Preorder store for ApoYume! This is to help unlock stretch goals along the way for the game's production. A physical items preorder store will be available via Etsy soon! Profits from those sales will go towards unlocking these goals as well. **PLEASE NOTE: due to BK transaction fees and shipping costs not initially being counted in these goals (but are now lumped together via this platform), these goalposts are a bit short of what it will actually take to unlock each one.** *1ST STRETCH - UNLOCKED!* •2nd outfits for main cast •Pajamas for main cast •Additional hairstyles for zombie bases * 2ND STRETCH - UNLOCKED! * •Bonus epilogue chapter. •Elderly and child zombie sprite bases. (Currently only adults are included) •Underwear for twins and LIs (self-funded if not reached) 3RD STRETCH - reached at $23,100 •9 additional tracks to OST - 1 theme per LI. Backers would all receive this for free with the original 6 included. 4TH STRETCH - reached at $25,700 •JP voice recording of all sound bytes. •11x14" Sayuri print with zombie. 5TH STRETCH - reached at $27,700 •Bonus unlockable flashback chapter following Noah at start of outbreak (longer than most unlockables included in game by default. Also comes with CG). •Sprites for unlockable flashback chapters already included in base game of childhood versions of main cast. •HANAKO LI ROUTE FOR MIKURU. •Partial animation for several backgrounds. 6TH STRETCH - reached at $36,200 •Fever Dream Edition! Experience ApoYume as a bizarre dark humor hellscape with pink blood and semi-fashionable zombies. Rated T rather than M. •New merch and add-ons possible in the theme of the new version's colorways. •10 new ID card slots become available. •New graffiti slots become available, if sold out. •This is an entirely new, separate game, it can be swapped out for a key to the original title but will not come as a free bonus. 7TH STRETCH - reached at $39,100 •Expedited completion of DLCs! In DLC 1, survive as Chloe, a survivor stuck at uni with 2 of her peers and a professor. In DLC 2, survive as Suguri, a nurse with her coworker and a patient who arrived at the hospital with his sickly girlfriend. If this is unlocked, backers all will receive the DLCs for FREE. If we somehow pass all before the game's completion, we will see about releasing full Japanese translation as a patch down the line.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
WE DID IT!!! 🎉🎉🎉 This was all thanks to you, pledges big and small!! As long as the largest pledges do not error, we made it to less than $1k before hitting SG 2, so I am confident it will be reached on Backerkit!
Currently, there seem to be no issues with being able to adhere to the projected timeline, though that may change.
I am mostly functionally recovered from surgery now! I can lift things over 10lbs, take walks, stay awake longer than 8hrs a day...lol. I will still be taking a vacation for 2 weeks this month (ending October 2nd) because I ended up working through my entire surgery recovery. Most of those 2 weeks will be what is touched on below under "backerkit," so I will only be working Mondays and Fridays during my break. After that will be fulfillment for the prior KS as things were unfortunately delayed (unless they arrive before I leave, which will then be quite the hustle), then proceeding with the rest of the planned timeline.
During the 2 weeks that Kickstarter collects pledges (any errored pledges have only 7 days to fix them through KS, but it is possible to fix them through Backerkit later) and then processes the deposit, I will be:
• Setting up the Backerkit functions and preparing surveys (actual import to the system will happen around the 20th; surveys will go out around the 21st)
• Getting the preorder store ready
• Reaching out to those who paid for cameos in the game (ID, custom char, zombie, etc) and sending forms to fill out
• Compiling spreadsheets for the artists on what exactly needs to be done for everything, for another updated quote
• Contacting the composer, TAMA
• Reaching back out to my singer for the Kikuo track (will be revealed once cover is complete!)
...and more.
The preorder store will be open likely until BETA is released for the game in the hopes of reaching the remaining stretch goals. It will be for the digital rewards only, as the physical rewards will be in ApoYume sections of my shops (main store, plus the Etsy for EU and UK). It can be nerve-wracking keeping track of stock with items on multiple storefronts already, so a third for the physicals would be too much.
However! Physical items in the campaign will still be "secretly" available on backerkit, to those who already backed on Kickstarter. Once you fill out your survey you can add them on to your initial order if desired, before surveys are locked.
I will consider closing the preorder store once the remaining physical rewards have arrived in stock and all have shipped out to those backers, IF the stretch goals have already all been met. There will be multiple announcements before I 1) lock surveys, 2) charge cards, and 3) lock addresses so make sure to keep an eye on the email associated with your Kickstarter account!
Discord invites will be sent to all backers with non-errored pledges in around 24hrs, and to backers with errored pledges after they are adjusted. Backers with dropped pledges will not receive discord invites unless you contact me beforehand about fixing it on BK later. I had polled my twitter audience on which new channel they'd like to see most for the server, so "character discussions" has been added and will be available.
