Hi Everyone

Martin here again.

So, I have now sent out the Backerkit surveys for all the Plush People to fill in.
Exciting stuff.

Everyone check your inboxes, and spam folders associated with the email address you have given here on Patreon.
If you don’t see anything yet, you probably fall into one of these next categories.

1) Try waiting a bit longer.  I know emails are supposed to be instant. But they’re often not.  Try looking again a bit later.

2) Try searching for your email with a text search.  Look for the word “Backerkit” or “Plushie” or “Rabbit”. This should highlight the Backerkit survey mail if you’ve received it.

3) ‘Some’ of you still didn’t have your February payments taken when I extracted the Patreon data on the 18th.  But I’m going to manually check these people in the next 2 days so YOU HAVE NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN, but your survey will come a bit later.
You can check your own account to see if you fall into this category by looking at when your payment was taken, so please don’t ask us to check.  If you paid $45 and above any time after the 18th, then this section is for you.

I think that’s covered everything, but as ever, I’m sure you guys probably have questions not covered here.
So, pop them in the comments if needed   🙂

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children, 

LONG TIME no see! Whew! And I missed you all very much! I hope everyone is doing well and that you are all warm, healthy, and happy. 

I am still in Thailand but finally back to the marina after several weeks out on the water. We sailed from Krabi down to the Butang Islands and then back up to the top of Phuket. Along the way there was great sailing, fantastic diving, and we even accomplished an overnight passage. 

On Phuket I met with all the groups involved in this year’s Pirate Jam kick-off at Yacht Haven Marina. We’re prepping a very special event for this year’s group of pirates and there are a ton of new and interesting problems to solve. I then sailed the route we’ll take for Pirate Jam to ensure everything is in place and as expected. 

Feeling a bit nervous about this year’s event. Lots of people, boats, and moving parts. One big change is that we’ll be out on the water, sailing between islands, and in places where there will be no shore facilities. That means breakfast, lunch, and dinner all have to be prepared and served aboard the boats. Fingers crossed everything will go fine 🙂 

While I’ve been out getting everything ready for Pirate Jam our artists have been busy working on new concept art for Asylum. 

Omri’s been busy with ideas for the Red Queen and King. In AMR we visited their castle and found they place was in ruins. For Asylum we’ve talked about a narrative timeline in which the Queen of Hearts is seeking to destroy the royal Reds. Omri’s suggesting working on a sort of ‘death scene’ poster based on this idea. Who would like to see that??? I know I would! 

There’s also a bit of discussion going on around the idea of Alice’s weapon(s) for Asylum. Omri really wants to see Alice wielding a morphing Vorpal Blade which does multi-duty for all the weapons in her arsenal. 

Personally, I like the ‘toys as weapons’ concept … simply for the fact that it provides more visual variety. More interesting tools and ammo to pick up and use. 

What do you think? Might there be ‘one weapon to rule them all’ or do you like the idea of toys as weapons? Is there any other variation on this theme you can think of? 

There’s more art in the pipeline and sitting in my download folder but I’ll share that in a future post. 

On the business development side of things… 

Myself and our team of BD people continue working presentations and conversations with our potential financiers and publishers. 

I might have mentioned in a previous post… but while I was out sailing I received and intriguing email from a major game company who want to explore how they could be involved with the new game. I like this company *very much* and would love if we could find a way to get Asylum made with them. That conversation should start to move forward more quickly now that I am back from the Realm of Pirates. 

All in all it’s been a good (and much needed) break. I head back to Shanghai next week and am excited to get back to full-time effort on Asylum and other projects. 

Let me know in the comments below how you’re doing! 

And, HEY, if you have a QUESTION about surveys, Rabbits, shipping, etc… Please don’t post it below – PM US! That way we have easy and instant access to all your account details and we can quickly discuss with you any topics which might require personal info (like address, etc). 

Want to PM us? HIT THIS LINK. 

From Thailand with Love (and arg), 

-American 

PS: A big THANK YOU to Martin for all his hard work on keeping things under control while I was out in the wild. And hugs for taking care of Lulu too! You’re the best, Martin! 🙂 

Hi Everyone.

Martin here again!

Stopping by to let you know that we decided to go with a company called Backerkit to keep track of the Plush Rabbit fulfilment.
We used them before on the OOTW project very successfully.
It basically allows us to keep everything in one place rather than having to track everything with multiple excel sheets and also should allow us to mass email all of you with tracking details once shipping has commenced. Yay!
It’s just an all round better way of doing things.

So what does this mean for you? I’m glad you asked.

Certainly by Tuesday next week, expect to see an email from Backerkit sent to the email address you have provided us with here on Patreon (also be sure to keep an eye on your Spam folders), click on the link that will be in the email and then ‘completing the survey’ is the easiest thing in the world to do.

You basically have to do nothing more than click continue a couple of times and provide your address/phone number. That’s it   🙂

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I also added a mini-version of our Mysterious shop into the Backerkit survey with a few items you might be interested in at slightly discounted prices for our lovely Patrons.
But of course you do not have to add any of these items at all and you can just go past that bit.

————————-

Here’s another reminder for those of you who have already been charged this month for the Rabbit Set.  PLEASE set yourself back to a tier and DO NOT have your account set as a custom pledge amount. Thanks   🙂

————————-

Finally, expect to see an actual ‘proper’ update from American soon to see what shenanigans he’s been getting up to in sunny Thailand.

————————-

– Cheers

Hi Everyone

Martin here again.
I have now extracted the data from Patreon for this month.
It’s quite the large excel sheet I can tell you   🙂

Almost all of you have been charged now.
So please check your account info/billing history for February and you should see “complete” in green over on the right.  If you do see it is complete, you can go ahead and change your pledge level and tier if you need to.

As mentioned previously…
Please go back into your account editing section and make sure you are actually set to a tier and not just a custom amount if you want to stick with us.
Setting your tier will automatically set the ‘choose what you pay’ amount to match the tier, but please double check this. 

If however you check your billing history and still see February’s money has not been taken yet, please just leave things alone for a bit longer.
Some people get charged near the end of the month.
Don’t panic !  
Also don’t message us asking if we can check your bank/payment/fund settings to make sure everything is ok, because we have no access to that.

HOWEVER !!!
If it’s showing “Declined” still, consider changing your payment details and/or contacting your bank. It’s a bit late in the month for your payments to still be being rejected.

A couple of other bits of info that people have asked in the previous weeks.

1) I didn’t get a confirmation email about any rabbit. Am I getting the rabbit?
If you were charged at $45 or above in February, you are getting the Rabbit set.

2) When is shipping?
Probably near the end of February

3) I somehow lost access to my discord with all this pledge adjustment.
You need to be on a tier ($5 and above), not a purely custom amount to get Discord access

4) I’m sure this is my 3rd month at $35, how do I choose my print?
As you can imagine, this is a busy ole month.  You haven’t been forgotten. The print choosing emails will probably be with you in the next few days as of writing this post.

So, to summarise…
Change your pledge back to a tier instead of a custom amount if you’ve been charged.
Don’t change anything if you haven’t been charged.
🙂

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children, 

I have been completely off the grid for the past week. Sailing and diving across a range of remote islands in Thailand. Finally back to an island (Ko Lipe) with connection to the outside world… I checked Twitter, Facebook, the news, and… It’s a crazy ‘ol world we live in! Whew. One of these days we all need to run away to some far-away Wonderland and never look back. Seriously! 

I did notice that while I was away there were quite a few questions about what happens now that we hit our Rabbit Plush Goal and finished out the month. Font Lord was kind enough to put together this list which we hope will answer all your questions… 

Q = I haven’t been charged yet.
A = No worries.  Some people get charged later than others.  Please wait.

