MID OF JUNE
Hi everyone! We’ve had a busy week. Some of us more than others: Eugene Zhukov’s new daughter is out of beta, has been fully debugged and compiled, and was launched in Real Life on 6/12. Happy birthday, Alexandra Zhukova!

She won’t be added to any reward tiers. Sorry! :))
DESTROY THE SILENCE
As a part of operation DESTROY THE SILENCE we’re asking you to please add us to your signatures, use our images as your avatars, and make us a part of your lives for the duration of the Kickstarter. It’s a nice low-key way to support the game - you don’t have to talk about Skyjacker to let your entourage know.
Here’s a new AVATAR PACK to help get you started. We’re including *.PSD and PNG files for those who want to merge our work with their existing images. (Don’t have Photoshop? The free image editor GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ opens *.PSD files just fine.) We also built out all the resolutions for Facebook Timeline

and Google+

, along with smaller icons good for most forums; as always, tell us if we missed a size you need. But a conversation is fine too. Have you told these people about Skyjacker yet?
- The spies who sap your sentry
- The lieutenants who transport your isk
- The terrorists who plant your bombs
- The junglers who smite your wraiths
- The snipers who call in your airstrikes
- The survivors who frighten your witches
- The trainers who use Vine Whip
- The diplomats who trade your technologies
- The witch doctors who kite your Butcher
- The summoners who activate your trap card
PIRATE STOCK MARKET IPO

Does anyone have experience creating, uploading, and seeding new torrents on The Pirate Bay? We need your help! As of this update we were going to offer the demo there as an alternative to direct downloads, but as good as we are at making space games, we've never done this before. Please let us know if you can give us a hand or offer advice on the best way to get it working.
PRO-TIP: TO DEFEAT THE AMAZON, PAY IT UNTIL IT DIES
- When pledging to a Kickstarter: you should use a card with a little more available than your actual pledge amount. Between placeholders, holds and transaction fees (either from Amazon, your bank, or your card issuer), your card can end up being tapped for more than just the pledge. We’ve seen prepaid cards in particular being denied on other projects when the backer purchased a card for the exact amount pledged and no more, so any backers in that situation should either check with their bank or top off their card with an extra fiver before their Kickstarter ends.
- PayPal’s policy on pre-orders: "PayPal permits pre-sales on a limited basis, only if the seller guarantees delivery within 20 days from the date of purchase". We didn’t have PayPal up as an alternative, so this won’t affect Skyjacker, but some Kickstarters have been using it to take additional backers outside of site/project boundaries. Those funds might end up being returned or indefinitely frozen. The moar you know! (Thanks, and condolences, to Yogsventures for discovering this.)
BOLT-ONS BY IKEA
These instructions are for backers who are interested in extra shirts or USB drives, but who aren't completely sure how to go about it. If that's not you, skip this section. If it is - sorry for the confusion!
When a Kickstarter project finishes, a survey is sent out to each backer asking for their details - what address you want your swag sent to, what name you want in the credits, what size you want your T-shirts, etc. In our survey we're also going to ask what extras you wanted (such as the $25 bolt-ons and $15 international shipping). Kickstarter doesn't have a good way to handle selecting more than one reward or selecting multiple rewards. This is the workaround we (and others) are using: pledge more now, work it out in the surveys. It doesn't strictly matter what reward tier you select right now - we can fix any mistakes there - as long as you pledge enough to cover the cost of what you WANT.
So the step-by-step:
- Click on MANAGE YOUR PLEDGE, or on BACK THIS PROJECT if you're not on board yet (welcome aboard!)
- Pledge enough to cover the total cost - include the base reward tier, the bolt-ons you want, and international shipping if it applies
- Select the base reward tier you want (we humbly suggest the $40 Settler Edition, with beta access, Art-Book and Soundtrack, and all future digital content)
- Click on CONTINUE and push it through Amazon
- At the end of the project, we'll ask you what your pledge was meant to cover, and send out your rewards based on your response
- Example: a $40 Settler Edition, a $25 Skyjacker shirt, and $15 to ship to Belgium = pledge $80, select $40 reward tier. We’ll clarify where the extra $40 is going with the Kickstarter survey.
