Pico is a tabletop roleplaying game where you play as tiny bugs going on small adventures in a big world.
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Morning, Piconauts - Felix here!
Its time for the May update, so let's find out what's been happening in the world of tiny bugs...
That's right, I've had the second monitor set up and a lot of documents and trackers running at once for the last few weeks - such is the way I edit, guided by the surprisingly saintly Ell.
Even with her aid I certainly can't say it's the most fun part of the process, but it is definitely important. The good news is that almost all of the core book is in a fully edited state now (though a couple of typos and such will always slip through, that's one of the reasons we do digital beta releases), and the picodex is on its way there. The bad news is... Well, there isn't really any bad news for anybody else in this regard, it's just not an exciting thing for me to be doing!
In fact, I'd much rather be...
I got the chance to be a little bug myself recently, which is far more valuable to me as a designer than it is being the Weaver. Yes, forever GM syndrome affects designers too. What made it even better was that I got to play through the pre-written PICO adventure, The Soggy Dragon, written by guest writer (and past Wildsea contributor) Rob Leigh.
And my oh my, it was a picoton of fun! Puddles were splashed in, crushrooms arm-wrestled, and enigmatic dragons tracked down and challenged.
In fact, it was so much fun that if anybody else would like an early run-through of it, with the designer himself, Rob has agreed to run a few sessions on the Wild Words Discord for folks who are interested. The Soggy Dragon is a great starter adventure for tiny bugs, so if you're interested head for the pico channels within the discord and make your insectile intentions known!
So what else is new? Well, there's a new double-page spread full of aspects and augments that's been slotted into the existing character creation options, all about the Build of your bug. Ever wanted to be small? Of course you have, you backed PICO. But if you've ever wanted to be a bit bigger than small, or even a little smaller than small, now you can!
I've kept the mechanical impact of such changes low, but you'll find certain hazards that interact with the size of your bug (and there will likely be situations where being bigger or smaller than usual might come in handy).
In a similar vein, Wild Words games have always had some players who worry about the resource cost and task time associated with healing. To address this in an optional fashion, a new Titanden upgrade has been added for the health-conscious - the hospital! This is there to be interacted with or not, depending entirely on whether you want fast healing to be something accessible to your particular band of bugs.
There aren't many more adjustments to be made before the final beta gets released, but I'm always open to balance changes and such based on playtest reports. Keep that in mind for the next update!
Zkarab is also drawing close to finishing the art for the picodex, which knocks one of the last big things off of the to-do list. Rather than blather on about it, I'll just throw you a few of the newest pieces...
I'd hoped to have this out for this update, but things always take a bit longer than you expect (I think it's one of the immutable rules of kickstarter). Still, it's close - as soon as the final core book editing session is wrapped up with Ell, I'll apply whatever's left and then share it in a backers-only update on here. Will that be the next update? Hopefully. Will it be this month? Unlikely given that that's only about ten days, but possible. Will it be next month? Almost definitely, unless something goes horribly wrong (like me being eaten by a crow, or forgetting how to type, both of which seem equally unlikely).
Wish me luck, people - it's the last few paces of the final stretch, metaphorically speaking, and I'm feeling good about what's taken shape. And watch for the next update!
Felix, out :)
Morning piconauts, Felix here!
And welcome to your combine March-April update. Why combined? Because I managed to get a solid double whammy of time-sinks - moving countries and getting really, really ill. The two may well be connected.
But never fear, tiny bugs! Repeated sneezing hasn't stopped me working, and it certainly hasn't stopped zkarab from arting, so today's update is pretty much a slew of good news!
And we'll start with the showiest bit - there's a lot more art than there used to be, and we already had quite a bit!
A lot of this art has been focused on filling out the hazards section, but there's also been a decent amount of colour splashed over some of the less exciting page-spreads. Much of the editing and refining process, which is where the core book is now, is based around making pages both read and look better. It's almost like we care about having a nice-looking book! :P
One of the things I love most about PICO is the amount of cute, cool art zkarab has put out into the world for it, and from the feedback we've had both online and at recent conventions people seem extremely happy with the visual direction the game has taken over the past year. I'm counting that as a triumph for us - perhaps even with a twist!
We've also got some new writing done - an entire Realm that's quite distinct from the usual wildness of PICO, while still hitting the core themes. Enter guest writer Mikey Hamm, of Slugblaster fame, and his own unique realm THE WESTFIELD MALL.
As the last proper chunk of core book writing, the Mall is now finished (textually) but has yet to be edited.
So what is left on the writing side?
We'll be talking about the picodex in the next update, so I'll keep things to the core book for now. And, in terms of that core book, we've got to...
+ Finalize the text for the Skyglass Dome Realm
+ Add the Kickstarter backer section
+ Add the appendix
+ Touch up the writing (and add a couple of art pieces) for the new titans
+ Do the final version of the character sheet
+ Perform a small edit pass based on playtest feedback
+ Pass Ell the remaining 40% of book for general editing and apply those edits
If you want a version of that that's a bit more pictorial, have a look at this - the red is yet to be started, the yellow is in progress, the green is finished, and (in the first column) the purple is fully edited and finalized. In terms of columns, the first is writing, the second art, the third layout, and the fourth backgrounding (with the fifth, darker column an 'is everything else done' checklist).
And there's a lot of green there!
... Will likely be backers-only, with the final assembled cut of the core book for others to pick through, playtest, and give any feedback on. That'll be as we get the print files ready, alongside finishing off the picodex content.
I'm looking forward to it!
So, until then, take care of yourselves.
Felix
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
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!