Fulfillment Plans, Mental Health Confession, New Music and Other Stuff
almost 4 years ago – Fri, May 06, 2022 at 07:47:44 AM

I have been poked to do an update! As per usual, I kinda want to wait a little bit longer, but there's enough developing in the background that it's worth it at this point. Let's make like Philly D and get right into it.

Fulfillment Progress!

The games are, right now, on the boat. Not sure if I jumped the gun on that in the last update, but yeah - we've finished all of our dealings with PandaGM and got our exit survey from them. We're having 9 pallets of Anthromancer delivered to our storage facility in St. Louis and that should happen within the next 2 weeks, maybe sooner, maybe later (you really never know these days).

This means three things. First, If you haven't completed your backer survey yet, you're running out of time! There are still about 25 people that haven't completed that survey for any number of reasons, and if you don't, we won't be able to get your product to you. Take care of that ASAP (I'll keep hammering the 'send and remind' button, but it ain't worth much if you ain't paying me no mind).

Second, there's a chunk of you who we haven't charged for backerkit items yet. So if you filled out the survey in the last few months and aren't sure if your payment is going to go through, that may cause a snag in the fulfillment of your order. I'm going to lock those orders and charge the rest of the cards later this week, so if you have any concerns go take a look at your order status.

Third: Make sure your shipping information is up to date! We're going to lock addresses soon, and use whatever address you provided us to ship your game to you. If you've moved (which, seeing as this is two years later, that would not surprise me) then you'll want to pop over to the backerkit and make sure your information is up to date. Once we lock addresses, if there's any other issues, you'll have to reach out to us individually at either [email protected] or on the community discord, and lord knows what else could happen. Let's just make it simple and get those surveys completed correctly, yeah?

If all you care about is getting your board game, then ba-da-bing ba-da-boom you need not read any further.

HOWEVER. If you're one of those 'Nerds' who is 'into Anthromancer' because you 'think it's kind of cool', the next part is for you.

A CONFESSION, AND BRAND CLARITY.

Alright this part is going to be a little less brass tax and structured. Consider the rest of this backer update a glorified blog post about my dumb little brain, and how I've grown as an artist, businessman, leader, and human person in the last (insert X years).

I had some big revelations recently, due to various interpersonal conflicts that all finally came to a head. I don't want to (and am not really at liberty to) get into this stuff in a public update, but the long and short of it is that I've been sloppy as hell in my approach to existence. Very impulsive, relying too much on the expectation that other people would understand my intentions or feel comfortable talking about issues they have with me. A lot of stuff has come out over the last few months, ambitious projects (like the whole NFT thing) have kinda blown up in my face, and life has just chuckled on watching me try to figure myself out. It has a habit of doing that. 

If you follow Anthromancer anywhere but here, then you might have a hard time explaining it to other people. Something like, "Yeah, it's this board game, but like, I dunno, philosophy and crypto and magic and stuff? I think they do music too? The guy who makes it is one of those tragically incompetent artist types". 

Maybe I'm projecting. 

My point is that I've been in an extended adolescence and, in addition to failing to establish clear boundaries and expectations in my personal relationships (and failing to effectively defend my own), that pattern extends deep into my relationship with my own creative process. All impulse. No direction. Hopelessly anxious, infinitely ambitious, and frustrated as hell. Every rogue notion gets passionately invested in for 20 minutes and if the payoff isn't immediate and it doesn't go viral and take me to superstardom, it must be a waste of my time that I'm not really that good at.

When I was 23, I *did* go viral. I ended up on national television for pancake art. This turned out to be kind of...faustian in nature. Because that self-esteem gifted-kid impatience got wildly rewarded with a system that effectively communicated to my limbic system that I had no real work to do and that my life would be wonderful because I'm just so open and enlightened. I coasted by for a long time on shared power structures and deferring to other people, while simultaneously trying to route my creative impulses into productive directions that would always fizzle out at the first sign of inertia. I've now come to the realization that, were I a different man back then, so much would've gone differently.

(It's literally miraculous that Anthromancer kept my attention and faith the way it did).

