July Update - Good News, Bad News
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jul 19, 2023 at 06:39:52 AM

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to get an update to to everyone. Today's update has some good news and bad news.  Let's dive right in!

The bad news is that my day job has been incredibly demanding, and it's left little time for anything else. My hope to have The Darklight's War ready to be released in September just isn't realistic anymore. I've made some progress on the editing front, but it's nowhere close to being even ready for Alpha/Beta readers.  So I'll be forced to cancel the pre-orders and I'll hold off on setting any dates until I can make some substantial progress on the revisions/edits.

Okay, that wasn't fun, so let's move on to the good news. 

I've continued to work with Bad Moon Art Studio behind the scenes, and they have continued to make progress on the art front. Here are the in-progress art pieces they've shared with me over the last couple weeks.

The first is the new art for Dragon's Fire. I've provided some feedback and requested them to make some tweaks regarding the coloring and shading, primarily of the big bad dragon.  And he is big and definitely bad, very bad.

The next art piece is for The Halls of the Fallen King. This book takes our adventurers underground as they explore the mysterious abandoned dwarven ruins of Duroc's Refuge. I really love what they've done, but have requested some tweaks on the overall composition and coloring. Looking forward to seeing how this one progresses.

The last piece that I'm sharing today is some of the ink art that they've done for the interior chapter headers that we unlocked through this campaign. This is the header art for The Darklight's War. I won't say who it is for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but if you've already read Keepers of the Flame, then you probably know who this is. ;)

That's all for today. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know!

June Update!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Jun 07, 2023 at 12:25:12 PM

Hi Everyone!

It's been a little too long since I've dropped an update.  My plan was to provide one as soon as we returned from our family vacation.  The vacation itself was great, but a few unforeseen circumstances arose that pushed this to the back burner after we returned.

That being said, I do at least have some more art updates to provide as well as an update on the status of a few things!

1. BackerKit surveys should finally go out at some point this week/weekend. I've already done most of the leg work, but I've got to run through them to make sure all the details are correct at each tier level.

2.  The first batch of Digital Rewards are coming soon! These can't be processed until after the surveys anyway, but I should be able to have them ready to go this month (not including the short story).

3.  More art! Bad Moon has done work on a few other pieces. I don't have much to show off today, but I did want to share what I can.

Okay, that's all I've got for today!

Quick Art Update
almost 3 years ago – Tue, May 16, 2023 at 05:13:01 AM

This update will be real short. I just wanted to share some of the update art that I've received from Bad Moon Art Studio.

The first one is the in progress cover for Tales from Darkness. The painting is about 70%  done and the design is still subject to some minor tweaks. Namely, we may nix the two floating figures (Chalric & Lesura) for room reasons, but I'm in love with the rest of it!

Below are the new sketches for the chapter art for each book. I love all of them! I think we are going to keep all of them except the one for THotFK. While I love it, it's probably not the right fit for that particular book, so they are going to come up with some new ideas. The rest are locked in though, which is super exciting!

Beyond the art, I will be looking to send backer surveys out within the next week or two.  So keep an eye out for those emails and notifications. I'll also announce it here as well just to help make sure you don't miss it!

Quick Update
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 01, 2023 at 04:20:22 PM

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to pop in and provide a quick update on the project. Kickstarter finally sent the funds, and the transaction has cleared. I know it might sound silly, but it was a bit of a weight lifted off me to see it finalized.

It's not stopping the progress of the project though. Bad Moon Art has been actively working on the cover for Tales from Darkness. We've gone through a few revisions to the cover and we've mostly settled on the final version. I've provided one last round of feedback requesting a few tweaks, then they can start the digital painting process. 

I've also given them a run-down of different thematic ideas for each of the 6 books in the series, to help guide them with the chapter header art. As most of you know, they've already provided some incredible initial sketches. We may use some of them, but they'll be whipping up some additional sketches as well that I'll be able to sort through for each book.

Now that the funds are all secured, I'll also be able to start working on some of the swag rewards. It's going to take quite a while to get all the custom swag orders built and processed, but I should be able to get started on it soon. I'm eager to share pictures with all of you as they start to come in!

That's all I have for today!

Post Campaign Update: Stretch Goals, BackerKit, Surveys, Shipping & More
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 11:56:35 AM

Hello Backers!

As of this morning, it looks like most almost all Backer's pledges have processed. There were only a handful of payments that have yet to clear, but the vast majority of them have successfully been collected by Kickstarter. This is super good news, because it means that we did indeed hit and unlock Stretch Goal #5! 

That means we are getting additional art for the glossary section of the books! I've already communicated with Kit over at Bad Moon and he is adding it to the long to-do list we've already given him, thanks to all of you! :)

Now I'm busy on two fronts. As you all know, I'm knee deep in the first round of developmental edits of The Darklight's War. I've got one big scene I've got to add to one of the early chapters, then I can get back to editing more of the plot/storyline editing. I've got a small crew of Alpha readers who I'll start sending chunks of the story to around the end of the month.

I've also been working on setting up BackerKit's pledge manager tool. I'll be using this tool to help with all backer surveys, shipping cost management, and reward fulfillment. It's a ton of work because I had to build all the tier rewards and add-ons and stretch goal rewards into BackerKit.  

It's a surprising amount of work to put all this together, but one of many perks are that this allowed me to setup what they call a Pre-Order Shop. It strikes me as odd that they call it a pre-order shop, being that it is launched after the Kickstarter campaign. But it's named this, because it is still prior to me placing the order for all the physical products. So in that sense, it's still pre-order.

That store is now open and if great for folks who missed the Kickstarter project, but still wanted to take advantage of some of the cool rewards that we're offering. If you want to check it out, here you go!

Surveys & Shipping

I'm still learning the ins-and-outs BackerKit, but I think I have got most of it in order.  My next step is configuring all the backer surveys. As soon as I have those all configured properly, I'll send them out to all of your to start collecting important information from you. Please make sure to fill them out, otherwise reward fulfillment will be delayed or worse!

As I stated during the project, we will be using BackerKit's Charge Shipping Later feature to provide an accurate shipping cost for each individual person, based on their reward levels and location. I am still working to build all the shipping information into BackerKit to allow this feature to function correctly. This will help ensure that no one is over/under charged for shipping. My goal is to have all this information built out by the end of the month, as I'm balancing all this with my day job, plus editing, and everything else that comes with a project this large.

That's all I have for today.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or message me directly!

-Tiger

P.S. I will put together a 80's song poll for voters to back on soon!