Dear Nanobackers,

April is coming to an end and it's time to update you on the status of Nanolith's completion. We're very happy with the progress our - and your - game has made this month. Let's get started:

In this update we talk about:

• The layout progress and timeline
• Production at LongPack
• The comics

Layout and timeline

The most important part of our work in the last few weeks was to assign the relevant work and all the necessary resources to the layout designers at the right moment. It was sometimes like a puzzle with thousands of pieces, because in order to start one task, you often have to finish another one, etc. We are very grateful to have found such professional and sociable employees when designing our game.

Max and Marc looking through test prints. Luckily Marc built himself a gaming table :D

Our goal was to complete all the missing chapters in the scenario and campaign book in April. Unfortunately that didn't work.

Katherine is almost done with Chapter 4, but Chapter 5 and Sector Alpha still need work. Chapter 5 and the Sector Alpha side mission chapter are less complex in layout than Chapter 4, or - especially - Chapter 3, but Katherine will still be working on the scenario and campaign book for at least another week before she can turn to the rulebook.

This means our deadline is moving from the beginning of May to mid/end of May. LongPack's timeline suggests that if we submit print data by early May, the game can ship in September. However, there were some buffer zones and gaps in this timeline to accommodate any delays.

We still hope to begin delivery in September, but for this to happen, the next few months must pass without any further delays.

Small scenario sneakpeak from the 3rd chapter

No matter what comes next, you can be sure that we are fully committed to completing the game. We work every day to produce Nanolith as quickly and professionally as we can and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this dream possible for us.

We would really like to show you our passion project at Spiel in Essen 2023 and we will do everything we can to continue to make this possible :)

Another big item when working through the layout was and is the cards. In order to match the printing ranges of the machines at LongPack, all of the game's cards must be reprinted. Quite a mammoth project that Emese Viragh has graciously taken on. The whole thing is progressing well and thoroughly and I think we will have all the cards in the new layout format by the end of next week.

This complication could hardly be avoided because when we created the prototype we didn't know whether and by whom our game would be produced. For the next project, we have already found that it makes sense to adapt the layout to the partner's production conditions from the outset. Lesson learned :)

Otherwise, we can distribute the remaining tasks (acrylic punchboards for the deluxe box, rule book for the deluxe box, the dice, the bookmark and the box layouts) well among our team and have both the capacity and the time to do these things until around the 21st .To be completed in May. We are highly motivated and are entering the final spurt.

production

The communication regarding production with LongPack is excellent. A week or two ago we had a video meeting about the upcoming hot phase and since then we have been in daily communication with the responsible employees at LongPack via various chat services and emails.

It's a good feeling to receive very precise and understandable instructions from the production company, which can often be passed on to the layout designers without further processing. Overall, we feel well looked after and have great confidence in the processes of our Chinese partners.

The first of – hopefully – many packages made it to us in Germany from China.

And of course they were the miniatures reworked and printed by LongPack! It was a great feeling to see these sculpts reworked and slightly improved. LongPack has adjusted some parts of the miniatures to eliminate possible breakage points.

MINIS!



We are very happy with the samples and hope you like them just as much! Now the sculpts of these miniatures can be used to make corresponding molds and then we will soon receive a package with the cast Nanolith miniatures. It is going to be a party!

comics

The last stream of our comic artist Agustín Graham Nakamura took place last night. In the last few weeks he has regularly broadcast his work on our game on the Internet. Now he is finishing the final comics of the game and is already drawing the various endings of the campaign. It was wonderful and a little sad to watch him for the last time as the concepts became lineups and later colored images.

You can still watch the streams on YouTube here:

click on the banner to go to the playlist

The world of Nanolith, which Max and I developed in hours-long conversations a few years ago, became reality in his hands. We owe him and all of our artists a huge debt of gratitude for visually creating this world. It was wonderful working with you and we are looking forward to the next project!

Maybe you're interested in how the comics are created, so here's a brief summary of the production process.

First, Max and I discuss in hours of lively conversations what the plot of the chapter will be like. Then I write a short technical storyboard for Nakamura.

He creates sketches. The so-called concept drawings that he submits to us for correction.

Once we give our approval, Nakamura creates the comic's lineup.

Which will later become the colored pages.

As a final step, our layout designers insert the text bubbles and the game-relevant texts.

I hope we were able to give you a comprehensive insight into the production of Nanolith and we thank you for your support, feedback and interest!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please write to us in the comments.

Have a good spring and we'll see each other soon for the next update.

Dearest greetings,

Marc, Max and Fabian