Production updates on HAGL, IMMORTALITY, DYKG, and Mika
2025 is now well underway. We’re pleased to have our new, efficient shipping partner under our belt, remaining outstanding orders going out the door, and the issues that plagued our distribution of orders behind us.
For those who missed it, we recently updated relevant customers on the progress of our outstanding order shipments, and we can’t wait to have cleared the backlog and have all our books in reader’s hands. Thank you, as always, for your support and understanding while we went through the gargantuan task of swapping distributors.
With that now more-or-less done, we look to the fantastic progress underway for all our other in-the-works projects. Following our recent exciting Eastward update, here’s a juicy deluge of updates on some of our other works-in-progress, including How a Games Lives: The Annotated Essays of Jacob Geller, IMMORTALITY: Design Works, Do You Know Gaming, and Mika and the Witch’s Mountain. We’ll be sharing frequent updates on these and other projects again soon.
IMMORTALITY: Design Works
We are pleased to share that IMMORTALITY: Design Works' layout is nearly complete and preliminary manufacturing steps are underway as we have dummy books in-hand for review.
As the project moves through the proofing and approvals process, we intend to provide regular updates including production photos and internal spreads, as we work towards a new shipping timeline that we'll announce as soon as it has been confirmed.
We can't wait to share some behind-the-scenes insight in the meantime about the careful research, planning, and creative problem-solving that has gone into this release! Thank you so much for your patience.
How a Game Lives: The Annotated Essays of Jacob Geller
Following on from our previous How a Game Lives update, where we announced we were content complete, we're pleased to confirm another big step, with the book now being completely designed.
There are a few tweaks to come, but we will now enter our final proofreading stage, as well as await final physical proofs for both the main book and our elaborate Deluxe Edition.
Please be aware, these processes do still take some time, but the finish line is within sight! We'll be keeping you all updated with some more visual behind-the-scenes newsletters on the making of the book, as well as on the final next steps when we go to print.
Do You Know Gaming?
The team is having regular meetings and working hard on our upcoming Do You Know Gaming dungeon-crawling trivia card game, with some great progress being made in recent weeks.
Following on from a giant test print of all 463 cards and lots of physical around-the-table game tests over the holiday period, the next few weeks will be dedicated to making design tweaks and amendments to ensure cards are more legible and accessible in terms of colour and type. Although it has added some time onto our production schedule, this extra physical test phase has been crucial, as it allowed us see how the game plays out in a real, live social setting, as opposed to just on-paper rules, helping us assess and fine-tune specific rules according to how fun they were in actuality.
We are well ahead in print production, thanks in part to our new print management company, which we've found to be wonderfully efficient and helpful. We’ve produced prototypes of both the standard and Deluxe boxes, and all extra physical items, while elements like the dice and pin badges are already well into being manufactured. This means as as soon as we’ve finished amending the cards and rules we’ll be able to move onto final production.
Above, you’ll see some snaps from our playtest sessions, and below, some behind-the-scenes shots of our prototype boxes. We'll keep you informed on the next steps of our progress soon.
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain
In May 2024, we launched a very exclusive pre-order for Lost In Cult Presents: Mika and the Witch’s Mountain. This was made available to the Kickstarter backers of the game and our wonderful newsletter community only. So thank you to those who pre-ordered!
This has also made communicating updates for this project a little more difficult, as we cannot shout from the social media heavens (yet) or update our site about where we are. However, I can now tell you that the final editorial draft and overall design direction has now been fully green lit by all parties, with the next steps being the final layouts being created. When this happens, the project will go back up for pre-order, with an INCREDIBLY LIMITED amount of Deluxe Editions and Community Bundles available. We will have more news on an official date once the book is ready to go to print (in roughly 1 to 2 months time) and you shall be the first to know.
We did originally state an estimated delivery date in Q4 2024, and we've been hard at work producing a book befitting of the world that the Chibig team has crafted. We are still working diligently, and pleased with the progress we have made.
There have been a couple of challenges along the way, not least storm DANA that affected the lives of many living in Valencia in late October. The storm took with it 222 lives and destroyed many towns, villages and vital infrastructure across the area. This happens to be where many of the team working on the Mika book are based: our Project Manager and Writer is based there, and so too are the game's development team. Thankfully all are well, but the storm hampered progress on certain aspects of the book that we are now firmly pushing forward with.
We are grateful for your ongoing support and look forward to getting this into your hands. If you would like to donate to help rebuild the lives of people affected by storm DANA, you can do so by clicking the link below:
