Vol. 11, Tuesday 01.31.20

Hey Friends,

Before we get to the updates I wanted to share this great article I read a couple weeks ago on building small habits that will help you continue to become the best version of yourself (If you want to go straight to our updates, scroll until you see pictures :o) )

I will share a three cool excerpts and allow you to check out the rest if interested.

A). No such thing as an instant solution - it's a good thing
In the words of Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, "Good-to-great transformations never happen in one fell swoop. There is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment."

B). What happens when you take action
"When we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen. A process is set in motion by which, inevitably and infallibly, heaven comes to our aid. Unseen forces enlist our cause. Serendipity reinforces our purpose." -Steven Pressfield

C). How you can take action today
"Every day, check these 4 boxes: Have I improved 1% on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health?"
-David Kadavy

The more you improve, the more you want to improve.

The more you learn, the more you discover what else you need to learn.

The smallest evolutions are addicting. There is great power in knowing you are a better version today than you were yesterday. Imagine what you’ll be tomorrow?

(1) + (2)
We hear you: How we're polishing the Broken Bottle

1st, big thanks to those who left such helpful feedback after playing The Broken Bottle beta. The majority of the feedback was "yes and". This was delightful news! Though we believe there is always room for improvement.

Here's what we're polishing:
A). Story enrichment
We are so glad everyone enjoyed the story and found the different endings and versions interesting. Nonetheless, we heard your comments on improving the pacing and your context questions. While some items are meant to bring forth curiosity, we also want you to feel fulfilled thus we added a couple new scenes to help clarify some of the contextual questions and help with story pacing.

B). Readability/Interface enhancements
We agree. The beta's story text layout made it challenging to read. We want to ensure you all have a seamless reading experience. To accomplish this we are adding indentations, paragraph breaks, a less decorative story font, and increasing the story font size.

C). Page turning
The page turning was interesting. Though it's a fun concept we recognize it was difficult at times to flow through the story with ease. While we could make the page turn area larger, we decided to add some lovely page turn buttons instead. Especially since we will increase the font size. No one wants callused finger tips 😂

D). More images and animationsWe love the creative genius living within our Legendary team and agree with adding more illustrations! We will add unique animated ending scenes for each ending. To be effective and honor our release timeline, we grouped our unique contextual ending dialogues and scenes into four unique groups. You will find the scenes at the conclusion of each ending. This will also prompt you as to which ending you encountered.

E). More choices, more endings, more sounds, more images, adding voiceover, and more...
We will continue to refine our future experiences to align with your feedback. We added many of these requests to our future stories. Tony's Western (hinted at in Vol. 9) has 3x the endings as The Broken Bottle! We will address voiceover, audio versions, etc. in our Guild.

This is where we will discuss dev updates and all things related to current and future stories. You might even get a chance to vote on future stories ;)

(3)
Shirt and Hoodies are here! Zana edition

They're here! If you still rock Wolf Shirt Wednesdays then look no further. We even added a hoodie version to get you through the rest of the cold months...or just stay cozy inside with a hug from Zana ;)

(4)
Remember why we're here

Simplified version:
We will spark a new fire within everyone through the platform of a Legendary company by bonding three Affinities:
1). An Affinity with each other
2). An Affinity with our work
3). An Affinity with everyone who comes into contact with anything we bring to life

Thus filling the gap in the way we create organizations, bring people together, and energize each other.

We will create the equivalent of a Three Michelin Star restaurant where we experiment, create in our workshop, and serve our customers with the absolute most incredible experiences.
Three Michelin Star analogy explained (View the second point)

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Bonus:
Creative Hero highlight - tea for everybody!

We are continuing to highlight some of our Creative Heroes' interests and hobbies.

In addition to helping save Azeroth, crafting stories, hitting the gym, and being an epic baker, Scott once worked at a teahouse where he learned to craft the perfect cup of tea--all for those cozy nights of writing, or getting into a good book.

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Vol. 10, Friday 01.14.20

Do you ever get creative or mental blocks? Before we start the updates I want to share some interesting ways to reset your creativity. If you would like to skip straight to the updates, scroll until you see the pictures. 

Besides some of the more 'obvious' concepts such as getting at least eight hours of sleep, goal setting, walking away when you're blocked, etc. here are five more to add to your arsenal - I hope they bring you value! 

