Celestian Tales - Three Weeks Post-Campaign

Ekuator Games has a new post-funding update for Celestian Tales: Old North with a recap of the last three weeks after the kickstarter was funded.

First Week: Fixing Pledges 

Some backers may have had problems, such as cards blocked or the pledges going over the limit. There's a 7-day window for backers to fix these and reconfirm the pledges.

We knew that not 100% will confirm their pledges. There are some who did cancel their pledges, but it was quite far below what we expected. The number spiked due to one dropped Venerated pledge, but overall it's still safe and sound.

Second Week: Kickstarter's Transfer

Kickstarter takes a flat 5% cut for their services. Amazon takes 3% + $0.20 NZD per pledge for processing the funds, but this differs depending on the amount pledged. We stayed on the safe side and calculated both these fees to be around 10% of total pledges.

On Wednesday, Kickstarter sent us an e-mail saying that the funds have been transferred. After all dropped pledges and these two companies taking their respective cuts, the net they sent was around the expected amount.

Meanwhile, pledges through PayPal have been withdrawn successfully to our bank account in Indonesia. These pledges are made in USD and after PayPal takes its cut, the pledges totaled $1,690.62 USD.

Due to Easter holidays, the funds have just arrived on our New Zealand account this morning. We'll have to transfer it from there to our country before it can be used for practical purposes, but we're so thrilled that your pledges have arrived in our hands!

Other News in Development

We're slowing things down a bit while waiting for the Kickstarter pledges arrive. However, that doesn't mean we're not working for Celestian Tales!

We have started recruiting a pixel animator and a level designer since we passed through the respective stretch goals. He joined as soon as we're certain we have the space and jumped straight into the game's overall design from play time to level progressions. His reverse approach to designing has given us a lot of insights.

We also tested a number of candidates for an animator -- not only for the results but also for their work ethics. In a small team it's important to keep the group's integrity, and it's fatal if we get someone who can't work professionally. It took a while, but we've got the ones we're looking for. They're going to start working as soon as the Kickstarter transfer arrives in our country's bank account.

On another front, we have contacted higher-tier backers asking about their characters to give us bases to create concepts and integrate them into the game. We're now in the process of modifying and finalising the script so that it can both showcase the main storyline while accommodating these characters in the best way possible.