Patreon

Resources: Articles & interviews ⋅ Talks ⋅ Podcasts ⋅ Publications & books ⋅ Newsletter ⋅ Postcards ⋅ Patreon

Materials: Achievements ⋅ Ephemera ⋅ Wrongles ⋅ Phone numbers ⋅ Debug mode ⋅ Fonts ⋅ Music

Cardboard Computer's Patreon is a creator page on the Patreon platform which allows individuals, for a monthly fee of $1 or greater, to more closely follow the work of Cardboard Computer and the development of Kentucky Route Zero. Cardboard Computer started their Patreon on September 7, 2018; in the introduction post, they state their goal of "[finding] a more open and community-engaged development process, while keeping the mysteries alive."

Patron-only posts contain a variety of content, such as spoiler-free development and video streams, articles about process and influences, draft artwork and assets, along with other content such as "one-off short stories, formal experiments, and nano-vignettes." Patrons at the $5+ tier gain access to a development Discord server among other rewards, such as occasional items in the mail.

Cardboard Computer's Patreon page is located at https://www.patreon.com/cardboardcomputer.

List of posts

2018

September

• Why Patreon? – September 7
  • An introduction post providing background on the creation of the Patreon.
• Wow, what a first day -- thank you! – September 8
  • A thank you post, also providing more details about Patreon rewards.
• The Evening Broadcast – September 13
  • An in-depth, inside look of the creation of Un Pueblo De Nada.
• Mammoth Metal Foley – September 24
  • A video by Ben on the sound design of the Mucky Mammoth.

October

• Here's the poster for Act V! – October 3
  • A high quality version of the Act V poster, created by Tamas. A vector version was also posted in the patron-only Discord server.
• First postcards ordered – October 5
  • Information about mail rewards.
• WEVP.TV – October 8
  • The second post about Un Pueblo De Nada, focusing on the videos on the WEVP-TV website.
• Community Assemblage #1 – October 19
  • A post highlighting supporters' personal projects and work, including games, art, music, and writing from the Discord server.
• KRZ t-shirts & pin now available to order – October 31
  • Announcement of & link to Annapurna's webshop with KRZ merch

November

• KRZ Newsletter Archive – November 3
  • Announcement of and link to a browser-friendly KRZ newsletter archive.
• Some Musical Inspiration for the KRZ OST- Pt. 1 – November 17
  • Details of specific musical inspirations for the KRZ Act I and Act II soundtracks.
• VGA Gallery print of Act V poster is available now – November 21
  • A note that the VGA Gallery is now selling prints of the Act V poster.
• Dev Stream Timing Poll – November 27
  • A poll requesting patrons to pick a preferred time for an upcoming development stream of Tamas working on character animations in Blender.
• Second postcard order soon! – November 28
  • A note about plans to create a second postcard that will be sent out in mid-December, with pledge amounts locked in on December 4.
• Dev stream tomorrow - Sat Dec 1st at 1pm CT – November 30
  • Announcement about the first dev stream.

2019

January

• Happy new year! – January 6
  • An update about Jake, Tamas, and Ben currently teaching classes part-time for a few months at Milan's IULM University, and a note that 2019 will be a big year for them in finishing up KRZ and beginning their next project.
• Thoughts On Game Writing Tools, Part 1 – January 20
  • The first of four posts by Jake on game writing tools, this installation focusing on why to use such a tool.
• Prehistory of Kentucky Route Zero dialog – January 23
  • The second post in the series by Jake, focusing on code and XML dialogue structure in games prior to KRZ.
• The KRZ dialog format(s) – January 27
  • The third post in the series by Jake, focusing on the invented "krzdialog" format and Twine's Twee format. This post also links to an early version of the game's opening scene.

February

• Pitfalls of KRZ dialog / Thoughts on other tools' – February 4
  • The fourth and final post in the series by Jake, focusing on perceived problems in the KRZ dialog system and more information on other tools.

March

• Dev stream this Saturday, March 30, 12pm ET – March 26
  • An announcement of an upcoming livestream, involving a showcase and Q&A about the "map" scenes in Unity.
• KRZ Overworlds dev video – March 30
  • A link to the archive video of the stream.

April

• Spellchecker wordlist.txt – April 30
  • A post about lists as artifacts, namely the custom dictionary used to augment the game's basic spellcheck script.

June

• KRZ Status Update – June 13
  • An announcement that Cardboard Computer is wrapping up the last few bits of content, and will begin the QA process (coordinated by Annapurna) next week.

July

• Last leg commit messages – July 26
  • An update listing humorous commit messages to the game's codebase, and more QA team-related info.
• Our Blender (2.69) Middleware – July 31
  • Information about the GitHub repository made by Tamas which provides the team's tools, scripts, and modifications for Blender, the 3D art software used for the game.

September

• New ultra high resolution KRZ screenshots – September 15
  • A post of 36 new HQ screenshots of the game created by Tamas, for printing or use as 8K wallpapers.

October

• Another KRZ status update & KRZ Hero – October 9
  • An update about the QA process coming up on a big internal milestone, and an ask for the community to pick a canonical name for Conway's dog, for use on future box art/posters for the game.

December

• Looking Back at 2019 – December 31
  • A recap of work done in 2019, divided up by season, along with news and promotions of various Patrons' work.

2020

January

• Act V & the TV Edition will be released January 28th – January 7
  • The announcement of the Act V & TV Edition release date and trailer.
• Act V & TV Edition Are Available Now! – January 28
  • Release announcement, storefront links, and a new trailer.

March

• Ben's Bandcamp Day Recommendations – March 20
  • Recommendations by Ben on what to buy on Bandcamp during the day of waived revenue share.
• Weird times – March 31
  • A check-in about the Patreon, plans for it, and patrons' support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

May

• The Y2K20 Bug – May 29
  • A post explaining the math behind a weird bug that led a public build of Here And There Along The Echo to stop working in the year 2020, and in years divisible by 101.

August

• roog, pt 1 - basics – August 24
  • A post by Jake discussing a new game engine and programming language he has been developing called "roog," designed for works of interactive fiction and grid-based exploration.

October

• roog, pt 2 - early demo video – October 26
  • A video demo showing off early workings of the roog game engine.

2021

• roog syntax 2021 – February 2
  • Notes and details from the past few months of roog research & development.
• Stream Schedule Poll – April 12
• "A Stroll In Town, pt 1" - Live Stream Saturday May 1st 2pm ET – April 30
• "The Cat's Meows (Post-KRZ Part 2)" – June 1
• Observers (Post-KRZ Part 3) – August 11
• Workshop poll – November 18

2022

• "An Outcry" Interview with Quinn K – January 5
• Workshop: Writing Code – April 17
• Workshop pt. 2: Fiber-on-Fiber – May 28
• Workshop pt. 3: Sketching – July 27
• Workshop 3-B, Follow-up Demo, Q+A – September 29
• Notes From Zero - Elkhorn Mine – September 29
• Workshop 4, Composition – December 5
• Kentucky Route Zero now on iOS & Android via Netflix – December 13

2023

• Workshop 5, recursion – February 22
• Care package – May 17