1). Make it about someone else (First point on this blog)
This has been a tremendous help for me and I'm still practicing. This helps in two ways: 
-First, it reminds me that this isn't about me - I am here for others. Sometimes I get so caught up in the day-to-day, that I get tunnel vision. Legendary is a company of WE. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a team.
-Second, pretending to help a close friend, colleague, or mentee get unstuck is important to me and I often find more innovation and energy emerges when acting as if I am doing things on someone else's behalf. 

2). Throw a tomato in the mix
This timing concept, though often difficult to follow, has helped me greatly. Especially if you move around. Remember to breathe.

3). Find and embrace your space that aligns with your strengths
When I first started my career I felt like "the odd one" because I had trouble focusing. The space wasn't big enough and too quiet. Later I found I work best in large environments with large windows and chaos around me. The chaos part I found through aligning with my strengths (the test I took).

4). Run Forest, run!
Fitness is #1 (I could write a ton on this however, I'll keep things shorter)! Besides the positive effects to your health and sleep, I find I am most creative after an evening run. I often leave my phone or a notepad next to the shower. Yes, both usually get soaked. Find what works best for you. Might be another exercise and / or best for you in the morning.

5). No more judging yourself
Overall, the biggest thing is giving yourself permission to feel stuck. There are better things to do than ruminate on a roadblock. Take action...even if that action is to do nothing. Make it intentional. Good luck!

Now to the updates (always four and a bonus. Why 4? Because everyone else does 3 or 5)! 

(1)

Beta successfully launched!

The Broken Bottle beta launched on December 20. It’s crazy it’s almost been a month since it launched! I am so proud of the team and of each member who worked hard to get this project out the door with care. We are very excited to debrief and move toward the full launch!

We listed our beta tester's requests and extended the beta window by one week, to the 19th of January. If you’re interested in giving it a last minute test drive, hit that button.

(Edit: beta was completed. Link will now direct to the Broken Bottle page)

(2)

We still seek your feedback

So far we have received about 1/7th of our beta tester's feedback. For those of you either involved or whom would like to help make The Broken Bottle the best it can be, your beta feedback is important to us and will help us apply the final layer of polish that aligns with you and our future players.

(Edit: beta was completed. Link is no longer active)

(3)

Free t-shirts to three of you!

We appreciate all of our testers taking the time to test and leave us such helpful feedback! We are giving our first three testers below free Broken Bottle T-shirts as a thank you.

We got The Broken Bottle test shirt on Friday. It looks awesome! We made one adjustment today to sharpen the lines to help make it pop a bit more. Since quality is #1 for us, we ordered another shirt to make sure the updated lines print perfectly. We are also running it through the washer machine to ensure it ages well. (#CommittedToExcellence)

Special thanks to those who have played and left us feedback so far!

Ayush Raj 
Scott Trantham
Jessica
Tony
Luca
Joini James

(4)
Quick 2019 recap | 2020 plans

2019 was an incredible year. Below are some of our accomplishments: 

• We grew closer as a team

• Had the privilege to welcome Tony Pisculli, lead writer for Copper Canyon - one of the new adventures you will see later this year

• Were blessed with the help of our Supporters

• Were honored to have received two new advisors

• Launched The Broken Bottle beta, woo!

• Met with seven creative heroes one-on-one to provide mentorship and offer direction

• Helped six companies through our corporate marketing and creative services

• Pivoted to our story collection project

• Started working on Project Burne again

• Started actively posting on Social Media

• Started sending these Newsletters and archiving them

• Met amazing people

• Made our first trailer

• Experienced bots submitting forms on our site for the first time :/ (reCAPTCHA rocks!)

• Organically grew our Legendary News circle from 19 to 92 in four months. Thanks all, it's a pleasure for us!

• Were privileged with 924 all organic non-GMO unique web visits to Affinity Forge and 866 to Legendary Affinity

• Further solidified our vision and plan for our future

• And got to share all of this with you!

There is a lot planned for 2020
At a high level we plan to:

1. Listen to the Broken Bottle beta feedback

2. Refine and launch The Broken Bottle

3. Open our story collection app/platform - name soon to be revealed

4. Launch the pilot to Project Burne

5. Open Legendary Guild - a Legendary community for every type of creative (We are looking for someone to help be a part-time community activator/facilitator. If you are interested in helping or in being a part of the creative community please email contact@legendaryaffinity.com).

