Hello Ultra-Backers,

We did it! We came together for this book, a toolkit to build your own games and tell your own stories using the system that powers many of Onyx Path's upcoming projects.

Thanks to the support of an impressive 1,261 backers, Onyx Path will be able to develop PDF and hardcover versions of the Storypath Ultra Core Manual!

This project has exceeded my expectations, and I was amazed to see it grow over the course of this past month! We had so many new backers join in over the past week - and really, so many in the past 48 hours - and it was fun to see the numbers jump up dramatically in these last few days. Great job!

There's more to celebrate! Not only did we fund the project in the first day, we also unlocked a super SIX Stretch Goals. From standard Onyx Path milestone markers to helping Onyx Path prioritize community content creation, it's been very cool to have these extras! 

It came down to the last few days but we managed to hit every Stretch Goal we'd posted and hit 585% of our funding target!

All backers for this project will automatically have these bonus rewards added to their rewards list.

We've unlocked these rewards that will benefit all  SPU fans!

The first of the included example settings, Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, not only offers a complete game set in the parallel version of the year 2000, but also illustrates exactly how Story Path was implemented and adjusted. We have plans to write two more, and as a backer you'll be able to vote on which ones you prefer.

For our Sci-Fi example, backers have chosen "An experimental space flight flings the player characters into a distant galaxy full of strange and alien sights."

For our Fantasy example, backers have chosen "A war-torn world ripped apart by a devastating magic war, and a few surviving wizards try to prove who is the best among them."

We had more than 600 votes for this sample game, and option 2 held the lead pretty much from the get-go, but it was still exciting to watch and fun to think about ways to interpret all of these concepts.

Again, there's nothing yet written for these two example settings - we'll see them in the final version of the book - but we've provided the developers and writers with these inspirational launching points, so it'll be very interesting to see how they develop and grow into their own SPU mini games!

So a huge congratulations to the Onyx Path developers and the creative team on this project, and to all of the backers who've joined in to make this possible. I'm happy about the goals we hit and rewards we introduced, but I'm also always amazed and excited about having so many backers join in during this campaign. Even though Storypath Ultra has appeared in a few forthcoming projects and the earliest Storypath system games have some overlap with the system, it was still a bit of a gamble for the team as to whether this setting-free SPU Core Manual toolkit would find an audience. Crossing the mighty 1000 backer line was impressive, and I really look forward to seeing what things the community brings out to support SPU in the future!

So, thank you to all the backers who supported us and made this happen. And an extra thanks to everyone who participated online, either in the Community comments section of the campaign, and on social media around the web. Thanks to everyone who talked about the project on the Discord and thanks to the Onyx Path team who answered questions and provided insight.

So, as noted in today's earlier update, starting in October I'll be sending out updates once a month and whenever we've got a new goal, survey, or other item to cover. If you have any questions or need clarification on something related to the campaign, feel free to get in touch. I may take a bit to answer as I recover from these past four weeks and sneak in a a quick anniversary dinner somewhere in there, but I'll eventually have an answer!

If you've got questions about the rules or setting, or just want to discuss this game with other fans (as well as the Onyx Path writers and developers!), you can check out these Onyx Path discussion zones:

WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK

I've now shared the complete draft manuscript over this campaign. Along the way, the team has gathered feedback to help guide the manuscript through the next steps of editing and development. To that end, they've created a special Feedback Form for you to submit your comments after reading each section!

Here's the link to the SPU Feedback Form: https://forms.gle/1fGuU881zBHPsktz7

Great job everyone!

The Discord is particularly lively, and I loved seeing the thoughts and jokes as the chapters came out bit by bit. Again, I really loved the early seeds that will, I'm sure, develop into new content in Storypath Nexus or other avenues in the future!

BackerKit will begin collected pledges and processing payments later tonight, so be ready for that.

High fives all around in the comment section and on the Discord, and you'll hear from me again in a month-or-so when I've got the pledge manager set up and ready to roll out!