June Check-In - IMPORTANT update for 18 remaining pledges
Hi there !!
Update is quite late this time very sorry about that, I had a doozy of a week... TL;DR: car in the shop, couldn't commute anywhere for a few days, did nothing but cram for finals for a minute. It's been hard BUT I have car access again and after the end of this week I am officially on break from school. THE GRIND CONTINUES. Here are the stats:
less than 20 to go!!!!!!
About 10 of the orders marked "shipped" will actually be dropped off at the post office tomorrow (was having printer issues today up until the post office closed...) but I wanted to get tracking info out there to everyone because it's important for this next part:
I have an IMPORTANT update so please read below if your order is still unshipped
I unexpectedly ran out of Bluestar (not Spotted, just Blue... Honestly I don't know what happened there) and Starry Sky pins. I already ordered a restock and they are in production right now, however I do apologize for not keeping better track of inventory sooner as this has caused a delay for certain pledges. I was given an estimate of around 3-5 weeks to receive the pins. In the meantime I'll be getting the remaining orders ready with the items missing for now, so that as soon as I have them, I can quickly add them and send them out. I'll also focus more on any last late shop orders.
As of now, the only remaining unfulfilled orders contain one or both of the two out of stock pins mentioned above.
If your pledge is one of these (you haven't yet received a tracking number or email from me) and you prefer to swap out either of these pins for equivalent alternatives to get your items sooner, please comment below with your alternative choice.
For example, I'll allow any swaps like this:
Swap Blue in a Blue&Spotted pin set for one other cat, any choice (Yes, for the inconvenience I will allow mix and matching just this once)
Swap the Blue&Spotted pin set for another set entirely, any choice
Swap the Starry Sky pin for any two pin sets, your choice (since it is a limited release pin I'm hoping this is a fair trade)
If you do not comment with alternative pin choices, I will assume that your preference is to keep your order the same, and wait for the replacement items to arrive.
Apologies again for the oversight and the additional delay :( with the bluestar pins I really don't know what happened because I have LOTS of spotteds left. Either I received an unequal amount from the manufacturer in the first place and didn't notice, or I somehow misplaced lots of bluestars. I'll keep looking in case it's the latter, but in any case, more are on the way.
Thank you all again so much for your patience. I can see the end of the tunnel. It's so close. Thank you for bearing with me.
I almost forgot!! It's biweekly check-in time again. Unfortunately, I didn't make more progress since my last update post... I've hit that time in my school term where I'm pretty deep in the weeds of finals crunch time. I apologize for the slow progress overall, I still think I can do better to balance school and fulfillment. I'll make sure that I have more progress to report in my next check in post in June. I'm still shooting for completion of the remaining shipments by the start of summer and I think I can do it if I really buckle down. I endlessly appreciate everybody's patience with me in the meantime.
As always if there are any issues surrounding your pledge please let me know in the comments. Thank you all so much again.
Apologies, my update is a day late this time. I won't make a habit of it in the future, I wanted to do a little more today before sending the update.
Before this update there were some pledges I had left unlocked and/or uncharged, because I wanted to make sure first that I was keeping enough momentum before charging these. I mentioned in previous updates this was causing fluctuations in the "unfulfilled" orders number (shown here as "Start Shipping") which made it somewhat confusing to quantify the actual progress I was making. I apologize for any confusion this caused, it was honestly a little confusing for me. I think it will be simpler and more transparent if from here on I just show the numbers as I see them on my end: 8 pledges are basically in limbo; these backers never filled out a survey and therefore I'm considering these abandoned for now. This is fine, but just to be clear if any of these backers decide to fill the survey then I can lock those orders and the unshipped pledges number will increase again.
32 pledges are unfulfilled. While it shows 31 on BackerKit, I had one pledge actually ship and get lost and transit so I will be replacing it along with the others. My goal is still to fulfill the remainder of these before Summer. I believe I will be able to stick to this schedule.
I also haven't forgotten about late shop orders. I'm placing the highest importance on outstanding pledges since those were placed significantly earlier. I want to get everything resolved as quickly as I'm able.
I feel better about the progress that I made this time and everything feels less insurmountable when the number goes down and I get to know that my supporters are finally receiving their overdue items. Balancing packing and shipping batches of orders with a demanding school schedule is difficult and it is something I will be more a lot more careful managing in the future so that I don't ever allow myself to shut down that way again. Thank you all so so much again for your patience with me despite everything.
