[ENDED] Mercenary Kings Master Codex Retro-Inspired Strategy Guide & Art Book Kickstarter - 200+ Page Hardcover - $20

Wayne Cabana

Wayne Cabana

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(Big thanks to CheapyD for granting permission to create a dedicated thread.)​
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[EDIT 9/2: Our Kickstarter campaign ended up not reaching it's goal, but not for a lack of trying! HUGE thanks to CheapyD and the CAG community for coming out for our project. Final update is here, and I'll definitely let you know if there are any updates!]

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Guide Creator/Publisher: Off Base Productions

Game Developer: Tribute Games

Formats: Hardcover, Digital Download

Scheduled Release Date: December, 2013

Price: $5* (Digital), $20* (Hardcover), $40 (Ltd. Edition Variant by Corey Lewis)

Campaign Ends: Tuesday, September 3rd @ 5:00PM

*Note: Prices will go up once the guide is released to the general public: $10 (Digital) and $25 (Hardcover). Back the Kickstarter and save!

Greetings, fellow CAG members! I've been a member for a long time now, but this is the first time I've had a work project that would qualify for its own deals thread!

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During the day I'm a senior editor for Off Base Productions, a video game creative services and development house based in San Francisco, CA. You may not have heard our name before, but chances are you've seen our work. We've produced everything from instruction manuals to collector's edition packaging to strategy guides for most major publishers. Now, we're looking to create our own self-published line of premium strategy guides for awesome independent games starting with Mercenary Kings by Tribute Games (available now on PC via Steam Early Access).

But we need your help to get this line off to a strong start, and hope you'll consider backing our Kickstarter campaign. 

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If you haven't played Mercenary Kings yet, it's being developed by Tribute Games, creators of Wizorb and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Mercenary Kings is a kind of Metal Slug meets Monster Hunter hybrid with awesome gameplay, a rich gun crafting system, and chock full of amazing Paul Robertson sprite work. The Mercenary Kings Master Codex aims to capture those 16-bit feels, serving as both a field guide to the game and an art book chronicling the development from pencil to pixel. To give you an idea of what we're shooting for, our primary inspirations are the NES/SNES era Nintendo Player's Choice guides and the Mother 3 Handbook. Check out our interior design samples below, created by Brady Hartel (lead UI designer/animator for Skullgirls):

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Of course, what Kickstarter campaign would be complete without some sweet rewards? Well, we've got some pretty neat items lined up:

  • $5 - Digital version of the guide (all backers at $5 or more get a digital copy).
    $20 - Digital version of the guide + a 24x36 double-sided poster, 11x17 art print, and Mercenary Kings logo embroidered patch 

[*]$20 - Physical hardcover Kickstarter-exclusive edition of the Mercenary Kings Master Codex, featuring silver foiling on the sides and a gold "Kickstarter Edition" label.
  • $25 - Gets you the guide + poster + patch
  • $30 - Gets you the guide + poster + patch + art print 

[*]$40 - Limited Edition Variant hardcover edition of the Mercenary Kings Master Codex featuring cover art by noted comic book artist Corey Lewis. Higher tiers get you the other print goodies, too.
  • Strictly limited to 1000 copies max 

[*]$60 - The "One Shot Solution" bullet USB drive preloaded with the digital guide, Mercenary Kings soundtrack, and a copy of the game! For $40 more you get the USB drive and the Limited Edition hardcover.
[*]$150 - Our pals at Retro Heart are creating a limited run of handcrafted 1/12 scale Mercenary Kings coin-op replicas (MVS style, of course), complete with miniature LCD screen to display screenshots or animated GIFs from the game. Includes the Limited Edition variant.
[*]$500 - Gets you every single physical item packed into a military backpack with embroidered patch pre-applied, similar in style to the ones worn by the characters in the game.
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We've still got a ways to go before we hit our goal, but we're confident with a little bit of help we can make it happen! I'll be available in this thread to answer any questions you might have about the Kickstarter, creating traditional strategy guides, or mohawk dying tips. ;)

Thanks for reading! 

