ALL SURVEYS ARE GOING OUT!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 09:18:01 PM

Roomlanders! The time of surveys is at hand!

The majority of the surveys have now gone out, and you should be receiving them in your email inboxes as I type this. If you want to upgrade your pledge, or add add-ons, your survey is your gateway to do this. If you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to ask me, either here or on Backerkit and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

I haven't decided exactly when I will lock the surveys and charge for any add-ons, as it depends on when I get the artwork completed and am ready to start production. However, as soon as I know a date, I will let you know here via an update, and I will ensure to give you plenty of time if you still haven't got around to completing your survey at that point.

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In other news, I would like to share with you the artwork for one of the new classes from the expansions, The Mounted.

The Mounted ride an adapted mechanism taken from Rook parts, as a vehicle or mount to allow them easier traversal across the land and sea of the Colostle. Typically this involves taking a part of the Rook responsible for its locomotion and disconnecting it from the main body, turning it into something that can be operated with crude controls, mechanisms and levers. The Mounted’s mounts can vary from horse-like creatures to boats and even bikes.

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Hope you dig this latest tidbit, and there will be much more for you soon!

See you in the surveys...

Bye for now!

Nich

The survey process begins...
about 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 08:43:59 PM

Roomlanders, I have some exciting news!

But first, your name! Thank you so much for all your amazing ideas for what I should call you intrepid explorers of the Colostle. There were some amazing suggestions and some really complex thought through ideas too, which I loved. I love how much you guys are thinking about this world and the stories within it, its so exciting!

A very close runner-up was 'Colostsouls' suggested by Rew King, which I thought was brilliant! But the winner (in my eyes anyway!) was 'Roomlanders' suggested by Ross Emery! I love the fact that it describes the unique aspect to the world and it just sounds so flipping cool! Well played Ross, well played.

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The big news is that the surveys are starting to go out! Backerkit has a process called a 'Smoke Test' where it sends surveys to 5% of my backers to check to see if everything is working ok. I don't get to see who this 5% are, they are chosen at random by the system. 

So, if you have received a survey, please go through the process as you normally would, adding on any add-ons if you want any, and completing with your address and payment details if required. If you encounter any problems or issues please let me know either here on Kickstarter, via a message or comment, or via Backerkit and I will get back to you and sort it out.

Once we've ironed out the kinks (if there are any) then the surveys will roll out to everyone and you can start adding add-ons to your heart's content!

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Thats it for now, but you'll be hearing from me very soon when all the surveys go live. I've also got more artwork to share, AND I want to start sharing tidbits from Colostle Lore and Mythology to get you excited about what's coming, so keep your eyes out for that!

Ok Roomlanders, happy adventuring, and take care out there!

Nich x

Cities artwork!
about 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 01, 2021 at 12:55:58 AM

Hey Explorers of the Colostle! Colostlenauts! Colostle-venturers...

I need a name for you guys! A word for those who would explore the Colostle! If you have any ideas please comment below, the best one will become the new term for how I refer to you all!

I promised you I would come back to you with the title artwork for the Cities module, and I'm sorry its taken this long, but hopefully when you see it, you'll see why! There was a lot going on in this piece and it took me a while to establish a colour scheme that I loved... but anyway, without further ado, I present... the city...

The cities of the Colostle are incredible places, because the people of this world are not yet at an advanced enough stage to build places like this. The city can only exist by virtue of using husks of long dead Rooks as buildings, clustering them together as districts and city blocks and using stone harvested from their bodies to pave the roads between.

Within the cities the people use smaller core-Rooks as workhorses, and adapted Rook body parts as wagons or canal-boats. It is a place that affords a modicum of safety in a somewhat unpredictable world and you will find a lot of people making their lives within it or around it, to benefit from that security.

I hope you like the artwork, I am super proud of it!

Other than this, most of my time on Colostle lately has been spent on improving the rules and writing new stuff, but I will be doing some more illustrations for the book very soon and I will share some of those as soon as they're done, maybe some work-in-progress shots as well!

Also, I got the email from Kickstarter telling me the funds will be transferred in the next couple of days. Once I've got the money, I can open up the Backerkit surveys and pre-order store and you can all get to choosing your add-ons so expect to hear from me soon with news that all of that is ready for you!

Hope you are all keeping well and I will be sure to have some more Colostle news for you all very soon!

Nich x

Work continues...
about 5 years ago – Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 02:23:51 AM

Hey guys,

Just thought I'd drop you a line to let you know that things are progressing! I was a little quiet after the campaign ended to just process and take everything in! But now, I'm back at the desk working away on making Colostle the very best it can be.

I have been tweaking some gameplay aspects and adding some more world/setting elements as well as adding some brand new gameplay elements as well which should make the game even more fun to play! I've been having a lot of ideas about the mythology and culture of the people who live in the Colostle, and the hardback version is likely to have some of this stuff as extra box-text setting stuff to really bring the setting alive for you!

I've also been drawing like a maniac and should have some more art to show you very soon! Really excited to show you some of it!

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In the meantime, I thought I might take the opportunity to show you some of the other things I have made/am working on, as Colostle is by no means my first creative project. I thought it might be good for you to get to know me as a creator a little better! First and foremost I am a comic book artist and creator and have made a good few graphic novels. My two primary titles are 7STRING, a loveletter to shonen battle comics and fantasy adventure stories, and Cat and Meringue, my very silly daily comic series about a cat and a meringue at sea in a catamaran!

7STRING is the story of Zach, the wielder of the legendary but mysterious guitar-sword the 7STRING, as he ventures out on a quest for revenge against the Troubleclef Empire who are set on taking over the musical world of Melodia. Lots of world-building, mythology and musical battles! There are 3 volumes out so far and more to come!

Cat and Meringue is very much the silly part of me come to life. It started life as a daily webcomic I ran for nearly 3 years but has become a series now featuring storybooks and merchandise and even some super-cute plushies! Kids love the stories, but they are also for all ages with a lot of pun-based jokes for adults! The book in the picture above collects the whole first run of the webcomic and is a whopping 412 pages long! There are a good few other books too!

If you're interested, I will be adding these items and more to the backerkit survey as optional additional add-ons for your pledge. 

But if you can't wait until then you can buy it all from www.bigpunchstudios.com. Big Punch Studios is an artist-collective/publisher that most of my comic/illustration work goes out under but we create other projects as a group there too. If you like my personal stuff, you'll definitely like the other Big Punch stuff too. I'll maybe feature some of that stuff too in a future update.

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But there we go, I hope you don't mind me showing off some of my other work!  Just to tide us over before I have more to share on Colostle, this will of course primarily be a place for news and updates about Colostle, but I thought I would share my other bits in case some of you were interested!

Right back to it!

thanks guys!

Nich x

I don't know what to say...
about 5 years ago – Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 01:33:06 AM

2,628 backers... £44,902... 17,960%... I am blown away. Wow, just stunned, and floored and humbled and so grateful. Thank you, all of you for believing in this little project and making it into a big project!

Colostle is going to be so much bigger and better now thanks to you, you've given it a chance to be something really special and I am not going to waste that. I'm going to use your support to go above and beyond to make the best book I possibly can, and go further still to make Colostle into a product that can be found in shops everywhere!

It takes a couple of weeks for the funds to come through from Kickstarter, and then I will launch the Backerkit surveys and start the post-campaign stuff with add-ons and new backers in the pre-order store, but until then I am going to chill... probably draw a bit, and celebrate.

Thanks again, all of you... you are incredible.

Nich x