ARTIX
Artix Krieger
| Friday, June 26, 2020
Check out the Wall of Moglin Legends! A page to honor and credit all of those responsible for bringing Moglins into the real world.
Story time! Since the first AdventureQuest, Moglins have been the mascots of our online video games. You have likely encountered Twilly, Zorbak, and Twig regardless of which of our games is your favorite.
We have received countless requests from players over the years for plush Moglins. It was easy to understand why. Moglins are unique, have a wide range of personalities, and... well, they would have made the perfect stuffed companion to keep you company while gaming, working, drawing, and going out on real-life adventures. So.... why did we not make them? Easy. O_O Making plush is expensive & takes a lot of time. Sure, we got a lot of requests, but there was no way of telling if there were really enough people who wanted them. There were, among you, many who strongly believed. We just needed a way to find out. Turns out, this is exactly what Kickstarter is for. If enough people wanted to let Moglins into the real world... they could make it happen. So the Kickstarter was launched...
My jaw hit the floor. The Moglins Kickstarter was funded in less than 2 hours. We seriously had no idea what to expect. Sure, you may be sitting there thing, "Come'on Artix, that was a no brainer." But really, when we hit the launch button we were scared this Kickstarter would not be a success. Then came the Stretch Goals-- which, LOL, we were completely unprepared for. Especially on the first day.
The LIVE Moglin puppet show was my favorite one. That was one of the craziest, most insane, truly 100% LIVE things we ever put on. No one really knew what to expect... and NO ONE expected the amount of pre-production that went into it. It just kept getting crazier and weirder the longer it went on. The personalities of the Moglins got to shine in the show. There were also some surprisingly creative uses of the greenscreen suits we were wearing. Here is a link to Live Moglin Puppet show's best of clips. Kimberly Freeman (lead singer of One-Eyed Doll) wrote an entire song entied "We are the small" for the Moglins which premiered at the show. The Kickstarter continued to soar... we were going to need a lot more Moglins O_O
Meanwhile, on the production side...we were making real, physical, honest to goodness Moglins. But not the small batches we were expecting from our original Kickstarter goal. Now, we were making 27,000 of them. It was an exciting adventure... there are a lot of steps to creating physical plush that most people do not think about. Like the testing and certifications required to bring them into the country and ship internationally. These little guys had to undergo some serious testing! We know the exact burn rate (per inch) of each Moglin....
In a project like Moglins, communication is key. I kept the backers updated every step of the way with super transparent, and classic AE-humor laced posts. Even the challenges we faced became a memorable part of the journey. And oh boy, were there challenges. Did you ever drive down a road and hit every single stop light? That is what the production process felt like.Sure, it was our first time doing the production part on our own. Because we were making so many more Moglins than originally expected, a lot of things took longer. We were learning the ropes. But boy are we good at it now. If you ever need thousands of anything made-- just let us know, LOL. I cannot express the feeling of relief I felt when that ship finally left the dock... with 27,000 Moglins on board sailing to us here in Tampa, USA.
When the Moglins arrived, the entire lab went down to greet the truck. We formed a human chain and brought all of the boxes inside. Moments like these are THE BEST. The feeling of community and working together is unlike any other. When we opened the first box... we were shocked. The quality was even higher than the prototypes.
It was finally time to ship the Moglins to their Heroes & new homes! As you probably know, our online shop, HeroMart.com, is located here in the lab. We ship things to players every day. But this was the biggest single outbound shipment in our entire history by far! We were basically swimming in Moglins here at the lab.
Stryche had a plan though. He took a week to super organize and pre-prepare everything along with an elite squad of qualified Moglin packing specialists XD It was a smashing success. Our mail pickup person is still having nightmares though...
We always do our best to go the extra mile and over-deliver at Artix Entertainment. So, unbeknownst to backers, I had created a special certificate to include with their Moglins and hand signed every single one of them.
The best part was when player's began receiving their Moglins and the amazing photos, kudos, and cheer started flooding in!
...and they just kept coming.
The Moglins project has been an amazing journey. As I write you, we have shipped 100% of the Moglins to backers who completed their surveys. We have also delivered their in-game rewards across 4 video games, including all of the stretch goals and a few other surprise perks. We are truly grateful to everyone who helped bring Moglins to the real world. Whether you backed the Kickstarter, BackerKit, helped spread the word, or just gave us words of encouragement... we could not have done it without you. It feels good to be part of an amazing success like this. Way to go everyone!
The Kickstarter & BackerKit have officially ended. But don't worry if you missed out. Soon, Moglins will be available on HeroMart.com along with the new J6 & DragonSlayer armor shirts.
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