Update 23, 23.1 and personal notes
almost 5 years ago – Tue, May 07, 2019 at 02:13:49 AM

 Reading time 3 minutes, plus 3 minutes for the optional personal notes.

- Update 23 -

Click on the image herunder to see the Update 23, received as a flyer together with the Player's Pride. 

- Update 23.1 -

The recent absence:

I am sorry for being absent so far and above all, for not being able to respond to all of your wonderful comments or help those who had problems with their order. I had to abandon my home and studio in Milan, as a result of stalking and threats from the person who attacked me in December (in order to make me withdraw the complaint that I filed against him) and having to reorganize my life is not allowing me to dedicate you the time I’d want and that you deserve.

PS: A lot of love for the awesome comments here and on the socials, I'll answer you all asap! :)

Support:

We have created an e-mail box to write to for assistance with our projects: [email protected]. Feel free to write us any questions or if you need help with your order!

Missing Prides:

I am aware of the problem of missing Player’s Prides ordered through Backerkit and we are preparing a new shipment for the missing pins. The issue was caused by an error in the extrapolation of the list of orders from Backerkit, as the reports provided from their support team appear to be incomplete.

Like during the campaign there still is the possibility of getting a refund in case you have changed your mind about the extra pins. If you want to cancel your order and have a refund, you can write an email to: [email protected], indicating the email you used to access Backerkit and a paypal or bank address where we can  issue the refund.

Contest:

Some Player’s Prides arrived (here in Italy) only last week. We therefore decided to postpone the end date of the contest to May 21, 2019, guaranteeing two more weeks from now, in order for everyone to be able to participate!

Our next project:

Although we wanted to launch our set of metal dice as the next Kickstarter, given the recent personal events and the amount of material already produced for our other project, we decided that the next Kickstarter to go live will be our Dice Vaults!

We have dedicated a whole year to the development of this project and I am very satisfied with the quality we accomplished, both for the results achieved with the master craftsmen with whom we have collaborated for the production and for some personal design features that give the project those little details that eventually make the difference :).

To find out when the campaign will be launched, you can subscribe to our FB group or subscribe to our mailing list (we will send an email near the launch).

What’s Now

During this week we will recover the missing addresses and get the shipments ready, once I find again a stationary home I will begin to prepare the launch of the Dice Vaults campaign. 

Cheers!

Andrea

- Personal Notes (optional) -

We do not know each other. I am a fairly reserved person, even in everyday life. I prefer not to tell about myself, especially when not in person. But since this project has now come to an end, and has become an important part of my life, I want to take the opportunity offered to me by this digital wall to give you a context to really understand what I long to say with these notes. 

This project was my first personal project for the general public and has been the same time  a path of personal and professional maturation. The difficulties that have arisen during my journey have been many, such as the choices I found myself in, every mistake, every success, every experience, the hours and days it took me to think about what decisions to make, the constant fear to err and ruin the success, the pressure of having to present justifications, the frustration of often having to present them not even for our own mistakes, the awareness of how important your support is for me and the weight of the responsibility that comes from it. During this period of my life, during these last four years, LOTL has been my life, the reason why I got up in the morning and often the last thought before falling asleep. I put all of myself and all my energy into these projects and now I find myself in a sublime moment of uncertainty of the becoming, where I wonder if all this made sense, even if I already know that the answer is yes. Because in the meantime, all the experiences and the time spent from that day of 2015 summer, when I was sketching the first lines of the LOTL logo, have also radically changed me, along with my goals and life values.  

I write this update from a friend's house, because in these months I have lost my home and my life in Milan, while I’m experiencing the deepest chaos I've ever known. But despite this, I am not scared for my future, because I treasured the experience coming from my mistakes, because every problem, every difficulty, every time life has tried to throw me down I have always got up and every time stronger than before. Because despite everything I'm still here writing to you and I'm not giving up on the idea of ​​what I will accomplish. Because in all this we have sent you something that made you happy, in all this I have achieved the goals I had set, and in a certain way you are all my salvation, my light of Eärendil (;P), the realization of my efforts. This gives me the boost of determination to keep going and create the next project, pursue the next step.

Even if we don't really know each other, even though we probably will never meet. I am aware that these are just words written by a young man in the vastness of the web and probably, for you they will hardly have the effect they have on me.

A heartfelt thanks for believing in me and my dream.

Andrea

Shipments have been sent out!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 12:17:46 AM

 Reading time: less than 1 minute.

Hello guys! Our couriers are on their way to your homes with the Player’s Prides and will take two to four weeks to get to you!

What's now:

There's nothing much to say now but you will receive a special update the day you'll receive the package!

Happy unboxing! :)

Cheers, 

Andrea 

Quick update - shipping in preparation
over 5 years ago – Fri, Feb 01, 2019 at 12:27:13 AM

 Reading time 1 minute .

Hello guys! Right now we are preparing the boxes and the shipping labels, we should soon receive the backing cards (that are being delayed due to production problems) and as soon as they arrive we will be ready to send you your rewards!

With a little luck we should be able to ship next week and you should receive the rewards already during February, since we will be shipping the packages directly from our studio.

I remind you again to notify us if you have changed your address after completing the survey and/or to verify that you have provided us with your correct shipping address. Sunday will be the last day available to make changes to your address! If you have any doubt or urgent question feel free to email me at: [email protected]

I'll post another update the day we will send out the shipments!

Cheers,

Andrea 

New Player's Prides are here, and they are pretty cool!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 31, 2018 at 07:04:47 PM

Reading time 3 minutes plus 5 minutes for the attached .pdf

Hello again my dear roleplayers, I hope that you have had lovely holidays!

The last few months have been really challenging and I just recently noticed that I left you in my last update, saying: “As soon as I choose a new producer and the production starts, I'll update you!”.

I would have preferred to close the project (if we didn’t have to produce the pins a second time) before our fair season (considering that it is a super challenging period of time for us) and unfortunately the beginning of the new production coincided exactly with the beginning of our exhibition period. The whole organizational and mental bustle made me forget that I promised you to post an update at the beginning of production, continuing to update you only through the comments section, which obviously not everyone reads. After that I failed updating you due to serious personal health issues.

I'm really sorry to have created confusion with the communication, I hope I have not made you worry about the fate of the project unnecessarily! If you want to read easily the updates I made via comment, find a collage at this link.

Player's Pride:

Communication problems aside, I have been constantly dedicated to the Player's Pride fulfillment and I am very pleased to announce that we did find a new producer, we have started the new production, we have already received the new pins and that during January we will finally send all the new Player's Pride to the their rightful owners! :P

The lines of the new Player's Pride are thin, regular and clean. The incidence of production defects such as scratches or chipping are very rare. The back of the pins has a nice finish, the laser marking is clean, and the backstamp of the logo is clear and precise.  

I am very satisfied with the result and happy to finally see our logo on a pin that meets the quality standards I want for our projects.

In previous updates I had reported some of the flaws that led me to decide to produce the pins all over again. Having now received the 2nd production of the pins, I wanted to prepare a detailed document completed with my comments and considerations, which compares the two productions, so that you know what your patience is worth. Let me know what you think!

PS: I preferred to make a document .pdf external to Kickstarter because the information reported are very extensive. Also, not to lose quality photos due to the compression of the Kickstarter content creator. If you are reading this update and the link is no longer working I invite you to email me at [email protected] or to contact me directly on facebook to receive a copy of it!

Shipment addresses (REALLY IMPORTANT - MUST READ!):

 We are preparing to ship and I recommend you to check if you have completed the shipping address form on Backerkit, you should find a link to it in the email we sent you through Backerkit on the 5th of June. Simply email me ([email protected]) if you need help. 

If you have already filled out the form, please check if the address is correct and still valid (if you have moved after June, you’ll probably have to update the address :p).

I will do another update in the coming weeks where I will ask you again to verify your addresses, I will only do it to reach as many people as possible and if you have already checked now, I will not need any further action on your part.

Gossip (optional): 

 As I said above, in the last few months we have been at Spiel in Essen (for the first time) and at Lucca Comics and Games (our third year in a row). The fairs were thrilling and we met a lot of new people, "old " friends and customers and many other creators with realities like our. Also during the fairs, was born a good opportunity to work with one of the biggest  names in the industry (since there is nothing concrete at the moment I will not reveal the name of the company). 

In any case, a lot of exciting news and projects are planned for the future! :P Also, I would like to thank all the backers who took the time and the trouble to look for us to come and say hello! :) 

What's now:

This month we will dedicate ourselves to the planning of the shipment and to the preparation of the Player's Prides.

Thank you all for sticking with us until now, I can’t wait for you to receive your pins and to hear what you think about them!

It's still the New Year's Eve here in Italy, I run away to celebrate and I wish to everyone a 2019 full of loot! :)

Cheers, 

 Andrea

A quick update
over 5 years ago – Mon, Oct 08, 2018 at 01:29:04 AM

Reading time: 1 minute.

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If you have not read the latest updates, you should know that:

In recent months I received the Player's Pride, but they presented various production issues that compromised the quality. With some difficulties, I managed to get in touch with the producers to have them replace the enamel pins, but they refused. I decided, however, to produce them again, even if at my expense, to offer you a product that does not disappoint your expectations and mine. At the time of the last update I was still trying to get a refund from the producers, you can read it by clicking here.

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First of all I would like to thank everyone for your understanding of this situation, and for the numerous comments and messages of support. I was genuinely surprised by your positive reaction, even though things aren’t going as planned.

I feel very lucky to have you as backers :)

When you are "on the other" part of a Kickstarter campaign, you have the responsibility not to disappoint your backers, even though it’s almost impossible to satisfy everyone. So I'm happy to see that everyone on my last update agreed with my choice of producings the pins all over again. In any case, finally, things seem to be going well!

I convinced the producers to offer us a refund, listing in detail the various issues I had identified as I was inspecting the lot and explaining that they were not acceptable to us, as they compromised the quality standard that Lady of the Lake offers and wants to keep offering.

As for the second production however, we will no longer produce the pins from them. They themselves have withdrawn from the project, I hypothesize because they can not guarantee us a quality standard and do not want to produce another batch of this size with the risk that it may return to them again.

Anyway, as soon as I heard the news, I started looking for new producers. I found and wrote to 8 companies that I think can offer us products of the appropriate quality. One in particular among these I think could make the pins faster and with a lower chance of unexpected events, even if it is more expensive than other options.

What’s now?

Currently I'm focusing on that last company, since we are already late on delivery, I think it is the most appropriate choice to fulfill the project. Right now I'm going through a negotiation so as not to exceed too much our initial budget.

As soon as I choose a new producer and the production starts, I'll update you!

Thanks to everyone and see you soon,

Andrea