Update [Wed 15th Jan 2025 09:45 GMT]: The Kickstarter for Hand-Drawn Game Guides: Mega Man is now live, and has already managed to smash its $19,780 goal in just 12 minutes.
If you want to back the project to secure your very own copy of the book, there are seven different tiers for you to choose from. This starts with a digital edition that is priced at $19 (for computers, mobile phones, and tablets) and goes on to include a bunch of other options for the hardcover version of the book.
If you just want the hardcover by itself, it will cost you $29, whereas a combo tier featuring a physical edition and a digital copy will set you back an additional $10.
There is also a tier to have your name in the book, which will cost you $49, as well as a collector's edition ($59) featuring all the above plus art cards, a sticker sheet, a bookmark, and two double-sided posters. The final two tiers, meanwhile, will let you get your hands on some unique autographed sketches ($99) and some original production art from the making of the book ($149).
The book is estimated to ship in August 2025. You can back the project here.
Original Article [Wed 8th Jan, 2025 12:00 GMT]: If you cast your mind back to 2021, you may remember the retro enthusiast and artist Philip Summers starting a campaign on Kickstarter for a series of hand-drawn game guides for a bunch of NES classics like The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Contra, and Ninja Gaiden.
The campaign quickly ended up going viral and attracted a ton of attention from the press, raising over $322,000 in pledges from over 4,700 different Backers. However, the project never came to fruition, with Summers deciding to shut down the project before the campaign was set to come to a close, as a precautionary measure in order to avoid running afoul of the IP holders.
In the interim, Summers has continued making art for various video game-related projects but earlier this week announced his plans to resurrect Hand-Drawn Game Guides with the help of NF Publishing in order to release a new book based on Mega Man NES.
According to NF Publishing, this will be an officially licensed Capcom product, meaning that there's no chance of the project being shut down early this time around, with the publisher stating online that "everything is legal, legit and squared away".
Here are some preview pages:
The plan, as stated in this announcement, is to launch a Kickstarter on Tuesday, January 14th to fund its production. That is when you'll be able to preorder your own copy and when we can expect to see more information about the upcoming product.
Right now, the project has a preview page on Kickstarter, where you can sign up to get notified when the campaign goes live.