Working Away Towards PPC Day!
over 4 years ago
– Mon, Nov 15, 2021 at 05:32:02 AM
Hey Backers,
What's PPC day? Read on and find out!
First, my apologies that it's been a while since my last update, but the truth is... we are busily working away at all of the complex pieces of the process that leads to final files going to Panda for production. It doesn't "make a great story" but we felt it was time to update you on where we are in the process.
WHERE THINGS STAND RIGHTNOW:
•All of the art is DONE! (Go Megan!)
•Proofing, wording checks, final play-testing, etc. have all been underway and are all close to being done.
•All of the graphics files are inches away from being ready to go to Panda except for the revised rulebook. (Go Kelly!) The rulebook should be finalized within the next three weeks when all of the files will be sent.
•Students at my school continue to rush to my room on after-school game days to be first in line to get in on a game of Hype Tag. (I am currently only keeping one prototype FULLY updated, so I can only have one game going at a time.) It's no lie to say that there is a lot of shouting, laughing, and BIG PLAYS happening every game. It's extremely affirming and exciting to see how much they love to play, teach other kids, and develop new strategies.
ON THE HORIZON:
•As mentioned above, we will soon be sending the files to Panda for the Design Verification process. This should take place by the second week of December at the latest.
•Look for a "backer survey" by mid-December confirming your pledge rewards as well as your shipping information. This survey is essential to getting your games and rewards shipped to you correctly, so keep you eyes on your email!
•Once design verification process is complete, Panda will produce a single PPC (Pre-Production Copy) of the game and ship it to us... SO EXCITING! The PPC is as close to the finished version as they can get before mass production. We will do something fun (like a video unboxing) to share that moment with all of you! We will study the PPC for final proofing, corrections, problems, etc. before mass production begins. The PPC should be in our hands by in early January.
•Once those hurdles are cleared, we will enter into the mass production phase! Hard to predict exact timing for that, but it is intentional that we have waited until after the holiday season to get that going.
And of course, we will keep you posted as all of this unfolds... because without you, none of this is possible! We can't wait to get the game on your table.
With much love and appreciation,
Clothespin Games
Jesse, Kelly, and Megan
Kelly is a layout QUEEN, Megan's art is inches from being done, etc.
over 4 years ago
– Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 02:17:36 PM
Hypsters,
Happy fall! I am reaching out with a quick report from the playground!
I am proud to report that all systems are moving forward in the prep phase. As a reminder, this is the phase where we painstakingly conform all of our assets to Panda's specs including the cards themselves, decks mats, hype meters, slider clips, and rulebook.
This has meant an incredibly painstaking process for Kelly (our graphic designer) who is poring over the card frames, background textures, visible borders, "bleed" area, size and thickness of fonts, etc, etc, etc. Meanwhile, we are proofing, checking for clarity in the wording, ensuring legibility, looking for inconsistencies in shading and shadows in the art, and more... It's a lot, but Kelly's love and passion are unmatched and her commitment to the quality of the final product will be palpable to everyone who sees the game. Just yesterday, she texted me to say that she was going back through a whole bunch of highly detailed work (that she had already done extremely thoroughly) just to make sure that there weren't any pixel-sized differences between the border height from one card to another. What did I do in a former life to get such amazing people to collaborate with?
And Megan is now completing the last four pieces of art!! It's hard to believe she is nearly done with her 60th individual piece of art for the game! Meanwhile, she will be tending to shadow, framing, size, and slight color adjustments as the look of the final cards allows us to compare all of the art side by side to see where we have inconsistencies. Again, who delivered these amazing artists straight from Awesomeville to my doorstep?
As for me... I just finished the tedious process of going back through more than a year's worth of notes (including all of my notes from the blind play-testing) to make sure we have left no stone unturned in wording, clarity, rules, and presentation for the final revision of the rulebook and rules reminder cards.
But we are on track, working hard, and moving this thing along as fast as quality, care, and time allow.
More to come soon...
Jesse, Kelly, and Megan
Clothespin Games
From Sketch to Finished Art for "Cut The Line"
over 4 years ago
– Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 12:41:13 PM
Hypesters,
Kelly, Megan, and I are hard at work on the next phase... getting the game ready for print and production! I'm happy to say we are making progress on conforming elements to Panda's specs, updating a few of the layouts to reflect component changes, and getting those last few pieces of art done!
