Heyo, Guildies. The third anniversary of Guilded Age is coming up, and we’re gonna do something a little different this year. We will still be having the current-year edition of Adventurer’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition instead of a normal strip on Labor Day, for which there will be a mini-contest with a special prize giveaway! So keep your eyes peeled!
Anyway, today we want to get in a direct dialogue with you, the readers. We’re doing a Kickstarter for us and you within the next couple weeks, and we want to make abundantly certain that we’re getting you what will potentially the best bang for your buck. This Kickstarter will primarily be for two things: Volume 2 in print form, and a special multimedia expansion into Guilded Age‘s library. Hint: It rhymes with “Plan a May shun.” Anyway, here’s the basic idea of what will be done/made available through the Kickstarter:
– Volume 2 Production: We’re making the next volume, complete with its own bonus story.
– E-Books: Making e-book versions of both Volume 1 and Volume 2.
– SECRET MEDIA THING: We’re going to blast you guys with this in a week or two, not to worry. But for now let’s say we’ve got a secret Guilded Age project going, and the medium it exists in rhymes with “Span ’em, Haitian,” if you wheeze a little. Behold my indomitable coding skills. But yes, there will be HD digital downloads as part of the KS reward, an SD version will be made available to all for free viewing.
– Three Pieces of KS-exclusive Merch: Three different items will be made available as KS Exclusives, one of which will probably have a life afterwards. But for the other two, one is a large poster and one is a keychain, and we’re keeping mum on the contents of both until their dramatic reveals. We’ll order as many as requested during the KS, and whatever’s left will either be sold in person at cons, or given away as prizes. These items will NOT be added to the online store.
– New Merch Items: A new wave of buttons, stickers, and a postcard pack will soon be introduced to y’all and be made available on the online store. What joy!
– New Site Design: This ol’ site of ours, though it has served us well, is in dire need of an overhaul. If luck shines our way, it’ll be covered by the Kickstarter going over our post goal of $10,000.
All of the above are going to be made available during the KS, some of which will be on the store during and afterwards. Other things will be available in the KS, but mostly at the high tier reward levels:
– Custom Art from John Waltrip.
– A cameo in the comic.
– A bonus story starring characters based on the highest pledgers.
– A big fuckin’ party for the highest pledger of all.
The basic package, we can tell you right now, is as follows: For $25 (known widely as the standard pledging level), you’ll get a copy of Volume 2, both print and digital, an HD digital download of the SECRET MEDIA THING, and bonus goodie of choice (button pack, sticker pack, postcard pack, etc). We’re going for $10,000, which will cover the basic costs of the print run and the SECRET MEDIA THING. Obviously, we’re going to try to push past that initial 10k to get the other things done, but if we must cover that ourselves it’s something we’ll just have to do. At any rate, we’d like your opinion on these concepts, what you think certain items are worth, anything your little heart desires that we don’t have included already, and it’s not too late to take requests on anything new or different, so have at it in the comments!
Other things to discuss? Well, we’re planning on doing a new site design as soon as humanly possible, so if you have any ideas or requests for things that should change with the site, please let us know here in the comments.
Also, we’ll be ending the following on an official capacity due to non-use: The WoW Guild, The Wiki, and The Forum. So unless enough of you can make convincing arguments on why any of these should stay, please talk it out in the comments below.
Feel free to ask us absolutely anything about the upcoming “patch” to Guilded Age. We’d be happy to answer anything you’ve got for us (we reserve the right to keep secrets on some details, of course).
