Backerkit, Early Access Digital & Bonus Content!
4 months ago
– Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 09:46:56 AM
Hello lovely backers!
I hope you're all having a wonderful summer so far. After a post-campaign break, Robin and I have kicked into gear and are very close to sending Lumberjills to the printers! I am currently in the process of setting up Backerkit, so keep an eye on your inboxes because fulfillment surveys will be coming out soon.
For those of you who backed at a level that includes an early access version (Physical, Deluxe, New Fan, Benefactor) links to the early access digital edition will be sent to you very shortly. Once we have a final version following the approval of our print proofs, we will send it a final version to everyone, including digital backers.
I'm excited to let you know that there have been a couple of bonus additions to the game! As I mentioned on a previous update, I met Joanna Foat as a backer to this campaign. She is the author of Lumberjills: Britain's Forgotten Army and interviewed and documented the experience of 60 of the surviving Jills. Since then, Joanna and I have been connecting over the history.
She was able to answer a long held question about the Women's Timber Corps that I had never been able to confirm; women of colour could and did serve in the WTC during WWII. All my work in making War Birds games have taught me to be aware that inserting representation without able to confirm lived history will often double down on historical injustice by obscuring an actual history of historical exclusion. When Joanna was able to confirm this for me, I jumped at the chance to explicitly include a new playable Jill in the game for players to choose from, and also worked with Claudia to secure this new delightful new spread for the guide cover.
In addition, Joanna graciously agreed to write an Introduction to the history of Lumberjills for the guide to give extra background and context. I'll leave the details for you to read when the game arrives, but as a teaser - it includes a story that illustrates how the work of the Lumberjills contributed to the success on the beaches of Normandy!
Lastly, I'd like to let you know that Joanna herself has a live Kickstarter campaign happening right now to raise money for an audiobook version of her Lumberjills book. She's offering both her fiction and non fiction books as rewards, plus a photobook and crossed axe badges! Please check out her campaign and share the love.
War Birds, out!
~Mo
Campaign Completed!
6 months ago
– Wed, May 15, 2024 at 09:27:35 AM
Thank you!
The campaign has just completed and I wanted to start by saying thank you to each and every one of you that has helped make this dream a reality! Each backer, each person that posted about or shared the campaign, all the playtesters that wrote testimonials, and everyone who sent me messages of encouragement along the way. My heart is full, and I am so excited that we will be able to get this game out in the world! I can not wait to put it in your hands. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
What's Next?
As Kickstarter does it's thing, we'll start prepping to send the game off to the printer. The vast majority of work is already behind us, but we still have a few things to do to get there. A final copy proof is already underway, and the layout of our deck and guide is at about 80%. Then we just have the box and other sundries to finish off and we'll be sending it off to the printers!
We'll keep you up to date on our progress as we go. But once again, just thank you with all my heart!
In forestry, friendship and romance,
~Mo
Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
6 months ago
– Sun, May 12, 2024 at 09:20:40 AM
We've funded!
I am so happy to announced that after much screen refreshing and breath holding, LUMBERJILLS HAS FUNDED and will become a reality! A million thanks go out to everyone who believes in and has invested in this project, rallied support, and come through to make it happen! I'm overwhelmed and overjoyed that this game will be able to bring joy to the world.
Oh yeah... Stretch Goals!
So much focus on getting to funding, I almost forgot about what was potentially beyond! I have intentionally kept stretch goals modest and within reach because our focus is getting the best version of Lumberjills into the world as quickly and cleanly as possible, while also keeping our small team sane. Here's the first two on the docket:
When I was designing the game, one of the biggest design challenges I faced was giving the facilitator an easy way to manage a very complex dynamic task in dance hall scenes: figuring out who needed to be dancing with who next. It sounds like a simple thing, but it's actually logistically complex! Each player has their own character and each character has three suitors played by the other players. To complicate it further, as our Jills make choices for their lives, suitors drift away from the game in unpredictable ways and that makes scheduling harder.
In the (NOW FUNDED!!!) version of the game, the solution for this challenge is a Google Sheets resource available online that automatically generates the dance card for the facilitator. This is easy and efficient - and it was such a relief to find it as a solution! But the drawbacks of it as a solution are twofold: it needs access to the internet to be used, and it relies on Google keeping Sheets available and free. As a backup, there's also a printable workbook that makes it possibly to do manually, but it requires a bit of work.
This stretch goal will hire someone to create a solution that is not dependant on Google and is usable offline. This tool would be especially helpful to play Lumberjills out in the woods where access to the internet might be less available - and playing in the woods is pure joy! All backers will get this reward.
And in the event we get all the way to $22,500 There will be an entirely new other game released! This is 2 player, 2 hour, GM-less historical romance game of love and secrets is played via the StorySynth engine (all digital delivery). It is a tabletop game that can be played in person or remotely. The game is already designed and coded, and is currently in playtest.
All backers at Box Set and above will receive this reward - so if you're currently backing at a digital copy and on the fence about moving up, this is your sign to take the plunge!
When the Germans invade Norway in WWII, young lovers Per and Solveig see their lives quickly turn upside-down. The occupation seeps quietly into daily life making the familiarity of home feel dangerous and uncertain. New challenges and opportunities press upon them and put them to the test. How can they protect each other when the future is so uncertain?
