❖ Version History ❖

August, 2024
The finish line is in sight now.
From the top of this story, it is the first & second week of August….
Everything is ready… everything of course, except the game.

It was supposed to be here the first week of August…. It was not delivered.
It was supposed to be here the second week of August… it was not delivered.
(I’m not panicking, you’re panicking).
(Deep Breaths).
It was supposed to be here the third week of August… It was not delivered.
(The Renaissance Festival is going to start at the end of next week).
(I need to go build our store on wednesday… WHERE ARE THE GAMES!!).

Where are the games? That is all I could wonder as I was being fed the worst news of all time: Our pallet had been seized by customs when trying to cross into the United States through the port in California. Why? Why I ask over and over again only to receive the unwelcoming: “We do not know, there is no knowing what caused this until it is over & they give us a report back on whether or not the shipment will be allowed into the country, and what sort of fine we may owe”.

You know that feeling of “it can’t possibly get worse” and then of course the lightning strikes and suddenly its raining? ~ That was my entire summer of 2024. It truly felt like more things could not have gone more wrong. We barely scrapped up the money we needed to make this project happen, I lost my house, and now we are being delayed by almost an entire month, with our deadline to open our store fast approaching. If we cannot get the game in hand before the fair begins… we cannot recoup our costs… and whats worse is that we will have nothing new to offer our fans… and whats even worse is that we will have backers who are getting the one thing I will do anything to prevent: bad news about our plans (which has been kept a secret until now).

But the people must know. They are our investors after all. They deserve to know. And so I tell them. I explain that for the first time in the four years that we have been establishing this business, finally a hurdle has come along that I cannot dodge, and that we are going to be later than anticipated by at least a few weeks… possibly months. Once customs has your container, there is no knowing how long they will have it.

But then my phone rang.
It was like a Christmas Miracle.
On Wednesday August 28th, 2024 the truck arrived at home base! (I wasn’t even home, because I was busy building our booth for the Renaissance Festival). Suddenly these pictures start coming through on my phone, and it is the best news I could have possibly asked for:

I am beyond grateful for this moment. Even though I literally just a day or two earlier explained to our Kickstarter Backers that we were going to face delays, the game actually arrived!

We unloaded the truck, unloaded the pallets, I hucked a few cases of Phoenix Farm into my car, and I rushed back home to finish setting up our storefront needs. Thursday & Friday were my last days of my regular schedule at the restaurant, and Saturday of this week we were leaving home base at 6am to get the store stocked and ready to open for 10am later that morning.

I was…. rather burdened with stress even still though. I hated the idea that our store was going to open at the Renaissance Festival with Phoenix Farm completely in stock before actually getting the game to our backers… but there was literally no other way about this. If we didn’t open the festival with the new game, we would have lost critical sales (nearly $1,000). If we did open the festival with the game, we wouldn’t be honoring our original backers. The choice was horrible, and I had so much guilt that I also explained myself to the backers on this point with my head sunk low. But our response from our community was amazing. Not a single person came at us upset about the decision that was made, and in fact, many people from our backer list came to visit us in the opening day of the fair to show support, show solidarity, and see the game up close, knowing full well that their copy would be coming in the mail within a week or so later.

I am even more grateful than I was before.

And the first week at the fair was simply amazing. But our work was definitely not over! We had to get the mail ready as soon as we possibly could! And so, with my next day off, I prepared my entire home for the mail:

There were about one hundred pieces of mail that needed to be made. Some were nicely identical to others (a few batches of eight or so that all match), but otherwise each package was unique to which add-ons our backers had chosen! At the top of this process there were simply 1,000 game parts, accessories and items all over the desk, but then as we went on my desk became a fortress of bubble wrapped envelops:

Luckily, BackerKit really and truly makes organizing all of the packages very easy. They sort out which packages are identical for you, and give an itemized list for each piece of mail that needs to go out. Additionally, you can purchase your postage through BackerKit, which makes this process so so so so so much easier for everyone involved. It makes assessing the pricing of your packages better, it make printing the labels better, it makes sorting the mail easier, and it makes bringing the packages to the post office so much less stressful.

After about six to eight hours of work on the setup of the mail, I am ready to go. My objective is to wake up on Thursday morning, print our hundred labels, slap them on the mail, then ferry it down to the USPS headquarters in my town. By about 10am Thurdsay Morning, I get myself down to these bins, and prep to load the car:

And just like that… it’s over.

It is hard to believe the emptiness you feel after dropping off the mail on an occasion like this. I imagine this is what post-partum depression is like… you spend so much time caring for this thing just to get it ready to leave you. It is heartbreaking. the mail goes out and then that is it. It is over. there is no more project to be done… it is officially complete! Don’t get me wrong, it is also a huge relief, and I never slept more peacefully than that Thursday night… but I swear to you, the very first thing that comes to mind is getting pregnant again with another project. You simply can’t live without that purpose anymore once it passes like that!

Fortunately, we had the Renaissance Festival to keep us busy through this time. Luckily, the #1 cure-all for feeling empty & depressed in my experience is keeping myself busy with a very engaging workflow, and boy-o the Ren-faire provides on that account. Each day that we are there we work a full 10-12 hours with no rest.. but it is the best feeling. So good in fact, that we will save it as our last story to be shared here on the epic journey of Phoenix Farm. Be sure to check back soon for the grand finale of how this product launch came together, and hear all about how it was received by the public once our seasonal shop was open! ~ and always, thank you for reading!