Fulfillment is Nearly Finished + Other Business!
11 months ago
– Tue, Mar 25, 2025 at 06:48:55 AM
Greetings again, NES Endings backers!
It's been a couple of months since our last update, which alerted you that the books had completed the manufacturing process and that surveys were being sent out to finalize everyone's orders, get your addresses, etc. Most of you finished filling out those BackerKit surveys quickly, so we were able to get your books shipped to all of you who did!
Nearly all the physical copies of NES Endings Volume 2 have now been shipped. Most have been delivered, but a few international orders are still on their way as of this writing. You all should've received tracking numbers in your email to keep an eye on your package's progress toward your door.
Exceptions exist, of course! You probably don't have your book yet if you:
- Didn't complete your BackerKit survey yet, or
- You did complete your survey, but there's a problem with your address
Only a handful of people are sitting in the "bad address" status, and I'll reach out to them through DMs here on Kickstarter after posting this update. For those who haven't done their BackerKit survey yet — again, there aren't many — you should've been getting reminders to do so sent to your email, along with the link to click. But if you haven't been getting those, for whatever reason, DM me here and I'll generate a new survey link for you to click to be able to finalize your order.
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS
Next, digital downloads! We sent download links to your email several weeks ago if your order included the digital version of the new book, but if you missed that (or if you ordered any other digital item, like the different versions of The Impact of Iwata), I'll be sending out a fresh round of download links to all of those customers again today. Keep an eye on your email for "DropSend" or "Lucas Thomas."
HOW TO BUY THE BOOK NOW
Though the book isn't technically in the "preorder" phase any more at this point, we'll keep the BackerKit Preorder Shop open for a while longer — send any friends or family members who might also want to own their own copies there! That's the place that still offers the extra items like the bookmarks and wall posters as well.
Alternatively, for book-only orders, NES Endings Compendium: Volume 2 is now also on sale over at The Yetee! They did a great job with the "glamour shot" product photo they posed below. That's a great option for anyone who's maybe already a Yetee customer and picking up some of their latest T-shirts or other merch. Toss a copy of NES Endings into the same order along with those other things!
Now that Kickstarter backers' orders have been almost all taken care of, I'll also be sending some stock of the book in to Amazon. It takes a while for new inventory to get through their check-in process, but I'll let you all know when it's buyable there as well by posting a future update here.
A LOOK AHEAD TO NES ENDINGS COMPENDIUM: VOLUME 3
Finally, a few of our biggest backers pledged for the privilege of seeing some early glimpses of the next installment in this series before anyone else, and I'm happy to report that the first Volume 3 preview is prepared for those happy few! Keep an eye on your email as well, if you are one of those fine folks. Rey's already whipping up another winner!
==========================
Thanks again for your support of this campaign, everyone! Any further questions, DM me and I'll chat with you there.
~ Lucas M. Thomas
The Books are Done + The Surveys Have Been Sent!
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Jan 31, 2025 at 02:26:33 PM
Hey again, NES Endings backers!
Sometime in the last week or so, a link to this campaign's BackerKit survey/preorder site should've landed in your email inbox. From our records, it looks like 80% of you have already completed it! Thank you!
For the remaining 20% who haven't yet, please do so soon: Going through the survey and selecting any add-on items you might like is how you finalize your order. And once your order is finalized, we can get your package ready to ship to you!
As I mentioned back in December, our planned production timeline ended up getting pushed back by about one month: We had hoped the books would be done in the middle of December, but they ended up getting finished in the middle of January instead. Not too terrible of an extra wait, all things considered. And it means the books are now done! Manufacturing is complete.
The big freight shipment of books is on its way here to the NF home office as we speak, and that delivery is planned to happen this upcoming Monday. I'll lock everyone's orders then, with a final 48-hour window to make any changes you need to make, and then I'll begin to print mailing labels, assemble packages and get your orders out the door and on their way to you!
Everyone's orders should be shipped throughout the next few weeks. Just make sure that you:
- 1) Finish your survey to finalize your order, if you haven't already done so.
- 2) Keep an eye on your Kickstarter Messages here in case I need to follow up with you with any questions or recheck your address, etc.
And if you have not received your survey link in your email, you can use the Messages here on Kickstarter to contact me and I can generate a new link for you to click that'll take you there. Sometimes different email services don't play nice with the automated survey link emails sent out by BackerKit (like if you're using an @appleid redirecting email address here). So don't freak out if you haven't gotten your survey notice. Just let me know and I'll make a new link for you.
A few people have been sticker-shocked by the shipping cost for this book — mostly our backers living outside the United States. I did my best to find the cheapest rates possible, but postage really is just quite expensive these days. This book is pretty beefy, too, which means every outgoing package is going to be over three pounds, and that extra heft requires extra expense on the shipping labels. I will do my best and keep looking into different options in the days ahead to see if there's any way to lessen that blow.
Lastly, if your pledge included access to the digital version of the book, those will be sent out as soon as orders are locked in a few days. Keep an eye on your email for that notification and your link to download your copy!
Hope you all are looking forward to getting your hands (and eyes) on the finished product! We're in the home stretch now!
~ Lucas M. Thomas
New Year's Update + Challenge Checklist Reveal!