I did more fiddling around with Naninovel a couple weeks ago, and an updated demo hosted on Itch.io (instead of CN) is likely feasible by sometime in January...likely. My inability to stick to strict deadlines is due to my poor health and not my motivation, so I can't say for sure whether that will happen on time. At that point is when I will actually add Sayaka, as adding her to the CN version would be redundant at this point. I am immensely grateful for everyone who has played through the current demo.
If you are concerned that I may have missed something relevant to your pledge, please message me! It is more-than-likely included in the "and more." :P there are so many things to be done in the first month post-campaign...so many.
I am happy to announce too that all my Kickstarter campaigns in the future will be in some way involved with my game projects: the upcoming cat bags will be on an important side character I have been designing in secret for the past few months, donning all my black cat merch; the varsity jackets campaign next year will include an old prototype design of mine redesigned her jacket as well as Arisa's 2nd outfit bomber jacket and Ryuu's sukajan; a bag Kiriko will be wearing in her 2nd outfit will be a campaign after that. I'll be significantly scaling down non-KS, non-ApoYume shop operations next year as planned so that I can focus more on the dev. 💪
It seems now that I'm looking at it that there were some people who backed the merch-only tier without adding anything, likely under the impression they would still get the sticker solo. That is probably my fault due to the wording of the tier:
The tier was only intended for people who wanted to add physical items to the $1, and in that case, the sticker would be included. The sticker is not included in the $1, so I should not have included it as a bulleted item, and instead stipulated such. As per the 8th update:
"[...] for anyone who pledged Full Game+ by itself, or just some vinyl stickers from the merch only tier, you won't be charged extra shipping as it's built in (envelope postage)".
What the $1 is for is just envelope postage after taking into account both kickstarter and backerkit fees, only if you get other stickers added to it. If you did not add anything else to the tier you are not eligible for the sticker, but can get it via the add-ons available through the survey if you want to! Add-ons including stickers and other items (or just other items) mean the shipping billed via BK is just a smidge cheaper due to the $1 included already.
I am very sorry for any confusion.
I have always taken customer service, fulfillment, and customer satisfaction very seriously with my business, and this will be no exception. So please, if you have any questions/comments/concerns, feel free to message me through KS and I will reply ASAP.
Thank you all again so much for believing in this!
Elena
Really quick thank you update!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 if we can hit a stretch goal or two in these last 2 days that would be incredible, I'd love to be able to promise that extra content before moving over to backerkit for the preorder store. The reminder emails go out to all 785 campaign followers in 4 hrs so hopefully!! 👀 thank you everyone!!
The 1k tiers are all claimed! ♡
Hey everyone! Campaign base goal is now past 80% and we are in the home stretch!
Over half of the custom ID card add-ons are reserved! Once they sell out, more will not be available at any point in the future, unless for FDE if unlocked (as mentioned in last update).
This is super exciting! The campaign also has more than 600 followers now.
If you know anyone who you think would be interested in the game or physical rewards, be sure to spread the word!
ALSO - I think I spaced on adequately explaining this properly if at all, but if the only physical item you purchased is 1 or more stickers, you will not be charged shipping later in Backerkit. That means for anyone who pledged Full Game+ by itself, or just some vinyl stickers from the merch only tier, you won't be charged extra shipping as it's built in (envelope postage). Those will go out before the end of the year for certain, to avoid the postal price hike that happens every January.
This is why FG+ is a smidge more expensive than if you got base game + discord access + sticker individually. FG+, and any other pledges with more than stickers as physical items, will also get branded wax seals on their envelopes/packaging! They are only available for the larger orders due to the cost of wax and my limited stock, as I am also using them on some rewards from my last kickstarter once the bags arrive.
I thought I had mentioned this somewhere but I am very scatterbrained right now, and the campaign bio is quite long ^^;. I made sure to add a blurb about it just now, under the shipping header.
Thanks everyone! As always, feel free to comment or message if you have any questions.
Elena
This is so exciting! We have over 10 days remaining and are rounding the bend.
As long as base goal is funded, we do still have a chance at unlocking other stretch goals via backerkit post campaign! So we just need to hit 100% funding!
If we do end up reaching FDE through Backerkit post-campaign, I just want to remind people what that entails, as far as some of the additional content that hasn't been super elaborated:
The prospect of being able to share with all of you two different yet equally-exciting versions of the same adventure is just so exciting. I hope we can get there!
Somehow it completely slipped through the cracks for me to list the Dead Tired keychains, apparently...^^; I thought I had, as they are of course included in 2 reward tiers, but this one definitely was my own error. I will be letting KS know that I hope they add the option to embed images in add-ons, it's rough to keep track when there are more than a handful. Thank you for your patience with me on this! It is now available to add on to pledges.
I've been blown away by all the positive feedback and community support I have gotten. I am tremendously appreciative. Each one of these characters in ApoYume carries a part of myself, and the project is very dear to me.
I can't wait to bring ApoYume to (undead?) life for all of us!
Elena