And they look fantastic. I was proud of this game before, but now I'm very proud. Holding the finished work in my hands tells me one thing: I will have to make another board book one of these days! Maybe a companion for Dank & Dark. A book of short adventures might make a fun addition to the game.
For now, all we can do is wait. The pledge manager is almost ready (it is with BackerKit for their review), and the factory says we can expect the finished books in October. (They have to take a ride across the ocean before we can ship the books to you.) We'll let you know if that changes.
Email from the printer today, sharing two important things.
Printing is complete! Up next is the long journey, which takes a few months to complete.
We have a video of the finished books! Up first, the saddle-stitch edition. After that is our first look at the completed boardbook edition of Dank & Dark. It looks great! Watch it on YouTube.
The pledge manager isn't ready yet. We'll make an announcement once we're ready to open the pledge manager.
Dank & Dark (board book). The game is here, and the size/weight of the white mockup is great! The 7" x 7" size feels really good, and I'm glad that the stock was upgraded to the best the printer offers. Their paper proof also looks good, but I want to run through everything once more before approving the proof.
Dank & Dark 16-Ounce Glass. I am unhappy with the weight of the type, so I've already edited the file and ordered a new proof. While what I received is readable, I decided to use a heavier type weight to help things be just that little bit better than they already are.
The pledge manager isn't ready, but it is being worked on. We still think we'll have the pledge manager open before the end of the month. While you wait for that, here are a few quick pics of the two proofs.
For being only a 24-page book, it's a thick one!
And the glass looks good as well. It will look better once the modified version is ready.
Great news, gang! After a few rounds of back and forth with the printer, we can happily report that Dank & Dark is officially at print! Lex and I took time for one last review (and then another last review, making the print file name something like dankanddarkfinished_noreally_final_thisisdone.zip). We should see proofs in July, and we'll report back once those have reached our hands.
Pledge Manager Work is starting, and we'll open the pledge manager (and late pledges) at some time in July. We'll expand on the number of add-on options, including something completely new for Dank & Dark: a glass that features the basics of character creation! After testing the print quality and legibility of smaller type on glasses, we can now confirm that this option will be available in the pledge manager. Wanna get new players started quickly? Hand them a glass and let them get busy making a character!
That's all the news for today. We'll be back in July when we have something new to share with you.
Thanks to your generous support, we're officially making the Dank & Dark RPG. I've personally long wanted to use this format for a game book, so getting to this stage is amazing. I am grateful to all of you for financing the production of the game.
All of the creative work – including the bookmarks – has been completed, and now we're preparing to place the print order. We need to wait for credit cards to process, which takes two weeks. After that, we'll know exactly how many books we need, and we'll pull the trigger on printing.
Because of the style of book and the low quantities needed, we're printing Dank & Dark with a Chinese factory. We're doing all we can to estimate the impact of tariffs on the project, and we're feeling pretty good about everything.
We'll open the surveys – and pre-orders – within the next month, and we'll be back with another update once we've got more news. Thank you. Your support means everything to us, and we truly wouldn't be making things without you.
