Turn Surveys Down for What?
almost 5 years ago – Sat, May 18, 2019 at 01:25:14 AM

 Greetings Backers of Tikor!

I come to with some fun updates! Surveys are out Patreon art and a little music.

Survey’s Deployed – All the surveys have finished and sent to ALL backer tiers. So, if you haven’t received yours via email, just head to the actual Kickstarter page. If you haven’t filled it out yet, please do so! I’m relying on these surveys to give me the info I need!

Pledge Upgrades – Part of the reason I’m waiting for surveys to come back is to find out how many people wanted to upgrade their pledges. I have might have a little wiggle room on some of them, but I need feedback first! Once we hit around 80% completed, I should have the info I need. 

Extra Copies via KS – First off, apologies to those who put in extra money for more books. It’s still going to happen, I just totally forgot I told people to do that. I’ll be going through and making notes on my fulfillment document so that everyone who paid for extra copies can get them. 

Extra Copies after KS – Well, this is the part I know some backers won’t like, unfortunately. I can’t offer the same shipping discount on future copies as I did on Kickstarter. The truth is that these books are heavy. 11 pounds of books heavy. US customers will be fine as the price difference isn’t too much, but the shipping is rather painful for International customers. I’m looking into various options, but the weight of the books keeps most cheap options off the table. If I find a better price/solution, I’ll let everyone know.

Future Updates – Now that the KS is done and surveys sent out, I won’t be posting on the Kickstarter as much. However, you can go to the official website, www.swordsfall.com and the Swordsfall Patreon www.patreon.com/swordsfall for info. Also, you can find me on Twitter. This just helps me keep only info in 1 or 2 different places.

Tikor Playlist – I promised one and I made one, an unofficial playlist for Swordsfall! It’s a collection of music that I feel sets the tone for the setting and as well made for great writing music for me. Hip-hop is always a love of mine, and I’ve lamented how people never heard the gems. Well, that’s what I did. It’s a collection of hip hop, rap, funk, afrobeat, and house music. Some tracks you may now, some you may not. But hopefully, you vibe with it regardless. (Parental Advisory, there’s cussin a plenty)

Amazon Merch – We do swag at Swordsfall, cause who doesn’t love shirts? Well, we’re on Amazon too! And for a limited time, Swordsfall shirts are $14.99 with free Prime Shipping. Buying one supports us and helps put the word out! Plus, I think they’re pretty stylish myself. The other thing is that Amazon only increases our shop slots as we sell shirts. (which is why the UK side has less than the US side, each one is a separate slot….yea)

Chronicles of Swordsfall – I’ve decided to wrap up pieces of lore from the World Anvil, clean it up, expand, edit and package it. I call it Chronicles of Swordsfall and the first Volume “Tikor – The Beginning” will be out on Amazon Kindle in June! (maybe sooner) The book will be the crazy high price of $0.99 cents. I figure this will be a good option for mobile users who need an easy way to read the lore. This first one just covers a general overview of Tikor, the sun Ila, the moon Omaat and the second sun, Adume. The next one will be a deeper dive into Garuda, and so on and so on! 

That's it for this week. Enjoy your week!

Kickstarter Survey's Will Start Coming In
about 5 years ago – Thu, May 02, 2019 at 11:00:23 PM

Hello people!

Well after the last update I received a bit of feedback from a few backers. They weren't thrilled at the thought of going to another site if they were fine with their order. That's understandable. Here's the plan now!

Kickstarter Survey - So what I'm going to do is utilize the Kickstarter survey to collect the information for those who don't need any adjustments. 

Pledge Upgrade - If you did intend to upgrade your pledge, make sure to indicate so on the survey.  I'll segment those off and email you all in batches. I've set up a separate and secret product page for backers. I'll then send THOSE people a coupon with the amount of their tier and a link to the page.

Extra Books - If you overpaid with the intention of buying extra physical copies, I can no longer offer the old shipping, unfortunately. With the book set coming in at 11 pounds the final tier was set toward offsetting that. I won't be able to extend that to future copies.

ETA - I've already started sending out some of the survey's and will have them all done within the next day.

Art Tiers - If you have an art package, please sit tight. You haven't been forgotten about, I'm just going through methodically one by one and getting in contact with people. So please, check your emails!

That's it! So fill out the survey's. And pleeasseeee check your e-mails in the future :D 

Long live Swordsfall.com for Backerkit is no more
about 5 years ago – Mon, Apr 22, 2019 at 10:33:05 PM

Hello, my dear Backers!

I have arrived to you with an important update from Swordsfall HQ! We have an updated website, new swag and discontinued Backerkit. How does this affect you all? Well, let me explain.

Swordfall.com

The first order of business is to announce that the website has been totally overhauled. If you didn't know we had a website, that's fine, it didn't have much on it. It was really more of a teaser page with a few links. That, however, has changed. One of the biggest problems we've faced is that with the grand scope of Swordfall, all the information is scattered.

Well, the new website helps to alleviate that problem. Consider it your new landing page for all Swordsfall news. I'll post links to Patreon posts, new World Anvil articles, and announcements there. You can even see when I'm on Twitch as I've embedded a player on the front page! Over the upcoming months, I'll continue to add backlinks to the website and generally just improve it.

Swordsfall Shop

The other thing that we needed to tackle was our shop. Redbubble is cool and all, but it's another link for people to go to. Well, that problem is squashed as well! The Swordsfall Shop is officially open for business, and we have a ton of stuff for you to check out.

