Player's Prides are here, but not with good news.
over 5 years ago – Sun, Sep 16, 2018 at 01:11:11 AM

Reading time: 4 minutes

This update is quite lengthy and it covers a single subject, if you simply want to catch up without getting to the heart of the matter, you can skip to the end and only read the "What's now?" section.

Hello everyone, I hope you had a great return from summer vacation! Despite the fact that I received your pins this update will not be as exciting as the other updates, as it regards the first real setback of the campaign.

I initially wanted to make a video-update to show you the pins that our suppliers had sent us but, as I told you in the comment section, there are some problems related to the production.

When I received the pins I immediately noticed that the overall quality was lower than the usual and that there were several flaws. Our logo, stamped on the back of each pin, was crooked. I'll put the photos below. Keep in mind that defects can happen in a large production, but unfortunately these defects are present on many, too many pins that I have inspected, and a product with its own logo crooked .. well, I think it speaks for itself.

Honestly I did not think this was something that could happen, both Samantha and I were not the least worried about the production of the pins, actually we were sure it would be the only component where we would have had no surprises or unforeseen difficulties, since we had already turned to these producers several times and we had always received high quality products.

We had even ordered a small test production of Player's Pride before the Kickstarter, just to see how the pins would come out, in order to offer you a product that we had already touched by hand, and to avoid the issues that usually arise in the production process of a new product.

As soon as I received the pins I tried to get in touch with the producers to find a solution, and I managed to get an answer only after quite some time and difficulties. Unfortunately their response was negative. The flaws we have discussed are considered by them as "acceptable errors" of production, and in the case I should not be able to change his mind, we wouldn't receive a refund or a replacement of the pins produced. Needless to say that I will insist on replacing the pins. I have already sent a new mail where I present further issues of the pins, which had initially escaped me, but that I identified as redundant in the production, as I proceeded to inspect the lot. For example, on some there can be found a smudged and uneven construction line, or the wrong enamel color of the 6 and 10 facets, a way too bright grey, that I believe is the biggest flaw, since it compromises the 3D effect.

We have no control over these errors, since we do not take care of production directly. What I can do, and it is my intention to do so, is to fight for you, to achieve the best quality of production. 

I treat my projects as if they were made for myself so I have no intention to deliver you a product that won’t stand up to the expectations. If I don’t succeed in convincing the suppliers to change the lot, it is my intention to reproduce the pins from another manufacturer, at our expenses. So regardless of the producers' response you will receive your pins as they were supposed to be.

I am very sorry that what happened, happened. I launched this project to promote the idea of ​​my studio and to show how I work, and the attention that I pay to details. Certainly with all this delay, we are not making the good impression I was hoping for.

At this point, given that the timescales are currently undefined, and given the quite long response time of the producers, I can offer a refund to anyone who has lost their patience or is annoyed by the delay (you have my total understanding), without having to give no explanation. Just write me an e-mail ([email protected]) asking for the refund and indicating your full name and bank account details.

Apart from the problems related to the pins, all the other aspects of the project are in place. Talking about the "free extra reward", since it was in production by the producers themselves, is currently on standby and will be produced together with the new Player's Pride.

(If you have missed what the free extra reward is, it is a secret freebie we added once the campaign has ended, as a way to celebrate it's success)

What’s now?

For who skipped directly at this point: We have received your Player's Prides, but the quality is not as expected.

-I am currently working to deliver your Player’s Pride and freebies as soon as possible, of a quality that meets my expectations and yours, I hope. For this reason I decided to make another production of the Player's Pride pins at my expenses. As soon as I have news about the timing of the new production I will inform you.

-I planned to launch our second project at the beginning of October, but given the problems that arose with P.P., we have postponed it, so as to be able to devote ourselves entirely to the fulfillment of this campaign.

Thank you, for the support shown during the campaign and for the patience you have shown until now towards my project (and little dream).

See you soon.

Andrea

A very long (and awaited) update.
almost 6 years ago – Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 12:32:56 AM

Reading time: 6 minutes.

It’s been more time than I'd like it to be since the last update and I’m sorry about it. I promised myself more than once to update you on the developments, however in this last period of time I found myself taking care of the Kickstarter and LOTL only by myself. Commitments and contingencies kept stealing the time needed to do a sum up, take good photos and write everything down.