6. Additional initiatives in our other Realms are still being assessed

-If you are, or know someone who is, looking for marketing experts, content creators, or creative services, we have a lot of talent both on the team and in network.
-You're willing to become part of the Legendary Supporters. 
-Or you would like to be featured in our emails and/or on our site(s), please reply to this email or email us at contact@legendaryaffinity.com. 

We look forward to continuing to share the future with you!

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Bonus:
Creative Hero highlight - our traveler

We are continuing to highlight some of our Creative Heroes' epic hobbies.

In addition to reading, cooking, and aikido, Anh, our character, UI, and Ending Scene designer, loves traveling. She is always intentional about deeply enjoying every trip she takes. It delights her to have the opportunity to climb, walk, and enjoy food everywhere she goes.

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Supporters, thanks so much for helping us build the Legendary. Here's to 2020!

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Vol. 9, Tuesday 12.17.19

(1)

Apple, meet Broken Bottle

The Broken Bottle Beta has been a big undertaking. As you all know, it is our first App and we decided to jump straight into the deep end by committing to both iOS and Android. It's surreal, we've reached the point where the Beta App is at a place where we can officially submit it to the Apple App Store for Approval.

If you'd like to be part of the beta, sign up below.

If you are already signed up (woo!), and haven't already, please fill out the quick pre-beta survey. We'll send you a link reminder in case the link got buried.

(2)

The Broken Bottle Credits: It's time

Originally I was going to save this for the end. I believe with us now about to officially submit the App we can share this with you all. It was a special moment (almost emotional) gathering and recalling all of the names of those who have had their hands on the project including our Supporters - I think you all will find this very interesting as you will see the amount of people you have empowered through your support.

A massive thank you to all of our Supporters, to the Creative Heroes, advisors, and the Lighthouses who have been part of this first baby step of our journey.

(WARNING: Some images may include spoilers. If you're observant enough that is...I'm kidding that wasn't a challenge. Enjoy ;)

Missed the trailer? Watch it here and let us know what you think

(3)

Sneak Peak: Grab your cowboy boots!

From WWI to feudal Japan and now to the wild West - what?!

Yep, our third story in production, to follow the Broken Bottle in its Romanian beauty, is a high-stakes adventure in the Old West where outlaws seize control of a small mining town, and no one is willing to stand up to them, the young people of the town are forced to band together to fight back.
Leading and writing this story is Tony Pisculli. Tony grew up in a small town in the High Sierras and has always had an appreciation for the austere beauty of the desert and an awareness of the outsized impact a few motivated individuals can make. Tony's literary inspiration for this story comes from Robert B. Parker's western novels (Appaloosa, Resolution, Brimstone) and Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. If you liked those, you will enjoy this and as Tony prompts, "if you like this, but you aren't yet familiar with Parker's books, run, don't walk, to pick them up..."

Awesome image Xiang Gao !

(4)
ATX expansion: How's the planning going?

Two weeks ago I mentioned that we are in the planning phase of expanding into the Austin, TX area through potential projects such as V2R and Project Burne.

Between now and then we decided on Project Burne, posted a job, and went through hands down the most difficult hiring process I have experienced. We received over 20 proposals. I am blown away by the quality of all of our candidates and am honored to have received the proposals and with such resonating energy - wow. Speaking with several of these amazing candidates was a privilege and we look forward to being able to connect with them again soon.

(If anyone is looking for a writer let me know).

Sweet picture of downtown Austin, Jeremy Banks!

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Bonus:
Creative Hero highlight - some rock in the blood

We are continuing to highlight some of our Creative Heroes' epic hobbies.

In addition to writing and losing hundreds of hours to RPG's and MOBA's, Josh Irvin, lead writer of The Broken Bottle and for our WWI story, has played music for over a decade. Playing everything from blues, to classic rock, to punk, and even to metal, Josh has rock in his blood. This particular guitar, a Taylor 5z Pro Custom is his favorite, which he has lovingly named "Luna." Though he may be more of a written artist today, Josh’s music will forever be the soundtrack of his life.

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Supporters, thanks so much for helping us build the Legendary. I hope you all enjoy the credits :)

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Vol. 8, Tuesday 12.03.19

(1)

ATX Expansion

With such a strong international team, we are in the planning phase of expanding into the Austin, TX area through potential projects such as Vuoto 2 Ricco (V2R) and Project Burne.