Shirts, jackets, stickers and even shoes, all with Swordsfall artwork! It's pretty sweet looking merch and it's good quality. I want you to be able to rock your favorite Swordsfall shirt for a long time to come. It's not just swag either. 

Pre-Orders for Welcome to Tikor

As I alluded to in the opener, Backerkit is gone. While I was initially using it for a preorder shop it's no longer needed with the new website! We are now taking Pre-orders for the book on the website! Same ease as Backerkit, and really less trouble. Everything all in one place and I don't have to pay almost $4,000 to another company.

After pre-orders are over, the Swordsfall.com will also be your destination to buy the books and any future books! We'll be on all the usual suspects like Drive Thru RPG as well. But all the products we make, we'll also stock on the website.

So What About Kickstarter Backers?

If you're a backer, no worries! We have it all worked out. Initially, you were going to receive the email today, but alas we're having domain issues.

(Techy Explanation - DNS records are locked while the domain transfer is in process. That's fine, accept all the settings weren't done correctly. That means, the website works but the MX records for sending email aren't. Yaayyyy...)

So in a week or so when the issue is sorted you'll receive an e-mail based on your Pledge tier. The email will have a coupon code that will make the book 100% free. Click the link and it'll take you to the product page. It should auto apply the coupon, but if not just copy and paste it!

That will change the price to $0. Then you'll entire in your SHIPPING address, the shipping will be waived and you can Checkout. That's it!

Upgrading Pledge Tiers

If you want to upgrade to a higher tier the process will be similar but different. In that same email, there will be a second link that says "UPGRADE PLEDGE TIER".

If you click that you'll be taken to a special product page with the leftover pledge slots. The few special art tiers that will be available will open be open for TWO WEEKS. I'll announce when the emails go out here on the KS page as well. So make sure you watch out for it as we won't do it for long.

Existing Backerkit Backers

If you're one of the people who backed us via Backerkit already, you're taken care of too. Since they never actually charged you, all your info disappeared when we had the account deleted. Simply head to the Pre-Order page and do it for REAL this time. We'll charge you immediately instead of later on Backerkit.

I think that's everything! Once all the e-mails have gone out and everyone has responded, I'll be messaging the special tiers to start gathering information!

Take care everyone. :D

To Tikor We Go! Thanks and Post KS Plans
about 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 10:19:18 PM

So that's a wrap everyone! My first Kickstarter and the grand debut of the World of Swordsfall. To say things went better than expected is an understatement.

I had every intention on this Kickstarter funding, and over-funding at that. But the amount of love and support that came out was just amazing. I couldn't have ask for anything more!

So now that we're funded, what's next?

The Post Kickstarter Plan

Pre-Orders - The next two weeks will be just me moping up loose ends from the Kickstarter and building out Backerkit. The Pre-order store is already open for anyone who missed the Kickstarter and still wants to grab the Limited Edition Azurean Finish bundle. As well, I've added a number of Add-on goodies. More will be added as we complete shirt designs, pins and more!

Team - Once the Kickstarter money hits is when things will get REALLY going. Most of the team is ready to start work as soon as funds arrive, so production will start asap. Jonah is doing a round of convention events now, so you can actually check him out while you wait for "Welcome to Tikor". I'll be roping him in between his events to get that sweet art done. Follow him on Twitter  @Jonahlobe to find where he'll be next!

Survey - A few days after the KS funds arrive, I'll be able to finish the Backerkit setup. This is when you'll be prompted to fill out your post Kickstarter survey. So if you're used to Kickstarter but not post pledge, this means that you will NOT be receiving a survey from Kickstarter. So make sure to watch for an email from BACKERKIT in about three weeks. The survey will include questions like your address details and some other pertinent questions related to your pledge tier.

Special Pledges - If you purchased one of the special tiers that include custom art, PLEASE ANSWER THE SURVEY. I'll be asking for contact details as well as if you have any general ideas for your home/profession/deity/creature/dragon/death. There's around 100 of you, so I want to keep the process orderly. I'll also be doing special Tier only KS posts with any general guidelines I know of. Look for those in the next week or so.

Backer Store - If you are a Kickstarter backer then you will access to the ability to upgrade to a higher Pledge level in Backerkit. There are always card declines and last minute changes on a Kickstarter, so if you missed out on a special pledge, maybe you'll get lucky! As well, we'll have special "Backer Only" discounts on addons!

Shipping - Many people have asked about the cost of shipping for the Azurean Finish. Well, part of the reason for the Stretch Goal was to supplement shipping a bit. As well, we have flat shipping (they promised) from our fulfillment partner. If something crazy happens, I'll be up front about it. But the amount of International backers is manageable enough that I think we can hold to our current International price.

Communication - With the Kickstarter ending I'll be retreating to my normal perches; Twitter and Patreon. If you like spicey rants punctuated with insight, then follow me on Twitter @Swordsfall1. Or, if you want just the info on Swordsfall, then follow us on Patreon or become a Patron! $1 a month gets you sneak peaks to the RPG, exclusive art and more. Updates here will become just about major news on "Welcome to Tikor".

That's about it for the wrap up! Once again, THANK YOU ALL. The team also sends their regards. I told them we'd smash this thing, but I don't think they quite believed me. You all helped make them and the world believers in what we're making here.

With that said, two last things. One from me and one from T'umo.

From me it feels so good to finally be able to say with full confidence and at the top of my lungs:

WELCOME TO SWORDSFALL.

And from T'umo, something more...artistic.

The Final Hour
about 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 01:48:44 AM

That's it, we're down to the line! The final hour is here.

It's been such a crazy ride, thank you everyone for being apart of it!