But hey! I'm in therapy now! I'm probably autistic, definitely ADHD, and I stumbled into some really big kid realizations that are gonna make all this stupid frustration and suffering meaningful in retrospect! That's a nice feeling. My major relationships are in the process of healing, and maybe the biggest upgrade here is that I understand how important it is to set boundaries for myself. If I don't, my impulse energy totally overrides the wiser part of my brain that knows how to be patient, wait for the right time for things, and focus on what is really important to me (by cutting away all the things that aren't useful or focused on the life I want to create). Be that creative endeavors or relationships.

SO LET ME FILL YOU IN ON WHAT THAT MEANS FOR THIS WEIRD ASS BOARD GAME.

There are (2) things that I'm so passionate about I'd do them in a void. Game design, and Music. So that's what we're gonna focus on. Anthromancer is a board game suite that will continue to evolve, and it is also a musical project that will continue to release music. Input, output. Band with a board game. Board game that is a band. You can now condense the totality of our philosophical ambitions into that clever little soundbite (eat your heart out, The Decemberists).

Since having this full-stack realization I've stepped into a creative renaissance in my brain. There are a LOT of really cool things this understanding has unlocked.

1: We're rebuilding the website for the last time (I swear to God it better be) with a focus on e-commerce, selling the rest of our first edition copies of Anthromancer, presenting the music (and eventually, a show schedule) and scaling the business so that we can do a much, much larger second edition that fulfills way faster, allows us to expand the rules of the game, do a vinyl double album of the hymnal, release a slim edition without the Codex, etcetera etcetera etcetera. If you're into the brand we're building, that's something to look forward to. I've already done a lot of legwork on a wild new game that you won't even have to buy the second edition to play (this product is packed with so much value it's stupid).

(The website is not live yet so if you try to go to it you'll either hit a dead end or redirect to the .io which is defunct except for the yggdrasil claims page - more on that in a second)

2: I'm releasing a bunch of new music. There's a new album on its way - a way cooler one where I play distorted bass riffs and sing about how wonderful (and terrible) the last year was. Anthromancer's presence on Spotify and other streaming platforms is ramping way up - we've got 3 new singles out there (and I even got 'em on Pandora since that's apparently the only place my mom listens to music), and a few more are brewing. Happily, Spotify integrates with Shopify (where we're building the website) so you'll be able to just straight up buy a copy of Anthromancer from our Spotify artist page. Weird stuff happens when you have the focus necessary to give a crap about your business.

3. I'm tripling down on Patreon. I'm migrating all kinds of focus to the Anthromancer patreon page, and optimizing that process to where, if you're the kind of weirdo who has read this far and actually kinda likes the way I talk and think, there's going to be a ton more opportunity to connect with me as a human via that Patreon (I'm going full frontman, gonna fly too close to the sun and see what that feels like). Song demos, unreleased singles, early viewings of music videos, PLUS all the board game goodies - like playtesting priority, unreleased gametypes, and even...

4. MERCH. Oy vey I've always had this naive idealistic resistance to the notion of creating branded merch, and I'm getting over that. My hangups were about anxiety and resentment for the way the world works more than anything. I'm only in the early stages now, but I'm looking into some lovely designs for jackets, cloaks, pendants, and good old fashioned t-shirts that you'll be able to rock to show the world you're super clever because you play and/or listen to Anthromancer. Patrons will get early access and exclusive drops to these things, so keep that in mind going forward.

All in all, everything kind of 'clicks' in my brain, now. I understand SO MUCH MORE CLEARLY what my daily tasks are, what I need to do to make this brand succeed, how I can invest in its future and advertise and market effectively, and exactly where I want to get with it. I understand how important it is to YOU, the backers and supporters of this insane dream, for me to keep this machine running and scale and improve and invest and make this thing sparkle. I think I've done the hardest part - somehow, through this malaise of mental illness and relationship chaos, I managed to cultivate a product that I am truly proud of. It's the iPhone of board games. Now I have to emerge from this creative cocoon and, I dunno, be a man or something. Thanks for sticking around this long.

REGARDING NFTS

So, the whole NFT thing was a fever dream of an unchecked impulse. I was working with two dear friends and solidity developers and had the notion that their help was all we'd need to dive into the exciting frontier of web3 and growth hack our way into some kind of unicorn digital entertainment company. Then our lead developer vanished (like, straight up - I am worried about him), grievances were aired in the group chat, withheld truths and awakenings and arguments unfolded, oh my...and on the other end of it, I had to get real.

