On Yharnam Sunrise and the Collapse of the Project
Posted to Kickstarter July 13, 2025 Hello to all the people who had hope for this project! I'm here to talk about the recent journey to Yharnam Sunrise, from roughly late May to present, as I experienced it. This will explain why all of the backers are receiving refunds. I made some mistakes with this project, all of which looked poorly on me but were fixable. I delayed the project. People dropped out. I waited too long for an artist I couldn't count on. I could be better at math. I admit I could have handled the project better, that there are things that should not have happened, but this was my first tarot project and first team project for profit. All of my previous projects were either by myself or for charity. I had modest expectations for it, and I don't have a lot of business experience, so there were some things I didn't know. If people had come to me to say "Hey, what the fuck?" I would have worked with them. One of the mistakes was that I chose an American manufacturer whose price was too high, and with which we would only break even, not make any profit, after we had already set the prices and begun to crowdfund for the product. At some point in the cost theorizing, I missed something, so I budgeted for something unobtainable because of my mistake. Also, originally I thought that we needed an American or non-Chinese manufacturer in order to avoid tariffs, but as the tariffs are still consistently fluctuating, that thought became moot. Seeking to be transparent, I shared the incorrect cost breakdown for the American manufacturer with the group, and tried to explain that I had made a mistake. However, I understood what I had done wrong, and found a different manufacturer shortly after who was roughly one-third to one-half of the price of the American manufacturer. My second, slightly earlier mistake was inviting an artist t o pinch hit who I thought had integrity and was reliable, and who had the project's best interest at heart. I didn't know that they had their own agenda and that increasing the profit line was the most important thing to them, especially once it became so profitable. I initially brought them in because I felt they had the experience I was lacking; I thought this would be a positive addition to the project. Eventually I became aware that they had allies in the project to back up the dissension they were creating. This created a huge lack of trust in me as the project manager, and it became very clear that this person wanted to take control of the project. Once the dissension was normalized, work was already being withheld and it was becoming a battle of wills. I had made it clear all along that I wanted to protect their work and that I would not use it without their permission. I was in full agreement that there should be a contract detailing the protection. Once we knew that the project had taken off financially I thought paying a percentage to everyone based on work allotted to them would be a good idea, though I would not agree to a contract stipulating funds. When we discussed the percentages, their demands went up. Needless to say, this then became a battle ground. I felt more and more that the dollars were becoming the main focus instead of completing the project. Essentially, the team was blaming me for finance mismanagement when nothing had even been spent yet, and project mismanagement when all of the problems had been fixed. I realize this of course is my version but I think I was more than fair and honest to a fault. So I'm very sorry that people didn't get to experience this beautiful deck, but I feel like this was the best decision to make for this project.
