Magic, Murder & Mayhem / Squareware Updates

G'day Everyone :) The next wave of Meanders 3: Magic, Murder & Mayhem is just around the corner and due to launch on June 1st. I've been extremely busy and am still extremely busy designing 1000 new vectors and have completed more than 50 new maps so far in preparation for this gigantic campaign. Take a look for yourselves at my drawing boards to get a sense of some of what's coming...

A HUGE Dungeonscape 'Sandbox' that will allow you to build custom tunnels and rooms around any of your existing meanders to gain total control over layout.

Hundreds and hundreds of furnishings in varied woods to indicate social status of the decor. Add ratty old pine stools to your tavern, and antique ornate mahogany to your boudior. Smashed furniture to a ransacked home, or cobwebbed furnishings to disused dungeons. All the trimmings, levers, pulleys, beds, all kinds of seating, tables, shelves, cupboards, desks, dozens of different chairs, and much much more.

Hundreds of books, trinkets, boxes, chests, papers, herbs, rugs, table cloths, dining settings, feasts, and all sorts of bits and pieces in pre-set piles or purchase the vector pack to do it yourself. This will include new 'Blockers' which can be put over various exits/entrances on Meanders to block off these points indoor and outdoor, anything from a fallen tree, collapsed mine, or cave-in to a magical seal or simple wall section.

A gigantic housing estate set that quadruples into four sets with an active College of Magic, decorated Posh Mansion, Abandoned Estate or House of Horror at Night. (32 Maps)

A NINE level Wizard Tower with Ramparts and Causeways in design plus new sections for the existing Meanders Castle range with new Towers and new Dungeons. Available as complete 9-lvl sets with the Neighbourhood Sorcerers Abode, the Abandoned Heavily Damaged Turret, The Necromancers Spire and the Nightrise. (36 Maps) + Dungeons, Castle Sections (40-42 maps)

Witchfinger Woods, where lies the thorned thicket of the Witch's Cottage and Dead Forest (designed to merge from existing meanders Forest) with the gnarled wooden fingers and dead trees leading to a huge walled Marble Mausoleum with full interiors and gruesome Underground. Available as a Day Trip, Spider-Infested DEEP Forest Hellhole, Magical Enhancement and Swirling Magic, and The Dead of Night by Wisplight. (36 maps)

The Plague Village, 4 sections with rooftops, full interiors and underground cellars/tunnels. Available also as FLOODED Village with brown and blue water types, new river and mountain overflow sections to match with JUNGLE AND FOREST Meanders. Also available as Molten Lava Disaster with Volcano.(In Progress). (32 maps)

That alone is a base minimum of 150+ maps not including - Mushroom Forest, Portals, Elemental Dimensions, Arcane Library (3 variants), Cult Headquarters, Hellmouth, Magical Fountain/Waterfall [Forest Expansion] - Voodoo Priest Village - [Jungle Expansion] - Sunken Temple/Crystal Cavern - [Ice/Snow Expansions] - Desert Vision Quest - [Desert Expansion].

When complete this will bring the current Range of Meanders: Synchable Terrain up to Approximately 550 Maps.

And, there are these Stretch Goals:

Gigantic Castle Frontispiece with Towers, Parapets, Battlements and Moat Mega Meander: Add a huge Fortified Frontage to the Castle with this and prepare your troops for impending war.
Siege Engine Bloody Warfare Battlefield Mega-Meander: Huge siege engines, catapults and battering ram and defenses stand poised to reign hell down upon the trapped castle-dwellers.
Giant Ghost-Ship Top Deck - Mega-Meander: as the name implies, this giant glowing pirate ship is the perfect scene for a skeletal or ghostly battle, featuring Full Interiors.
Giant Ghost-Ship Below Deck - Mega-Meander: treasure hold, cargo, bunks, stowaways, cages, mess and much more await below deck in this 2nd half expansion of the ship. [Prelude to the Final Campaign planned for 2018 with a HUGE number of additions to existing Meanders inc. Sea-based maps.]
New Vectors for all Stretch-Goals.

All Coming Soon...

----------------------------

SQUAREWARE RELAUNCH

I've been revisiting the business model for the campaign, looking very closely at every angle and made some significant changes/addition and will attempt a re-launch of the campaign for Squareware in early July directly after my next digital map campaign on June 1st.

The significant differences are that I will jettison the tax requirement of 20k. I do not have another form of income and it is profits that are taxed not the gross total raised. If profits amount to $10k for instance there is no tax on that as it falls below a particular threshold. So I can drop the 20k (30% extra) I allotted to pay for taxes. Which brings the new total of the campaign funding required from 60k to 40k. As most of that 40k is used in manufacturing [and some prototypes], then Kickstarter takes 8% - profits would amount to 10k or less at most - which is Well below the taxable income threshold here in Australia. 8% of 40k is approximately $3500 which would leave 36,500 for the project.

Approx 5k of that 36.5k will allow flexibility and surety of pricing changes should the economy change, quotes change, companies change mid-campaign (which has actually happened to me before on Kickstarter when the Australian dollar fell drastically mid-campaign, destroying any profit and causing the campaign to run at a loss) - so, there is some wriggle room to account for any unexpected expenses. And if nothing like that then I will put it back into the project, with, for instance "Printable Box Bands" which will further enhance the range of variables within Squareware.

To offer engraved dice not just silk-screened dice pushes the funding requirement back up per 3000 minimum units, so the new total will be 40-42k. This is a huge difference. Backerkit may still be required, which would use 2% of campaign funding + 5% of whatever is raised in Backerkits post-campaign order system. Thereby profits would fall even further below the tax threshold so as to be negligible.

The new additions to the project however will offer us more scope to reach that total.

A $1 pledge will be offered.
A $5 pledge for 2 digital printable mat designs will be offered.
An $8 pledge for 4 digital printable mat designs will be offered.
Printable (Digital) Box Bands will be offered as an Add-on.
Several New Mats inc. Monsters/Villains, Backstory/Motivation, Weapon.Armour craft, Room/Dungeon Dressing, Five Senses/Random Shop mats will be offered as Add-ons, in digital format at $2 a design or $5 per mat in printed neoprene as an extra for the physical Squareware set.
A smaller non-boxed set of Squareware dice, with all 15 dice + carry bag, with digital map print-outs will be offered for $25 + shipping.
Original Squareware stays the same at $35 + shipping.
I will make a video for the new campaign to showcase Squareware in action.

By being able to lower the original funding goal considerably, offering digital alternatives and a compact set, new add-ons both physically and digitally, this should give the campaign a much better chance of funding the second time around. Possibly I can set aside some money from my digital map campaign to use in advertising this one, we shall see. I will continue to examine all aspects to determine any other points of pressure I can apply change to.

So that is what is happening here, MM&M Meanders 3 will Launch June 1st and Squareware will be back to try again in early July :)

Kind Regards,

Kris