Interested in being involved/part of the team in the future or know someone who would?

Tell us about yourself or send the button link to the person you know.

Awesome photo of Austin, Carlos Delgado!

(2)

A just question I've been receiving

What’s the difference between Legendary Affinity and Affinity Forge?

1. Legendary Affinity is the umbrella company under which communities are rallied and teams are assembled to create Legendary things that bring value to the world and where everyone is empowered to act out of his or her strengths and passions.

2. Affinity Forge is the first organization created by Legendary to fulfill this mission.

Deeper understanding of our Why

Thanks for the years of quotes LOTR!

(3)

The Broken Bottle Progresses

Great news, our saving feature mentioned in our last Newsletter has been de-bugged and fully implemented. We also added some "quality of life" elements while the hood was open.  Eli, your awesome man!

Kat is helping with the final story level integrity checks and updates. Once those are finalized and implemented we will open the beta, woo!

(4)
Question for you

How can I / we make these Newsletters even better? Are there specific things you’d like to hear more about?

The third component to our why is our relationship with those who honor us with their interest in what we are building. Thus collaborating with you is important.

Let me know, it helps everyone :)

Awesome image Emily Morter!

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Bonus:
Creative Hero highlight - a warrior among us

We felt it would be fun to highlight some of our team's epic hobbies. Kat was selected by our rng and for good reason. Kathryn Mariko Lee has many hobbies such as watching anime, gaming, crocheting, performing in musicals at her local community theatre, and learning how to figure skate.

Though one really stands out...Kat is also an actor combatant with Dueling Arts International! This makes Kat a bit of a ninja herself and even more credible as she writes our second story about a female ninja during the faction wars in Japan. The action scenes are going to be awesome! No pressure Kat ;)

Katana image by Marc Bach

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Supporters, thanks so much for helping us build the Legendary!

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Vol. 7, Friday 11.15.19

(1) + (2)

Why we exist

Simplified version:
We will spark a new fire within everyone through the platform of a Legendary company by bonding three Affinities:
1). An Affinity with each other
2). An Affinity with our work
3). An Affinity with everyone who comes into contact with anything we bring to life

Thus filling the gap in the way we create organizations, bring people together, and energize each other.

We will create the equivalent of a Three Michelin Star restaurant where we experiment, create in our workshop, and serve our customers with the absolute most incredible experiences.

Three Michelin Star analogy explained
(View the second point)

(3)

Continued Progress on The Broken Bottle / Your Expectations

The GIF above is a short clip of some animation and page population testing (if you tap an image, the color / animated version fills the screen)

Progress:
Thank you all so much again for your support and patience. Over the past two weeks we resolved one of our biggest bugs (what we called "Page Blinking"). We are now finalizing the precision of the saving system. This will give you the freedom to close and return to the app, able to continue from where you left off.

After the final accuracy tweaks of the saving system we will play through the story internally to ensure the story choices you will make will align with your unique story endings and unique in-story-content.

Purpose and expectations:
As our very first product, the Broken Bottle will act as a proof of concept and opportunity to get your feedback to ensure that what’s currently "in the kitchen" will be served with the perfect flavors and presentations. That it will have the perfect amount of salt, sweetness, sauces, crunch, and a little pepper (Now I’m hungry).

Beta testers, as with other betas expect a few, what we call "polish features", to still be on their way when you play our closed beta.

Haven't signed up for the beta?

Sign up here

(4)

Sneak peek: female protagonist + ninja (what?!?)

Yep, you read it right. From the British backdrop of WWI we mentioned in our last newsletter, we leap back to the warring states period in feudal Japan starring our first first female protagonist.

Kat Lee, our lead Developmental and Copy Editor, is working hard on a tale about a young kunoichi (female ninja) caught between her loyalty to her sister, duty to the lord who raised them, and the magnetic pull of an enemy daimyo whose idealistic goals may grant her the life of freedom and peace she’s always wanted.As an actor combatant with Dueling Arts International, Kat’s a bit of a ninja herself. She hopes her theatrical fight experience, Japanese cultural knowledge and anime nerdiness will merge to create a story with a good balance of historical realism, emotional depth, and fantastical ninja abilities.

