As the title says, we've got some bad news, good news, more bad news but more good news.

As an aside: If you're missing a reward (other than the physical minis, stands & boxes) send me a message.  I think I'm up to date.  Also note that for backers who downloaded the "all" stock art, you may want to go back to the download site because the art has been updated with the last pieces that arrived.

Now A Bit of Bad News

As most of you know, I provided the Monster Stand-Ins (minis) as a PDF on RPGNow and gave backers of that reward a free download.  A couple of people reviewed it and one gave it 4 stars and another 3 stars, out of 5.  Of course the goal is always 5 stars but since one can't 100% please 100% of people then an average over 4 stars is ok.  But we didn't meet that compromise goal. 

I think the feedback can be summed up as follows, with a short response in brackets:

• The pages had too much white space.  [We tried to accommodate most printers by using a 1" margin.  And because of how monsters were laid out, in some cases the widths were 1/2" short of that.]
• Too many duplicates. [I'm not sure if this in about having 4 versions of some creatures, or that some images were repeated.  We felt it was worthwhile to have several versions of some creatures so you might have a kobold shaman and an archer and a leader as well as a normal grunt kobold.  Also, because you may encounter these in packs of 6 or even 10, we figured giving you half a page of them was a worthwhile way to arrange the creatures.]
• Grouping was odd. [This comment was in the context of "no matter how you lay them out some people will think the grouping is odd" so I appreciate the understanding.  One other note was that we did duplicates on some pages because we felt that was better than having just one or two of many different creatures on a page.  In most cases, you're more likely to encounter several of a creature type than an arbitrary pair of gnolls, a medusa, two trolls, two minotaur, two vegepygmies, a harpy, and two kobolds to take an extreme example.]
• Some creatures should have been bigger  I believe Dragons and Giants were called out. [I think I goofed on the Dragons.  I think the Giants were OK, but if anyone can be specific and site a source, please do.]
• Not enough creatures for the money. [See below.]

Now a Bit of Good News

In response to the feedback above I've revised the PDF as follows:

• First, most dragons have an even larger version.  Whites and Blacks and Brass and Copper tend to be smaller, so they didn't get the largest size.
• Second, we've added a bunch of creatures to the PDF.  The original PDF had 92 different monsters (when you count all the versions of a creature count as one, so the kobold leader/shaman/archer/grunt count is just one in this counting method.)  There were 148 different monster images. (Where the 4 different kobolds count as 4.)  There were also 56 PCs/NPCs (among the 7 core races) and 27 different animals or 36 different animal pictures, depending on how you count.  Now we've got 20 more monsters and 20 more animals with a picture for each.  Some of these come from other stock art collections, and some are from shifting the colors or other minor changes to art already in the collection.  Here's a list of the new monsters: Catoplebas, Blink Dog, 4 Metallic Dragons (Brass, Bronze, Copper, Silver--we already had Gold), Harpy, Homunculus, Hydra, Lamia, Locathah, Merrow, Mimic, Phase Spider, Pseudodragon, Retriever, Shadow, Shrieker, Triton, & Wyvern.

The new version of the document should be available to anyone who received the prior document.  Just log back into your RPGNow account and you should be able to re-download it.  Send me an message if you have trouble getting it.

If anyone has further ideas to make the PDF better please email me.  And if you are one of the reviewers on RPGNow, please contact me so we can see if this is better and to clarify any remaining issues.

But More Bad News

Reworking the PDF has put me behind schedule on shipping the physical products.  I still expect/hope to finish in the first half of June.  I'm not going to finalize the files for a couple days in case I get further feedback on the PDF.

But More Good News

I'll try to include most of the new art & creatures in the physical products, even if I have to include an extra sheet free.  I probably can't provide 3 different sizes of all 10 dragons, but I can likely include the most common sizes.

So to sum up, because I want this to be a 5 star product I've revised the PDF with 20 more monsters and 20 more animals.  If you've got other ideas to make it better, please contact me.  The physical products will be delayed about two weeks, but should still be sent by the middle of June.  There will likely be an extra bonus sheet for everyone who pledged for the physical minis.

I've been sending out surveys and fulfilling your requests.  Sorry about the survey formatting!  If there are two things Kickstarter needs to improve it is the ability for backers to select multiple rewards and a better survey system.  But if anything wasn't clear send me a message through Kickstarter or at support at inkwellideas dot com.

(One thing a few people pointed out was they were a dollar short in their totals.  Don't worry about it.)

I expect to send out all the digital rewards (PDFs, stock art) over the next 2-3 days. (Unless someone doesn't fill in the backer survey--in which case I'll send it soon after.)  I'll be working on the physical rewards (have been laying the groundwork for a while) over the next couple of weeks and I plan to have them sent by the end of May.If you have any feedback to make the PDF or stock art better, please let me know!  (Message or email.)  In the case of the PDF, I can update it and everyone case pick up the revisions.  Note that the PDF contains the same sheets of minis twice: first with labels and the second time without.  I looked into doing this using layers in the PDF, but it seemed those solutions were expensive.

And if you happen to need a random city generator & map program, don't forget to check out the next Inkwell Ideas project: Cityographer.  (Yeah, that was subtle wasn't it?)

Hi All,

We're getting closer to finishing the art, then putting out the survey and getting the PDFs, stock art, and laminated cardstock minis sent to you!

