Posted April 15, 2015 at 9:28 pm
So I just got this email from Kickstarter... This is a message from Kickstarter’s Integrity team. We're writing to inform you that a project you backed, Goblins: Alternate Realities, is the subject of an intellectual property dispute. This is so odd, since they've told me repeatedly, that they absolutely cannot send messages out to all the backers. And yet... here's a message sent to all the backers. Weird. I'm thinking wizards from the future? Maybe it was Ultron and his super high tech? The law requires that we remove the project from public view until the dispute is resolved (please see our Copyright Policy and Trademark Policy for more info). Because the project already ended successfully, your pledge hasn’t been affected. The creator should still be able to move forward with the project (and send any unfulfilled rewards). Really?! Really. I mean... seriously? Kickstarter is vastly informed with the current situation. They KNOW that Richard (the creator) stole the money and ran. They KNOW that he is not making G:AR under any circumstances. I have asked them over and over, if they'd send a blanket email to all my backers, telling them that G:AR is not being made. And here they are emailing all the backers to tell them that it WILL be made and assuring the backers that they WILL get their rewards! You have got to be kidding me. You have got to be fucking kidding me. Thanks again, Kickstarter! Thanks for screwing me over just a little bit more! Now I've got a tsunami of emails from people thinking that they're going to be getting their rewards. I mean, why wouldn't they think that? Kickstarter just personally told them it would happen. Now it's my word against Kickstarter's. I didn't think it possible, but Kickstarter has made this situation so, so much worse. Kickstarter... you suck. You're horrible and/or incompetent people that HAVE to be doing this on purpose. I can't think of any other reason for this level of ineptitude. If you have any questions, though, you can still message the creator from the project page. And finally, we have the climax of this stupidity. Sure. message the creator. Nevermind that Richard stopped responding to all of those messages a loooong time ago. No, no. Please. Please feel free to contact the creator via the link kindly provided by Kickstarter. After all, Kickstarter did just assure you that "you can STILL message the creator". Thanks for your patience and cooperation, Kickstarter Sit back down, Kickstarter. You're embarrassing me, yourself and the 3000 backers involved. -Tarol  
Posted March 30, 2015 at 4:40 pm
EDIRT: (Sorry, I typo-ed "EDIT" and it made me laugh. I now need to keep it this way.) Since posting this blog and the four videos, I've actually redesigned a big chunk of the Plot Point rules. This information is now out of date. I'll have a new G:AR update for you soon. I'm of course, also working on the next Goblins page. I've been working really hard on G:AR, over the past weeks. With that and a medical issue dragging me down (which is thankfully behind me now) Goblins updates have been slow, but I expect them to pick up. I've posted four videos on YouTube, explaining various aspects of G:AR... Part One: The Kickstarter Thing This video talks about the money, the stealing in my name (which is still happening) and is basically twelve minutes of me, ranting. Part Two: The Hell Is G:AR? (This video is temporarily unavailable as I improve the rules, further.) Part Three: Types Of Cards (This video is temporarily unavailable as I improve the rules, further.) Part Four: What A Round OF G:AR Looks Like (This video is temporarily unavailable as I improve the rules, further.) These videos don't really talk about the more basic aspects of the game (leveling up, combat, quest completion, etc). I just really wanted to explain the unique parts of story creation. Please comment on one or more of the videos and let me know what you think. Thanks! -Tarol
Posted February 6, 2015 at 5:42 pm
UPDATE: Everything has worked out and she's going to be fine. THANK YOU to those who contacted her, offering to help! This is another one of those weird times, where I use this blog to try and help someone that we don't know, but is in a bit of trouble. A Goblins reader has a friend in Los Angeles who is about to be kicked out of her place for reasons outside of her control. She's got a place set up for the end of February but without help, she's totally screwed until then. If you're in the LA area and have the ability and space to let someone crash with you until the end of the month or even just part of that time, please contact her through her Twitter. She's about my age and although I've never met her, she's a personal friend of a Goblins reader whom I know and trust. I believe she has only a few days until she's out, so if there's anyone out there who can help in some way, you'd be saving her butt as well as making a grateful friend (I'll also mail you a plushie Big Ears). Thanks. -Tarol
Posted January 31, 2015 at 3:03 pm
I still have to finish the front page video, but I'm going to put that aside for now, in favour of finishing the next Goblins page. Nevertheless, here is my new Patreon page. Please feel free to check out the rewards and extra features it offers. If you're not contributing through Patreon, don't sweat it. You can still REALLY help me out by spreading the word about Goblins. Of course, the best way to support Goblins is to simply keep reading it. :) !EDIT! I just want to quickly mention the vote button located at the top of the site (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to place a copy of that button here in the blog, otherwise I would), under the Goblins title. You're allowed one vote per IP address, every 24 hours. And yes, the rules of TopWebComics specifically say that you're allowed to vote from home, then vote again at school/work, if you like. I'll be hiding neato Goblins stuff "under" the vote button every 1 or 2 days. Simply clicking on it, will show you that day's secret Goblin thingy. Right now, the VERY first goblins I ever drew are tucked in there. I drew them back in 2003 and they look REALLY different! So what does voting actually do? It moves the Goblins banner up that list. The higher it is, the more exposure Goblins gets. Don't forget that you can also vote once a day on ANY of the other comics as well. So if you see something in that list that you like, give them a vote! It takes like, 2 seconds and it makes our day. Trust me. :) Thanks everyone! -Tarol
Posted January 28, 2015 at 1:12 am
EDIT: Thanks again, see you next time! Come and hang out with me whilst I pull an all-nighter. You can type stuff to me and others or if you're shy, sit silently and observe and no one will know you're being sneaky and sitting in the shadows. Click here to hang out.
Posted December 11, 2014 at 11:58 pm

