sequential disorder

kickstarter year(s) in review

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:20:32 -0700

Originally, I was going to make a separate post about all the different hi-tec pen cases I bought off kickstarter since… 2011, but thought it’d be easier to throw everything together in one post. First, the pens and then the rest will be under a cut.

Number of pens bought: 5

Number of pens that met their deadlines: 1

Overall: The plastic shell hi-tecs come in originally are still better than all of these. Sadly. I use hi-tecs to both write and draw with and quite frankly these turned out to not be solutions at all. I sure as hell won’t be backing any sort of proclaimed pen solutions from backyard product designers again.

Pen Type A

Excellent finish and case
Questionable ink flow
Production hell, extremely late with delivery
Somewhat heavy, still balanced

Crappy flow
Decent finish
Lightweight, meh balance
Production hell, extremely late with delivery

PHX

Terrible balance, very top heavy
Mediocre finish
Decent ink flow
Arrived on time

EiMM

Good balance
Beautiful finish
Good flow
Production hell, extremely late with delivery

Ti2

Good balance
Gorgeous finish
Good flow
Slow with delivery but not as production hellish as others

So what else did I back on Kickstarter? I backed 27 projects (ranged from product design to comics to games to fashion) and canceled my pledge on one last minute. (I actually really regret that because their product looks more convincing than the other of similar subject I did back) Of those projects, 8 projects delivered on time or only missed their proposed deadlines by a month or so. 4 of those on time projects were artbook projects run by one superior grohac, while the others were either individuals who had thoroughly worked out their production schedule ahead of time (thanks Shing!) or they delivered digital product.

I am still waiting on 11 items from the 27, the oldest being double fine’s adventure game. That one is more tolerable because they’ve been releasing production videos and the physical rewards came down late-ish but not with the whole weep-we-don’t-know-production-at-all sob stories. In general, I’m fine with waiting for product as long as the final item is produced well and improves my life in some form of manner - which hasn’t been 100% of the time. Plus out of the 11, 4 projects have not hit their delivery deadlines and won’t for a little while.

The worst is when a successful kickstarter issues their product to new buyers or sells the product in public events (I’m looking at you, Jonathan Rosenberg) before getting shipments out to backers. I understand there’s scheduling, and trying to get things manufactured specifically for big events like SDCC; just know that if a backer spots that shit and they haven’t gotten their shit that they’ll never buy your shit again.

But hey, it’s definitely been interesting. I’m sure other people who aren’t as picky or don’t come from a heavy design background are probably happier with kickstarter results than I am. I just happen to be that jerk in the store who’ll compare every single item in a sku to each other because I can see the differences between each in terms of manufacturing and finishing consistency down to micrometers.

So my general conclusion is that I’ll happily continue to back artbooks, won’t back comics unless it’s to put out a book of completed comics (backing a comic that’s starting up or barely pushing through its first quarter or material is the equivalent of burning your bills and flushing the ashes), probably keep backing games by mid-tier devs with previous reputation and will probably not look at product design for a loooooong while.

And then a misc. related to auctions something or another dump....

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:40:56 -0700

And then a misc. related to auctions something or another dump. Whoop

Caught up with my batch of LS stuff from Gaia.

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:20:48 -0700

Caught up with my batch of LS stuff from Gaia.

LS on Gaia as usual

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:40:41 -0700

LS on Gaia as usual

More LS stuff.

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:20:25 -0700

More LS stuff.

Been doing a bunch of LS sessions and forgetting to put my stuff...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:40:38 -0700

Been doing a bunch of LS sessions and forgetting to put my stuff up. Proportions are all sorts of screwy.

Three moon bunnies from Gaia - trying to make enough fake money...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 13:20:50 -0700

Three moon bunnies from Gaia - trying to make enough fake money for the middle one now.

Art trade over at Gaia. Will probably be spamming a lot of...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:20:46 -0800

Art trade over at Gaia. Will probably be spamming a lot of gaia-based commissions/trades/experiments over the next few weeks. It’s probably one of the best testing beds for branching out while (hopefully) making someone’s day better.

Super belated giftart. Chun Li x Roller Derby.

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:37:42 -0800

Super belated giftart. Chun Li x Roller Derby.

Fat bloodelf from Gaia.

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 12:20:34 -0800

Fat bloodelf from Gaia.

Happy New Snake Year! Or something. Followers of Tofu Girls will...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:20:36 -0800

Happy New Snake Year! Or something. Followers of Tofu Girls will recognize this as one of the characters I designed for it.

Day 27 - Unicorn: Balloonicorn from TF2, sister to-be-felted to...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 12:20:56 -0800

Day 27 - Unicorn: Balloonicorn from TF2, sister to-be-felted to the flying courier.

Day 26 - Donkey: Reproportion of the flying courier for Dota 2,...

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:40:32 -0800

Day 26 - Donkey: Reproportion of the flying courier for Dota 2, similar to the balloonicorn. Most likely this is the blueprint I’ll be using for the needle felt of it once I get around to it.

Parrotlet keychain for a friend of mine’s birthday.

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:20:35 -0800

Parrotlet keychain for a friend of mine’s birthday.

Hourly comics, finally did em this year!

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:06:08 -0800

Hourly comics, finally did em this year!

How did you get the facial features so flat on the penguin head, like the eyes and the white part?

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:07:00 -0800

The white part was added at the same time as the pink part over the core body so they’re basically the same layer. As for the eyes, it’s just repeated poking with increments of 36, 38, 40 and 42 needles.

In the process of making the Tofu Girls mascots into needle...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:20:34 -0800

In the process of making the Tofu Girls mascots into needle felts. It started as a b-day gift thing but I guess it’s going to keep going throughout the year.

I am not terribly sure what we call this one. Peach penguin? Penguin peach? Delicious penguin face?

These were the “second” items I made back when I...

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 13:58:00 -0800

These were the “second” items I made back when I first started needle felting (after making a pumpkin to start off with), just putting them up for my own record since I have no other images of them. They were sent to Desert Bus 2009 (?) to be auctioned off for Child’s Play.

Apologies for the quality, these were taken with my old iphone 3.

Day 15 - Monochrome green of Akarei walking. Haven’t...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:43:55 -0800

Day 15 - Monochrome green of Akarei walking. Haven’t decided if this is a dream or one of the many forests of Tentai.

@_@ Day 13 of 100 days, they offered a special challenge to get...

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:15:03 -0800

@_@ Day 13 of 100 days, they offered a special challenge to get a free pass in case we miss a day later. Said challenge was 3 freebies and I swear I thought I wasn’t going to finish since I turtled the first one quite a bit.