On that note, I thought it would be fun, as a little backer exclusive, to share a series of pictures for the card, "Cut the Line" which was recently finished. I thought I would show some sketches, how they developed, and where we ended up!
Sketch #1: Once I have figured out what a card does mechanically and have given it a name, I write an art description for Megan. The A.D. gives the concept, how it ties into what the card does, some of the tone and vibe of the reactions, where I think the touch point of humor is (sometimes it goes without saying,) and a bit about the framing. Megan then takes that and runs with it, often finding aspects of it that are unique to her vision of the idea. In this case, we were looking for a scene where Oliver cuts into the ice cream truck line in front of Nico. I love Megan's take on this, especially with the girl to the left. She is so scandalized!
Sketch #2: After sketch 1, we decided that we wanted it to be Zoe cutting in front of Oliver instead of Oliver cutting in on Nico. This was partly to build the push and pull of the Oliver/Zoe relationship across the cards... where they are sometimes adversarial and other times working together (as you'll see on "Distract the Teachers.") We have also worked hard to make sure we are featuring each of our four main kids in moments of weakness as well as moments of strength. In addition, we weren't quite happy with the specific action of how Oliver had been cutting in (with his leg outstretched) so we went for something more like "I am just walking in front of you" as seen below. The change to Zoe and Oliver enlivened the scene and we liked that. Megan also started building in some background information to place this scene on the school grounds.
Sketch #3: This is often the point where we start talking about exaggerating the action and the facial expressions so they read well "at card size." Megan works on things very large so as to get maximum detail, but players will see them very small, so we always have to "back up" and see what it looks like small. Very frustrating! So at this point, we talked about making Zoe's action a little more extreme... to change it so that she is pushing Oliver out of the way and stepping in from BEHIND him instead of crossing in front. And to have Oliver should sort of "falling backwards" in an even more of a comic way. And to get more going on the faces. So we got this next sketch, which we both loved.
Lines #1: So we were happy... except... I was worried we were losing too much of "scandalized girl" on the left behind the label (the rectangular area) where the card type will be printed. So I asked Megan to zoom the framing in more on the four kids and to cut out most of the ice cream lady. Megan was a bit skeptical, but I think was convincing in my argument that we needed to focus on the essential action. I thought it made sense not to "bother" doing another sketch (even though Megan is always game to do one more sketch if it means not having to go back later) and Megan agreed she would just go ahead an alter the framing while moving right into the next phase: drawing the final lines over the sketch. (These are the lines that will actually appear in the art after the sketch lines are removed.) I'll mention here that drawing in the lines is a very long, detail-oriented process and we try really hard not to enter that phase until we are happy with all of the elements of the sketch. Megan sent me the lined version, as seen here.
Sketch #4: When I looked at this (as happy as I was with all of the elements) it was immediately clear to me that without the ice cream lady, we had lost the story... and the humor of seeing the end goal they were lined up for. It felt claustrophobic. And I felt like it was totally my fault. (That said, we try not to play the blame game when things go wrong, but I felt pretty bad about this one!) Yeah, we probably should have tried the framing change in one more sketch, but maybe we were rushing a bit. I told Megan I thought we needed to go back to the framing with the ice cream lady. (Megan was cool about it. Luckily this hasn't happened a lot... but I'll bet I was not her favorite person that day.) So, the next sketch is almost identical to #3, but has a little more exaggeration in the faces.
Lines #2 & Flat Color #1: Yes! We were happy with this and the ice cream lady was pleased she got to keep her position in the frame. Megan then moved onto drawing lines (again) and do what's called "flat color" where all of the color is added without any texture, detail, or shading. Megan has an amazing eye for color and costume... and this phase is where that starts to really show itself. Everything solidifies here. Notice, still no kids in the background...
