Sweet and simple
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 04, 2020 at 12:23:08 AM

Hello, Legends! Maggie here with your first March update.

I don’t have any new card layouts to show you yet, but I do have a ton of information from the graphic design team about their progress. We’re going to talk about the Artbook, Lost in the Woods, and the core game!

The Artbook

The Artbook on temporary hold until next month so the graphics team can continue to work on the core game and expansion. Fortunately, this product is being manufactured in the US, so it will take significantly less time to create and ship, which is why we are able to place it on hold for the short term.

Lost in the Woods

It is all laid out and done and getting sent to the factory this week! 

Core Game and Expansion

We received confirmation on Friday that the factory will be reopening this week, which is great news. Panda, our manufacturing partner, has also assigned us a new representative and it has been going amazingly so far. Hi, Pete!

We are also very lucky that one of our team members, Darrell Louder, used to work at Panda, and has given us more insight into how the factory operates. Because of this, the graphics team will be sending files to the factory in stages so they can be reviewed by the factory for prepress in waves and speed up the process.

We are still on track for getting the files to the factory by the end of the month! The Legend of Sleepy Hollow will soon be a reality!

See y’all soon!

- Maggie

Bracing against the cold
about 4 years ago – Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 09:14:33 PM

Hello, Legends! We hope you all have managed to stay warm throughout the brisk month of February. Today’s update is going to talk about our timeline, and what comes next.

Timeline

In our last update, I said the editing process was nearly complete, but the process proved to be more difficult than estimated. Due to the amount of writing and components that have undergone changes throughout our playtesting, Christopher's task of editing was much larger than originally anticipated. Because of this, he didn't complete his edits until very late Sunday evening.

I apologize for the inaccurate timeline in the last update, please know that it was not my intention. We want to provide a game to everyone as soon as we can, but it has to be a good game, otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair to you or to the designers. Taking the extra time to finish edits was necessary, but it also means that we are behind, and our timeline has changed.

We now estimate that the files will be handed off to the factory at the end of March. This is a month later than we wanted, but it ensures that our graphic design team has the time necessary to complete Legends of Sleepy Hollow.

Additionally, we need to address the matter of the Coronavirus and the effect that it has had on the board game industry. Currently, our factory, and all other factories in China, are closed due to quarantine. We have not heard a firm timeline for when they will be operational again… We got a few hints via a Skype conversation and also an email we just received from one of our manufacturing partners that factories are slated to reopen in March and are currently a month behind their printing schedule. This has not been confirmed yet because they have to get government approval to reopen.

Our manufacturing partners are keeping us as informed as well as they can. We will, in turn, keep you informed. For now, we hope they continue to stay safe and take all the necessary precautions to protect their workers.

What’s next?

Our graphic design team officially takes over now. They will be creating new layouts for the new components, updating the layout of old components, and laying out the artbook.

New components consist of over 10 new token types and 3 new card types. As graphic design works through the files, we will get a more detailed break down of what they are creating, but for now, they are working on getting new quotes from the factory due to components changing.

In our next update, we hope to be able to provide more information from our printers and more detail about what the graphic design team is working on.

See ya soon!
Maggie

Exhausted but triumphant!
about 4 years ago – Tue, Feb 04, 2020 at 11:15:44 PM

Hello, Legends! Maggie here and if the title of this update didn't give it away, we are exhausted but triumphant! Let's talk about the sort of blind playtesting, editing and where we go from here.

Sort of Blind Playtesting

If anyone missed it, starting in January we started a final playthrough of the entire core game and expansion to give it a final editing pass. 

It was a sort of a blind playtest because technically I have worked or read all of the game's content at this point, but Jenn kept me in check and didn't let us rely on my past knowledge. This helped us consult the rulebook as if we were learning the game for the first time.

The playthrough wrapped up Monday and it went great! We caught a handful of minor issues and edits, but overall it played smoothly and we are all very happy with it.

Editing

Christopher, our final editor, is finishing up his edits and rewrites this week. Chris Burton, Alex and I will read through the content again just to be a second, third and fourth set of eyes, but for the most part, the editing process is complete.

Where do we go from here

The graphic design team has already begun working on files and will continue you to work, full speed ahead, so we can get files turned over to the factory by the end of the month. I hope to be able to share some card layouts in my mid-February update, but that is up to Jenn, the Creative Director, and her team. 

Once we turn files over to the factory, we will go back and forth on edits with them. This usually takes around two weeks, then we approve the e-proofs and tell them it's good to print. We are expecting to be able to give them to okay to start printing in March. 

In our next update, we will talk about the printing process and what our expectations are based on updated quotes from the factory. 

Until then, stay warm and have a happy Valentine's Day! 

- Maggie

Progressing Through Winter's Chill
about 4 years ago – Wed, Jan 22, 2020 at 12:56:22 AM

Hello, Legends! I apologize for posting this so late, but we playtested very late tonight. This update will cover how our internal playtesting is going, the upcoming editing, and graphic design.

Playtesting

Last week Christopher, Paul (our CEO), Jennifer and I began playtesting the first edited draft of Legends of Sleepy Hollow. We treated it as a blind playtesting, meaning I had to treat it as though I didn’t know anything about the game or the development of it. We had to take the materials provided and work through the game as if it were a final copy.

As of right now, we’ve only made it through chapters 1-4, but it has played fabulously! Our only edits have been about word choice so that rules were more clearly defined.

Our slow progress was due to family emergencies on my end that took me out of office, but I am back in the office and we expected to finish the internal playtesting by the end of next week.

Editing

With the adjusted playtesting schedule that does put us behind schedule. We have a solution though! Final edits will begin on the chapters that have already been played. This weekend chapters 1-7 will be edited and the following weekend chapters 8-12.

This should put us back on track for editing being completed by the end of January.

Graphic Design

Jennifer, our Creative Director and recently promoted COO, is working on a schedule for the graphic design team that will allow our graphic designers to begin working on the chapters as soon as possible. Once the final edited chapters are turned over graphic design will begin, meaning it will likely start a week ahead of schedule.

We are still on track for turning files over to the factory by the end of February!

Keep warm until next month, Legends!

-Maggie

New year cheer and a wrap to playtesting
over 4 years ago – Tue, Jan 07, 2020 at 07:28:18 PM

Hello, Legends! Happy New Year! I owe you a very large apology for missing our mid-December update. I will be completely honest with you between snowstorms, the team getting ill and family affairs we were not able to craft an update for mid-December, but we should have updated you regardless, and that is my fault. 

I am pleased to report that all playtesting files were posted by December 13th and we are in the final stages of collecting feedback and doing our initial editing scrub. The initial scrub is being done by Alex and it is a pass-through to ensure that language is standardized and consistent. This will make the next stage of editing go much more smoothly.

Alex should finish his editing by Wednesday of next week so that we can play through the entire game in the office. This will be broken into two sessions because there are only so many hours in the day and as we all know this is a big game. Playing through every chapter will allow us to catch any language issues and ensure that members of the office who were not as heavily involved in the development of the game can see the final version. 

By the end of next week, Christopher will be able to begin his editing pass that should take until the end of the month. Christopher's editing pass will be to clean up the story and tweak it here and there while also fixing any grammatical errors. Once that is complete the project will be totally passed over to our graphic design department. 

As of right now, we are still on track to complete editing and begin graphic design on time!

We will update you again on January 21st and we will be in the comments answering questions this afternoon.

See ya'll soon!

- Maggie