Seacat Uranium Butterflies 0.88t - Art & Tables

Dear heroes,

Welcome to July! This update is going to be shortish because the amount of new art is quite large. 50 new or restored pieces.

I'm mending from the injury, I can now limp along without crutches, which is wonderful: less cabin fever. I've also buckled and gotten myself a cushioned office chair. This means I can sit and write and layout a bit longer before the old foot starts complaining.

Next week I'm off on holiday with the wife—first one since the whole pandemic thing started. Hopefully, flights and everything goes ok. Then, after that, I'll be spending the bigger part of August in Europe, visiting family and friends.

What does this mean? Well, there's a good chance no update until early August.

That's why this one is so big, heh, heh, heh.

No, I jest. This update is quite large because I have a pile of art that I previously couldn't put into the document because the text wasn't finished yet. Now that the text is done, and the layout is getting cleaned up, I am figuring out where there is space for spot art.

So, what's new in update 0.88?

• Tighter layout. Some adjustments on text styles and the lists has saved me about 5 spreads. Overall, a lot of this.
• New table layout - now aligned to baselines and with alternating stripes! This has saved a lot of space, too. Also, looks nice.
• Fixed the way the big piece of art opposite the ToC is embedded, which should help the file work a bit better. Also, it's neater now.
• Updated defeat, draw, victory paragraph (simplified).
• Corrected terminology: in a few places I wrote "spell cost" when I meant "spell price". That's fixed.
• Added option: a deadlier game.
• Restored: Top Cat article, Session Tasks, Player Titles, Hats for the Cats list.
• Restored art [2]: floating bubble city, grim king
• New content: attacks breakdown (making a hero)
• New art [8]: veda necromancer, defence and attack (attack), zu error freeloader, symbiotic friend, pheromone panoply, vacuum hardened, neuroempath, lucent amphibian ...
• More new and restored art [15]: the glottorc, the retherium, the bovivech,  skill - painter, skill - driverjane (from Red Sky), soiltwined, hunter, zootic masterform, sky hook suit, eye maker (3 pieces), vome enhancement,  beast egg hatching, skin shift.
• More new art [5]: stargazer, rightmaker - face spell, retirement burial, fear monster, friend bubble.
• More new art [20]: promotion pet goldfish, plant communion, erebus gates, sheep and cheese spider, ubique serpens, oldtech wizard, farewell ill-wind dragon dog, pointy helmet, words like daggers, devolved anatomy, idle one's claws, promoted hero, one last blow, consumables bar, love of pet,  sidu of the outcaste, green light hard light (reused, former cover), coalem,  voidfish, cupworm.

Right, that's out of the way.

What's next?

Now that I've figured out what I will do with URS, and that Seacat Uranium is mostly done, and that I've finished the Standardcat Template ... I've started laying out the Dead City in the new, simpler layout. I'm planning to do it in 32-page sized zine-style chunks. I can't handle two big projects at once, but getting this out of the way on the side should work.

The long-dormant Slumbering Ursine Dunes Omnibus project is also moving forward again after a long time. Along with a few other artists, we're wrapping up the missing art, and hopefully should be seeing that move to production soon. I won't be handling the production on this one, so that'll be a load off my plate.

Finally, details are getting hammered out for a joint crowdfunding campaign: Seacat + UVG hardcover + Dice + the Rest. And when I use the passive voice I mean I'm going to be having zoom convos with a bunch of people until we line everything up, agree on contracts, and move forward in an orderly manner.

32-page Litmus

Honestly, I have a bunch of half-or-semi-written things I want to also clean up and prep for release. A big reason for making the standardcat template was to give myself a structure to use for laying out things quickly and consistently. The Dead City Memories 32-page zine is the first test. If that works, I'll try an roll out more of the other pieces in double-quick time.

Fingers crossed, folks!

Because, uh, I've also cleared it with Gavin and I'll be releasing the town half of Holy Mountain Shaker as its own thing. I confess, it's very inspired by Agatha Christie. Another social adventure, a bit like Witchburner ... but less dark. And with an [spoiler] enemy.

Let's see. It would be fun to do that one in August, while I'm staying in Mountainshaker Valley.

OK

Shortish post, hah. Doesn't look it.

Well, good heroes, thank you again for your support, none of this would be possible without you. Please, a big round of art and applause for yourself. May this summer month (or winter, for the south-hemisphericals) be good to you and yours, may you have games and fun aplenty.

With ink-stained hands, humbly yours,

—Luka