Keychains & Coupons are Available! (March 2024 Update)

Hi everyone!

I'm excited to share with you all some good news about the latest Patron offer, keychains, and the progress of Story 8 (WHICH COMES OUT NEXT MONTH)! We've made immense progress in the past couple weeks and I'm hoping to make the April premiere one worth waiting for.

Gildedguy & the Premiere of Mar

First things first, an update on the progress of animation production. How is it going?

Quite well actually!

Since the recruitment of additional animators and cleanup artists*, we've been cruising through the many scenes of Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. A vast majority of the rough animation is now done, and we will be soon switching gears to tackle final background art and compositing, which should take a shorter amount of time compared to the 30 minutes of raw animation we've finished.

There are still significant swaths of scoring to be composed, as well as the credits sequence and patron cameos to fulfill. So our work is still cut out for us.

But overall, I estimate we are 90-95% done with the project! It is surreal to type that out, since over the past dozen+ months, we've had to make small 1-5% steps to make it to where we are now. Knowing that we will be finished in about one month is a "....holy moly" realization.

*BTW! We've hired one final cleanup artist by the name of Mate! This puts our final production team size at 13! For comparison, the previous production had 9 members.

Premiere

So, when's it coming out?

I need a few weeks to put together the release date announcement and trailer video, but what I can say is that it'll premiere on a Saturday in April. Story 7's release was on a weekday, which made it hard for some viewers to attend the watch party and GildedGala event. I want to make it convenient and fun for anyone to tune in to this 30-minute long episode, therefore saving it for the weekend is a good idea.

The multiplayer GildedGala is operational, and I'm hoping to set aside a good several days for developing new features, particularly centered around Player to Player interactions. I'd love to solicit feedback from you all via our Patron-only Discord server, so keep an eye out for a special invite there.

How to Redeem your Free Keychain

In celebration of the completion of the new animation, we're giving out keychains to Patron supporters. This is something I try to do for every major release as a way of saying thanks to you guys.

If you are a Name Credit Patron Tier or above ($15+), you are entitled to your pick of any keychain (or equivalent merch) in my merch shop! 

• $25 Extra-Thanks Patrons get a $32 Shop Voucher (2 charms worth)
• $50 Cameo Patrons get a $60 Shop Voucher (4 charms worth)
           (^ now's a great time to upgrade your pledge)

These items are personally fulfilled by Gilded Animation, LLC, so each order comes with a handwritten thank you card from me:

• Check your email inbox for a special message about a promotional code from Gildedguy's Patreon Page. You should also be able to see the code in the Your Membership tab and scroll down.

• Visit the Gildedguy keychain shop and apply your code at checkout.
• NOTE: In the special instructions/notes section, include your Patreon username. This helps me verify you're qualified to use the one-time use promo code*.

If you've already purchased a keychain, feel free to use the code to discount any other product in the store. We have stickers, figurines, and posters now!

* if you happen to receive more than one promo code, please only use one of them and only for one order. I'm unable to cover the shipping cost since they can vary wildly between locations.

The new Story 8 keychains disappear fast, so put your order in before all the new patrons (once the release date trailer goes out) whisk away all the stock.

As always, you guys are welcome to message me if you have any questions at all.

Twitch Overlay Upgrades

We've been upgrading the Twitch overlay to fit the changing seasons (interactive rain!), as well as adding some new animated emotes. 

Come stop by and say hi to the Guinea Pigs when you get the chance!

http://www.twitch.tv/gildedguy 

I'm gonna go take a quick walk and then get right back to work on the new animation - stay tuned for more news on the release date and eventual premiere!

Enjoy those keychains!

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