As always please let me know if you have any issues with your rewards (missing item, errored item, wrong address, anything) ideally in the comments below or through email.
Hi everyone! I’m back for another biweekly update.
Just cutting right to the chase… Unfortunately, I honestly made very little progress since my last update. I had a lot going on in my personal life and had a bit of a rough time mentally for a moment. I don’t think these excuse the lack of progress because despite these things I know I could have done more and I apologize. I share this because I know it is better to be upfront and honest about where I am at and why.
Last update I mentioned that 12 orders had been packed and not yet labeled, those were all shipped out - 7 of them have been delivered and the remaining 5 are still in transit.
I don’t feel satisfied with the number of orders fulfilled between this update and my last so I will aim for more progress in my next one to the best of my ability. Thank you all for bearing with me. I know it’s a little slow but I’m trying to get a better balance between school and fulfillment. I’m happy to hear when the items are make it to you guys safely and I hope it won’t be too long before everyone has theirs.
I want to thank you all again for your patience as I continue to tackle the rest of the Tiny Warriors fulfillment. Under the replies section of my previous update post from March, I stated that in the interest of keeping my backers better informed, I would commit to sharing an update every two weeks. Regardless of how much progress has been made in that time, even if there isn't any to share, I will adhere to this update schedule. I'm hoping this improvement in communication will help me stay focused, keep everybody in the loop, and prevent long periods of silence on my end from ever repeating. You all deserve to stay informed.
I has been two weeks since I made that promise, so here's what's new since my last update:
Locked 4 orders that were left unlocked . . . These were probably caused by late survey submissions. It's not an issue, I just realized that they weren't contributing to the "unshipped" order count until they were locked. In my last update I stated there were 43 orders marked unshipped, this bounced the number back up to 47 (before the order counts in the next bullet points below.) I'm sharing this part for transparency as it causes a slight number discrepancy.
5 orders have been shipped and delivered
12 orders packed with requested freebie pins . . . to be shipped Thursday or Friday this week
14 orders packed without freebies . . . I wanted to give everybody time to see and reply to this update post in which I offered 5 additional pin sets free of charge to anybody who hadn't received their order to that point - I held off on shipping some orders which were packed, but that those backers hadn't yet requested pins for, in case those backers reached out. However, I will be considering this update post a last call for additional freebies so that I can move on with fulfillment on those orders. If you already commented on this post before today, I have seen and taken note of your selections. If you still haven commented, please do! If I receive your comment before your order is labeled and shipped then I will still include those extra items for you. You can also let me know if you choose not to receive any extras. If I don't receive a comment from you then your pledge will ship as-is. I hope I have given a fair time window.
Admittedly it's slower progress than I hoped to share in this update, I started school again last week and I think getting adjusted to my new schedule and classes slowed me a bit. However I'll be continuing to ship orders and work on school at the same time, and doing my best to give adequate attention to both. I want everybody to have their items in hand as soon as possible, it's the least that I can do now.
Also, I'm only human, so if you receive your items and there are any issues - please don't hesitate to reach out (I recommend just commenting on this post - it's easiest for me to keep track of inquiries this way) and I will correct them as quickly as possible!
Thank you all so much again for your support and feedback, it has been invaluable to me beyond words. I have taken it to heart and will use it to improve as much as I can going forward. I will be back in two weeks for another update!
I felt I was overdue for another proper check-in post to let you all know how the remaining fulfillment is going. I apologize in advance for the word dump, there's a lot I wanted to cover so I'm going to jump right into it - there will be a shorter TL;DR section at the end so scroll down if you'd just like the cliffnotes!
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FULFILLMENT UPDATE
In a previous update post, I offered 5 additional pin sets free of charge as a compensatory addition to pledges unshipped up to that point. Each person up to the time of writing this update who has commented with their pin selections has been accounted for - even if I didn't reply or like the comment. I created a comprehensive list of all remaining orders including everybody's requested pin selections
If you missed the post, or forgot to select extra freebies but would still like to: please do so on that same update post (just so everything is in one place) and I will add your selections to your order! You can also make a note if you specifically prefer to receive your order as-is. For those who prefer a refund instead I made note of this as well and will work to get your pledge refunded as soon as I am able.