 
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I've spent a few hours on the early access version - had a good time, will be getting back into it, can't wait till its finished
 
Shit, I'll buy this for the production quality of that guide alone. Looks wonderful, man. Hope you guys make it! I'll be tossing my money in.

 
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Wow.  The guide looks awesome.  I love the aesthetic of the game, too, but just not really interested in frantic action.  If this were a game I was interested in, you guys would have my money for that guide.  It looks and sounds incredible.  I really hope you keep it up.  A Rogue Legacy guide, on the other hand... :)

Maybe I will somehow get roped into the game and therefore into the guide.  Certainly worth pledging $1 to keep up with what you guys are doing.

 
Ok, I give up.  You got me.  I want to support the guide and I want to hold it and put it on my shelf!

Thanks for making such a cool guide!  Can't wait to see what the next ones are!

 
Yeah, it's tough sometimes to hear about all the great stuff on Kickstarter, and browsing often just leads to the not so great stuff while gems like this get passed over. 

 
Nice to see the bump in funding recently! Still sad that the funding is well short of the 65k goal with only a few days left; hopefully there will be a surge toward the end of the campaign to have this succeed. Anyone into Metal Slug style games should really take a look at this game, and the guide!
 
While the book looks great, I am on the fence.

You did however make a new buyer of the game for sure at least with this post!

Knowing me I probably will cave just to support a CAG : P

(but shhh don't tell the GF haha)

 
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We just officially hit the 48 hour mark, so it's time for me to start waving the rally flag! I'll be hitting up as many media outlets as I can in the next two days, so hopefully we'll get some eyeballs on this thing. Honestly, it's been pretty difficult to get any media coverage on our project. The gaming press has a bit of "Kickstarter fatigue," as I've been told.

But honestly, no matter what happens in this final hours, I'm pleased with the turnout we've had. Learned a lot of valuable lessons (next time, much lower print run for smaller goal) and the team at Tribute Games has been a real treat to work with through the whole process.

And also, TONS of love to my CAG peeps for helping support this project! CAG is the fifth-highest referrer of backers to the Kickstarter page, so y'all definitely made an impact. CAG community is the best community, truth. :) 

 
Just backed! I really hope this gets funded, you don't see many strategy guides with this much heart and soul anymore!

 
Wayne Cabana said:
We just officially hit the 48 hour mark, so it's time for me to start waving the rally flag! I'll be hitting up as many media outlets as I can in the next two days, so hopefully we'll get some eyeballs on this thing. Honestly, it's been pretty difficult to get any media coverage on our project. The gaming press has a bit of "Kickstarter fatigue," as I've been told.

But honestly, no matter what happens in this final hours, I'm pleased with the turnout we've had. Learned a lot of valuable lessons (next time, much lower print run for smaller goal) and the team at Tribute Games has been a real treat to work with through the whole process.

And also, TONS of love to my CAG peeps for helping support this project! CAG is the fifth-highest referrer of backers to the Kickstarter page, so y'all definitely made an impact. CAG community is the best community, truth. :)
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Any way you could offer a tier that has multiple standard guides? I'd put in for 5 guides if you had that. I'm mainly interested in the guide itself, so having the option for a few more than one is something I'd be interested in. Just a thought!

 
It's always so frustrating for me when a Kickstarter project I really like doesn't get the attention it deserves.  I get that the outlets are on Kickstarter burn-out, but the majority of stuff I'm excited about these days seems to be Kickstarter-funded, and the projects need coverage in order to attract the people who would be interested.

So poop on them for not covering it.

I hope these guys find a way to do it, even if the Kickstarter doesn't work out, and more than anything, I hope to see more guides in the future.  I still think a Rogue Legacy guide would be really cool.

 
A little over 30 hours left! Anyone who is a fan of Metal Slug style games and likes detailed guides/artbooks should back this project! I really hope the project succeeds, a hardcover artbook like this for only $20 is a great deal.
 
