We hope you're doing well and enjoying your summer adventures. We have a few important updates to share regarding production progress, pledge management, and upcoming conventions!
🛠️ Production Update
We recently received the Eproofs from our manufacturer and discovered a few issues that needed to be corrected. While delays are never fun, quality is our top priority, and we’re committed to making sure Hercules and the 12 Labors looks and feels as epic as the story it's based on.
✅ The good news: We’ve corrected the problems and are now waiting on new physical proofs for one final round of approval before full production begins.
We know this pushes our timeline back a bit, and we really appreciate your patience. Rest assured, we want this game to be something truly special, and that means getting it right.
💳 Locking Orders & Credit Card Charge Dates
We’ve been getting a few questions about when credit cards will be charged, so here’s the full breakdown of our current plan:
🔒 Lock Orders: BackerKit orders will be locked on August 25th. You’ll receive a notice beforehand, giving you time to make any final changes or add-ons.
💳 Card Charges: Credit cards will be charged on August 29th.
🕒 Late Pledges: If you joined late, your order will also be locked on August 25th.
And yes, we’re still getting new pledges daily. Welcome to all our newest backers!
🎲 Gen Con: Come Say Hi!
We'll be at Gen Con this year, running demos and showcasing Hercules and the 12 Labors at Booth 2659! Even more exciting, our manufacturer will be hand delivering the latest physical proofs to us at the show. If you're attending, swing by and be among the first to see the newest version of the game up close!
Thank you again for your continued support and enthusiasm. We’re so excited to bring this mythological adventure to life, and we couldn’t do it without you.
After a lot of hard work we're finally ready to release the final* version of Despair Dilemma on itch!! I'll go into the details on how you can download your copy in a bit - but before I do, I just wanted to say a heartfelt thanks to everyone here once again for all of the incredible support you've given us. There's still a bit to go with getting everything printed and sent out, but now we can say that most of the legwork is done!
Despair Dilemma Release Update
Most of the changes made to the book where focused on finalizing and cleaning up the book. Iris gave the whole thing a proper set of edits to make sure there were no errors, and we cleaned up the image quality to make sure everything looked good in the PDF. With that said, there are a couple new things of note:
L’ombra del Coniglio has been added as a new Death Game Sheet by Little Lab Design. This sheet focuses on making it difficult to find the culprit of wrongdoings by having every character turn into identical rabbits each night.
Because a few of our Friends of Usashi backers were unable to complete their surveys, we've added two new Characters at the end of the Special Victims List. We'll replace these when we get the chance if the backers complete their surveys - but for now feel free to use Double Summon and Usashi when rolling on the Special Victims List.
How to Download Your Copy of Despair Dilemma
We want to make sure you get your digital copy of Despair Dilemma no matter your experience and preferences, so we've set up three ways you can get access to your copy:
Use Our Backer Access Link: If you follow this link here ( https://noorasphere.itch.io/despair-dilemma/backer-access ), you'll be sent to a special Itch.io page where you can tie a copy of the game to your account and download it there. Please note that the email address associated with your itch account WILL need to match the email address associated with your backerkit account, including all character case. If your itch account doesn't match, be sure to add the matching address in the "Additional Emails" section of your settings.
Download it From BackerKit: You should receive an email sometime today with a direct download of the final copy of the book. This will be done in the same way as the prototype PDFs, so if you're uncomfortable setting up an Itch.io account, this is the best way for you to get your book.
Wait For Your Itch Access Email: Sometime in the next couple weeks you'll receive an email with a direct link to download Despair Dilemma from Itch.io itself. This takes some time as itch needs to confirm we aren't sending spam - but once you receive the email you'll be able to assign the book to any itch account and download it from there.
We do encourage you to use one of the methods that assign your game to an itch account, since that way you'll be able to download any future updates if we make them in the near or distant future.
If you have any other issues, please contact me at [email protected] or get in touch with BackerKit support. It's very possible that there are some technical issues, so please let us know if so.
Bleeding Heart Community Drive
Thanks to the efforts of everyone who supported us in the crowdfunding campaign and included it as add-ons in the pledge manager, I'm happy to say we earned an incredible 245 Community Copies of Despair Dilemma ready to be given to people in need!! There isn't much more to say other than that this is absolutely incredible, and we really hope people enjoy the game.
