This update is going out to all people who are following my profile on BackerKit, regardless if you pledged to the Cafe Calendar 2025 project or not, as it includes information related to more than the project.
SHIPPING
All orders except for those in Canada have been shipped! You should have received an email with tracking information via USPS. For those in Canada, I've heard that the strike is finally over and USPS will resume operations. However, they aren't accepting new packages yet, so I will be shipping your items in January. They are all packaged up, so please don't worry! I have everything for your orders.
COLLECTORS GUILD CAFE COMIC - FULL STORY
I'm really excited to announce that the final draft of the entire comic story has been submitted to our comic artist! They've been hard at work on thumbnails for the prologue, and both Jason and I are BEYOND excited with how it's already turning out. We can't wait to start sharing this story with you all in 2025! We will be posting digitally at first, with the intent to crowdfund a physical edition in Winter 2025 for release in Spring 2026.
We will likely post pages to Webtoons and Instagram, with early access on Patreon, and we're hoping to do some cool stuff on YouTube as well!
IF YOU MISSED OUT ON PLEDGING
For people who follow my work, and missed out on ordering during this project, there will be a limited number of extras available at DragonWoodshop.com now that all pledges have been fulfilled. I will share a brief update once those are available. Goodies for sale will include Cafe Calendar 2024 items, Cafe Calender 2025 items, and Cafe TTRPG!
Please let me know if you have any questions; you can comment here or send me an email at [email protected]. My next update will be when I intend to completely close this project, at which time no further surveys may be completed. Please read the updated note below!
Golden moons! Carly K
UPDATEDNOTE: as per my terms of service in the FAQ, if you do not fill out your survey and fully pay for your pledge + shipping by February 1, 2025, the Cafe 2025 Calendar project will be completely locked and you will not be refunded. I am not a warehouse, so I cannot keep your surveys open forever, nor can I store items forever if they are not paid for or claimed. Any money you have already paid will be considered a donation. THE CAFE 2025 CALENDAR PROJECT WILL FULLY CLOSE ON FEBRUARY 1ST, 2025.
Today we are happy to confirm that the digital rewards are available ahead of our planned schedule. In fact they are all already uploaded into Backerkit, if you have already completed your survey you can login and access your digital items straight away.
Those who haven't completed their survey can access them as soon as you do complete the survey and we confirm your selected items.
Physical Rewards
For physical items we have already begun dispatching items, we arranged for a bunch to be dispatched today and some more are due to go out tomorrow. With the remaining physical items due to be processed over the weekend for dispatch on Monday. After which as mentioned items will be dispatched on the 28th and onwards.
Backerkit Surveys
Backerkit surveys have now been sent out to all backers whose payments have completed successfully, for those few whose payments were unsuccessful you still have time to complete the payment and retain access to your chosen items from the campaign.
Shipping will continue and locking down digital backers as they are completed will continue up until Christmas Eve, after which we will then continue on the 28th onwards. A new update will be sent out around the 28th when we begin processing the next batch of shipments.
We are happy to announce that Backerkit have advised us that our post campaign surveys can go live immediately. Essentially all but a small handful of ten people have completed their payments already. Which means the surveys can go live allowing us to potentially ship those who are ready immediately.
With that in mind here is what will happen now...
Post Campaign Surveys
Every backers who has completed their payment for their pledge will be sent an email that will provide them access to their post campaign survey in Backerkit. This survey will allow you to simply and easily confirm your chosen items, provide us with any details we need and finalise your pledge so that items can be dispatched.
Digital Only Pledgers
Those who are on digital only tiers or only pledged for digital items, you simply will need to confirm your rewards. HOWEVER you also have the option to order any of the calendars in the add-ons section, if you now wish to receive the calendars as physical items... These calendars are limited and available on a first come first served basis. We also have opened our pre-order store to those who missed the campaign.
Whether you order physical items or not, once your pledge is completed your account will be locked down. We will be sending out links to download digital rewards on the 30th December before the start of the new year and will post another update at that time to let you all know.
Physical Item Pledges
Whether you pledged on a tier that includes physical items or now choose to add-on physical items to a digital only pledge. You will need to complete your address and based on the items you are due pay shipping fees. As mentioned for this we have made the fees as low as possible. The standard fee for your items are for the package to be sent by the lowest most basic level of shipping company.
