Early Bird + Night Owl stickers added, survey completion looking good!
Good evening, gang!
At a backer's request, I went ahead and got some stickers made of the Early Bird and Night Owl designs.
They're considered a separate addon, but if you...
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Ken Fiskorne
4 days ago
Surveys... SHOULD be fixed and ready to go.
Good evening, gang!
Hopefully our final update on the survey situation - things should be cleaned up on the back end.
If you were missing freebies, re-confirm your survey an...
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Ken Fiskorne
5 days ago
Surveys (HOPEFULLY) fixed - DOUBLE CHECK YOURS!
Good evening, gang! It's a ripe, bright, early, 11:43 PM, so I can still say that.
Surveys got sent yesterday, with some significant back-end issues that slipped both smoke ...
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Ken Fiskorne
6 days ago
Surveys are out... pardon a little dust.
Good evening, gang!
While I'd like this to be a happy announcement, I unfortunately need to tell you that two major issues slipped BK review + smoke test review.
At this ti...
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Ken Fiskorne
7 days ago
Smoke tests out! What that means, and when to expect surveys
Good evening, gang!
CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS' surveys just passed BackerKit review. Veterans know what that means: it's smoke test time!
Smoke tests mean a lucky 5% of each ...
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Ken Fiskorne
10 days ago
Back from break, PREORDERS OPEN, surveys soon!
Good evening, gang! Happy Friday.
Just a quick one, real fast. I'm back from NYC, and will be getting responses for custom backers tomorrow evening.
The C3 Preorder Store i...
Good evening, gang! If you're me, and you work the hours, I do, typing this 20 minutes to midnight is still 'evening.' Cool it.
That's all, folks - CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS wrapped up on Thursday at 4 PM.
Overall, while we didn't unlock everything, we had a pretty successful run. It was a difficult year for Pintopia projects in general, but I'm satisfied with where we're at. I know we wanna get to the meat of things, so...
Here's some quick numbers.
C3 wrapped up at $14,441. We went, in our last 48 hours, from being KPH's second-worst performing crowdfund, to being the second best, behind last year's CRITTER CRIMES in the $15k ballbark.
C3's got 359 backers. This is second to BIRD CRIMES, at 469.
140 of you are returning backers. That's 140 of you who will be getting the silver Loyal Akita pin. Thank you for coming back and sticking with it through it all this year.
194 of you also backed Henrieke's THE HYENA FAMILY. That's a free 1.75" BIG hyena pin for you. Awesome!
We're finishing up with 79 total pin designs for backers to pick from. This is the highest, with GOLDEN AGE PARROTS our runner up.
We are 22 of 22 funded projects in the PIN SAFARI group! Thanks for supporting my animal artist buddies this year.
As mentioned, we have 79 total pin designs. Our two final 1.5" designs are the Duck Toller and the Werewolf!
The Duck Toller is our last-minute sponsor, from a very passionate breed enthusiast. These aren't the most common canines around, but they're an unmistakable working dog. Thank my buddy Fieldpup for this one, dog collectors!
Our Werewolf, ever popular (for better or... for, uh, rabid), will also be available.
You guys don't understand. I have already been paid unspeakable amounts of money to draw this character in compromising situations. Was the halal plate worth it? Who knows, man. But that fish fry got me through vectors, so, thanks, I guess.
We need to have a quick, downer, type of talk about the rest of the MONSTERS tier. I've tried to be pretty open about fraudulent, cancelled, or heavily downgraded pledges being an issue this Pintopia, and, lo and behold, it is going to bite us in the ass a bit here.
Our last-minute $600 pledge I was worried about did end up paying. However, we are out a startling amount due to failed charges right now. Cards just started charging today, so this is recoverable. But, due to an exceptionally high number of failed payments on my last campaign, and the extremely high rate of cancellations already, I am going to be erring on the side of caution.
Go make sure your card is up to date - mine wasn't! I was that guy, too. Sorry, everyone!
I may make the other MONSTERS pins available as cards successfully charge. However, it is a risky move to self-fund 4 more pins with the net amount we're looking at right now. I'm looking for total charges, plus after-campaign numbers, to reach about $16.5k to get here. I'll keep you posted. I'm sorry to disappoint, but, there are other options for now!