Now, it wasn't a total wash. We successfully got free NFTs to some backers. And, if you backed the campaign, you can still go to the yggdrasil page and claim your token with your emailed claim code (have a chuckle at our 'road map' while you're there). And if there's issues you can email us [email protected] and we'll be able to sort it out. I'm...still quite proud of this. It was hard to figure out and came from a generous place, and there are actual human beings in my immediate community who now own their first NFT and understand metamask because we did this free drop. 'Tis a form of ancient magicks, you see - these folks won't soon forget.

We do not have active plans to follow through on our NFT ambitions, with the Hymnal and Anthropos drops - but that's really a matter of timing. Once the board game is out and the music is being streamed and brand awareness is growing and people are having positive experiences with us, we're going to return with guns a-blazing, and you can bet your ass our drops are going to be tasteful and embedded with the kindness, humility and community spirit that we want Anthromancer to be known for. If you're holding an yggdrasil token in your wallet, you will be Anthromancer royalty, and we'll make sure to find interesting and exciting ways to honor your ongoing loyalty.

Our first stab at the thing was not very graceful and came from a place of manic excitement and uncertainty. Our next will find its mark. And that's all I'll say about that for now.

So...Yeah!

I will bring the heat to you with another update (honestly a much shorter one) once the games are in our possession and the fulfillment process is beginning. Lots of photos and videos will be taken and shared. If you're not already following us on socials, check @anthromancy out on all the big ones (my god we have to figure out how to log back into our tiktok - also we're almost at 1k followers on facebook, so that's pretty neat!), stream our music on the major platforms (help us bump those numbers up, y'all), and back the Patreon ($5/month for the lowest tier and it gets you basically everything). 

The future of Anthromancer has never been brighter!!

BE MOVED (towards giving me a $5 monthly stipend to be a bigger, faster fool).

With literally all of the love in the universe,

Dan

P.S. - CALLING INDEPENDENT BOARD GAME REVIEWERS

I'm making a spreadsheet of small-to-mid sized board game reviewers who might be interested in receiving a review copy of Anthromancer, so we can start getting more eyeballs on our project and building some press for future launches. Are you, or is someone you know, interested? Let me know in the comments or send me an email at [email protected] and I'll work you into the roster. Thanks.

Shipping Delay, Party Postponement, NFT Postponement, but still good vibes
about 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 09:52:33 PM

Hey! Dan here, with an Anthromancer update.

Cliffs notes:
-Shipping delay due to unexpected cost increases
-Indefinite postponement of launch party (no parties on April Fools Day)
-Indefinite postponement of subsequent NFT drops (but first drop still claimable)
-We’re still pretty close to the finish line here

I’ve been dragging my feet on posting this because some stuff has been shifting in the background – it’s been a pretty chaotic month, not just for Anthromancer, but for my personal life as well. Without going into too many details I’ve needed some time to just unplug and process some heavy stuff, but it seems things are mostly on the mend, and now feels like a good time to check back in and give you all an update.

First of all: Shipping Delays. So, the products are just about done being manufactured and we’re now working out logistics to get about 9 pallets of Anthromancer delivered to our studio in the US – and when we got our shipping quote, it was WAY higher than initially anticipated. Several thousands of dollars higher. We could probably point to war, gas prices, global instability, whatever, but excuses don’t get the product into our hands and don’t deliver on our promises to y’all. That’s a part of why I’ve been waiting to post this update: Hank and I have been working out a way to get this money without burdening you. We could’ve solicited more money but, lol, at this point I’m really set on NOT doing that.

Fortunately, Hank and I both ‘aped in’ to a ridiculous NFT project a few months back called Mfers, which has seen its market price steadily climb in recent weeks. While we were both reluctant to divest from the Mfers community (these bad boys will likely continue to increase in value), between our two lil stick figure nerds we managed to raise everything we will need to finish paying for the games, get them shipped to us, and finish the fulfillment process. So we pulled the trigger. I am hopeful that if Anthromancer can release and scale we will return to the Mfers community one day, and even if we don’t, I am a sucker for the absurdity of the whole situation. “How did you pay for Anthromancer’s shipping?” “We sold jpegs of stick figures.” Stranger than fiction.

