Patreon Kickstarter Update #7

Hi folks,

Today we wanted to give you a big update on everything related to The Magnus Protocol that has been going on behind the scenes here at Rusty Towers. This is looking to be a pretty chunky one, so grab a comforting beverage of your choice and settle down for a long read.

There’s a huge amount of stuff we’ve been working on in the background since the Kickstarter finished that we haven’t been able to talk about until now. This is for various reasons, including NDAs, contract signings, waiting to announce things until essential third-party companies provide guarantees and, of course, not wanting to spoil the story of The Magnus Protocol before it is released! Now, however, we feel we are at an excellent stage in production to give you a fulsome update on all the progress we’ve made so far and some of the things we have in the pipeline.

Firstly, the pilot episode, which will be previewed in the digital premiere in October, is well into production. We now have a full cast for season 1 and some of the later seasons (more on this later) and have begun recording. As we’ve previously mentioned, we will be making the premiere available as a video download exclusively for backers who pledged at the Archival Assistant level and above, and our Patreon supporters at Knights and Noble tiers. This will also include a preview of The Magnus Protocol pilot episode and some exciting exclusive bonus content. This digital premiere will be shared on Sunday 22nd October.

As you know, we’ll also be hosting an intimate in-person celebration of the pilot on 22nd October. You can read more about this here. We had explored the possibility of hosting a backer-only livestream of this event, but third parties were unable to guarantee service without excessive additional fees.

Some of you who backed the Kickstarter are not in a rewards tier that will receive the digital premiere. We will be sharing just the audio of the preview episode – without the extra content – to Kickstarter backers who pledged to receive a direct, ad-free link to every new episode (Researchers and above) on 31st October 2023, just in time to celebrate the one-year anniversary of us formally announcing this Kickstarter.

Once we’ve given everyone a chance to listen, we’ll be hosting a post-premiere livestream on Twitch with cast and crew, to celebrate this milestone with you as a community. We will share more on this closer to the time.

Both the Digital Premiere and the audio-only version are a pre-launch preview of the double-length pilot episode exclusive to our backers and Patrons. The episode will continue to be mastered in full before the series releases to public. This includes introducing the fully Orchestrated version of the music. Due to third party logistics, the orchestra will be recorded in December in Vienna. Our very own Sam “Sam-Sam-the-music-man” Jones has written the music for the show and will be conducting the orchestra, along with others. You’ll already be familiar with Sam’s talents for his work on the original The Magnus Archives music along with many other of music featured on other Rusty Quill shows. (You can hear Sam’s work on Spotify which includes his recent suites of music for our shows Trice Forgotten and Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later).

Given these unavoidable third-party delays we are now intending to release the fully finished pilot to the public on The Magnus Archives podcast feed in January 2024, with the rest of the series immediately following it on a weekly release schedule. This means that the pilot preview will be exclusive to Kickstarter backers and Patreon supporters until January but when it becomes public there will still be new elements for backers and Patrons to enjoy. This timeline has been built in consultation with multiple third-party companies and the entire production team to ensure sensible timeframes for everyone involved. This will mean adequate buffers are present for current and future productions that allow for healthy working patterns – including paid holidays and sick leave etc. This timeline will also include a two-week break in the release schedule every ten episodes, similar to the release schedule of Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later.

Even with these changes, we are well into production of The Magnus Protocol and are currently finalising script drafts for season 1 and continuing to write scripts for seasons 2 and 3. This is in addition to primary recording for episodes and editing the Pilot episode. (Pilots take longer than normal episodes as we are building the “sound” of the show at this stage, sourcing effects, establishing continuity and modifying scripts to accommodate production).

Something everyone is eager to hear about is the cast and characters in The Magnus Protocol and we are happy to share more information on this now.

You’ll have already heard a bit about Alice and Sam, a pair of low-level civil service workers at the underfunded Office of Incident Assessment & Response. Well, we are delighted to be able to introduce:

• Seer Pink (they/them) as Alice Dyer
• Shahan Hamza (he/him) as Samama Khalid

You may know Seer as a streamer and TikToker but this is their Rusty Quill debut! Meanwhile, fans of Trice Forgotten should recognise Shahan as the voice of Siva, and we're delighted to welcome him back aboard (though in a very different story)!

Even better, now we are in recordings we can announce some more cast and characters:

• Anusia Battersby (she/her) as Gwendolyn Bouchard
• Lowri Ann Davies (she/her) as Celia Ripley
• Ryan Hopevere-Anderson (he/him) as Colin Becher
• Kazeem Tosin Amore (he/him) as Teddy Vaughn
• Sarah Lambie (she/her) as Lena Kelley
• Ellie Dickens (she/her) as Lady Mowbray
• Tim Fearon (he/him) as [ERROR]
• Alexander J Newall (he/him) as [ERROR]
• Jonathan Sims (he/him) as [ERROR]

(Image description: Six performer photographs on a dark red background. At the top of the image is the logo for The Magnus Protocol. The Six images are from top left: Seer Pink (they/them) as Alice Dyer; Shahan Hamza (he/him) as Samama Khalid, Anusia Battersby (she/her) as Gwendolyn Bouchard, Sarah Lambie (she/her) as Lene Kelley, Jonathan Sims (he/him) as [distorted, unreadable text], Alexander J Newall (he/him) as [distorted, unreadable text].)