In the summer of 2013, Tarol Hunt and Evertide Games joined together and launched a Kickstarter for the creation of a tabletop game based of off the webcomic, Goblins.

Goblins: Alternate Realities (G:AR) raised over $182,000, but the game was never made. Instead, the owner of Evertide Games disappeared with the money.

Lowtide: the Undead Kickstarter Campaign, is an up to date account of Tarol's attempt to create G:AR and get it to the people who paid for it in good faith.

The Kickstarter Page

Lowtide – First Update

Lowtide – Second Update

My Twitter


G:AR “pre-orders” are still being collected by the Evertide Games site. DO NOT PRE-ORDER G:AR ON THAT SITE! IT IS A SCAM! None of the merchandise shown on Evertide's Goblins: Alternate Realities page will ever be made by him, but his ordering system WILL take your money. If you have pre-ordered anything from that page in the last three or four months, see if you can get refunded through your credit card company or Paypal. If you cannot get your money refunded, tweet to me with the hashtag #GARBacker or email me at goblins@dccnet.com (put #GARBacker in the email’s title, so I can spot it easily), with a copy of your receipt. We’ll make sure you’re on our list of backers and we’ll get you hooked up the replacement loot when that day comes.

I've sent “take it down” messages out to Richard but so far the page remains up.

I've Talked To Kickstarter

I emailed Kickstarter and I'm sorry to say that it hasn't gone well. Here's my initial email...

Hi. I'm Tarol, the author of a webcomic called Goblins. In July'13, I did a KS with Evertide Games <linked> that was very successful. However, the head of Evertide, Richard James, disappeared about 4 months ago, taking with him $182,000 given over by my readers, without delivering anything promised to them. After months of trying to contact him and thinking "No, he'd never run off, would he? No, that's crazy" I've recently, finally accepted that he and the money are gone and I've started the process of facing the 2700 backers and cleaning up this mess. Here's my public announcement to my readers- <linked>. Of course, I don't hold KS responsible in any way, as this is clearly an example of me being far too naive. <some private info edited out> I've announced that I will be having a less expensive version of the game made and shipping copies of it to the backers, all paying for it myself. However, as I technically was not running the KS, I have none of the info, like a backers list, etc. I realize that you can't exactly hand over that information to someone online, who isn't listed as a creator with KS with ease. But I'm hoping that there's something we can work out. I'm willing to provide whatever proof that you'd need, to show that I am who I claim to be and the situation I'm explaining is genuine. I'll also happily allow you time to do whatever might need to be done first (I imagine you'd want to try to contact Richard, for starters). So there it is. My wife and I are looking into what legal action we should be taking against Richard and fielding the hundreds of questions pouring in since the announcement. But more than anything, we need that backers list/info in order to hopefully fix this as without it, there's no way to prove that everybody asking for merchandise is being honest. On top of that, any advice or help you can offer, would be gratefully accepted, though I understand that there's not a lot you can do. I look forward to hearing from you. <personal contact info edited out> -Tarol

This was the response...


Hi Tarol,

Thanks for reaching out about this project and with your follow up questions regarding how to proceed.