(Shout out to bonedaddy and the mfers community for being wonderful).

This delay in shipping means that we won’t have copies of the game available in time for all those April Fools Day festivities I was hoping for. I mean, that figures, being Fool’s Day and all. I’m bummed but it is what it is. When we have a proper launch party planned we will make sure to announce it in our usual channels and ensure that everyone gets what is owed to them. On the plus side, this means that next April Fool’s Day will probably be WAY more awesome, since a community of folks will have had access to the game for almost a year, will have learned and played at least a little bit, and we’ll probably be able to plan tournaments, live music, all kinds of cool stuff. But that’s down the road – for now, indefinite postponement of launch party.

We also had some really ambitious NFT plans that have been indefinitely postponed as well. We still rolled out the first drop (those free-to-claim backer-exclusive yggdrasil tokens) and those tokens are and will remain claimable, but the followup drops (the Anthropos ectogame and the Hymnal Collection) have hit some development snags that have forced us to put them in the ‘at some point in the future’ column. I’m still certain that they’re a good idea, but for the really elaborate ‘guerilla marketing’ plan I was trying to push for, we just don’t have the resources to do it gracefully and sensibly. So we’re going to keep them in development until the time is right, put our economic resources into delivering the products as intended, and capitalize on our (hopeful) eventual growth in a few months time.

So it goes! It’s a bumpy road sometimes, and I don’t always make the cleanest leadership decisions. Fortunately I’m surrounded by people who care about me and are willing to tell me the truth when the chips are down. #blessed

Despite the unexpected delays and extra costs, I’m feeling really, really happy in general. When we got that shipping quote the floor fell out from under me, but Hank and I were able to figure out a (strange, silly) path forward, and the money is secured and we’re paying the rest of the bill next week. That was like the last gigantic unexpected hurdle before this thing can truly be born – and that hurdle has been cleared. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, all that jazz. Man, it is really, really hard to launch something like this without already being rich lol. Thanks again for your support and your continued faith in this process; I know you’ll be happy with the final product and all the trust you’ve put in us (and me) means a lot to me. Cheers.

Dan

[Photos] This game is beautiful. Also you can claim your Yggdrasil now
about 4 years ago – Mon, Jan 31, 2022 at 10:59:40 PM

lol I said the end of January and I guess I meant that with my whole chest (sorry east coast, I'm a faithless scoundrel).

I’m gonna keep this update pretty short.  

First: if you’re hoping to claim that Yggdrasil NFT we announced, the website is live and token claim codes have just gone out. There’s a good chance that your email system will (hilariously) flag this message as spam, so, uh, check your spam folder, and if you don’t see it, either email us at [email protected] or hop into the community discord and harass me in person – we have the database, can verify your identity, and can provide you with your claim code if something goes wrong on the backend. It’s also worth noting that the way we’re keeping this token claim process free for you is by prepaying the transfer fees, and if all of you try to claim at once, some of you may get hit with error messages until we’re able to top up the gas in the relayer. Translation: the thing might run out of go juice, and if it does, your token is still reserved, we’ll just need time to sort it out.   

Also: I have not yet finished pulling that tutorial video out of my ass (but I will very very soon, couldn’t film it until the site was ready, and if you really need to see the video to figure the process out, there’s no urgency; your token is reserved forever and we’ll make sure you get it). Forgive the placeholder on the site, it's some google nonsense, I dunno.   

(Real talk - the Anthromancer team, which has recently grown from Hank, Alex, Wella and I, to include Terrence, Jacob, and Richie, has been working so damn hard over the last month to bring this new website to life and goodness gracious does it feel like a privilege to be in the midst of all this creative energy. The work that has been put in has just blown me away -check the site out for yourselves! And the best is yet to come!)

Second: Release parties are being booked – April 1st at Innerspace Gallery in DTLA, and April 3rd at somewhere in St. Louis (possibly Alton, possibly Cherokee street, still waiting on confirmation but you’ll know soon). Get hype.   

Third: check out these awesome photos my buddy Ben. T Daniel took of the final product (and me). Anthromancer is coming out, baby. Seven years and counting; eat ur heart out.