Q = My charge says ‘pending’
A = Also no worries.  Still wait, you’ll be charged eventually.

Q = My charge says “declined”
A = Please double check your payment details and possibly enter new ones.  Patreon will keep attempting to charge you throughout the month, so after checking/changing your details please wait to be charged. You can also contact Patreon customer support and discuss this type of issue with them. They can help!

Q = Now it’s Feb 18th and I STILL haven’t been charged. Can I change my tier/pledge details?
A = Don’t worry, some people actually get charged near the end of the month and we’d appreciate it if you kept an eye on your charge status and only changed your details after being charged. Again, consider contacting Patreon support!

Q = It’s Feb 18th and I have definitely been charged. I can change my details, right?
A = Yes, please go back into your account editing section and make sure you are actually set to a tier and not just a custom amount if you want to stick with us.
Setting your tier will automatically set the ‘choose what you pay’ amount to match the tier, but please double check this.

Q = Do I have to keep being a Patron now I’ve been charged for the Plush Bundle?
A = We’d love it if you stuck around (even at the lower tiers for Discord and Patreon access), but you don’t have to. Remember that your payment of $45 (for those of you at that level) will count towards the 3x$35 art print reward, so consider setting yourself to the $35 tier for another 2 months in order to get a fantastic art print of your choice from the previous prints we did. You can see all the lovely art currently offered via THIS LINK. 

Thanks, Font Lord! Now… if you still have questions, consider posting them below or, better yet, sending us a PM. We have some really lovely Insane Children helping in the comments. Big shoutout to Elaine Carass for all her help with replying to comments! (Elaine, remind me to send you a Thank You gift when I get back to Shanghai). 

Happy Chinese New Year 

It’s now officially the Year of the Pig. Oink! Back in China the whole country is essentially shut down – which is why I pick this time of year to vanish out on the ocean for a few weeks. 

I hope you’re all having a wonderful new year and that the year to come brings all the fortune and happiness that you deserve! OINK! 

For my part, I still have a few weeks of sailing around, diving, and being disconnected from the world. Access to the internet is limited or nonexistent in many of the places I’m going… so, if you don’t hear from me for a while, don’t worry. Font Lord (Martin) is taking care of Lulu AND taking care of answering your PM’s to us here on Patreon. THANK YOU, Martin! I couldn’t be an occasional sea bum without you! 

The New Year

There’s a lot that continues to go on behind the scenes with our efforts on Alice: Asylum. I had another really good email come through from a potential financier/publisher which… well, I think you all would be very happy if we partnered with that group on this project. I know I would be. Can’t wait to tell you more. And, as the Chinese New Year comes to an end, we’ll start to see more artwork, design, and story flowing from our Crowd Design efforts. 

I just want to say to everyone who is helping us make Asylum a reality, THANK YOU. You are, quite literally, the best, brightest, and most inspiring people in the world. There’s so much negativity and doubt out there. It takes a powerful knife to cut through it all and make something beautiful happen. Not only are we going to make the best Alice game to date but we’re going to show the world that there are no rules when it comes to how we make this sort of thing happen. Excellent! 

Much love to you all. Be safe, be well, and be happy. 

I’ll check back again with more pictures of paradise and updates as and when I can find a signal. 

From Lipe with Love, 

-American (missing Yan, Lulu, and… even Font Lord)

Hi Everyone

Martin here.  Hope you’re all doing well   🙂

Here’s just a quick update about what to do next if you’re one of our Patrons who’s pledged for the Plush Rabbit set.

Do nothing.

Even if you’ve checked your bank account and you can see that you’ve already been charged for the month.  Still, do nothing.
Everyone please do nothing at all to your tier or pledge amount until after Feb 18th.

Changing your pledge or tier before I actually collect the Patreon data on the 18th could cause some annoying data extraction issues that I’d rather avoid.
Thanks   🙂

Any questions?  Pop ’em in the comments.

– Big Hugs from Shanghai with Lulu