SOON: BackerKit Pledge Surveys, Pre-Orders Live
over 1 year ago – Tue, May 09, 2023 at 03:03:23 PM

In the near future you will receive an invite to complete your Pledge Survey on BackerKit. For many, this may be directed to your spam folder, so be on the lookout.

Hello backers!

Thank you for your continued patience. It has been a particularly hectic couple of months on our end, but we are settled now and work on the game is back in full swing.

Pledge Surveys On Friday!

The Pledge Survey will take you through the process of paying for the shipment of your rewards, as well as give you the opportunity to upgrade your pledge level, if you so choose. Additionally you will be able to order more copies via the add-on store. If you did not order physical goods, BackerKit is still the fastest way to receive your digital downloads, as they will be made available once all of the cards are charged.

Many folks who missed this campaign have been asking me when and where they will be able to get a chance to purchase or pre-order the zine. In addition to handling all of the shipping charges and pledge upgrades, there will also be a Pre-Order store linked through this Kickstarter page. If you are a Kickstarter Backer please do not use this pre-order store, as it will charge you duplicate for your rewards.

NOTE: Some backers have already received an invite to the Pledge Manager. This is part of the Smoke Test, where 5% of backers from each pledge level are invited to ensure that everything runs smoothly. If you've already received an invite please be sure to fill out your survey so we can be sure that everything is up to snuff!!

CA, UK, EU, and Rest of World Fulfillment

We have partnered with the good folks over at Ratti Incantati and Peregrine Coast Press for easier shipping rates for international orders. For those in Canada, Ratti Incantati will be handling your orders, and most people will only have to pay US$8. Peregrine Coast Press from the UK is handling the rest of the orders. For most folks in the UK, shipping is US$5, for the EU it is US$6, and the rest of the world will  be charged US$8.

Import Tax Information:

Canadian, UK, and US orders will be sent from within the respective country's borders and will not incur any import taxes. For backers in Germany, France, The Republic of Ireland, Portugal, The Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus, and Malta, Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) will be charged at the point of checkout. For the rest of the world, please check with your local state's import laws to know what (if any) customs duties you will have to pay to receive your goods. Unfortunately we are too small of an operation to offer any further help in the payment of import taxes.

Deadlines

The Pledge Surveys and Pre-Order Store will be open until July 1st at midnight EST, at which point we will lock orders and charge cards. We want to make sure that everyone who backed the game gets a chance to fill out their survey, so we are allotting 7 weeks to do so. Once the funds from the store have cleared, we'll be able to order the print run, which should take 3-4 weeks to produce. After that I'll be full-time packing orders and sorting them for shipment. 

US orders are expected to go out on August 1, and international orders will take longer depending on when the packages arrive at our fulfillment partners.

As always, these dates are subject to change based on life events that are beyond our control.

In the meantime...

The finalized, edited manuscript is available to backers in the Google Drive. This is the full game's text, edited and ready for play. Also in this folder you'll find character sheets and item cards . The item cards are formatted for print on 11x17 paper, and the character sheets are 5x8", so you should be able to fit 2 on a standard letter sized paper.

Cenza is making daily progress on the layout, but unfortunately the file format for printing via our partners makes mockups very difficult to read on a digital screen. Instead of redirecting any time to generating visible mockups she is instead focusing on finishing layout. Don't worry, we'll have something to show you all before the game is in your hands.

And now for some special news...

I've talked with Jesse and we've decided that we're going to try to fund the production of cassettes of The Door Locks Behind You Original Soundtrack. Ben is onboard for the cassette's sticker art, as well as the case's sleeve art. Here's a mockup of what the cassette might look like, subject to change.

The cassettes will sell for $15 each, featuring full art on both sides of the crystal case's sleeve and stickers. If we can secure 75 copies ordered, we'll have enough funds to greenlight the project and produce as many as are ordered. These will be available in very limited quantities at a select number of retailers after the BackerKit Pledge Manager and Pre-Order store closes, so the best way to ensure that you get one is to pre-order it now.

That's all for this update, thank you so much for your continued support and patience. We're very close to finishing this project and finally getting the game into your hands. I hope you're all as excited for this as we are!

Hold, please...
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Mar 02, 2023 at 08:18:32 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

End of Year Check-in: Release Dates & BackerKit!
about 2 years ago – Sun, Jan 01, 2023 at 01:54:17 AM

Hello backers!

This year has seen a ton of progress on The Door Locks Behind You and I'm very proud and relieved to say that we are very close to release! Again we'd all like to thank you for your patience as we continue to ensure this is the best possible product we can make.

BackerKit Pre-Order Store

I'm currently finishing setting up the BackerKit preorder store. This will allow anyone (non-backers included) to order additional items as well as submit their address and pay for shipping. When this goes live, everyone will receive an invite to the store at the email address associated with your Kickstarter account.

The distribution of the digital rewards will happen through BackerKit. I apologize for having everyone fill out a second survey after the Kickstarter survey, but this is the survey that I'll be printing shipping labels from. After you've entered your address you will have until orders are locked in to change it.

Release Date

I've finished my revisions to Will's first round of editing and in January I will pass it off to them for a second round of edits. After those are approved, Cenza will finish layout and we'll be going to print!

