Great news -- the setup review for surveys passed all checks, and I was given the go ahead to send smoke tests.
A select few of you will recieve a link to complete your survey tonight. If you did, please fill it out ASAP! Additionally, if there are any issues, please let me know via a comment, dm, or email. I want to resolve any issues before it goes out to the masses, so it's vital you give me feedback if there is any to be had!
The main survey will launch on February 26th for all backers. You will have until March 12th to complete your survey. If you have not completed your survey at this point, I will not be able to guaranteethat the items you want will be avaliable to you, as I will be determining how many of each pin/keychain/etc I need to order thru the counts I get from the survey.
Last but not least, I've attatched a poll asking what you'd prefer for a sequel campaign to this one -- the options are Gamecube, Wii, or Handhelds (Gameboy + the DS family!)!
That's all from me for now. I hope you've all been well this week!
We crossed the finish line, folks! Pintopia has come to a close once more!
First of all, thank you all SO much for supporting this campaign. I've said it a few times now, but the N64 is so near and dear to my heart. Making these designs was truly a labor of love and I am so glad the designs hit home with so many of you!
I've got some fun stats to share regarding how this campaign did in comparison to last year's Pintopia, but I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, so those will be at the bottom of this update.
More importantly, though, I wanted to give you all a timeline of what the next steps are in this campaign's process!
I have submitted the survey for review! Look at me, little ADHDer ahead of the game this time around. I'm looking forward to getting feedback from Backerkit and fine tuning everything there.
Payments are currently being collected by Backerkit. About half of the payments have gone thru from what I am able to see. If they haven't yet, please be patient, it should today or tomorrow -- with 200 some odd projects ending all at the same time, things are a bit more overloaded than usual on the Backerkit side of things!
You have two weeks to fix any errors with your payments. There are currently around tenof you who need to fix your payments, please check for an email from Backerkit titled Your payment has failed for 64 Bit Memories. Please update.
Then, on February 26th, the survey will go out to all of you!
You will have an option in the survey questions to indicate if you would like me to charge your card for shipping and add ons ASAP from the time of submission, or later once the survey period ends.
The survey is due March 12th.
Backers who did not indicate they wanted their card charged ASAP when submitting their survey will have their cards charged on the default date of Friday, March 13th.
I will then begin the manufacturing process and post updates as often as possible when my manufacturer provides me with info as the pins come along!
I intend to have everything shipped out by the end of August, and will let you all know if there happen to be any delays that affect this.
Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this process! I'm happy to answer!
Aside from that, I do want to take a quick moment to remind you all that my next campaign goes live on March 10th as part of a new group collab here on Backerkit, A Pin of Pride! This campaign is for a set of pride flag themed Pokeball mini pins! I'm really excited for this campaign -- if all things go right, I should be able to have them in-hand for my in person Pride events this June + July. I hope you'll follow the campaign by clicking the banner below!
Finally, let's get to those stats I mentioned earlier. These are here because I want to celebrate these achievements with all of you -- because you are who have made them possible.
I saw a 227% increase in pre-launch followers, and a 47% increase in backers for this campaign compared to last year's Pintopia! I also raised almost 80% more than last year's campaign!
My audience has grown a lot since last year (we're over 500 followers here on BK, yippee!), so seeing those stats makes me feel very fulfilled, and like I'm doing something right, lol. It's really cool to see genuine growth over this past year!
I hope each and every one of you realizes just how much you impact indie creators with your pledges. Being a full-time artist wouldn't be possible for me without the support you've shown me. Pintopia is made almost entirely of small indie creators as well, and it really warms my heart seeing how much we able to achieve as a whole!
Thank you to everyone who supported the Game Over banner that I ran this year, and to everyone who supported Pintopia in general. It really does mean the world.
That's all the sappy talk I have for one day, though. Here is a picture of my cat for tax if you read to the bottom of this update.
I hope the start to February has been treating you well! I've been staying inside, staying warm, and working on fulfillment for one of my campaigns from last year. I've also been treated to a great time with my husband playing through DK64 for the first time while I watch and guide where needed. 10/10 would reccomend watching someone you love play one of your favorite games from childhood.
With that said, I'm excited to say that the poll from my last update regarding the Smash 64 Pin has been won by an overwhelming majority in favor of EVERYONE GETTING THE KIRBY DANGO PIN FOR FREE!