(Looks like an additional title is in the near future Kat ;) )

Beautiful capture by Christian Joudrey

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Bonus: Number of the week

11

Wanderlusting Lego Men and Women love us

Did you know our team is spread across the entire world? Collectively we represent ten States and Countries.

At the time of writing this our core team represents: Hawaii, Maryland, Portland, Texas, and Vietnam. Additionally we have wonderful people who help us thus expanding us even more to places such as Colorado, India, Minnesota, and California.

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View the full archive

Vol. 6, Sunday 11.03.19

(1)

Meet our newest Patron Supporter: Anja

Anja Mertl, founder and CEO of DeVo Media, DeVo Group LLC / DeVo Fit ™, became our latest Patron Supporter. In addition to being a skilled marketer, serial entrepreneur, and fitness coach, Anja is someone whom I greatly respect. Her high energy is contagious so if anyone is looking for some impactful marketing media strategy and implementation consider having a quick chat with Anja.

Thank you for your support Anja. I look forward to sharing the future with you and our other supporters!

Texas sized thank-yous to each of you!

(2)

Mini behind the scenes: The Broken Bottle

The Broken Bottle, our first Immersive Digital Story, has a long history and has been the catalyst for the creation of our team. Above is a handful of our speed sketches from one of our Design Studios (inspired by the book "The Lean Startup"). We have tons of sketches, moodboards, docs, flow sheets, list, and more all over the place. Being spread across the world has had its challenges nonetheless, we're having a blast. I am privileged to be working with such a collaborative group of creatives.

I hope you all enjoy our silly sketches which led to many epiphanies and the app you will see soon. We could probably write a book on international virtual collaboration.

(3)

Speaking of The Broken Bottle: Update

First, thank you all for your patience as we finalize our App development. We recognize we're delayed and are working hard on iterations to ring out the final set of bugs. Our dev team is small so it takes a little extra time though, have no fear we never give up and everyday we're making progress. We'll continue to keep you updated. Thank you again for your support and understanding! It keeps us going.

Isn't this art awesome by the way?! Anh, who has been helping us create original art for over three years, delights all of us with her ability to translate our imaginations into visual reality. If you're looking for someone to help with your art work, let me know.

(4)

Ninjas, WWI, and more: Another sneak peak!

Did you think that was it? Nah, The Broken Bottle is the appetizer. While we are "plating" The Broken Bottle, we are also in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Our writers are hard at work crafting some really exciting stories. How they will be told is yet to be fully revealed. The Broken Bottle is going to be a big moment for us and will be used for all of us (MVPs being the players) to form the future of storytelling.

Josh Irvin, lead writer on The Broken Bottle, is currently working on a second story about two brothers in WWI, their relationship, and the grey morality of total war. Exploring themes similar to Valiant Hearts and inspired by studies of historical narratives and WWI propaganda. Being a historian now well into his PhD program, Irvin’s story seeks to capture both the spirit of the war while combining it with a fair degree of historical accuracy.

We're here to stay and this is only the beginning. We're excited to share with you all!

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Bonus: Number of the week
~20

Ok so we lost count. Our team has some proud nerd elements to it. We collectively have greater or slightly less than 20 weapons from our favorite shows, movies, and books. Our HQ office armory is going to be crazy! Lightsabers, swords of all kinds, wands, daggers, katanas, and more haha! I love it. Below is a picture of a couple of our weapons of choice.

Can any of you identify them??

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View the full archive

Vol. 5, Friday 10.18.19

(1)

Have you met our creatives?

We have an amazing team - (full stop). I have been and am incredibly fortunate to have the privilege to work along side their passion, expertise, and creativity. I am humbled and grateful for their willingness to share these gifts.

Here’s to the present and to the successful years to come! Oh, did you know we are completely distributed across the world? Every time zone in the States (including Hawaii) is represented along with Vietnam and more.

(2)

The Broken Bottle Updates

We hit two big milestones over these last two weeks!

1). Eli has been working hard on getting our backend and the other intricacies wrapped. We have successfully added our Google Firebase integration! That means people can actually create accounts etc.- so cool!
2). Mani, who helped us last year in our Alpha, stepped in to the spot light again and successfully implemented some of our main User Interface adjustments (such as our Choice Screen seen above). We wanted to make sure we had a couple things polished before you all get your hands on the beta :)

Thanks for the awesome work Mani!

