The Impact of Iwata

Looking from Stretch Goal #5 to Both #6 & #7!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Jul 03, 2023 at 06:02:12 AM

Good Monday morning, Impact of Iwata backers! Once again, you've all contributed to another Stretch Goal being nearly completed: As of this writing, Goal #5 is just a few hundred dollars shy of being met! 

If we carry on and clear that benchmark, then all physical copies of The Impact of Iwata will be upgraded with printed endsheets. (And we'll include them in the digital version too. Why not?)

Next up, back-to-back Stretch Goals, one of which builds on the other.

If we can reach Stretch Goal #6 at a funding total of $89,000 or more, then we'll assemble a collection of every issue of Nintendo Force Magazine that has discussed Mr. Iwata and send them out to all Kickstarter supports pledged to any tier in a digital bundle. The centerpiece of this bundle will of course be "Thank You, Mr. Iwata" from 2015, the issue that we're building on to make this book. But in addition to that, we'll also include earlier issues that reported on his final few years of being the Nintendo president, as well as more recent issues like the one featuring our Book Club discussion of Ask Iwata.

Plus, a future issue that hasn't even been made yet will be included! After The Impact of Iwata is completed, printed and sent out to all of our backers, I'll write a behind-the-scenes/making-of article about the book's creation and publish it in a future issue of Nintendo Force. (It will probably be Issue #70 or #71 in early 2024, depending on the timing of everything.) That issue will also be sent digitally to all Kickstarter supporters pledged to any tier.

However! If the funding total here climbs up to the even greater milestone marker of $99,000, that future Nintendo Force Magazine issue will be sent in print form to all Kickstarter supports pledged to any tier that includes a physical copy of The Impact of Iwata. For existing NF Magazine print subscribers, that would mean getting a bonus extra copy of the issue in addition to the one you'd normally receive due to being a patron at Patreon.com/NintendoForce. (You could keep the extra, or give it to a friend!) For any of you who aren't already set up to get NF issues in print, it would be your chance to check out the magazine in physical form for the first time!

This would be a separate mailing that would happen after your copies of The Impact of Iwata itself are sent to you, so it wouldn't hold up delivery of your book!

Thanks again for all the support, everyone! You're all amazing!

~ Lucas M. Thomas

Stretch Goal #4 Surpassed + #5 Revealed!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jun 27, 2023 at 08:15:25 PM

Oh hey, it's a late night Kickstarter update, since The Impact of Iwata just moved past $69,000 in total pledges at about 11:00 p.m. Eastern! But no worries at all, because I was staying up late playing Pikmin 2 anyway.

With Stretch Goal #4 completed, we'll now produce a companion video series to complement The Impact of Iwata! I want to be smart with time management for this and not risk any delay in producing the book itself, so I think we'll wait to begin the videos until the book is totally finished and has already been passed over to the printing company to produce. So mid-October or so? I'll let you know when we get closer!

Next up!

Bouncing back over to enhancing the book itself, our next goal is to upgrade each physical copy of The Impact of Iwata with snazzy printed endsheets. When you open most hardcover books, the first thing you see is blank white paper – both attached to the inside of the front cover and as the first loose page as well. Sometimes it's blank black instead, or another flat, solid color. But the coolest option is to actually use those otherwise blank positions for more content, printing directly on those endsheets!

I've got to give Viz Media their flowers for this, because they actually did this for the American release of the Ask Iwata book two years ago. They chose to print a repeating pattern of the "Iwata-san" doodle that was also used on the cover and several places inside the book as well:

I have a different idea for how the endsheet spaces could be used for The Impact of Iwata, but I'm exploring a few alternative options as well. Let's push for and hit this fifth Stretch Goal to force my hand and make me choose, shall we?

Thank you all once again for your support. We've seen yet another big surge in just the past few days – we climbed all the way from Stretch Goal #3 to #4 in just about four days! That's crazy! Let's keep the momentum moving. Still 15 days to go!

~ Lucas M. Thomas

$60,000 Surpassed + Magazine Promo
over 1 year ago – Sat, Jun 24, 2023 at 01:28:46 PM

Impact of Iwata backers, you continue to amaze, as we've now climbed above $60,000. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Most of you backing this book are probably already subscribers to our magazine, Nintendo Force. But if you're not, I wanted to give you a heads-up that our next issue is launching super soon! You've got about two days left to sign up as a patron over at Patreon.com/NintendoForce to get your name on the mailing list.

