Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple wins the Vanguard Origins Award

Well, this was interesting news to hear last night! The Origins Award occasionally gives a special prize to innovative games that don't quite fall into an existing category. The Vanguard Award doesn't go out every year, which always makes it a surprise when it's announced. Sure enough, I was surprised to hear about it!

I can't take credit for this award, obviously. True credit goes to the entire team who helped make the game possible. My uncountable thanks go out to...

Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue, Lenny Balsera and Evil Hat Productions for publishing and support. The game wouldn't be what it is without your guidance.

Ryan Macklin and Lillian Cohen-Moore for editing. You honed my soft words into sharp crystal.

Liz Radtke, Kristin Rakochy, Josh Roby, and Dale Horstman for art. You're what compels people to turn every page.

Ben Lehman, Myles Corcoran, Dev Purkayastha, Kirk Mitchell, Peter Aronson, John Wick, Richard DiTullio, Ryan Macklin, Jared Sorensen, Colin Fredericks, Sophie Lagacé, Evan Franke, and Nick Wedig for your letters. I just tried to make a game that lived up to your contributions.

Ralf Achenbach, Jen Armstrong, Lenny Balsera, Chris Box, Jeffrey Collyer, Myles Corcoran, John Cottongim, DeWitt Davis, Jonathan Davis, Rob Donoghue, Adam Dray, Haggai Elkayam, Alex Ferguson, Matt Gandy, Kaylee Goyer, Brett Grimes, Rory Grimes, Shannon Haggard, Jesse Harlin, Fred Hicks, Liz Hooper, Shane Jackson, Marie Lane, Peter MacHale, Ryan Macklin, Samantha Mullaney, Megan Raley, Shreyas Sampat, Kate Sheehy, Greg Stolze, and Remi Treuer for playtesting. The game wouldn't be what it is without your input.

Annie Rush, Jonathan Walton, Kynn Bartlett, Doug Pirko, Peter Aronson, Ben Woerner, and Patrick Shulz for special advice throughout the development process.

Thanks to all the kickstarter backers!

