Reminder: Fill Out Your Survey
over 7 years ago – Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 09:44:30 AM

Don't forget, I need the BackerKit survey filled out by April 5th for purposes of backer credit in the book. 

I'm not going to close the BackerKit until summer (probably July, but I'll give you notice before I do), so even if you put in a credit card, you're not going to get charged right now. 

And, again, if you want to pick up at GenCon, PM me and I'll put a credit on your account so you don't get charged for shipping. 

Thanks! 

Picking Up Monsters at GenCon
over 7 years ago – Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 06:48:06 PM

If there's a great place to find monsters generally, it's GenCon.

Seriously, though, something I forgot to put in the last update: If you're going to GenCon and you'd like to pick up Chill materials there, including backer copies of Monsters, please PM me here and tell me so, and I'll put a credit on your BackerKit so you don't get charged shipping. 

If you haven't filled out your BackerKit, do so, please. I'm not going to close it and charge cards for a few more months, but I need the names for the credits page for Monsters. 

That's all for now!

February Update: More Art, Text is Done, Everything Progresses
almost 8 years ago – Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 10:13:44 AM

Greetings, envoys! Happy February. Here's where things stand with Monsters. 

Text

I've written the book. It's been handed off to Morgan, who is editing it, and Martin, who is looking it over for approvals, and when it's done in those arenas it'll go to Thomas for layout. 

Art

Art continues to trickle in; I've got the final cover illustration from Stephanie Brown (but I'm gonna wait to show it to you until Thomas has the title on it), a bunch of monsters from Gennifer Bone (including the Boogeyman, below), a bunch of half-page illustrations from Alessandro Alaia (including the lake monster, below), and a bunch of portraits from Jenna Fowler (including Lovely, below). 

 Comic

Len is hard at work on the opening comic. Here's the first page (this isn't the final so expect a couple of tweaks). 

 Cases

I've got first drafts of the free cases from all four authors, I just haven't had time to redline them yet. I have a couple of gigs from Onyx Path that I need to complete, and then I'm going to get those into the works. You should start seeing them go up in April, but I have a case that I want to put up before that (it's mostly done, I just need to dedicate a day to finishing it). 

Speaking of Cases...

The original plan for Monsters was to include several interconnected cases. As I finished the book, though, I found myself butting up against my own timeline - I didn't have time to write the cases and get the book to editing (and then layout, and then press) on time. As such, you're going to get the interconnected cases I promised, but they'll be released as pdfs on the site. You, however, as Monsters backers, are going to get them first, so as they're done I'll make them available to backers for about a week before putting them up on the Growling Door site.

I apologize for that, and I really weighed my options, but at the end of the day I felt it was a better idea to get the book done and out on time, especially since you'll get the content anyway (and it'll be better content if I don't have to rush it!). 

Conventions

I'm at so many conventions coming up, you have no idea. I'm going to do a post on our company blog about that, so keep an eye on the site or sign up for our mailing list (same link!) to stay abreast of news from the Growling Door! 

And, as always, thank you for your support.

January Update: Where Does the Time Go?
almost 8 years ago – Thu, Jan 05, 2017 at 12:25:30 AM

Happy New Year!

First thing: Apologies for missing December. I'm sure I don't need to explain that December is a busy month, what with holidays and impending end-of-year business and whatnot, and doing an update for Monsters just flew right by. 

But, I'm happy to report that things are very much on schedule! I've hired Stephanie Brown to do our cover illustration for Monsters; you can see some of her work here. Kiva and Jenna are hard at work making portraits for the pre-gen characters. 

 Len is working on the comic from my script, which involves horrible little troll-things in an apartment building in downtown LA and features our favorite Aussie bounty hunter, BB Bottomley. 

Finally, Alessandro is working on our half-pages pieces, and as luck would have, I just got a couple from him today! Here's the Hag. 

 As for the writing, I'm going to close out this update and get back to work on the lake monster section. My plan is to have the writing done by the end of January and pass everything along to Morgan for editing in early February. 

Drafts of the free cases are due from Amy, Morgan, Julia, and Rob at the end of January, which should align nicely with me being done with the book, so I'll be getting those up on the site just as soon as I can. 

As a reminder: If your backer level included PDFs of Chill or SAVE and you haven't received them, please check your messages and make sure you responded and gave me your email address. If you pledged for a level that lets you contribute something to the book (Witness, Field Agent, etc.) check your Kickstarter messages and make sure you're followed any instructions. 

Any questions? As always, let me know, and as always, thank you for your support!

November Update: Edges, Drawbacks, Building up Steam
about 8 years ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 06:53:45 PM

Greetings, envoys! I want to keep everyone abreast of the progress we're making and how I handle Kickstarter updates.

The plan right now is to update once a month. That way you don't get spammed with information, but I still keep you in the loop. If something really important happens (some really awesome piece of news, or, heavens forbid, a catastrophe of some kind that I think will impact the release of Monsters), I'll break that monthly schedule to update, of course.

If you have questions about the project, though, please let me know! You can comment on this project, find my on Twitter at @BlackHat_Matt or @GrowlingDoor. You can also go to growlingdoorgames.com and sign up for our mailing list (that's not directly related to Monsters, but it'll get you updates on the company and our other projects). 

As far as Monsters progress, things are moving along. I've sent out contracts to our artists (Leonard, Jenna, Gennifer, Alessandro, and Kiva). Work on writing the book had to take a back burner; I had a couple of projects for Onyx Path Publishing that I needed to make some progress on. I've got Xmas break coming up, however, and I'm excited to get back to Monsters. I don't anticipate any problems in having the book written on schedule. 

I've contracted the four writers to handle the free cases (Morgan, Julia, Rob, and Amy), and that's underway. Their drafts are due in January and once the cases are done I'll probably do what I did last time, release one a month. I'm working on a couple of free cases of my own, too, but that's very much a "pick at it until I have a free Sunday and then bang out the words." 

Edges & Drawbacks

I want to include some new Edges & Drawbacks in Monsters, but I haven't turned my brain on that section full-force yet. Anyone got any suggestions? Anything from Chill 2nd that we didn't use that you'd like to see reappear? 

As always, thank you for your support! I'll see you in December!