Mon Aug 13 '18 Announcement
over 7 years ago
– Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 12:07:00 PM
Hello!
We have 12 hours of the campaign remaining at the time I pressed the send button for this message. We've hit the new stretch goal at $140,000 so we'll be reading out all the names of non-anonymous contributors on my YouTube channel. And we're currently at a fantastic $142,787 - if we hit $150,000 then a shiny new Chef Excellence Mysteries cartoon will be available for all! (As many of you know, the excellent animator will also be producing the intro sequence for the movie.)
We've still got 2 cameo spots available for people who want to be in the film. And there are interesting opportunites for artists and musicians who want to see their work on the big screen. Plus you can even replace the MYSTERIOUS FACE in my videos for the period of one calendar month, an honour previously only bestowed upon the mighty face himself!
Thank you so much for your support, folks. The next time you hear from me the campaign will be over. See you on the other side...
Cheers,
Stuart.
Fri Aug 10 '18 Announcement
over 7 years ago
– Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 06:22:29 PM
Hello!
We have about three days of the campaign remaining. Tatfest 2019 is happening. We're currently at $126,615. If only we had a veteran games programmer on board then things would be perfect OH HANG ON
It is indeed Jeff Minter! The man behind Gridrunner, Hover Bovver, Revenge of the Mutant Camels, Traxx, Llamatron 2112, Tempest 2000, Space Giraffe and, of course... Polybius for Playstation VR! The wheel has come full circle, or something.
Of course you can't have everything though. I'm still a little sad that we don't have someone who wrote a beloved teletext gaming magazine OH WAIT
We're in busy times for Mr. Biffo - after producing the hilariously insane Found Footage (and its brill sci-fi finale) he's bringing Digitiser back as a show. And he's kindly agreed to appear in our film!
Blimey. It's all looking good, folks. And if you'd like to appear on screen too we've got two perks for appearing in the film still available - you'll have to make a move before 8am Tuesday morning UK time though, as that's when the campaign ends.
Once again, thank you all so much for your support. I'll check in again before the campaign ends and the work begins!
Cheers,
Stuart.
Sat Aug 4 '18 Announcement
over 7 years ago
– Sat, Aug 04, 2018 at 08:50:26 AM
Hello!
Well... blimey and possibly even crikey. We're nearly 150% funded and it looks like we're about to hit $112,000. We could conceivably hit the $120,000 stretch goal for Tatfest 2019, which would be without question the tattiest convention to ever be run in the United Kingdom.
But the meat of this update is for non-UK folk. You see, our first film Ashens and the Quest for the GameChild was never released on DVD* or Blu-Ray outside the United Kingdom, because these things are done by region and American distributors passed on it. And one of the horrible side effects of this regional licensing is that discs published for certain areas have to be region locked. So even if you get hold of a disc, it won't play outside Europe unless you have a special multi-region player. This, of course, drives both filmmakers and audiences mad.
So! As frequently requested, we're now producing our own GameChild DVD's and Blu-rays which will be totally region-free and play anywhere in the world. They're both listed on the campaign page and are totally separate side perks so you can easily buy them as an add-on should you want them. Plus I'll sign every single one of them! (We can't combine postage though, as we'll be sending them out in the next few months which is obviously way before Polybius will be finished.)
Once again: Thank you so much for backing this film. We plan to make something excellent, and we genuinely couldn't do it without you.
Cheers,
Stuart.
*Except for the region-free Backer DVD's we made ourselves as part of the old crowdfunding campaign. Hooray!
Sun Jul 22 '18 Announcement
over 7 years ago
– Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 05:29:22 PM
Hello!
We've hit over $94,000 which means we could conceivably hit the second stretch goal. This is astonishing. In fact, I am this astonished: MUCH.
Time to share three new cast members with you. One of them you may have been expecting. One you probably weren't expecting. And one you definitely weren't expecting...
First up it's Jarred Christmas! The comedian from New Zealand who you may well recognise from MANY THINGS. He'll be playing the role of Henry, a morally dubious collector who is one of the first people we see in the film. And that's all I'm telling you because SPOILERS.
Secondly it's - you guessed it - Larry Bundy Jr! He'll be reprising his role as Larry, the affable video-game loving murderer. Is he still locked up, you ask? Well... I'm not telling. So there.
And thirdly we have the mighty Bec Hill! She'll be taking time off from enchanting audiences with her intriguingly pop-up flipcharts to appear int his very film. I am revealing no further details at this stage. So there. Again.
Well folks, we've still got 22 days to go before the campaign ends and things are going pretty darn well. We could potentially finish in a very strong position to make the film even better than we could have hoped at the start. We are pretty gosh darned excited about too - we could be going back and looking at scenes we had to drop because they were too expensive, which would be amazing.
Incidentally, we've opened up two more of the Be In The Film perks for anyone who wants to appear in a cameo. If you missed it before then scoop it up quickly, as this is the most we can offer.
Cheers,
Stuart.
Sun Jul 15 '18 Announcement
over 7 years ago
– Sun, Jul 15, 2018 at 08:57:18 AM
Hello!
We did it! And we did it amazingly quickly! Again: Thank you all so, so much.
At the time of writing we're approaching $82,000 which, when added to our private finance, means we have enough money to make the movie! Woo, yay and possibly even hoopla.
Our goal was the minimum though - all extra money goes towards improving the film. We can add more locations and set pieces, making it bigger and funnier. To this end we have invented some stretch goals - if we hit these set amounts, then all backers get something extra. Have a look:
$85,000 - SMELLY FISH NIGHTMARE
If we hit $85,000 then I will break my rule about trying the Swedish almost-rotten-fish-in-can delicacy Surströmming, and film a video trying it! It's considered the most unpleasant smelling food in the entire world. Great. Can't wait.
$100,000 - ANIME COSPLAY SCENE
If we hit this pleasingly round figure then we add a scene where Ashens has to fit in with a group of cosplayers by wearing an insane Cloud-Strife-Meets-Vegeta style get-up, complete with frightening giant wig! (All characters will be our own copyright-free OC's, of course.)
$120,000 - TATFEST 2019
If we hit this massive funding figure then I'll host a day-long celebration of all useless gubbins - Tatfest 2019! We'll take over a London venue and invite every single one of you that contributed. More details if we get anywhere near this figure!
$150,000 - NEW CHEF EXCELLENCE MYSTERIES
An all-new episode of the cartoon series featuring everyone's favourite psychotic idiots! In episode three they go to Japan and something dreadful happens, as you'd expect. If we reach $150,000 it will finally get made, several years after the last episode!
$175,000 - ALTERNATE ENDING
We will film a whole separate non-canon ending for the movie! Will it subvert the main plot of the movie? Will it make no sense whatsoever? You won't know unless we hit the improbable figure of $175,000!
$200,000 - CAR CHASE
If we hit this super unlikely milestone, we'll add a car chase sequence to the film! Except of course this is Ashens, so it won't actually be cars, it'll be a Sinclair C5 vs a Segway or something very similar. I am laughing just thinking about this.
$250,000 - SPIN-OFF ADVENTURE
If we somehow manage to reach this implausable amount, then we'll write and produce a short spin-off Ashens adventure set in the movie universe!
$350,000 - A THIRD MOVIE, ALL-IN
We can dream, right? In the frankly impossible event that we raise £350,000 we'll make a third Ashens film - without any extra crowdfunding - and give all Polybius backers a copy!
So those are our stretch-o-goals. I'll be back in touch soon with some updates on new cast members...
Cheers,
Stuart A.