There are still preorders, too, to make up that number, so we'll see where we go.
As of right now, these 4 BIG pins, 75 1.5" pins, and all of their corresponding stickers are available to you!
So, what's next?
For me, it's custom pins. I have two of you, one with a good email rapport and references, and one who needs to send me some more information. I'm headed downstate for Chinese new year, so realistically, you're gonna be hearing from me the 20th or 21st. Not too late to send me additional refs or ideas, though!
We're on schedule for surveys, if not a little ahead of time. I've been getting pledge manager stuff set, getting giveaway and promotional backers smacked with some extra credits, and getting pin renders cleaned up. Late February, early March, is a good time to start expecting your survey.
Preorder store's probably coming then, or earlier! If you missed the campaign, you still have a chance to get pins at the $9 a head rate. While discount tiers are gone, and there won't be any more freebies, you can purchase most stuff at the campaign price, and you'll get it when our backers do in the spring.
I have some catch up work to do, too. There's still a few stragglers from CC who need custom work done. If this is you, please reach out to me.
If you purchased a CUSTOM CRIME for CRITTER CRIMES, you were subjected to unfair delays due to circumstances outside of your control. You are entitled to a $10 campaign credit on your C3 pledge. Contact me either in our work thread, or in a new email, to apply this to your campaign. This is even if you got your CUSTOM CRIME pledge already.
What's next next?
This is a hard one, and I will say, outright, I may lose a lot of you on my next project.
Let's stay vague: I am workshopping a mid-sized group event with several other creators for November. It's not golden age-styled animals, but it's something that became very dear to me this past year.
If this project is for you, it will really be for you. But, if it's not, there might be something else from another one of the wonderful, talented illustrators who have agreed to take the plunge with me.
That's all I can share for now, until we all have more done and we're given the green light by BackerKit. I'm hoping I have something to show you all soon.
As of right now, I'm OK with how C3 turned out. Things could have gone better, but in terms of everything I had in my reach, I did what I could. I turned out better than a lot of other Pintopia artists this year. Frankly, there's not really anything that made that difference except my audience. You turned out in droves for this, and for a project I was wary of taking a risk on.
Thank you for being here for these past couple weeks.
At a backer's request, I went ahead and got some stickers made of the Early Bird and Night Owl designs.
They're considered a separate addon, but if you want 'em, they're there! They're 2" vinyls just like all the others. You can add them to any pledge thru your survey.
We're sitting at about 70% survey completion right now, which is pretty good. Generally, I want 85% done before I make the call and start getting final numbers in. If you've been waiting till the technical difficulties blow over to do yours, we should be in the clear now.
Make sure you get your surveys in ASAP - remember, an unfinish survey is a forfeit. This means losing freebies, campaign-exclusive rates, and your chance to get pins before they hit retail. I'd like to order stickers soon, so the more information I have, the better.
About half of pins have pantones, and are ready for production. From African Wild Dog, to Green Cheek Conure, our 1.5" pins are getting sent to the factory so they have a head start. I'm expecting to finish the rest tomorrow.
Customs are still waiting on thumbnails - thanks for bearing with me! I have most of tomorrow to sit down and crank stuff out, and you will be taking priority before the remaining vectors. There's no good sending the factory another 40 artworks when they're already busy with the first 35.
I need to make final accommodations for maintenance on Monday, so the great progress slump will probably start then. The more gets done before then, the better.
Finally, last annoying thing: the preorder store is open, and if you missed the campaign, this is your chance to get some goods!
I'm off to get a few more pantones assigned before bed. Take it easy tonight!
Hopefully our final update on the survey situation - things should be cleaned up on the back end.
If you were missing freebies, re-confirm your survey and check after. If you still don't have pins you know, for a fact, that you earned: start panicking again and comment or email me.
Snowy owl pins AND stickers are also fixed - I had to add them, individually, to pledge questions, so if you're missing one, let me know so I can assign it to you manually.
The mess here has eaten up a few days of our survey period, but you guys still have a good amount of time. You have until March 30th to fill your survey out, add new items, or change your picks.
