Pico is a tabletop roleplaying game where you play as tiny bugs going on small adventures in a big world.
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Good morning, afternoon, evening, or night - Felix here, with our first true post-campaign update on PICO.
As you might expect, not a huge amount happened between Christmas and the New Year (even we weird bug-making types need a bit of time off), but since January crashed in with a load of uncomfortable resolutions and a surprising amount of frost, art and writing have have been back on the table!
So what have we been working on? Well, there's...
The 'Bug Me In' and 'Picotitan' tier backers have been pretty good with getting me their ideas in good time, so we've got over half of the campaign-related artwork done. This is a good thing, because it always takes a little longer to do and it's also always the hardest to place - you sometimes end up writing a whole new chunk of text just to match a picture because it's cool enough to demand it, or shuffling other things around to make sure that a new backer piece slots in where it makes the most sense.
Backer-based art is something we started doing for the original Wildsea, and while it does mean a little more work for both me and the artist, it really is worth it - and not just monetarily. Some of the ideas that backers have come up with for their bugs are things I just never would have thought of myself, and they make the book richer for being there. I'll also be sending an e-mail poke to some of the Bug Me In and Picotitan backers that haven't gotten in touch yet, probably at the end of the week - make sure you check your e-mail if you haven't already!
Though I will say that it's lucky we unlocked the Nekopolis realm, because it turns out PICO backers love cats! :P
But it's not just zkarab that's putting in the work, honest! I've been looking over feedback on the original playtest, as well as a few wishlist-ey type things that people have mentioned both here on kickstarter and on the Wild Words discord (which has its own section for PICO progress and feedback, JUST IN CASE YOU WANT TO JOIN).
And, based on that feedback, a few new things have made their way into the game!
One is the Size Comparison page, which I'll share a little work-in-progress snippet of below. It's a two-page spread with some hopefully helpful hints on bug sizes compared to various kinds of food AND an associated splash illustration (WIP, as the backer art takes precedence for now). But that's not all - I'm also in the process of adding a page or two to the Weaver's chapter, giving them advice on how to bring the variable sizes of bugs (and the scale of the world they inhabit) into both the mechanics and fiction of the game. It's the suggestion I think we've had the most, so I'm glad it's taking shape - watch this space in the near future for more.
Another is an expansion for the setting chapter at the beginning of the book, just giving people a little more optional information about the world of PICO. Much like the Wildsea, I don't want to define too much - these games are made for oddities to flourish, after all - but creativity does better with some guidelines and boundaries.
Okay, not quite new - I've done this for previous projects as well, because it really helps with working out what needs doing in the moment and what can be left until a little later, as well as who needs poking to produce things. Excel-style spreadsheets, like the extremely pixellated one below, are slightly soul-sucking to produce but such a useful tool for productivity that I can live with the boredome of putting it together.
And having one also means I can colour-coordinate things for you backers! On the table below everything that's in green is in a 'finished enough' state, which doesn't mean I won't fiddle with and change it but does mean that I don't specifically have to. Yellow is in progress, pages where the writing is still covering bare basics without the flourish it needs to read well, or where the artwork is more pencil sketch than glorious colour. Red, as you might imagine, is for pages that barely have anything on them, or that sit hauntingly empty. It's the least fun colour.
So what's that big chunk of red? The realms unlocked by the kickstarter (plus our guest realm from Mikey Hamm), that's what! I don't need to focus on those until the end, as the mechanical implementaton is minor and the vibes are high. Basically they're the most fun part to write, in terms of creativity, and therefore also the fastest.
Now there's also extra stuff I want to add, so that list will get longer over the next month or so, but it's a great look at how close I am to minimum viability. Pretty close, which might be a pleasant surprise!
Hopefully yes! I'm aiming for the start of february, because I have travel mechanics I want to get more feedback on from the public and some playtest games of my own that I want to run over on the discord. What better way to battle through the cold and depressing winter months than by being cute little bugs? Oh, and I'll throw some new hazards in there too - I can only keep Brimstocchio to myself for so long...
So, as I may have said before, watch this space!
And I'll end the update with this, not something PICO related but definitely something cute (and poignant, judging from the first issue a while back). Mythworks have just launched their kickstarter for SANSHA & BLANCO 1-2, a tale told from the canine perspective. If you like dogs, or comics, or dogs in comics, do yourself a favour and check it out here. :)
And with that, I think I'm done for the day! You'll hear from me soon, piconauts!
Those last few days were an absolute whirlwind, exceeding my personal expectations by a decent chunk in terms of both backer number and amount raised - piconauts, you're a wild and lovely bunch :P
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but...
THANK YOU ALL :)
And now onto business! Let's hit a few important post-funding points, one by one...
I've learned over the years that precise timelines are impossible - you never know what's going to happen. But softer, vaguer timelines, as in 'if things go perfectly this is when things should happen', are definitely within my grasp. The goal is to get the writing for PICO, both the core book and Picodex, finished by the end of January. I'm lucky, in that most of it is done already, but there are definitely some new sections to add based on the stretch goals unlocked!