To briefly restate my last post, my most recent college term was a lot more difficult and time consuming than expected, the short story is that I got really sick for a while right at the beginning and had to fight to catch up again for the whole rest of the term. Basically I was in survival mode and didn't get to work on fulfillment as much as I hoped to causing significant delays. I apologize for making you guys wait even longer - it was terrible timing. However since I'm on spring break right now, I've resumed the process of making my way down this list, adding freebie items to each applicable order, labeling and shipping orders. If for any reason your order is especially time sensitive (i.e. you are moving, traveling, etc) please let me know and I will prioritize your order. My goal is to ship out all remaining orders by the end of spring. If it looks like it fulfillment might continue into summer then I will let you guys know but I'm also going to make a better effort to balance remaining fulfillment and school work, once school resumes again for me on April 6th.
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ITEM QUALITY CLARIFICATION
I wanted to address a concern that somebody voiced in a private message, in case others had the same concern as well. Each pledge that is locked has had its items set aside already, and freebie pins are being quality checked as well - in other words, please don't think that any promised campaign rewards were sold (either online or at conventions) - leaving behind lower quality pins for the remaining pledges. This is not the case.
It was wrong of me to sell any more tiny warriors before adressing a large chunk of unfulfilled backerkit rewards. I apologize for this. All shop orders have been PAUSED for now until ALL backerkit rewards are shipped. Having said that, I'd like to clarify that those sold were extra stock intended specifically to sell.
The short version of what I'm saying is that 1. You don't have to worry about me running out of your promised pins and 2. I will only be giving backers quality checked pins and won't intentionally give B grades unless otherwise specified. Any unexpected B grades are simply a result of human error as I quality check each pin by eye myself and it isn't impossible that a small error would slip by unnoticed - but I do try my best to catch these even if it's just a scratch. Please know I really do care that the items you recieve are good quality!
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PLAN GOING FORWARD
I wanted to detail how I plan to restructure the way I handle my business from this point onward. I've put a lot of thought into how I can best improve and please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any more suggestions than what I've listed here.
FUTURE CAMPAIGNS
I have some product ideas for the future that I think you guys would love, and I would like to run another campaign like Tiny Warriors in the future - but not without substantial changes in how I operate the entire thing from start to finish. It's important to me that in any future endeavors you all can trust that you will recieve your items as smoothly as possible and without unnecessary delays. I've learned that there is only so much I can handle by myself and the best way for me to ensure a smoother delivery is to stop trying to run every single thing myself while juggling external responsibilities. Steps I will be taking:
In general, more thorough logistics planning pre-launch with informed second opinions. I want to handle this entire aspect of a project with a lot more scrutiny and care. The next step in the list contributes toward this as well as it will help me get a more accurate idea of the budget for shipping costs, materials, import fees - so there are fewer curveballs.
Third party fulfillment: I will utilize a third party service for any and all future campaign fulfillment. This eliminates a great deal of potential delays and issues because it won't matter if I'm busy with school, or burnt out, or sick, or traveling - I'll be able to focus on the art and the campaign itself and place the actual fulfillment process in more responsible hands. Less chaos.
More thoughtful consideration of timing. Something posessed me to run the Tiny Warriors campaign in the middle of a busy term at my school. I will not repeat this action. I learned the hard way from my Burnout Speedrun.
MY SHOP My shop is currently paused and I am not taking new orders. Previously, I kept my shop open at all times and allowed backlogs of orders to accrue until they became overwhelming for me shipping times, response times - everything - suffered as a result. When I've caught up on all outstanding orders and confidently feel that I am able to reopen, I will be running my shop a lot differently. It will likely go one of these two ways:
Option A: third party fulfillment; Similar to my plan for future campaigns I am considering third party order fulfillment services for my shop as well. I'm still looking into this option logistically but it would have my shop remain open for a longer duration of time since personal time management would be less of a factor.
Option B: small, controlled shop openings; This option has me continuing to handle order fulfillment myself but only during times when I have less going externally and can properly devote time to packing and shipping orders. What this would end up looking like is something like an order-capped 'shop drop' a few times a year rather than leaving my shop open at all times.
I'm still a bit unsure about which option is best between these two so I appreciate any suggestions as well. Please rest assured that I won't be reopening until I have a clear and concise plan forward.
