Those last few days were an absolute whirlwind, exceeding my personal expectations by a decent chunk in terms of both backer number and amount raised - piconauts, you're a wild and lovely bunch :P
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but...
THANK YOU ALL :)
And now onto business! Let's hit a few important post-funding points, one by one...
TIMELINES
I've learned over the years that precise timelines are impossible - you never know what's going to happen. But softer, vaguer timelines, as in 'if things go perfectly this is when things should happen', are definitely within my grasp. The goal is to get the writing for PICO, both the core book and Picodex, finished by the end of January. I'm lucky, in that most of it is done already, but there are definitely some new sections to add based on the stretch goals unlocked!
Once that's done we'll have a couple of months of playtesting, editing, and minor alterations - then it's off to the printers. In an ideal world we'd start fulfilling mid-next-year, but once my part as writer and designer is done the book passes through a lot of production-style hands, and timelines are harder to pin down in advance.
What does this mean? That December to February is the best period in which you might give suggestions and feedback, that's what! You'll find a discord link near the end of this update, and we have some feedback channels there if you wish to chime in.
BUG ME IN & PICOTITAN BACKERS
For you lucky folks, I'll be getting in touch over the next few days (likely via e-mail) to get some reference material and descriptions for the dedicated art. Backer art takes priority at this stage, as the extra inclusion of a third party in the me-to-zkarab pipeline means pieces will take a little longer than usual (thanks to the necessity of mutual approval). It should also mean some really cool art pieces though, and that suits me just fine!
UPDATE REGULARITY
As with the Wildsea campaigns, I expect to be updating backers here about once a month. There's no particular day within the month you should be waiting for, and if it runs a few weeks over without an update that's no reason to worry - it doesn't mean I've fled to a small island, comically large sack of money in hand and nefarious cackles spilling from my lips. Once books are in the printing stage, expect updates to drop in frequency until there's actual news - an update saying 'well, books are still printing / on a boat' is quite a boring one to write and read!
But if you want a more interactive look at the process in between updates, there are several channels dedicated to PICO in the Wild Words discord server - it's a friendly place, and I post there often. You'll find it right here if you follow this link!
You can also hop on my personal patreon if you want a combination of PICO, Wildsea, weird fiction, futue games, sci-fi musings, and general life-of-Felix news. My upload schedule on patreon is sporadic, with flurries and tangents and odd explorations, but the other patrons seem to enjoy it so I must be doing something right. You'll find it here, if the mood takes you!
And that's it for our post-campaign-end update! Thank you again for some very big numbers, and here's to a wonderfully bugly future!
Felix, out!