I've gone ahead and updated the campaign page with a graphic letting future/potential backers know about this update as well! This Dango design has been one of my best selling as a sticker, so I'm very excited to bring it into pin form and get it in your hands. (Psst, if you're reading this and haven't backed... ooo, you want a free Kirby pin SOOO BADDDD) Please do note that backers to the tip jar/creator support tier will not be eligible for this freebie as you won't have any other physical rewards to ship!
I'm also excited to show off two of the stickers from this campaign that have been delivered to me! My manufacturer ran a sale on stickers for New Year's, so I ordered them ahead of the campaign. I LOVE how they turned out -- the Clefairy Says Cope sticker in particular has my entire heart!
Clefairy Says Cope is FREE to all returning backers from any of my previous campaigns, and also avaliable as an add-on if you'd like to snag one but are new around here!
The Holographic Surfing Pikachu is EXCLUSIVE to the Game Over Banner! You'll snag it for FREE if you back 3+ Game Over Banner campaigns! If you are backing both mine and my cross-collab partner, Rexus Illustrations' campaign, Save Files already, by backing just ONE MORE campaign you'll get a free specialty sticker from each creator you support!
And Game Over, a collection of gaming themed campaigns in this year's Pintopia, HERE:
That's all I've got for now! I'm looking forward to the final push next week! My personal goal is to hit at least 5k by the end of Pintopia. Got a friend you think would like these pins? Share it with em! Every bit means the world to me as an indie creator.
I'm super happy to say I finished the design for MK64! It's a Rainbow Road themed design, and will have rainbow adonized metal and a silver colored chain attached to the Chain Chomp! Additionally, there will be white glitter in the black enamel on the controller to represent the stars in the void sky!
As this pin has a ton of effects, it will be priced higher than the other pins outside of this campaign. However, as a thank you to everyone for overfunding, I'm going to keep the price the same and allow you all to choose it as one of your pins in the survey at NO extra cost. It will be higher priced in the preorder store, but campaign backers will see no difference unless you add it as a post-campaign add on!
I'm very happy with this design, and I hope you all like it too!
However, I have completely hit an art block with the Smash 64 design. Admittedly, I didn't play that version of Smash a whole lot, so I'm sure that's part of it. I like the concept of Smash, and it's fun at parties, but I'm not a "Smash player" per se -- not that Smash 64 is the game of choice for that flavor of gamer either, lol. I really don't know what to do about that pin, because it just refuses to come to me. So...
I'm considering one of three options:
1. Can you guys give me suggestions for what aspects of the game to highlight in the pin akin to the other designs? I try to highlight three different items from the game in each pin. My initial thought was to use the Smash Ball but I remembered they aren't in 64 at all, so that's out, lmao.
2. Opening a new poll, and making the pin for a different game. Right now I'm thinking Conker's or Gex: Enter The Gecko, but I'm open to suggestions. My one qualm with this is this is already a niche campaign, and I feel like any other games I might do are getting into "too niche to really sell as pins" territory.
3. Giving every backer a FREE Kirby Dango pin instead! Right now only backers with 3+ pins will recieve one. This is HONESTLY my preferred outcome... but I don't want to make that decision without your input.
Which would you prefer? Please vote in the poll below, comment if you have any ideas, and I hope to be able to make a decision on this by the end of next week.
Pintopia launch day has been incredible! We have unlocked ALL of the main pins + secrets!
I thought we'd have a lot more time on the secret pins... but y'all have been blowing my expectations out of the water. Yesterday I was able to get the first one done... it's DK64!
This pin features blue glitter! I'm super excited to see how it turns out!
Our second Secret Pinis ALSO UNLOCKED... and I'm working my tail off to get it done ASAP. Bear with me, I'll have it ready soon! But I will reveal... it's going to be Super Smash Bros!
The final unlock features RAINBOW adonized metal. And of course, it's Mario Kart 64! This pin is also a WIP but will feature Rainbow Road!!!
Since all of those unlocked day one, I'm bringing in a very special GUEST ARTIST, Zavlekat! for another pin set featuring characters from Star Fox! This artist and I have been best friends for over a decade -- I am so happy to introduce you to them and their work! Their pins are being added as stretch goals, and they are avalilable NOW as add ons for $13 each! There is also a bundle of all four avaliable for $50!
Finally, today at ~7pm CST, I'll be streaming on my Twitch with some Ocarina of Time co-op randomizer and chatting about Pintopia! I hope some of you will find time to swing by!
That's all I have for now. Let's keep up the momentum, gamers!