- Example: a $15 Complete Edition, two $25 USB drives, and free shipping within the US = pledge $65, select $15 reward tier. The survey will again be where the magic happens.
Let us know if this is still confusing. In fact, let us know if it makes sense but could still be written better!
STARSHIP DISASSEMBLY FOR ALL, FOR REALS THIS TIME

MacOS version has now been added to the list. A big thank you to backer Avarchillion for pointing out the empty hole in our “all”!
Do you want to see more ships in the disassembly app? Let us know! We can’t promise anything yet, but there are some intentions. We’re talking to Noble Empire about this now, and we’d love to know how many of you would be interested.
SKYJACKER IN THE PRESS
RockPaperShotgun - CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Seriously, they have a point; we might end up missing a week or two in the middle, and if so, no offense taken. We’ll just have to give them reason not to. :)
Kickstarter / Republique - This one’s part of a backer-only update, so I’ll repost: “I’m getting a cool Colony Wars vibe from SKYJACKERS. These guys have put a lot of time and effort into their campaign. Their passion is truly infectious!” Awesome props from an incredible Kickstarter success story! It’s a little late for us to return the favor, but keep an eye out for Republique - it won’t be a Kickstarter exclusive forever.
OUT OF CONTINUES - A new frontier! Out of Continues plugs us in their Kickstarter feature alongside CLANG, which is intimidating company to be in (it’s the author of SNOW CRASH for goodness sakes), but a mo-cap swordplay arena and an open-world space combat sim aren’t exactly competing. Hopefully the trend continues and we end up in Time and Forbes too...? Thanks for the plug, guys!
PASSING THE TORCH
We’ve had more than a few conversations about realistic physics around here. Sure, Skyjacker has an inertial flight model available, but we readily admit corners have been cut for the sake of an action-packed experience. The brave souls at TorchShips are putting together a tactical space combat game with true physics - reaction drives, gravity wells, and engagements at ranges of up to 20,000 km. The DRM-free game drops at $10, but they’re far from their goal and only have through June 17th to reach a stable orbit. Please stop by TorchShips and take a look!
NEW FLEET
A side effect of the miracle of life is that for a few days everything else HAD to take a back seat, and we’re putting together content for these updates as we go. So the Yatagooshee reveal has been pushed back a few days. We’ve still got some things to talk about today, so enjoy these SCREENSHOTS and keep reading!



In the future we expect to stay on schedule (this isn’t Eugene’s first time to this rodeo) and in fact are going to start ramping up the updates as we draw closer to our deadline. Thank you for your patience, and for your support. Any other production babies out there in backerland?
MOMENT OF ZEN
2,890
Backers
$128,238
pledged of $200,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Unsuccessful This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on July 23, 2012.
Funding period
May 25, 2012 -
Jul 23, 2012
- 3 created · 5 backed
- Eugene Zhukov 220 friends
- Website: digitilus.com
Pledge $5 or more
8 backers
WALLPAPER SET: A large collection of Skyjacker wallpapers for your PC, Mac, tablet or mobile device, along with our heartfelt thanks. We appreciate your contribution!
Estimated delivery: Dec 2012Pledge $10 or more
5 backers
SOUNDTRACK PACK: As the Wallpaper Set, plus: the complete game soundtrack (DRM-free digital downloadable version, 320k or lossless). Take Skyjacker on the road!