Anyway, everything is proceeding well, I am satisfied with the prototypes and with the partnerships I have made to produce the components of the Player's Pride campaign. I promise that from this update on I will try my best to keep you updated more frequently :) 

I hold Jamey Stegmaier in high esteem as a creator, and I appreciate even more how he manages the relationship with his backers. He exposes the project developments in detail and tells things as they are, for better or worse. It is my intention to do the same and even if I tried to keep it short and simple, it turned out I'm not good at recaps. Excuse me ^^"

Estimated shipping date

The shipping date I initially estimated was scheduled for July. When I hypothesized this date I estimated to produce no more than 400 pins and 1 freebie (deluxe clutch). Although I had foreseen extra time for any unexpected events, the success that the project has achieved has exceeded my expectations. Currently we are producing 2,500 pins and 3 additional freebies over those initially planned (stickers - pencil - free extra reward), so this has inevitably led to an extension of the timings compared to those planned.

As Player's Pride is a Kickstarter project that, as you have seen from how the campaign turned out, is still in the making, I would ask you to have a little more patience.

I'm doing my best to get your rewards out as soon as possible. But I warn you that as I am a meticulous designer (and a bit manic), I'm placing the pursuit of quality above the speed of realization. I prefer to make you wait a little more time and give you a product to its full potential and that I personally tested: I am confident that, when you’ll have your package in your hands you'll be convinced that the wait was worth it. :)

If you backed the pin in occasion of a particular event (like a birthday or a wedding) I invite you to write me an email to find a solution. ([email protected])

Locking orders on Backerkit

89% of the backers have already completed the Backerkit survey, and on Wednesday 00:00 AM (Rome +2: 00 GMT) we will lock down all the orders. If you still have to provide us with your shipping address or you want to add pins to your order, hurry up because soon it won’t be possible anymore! 

PS: A big thank you to all the 48 Backers who were not satiated with their Player's Pride yet! :P Thanks to you other 100 P.P. will see the daylight!

READ HEREUNDER ONLY IF YOU DID NOT COMPLETE THE SURVEY YET:

I want to alert the latecomers that we can offer free shipping only by sending out all the products in one big shipment, so all the backers who will not complete the survey in time will have to pay a surcharge for shipping (it will be an express courier shipment and the price will depend on your country). Tomorrow I will personally write to all the missing Backers (with an email and a KS private message), hoping to avoid this fate to as many people as possible!

Meanwhile, I sent a last reminder email to all the missing Backers; since it’s an automated email it might end up in your spam folder, so have a look in there too! 

Poll results & “Free extra reward” progresses

The poll of the last update ended with the majority of the participants who voted to postpone the shipment... in favor of a misterious extra reward!

This extra reward was thought and added after the Kickstarter had already ended, and therefore we had to design it from scratch. This reward will also be gifted in our next Kickstarters and will evolve along with them, so finding a design that would allow us to maintain an aesthetic continuity over time took a lot of time. In the end we found a solution that we think is very cool and we are moving on with the production. :) 

FOR THE CURIOUS:  

As anticipated, the realization was taken care by the (in my opinion) very talented Anna Verhoog. If you are curious and want to see some of her amazing works, this is her Artstation profile: https://www.artstation.com/annaverhoog

She's also an artist I would personally recommand to any other creator for her versatility and professionalism. Working with her has always been a pleasure!

Production development:

Below you will find a list of the various components of the project with their respective updates. I will keep this layout for the next updates to make their reading easier.

Production: Pins

We had some issues with the quotes and the confirmation of the order, but everything was resolved, the pins are currently in production and we should receive them within a maximum of 4-6 weeks.  

Production: Backing Cards

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We received very satisfactory prototypes and decided to add an extra feature as a secret Kickstarter exclusive. Therefore I will not reveal it online so as not to spoil the surprise, but I think you will appreciate it very much! :P

As anticipated, we went from a 200gr/m2 paper to a 400gr/m2 paper (therefore twice as thick). In place of a standard white paper, we will use a deluxe full black paper, the graphics will be laminated directly onto the paper instead of being printed with an usual ink, which will give an embossed finish to the card and a more precious look.

