We hope that your umbral existence continues to be most excellent. We want to take this moment to update you on where we are at with manufacturing. Apologies for the long delay in updates. With the FYOV game all digital files have been approved and a pre-production prototype is underway (with likely a delay for Chinese New Year). The pre-production prototype allows us to see the physical copy before mass production. With the FYOV journal we have received the pre-production prototype. Based on the prototype there are some adjustments we are making to the journal. Our manufacturer on the journal has received those changes and is sending us updates some of which will be physical (pieces of the ephemera that we wanted adjusted) others of which are digital (the golden corners on the book cover had been inset on the cover too far). Overall we are thrilled with the journal and we have been having fun putting it through its paces. We wanted to use it in ways we thought you you all might also decide to use it. Below we have images of it in use. Please note that there are materials that were collaged or created by a user of the journal in these images that are not part of the journal. The ephemera from the journal has a small display (but we are keeping them a bit hidden so you can be surprised. We are happy with where we are at. After Chinese New Year the game and journal should enter production.
As part of the journal we wanted the stitching on the binding to have a little bit of give. This is part of the reason we needed to lose the clasp. We still didn't get as much give as we were hoping for, but there is some give for people who want to collage and create three dimensional objects or press items within the pages of the book. The first image below shows you the full book. Following it are a couple of images designed to show how the book takes ink and pencils. We did more tests on the paper with about a dozen different pen and ink types. Here you just see uniball and a fountain pen. Please note that the smear on the fountain pen was intentional. I wrote the first line quickly and gave it no time to dry. I then wrote the second longer line and by the time I finished writing it the beginning had dried enough that it didn't smear. To test pencils and colors I asked my resident high schooler artist to show you all pencil work. The images after the tea-drinking Kermit show you the collaged items Bold Pocket Press created and put into the book to test it out.
Spoiler ahead: The image after this next one gives you glimpses of the ephemera that comes in the journal. You can't see all of any of it, but you do get glimpses of some of it so if you don't want to see it, skip to the bottom of the update.
That is it for this month's update. You likely won't hear from us again until after the Chinese New Year. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. On one final note. As this game is entering manufacturing we will be starting our next crowdfunding campaign. As you have a moment please head over to Kickstarter and check out our next game Hydrologic Cycle - after all a well hydrated human's blood goes down better. So vampires in the know have command of the Hydrologic Cycle. You can find the prelaunch link here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmu/hydrologic-cycle
May your dice forever be critical successes! The Central Michigan University Press Team