What's Coming Next (Printing the Books)
Now that we've finished with the digital version of Despair Dilemma, the next step is to get printing started on both it and its add-ons. If you saw the last update, then you'll know that we've changed printing plans to keep costs down amid increased volatility and will be printing and shipping everything out locally from Australia. This will increase the time it takes to be delivered, but also make it possible for us to keep costs down for the majority of our backers.
As is, we're now able to open up Final Shipping Costs in the Pledge Manager. We won't be charging cards or finalizing addresses for some time still (around when we make the orders for the books), but you can go through and confirm your address and shipping whenever you like. You should receive an email about this from BackerKit some time in the next week with all of the details.
For us, the next step is ordering test copies of the physical book and add-ons from our manufacturers. Once we have those on hand, we'll give everything a final check and make sure there are no errors in the printing files that effect the final product. We don't yet know how long this will take - but we'll be sure to keep you all updated as everything happens.
If we make any changes to the book itself when we go through this update, we'll update the Itch version to match.
--
Thank you all so much for your time and happy death gaming! Nora Jean Haynes
Exciting news! The card games have officially arrived and they look fantastic. We’re so thrilled to finally have them in hand and we can’t wait to get them to you.
To ensure smooth delivery, we’ll be locking shipping addresses in 48 hours. Please take a moment to review and confirm your address through BackerKit before the deadline.
If you’ve recently moved or expect to move soon, make sure your address is up to date so your rewards reach you safely.
Thank you once again for your amazing support and patience. Fulfillment is almost here and we can’t wait for you to enjoy the game.
I wanted to give a quick status update on all the cards and what to expect in the next month or two!
Right now, mechanics have been playtested and artists have been kicked off! Next up, my goal is to get the surveys out to everyone before the end of July so that I know what quantities of each card I'll need to order as soon as art is done.
My overall current timeline is here, so you know what the whole plan is, and I'll keep you updated as things roll along toward fulfillment!
July: Talk to Backerkit about pre-order store for late backers
July: Send out surveys
Aug: Finalize art
Aug: Collect payment and lock addresses
Aug: Order cards based on final quantities
Sept: Ship cards to backers
Oct/Nov: Fulfillment for bonus zine game (digital + POD codes)
I also have a post here with a summary of this project and my next... along with a peek at the art-prompt prototype for one of the cards:
We are on track in making A Land Once Magic a reality! We have just locked the manuscript after Ru's edits which means the next step is layout! I can't wait to see how Luna brings this book to life and will share some preview spreads in our next update.
More Art!
With our stretch goal unlocked, we were able to get more incredible art from John Gagne to use in the book. Here's a preview of some of the additional pieces you'll see in the final product.
All Illustrations by John Gagne
Viditya and I have been in love with John's art from the beginning of working together on this project and we can't wait to fill these pages with more of his unique imaginative style.
Timeline/Fulfillment
We are on track for Fall fulfillment! We should be heading to production by July which means books in hand hopefully in September/October. I know there has been a lot of uncertainty when it comes to tariffs but as far as we have been advised so far, this project should be exempt from the elevated tariffs. If anything changes on that front, we will let you know immediately and transparently.
That's all for now! Hope to have some more exciting peaks into the book to share in our next update. We will also be getting surveys out between now and then. If you or a friend missed out on the campaign, we are currently accepting preorders.
More soon!
-Elliot & Viditya
p.s. Check out these awesome crowdfunding projects happening right now!
First, I'm delighted to say that the final part of the puzzle is in place - Blood In The Margins has arrived!
Blood In The Margins, in the flesh!
I've spent this morning setting up the pledge manager with correct weights for all the items and I've sent it off to review. As soon as that's approved by Backerkit - which they say can take up to 2 days - I'll be able to send surveys out. These will allow you to select any add-ons you might want and provide your shipping address.
Once surveys are out I plan to leave them open for two weeks to give people time to fill them out. I'll send out reminders. Once they close I'll charge for shipping, and then I'll be able to get the physical books out to you.
Thanks again for your support on this project! I'm really excited to put these books in your hands.
And secondly, we heard the feedback that our communication needed some work, we are now doing monthly (at the minimum!) updates on all projects, and we are always active on our Discord (which you should all come and join!). As part of this, we want to give you an update on all our projects, as we are shifting some announced projects back, and we are anticipating a minor delay on one project.