  1. We expect all members of the Kickstarter community to act with honesty and openness. When we find that people are abusing the system or the trust of others, we do not hesitate to suspend their account or restrict certain account privileges, like launching another project. We have a dedicated Integrity Team that monitors our system and reviews reports that we receive from our community. While we can’t speak to the nature of specific projects that have been approved or declined, we’re constantly working on improving our vetting process for creators and we are grateful for the feedback that folks like you provide.

  2. We are not able to distribute any backer information publicly. Kickstarter is not able to facilitate any transference of pledges from one project to another or help with any sort of project transference. You will need to work this out directly with the project creators.

It looks like we've reached out this creator recently to remind them to check in. Unfortunately, we're not able to force a creator to respond but we have made note of the fulfilment issues with this account.

Kickstarter's Terms of Use outline the responsibilities of backers and creators. This information can serve as a basis for legal recourse if a creator doesn't fulfill their promises. We hope that backers will consider that option only in cases where they believe that a creator has not made a good faith effort to complete the project and fulfill. If you believe legal action is appropriate here, please talk to an attorney about how to proceed. Kickstarter takes the privacy of our users very seriously, so we don't provide a creator's information directly to backers.

Hope this helps clarify!

Best, Kickstarter Person <I edited out the person's name, just to be on the safe side>


Not the best response ever. Take it up with the creator? You mean the person that I just explained, has run away with the money? Since that's not really an option for me, I wrote another email...


Hi Kickstarter Person, Thank you for your quick response. I'm honestly surprised that there's nothing that can be done here, I mean, the KS was clearly made around my comic. I'm even in the introduction video with Richard, in which we both talk together about our project. There must be some way for me to get that backers list. Everything I'm doing is very, very public, so it's quite easy to make sure that I'm being honest and my situation is real. I'd be willing to provide some sort of free advertising on my site or even simply pay a fee. Whatever it takes to get that list, I'll do it. There are almost 3000 backers who are owed something and I'm just trying to get it to them. I can't do it without your help. My name is all over the KS page. My name is on the box of the game. I'm in the introduction video, in which Richard acknowledges me as a creator. I'm clearly not a scam artist or thief. Please help me to make this right.

-Tarol


Reading that email now, I can tell that I was really sleep deprived at the time. Oh well. Here's the response to it...


Hi Tarol,

While I'm sure you're not a scam artist or a thief, and that you are actually just trying to help, we are still not able to transfer the account to you or distribute the backer list to you from our end. You would need to locate and work with the project creator in order to obtain this information. I've double checked this with the head of our Integrity team who has confirmed that this kind of information transfer would not be possible.

You can review our Privacy policy here: https://www.kickstarter.com/

Best, Kickstarter Person


So Kickstarter is hinting that they actually, seriously don't have that information. I really can't believe this, for a few reasons...

  1. Kickstarter Person never officially makes the claim that they don't have the backer list. Only that it's not possible to give it to me. It seems to me that if they didn't have that info, they'd lead with that as a definitive statement. “That sucks, Tarol! We literally don't have that info though. Seriously, we don't posses it. Only the creator has it”.

  2. If Kickstarter doesn't have access to the backer list, why did Kickstarter Person check with “the head of the Integrity team”? If the problem is a lack of access, you'd be more likely to check with some sort of information retrieval person or tech person. The head of Integrity is where you'd go to decide whether or not you want to give out the list, not whether or not you can find it.

  3. I read the privacy policy and although it also suggests that they don't have that kind of info, it never actually says “We don't have a list of backers. We seriously have no idea who funded what”. Which brings me to my final point...

  4. There is no way Kickstarter could function without knowing who's backing what projects and by how much money. I can't picture them shrugging their shoulders and saying “I dunno where the millions and millions of dollars filtering through our business comes from. Meh, who cares”.

So they have the backer list. Meaning that it's impossible because it goes against their policy. Well like I said, I read that policy. It says...

We do reserve the right to disclose personal information when we believe that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with the law or law enforcement, to prevent fraud or abuse, or to protect Kickstarter’s legal rights.

“...to prevent fraud and abuse...” So Kickstarter seems to have the list and the privacy policy seems to clearly state that they are able to make exceptions in cases exactly like this. I'm not sure what my next move is, but I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Edit: Danielle and I are digging through boxes of records and computer files in hopes of finding a copy of the backer list that we 'may' have (fingers crossed).

