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.
