State of GTG - July 2017

We've had yet another fantastically productive month! We're definitely making a bunch of exciting progress through our massive project backlog, in spite of being in the middle of a ton of Gen Con prep. Here is a quick summary of things we accomplished:

1. We got in all of the new furniture for our convention booth setup in plenty of time for Gen Con!
2. We got a list of "items we need for Gen Con" created four weeks earlier than we ever have before.
3. Tons more Gen Con prep work. Also, our logo is on our booth in the expo hall map this year! Check it out if you haven't yet!
4. We received Spirit Island, Exoplanets, and Lazer Ryderz from the factory!
5. We had a giant, incredibly productive meeting about project flow for the Sentinel Comics RPG.

Speaking of Gen Con, we are going to be sponsoring a number of panels in addition to all of the demos and other things that we'll be running! Here is a list in case any seem interesting to you and you want to check them out!

• Thu, 12pm - Illustrating Board Games
• Thu, 2pm - Board Games & Intellectual Property Law
• Fri, 12pm - The Business of Being a Game Artist
• Fri, 4pm - The State of Greater Than Games
• Sat, 11am - Costume Contest
• Sat, 12pm - Cost Conscious Board Game Design
• Sat, 3pm - The Letters Page LIVE!
• Sat, 6pm - Bringing Diversity and Accessibility Into Games
• Sun, 11am - Freight & Shipping Logistics (aka "The Most Boring Panel Ever")

If you are going to be at Gen Con and have interest in any of these topics, come check us out!

Anyway, here is the status of all of our works in progress!

In Stock Since Last Month

1. nothing this month

Shipping to Backers

1. Lazer Ryderz
2. Exoplanets
3. Spirit Island

In Transit; On A Boat

1. Fate of the Elder Gods
2. A bunch of reprints (Compounded, SotM stuff, etc)

In Mass Production

1. Bottom of the 9th: Clubhouse (shipping was delayed; scheduled for 10 July)
2. SotM: Stuntman, Benchmark, & Void Guard
3. SotM: Complete Hero Variant Collection
4. SotM: Ultimate Collector's Case
5. SotM: 5th Anniversary Foil Villain Collection

At Factory; Pre-Press Work

1. nothing this month

Current WIP Focus by GTG

1. SotM: OblivAeon (Christopher)
2. Sentinel Comics: The Role Playing Game: Starter Kit (Critical Hits + Jenn + Christopher)
3. Prime War (Christopher - after #1 & #2)
4. Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Chris Kirkman + Jenn)
5. A new and improved website.

You'll notice that everything *except* the OblivAeon stuff is in mass production. That is because the Collector's Case is going to take so long to assemble that it won't be ready to ship for several months yet. That meant that we have more time before we need to send OblivAeon itself to the factory if we want them to be done at the same time, and we have chosen to take advantage of that extra time to do some internal testing and refining of the OblivAeon scenario itself just to make sure that it is the best it can be.

I'll see you next month in the midst of a giant pre-Gen Con panic storm!

Legend of Sleepy Hollow! That's new, right? Any blurb?

@dpt

We'll have more on that soon at/immediately after Gen Con! However, I can tell you now that it is a cooperative, thematic adventure game set immediately after the events of Washington Irving's short story.

Aha!  So the Collector's Case is indeed going to be a unique cause of delay.  Clearly not going to make that August objective for OblivAeon then, and "several months" suggests that 2017 might be the best we can hope for.

I wonder where Sentinels of Earth-Prime fits in to all this?  I know it's not a >G product, but it does take Christopher's time, and Green Ronin has a very aggressive/optimistic release date (April 2018).

@MindWanderer

Yup, it turns out that it is. It is a cool thing, but so unusual that the factory was having trouble giving us accurate timetables.

