Welcome to the September update! I am excited to share four cool things…
Cool Thing #1
The final, indexed PDF versions of the Blue Planet books are done! Unfortunately, the final hold up in their distribution has been…me? I am being picky about some color choices on the covers and so decisions and edits in that space have delayed distribution of the files. But be reassured! Per Alan, the plan is for those to be shared out with backers by 9.7.
Cool Thing #2
A few weeks ago, I realized that though there are multiple places in the books where Poseidon’s 30-hour day is referenced – including the planetary data section – during the collection of the text from the various original sources, I apparently left out the text that explicitly addressed the socio-biological effects of the longer day. I am bummed by the omission, but I had an idea of how to rectify most of that oversight.
I asked James, our amazing logo artist, if he could do a sexier version of the “clock” graphic I originally included in one of the first Undercurrent newsletters 25 years ago. As is usual for him, James took the request to 11 and produced this amazing visual reference. Its purpose is to give players and moderators alike a sense when the points in a 30-hour circadian rhythm align with commensurate times in our familiar 24-hour daily cycle. There are several suitable locations with sufficient white space in the current layout into which we can drop the graphic. It is too late in the process to be pushing any text around, and we don’t want additional delay.
Cool Thing #3
I have some words from Alan at Gallant Knight Games about the very-soon-to-launch pledge manager:
“We’ve decided to switch from GameFound to using PledgeBox. It’s an easier customer experience for backers, being less confusing to use. Some of the features will help us be more fluid when handling international shipping. We’re just finalizing the move over there and importing the backer list so we can do a smoke test. Our plan is to have that test up by 9/7."
Given the pledge manager is about to launch, I am obliged to remind folks that the manager is where you will finalize your shipping address and where you will finally pay for shipping. This last is not really a cool thing, but more a cold reality of Kickstarter Fulfillment. Thank you for your patience and understanding regarding the burden of shipping.
Don't worry - we will shout it from orbit when the pledge manager goes live and share simple instructions for what you need to do.
Cool Thing #4
Those who follow the comments on these updates might be aware that after the July post, a backer shared the history of the word Lebensraum – a history of which I was unaware. Accordingly, to eliminate my concerns about inadvertently supporting fascist imperialism, we made a universal change to the BP text, renaming the Hanover Industries capital Gelegenheit, which means “opportunity.” We had to use a word that had exactly the same kerning length (interesting challenge) so that the universal change would not shift the layout, and we vetted the word for any unwanted associations.
This process took a while to effect, as we also had to have Mark, our cartographer, edit several of the maps. Executing these various changes took unplanned-for time and is the greater reason that the final PDF versions of the books are not already in your hands. We apologize for the delay, but we couldn’t do anything less. Thank you for understanding.