Anyway, thanks for checking in I'm*~`~*still a piece of garbage*~`~*

--Dan

Product / NFT Update
about 4 years ago – Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 11:13:25 PM

If you didn't read our previous update, we announced a collection of NFTs was rolling out as a part of our marketing push for Anthromancer's release this spring. Here's some updates on that announcement, plus general info about the continued production of the board game.

PRODUCTION / LAUNCH UPDATE

1. The Board Game is almost done. I got the email yesterday that Panda has shipped out the MPC (mass production copy) which is the final check before we authorize production to begin. If that MPC arrives in St. Louis intact with all of our design needs met, then Anthromancer will begin production. If there are issues that need to be corrected, it will extend the development time for at least a month or two as we dial in our assets, but in this (worst case) scenario, we will still end up with a product we can be proud of.

2. If everything goes according to plan, we will have 1500 copies of the game en route to us and have them in our hands by the middle of March. With this in mind we are scheduling launch parties for April Fool's Day (April 1st) 2022. We are going to host parties in St. Louis and Los Angeles at the same time (our main artist, Calen, is coordinating use of his gallery space Innerspace in DTLA for this party, and we couldn't pass the chance). When we have more specific information regarding venue, etc, we will post an update here. If need be we will airship copies of the game to us in advance, to make sure our launch parties go off without a hitch.

3. Once we have the games in our possession we will take a bit of time to assemble final extras (things like dice sets, the Yggdrasil cards, and personalized notes and prints) and get all the product ready to ship out to backers - I expect folks will start receiving the game the second week of April.

4. Once fulfillment has begun, we will send out download links to all backers with digital asset codes, and I will begin fulfilling other backer rewards, such as custom dragonfruit readings, etc.

NFT UPDATE

In the previous update we announced a line of Anthromancer NFTs would be dropping in the first few months of 2022. Over the course of the last month, the team and I have spent a considerable amount of creative energy reviewing and updating the initial plan to better reflect our values. So, if you're waiting for news related to the NFT drops, here's a whole steaming pile of news.

We are no longer going to release 'The Hymnal Collection' this month as a series of 1/1 NFTs. This drop archetype is being pushed to about 2 weeks before product launch (so, the middle of march).

We are now orchestrating (3) distinct NFT drops, each with a different format, and each with a different intention.

DROP 1: YGGDRASIL.

The Yggdrasil NFT will be a limited run of tokens designed to express our gratitude to you, our kickstarter backers. We are updating our website to create a 'claims' page, where backers will be able to click a button and claim one of these Yggdrasil NFTs at no cost. We will email you a secret code you will use on a hidden page on the Anthromancer website. So long as your kickstarter email address is still valid and you do not lose your code, there is no time lock on claiming this; so long as our website is still live, you will be able to access and claim your Yggdrasil token at zero cost to you.

When we deploy the contract and mint these tokens, we will be minting 777 of them (meaning there will be more than we need for our backers to claim them all). This will allow us to use the remaining tokens as promotional items for influencers and reviewers, as well as redundancies in case our backers who are less familiar with crypto make a mistake and lose their token or their wallet access. This will allow us to help make people whole again, just in case.

The Yggdrasil NFT will be claimable by the end of January.

DROP 2: ANTHROPOS.

The Anthropos token drop is the one I'm most excited for. We have devised a brand-adjacent token primitive that will eventually be usable in Anthromancer gaming experiences later in the brand's development, as well as any other experiences that the community builds to take advantage of the novel way it presents human archetypes. If that means nothing to you, that's okay - once the token drops, it will (hopefully) make a bit more sense, and regardless we will build educational materials into our website (where the token will be available to 'mint'). Because this token is a more traditional NFT drop, you will need to have some ETH available to pay for the gas fees which power the ethereum network; while we are not charging for the minting, you will still have to pay these gas fees, simply due to the way that the network functions (The reason you do not need to worry about gas fees for the Yggdrasil drop is because we are paying those ourselves, in advance).

The Anthropos NFT will available to mint shortly after the Yggdrasil token is launched.

DROP 3: THE HYMNAL COLLECTION.

Rather than release the hymns as 1/1s, we determined that it would be wiser for our longevity to expand the editions we were releasing and change the mechanics such that many more of our fans, followers, and the wider crypto community, could participate in what we are doing.

