Greetings everyone!
We've been hard at work, and finally we're ready to launch the first chapter of Legends of the Kaironauts!
We've had our fair share of production issues and unforeseen problems, but the production machinery is working at maximum capacity and we're very, very excited to share with you what we've made so far.
First off, we want to share Chapter 1's cover. 😄
Next off, pages from Chapter 2 😀
and finally the latest pages we have of Chapter 3 🤩
Our Kickstarter sign-up page is live, too! The plan is to launch late August/early September. There's still some logistics and marketing material we need to sort out, but once those details are sussed out, we'll be good to go!
Since this is our first Kickstarter, we're decided to be lean in the rewards we're offering. Like many, I personally know the joy of backing projects and the disappointment when rewards and projects suffer delay after delay (if not that they disappear altogether. Our goal is first and foremost to get the book into your hands, and minimizing vectors where things can go wrong.
To that end, we are planning the following rewards:
- Digital version of Chapter 1 in the following languages:
- English
- Spanish
- French
- Physical (and digital) version of Chapter 1 in the following languages:
- English
- Spanish
- French
- Digital bundle with all three versions of Chapter 1
- Physical (and digital) bundle with all three versions of Chapter 1
- 50s era physical movie poster of Legends of the Kaironauts, with a physical (and digital) copy of Chapter 1 (in your preferred language)
- A reward tier where your likeness is added to chapter 4, 5 or 6 (up to 5 people only)
- A reward tier where your likeness is added to chapter 4, 5 and 6 (only 1 person)
September is going to be an amazing month 😉
So, what's next?
Well, aside from all of the logistics of both Kickstarter and the active production of chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6, we do have another project in hand, our first app!
We'll do a proper announcement when we're closer to an alpha (at which point we'll invite all of you to join the TestFlight), but in broad terms we're fascinated by this version of GenAI's ability to... erm, hallucinate text, regardless as to the veracity of what it says. It reminds us of ELIZA and how we as humans have a tendency of fooling ourselves. As such, we're creating a GenAI that not only pokes a bit of fun at both LLMs ability to deceive itself, but how we tend to imbue personality and characteristics to inanimate things, under the guide of self-help. And hey, even amidst the sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek nature of the app, one of its stated goals is to serve as a helpful tool to those who need it. Because even if users of ELIZA attributed that rudimentary AI with a sense of personality and cause "powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people", if said people found help to get through a difficult situation... does it matter that it was a program that got them there?
Once that app's done, there are other projects in the works (still too early to mention them publicly).
But that's further down the line. At this time, we're full steam ahead with the launch of Kaironauts! Thank you for sticking with us through this long but enjoyable journey.
Until next time!
Best,
-Nick D.
