We Hit Our $10,000 Stretch Goal (and a sneak peek of the Book of Legend)!

Thanks to all of your incredible, sensational support, Before the Flood has now crossed the pivotal $10,000 mark. We're less than $500 away from triple our funding goal, which is nuts. As promised, we'll be extending the Book of Legend to be twice its length (which may involve upgrading it from a zine to a small bound book, depending on page count). As a thank you, I've pulled a couple of my favorite lines from the Book to share with you here today:

Comets fall from orbit and seed new life into farmland.
A tarnished and unkempt ruler emerges after eons of hermitage.
A lonely house high on a mountaintop grows legs and prances across the valley below.
The brilliance of a new generation transforms the old through fiery tribulation.
The Prince of the Moon crooks their head, laughter erupting from their mouths.
The phoenix of yesteryear tells a tale both quaint and querulous.

One of the reasons that I love the Book of Legend so much is that, taken as an individual object, it can serve as strange and wonderful prompts for all sorts of stories. You could use it in your other tabletop campaigns, or to kickstart your writing process, or to improvise a story for your kid at bedtime. As part of Before the Flood, though, its role is totally different: the otherwise cohesive and coherent prompts are sliced up so that the individual words themselves are the content. The sentence is irrelevant to Legend--it's the word that matters. So when writing the Book, Nic and I are really focusing on making sure that each adjective, noun, verb, and adverb is as weighty and portentous as it possibly can be. I hope that you've enjoyed this sneak peek!

The Live Stream: Sunday, August 11th, 1:00 PM Pacific Time

I am over the moon to be able to announce the details for our live stream this Sunday, August 11th. The stream will be one hour long, starting at 1:00 PM Pacific Standard Time. Nic and I will be joined by three lovely guests to talk about game design philosophies and why we love map-making games, and the stream will be embedded right here on Backerkit for you to enjoy. If you prefer, you can head over to Twitch, where you can chat with us live!

But enough with the logistics. Announcing our guests (drumroll please...)

CJ Linton (he/him) is one half of Sly Robot Games and arguably one of the most brilliant game designers alive right now (according to me, Sylvan. CJ did not write this blurb). His work includes Tomorrow on Revelation III, Bring Down the House, and the impeccably incredible upcoming The Prince of Nothing Good. CJ is a massive inspiration for my own work, and just an all-around fantastic human, and I am SUPER excited he's joining us.
Dominique Dickey (they/them) is the other half of Sly Robot Games, and is the editor for Before the Flood. Their work is extensive, impressive, and awe-inspiring in equal measure, and you can read all about it on our campaign page. I don't even feel like I need to talk them up for this stream--I think the minute you tune in, you'll get the hype.
Seven Dane Asmund, a.k.a. The Publishing Goblin (they/them) is a writer, game designer, and publisher that I have been an enormous personal fan of for many years. They created the award-winning and Kickstarter record-smashing Alleyman's Tarot, as well as Zoetrope, one of my personal favorite tabletop games ever. They're also always making new things (they produce art at a pace which makes me a little dizzy), so Seven, I apologize if I missed anything critical!

Of course, Nic and I will be there too... but this isn't really about us. We'll mostly just be there to facilitate these three awesome humans talking it up with each other! So mark your calendars. It's a hell of a lineup.

Wrapup

Phew! That was quite an update. Looking ahead to the final week, you can expect that designer diary update from me about picklists, a few sneak peeks at art or layout, and one or two more special surprises. Until then, we're less than $2000 away from our next stretch goal to give the team raises, and we've got more in store after that. Anything you can do to share the project, tell your friends, talk us up, or get the name out there would be immensely, immensely appreciated. This last week is the most delicate time in the project aside from launch--anything you can do to get the word out would be awesome.

But hey. You're already awesome. You read this far, just because you wanted to.

Have a cookie, and tell me in the comments what flavor it is: 🍪

With giddy anticipation,
Sylvan

PS: Okay, fine. Here's another one 🍪

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