COMMUNICATIONS
I've talked about this in all of my most recent updates as well but I'm working to improve my communication habits - I tend to get sort of 'lost in the sauce' between emails, twitter dm, instagram dm, etc - I may in the near future funnel all business related inquiries through email only so everything is just in one place. A good way to nudge and remind me is with a reply on these update posts.
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TL;DR UPDATE
Fulfillment:
Up to this date if you requested freebies due to delayed unfulfilled order I did make a note on your order.
Orders are being shipped with those freebies included, aiming for completion during spring
You will receive quality checked items (not B grades) unless I otherwise specifically communicated with you about giving you a B grade pin
Going forward:
Any future campaigns will use a third party fulfillment service preventing delays like this from repeating
My shop will probably either work the same or have small controlled opening periods
...Whew. I apologize for the text wall but I had a lot I wanted to say. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. I also understand completely if you are frustrated with the delays - but I am making progress. I'll continue to update frequently as well.
I have a quick update for you guys! For those who weren't able to pledge during the campaign, pin sets are now available for preorder on my shop! These preorders will ship after all backerkit pledges have been fulfilled, so estimated to ship sometime between late July through September.
These will stay on my shop as long as supplies last - I currently have every different pin set in stock. Grab them here!
Additionally, I recieved the backing cards for the pins and have some photos to share. Take a look!
Here are each of the pin sets on their assigned backing card!
forest backing card
river backing card
pine marsh backing card
moor backing card
This weekend I'll begin the process of packaging all of the pin sets onto their respective backings. Sticker sheets are still in production and I'll let you all know when I have them on hand and have begun order fulfillment! I'll make an announcement when it's time to lock addresses so keep an eye out if you might need to make an address change beforehand.
Thanks for tuning in for this update! Which backing card design is your favorite?
I have an exciting late night update for you all! The pins have been delivered to me and I finally have higher quality pictures to share. Since there are a lot of photos, to avoid making you scroll through them all, I'll start with important update information here at the top first.
I also want to quickly thank you all for your patience with me in making these updates. I'd been so busy with school lately but have now conveniently started my summer break, so I can fully dedicate myself to this final push toward the finish line!
Quick Status on Reward Types
ENAMEL PINS: All enamel pins are in my possession! Backing cards have been ordered (will be pictured below!)
STICKER SHEETS: Ordered, in production, awaiting completion and shipment to me!
BANNERS: In my possession!
RewardFulfillment and Pre Orders
I am now just waiting to receive all sticker sheets and backing cards to begin reward fulfillment! My goal timeframe is late July through August. I'll be enlisting the help of some friends to hopefully speed along this fulfillment process for you guys. I'm so excited for everyone to receive their rewards!
Regarding making the pins available for those who did not pledge during the campaign, I'm hoping to soon begin listing the remaining pins for preorder on my shop. These orders would be fulfilled only after all campaign rewards have been sent out! I'll make a dedicated update when these listings are live.
Final Sticker Sheets
The sticker sheets have been given some more TLC since the campaign. They now have cute filler stickers and subtle backgrounds!
Sheet A
Sheet B
Sheet C
Sheet D
Sheet E
Sheet F
Pin Backing Cards
I designed custom backing cards to spruce up the pin sets' packaging! These different backdrops will correspond to specific pin sets based on the cats' territories!
Forest backdrop!
River backdrop!
Hills backdrop!
Pine Marsh backdrop!
AND AT LONG LAST........
PINS! SO MANY PINS! Prepare to exercise your scrolling finger..
A happy family photo. This is entirely too many cats.
Gray & FIre
Blue & Spotted
Yellow & Cinder
Leaf & Squirrel
Ivy & Dove
Briar & Jay
Lion & Holly
Cloud & Bright
Hawk & Moth
Tiger & Scourge
Sight & Frost
Barley & Raven
Tall & Jake
Sol & Black
Crooked & Maple
Root & Bristle
Night & Sun
Splash & Curl
Bramble & Ash
Alder & Needle (he really is THAT red)
Violet & Twig
Sky & Wing
Crow & Feather
Heather & Breeze
Leopard & SIlver
Goose & Pine
Broken & Snow
Long & Swift
Sand & White
Rock & Fallen
A better look at Fallen's silvery metal
Turtle & Bumble
Shadow & Thunder
Wind & River
Princess & Smudge
Sleek & Dark
Golden & Sasha
Tawny & Heart
Fern & Daisy
Berry & Moth
Red & Oak
Bone & Brick
Snow & Rose
Dapple & Tree
Special pins Starry Sky and Dark Forces
Glow effect after light exposure!