(3)

Question for you: "Legendary Kinship Jams"

We have had this idea cooking for a while and thought we’d run it past you first. Below is the summary and the link to the FAQs and other details.

Purpose:
Bring diverse creatives from around the universe together to create and tell a story across all mediums and have a blast. Additionally, we hope that in the process the individuals will also create lasting relationships that can inspire and endure.

How it might work:
1. Every (frequency to be decided) we will hold a Legendary Kinship Jam (Working title).
2. Once the Kinship is opened, creatives can submit his or her works. It’s "first come first served" to become the Polestar.
3. The works are reviewed by the Legendary team.
4. The Polestar is selected.
5. Other creatives sign up to contribute to the Kinship’s Polestar.
6. After the duration of the Kinship Jam, the creations are collectively published for the world to see.
For example: Say I am the first to submit something and it happens to be a photograph. I am selected to be the polestar and others start entering pieces in their mediums to add to the story. From music to spreadsheets. At the end of the jam the collaborative "story" and the creatives are displayed for all enjoy.

I’d love to hear what ideas you all might have!

It would be fun to refine this, grow it, and eventually have live collaborative events with some sponsors. Food for thought.

(4)

The secret to bootstrapping a startup

Some have asked me…How in the world do you make money to bootstrap and why?? That’s a long answer so I will focus on the first part in this Newsletter.

Currently Visa and Master Card have been generously funding us (I was sitting in a well lit coffee shop in Austin today and laughed out loud typing that). We have been fortunate to have the support from our supporters to pay the minimum monthly payments. This leads again to the tremendous thank you to the help our supporters have provided. If you want to be involved and showcased let me know or click below.

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Something I found interesting:
Oh Snap buys Play Canvas

I thought this was interesting: Business Insider reported that Snap Chat bought Play Canvas.

Some context:
Play Canvas is a cloud based HTML5 game engine tech firm (founded in 2011). It allows creators to (even Disney and Nickelodeon have used the platform) to create 3D rich environments and is optimized to run on low-power devices.

The believed low hanging use of the tool would be to integrate the technology into Snap Chat’s Lens Studio product where developers can build their own AR Lens effects.

Do they plan to expand into the entertainment industry? If so, how does that make you feel?

More info from Tech Crunch:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/23/snap-reportedly-buys-its-own-3d-game-engine/

Our progress is brought to you by the help of those above ^^^
Thanks all!

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View the full archive

Vol. 4, Tuesday 10.08.19

(1)

Boxes, dead bugs, and more transparency

It’s a great feeling when you crush a bug and check some boxes. To continue my transparency, I was stressing a bit to get everything together to get our closed beta out the door. Disconnecting and attending the conference helped me take a step back and put me in a new place of peace and appreciation. (I hope it does the same for both the amazing team I have the pleasure to work with and those of you who honor us with your attention).

Why peace and appreciation?

1). Because I know that we are working really hard, making great progress everyday, and that I must continue to mature in my patience.

2). I am both proud and appreciative of our dev team which has been Eli and I working together over the past several months to get everything to come together to work and set the foundational infrastructure for our future app.

(2)

Three Michelin Stars

You all have heard our Why several times yet, do you know to what end?

This first initiative / first app is our appetizer. It will help us understand what seasonings are working, which sauces are great, and help us understand on which elements we can improve for our "main dish" - one of many.

Please continue to follow the analogy (I love Chef’s Table - thanks Netflix). Our current drive and trajectory is to build / become a "Michelin star restaurant" where we bring incredible, passionate, and driven creatives (creative heroes) together under one roof to have a blast creating, tasting, and serving the world incredible meals together - bringing excellence and value to all parties. A constant and beautiful whirlwind of creativity spinning up new flagship menu items and an organization that sets the next level foundation for the next generations. Sound lofty? Good. If it’s not lofty then I haven’t done my job.

A refresher on our Why:


We seek to fill a gap in the way we create organizations, bring people together, and energize each other. Rekindle the Affinity we have for our work, each other, and our enjoyers.

Deeper understanding of our Why

(3)

What about you?

-What drives you? What’s your vision?

-Do you have a why for your business or career?

-Do you have a vision for your marriage and other important relationships?

-Do you have a vision for why you exist in the life of your children?

-What about you personally... What about Friend?

