More shameless self promotion

[Valamir]

Check out the new Universalis Cover

[GreatWolf]

About time!

So, when will this be available in stores....

(he prompted)

[Larry L.]

Is there gonna be any other text on the front?

[matthijs]

What happened to the little girl with the binoculars? Did she get eaten by God?

[Thunder_God]

Personally, if the "Rays" disappear I'd be way happier. They look amateurish. The "Fog" and the "Lightbulb" are great, it's just that the rays seem out of place, jarring even.

I'm awaiting your book with baited breath.

[Arturo G.]

Universalis was my first indie-game, the one that blew-up my mind from the first.
And now, in a much more comprehensive and easy to use text. It has taken time, Ralph, but it does worth.

Arturo

[GreatWolf]

I like it.  There's a Babylon 5 Shadow ship feel to it.  And they ate the girl and stuck her in one of their ships.

[Valamir]

So, when will this be available in stores....

That is entirely dependent on how much Matt Snyder can fit into his schedule at this point.

Is there gonna be any other text on the front?

  Authors' names and potentially the Ramshead Logo.  There will be text on the back as well, but I'm thinking much less than on the last edition.

What happened to the little girl with the binoculars? Did she get eaten by God?

Heh.  Unfortuneatly John Harper decided not to finish that project, so I needed to go another route.  I've since seen that image on the cover of an actual book in the big chain stores so it likely wouldn't have been available to use anyway.  But that gave me the opportunity to go a different direction, and I think Jari did a pretty bang up job (especially given how I put him through the ringer.

Personally, if the "Rays" disappear I'd be way happier. They look amateurish. The "Fog" and the "Lightbulb" are great, it's just that the rays seem out of place, jarring even.

Actually they are an essential piece to the overall metaphor behind the cover composition.  Although their relationship to that composition is probably less noticeable to overseas folks.

[Tony Irwin]

It's beautiful. A friend asked me just the other day if they could borrow my copy to try and run a game with one of their friends where they live. I'm looking forward to getting two new edition copies: one for me, and one for lending and spreading the game.

Is that a "wrap around" cover you've shown us? I don't know the terminology for this stuff - I mean like is it the back cover and front cover combined (right hand side is front cover and left hand side is back cover) or is it all the front cover?

Tony

[GreatWolf]

Oh, and for those who may be doubting, I have seen the revised text, and I give it two big thumbs up.  Way, way up.  The text is much clearer and more straightforward.  Indeed there were particular rules that, at one point, I suggested putting aside into an "optional" category because I found them to be confusing.  Instead, Ralph reorganized and rewrote them a bit, and, suddenly, I completely understood them.

Also, if I'm recalling correctly, there are ninja examples.  You can't go wrong with ninja.

[Graham W]

That's superb. How was it done? I mean, I've got an idea, but I'm wondering how exactly.

Graham

[Valamir]

Is that a "wrap around" cover you've shown us? I don't know the terminology for this stuff

  Yes.  The title and big sunburst will be on the front with just a hint of dark leading the eye around to the back where the red sun and dark clouds are.

Also, if I'm recalling correctly, there are ninja examples.  You can't go wrong with ninja.

  You know, I can't remember now off the top of my head, but I think I replaced the ninja examples with zombie examples in tribute to the shear number of times zombies wind up in first time Uni play.

That's superb. How was it done? I mean, I've got an idea, but I'm wondering how exactly.

  Well the process looks something like this:

1) Tell Jari what I want
2) Jari makes a draft
3) Ralph changes his mind
4) Jari makes another draft
5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 about a zillion times
6) Magic Stuff happens
7) Ralph is happy.

Oh you mean how Jari actually did all the Magic Stuff?  Damned if I know, I'm still trying to master Windows Paint.

[Larry L.]

I think the first supplement for Uni should be "Ninjas vs. Zombies: You fuckers were gonna do it anyway."

[Eero Tuovinen]

Ralph: if you want, we could let people check out the process. I find the 20+ iterations of the cover pretty interesting, as they go all over the place and visit concepts that have hardly anything to do with the final one. Then we can all argue about which one should have been the cover ;)