Hello and welcome to the Weekly Scroll podcast.
My Name Is Ryan. And I'm a mutant survivor of the
apocalypse. And with us today, we have a
special guest. This is Spiro Strakatos.
How are you doing today, Spiros? I'm great, happy to be here.
Yeah, we're happy to have you. Yeah, So, so you're here today
talking about a project that's funding.
I don't is it, I guess it's technically Zenquest, I mean it
is Zenquest that a has a little Zenquest.
They are Zenes for the notice to Zen for Dim Day Red.
The first actually funded it was about a year ago, right?
Yep, it was last year's Zenquest.
Yeah, and this one's already passed that one as far as number
of backers and money and everything.
So congratulations on funding. What in like one hour 200% and
under an hour on this project? Yes, it was more prepared that
time because last year what happened that it was I was
working on BIM Direct, on on a bigger game, the boxed version.
I had no real idea of you to create a scene or anything.
So a friend came to the studio and he told me a Zen quest is
coming and what didn't. Why don't you create a scene for
dinner and, you know, check stuff?
Because I hadn't published anything until then, and it was
the best idea ever. It was really useful because I
got the chance to try stuff and see how the whole thing worked
instead of working full time to create a finished product.
But the The funny thing was that this conversation happened about
a week before Zinc Quest. So I had no preparation.
Nobody knew that I was coming, nobody knew almost anything
about the game. So it was really cool that it
came out and people saw it and got their attention, yeah.
Well, I mean, we talked about it a little bit before the stream,
that it looks absolutely gorgeous.
The fact that you're telling me that you you, with like a week's
notice, you put out the quality product of like what the first
Kickstarter was, it's crazy to me.
Yeah, no, I'm, I'm sitting a bit here because that's what I do.
I'm, I'm a designer. That's my job.
I have been paid for many years to take other people's stuff and
make them pretty and and seldom, you know.
So when I when I decided to work on that project, the only easy
thing for me was to make it in a way not not only that it will be
beautiful and and, you know, pretty, but in a way that it
would attract people's attention in the way I wanted.
I wanted them to connect with that.
So yeah, that's the easy part. Every other part in this, and
especially the outgoing thing that you have to be out there
and people know you. That's the hard part for me
because I'm not very outgoing, but you have to be and I'm
trying. Yeah, it definitely is.
Does seem like it's part of like the job.
But before we get any deeper, can you What is Dim Day Red?
OK, Dim Day Red. It's it's my baby first.
First of all, I don't think Dim day, It's my baby.
So it's actually an idea I had about three years ago.
Dim the Red was created during the the first lockdown in in the
Pandemic where we're all sitting in our homes and we had not much
to do. So yeah, I I did that.
And the the main thing about Dim the Red before it became
Tabletop RPT, before it became any other kind of application
like the comic or a mobile game that I'm making right right now
on on the story. The first thing it was it was an
idea of what would happen if the world ended in 52 years what
what would we do if the the world would end and we knew that
OK so on on that concept. On that premise I I based the
the whole setting and the whole world and the the the idea is
that sometimes people come to me.
First of all the the main setting in dim the red is that
Earth has fallen off its orbit and it's going towards the sun.
So it's getting hotter and hotter and in 52 years it will
be so close to the sun that it will be so hot that everything
will burn. Everybody will die and they
can't leave the planet because solar storms and magnetic fields
have fried or all their electronics.
So they have machines but they don't have computers, so they
they can't make spaceships and just go.
They have to stick there and and wait for it.
OK, So the idea is what would the world society people would
do in a setting like that? So many times not too few.
People come to Main Souls and other places when I saw the game
and they tell me, oh, it's too bleak, everybody will die.
Now hope it's the dark for me and all that and what I tell
them, it's really funny for me. I really enjoy it.
Which is the real concept behind the whole thing, is that as
adults, all of us more or less take five, take 10, doesn't
matter. We will die in 50 something
years, OK? And we know that.
We know that we're going to die. We're going to a certain end.
But we don't just say, OK, I will jump out the window, most
of us or I will go and break every car in the street or
whatever. We leave that, you know, time
that we have and we make choices on what we will do with that.