Estimated delivery: Mar 2013Pledge $15 or more
1146 backers
COMPLETE EDITION: As the Soundtrack Pack, plus: THE GAME in all of its unearthly beauty on PC or Mac (DRM-free digital downloadable version). Walk the ruthless path of Ael-Skyjacker, the lone human in a galaxy of conflict, as he tears apart the stars in search of fame and fortune. Sabotage, assassination, robbery, grift - all in a day’s work! This includes everything - all cutscenes, voiceovers, missions, and content.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $20 or more
322 backers
COMPLETE BUNDLE: A bundle of two Complete Editions, for you and a friend. Every bundle contains a spare of everything that isn’t physical; in this case, you’ll receive two wallpaper sets, two soundtrack packs, and two Skyjacker games to play together. Or maybe you want one for your PC and one for your Mac? We can do that.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $25 or more
325 backers
COMMUNITY EDITION: As the Complete Edition, plus: exclusive access to the beta release of the game and its private discussion community. We'll keep you in the loop and include your feedback in the game creation process, and we’ll grant you the title of Beta Tester on all our forums, public and private. You’ll also get the PDF version of the Skyjacker artbook, with 100+ pages of concept art - detailed illustrations of alien races, planetary habitats, designs and technology, and extras left on the cutting-room floor.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $35 or more
50 backers
COMMUNITY BUNDLE: A bundle of two Community Editions. You’ll receive two PDF artbooks, two voices in everything we do, two early downloads of the game in progress, and two logins with the title of Beta Tester on top of the Complete Bundle.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $40 or more
609 backers
SETTLER EDITION: As the Community Edition, plus: all future content we make for Skyjacker for free, forever! We already have post-launch plans for an EXPANSION PACK of a few dozen additional missions where you step out of the shoes of humans and become the aliens - on both sides of the conflict. Smash the planetary colonies in the name of the pirate brotherhood, or fight to the death for the honor of your race! (Check out the FAQ for more details on the expansion pack.) Of course, we’ll promote you to the title of Settler on all our forums, so everyone knows you’re not afraid of commitment.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $60 or more
105 backers
SETTLER BUNDLE: A bundle of two Settler Editions. You’ll receive two of everything Skyjacker in the future (as long as it’s digital), on top of the Community Bundle. Since you’ll both be beta-release backers, you’ll get in on the beta release of future content too. Pretty nifty, huh?
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $80 or more
89 backers
PIRATE EDITION: As the Settler Edition, plus: special thanks in the game credits as a Skyjacker supporter! We'll thank you by name, or the name of your choosing (subject to editorial approval). And we’ll upgrade your title to Pirate on the forums too, so everyone can shiver in terror at your presence. But here’s the best part - we’ll take all the downloads and put them on a professionally-packaged, pressed DVD. Then we’ll put it into your hands. No firewall in the world will stop you! (All physical items are exclusive to the campaign, and ship free within the US; please add $15 to your pledge for international shipping.)
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $100 or more
80 backers
CAPTAIN’S EDITION: As the Pirate Edition, plus: one t-shirt of any design. Protect your frail human flesh from the dangers of space! We’ll also ship you a limited edition print of the game poster in full size (36” x 24”) for your bedroom, barracks, hangar or gun cabinet. But what’s a Captain without a crew? We’ll give you TWO downloads of everything. All rewards from this point forward are bundle packs! This includes 2x beta releases, 2x forum handles, 2x wallpapers, 2x soundtracks - everything that isn’t physical. And we’ll thank you both in the credits, in even BIGGER letters, and on the forums with the even SNAZZIER title of Captain. We’ll thank you right now, just for reading this! Thank you!
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $150 or more
71 backers
COLLECTOR’S EDITION: As the Captain’s Edition, plus: we’ll go even further. We’ll put together a physical game box for all this loot, with the soundtrack on CD as well as the game DVD. It’ll be personally signed by Eugene Zhukov and the rest of the team leads, unless you ask us not to. In fact, we’ll sign everything we can get our hands on; the jewel cases, the poster, even the t-shirt (and those aren’t easy). Of course you’ll still get your downloads, so you can leave the box in mint condition.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $200 or more
17 backers
WOLFPACK EDITION: As the Collector’s Edition, plus: we’ll hook all your friends up too by giving you FOUR downloads of everything and sending you FOUR Portable Skyjacker USB drives, each preloaded with the Complete Edition game. We’ll set you all up with the title of Privateer on the forum, and for the credits, we’ll thank all four of you by name, under the clan name of your choice and billed proudly above the Captains. Added bonus: we'll send out a second t-shirt of any design!
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $250 or more
10 backers
MEMEPACK EDITION: As the Wolfpack Edition, plus: we’ll add your message to the credits as your clan motto, anything you like (subject to editorial approval; keep it around Twitter-length, please). Plug your website, propose to your girlfriend, throw out your favorite quote, or make us spout memes and in-jokes at everyone who plays!
