Community Choice Vote Up! Wooden Token Samples! PM Smoke Test Coming! Artwork Continues!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Dec 05, 2021 at 11:51:06 PM

Hey filmmakers!

How are you? Excellent, me too. Let's get to it!

Vote for the "Community Choice" Scene cards!

You might recall you upgraded the B-Movie Expansion with 5x "community choice" scene cards. Well it's time for your community choice voice to be voiced! B-Movie co-designer and developer extraordinaire John Velgus and I came up with all the subgenres and sub-sub-genres we could think of, and now it's your job to sort through them and decide which ones you'd like to see under which of the five tone colors. Go on then! I'll wait until you're done.

...

..

.

Done? Great! Onwards to the:

Wooden token samples!

The samples of the wooden token addon/upgrade finally arrived, and they look super cool! I've had to put some notes in of course (the money bag looks a bit too bright, the robot's circle eyes should be filled in and the blue is a bit too dark, the bat is a bit low-contrast, etc) but they're minor - overall, I am delighted! The print and paint quality is high, and they're a nice chunky 3mm. You will have to spread them across both corner wells in the base game insert (and move the blocked tokens to the set piece area in the top middle) to get them all in, but they will fit!

If you want them but didn't add them on during the campaign, no worries; they will be available in the Backerkit pledge manager when I launch it. Which will happen soon:

Backerkit pledge manager "smoke test" going out today!

What's a "smoke test"? It's a system in Backerkit where I will send 5% of the surveys out as a test run. If  you're in that group and there's a problem, let me know right away! It's my first time using Backerkit and this campaign has quite a bit more moving parts than my previous ones, so I just want to make sure I don't miss anything big that will be hard to fix once all 4,000+ of you get it. When it looks good, I'll be sending out the survey to everyone else.

PLEASE NOTE: Shipping is still not included yet, and will be charged next year! I know, it's a bit weird to charge for shipping so much later, but it's how Backerkit does things so I just gotta roll with it. 

So once again: if you get your survey in the next couple days, you're in the smoke test group, so please have a look and make sure I didn't miss anything or get anything wrong. If I did, let me know!

Artwork still happening!

I've made it through the art for 36 scene cards so far - just under halfway to the full 75. I'm still trying to finish all the art by the end of the year but it's looking tight. I'm just gonna keep plowing forward and see how far we get, that's all I can do!

I have to say, it's been really enjoyable doing the artwork for the B-Movie Expansion scenes. I get to draw stuff that I NEVER need to draw for my weekly travel web comic, and it's just very unlikely I will ever need to draw anything like it again, even for future games. That's because the B-Movie scenes are a mix of specific tone color and often two completely different genres. 

Just look at this one, which I think is one of the weirdest, most unsettling things I've ever drawn:

But what else am I supposed to draw for tragic sci-fi horror?! It's great fun.

Should I do a livestream session while I draw some of these cards? I usually just put on a podcast and go, but it could be fun to have someone to talk to for a change. If you're into that idea, let me know and I'll make it happen!

Have a nice start to your December, folks.

Your pal,

Mal

Project files! Card artwork! Missing samples!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 24, 2021 at 07:26:42 PM

Files are happening!

Hey filmmakers - thanks for your patience over the past couple weeks. I didn't send an update sooner because I wanted to show you the wooden genre token samples that the factory made - but they have apparently been lost by FedEx because the package is now "indefinitely delayed." Crap! Hopefully they show up soon.

But I've been keeping busy. My first task was to set up the game files so that I could send them out to our localization partners. That way they can start the work of translation while I do all the artwork - as you can see, the cards don't have any art yet. The good news is that the B-Movie Expansion is 100% done in terms of game design and development as well as graphic design and layout, so as soon as I get the artwork done, we can get those files on to the factory. That's pretty much all we are waiting on at this point, besides the samples.

Good thing, then, that

Artwork is happening!

I've begun the artwork for the B-Movie scene cards, starting with these yellow ones. The video above is a timelapse of the art in progress plus my audio commentary. Have a watch!

My plan is to have the artwork done by the end of the year - this might be a more ambitious goal than I thought! We'll see. Y'all unlocked a hell of a lot of cards, hah! Once I've made some headway with the scene cards I will put together the poll for the community vote scene cards. I'm super excited for those!

I also need to set up the survey - that's my other priority:

The survey / pledge manager is coming!

I'd like to put a dent in the art pile first, then I will turn my attention to getting the Backerkit pledge manager all sorted so that you can confirm your order and pay for shipping. PLEASE NOTE: your cards will be charged at a LATER DATE - after you have completed the pledge manager - for shipping and any addons you didn't get through Kickstarter! Backerkit does it this way; it's not like a shop where you pay at checkout. Just something to be aware of for when the survey does arrive.

Where will I be able to choose the Spanish version?