We will work. We will fall in love.
I don't know we will rebell if we were free to do that.
So what if you take this premise that it's true for every person
and you apply it to the whole world?
What would the whole world do? And of course, of course,
society and social structures have crumbled, because if you
know that everything will end you, you're not going to just,
you know, go and vote and and do stuff that you would do
normally. But even if society crumbles in,
in a setting like that, what would the rich and and the
powerful people do? I wouldn't say most of them.
So fuck it. Sorry.
Just, you know, feel. Free to swear, by the way.
I know I forgot to tell you that before before stream, but
absolutely go for. It yeah, So they wouldn't say
just, you know let everything go.
These are the people who will come and take the power what
whatever power is left. So that's what has happened and
new coalitions have been created.
Another important theme of this story is that because of the
heat, solar polar ice have melted, so the most of the
northern hemisphere is underwater, which is something
that would would really happen in a way.
Have exaggerated a bit, but I found some maps from some
research and most of northern Europe will be underwater in a
in a situation like that. So what happens is that the
north has moved to the South and recolonized the South.
So Europe now is in Africa, so. Again, again.
Yeah, yeah. And it is ruled by families as
as it happens of course today. But today they are behind the
scenes. Now they're, you know, in front.
And we play in newborn, which is the, the capital of Pan Europa,
the new Europe, which is located where Cairo is today.
And there is in the story some Mystic theme about the pyramids
and and all that is there's an element of, you know, the
spiritual and and paranormal about that, Yeah.
One of my favorite things about the setting specifically because
there's so much flavor in it, it's crazy, is kind of something
you you touched on a little bit like behind the scenes versus in
front of the scenes. Because if it sounds bleak and
it sounds, you know, like a lot, it's just that, right?
It's exactly what's happening right now.
It's just it's now in front of your face, not behind the
scenes. And so ever as I was reading it
and going through everything, I was like, Oh yeah, what would
happen? Oh, exactly this.
The rich would just be super rich.
Like society would crumble and and become a caste system and
the global N would once again colonize the global.
SI mean this is exactly what would happen if this would
happen. So it.
I mean, it's it's bleak in a sense, but it's also, I don't
know, a weirdly refreshing honesty that I really liked from
it. That yeah.
That's one thing I really enjoy. When people come to me and they
tell me something like that, which is that it, it feels real
to me. And I say that's exactly what I
was going for. You know, something that's quite
exaggerated and you have mutants and how you have machines and
you have makers and all that, but in a way it has a
connections that feel real, real to us.
And yeah, I like that. Yeah.
It is very, very honest in a certain way and it it the maps
are incredible also and shout out the city state of Dallas
because I'm from Dallas, TX. But so beyond the game, there is
a comic as well, right? Yep, Yep.
So yeah, absolutely go off on that.
Yeah, sorry. For me, Dim the Red is not a
game. It's it's a story.
So in that story concept, on that concept what I like to do,
I'm this kind of guy who's as an artist I was always you know,
multi disciplinary kind of you know, creator.
So I was creating one thing and my eye was on the next.
So what's next? And all about that?
So I knew that when I started working on Dim Day Red, I knew
that if I went for only one thing, I would be bored, as many
people like me do. So I wanted and I tried to
create different touch points into the story.
So people who don't play for for example, tabletop RPGs can go
into the story from a from another way, from a comic or
from a novel or from the the mobile game that's that's under
development. So yeah, yeah.
And when I when I decided to to create the the comic, of course,
because I'm that old, it had to be black and white and it had to
be you know in in a kind of 80s more European style.
Not, not so much. You know the the more American
comics that of course we grew up with, but we're most used to,
yeah. Yeah, it is very visually like
striking it it it actually reminded me a little bit of Sin
City in some of the animals. Like, not because of the of the
black and white, yeah. Yeah, the black.
They're very much the black and white.
So for dimly red you went with a Power by the Apocalypse game.
What? What drove you to choose that
system over like another decision making?
So although I'm old, I'm not one of those people who grew up with
tabletop properties. I didn't play Dungeons and
Dragons in the 80s, so I didn't come into this game with a lot
of experience and a lot of ideas about mechanics and all that.