There are so many points that I am still digesting from the leadership conference yet, I believe this is one of the most important. It may seem obvious. Nonetheless, I challenge you to ask yourself the questions above. It takes courage and you might have to tear yourself apart and put yourself back together again.

(4)

Extreme value: what about the others?

Understanding the section above is critical. We had the pleasure to hear from Horst Schulze, founder of the Ritz Carlton Hotels. He drove the point home of bringing excellence in all that you do and to providing the most value to all whom you serve. That means both your team and your customers. How can you bring excellence across your entire organization, family, project, university, etc.? What do people expect even on a subconscious level? We must also seek to serve everyone in those areas. Our subconscious minds are often more likely to recognize when something was off or someone had not the true desire to bring us value in a transaction.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, if that. I hope these thoughts provoke you deeply and that they bring you value. Let me know your thoughts.

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(Answer)

Last weeks bonus question:

What is the team's overall favorite TV show genre (do we still say TV show?)?

The answer is

Anime!

Supporters, here's to what today seems like lofty!
A Texas sized thank you!

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Stock images thanks to Pixabay!

View the full archive

Vol. 3, Friday 9.20.19

(1)

Our first Trailer! (felt like a little kid wanting to show mom and dad what we made)

Yesterday (9/19/19) we launched our first trailer. We had a blast creating it and, as you noticed, couldn’t wait one day to share! Our artists and editor helped us create this awesome trailer with all of our original assets (from animated art to music) which is just a sneak peek of what you will see in the game. Special thanks to Shelby Mills for helping us fine-tune this into something great!

(2)

We’ve graduated to pull-ups (seeing new faces for the first time)!

Our group has doubled in size since the first Legendary News email! Still a baby list but we’re wearing pull-ups now. I would love to meet each of you!

What excites us, is that we get to share this adventure with more people and that this is becoming more real for all of us. We’re here to stay!

(4)

Beta development

First, I have to take this moment to give big credit to Eli Collins - Moosehat Cooperative. This guy has stepped up on a new level to ensure we have things together and ready for our launch. Thanks Eli for your hard work, we can’t wait to launch and share in this moment! If anyone has a need for a developer let me know.

So when is soon for those who have signed up for the beta? "Well soon is soon…" I kid - our timeline is within the next few weeks. Look for our beta pre-kit...soon...

Sign up for the closed beta

(expect this link to expire)

(4)

Pre-beta questions ("The Mom Test")

The purpose of this beta is for us to learn how to make things better. Asking the right questions is critical. I’ve been reading this book called "The Mom Test". If you’re starting a business or product, I highly recommend this book. This stand-alone-app is the appetizer to our main course in the kitchen. It represents the core of the Immersive Digital Story.

We seek the truth and intend to learn all we can so we can make every iteration of everything we create better, more beautiful, and deeply fulfilling (for both the creators and the enjoyers "consumers"). All that we make must have a reason to exist. Every button to every handshake. We are a company built upon three Affinities:
1). An Affinity with each other;
2). an Affinity for our work;
3). And most importantly, we seek an Affinity with you!

You can get the book here (I have no affiliation. I seek to bring everyone as much value as / where I can. I hope this helps in your journey!)

Thanks again to those who have decided to be part of our journey on a deep level! You will always be known as the first to have been there. The future is Legendary and success is only a matter of time.

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Bonus:

Quick team fact

Can you guess the team's favorite genre of TV show?
(Wait I thought this was a fact?!? It is, it's just interactive. Reply to this message or message us on Social (links are at the bottom of the email) and we'll let you in on the secret ;)

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Vol. 2, Friday 9.06.19

A lot happens every week. From fine tuning our site, meeting with advisors, enhancing internal / external tech and processes, continued creative development to hours of researching social media marketing best practices (we're trying haha).

Let’s get started with the top four things again (who does four? It’s always 3, 5, or 10)

(1) + (2)

Why: If you read anything, read this

I decided this had to be first. If you read anything this should be it. You must know why we exist. I believe this holds the weight of at least two points so it’s coming at you as two points!

I get asked often what the “practical” elements are of our company. A year ago this question had made me uncomfortable because Legendary didn’t fit in the cookie cutter of the business world (thank goodness).

Legendary Affinity was not built to seem "practical". It was built upon extreme clarity.