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $500 or more
8 backers
HARDCOVER EDITION: As the Memepack Edition, plus: the hardcover Skyjacker art book. Yes, we’ll sign it with pride! We’ll wrap it up in a third t-shirt of any design, a total of three, and call you out in the forums and credits as a Broker. Then we'll further acknowledge your financial acumen by putting your name in the game, as the designation of a weapon, part, planet, or ship (we’ll make sure it’s something you like). You’ll be a part of the Skyjacker universe from here on out.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $1,200 or more
5 backers Limited (95 of 100 left)
BOSS EDITION: As the Hardcover Edition, plus: our designers will draw YOU, in full space pirate regalia. And then we'll put it on an exclusive jacket of your very own! Materials and exact design to be determined - but it'll be nice. We won’t try to sign this one. While that’s happening we'll attach your name to a character in-game (or leave it as a designation, your choice), and elevate you to the regal position of Boss on our forums and in the credits. Don't worry about the cost of shipping; even if you're outside the US, we'll take care of it. Nothing but the best for the Boss.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $5,000 or more
1 backer Limited (9 of 10 left)
EPIC EDITION: As the Boss Edition, plus: we'll put you in the game. We'll animate YOU in 3D as the subject for a CUSTOM PLAYER CHARACTER. This includes your face and proportions, a personal logo, and the highest category of criminal community rating in the game. Only you can play as this character (we'll give you a secret code to activate it) but other players can hire you as an NPC, so they'll get to enjoy it too! You will be known across the skies as a true Hero... or a Villain, your choice.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013Pledge $10,000 or more
1 backer Limited (3 of 4 left)
LEGEND EDITION: As the Epic Edition, plus: with your permission, we'll use your character in our promotional campaigns. You'll be on our posters, in our trailers, and on whatever other media we produce. Your name will, in fact, be Legend. Furthermore we cordially invite you to come hang out with us in Los Angeles, CA, USA. We're from Russia - we know how to party. (Please contact us directly to make personal arrangements before the end of the campaign.)
Estimated delivery: Aug 2013
Comments
Creator DIGITILUS on June 20, 2012
:D
Creator Da Mayor on June 20, 2012
Pazhaluista! B-)
Creator DIGITILUS on June 19, 2012
James, spasibo! :))
Creator Da Mayor on June 19, 2012
(How is it said? S Dnyem Rozhdyeniya!)
Creator Da Mayor on June 19, 2012
Ba na na na NA naaaaa na na! (repeat as necessary) They say it{was] your Birthday!!!! Happy Birthday to you!
Creator DIGITILUS on June 19, 2012
Thank you, Gavin ! :D
Creator Gavin Phoenix on June 19, 2012
Belated happy birthday!
Creator DIGITILUS on June 18, 2012
Thank you, Anton :)) Thank you!
Creator Antonidas|Archmage of the Obsidian Order on June 18, 2012
Congrats on your new baby daughter and you birthday Eugene!
<:) Party hat is on!
And good luck on your project, space shooters are few and far between these days.
Creator DIGITILUS on June 18, 2012
@ Veav - correct ;)
Creator Veav on June 18, 2012
Wait what? Today's your birthday?
Creator DIGITILUS on June 18, 2012
@ cutterjohn - me and Paul McCartney - we both have a birthday in June 18, plus my family name in Russian means "Beetles" (Zhuk is a Beetle; Zhukov means something like Beetles' son) ;)) Thus, it's my natural reaction onto such coincidences :D
@ Veav - this reward is not only limited by number of backer, but in time as well - I'm planning to cut hair very soon.
Creator Veav on June 18, 2012
8k pledge: limited reward (1 of 1 remaining) BEATLES EDITION: Make Eugene get a haircut, of any style you choose. Add another 1k to your pledge and we'll throw in his eyebrows.
Creator cutterjohn on June 17, 2012
This comment has been removed by Kickstarter.
