The Bird Oracle will be late! Not too late, just by about three or four months, which I think is honestly pretty good by games crowdfunding standards. I've got some pro...
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Shing Yin Khor
10 months ago
Thank you! (and Oraclebird card mailing updates)
Thank you so much. I ran The Bird Oracle as an intentionally lightweight campaign and I am happy I did. I get to make this game for you, and it will be exactly the game I want t...
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Shing Yin Khor
11 months ago
Thank you for supporting the Oraclebird(with some non-topical marionette content)!
We funded in an hour, and the total keeps on rising. Thank you so much for trusting me to make you a beautiful game and send it to you. I get a little teary sometimes thinking o...
The Bird Oracle will be late! Not too late, just by about three or four months, which I think is honestly pretty good by games crowdfunding standards. I've got some progress pictures if you scroll down but I'm about to offer you some apology FREE STUFF so don't scroll too fast.
This delay, while not egregious, does means that I will almost certainly miss holiday shipping deadlines. Most likely, the books will be able to arrive *just in time* for rush shipping, but in order to avoid overtaxing my fulfillment folks AND myself(I am shipping the special editions myself) around holiday shipping time and risking all sorts of post office issues, I will choose to delay shipping until January/February. However, the digital versions of the book will be ready by December, probably earlier!
As an apology for the delay, I will send a limited edition card print to you or your recipient(or to you). But this is an OPT IN, and you can fill out this form to get this card/print: https://forms.gle/FwbATZLVBqqF2RuV8
This is not your address collection, just where you want this card/print to go to. It will be accompanied by a little note apologizing for the delay! (The card will be in-world and you can use it in the game, if you choose to scrapbook.)
Okay, here is some progress on the game...
Here are some of the images in the game, although they are somewhat without context(intentionally)!
an image of a small cottage, labelled Cottage No. 51
A letter from the Association of Oracles
A rooster appears on a postcard.
A typewritten entry in a "divination tracker" from the Association of Oracles
The actual reason for the lateness is because I was going to make this game solo, without any guest writers or artists, because the Oraclebird was a project that took up so many years of my life, and was so deeply personal, and it felt like I should keep this end of the Oraclebird project close to me. But I kept on meeting amazing people(both new and old) with incredible ideas and I kept on being surrounded by art and artists I love and it simply did not feel right to make a game without some of them. So, I had to ask them, and I had to extend my deadlines(and rework my budget to pay them), but I do think the game is going to be so much more lovely and nuanced with these additional voices in it.
Here are some of them:
Jameson Alea is making letterpress prints. that will be used as part of some epistolary work in-game(most of the game is epistolary). They are also the creator of the Tarot of Sorts, which is one of my fave Major Arcana decks. Here are some images from their letterpress printing process, which is extremely analog and slow - which is why I like it.
Jameson's letterpress blocks!
One of the prints, fresh off the rollers
I just met Younes Rabii at an unconference hosted by a mutual friend, and watched them perform a "pocket divination," which was so deeply elegant and simple that I begged them to please document it for this game. I did not take a picture of the spread because it was very dark(the lighting, not the tone), and the divination included some credit cards(it will make sense when you see it), but here is a website of an card-based Oracle they made recently that uses paint chip cards(this is in turn, an idea by Em Haverty).
Emerald Barkley and Nicole Gustafsson are two of my absolute favorite illustrators and they’re graciously allowing me to license some of their bird art! Here is one of Emerald's pieces.
I've been spending a ton of time assembling divination spinners for the special editions. They are so nice, though. The book boxes(not books) for the special edition have actually been in my studio for over a year. You can rest very assured that I am desperate to ship this game because I want these boxes OUT. I'll send you pictures of all those in the next update; my studio is under some serious reorganization.
Here is my revised schedule:
December 2024: Digital copies of The Bird Oracle available:
January 2025: Shipping for the edition of the Bird Oracle(this is the real fancy one)
February-March 2025: Shipping for all other editions of the Bird Oracle
Thank you for your patience! I appreciate you very much and am excited to finish this game soon!
Thank you so much. I ran The Bird Oracle as an intentionally lightweight campaign and I am happy I did. I get to make this game for you, and it will be exactly the game I want to make, how I want to make it. I am constantly awed at how your support has made it possible for me to make work on my own terms, with the interesting material I enjoy working with, with a somewhat messy artistic process that still produces a strange little game at the end.
What's next?
Well, now I keep my head down and make the game. Expect an update in a couple months, but likely no sooner, because I'm really trying to get the book finished before the summer!
