I sent out the smoke test this morning, which means that about 5% of backers will get their surveys to fill out now so we can make sure there's no major problems when we send them to everyone else.
If you recieved a survey, please fill it out when you can! Once I see that a couple people have completed the process with no issues, I'll be able to send them out to everyone else. Also, if you missed the campaign and want to pre-order, please do this ASAP so you can still get in on the first round of the release!
Secondly, I wanted to share one of my favorite pieces of the art (by Soren Leigh) for the new Sandy the Dragon adventures:
The final story of the series will be Sandy and friends working through some common new player TTRPG issues so we can send you off from StoryGuider and onto your next game system with some helpful tips. With regards to the timeline:
I mentioned last time there was some health stuff going on, and I did find out I will need a major surgery in April plus a bunch of extra doctor's stuff leading up to that point. I'm still working towards the dates I planned, and I'll keep you updated if anything changes due to the medical and life events.
I'm still working on layout and rewrites for the Big Book of Friends series, with all but 3 of the 12 completed. I'm still planning on finishing that up by the end of March so I can order proofs soon.
Once that's all settled, I'll be working on getting the Heroes and Friends digital releases set up and starting layout for the Dragons series!
Current priorities are: #1 - Finish layouts for the Friends series (3 remaining) #2 - Update Heroes/Friends based on proofs, and order next round of proofs #3 - Prep print-and-play files, game pages, and keys for Heroes/Friends while survey is running + waiting for proofs to deliver
Please keep an eye out for your surveys this and next week, and you can expect the next project update in late April when I'll be closing surveys and having status on the Heroes and Friends releases.
Tea’s on, confetti’s settled—what should we conjure next? Bedazzled hardbacks, bonus art by Leigh & Suzie, or bunny oracle cards? Tap your pick and set the next surprise free. ✨📚
☕ Please open your Cafe boxes as soon as they arrive! Double check that everything was mailed correctly. If anything is wrong, please send a nice email to [email protected] explaining what's missing or if something was mixed up.
EBOOK READERS: I was able to adjust some of the settings of the eBook, and I've uploaded it at a slightly higher resolution. It's still the exact same content, just a little clearer than before. I hope this helps!
Me: Bonjour again *99 more boxes* USPS: *surprised Pikachu face again*
Once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for being part of the Cafe's first book! Please let us know if you have any questions. This project will fully close on April 10.
Thank you for being at the Cafe ☕ Carly K & Jason
P.S. disclaimer on all free items in any pledge from throughout this project... you need to successfully fill out your survey and pay for the final shipping costs to receive your pledge and any free rewards!
☕ Addresses are locked, everything is in, and shipping will begin next week! Also, if you're looking for more Cafe goodies, please check out Collectors Guild Cafe on Pin Pavilion. There's only ONE Zephyr pin left!
If you followed this project, and didn't get a chance to back, we DID order a few extras of each type of book. All version will be available for purchase once fulfillment is done; I will have more information as to where and when in the next update. ☕
MINOR DIFFERENCES
I want to be upfront and transparent about this. There are two typos in the physical book. The first: near the end of the main story, there are two sections in a speech bubble that are slightly misaligned. The second: the August anthology calendar image is wrong, but the rest of the story is correct. Unfortunately, there is NO WAY for me to fix these errors in the books. However, I have corrected them in the digital editions, so you will get to see them there!
DIGITAL REWARDS
All digital rewards have been distributed! You will receive an email about where to get them, but you can easily find them under your surveys on BackerKit. If you need some guidance, please check out the BackerKit Digital Downloads guide!
PICTURE TIME!
Once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for being part of the Cafe's first book! Please let us know if you have any questions. Our next update will be in about 1-2 weeks, just with a standard update on fulfillment.
Thank you for being at the Cafe ☕ Carly K & Jason
P.S. disclaimer on all free items in any pledge from throughout this project... you need to successfully fill out your survey and pay for the final shipping costs to receive your pledge and any free rewards!
☕ We submitted our order for the comics, and the softcovers are already on the way! The hardcovers are in production. We'll share a photo of EVERYTHING once the hardcovers are here.
As such, with everything almost here, we're locking addresses in the next couple days. You should have received an email about this, so if you need to update your address make sure to do that ASAP! Once shipping has begun for the physical editions, all digital editions will be distributed.
There are only 2 folks who need to fill out their surveys. Please remember, if you fail to fill out your survey before June 30, 2026 and pay any final shipping costs, you WILL NOT receive your rewards.
CURRENT TIMELINE PROJECTIONS (UPDATED FEB 25, 2026)
APRIL 2026 - All items (hopefully) received APRIL 2026 - Orders packaged and shipping begins MAY 31, 2026 - Project fully closed and rewards are no longer provided
Once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for being part of the Cafe's first book! Please let us know if you have any questions. Our next update will be in about 3-4 weeks, just with a standard update on fulfillment.
Thank you for being at the Cafe ☕ Jason & Carly K
P.S. disclaimer on all free items in any pledge from throughout this project... you need to successfully fill out your survey and pay for the final shipping costs to receive your pledge and any free rewards!
We are about 6 months past the end of the funding campaign for StoryGuider, and, since the last update:
art for the Heroes and Friends sets are complete and the Dragons set is almost finished (and on track)
the first 18 books are laid out (18 to go)
the first 6 proofs are in!
I ordered the first 6 proofs early to make sure my formatting on the interior was correct (i.e. words were not getting eaten by the seam), and I did find an issue that I wasn't expecting! The printer requires a blank page at the end of the book for an internal barcode, and I'd left that page blank by putting a white page there, which I think they detected as being an object. This resulted in them adding extra pages at the end, which I don't want.
I know how to fix it for the next iteration, but this basically let me find the issue before I needed to submit the whole lot for printing and was able to work on laying out 12 other books while the proofs were being printed and shipped (hopefully saving time from a proof iteration later).
From a timeline standpoint: Digital print-and-play distribution is still on track to meet the Heroes and Friends target (April) but may be delayed a month (June –> July) for the Dragons and coloring book target due to some life things that I talk about in today's TTRPGkids Dev Log. I've also delayed surveys to March since I want to prioritize layout/ordering proofs, which are longer lead items. POD key distribution will be parallel to print-and-play distribution if all proofs come in perfect, but it will likely be 1-2 months behind each print-and-play distribution if I find errors in the proofs and need to run a second round to correct it. I'm expediting all POD proofs to speed up the iteration process, and I'll keep you updated as it goes.
And I am delaying my next project, Begamed Brochures to 2027 to help me have a little more time to close StoryGuider out by the promise dates and stay on track for Mystery Snacks (metioned later).
There's also a full timeline in my Dev Log post with lots more info, if you're interested in the details.
My current StoryGuider priorities are: #1 - Finish layouts for the Heroes/Friends sets #2 - Update Heroes/Friends based on proofs, and order next round of proofs #3 - Send out surveys to backers #4 - Prep print-and-play files, game pages, and keys for Heroes/Friends while survey is running + waiting for proofs to deliver
ALSO.... Mystery Snacks is in it's final days on Backerkit! This is an anthology of all-ages friendly mysteries + a rules-lite system that's designed for solving fun-sized capers.
You can expect the next project update in late March when I'll have status on surveys, art reveals for the Dragons series, and a more detailed timeline walk for digital and POD distribution.
I just wanted to thank everyone again for supporting this project! All completed surveys have had their rewards shipped, so we can officially close this chapter and move on to the next future project. 💜