So when I was researching about systems and which I could use
and I was reading the stuff that the guys from that created the
part by the Apocalypse have written and I found a line that
said that these are the rules. I think it was in the Apocalypse
world. These are the rules.
But you know you don't have to follow the rules if you don't
want to just, you know make your own rules.
These are these are not just these are just guidelines.
And I I thought I like that because what I what I wanted to
do is to intrigue people to come into this world and then you
know do what what you like. So this was the one thing I
really liked from Powered by the Apocalypse.
Of course other other systems are also free, but I I I found
this line that I really liked. Yeah, it it connected with me.
And the other thing for me for not being this very hardcore
table top part of the, you know, creator or player, the the
powered by the apocalypse with this system, with the playbooks
they have and they moved and all that it's remind me of of of a
video game. You know the way video games,
video RPGs work and because I I have spent a lot of my life
playing RPGs in various electronic devices this also
connected with me. I found it really cool and
interesting to you know use the moves and then upgrade your
character and gain new moves and and all that and and of course I
understand I I I had it in mind then and the more experience I
get from the the the area of table top RPGs, there are people
who are very interested in mechanics and things how they
work and to be balanced and all that.
And I understand that part by the Apocalypse may not be a
system that really speaks to these people, but there are also
other groups, not small groups, who don't put so much weight on
that and they they care about more about the story and the
interaction and the role play and all that.
So yeah, I I made the decision. I said OK, I'm about
storytelling. These people are about
storytelling. So I I will go you know with
this. Yeah, absolutely.
I do think they're I I do really appreciate the, like, video game
Ness of power by the apocalypse, especially when it comes to
earning new moves as you level up.
Like, that is one thing that I definitely very much love.
Like, yeah, you get to like pick one of the list.
And I don't know, I do appreciate that aspect.
And I can see there's a good modality for, like, really
telling in there, like that narrative.
Yeah, I mean PPTA is, it's a it's it's definitely leans more
into the like narrative story game side of tabletop
role-playing games versus like you know OSR, NSR games that
have the more of like the emergent narrative and things
like that. So it's interesting when you say
that that's how you kind of approached it to begin with that
you went with. Obviously you went with the
system that would really lean into that, but also that you
have this like how you said it feels a little video gamey and
you're also doing this like kind of multi media approach where
you are actually gonna have a mobile game and everything too.
So it feels like there's a level of consistency through those
things that'll help it all feel super consistent.
Was that kind of a thought behind it?
And when you first were working with DMD Red, was there ever a
thought to do a different system or was PBTA where you would set
it on pretty early in the process?
Yeah, yeah, that's about it. I I did some when I first came
with the idea and started working, I was going for a video
game, but that was the first first idea.
Let's let's create a video game. But then because my my older
son, he he has spent his youth playing D&D and the other games
like that. So he gave me a lot of input and
a lot of ideas of how this should work as a as a concept,
how it would work as a tabletop game.
And then I started looking into it and the thing that intrigued
me most of of all was that are are really.
When I see movies and I read books or or comics or whatever
this I'm one of these people that the thing that intrigues me
more, that interested me more is the world building.
I love world building. I mean, I don't care what will
happen, just, you know, show me what happens in this world,
which I understand of course, that for many people, if not
most. It's the opposite.
People don't care too much about the world, but they care about
the story, what will happen to the characters and all that.
But I'm not like that, for better or worse.
So I really love the idea with the tabletop RPG that I could
create the world, a thing that I really love doing, and then I
could give it to people and say, OK, this is the word, do what
you want, create your own stuff, you know?
Absolutely. And I don't care what will
happen. So yeah.
So within the system cuz it is pretty, I mean it's pretty PBTA
consistently through as far as when you look in these
composites world or I'm not not blades it's definitely not
leaning into forge but there are a couple of differences and
things that you change so like they're they're D8 instead of D
sixes and then you also added something that's on your shirt
there too is that the the sins and and and virtues like the
yeah So what what what are what was the reason to switch to AD 8
and what made you want to add in the like the tenant dice in the
Senate the the sins and virtues and things.
