First up, let me start this post by clarifying that the results of our C64 compo are in hand and will be announced ‘sometime in May’. Jamie and I have been insanely busy lately - not only have we been wrapping up the final 1% of the work left on Conga-Combat (which now even has its own page over at itch.io), but shipping all those Tiger Claw carts took quite some time and effort!
Anyway, the last Tiger Claw cartridge was sent in the mail two weeks ago, so they should have all arrived at their destinations by now. Apart from one, which has been returned to me from Australia(!) If you think that might be yours, please drop us a line asap! (Obviously I know who it is, but I don’t want to disclose names publicly, and I’ve already emailed the individual to no avail).
If you missed out on the C64 in Pixels Kickstarter that Tiger Claw was released through, then the following two paragraphs may be of interest to you. We have FOUR ‘spare’ replacement copies of the game cartridge here that we’ll be selling at the same £40 inclusive price as the Kickstarter perk, complete with all the trimmings. These are actually spares for copies that were/may have been lost in the post, but if they all arrive then we will be looking to sell them to whoever asks first. So if you want one, please email us or drop us a line via the contact form and we’ll add you to the shortlist. The carts will not be available outside this one-off offer, and if there are no takers then they will end up on eBay.
Secondly, Tiger Claw is available to buy as a .PRG download from our itch.io page, priced at $2.99 (plus VAT). This is the same extended and enhanced version that the Kickstarter backers received, minus the Kickstarter message and Easter egg games. Talking of which, if you haven’t found them yet, try holding down fire using the joystick in port 2 during the boot sequence, then push either up, down or left and release fire when you see a blue screen :)
In addition to this, the amazing artwork by John Davies is available as an A2 and A3 poster double pack (with the game map on the reverse of the A3 poster). This bundle comes with the download for free and costs £5 (plus shipping). Honestly, this is the best game cover we have made to date and it really looks amazing in print on 170gsm matte art paper. Check out the low-res preview of the artwork and grab yours here.
You might be asking yourselves why after a successful Kickstarter we are selling the download and not releasing the game for free... Well, the honest answer is that we kind of went a bit crazy on the quality of the Kickstarter package, and spent over £900 on the artwork, print items, stickers, labels and button badges. In addition to this, I forgot that the postage prices would be going up in April, so all those overseas parcels cost more than I’d budgeted for. However, it goes without saying that the artwork was the most expensive part - and although there was a point where we deliberated skipping it, we eventually decided that we’d rather break-even on the project and have something we’re really proud of than rake in £150 or so each as profit.
So, what this means is that to date Lazycow, Saul and I so far have not made a single cent/penny on Tiger Claw - a game that ate up quite a few months of time adding those additional enhancements and features. So if you can afford to spare a few coins then they will be extremely gratefully received!
The presentation of the Tiger Claw package was a real game changer for us. Going forward, we’ve decided to stick to using the new domed cartridge labels and printed booklets to give our future releases an equally professional look. Likewise, game postcards are a great promotional extra to add to our outgoing parcels, and those massive RGCD and Lazycow stickers we had made are just supa-dope! Where have you stuck yours? :)
Next month is already looking like a busy one for us, with Conga Combat due for near-immediate release (and a Greenlight campaign launch to try and get it on Steam), the announcement of our game-dev compo results plus the release of long-awaited cartridge games Jam It and Moonspire. Phew! So I guess you’ll be hearing from me again soon :)
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