 

Common Questions

  • I backed the Kickstarter through Paypal and not directly through the Kickstarter page. Will I be on the backer list?

Absolutely! We're doing everything we can to get our hands on the backer list and we'll make certain that everyone is on it. If for some reason, you're not on it, we'll correct this. Seriously, if you backed us, there is just no scenario in which you hear this...

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  • I've moved since I backed the Kickstarter. How can I get my new address to you or make sure you have the correct address listed?

Once we (somehow) get the backers list, we'll start making sure it's all accurate and up to date. You'll have plenty of opportunities to get your new address to us.

  • I now live on the surface of the Sun. Will you still ship to me? It's crazy expensive to ship here. Also, ouch.

Totally! It really doesn't matter how far away you've moved. You backed us. You're getting your loot.

  • Are you still going to have the Shield of Wonder bonus deck?

I was the one who pushed for the SoW deck to begin with. HELL YES!

  • What's going on with Goblins? Where are the updates?

My computer died after eight years of loyal service. I immediately ordered a new one (with the help of a tech savy friend. Thanks Shannon), but they seem to be taking a scwillion years to get it to me. Today I learned that one of the parts had to be special ordered from somewhere else and so I can expect it to arrive on Friday, Dec 12th. Kinda climbing the walls here. I need to draw. Grrrrrrr.

The Actual Game

Note: None of these rules are definite.

Terrain

With no drawing time, I'm getting a ton of work done on G:AR. I've started writing terrain cards that randomly create a world to run around in and explore. The cards are dealt face down in the center of the table and get flipped over to reveal the location, once a character travels to it. The outer circle of terrain cards, would represent things like forests, mountains, lakes, cities... while the terrain cards inside of that circle will represent a dungeon crawl. So far, I really like the idea of having a deck for each dungeon crawl. The Dragon's Maw, The Maze of Mazy, The Well of Darkness, and more. This way, the players could decide which dungeon crawl they'd like to have in this particular game. Of course the placement of the individual rooms would be random each time, just like the outer terrain. And naturally, locations from the comic would be included.

Roleplaying EXP and Backstories

This is still new, but so far I really like it. In social situations, like in a tavern, for instance, player characters can drink and talk together. While doing this, those players go head-to-head, competing to try and form the best backstories and therefore make the most interesting characters and earn buckets of EXP. Here's how it'd work (keep in mind, that this is still in early development)...

  1. Two or more players, who's characters are spending some quality time together, each draw a Backstory Card, face down. Then, a Theme card is drawn face up. The Theme Card affects everyone competing.

  2. The first player turns their Backstory Card over for the whole table to see. It might read “The day I was born, many...” or “How did I, as a small child end up standing on a massive pile of dead bodies? I'll tell you.” or “I thought I was drinking water, I really did! But the truth was...”.

  3. As soon as a player turns over their Backstory Card, they must immediately improvise a part of their character's history and tell that short tale to the other players, according to what's on the card.

  4. The Theme Card is used to depict the mood or atmosphere of the stories being told. While each player is dealt their own, unique Backstory Card, the single, face up Theme Card sets the same tone for everyone involved in the social interaction. If the Theme Card says EPIC for instance, then everyone's backstory must be a truly epic tale. If the Theme Card says HILARIOUS, then everyone's backstory tale must be as funny as possible. The Theme Card could also be things like TRAGIC, HORROR, NONSENSICAL or CONNECTION TO ANOTHER CHARACTER (which would mean that the player would incorporate one of the game's player characters or non-player characters into their past in a creative way that could potentially add to the game).

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  1. Character Details: Theme Cards would also contain a single word (aside from the word that sets the tone) such as +phobia, +addiction, +attraction, +immunity, +hatred or +fascination. Backstory Cards would contain four detail words, like +acid, +music, +elves, +killing, +big-butts, etc. The player winning the event, would then connect the single word from the Theme Card (let's imagine it's +phobia) to one of the choices on their Backstory Card (let's imagine they chose +big-butts). This choice must be a direct result of the improvised backstory given by the player. The result is a character who has 1 token point in phobia: big-butts. This phobia would give penalties when socializing with or battling anyone with a really big butt.

  2. Some of these details are obviously beneficial, like (+immunity +curses) or (+notices +traps), while things like +phobias and +addictions are indeed, disadvantages. But the disadvantages would offer benefits in other ways. For instance raking in the roleplaying EXP is much easier, with disadvantages. Also, terrain, weapons and other aspects of the game would play off of these character details in both good and bad ways.

