What ho! 

What a month it's been. I'm gradually filling up the disposable bags of meat with the choicest of cuts. Details follow, but let's start with some headlines:

And here are those headlines, summarised in a graphic! 

I've just sent out the pledge manager smoke test, which is the last step before surveys go fully live. During the smoke test, surveys go out to 5% of backers and after a couple of days I check the data all makes sense and I've collected all the right info. Once I've made any necessary tweaks I then send out the rest of the surveys - probably this weekend.

I've added a few other Ex Stasis books to the pledge manager add-ons, by the way - some solo journalling games, two volumes of system-neutral horror scenarios, and the most ridiculous thing we've ever made: Animal Crossing X The Wicker Man. Obviously, there's no expectation that you'll pick up anything else, but if you're paying for international shipping you might as well slip another book in there.

Finished! Properly finished! Art, layout, and everything! (I know, I know, it bloody took me long enough). I'll upload it to Backerkit sometime before the main block of surveys go out, which means you'll be able to pick it up as soon as you do your survey.

The next step is printing, but I'm going to wait a few weeks on that: I hope some of you will get the quickstart to the gaming table, and I'm sure that will prompt a few questions and requests for clarification. I'm going to set up a Google form where you can report any issues, and I'll fix 'em before print (and update the PDF). There'll be a link in the quickstart itself.

I'm going to level with you: I wrote another game this month. A completely different one that I had no intention of writing, but it got some stuff out of my system. It has slowed me down and for that I apologise.

I have not finished writing the extra Meatbags material, and I have not fit in extra playtesting and this has added 3-4 weeks to delivery. I'll see whether we can make it up later in the timeline!

These are done and ready to print. I'll upload the form-fillable PDFs at the same time as the quickstart.

Manufacturing's complete, and the dice are on their way to me - arriving next week. Then the stock for US orders is going on a plane and racing the next set of tariff changes to the US! 

Once writing's complete on the core book, I'll move on to the cross-collab reward we're making with Eerie Games. It's a two-part circus horror scenario called Carnival Obscura, and it's digital only - so it can be finished a bit later without holding up fulfilment. If you backed Eerie's Survivor Sorority, you're getting both parts of this scenario added to your pledge automatically. 

Chris Farnell's made a creepy little diner microsetting for Meatbags. It's very clever, very meta, and it made me cackle out loud when I first read it. Chris is also running Meatbags on the Party Of One podcast in a couple of weeks, which is both wonderful and terrifying (what if it suddenly transforms from a fully playable game into a pile of stinking jelly? WHAT IF???). I'll send a link round when it happens.

That'll do for now, I reckon. The Meatbags manuscript is calling! 

- Chant