We still have to confirm the order, but once the production starts it will only take two weeks to complete. I should be able to process the order within the next week.

Production: Pencils

I developed the files and ordered the pencils, they should be delivered within the next week.

Production: Stickers

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We received the prototypes of the sticker and they are extremely cool! We managed to find a company that could print on metallic plastic films (PVC), in order to create special stickers as accurate as possible to the shine of Player’s Pride.

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Once we received the prototypes we noticed that the paint, printed on the plastic surface, would come off easily if scratched. We have therefore decided to apply a further transparent foil, to protect the ink from abrasion, that will also improve the resistance of the stickers to atmospheric agents.

View Video

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We have already received the new prototypes and we have achieved the desired result, obtaining unscratchable and more structured stickers.

What’s now:

-We’re now waiting for the producers. As the prototypes or products will keep coming, I will post them in real time on our Facebook group (Lady of the Lake Herald's), and as always, when we’ll reach a good number of news I will write them down in the next Kickstarter update.

-If you have already completed the Backerkit survey, no further action is required on your part.

-During the campaign you have written and replied to us in so many, and now that things for Player's Pride are underway, I will start replying to your messages! :)

A cool announcement:

Many of you have asked us to produce more pins in the future. I had this concept in mind that I wanted to develop for the last year, and I was surprised to see that many of you asked me to design just what I had in mind. I am therefore happy to announce that we are organizing things to create a collection of... RPG's class pins! At the moment I'm already in contact with various artists who might be suitable to achieve the designs I have in mind, so there will be more news about it soon! :)

If you have other ideas or products that you would like me to start working on, write me your idea! You could see it come true in the not too distant future :P

Cheers,

Andrea

New poll, important update! (reading recommended)
about 6 years ago – Wed, May 16, 2018 at 01:23:50 AM

If you are only interested in the very important part of the update, you can skip directly to "THE BIG NEWS".

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Backerkit

As you may have read in the previous updates, we decided to use backerkit to better manage the logistics of the campaign. In just a few days we will begin collecting your shipping addresses. Thanks to Backerkit, If you want to get more Player's Pride, you can do that while providing us with your address! :)

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Pencils

I found a supplier who has the exact same pencils as the image we used on Kickstarter, so I went to collect samples and I was really satisfied with their application. After discussing it on the LOTL Herald's group, I decided to choose HB (2) pencils because they are the most suitable to write and sketch on the character sheet: it's both hard enough to have minimal smudging and soft enough to be easily erased. 

Stickers

During the campaign, some backers expressed their desire for stickers that could be used on cars, and we proposed gold foil stickers instead of simple inked stickers. We are working on both of them, and soon we should receive the samples! I will post pictures of them in our LOTL Herald's group first, as always, and when there is enough news to merge together, here on the next Kickstarter update!

THE BIG NEWS (reading recommended)

The campaign has been a success beyond all expectations, but the surprises are not done yet! Talking between us, the idea of ​​an extra-item came out. We would like to design it and gift it to you, to thank you for joining in so many :)

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This would be an extra-item, but since this is something we decided only after the campaign ended, we still only have sketches. However we are ready to start the design process, and this would add 3-4 weeks to the estimated delivery date, as we will need to hire an illustrator in order to design this extra reward. 

The talented Anna Verhoog, with whom we have already worked very well in the past and who I think is the best artist to perform this task, has stated that she will gladly accept this flash-commission, once she has finished her current commission. We have already discussed about deadlines: she will need two weeks of time to finish her work, and 1-2 weeks to fully develop our extra reward.

Since this is an important decision to make, I opened a new poll on the LOTL Herald's group, to leave this choice up to you.

We really want to make this extra item for you, and if you decide to support this decision, we will pay an additional fee to our producers in order to have an "express production" and try to limit the delay of the delivery.

Do you prefer to wait a little longer and receive the surprise or to remain as much as possible within the estimated delivery time? If you want to take part in the poll, join the other backers and me in Lady of the Lake's Heralds Fb group!

