On To the Next Stage
over 1 year ago – Wed, Sep 07, 2022 at 12:04:48 AM

Today has been the last day of the funding campaign for the Endless Oracle and I’m so pleased with how it’s gone! 

My most sincere gratitude goes out to everyone who has helped make this Kickstarter a success! 

This campaign has far exceeded my every expectation and I am so excited to begin working toward the production of these decks!

There’s still a lot for me to do!

If you’ve read the past updates you know that our expected timeline is shifting!

Because of the unexpected attention this project has received, it’s no longer realistic to think that the decks will get printed as quickly as originally intended. 

However, I’m still optimistic that these decks will find their way to your mailbox by the end of the fall season! I’ll be keeping you updated here as things develop, but I’m also going to be working with BackerKit to ensure that things happen as smoothly as possible. I’ve been delighted to hear from some you that most people seem to have high opinions of BackerKit and their work! This is my first Kickstarter and so I’m sure they’re support will be very helpful, but also appreciate everyone’s patience as things move forward from here!

If you missed this Kickstarter, BackerKit will also be hosting a pre-order store before production begins. From there, you’ll be able to pre-order the Endless Oracle or any of the add-ons from this campaign that you missed out on! I'll be sharing more information about that soon!

BackerKit also advises waiting at fourteen days to send out surveys and I’m going to follow this suggestion! This means that you can expect to receive your surveys in about two weeks!

Keep an eye out for more updates, as I am sure there will be plenty to share with everyone as things develop!

Thank you all once again for such a successful campaign!

Five Days Left!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Sep 01, 2022 at 12:19:32 AM

With only about five days remaining in the campaign I just wanted to touch on a few things that I’ve said already but could be worth repeating:

First of all, if you don’t already know: all backers who are getting a copy of the deck will benefit from the stretch goals that we achieved through out the campaign.

Every deck will come with the three stretch-goal cards: The Cave, Fairy Ring, and Rift. Every deck will have an improved box design. Every deck will include an extended version of the guidebook. There is nothing extra that you need to do to receive these rewards.

Second, if you are interested in the Patreon-Exclusive extra cards, be sure to have claimed them before the Kickstarter ends. These cards are available to some of the higher support tiers here on Kickstartrer, and are otherwise exclusively forPatreon members. Patreon Members who are part of the “Art-Collector” tiers will receive them as one of their patron perks with no extra actions requires, and all other patrons can purchase them for $5 in the exclusive patreon store. Please feel free to message me either here or on Patreon if you have questions.

Third, I mentioned this recently but the timeline for this project is shifting right now.

I never expected this campaign to do so well, or for my printers to have such big jobs ahead of them. I still expect items to ship late this fall, but for now there is no way for to be entirely certain when items will be finished printing. I will update you all as soon I have new estimates, and I've also decided that I will be working with Backerkit to ensure that things go as quickly and smoothly as possible!

 Finally, for international backers: 

Please double check and ensure that your country allows cards to be imported from the United States. Not all countries do, as they are sometimes considered a gambling item. Items that are “un-deliverable” may be returned to the United States or be lost entirely in the postal system. Please note that international backers are responsible for any and all additional import taxes. Items requiring VAT or other import taxes may be withheld upon entry into destination countries and require additional taxes to be paid upon pick-up at local customs offices. Backers will be responsible for ensuring that their rewards are being delivered to valid addresses. Because this campaign is “all or nothing” and rewards are contingent on the total amount of funding this project receives, all rewards will be non-returnable and non-refundable so it is very important that backers are mindful of their local import regulations.

I want to thank you all once again for all of your very kind support! I’ll be posting more updates soon as this campaign draws to a close!

Possible Timeline Adjustments and Other Updates
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 12:45:44 AM

There’s less than a week left before this Kickstarter campaign comes to a close!

I continue to be blown away by the support that the Endless Oracle has received, so first of all- thank you all so much for your support!

When I was planning this Kickstarter, I thought that I was setting a fairly ambitious goal and that at most I might very optimistically expect that I stood a tiny chance of reaching around 300 backers. We’ve have surpassed my most wildly optimistic expectations by more than double!

This is fantastic and I’m so grateful for the project’s success, but it does have the potential to affect my originally anticipated timeline of how production and fulfillment play out.

The Endless Oracle is my first Kickstarter campaign, but not my first project ever. I already have arrangements for the deck to be printed with the company that usually handles my printing services, but I have never ordered nearly as many decks from them as I am going to be ordering next month. When I created my original timeline for the campaign it was with the expectation that at most, I might be ordering around 500 copies of the Endless Oracle. An order like that would usually take about a month to make it’s way to from my printer to my door.

As I said, we’ve surpassed my most wild expectations by more than double which means that my originally expected timeline is likely no longer realistic. 

