Progress Report for July
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 10:32:52 PM

Hi Everybody,

First of all, I WICKED APOLOGIZE that it's been so long since you've heard from me. Let me assure you that I have NOT been spending July working on my tan and sipping drinks with umbrellas in them. Work has been moving forward on all fronts. But, I'll admit that the work has proven to be a lot more labor intense and time consuming than maybe I expected. Reckless Deck started as 72 cards. Not only are the first 72 getting redesigned but we're adding and additional 436 cards worth of content. And each card requires individual attention and tweaking in layout - this can't all be batched and dumped into a file. All the content is done, all the designs are done, and now we're just finishing up details like laying out the instruction cards for WORLDS and APPRENTICE PACK, and giving the APPRENTICE PACK packaging a bit of an upgrade.  And so, the result looks great, but we are now running on about a 5 week delay. Sorry about this. But, Nerses and I have every intention of getting this all uploaded to the printer by the end of this week.

The printer has a bunch of our files already, and has begun working with them. They've   sent back notes on details about formatting and process-specific details. We've been addressing those, and applying the notes to the rest of the cards in the project. I wouldn't say we've experienced any problems per se - but the one thing that has been giving us attitude & threatening to cause delays in the past two weeks would be the goddamed gold foil. We've had to make some adjustments, and now we have it working in a way we're happy with.

 Also, if you've sent me an email that I haven't responded to, sorry about that, as well. I've had my head buried pretty deep in this stuff. I'll be going back through all the emails once the files are out of my hands to see if I've dropped the ball on anything. I the meantime, definitely feel free to contact Korey at Backerkit at [email protected]. She'll be able to help you with anything pledge, add on, payment, or address related. If it's something else, they'll get in touch with me as ask how to proceed.

Once everything is 100% uploaded to the printer, I'll be able to start the really fun Project Updates again. We have a lot to show you. The first thing I'll share is a complete tour of WORLDS - it's categories, designs, and functionality. I'll also include CIVILIZATIONS in this, which had proven to be not just a WORLDS expansion but also an appetizer for what could be a full CIVILIZATIONS deck. For example, CIV doesn't just continue with more WORLDS content, but introduces 2 completely new categories. And as far as the design work goes that Nerses has created for everything WORLDS related - well, the words card porn come to mind. If that's even a thing. (And if it's not, it absolutely should be.) After that, I'll probably do a similar update for APPRENTICE PACK, so you can all see the designs for that.

Ryan our 3D artist is jamming away on creating the minis. Both the minis and the coin run on shorter production schedules than the cards, so we can afford to keep working on them after the cards are away at the printer. His first mini is about 90% done, and he's got cool progress shots and time lapse videos of his work that I'll be sharing with you. As for the coin, the art for the Evil Side is 100% done, and I'm in the middle of doing the Good Side now. As soon as that's done, I'll show you both in an update. 

I've also made headway into the idea of creating an RD online forum, like we talked about during the campaign. It will be a place where people can talk about how they're organizing & using their decks, what ideas they've come up with. They will also be able to share works in progress of their art, and post their writing for people to check out and to offer crit and advice, if you want that. I think it's gonna be super cool, and a place of serious inspiration & creativity.

Okay people. I'm getting back to work on all this. Again, apologies for the radio silence. You'll be hearing from me a lot more regularly going forward.

Cheers,

Clark

The Winners of the MINIS CONTEST!
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 07:40:47 PM

Hi All!

Here's the day you've all been waiting for (well, one of them, anyway): the day I announce the winners of the Gaming Minis Challenge! We had a lot of great entries, and before we go any further, I'd like to thank everyone who entered for your participation. Your entries made this a fun and dynamic challenge, and not an easy one to judge. So, here you have it, your contest winners, and future Minis Set characters:

And now here's a look at the judges' picks, and their commentary about their judging process!

Clark Huggins, Project Creator

These are where my votes landed, in no particular order:

Wall Shadow. I think Ken managed to capture a very spooky, haunting quality with this one. It very much looks like something a person would make up in their mind as the creature they think they see out of the corner of their eye, but isn't there when they try too look at it fully. I think it's going to make an extremely cool looking mini.

Mo'orea, Protector of the Tiarea'i Spirits. I love the silhouette of this, and I think it's going to be a great mini from all angles. I think Audrey has done a great job of combining an attractive, heroic female figure with a creature. And she's made some design decisions that really take advantage of the mash-up aspect of Reckless Deck, and in doing so, has created two details that both irk me and intrigue me in equal measure (which I love). Thing One: I love how she's translated "Greatsword" into this giant Cricket Bat of the Gods. And Thing Two: this flying companion that looks like a cross between a trick kite and a Chinese Dragon. 

