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[the Smoke Dream] The End Of The Pre-Final Edition
Friends, i am calling an end to availability of the Pre-Final Edition; i will take orders for a few more weeks and then its winter will have come. There are just under 30 copies available, if you want to participate in this closing season and receive one by mail in early October, email the.smoke.dream AATT gmail and we'll figure it out.
But don't do so hastily, please read the rest of this post.
With some of the feedback i'm receiving and the extent to which that feedback is causing my thinking about the game to change, i am realizing that i want a second pre-final edition. Let me be clear that the Pre-Final Edition, as it stands, is not in any way unplayable and is quite fun; i anticipate making the game quite a bit more fun, however, and would like some help doing so. Some of the changes will be rather large and so i will want other's play of a second pre-final edition before racing toward Final.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I am asking for your feedback from the Pre-Final Edition, to make the second pre-final edition better. If you are a player of that (aka the only edition of the Smoke Dream available), then i have some questions which i would like to ask you.
please zip me a line, the.smoke.dream at the gmail, and i'll send you a batch of questions.
Then you send me your answers.
Then i send you a second batch of questions.
Then you send me answers to those.
Then i send you a third and final batch of questions.
You send me your answers to those.
And then it becomes November 11th, and that's the last day to send me your answers.
And then i work like crazy.
And then it becomes November 17th, and i email you the Tentative Second Pre-Final Edition, and we all chuckle about the name.
And then you read it and tell me if there are glaring problems.
And i quickly revise it, if need be,
And then it becomes November 20th and i send you the Smoke Dream Second Pre-Final Edition pdf right to your inbox. The computer age is upon us, friends!
And then we enjoy playing the new edition, and congratulate ourselves for a job well done. Eleven days later, two things happen:
December 1st, i upload the Smoke Dream Second Pre-Final Edition to the website for free download,
December 1st, the Smoke Dream Beautiful Second Pre-Final Edition becomes available. More details to follow, it will be very similar to the Pre-Final Edition and will be shipped to you in physical form. It will have a few illustrations, and be made with three audiences in mind: Folks who didn't get the Pre-Final Edition and want the aesthetic of the letterpressed cover and saddle-stitched book, folks who enjoyed the aesthetic of the book during Pre-Final Edition play and want to continue that, and folks who like beautiful things. Photos will be posted before mailout occurs.
There will still be a Final Edition, after this. Those faithful standers-by shall not wait in vain.
Why do i send you questions in three batches?
Because i want you to answer them thoughtfully, and not rush it.
Because i want to interact with you, and get an idea of who will be sending me things.
Because i'll be working on the game as i receive the answers, and i don't want to be flooded at the last minute.
It's worth noting that there are about twenty five questions total, among the three groups, and the most fun questions are last.
So, to finish the idea from the first paragraph, those who don't yet have a copy of the Pre-Final Edition are welcome (Very Welcome!) to order one and jump on the blast-playing & feed-backing bandwagon; similarly, all interested parties are equally welcomed to wait (with bated breath, no doubt) for the Second Pre-Final Edition to hit the internets on December 1st.
With much thanks and many flourishes of the hand,
jackson tegu
But don't do so hastily, please read the rest of this post.
With some of the feedback i'm receiving and the extent to which that feedback is causing my thinking about the game to change, i am realizing that i want a second pre-final edition. Let me be clear that the Pre-Final Edition, as it stands, is not in any way unplayable and is quite fun; i anticipate making the game quite a bit more fun, however, and would like some help doing so. Some of the changes will be rather large and so i will want other's play of a second pre-final edition before racing toward Final.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I am asking for your feedback from the Pre-Final Edition, to make the second pre-final edition better. If you are a player of that (aka the only edition of the Smoke Dream available), then i have some questions which i would like to ask you.
please zip me a line, the.smoke.dream at the gmail, and i'll send you a batch of questions.
Then you send me your answers.
Then i send you a second batch of questions.
Then you send me answers to those.
Then i send you a third and final batch of questions.
You send me your answers to those.
And then it becomes November 11th, and that's the last day to send me your answers.
And then i work like crazy.
And then it becomes November 17th, and i email you the Tentative Second Pre-Final Edition, and we all chuckle about the name.
And then you read it and tell me if there are glaring problems.
And i quickly revise it, if need be,
And then it becomes November 20th and i send you the Smoke Dream Second Pre-Final Edition pdf right to your inbox. The computer age is upon us, friends!
And then we enjoy playing the new edition, and congratulate ourselves for a job well done. Eleven days later, two things happen:
December 1st, i upload the Smoke Dream Second Pre-Final Edition to the website for free download,
December 1st, the Smoke Dream Beautiful Second Pre-Final Edition becomes available. More details to follow, it will be very similar to the Pre-Final Edition and will be shipped to you in physical form. It will have a few illustrations, and be made with three audiences in mind: Folks who didn't get the Pre-Final Edition and want the aesthetic of the letterpressed cover and saddle-stitched book, folks who enjoyed the aesthetic of the book during Pre-Final Edition play and want to continue that, and folks who like beautiful things. Photos will be posted before mailout occurs.
