June Chapters Update
10 months ago – Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 01:33:49 PM

Hey friends! We hope you’re staying cool, playing games, and enjoying the summer months! Some of our team got to hang out and play games with a few of you at RinCon in Tucson recently! We had a blast rolling dice and hanging out with amazing gamers like you!

We’re back for another chapters update!

Chapter Update: June 2023

We’re continuing to do monthly updates on each chapter’s progress. Here’s a brief reminder of what each phase means, but for a full description you can see Update 30: Chapters Update & Dice Preview:

• On hold areas are waiting for the rest of the book to be done.
  
• Writing involves the writing team creating the chapter.
  
• Developmental Editing is the process of an editor working with the writer on a written chapter, restructuring and finalizing the text.
  
• Copy Editing is when an editor goes through the text to ensure that all grammatical, spelling, punctuation, and style errors are corrected.
  
• Layout takes the text from the copy editor and puts it into the final form for print.
  
• Proofing: the team looks over the chapter in all its laid out glory to ensure it’s perfect.
  
• Art: art is added to the chapter.
  

Urban Shadows Chapters (June 2023)

• Front Materials (credits, opening, etc) - on hold
• Chapter 1: Introduction - on hold
• Chapter 2: Cities of Shadows - writing
• Chapter 3: Fundamentals of Play - developmental editing
• Chapter 4: Character Creation - layout
• Chapter 5: Core Moves - developmental editing
• Chapter 6: Playbooks - layout
• Chapter 7: Advancement - developmental editing
• Chapter 8: The Master of Ceremonies -proofing/art
• Chapter 9: Long-term Play - copy editing
• Chapter 10: City Guides -Chicago (layout) + Santiago (writing)
  Back Material (play aids, index, etc) - layout

We’re excited to say that Chapter 3 is now in developmental editing. We’ve seen a fair bit of writing on a few other chapters but they aren’t quite ready to move to the next phase. As always, we’ll continue to keep you abreast of any changes or developments as we proceed!

We’ll be releasing a final schedule for the book as soon as everything is in copyediting, so stay tuned! As always, refunds are still available for those who wish for one. To request a refund, please email us at [email protected].

Thank You!

We are excited to continue working hard to bring you Urban Shadows 2E! A huge thank you to all of you amazing backers, our Discord community, and the amazing folks who keep sending feedback! This game is going to be epic because of you! We’ll see you next month with more news!

May Chapters Update
11 months ago – Wed, May 31, 2023 at 01:00:41 PM

Hey friends! Welcome back to another monthly update! As we promised before, we’ll be doing monthly check-ins to let you know where the chapters are, what progress we’ve made, and what’s going on over at Magpie Games HQ! Let’s jump in!

Chapter Update: May 2023

We’re continuing to do monthly updates on each chapter’s progress. Here’s a brief reminder of what each phase means, but for a full description you can see Update 30: Chapters Update & Dice Preview:

•  On hold areas are waiting for the rest of the book to be done.
   
•  Writing involves the writing team creating the chapter.
   
•  Developmental Editing is the process of an editor working with the writer on a written chapter, restructuring and finalizing the text.
   
•  Copy Editing is when an editor goes through the text to ensure that all grammatical, spelling, punctuation, and style errors are corrected.
   
•  Layout takes the text from the copy editor and puts it into the final form for print.
   
•  Proofing: the team looks over the chapter in all its laid out glory to ensure it’s perfect.
   
•  Art: art is added to the chapter.
   

Urban Shadows Chapters (May 2023)

• Front Materials (credits, opening, etc) - on hold
• Chapter 1: Introduction - on hold
• Chapter 2: Cities of Shadows - writing
• Chapter 3: Fundamentals of Play - writing
• Chapter 4: Character Creation - layout
• Chapter 5: Core Moves - developmental editing
• Chapter 6: Playbooks - layout
• Chapter 7: Advancement - developmental editing
• Chapter 8: The Master of Ceremonies -proofing/art
• Chapter 9: Long-term Play - copy editing
• Chapter 10: City Guides -Chicago (layout) + Santiago (writing)
  Back Material (play aids, index, etc) - layout

As you can see, we haven’t moved any of the chapters in writing out of writing, which is a key focus for the team. While progress is being made, they aren’t complete yet, and so haven’t changed status. We are excited to say that we have brought on two writers to the projects who have previously been working on the Avatar Legends: the Roleplaying Game books! They’re jumping in immediately and we expect those chapters to be changing status shortly!

While the chapters aren’t finished, we’re excited about what writing was worked on in May. We’ll be releasing a final schedule for the book as soon as everything is in copyediting, so stay tuned! As always, refunds are still available for those who wish for one. To request a refund, please email us at [email protected].

Thank You!

We are continually grateful for your kindness and support through this process. We’ll be back next month with more updates on what’s happening with the chapters, what we’ve been working, the progress we made, and any new developments! Have a great June and we’ll see you at the end of the month!

