Apologies for the radio silence over the last few weeks. I've been Quite Busy, and I've been prioritising sorting out your rewards over actually telling you as much, but that's still not ideal.
So, allow me to rectify that and update you on how everything is progressing.
Production
I've now received all of the bits and pieces that'll be going into your reward bundles!
This has all taken a couple of weeks longer than I was expecting – lead times for customised goods should be taken with a pinch of salt, I fear – but we got there in the end and I'm happy with the results.
A This Blighted Isle keyring, and both sides of the wooden bookmarks
The wooden bookmarks for Darkened Hill & Dale are printed on sustainably sourced FSC®-certified plywood, and I decided to add a little tassel, because who doesn't love a tasseled bookmark?
The die-struck metal keyrings required a bit of back-and-forth with the manufacturer's design team, as we had to tweak the artwork a little to make it work with the material and manufacturing process. I'm glad we put the time in, though, because I think they've come out particularly nicely.
I've also taken delivery of more Giclée art prints, acquired a looming tower of player handouts, folded dozens of handout folders, selected some particularly nice mosaic tiles for the pin badges, and had fun working with Alewood Games on Stage Fright – more on that last part below.
Oh, and Patchwork Fez Games has just moved into a dedicated office space!
Fulfilment - Physical Copies
This move is good news for fulfilment of your rewards!
My game-making endeavours have previously been run from my 'office' (i.e. the second bedroom) in my flat. Over the last couple of years, that space had steadily filled with boxes of books and piles of packaging and crates of craft materials until I was climbing over things to reach my desk – and then the cascade broke containment and spilt out into the rest of the flat, clogging the hallway and burying the dining table.
I tell you this because I pack and ship rewards myself, and it was going to be quite difficult to do that with such limited space. It was such a problem when I originally Kickstarted Darkened Hill & Dale that I waited until my dad went on holiday and then temporarily turned his house into a fulfilment centre.
However, the new office gives me plenty of room to store my materials and enough space to set up a couple of order assembly tables. I'm looking forward to having some elbow room!
The upshot of this is that I should be able to pack and post rewards pretty rapidly once you've completed your Backer Surveys and shipping addresses are locked and shipping fees charged.
I only moved in on Sunday, so things are somewhat chaotic in the new office, but it'll be sorted in no time!
Backer Survey
On that note, acquiring the bookmarks and keyrings finally allows me to complete the preparations for the Backer Survey, because I now know precisely how much everything will weigh, and can thus calculate the lowest possible shipping costs for you all.
I'm hoping to finish setting that up tomorrow, and will then send out the survey as soon as BackerKit confirms I haven't mangled it.
So – keep an eye out for your Backer Survey over the next few days!
The sooner you complete your survey, the sooner I'll be sending things out to you. If everything goes to plan and folks respond promptly, I'm hoping to start shipping before the end of next week.
Fulfilment – Digital Items
You'll need to complete the Backer Survey even if you're not expecting a physical copy of anything, because I'll need you to confirm the best email address for sharing the digital files with you!
I'm intending to distribute digital copies via DriveThruRPG, and will be doing that in regular batches as soon as your surveys are completed.
Stage Fright
Stage Fright is very nearly finished. The delay in completing the scenario has largely been on my side – I've been struggling to get my brain in gear due to spinning too many plates (plus my brain simply does not function properly during very hot weather, which we've had a lot of.
Nonetheless, it'll soon be done, and I'm hoping we'll be able to share that with those of you who back both this project and the ARKYVR project within the next couple of weeks!
International Shipping – A Note
For those of you in the EU, you may have spotted that I've suspended EU shipping on my web shop due to the new PPWR regulations (which are a nightmare for smaller businesses and creators). Don't worry, though, you'll still be receiving your rewards. I have a plan.
For those of you in the rest of the world (e.g. the USA), you may find that you're charged taxes/duties at the end of your Backer Survey. In these instances, I'll be sending your packages with the duties pre-paid, to avoid them being caught at customs and you having to pay an extra fee for their involvement.
