Small Update. Bigger one to come once I stop drowning.
almost 4 years ago
– Fri, Jul 10, 2020 at 11:03:09 PM
Hi everyone.
First, thank you for being patient. Effectively, my life fell to pieces right after I posted the last update, and I've kind of dropped off the face of the map while I've tried to pick up the pieces and put things back together. It seems every time I've felt like I was almost there, my feet have been swept out from under me again. At the moment my full attention is on trying not to lose my apartment, finalize taxes, and get my personal financial situation under control (the COVID situation coupled with some life events I can share and some I can't has bankrupted me personally). I was finally able to find a new full-time job (I think I posted back early this year I was looking for one for insurance purposes before the floor fell out from under the job market. It turns out I needed one for more than insurance purposes).
Anyhow, just dropping a line. I have not been well. I'm getting better. There will be a new update as soon as I get my feet back under me (which should be within a month). I'm sorry I went dark. I've been... unwell. This project has been weighing heavily on my mind - I've been thinking about it literally every day.
Again, I'm sorry for the depressing update. If I ever do a Kickstarter again I won't be doing it alone. It's a LOT to handle when you try to do it alone.
Brief Update - Pre Big Update
almost 4 years ago
– Wed, May 13, 2020 at 05:48:15 PM
Hi Everyone,
I've been seeing the requests for an update, so I figured I'd get this out while I'm working on the big one. I have the dice, and the tokens are mostly done. I don't have the prescription bottles (that's been a bit of a fiasco, especially with the COVID situation), but I'll be starting to ship the glass bottles very soon.
Sorry about the delays - I've had what feels like an unending stream of family and personal crises that have required way more attention than I could afford to give them. Between that and COVID it put me into a state that required hospitalization for a bit. My head is back together now, and I'm up and operational, producing dice as quickly as possible for my shop and prepping the Kickstarter to ship.
A much more comprehensive update will be going out in the next few days, once I get some photography done for it. Thank you all for your patience,
Steven.
New Update: Shipping Commencing Soon!
about 4 years ago
– Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 03:07:30 AM
Good news! I finally got the shipment of dice in! I'll post pictures shortly - I've been going through and QCing the shipment (which takes a significant amount of time when you're inspecting 40,000 individual dice). The resulting dice are a slightly lighter red than I originally expected, but they look very nice, and I'm excited to get them out to you!
Sorry about the delays. This COVID-19 shutdown has been massively affecting me - I went from living alone to having a toddler and an elementary school student in the house, who all of the sudden are not able to go to school. It's been an incredible blessing having them here, but I've found it difficult to be anywhere near as productive as I used to be. I'm working on things and figuring out how to make everything work.
Expect another update shortly with pictures of the dice. I'm really hoping to be able to move from running everything solo to having a team this year. It's been truly overwhelming trying to manage everything myself (even though I have amazing friends who come help from time-to-time).
Thank you all for being patient!
UPDATE! (Finally) - Dice Are Enroute to Me Now.
about 4 years ago
– Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 01:58:35 AM
Hi everyone! Sorry about the delay between the latest updates - getting my family out of China before the virus shut everything down was... stressful. They finally got their US visas just in time for the virus to interdict travel - their flights kept getting cancelled. They actually got out literally one day before China shut down internal travel, then we had them in voluntary quarantine in my house for two weeks to make sure nobody had the virus.
I actually ended up getting quite sick with the flu (I had to confirm that it wasn't COVID-19, even though my wife and kids were never near anyone with it) for a few weeks myself. I attribute that to the stress of the past bit. I'm finally back on my feet and getting caught up on orders from my Etsy shop.
Anyhow, the update you all wanted is here! The dice are on their way to me! I'll be able to start shipping as soon as they arrive (I'll make an update the day that happens). I'm commissioning a new CNC router this week, which should massively speed up creation of the wooden cases for those who ordered them (prior to acquiring this router I could only make one box per day - my old router was SLOW). I've also been updating my molds for the resin versions of the dice - this is a slow process as I only had one metal master die made (knowing what I do now, I would have had them make me 20 for about the same price instead of just making the one if I ever have another one made).
Thank you all for your patience, and for being an awesome group of backers!
January Update - Production Complete!
over 4 years ago
– Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 02:40:01 AM
Sorry about the delay between updates - my life became insane on a truly epic level, and it's been all I could do to tread water for a while. I'm starting to get things back under control now. Long story short: running a business is hard. Running a business while dealing with US immigration for estranged family is insane.
In any case, the update you all wanted to hear: Dice manufacturing is now complete! The dice will likely end up arriving sometime shortly after Chinese New Year.
Photo from the manufacturer:
Production on the tokens is ongoing - they will end up being laser-engraved acrylic rather than cast resin simply because I've been having an absolute devil of a time trying to get 4000 tokens cast in resin (especially in the winter. Resin does NOT like cold weather - mold rubber won't cure at all in my garage. I have solutions I'm trying out, but it's been an absolute headache so far). I can work far faster with a laser (especially now that the laser has been repaired - it broke in December right in the middle of my Christmas rush).
Shipping will commence as soon as I get the dice here, but unfortunately it won't be quite as quick as I'd like - running a small business has been extremely difficult, and my little girl will be coming back into the country next month. As a result, I need to have health insurance for her (I'm fine not having health insurance for myself, but I refuse to not have coverage for my toddler).
This brings me to a difficult admission: I probably need to take another full-time job, as I don't bring in enough money monthly from the Arcanist's Armory (yet) to afford health insurance, rent, utility, and debt payments, and all operating costs along with new inventory. It's remarkable to see just how fast money melts when operating a business and paying for shipping, inventory, and fees. As such, it's increasingly looking like I will have to make this company a side business instead of my full-time job, at least for now. We'll see what the next few months brings - my goal is to bring in enough with the next Kickstarter and some of my new product designs (I'll be launching a LOT of new dice designs with it - but I can't launch it until this Kickstarter is fulfilled) to bring on additional help and allow myself to go back to doing this full-time. I've realized that doing this all alone is, frankly, insane. I learned a lot from this one, and should be able to avoid making the mistakes that lead to the delays and problems this time around.
I'll be doing my best to get 100-200 orders shipped every week. As such, fulfillment will probably run through April or May. If I can get some of my friends to help out occasionally I may be able to accelerate that a bit.
In the mean time, I'll continue making and adding new product to the shop (click here). This week, I'm running a 20% off of everything in the store - I'm taking a break from packaging dice/working on advertising materials to write this update. Additionally, fireball dice are currently in production, and I should have a limited number of sets in stock within a month or two. I'll continue making Eldritch blast dice as quickly as I can (especially once I get my cold-weather resin issues resolved - I think I may have just figured out a working solution today. I really need to start a dicemaking blog).
Thank you all for being a wonderful group of backers, and for sticking with me through the learning process as I figure out how to operate a successful online business. I'll do my best to make sure my next update doesn't take as long as this one did.