For the sake of being fully transparent with everyone before campaign ends, I no longer expect to get the decks shipped as quickly as I had when I set up the campaign, simply because fulfillment and shipping will now take quite a bit longer than I originally estimated.

I had originally expected that I would be sending out decks to backers sometime in mid/late October 2022. Now that we have surpassed my original estimations by so great a margin, I now think that might be a bit too optimistic of a goal. 

This is the unfortunate downside of the campaign’s massive success, and so I suppose it’s a good problem to have- but it is a problem none the less, and I wanted to make sure everyone remained updated and informed.

I’m still more than confident that decks will be received this fall season or in early winter, but if that changes, I will be sure to let everyone know.

To help ensure that decks are delivered as quickly and seamlesslyas possibly, I have also decided to partner with BackerKit. 

This will hopefully help to ensure than nothing other than the sheer volume of decks needing to printed slows down the fulfillment process! I will of course be certain to keep backers updated about this timeline as it progresses.

This brings me to my last update for now: The extended version of the guidebook has been finished and sent to my editor (my mom) to be looked over one last time. 

The guidebook, which was originally around 45 pages long, has now doubled in size just like my expectations regarding the Endless Oracle’s success. I am so excited to get this opportunity to share more of my words with you all! The book will now include more spreads, longer descriptions for each card, and creative notes regarding the artwork and thought process behind each of the deck’s cards- including of course, the three additional cards which have been added to the deck following the achievement of it’s first three stretch goals.

Thank you all once again for all of your kind support! I will keep you updated about the project’s progress as this campaign begins to wind to a close.

New Cards!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 16, 2022 at 06:50:20 AM

After a busy and tremendous first week of this Kickstarter campaign, I’ve finished the artwork for our three new cards that are being added to the deck.

 The cards are the result of having reached our first three stretch goals, and are titled “The Cave,” “The Fairy Ring,” and “The Rift.” They’re pretty similar to some cards that are already in the base deck, which is why I originally decided not to include them. However, I think they’ll add a little more nuance and specificity to the deck, and I’m excited with how the artwork has turned out and am looking forward to using them myself!

You don’t have to do anything extra to get these three cards! They will become a part of the base deck and be included in every copy of the Endless Oracle.

Now that the big task of illustrating these cards is taken care of, I plan on taking a much needed break to make sure that my mental and physical health are are all being taken of as well. When I get back in a couple of days, I’ll be editing this artwork to be printed into cards and will also be getting started on designing our new card box and guidebook!

A lot of people have also recently ordered my other work, The Ink Witch Tarot Deck, and The Paper Oracle Lenormand Deck through my website and Etsy. I want to say thank you so much for supporting my other work as well, and let you know I’ll be catching up on orders once I’ve had some rest.

This is all a one-person operation, and is also my first ever Kickstarter campaign, so I appreciate you all being patient with me as I get the work done on these exciting extras. Thank you all so much once again for your overwhelming support of this project! I am so excited to know that other people love the Endless Oracle as much as I do.

I hope you like the new artwork and are excited for these cards!

About Stretch Goals
over 1 year ago – Thu, Aug 11, 2022 at 10:35:09 PM

By now I know a lot of you have noticed that the deck is more than three hundred percent funded, and all of our stretch goals have been hit! 

First of all, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for making this project a major success! 

I’m sure you’ll hear me say that a dozen more times before this Kickstarter ends in September.

So let’s talk about the stretch goals!

A lot of people have already reached out to me asking if I have plans to set more goals now that the original ones have been met so quickly!

To be honest, I wasn’t that confident we would reach these goals at all, let alone so quickly so I didn’t even begin to think of what else I might do! 

There’s still work that has to be done for each of these goals, and I’ll be working on them through out the next month in the order the goals were achieved. The three extra cards: The Fairy Ring, The Cave, and The Rift, are already sketched. I’ll be finishing that artwork over the next couple of weeks and getting it edited for print. Keep an eye out on my instagram (@elliamvi) because I’ll be probably be streaming some of that process there if you’re interested in seeing the new art come together!

Many of the elements of the new box and the extend guidebook are already under development but still need to to be refined, formatted, and put together.

As much as I absolutely love stretch goals, until these first things have been finished it’s hard to plan for any additional ones. Even something like gilt edges or stickers involves taking the time to plan and make estimates and calculations. Future goals are not totally outside of the realm of possibility, but there currently aren’t any plans for any additional goals right now.

My main priority right now is to make three new beautiful pieces of artwork for the deck, redesign the box, and format an extended book.

I will be sure to keep you updated and remain forthright and transparent about every detail along the way, whether new goals become a possibility or not!

For now though, I hope you’ll join me in enjoying the goals we have met!

I never imagined that we would reach them all, and especially not in two short days! I am excited to share the process of creating the new cards with you all, as well as giving some more information about what changes will be going into the guidebook as it develops!