IGS State of the Nation Q1 2020: Our 5-Year Anniversary, Production Status, Pipeline Status, Giveaways, and Much More
about 4 years ago – Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 06:54:19 PM

Apologies for the delay; typically I've been trying to publish a "state of the nation" sort of update at least once a quarter.  Today's Q1 2020 update is long overdue!

I actually have a duet of updates for everyone.

IGS State of the Nation

First, there's the actual State of the Nation for Q1 2020.  If you're only interested in finding out how things stand and where we'll be, check this out.  Spoiler alert: I'm behind schedule.  But, I'm producing at a rate unparalleled in our history: since late spring, we've been pumping out 600-1200 pages of content each and every month like clockwork.  (That's a good thing.)

IGS' 5-Year Anniversary

If you can believe it, Infinium Game Studio turns 5 years old this week: February 27th, 2015 is when I started writing what would become Dark Obelisk: Berinncorte.

I've got a lot planned for March to celebrate; if you're curious, check out the IGS 5-Year Anniversary update here.  (Note that all of the promotions etc. planned are things that will in no way distract us from our mission of delivering already-promised content to those awaiting it.)

Thank You

I accomplished more productively in 2019 than in any other single year of my life, by a myriad of measures.  I certainly did NOT get everything done that I had wanted to do, but what I did end up doing is a heaping ton of work.

There are delays.  There are day job commitments.  Things end up taking more time than I'd planned.

But never for a moment do I lose sight of my mission, or of how lucky I am to be able to do what I love doing most.  I spend literally every single spare moment working on IGS books.  And I don't see that changing any time in the future.

You can consider that, to use one frustrated backer's language, a bunch of "word salad".

But that doesn't make it any less true.

Thank you.  And, of course: Onward!

Production & Fulfillment Update: Volume 2 for 5E & P2E Completed & Published!
about 4 years ago – Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 07:32:36 AM

Publication & Fulfillment Update

Just a quick note that Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm for 5E/Fifth Edition is now complete, and has been published.  In addition, the Pathfinder Second Edition version has also been completed and published.

PDF fulfillment for both volumes was triggered this morning; if you are entitled to either of these books and do not receive a notification to this effect from DriveThruRPG in the next hour, please reach out to me and I will remedy.

Production Update

Volume 2 was the most challenging and time-consuming to lay out, because it contains all of the "D" monsters: Demons, Daemons, Devils, and Dragons; each of these is far more involved than a typical beast so there's lots more to do.  It also means that Volume 2 tends to be the most "valuable" in terms of raw crunch utility.

In comparison, Volume 3 is less rife with such complexity, and so I'm already 30% of the way through it.  Should finish Volume 3 in the next 2 weeks; stay tuned!

Onward!

Fulfillment Begins! 6,000+ Pages of Content
over 4 years ago – Mon, Jan 20, 2020 at 05:38:12 PM

Don't mind me, I'm just dropping up to 6,000+ pages of content in your inbox.  :)

PDF Fulfillment Has Begun

First, my apologies; over the winter holidays, I had mentioned that I would fulfill the already-published PDFs, and I completely failed to make that happen.  Sorry for the delay!

What Has Fulfilled

If you're entitled to any of the following, you should receive a message shortly from DriveThruRPG notifying you of your free download:

• Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm, Complete Volumes 1-6, for Pathfinder 1E
• Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm, Abridged Volumes 1-2, for Pathfinder 1E
• Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm, Volume 1, for Pathfinder Second Edition
• Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm, Volume 1, for Fifth Edition / 5E

What's Next

After I finish today's administrative tasks--amongst them an IGS "state of the nation" message for all backers across all projects advising of my plans for the coming year--I'll start hard at work on ABRE Volume 2 for 5E and for P2E.  I'm a few weeks behind schedule, but hope to recover the time, so with any luck, I'll have Volume 2 finished by Valentine's Day.  :)

Let Me Know

I welcome feedback for sure, but also, if you believe you're entitled to one or more of the products above, and you haven't gotten it/them yet, please do message me or comment below, whatever's easier for you.

Onward! 

5E Volume 1 Publication & PDF Fulfillment
over 4 years ago – Mon, Jan 20, 2020 at 08:09:47 AM

ABRE, Volume 1, 5E / P2E Completed

At long, long last: Volume 1 of the 5E version of Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm is completed, and PDF fulfillment has been triggered.  

All of the hundreds of good folks patiently awaiting this massive 570-page tome should be receiving notification from DriveThruRPG shortly as to their free copy.  

(If you're entitled to this, and don't see a message to this effect in the next hour or so, first please check your spam/blocked email folder, and then message me or comment below and I'll investigate.)

The Results

I couldn't be more pleased with how things turned out.  I've refined the layout and presentation to hew more closely to how 5E beasts are typically presented in other, existing published works.  Every single monster fits on a two-page spread, so at any given moment, you're looking at everything for a single critter.  

Is it perfect?  Probably not; the critiques that some backers expressed at the Pathfinder edition are still valid for the 5E flavor, particularly in that the tome does not at all focus on "fluff" or description, as those are available elsewhere already.  For the 5E version in particular, the criticism that some quadded iterations of the creatures were either still too overpowered for lower-level characters, or quite spongy for higher-level characters, is still valid, but then again, it's not the aim here to make an Arctic Fox a truly formidable opponent for a group of 14th-level PCs.  

What is present is a complete mapping of 265 monsters, each one completely remapped to a quadded statblock format in 5E parlance, and with over 500 special abilities, attacks, and capabilities updated by hand to make sense in a Fifth Edition rules context.  In terms of raw horsepower and mechanical usability, it's the single largest accomplishment I think I can claim, but I respect that it may not be exactly what every person had in mind or what your gaming group will find most useful.

Production Update

I lost several weeks of time working on Volume 1.  The two main culprits were Day Job and Family, those twin thieves of time to whom I am but a humble servant in the end.  However, the delay has weirdly granted me some odd time here and there to work on automation tools: I cannot, as I've posted before and to my utter disgruntlement, automate the layout entirely, but I have been able to automate a great deal.  

For those who care about the details, my cycle time for laying out both 5E and P2E editions simultaneously is notably LESS now than my cycle time was to lay out the P1E edition.

So why do you care about all that detail?  Well, it means that although I'm about 3 weeks behind the dates I most recently mentioned in updates, I've gotten quicker, so I'm hoping I can make up some of that time soon.  

My current target is to complete Volume 2 by Valentine's Day, so fingers crossed!

Onward!

Volume 1 for 5E and P2E is Complete
over 4 years ago – Sun, Jan 19, 2020 at 07:02:56 PM

A quick update to note that the 5E and Pathfinder Second Edition (P2E) versions of Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm, Volume 1 have been completed.  I'm generating the files now and will have a more substantive update soon.

A bit later than expected, this is still an absolutely enormous milestone.  Much more optimistically, although my recent estimate for 5E/P2E Vol 1 was the end of last month, I have finally hit my stride and have evolved my automation tools to the point where my cycle time per-monster is less than it was with P1E over the summer... and that's for layout into two books simultaneously.

So, Volume 2 should go quicker and I should be back on track shortly.  

Onward!