Progress Update: Merch, Machination, and More!

Hello, helpful humans, and welcome to the middle of the week! Kinda...

A lot's happened since the last update—some rough stuff, and some lovely, lovely stuff as well. I'm excited to share all of it with you guys here.

So, let's get started!

Where are we?

The list video has officially been up for a little less than a week now! If you missed it, click here to check it out!

At this point we're just waiting for the Forging Worlds competition over on World Anvil's website to finish up so we can judge the entries and start work on our Worldbuilding series short story. Until then, we'll be working on merch and some other important things as well. For instance, this window has given us the opportunity to finally upload my mother's follow-up video for the GoFundMe campaign everyone pitched in to help with back in January. 

As far as merch goes, we've been sharing some of the progress in our patron-only channels in discord, but it's about time we leaked a little bit of it here as well! Right now we're slated to release two bookmarks and a keychain with our new merchandising partner, DFTBA. Check out this amazing concept sketch for the forthcoming "Beautiful Machines" foil-stamped bookmark (design by Chris Moschler) :

We shared a mock-up of what the final print might look like, complete with golden, foil-y texture and all on Discord. It looks like it's going to be awesome, and I'll for sure be buying my own!

What's Next?

Now for the rough stuff. Things are gonna be shifting around a bit on the back end of the Foundry in the coming months. Chloe and I are figuring out a lot about how to organize the business, learning about creating an LLC, employment, taxes, etc., etc.. I expect it to be a bit of a nightmare, and it should cut into our funds quite a bit.

Nevertheless, we'll see it through and be better for it. As our team expands, incorporating more artists and community members, we need to be sure we're doing everything efficiently and legally. 

Beyond that, we'll be getting to judge the entries for the World Anvil competition soon! I know Chloe and I are both super stoked to get a proper look at some of these creations. After that, I begin the writing process...

Anything Else?

I just want to say I continue to be shocked and grateful for this community's kindness every day. We released my mother's thank you video yesterday, and the response has been incredibly positive.

It's been a really hard year for us, but all of you have carried us through it. There's no way to thank you enough, so instead we'll show you the fruit of all your support by keeping on keeping on and creating this thing that we all love.

Until next week! Be positive, be well.

—Benji