Final Shading & Detail: This last phase (also very painstaking as I understand it) involves bringing in all of those final details and textures, motion lines where necessary, shadows, etc... And one of my favorite Megan touches: background kids! Notice how distinct they all are with totally different personalities and expressions... Megan has developed a whole cast of background characters that recur across the cards, some of whom you might see in future games! So here you have what is essentially the finished version of the art which will appear on the card in the game!
Still so in love with the scandalized girl on the left. She is important because one of the things this card does in-game is offer you a choice of whether to move up or down 1 space on your hype meter. So although Zoe's expression tells you that this is a hype gaining move, the girl on the left is there to illustrate the fact that sometimes an action like cutting in line brings you down in the eyes of other kids on the playground, a justification for sometimes playing this card to lose hype.
I hope you all found this interesting! And it gives you an idea of just what goes into the creation of just one piece of card art. Soon, I will pull a graphic design element out of the files and give you a sneak peek into the amazing iterative work that Kelly has been doing for the card frames, hype meters, rulebook, logo, and more!
Please leave a comment below to let us know what you think of the art and if you'd like to see more content like this as we move through the production process!
Best,
Jesse
Jesse on "The Game Design Roundtable" Podcast
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Aug 20, 2021 at 11:47:51 AM
Hypesters,
Check out Jesse's appearance on Episode 261 of "The Game Design Roundtable" podcast here!
Years ago... Jesse was a guest on episode 9 of The Game Design Roundtable, talking about an early version of Hype Tag (then called "Ploy.") In episode 261, Jesse returns to the podcast to talk to Dirk and Dave about how he got from Ploy to Hype Tag, what inspires his game design ideas, what other games he is working on, and what's up with the Hype Tag Kickstarter. (FYI, the episode was recorded in the middle of the Kickstarter, so we hadn't yet reached our funding goal!)
There is a lot of fun content here. Dirk and Dave have a great show, so check it out!
Jesse, Kelly, Megan
Clothespin Games
Next Steps for Hype Tag!
over 4 years ago
– Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 01:21:12 PM
Hypesters,
Once again, we want to thank you all for taking Hype Tag from longtime dream to imminent reality! We wanted to send an update to let you know what the next steps will be for you as backers and for us as the creators of the game.
NEXT STEPS FOR YOU:
•Campaign Ends/Funds Charged: With the campaign over and funded, the credit/debit card you used for your pledge should have been charged. (If not, it should happen very soon.) If it doesn't happen in a few more days, be on the lookout for email communication from Kickstarter in case they are having an issue with your form of payment and are seeking assistance from you. If you have any issues, please feel free to reach out to us via Kickstarter comments or social media. (Linked below.)
•Backer "Surveys": Within the next couple of weeks, we will be sending a very important questionnaire (Kickstarter calls it a "survey") to get information we will need to fulfill your rewards and ship your game(s) once manufactured. The info we will be requesting will be kept private. It will be things like: Shipping address, confirmation of pledge tier and rewards due, requests for a photo or two if you pledged in the "Recess Overlord" tier (so Megan can do your portrait), and some fun facts about you if you are in the "Superfan" tier, so Jesse can write a verse of the Hype Tag theme song tailored to you. Please return these questionnaires as soon as you can!
NEXT STEPS FOR US:
•Rulebook Updates: We will be doing a final update on the rulebook to reflect minor rules tweaks from this summer's playtesting as well as feedback from the "blind playtesting" that ended this past spring.
•Quality Control: We will be doing a very detailed pass to finalize card wording, card names, spelling, final art framing/placement, layout tweaks, and color management.
•Prep for Printing: We will then be prepping all of the files to conform to the templates provided by the printer and send the whole thing off to begin the proofing and printing process that will take place between us and Panda.
YOU made this possible. How cool is that? Our goal at this point will be to update you at regular intervals (but not "too" often, hehe) with progress reports, timelines, and even some fun "backers-only" content. If you would like to interact with us or ask any questions, hop over to our Facebook, Instagram, or Discord. (Discord is a great place to have conversations with us!) Now that the campaign is over, our Kickstarter page becomes a bit of a de factor web site until we have an actual web site up and running. Feel free to use the comments there to communicate with us as well.
We now have the means to begin the final phase of the Hype Tag process, the phase that puts the completed game in your hands! Yes, it will take several months, but we are on the move!
