THANK YOUUUUUU
over 2 years ago – Wed, Sep 15, 2021 at 12:28:51 AM

The past 30 days have been incredible. 

So many sweet, curious, enthusiastic, generous people all wrapped their arms around the Soul Arts project, hoisted it off the ground and proceeded to fling it over the moon, ultimately wedging it somewhere in an asteroid cluster between Jupiter and Saturn. It will take a little while for Vaati and those of us on the T&F team to figure out what just happened. Anyway...

Thank you so much!

We are determined to do everything we can to make you glad you backed this campaign. This isn't a finish-line victory speech really. The bulk of the work starts now and we desperately want to deliver the book earlier than the April 2022 estimate if we can manage it. We'll keep you updated every step of the way, don't worry. This is far from the last project update you will receive.

"So what's next?" you might be asking.

In the next 2-3 days, you will receive a pledge survey we'll be sending out to backers through a partner of ours called BackerKit. 

They help us keep track of all the fulfilment details. There are nearly 20,000 of you so we need all the help we can get. You'll have a chance to purchase additional copies of the book and art prints if you'd like. We'll get your shipping details. For "Benefactor Bundle" and "Signed by Vaati" folks, we'll have you enter how you'd like your credit in the book to appear. Stuff like that.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or drop us a message at [email protected]. Even though the campaign's over, I'm always available to help with anything I can.

Thanks again, you beautiful crazy people. The success of the Soul Arts campaign really belongs to you. A party is just an empty room unless people show up ready to dance.

Much more to come!

You Died 25%-off sale ending in 48 hours!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 01:24:10 AM

We had a feeling that people who were fans of VaatiVidya and the craftsmanship of Soul Arts were all but guaranteed to enjoy You Died, our hardcover ode to Dark Souls. So we put all available versions of the book on a hefty discount (25% off!) for the duration of the Soul Arts campaign. With the Kickstarter campaign now entering its final weekend, that means there are only 48 more hours left to grab a copy of You Died at this lower price point.

Our goal for this deluxe hardcover version of You Died was to make the most beautiful video-game book in existence – as a way of paying tribute to Dark Souls, our favourite game. My co-author Keza and I had each interviewed Hidetaka Miyazaki several times and dug through our interviews to include never-before-released comments from the legendary creator about the inspiration behind different aspects of the game. We have a sequence of chapters dedicated to the world-building detail of Lordran.

There are dozens of gorgeous full-bleed (heh) screenshots of the game and illustrations at the end of each chapter glorying in all the different deaths you experience as you're making your way through the game. We also interviewed numerous members of the Souls community – including Vaati – as well as game developers to find out why Dark Souls has left such a deep mark on both players and the industry at large.

Stock levels are running low so don't wait if you're interested in grabbing a first-edition hardcover copy. There are just over 1,000 copies remaining of the black cloth and approx. 400 copies of the Way of White edition.

The response to You Died was fantastic and we hope those of you who pick up a copy (or copies in the case of my fellow collectors whose tendency is to put both light & dark cloth versions side by side on their bookshelf) will be just as enthusiastic.

Thanks again for supporting Soul Arts... and this Souls-obsessed indie publisher in the process. Drop a note in the comments to let us know which FromSoftware game you'd be most excited to see get the full Tune & Fairweather treatment. We're just getting started and there will be many more beautiful books to come.

Praise the sun...

Update on "Canvas of Souls" art print
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 03:23:26 AM

While building out the rewards menu for the Soul Arts Kickstarter campaign, one of our goals was to offer a variety of different price points. Having a modest-sized (13"x17") print of Ricardo Emig's amazing cover illustration available for €25 struck us as good value. We thought some might even appreciate the smaller size, as it wouldn't require quite as much wall space to display.

All that being said, we've gotten numerous private messages and a few public comments asking if there might be a larger version of "Canvas of Souls" available at some point. There is, after all, a tremendous amount of detail in the painting and it makes sense that some backers might want a version that makes it easier to appreciate the many subtle artistic choices.

