Four More Designs
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 05:28:05 PM

Just a quick update to show the latest four completed designs.

This leaves two designs outstanding (Street Market and S.V. Kodiak).

Shipping Status

The last few shipments went out yesterday; and these four are the last designs that backers ordered as physical mats, once these are printed and shipped that will be all physical rewards sent.

Digital Files

Collection V codes were sent out on the 20th so everyone should have those, just send a message on Kickstarter if you've not received them.

Collection VI will be compiled once the last two designs are done.

Unanswered Surveys

There are still about a dozen surveys unanswered on Backerkit, I can't get your rewards out if the survey is not completed!

The Latest Designs

Almost There
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Dec 05, 2017 at 12:11:50 AM

The two castle designs are ready, which knocks another eight designs from the list waiting to be drawn (pictures are at the end of this update).

 

That leaves five urban designs (Corporate Lobby, City Square, Parking Lot, Down Town and Street Market) and one space ship (S.V. Kodiak) left to complete.

Apologies it’s taken a while to get these done, but the end is in sight now.

Digital Rewards

Collection IV was sent a few weeks ago via DriveThruRPG, and with the castles complete, I’ll start work on getting collection V done: which will be everything except any of the remaining six that are incomplete (They’ll go as a final collection VI). 

Contents of Collection V

• Autumn Castle - Courtyard
• Autumn Castle - Stables
• Autumn Castle - Gate
• Autumn Castle - Keep
• River Valley II - Valley Hills
• River Valley II - Valley River Swamp
• River Valley II - Valley Track Gulley
• River Valley II - Valley Track
• River Valley II - Valley Bridge
• River Valley II - Valley Crossroads
• Winter Castle - Gate
• Winter Castle - Keep
• Winter Castle - North Tower
• Winter Castle - High Tower
• Plus any remaining designs finished in time…

 

Digital Format

Collection V was presented in the modified file formats, as suggested by DriveThruRPG.

This should have meant more compatible VTT images, smaller file size hi-res images and zipped bundles, the flipside being no full size .tif images.

Let me know if this format worked or if there were problems, I’ll be looking to re-visit the existing digital titles later and get them all in the same format.

Gaming Books Digital Content 

Something that’s kept me busy recently is moving my websites to new hosting, this will enable me to serve all the digital content via the Gaming Books store alongside DriveThruRPG. I’ll be getting this complete in the next few weeks, and will make sure codes are available for backers when ready.

The downside of this move is that the content I’d already put on Gaming Books is not there right now, it let me export user account info but not the special links for the downloadable content.

So just DriveThruRPG for now, but they’ll be available on Gaming Books too, hopefully in time for Collection V.

Unanswered Surveys

There are still a handful of surveys in the unanswered state, I can’t process these pledges until the survey is answered.

If you’ve not answered or are unsure, then please check BackerKit or message me. If you’re waiting on something from me, then please get in touch as I’m not aware of anything outstanding, but could well have missed something from the busy time at the end of the KickStarter.

PDF Files

I’ve not forgotten the multi-page pdf docs part of the digital files, these are still planned to be generated after all designs are complete.

Castle Designs

The two castles, both are made up of four 24”x24” mats.

 

 

 

Digital Files Update
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Nov 01, 2017 at 07:14:52 PM

Following communication with DriveThruRPG on how to improve the KickStarter design titles performance on their site, I’d like to announce a few changes to how the digital products are presented.   

DriveThruRPG Advice

This is a summary of the advice from DriveThruRPG

Print Quality Images - The preferred image format for print quality images is CMYK colorspace jpg files at 300 DPI and 1:1 scale. This would keep the quality currently in the tif files I’ve been using but reduce file size.  

VTT Files - Although I’ve been using the correct DPI for the VTT jpg files, I’d missed the 10 MB file size limit in Roll20 and many of the VTT images I’ve supplied are over 10 MB so would need compressing before use.

Zip Files - While zipping the image files won’t reduce the size by much, creating a smaller number of zip files will make library management and downloads better on DriveThruRPG for these products. With the suggested maximum number of individual downloads available in a product being four. 

Digital Title Adjustments

With these guidelines in mind I’ll be making sure of the following steps for the designs in Collection IV and look to update the existing titles on DriveThruRPG over time.  

