From Arnie Jorgensen —
Sorry we’ve been really quiet these days! Let me give you a brief run down on what John, Alex and I have been up to since launching the Saga and what we’re doing right now.
Leading up to the launch of the Saga we were working about 16 to 18 hour days for weeks upon weeks. No exercise and fueling the body on a diet of pizza and beer for long periods of time can really take it out of you. Since then we’ve only intermittently been in the studio. All of us have given back some time to our families who were as exhausted as we were. My wife has been taking care of my two boys. Taking them school, to cub scouts, giving baths, reading books before bed, camping, mowing our yard, making all the dinners, basically keeping the house running and doing it solo for over a year. The same holds true for the other guys in similar capacities. John, Alex and I gave pretty much everything we had to The Banner Saga, but so did our families. We wouldn’t do anything different. We knew getting this game up and running would be an effort but it was truly a labor of love (as cheesy as that saying is). Alex and family took off on a cruise, then went out to chill in Colorado. John hit Seattle then relaxed in Paris and ate really good fondue. I went skiing in Colorado then did a road trip to Florida to visit family. All of us needed to take a step back and enjoy life again… for a time.
That time is ending. We can’t wait to get back into the next Chapter of the Saga! We’ll be hitting GDC this week and attending the IGF awards where we were nominated for Best Art. Once we’re back later this week we’re into full-on production again. We finally got the King.com Trademark fiasco behind us thanks to everyone on the internet making such a huge stink about it, it really helped bring things to a quick conclusion. John is already moving on to the ports of Ch1. Alex and I will continue to work together fleshing out the Ch2 art/design in tandem like we did on Ch1. We know exactly where the story in Chapter 2 is going and already have the map all marked up with plots and twists and doodads to serve as waypoints for us over the next year (…or so) of development. There are some big surprises in store for the caravan of simple folk…
We’d like to thank Versus Evil (VE) for helping us launch TBS and get the word out. They’ve been handling all affairs while Stoic has taken a break and been doing an amazing job at it. I don’t think a company has ever had as good a relationship with a publisher as Stoic has with VE. Also a big slap on the back for Strange_Carrots for helping keep us abreast of what the community is interested in and up to.
We started this whole thing with the intent of designing a game that would appeal to a small, but rabid fan base of Tactical RPG fans and I think we found you. We’re full of gratitude for all the well wishes, all the support and most of all that our dream has resonated with so many. It really feels like we’re all shouldering this banner together.