• The Reverent Keeper of the Exalted Tome: John Hopper
• The Four Giant Flying Turtles of the Universe: Matthew Bishop, Russell Hoyle, Rick Neal, Anders Smith
• Twin Dragons of the Cosmos: Scott Acker, Nick Bate
• Venerable and Wise Transcendent Masters: frosty, bbmeltdown, nathan, 2percentright, Joe Beason, Shaun Bruner, devi brunsch, nelson cambata, Grant Chen, Robert Cooper, Don Corcoran, Raven Daegmorgan, Steve Dempsey, David Elliott, Chris Gunning, Eric Johnson, Jason Johnston, Garrett Jones, Aaron Leeder, Flavio Mortarino, DivNull Productions, Josh Rensch, Sean Riedinger, Tim Rodriguez, John Rogers, Eric Smailys, Paul Tevis, Edwyn Tiong Yung Ron, Bruce Turner, David Tyler Hunt, Aaron W, Tim White, Jennifer Wong
• Pilgrims of the Flying Temple: maelic001, Chris, Cgeist7, Saladdin, ronbunxious, FelTK, Rocha, Lucias, Catherine, ShamZam, Kevin, Kobal, Buddah, Loretta, greatkithain, Marcelo, Colin, Mendel, Reed, deadlytoque, Michael, darkliquid, Morgan, melibabe, divaD27182, ringmaster, Emelyn, eggdropsoap, craigp, Dominique, Matt, Heuhh, Sebastian, Tucker, AmyMGarcia, anderland, Jonathan, arajski, Aaron, Amaquieria, Albert, Yragael, Zack, Jimhug, Windmilling, john, John, Temoore, Jordan, junloud, ayvalentine, JackFractal, Ishmael, HiddenJester, HPLustcraft, aufrank, James, Arvor, David A Hill Jr, David A Wendt, Vasco A. Brown, Angus Abranson, Scott Adams, Brendan Adkins, Ariele Agostini, Joe Aguayo, Clint and Cassie Krause, Sandy Antunes, Peter Aronson, Ken Arthur, Scott Askew, George Austin, Jared Axelrod, David B, Candice Bailey, Giulia Barbano, Harrison Barber, Dana Bayer, Brian Bergdall, Karsten Blechpirat, Antoine Boegli, Scott Boehmer, Adam Boisvert, Julia Bond Ellingboe, Logan Bonner, Travis Bryant, Laura Burns, Tom C, Geoff Carr, Susie Carter, Robert Cawley, Daniel Cetorelli, Dave Chalker, Edwin Chan, Bay Chang, Stuart Chaplin, Joanna Charambura, John Chatham, Donnie Clark, Wayne Coburn, Patrick Coleman, Stephen Cooke, Brian Cooksey, Chris Costello, Colin Creitz, Josh Crowe, Mike Curry, Matt Cushman, Matthew D. Gandy, Justin D. Jacobson, Mikael Dahl, Neal Dalton, Guillaume Daudin, Jesse David Wan, Adam David Pinilla, Tracy Davis Hurley, Jonathan Davis, Mark Daymude, Jim DelRosso, Mark Delsing, Scott Dierks, Jonathan Dietrich, James Dillane, Richard DiTullio, Mario Dongu, Rob Donoghue, C√©dric Jeanneret, Josh Drobina, Rasmus Durban Jahr, Richard Durham, Herman Duyker, Jeff Eaton, Corvus Elrod, Jack Everitt, Keith Fannin, Metal Fatigue, Scott Favre, John Fiala, Kristin Firth, Wilhelm Fitzpatrick, Daniel Forinton, Evan Franke, Eric Franklin, Jeremy Friesen, Iacopo Frigerio, Leslie Furlong, Brendan G Conway, Marcella Ganow, Bryan Gerding, Brandon Gollihue, Marcello Gorla, Gr√©gory Bernal, Stephen Granade, Jonathan Grimm, Jacqueline Gross, Jack Gulick, Michael Harnish, John Harper, Michael Harrison, Seth Hartley, Ed Healy, S Hefley, Chris Heinzmann, Jim Henley, Darren Hennessey, Fred Hicks / Evil Hat Productions, kitt hodsden, Jonathan Holmberg, Quentin Hudspeth, Dan Hust, James Husum, David Inacio, Jonathan Ingsley, Brian Isikoff, Tim Jensen, Ren√© John Kerkdyk, Seth Johnson, Aaron Jones, Jonathan Jordan, Cecil Juan Robinson II, Clay Karwan, Jeremy Keller, Sean Kelly, patty kirsch, Andy Kitkowski, Adrian Klein, Matthew Klein, Jody Kline, James Knevitt, Jon Knight, Shane Knysh, Jeremy Kostiew, Mischa Krilov, T. Kurt Bond, Annie Kwan, Jason L Blair, Mur Lafferty, Wade Lahoda, Leo Lalande, Justin Lance, Rusty Larner, Nora Last, Sage LaTorra, Matt Logan, Davide Losito, Rob Lowry, Kurt Loy, Connie M. Allison, Steve M., Daniel M. Perez, Matt Machell, Marc Majcher, Griff Maloney, Josh Mannon, Amichai Margolis, Tiago Marinho, Mr. Mario, Manu Marron, George Martinez, Rick Mason, Gregory Matyola, Jonathan McAnulty, Luke McCampbell, Kyle McCowin, Michael McDowell, Shane Mclean, John Mehrholz, Ezio Melega, David Miessler-Kubanek, Diego Minuti, Nicky Moore, John Morrow, Julian Murdoch, Skeeter Murphy, CE Murphy, Liam Murray, Ilan Muskat, Lukas