In the Backerkit survey that I just mentioned, which has not been sent out yet. When it is, there will be a dropdown menu where you can choose English or Spanish, as well as your choice of the material for the expansion's box (recyclable or regular). All coming with the survey!

The German version, as mentioned on the campaign page, will NOT be in this campaign's pledge manager; for that version you will need to follow Spieleschmiede's updates - looks like they've delayed it until next year at some point.

Other minor updates

- I'm still in talks with GameTrayz about tweaking the plastic insert design to fit sleeved cards better. Looking good but nothing confirmed yet, still just a back and forth email chain.

- The base game cards have all been slightly tweaked. We made some minor updates to almost all the text and icons on the cards for consistency and clarity, and in one instance, closed an edge case infinite loop (basically, after taking their Playback action, the Editor must now remove the replayed Idea from the game permanently). We also changed the Problem card that requires players to stop talking to a different effect that is more in-game relevant. That's it! Only cards are affected, all other game components are the same files. All second printing copies of the base game will feature the updated cards. If you have the first printing base game and want the second printing cards, they will be available at cost (no profit to us) in the pledge manager, and will ship for free with your pledge.

- As I mentioned, the dang wooden tokens are lost in the post somewhere. As soon as I have them I will share - I have photos from the factory and they look SUPER COOL but I want to confirm the quality in person myself before I share them with you.

That's it for now!

Let me know if you have any questions. Back to drawing for me!

Your pal,

Mal

That's a wrap! 🎬
over 2 years ago – Sat, Oct 30, 2021 at 04:15:01 AM

Thank you for an incredible campaign ❤️

This was an absolute blast, and I have loved the ride you took us all on this month. Our movie is an incredible b-movie masterpiece, and you've upgraded the expansion off the charts! Plus you helped make this my biggest campaign to date, in every way.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you for your support, encouragement, enthusiasm, and just for believing in this project and believing in us to bring it to life.

What's next?

Well, thanks to you, I now have over 100 cards to illustrate! Oh my 😅

That'll be my main priority over the coming months - finishing up the illustrations for all the cards. At the same time I will be interfacing with GameTrayz about the insert tweaks, the factory about materials, samples, and costs for the expansion and upgrades, and our localization partners for getting the files ready in other languages. I will also be prepping the survey to go out in the next couple months, which will require settling the shipping costs.

I'll be keeping you updated - watch this space!

How often will you be sending updates?

For the next few months I'll be sending updates once every 1-2 weeks, depending on what there is to share. Feel free to poke me in the comments section or on Discord if you want more frequent news. 

For now though, it's time to celebrate! Probably by seeing a movie - I want to catch The French Dispatch!

Thanks again. For real though.

Your pal

Mal

Final day of voting is up! This is it!!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Oct 30, 2021 at 02:42:42 AM

I've done it, filmmakers.

I have devised the most devilishly agonizing final voting day choice of all time. I know what you want in this expansion and I've found the perfect way to make you sweat for it. Your cursor will hover over that "submit vote" button, shaking, as you consider the consequences of your actions...let's go!

As for our story, well - it's awesome. It's the perfect b-movie: starts out with a strong narrative drive, then quickly devolves into action and nonsense until it ends abruptly in equal parts tragedy and comedy. What more could you want?! You've filmed a true cult classic here. Nice job. 

Now we just need that final scene to cap it all off and leave viewers dying for the sequel!

Can we make those "useless" tokens useful?

Yesterday you voted to upgrade the game with "extra fun random usless prop & costume tokens". My co-designer and developer for the expansion, John Velgus, and I are speaking about them right now. Originally these tokens were meant to just be for dressing up your scenes and nothing else, but we've got some interesting ideas for how we could integrate them into the actual gameplay. No promises, but I do like the idea that they might not be so useless after all...! Thanks for your suggestions, too, and keep 'em coming - they're helping a lot.

We crossed $200,000!

I'm speechless, really. Yesterday I figured out that all my crowdfunding efforts combined (if you include the original Roll Camera's post-campaign funding for shipping and addons) have raised over half a million dollars. I don't really even know what to do with that number. I just wanted to share it with you because...well, I guess because you're the one that made it happen!

And this is making me think about the future. Anything is possible! I feel the wind in the Keen Bean Studio sails. I've got some really neat projects lined up for the coming years and I am bursting at the seams to get them up here in front of you as soon as possible. 

Less than 24 hours left! Ahhhh so exciting

Your pal

Mal

Penultimate voting day is up!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 09:44:01 PM

Last chance to save our hero

The penultimate voting day is here, filmmakers! Let's see if we can't help our hero out, whaddya say?

I love the final days of a Kickstarter. The middle period is always kind of a lull, and now things kick into high gear again and we get to watch those numbers climb. So fun!

See you tomorrow for the last day of filming! Anyone know what the final shot of the day is called? It has a special term.

Your pal

Mal