To try to synergize the book and magazine a bit, this new NF issue will ship with a set of Pikmin bookmarks! You can mark your place in a book and have the Red, Yellow or Blue Pikmin's stem cutely sticking up out of the top edge of the pages. And when you're ready to start reading where you left off, you simply pluck the Pikmin out and toss them aside!

That's of course in addition to the double-sided Pikmin 4/Double Dragon wall poster, and the magazine itself, with 84 pages of cover-to-cover content that's got a whole lot of Pikmin in the mix for this particular issue, but also our review of Tears of the Kingdom and more. Sorry for being kind of shamelessly promotional here! But if you've discovered our team's work through this Kickstarter for the first time, I just want to ensure you're familiar with our ongoing magazine issues!

~ Lucas M. Thomas

Audiobook Goal Met! + Stretch Goal #4 Revealed!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jun 23, 2023 at 10:35:29 AM

Following another week filled with strong surges of support, we've officially pushed past the milestone for Stretch Goal #3. And we're also beyond 200% funding! You all have brought in more than twice the original funding target. You're amazing!

An audiobook version of The Impact of Iwata will now officially be brought into existence, and it will be sent as a free bonus to everyone who has pledged on any tier! Work has already begun, and I'll be able to share an exciting partnership we've established for this project in a future update. For now, let's celebrate! The book will be a listenable experience as well as a lookable one!

With Stretch Goal #3 met, we need to reveal #4! Here we go:

If this campaign's funding total manages to continue to climb, we'll expand the Impact of Iwata experience even further by creating a series of companion videos! I'm picturing these as community-gathering livestreams. I'll pick one video game that Mr. Iwata had a hand in helping to create and stream a play session of it, while chatting along with everyone who wants to watch and join in by asking questions. Some streams would be dedicated to simpler titles, while others would be more complex and in-depth! 

We'd do at least 16 installments of the series, aligning one each with the 16 different chapters of The Impact of Iwata. Though I think it's very likely we'd go beyond that – I'd love to play through the entirety of EarthBound while chatting along with you all, for example, and that would take more than one session to get through. (Did you know I haven't played through the whole EarthBound game since I was a teenager in the '90s, back when it was brand-new? This would be the kick in the pants I need to finally re-experience its entire length as an adult.)

We'd also dig deeper into Mr. Iwata's catalog of games to play some of the more obscure titles that you may have never even seen before. Altogether, the companion video series would be a time investment to commit to, but it would help flesh out everyone's understanding and appreciation for the excellence of Mr. Iwata's programming work, expanding on the praise that will be lavished upon said work within the book itself!

Stretch Goal #3 Revealed: Audiobook Version!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 09:30:11 AM

Hey again, Impact of Iwata backers! It's time for another Stretch Goal update.

We're now less than $1,000 away from hitting Stretch Goal #2, which is a cover upgrade to enhance every physical copy of the book! Thanks to all of the new backers who've joined the campaign in recent days, as well as everyone who was already here and has decided to upgrade their pledge to the new Collector's Edition! Everyone collectively is bringing us closer and closer to hitting that goal. It's definitely in reach now!

So let's go ahead and set the next target to aim for, shall we?

If the funding total for this Kickstarter can climb up to $59,000, we'll create a third version of The Impact of Iwata: an audiobook version! Every backer who's pledged at any tier will then get the audiobook as a free bonus!

I know that, in recent years especially, audiobooks have become an incredibly popular format among the most diehard, dedicated book aficionados who consume tons of new titles every year, as well as casual listeners who only have time for a handful. I personally jumped on the audiobook train in earnest when Covid lockdowns started happening back in 2020 – I made it part of my daily routine to hop on my exercise bike and put in a few miles while listening to a chapter or two of the latest releases. (I've been a big fan of Star Wars novels ever since I was a kid!) So it's been on my heart to create an audiobook edition of The Impact of Iwata ever since first starting work on this project years ago. 

I want to make sure it's done right, though! That involves hiring a great audio technician to make sure every word sounds perfect, a reader (or readers, plural) other than just myself, as well as (hopefully) a team of musicians to give some extra punch to the presentation! You might have noticed the first step toward that goal in the background of our main Kickstarter campaign video: The song that plays along while I'm talking and explaining the book is a newly commissioned creation from an artist named Jam from the OverClocked ReMix community, and it was meant to ignite memories of one of Mr. Iwata's most beloved creations, Balloon Fight!

Let's shoot for the next Stretch Goal milestone and add a great audiobook to everyone's Impact of Iwata experience!

~ Lucas M. Thomas