Chapters Update
about 1 year ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2023 at 01:28:55 PM

Hello all!

As promised, we’re back with monthly updates on our progress with writing and layout. This month has been a bit quiet—we’re waiting on final samples of the accessories from our printer—but we’ve definitely made some progress on the book itself. We know this update is a bit later than we had planned, as our team was at GAMA trade show. Thanks for your patience! Let’s dig in!

Chapter Update: April 2023

We noted in the last update that we’d return to monthly chapter updates this month! Here’s a brief reminder of what each phase means, but for a full description you can see Update 30: Chapters Update & Dice Preview:

• On hold areas are waiting for the rest of the book to be done.
• Writing involves the writing team creating the chapter.
• Developmental Editing is the process of an editor working with the writer on a written chapter, restructuring and finalizing the text.
• Copy Editing is when an editor goes through the text to ensure that all grammatical, spelling, punctuation, and style errors are corrected.
• Layout takes the text from the copy editor and puts it into the final form for print.
• Proofing: the team looks over the chapter in all its laid out glory to ensure it’s perfect.
• Art: art is added to the chapter.

Urban Shadows Chapters (April 2023)

• Front Materials (credits, opening, etc) - on hold
• Chapter 1: Introduction - on hold
• Chapter 2: Cities of Shadows - writing
• Chapter 3: Fundamentals of Play - writing
• Chapter 4: Character Creation - layout
• Chapter 5: Core Moves - developmental editing
• Chapter 6: Playbooks - layout
• Chapter 7: Advancement - developmental editing
• Chapter 8: The Master of Ceremonies -proofing/art
• Chapter 9: Long-term Play - copy editing
• Chapter 10: City Guides - Chicago (layout) + Santiago (writing)
  Back Material (play aids, index, etc) - layout

While Chapter 5 and Chapter 7 are both in developmental editing, we’ve been getting lots of questions about the full faction and long-term play mechanics from Chapter 9. In order to get you all an earlier preview—as we did with Chapter 8—we’ve bumped that chapter up in the schedule. Now that it’s in copyediting, we’ll be focusing on Chapters 5 and 7 moving forward. We’ve also worked out the city guide layout, so we’ll be finishing up the first city guide soon as well!

We’re pleased that we’ve made some writing/editing progress this month, and we’re hoping to see more good progress in May. We’ll be releasing a final schedule for the book as soon as everything is in copyediting, so stay tuned! As always, refunds are still available for those who wish for one. To request a refund, please email us at [email protected].

You All Rock!

As a final note, we wanted to say thank you for all the kind words that you all left on our last update. It’s difficult to struggle through any project, but it’s especially challenging when the delays mount and deadlines are missed. Every single one of our books is a labor of love, and we so appreciate the support you all have given us throughout the project. Thank you!

Apology & Accessories Preview
about 1 year ago – Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 03:51:43 PM

Hello, friends! We know it’s been awhile since you’ve had an update from us and we’re here to discuss what’s going on with the project, along with what happened to cause so long a silence. Thank you for your patience as we’ve worked through what’s been happening.

What Happened

First, we want to say we’re sorry that Urban Shadows hasn’t been given the time it deserves and that we haven’t been present for you or as responsive as we should have been. Explaining what has happened won’t make the game appear or make the situation better, but we know transparency and honesty are important and want to honor your support. We know you’re frustrated and beyond disappointed. We are too. Urban Shadows is a project dear to our hearts and the last four months have been heartbreaking in how deeply they have directly impacted this project.

As many of you have noted, Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game is a massive project that has impacted our entire team’s workload; we didn’t know the size or scale of that project until after we had run the Urban Shadows Kickstarter, and we have struggled to balance the workload during 2022. As the year came to an end, however, we felt that we were back on track with Urban Shadows and other projects.

Unfortunately, the shipping for the ALRPG did not go as planned in December and January: we always prepare for roughly 2% of packages to have issues, but our partners in some regions—ignoring our advice and packing requirements—generated three to four times as many problems as expected, resulting in literally thousands of unexpected customer service issues. Our staff members have been working 10–14 hour days to manage the crisis, and while we’re out of the woods now, other projects got hit hard. Any project whose writing wasn’t complete got hit the hardest, and Urban Shadows suffered the most.

Urban Shadows’ design and writing team is led by some of the core members of our company, including several directors and our CEO. These team members are integral to the company’s function and they were required to step in and manage shipping for the ALRPG when crisis after crisis unfolded. While we hired over ten new staff members to help deal with the issue, including a new director, and changed our internal processes to better manage the massive crisis, the last of these shipping issues are just resolving now.

