April Update - PDF Finished!
8 months ago – Tue, Apr 30, 2024 at 05:58:00 AM

Hey!

The PDF of the zine is done! If everything went right, you should already have an email from BackerKit giving you access to a new download!

Ava and I (and our amazing proofreaders) worked hard this month to get it the zine finished, and I'm really proud of how it turned out!

So go grab the PDF from the BackerKit to dive into this second issue! If you have any trouble accessing it, please let me know.

In addition to finishing the PDF of issue 02, we also overhauled the travel procedure found in TEA 01 and fixed a bunch of typos there as well. Version 1.4 of that zine is now up on itch, so make sure to download that one as well, to have all the up-to-date rules going into issue 02 :)

What's Next

There are still some typos to be filtered out before sending it off to be printed and the release on itch.io, so I expect the coming weeks to mostly focus on that. Besides fixing typos I will be getting ready to print and ship this zine. I visited the printer last week, and he is excited to work on this project again after doing a small print run in 2022. So I hope to have more details about the physical copies in next month's update.

But for now, please enjoy the PDF! I'm very excited to hear what you think of it :)

March Update
9 months ago – Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 02:43:00 AM

All art for the zine has been completed! The last few pieces I commissioned for the heist adventure have come in and are looking great :) Here is a sneak peek at some of them:

With all the art done, the layout and editing work steadily continues. The largest part of the editing work has been finished, with only the factions and city sections remaining, which should not take too long to finish, after which it will mostly just be small edits and typo hunting. As for layout, I have done a rough layout for the whole zine. It is really cool to finally see everything we've worked on for so long come together in a single document! I'll keep refining this over the next month as more editing gets finished, but here is an overview screenshot of all 80 pages:

It feels great to be so close to finishing it and getting it into your hands :D We'll keep on steadily working on it over the next month!

Thank you so much for your support!

Talk again soon!

- Emiel

February Update
10 months ago – Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 11:12:23 AM

The big map of Titan Port is done! I've spent February working on getting the last bits of cartography done for the zine. Kickstarter won't let me upload a high-res version of the map on here without compressing it into a near-unreadable mess of pixels, so I've cut it up into some smaller images for you to get an idea of the level of detail. I'll post a high-res version on the CULT OF THE LIZARD KING Discord for those who would like to see the whole thing :)

As you can see, I made the mistake of not abstracting any of it and having to draw all these little houses by hand. However, as a result, this map looks sweet and I can't wait to see it in print!

Another map I've worked on this month is the map that accompanies the second adventure "The Tower of Tursar Settru". The map details the inside of the tower players are asked to steal a precious object from.

Speaking of the second adventure, Ava is still hard at work editing the remaining text. Due to some personal matters editing has been slow, but progress has been made regardless. We estimate it will take at least another month to get it all finished, but the end is in sight!

What's next?

With most of the art finished (only a handful of commissioned pieces are still waiting to be delivered) and Ava busy with editing, I'll be shifting my attention away from art towards layout and putting all the bits together into a zine. As it looks now, the zine will probably end up as a thick 80-84 page zine. This is at least 12 pages more than what I originally planned, so I'll also be looking into if that will even be possible to print the same way I printed the first issue.

Thank you so much for your support!

Talk again soon!

- Emiel

January Update
11 months ago – Mon, Jan 29, 2024 at 12:58:22 AM

Hey!

In the three weeks since the last update there hasn't been a lot of progress. Ava and I did some good work in the first week, but quickly after that progress slowed to a halt when Ava had to deal with the ungodly cold Canadian weather and I got struck down by covid. So over the last two weeks there hasn't been much progress to show you all.

I'm almost back to normal now (except for a persistent cough that doesn't want to leave), so I'm going to try to make up for lost time in the next weeks.

So yeah, a bit of a short update this month. Thank you for your support, and I hope you stay healthy and safe!

Talk again soon!

-Emiel

December Update
12 months ago – Fri, Jan 05, 2024 at 03:16:47 AM

Hey!

I'm excited to announce that there is now a new preview PDF available through the BackerKit! The PDF includes the first official TEA adventure called The Grafter's Tomb, and two pages of additional information regarding the art of fleshcraft (including a new downtime action to undergo fleshgraft surgery). 

I spent the last weeks of last year getting this adventure ready for publication and I'm really happy with how it turned out. After having played through it three times with different groups, am excited to hear about your experiences with Volca and her experiments!

If you have any trouble finding the new PDF on BackerKit, please let me know!

What is next?

Another thing I worked on last month was the map of Titan Port. I, naively, decided to draw all the buildings by hand instead of abstracting them, which turns out to require a lot more man-hours than I anticipated. I'd like to say I'm halfway done, but I think it is more like a good third, so I expect to be occupied with drawing that map for most of January. Ava is hard at work editing and rewriting the remaining text for the zine. She is currently reorganizing the heist scenario I wrote and making it a lot clearer to run. All in all, it seems like the final push is taking a little more time to give every bit of the zine the polish it deserves. So the estimated PDF delivery time is moving up to the end of March, with printing following some time in the month after. I'm sorry for this delay, but I'd rather have the zine be a little late than it being rushed. I hope these regular updates help keep you informed enough and show that I'm not just running off with your money. TEA 02 is coming, we're hard at work making it that happen, it's just taking more time than I anticipated when I set up this campaign. Thank you for your patience :)

That's it for now! Let me know if you read the new PDF adventure. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, or about your adventures if you run it :)

Talk again soon!

- Emiel