OK, as as I was saying the the main concept of deteriorate is
for me at least it's quite existential, you know, life,
death and all that. So my approach to to to the
game, it's it. It has a lot to do with the
human psyche. What what the, the, the question
that sets is what would you do if the world ended in 52 years?
That's the question. So each of us would choose
differently. Somebody would go to the
mountains and become, you know, whatever.
Somebody else would rebel and do stuff.
Somebody else would take their partner and go have, you know,
live their love, whatever. So the decisions we make come
from inside, from our psyche, I don't know from our character
and all that. And for me that was that's an
important factor of how we we make choices and what our
choices, how our choices define us.
So this was the the main idea to create the the Moribus cards
which are in in practice their traits of the of the character,
different traits of the human character.
And these, depending of of how you choose them, will lead you
to one or more of the seven deadly sins or the seven
heavenly virtues. Because at the end these seven
and seven are supposed to be the, you know the pillars of the
human psyche, either good or bad.
So that's that was the idea behind why why have this system
OK and the idea why have cards except from I always like cards
and I want to create cards for my game.
Is that an idea? I find it interesting is that as
people will make choices and but many times if not most luck, the
factor of luck comes into our decisions and you know makes
them more complicated or the outcome is not what we wanted.
So by using the cards I I put the element of luck inside this
whole idea. So you can choose which kind of
which traits you will take. You will use from from from the
deck, but you choose it by choosing 3 cards in random.
So the element of luck and all this you know comes together.
And because there are 7 sins and seven virtues, I used the 8
sided dice to have the seven and the eight is 0.
So that connects with with the seven like a magic number that
comes again in in the game. And because I didn't like, I
didn't really like the way the seven sided dice look and work I
I use the 8 and use the zero as 8.
That that was a good decision, I think.
Yeah, the seven sided dice they, I mean it could be DCC and you
could have like 50 different dice, but I I definitely think
you made a good call on that one.
Yeah. But yeah, I really like the
throughput all the way through. Like you said of the, I mean
like clearly you have like you're an artist, you have this
artistic vision that is really shines through and shines
through the consistency. And like you said, this level of
like you said existentialism really comes through throughout
the story, throughout the mechanic, throughout the way the
characters work like through the dice and everything.
So it's really nice to see that level of artistry and elegance
that has gone through not just the project last year, the
project this year and the through lines through that are
really, really beautiful, so. Yeah, yeah.
Well, when I first first started working on the Red, first of all
what I wanted to do was to manage to make it my main thing
to to live from that, you know, not just work on it as a hobby.
I have a design studio here in Greece.
Most of my time until now I've been working on projects and
design projects for clients and stuff, which it was OK for 25
years. At some point I thought I would
I wanted to do something, you know, for myself.
So when I when I said to to make this thing work, not as a side
project, not as a hobby, but as a main, one thing I always had
in mind was that I've been, well, as I said, I've been
playing video games many, many years.
But what I noticed was that in later years, and even as games
became better, more attractive, more interesting, because I
always like to play games that had the story over story driven,
not so much, you know, shooters than that I would play
something. I would really, really enjoy it.
And then in a in a couple of months, I don't know, in some
weeks I I will, I will have forgotten all about it.
I wouldn't remember and I really like that thing.
So when I started to make my own game, I I I thought, OK, so
fucking what? You were going to create the
game. You know, who cares?
It's just another game. It's, it's it may be beautiful,
maybe super fantastic, but, you know, there are so many others.
So why yours? Why, why is this?
Would this thing matter? So you can not only just make it
and say, OK, I made it, you know, enjoy it, but you, you
don't. You want to keep working on that
and and that's why every move I make it's not just to OK, say I
make just another game and that's why I I put so much
effort and attention to the world and how this connects with
people. I think it's it may not be very
original, but I have in my mind the example of what I don't
remember his first name. Kirkman who made The Walking
Dead. The Guy Who made Walking Dead.
Oh, like the original comic. Oh, I I could.
I know you're talking about, but I couldn't tell you his name if
if I think I was. Wrong.
His last name is is Kirkman I I don't remember his first anyway.
Robert Kirkman. Yeah, yeah, Robert.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great.
So I had this in mind because this guy, what?
