Big Life Update - Kickstarter Update

I posted this updates for all of the kickstarter backers, but decided to put it here as well to explain why I’ve been so much quieter these last few weeks, and why the November models were late, but don’t worry, you’ll get your Norse goddesses for this month, on time, fingers crossed. 

It’s a big read, so if you’ve got better things to do, (like playing that new Timberborn beaver game on steam) then that’ll probably be way more fun than reading this monstrosity, but I’ve always said I would try to be as transparent as possible, so here it goes. 

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Hey all!

This is a long read, so please bear with me, it outlines *everything* that has been happening this last month Or so. 

So it’s been a while since I’ve made an update, and all of your (kickstarter) rewards were meant to have been delivered already, but we’re still behind here and I can’t tell you how absolutely sorry I am for this delay.

It seems like everytime I start to get ahead and start making headway on these projects, something takes a drastic turn, and these last few weeks have been very insane and stressful, but I’m going to explain and ask for your forgivness and ask for only a couple more weeks of patience.

In the last kickstarter update I mentioned that I had a crazy moving situation, so let me break it down.

After the kickstarter ended, I got a notification that my current NZ visa was actually *ending*. Well, I started freaking out, because it was meant to be *extended* by 6 months, taking me to september of 2022.

With the news that it was ending, I got hungup trying to work out these last minute changes. I was trying to find adequate flights (all of which are insanely expensive due to covid still), trying to work out what to pack and what to ship back to the United States, because I had so little time to work out *other* plans and choose a new country to immigrate to.

Because of Covid, I wasn’t going to be able to take Moose, and the best I could do for him was have my friends back in Australia adopt him, which meant shipping him back over there and saying goodbye. It was also going to cost an arm and a leg to make it happen, and I think everyone here knows I love that little dufus-brain to the moon and back as I’ve had him for nearly ten years now.

It got pretty hectic.

Just as this all started, my relationship took a bad turn and for a short time, ended. My relationship could have actully kept me in the country and mediated the insanity of the quickly ending visa, but without it, I had to pack up and ship out.

The good news is, after a few weeks of freaking out over all of that, it turned out the email I got was an *error*. My visa has been extended on it’s own as it was meant to be, it really was just a screwup.

>insert big sigh of relief here<

After that worked itself out my relationship also worked itself out and we’re all good now and moving forward.

My partner was offered a job in a town called Kaikoura on the South Island and it was too good an opportunity for him to pass up, so we’re in the process of moving down there as we speak. I’m able to work from anywhere as long as I”ve got a good desk and a good internet connection. -I’ve got half the money now saved to go towards a new computer too, since mine is slowly dying, yay!-

Shortly after he got this news and we made this decision, I had a miscarrige.

It was an accidental surprise that quickly ended, and I kinda let myself just be a potato for a while there, as it was something I had never gone through or experienced before, and, as I said, a complete accident. It’d definitely been an emotional roller coaster.

Physically I’m well now. I’m still very fatigued, but that’s probably the stress of everything else, because the insanity hasn’t ended there either.

When it rains it pours.

Some of you who are regulars on the discord channel or were on my Twitch when I was still streaming know that my landlords have been doing construction *outside my window* for close to a year now. It pretty much halted the twich channel in it’s tracks and affected my work *a lot* during this time. However, I’d been looking for a new place to live that entire time with very little luck, but with the move to Kaikoura, i’ve found one. I have found and leased a flat down there already and all we have to do is show up and walk in. Hooray! Our real estate lady is also *super duper nice*

My current landlords were not pleased and are not being nice, despite our verbal agreement of my leaving near the start of their construction, they’ve basically been trying to take me for every penny they can since I gave them an actual departure date.

I gave them over a month’s notice of my departure date, which is this sunday (yay), and ever since then they’ve actually been clicking off my internet more and more everyday.

I’m writing this update from a cafe in the city on my tablet.

A lot of my work programs rely on an internet connection to operate becuase of the licenses. And I obviously need a proper internet connection to send files off to my support guy, to upload them to gumroad to deliver to all of you, and even to just make this update.

Long landlord fight story short, instead of being decent law-abiding human beings, they’ve decided to take me to Tenancy Tribunal. These last few days I’ve been in the city calling and talking to lawyers and doing all the research I can, because I know they’re banking on me not knowing my rights and the New Zealand tenancy laws. -Jokes on them, I’ve talked to three lawyers and the tribunal people directly- I can actually ask for more than just my bond back, they owe me money from breaching their own tenancy agreement. But they think I’m just a dumb American immigrant and they can just take my money to supplament what they don’t want to pay For their overpriced tiny flat. 

I was going to try and get the kickstarter busts (minus Zevi and Lyre)  delivered before we left on Sunday, but with the internet issues I’m having I dont’ think I’ll be able to pull it off. I dont’ have a laptop, so I can’t even put everything on a harddrive and bring it to an internet cafe to deliver them.

It’s almost over now I promise

We are leaving on Sunday night. We have a ferry booked, most of our stuff is in storage. We’ll put my computer and Moose in the car and take our important stuff and on sunday night we’ll board the 3 hour ferry ride, drive 2 hours to Kaikoura and walk into the new flat.

We might be sleeping on the floor for a while, but I’ve already had a desk ordered and delivered to the flat. Our *super nice* real estate lady has already put our internet modem inside for us, flipped on the electricity and even had my desk put inside after it was delviered.

I really just have to plug in the desktop, try to get Moose through his unavoidable anxiety fit over the move, and get back to work in a new city that is full of seals apparently. And dolphins to swim with.

I’ll try not to get too distracted by the views. It’s a tiny tourist trap of a town, with no starbucks for me to obsess over, but I can go play with a bunch of llamas.

This was supposed to be done already

Not only was the Demi Demons supposed to be done and delivered already, but I had plans of releasing a small Christmas themed kickstarter for about $5 with a festive character (I won’t say who or what she is). She was supposed to go live at the start of Decembner.

So just know that everything that’s happening has really pushed me behind, I promise I”m not just sitting around being lazy, it just seems like roadblocks keep getting thrown up everytime I try to take Bella Nacht to the next level and do something new.

Despite Christmas being right around the corner, I still want to put this special kickstarter up at the start of the new year When I’ve delivered the rest of the demons to the kickstarter backers. 

Keep an eye out.

Everyone who knows Murp from the discord … he’s either gonna love or hate this kickstarter. ;) 

I love you all. You’re amazing and your support really has helped me to keep pushing forward even when it feels like quitting would be so much easier. I love making these models, I love this business, and I have so many new projects in the concept stages for the future I can’t wait to bring to life -minus the strange karmic insanity that comes everytime I try-