Just a quick update this early June (-ish): You should have gotten an email from Backerkit yesterday informing you that the files for the Eyeball to Eyeball Game Master Manual were available to you in the Digital Downloads section of your Backerkit account for E2E. If you missed that email, you can access your survey & all digital downloads here:
Please let us know if you have any issues with the files, or see any typos or whatever. We've poured over all this a bunch, but things slip through. One thing to note right off the bat: there are two instances in the main Game Master Manual file where we are missing screenshots that are supposed to be included. Instead of holding the manual even longer while we wait for those shots, we've decided to release with placeholders (you'll know when you see them). We'll update the file for you later when we get the shots.
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Also, for those who haven't seen the news, we have had a couple of crowdfunding announcements go out recently that we want to highlight for y'all.
First, coming in early July, we have the Backerkit campaign for Witch Hunt 1649 and Making History, a game double feature with two history-themed card games designed for gamers, historians, and educators alike.
You can check out and follow the prelaunch page here:
Second, coming in October, we have a new press series being launched on Backerkit called Art & System: Games for Expanded Play. The series is headed by series editor Tim Hutchings, creator of the game Thousand Year Old Vampire, and it will focus primarily on indie roleplaying games. The series will open with Dog Eat Dog (2012) by Liam Liwanag Burke,Princess with a Cursed Sword (2025) by Anna Anthropy, and TheMountain Witch (2005) by Tim Kleinert.
You can check out and follow that prelaunch page here:
By now, many of you would have noticed the arrival of your physical copies of the Eyeball to Eyeball Core Gamebook. At this point, we are 97% of the way finished with that part of fulfillment. We have a few packages yet to go out (a few international orders mostly, with a few other stragglers here and there), which we hope to have out the door tomorrow.
The only outstanding rewards are the stretch goal soundscape and the digital Game Master Manual. We'll upload the soundscape for you on Tuesday, May 13, so be on the lookout for that.
We dropped part of the Game Master Manual–the Player Role Sheets–for you last week as a digital download. If you didn't see that email, you can navigate to your survey for Eyeball to Eyeball on Backerkit (https://eyeball-to-eyeball.backerkit.com/) and click through to Digital Downloads. You'll find the zipped file there.
However, we're still not ready to release the full Game Master Manual, which is still in layout. Our rough timeline at the moment is to finish layout by the end of this week and hand it off for proofreading; once that happens, it'll probably be another week before that'll come back to us for any edits. Allowing time for some wiggle room, we're looking at early June for that to drop.
If you need access to the Game Master Manual before then (because you are trying to run the game or whatnot), please reach out to us ([email protected]), and we'll get you connected with the draft materials and access to the ExpSim site tied to the game.
We're gearing up for fulfillment on Eyeball to Eyeball. The games are stateside at our New York warehouse, so it's time to get things done.
So if you go check out your surveys in the Backerkit pledge manage for this campaign, you should see shipping charges applied to your orders. You can get to your survey here:
For a single copy of the Core Gamebook, we have pegged the shipping charge at $11.50 for domestic US backers. Orders with additional add-ons or larger quantities will range between $13.00-$17.50, depending on quantities and the like (and the larger classroom set tiers will be higher still, for obvious reasons).
For international backers, we will be using Pirate Ship's Simple Export Rate in most cases to try and get the best rates possible. Those rates will range from $19.50-$32.00, depending on your country of origin. In a few instances, because our warehouse can get better rates through their FedEx account, we'll ship those through them.
We will be charging for shipping costs on Thursday, March 27, around 3:00 p.m. EDT / 12:00 p.m. PDT or so. Backerkit will be sending a dedicated message about it on Tuesday, March 25, Once shipping has been charged, we'll push the orders to our warehouse, and get this campaign taken care of.
Lastly, we'll have final updates on the Game Master Manual PDF soon. Right now, the finished/laid out digital role sheets are in proofreading, while the manual itself is finishing up layout. Our current plan is to release the role sheets to you once proofreading is done and then drop the full manual when that is finished. Here's a small preview of what those will look like, featuring the first of four Cuban contingent roles, Fidel Castro:
Role Sheet for Fidel Castro (draft, not final)
We're releasing into the wild for backers whose accounts are paid and locked two items for Eyeball to Eyeball: 1) the PDF of the Core Gamebook; and 2) a code for the E-book version hosted and sold through VitalSource.
Some of you may have briefly noted the release of the code bank yesterday when accounts automatically locked. We had some settings wrong in the backend, and instead of using the code bank, it sent the text file of the bank out to everybody (oops!). We recalled the download and have corrected the errors in the backend. For the small handful of you who were able to redeem one of the codes, you're good to go. If you get a new code given to you from the bank, feel free to ignore it.
If you have any troubles redeeming your E-book code, please reach out to us at [email protected], and we can double check the code. For additional technical assistance, you'll need to reach out to VitalSource for their help on their end.
The games are currently on a boat making its way to the Port of New York. We expect them to be States-side and at our warehouse in February.
Add-on and Shipping Charges
We will be locking down orders and the Preorder Store soon (you'll see a 48-hour notice from Backerkit after this update). Once the 48-hours is up, we will be charging credit cards for any add-ons and preorders that were made since we sent out surveys last fall. Credit cards will be charged some time on Friday, January 24. If there are any changes you wish to make to your survey responses or any add-ons you wish to purchase, you should do so before your order locks on Wednesday and cards are charged on Friday. Also, for the small handful of you who haven't responded to your survey yet, you should take care of that soon.
Please note: this charge on Friday is only for add-ons and preorders. We are not charging for shipping just yet. Once the games reach our warehouse, we'll get the shipping costs locked down and added to your Backerkit account so you can review them before we charge for those as well. Once that step is completed, we'll begin fulfillment of the physical rewards. This will start up in February some time.
Digital Rewards
Once we lock orders and collect for add-ons and preorders, we'll be able to release some of the digital rewards as part of this campaign. Add-on curriculum guides and print & play PDFs will be distributed through Backerkit. We're still locking down how the digital version of the E2E core gamebook will be distributed to you all through our distribution partner VitalSource, but once we have that settled (and the codes generated), we'll release those to you as well.
The Instructor's Manual reward is still in layout, so that'll come after we finish fulfillment on the physical rewards, but should you need access to them in draft form, please reach out ([email protected]), and we'll see what we can do.
