First, an update on something we're very excited about: the pre-production copies of Dog Eat Dog and Princess with a Cursed Sword should be here any day! We can't wait to flip through and share some images with you soon!
Second, we wanted to let everyone over here know that we have a new crowdfunding campaign currently live! Head on over to The Blue Way's page to help us make an enhanced version of Jason Morningstar's game. The new version will bring the original PDF to life with a deck of cards, a tear-off character sheet pad, and a box, all adorned with Samuel Araya's eerily beautiful art. (You already know his work from the cover of Dog Eat Dog and some of the art in Five Hundred Year Old Vampire.) We are also excited to be offering The Blue Way Curriculum Guide as part of this project -- and it is no ordinary teaching guide. It will actually include not only alternate card decks, which expand upon The Blue Way's themes of colonialism, but also an entirely new game by Dr. Allen White, The New Way, which examines engineering ethics. (For more information, check out the page at: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/central-michigan-university-press/the-blue-way-a-game-of-lost-stories)
Third, we are trying something a little different with this new crowdfunding campaign: t-shirts! While the campaign is running, you will be able to order a shirt with Samuel Araya's art for The Blue Way. We can't wait to get ours! And while we were thinking up this idea (and getting excited about wearing the shirt to conventions and game nights and classrooms), we decided to expand our experiment and make shirts for Dog Eat Dog and The Mountain Witch as well! Visit The Blue Way's page to buy your shirt before July 16th, when the campaign ends.
Thank you to everyone for your support! We are delighted to be able to do what we do, and you have made it possible. Thanks!
Thank you all for your patience as we work on finishing up the files for Princess with a Cursed Sword, Dog Eat Dog, and The Mountain Witch. We ran into some factors which slowed our initial process and are very close to locking designs. Based on what we know at this point, we wanted to share what to expect in the coming months. We estimate that by June, we will have the PDF versions of Princess with a Cursed Sword and Dog Eat Dog ready for you. The Mountain Witch will follow in July. After that, we expect that physical copies of the games will be ready for you in the fall and winter. We will check back in to keep you updated along the way with specifics.
We can't wait for these games to reach their homes with you and are dedicated to making that happen. Thank you all for your continued support and patience!
Hello everyone! With all three games in various stages of manufacturing, we are now ready to reach out about our next step: Backerkit surveys! These surveys are important because they allow you to finalize your shipping information, include any add-ons you want as part of your pledge, and collect payment information for add-ons and, eventually, shipping fees. Let's get our ducks in a row for fulfillment.
When Are Surveys Coming? First, the timing: surveys will go live a few days after we launch our smoke test (where we send out surveys to a small subset to check for errors or other issues). Right now, the plan is to initiate the smoke test on Thursday, May 21. Assuming the smoke test goes ok, the remaining surveys will roll out after that in batches starting on Tuesday, May 26 until all are in the wild!
Where Is the Survey Coming From? Our backend fulfillment partner is Backerkit (naturally), so your survey email will come from them.
How Do You Complete the Survey? You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey (although you already have one from when you backed the campaign...on Backerkit). When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like.
Why Aren't Shipping Fees in Backerkit Yet? Due to the eternal volatility of shipping prices globally right now, shipping fees for this project will be calculated closer to fulfillment. We plan to enter & charge backers for shipping before fulfillment when we have better estimates of what it will cost to ship backers rewards; this will most likely be August/September 2026. We will alert backers when shipping costs are finalized & before we charge your cards in your BackerKit survey, so that you can review the charges.
How Long Do YouHave to Complete the Survey? Surveys will be live until July 15, 2026, after which we will close surveys and charge for add-ons as we begin ramping up to fulfillment. Also, after you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys.
How Do You Access Your Survey After Completion? If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://art-system.backerkit.com/.
What If You Don't Receive the Survey Email? Beyond checking the spam or junk folder in your email, there are two other steps to check if you do not receive a survey email.
First, if you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your crowdfunding account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address associated with your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://art-systrem.backerkit.com/faq/.
Second, after surveys are sent, if you did not receive the email, and you Signed in with Apple ID, your email address might be a private relay email address. We can help locate your survey and update your email address, please message us or post a comment with your Backer ID or Pledge # found on your confirmation. You can learn more about your email hiding for your Apple ID here.