After an amazing 2024, the start of this year has carried on at a pace. We’ve released our first Starter Sets for Shiver, made several hundred unique items for Don’t Play This Game at a company retreat, and along with you all managed to fund SISTERHOOD. It's been a wild, crazy time and the team are flat out making our games as awesome as we can.
In the background, the team are tireleslly working to get your games to you from our outstanding crowdfunding campaigns. Don’t Play This Game is currently being fulfilled - admittedly, this is running a few months behind schedule. Delivering late is never our aim, Don’t Play was an ambitious project for us with some unexpected issues but we hope the wait is worth it!
We are on track with Sisterhood and will be ready to punch demons in 2026! We wanted to give you something to keep you all excited so have prepared a Sisterhood Lore Primer that gives you some more background on the Sisterhood, their Orders, and also the Cults of the Five Horsemen!
Lore Primer Cover
Over the next few months we'll have more updates rolling out as we have bits ready to share. We plan on sending monthly updates through backerkit to keep you up to date. If you have other questions we are more active on our Discord Server so this is the best place to get a response.
We are pushing the estimated delivery for this project back to Q4. Some workflow overlaps combined with wanting to give the game some extra polish before printing means we are moving the estimated delivery back to Q4. Whilst we are nearly there with the game (with some items already in manufacture), we anticipate missing the delivery by a few weeks. Alongside this, the digital files delivery we are now estimating for Q3 - we can’t wait for you to get playing, so we will be releasing this as soon as we are able.
We are ahead of schedule! We are aiming to have this to all our backers in Q3, ahead of the Q4 aim. We were aiming to deliver Classified before the Corporate campaign, but will miss this by a few weeks. We will be delivering the digital versions before this, however!
What if the worst job you've ever had was autopsying aliens, babysitting monsters, and constant death in an endless cycle of imperfect cloning? And at the end of the day they didn't even pay you? A darkly comic expansion for the award winning SHIVER RPG.
A new Shiver setting bringing all the comic Horror of the Workplace into your TTRPG.
Shiver: Corporate launches in July as planned, and if you follow now you can get a free quickstart guide (including a playable adventure!) for you to test the game out straight away.
Explore the galaxy in your mech with your friends in ION Heart Multiplayer. After the rave reception that ION Heart received we wanted to let people explore the Astral Union with all their buddies. Assemble your companions and take your mech friends into the stars!
We are pushing back to Q1 2026. With so many projects on we have some more development work on this before we launch the project. We are hoping to start the dev diary over summer to keep you up to date with our progress!
????????
You might have noticed a secret title squeezed onto that tracker in between Shiver: Corporate and Ion Heart: Multiplayer. You do have sharp eyes! The necessity of moving Ion Heart: Multiplayer back has allowed us the opportunity to release a new title (or is that titles?) that we have been really excited about for a while. Look out for an announcement very soon!
Tariffs
The situation sucks. We have friends who have lost employment already due to the ongoing tariffs, and are seeing widespread trouble throughout the tabletop industry, which is only going to get worse the longer this continues.
With the majority of our products being produced in Europe as a business we are quite well insulated from the Tariff issues on the majority of our lines. However we are not entirely protected from this huge industry disruption. Our dice, screens, and box sets are all produced in China. Specifically we have the full run of Ion Heart Dice and Mech’s Toolkits currently in production in China, estimated to be completed in the coming weeks. The tariffs on these items alone are substantial, and as a small company make a real dent into our ability to operate.
With the additional delay in delivery for Ion Heart we’ll be taking the time to review all our options and hoping that the situation is resolved by the time at which we need to make a final decision over the coming weeks. Once we have a clearer picture we will do an update specifically on this project.
Sisterhood is in a similar position, but further down the road.
In addition to this, we are now out-of-stock of some items in the USA and will not be able to resupply them until this.
As a business it is clear we stand firmly against the tariff situation, and support the actions of companies such as Stonemeier Games in trying to support the industry in these tough times. As a small company we are feeling, and will continue to feel the pain from this situation, and we can only hope for a swift resolution. We encourage all of our customers to reach out to their representatives, but we also empathise with the real-life effects that you are feeling from this situation not only in regards to games. We hope it will get better, for everyone.
On A Nicer Note!
I don’t want to leave this update on such a negative point, so let’s look at some of the other fun going on in and around Parable Games at the moment!
We currently have a Don’t Play This Game play-along on our Discord Server! Get a weekly prompt and join #TeamParable as we discover what the entity has in store for us all…
Next Month sees us attending TWO incredible conventions (UK only SORRY!)