Peak Loco by Martin Barbuto. I really like the combination of cartoony & grounded badassery about this guy. I like the shape & form of him a lot, and because its so different from most of the other entries,  I think he'd be a weird & fun counterpoint to whatever the other three minis are. Martin has imbued him with a lot of character and a specific acting moment. And I like how what looks like a headpiece or plumage is actually tentacles, and that he's found a way to work that weird choice into the character's story. 

For an Honorable Mention, I kept coming back to Nyirodul, by Reza Lesmana. A great combination of ugly and pretty. Also a very dynamic pose, nicely framed by those three sword blades.

 Lauren Panepinto, Creative Director, Orbit Books

My pics, in order:

1) Wall Shadow, Ken McCuen

Great pitch - love the scene illustrations as well as the diagrams of how the figure would be sculpted from multiple viewpoints, really sold the concept

2) Lesser Horned One by Jesse Smolover

Love the character design. I've never seen tentacles used as antlers before, and the stance of the reversed legs from the back is really cool. I really wanted a figure of this. Love where the tentacle wraps around the staff!

3) Mo'orea by Aurore Folny

Great movement for a figure design. Really thought out how to get pieces suspended. Not sure if that's too complex for the casting, but really pushing the medium. Love that flying jellyfish guy!

HM) Melifaux by Brian Despain

Great Illustration, I'd love it as a flat piece, but I don't have a good concept of how that would work as a figure.

Terryl Whitlatch, Creature Designer, Concept Artist, & Author

They are:

1) Wall Shadow

For storytelling, POV, technical skill, composition, and drama.

2) Melifaux, Lord of Regrettable Utterances

For character design, storytelling, technical skill

3) Mo'orea, Protector of Tiarera'i Spirits

Dynamic pose and composition, technical skill, nice to see the developmental sketches from different points of view

It will be interesting to see what everyone chooses, and why:-)

Jon Schindehette, Creative Director, ThinkGeek Solutions, & Founder of ArtOrder

Well, I was starting to do a big write up, and then I glanced at Terryls and realized we had the same picks and reasons.

1. Wall Shadow

2. Melifaux

3.Mo'orea

For an Honorable Mention, I liked Alumorel, Boar Mount by Melanie Judd. Fun story and interesting design.

Khoi Pham, DC Comics Artist

OK, here's mine:

1. Lesser Horned One -- Love this. Great design and execution. The figures have really nice weight and shape to them, and love the colors. Very memorable illustration. Would make a fun statue.

2. Alumoral -- Really nicely done. Great character design and pose. Dig the decision to place the laser cannon in the boar's mouth. Very cool.

3. Musculla -- Not as technically advanced an illustration as the others, but I really love the whimsy in this one. Such a delightfully unique character. It's like Mary Poppins meets Cthulu. Dig it.

HM. Herne the Hunter -- Too similar to Lesser Horned One, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Great creations, everyone!

So, that's what the judges had to say. For those keeping count, Wall Shadow and Mo'orea both scored 4 votes each. Melifaux won by a nose, with 2 votes and an Honorable Mention. Lesser Horned One and Melifaux nearly tied, but the HM served as the tie breaker. Peak Loco, Alumoral, and Musclla each received one vote apiece.

To the winners, Ken, Aurore, and Brian - be sure and send me your mailing addresses at [email protected], so I can send you each your PASSPORT TIER reward level as your contest prizes! And I'll have our 3D artist Ryan Lesser get in touch with you if he needs any additional information or views of your character.

Thanks to our judges, Jon, Lauren, Terryl, and Khoi, for bringing your time and professional expertise to judging this! And thanks again to all of you who entered. This was a fun one for sure.

Minis Contest Judging, & a WORLDS update
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 10:08:03 PM

Hi Everybody!

We're SO CLOSE to so many cool milestones & announcements, it's crazy. But, in the absence of having something big to show you, I wanted to give you a more general update. 

 Minis Contest judging is underway!

And our newest judge, superstar concept artist and creature designer Terryl Whitlatch, wins the award for Speediest Judge. And I've made my picks already as well. The other three judges are supposed to have their selections, and any commentary they'd care to share, to me by the end of day on Thursday. I'll create a big Project Update post announcing the winners, and sharing fun stuff about the process from the judges over the weekend. 

