(KICKSTARTER) Pulp City Kickstarter is coming

[leonmallett]

There must be something in the air with all these Kickstarters!

We had hoped to launch this late last year, but a few snags cropped up, and we are currently aiming for a January 30th launch, to run for one month to the end of February.

The primary goal is to publish the new Supreme Edition which has seen rules mechanics revised for what we feel is a faster playing game. That has also meant updating the game rules for over 100 miniatures, and we will have a set of new game cards for each Supreme and Minion available.

If we beat our funding goal (which we think is a reasonable target), then we can hopefully move towards a number of stretch goals which will feature new minis, and some additional tweaks to the new rule-book.

And if this campaign goes well, we have in mind some key things we would love to tackle in the future.

More information soon!

Edit: Title amended to be in line with Forum rules.

[fergal]

Good luck Gents!  Everything we do just makes the community richer!

[leonmallett]

Good luck Gents!  Everything we do just makes the community richer!

Thank you sir.

[styx]

any ideas on a teaser for the pledges? This is hitting a a poor time of the year for me so I would like to see what is in the offerings to save up cash if they have a good value.

[leonmallett]

any ideas on a teaser for the pledges? This is hitting a a poor time of the year for me so I would like to see what is in the offerings to save up cash if they have a good value.

There will be the new Hero and Villain Starter sets. We will look to build up the Grimm as a playable Faction (think swarm of critters unduly influenced by 80's pop-culture, and their boss John Grimmsham), and further out, if it goes really well, new Powerhouses (think 'big guys') for the existing Factions. Plus some other surprises.

The pledges will represent a cheaper price than retail for the new stuff, and we think they will be fairly priced for the low model count skirmish niche.

[carlosyc]

There will be a character creator like supersystem or RPGs? I hope so 

And will be translate to Spanish?

[leonmallett]

There will be a character creator like supersystem or RPGs? I hope so 

Not in THIS book, but we have very specific plans if this project succeeds....

And will be translate to Spanish?

I am sorry, but that is unlikely. We are a small company, and I don't think there is sufficient demand for us to offer a cost-effective translation unfortunately.

However, we feel we have created a mechanically clear revision of the system, so hopefully it will still be a useful game for non-native English speakers.

[Rob_bresnen]

Very exciting news.

[obsidian3d]

I have most of the original line, but am missing a few. I'd be interested in being able to add figures to a pledge that includes the new book and starters...

[leonmallett]

I have most of the original line, but am missing a few. I'd be interested in being able to add figures to a pledge that includes the new book and starters...

Then you may be in luck...

[styx]

Saw this on my blog feed and figure I would share to those interested....while I may not be into it for the rules the figures are nice and if the price is right. I am in!

[marcusluis]

nice...

[leonmallett]

The figure Styx posted is Anansi, from the new Villain Starter Set.

There will also be various other minis as stretch goals in this KS campaign, so it will be worth checking back regularly if you do pledge.

We plan to launch in a few days time - January 30th, at approximately noon EST (USA), or 5pm UK, 6pm central Europe.

[carlosyc]

Not in THIS book, but we have very specific plans if this project succeeds....

I am sorry, but that is unlikely. We are a small company, and I don't think there is sufficient demand for us to offer a cost-effective translation unfortunately.

However, we feel we have created a mechanically clear revision of the system, so hopefully it will still be a useful game for non-native English speakers.

Itīs a pity. For a company that sell miniatures (not only rulebooks) having the rulebook in other langugesi tīs a good way to sell more miniatures. If rules and game is more accesible more people will buy the miniatures.
Spain and South America i think itīs not a bad market

Doing only pdf version, maybe doing a mini-kickstarter for traslation or rewarding a few fans for translate it wold be very cheap options for do it 

[leonmallett]

Itīs a pity. For a company that sell miniatures (not only rulebooks) having the rulebook in other langugesi tīs a good way to sell more miniatures. If rules and game is more accesible more people will buy the miniatures.
Spain and South America i think itīs not a bad market

Doing only pdf version, maybe doing a mini-kickstarter for traslation or rewarding a few fans for translate it wold be very cheap options for do it 

Hi carlosyc, thanks for those thoughts.

It is something we could look into it; however even a pdf only version has its costs - the cost of the translation (the rules alone are roughly 22,000 words) and the book needs to be laid out again with the translated text (additional cost). We are a very small company, so any additional costs do matter. But on the translation front, even then things are not perfect - we have 100+ game cards, so realistically translating them would also be costly for example. Then there is the issue of rules differences arising from translated rules, which can and does happen. As none of us are for example native-Spanish speakers (or French, German etc.), then we have no way of checking the accuracy of a translation. A quick Google search suggests that the rules and fluff if translated professionally by a reputable service would work out to several thousand USD (at an average industry cost of of 13 cents per word; costs range from 10 to 20 cents for many providers).

http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/Translation-Negotiating-Per-word-Rates/
http://www.betranslated.com/translation-rates.html

Add layout costs, and a pdf alone (i.e. no printed solution) would need a LOT of backers for people to make it succeed, or a high pledge cost.

Add a print run to that and the costs go up further. And that is without the cards; currently the rules on those come to around 21,000 words. Even stripping out what won't need translating, and the things that only need a single translation, we are probably looking at another 15,000 - 17,000 words (or another $2,000 USD or so; before layout costs are added or printing is done). So to professionally translate and layout the book and cards into one single other language could possibly cost in the region of $10,000, without printing, give or take. To make that viable would need a LOT of backers for a KS. 500 backers would be pledging at minimum $22 USD each for cards and book as pdf only, since there are Amazon payments fees involved. That would not cover any time to electronically send all those files out.

We don't ignore the problems that having the rules in only a single language creates, but equally it is important to recognize that we a re a very small company; we do this part-time amid having jobs that allow us to do this. Our fan-base is small. It could be grown with other language versions  potentially, but the amount of extra fans needed per translation may be limited.  Until this KS has run, we won't know.

However, here could very well be a quick start rules available, and if anyone wanted to work up their own translation of that, maybe that would help?