We decided it would be nice to get some feedback directly from backers on what they might prefer so we set up a 24-hour Twitter poll on the Tune & Fairweather channel (ending Thurs, Sept 9th, 5 hours from now).

If there's an overwhelming amount of interest in the larger format, the success of the campaign gives us the financial buffer to increase the dimensions of "Canvas of Souls" without increasing the cost of the print. This would also bring the size in line with the "Design Showcase" print, which we had already planned to print at 18"x24".

Based on input from backers, we have also made the decision to remove the "Soul Arts" lettering from the front of the print. One backer named Jeremiah pointed out that it would help the piece feel more like a piece of art you might see hanging in a museum and less like a commemorative poster. Since the "Design Showcase" print is already serving that latter function of commemorating the campaign, we have decided to make a few subtle modifications to the "Canvas of Souls" layout.

We also took the liberty of reaching out to Ricardo, the artist behind the piece, to see if he would send along a digital signature that we could append to the layout. He has created a custom signature for us to use and it feels great to have the artist's stamp on this print.

Here is the updated version of the print. We hope you like it and thanks for being so generous with your feedback.

That's all for now. Don't forget to take the poll and let us know what you think about expanding the dimensions of the "Canvas of Souls" print. We'd love to hear from you. Only four days left in the campaign. Getting close to the finish line, thanks for being here.

All the best,

 p.s. if your particular reward tier does not include the "Canvas of Souls" print, you will have the option of purchasing it as an add-on via the pledge survey we'll be emailing out shortly after the campaign ends.

Reward Unlocked: deluxe foil-stamped T&F bookmark
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 09, 2021 at 07:19:58 PM

The reward unlocks that we've announced up to this point have been primarily digital: custom desktop wallpaper, a free Soul Arts audiobook companion narrated by Vaati himself, increased compensation for featured artists, etc.

There's a tangible item, however, we've been wanting to add as a bonus for every person backing the campaign at any of the physical-reward tiers. Our art director Andrew Hind has finally completed the design and we're excited to share it with you now.

Introducing... the "Harmony of the Spheres" T&F bookmark, featuring elegant gold-foil stamping on premium, sturdy black card stock. 

You'll notice we've incorporated design motifs from both the Soul Arts slipcase and even our debut project You Died (the "void sun" from the bookmark also appeared on that book's spine). We hope this will instantly become the most gorgeous bookmark you've ever owned. And, just like our books, we will spare no effort or expense to make sure we hit that quality bar.

Thank you for your extraordinarily generous support of Soul Arts. Only 4 days left to go till we cross the finish line.

Excited and grateful...

Upgrade Unlocked: Foldout panoramic spreads
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 02, 2021 at 03:47:58 AM

Earlier in the campaign, in response to a backer's question about stretch goals, I commented that it's an awkward model to apply to the books we make at Tune & Fairweather. We don't really hold back when it comes to production values. Our perfectionism won't allow us to bypass a design flourish that we know would elevate a project and delight readers.

The success of Soul Arts, however, forced us to check ourselves and interrogate whether there was any aspect of the book that might be upgraded to bring extra value to backers. Were we overlooking anything? This creative exercise led us to a compelling idea.

Now coming to Soul Arts... foldout panoramic spreads!

There are certain marquee entries, such as "Nuckelavee" by artist Andrei Sherstuck (pictured above) from the Elden Ring art contest, that cry out for an even more dramatic wide-angle treatment. The colossal scale of many FromSoftware bosses is part of what etches them so deeply into our imagination.

Though we've designed Soul Arts to be an imposing book already at 12" in height, having a few of these foldout spreads scattered throughout the book gives us the ability to display landscapes that bring an equally imposing horizontal dimension to the project.

Not to mention, it's just fun to unfold these spreads and have that reveal moment hit you when you uncover the scene tucked behind the fold spanning THREE PAGES.

Flourishes of this sort add an extra line item of production cost but we're more than happy to reinvest some of the campaign's extra proceeds to bring this feature to Soul Arts.

Thanks for supporting the campaign and challenging us to push ourselves to new heights... and widths :P

11 days left to go – let's finish strong!