Hey friends, hope everyone is having a great weekend!

And if you're kicking yourself for not backing Realm Runners while it was LIVE, you can submit for a LATE PLEDGE with limited options HERE 🔥

We've got a lot of work ahead of us to get Realm Runners into production. Just wanted to let y'all know what's happening next:

Here is a rundown of what we foresee as far as a timeline:

Of course all the above dates are tentative and may shift for better or for worse. We will keep y'all up-to-date as good as we can throughout this process.

Ok, now on to some gratitude. Skinner and I each just wrote a little something something since we have been overwhelmed with support over the past 30 days. Apologies for the length:

From Skinner — "Well, I'm sitting here thinking of the kind of honest feelings of appreciation and thanks that I have and I'm struck by how overwhelming it is. It's not just a gratitude for being able to do my creative best and collaborate on something that truly feels complete and awesome in the way I like, but the feeling of total freedom that is in me that comes from an experience like doing the Realm Runners campaign.

I'll try to explain, what I mean..in my career as an artist, I have had many heart breaking losses and failures around projects that have come after building up and working and investing massive energy, hope and intention. These are not things that I share publicly, but many of them have felt like truly crushing moments where I thought that maybe they were signs to stop. To do something else. Moments where I felt like I paid my dues, did things by the rules and struggled on the way to the "top".. whatever that meant in my mind ( don't really know actually, just had to get there somehow). I thought if I did things right and worked hard enough, I would be allowed to pass through on to the next level of things, and it didn't work that way. The narrative I had around this, made it so that I put my success and ability to make my creative visions come true, in the hands of gate keepers in institutions and industries that, frankly just weren't letting me through.

And now, I understand that not being let through put me in a position of having to know more about myself and what I needed to do to find a way of getting my ideas and projects out there. To be able to fully share in a way that is uninhibited and free. And that's what doing crowdfunding has allowed me. a true and free ability to dig deep, make something that truly reflects where I'm at and who I am creatively and get it out there. No heartbreaking stories of not being good enough, or being accepted or marketable. No compromises for a larger company or industry that would have me resenting the very thing I was doing. Just creativity and collaborations that resonate with myself and the gift of being able to share that. It has truly given me the chance to turn a story of bitterness and rejection into one of personal liberation. I now see that every one of those heart breaking moments of dejection and failure have lead me to this place of peace and support.

I know that my role is just to do my best, and to me that feels like a job I can handle, especially if it leads to experiences like Realm Runners. All my love and appreciation to you all! Onwards and upwards!"

From Jason —  "I am overjoyed at the level of support Realm Runners has had. This has been a 2-year journey that all started with Skinner and I just discussing the type of board game we selfishly wanted to play. What followed was a relentless amount of game designing, collaboration, and playtesting. I played this thing everywhere from California (our home state!), to Indianapolis (Gen Con), to Philadelphia (PAX Unplugged), To Las Vegas (CES), and even to Essen Germany (SPIEL Essen). And I visited all those places at least TWICE each over 2 years. And in all those places, I specifically kept Skinners artwork hidden from public eyes because it was so damn good I think people would have lied to me and told me the game was great, when what they meant was, the game LOOKED great. It was important for me to match Skinners's art with an equally aweseome gameplay experience. I didn't share Skinner's art for playtesting until 2 things happened — 1) The table was consistently full of playful laughter and jovial screaming 2) I witnessed entire games being played without anyone reaching for their cell phones. Once those two things were happening, I knew we had something special.

But for me, the most rewarding aspect has been the ongoing collaboration with Skinner. Never have I teamed up with a more gifted, talented, kind, hard working, and empathetic partner for a project. Sure there are ups and downs whenever you tackle something of this scale, but the entire journey as been so organic and so seamless that any speed bumps were met with grace and cooperation above all else. I can't articulate just how rewarding this has been. And my only hope is that there is more to come for Realm Runners and beyond.

And to see this all come together to launch a crowdfunding project here on BackerKit has been so very fulfilling. Considering the state of the world, the state of our economy, the fact that we are on a brand new crowdfunding platform, the fact that there is a relentless amount of competition in the tabletop games space, AND the fact that our game is designed for gamers and non-gamers alike, I'm surprised we managed to pull this off, let alone at this scale. It's truly, wholeheartedly, becasue of you reading this (if you made it this far). Thank you so much. Realm Runners truly feels like a crowdfunding project from the ealy days of crowdfunding when more wierd indie things were being made from very small teams of people. Realm Runners is ure to me. And I am so very thankful you are here to help make it all happen.

I'm not going to treat this as an Oscars speech and rattle off each and every name I want to thank, I'll do that in the rule book. Or you can look at our 'About' section to see who all the cool collaborators have been so far. We have a bit of work ahead of us to fulfill all our campaign promises, and we are on the right track and well on our way. I look onward to fulfilling this campaign, and truly, deeply, cannot wait for you to play this game in all it's glory. The game designer is last to prove themself, and my only hope here on out is that you adore this game as much as I've adored making it ❤️

Stay tuned friends, we will keep you updated here on BackerKit as this adventure continues.

Skinner x Jason Furie ✌️