Creator Veav on June 17, 2012
Copypasta from comments: http://www.demonoid.me/files/details/2953808/27846512/ is up and running, let me know if it seems messed up. We swung three times at getting TPB working and gave up. :(
Creator DIGITILUS on June 17, 2012
@ Simon - Thank you ! :)) I liked all my 3 previous versions, so decided to re-launch new one to proceed all these stages and upgrades again :D
As for promotion - that would be GREAT and really helpful. So please do if you can, I would appreciate for that. I guess, everybody here would appreciate :)
As for Pirate Bay - Veav tried and finally we decided to cancel this idea, cause that resource is looking strange and unsafe. Neither me, nor Veav never used it before, so we got - in fact, we both are very bad pirates, at least in the area of torrents creation :D
Creator Veav on June 17, 2012
@Simon That would be great! I haven't had a usenet subscription in some time so any help you can offer there would be awesome.
Creator Simon6825 on June 17, 2012
Congratulations Eugene, my little is coming up on her 5th month upgrades (That includes unexplained spontanouse screaming, longer recharge rate and giggling) was hoping to resolve the drooling issue but been told warranty does not cover that :) :) :)
I could help spread the word or distribution on the usernet circut (digital news groups) if you would like? Better and safer than Pirate Bay, let me know if I can help. :)
Creator DIGITILUS on June 17, 2012
@ Porcupine - thank you :))
As for disassembly - we already appointed meeting with Noble Empire to the next week to discuss commercial co-operation. The reason - here is their stats for this app:
_unique_users 45492
_sessions 91799
achievement 2576
assembly 10630
demo 22187
disassembly 17461
game 22480
Guys are impressed with result and agreed with us - maybe there is a reason to create bigger application.
Creator Porcupine on June 17, 2012
Congrats Eugene, and yes I'd love to see other spaceships in disassembly.
Creator DIGITILUS on June 17, 2012
@ Thomas Welter - you are welcome! But seems like they will need to re-launch with longer period of time, as we did. At least this would be a logical.
Creator DIGITILUS on June 17, 2012
@ Dustin_00 - hehe :D thank you, but following your classification, her version is 5.0 ;)) I already had 3 kids, and this is a 4th one :D
Creator Thomas Welter on June 16, 2012
Thanks for giving a shout out to Torchships, I reeeeeeaaaly wanna play this. It doesn't exactly have a lot of time left, but hey, Kinetic Void did something similar in it's last day (but then.. they had quite a buzz on reddit in their last hours and a flashier campaign page... whatever).
Anyway: SUPPORT TORCHSHIPS
Creator Gavin Phoenix on June 16, 2012
Looks like the + at the end of the url wasn't classed as part of the url :(
try http://gavinphoenix.com/g instead!
Creator Gavin Phoenix on June 16, 2012
Facebook banner was already done http://gavinphoenix.com/+
Google+ is now done http://gavinphoenix.com/f
Creator Dustin_00 on June 16, 2012
Congrats on shipping Eugene Zhukov 2.0.
Creator Gavin Phoenix on June 16, 2012
Needed to do something to make me look a bit different to @Veav :D
Creator PELUXA1 on June 16, 2012
YEAH!!!!!
Creator DIGITILUS on June 16, 2012
@ Riggo - hehe ... just got your name change :D Yeah. gold star is yours now [we just need to create it]
Creator DIGITILUS on June 16, 2012
Thank you, Greg!
And YTG fleet video is on its way to you too, just few days to arrange everything to show you ships in all their beauty.
Creator Greg "Scorpio" Myers on June 16, 2012
Another stellar update guys! The moment of zen had me literally laughing out loud. Those screenshots look incredible, the ships are so beautiful I almost hate to blow them up.....almost. :) Once again Eugene, congrats on the little one, she is beautiful.
Creator DIGITILUS on June 16, 2012
@ Riggo - thank you too :))
Creator Riggo on June 16, 2012
Changed my title.. Do I get more doubloons now? A gold star at least? :-)
Creator DIGITILUS on June 16, 2012
Thank you, Gavin :))
Creator Gavin Phoenix on June 16, 2012
Congratulations Eugene! She's beautiful!
Creator Riggo on June 16, 2012
Congrats Eugene!!!
Creator Veav on June 16, 2012
Aaaand it's gone. Even our updates have placeholders.
Creator Veav on June 16, 2012
"(screenshots of avatars on google and in photoshop hurr derp I are smart)" - this was my glorious contribution and it slipped under the radar. Sorry about that, folks. Ninja edit!