Matt, Barney & Adam will be at MCM Comicon London on 23rd - 25th May
The WHOLE Parable team will be at the UK Games Expo where we are also hosting our FIRST EVER EPIC. Come and experience Shiver: Corporate early with 50+ other players in one mega game.
Our Patreon continues to release awesome monthly content - both for Shiver and new systems. With a FREE tier you can keep up to date with all the fun goings on.
We recently launched the Shiver: Director’s Club, offering FREE GM resources and rewards for players who want to run Shiver at their local store or convention. We’ve already been blown away by the response, but there’s always room for more Director’s here!
Let us know any other questions in the comments below or join our Discord Server. We’ve got a busy few months ahead, but it’s a really, REALLY, exciting time!
After a couple of weeks of planning and doing my taxes, I have decided to slow down and not rush into things.
I hate rushing into things. I've spent a lot of my life planning for the right time to do things-- Just for some force out of my control screw with it. However, after thinking about it, I think it would be more of a mistake to have a game completely manufactured, and then have to pay rent for storage overseas if things got worse.
That said, I'm in a pretty ok position at the moment, I haven't given any money or images to Longpack yet, so I can hold off on doing the manufacturing for now. Instead, I'm going to focus on what I can do right now, which are:
- Paying my Illustrator - Sending out surveys - Purchasing Packing Materials - Finishing up the TTS and PnP versions of the game.
Which isn't much, but it's what I can do at the moment. On the bright side, the game's been "Done" for quite a while now, so there's no need to wait for things to get tweaked, so when (Knock on wood) it is time to print, I'll be ready. Whenever that is. I appreciate your understanding at this time.
First, I think its important to address the elephant in the room: The Gaslighter-in-Chief's new insane tariffs.
There is a LOT to say about these tariffs, but people much smarter than I am have already written about them, so I'll link to some of the best articles so far on the matter:
For now, I, Brother Ming Games, is taking a wait and see approach. I currently have a small project mid manufacturing that will be ready to leave China in 2 months. If the Tariffs are still in effect by then, I'll just have to eat those costs.
I am hoping POND will be ready to leave China between 8 to 12 months from now. However if 54% Tariffs are still in effect by then, then I will be doing the following:
Shipping costs for US customers will be increasing a bit from $12 -> $18.
A new sticker pack will be available as an add on for anyone who wants to contribute some additional support.
How Tariffs and AI art trends has me feeling (screencap from Totoro)
Ok depressing news out of the way, what's next for POND?
First, thank you so much to everyone who participated in the first playtesting program! We got a LOT of valuable feedback and playtesting data from it.
I will be added 3 and 4 player modes to Tabletop Simulator and Screentop by the end of the month and opening up a second round of the playtesting program for people who still want to earn a free shirt to participate!
The pledge manager for POND will also be opened by the end of the month. This will let you confirm your cart items, pick your designs and sizes for t shirts, or adjust your pledge levels. Shipping and taxes will be not included however. When the project is closer to fulfillment (Sometime between 8 and 12 months from now), the pledge manager will be sent out again to everyone to re-confirm their shipping address and shipping fees and taxes will be added then.
Finally, the artist of POND is currently under the weather, and therefore we weren't able to get the enamel pin designed for ya'll mid campaign. That said, she is releasing two new friends to her collection of plushies TODAY so if you want to cheer her up, go adopt her adorable new friends!!!
Road to Production for POND
Currently we still have some assets that needs to be finished before POND can go into production, plus I want to do a lot more playtesting, so here is our road map for the next 2 months:
Create custom icons for dice and resources (they're all royalty free icons right now)
Add custom art for the long fwooog cards for each faction
Create the art for the card shop playmat
Create a blind test ready rulebook and physical prototype
If everything proceeds smoothly, I am hoping to have polished prototypes ready to show off at Gen Con (I do not have a booth, I'll just be doing ticketed event demos).
I'll be posting monthly updates around the 5th of each month to keep you all up to date~
Thank you all so much for your support. POND received alot more support than I had originally estimated, having even more backers than my first game Re;ACT, despite a HUGE pivot in theme, though for people who have played both, I think you'll still feel my design philosophies of high player interaction with asymmetric gameplay across both games.
Super excited to see us unlock the 40k stretch goal increasing the quality of cards just a bit more! Thank you everyone who has supported, you're all making this a truly epic journey!
