Why it takes longer than you think

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Tagged: postage, hadean lands, zarfplan, zarf, interactive fiction, if, kickstarter


In case you're wondering, nobody hassled me about how long the rewards took. Apparently you folks really were in it for the game -- or to support me, which is even nicer.

However, I bet there are people out there who are working on Kickstarters. And they should be warned: it always takes longer than you think. To substantiate this, here's a timeline of Hadean Lands work that came after the game shipped.

Note that I did lot of reward design in December, but didn't order the stuff until early January. That's because I knew I would be out of town for the last week of December. I didn't want expensive parcels arriving when I was gone.

  • Oct 30: Hadean Lands goes live for sale. (I won't describe the whole monkey dance of sending out iOS gift codes. Too painful to recall.)
  • Oct 31 to Nov 3: Catching up on backers who had problems getting the game, or who sent in late Kickstarter surveys. Also general PR work -- answering emails, posting on every social network I know.
  • Nov 5: Submit iOS app version 1.1. (Better iPhone 6 support.)
  • Nov 7 to 10: Toronto trip for WordPlay. (File under "marketing".)
  • Nov 10: Release iOS app version 1.1.
  • Nov 13 to 17: New York trip for Practice. (File under "networking".)
  • Nov 30: Finalize book design; order proofs.
  • Dec 2: Finalize postcard design; order postcards.
  • Dec 6: Get first proofs of the book.
  • Dec 8: Finalize map poster design; order proofs.
  • Dec 12: Decide the books are too large. Reformat smaller, order more proofs.
  • Dec 19: Submit iOS app version 1.2. (Save-file import and export.)
  • Dec 25 to 31: Out of town. Not thinking about HL.
  • Jan 1: Release iOS app version 1.2. (I didn't want to release this while I was gone, either.)
  • Jan 2: Order books.
  • Jan 3: Order posters.
  • Jan 6: Look into CD pricing.
  • Jan 11: Finalize CD design; order CDs.
  • Jan 21: Positive Slate review! (And PocketTactics too.) Suddenly I am back in PR mode.
  • Jan 22: Argh, half of the posters are misprinted and not usable. Contact customer support and ask for replacements.
  • Jan 24: Post Steam Greenlight page for HL.
  • Feb 1: The Month of Postage begins. (Assume days and days of sticking labels on things.)
  • Feb 17: Haul books and posters to the post office.
  • Feb 27: Haul half the CDs to the post office.
  • Mar 3: Haul the rest of the CDs to the post office.