Hey robot lovers,

Our smoke test is now LIVE, meaning that 5% of you should have received your backer surveys! If everything looks as expected, the rest of the surveys will be sent within a day after that. Thank you for your patience as I pulled the final details together - a cold going around managed to catch me this past week, slowing down progress, but I am on the mend now. <3

For those of you with a lot of choices to make, the pin/sticker lists are LONG (18 designs!!) but are in alphabetical order other than the ridiculously cool backer sponsored pin added at the end, RAID, so I hope that makes things a little easier to find.

If you're one of the remaining 9 backers with errored payments, you can still correct your card information at the end of your survey. Your card will NOT be charged for additional items you add-on during the survey or for the cost of shipping until surveys lock down, which will occur after I have approved manufacturer samples for all pin designs. The current estimate for this is late April. After that point, I will provide one week of notice for you to finalize your choices - your surveys will remain editable until then!

Surveys left unfilled by the lock down period will not have guaranteed selection of their rewards, so please be sure to get these in. Surveys that remain incomplete by the time fulfillment begins in July 2025 will forfeit their rewards.

Speaking of RAID earlier —

My manufacturing representative was kind enough to send me some sneak-peeks of the sample production process! Here's how the front and back of a pin mold looks!! The channels on either side are for charging the liquid zinc alloy.

And here are freshly stamped, unplated pins! My rep called the blue substance a protective "ink", which is covering the areas that will ultimately receive sandblasting and transparent soft enamel. Hard enamel paint is apparently difficult to wipe off, so this masking fluid prevents contamination of those areas. Really dang interesting to see!!

If you did not pledge during the campaign period and still want to grab some of these little buddies, the Short Circuit Pre-Order Store will remain open for the same duration as the surveys.

That's all for now - if anyone has questions or runs into snags, please reach out and let me know. Have a wonderful weekend!

Hey robot enthusiasts,

Samples for the remaining 15 Short Circuit designs are underway!

I fired off all the finished vector files to my manufacturing representative:

If you're curious about what's involved in pin creation, here's a closer view of how I've been communicating what we're after.

Then in return, my manu confirms the details with proofs that look like this:

We went back and forth to hash out a few expectations, I paid a spooky amount of money (I'm not desensitized to this part yet ha), and now we wait for photos! This was all handled a couple days ago but yesterday was my birthday, so hence writing a proper update today. <3

At first he was a bit puzzled as to why I wanted to sample all of them when the effects on the additional Earth, Fire, and Water designs are the same as what we sampled before the campaign - but it's important to me that you all get to see the real things "in the metal" before making your final selections, as promised, and I budgeted our goals with that in mind.

As a reminder of what to expect ahead of time, here is Leaf modeling the correct pantones for the first three Unit Lines!

It's likely the only extensive back and forth will be on the Air Line, and I've requested Python be produced first with this in mind as they have the largest surface area of recessed/clear enamel. I'm excited to see them all though, and I'm sure you are too!!

On the topic of getting to peek at progress, I'd like to offer you all another first look in this update —

—at MOZZY's robot form! As per your votes, Mozzy's model is programmed to fetch items - but has a tendency to apply a bit of creativity in interpreting user requests. A order of vodka may result in a bag of potatoes, and if the supply depot is fresh out of toilet roll? Well... you wanted something for cleaning up, so Mozzy is liable to decide that a scouring pad should do the trick! 

If you're having a rough day, however, sometimes you'll wind up with an upgrade, like a multipack of candy bars in place of one. How come you weren't charged for the extra sweets? Sometimes it's best not to look a gift fox in the snooter.

Now that we have WIPs for the last two items and samples are in production, I'll refocus on finishing up surveys! My next update will have further details on what to expect there - thank you all for your encouragement and patience, you're an amazing crew! 😊

Hey robot lovers,

Popping in with some general status updates and art asset progress that I'm excited to share with you all.

First up, the robot character art sticker sheet for Python is now complete!! I know I shared their story back in the sketch phase, but I'd like to officially reintroduce you now —

Python is a data relay model! Their little wings allow them to hover like a drone way up high. Python doesn't always pass along the information intended, and a weather alert they relay may become a simple "Hi there!", while a request to download a scary film may instead result in a Bob Ross special. They really just want to be your friend!