On January 31st we will lock orders and charge cards. Once the funds clear we will begin shipping!

We are very excited to get this game out to you all in 2023 and cannot wait to hear about your adventures in the New Year!

Nov Updates: Layout, Printing, and Release Dates
about 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 08, 2022 at 02:35:00 AM

Hello backers! I have more information regarding our release date and delivery deadlines.

Digital Release

The Door Locks Behind You will be released digitally on itch.io. However backers will also have access to the digital files via BackerKit. If you don't already have an itch.io account and the idea of creating another account is repulsive to you, first of all I understand, and second of all you do not have to create an itch.io account to receive your rewards.

However if you would like future access to any and all revisions of the game that may occur, or to access the game on multiple devices, you can redeem  your itch.io voucher and add the game to your library there.

The digital release of the game is scheduled for before November 24th. Expect a more detailed timeline in the next update.

Physical Release

Backers with physical rewards will have their zines mailed out to them before any retailer can begin sales on the physical product. That said, we are pushing the physical release until early 2023. There are several reasons for this.

• I am packing and shipping this myself and I want to make sure I have the time to do it slowly and thoroughly.
• The USPS has a holiday surcharge from October 1st 2022 through January 22nd 2023, after which they are increasing their standard prices for 2023 (as they do every year). Currently for all mail categories it is cheaper to ship after January 22nd than it is to ship right now.

Printing Update

Since the original pitch I made to our risograph printer, Clatter Press, the size of this print order has ballooned by nearly an order of magnitude. In order to ensure that the game is completed within the proper timeframe, I've contracted a separate studio to handle the risograph printing of the zine.

Clatter Press is currently printing the character sheets, item cards, postcard rewards, and a set of previously unannounced maps. These maps depict the sample dungeon and sample region both without keying for the players and with keying for the GM, and will be included in the deluxe tier.

The zine will now be printed with Risolve Studio in Lancaster, PA. Risolve has printed other TTRPGs in the past and we are beyond excited to be working with them!

Layout and Art Process

In the meantime we've been working away at getting the zine laid out and finishing up any spot art throughout. Here's Ben with a little behind the scenes peak at what that process looks like:

Hey folks! Here's a breakdown of what the process behind one of the pieces looks like.

As Cenza lays out the type and design of the book, she occasionally sends me drawing requests. For this one she sent me the dimensions and this rough thumbnail sketch of what she was thinking of.

I took this sketch and made a sketch in pencil. Since this piece was heavily value-based I also roughed in some basic marks to indicate the darks, lights, and midtones.

I sent it to Cenza and she confirmed that it was along the lines of what she needed, so I went back in and tightened it up. I wanted all of the adventurers depicted in the book to clearly be different people, so I changed the sketch a bit. I gave him human ears (instead of the elongated elven ears the other adventurers have), a beard, arm hair, and braids. I then inked the piece and added the final version of the values. After I was finished, I added some details to the edges of the illustration to frame it.

That's all for this update! Thank you for your patience, I can't wait to hear your stories from the game at your tables!

- deldon

October Update: Backer Surveys Inbound! New Deadlines!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Oct 12, 2022 at 02:57:08 PM

Hello backers! October brings some very exciting news.

Editing Begins

We'd like to welcome Will Jobst! They'll be editing The Door Locks Behind You and I'm beyond excited to add their expertise to the team:

Will Jobst (they/them) is an award-winning tabletop game designer and editor, with games like TORQ, this discord has ghosts in it, Black Mass, and A Guide to Casting Phantoms in the Revolution. Will’s games are available here and is online at @will_jobst.

Will begins today which means that the game is inching ever closer to release!

Art & Layout Progress

Cenza has been making great progress on the layout, here's a preview of the Principles spread (text subject to change after editing)

Likewise, Ben has been finishing up the art for the game and recently drew this very cute item card for bottled fairies!

Shipping Dates, Next Steps

I've reached out to our printer, Clatter Press, and once I get further information from them I'll have a better timeline for print delivery. For now we need to collect emails from all of the backers by sending out an email survey via Kickstarter.

Please respond to the Kickstarter survey as soon as you can! If we do not receive your email from the survey we will not be able to send digital rewards, nor will we be able to send an invite link to Backer Kit (the pledge manager) in order to collect shipping charges. Once the Backer Kit goes live we will also be able to sell a limited number of extra print copies to backers that wish to order extra copies or upgrade from a digital pledge to a physical pledge.

Digital rewards will be delivered when the game is sent to print in late October or early November. Digital copies of the game will be available as an itch.io code, so that all backers of the game will always be able to access the most up-to-date version of the game in the future.

Right now we are working to mail zines out in the last week of November, before the holiday rush begins. Depending on when we get the printed zines in hand, this may or may not be feasible! Given the state of the USPS we would much rather push delivery to January 2023 than be caught up in the deluge of holiday mail! We cannot afford to replace lost copies due to postal error, as these are offset printed and we may not have enough or any extra copies to resend.

Backer Surveys Tomorrow!

Be on the lookout for an email tomorrow from Kickstarter asking for you to complete a survey for The Door Locks Behind You. It's very important that you submit your email address, otherwise we have no way of delivering your rewards!

We're very excited to be able to deliver this game to you. We'll talk again when there's more to share!