Oktober Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 So I may have missed something, but: Do lame-os like myself get to read this novella at some point? Are we just going to have to wait for the game-release, or...are we just outta luck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 So I may have missed something, but:Do lame-os like myself get to read this novella at some point? Are we just going to have to wait for the game-release, or...are we just outta luck? According to the first post in this thread its a premium preorder bonus. As part of the celebrations for reaching our 100% funding on Kickstarter, we've announced a digital novella for all the Premium Preorderers and above (you'll recieve it if you Premium Preordered prior to Kickstarter too). This might be anything from 7,000/8,000 words up to 20,000 words. It might take a few months to arrive, but it'll arrive before the game does. It's possible that you can buy it on your own unrelated to the game later on I guess, but it doesn't seem you will be able to get it as part of the standard preorder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oktober Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Right, I saw that it's a premium pre-order bonus. I haven't seen anything about non-premium people ever being able to get access to the novella. While I can understand prioritizing the premium folks in terms of getting them access first, it seems counter-intuitive to limit access to prevent everyone else from reading the thing ever. Having more flavor-text out there for everyone is good marketing. Charging for the novella wouldn't necessarily be bad, but...I dunno, I guess it would depend on how it's handled. Would the author receive payment? Would Goldhawk? I mean. It's going to be an eBook, right? It's not going to cost anybody anything to make it available freely, as opposed to requiring an additional charge. Is it possible to bump up a standard pre-order to a premium? These are the questions burning through my brains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 I imagine that the author sells it on his own through his website, but offers it as a free bonus to Goldhawk to give out to anyone that has ordered the premium preorder. Kickstarter was one way to bump up a standard preorder to premium. No idea how to do it now that kickstarter has closed though.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Personally I wouldn't mind if the access to the novella was extended to standard pre-orders and even made available as soon as it was finished, I just don't care. Of course it'd be seen as a "betrayal" of the premiums who would have had suddenly overpayed for something everyone is getting but maybe that will change after some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oktober Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Really? I expect that people were paying as they were able. I don't know that access to some flavor fiction would be much of a "betrayal." (Speaking as one of would like to be able to read the story, at some point!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 The novella is one of those things that I would have paid good money for. Assuming I'm not alone in that, it may make financial sense for Goldhawk to keep it as an incentive to upgrade to premium pre-order before the launch of the game. Then possibly cut a deal with the author to make it available for download for a few bucks afterwards, to help fund future projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oktober Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Yeah absolutely. Especially after having had such a blast in the alpha, I'm certainly not opposed to contributing further. Is there like...a hole we can chuck money at that'll trickle back to Chris? In fact. I was thinking about pre-ordering the game for my brother in law. How would that work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquirrelPants Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 I'm pretty stoked about the idea of a novella personally. Very cool, I always love delicious flavor fiction to go with my games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamkyon Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 (edited) In fact. I was thinking about pre-ordering the game for my brother in law. How would that work? You can purchase the game on Desura and deliver it as a gift via e-mail. Edited June 16, 2012 by iamkyon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 You can purchase the game on Desura and deliver it as a gift via e-mail. Using the links on http://www.xenonauts.com/pre-order/ gives Chris like 50 cent more or something It costs the same for you whichever link you use. But desura takes a slightly bigger cut if you found the game through them as opposed to coming to desura from the games homepage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted June 17, 2012 Author Share Posted June 17, 2012 It'll probably be available free once the game launches, although Premium Pre-Orderers will get it chapter by chapter in the interim. It's not really fair to Lee to limit his long-term readership to only the Premium Pre-Order community given that he's writing this for us free of charge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stx Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 And it helps to create atmosphere for the game, so that's a definitive plus for Xenonauts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Stephen Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Progress report time! XCD stands somewhere between 20-30% completed (final read-through and polish notwithstanding) and is getting to its prime. As always, the human element is a focus of my writing style, so those of you who want to feel like you know the protagonist won't be disappointed. This is the story of an event and a man. I hope to do a podcast sometime