Our friend “2old4gaming”, who has a great YouTube channel and has already written and published 2 books on the PS Vita, is currently funding his third and final book, chronicling the last few years of the handheld (2015-onward). The great thing about this is that he has a perfect track record of delivering on his promises, so we see no reason not to recommend you to back this project! It’s already over 80% funded at the time of writing, and it’s been less than 24 hours!
LINK TO THE CAMPAING: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vitabook3/playstation-vita-the-end-unofficial-book
Here’s more info:
Thank you for visiting the Kickstarter campaign for my book – The PlayStation Vita: The End. This is my third and final book about the PS Vita and the follow-up to my two successfully kickstarted books: The PlayStation Vita: Year One and PlayStation Vita: Years Two & Three. To summarise the premise, its an unofficial look back at the events of the Vita from 2015 to present and retrospectives on a selection of its biggest games. This time round I am also including a bonus zine FREE for backers, featuring my Top 100 Vita games, if I hit the £6,000 stretch goal.
My name is Sandeep Rai, also known as “2 Old 4 Gaming” on twitter and YouTube. I have been a gamer for most of my life. I have fond memories of sitting in front the TV and playing my NES with my brother, but as an adult I’ve found handheld gaming just suited my life better. The PlayStation Vita, with its varied library of games and portability, has been my device of choice when it comes to gaming. My passion for the Vita and its games inspired me to not only write this series of books but also start my YouTube channel.
This book will be the final entry in a series of three books that cover the entire history of the Vita’s life. The first book covered the highs and lows of the Vita’s launch and first year on the market. The second, covered the 2nd and 3rd years in the life of the Vita. This book will focus on the period after 2015, as Sony wound up its support for the device but against all odds the system continued to have games released for it.
I was thrilled and humbled by the support I received for my first two books.The feedback was extremely positive, far beyond my wildest expectations and I am excited that that support has brought me to the point where I can complete this series.
There is so much more to the story of the Vita than I could tell in the first book. At one point I had considered writing a book for each year of the system’s life, but after consideration I landed on making it a series of three books:
- PS Vita: Year One – the launch and first year on the market.
- PS Vita: Years Two & Three – covering 2013 and 2014, when Sony was still investing in the Vita with a system redesign and new games.
- PS Vita: The End – 2015 onwards. The Vita slowly lost more and more services and support from Sony entirely dried up but the Vita community continued to support the device and the games kept coming. This period was also notable for the launch of limited print physical game publishers.
The physical book will be A5 size and I am aiming for around 150 pages long. The game retrospectives will include:
- The Ys series
- The Steamworld series
- Salt & Sanctuary
- Shovel Knight
- Dragon Quest Builders
- The Atelier series
- Trails of Cold Steel 1 & 2
- Darkest Dungeon
- World of Final Fantasy
- Iconoclasts
- Timespinner
- The Persona Dancing series
- Rainbow Skies
- And more!
The book will also feature library pages of all Vita games released since 2015.
I’m such a huge fan of the Vita and one of my inspirations for writing this trilogy is the Gameboy World series by Jeremy Parish. I loved the idea of a book that takes a look back on a system’s life and showcases the big games. I felt that the Vita, despite being such an amazing device, would never get the same treatment as other retro systems and have books written about it, so I thought “why don’t I do it!” I’m so glad it worked out and I got so much support for the first two books, and I am hopeful that will continue for this third book.
Steve Novaković-Thone is a graphic designer and art director who’s been making books, magazines, brand identities, and other bits and pieces for nearly 15 years. His wife gave him a Vita for Christmas back in 2013 and he’s been in love ever since – with his wife as well as the Vita. Steve designed PlayStation Vita: Year One and Years Two & Three, and loves being able to combine his passions of gaming and design to work on these books. Steve’s work on the previous books was amazing and I’m so glad he agreed to work on this book too so that they all have a consistent look and feel.
The book is being edited by Adam Cartwright. Adam has his own site reviewing and commenting on Vita games (kresnik258gaming.wordpress.com) and is a guest writer on VGChartz and previously the Vita Lounge. Adam was also an editor of the last two books.
Other contributors: @The_Kiseki_Nut and @vitagamergeorge, @torchwood4sp.
After the success of the first two books, I saw no reason to not use kickstarter again! As someone trying to launch an independent book, Kickstarter is a great way to drum up attention and also to gauge demand so that I have a clear idea of how many copies to print.
I will be using all of the funds of a successful kickstarter to print the books. Assuming the project is fully funded, I will be able to have enough copies of the book printed to fulfil the orders of my kickstarter backers and to send copies to some games sites/YouTubers to help promote the book.
I am targeting completion of the book by the end of January 2021. It’s a conservative target and I’d hope to be done sooner (the previous book was targeting October 2019, but I had the book completed and posted by the end of September 2019). I just don’t want to over-promise and under-deliver.
Tier 1 – Digital Copy
- You get a DRM-free PDF copy of the book and your name in the “thank you” section of the book
Tier 2 – Physical and digital copy of the book
- Physical and DRM-free PDF digital copies of the book. Your name in the “thank you” section of the book.
Tier 3 – Two physical copies of the book and PDF
- Two physical copies of the book and a digital PDF copy. Your name in the “thank you” section of the book.
Tier 4 – The Complete Vita History Bundle
- A physical copy of PlayStation Vita: The End and my two previous books: Years Two & Three and the Deluxe Year One. Also includes PDF copies of all three books and your name in the “thank you” section of the book. Between the 3 books that will be over 450 pages of Vita history!
£6,000 – Vita Zine!
As someone working on this book independently, it is not easy to promise a variety of physical rewards like some other big kickstarters. For the previous Kickstarters I added extra content to the book but this time I want to offer something special. The books are written from an objective, historical perspective and so I’ve kept my opinions to a minimum. I don’t want that to change for Book 3 so I will be producing a separate one-off zine focused on my top 100 Vita games. This will be FREE for anyone ordering tiers 2, 3 or 4. I am really hoping we hit this stretch goal because me and Steve have some great ideas for the zine.
£9,000 – Vita Island Pin
If I cross the £9,000 threshold I will offer Vita Island pins to backers, designed by @AlchemistCandy. The pins will be £6 and available exclusively to physical backers.
Other stretch goals will be considered through the campaign.
Risks and challenges
I started writing book 3 pretty much straight away after I finished book 1. I estimate I am already 40% done with writing the book. I don’t foresee any risks impacting the completion and hopefully my success in completing the first two books provides confidence in my ability to deliver this one. I do need to balance writing the book with spending time with my family and doing my day job. The delivery estimate of January 2021 is conservative but I don’t want to promise to complete the book earlier and fail. The additional time also helps my designer and editor, since they have day jobs also.
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