Those completing the surveys on the £30+ Physical reward tiers will receive the option to upgrade your shipping options via a question at the start which will then increase the cost if you opt in for that. Those on digital tiers (or those who pre-order due to missing the campaign) will have the option of upgrading via an add-on. Either way as soon as you complete your survey we will process the payment for your shipping fee and as soon as that is completed we will dispatch your reward items and provide a tracking number accordingly.
Essentially when determining your shipping, we will dispatch to the best shipping agent based on the shipping fee you choose to pay, either the base amount, Expedited amount of Super Expedited amounts.
Shipping Dispatch Days
Backerkit has gone live today and anyone who completes the survey in the next few hours and whose shipping fee is processed, will be dispatched tomorrow (Friday 20th September). Then anyone who completes after that point will be locked down and prepped for dispatch on Monday (23rd December)... After that point we will wait to process further payments and lock down backers for dispatch until Saturday (28th December) Due to the Holiday period we will be unable to ship items from Tuesday 24th - Friday 27th December.
But you do not have to complete your survey immediately. You are welcome to wait for as long as you like, we will hold all calendars and items until the end of January, so if you are not in a rush to receive your calendars or can't afford the shipping fees immediately, you can simply wait until when you are. However at the end of January you will lose access to physical items and only be due digital ones.
As mentioned before all digital rewards will be provided on the 30th December to those whose surveys have been completed and automatically thereafter as people complete them going forwards. At the end of January any leftover 2025 calendars will be destroyed and you will lose access to physical rewards, but as items were manufactured and stored no refunds will be available in that event.
P.s.
We will post future updates reminding backers of this as time goes by if needed and provide alternative ways to access your post campaign survey as well.
Today we are happy to say that the manufacturing and delivery of all items for the campaign has now been completed, all items have been received and are ready to be dispatched as soon as Backerkit completes the payment processing as described in our previous update.
According to the info we have received, the processing should be completed on the 27th, with that in mind we are preparing the Backerkit Post Campaign surveys so that we can send them out on the 28th. From then on we will process the surveys and begin shipping as soon as you complete the survey and your shipping fee is paid.
With that said we have a few updates on the physical rewards of the campaign:
1. A4 Poster Prints
The A4 Poster Prints have all been received and whilst the colour and print of the images has gone very well, the actual quality of the paper stock provided is a little disappointing for us. But sadly we cannot afford to print more at a higher level.
When we placed the order, it was for double the amount that we needed, with that in mind instead of selling the additional ones we have decided to give each backer two of the posters they ordered, rather than just one. We feel this is the right thing to do since the posters were not the paper stock we were expecting.
(n.b. this will be two of the same poster, if you ordered 1 poster you will receive two of that poster you ordered, if you ordered all ten posters you will receive two of each of the ten for twenty in total.)
2. XXXmas Cards
The XXXmas Cards on the other hand are perfect, the printing came out perfectly and the cards themselves are excellent quality, we have no complaints... But we are dispatching them after Christmas has passed as noted above due to the time it takes Backerkit to process payments and whilst that was detailed in and during the campaign we still feel selling them after Christmas has completely passed would not really make sense, but also throwing out the extras we ordered would also be a waste.
For the XXXmas cards we didn't order double the amount, but we did order extras. Originally backers were due to receive 10 individual XXXmas cards each with a variant or different designs. This is still the case, but now in addition to these ten, backers will also receive five additional cards on top for a total of 15 cards. The five they receive will be random but we will ensure you receive 5 individual extra cards and not 5 of one type, so this will mean those receiving the set will receive two copies of five of their cards and one copy of five of the cards.
(N.b. To be fair since we cant duplicate all ten cards, the duplicates you receive will be completely random, the packs have already been created ready for dispatch and cannot be adjusted to suit anyone's preference.)
3. 2025 Calendars
These main items of the campaign are also perfect with absolutely no issues whatsoever, we are very happy with how the Calendars have come out and a small number of those available will be available as add-ons in Backerkit if you want to order additional items, or if you were a digital backer and now would like to order a calendar.
Whilst you cannot change your pledge level these Calendars are available as add-ons on a first come first served basis, but once they are gone they are gone for the year, we wont be ordering more.
Shipping Items
All items that we will be dispatching will be wrapped as follows: Each set of rewards whether you ordered one item or several, will first be bubble wrapped as a set, then that bubble wrapped package will be placed inside a Waterproof style Shipping bag, which finally will be placed inside a box.