What he did, really. What what What did he do,
actually, He just made a story about zombies.
So fucking what? But it it drew people.
Lame, you know? And it drew people that had no
real experience or connection with zombies before.
Because he, he managed, you know, in a way from the comics
even to to create this interesting dynamic between the
characters and all that. So I had that as a good example
for what I'm trying to do. How can you create a setting
that's so intriguing and interesting and relatable or
whatever for its person is exciting that they want to come
in and and discover stuff about that.
So that's what I'm trying to do. Yeah, I mean like you said,
hitting it from why your game and why would people keep going.
The fact that you do have the comic, you have the mobile game,
you have the original one, but not only that, cause the
Kickstarter you're doing right now isn't it's noticed two.
So you are actually breaking up the the main city right newborn
into five kind of areas or or districts to talk about and the
first one was in the first Kickstarter a year ago and this
is actually for this Kickstarter you're doing right now is for
the second one, correct? Yep, Yep.
First the first. First of all, these are the five
districts of the center. The center is an area.
It's a big area in newborn which is encircled by a huge wall and
inside that wall the the lower castes have to have to leave.
They they're not permitted to leave the wall, the center.
And this is again the opposite of what happens usually in
stories in history where the rich people are inside the wall.
So the poor people are inside the wall and they they have to,
they don't have the freedom to just believe.
So they have to to be in there. I was always fun of Kafkaesque
stories where the system is so powerful that you have no hope
against it. One of my favorite movies is
Brazil, if you remember it. The idea is that at the end the
hero wins and takes the girl and he flies free and all that.
But of course nothing of that is true because he's still in in in
there, stuck in in the system. But what's really important for
me is how we have freedom inside of us.
You know, you you can be really pressed or really caged
literally or not. But if you're free inside or if
you're free with somebody else and you together you you, you
create something at the end that's that's for me that's I
don't know, something important. So anyway that that's the
setting in in the center. So the center has five
districts. And even if all the outcasts are
locked in there, even in in that setting, there are those who
have less and those who have nothing.
Even in that setting, there are people who are bigots and
they're racist because they look down at the the lower people
than them, which is something that actually again, happens in
in society, you know? Yeah.
Absolutely. There are because of who are not
rich, who are not, you know who who are depressed by the system
and again they look down to other people because they they
believe there are lesser people than them.
So yeah that's humanity for you. And last year's Z was about
Faust district because Nailborn is ruled by the German family,
the Dietrichs. There's there's a lot of German
element in the names and in in the culture and and stuff.
So Faust District was last year which is a relatively wealthier
although they have nothing but they're wealthier than Place
District which is this year's which really downgraded in this
year's scene. Don't know if you saw it in the
campaign. There's an unfolding map on the
cover of the scene. I really enjoyed that.
It's it's Hotspot Slam. It's a vertical slam.
It goes up like a tower. And there are about 59 rooms in
that map. And in each room it's a
different story and different NPCS.
So and each of them have their own kind of, you know, misery or
story or or something that happens to them that you're
going to find out. Yeah, yeah.
So what was I? I love the, I love the fact that
there's going to be more content for this and you have a what
sounds like potentially A5 year plan even to just get through
these. If you do it every year for Zing
Quest, these five districts you went with kind of like a a more
wealthy ruling class like area Last time in the Kickstarter
description it says that Fleisch is like pretty much the most
impoverished and perilous area. What was have you planned out
how you're going to drop those and was there was your thought
to do kind of a more well off area and then like the most
impoverished area like one after the other to kind of show the
dichotomy or? My idea was to to to mix them up
because Faust is it's kind of wealthy.
It's not the wealthiest because there is one district that
members of the of the upper class, the colors, they live
there because they have to run the the the system and and the
services in inside the center. So these people live in their
own district and this is the the wealthiest district.
I will probably leave that for the end.
So from the OK, so, so Faust, we went to the darker flesh this
this year and probably next year, if not in the summer,
because I will probably start to speed this up, not to take five
years to finish the whole thing. The next one will be vermin and
vermin. It's a district that people who
live there are not really people it's it's the darkest more
downgraded part of of the centre.