Print quality images will now be jpg files at 300 DPI and 1:1 scale

VTT images will remain as 72 DPI jpg files, but I will arrange for them to be less than 10 MB

Files will be zipped in the following formats

• VTT zip – all design variations in VTT optimised format
• Print–Plain zip – Print versions of the design with no grid
• Print–Square Grid zip – Print versions of the design with square grids (1” and 1.5”)
• Print–Hex Grid zip – Print versions of the design with Hex grids (1” and 1.5”)  

The overall aim is to improve the digital product offering so that it is easier to download/manage and will work without modification and perform better on VTT (Roll20). 

Collection IV is now complete design wise, I just need to sort file types out, create the titles on DriveThruRPG and then upload the files. I'm hoping to be able to send out codes late next week.

Nomadic Camp

I like to include at least one design in each update, so here's the completed 48x24 Nomadic Camp design.

The 24x24 design uses the left half of this image.

Dragonmeet

On a final note, and only relevant to some backers, so apologies for anyone not attending Dragonmeet in the UK next month, you can ignore this bit.

We’ll be attending Dragonmeet in London on the 2nd December as Gaming Books and will be taking a selection of BattleMats products along with us including some RPG mats from this Kickstarter.

If you’re attending Dragonmeet and are interested in getting more mats the best way to secure any particular RPG design is to order via the pre-order page and drop me a message on Kickstarter to arrange pickup at the event.

If you happen to want any of the wargaming mats we offer, then a similar order/pickup arrangement could be made, just message me on Kickstarter if interested.

And, for the few remaining backers waiting on me to finish designs, if you’re attending Dragonmeet, I can arrange to get the finished portion of your order available for pickup too.

Cheers

Town Works are Complete
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 12:18:08 AM

Quick Progress Update

There are 14 designs left to complete, with the Nomadic Steppe Camp and both castles nearly ready.

90% of orders have shipped, with the remaining a mix of pre-orders, unanswered surveys and backers waiting for me to finish designs.

I'll look to get more digital rewards up on DriveThruRPG and our own site in the next few weeks too.

Town Designs

This update is mainly of pictures showing the completed town designs (exterior and interior).

Before showing the completed designs I thought I'd put the mock-up for the stretch goal graphic up too, for comparison.

All 24x24 Town Exterior Designs

All 24x24 Town Interior Designs

Next Set of Digital Stretch Goals Available
about 7 years ago – Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 11:39:15 PM

Progress Report

Shipping is progressing well, with all but a couple of Wave 1 shipped.

I've identified around 30 backers whose orders can now be completed (I've finished the designs that were holding them back).

That will leave less than 30 backers who are still waiting on completed designs before I can arrange printing.

Unanswered Surveys

That being said there are still 20 backers who haven't answered the survey.

If you haven't answered, I can't arrange your rewards.

If anyone is missing a BackerKit invite, please message me via kickStarter and I'll arrange a resend.

RPG Encounter Mat Collection III

Codes should have gone out from DriveThruRPG for the next set of 20 designs in the last hour or so. 

If you haven't got it, check spam folders for an email from [email protected].

Designs included in this collection

• Desert Road (24x24)
• The Pyramid (24x24)
• Dead Mans Rock (24x24)
• Badlands (24x24)
• Borderlands (24x24, 36x24, 48x24 and 48x48)
• Poison Crags (24x24, 36x24, 48x24 and 48x48)
• Fetid Swamps (24x24, 36x24 and 48x24)
• Dragon Nebula (24x24)
• Neo-City Crossing (24x24)
• Valley River (24x24)
• Valley River Stones (24x24)
• Valley River Bend (24x24)
• Valley Meadow (24x24)
• Valley Rock Spring (24x24)
• Valley Lake (24x24)
• Old Factory (24x24)
• Blood Shore (24x24)
• Junkyard (24x24)
• Underpass (24x24)
• Tavern Room (24x24, 36x24 and 48x24)

Work in Progress

Currently I'm looking to finish up the town interiors as well as add some variaton to the Town designs cobblestone in places (as suggested in the comments).

The Dock Side - Interior is ready.