us more flexibility in design - such as how depth affects your dive suits and upgrades - as well as, hopefully, play at the table. It also gives us better options to make using maps scalable. Regardless if you have a print-at-home version, the full map, or are using the digital VTT assets.

Refining the grid crawl in this way also gave way to some ideas on procedural generation that I'm excited to test out. We're going to have some playtests planned in the near future to make sure our ideas actually pass muster. If all works out we can work on the Creature Tag System which should go quickly.

We already are getting started on some of the graphics and art work and will hopefully have some of that ready to share in the next update.

Pledge Manager and Pre-Orders...

Pledge Manager and Pre-Orders is still in the works. We will have a stand-alone update once that has been resolved so keep an eye out for that. Sorry for the wait and thanks in advance for your patience.

That's it for now! Thank you as always and will keep you updated in the next State Of The Break!

State of the Break - March
about 2 years ago – Sun, Apr 03, 2022 at 12:38:42 PM

Hello, Backers!

As promised in our last update, wanted to do a (very) brief check in on the progress and development of In Other Waters: Tidebreak. This month Gareth and I have been focusing on wrapping up some outstanding admin tasks and getting back into the headspace of designing and refining the module.

One of the first things we're tackling are the rules for the Grid Crawl, which is arguably one of the core features of the book. It's been great getting back into the rules after the whirlwhind of a crowd-funding campaign (thanks to all of you!). 

Since most of this work is tweaking and fiddling with game mechanics, pouring over an unnecessarily long Google Doc, we don't have any fun pictures or cool spreads to share just yet. Hopefully that's something we can do in a future update, however!

Pledge Manager and Pre-Orders

Unfortunately, the Pledge Manager and Pre-Orders are not ready yet. They are taking a little longer to set up than originally expected as we're using a new feature. It allows Backers to adjust their pledges and for new Backers to Pre-Order now but collect shipping information at a later date. This will help us to ensure accurate shipping information once we're actually ready to begin fulfillment but has lead to some delays in launching the Backerkit page.

We will have a stand-alone update once that has been resolved so keep an eye out for that. Sorry for the wait and thanks in advance for your patience.

That's it for now! Thank you as always and will keep you updated in the next State Of The Break!

State of the Break #7 - Campaign Wrap-Up
about 2 years ago – Thu, Mar 03, 2022 at 03:16:18 AM

That’s a wrap. Dive successful! Gareth and I knew that this would a pretty special project but we are both overwhelmed with how successful this campaign has been. It’s broken a lot of personal and professional milestones for both of us.

It’s always encouraging to see people talking about your work and I’ve seen more anticipation and excitement for this one than any other project I’ve published before. I hope we can live up to everyone’s expectations and can’t wait to get this project in your hands and then start hearing all of the different stories about how your Crews interact with the vibrant ecosystem of Gliese 667Cc.

What Happens Now?

We get to work! As we wrap up some of the administrative work required to run a lengthy campaign such as this we’ll be shifting into dev mode. Much of Tidebreak has already been written but now we go into the lengthy process of refining, playtesting, fine-tuning, editing, adjusting, etc. 

Once we get into the fun part of finalizing layout, we’ll be able to share some more processes, behind the scenes work, and hopefully some dev notes.

Updates and Communication

As mentioned under Communiques, we will be as transparent as possible in our progress with “State of the Break” check-ins at a minimum of once a month (excluding this one). We want to stress this as we transition from our more active campaign management mode into the quieter dev work. Rest assured, we are hard at work behind the scenes. 

Due to the scope of this project and the small team behind it, we will do our best to provide progress reports but realistically, only when we have something substantial to report. If we are not able to promptly answer any direct messages, please review Updates and FAQs to see if your question has already been answered. 

We thank you again for your support and thank you in advance for your patience.

How will Shipping, Fulfillment, and Add-Ons work?

As briefly touched on in our FAQs once we're closer to shipping we will be using a Pledge Manager to collect your shipping and mailing information once that time comes. As we get closer we’ll have more info on how that process works in our “State of the Break” updates; so be sure to pay close attention to those.

Towards the end of the this week, we'll also be opening the option for Late Pledges and Pre-Orders in case there are any that missed the campaign and want to secure a copy of the first printing. This will also afford backers the opportunity to upgrade their pledges if desired.

At the risk of sounding like a corrupted audio log, thank you to all 2,391 of our backers for making In Other Waters: Tidebreak happen. The response to this has been incredible. 

I'm also going to take this opportunity to thank Gareth for taking a chance and working with me on this project and say what an honor it is to expand this wonderful world and setting they've created.

That's it for now. See you on the next dive.