But yeah I I tried to to mix them up so it's not it's not
boring it's not repetitive. So yeah and I try it's it's this
trick to have something that's unique.
I don't know if if you if it caught your eye the the morning
Dukes bloodsport because you know of course I wanted to find
a bloodsport for this story and this setting and because you
know Thunderdome and all that had been done I didn't want to
to do people who were fight just fighting and the whole racing
thing. So I I got the idea of of
jousting with with motorbikes. So you you have this and what
I'm doing this year is that because I'm I'm expanding last
year's Zinn which which again appears in this campaign Zinn
notice 2 will have 68868 pages. Last year not just one had 22 so
I wanted to expand that so it's it comes closer to to the
second. So what what I'm expanding it
with is the rules of monotubes, how how it plays.
So it will be fun, yeah. Yeah, talking about the
Kickstarter and and what's available on it.
So when people go back this, which they absolutely should,
what can I actually expect to get specifically from the
Kickstarter? What are your tiers?
What are and what's available this year?
OK, my idea from the start, and I'm trying hard to achieve that,
I'm thinking I'm doing it, was to create value for people who
support this and and honor my work with their time and money.
So from last year I wanted to create stuff that that feels
really wow, I'm really glad I got that.
But they're not very expensive. And also OK, if you pay, I don't
know, 150, two, $100, you're going to get something that's
going to be great. OK.
But can you get something that's great with 70?
I don't know. That was my idea.
So what I tried to do last year and this year again was to
create something that feels cool to have and and it's not very,
it's approachable, which is the the normal scene.
Which is a four size 68 pages color.
It has the unfolding cover that comes map and it's called, it's
going to be called printed the cover and all that.
So this, this is the entry point.
Of course there are the digital files for the all that, which
are of course cheaper. But Speaking of actual physical
products, it's the first scene, it's the scene and then the the
legacy version. With it's the two scenes
together. And they also, in the Legacy,
people can get a collection of postcards, which postcards from
the slam. And they have on one side, they
have illustrations of various scenes in place.
But in the backside, the idea is that there's a story.
So there's a story of the people who wrote that postcard and sent
it to somebody else. So these postcards, yeah, can
function as entry points for side stories, for stuff that DM
could expand on and create and, you know, something like that.
And then there's the the Luminary Edition.
The Luminaries are the highest costs in the store, and it has
what they has. The two zooms, the postcards and
it also has NPC cards because of course I wanted to make more
cards but I had created all I needed about the the mechanics
of the game. So this year I I will make a
deck of NPC characters, so you have the character, the
illustration of the character on one side and their information
on the back. And again, people can use them
from the for the stories. And in the end this is my pride
and joy for this campaign and I'm happy because people seem to
be excited about it. It's the most popular back here
in this until now most people have backed that and it's how do
I call it the collector's edition which has scavenger box.
It has a box that opens like a book the the, the lid.
It opens like that and then in in that you can put everything
from from this campaign and from the last if and the previous if
if you back that. So, yeah.
And that has also, yeah, we'll have another thing that I'm
really excited, it's the the pocket Guide to the labs, which
will be a mini book with about 200 pages of story and lore
about the what happens. The lapse is the, the phenomenon
that happened that sent the the earth towards the sun.
It was called the lapse. So yeah, it will have a lapse
and maybe you've seen it. For the first it was for 100
people and then OK, that went away.
So now I have 100 more for the 1st 200 physical backers there
there will be free dice. Get some great peripherals on
this project. Like the cards are great, the
dice are great. I'm like, yeah, good.
It's good stuff. Yeah, yeah.
That's what happens when you have a good designer on the.
There you go. And I mean the the boxes.
People have boxes. I'll tell you one thing, if if
you're going to sell something to people that is in TTRPG, the
box is definitely going to be one of them.
So I'm not surprised at all that the The Scavenger box is the
most popular one. It looks gorgeous, but yeah,
being able to actually store your books and not having to
have them like all out is, is wonderful.
I think I have like 18 boxes back here to try to store it all
for a fraction of it. But yeah, the box is gorgeous.
Like he said, everything beginning to end last year and
this year is absolutely gorgeous.