There will still be a Final Edition, after this. Those faithful standers-by shall not wait in vain.
Why do i send you questions in three batches?
Because i want you to answer them thoughtfully, and not rush it.
Because i want to interact with you, and get an idea of who will be sending me things.
Because i'll be working on the game as i receive the answers, and i don't want to be flooded at the last minute.
It's worth noting that there are about twenty five questions total, among the three groups, and the most fun questions are last.
So, to finish the idea from the first paragraph, those who don't yet have a copy of the Pre-Final Edition are welcome (Very Welcome!) to order one and jump on the blast-playing & feed-backing bandwagon; similarly, all interested parties are equally welcomed to wait (with bated breath, no doubt) for the Second Pre-Final Edition to hit the internets on December 1st.
With much thanks and many flourishes of the hand,
jackson tegu
Comments
this will be a simpler mailout than i thought.
& please, if you've played a bit and are interested in answering my questions,
i'd be quite grateful. i still have a few copies of that email to send out.
one could be for you.
Shoot me your questions!
& i am gladly at work, but i wanted to give you this last heads up.
(X-posted with the newer thread for maximum advertising panache)
-jackson
"Tentative Second Pre Final" still has some mooshy spots. Gonna bake it a bit longer.
Don't worry, it won't be any less temporary.
One of those "oh, i just found a loop that it would be fairly easy to get caught in that will never let you out of it."
I just wanna look a little harder before i send it out to you faithful.
And maybe get some of the spelling errors out.
Much love,
jackson
let's just say i got discouraged and started two concept albums...
because that's what happened.
i'm glad that your'e excited, though; that will get me back to the (very cluttered) drawing table.
to be honest, Ry, we are pretty far from the track. I mean, if we worked at it, hiking overland, we could probably meet up with the track inside of a week, providing this map we got at discount and the compass that our grandfather kept in a box of magnets don't crap out on us.
but you'll get it.
j. t. don't up no vapor-ware.
R: it'll be a short wait.
M: Good.
The Smoke Dream is cool and meaningful. And you are cool and meaningful.
Do not be discouraged by the bumpy legwork, because it's just a phase, like puberty, and all this acne-blotted skin and crackling voice will resolve itself soon enough.
And you'll emerge... a man? I guess. This analogy doesn't carry itself as well as I'd hoped it would.
Also: The Smoke Dream was playable and interesting in its pre-final edition, despite its more glaring problems. So, you're starting from a baseline of success, and any improvements you make are bringing it closer to Massive Success.
Let's find out.
In doing so, i'll continue work on the current draft, which is called Second Pre-Final Edition iteration 4.
I'm really excited about this game, too- sometimes it comes in waves, but here comes another crest.
Surfing metaphor, anyone?
C: I'm looking to be able to expand that offer to Central America, Europe and Africa later this year.
But I'm still waiting for my post-print-version-purchase-in-North-America hug. Chris, are you sure that's all there is to it, or did I miss a step?
I'm putting in four hours a day, most days. Not the long weekend, that was exclusively for merrymaking,
but we're back at it today.
I don't know when i'll be ready to show you anything, but it's back in progress.
Um, soon?
MOOD: Okay
LISTENING TO: The Loud Hum Of My Computer Fans (their 2004 split with Inescapable Food)
Dear Livejournal,
I am distracted by this other cute game idea, and it's so hard splitting my attentions! I hope the Smoke Dream will understand, & i'm sorry that we're so on-again-off-again, i guess it's just in the stars!!! Anyway, i'll come back to tSD i'm sure, but let's not "save the date" or anything.
& sorry, everyone, it's just like that.
love,
jackson
Kerstin
You are correct. The further work on the Smoke Dream is sitting behind my experimentation with Matthijs' Archipelago and perhaps some fiddling with Silver and white. (And i'm refinishing some furniture and writing new songs, etc.) Please, please don't hold your breath: all of my first aid programs are sorely outdated.
But there will come a time.
Kerstin
(I once heard the guy who invented the sextant waited years to actually start manufacturing because he wanted it to be perfect and he could have saved many lives, though I can't seem to find a source for that factoid now.)
reason number one: anyone who requires the Smoke Dream is only metaphorically at sea.
actual reason: i don't write on computers. I write on backs of envelopes, in weird sewn-together skinny-books of my own design, and on dozens of tiny scraps of paper. There is no easy way to flip a switch and have them uploaded, and until i re-assemble my staff of employees into their original bipedal forms, there'll be no way i can manage that.
another vital reason: i am very private in my design. The game i am currently experimenting with is a)pitched to my group under the name of a different game, one actually available on the market, b)written about in my notebooks under a second name, and c) actually has a third, true name, which i've only ever spoken aloud on occasions when i am alone in the house.
final reason: the smoke dream is way better and way more complex than before. To tell is not sufficient, i must show. And to show an unplayable glimpse simply won't do.
I have nothing to give but hope, i ask only your patience.
I am probably related to the sextant maker.
**fist shakery**