I don't know anything at all about the production details or timeline on SoEP, since that is all being handled by Green Ronin. However, I do know that Christopher will be doing his portion of the work this fall. I also know that, like any Kickstarter or project announced by Elon Musk, adding 6 months to the timeline is probably a reasonable precaution. :)

Just this fall?  That would imply that he's not going to be involved in the playtesting/revision process.  Game development isn't normally a one-and-done type of thing until you've hit the printers.

But yeah, April 2018 seems to me to be completely delusional.  Even October would be optimistic IMHO.

I thought the Foil Villains set was going to include the Scions from OblivAeon as well.  Does this mean they are set at this point?   Since the mini expansions from OblivAeon are in mass production are we going to get two shipments for OblivAeon?

The June/July newsletter said that the SCRPG starter kit was slated for release Aug. 17. Is that getting pushed back? From the language being used, it sounds like there is a measurable amount of Oblivion work to polish up, but the Starter Kit sounds mostly complete, with focus from Critical Hits and Jenn on layouts and editing passes. Is OBV's slot in the WiP list indicative of the Starter Kit not coming out until OBV does, or is it just that's how much more focus it has at the moment?

I would love to have Oblivaeon be the best it can be, and I'm willing to wait for that; however, my toddler brain wants to get my grubby hainds on the RPG starter kit and doesn't want to wait until Oblivaeon's done before being able to see the Starter Kit. If the Starter Kit needs more work and won't be out by Gen Con, that's fine, I think we'd all agree the introductory material for the SCRPG should be the best it can too; however, as it is a separate product, I'm hoping the delays facing Oblivaeon won't additionally delay the RPG starter kit.

Again, I'm sure >G has a handle on developing/releasing multiple different products concurrently(I'm excited to see Lazer Ryderz, Spirit Island and Exoplanets ship!), my brain just conflates those first three WiP items as any delay on one cascading down and affecting all of them...

TL;DR: Is there an updated SCRPGSK release date estimate? =]

@Powerhound2000

There will just be one shippment for OblivAeon. However, there is so much stuff that the factory is having to do it in stages in order to get it all done. It'll actually all sit in China until everything is complete, at which point they'll start loading cargo containers with blends of items suitable for fulfilling the Kickstarter, if that makes sense.

As to the scions, they are the one aspect of the villain collection that is not yet being printed. However, the box (which is the most time consuming part) is being mass produced, and the other files are through pre-press and locked, awaiting the scions.

@RySmith6

The starter kit won't slip more than a few weeks at the most, probably? The trouble with estimates for that one is that, since it is just booklets and the like, we are using a new printer, which is actually located in the US! They've done RPG stuff before, but we've never worked with them before, so I don't have a good sense of the timeline with them (pre-press, printing, and shipping) like I do at this point for the various Chinese factories we use.

Shucks I was mildly hoping we might get the mini expansions to play with while OblivAeon is completed.  

WOOO! can't wait for the collectors box, So much easier than trying to carry 3 different boxes up to the game store every week.

Totally stoked for Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  That's one of my favorite myths/stories.

Is there any idea on PDFs of the RPG? I have gone completely digital when it comes to RPG books!

I wonder about this. The collector's box is going to be massive – both unwieldy in size and heavy. I am expecting to put it into a bag or some other carrying device (maybe even a cart of some type). That's no different than putting three smaller boxes into a bag.

Don't get me wrong! I'm still very much looking forward to the collector's box.

I'm going to fit mine with an anti-gravity harness. The thicker walls make for better anchor points than on the smaller boxes.

In all honesty, I recommend luggage straps for the big SOTM box if you plan to move it around a lot. They should work great!

@Matchstickman

Yes, definitely! We're working on those plans now, but that is our intent.

@Paul

if you need help doing more internal testing of Oblivaeon, myself and my 3 month old son volunteers. He's already a sentinels pro as long as he has a clean diaper and a full belly. Just say the word and we will come on over.

also I am assuming that this is also going to push back when you guys will be able to get to prime Wars or are you guys going to try to do some pre-work on it between now and then to make things go smoother once you start the testing.