Next up is a latecomer to the Short Circuit collection that I'm absolutely tickled to have with us. Meet RAID! 🐯💾

RAID 0 disk striping distributes data across multiple drives to maximize storage capacity and read-write speed. This striped bot-board is also powerfully optimized for a strong performance.

This design was sponsored by backer Adrian via the Commission a Unit tier, and will be available for everyone to add to their orders as pins and/or selective holographic stickers (All In++ tiers will receive one of each by default). Thank you again for the excellent request, Adrian!!

If you missed out on the campaign proper, RAID and all the other bot-boards are available in the Short Circuit pre-order store. If you backed the campaign, please continue to wait for the upcoming backer survey to add them there, as it will save you on shipping.

Regarding the surveys — I'm spinning a lot of plates at the moment and they aren't quite ready to send out yet. Now that the first chunk of funds from Backerkit has cleared, I've pivoted to preparing the remaining bot-board vector files for manufacturing, to order samples of all the newly unlocked designs asap. This makes more sense as a first priority to keep things moving along, as I don't plan to lock surveys until after all samples are complete for you to see before making your final selections.

So I'll come back to finalizing surveys once I have those fired off and paid for. I'd also like to include sketches for our last two sticker sheets in the survey, to help inform your initial decisions.

Speaking of which, here's a first look —

—at Malware's robot form!! MALWARE is a model designed to correct other malfunctioning robots. He was intended to infect and commandeer their operating systems, and ultimately force a fresh reinstall.

Malware finds these units to be delightfully unique rather than broken. Instead of hacking into buggy bots to change them, he acts as a sort of guardian, identifying and patching their vulnerabilities so they can secretly carry on as they are. 

Some systems may indeed wind up prey to Malware's viruses, however - databases tracking buggy bots go offline now and then, and suspicion is growing around whether this model is functioning as intended.

Really excited about the little guy, as the story between all these bots feels like it's starting to coalesce into something larger. If you're here just for the fun circuit board designs and not the tech puns or robot worldbuilding, that's of course fine too! I'm really enjoying expanding Short Circuit in a couple different directions.

That's all for now ~ expect fox robot sketches soon, Mozzy fans!

Hey robot enthusiasts,

Thanks again for an amazing campaign!! We blew past the 16k mark in the final hours and I am still in awe of the love you showed these little buddies.

A few things are still receiving updates, but for anyone who missed out entirely during the Short Circuit campaign, the pre-order store for late pledges is live!

Reminder that to avoid getting charged shipping twice, existing backers should NOT use the pre-order store. It's for anyone who missed the initial funding period! If you want more pins and stickers than you added to your order during the campaign proper, you'll be able to do so in the add-ons section of your backer survey.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the survey setup over the course of this week. Once complete, Backerkit has to review it before I can do a smoke test and then ultimately get them sent out, so that'll be a little while yet, but likely in the last week of February (next week).

Once I receive the campaign funds from Backerkit, I'll get payment sent to my pin manufacturer to sample the remainder of our unlocked bot-board designs. Currently 301 of you are recorded as charged successfully, and 21 have failed. If you're in that second category, don't panic, your order is not cancelled! If you correct or re-enter your card information, Backerkit will attempt to charge you again. For additional information on correcting your payment method, check out this help article.

On the topic of production, my sticker manu has offered an alternate easy-peel solution for the large vinyl stickers, an extra border around each design in place of the tabs, and kindly provided me with a sample photo of the concept. The tabs would occasionally break off, so this solution is a much more durable way to achieve the same effect.

The robot sticker sheets for Python, Malware, and Mozzy are in progress, and I'll be sharing them here in the Community updates as I complete each and update their corresponding images in the store.

Speaking of design development - I have an exciting announcement to share. There's a tiger design in the works, sponsored by backer Adrian through the Commission a Unit tier!!

For other campaign backers, this design will be included with the in All In++ tier and also available to select in your survey. For those pledging late via the store, you can grab them individually there as well! The final design is subject to change, and we're still pondering their name - LAN and RAID are potential contenders.

That's it for now; onward with drawing robots and sorting through the backend of the campaign! If anyone has questions, feel free to reach out at any time, and thank you again - I'm really excited to have a house full of bot pins and stickers when it comes time for fulfillment!!