Official Update 52/31

=> Kickstarter Update #52
=> GameFound Update #31 (should be the same)

Highlights:

April was mostly quality control and more final editing (a very time consuming process). Four more chapter books have been submitted to the printer. Now closer and closer to the finish line! Next up are chapters 6 and 7 plus the final rulebook and training manual.

Even handwritten quality control notes! Here is what it looks like after TWENTY passes through each chapter… checking… correcting… checking the corrections!

The checklist:

NARRATION:

Check issues with layout and pacing (it’s in orange). Check that narration is inside square brackets [ ] and look to see if they can be shortened or combined. Fun Fact: there are about 3,400 narration scenes in the game!

STOPLINES:

Verify that all the GO TO and PROCEED TO and ADVANCE TO references end in the correct locations! Another Fun Fact: there are 3,046 stoplines in the game!

AFTERMATH:

Check that the missions end and are placed correctly (with correct names). All mission must end on a page with an “aftermath”.

MAPS:

Verify that layouts for all maps are correct! Check enemy numbers, team deployment and if X or other terms are referenced in the mission description. Another Fun Fact: there are 527 different map layouts in the story!

RESTART MISSION:

Check that all prompts for “restart the mission” are correctly applied. Often players can “fail forward” when not restarting the mission (not all missions give a restart option).

DIALOGUES:

Verify that portraits are correct along with the overlay and communication form. Confirm that various conditions are applied (wounded, dying, jammed, captured). Yet another Fun Fact: there are 3,963 dialogues with portraits in the game.

HELP IMAGES:

Verify the small icons at the end of sentences that reference any external change or component (like a new card, upgrade or personality mark). Still another Fun Fact: there are 1,482 help icons applied in the game.

ACTIONS:

Check that actions are correctly numbered and properly written (especially after all the alignments adjustments made last month). And yes, another Fun Fact: there are 7,945 bullet points in the game.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Verify that  highlights to help players understand the mission conditions and elements are properly applied. This was a daunting task… because it is about making it easier for players to digest information. There are formatting rules, but they need to be broken at times to make it all easier to read. Sad, but no Fun Fact for this one!

CHOICES:

Quick check that each choice list is formatted and listed properly. Alas … no more Fun Facts :)

AT LEAST 1 PLAYER:

Checking for specific Success criteria, often scaled for 2, 3 or 4 player games, but sometimes not depending on what the mission is trying to achieve.

TURN REMINDER:

Check that all the turn reminders are displayed properly. However, note that some missions have a timer and some may count turns instead.

IN ORDER (NO ORDER):

Check the success criteria requirements.

CUSTOM ELEMENTS:

Check that puzzles are correct and described as intended:

LISA’S FEEDBACK:

Len’s Note: Lisa Wylie is an author and actually wrote four books revolving around the Galaxy of the Burning Suns (ie, the Rogue Angels Galaxy). They are very affordable in Kindle format if you’d like to read her trilogy while waiting for the game to arrive (and they even got very good reviews as well – way to go Lisa! I have read Book 1 of her trilogy and enjoyed it – I should get Book 2 and 3 jof her Conflagration trilogy now! :) Then she started another series in this same universe with only book 1 so far.
View on Amazon=> Book 1 // Book 2 // Book 3

Len’s Notes Continued: Since Lisa is a respected writer, Emil was fortunate to have her provide feedback on the text in the game’s books! She provided him with about 500 suggestions and corrections for each of the games chapter books. Emil thinks that she provided feedback on at least 75% of all the dialog in the game! Emil used up to 80% of her suggestions and corrections. But he had to be careful that her suggestions go with his intentions because sometimes he used specific terms or words to hint at game play conditions! Ultimately her input enhanced the story greatly… and I am looking forward to playing the final game with all her enhancements included!

Lisa described her process for editing the books for Rogue Angels on Discord. Emil highlighted them (keeping everything mostly as posted on Kickstarter / Gamefound):

(1) Skim read mission: To check for crossover/references to ensure alignment with events/characters in the published books (Rogue Angels has its own story but shares the larger universe and timeline).

(2) Dialogue read: To check for style and speech patterns. Example: Camreal (an Ercinean) uses bigger words, where Paradus (a Neomorph) is more blunt.

(A) Opportunities to add/enhance: Ways to make the characters feel unique or have them provide points of view that reveal something about them or their species. Or something that better represents their moral core.

(B) Reinforce position: Making sure a character’s speech reflects their position of authority. Or how much/little they have at stake in the affairs. Whether you have succeeded or failed.

(C) Sci-fi and military jargon: Making sure that tech is scribed consistently and military jargon is used where it makes sense.

(D) Larger picture and branching: Checking if enough information is provided to keep flow and paths clear, while also checking variations on said paths/consequences.

(E) Then finally: Checking typos in the corrections.

Lisa: “It’s surprised me how difficult it is to keep it on track across so many variables, and it may seem like subtle differences a lot of the time, even to me, but I’m confident you’ll feel it in the end result, even if it’s not obvious ;)”

Most of this has been the manufacturer downloading and confirming the transfers of the chapter books.

Then Emil includes this note and timeline chart:

Since I could not finish all the Q&A on the chapters this month, I will push the shipping another month. It sucks to do, but not a reflection of problems or setbacks, just more work than I initially anticipated in the process.

A few notes for the overview

• (*) Pre-production done. These will enter production alongside the rest.
• (**) Pre-production underway at manufacturer.
• (***) Awaiting pre-production at manufacturer.

The Adventurer’s Haven did a setup and overview of the game:

*** still working on this ***