The stock art and minis pages at the Inkwell Ideas site have the latest statuses:

• http://inkwellideas.com/stock-art/
• http://inkwellideas.com/monster-stand-ins/ (minis)

Again, they have the same status info, but the stand-ins page has samples of the sheets of laminated cardstock minis.

We've got less than 10 creatures left to go, and I've seen sketches for almost all of them.  I'm expecting to have everything in the next few days.  Meanwhile, I'm putting together the PDF now so that when the art is done I can send it out within a day or two.

I have a couple of questions for backers.  Please comment on these:

• For the minis (laminated cardstock and PDF), do you want labels near the bottom of each creature?  None?  Just the creatures that aren't easily identifiable?  (Examples: No need for the dragons, but sometimes it is hard to know a kobold vs. a lizardman or a hobgoblin vs. a gnoll.)
• Those that backed for the PDF (or for the physical stand-ins if one pledged over $5 extra so it seemed they probably wanted the PDF) got a preview PDF.  Any comments?  I've only seen one so far.

Again, I'm waiting for the last of the art before sending the survey asking which sheets of minis you want (if you pledged for that) or what stock art you'd like.

As this has wrapped up, I've started my next Kickstarter project.  (I think this is a great platform!)  If this sounds useful to you, I hope you'll back it:  Cityographer is a random city/village generator that is also a city map creator/editor.  Not only will it create a random city or village map where you may choose from several genres (medieval fantasy, modern, far future, etc.) but it will detail all the buildings with a list of residents, floorplan, important belongings (if any), etc.  If the building is a business you'll get a list of the staff, floorplan, product & price list etc.  And you can regenerate the whole city or just a building or just one aspect of the building (floorplan, price list, etc.)  You can also hand edit the map (move/delete buildings, roads, etc) as well as any aspect of the building (change individual prices, change the name of the owner, etc.)  It will save as XML, but you'll also be able to export to HTML, probably .rtf, PDF and maybe .doc.  So you can run the software on a laptop at your table or open a web page or PDF in anything that supports those formats.  (In addition to using it as a prep tool.)

Thanks again for your support! I really try to make projects and tools that make your games and projects better and I hope that is apparent when you see the projects I do.

Hi all,

I've just sent out a link to a preview of the Monster Stand-Ins PDF.  It is just a few of the pages you'll get in the final PDF in a couple weeks.  It was sent to everyone who pledged for the PDFs specifically as well as those who pledge for the $25 physical minis reward, but pledged $30 or more.  (My guess is that most of you who pledged extra probably want the PDF among other things.  I'll confirm your additional rewards when everything is ready.  And if you got it by mistake, consider it a free bonus preview.)

Please do send feedback on the layout, colors, etc.  Whatever I can fix I will.  I thought it was worthwhile to send an early version so I can correct things before going too far down a bad path.  And this represents probably just 15% of the final PDF.

The status of the artwork on the stock art and monster stand-ins pages has also be updated a few times since the last update.  Here are the links:

http://inkwellideas.com/stock-art/

http://inkwellideas.com/monster-stand-ins/

(And while you're there I won't mind if you check out the links to the Dungeonmorph Dice/Cards/Font, Hexographer, Dungeonographer, the Coat of Arms Design Studio, the Random City Generator, Random Inn Generator, etc.  :)  The Coat of Arms Design Studio and Hexographer have had major updates recently. For example 50 or so building icons were added to Hexographer for city management sub-games. Anyway, many of these tools are free or have free versions.  But I digress.)

Both have the same art status lists, but the stand-ins page has samples of the minis sheets.  (They are laid out differently than the PDF due to size constraints.) All core 8 sheets are now shown with just a few pieces of art to be delivered.  Below the core 8 sheets is a list and short description of the alternate sheets.  If you've pledged for sheets of the laminated cardstock minis you can pick from any sheets.  So if you pledge just the $25, you may pick 5 of the core sheets and 3 of the alternates. If you pledged for 10 sheets total you can pick the core eight and two duplicates.  If you pledged for 8 but you want a fleet of evil dragons you can pick 8 copies of the dragon sheet.  Anyway, when the official survey is ready, I'll ask for which sheets you'd like.

Things still look good for delivering the PDF in the first half of May and the physical minis by the end of the month.  The stock art should be ready around the same time as the PDF.

Thanks again!

Joe

Hi all,

As I posted, its my goal to update you on the project every two weeks.  Lots of energy is going into working to deliver the products.

The art continues to come in.  Just in the last 24 hours I've received rahashas, an ettin, dragon-men, a gold dragon and several more.  I've updated the lists on the Inkwell Ideas stock art and stand-ins (minis) pages.

On the Inkwell Ideas stand-ins/minis page, I've also posted previews of four of the minis sheets.  Please do take a look and post any feedback here or there or send me a message.  Now is the time to notice mistakes!  I'll make fixes as well as work on the other sheets and fill in the gaps on these over the next couple of weeks.

Even if you're here just for the stock art, you may want to check out that page to see previews of several pieces I don't think I've posted yet such as the gold dragon, cloud giant and skeletal dragon. 

Finally, if you've pledged for an "all" stock art reward (whether it is the print-quality or web-size reward) last week you should have gotten an email with a username and password for a download site.  The latest art has now been posted there, so please do visit the site again to get the latest.  If you pledged for the web-size reward, just re-download the single zip.  If you pledged for the print-quality reward either re-download the zips or click the "last modified" column twice and download the non-zips at the top. Of course, the latter method is preferred.

Thanks again for your support!

Joe