3D artist Ryan Lesser and I were supposed to have a photo shoot with a model for reference for the mini I'll be creating, but there was a last minute scheduling snag. Hoping to reschedule this week.

A Million Little Decisions

Not gonna lie, transitioning from design into production is a little bit behind. The main reason being is that, as I said above, there's a million little decisions to make about the designs. Not so much for the cards, as they are more or less good to go, but the packaging. Like, where does the UPC symbol go? What copy goes on the package? Is the logo in the right place? Remember, these not only need to look cool enough please our (amazing and extremely tasteful and knowledgeable) Kickstarter backers, but also, to stand up alongside MAGIC: THE GATHERING and POKEMON cards in a store's gaming and cards display, and even against things like UNO in a toy store. That's a totally different thing. And the other thing that's taken an extra layer of decision making and design time has been creating the necessary files for the foils and the spot gloss. How those two additions are getting used is going to look really super cool, but it's proving to require an added level of attention.

A Look at WORLDS

I'll be doing a full Project Update on the look and functionality of the WORLDS deck as soon as the designs are finalized.  But I feel like you guys deserve a sneak peek, and a look into the process of how the whole thing has come together. Our designer Nerses sent over the first look at his designs for the six categories that make up WORLDS, and they are AH-MAYZ-ING  - I kind of flipped out when I saw them. Yes, there are some tweaks to be made, but really small-brushes-level stuff. And, I'd like to introduce you to  someone you should know: Peoples, meet Alyson Santoro, the Oceanographer and Microbiologist who was kind enough to consult with me on the content of WORLDS. Alyson is currently in British Columbia, attending a conference at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

 As I mentioned earlier, in seeking a structure for WORLDS, I started to look at how scientists have already separated and classified the study of different environments. This actually provided me with very solid footing, and covered a lot of ground. From there, I layered in the addition some non-earthbound, science fiction-style environmental possibilities. Once it was all more or less in place, I wanted to run it by an actual scientist, to make sure the system actually held up. I felt that from both a Concept Art and an Environmental Science perspective, I wanted someone from either discipline to be able to pick up the deck and say "Hey, they really stuck the landing on this" as opposed to, "Wow, they really f**ked this all up!!" Needless to say, Alyson has a lot of great input - the most important of which being, "This is really cool." And, she had a lot of great suggestions, and thoughts on some card options I hadn't seen before. Thanks Alyson, for offering some very out-of-the-(art) box thinking on what is meant to be a very out-of-the-box idea generator.

And finally, here's a preview look at Nerses' excellent design work:

That's all for now. Talk too you this weekend, with the announcement of the MINIS CONTEST WINNERS!

Cheers,

Clark

Minis Contest Update
almost 7 years ago – Sun, Jun 11, 2017 at 09:24:59 PM

 Hi All!

I wanted to take a minute before the week begins to remind all of you that the minis contest is still open, and runs until midnight on Thursday, June 15th. If you haven't entered, you still TOTALLY have time to get in on it! All entries will will be reviewed by a judges panel of industry professionals, and 3 winners will have their character designs made into the gaming minis that we'll be sculpting and molding for our campaign reward. In addition, each of those 3 winners will also receive a complete Passport Tier  - over $200 worth of Reckless Deck cards and accessories (including the set of minis!)

And about that panel of industry professionals: We added a 5th guest judge this week! I'm thrilled to be able to say that creature designer and concept artist TERRYL WHITLATCH is now judging our contest with us. For those of you who don't know, Terryl has worked for such top tier clients as Industrial Light and Magic, Lucasfilm Ltd, Pixar, and Walt Disney Feature Animation. She's also written several books that are beloved in the concept art field for both the information and the art they contain: ANIMALS REAL AND IMAGINED, PRINCIPLES OF CREATURE DESIGN, and SCIENCE OF CREATURE DESIGN. 

And there's still our original 4 judges: myself, Jon Schindehette, the creative director at ThinkGeek Solutions, and the founder of ArtOrder; Khoi Pham, comic book artist who's work includes HERCULES and SCARLET SPIDER for Marvel Comics, and who is currently penciling TEEN TITANS for DC Comics; and Lauren Panepinto, the creative director for Orbit Books and Yen press. Once again, here's your link to the 17 Reckless Deck cards we've posted for you to create your characters from:

Link to Infected By Art Contest Page

This Thursday the 15th is also the deadline to complete your surveys and lock down your orders. If you haven't completed your survey and confirmed your address yet, please do so in the next couple of days. And, a reminder that I'll be processing all the Backerkit shipping and add on orders up to this point on Friday, June 16th.