soon with my Epic cohorts that focuses on the XCD project. If there's anything you wanted to ask me or have me touch on, post here or PM me and let me know (be sure to differentiate between a question for the board and a question for the 'cast!). You can ask me anything, whether about the novella, myself, Epic, or something altogether different. I can't promise I'll answer everything, but I'll do my best in the time allotted (Chris, feel free to push that out to Kickstarter if you'd like - if people there aren't on the forum, they can send their questions to lee@epicuniverse.com or on Twitter @epicuniverse). It should be an entertaining podcast...it always is! I'm excited about the way the story's progressing! I'm looking forward to being able to share it with you all. -Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sjaka Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Looking forward to reading it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sathra Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Indeed. I've been looking for a series that has the X-com feel, so I'll grab your books as soon as I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Looking forward to this, should I be reading this ahead of playing the game? (I'm avoiding playing any more of the alpha so as not to spoil the full game for myself) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Looking forward to this, should I be reading this ahead of playing the game? (I'm avoiding playing any more of the alpha so as not to spoil the full game for myself) I really don't see what harm it would do since it's a backstory. It won't reveal any gameplot. It will tell the story of the Iceland Incident, humanity's first contact with extraterrestrials and the event that led to the foundation of the Xenonauts. It will tell the story of a Russian commander involved in the battle for the crashed UFO. It shouldn't be spoilerific - really it should just set some of the background for the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrAtomic Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Welcome Lee Stephen.Will there be Icelanders on Iceland? I'm curious as to what their military was doing during this incident. And how exactly does the Soviet unions neighbours like Finland and Poland react to USSR suddenly mobilizeing? Surely they must have noticed? Present day Iceland is one of the few countrie worldwide without an army at all. They do have an agreement with the USA for protection though. Not sure what the situation was in 1977. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 I imagine it was the same as the US have been involved since the UK invaded Iceland in the 40's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 I imagine it was the same as the US have been involved since the UK invaded Iceland in the 40's. that was an awkward one. Denmark had been invaded by Germany and Britain must have thought that Iceland would be the perfect staging point for German offensives on the mainland. However, Iceland rejected Britain's offer of forming an alliance...um.. so Britain invaded it instead. No doubt feeling around that were involved in it coming under US troops not long afterwards. What keeps this one in my mind was the recon plane that buzzed around the capital completely giving the game away about the impending invasion. Duh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Yeah might as well been towing a banner saying 'All of your airbases are belong to us'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamoecw Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 i imagine the thought was similar to the tibeten defense against china. 'if we don't provoke them they won't have a reason to invade our rather worthless piece of land.' although major powers rarely do things in an outwardly logical fashion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mordac Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I really want to read this novella! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Stephen Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I guess it's high time for an update, no? The novella is on the cusp! The first three chapters are almost completed, which will put the novella at roughly 50% (the current word count is 13,000, for those who keep track of that sort of thing). I will be making a blog post about the book very soon, which will serve as a preview of sorts before it starts getting released. As Chris touched on, the novella will be released chapter-by-chapter specially for those who preordered its level of commitment. This is for a few reasons. First and foremost, this will allow the story to get out there. I write slowly and methodically, as any of Epic's fans would surely tell you. By releasing early, I can effectively be working on the later chapters while readers are enjoying the first ones. Secondly, we want this to be something you're all talking about! Week-by-week will allow a sense of "what happens next?" that getting the entire novella in one fell sweep would make impossible. Why is that important? Because this is about buildup! We want you getting psyched for the game. Nothing will do accomplish that better than feeling as if you've just watched a miniseries about it. That's the vibe we're going for. A lot of people have asked about the novella being made freely available after the release of Xenonauts. Those details are being worked out, but I think leaving you with this will at least put those of you at ease who didn't pay for the preorder: keeping people from reading Crimson Dagger would be an incredible waste. I have no intention of charging for this novella. This is a donation. With that, I've still got some work to do! But get your AK-47s ready, people. You're about to breach a spacecraft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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