I'm Not a Backer, Is There Still a Preorder Store Open? Still not a backer for the Art & System games, but want to get in on the action? Have friends who might be interested but didn't back during the campaign? Backed the Mountain Witch Kickstarter campaign back in 2018 and still need to claim you at cost copy? Then yes, the Preorder Store for Art & System is still open. You can find it here.
Side Note: What's the Blue Way? And hey, in case you missed it, we are preparing our our next crowdfunding campaign for June of this year: The Blue Way. It is a gritty cooperative tabletop fantasy storytelling game about colonialism and lost stories from designer Jason Morningstar (Fiasco, Grey Ranks, Night Witches, Desperation) and artist Samuel Araya.
If you want to learn more about the game, go follow our prelaunch page on Backerkit. We have some cool extras with this campaign, including a cross-collaboration reward for backing both our campaign and Chancers from Jaunty Goblin Games, as well as some add-ons to the Blue Way campaign that might be right up the alley for Art & System backers (can't say more about that yet...moo hoo ha ha).
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We'll be in touch again soon to let you know when the smoke test is starting.
Look at these beautiful proofs! We can't wait to hold these games in our hands and send them out to you -- and now we're one step closer! Aren't they beautiful?
PRODUCTION! All three games are at varying stages of production, with Dog Eat Dog and Princess with a Cursed Sword being the most far along being with the manufacturer and The Mountain Witch still needing to clean up some layout issues [Welcome to my world right now. -Andrew].
We had some illnesses in house in December and January and then Chinese New Year in February created its usual bottleneck, so we're just waiting on the manufacturer to get back in the saddle, so to speak. Hopefully soon, we'll have some nifty pictures for you of pre-production copies on Dog Eat Dog and Princess with a Cursed Sword.
SURVEYS! In terms of Backerkit logistics, we will be deploying surveys some time in early April. At that time, we'll not have shipping costs included yet, as we'll add those closer to fulfillment. We'll have more details on that closer to deployment (but if you are a crowdfunding veteran, you probably already know the drill).
PREORDER STORE We also still have the Preorder Store open as well, so if you know of anyone who wants to jump on this train but didn't back during the campaign, send them this link:
If you thought you'd missed your chance after the end of our campaign to get your copies of Dog Eat Dog, Princess with a Cursed Sword, and The Mountain Witch...we have wonderful news!
Our pre-order store is live NOW, and you can order as many games as you'd like, including our current catalog of all CMich Press titles.
For those of you who have already backed Art & System -- thank you! Feel free to share this link with your friends and help us share these games with more people!
Backers!!! We are SO CLOSE to having 1,000 Backers for this campaign -- and we have minutes left to make it happen! Jump on the Backer Train NOW and help us cross the finish line!
Thanks for the AMAZING support on this entire campaign! We really could not have done this without you!
Thank you so much for once again blowing our minds with your support! We are well past our stretch goal and still going strong.
We now have less than a week left in this crowdfunding campaign, and we can't wait to see how far we'll go! Keep up the wonderful support -- we cannot WAIT to get these gorgeous RPGs into your hands!
First, an update on something we're very excited about: the pre-production copies of Dog Eat Dog and Princess with a Cursed Sword should be here any day! We can't wait to flip through and share some images with you soon!
Second, we wanted to let everyone over here know that we have a new crowdfunding campaign currently live! Head on over to The Blue Way's page to help us make an enhanced version of Jason Morningstar's game. The new version will bring the original PDF to life with a deck of cards, a tear-off character sheet pad, and a box, all adorned with Samuel Araya's eerily beautiful art. (You already know his work from the cover of Dog Eat Dog and some of the art in Five Hundred Year Old Vampire.) We are also excited to be offering The Blue Way Curriculum Guide as part of this project -- and it is no ordinary teaching guide. It will actually include not only alternate card decks, which expand upon The Blue Way's themes of colonialism, but also an entirely new game by Dr. Allen White, The New Way, which examines engineering ethics. (For more information, check out the page at: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/central-michigan-university-press/the-blue-way-a-game-of-lost-stories)
Third, we are trying something a little different with this new crowdfunding campaign: t-shirts! While the campaign is running, you will be able to order a shirt with Samuel Araya's art for The Blue Way. We can't wait to get ours! And while we were thinking up this idea (and getting excited about wearing the shirt to conventions and game nights and classrooms), we decided to expand our experiment and make shirts for Dog Eat Dog and The Mountain Witch as well! Visit The Blue Way's page to buy your shirt before July 16th, when the campaign ends.