PS: I can’t say anything else about the extra surprise, except for this: I think it will be super cool! :P

What's now:

Us: 

- We are currently working on the improvements we have decided during the Kickstarter, such as deluxe backing cards, laminated stickers and pencils.

- After collecting the last orders and all the shipping addresses, we will start the production of the pins, that will take about 5-7 weeks. 

 You: 

- Soon you will receive an email from Backerkit, that will let you write us your preferred shipping address.

Thanks again to everyone for the participation and for the countless beautiful words that you keep spending on our project! Samantha and I are working hard to make the most of your rewards and we look forward to delivering your Player's Pride! :)

Cheers!

Andrea

An amazing journey and a new beginning.
about 6 years ago – Fri, May 04, 2018 at 01:12:55 AM

And so our first campaign has ended.

We exceeded any final goal expectations that we could have - it took me a whole day to fully realise (and recover from) this surprising campaign.  

I know you received a lot of updates from me during the Kickstarter, but after these first end-of-the-campaign days, you will only receive them every once in a few weeks, that is until there is enough news to merge together.

If you want to receive the updates as they come, instead of one big block, I invite you to join the other backers and me in the Lady of the Lake Herald's group!

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I just want to thank you. Every one of you, from person to person. For everything. For these last crazy days, for all the wonderful comments and the messages you sent us. For sharing with us the excitement for this project. For supporting my dream. And for being there once more, right in this moment.

Player’s Pride is now a thing, a great thing. And it's all thanks to you.

It was hard to find the words to convey the gratitude I feel for you, I hope I have achieved that.

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Your dream

A person who taught me a lot once said: "If you ever put your dream on Kickstarter, I want you to let me know. I'm serious about that." 

This person was very important for this project and without his help we simply wouldn't be where we are now, so as a tribute to you and him I want to carry on this tradition and tell you:  If you ever put your dream on Kickstarter, I want you to let me know. I'm serious about that.

Send me the preview link if you want feedback before you launch, or just send me the project link after you launch. I can't promise that I'll want the rewards you're offering, but I will find a way to support your dream just as you supported mine.

What's now:

Soon I will write a more technical update where I will explain the various deadlines and arrangements for fullfillment.

We have already started working on the next project, it will be a very special brass die and we will reveal more details on its dedicated group, stay tuned on this! It will be a really funny campaign!

Thanks to everyone and see you soon, we can't wait for you to receive your Player's Pride!

Andrea & Samantha

Over 10k €! Free mini-stretch goal!
about 6 years ago – Wed, May 02, 2018 at 12:13:04 AM

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Alright, we went from being surprised to being confused. Has this really happened to our campaign? But above all, is this actually our campaign? 

I know that in the Update #12 I told you that we had reached the maximum limit of money that we could save on production. But, thanks to the unbelievable success of these last hours, we can save another 0.05 € for each Player's Pride produced.

It's not much money, but it's still something, and it seemed right to me to use these extra funds to further reward your participation!

Although small, this extra budget allows us to further embellish Player's Pride, especially for all those players who keep pretty packagings of what they buy, especially if they are limited editions (yes, I know you do it! I do the same thing ;P)

Free mini-stretch goal:

We found a company that offers an enviable collection of papers. Among these, we discovered a beautiful black Fedrigoni paper (Fedrigoni is the best Italian paper company).

With this last improvement we will embellish the backing cards, that will be thicker, made out of the best quality paper and ... laminated instead of printed!

All the graphic components of the backing cards will therefore be slightly debossed and foiled! Player's Pride will have a backing card worthy of its success!

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Giveaway: and the winner is... Blair Fraser!!!

Lady Luck has smiled on a fortunate player from the United Kingdom: congratulations to Blair, who will soon be able to take a Player’s Pride shower! Thank you also to everyone who participated, you were in so many. Your warm support never fails to amaze us. :)

What's now:

Given both the huge number of backers and the approach of the end of the campaign, we are considering using a dedicated platform (a third-part pledge manager like Backerkit) in order to manage the logistics. This way we can offer you a better service.

I would remind you that these are the last hours you have to upgrade your pledge. If you are planning a little surprise for a loved one, take this opportunity!

Thanks again to everyone, especially for the messages you keep sending us, you are amazing!

Cheers,

Andrea