This has been one of the most challenging and difficult times for the Urban Shadows team, physically, mentally, and emotionally. In addition to the ALRPG, our ability to make progress on Urban Shadows was further impacted by personal family crises for team members, illness, and intense burnout. We’re sorry we didn’t communicate more clearly; every time we thought the crisis was over, another unfolded and we were pulled back in. We’re so sorry that the ongoing shipping crisis not only pulled us away from the work of producing the book, but took all of our resources so entirely it was difficult to do more than push through. It wasn’t fair to you or to Urban Shadows, which we love dearly. We’re sorry for the points of failure in working on the project, but also for not communicating clearly to you what was happening.

For those of you who have shown us grace and kindness during the process, and those who are healthily venting your frustration and disappointment, thank you. We appreciate the honesty and the support.

Going Forward

We know that no amount of apologizing or promises will repair the trust that we’ve broken with our delays and absence, and we understand that the only thing we can do to rebuild that is start working on Urban Shadows again. We are absolutely committed to returning to the chapter overview monthly, and working steadily to bring a beautiful game to you as soon as we can.

We’ve taken explicit steps to make sure we get it right from this point forward. We have hired new staff to help us mitigate burnout and ensure we have the resources we need to manage any ongoing operational issues. We have also reassigned staff to make sure they have the time, energy, and capacity to continue the important work on this game. And we are working to ensure that our team continues the work while recovering from burnout so that Urban Shadows is not only delivered, but is also the excellent game we’ve envisioned from the start.

Next month we will have a chapters overview for you, showing what work has been completed since this update. We are so excited to be able to come back and focus on Urban Shadows. We also want to thank everyone who sent feedback on the Chapter 8 preview. We had some amazing notes from you, our backers, and we’re always thrilled to hear your thoughts on the work we’re doing.

As always, refunds are still available for those who wish for one. To request a refund, please email us at [email protected].

Accessories Preview

We are excited to showcase some of the accessories in production. These are samples but the finals should look very similar to them. We are just doing color checks to get the best possible product with the most vibrant colors. Have a look at the dice tray, journal, and dice pack! One big change is the journal now has a dot grid (not pictured) after so many of you asked for it! Thank you for the feedback!

 We’ve decided that the best-looking dice are purple with a pearlescent effect. We’re really happy with how they turned out! 

The journals underwent some minor adjustments to the art, but we were pretty happy with them in the first place—the biggest change will be the dot grid interior on the final versions! 

We were really impressed with how the first dice tray turned out, so we made a new design to take advantage of the excellent printing. This design shifts the Magpie logo to the back, and it puts the four faction logos in places where they’ll be partly visible when it’s folded into a tray. We’re likely to move the symbols a bit to make them even more visible when folded.

Again, we apologize for everything that has happened these past few months and thank you for continuing on this journey with us. We’ll see you next month with a chapters update to show the progress we’ve made from now!

Project Update & Accessories Preview
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 27, 2023 at 11:00:50 AM

Happy New Year, everyone! We hope your holidays were filled with good food, wonderful people, and amazing games! We’ve been busy at Magpie Games HQ since we got back, and are here with a project update!

Project Update

Normally we would give you a chapters updated. Unfortunately, January has been a rough month for the Urban Shadows team. Our team lead, main writer, developmental editor, and CEO got Covid and has been sick for most of January. On top of this health struggle, there was an on-going family emergency while we are also shipping two projects that had multiple crises.

As such, we do not have any movement this month on chapters. For that, we’re very sorry. All of these challenges we’ve faced this month are resolving. Our team lead has returned after being sick, and the projects we’re shipping are winding down. Our plan for February is to hit Urban Shadows hard and make as much progress as we can.

We know this isn’t the news anyone wants to hear. As always, if you no longer wish to support the project, refunds are available. Please email us at [email protected] to request a refund. Our customer service team right now is backlogged, but we will process the refund shortly after receiving the request.

Accessories Preview

While our team lead has been out most of this month, progress has still been made on the accessories! These are not the final preview, as images and elements on many of them may change, but we wanted to give you an idea of what the dice tray, dice, and journals will look like!

The dice are in the midst of a few changes—we’re finalizing which color we want, and we’re adjusting some details of the dice box. They will have pips and not numerals, but otherwise there will be minimal changes! That said, we do have a preview of how they’re coming along!

The journals are done! You can see them below. They feature the main art from the book cover! We’re likely to adjust it a little bit with the interplay of transparent elements, but it will remain largely the same. On the back are the circle symbols. Each journal is bound using saddle-stitched binding, meaning they are stapled together through the spine.

Finally, we have a preview of the dice tray! We’re very excited with how high quality the tray turned out, and as a result, we’re making some changes to which images go on the dice tray. This preview is just a preview, as the images will change, but we wanted to show you how good it’s looking so far!

And here are all the preview items together!

That’s all our updates for now! We’ll be back next month with a chapters update and more news! Thanks, as always, for your support! We hope you enjoy the accessories preview and have a great rest of the month!