Please dont let this be an april fools joke...
It's not but it's also not the full steam ahead that people are hoping for. The announcement isn't so much about the shells but about what's going inside. The issue with getting the shells green lighted is that there isn't enough demand in selling just empty shells to make it worthwhile. If you can manage to rally the troops and get the minimums met, I'll gladly forward the project files to the machine shop and get started.
Now, the only way I would move forward without reaching that threshold is to have some meaningful content (i.e. games) to go inside of it. Jeff tried to help out on that front on the KS with Knight's Chance (thank you by the way) but it still didn't quite make it there. For the past few months, I've been working behind the scenes with some talented people on a project that would hopefully satisfy that requirement. I'll refrain from too many details until a working unit is produced and put up a video demo of what is going on. But what I can tell you is that the software portion I'm responsible for is close to completion (at least from a first run draft) as well as the software from the other main programmer.
So how does this relate to the shells? If the project is question becomes viable and goes into production, the shells will too. Enough shells will be made to enclose the project as well as take preorders for those that want empty shells. Any leftovers or extras will be sold as well. Future batches of shells will coincide with the need to reprint the "project" and/or a healthy of amount of preorders for empty ones. I don't have the storage space to keep many of these as a stocking item so orders of empty shells will be sold as preorder items and extras will be first come first served. At best, the production runs would come quarterly or biannually.