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
~ An incredibly ecstatic Mo!
In the Home Stretch - 85% Funded!
6 months ago
– Fri, May 10, 2024 at 10:41:42 AM
The last few days have been such a rollercoaster of emotions! With almost five days days left we are now in sight of the goal! I am so exited and grateful to all of the people supporting the campaign. I am floored by all of the ways that people have innovated to get the word out. In the last few weeks, Lumberjills uberfans Whitney Delaglio and then Alan Tobias started a #WooMe campaign on social media, posting pics of themselves as Lumberjills suitors to raise awareness of the campaign.
Following Kimberley Lam's most excellent lead, a half dozen people offered to run the game for anyone in their local area who had backed but might be too nervous to run it the first time! At the same time, a number of backers started spontaneously posting about how excited they were at the prospect of the game and announcing what convention that they planned to run it at once fulfilled. The mere idea of these future games has me dancing in my seat!
Needless to say, all of this support has hit me right in the heart and I am so overflowing with gratitude for the community support!
Accessibility Spotlight: Long Covid
Earlier in the campaign, a backer with Long Covid reached out to me to ask if the game included low energy versions of the sawing and dancing mechanics for folks that might need those accommodations while playing. While the game text does not provide disability-specific advice (because the variety of potential accommodations that may be needed would be difficult to encompass) it does include an explicit step in the pre-game workshops to prioritize ensuring specific adaptations for each player's needs as a part of the game.
I did however, immediately have some thoughts on how adapt the sawing and dancing mechanics specifically for Long Covid. Both the sawing and dancing mechanics could be done sitting down in two chairs (standard or wheeled) facing each other or side-by-side to reduce the kind of standing and movement exertion that could trigger a Long Covid PEM (Post Exertional Malaise) or POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) response. The game already aims to keep cognitive demands low and well-managed by ensuring context needed in a scene is at hand for reference via cards, sorted by colour-coded clips, so the brain fog / memory symptoms of Long Covid are already as accommodated as possible.
But more importantly, thinking about this brings to mind that crowdsourcing the collective accommodations wisdom of players is an untapped thing that games meant to be played and replayed could be doing! I'm going to give some thought about how I could start this with Lumberjills as we fulfill. Even something as simple as a publicly editable Google Doc located in the same folder as the dance card tool used in the game would be a good start.
A special thanks to the backer who asked it - this brave question might lead to an interesting innovation in how I support accessibility in my games moving forward!
Also, solidarity to all the Long Covid and immunocompromised folks out there that struggle and work too hard to find ways to continue to participate in the things you love to do. I see you, and am you!
Excited for this last leg of the campaign, please keep sharing!
~Mo
Half-way there!
7 months ago
– Sun, May 05, 2024 at 01:45:00 PM
Hello wonderful backers!
I'm going to channel my inner Bon Jovi for this....
"Mo sits right down to write an update
the campaign's going strong
but it's still up to fate... it's tough, so tough.
She really wants to publish this game...
she refreshes the screen
hoping numbers have changed. And they did. They did!
Mo says we've got to hang on: we'll get there soon!
with every new backer
I am over the moon!
We're going bring the Jills back from the past
We will fund - just not that fast!
Whooah, we're halfway there!
Ooooooh! Livin' on a prayer!
Share the campaign and we'll make it - I swear...
Oooooooooo-OH! Livin' on a prayer!
Livin' on a prayer!"
My sincere apologies for that. :) Running a Kickstarter makes one incredibly silly.
And an even more sincere THANK YOU for getting the campaign to the halfway mark!
New Retailer Tier
After a request came in to set up a tier to help retailers support the campaign, I have added a new backer tier that provides a War Birds bundle to stores interested in Lumberjills. If any academics or learning institutions are interested in engaging this bundle to enable classroom use, please send me a message to let me know what you're planning, and we'll be able to help you out.
Another Kindred Spirit!
I was absolutely delighted to see that Joanna Foat - who literally wrote the book on Lumberjills - is a backer of the campaign! When I started designing the game, it was terribly frustrating how little information was available. The ladies of the Women's Timber Corps had been largely forgotten and unrecognized (as is the unfortunate case with a lot of women's war work). They didn't receive veteran's badges or accolades until 2008 - and that means that most of them never had the recognition that they deserved.
Little did I know that while I was scrambling to find any shred of info I could, Joanna was hard at work traveling the UK to meet more than 60 of the Jills! She interviewed them and captured their contributions in her book Lumberjills: Britain's Forgotten Army. I would have given my eye teeth for this book when I was researching, it's so good! You can check out it and her novel about the Jills on thelumberjills.uk or at a bookstore near you!
Lumberjills Britain's Forgotten Army
On the eve of World War II, with only seven month’s supply of timber, reluctantly the government opened lumber work to women. Author Joanna Foat met sixty women who served as Lumberjills and wrote up their first-hand accounts in this definitive history of the Women's Timber Corps.
The Lumberjills Stronger Together
When war breaks out, three spirited women must set aside their differences to help Britain win the war. Fighting from the forests, they find new depths of courage, strength and love. But – when war threatens everything – would you risk your life to save a friend?
Thanks for supporting the campaign, and please share if you can! Luckily I can only embarrass myself with this particular Bon Jovi song once. What song do I have to rewrite when we fund?
Best!
Mo
