The End of an Era
Today is the last Day I will urge you to fund The Wardenclyffe Horror. Honest.
It’s been a crazy ride, and yet here we are at the end. For any procrastinators or fence sitters, now is the moment of truth. In 9 hours the Kickstarter will end, and you’ll have to live with the knowledge that you missed out forever. Well – at least until the book comes out to the general public. The goal was always to get this project out to a wider circulation, but without this initial burst of enthusiasm, that would have been impossible.
So spread the word, one last time, because tomorrow funding will be finished! We’ve already crossed the finish line, but every little bit will help continue to propel this project, and Caffeineforge in general, towards a more successful future.
I’m a Backer: Monstrology
Welcome to another installment of “I’m a Backer.” This week we have managed to resist the allure of the games category yet again, and are exploring a comic project for the third week in a row. This week’s project of choice is “Monstrology, an Anthology of Monsters.” I should point out that this project had me at the title and cover, so for some of you, I have already given enough information to make a choice one way or another. For everyone else though, read on for all the information on both the graphic novel and the project and why think the people behind it did a hell of a job.
Finale!
The Wardenclyffe Horror was FUNDED!
We haven’t run out of thank you’s yet, but to our backers it might just feel that way. In the coming weeks, we will try to keep this topic down to a dull roar, and return to the topics of comics and crowdfunding in a much more general way. Expect updates to slow down to a monthly pace.
For now, to everyone who pledged a dollar, to everyone that has spread the word, everyone that has offered words of encouragement, we are incredibly grateful. The feeling of a couple hundred people helping us to make our dream, our project, a reality is truly humbling. Already the gears are rolling, and the production schedule is being executed by both artists working on the project.
Here is to the first of many successes, we could not have done it without each and every one of you!
Give and Take
Only two more days to fund The Wardenclyffe Horror!
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to interconnectedness recently, for a variety of reasons. Not the least of these is for the reason depicted in this strange picture – think link between audience and performer, and the shared experience involves everyone.
When I look at the logs of everyone who has donated to the project to date, I see everything from first time backers to hardcore serial backers with pledges to over three hundred projects. I also see spikes and connections from the data on the dashboard. I can see this group join in a flurry, and that group join in rapid succession a little while later; sometimes I have enough data to figure out where they found the project, and sometimes I am left to wonder.
I have even seen people, which I know came to Kickstarter for the first time to pledge to The Wardenclyffe Horror starting to explore Kickstarter and back other projects. This is extremely heartening – a real circle of life moment.
Unfortunately all these positive things aren’t the only kind of connection I have seen on Kickstarter.
When It Rains…
Only three more days to fund The Wardenclyffe Horror!
Old adages like “A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link” or “a leopard can’t change it’s spots” are cliche, and sometimes more than a little dated. There is a good reason they stick around long after styles and trends leave their folksy wisdom behind: they are often very true. Here at Caffeineforge, we have no leopards and our chains are made out of adamantium, (in case we do get one) but there is one old saying that is certainly both true and applicable the last week or two: when it rains, it pours.
Though this old saw could just as easily be applied to positive things, like the mind-blowing generosity of our backers, for instance, it is generally applied to more negative circumstances. I have no idea. For some reason people associate gloomy clouds, driving rain, and all the lighting and thunder that go with them to be a bad thing.
I Believe Introductions Are in Order…
Only four more days to fund The Wardenclyffe Horror!
Greetings new friends and old!
My name is James Yee, and it’s a pleasure to speak with you today here in the Caffeineforge about one of my favorite subjects, me! More specifically me and my support and love of Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general. Crowdfunding is such a classic way of getting funding done with a modern twist that I can’t help but be excited about it!
Like many of the other first generation Kickstarter backers I came into the system through games, though unlike probably the vast majority of them it wasn’t videogames that brought me into Kickstarter, it was board games. Specifically it was “Gunship: First Strike” that brought me over the “eh that’s interesting” line into a full fledged backer. I soon became involved with Serpent’s Tongue and of course Double Fine Adventures, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun, FTL, Mobile Frame Zero and Republique. I was hooked! It became so bad that I had to step back and even semi-block the site to get myself back under control.
Wardenclyffe Spotlight: Wardenclyffe Tower
Only five more days to fund The Wardenclyffe Horror!
At last we have come to this – our final spotlight before the project is complete. So far we have talked about what makes both of our main characters worthy of inclusion into our fine project (I only hope we make said project worthy of them). We have also talked about how the mystery and magnitude of the Tunguska Event inspired the whole thing to begin with. What about the final piece? What about that most iconic of images, that place that is so important that it has been included in the very title of The Wardenclyffe Horror, itself?
Many of you know that thanks to The Oatmeal, it was recently saved from a grim fate, living out the rest of its days as a strip mall or set of loft apartments, but do you know about the rest of it’s sorted history? Do you know why Tesla built it, or why it was torn down? Would you like to?
The Value of Social Media
Only six more days to fund The Wardenclyffe Horror!
As I have said previously in this blog, I am a bit of a newcomer to social media. I’ve been a part of social networks as long as most, but treated them more as address books and alternative email services than communities and tools for active communication. Eventually I eased into Facebook after a promotion took me far from my flesh and blood social circle, but I didn’t really even try twitter out until we decided to launch or project on Kickstarter, and I started digging around, looking for new and better ways to find our audience.
With these facts in mind, it’s no wonder that I’m forever stumbling across new information on the subject.
One Week To Go
Soon we will actually talk about things besides our Kickstarter, we’ll talk about crowd funding in general, and maybe even comic books and board games that have nothing whatsoever to do with Tesla or Lovecraft, but it’s like that old saying: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
I’m afraid it’s going to get worse before it gets better. ‘Running through the finish line’ even in a metaphorical sense, requires it. As this is a horror graphic novel though, we aren’t really running, so much as effortlessly power walking after you, no mater how fast you go.
So today let’s talk about what Caffeineforge has been doing, what has been working, and what I think WE can be doing to get more results in this final week.
I’m a Backer: The Wardenclyffe Horror
What’s this? An “I’m a Backer” post about our own Kickstarter project? Doesn’t that seem a little odd for the creators of The Wardenclyffe Horror, David and Chris, to write about? Especially since Kickstarter creators can’t back their own projects.
That is, unless you consider the possibility that…I’m not David or Chris.
I’m Nikola Tesla.
Just kidding. (But how cool would that be?!) I’m Jamey Stegmaier, the creator of a completed Kickstarter project called Viticulture. I don’t read graphic novels and I don’t know David or Chris in real life. So why am I a backer?
Caffeineforge 