In accordance with this, the Hymnal Collection will be deployed two weeks before Anthromancer's launch date (the second week of march). After deployment, each of the hymns will become available to mint in batches of 777. This means that, over the course of these 2 weeks, every day or two a new hymn will 'drop' and 777 people will be able to acquire it. The tokens are going to look a lot like our hymn lyrics videos did - with a 3d rendering of each card rotating in a colored void. However, our 3d artist Richie Darling is adding a good degree of character to each of these 3d renders, drawing out their elemental energy and astrological associations within the art itself. 

There is a metagame at work here: Each hymn is associated with a classical element (earth, water, fire, air, aether), and if anyone is able to acquire at least one of each element, at the end of the drop, those who hold a hymn from each of the 5 core elements will be airdropped 00. The Fox as a special, limited edition NFT. These NFTs will give you lots of special things for holding them down the road - most specifically they will unlock special classes and magical powers in our on-chain versions of Anthromancer and other RPG-type games we are beginning development of now.

At the end of the Hymnal Collection drop, we will auction off the ONLY 1/1 NFT from the entire set: 0. The Fool, deployed on April Fool's Day. We are attempting to build buzz for the brand with the preceding token drops, so that when 0. The Fool goes up for auction, we can trigger a bidding war between wealthy benefactors who wish to be the only person holding the rarest of the hymns.

The basic price for the Hymnal NFTs is 0.025 ETH (which is approximately $100 USD, if ETH hovers around a $4,000 valuation). Anyone who holds Yggdrasil or Anthropos tokens will receive a 50% discount on the sticker price for these Hymnal Collection NFTs. You will also need to pay for the gas fees associated with the transaction, but that number fluctuates based on network usage.

ACKNOWLEDGING THE CONTROVERSY

In the weeks following the NFT announcement, approximately 5 people have requested refunds and expressed frustrations with our change of direction. To those folks, I apologize for causing any negative feelings. I do not believe we are approaching this as a cynical cash grab, and I do not believe any of what we are announcing goes against the project I designed and the principles I believe in, but I understand exactly why it appears that way to anyone who is not in my brain, experiencing these systems and potentials firsthand.

The 3 main requests made by these folks are to obtain a refund, to be removed from the codex, and to be removed as a backer. In all three cases, there isn't a lot that I am able to offer. 

We are not opposed to offering refunds, but that will have to wait until these NFT projects roll out and we've started to earn back some money from sales of the product. If we have the money in the next 3 months, I am comfortable giving that money back, but if everything blows up in my face, I will be unable to.

Removing names from the codex can be done, but unless there are significant design issues with the MPC, I will elect not to do that for this first edition, because that would unfairly delay fulfillment for the backers that are not upset by the NFT announcement. I will ensure your name is removed from future editions of the codex.

Removing you as a backer is not something I can do from the creator side of Kickstarter. If you would like to remove yourself as a backer, you should be able to do that, and that should prevent you from receiving future updates such as this one. Otherwise, my hands are tied. I am sorry I don't have better news for you.

For what it's worth, you will still be eligible to claim the Yggdrasil token free of charge, for so long as our site stays online. If you have a change of heart months or years down the road, that token is still yours.

Anyway,

Thank you for reading. We will be providing another update soon, hopefully with detailed photos of the MPC and more information related to the NFT drops. A lot of exciting stuff is happening for Anthromancer this year, and I am so excited to be able to share it with as many of you as I can.

Be Moved.

Dan

CLEARING NFT CONFUSION: WE ARE NOT MAKING NFTs WITH YOUR MONEY
about 4 years ago – Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 10:47:27 PM

Hank reached out to me after the last update to alert me to some texts he's received from folks who are concerned that the NFT project we've announced is somehow what we are using the kickstarter money for, so, let me clarify real quick:

100% of the money we raised during kickstarter is going to manufacturing and delivering the board game.

None of the money we are using to deploy our NFT projects is coming from the money you gave us for the kickstarter campaign.

The NFTs we are releasing are being financed by our own savings, our own money, that we have set aside to build the brand and make it into something special.

As a matter of fact, Hank and I are spending an additional $8000 of our personal savings to push the manufacturing and fulfillment of the physical game over the line.

I apologize if I have not made that clear. I also apologize for consecutive updates, but it felt important to make sure this was 100% clear. We will be providing another update soon, once we have the MPC.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great day.

Dan