  3. If a player becomes stuck and can't think of a backstory that's within the given parameters, they automatically lose that social encounter. If two or more players complete their backstories, then all players vote on who's was the best (I have ideas how to streamline this voting process and make it fair). Only the winning backstory becomes canon. The rest then become tall tales, dreams or drunken babblings that never happened. And only the winning player receives roleplaying EXP, character details and other bonuses.

I'm still keeping speed of play into careful consideration. No one wants to wait 15 minutes for their turn to come around (I hate that).

Thanks,

-Tarol

Posted December 4, 2014 at 12:48 pm

Edit: ** IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT **

Apparently G:AR "pre-orders" can still be placed on the Evertide Games site. DO *NOT* PRE-ORDER G:AR ON THAT SITE! Evertide Games will not be making any of the merchandise shown on their Goblins: Alternate Realities page, but their ordering system WILL take your money. There is currently nowhere that you can order G:AR from. If you have pre-ordered anything from that page in the last three or four months, see if you can get refunded through your credit card company or Paypal. If you cannot get your money refunded, tweet to me with the hashtag #GARBacker or email me at goblins@dccnet.com (put #GARBacker in the email's title, so I can spot it easily), telling me what you ordered and when. We'll make sure you're on our list of backers (which we will be organizing soon and giving everyone a chance to make sure they're on it with any address changes, etc) and we'll get you hooked up the replacement loot when that day comes. ~Thunt