Though we haven't officially placed an order yet, Nerses is hard at work exporting files and finishing up final design details.  Between that, the coin, and designs and more news about the WORLDS deck, we'll have a lot to talk about this week!

Cheers,

Clark

Progress Report
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Jun 02, 2017 at 09:17:57 PM

 Hello again!

And now, your regularly scheduled Project Update. Thanks again for being so patient around this one. There's been a lot of progress on all fronts, though I don't have a definitive check in the "done" column to report since the launch of the Backerkit post campaign. Here's where things stand:

Card Content, Design, and Printing

We're about to hit a huge milestone here. Content is complete and closed out for everything except 2 of 4 Decks and 3 of 11 Expansion Packs. Nerses and I are still tweaking the content & designs for Apprentice Pack, Worlds, Wonderland, and Civilizations. Worlds & Civilizations in particular go hand in hand together and are being created kind of as one thing. Dark Forest is essentially done, but it needs some cutting to get it down to 20 cards. Volume 1 got a bigger revision than I originally planned on - 12 cards are getting their language & phrasing updated, and 6 cards are getting switched out entirely. This is because when Volume 1 was created, it was the very first time I was playing in this sandbox. Now, with two years of experience with Reckless Deck, and exponentially more interlocking content, there were certain cards that just either sounded clunky or unclear, or really just didn't make the quality cut anymore when compared to the other material. Design-wise, Nerses and I are locking in the new symbols for the Expansion Pack cards (so yes there will be a symbol on the Expansion card faces denoting which Expansion it's from.) Once we do that, Volumes 1 & 2, and 9 out of 11 Expansion Packs will be ready to send to Jon Schindehette to pass off to the print vendor. The final approval & delivery of all those files will be happening between Monday & Wednesday of next week! Woo! After that, Nerses and I will be able to put all our attention on refining those remaining 2 Decks & 2 Expansions. Our target date for delivery for those is on or before June 15th.

The Magnetic Boxes

Nerses will deliver final designs for both boxes right on the heels of getting the deck and expansion files delivered. I know that the carrying capacity of the boxes is something that many of you are very invested in. I'll do an entire project update on all the variables at play, but my current estimate is 80 cards for the single deck box, and about 430-450 for the Collector's Box - with the caveat that still, we won't know for sure until I receive the prototypes, which should happen somewhere immediately following 4th of July. You can be assured you'll see plenty of photos of those when they arrive, and a definitive card capacity for both as well. If not knowing how many cards the boxes hold is really messing with you and completing your Backerkit survey, take your best guess, and if it turns out that you guessed wrong and need to add a box later, I'll see what I can work out with Backerkit to get that extra box added to your original order for either reduced or completely waived shipping.

The Coin

I'm working on it. I have working designs for both the good & the evil sides, but they both need refining. And then a tightly rendered drawing for both sides needs to get handed over to Jon to send to the coin vendor. I'm really excited about this, and I love where the designs are going. But this is the thing I really want to be working on, and the thing that seems to always get shoved to second place in line because there's something more immediate that needs my attention. So really, the takeaway here is really that the coin just needs to learn to stick up for itself.

The Minis

The minis contest is ongoing! Because getting Backerkit off the ground was such an immense chore, I extended the contest deadline by 2 &1/2 weeks. The new deadline is June 15th, which means everybody that wants to participate can still do so! The link to the contest, and to the 17 cards we've spoiled for use in the challenge, is right here. Remember, 3 winners get their designs turned onto one of the minis, and gets a complete Reckless Deck Passport Tier. For my own mini, 3D sculptor Ryan Lesser and I are currently scheduling a model shoot  for next week for reference for the mini design art, and we'll be posting photos and video of that shoot later next week. Ryan will be providing looks at his ZBrush sculpting process as he works, so you can look forward to that as well.

And speaking of Backerkit, a huge THANK YOU to all of you who have completed the surveys! There are still 11% of you who have not though, so if that's you, get on it! Two important dates to keep in mind: The deadline for completing your surveys is June 15th. Then, I will be charging all Backerkit orders for backers and existing pre-orders on June 16th. Any further pre-orders after that will be charged at a later point. On this timeline, with all orders to the printer in by June 15th, as I said before, we should be expecting to see prototypes about a week after the 4th of July, and then be taking delivery of All The Things by mid August! 

Hope everyone is having a great start to their summer!

Clark