You also have until March 30th to fix any failed payments. Right now, we have 13 backers whose cards failed on their initial pledge. If that's you... get in there, and make sure things get cleaned up!
We're not offering reserves, late charges, or extended surveys this time around. Don't miss your potential freebies, discount tiers, or have to wait till retail sales because of an expired card or a bank that didn't like Pintopia's sequential purchases.
Surveys are 50% complete, which is a very nice number this soon after campaign close. So, as a reward, let's look at our top pins so far!
Our more popular EARLY BIRD incentive pin is the Night Owl. Guess a lot of you guys need a better sleep schedule, huh? I can't judge too hard, so do I.
By far our most popular 1.5" pin is the Werewolf. All of you people need a bath in holy water. He has nearly twice as many buyers as...
The Eastern dragon, Snughoul werewolf, Rainbow Unicorn, and Red Fox, who are tied for runner-up.
Gryphon, Otter, Snow Leopard, and Western Dragon are within 1 point of a third-place tie.
Our most popular BIG PIN is the Trash Critters. They took the lead from Hyenas' antique pin earlier today.
Our most popular sticker is the Spotted Hyena. Hyenas are getting a lot of love this campaign, for sure.
Our most popular duos of pins are Spotted Hyena + Striped Hyena, Foo Dog + Eastern Dragon, and Lion + Lioness. Couples? Best friends? Rivals? Standing next to each other, unrelated? Who knows - these three seem to be inseparable, with at least a dozen backers picking both.
I'll do a round-up with some pretty pictures at the very end, so you can see how your personal picks stack up.
The most interesting data, so far, for me, has been our general drop in parrot popularity. My normal customers are birders and bird owners, and, in general, most of our parrots are doing single-digits! Our songbirds are still doing decent, but overshadowed heavily by our monsters and canines.
I've been hesitant to do non-feathered critters for a bit, but I guess the numbers talk. Did CRITTER CRIMES bring you to my work, or something else? Not mad, just, definitely curious where a lot more animal demographics are finding the HUSTLE.
Right now, it's time for me to get dinner and get pantones smacked on pins. Tell me how you found my work, what your first campaign was, or what you want to see next - something for me to read while I have an 8:30 PM coffee or five.
Good evening, gang! It's a ripe, bright, early, 11:43 PM, so I can still say that.
Surveys got sent yesterday, with some significant back-end issues that slipped both smoke tests and our initial staff review. Our 1.75" Pintopia freebie pin was incorrectly assigned to our 3.5" sticker backers. As far as I can tell, this has been fixed, but I still need to keep an eye on things.
That being said...
A large number of completed, confirmed surveys were REOPENED. Please go check yours if you finished it already.
Other than a very small number of backers, your progress should not be gone. Reopen your survey, speed through, and just re-confirm everything for me. If you were affected by freebie issues, you will need to do this. I'm sorry for any inconvenience.
If you were waiting to fill your survey out, now is a good time. Things should be mostly final, and ready to go for you guys.
The single headache is with our Snowy Owl options: I went ahead and got the owls on the first 10 pledge questions for pins + stickers, but if you need another added, feel free to reach out and I'll change things on the back end.
I'm tired, man. I'm going to bed. Thanks for bearing with it.
While I'd like this to be a happy announcement, I unfortunately need to tell you that two major issues slipped BK review + smoke test review.
At this time, you are, technically, OK to fill your survey out, but you might want to wait!
Snowy owl stickers and pins are missing. This was brought to my attention by a backer seconds after we OK'd 65% smoke test completion. Figures, right? We'll have them added soon enough. I'll send everyone an update when the winter owl option is available - you'll be able to edit your pledge and get 'em on there.
More importantly, I'm hearing that multiple non-cross collab backers are being given the 1.75" HYENA FAMILY pin.
First off, I am extremely grateful to have the customer base that I have. No less than a dozen of you have already emailed me, or messaged me thru private socials, about a free pin you didn't earn.
I'm in contact with BK support to fix this as soon as possible. While I can't foot the bill giving every good samaritan a free big pin, I'd like to figure out something nice for you guys for being honest with me.
Short, not quite sweet, I'll hit you guys up when things are all set.