Yeah, I really want this to succeed!  I don't want quality to diminish or price to increase.  I swear there would be so many people interested in this if only they knew about it.

 
Happy Labor Day, fellow CAGs! 

We're starting to see an uptick in backers as we enter our final hours. If you happen to dabble on Reddit a bit, would you mind giving this thread an upvote? It would go a long way toward getting more eyes on my project. :) 

 
Joined and upvoted, too!  Also I had suggested earlier that you guys offer a multiple-guide tier, for anyone wanting extra guides, and you added it immediately!  I increased my pledge to the $100 tier to get 5 guides, really want to see this project succeed! 

 
chimpmeister said:
Joined and upvoted, too! Also I had suggested earlier that you guys offer a multiple-guide tier, for anyone wanting extra guides, and you added it immediately! I increased my pledge to the $100 tier to get 5 guides, really want to see this project succeed!
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Thanks, chimpmeister! It was a good idea and I definitely want to be sure I take care of my CAG peeps. ;)

Final day, y'all! I'm not going to lie, it's not looking good this time around. I'll be posting an update to the Kickstarter once it's over to briefly lay out what's next for Off Base & Tribute. Until then, keep sending those good vibes. :)

 
The bullet thumbdrive is *amazing* and it comes loaded with a physical copy of Mercenary Kings.  The official Kickstarter offered no physical version, so I didn't back it.

I backed this really hard, but it doesn't look like it's going to succeed without a miracle.  I hope they launch another Kickstarter and get more publicity.

 
Can't believe I almost forgot to back this when I suggested its own thread here!  It seems this won't reach funding, but I hope comes back down the line (maybe readjust some of the tiers as some are confusing and change tier amounts and limits).

 
Commander Briten said:
This looks awesome. I wish you guys had come here and posted sooner. I'm in, fingers crossed.
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Well, to be fair, they probably didn't think to post something in a deals forum since it's not technically a deal. (I know they got Cheapy's permission first.)

Really nice to see the level of CAG support for this project, though. Heartwarming!

 
Hi Everyone, 

So the hammer has dropped and we didn't reach the goal, but we're not ready to give up just yet. We're going to take a week or two, let the dust settle, and do a full internal post-mortem on the campaign. We definitely learned a lot of valuable lessons for next time, not to mention made some new print contacts that will enable us to start with a much lower goal. After the post-mortem we're scheduled to sit down with Tribute and go over our options. If there's a way to make this happen, we will find it. :)

And, wow, I can't tell you how honored I am by the great support we got from the CAG community. I'm looking over the final metrics right now and CAG was the third biggest contributor from a website overall! Seriously, you guys rock and remind me why I've been coming here for years. Before I get too mushy, just want to send a big thanks to CheapyD again for giving me permission to create this thread in first place. 

The full final update is up here if you didn't look at the backer email already. Best believe if there's a new development I'm coming straight to CAG with the 411 after sending a notice to backers. :)

 
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Wayne Cabana said:
Hi Everyone,

So the hammer has dropped and we didn't reach the goal, but we're not ready to give up just yet. We're going to take a week or two, let the dust settle, and do a full internal post-mortem on the campaign. We definitely learned a lot of valuable lessons for next time, not to mention made some new print contacts that will enable us to start with a much lower goal. After the post-mortem we're scheduled to sit down with Tribute and go over our options. If there's a way to make this happen, we will find it. :)

And, wow, I can't tell you how honored I am by the great support we got from the CAG community. I'm looking over the final metrics right now and CAG was the third biggest contributor from a website overall! Seriously, you guys rock and remind me why I've been coming here for years. Before I get too mushy, just want to send a big thanks to CheapyD again for giving me permission to create this thread in first place.

The full final update is up here if you didn't look at the backer email already. Best believe if there's a new development I'm coming straight to CAG with the 411 after sending a notice to backers. :)
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Sad to see this not backed but love the positivity that came out of this Kickstarter. Hopefully we can get our hands on this in the future :)

 
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