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Jan 04, 2025 at 03:55:01 PM
Happy New Year, NES Endings fans!
I'll let you in on the latest right up front: The books are nearly finished! Our print production company has completed the text pages (the inner part of the book), and all that remains is getting those blocks of paper set into the hardcover cases (the outer part of the book), which is scheduled to happen next week. Then they'll be done, and they'll be packed up and shipped our way!
I expect that we'll be able to begin shipping out your orders here in January, which again is a small delay from our original estimate of December, but not too terrible of one, so thank you for giving us just a handful of extra weeks' worth of your patience. I'm now looking at January 20 as the day when we'd activate the post-campaign surveys for everyone to confirm their addresses and add on any extra items they might want to have in their order before it ships out.
Speaking of extra items, how about a look at another one? Here's the design for the promised "Challenge Checklist," which will be printed at 10 by 16 inches and folded just once in the middle to slip right inside your book during shipment. All 165 NES games released in 1990 are visually represented by their iconic box arts (some more iconic than others), and alongside each box are three squares to check off: One is you've Played It, a second if you Own It and the third and final one is if you've Completed It and actually earned a viewing of its ending with your own eyes!
I hope that meets with your approval! I think it looks pretty snazzy, and seeing the whole tableau of 1990 boxes makes for a great companion item for the Volume 2 book itself, if I do say so myself!
I hope the opening days of 2025 are treating you well! I'll be back again soon, but tomorrow I'm heading to Awesome Games Done Quick with my 13-year-old son to take in some speedruns in person. See if you can spot us in the background of some of the videos! I'm especially looking forward to the speedruns of three of the 1990 games pictured above: Dick Tracy, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll and Ninja Gaiden II! (Those are all happening early Monday morning, starting around 6:00 a.m. Hopefully we don't sleep in and miss them!)
~ Lucas M. Thomas
November Update!
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Nov 27, 2024 at 09:23:43 AM
Greetings once again, NES aficionados! As we approach the ending of the month of November, I'm here to check in with an update on the progress of NES Endings Compendium: Volume 2.
Content was completed for the book shortly after the Kickstarter concluded last month, with the final pages being the ones containing the names from those of you who pledged for that! Rey had already finished everything else, so we were able to submit final page files to our printing company and get everything up and running production-wise with few hiccups.
One hiccup to address, though! Even though we got everything done and submitted from our end within our planned timetable, it seems like our printing company, Sheridan, is more backlogged with other printing commitments than they had originally thought they would be — that means we're unfortunately going to miss the December timeframe we had hoped to hit with beginning to mail orders out to you all. The delay isn't too terrible! The books will just be getting to us here a few weeks later than we'd planned, in January, so shipments will instead get started then.
My apologies if you were really banking on having this new book in your hands before the end of 2024. We pushed for that, and last year's Impact of Iwata went all the way through production at the same company in less than one month, so I was hopeful this production cycle would be similarly speedy. Overall, though, a printing and freight shipment cycle of just around two months total by keeping the work here in the United States is still waaaay faster than the alternative of printing overseas: If we'd gone that route, books probably wouldn't have started getting to backers until next spring or summer! So, again, sorry for the delay, but at least it isn't a long delay.
As we head into December, I'll open up the Pledge Manager with BackerKit to begin to allow everyone to finalize their orders, add extra items, etc. Any friends or family members you know who might also want a copy but missed the main Kickstarter will be able to place a Late Pledge then as well. (But only you true believers who got in under the wire during the main campaign will be getting the bonus backer-exclusive bookmark!)
To end this update on a positive note and give it a bit of visual punch, here's the official reveal of another one of the illustrations crafted by our talented artist Greg Melo! It's Double Dragon II: The Revenge, with Billy Lee delivering a fierce knee to the face of that game's final boss:
Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! I'll check in again here soon!
~ Lucas M. Thomas
Success! + Back-of-the-Book Name Changes
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Oct 11, 2024 at 06:05:26 AM
We've crossed the finish line!
This Kickstarter campaign is going into the books with a total of $45,775 pledged from 1,055 different backers. Thank you for being one of them! We more than doubled our original funding goal, hit our two stretch goals and then kept climbing beyond that point. It's been a great success overall!
Next Steps:
- We want to get the book into print production as quickly as possible, and the final content we need to insert into its pages are backer names! If you pledged at the Back-of-the-Book Backer Tier or the Contributor Tier, your name will be printed in the final pages of the book. By default, we will use the name that is already attached to your Kickstarter account. If you would rather we print a different name for you, please use the Messages feature here on Kickstarter and let me know your preferred different name before Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. I don't want to wait any longer than that to have finished page files ready for the printing company! If I don't hear from you by then, then your Kickstarter account name is the one that'll get printed. (Also, no inappropriate names or advertising names will be used. Some people tried to pull that stunt with The Impact of Iwata. No dice!)
- The Pledge Manager operated by BackerKit will launch soon — I'll post another update here when it does. At that point you'll be able to finalize your order, confirm your shipping address and add other items (like extra copies of the book) to your shipment, if you want to. Stay tuned for that!
But that's all for now! We're working to finalize the book and get it handed off to the printing company in the next few days. I'll let you know when that's all done as well!
Thanks again, everyone!
~ Lucas M. Thomas
