June Update: Pre-Production Copy
over 7 years ago – Sat, Jul 08, 2017 at 12:49:26 AM

Evening, friend.

Got great news for you today: the pre-production copy of No Honor Among Thieves has arrived at my doorstep.

This is the final version for me to check over before we go to mass manufacture, the last chance to make sure that everything is 100% ready for production. After geeking out about how cool this all is for a little while, I took a closer look at the components and found a few things that ought to be fixed, to ensure that you get the best possible quality in the game. The box is way too big, for one thing--all of the cards are rattling around in it like crazy. I think I need to lower the height by a third. Also, I think the colors on the backs of the Hidden Agenda and Character cards might be a little too close, so I may change some details there, just a little bit. I also found a couple of minor issues with specific cards (the wrong illustration credit on one, an extra space needed on another, that sort of thing). Overall, everything is looking fantastic--it’s amazing to hold quality components like this after spending so long with versions made from cardstock run through my laser printer or cheap print-on-demand services.

If you want to take a closer look at the components, I made an unboxing video for the PPC, because people kept asking me to. I wasn't sure if they were being ironic or not, so to be on the safe side here we go. Bear in mind that this was filmed with a cell phone camera and a lavalier mic that in retrospect was way too close to my mouth, by a guy who has never even seen an unboxing video before, so if you were one of the people asking for one I don't know if this will be what you were expecting or not.

 We're on our way now, boys and girls. I'll keep you posted with updates as I get them.

Cheers,

Adam

May Update: Manufacturing
over 7 years ago – Tue, Jun 06, 2017 at 06:12:27 PM

At this point we've passed the initially-promised delivery date for the game. I thought I was going to have two or three months to spare in my initial timeline; evidently I was grossly mistaken.

On the plus side, we're getting into manufacturing now. The last step of pre-production is complete, and I should be getting a pre-production copy of the game at some point soon. This process has taken a lot longer than I thought it would, and it's pretty much all been my fault--I was doing most of the graphic design myself, and there were a number of things that I didn't get quite right the first time due to inexperience. But that's been sorted out, and thanks to the pre-press specialist at Panda the game is going to look fantastic.

Speaking of cool-looking things, I've got another note about the metal coins. In my last Kickstarter update, I mentioned that I was planning on making the coins gold, silver, and black. A lot of people immediately jumped on that to ask for copper coins instead of black, so I figured I'd get some sample colors from the manufacturer and see what looked good.

 As you might be able to tell from the picture, I did decide to go with copper for the value 1 coins, since a lot of people had strong opinions about that.

Mass manufacturing of the coins has already begun (we wanted to start that a bit earlier than everything else because it's going to take longer), and once I get and approve the pre-production copy the rest of the game should soon follow.

Thanks for bearing with me, and sorry again for the delays. Here's some more cool art as a consolation, from three of the scheme cards in the game.

 I'll let you know if anything new and exciting comes up.

Cheers,

Adam

Coins!
over 7 years ago – Wed, May 10, 2017 at 10:17:35 PM

I don't usually like to do updates this soon after one another, but this was too cool to not share with you immediately.

The basic sculpts for the metal coins arrived today. They aren't colored yet, like they will be in the final game (I was planning on the 1s being black, the 3s being silver, and the 5s being gold) but they still look and feel fantastic.

The 1s and 3s are about the size of an American penny, while the 5s are a little bit bigger. All of them made the transition from my sketches to actual metal looking really good.

If you've got any opinions on them, let me know. I believe there's still time to change things around if anyone notices anything very wrong with them or comes up with an idea that's too good to not use (though obviously since we have the molds made for these now super drastic changes would have to have a very good reason behind them).

Cheers,

Adam

April Update: Good News and Bad News
over 7 years ago – Tue, May 09, 2017 at 12:10:16 AM

Hello, friend.

I have good news and bad news for April's No Honor Among Thieves update.

First off, I realize that it is now May. And you don't have the game in your hands yet. I apologize for that. It's looking like I'm going to be getting the game to you in August at this point. I'm not super happy with the delays, but at least I can console myself with the fact that they were all caused by me working to make the game better before sending it out to you.

That brings us to the bad news. According to the revised schedule I was working off of, I should have gotten the PPC (Pre Production Copy) of the game either last week or this week. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened, which means we're moving slower than that already-delayed schedule.

The good news: I do have some sample components.

These dice are representative of the ones that will be included in the final game. They're smaller and lighter than the ones that I had laser-engraved for my review prototypes, but they make up for that by being shiny and having a neat rounded edges design that makes each side almost circular. Most importantly, they feel right when you hold them in your hand and give them a toss.

Samples of the metal coin sculpts are also being delivered to me at some point in the near future. I'll post again to show those off when they arrive.

I also have an updated version of the rules pdf, if you want to take a look at that.

And now, since I don't have much else to report, here's some art that I haven't posted yet as a reward for reading through this.

That last one is the illustration for one of my favorite cards in the game.

Next time I'll have more to show off. Until then, keep to the shadows.

Cheers,

Adam

March Update: Future Comes Slow
over 7 years ago – Sat, Apr 01, 2017 at 12:00:48 AM

Hello again.

When I committed myself to monthly progress updates, I didn't realize that I might spend essentially an entire month waiting on the manufacturer. If you're busy and want a quick summary of this email, there you go.

Progress Comes Slowly

This month the account manager that I've been working with at the manufacturer took a trip to China to visit their factory, and missed a couple of emails from me that ended up not getting noticed until quite a while later (in his defense, I definitely should have been more aggressive about following up on them after I didn't get a response in the first few days). I've been promised that their team will accelerate the next phase of preproduction to make up for the lost time, so I'm still quite happy with how everything's going there. The game is still coming, things are still moving forward, and I'm hoping that next month I'll have the first test box from the factory to show you.

Rules and Art

That's not to say that I don't have anything that I can show off. Here's the final rules pdf for the game, and here's some more art that I haven't posted yet:

Surveys

Thanks to everyone who responded to the survey that I posted two weeks ago. I got way more responses than I expected (226 at the time of this writing), with some great data on what people are interested in. I also got a lot of good ideas from the comments box, with a surprising number of people suggesting similar game ideas for a new project. You can find a full overview of the survey results on my blog.

That's all for now. Thanks for bearing with me, and once again thanks for backing the project.

Cheers,

Adam