Two weeks are passed since the end of our Kickstarter campaign, and I confess I didn't expect to see myself waiting for so long, before writing something about. It wasn't planned.
I for one I'm surprised about this long time of silence and before trying to explain the reasons behind that, I want to premise an important thing: I've never been so happy before!
Said so, after 3 mighty weeks of campaign, I found myself pretty...exhausted.
Everything went so well and we achieved a result that I even didn't dare to dream of, collecting almost 900 backers and more than 85.000€ of pledges, but I probably spent all my mental energies on those days and I went through a kind of apathy, in the last weeks.
As you may imagine, managing a KS campaign might be really stressful, even when things go well, especially if you are literally alone in doing it (my girlfriend was in Milan on business, during the campaign) and I realized that for 3 weeks my whole daily routine was all about the project. The new lockdown didn't help at all, and "closed" me even more in this crazy fictional world in which there were only me, my pc and the KS campaign.
On top of that, my mother was found positive to Covid and she went through very difficult days, and as you may imagine this afflicted a lot my family (luckily she's fine, now!).
So here is why I'm writing to you only now, two weeks after the biggest success of my career!
Then, let's forget for a moment the stressful things and let's bring back some enthusiasm!
Indeed, it has been such an amazing journey and I would be lying if I told you that I expected that, or just that it didn't change anything in my mind, especially for what concerns the pure motivation towards the future.
I know, despite this is a big result looking at my personal career, we are not talking about a life-changing event, we are still so far from our competitors!
But something is changing for sure, and I couldn't be happier about.
We are growing.
We are improving.
We are going out of our comfort zone.
2 years ago I wouldn't even think about making such a big kit as U'Raka, now I feel like my attitude has changed, gaining new ambitions: "appetite comes while eating" we say here, and in fact I'm experimenting it in this new step of our career.
Of course, I still have to carefully plan every little step of DPF life and I must tame the insatiable beast that lies inside every creator (you know, creating more and more!), but if I had to pick the best thing that this project brought to life, it would be one and only one: confidence.
Don't get me wrong: I've always been confident about what we did and do. I wouldn't waste my time and money in something I don't believe in!
But there is a difference between "I think this idea is worthy of being made" and "I see that many people think the same". We are social animals, after all, and despite I would love to describe myself as a lonely wolf, I can't help but need some kind of external approval.
The amazing enthusiasm gathered by this project has been a huge, positive, kick on my ass to start to really believe that what I'm doing is somehow worthy.
This is what really made me proud of this latest campaign: it's not just about money (they will mostly go in taxes!), nor about big numbers to boast about. It's about finding out that the difficult path I've chosen might be the right one.
The Elves of Inneath has been a crowdfunding success, but I honestly don't want to consider already a real success: the most difficult part has just begun, after all!
As anybody older than 6 may imagine, a KS campaign is just the first step of an enormous staircase: luckily, we had such a mighty start, but so many challenges are approaching on the horizon.
This campaign will be crucial because we will be asked to handle for the first time a big fulfilment: 899 backers to satisfy (without considering the Pledge Manager orders) is a big number and a big challenge.
I confess that since the first minute after the end of the campaign, my mind has been focused on that: how to deliver a product worthy of such a great enthusiasm and expectations?!
There are so many things to do, so many choices to take and probably this, welcome, new pressure somehow influenced these past weeks: I wanted to refresh this website (still I don't have any good idea about...), I had to spend many and many days wit my fiscal consultant to figure out the best way to set this project and avoid that the whole cake was eaten alive by Italian taxes (there is nothing worse than spending days talking about taxes...), I had to paint new Dwarves for a secret project that I hope to reveal soon (it's something HUGE), I had to answer to all the mails and messages about the project and, of course, I had to start to work on the production iter of this range (can't wait to show you the unlocked characters!!).
Oh, and I started to study Japanese (I'm so good with the days of the week and the numbers u_u)
Work-wise, this is the best time of my life and I couldn't ask for more, especially considering how horrible this year has been for thousands and thousands of workers.
But I ask you to be patient a little more, because I feel like I need to reload a bit my battery!
I'm a bit sad because I would like to share with you all the happiness inside, but somehow it's like my body is in the "naaaa, not today!" mood.
For sure, I want to say again and louder as possible, how much thankful I am for all your support before this campaign, during this campaign and after this campaign: I'm absorbing all the positive energy you are sending me to create a mighty Genkidama of hobby news!
2020 has been such a challenging year but I honestly can't complain about it, not at all!
In the next days, I want to start to share with you my thoughts about the future projects, and of course I want to show you the first progress of the new range of us: The Elves of Inneath.
In the meantime, I think I'll dedicate some time to paint my beloved Dwarves: will I manage to start the Iron Titan, before this year ends?!
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