This may seem like excessive precaution, and maybe it is, but we want to try and ensure the items arrive with as little damage as possible, since we will be unable to easily replace items since this is not a campaign with a large margin to cover replacements for shipping. But this does mean that the items being dispatched will be in larger boxes due to the extra protection and padding, which will slightly increase the base shipping fees since the box will be larger.
Still we have gotten quotes for our packages to various areas and set them at the lowest we can find. These packages if sent on the base level will likely take 1-3 weeks to be delivered. For those who want the items faster we will have options in Backerkit for Expedited Shipping and Super Expedited shipping. These options will essentially work as add-ons so that your shipment will be upgraded to a higher, more reliable and faster delivery service, but these upgrades are completely optional.
Next Update
With everything now received, shipping fees sorted out we have completed the preparation of the Backerkit survey. Everything is now ready so that as soon as Backerkit signs off on the processing of the pledges we can launch Backerkit to each of you. And so our next update should be on the 28th to confirm the launch of the survey AND detail how to use it to receive your rewards.
So in the meantime we hope you have a happy holiday season and we will return with more details on what comes next in about 10 days time. ((if processing ends sooner, we will launch Backerkit sooner.))
Greetings delvers! Small update for you on this fine Friday night.
Our Pledge Manager and Backer Surveys are currently awaiting review by Backerkit. Which means all you backers will get your surveys next week! The first batch will go out early, likely Monday or Tuesday, and the bulk will go out after that.
The Pledge Manager will allow you to pick any pledge options you might have, gather your shipping information, and collect for shipping + tax for your stuff. It will also have a variety of items available for pre-order, in case you missed out on something during the campaign!
And for those who missed out on pledging entirely, our pre-order store is up and running right now.
This is primarily for new pre-orders—those who pledged during the campaign can snag any add-ons during the course of filling out your Backer Survey. The items are the exact same, so you're not missing out on anything!
That's all for now, delvers. Talk to you again next week! And as always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Hello there my last update was very stressful topic about manus stealing your work and reselling it to others, I made a strong point that I will not tolerate this from my manu.. and I'm giving them (1) MORE CHANCE if i see any of these recent designs in the wild then I will discontinue working with them.
I made it very clear that my artwork should not be for sale or apart of their catalog and that I will buy the spare(s). We'll see if this works, the order should be going in somewhat tonight/tomorrow
Greetings all, sorry for this last minute post, but we feel it is needed to post this before the campaign ends, to give everyone a chance to change their mind in light of news from our printers.
Unfortunately our printers have refused to print the most extreme of our content after all namely:
Our Hentai Calendar
Dharkers Hentai Calendar
XXX Space Poster
Every other item we are including in the campaign, every other poster and every other calendar and the XXXmas cards have all been accepted and printing is underway. So we will be forced to reduce the explicitness of these three items slightly. The Space Poster will be changed to a different Poster featuring nude characters and the two calendars affected will also feature explicit images throughout just sadly not full on adult scenes.
We are designing the new editions now and we will post another update shortly and update the campaign as soon as the redesign is completed. Thankfully we had a huge amount of sexy content that was not included in these so will be able to make some great alternative calendars for you to enjoy.
But it is possible you may wish to adjust your rewards, so we are posting this as soon as we were notified of the issue by our printer. It seems there is a limit to what can be printed after all.
P.s. Digital rewards will be unaffected and the Hentai PDFs will include both the banned edition of the calendar and the new revised edition from here on.
We will post the updated content very soon. If you wish to cancel your pledge or adjust your pledge please make sure you do so before the campaign ends, as after it ends we will be unable to change or refund your pledges due to the additional fees that are taken from the amount you pay.
As we continue to build on the incredible success of this campaign, we want to hear from you, our amazing backers, to see what you would like added to the campaign!
Would you prefer more exclusive artwork, additional merchandise like stickers or keychains, different reward tiers or perhaps something entirely unexpected?
Your input will help us to shape this campaign into something truly special, so let us know your thoughts in the comments. (we will then investigate the idea and reply once we know if we can or can't implement your suggestion)
As the final day approaches for the pinup calendar project, I'm sharing just a couple more pieces from the calendar!
There's not too much else to say except: thank you. Thank you so much for supporting us again and helping us to make this year's pinup calendar collaboration even bigger!
Good times to be had in the glow of Summerstone in Oria, by phallusbro~
Kirena-kaya's art of the Dreaming is PACKED with intricate, tiny details.
And that's all! As soon as the project is concluded, we'll begin gearing things up to collect everyone's shipping information.