We avoided the façade and went straight to crafting our Mercury Mission. We are going to the moon (aiming for the stars) rather than down the street.

-When did placing men in tin cans strapped to explosives to leave Earth seem practical?
-When did indexing the primal World Wide Web seem practical?
-When did cramming the power of a mainframe into a “personal computer” seem practical?

This is who we are:
WHY
We seek to fill the gap in the way we create organizations, bring people together, and energize each other. Rekindle the Affinity we have for our work, each other, and our enjoyers.

HOW
Bringing incredible, passionate, and creative people together who align with the mission, who want to have fun, who want to prosper, who want to create something awesome, and who want to share it with the world is the fire of this how.

WHAT
Now we have a Realm, Affinity Forge, where we are creating some really cool Immersive Digital Stories. What the future holds…we shall see… This “What” is subject to incredibly powerful change.

I am convinced that if everyone were doing what they love for a living, we could cure depression, anxiety, even lower divorce and abuse rates.

(3)

App progress: Ringing out the washcloth

Rigorous development and testing continues. The major bugs are being rung out to ensure our beta testers have a wonderful experience on our Version 1

Sign up for our exclusive beta and test our game on your mobile device (iPad is going to be really fun if you have one ;) )!

(4)

Got credits?

This week we completed the creation of the credits for our game. It was extremely exciting to see this new level of realism and was an emotional moment to think about all of the people who touched this project. I couldn’t believe how many names we are honored to showcase.

Another big thank you to those who have supported us and decided to be part of our journey! You will always be known as the first to have been there. The future is Legendary and we will never stop charging towards our goal and having a blast creating and activating creative heroes along the way!

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Bonus:
Quote of the week

I will leave you with a quote from Napoleon Hill that has kept me going:
“The watchword of the future will be human happiness and contentment. When this state of mind has been attained, the production will take care of itself more effectively than anything ever accomplished where people did not, and could not, mix faith and individual interests with their labor.”

See a pattern here?

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Vol. 1, Friday 8.23.19

Let’s get started with the top four things (why four? Well... who does four? It’s always 3, 5, or 10)

(1)

The Pivot

A few months ago we made a big decision, the Affinity Forge Team (Legendary’s first Realm) decided to launch The Broken Bottle, our first Immersive Digital Story, as a stand alone experience. This has empowered us to launch our first experience quicker and start building the core distribution platform for our Immersive Digital Stories which we plan to launch Q1 2020 with three stories. These experiences will be distributed on The Apple App Store and on Google Play. We intend for the Broken Bottle to be a beautifully crafted first version of the full collection we are creating.

(2)

Development: The Broken Bottle

The Broken Bottle is nearly complete! It has been a long journey for us. About three years! We were building this first App while we were building our team, amplifying our company vision, building relationships, finding ways to bootstrap what we’ve made, etc. It has been the project that supplemented the building of our team.

We are now testing internally on mobile. That’s right, we have an app that can actually be downloaded and accounts can be made! If you are interested in being among the first to be involved in testing our game, you can sign up for the exclusive beta here (expect link to expire ;) ).

(3)

Our First Trailer!

Who doesn’t want to see their logo have smoke roll behind it?

We are so thrilled to have a trailer for our game almost ready. We have the music, the voiceover (we want you all to see if you can guess who it is once we release it :) ), and the imagery. We have found someone with editing experience to help us smooth out some of the rough edges. We are fired up to share (I will post it on our Instagram)!

(4)

'Dope Tees!' (That's what the cool kids say right?)

We have 11 exclusive T-shirts left to sell for our local crowdfunding campaign (we decided to be different again and do the campaign ourselves). We have to sell all the shirts before printing as they will contain the names of those who supported us during the first chapter of the liftoff of this organization.


Take a look! (expect link to expire ;) ) If you have what it takes we would love to have the honor to etch your name in stone as one of the few supporters who were there at the beginning :)

Special thanks to our supporters who have helped us continue to grow to where we are today. We have Legendary plans for the future and will never stop charging towards our goal and having a blast creating and activating creative heroes along the way.

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Bonus: Number of the week

16

We have 16 pieces of in game art, not including the user interface art. This first story has nearly 20 pieces of beautiful art crafted by our Creative Heroes Victoria Cosby and Anh Luu. We have been fortunate to have found some really talented animators to help us bring the incredible work to life.

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