This is an addition to the blog post entitled Lowtide - Update For Goblins: Alternate Realities. If you haven't read it, click the title or scroll down to read it before reading this. Kickstarter Backers With Questions Someone else suggested that I ask all backers to include a hashtag in any tweets they'd like me to respond to. That'll definitely make it a lot easier for me to answer everyone's questions. So please include #GARBacker in any tweets to me that you'd like a response to. That'll be my Bat Signal that'll bring me swooping in with responses for you. That doesn't mean I will stop responding to tweets without #GARBacker, I just don't want to leave anyone hanging. Once again, here's my Twitter. "I'll stay behind and fight the costs, you save yourself!" Once again, Goblinites are proving themselves to be some of the most paladin-like people on the internet. As expected, the response to my G:AR announcement has been big. What I didn't expect, was for that response to be almost entirely positive, with so many people offering to help in some way. A heart warming number of backers are asking me to remove them from the list of people whom I owe rewards to. The reasoning being that those individuals would rather repay for the game, than add to the financial obstacle that I'm facing. I think we've seen this kind of behaviour before...     earssacrifice forgathsacrifice So to those people... thank you so much for the offer! However, I really want to return the kind of support that you've shown me and so I've been respectfully declining those offers. I'm sorry, I'm just not going to let you go fight the badguy so I can escape. We've seen this kind of behaviour before, too... dontsacrifice $182,000 Bucks This has been brought up as being a point of confusion for a few people, so I figured I should just make sure it's clarified without any room for misunderstandings. The Kickstarter money raised for G:AR, went to Evertide Games and not to me. To be fair, EG did pay me for some extra card art and when I was having a financially rough month, even advanced me a bit of what would have been my share of the future profits. So while I did get paid for something, the $182,000 was never mine. Richard's Not A Bad Guy I've talked a bit about how Richard is honestly an okay guy who I'm convinced, never intended for this to happen. However, he is getting a lot of hate, so I wanted to emphasize my opinion on this. Every one of his actions leading up to this point showed a commitment and strong drive to make something amazing. My theory is that he just got overwhelmed and possibly ran out of money, leaving him with no way to complete everything. This is of course, pure speculation (by that, I mean undiluted guess work and not the awesome science & fiction festival in Edmonton). I've Started Reworking G:AR With my computer dead and my replacement still on its way (it might even arrive today), I can't really draw. So I've been spending most of my time working on G:AR. I'm actually surprised at how much creative freedom I feel when I'm working on a game that's mine and not also someone else's. The difference between "Do you think the game can do this?" and "The game is going to do this." is massive. I feel like I'm DMing again and it's incredibly comfortable. Here's what's tentatively starting to come together...
  • Character IME (individual magic effect): I'm working on introducing a mechanic where players choose an IME for each of their characters. This IME would evolve as the character's power grows and it'd play an important roll in the other mechanic I'm working on, which is...
  • Character Traits: I've been saying from the beginning, that G:AR is part game and part story creation tool. The more depth the characters have, the more unique and engaging those stories will be. We want to avoid repetition and bland mathematics, as it doesn't tend to create anything enthralling enough to be memorable. [caption id="attachment_4896" align="aligncenter" width="300"]"Anyway, to cut a long story short I threw a five and a four which beat his three and a two, another double six followed by a double four and a double five. After he'd thrown a three and a two I threw a six and a three." "Anyway, to cut a long story short I threw a five and a four which
    beat his three and a two, another double six followed by a double four and a double five. After he'd thrown a three and a two I threw a six and a three."[/caption] I'm working on a system that would allow the players to sculpt out personal details as the game progresses. Things like phobias, obsessions, characters forming powerful friendships or even falling in love, gaining nemesis status with each other, etc. The freedom given to the players as to what they could do with this would be pretty much endless. Each positive or negative detail could be applied to basically anything. Kin's crippling fear of someone taking control of her. Kore's obsession with wiping out evil. The brotherhood between Minmax and Forgath. The love triangle between Dies, Saves and Grem (how many people just noticed how the words Dies and Saves reflect the central draw those two characters have toward each other?). These are all plot points that could be initiated by players or situationally created by the game and offer just enough lack of control to present a challenge, while allowing players the freedom to try and embrace, escape or ignore any detail. Each of these character details would also affect the game as functional advantages or disadvantages. One character who considers the other to be a nemesis or enemy, might have combat bonuses against 'em. This might force the player of the other character to either try to keep away from the killer, sporting customized bonuses or start looking for opportunities to pile some hate tokens of their own, right back on the attacker, thereby evening the odds (and creating an epic rivalry in the process). I know, this sounds like way too much to keep track of and way to many details to keep the game moving smoothly and easily. When I started mucking around with it though, I discovered that it can be boiled down to it's simplest/easiest form and still seem really cool.
Pretty much every aspect of the game has some things I'd at least like to tweek a bit. This isn't to say that Evertide didn't make a great game, because I love what they put together. I'm just tightening it up and bringing it even closer to something I'll want to play for years. And of course, these are all initial concepts. I'm mentioning them now, just because I want people to have an idea of what's happening to G:AR right now. Thanks. -Thunt
Posted December 3, 2014 at 9:13 am