Once that's done we'll have a couple of months of playtesting, editing, and minor alterations - then it's off to the printers. In an ideal world we'd start fulfilling mid-next-year, but once my part as writer and designer is done the book passes through a lot of production-style hands, and timelines are harder to pin down in advance.
What does this mean? That December to February is the best period in which you might give suggestions and feedback, that's what! You'll find a discord link near the end of this update, and we have some feedback channels there if you wish to chime in.
For you lucky folks, I'll be getting in touch over the next few days (likely via e-mail) to get some reference material and descriptions for the dedicated art. Backer art takes priority at this stage, as the extra inclusion of a third party in the me-to-zkarab pipeline means pieces will take a little longer than usual (thanks to the necessity of mutual approval). It should also mean some really cool art pieces though, and that suits me just fine!
As with the Wildsea campaigns, I expect to be updating backers here about once a month. There's no particular day within the month you should be waiting for, and if it runs a few weeks over without an update that's no reason to worry - it doesn't mean I've fled to a small island, comically large sack of money in hand and nefarious cackles spilling from my lips. Once books are in the printing stage, expect updates to drop in frequency until there's actual news - an update saying 'well, books are still printing / on a boat' is quite a boring one to write and read!
But if you want a more interactive look at the process in between updates, there are several channels dedicated to PICO in the Wild Words discord server - it's a friendly place, and I post there often. You'll find it right here if you follow this link!
You can also hop on my personal patreon if you want a combination of PICO, Wildsea, weird fiction, futue games, sci-fi musings, and general life-of-Felix news. My upload schedule on patreon is sporadic, with flurries and tangents and odd explorations, but the other patrons seem to enjoy it so I must be doing something right. You'll find it here, if the mood takes you!
And that's it for our post-campaign-end update! Thank you again for some very big numbers, and here's to a wonderfully bugly future!
Felix, out!
With only two days left on the clock, it's final push time for PICO!
First off, I know I say it in almost every update, but thank you to the backers - the level of support we've had for this has been astounding, and to hit every stretch goal is the dream of most kickstarter-ecosystem designers. And 1500 backers? That's a lot of eager piconauts!
But, on the topic of stretch goals, with only two days left we've had a bit of a talk in the background... And we think there's probably room for just a few more!
At 95k we'll add a new suite of prickly hazards to the core book, perfect for the newly-unlocked Skyglass Dome Realm, and...
At 100k, we'll add a set of cute bug stickers to the physical Picodex!
Don't say we never give you anything! :P
These won't be up on the main page until morningish, American time (Ray needs to put the banners together for them and stick them in the right place, and he's just got back from a very successful Pax), but if you're reading this you now know what the plan is!
Staying with the stretch goal theme, zkarab has started getting the art together for what's been unlocked during the course of the campaign. This ranges from adorable crabs for the picodex to new splash pages for the unlocked realms! Soon it'll be changing gear to fulfill those backer rewards for bugs and picotitans, which will be another solid month or more of work, but it'll be great to see the book come together as more and more pages end up with art on them!
And that's another update done - you'll likely hear from me again just after the campaign closes, and that's also when we'll start grabbing info from the Bug Me In and Pet Picotitan backers. After that, hopefully it'll be a smooth ride to the final PDF version, the inevitable post-PDF release edits, and then the official print!
Here's to the last 48 hours!
Felix
Morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on where you are! It's time for that update I promised - a look at the work-in-progress special edition cover, and a few additional backer spaces for those that want to see themselves (as a bug) or their pet (as a picotitan) in the core book!
So, if you remember our ramblings on the campaign page, you might know that the special edition cover is a reference to the famously non-buggish Vitruvian Man. Why? Definitely something about the building blocks of a character and the oddities bugs often present with, and their infinite variety, and definitely not one of those weird 3AM ideas I had that zkarab then had to make a reality.
Zkarab has been hard at work on something glorious in this regard, but we're currently at a slight and temporary impasse in terms of the final version - we need to know the specs of how thick a gold leaf section can be so the art can be finalized. That means it's a game of telephone with people very far away and who are extremely busy already, not the kind of thing that gets done quickly.
But what has been done is a work in progress pass! In fact, it's right here - still sketchy, still lacking some details, but hopefully enough to give you an idea of the direction it's heading!
So if you've ever wanted to see the stories of your little bugs written in the stars, metaphorically speaking, the special edition cover has you... Well, covered!
What will change between this and the final version? We'll have a clearer idea of which bits can be in actual gold (which will likely mean other bits get picked out in white, silver, or purple for impact), and we'll work out whether we can have a vaguely galactic background to give the whole thing a bit more starry-sky depth. But the general layout, of diverse bugs picked out among the stars and surrounded by interlocking circles, is here to stay. They'll be less sketchy soon, too! :D
And that starting gun we mentioned yesterday? With this update going live, it's just been fired! There are now a couple more spaces in the higher tiers for those that want to be immortalized on the pages of PICO, and to be honest I'm blown away that there's even a demand for it - you're lovely people, you piconauts.
And that's it for this update, other than to say that we're closing in on $75,000 (which is incredibly impressive) and that we only have, what, six days left? We might even hit that 80k at this rate!
Felix, out!