Pico: Tiny Bugs, Big World 🐛🐝

Quick Congratulations: Now It's Time to Write and Play!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 01:43:29 AM

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...

TIMELINES

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. 

BUG ME IN & PICOTITAN BACKERS

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! 

UPDATE REGULARITY

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! 

The Final Stretch!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 06:10:38 AM

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!

NEW STRETCH GOALS

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! 

DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES

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

Limited Extra Spaces Unlocked, and The Mysterious Special Edition Cover!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 06, 2024 at 07:29:36 AM

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! 

THE WORK CONTINUES: THE SPECIAL EDITION COVER

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

EXTRA SPACES

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! 

200% Funding, Incoming Crabs, and the Final Week!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Dec 04, 2024 at 11:39:52 AM

A short update this time around, but one full of good news! 

CRABS!

Yesterday we hit the 70k stretch goal, adding playable crabs to the Picodex. Because after all, with hard shells, snapping claws, and wiggly eyes, who can really say that crabs aren't bugs? 

Hitting the crab tier also means a hefty 200% of the original funding goal has been reached, which is pretty impressive for a game about weird little bugs! How much further will we go? I guess you'll have to stick around to find out! 

The Final Week & New High-Tier Spaces!

So with seven days left, there are a few things that need doing. The first is to add a couple of spaces to the higher-level backer tiers, for creating your own bug and having your pet as a picotitan. These new spaces should go live this friday, and I'll send another small update to signal that they're available. Consider this notice - there may be a rush to grab these, there may not, but we've had them requested numerous times so if you're one of those folks, the starting gun is about to fire!

For this final week, any extra publicity that you as backers can grab us would be incredible. Tell your friends, tell your pets, broadcast the kickstarter text on a loop to the squirrels in the garden - I don't know if they have KS accounts, but it's worth a shot. As you're reading this I'll be adding another stretch goal to the page, and if we hit that there might even be a secret final one there too! 

The Special Edition Cover

The other thing that needs revealing is the special edition cover - we're currently waiting on approval from the printers over a few aspects of it (thickness of gold leaf, from what I understand), so I won't be able to show the final version, but in the next update I'll hopefully have something that's pretty close to it in terms of art. 

That's all from me - thank you for the support, piconauts, and you should hear from me again on friday! 

Felix

Work, Work, Work In Progress! Rough Character Creation Release
over 1 year ago – Thu, Nov 28, 2024 at 07:28:13 AM

Afternoon, Piconauts! I've got an update for you that's absolutely jam-packed with new stuff! 

THE (ROUGH) CHARACTER CREATION RULES RELEASE

As the campaign progresses, work on PICO continues behind the scenes. One thing that has been asked about more than just about anything else is the character creation rules, and today marks their public release! You can find them here on my itch page, right where this handy link takes you (you can also pick up the Hogwild playtest packet there if you haven't got it already). 

These rules are a work in progress - some of the pages feel finished, others are a bit... Well, I'll generously say 'scrappy' :P. When I first released the Wildsea, what seems like aeons ago now, everything was scrappy and I didn't feel bad about it at all. Now we live in a brighter, shinier future (in terms of me knowing how to put a book together), so I worry about releasing work-in-progress materials, but at the end of the day I just had to take the plunge and throw it out there. 

The character sheet is particularly basic at the moment, and everything needs an edit pass and a few updates (goodbye Defend skill, hello Shield skill being one of those things that haven't trickled down to players yet). We don't even have a page background yet, it's just white space at the moment! I'm sure you'll find a handful of errors too, and - as mentioned on the itch page - there will definitely be aspects and augments that reference Journey rules, something that hasn't been released yet. Ignore those bits, as best you can, and focus on the other 95%. It's enough to make some very cool bugs, and for a work in progress I'm pretty proud of how things are shaping up. 

... And more is on the way, likely sooner than you think. 

FEEDBACK

That also means that it's the best time for feedback! Any thoughts or suggestions you have, throw them at me in the comments to this update. We've already had some great feedback, and some playtest reports, that have really helped shape the game throughout recent development. 

Keep them coming! 

STRETCH GOALS, COVERS, & NEW ART

The art parade continues, with zkarab working on both additional bugs for the core book and the special edition cover (which, if all goes well, we'll be showing off with the next update). And, with crustaceans on an ever-closer horizon, I guess he's going to have even more work to do! 

That's right, we're almost at $70k in funding and we still have just under half of the campaign left to go. Where will it stop? No idea, but the trajectory, and support, have both been wonderful. 

... And I really hope we get the Nekopolis stretch goal unlocked!

GOODBYE AND CONGRATULATIONS - SLUGBLASTER

So that's time to sign off for me, but not without wishing heartfelt congratulations to Mikey Hamm, of Slublaster fame, for being featured as the winner of the first season of Quinns Quest! And given that he's a PICO guest writer, I'm doubly pleased :)

Having done conventions with the guy, and played the game, I'm not surprised it's a winner. Nice job, Mikey! And published by Mythworks too, no less! 

So, until next time, people! 

Felix out!