Sig Gazetteer, February Edition
about 3 years ago – Tue, Feb 09, 2021 at 02:30:36 PM

Hello everyone, and welcome to our monthly update on Sig: City of Blades!

Since our last update, we have been working on four major components of the book in order to get the PDF version ready for your inboxes.

Mission Scenarios: Firstly, Quinn and I have been working together to develop the adventure scenarios which will constitute the sixth chapter of the book.  We have been careful to ensure that there are ample fictional hooks into each of the scenarios and that each Crew type has a way to participate. We are currently looking at around 25 pages worth of fantastic, actionable content.

Final Illustrations:  Juan has been hard at work producing the final illustrations that we will need for the project. He is working on a full-page piece illustrating the various neighborhoods and a crew portrait for the Reforged Blades. Lastly, he is preparing the chapter-opening illustration for the new, sixth chapter that will contain Quinn’s new material.

Print Buying: Now that we have a better sense of the total length of the book, I was able to get some revised print quotes from our printers. Our original estimates for the campaign were more conservative and didn’t include some of the additional stretch-goal content. Now we have a much better sense of how the printing side of the house will proceed.

Deep Revision Pass: Meanwhile, I have been working on the detailed text revision and layout pass on the book. It is a slow, unglamorous, and utterly essential task that is necessary to make a quality product. The process involves a line-by-line editing process to identify any sentences which fail to pull their own weight. While revising the text, I also examine the layout on each spread to correct any outstanding issues.  For example, take a look at the two spreads below.

We are still on track to get the PDF out to you this spring with printed copies to follow.  Thank you all for your patience and continued support as we make this as awesome as possible.

Jason Pitre for Genesis of Legend Publishing Inc.

Sig Gazetteer, January Edition
over 3 years ago – Wed, Jan 06, 2021 at 10:28:51 PM

Hello Friends,

It’s time for another backer update for Sig: City of Blades. We hope that you have kept safe over the last month and that 2021 is brighter for us all.

You folks have had access to the first draft version of the game text in layout as per our last update. The major elements that are remaining to transform that into the final digital version are as follow:

• A full selection of illustrations from Alex.
• Additional illustrations by Juan.
• Development of mission material by Quinn.
• A review pass by Avery.
• A detailed layout cleanup and text revision pass by Jason.
• A final proofreading pass by Christopher.
• Indexing by Jason.

Here is a January status update for the various components of this project.

Otherworldly Illustrations

We have had a lot of progress since our last update.  Alex has sent in a large selection of brilliant new character illustrations ahead of schedule which you can see below.

Juan has been busy working on a few more illustrations such as faction illustrations for the Void Striders and the Reforged Blades, as well as a cityscape illustration and a few more pieces.

Wordsmiths United

Meanwhile, I was glad to have a productive work planning meeting with Quinn last week where we determined that the mission material would best be served by integrating it directly into the book. He is hard at work on the first of several missions as we speak, and we will be working on this first mission in January. Integrating the mission content into the book might add some minor delays for production, but we will be able to give you more precise information in the next update.

Avery has sent along excellent feedback on places where we can improve the text of the game. Christopher and I will be using her advice to inform our revision work in the coming months. As a publisher, I intentionally planned out a 2-month window of time where neither of us would be working on the text so that we can perform our final revision passes with fresh, critical eyes.

Incorporation acquired.

While this will have no impact on any of you fine folks, I am proud to share that our little publishing shop has formally incorporated. As of January 1st, we are now officially Genesis of Legend Publishing Inc. This step was only made possible thanks to the overwhelming support that you folks have given to the project.

Thank you all for your support, and I look forward to the February update. 

Jason Pitre for Genesis of Legend Publishing Inc.

Laying it all Out
over 3 years ago – Mon, Nov 30, 2020 at 07:28:23 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

The Coin has been Secured
over 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 07:55:31 PM

Hello to all of you fine backers and supporters for the Sig: City of Blades Kickstarter campaign. This has been our most successful Kickstarter campaign to date and we are determined to repay your support with some beautiful books.

Campaign Goals

In terms of the goals for the campaign, we have…

• Funded the development of the book as a full-color hardcover
• Funded additional art from Alex Louise Hill and Juan Ochoa
• Funded a proper offset print run
• Funded a set of mission materials from Quinn Murphy
• Funded two additional playable crews

Unfortunately, we didn’t hit the ultimate stretch goal that would have let us commission an actual play podcast miniseries from the excellent Jeff Stormer and crew, but we thank them for offering us this potential opportunity.

Next Steps

Now that we have finished the kickstarter campaign, we have a clear path forward to making the book a reality. The estimated dates that we included in the original campaign were associated with the base goal, and some of the stretch goal content will delay the release of the PDF until early 2021. That will give our artists time to prepare illustrations, give me a chance to design the two additional playable crews, and perform the necessary proofreading passes.

So far, we have finished our preliminary layout passes on the first 145 pages of the book and began the art direction work for the remaining pieces. As soon as we finalize our page count, we will be able to get an updated offset print quote for the project.

In the meantime, we have to wait for approximately two weeks in order for all of the payments to clear from Kickstarter. We will be using the Backerkit Pledge Manager for this project to collect the relevant shipping information and to enable folks to order add-on items should they wish.

We intend on issuing the survey in November 2020 if possible, so that we can get some of the hard copies of Sig: Manual of the Primes sent out this year. We will avoid locking down all of the orders until early 2021 to account for any later changes in mailing addresses.

Keeping in Contact

Running a Kickstarter campaign is always a draining process, all the more in 2020. I intend on providing updates roughly once a month until the campaign is completed. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, please feel free to contact me via the Kickstarter messaging functionality, email me at [email protected]or contact me on Twitter @genesisoflegend.

Thank you all. Now it’s time to get down to business.

Jason Pitre for Genesis of Legend Publishing

New Kids on the Block
over 3 years ago – Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 11:37:05 PM

Hello everyone,

We are in the final days of the kickstarter campaign for Sig: City of Blades and I am happy to announce that we have gotten past our 25k CAD stretch goal. Quinn Murphy will be preparing some awesome mission content for us.  I will be working on the contract shortly and look forward to seeing what he comes up with.

We have two stretch goals remaining and are getting more backers by the hour, so let’s talk about both of them now.

At 30k, we will design another two playable factions for the game. These will include representatives of the Recyclers Cooperative and of the Portalsmiths, bringing us up to five factions in total. The only Tier 1 faction which will not be playable will be the Night Barons, since they are willing servants of the Shard Realm of Empire. Adding in these two new groups will give you more ways to play the game and explore some different approaches to planar fantasy heists.

At 35K, we will commission a short-run actual play podcast of Sig: City of Blades with Jeff Stormer of the Party of One Podcast. He has assembled an amazing team of folks including Alex Flanigan, Aaron Catano-Saez, Bee Zelda, and Cole Burkhardt. This will show off the game in action and make it easy for folks to learn it, as well as reaching a broader audience.

Thank you for all of your support and for spreading the word. Let’s move this across the finish line.

Jason Pitre

Genesis of Legend Publishing