In July of 2013, Evertide Games and Goblins successfully Kickstarted a Goblins card game/board game called Goblins: Alternate Realities. We asked for $30,000 and received over $182,000 dollars (if you include the $5,300 received through Paypal donations). Well, when I say "we" successfully Kickstarted it, I mean you. It was done with your money and support, after all. Since then, nothing has happened. No one has received their stretch goal rewards and no one has gotten a copy of the game. Over 2200 people generously handed over their money and so now, a lot of people are understandably, angry. So what's going on? Well here's everything that I know on the subject... I haven't heard from Richard James, the head of Evertide Games in four months. I've been trying to contact him any way I can, including contacting a few other people that know him. I can't find anyone else who's heard from him in the past three and a half months. I was starting to wonder if he'd actually died or had some horrible event happen to him. After all, I had my own er... breakdown thingy in which I mentally shut down for months, without being able to tell anyone. I've known Richard for years now and I can easily say that he's been an honest guy and a great friend. From the very beginning of G:AR, I've watched him put a HUGE amount of work and passion into the creation of the game. He's helped me through a few tough times and genuinely been there for me as a friend. I have absolutely no doubt that when we started this project, his intention was for us to make the best damn game we could. It's pretty much impossible to imagine that he's taken the Kickstarter money and run off. It's just not him. This is why I've so effortlessly trusted him with not only the Kickstarter money, but a room full of Goblins merchandise and convention banners as well. As long as I've known Richard, Evertide has always been a small but great company. However the number of employees at that company has been recently shrinking and I'm not sure if anyone other than Richard is currently left. Combine this with the moment that I noticed that he's been on Facebook as recently as a week ago, I knew that the thing I've been increasingly stressing over for months, was probably true. He may have taken off. With the money. Now bear in mind that I may be wrong. Maybe something horrible and out of his control HAS happened to him. Maybe he IS dead and someone keeps hacking his Facebook to upload new profile pictures. Or maybe he's been franticly emailing me and it's going into my spam folder... which is glitched to auto erase everything instantly... and my phone has him accidentally blocked... and he forgot his Twitter password... and his Skype password... and his Skype is glitching to show him sometimes online and sometimes offline... and the Evertide website has a coding error where messages don't get to him... and Kickstarter is broken and can't be updated... and the people I talked to have amnesia... and... and... well shit. Yesterday, one of the people I talked to, said that in his last email 3.5 months ago, he mentioned wanting to hand off all of Evertide's publishing projects to someone else and go in another direction. This was the first I'd heard of that particular plan. This was when I started hyperventilating. So what happens now? Well first off, I haven't been wronged here, you have. By my project. Yes, Evertide and Goblins were business partners, but the decision was mine to work with them and the money came from Goblins fans, not Evertide fans. You funded the project because you trusted me and my abilities to bring you the game without any serious problems. The responsibility for this is mine. The obligation to repair this as much as I can is on me. Obviously I can't offer you what you really deserve, which are refunds. So here's what I'm going to do... Danielle and I have talked it over and we're going to finish the game. I have a prototype of G:AR, and I have already started to tighten the rules up and work on art for some more cards I think the game needs. I don't have all of the G:AR graphics, but I have a lot. When it's playtested and ready, our plan is to publish it through an AMAZING print on demand system our online publisher Drivethru has. They create really high quality stuff and they do card games, etc. They're a dependable and well respected company that I've been working with for about seven years now. Those interested in purchasing the game would be able to do so through them. There are still the people who've funded the Kickstarter, though. Many have been promised a copy of the game when it's finished. So Danielle and I will be purchasing copies of the game ourselves and getting them to you. It's important to note that although the game won't look exactly the same as advertised, it'll still be the G:AR we've been talking about, maintaining the same feel and flow it's always had. It really is a fantastic and addicting game. When I first got the prototype, I played it for most of a day and as soon as I woke up the next morning, I was itching to jump in and play it again. The whole point of the game has always been to create a story as the characters adventure to level up, collect gear and complete quests. Big Ears goes toe to toe with Kore and steals one of his crossbows which he later uses to save Fumbles from Kin, who wants to kill him because he won't stop annoying her with his unceasing antics. Each game represents an alternate reality of the Goblins universe, so characters can end up exactly like they are in the comic or entirely different, depending on how you decide to play them. Now, to those backers who've been promised extra rewards beyond the game itself, we're going to do the best we can to create a list of item for item replacement rewards and get those out to you. These rewards will be pretty humble and in many cases, won't equal what you were promised, but we'll do everything we can to come up with rewards that you'll genuinely be happy to receive. I'm also working on a modest way for people to maybe play G:AR online. There's a fantastic new piece of genius, called Tabletop Simulator that's available on Steam. As soon as my new computer arrives in a couple days (if you haven't heard through my Twitter, my computer died and I had to order a new one, thus the Goblins comic delay) I'll be buying a copy and taking a look at how it works. From what I can tell, it looks perfect for getting G:AR to you online, but I'm not sure yet. Even if it isn't right for G:AR, you should check it out, it looks AWESOME! You can rage and flip the table during the game! WHY IS THIS ONLY JUST NOW A THING IN ONLINE GAMES?! I've also approached a small video game company and I'll be pestering a few more, as well. I'm not sure it's entirely realistic to hope for a company to create some kind of online game based off of G:AR, given the circumstances, but it doesn't hurt to tap on a few shoulders and ask. There are a lot of copies of G:AR and other rewards to be given out, which means it'll cost a pretty hefty sum. So between finishing the game and covering costs, this is going to take awhile, especially since I am still working