Thank you to everyone for your support! We are delighted to be able to do what we do, and you have made it possible. Thanks!
Thank you all for your patience as we work on finishing up the files for Princess with a Cursed Sword, Dog Eat Dog, and The Mountain Witch. We ran into some factors which slowed our initial process and are very close to locking designs. Based on what we know at this point, we wanted to share what to expect in the coming months. We estimate that by June, we will have the PDF versions of Princess with a Cursed Sword and Dog Eat Dog ready for you. The Mountain Witch will follow in July. After that, we expect that physical copies of the games will be ready for you in the fall and winter. We will check back in to keep you updated along the way with specifics.
We can't wait for these games to reach their homes with you and are dedicated to making that happen. Thank you all for your continued support and patience!
Hello everyone! With all three games in various stages of manufacturing, we are now ready to reach out about our next step: Backerkit surveys! These surveys are important because they allow you to finalize your shipping information, include any add-ons you want as part of your pledge, and collect payment information for add-ons and, eventually, shipping fees. Let's get our ducks in a row for fulfillment.
When Are Surveys Coming? First, the timing: surveys will go live a few days after we launch our smoke test (where we send out surveys to a small subset to check for errors or other issues). Right now, the plan is to initiate the smoke test on Thursday, May 21. Assuming the smoke test goes ok, the remaining surveys will roll out after that in batches starting on Tuesday, May 26 until all are in the wild!
Where Is the Survey Coming From? Our backend fulfillment partner is Backerkit (naturally), so your survey email will come from them.
How Do You Complete the Survey? You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey (although you already have one from when you backed the campaign...on Backerkit). When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like.
Why Aren't Shipping Fees in Backerkit Yet? Due to the eternal volatility of shipping prices globally right now, shipping fees for this project will be calculated closer to fulfillment. We plan to enter & charge backers for shipping before fulfillment when we have better estimates of what it will cost to ship backers rewards; this will most likely be August/September 2026. We will alert backers when shipping costs are finalized & before we charge your cards in your BackerKit survey, so that you can review the charges.
How Long Do YouHave to Complete the Survey? Surveys will be live until July 15, 2026, after which we will close surveys and charge for add-ons as we begin ramping up to fulfillment. Also, after you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys.
How Do You Access Your Survey After Completion? If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://art-system.backerkit.com/.
What If You Don't Receive the Survey Email? Beyond checking the spam or junk folder in your email, there are two other steps to check if you do not receive a survey email.
First, if you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your crowdfunding account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address associated with your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://art-systrem.backerkit.com/faq/.
Second, after surveys are sent, if you did not receive the email, and you Signed in with Apple ID, your email address might be a private relay email address. We can help locate your survey and update your email address, please message us or post a comment with your Backer ID or Pledge # found on your confirmation. You can learn more about your email hiding for your Apple ID here.
I'm Not a Backer, Is There Still a Preorder Store Open? Still not a backer for the Art & System games, but want to get in on the action? Have friends who might be interested but didn't back during the campaign? Backed the Mountain Witch Kickstarter campaign back in 2018 and still need to claim you at cost copy? Then yes, the Preorder Store for Art & System is still open. You can find it here.
Side Note: What's the Blue Way? And hey, in case you missed it, we are preparing our our next crowdfunding campaign for June of this year: The Blue Way. It is a gritty cooperative tabletop fantasy storytelling game about colonialism and lost stories from designer Jason Morningstar (Fiasco, Grey Ranks, Night Witches, Desperation) and artist Samuel Araya.
If you want to learn more about the game, go follow our prelaunch page on Backerkit. We have some cool extras with this campaign, including a cross-collaboration reward for backing both our campaign and Chancers from Jaunty Goblin Games, as well as some add-ons to the Blue Way campaign that might be right up the alley for Art & System backers (can't say more about that yet...moo hoo ha ha).
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We'll be in touch again soon to let you know when the smoke test is starting.