I'm also getting through the truly immense pile of mail I've been sent by people who wanted Oraclebird cards! The first batch of about a hundred has been sent out to the early birds, but I still have about another hundred or so to get through(most people were not early birds). It has been a joy getting all these little notes in the mail and it is one of my most treasured parts of this process, even if it does not make much sense as a marketing strategy.
Here are some pictures from the FIRST batch of mail I received by mid February! After this things got a bit less aesthetically appealing because they needed to go into a more practical workflow(involving ugly plastic buckets) but there is a lot more mail(about four times as much now).
First batch of mail!
little precious notes.
And the Oraclebird cards are going out - I've mailed about a hundred and have another 30 queued up to go out today! I'll be mailing them out until the end of the month.
If you are in the Los Angeles area, I am teaching a FREE workshop on Worldbuilding and Ritual Games at the end of the month at the Fisher Museum. This is the last day the physical Oraclebird installation is up too. It does require registration(I think "tickets" go up March 18th) and space is limited, though.
Again, thank you for your support. I cannot wait to share this game with you.
We funded in an hour, and the total keeps on rising. Thank you so much for trusting me to make you a beautiful game and send it to you. I get a little teary sometimes thinking of the fact that I get to make weird personal work with my heart and hands outside the bounds of industry and people actually say “yeah, I am also interested in these things you are into.”
There are no stretch goals for this campaign - I don’t really like the vibe of constantly pushing to make more money by making unnecessary things and driving the final pledge amount up. The game, in its current form, at this current pledge level, is already the game I want to make. It is a strange and specific game, and if you know someone who might like it - please tell them about it! Word-of-mouth is truly crucial for a campaign like this. A higher pledge amount does give me more room to experiment with fancy book elements, and more ability to hire people to help me out with production, fulfillment at my studio, and other parts of the book and game! It makes my life and my work easier. I will not post too many updates during the campaign unless I have substantial updates to share(process photos, previews, etc), and I won't be posting any marketing-only updates. I'm so lucky to have a following that has kept up with collecting my work through so many medium and genre changes over the years and I respect their(your!) time and mine!
I’ve been working on different parts of the Oraclebird project for years, and one of its incarnations has been an interactive installation(its first incarnation, actually!). I’ve rebuilt that installation, added more cards, and it is actually up right now at the Fisher Museum of Art in Los Angeles, as part of the Scene Shift exhibit until mid-April. If you are in Los Angeles, you can visit it and get your fortune!
In other art museum/gallery news, I am in Alabama right now on a visiting artist fellowship with Auburn University and if you are in the area, I'll have a new collection of marionettes up next Thursday in a show in Biggin Gallery(in Biggin Hall). The show is called beasts and serpents, and the opening is 5-7 CST, Feb 8th(artist lecture at 5pm, gallery reception afterwards).
A beetle marionette
It is not precisely Oraclebird related, but if you pledged for or follow this game I have to assume that you like rooting around in libraries and old books, so I want you to know that I got to visit and touch a very old book that my new collection of marionettes was inspired by(Topsell's Four Footed Beasts and Serpents, in the Auburn Special Collections)!
A dragon marionette, in front of the illustration it was inspired by.
Some other game projects I am excited about!
The Magus and the Oracle: I think momatoes is one of the most interesting designers and artists working in the TTRPG space today. This is a bit of a reboot of her earlier RPG The Magus, and adds an oracle deck to the game. One of the things that makes momatoes' work unique is that her games tend to crunchiness, which is pretty rare for solo journalling games.
Your Friend in Witchcraft: Kay Allen, who is on my Discord, designed this game and it looks absolutely charming. I love letter-writing games and this seems to have really lovely, cozy vibes.
Emerald Barkley's new Fever Dream merch collection is not a game, but I think their work is gorgeous and I pre-ordered a print for my studio. And they did write a game for my tarot zine, which I hope to get online as a free .pdf soon!
Alright, thanks for reading and supporting me! I appreciate you!
I am and have long been a big fan of Shing's work and it has had a significant impact on my life, but I just want to specifically comment on how fantastic Shing is at completing these projects. I have supported about half a dozen of their projects over the years, not to mention recurring endeavors like Patreon and Project Pizza. And every single time, I have been beyond happy with the process. They are extremely thoughtful and thoroughly communicative throughout the process, and the results are always great quality, consistently meeting or exceeding what was promised.
Shing, I just want to say thank you for all the hard work and care you put into your work, both as art and as a business. Your business being not so much a capitalist enterprise as it is a community one, one where you try to make something you care about while keeping us, the individuals who love your art, in mind. Sending love and warmth your way 🔺️