on speeding up the Goblins updates. But I'll keep you posted and get things to you as fast as possible. We are of course looking into the smartest things to do, regarding legal action. While I'll be communicative and open about all G:AR details, I'll be pretty much keeping any legal details (if there are any), private. I want to sincerely apologise to everyone. To all the Kickstarter backers, the people who helped to spread the word, the people who offered various forms of support, those who trusted me... all of you. I'm so incredibly sorry. I clearly made some bad and naive decisions that resulted in costing thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'll be personally addressing every genuine question or concern from every backer (contact info at the end of this blog). Note the word “genuine”. Two days ago, I got an email from a backer who (for some reason) asked me what I'd name my tauntaun if I had one. Those are the kinds of questions I probably won't be answering. But if your mailing address has changed or you want to know about a reward you were expecting, I'm all about hearing what you have to say and answering anything I can. Those of you who are angry, have absolutely every right to be and I can't blame you for it. However if you send me hatemail, I won't be reading it. If you really need it though, there's a place online that is dedicated to loudly and ecclesiastically hating me. It brings people together in an odd and fascinating way. A little bit of Googlefu will get ya there. See if you can spot which Thunt-hater is me. Finally, I'll use my held action this round to AOO some questions before they get asked... “Why did you take this long to reach this conclusion and make this announcement? Four months is a long time.” This sounds so 'excusey', but I've been going through a weird, breakdown kinda thing (words like “weird” and “kinda”, downplay the whole thing and make it seem more quirky and less like a disorder). Four months ago, I was just starting to see my psychiatrist and trying to figure out which meds worked for me and which didn't. I was filled with so much anxiety, I couldn't open my email or answer the phone. Doing business of any kind tasted like panic. Facing concepts like losing $200,000 of money that didn't belong to me, was way out of my abilities. “Are you ever going to do another Kickstarter?” I can't see how it'd be at all possible. I've got an unlaunched Patreon account that's been waiting in the wings for months now. I didn't want to launch it, have a bunch of people chip in some cash and then make this announcement right afterwards. So while the Patreon has become a necessity I will be turning to, I need everyone to know all about the results of the Kickstarter before they decide if they want to be a part of that. “So are you going to be making updates on the Kickstarter page?” I can't. Officially, it's not my Kickstarter. I had to donate two bucks just to be able to read the updates, since at the time, only backers could see them. :) I'll post any big news here in this blog and mention the smaller snippets of news on my Twitter. “So do you know how long the release of the game will take?” Not really. I will keep you up to date on how it's going, though. “I've got an idea for a reward you could give to the backers that they'd love and it would be fairly inexpensive for you. Can I tell you about it?” Sure, if it's a genuinely good idea, I'd be grateful. Keep in mind though, that getting 6,000 “Um... what about (thing)? Or let's see.... Oh! What about (another thing)?” would really slow down my responses to backers, but if you really have a great idea, I'd love to hear it. Thank you! “How long will it take you to respond to Backer questions and how many questions can they ask you?” I have very little idea how long it'll take, I'll mention if the questions are piling up and if there's a longer wait, though. And backers can ask as many questions as they like. They've been screwed over. They deserve answers, followed by results. “You don't use a held action to perform an AOO. AOOs are granted situationally and held actions are an entirely different thing that players have to establish beforehand. Why did you do that?” Good eye. “How will you know who's a backer and who isn't?” We have the backer list. “How can backers ask you questions?” My email fills up faster than I can keep up, so it's really not a great way to contact me anymore. I'll probably create an email just for this Lowtide situation but until then, Twitter is actually a really good way to contact me. I can scan through it really fast, so I am guaranteed to read everything you tweet @ me and can respond quickly. So for now... Twitter is the best place. So there it is. As of now, Evertide is no longer involved with the Kickstarter or G:AR and I'm taking on all efforts and responsibilities. Also, last week marked the contractual deadline for the release of the game. Which means that every aspect of G:AR, even the parts designed and created by Evertide, became legally mine. (And her name would be Tauny The Tauntaun.) -Thunt
Posted November 23, 2014 at 8:09 pm
Yesterday I was eating some candy and I started playing with it. I made a... something out of it. Check out the Candy War. (and here's my Twitter and the Goblins forum, which is filled with friendly folks who like to talk about the comic) The Goblins update will be up soon. Lately, I've been working on ways to be able to post pages more quickly. One thing I'm trying to teach myself, is how to draw the characters in a faster, more simplified style. I'm optimistic that it'll save me time in the near future but for right now, drawing Big Ears' armour over and over in an attempt to simplify it with minimal visual change is eating up the hours.  Don't worry, Goblins isn't about to go through some drastic change. I'm talking about little things like armour having slightly less pieces to it and blood splatter not being a recreation of literally. Every. Drop. Of. Blood. Seriously, pages like the recent Forgath vs Kore are easily a good thirty hours just to get the blood right. A lot of that is simply due to the fact that I draw crazy slow. Still, I'm not kidding when I say that every drop of blood has been handled as though it were a separate character. sp_bloodflow2 Another thing adding to the hours, is the first room of The Dragon's Maw, which appears in the upcoming page. sp_DMRoom1 I still have more work to do on it but as you can see, it's got a lot of detail to it. I'm not complaining about any of this, I've actually been having a great time drawing it and of course, no one is making me do any of this. :P As a side note, I gladly admit that the bricks in that room (like most of Goblins) are heavily influenced by the artwork of one of my heroes, Dave Trampier. Check it out... 108_2108_3   As always, thanks for reading. ~Thunt
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