I didn't notice that you this is just for for like notice one,
notice two, like the new stuff. But you don't have the Dinde Red
like the Quick Start game or any of the stuff from last year on
this Kickstarter. So is that stuff still available
for people and where can they find that?
OK, from last year, I don't have the comic in this as an add on
and I don't have the map of newborn that was available last
year. But the tenants and moribus
cards are are available as add-ons because I'm going to
reprint them. I'm going to use the gold ink
for the tenants and then silver looks really cool.
Yeah. So what I haven't done, and I
don't think I'm going to do around this time is to reprint
the quick start. Because the quick start it's
it's, it keeps being updated. I add stuff to it quite often.
So to print it and then people have to, you know buy it and
then go to check what's new on the PDF that I just uploaded.
It's not very practical. So that's that's not available.
But it is available in a way in in the websites didn't days
rates websites one can buy last year's collectors which is this.
And in that there is a copy of the original quick start.
It's not very useful because it has practically because it has
been updated, but it's you know, collectible because it was the
first version that was in a way. So when I close, when I close
the, the deal with Netflix for the the series, you know it
will, yeah. Well, I mean, and even even the
even when it comes in like that that envelope or that big, the
the thing that that comes in is gorgeous too.
Like there's not a part of this project that isn't designed to
the nines. And it's it's, it's great to
see, like the the, like I said, the consistency and the love and
the artistry really shines in every part of this.
Absolutely. And you know, sometimes,
sometimes you know, designers, they, because they love design
and they love to design stuff. We we create stuff just just to
please ourselves. You know, just to to say, oh
look, I I created this, Isn't this beautiful?
But because I know that sometimes we do that, what I try
to do very consciously is whatever I design on this game
to have some kind of connection, some kind of reason why it
exists. For example, this this is an
envelope that supposedly has in it a report that the
Superintendent of Faust district has created for the people to
pass into her superiors. So you have here this waxy seal
thing that I I made, which it it's supposed to be about the
4th echelon, which is the highest rank of the Luminaries.
So everything that's there, it's not just there to say, ah,
that's cool, it's there to be part of of the story.
Right. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. But I mean, they can also still
be cool too, which is which is great.
So. Yeah, so, So the Kickstarter is
still going on right now. It's still got over 2 weeks left
in in dollars it's at 13,000 but in euros it's at like 12.2.
So it's funded, way funded, but it's still has two weeks, two
more weeks ago. I highly recommend everybody
that's listening to this go back that now where I know we just
talked about the previous collector's edition and stuff
like that. Where can people actually go to
find that? And where the current stuff will
be in the future? Like what?
What's what's your your website and end links where people can
find you? OK, the website it's dim day dot
red. That was the website.
So there people can find a lot more information about the
project and it's various parts. And there is a NISSOP there
where they can buy last year's stuff and this year staff
eventually I expect to to go there as well.
But this year because last year staff were were created in a in
a smaller you know amount of copies.
This year I'm going for a larger production, so I'm I'm gonna try
and give this to shops and you know other place where people
can can buy. Gotcha, gotcha.
I mean again you have let well not a five year plan, you're
hoping to get it out sooner than that.
But I mean, obviously the Kickstarter is still
Kickstarting. People are loving the project.
And I can only expect as it keeps getting more and more and
more stuff for it, that'll just keep getting bigger and bigger.
Because I mean, again, we've said this numerous times, but
the the obvious, like extreme amount of thought, care and
design that has gone into literally every single aspect
down to like the seals, the envelopes, like every aspect of
it, they shine so hard. Yeah, and it's such a there's
not anything that you can look at on this project where that
doesn't come through and it's really, it just makes you want
it, it makes you want to have it in your hands and play the game.
So. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's the thing that I'm trying also to do about the story, you
know, because the the visual in the presentation, OK, as I said
before it, it would be, you know, it would be something like
that. But the story, and because I
haven't been a writer or all of my life, you know, to have
either the audience or the experience from that, I'm trying
really consciously to to show the same attention to detail as
I do to the stuff I design. So when I when I say, OK, one
thing that's very characteristic about the newborn and center
especially is cables. There are a lot of cables
everywhere because there are no electronics anymore.
