Campaign done! Thanks to everyone who backed it!

This was our first campaign of any sort on BackerKit, and we weren't sure what to expect. We were welcomed by the staff at BackerKit, who gave us all sorts of tips and tricks we'd never thought of. (That Riddle Poll feature, for example. How cool was that?)

Then of course we met all of you! We really appreciate the support and engagement. It's been a delight to get to know you, at least a little bit. Such a great community over here.

We even hit an achievement, adding the Con Cryptic Bonus Pack to every pledge that gets The 12 Days of Cryptics. Yay!

Now that the campaign's done, here's what you can expect.

Over the next two weeks, BackerKit will charge your credit card for the amount of your pledge. If it goes through the first time, great! If it doesn't, BackerKit will try again. You may hear from us if it doesn't go through, asking for a different source of payment. We should get your pledge info from BackerKit around the end of the first week of August.

After we have the data of who you are and what you pledged for, you'll be invited by email to the pledge manager here on BackerKit. That's where you'll enter your address and be charged an appropriate amount for shipping and handling. We cannot fulfill any of your rewards if you don't answer the pledge manager survey. The pledge manager will only be open for a few weeks, so please get your information in as soon as possible after it launches. You'll have the opportunity to upgrade your pledge and to add more add-ons as you desire.

The new physical products for this campaign — The Hunting of the Shark, Mindspaces, and the Puzzlevania Map — are approved and underway in production. Once they're done, then they will be sent from China to our facility in Florida.

The new material printed for this campaign should arrive in our warehouse in the late summer or early autumn. By then, we'll have closed the pledge manager and will send the shipping spreadsheets to our fulfillment center. They'll be catalogued and readied for shipment.

Assuming all of that goes according to plan (and to be honest, it rarely does, but we can hope), then we'll wait until our fulfillment center can find a slot to send out our shipments. It could be right away, or it could take some time thereafter if other shipments are in front of ours. The first indication of this will be when the fulfillment center sends you an address confirmation by email. You'll have a brief period to reply to that email, then the center will lock in all addresses. Shipping will happen not long after that.

We're exploring whether to use the pledge manager for fulfillment of digital goods or our store website. Either way, we'll likely get you your digital downloads when they're ready. That means things like The Maze of Games and the Puzzlepacks will go out not too long after we get your pledge manager data. The Hunting of the Shark and Mindspaces will wait until the books are shipped out. The 12 Days of Cryptics will start in December to sync up with the holiday season, and the Con Cryptic Bonus Pack will follow on its heels. (The Chums site is a separate project, and will launch when we have it together. Those of you who get Chums will get 12 months' subscription from the month it launches.)

That's a lot to keep track of, so we're going to focus on it as the months slide by. We won't be anywhere near as chatty during that period, but we'll still reply to messages we get. We'll let you know how everything goes from here.

Thanks for attending our puzzle party!

Sharky