(Image description: Six performer photographs on a dark red background. At the top of the image is the logo for The Magnus Protocol. The Six images are from top left: Ryan Hopevere-Anderson (he/him) as Colin Becher, Lowri Ann Davies (she/her) as Celia Ripley, Kazeem Tosin Amore (he/him) as Teddy Vaugn, Tim Fearon (he/him) as [distorted, unreadable text], Ellie Dickens (she/her) as Lady Mowbray).

Recordings are being held remotely, which has allowed us to get such a broad range of performers. We are already blown away by the talent this group have – we have really struck gold with this cast.

Now, we know many of you have been asking whether some familiar voices from The Magnus Archives will be making a return. We can confirm that there will be multiple returning friends and enemies from The Magnus Archives in addition to the above cast list, but we can’t share more of that yet without spoiling some of the story, so you’ll have to wait and see on that account!

Moving on to other elements of the show, we have already shared a little sneak peek at the logo for Office of Incident Assessment and Response in the Kickstarter exclusive t-shirt design. However, now we can show off the final Podcast artwork! This was designed by the incredibly talented April Sumner and is absolutely full of details and references that reflect the story to come…

(Image description: The Podcast artwork for The Magnus Protocol. An old-fashioned beige, square CRT computer screen takes up the majority of the frame, with a beige/grey keyboard shadowed beneath it. Orange sparks, like the very edge of a fire, scatter across the foreground. On the monitor is the red OIAR crest, obscured by scan lines, features a lion on the left, and a unicorn on the right, framing a triangular shield and a wreath of laurels. Across the top is the initials: OIAR. On the bottom is the motto, Non Vacillabimus. Underneath this crest are the words, The Magnus Protocol.)

We touched on music a little earlier in this update. As well as conducting an orchestra for the recording, Sam Jones is currently in the design stages for music for the show and is finalising instrumentation. We don’t want to abandon the iconic music from The Magnus Archives entirely but The Magnus Protocol will have a very different sound, with new instruments and melodies. We are also working on something called a “palette” – a backbone of music that contains plot themes, emotional peaks and refrains key to the story. This is a similar manner to how the music was created for Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later and Trice Forgotten and will provide our editing team a really broad range of music options for scenes to choose from in collaboration with Sam.

Similarly, we are already well into the process of establishing the sound design for The Magnus Protocol. This will again be very different in some ways from The Magnus Archives – our sound design has greatly improved since the first episodes of the original show. We now have an entirely new operating procedure for production which will make vocals easier to hear along with SFX. Don’t worry though: there will be more than enough lofi charm still embedded within the series, including episodes featuring found footage.

Of course, the Kickstarter didn’t just unlock this full version of the show, we also unlocked a lot of other bonuses we can talk about. (We did warn you it was a big update!)

We’re particularly excited about is the Making-Of documentary which is being developed by April Sumner. While the full version of this will not be released until the series is concluded (to make sure we can give you all the juicy details), we will be releasing a short preview segment with the premiere as a sneak peek. We’ve never given this kind of insight into what goes into creating a show before and it will include extensive interviews, candid footage taken during key meetings, planning sessions and recordings. Alex and Jonny have also been keeping extensive video diaries of all their work. This documentary should really show how the creation of any show takes a village (of highly talented editors and writers) to make something truly special.

On top of that, there’s also the Alternate Reality Game (ARG), which we’ve referenced several times during our regular Kickstarter updates. While we don’t want to reveal too much about this just yet, we can tell you that we have an official start date of 15th September. Compared to our mini-ARG last October, we are working on a far larger scale, with both digital and in-person elements to look forward to. It will also feature huge amounts of worldbuilding and exclusive story materials to give an even deeper insight into the world of The Magnus Protocol. We were blown away with the fan response last year and cannot wait to see how our community will tackle this new, far more expansive (and creepy) challenge. Make sure to bookmark https://themagnusprotocolarg.com once the game is afoot, as this is where we’ll be updating players on any ARG-related announcements to make sure everyone stays safe and on track!

We also have another Twitch stream this Friday. Join Alexander J Newall, Jonny Sims, Sasha Sienna and April Sumner at 4pm BST as they play The Forest – a first person survival horror simulator. It’s sure to be a lot of fun, as our players try to hold their nerve in terrifying forest after a plane crash. As always, make sure you’ve followed our Twitch account to get a notification as soon as we go live!

Finally, we wanted to update you all on a Magnus Archives project that is independent of The Magnus Protocol but still very exciting: the Monte Cook TTRPG. If you haven’t already, we suggest you sign up at the following link. Those who sign up before the campaign launches will get an exclusive gift when you pledge at any reward level: an exclusive Magnus Institute audio cassette. We are so excited about this collaboration and are really impressed with the care and dedication the Monte Cook team have put into it – from everything from the early game design concepts to the artwork they’re planning to include, they have been incredibly detail-oriented and really understand what makes the original material so special. The game is a labour of love from the team over there and we are thrilled with what we have seen of it so far.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this extensive update - we hope you are as excited as we are!

The Rusty Quill team