There are no no airwaves, so everything that has to be moved
from one point to another either be information or electricity.
It has to do with cables. So I when I was thinking about
the main setting I knew that I wanted to be full of cables and
why are there no electronics because of the solar storms and
you know the magnetic fields. But I I've sit down and read
that the the first thing that gets affected for from solar
storms are cables you know so then the and stuff that ran
through them so that didn't you know, go very well.
Although I'm I'm not trying to be very scientific.
I I didn't, I don't want to leave stuff like that just to
you know, because I said it. So one detail is that did the
Didrix have the the monopoly of a specific element they have
created that insulates with cables and you know permits for
stuff to keep running in there despite the magnetic fields and
all that. So when I when I write
something, the first thing I'm doing, have you seen a movie,
especially the the, the more popular ones, the the
blockbusters when something happens, something you know
extraordinary and you say this couldn't happen because that and
that and you're thinking about that and you say, doesn't
anybody on this whole crew and this whole team of people who
made this movie, didn't anybody go and say, no, this wouldn't go
very well because that and that. So I'm trying to do this to
myself all the time and say, OK, you will have my cast.
Great. You want to have my cast?
How will they move? How will they be empowered?
Blah blah and all that. Because I'll tell you one thing
about teach RVG people is you will get people in your comments
going now. Well, actually the cables aren't
going to work that way. So yeah, it's good.
It's good to know that I. Got this in Reddit the other day
because I I posted them up and I said OK, this is the vertical
slam blah blah blah and all that.
And somebody of course, and good for them, came and said, OK,
what's the structural integrity of this thing?
You know, you can go 159 meters in the air just by putting huts
one over the other. And many times I hope I keep
doing that, I smile because I've thought of that.
And what happens with the Hotspur slum is that it's it's
created on an existing high rise building.
So there was a high rise there and then people start building
stuff and expanding around it like, you know, like a tumor
that expands on gotcha, it's there.
Yeah. So there's already a structure
that in place to kind of like just tack on to, yeah?
So when when people tell me stuff like that, and I've
thought of it, I've it feels really good because I've thought
of that. There you go.
Yeah, it's. Good.
Again, once again, just the consistency in the in the
attention to detail, it's crazy. We're super looking forward to
this project. I'm excited to see all what's
coming after this 'cause we know there's at least three more
coming after this as well. But Spiros, really appreciate
you being here and yeah, thanks coming to you and these kind of
projects are are are why we do this because getting able to see
how great it is. But to hear all of your thoughts
behind it and know that there's like 10 levels deeper to it,
it's been really great to hear. Yeah.
One thing that maybe may be interesting for some people is
that one other thing I've been doing with my life, with a lot
of years of my life, was I've been teaching.
It was something that it interests me since forever to
have some kind of information pass it along somebody else.
So I've spent a lot of years teaching design, but that's
something I also like to to do now.
And what I've done is that I have creating, I have created a
world building workshop where people come and we discuss about
ideas of how to create worlds and why these worlds matter and
all that. And I I also when I find the
chance like very much to transmit the experience I've got
from working on this project. Because being one guy with this
is a one man you know thing one man band.
I I visualize it. So when other people are
thinking of creating their own games or taking the game to the
next level or that, I'm happy to, you know, share whatever I
I've gathered so far. Nice.
Yeah. I mean, you know, the fact that
this is the first thing you did and it looks like this, clearly
you know what you're doing. So being able to pass that
information to other people would be a good thing.
But Spiros, again, the project looks fantastic and we really
appreciate you being here. For those listening right now,
thank you very much. You definitely wanna go to
Kickstarter back this, go to Damn Day dot Red and grab the
previous stuff while it's still available.
This is gonna keep coming out and it's gonna keep being great,
so it'd be a good idea to snag it now.
But seriously, Spiros, thank you so much for being here.
All the links will be in the descriptions of everything
below. We'll be able to get you to the
website, to the Kickstarter, everything, and then everyone
that's listening, you know all of our links at this point.
So that is gonna be the end for us today.
Again, thank you so much and everyone out there, thank you so
much for listening. Have a good day.
Bye.