Better look at Starry Sky glitter and silvery metal
Bonus photo. My living room overrun with cats. Apologies to my roommate
Thank you all for the support and for tuning in for this update! If you scrolled all the way to the bottom, comment your favorite kind of pizza :)
My pin manufacturer for Tiny Warriors has shared our first photos of the pins!!! There are thirteen photos here that I am so excited to share with you all!
I'm absolutely thrilled with how they are coming out so far and can't wait to have them on hand to take even better photos. I hope you are as excited as I am!
Leaf!
White!
Daisy!
Bingus
Barley!
Wind!
Tuft!
Moth!
Dark!
Violet!
Tree!
Bone!
Aaaand berry!
I will keep you all updated as I receive more production photos! Here's where everything is currently at:
Pins: In production Banners: Finished and on-hand (I'm very happy with the quality of them, the print came out beautiful and the fabric is nice and soft! I tested one by sticking a pin onto it multiple times, and it hides the holes very well.) Sticker sheets: Making adjustments to the layout and getting samples to find the best product
After some minor delays I can finally say TODAY is the day surveys will all be sent out! (No, it's not an April Fool's joke... the date is a coincidence!) At this moment a small pool (15) of you have already received your survey email. We are starting with a small batch to hopefully catch any errors in the survey.
In a few hours if there seem to be no major issues then the rest of the surveys will be sent via email! Please keep an eye out for them! Your swift response will help me finalize the pin order for manufacturing by determining how many of each pin set I'll need to order, if I'll need to get extras, etc.
Thank you all for your support, keep an eye out for your survey today, and please let me know if you run into any issues! You can contact me in the comments here, through email [email protected], or through twitter dm @yypuos.
Update is quite late this time very sorry about that, I had a doozy of a week... TL;DR: car in the shop, couldn't commute anywhere for a few days, did nothing but cram for finals for a minute. It's been hard BUT I have car access again and after the end of this week I am officially on break from school. THE GRIND CONTINUES. Here are the stats:
less than 20 to go!!!!!!
About 10 of the orders marked "shipped" will actually be dropped off at the post office tomorrow (was having printer issues today up until the post office closed...) but I wanted to get tracking info out there to everyone because it's important for this next part:
I have an IMPORTANT update so please read below if your order is still unshipped
I unexpectedly ran out of Bluestar (not Spotted, just Blue... Honestly I don't know what happened there) and Starry Sky pins. I already ordered a restock and they are in production right now, however I do apologize for not keeping better track of inventory sooner as this has caused a delay for certain pledges. I was given an estimate of around 3-5 weeks to receive the pins. In the meantime I'll be getting the remaining orders ready with the items missing for now, so that as soon as I have them, I can quickly add them and send them out. I'll also focus more on any last late shop orders.
As of now, the only remaining unfulfilled orders contain one or both of the two out of stock pins mentioned above.
If your pledge is one of these (you haven't yet received a tracking number or email from me) and you prefer to swap out either of these pins for equivalent alternatives to get your items sooner, please comment below with your alternative choice.
For example, I'll allow any swaps like this:
Swap Blue in a Blue&Spotted pin set for one other cat, any choice (Yes, for the inconvenience I will allow mix and matching just this once)
Swap the Blue&Spotted pin set for another set entirely, any choice
Swap the Starry Sky pin for any two pin sets, your choice (since it is a limited release pin I'm hoping this is a fair trade)
If you do not comment with alternative pin choices, I will assume that your preference is to keep your order the same, and wait for the replacement items to arrive.
Apologies again for the oversight and the additional delay :( with the bluestar pins I really don't know what happened because I have LOTS of spotteds left. Either I received an unequal amount from the manufacturer in the first place and didn't notice, or I somehow misplaced lots of bluestars. I'll keep looking in case it's the latter, but in any case, more are on the way.
Thank you all again so much for your patience. I can see the end of the tunnel. It's so close. Thank you for bearing with me.