Myhan, Mary Neff, Piers Newman, Maxim Nikolaev, Christian Nord, Herb Nowell, Jo√£o Mariano, olven_oil, Ryan Olson, James Orr, Michael Ostrokol, Jim Pacek, Stephanie Pakrul, JF Paradis, Simon Parker, Brian Paul, Michael Phillips, Brian Pilnick, Jason Pitre, Yan Prado, Geoff Puckett, Jesse Pudewell, Dev Purkayastha, Tim Quinn, Clinton R. Nixon, Renato Ramonda, Erin Ramos, Ross Ramsay, Nick Reed, Luca Ricci, Carl Rigney, Jorge Rodr√≠guez Araya, Fraser Ronald, Kristine Roper, Sean Rose, Aaron Roudabush, Keith Rowe, Nathan Russell, Tim Ryan, Pj Saad, Robin Sanford, Arthur Santos, Anne Sarver, Rennie Saunders, Ernie Sawyer, Crystal Scott, Greg Sewell, Mark Sherry, Mark Shocklee, Simon Silva Jr, Robert Slaughter, Scott Slomiany, Justin Smith, Bob Smith, Monica Speca, Popov Square, Charles Starrett, David Steiger, Mike Stevens, Irene Strauss, Cameron Suey, Matthew Sullivan-Barrett, John Swann, Jim Sweeney, Seth T. Blevins, Tara Teich, Gail Terman, Doyce Testerman, Jesse Thacker, James Thatcher, Owen Thompson, Ken Tidwell, M.Tip Phaovibul, Brian Todoroff, P Tracy, Chris Tulach, Alan Twigg, Julian Tysoe, Scott Underwood, Tyson Vanover, Alan Venable, Jonathan Venezian, David Walker, Euan Walker, Amy Waller, Steven Watkins, Craig Wayling, Greg Webster, Paul Weimer, Greg Weir, Wayne West, Daniel Westheide, Donald Wheeler, Heath White, Chris Wiegand, Harry William Bullen IV, Brian Williams, Victor Wyatt, Joshua Yearsley, Roy Zemlicka, Daniel Zenon Klein, Reed Zesiger
• Suspicious-Looking Troublemakers: mitchw, Jeanne, Madu, Motipha, Scott, Omer Ahmed, Jens Alfke, Daniel Bayn, Eric Behrens, Sam Brown, Jonathan Campbell, Doug Daulton, Jason Dettman, Ben Durie, Steve Ellis, Michael Hill, Amy Houser, Justin Koopmans, John Loughlin, Duncan Merkert, Guy Shalev, Michal Smaga, Alden Strock, Robert W. Calfee, Michael W. Mattei, Nick Wedig, Paul Worthen
• Learned Scholars of Worldly Fauna: Tronk, Michael, Xavid, MtFierce, Zencore, Ralf Achenbach, Vincent Arebalo, Maggie Arroyo, Renee Aubuchon, Luke Bailey, Russell Bailey, David Bednar, Nathan Black, Noah Bogart, Ian Borchardt, Nick Brooke, Samuel Carter, Francisco Castillo, Ross Cowman, Alan De Smet, Nick Desimone, Mark DiPasquale, C. Edwards, Sven Folkesson, Daryl Gubler, Derek Guder, Rick H, Gilbert Isla, Eric J. Boyd, Ignatius Jopy, Josh Jordan, Max Kaehn, Stephen Klein, Bess L. Walker, Kit La Touche, Eloy Lasanta, Daniel Levine, Erich McNaughton, Scott Messer, Marshall Miller, Mike Olson, Maurizio Paoluzi, Wes Price, Denis Ryan, Mike Sands, Andrew Smith, Alfredo Taranc√≥n, Derrick Vidal, Christopher Weeks, Brad Wilke, Alexander Williams, Kam Wyler, Derek Yap, James Yasha Cunningham, Mike Zwick
• Groundling with a Heart of Gold: Aaron Poeze
• The Teeming Masses: lovekickstarting, Harold Taylor, James Scriven, Jhenne Tyler Beauford, Jim Ryan, Kathleen Donahue, Overflow Cafe, Patrick Gingrich, Rainy Day Games, Roland Bahr, Stephen Parkin, ThatGuy
• and thanks to Kickstarter itself. You make small projects come to life.

Matt S. Wilson for his awesome musical score. Your talents never cease to amaze, sir.

Fred Hicks, Mur Lafferty, Megan Raley, Anders Smith, and Jenn Wong for lending their voices to the Kickstarter video.

Ralf Achenbach, Rin Aiello, Tresi Arvizo, Matt Bishop, Alden Bradford, Ezra Bradford, Lola Bradford, Joanna Charambura, Donnie Clark, John Cocking, Jen Dixon, Rob Donoghue, Matt Gandy, Clay Gardner, Brett Gilbert, Michael Harrison, Amy Houser, Quentin Hudspeth, Justin Jacobson, Chris Kirkman, Jonathan Korman, Chris Leader, Marc Majcher, Chiara Marchesi, Flavio Mortarino, Lyndsay Peters, Renato Ramonda, Corey Reid, Josh Roby, Tim Rodriguez, Anders Smith, Greg Stolze, Craig Wayling, and Matt Widmann for lending their handwriting to the Kickstarter video.

And thanks to my patient wife Megan for putting up with me all these years.

It's a good thing I wasn't at Origins to accept, because they would've pulled me off stage with a giant novelty hook before I got through with this list!