Hey there,
DedBoi is nearing the middle of its campaign, and as I write this we’re sitting just shy of
£12,000. This feels like a good point to talk about how important your support is
.
If you have backed, shared or intend to support us, thank you so much! Community is the most important aspect of keeping our little candle burning. Running a small business is tough in these times and so we are grateful for the support of our community as it means to grow and create new products we don't have to rely on banks to lend us money, knowing they will charge us ridiculous amounts of interest for zero creative input - effectively skimming off of our hard work.
💀 Why we’re not adding more stretch goals
You may have noticed that we haven’t been stacking stretch tiers onto DedBoi, and that’s intentional.
It isn’t because we don’t want to reward backers. It’s because we want to keep the focus exactly where it belongs: on the game itself. The experience, the tone, the prompts, and the physical zine you’ll actually hold. We also want to get this out to you quick and with minimum fuss.
However, we have already hit our one stretch goal where each backer receives a signed and numbered death certificate!
⏳ The quick fulfilment promise still stands
From the start, the plan for DedBoi has been the same model we used on Unleashed: finish the campaign, move directly into production, and deliver without long stretch-goal delays.
That plan hasn’t changed.
We’re still expecting fulfilment in May. No creep. No scope drift. No “one more thing” or "I've been ill" delays. We've made our mistakes in the past and learned how to do better. That’s the approach we’re committing to for small Critical Kit zines going forward.
🧠 A reminder of what DedBoi is
If this is the first time you've read one of my lengthy updates, or if you backed early and are just checking back in, it’s worth restating what makes DedBoi different.
- You don’t begin play with a character sheet.
- You don’t know your name, background or abilities.
You wake up dead. That's it.
From there, you investigate your own death across a dozen locations spanning heaven, hell, and earth. Each clue you uncover reveals something about who you were, what you could do, and how you ended. Your abilities don’t precede the story - they emerge from it. The first time you test a skill, you define it forever. DedBoi is a game about finding yourself through play and storytelling.
And sometimes the truths you uncover aren’t comfortable ones.
🌍 A game that bends to your world
One of the things we've learned through playtests is how well DedBoi lends itself to different settings. The investigation structure stays the same, but the world around it is anything you choose it to be:
- An ancient ziggurat beneath an eclipsed sun.
- New York in the 1970s.
- A failing FTL spaceship .
- A ruined future city.
- Your own home town.
📦 Mid-campaign reminder: add-ons and capped shipping
If you’ve already backed, thank you again for being part of this. If you’re considering expanding your pledge, a quick reminder that you can still add anything from the Critical Kit catalogue or the Triple-O collaboration during the pledge and survey process.
Shipping remains capped, so additional items don’t increase your postage tier. It’s still the easiest point to bundle games if you’ve been meaning to pick up anything from our back catalogue.
🕯️ The quiet middle of a campaign
Every crowdfunding project has a quieter stretch in the middle. The initial launch energy has settled, and the final-week surge is still ahead. This is the point where projects rely most on the people who are sitting on the fence. That said, we understand that not everyone is in a position to back our games right now.
If DedBoi speaks to you in its tone, its premise, its strangeness, then the single biggest thing that helps now is simply letting someone else know it exists. A share, a mention, a link sent to one friend who likes unusual solo RPGs makes more difference than you’d think.
Tim x
Critical Kit