This is all slightly more complicated than it should be, but if things goes awry at any point and you find you've been charged tax twice, get in touch and we'll sort it out.
Not every territory will have the option to pre-pay duties, so some of you may end up with your packages intercepted by local customs service, but fingers crossed nobody gets any extra fees!
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That's it for now. I'll post again as things progress but if you have any questions in the meantime, give me a shout!
This is a quick and very belated update to thank you for your support!
The campaign ended while I was roasting in an crunchy field at EMF Camp – hence the delay in posting – but I do very much appreciate you all backing it, and I'm looking forward to shipping things out to you as soon as the financial process wheels of BackerKit and Stripe finish turning (which may take a couple of weeks).
While that's happening, I'll start collating sets of handouts, assembling mosaic pin badges, and pre-packing your rewards to expedite despatches.
As an aside – if you're expecting to receive a mosaic tile pin badge as part of your pledge level and you're really keen to receive a particular colour, comment on this post to let me know your preference and I'll see what I can do!
Whilst I have the bulk of the reward items to hard, I've also had to order a few things – additional artwork prints, the Darkened Hill & Dale bookmarks, and the die-struck This Blighted Isle keyrings.
The keyrings may not arrive until mid-late August, unfortunately, but fingers crossed they'll appear sooner! If they don't, I'm hoping to have the associated rewards packed up and waiting to go for a speedy despatch once I get them.
On that note, I'm hoping to send out the shipping survey within the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for that.
I'm not in the habit of posting updates unless there's something worth sharing, but I do expect this all to move fairly quickly and I'll be sure to keep you in the loop as fulfilment progresses!
For now, though, I shall return to working on Stage Fright, which we're aiming to share with everyone who backed both this campaign and the ARKYVR campaign in the not-too-distant future...
Many thanks to all of you who've backed this campaign – I'm looking forward to sending you some horrible games and lovely art!
I'm also very pleased that the ENNIES Emporium has given me the opportunity to collaborate with Alewood Games. They're the creators of ARKYVR, 'a multimedia MOTHERSHIP 1E setting & toolkit to play documentary filmmakers in space'.
ARKYVR is also part of the ENNIES Emporium – you can find their campaign over here!
As you may know, anyone who backs both of our campaigns will receive a bonus reward – a digital copy of a new, system-neutral, collaborative scenario: Stage Fright!
You may have been wondering how we're planning to combine sci-fi documentary space horror with my flavour of weird modern British horror. Well, wonder no more! Allow me to lift the curtain on...
STAGE FRIGHT!
Finally, the stage is set.
The homemade scenery has been installed, the endearingly amateur cast of Bimworne bus drivers are almost vibrating with nervous energy, and tickets have completely sold out.
It's time for the climax of your unlikely documentary production – the London premiere of 'Entity – the Stage Adaptation'!
There are inevitably a few last-minute issues – some of the props had to be substituted after Mr Jones used them as scratching posts while they were still in Bob's shed – but it's all good material, and the show is bound to be a scream.
Stage Fright sees your characters playing a team of documentary film-makers, under pressure from Notflicks to produce the footage you've promised them. Your subject matter is the charming group of amateur dramatists who you've convinced to take their show to London – the show in question being an ambitious adaptation of classic sci-fi horror film, 'Entity', which they decided to do instead of their usual Christmas panto last year.
The production might be slightly more comedic than the source material, with props that would look at home on Blue Peter and performances that rival Plan 9 From Outer Space, but it's all good fun.
Until the stage lights come up on something that's very much not in the script, and this turns out to be a horror show after all...
Stage Fright will be presented as a compact system-neutral scenario, supplemented with information that'll help you run it with ARKYVR.
Details of the scenario may change a little as we finish writing it, but I hope the concept sounds as fun to you as it does to me!
Your pal, Sarah 💜
P.S. Apropos of nothing, and as a complete aside, I heartily recommend the documentary 'Alien on Stage'.
