TTRPGkids Dev Log #3: Alt text, shipping methods, final proofs, and more!
Check out the latest on the TTRPGkids works in progress to stay up to date on upcoming releases! This Dev Log will mostly cover work on A Construct’s Nature since it is coming on fulfillment time, and it will also cover general status on other projects like StoryGuider, Making a Tabletop RPG for YOUR Particular Kid, and Greeting Games!
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A Construct’s Nature
I’ve mostly been working on fulfilling A Construct’s Nature (and associated stretch goals and add-ons), and it is still on track, but I am also very much feeling the crunch!! Since last update, we have:
- added alt text to the main document
- added links through the digital doc so clicking “go to page 104” will take you to page 104
- added notes on how to print and use the digital version
- created digital versions of the cards for printing at home
- got a good, no modifications needed set of proof copies
- ordered a larger set of books for fulfilling the all-in tier kits and checking print consistency
- figured out some ways to reduce shipping costs (more below)
Adding alt text!
I still need to go through a bit with arranging the read order on the alt text, but, for the most part, all the text is assigned to tag with text put into the doc. This was quite a bit of work since it’s over 300 pages and the pictures really help with telling the story. However, I’m excited to have learned what to do now so I can add accessibility features for this and future projects. I was using a new software (PDF Xchange to try to avoid paying Adobe), so there was some learning curve, but the skills are now there! Here’s an example (note that the black boxes are cut off a bit in the editor, there’s more description than what’s shown in the display summary).
Proof copies came in OK!
And the proofs came back alright!! This was the second round, so I was a bit nervous (time was budgeted for one more, but it would have been CLOSE), but all is good and I have the go on printing! I’ve ordered copies for kitting up the all-in limited edition tiers, and general fulfillment is soon to follow!
Before I get into next steps, I also want to give an update on shipping….
Reducing shipping for card decks
So, shipping got a bit expensive, and for the card decks, it was going to coast between $17 to $30 to ship a deck of cards from the printer directly to anyone located outside of the US! I did a bit of research though, and I found how to ship the card decks in a standard envelope to most countries for <$10, so, instead of shipping card decks internationally from the supplier who can only send that particular item in a small box that is very expensive to ship… I’m getting a bunch of decks in bulk to manually ship all the cards separately since it would save folks $7 – $20 on shipping for every person who got cards.
This will require a decent amount of extra work on my side, means cards will arrive separately, and it’s delaying the shipping calculation a little bit while I have to go through and redo the chart + confirm with the post office for each country that this method will really work, but I’m hoping this helps save everyone a bit and is a bit of a bonus reward for backing the campaign (i.e. if you buy after the campaign, not shipped through me, you’d have to pay the $17 – $30 shipping from the printer).
Also, because of a combination of the shipping cost and interest from one of the backers during the campaign, I did decide to make print-at-home sheets of the cards. This should hopefully help to make them more accessibile for those outside the US by being able to DIY versus paying high shipping.
I’ll keep you updated on how things progress here, and I’m hoping to have shipping finalized soon!
Next steps on ACN
And… for next steps on ACN, in the next couple weeks I’m planning on:
- touching up alt text reading order
- finalizing the digital EDU guide for ACN
- making a digital trigger warning document for ACN
- making the two stretch goal bonus EDU games
- sending out shipping surveys
StoryGuider
My late summer project is StoryGuider, which is a collection of 36 choose-your-path style adventures for little kids! Since our last update, we hit one of the big pre-launch funding goals to help with early-release for one of the trilogies, and the bundle’s been updated for the next target! You can find the pre-funding campaign here on itchio to get a nice bundle of TTRPGkids games on sale and support the project ahead of time. As a note, if you’re only interested in the digital version of StoryGuider, this is your best bet cost-wise. You’ll have the download key for the digital version of StoryGuider, which will get all updated content from the crowdfunding campaign, provided funding is reached.
Greeting Games
The Greeting Games campaign is still on the back burner for now, but as soon as ACN is fulfilled, this is the next priority for work, and I’ll be kicking off artists. Stay tuned this week though for voting on which card idea from the Redwyrmling we’ll be using for one the stretch goal unlocks – I’m looking forward to seeing what you pick!
OTHER TTRPGkids projects
For this update’s “other”, I’m looking at Making a Tabletop RPG for YOUR Particular Kid, mostly because I saw a big jump in people finding the book! I don’t know if it was from it being at the IPR booth at PAX East (photo below courtesy of Maryanne Cullinan) or from the recent SHE talk going on Youtube, but… it is now the #1 top seller for game design books on itchio! For a book that’s been out for a bit, this was really nice for me to see, and I’m excited that people are still looking for it and finding it.
And… if you know an org that could use a copy, let me know. I like sending this (digital and physical) to non-profits to help improve access, and I’d be happy to chat if you know a place that would like to stock it.
Thank you for checking out this update, and I hope this overview of my work is either a good resource for your own project planning or that it’s a nice “keep-up-to-date” spot for what’s going on with TTRPGkids! And, if you have any feedback about how the dev log is set up, please let me know – I’m new to doing this, so I know it’s going to be a bit of a learning process to fine tune it to what I want to share and what people are looking for, and I appreciate the advice.
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