Shipping Update
over 6 years ago – Wed, Apr 04, 2018 at 01:11:11 AM

Hey team,

I wanted to give a quick update, as a lot of stuff is happening right now, and I wanted to make sure you're up to date.

Shipping Update Per Lane

- AU / NZ -- Aetherworks has completed the fulfillment of this territory.  If you don't have your game yet, you should very soon. Let me know if you still don't have it by the beginning of next week. I'll help chase it down.

- Asia -- VFI has completed the the fulfillment of this region. If you don't have your game yet, you should very soon. Let me know if you still don't have it by the beginning of next week. I'll help chase it down.

- Canada -- The games destined for Canada left Quartermaster in FL on Monday. They're travelling up to Buffalo, NY, and then to Toronto for shipping within country to your doorstep. It's estimated they will be in Canada by early next week. They will then need to be inventoried, prepped for shipment and then shipped. So, expect your games in a couple weeks.

- US -- Many of these packages have gone out (over 3,200), and backers are starting to receive them. This was by far the largest group of packages. You should have your tracking number (exception below), if you don't have your game already. If you can't find the email with the tracking info, let me know, and I can send it to ya.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your order included the Meeple Realty custom insert, unfortunately your games are delayed. The team at Meeple Realty needed a few extra days to finish up enough copies to cover the KS orders before sending them over the Quartermaster, which will be bundled your game. Meeple Realty shipped them over to Quartermaster on Friday, and QM is scheduled to receive them tomorrow (4/4/2018).  Once they've been inventoried, QM will get your orders out the door with tracking numbers as soon as possible. I apologize for the delay. I know it's tough to see other backers getting their games while you're still waiting for your tracking number. The goal is to have all US orders shipped before the end of the week.  It's coming, I promise. :).   

- EU -- On 3/27, Gamesquest, who is handling fulfillment in the EU, indicated that they would be in position early this week to begin fulfillment. So, hopefully, you will begin seeing shipping notices later this week. I've reached out to try to get a more specific plan than that, as I know there is some concern with the speed at which backers have received other KS games through Gamesquest in the past. I'm still cautiously optimistic, but understand the concern. I'll keep pushing for clarity on my side. Thanks for your patience. I want nothing more than you to have RP:MM in your hands as soon as possible.

- Rest of World -- Your games were all shipped from Quartermaster earlier this week.  Depending on where you are in the world, delivery times may vary.  The good news, is they're on their way.

- International backers who ordered the Custom Insert - This will be shipped separately to you in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

I love seeing copies of RPMM pop up in social media over the last few weeks.  It's the culmination of a lot of hard work, and it's heartwarming to see people getting so excited to get their games. Thanks for sharing those.  It's pretty awesome :)

Till next time.

Keith

Boats have landed!
over 6 years ago – Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 12:26:29 AM

Hey team,

I'm a couple days late on my 3-week update. Please forgive me. I've been at GAMA tradeshow in Reno NV showing retailers how awesome Roll Player is.

Anyway, things are moving along nicely!  

PRODUCTION

Here's the breakout per lane - 

- US/CANADA/ROW - The games arrived at port a couple days ago, on schedule. They have passed through customs and are making their way to Quartermaster where fulfillment will begin after they are received, inventoried, and setup for mailing. The Canadian copies will be split out and sent north of the border so they can be mailed from within the country making sure backers aren't hit with VAT. After the games are at their fulfillment destinations and sorted, I should get a schedule as to when games will begin to go out, though I suspect it will be within the next 2-3 weeks.

All orders not covered by the regions below will ship out with the US copies.  

- UK/EU - The games have arrived at port and should be at Gamesquest for fulfillment. I have an outstanding question to the folks at Gamesquest for a shipment schedule. I will comment below with details as I receive them. I know there's some concern with Gamesquest as they have had a couple rough projects in the last few months. I'm optimistic they will do a good job for us, and that they are past the pain of a few very complicated projects. Relatively speaking, Roll Player is a simple project, as there aren't a ton of different SKU's to mix and match compared to a game with lots of optional mini's buys. But, we'll just have to wait and see. I'll push for as much info as I can, and find ways to push for delivery ASAP. 

- AU/NZ - I've seen people posting on social media that they have begin to receive their copies. The rest of the world is jealous, but I'm happy they are being delivered. If you haven't received yours yet, give it another week or two. I don't know if they all went out yet or not, so yours is likely soon to be on the way.

- ASIA - These have been picked up and were prepped for shipping yesterday. These will be heading your way in the next week.  

MISSING PARTS

I handle all missing/damaged part replacements for my games. If you open your game and find something missing or damaged, let me know. Panda has a very low defect rate, but it does happen sometimes. Send me a message at [email protected] and I'll make sure you get it replaced ASAP.

So, that's the latest. Hopefully by the next update the vast majority of people will have their games.

 Till next time.

Keith

Games left the Factory ... Locking Down Mailing Addresses
over 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 01:00:23 AM

Hey team,

Another three weeks has passed.  Here's your update!

PRODUCTION

Good news! All copies of Monsters & Minions completed manufacturing before the Chinese New Year. Games are on the water. Whew!

Details of the different lanes are below, but the core take-away, is games should start arriving of people's doorsteps in the next 4-6 weeks. 

After these shipments make it to their destinations, they still need to make it through local customs, be received at the proper fulfillment warehouses, inventoried, and internal teams will finalize the fulfillment schedules for each region. 

- US/CANADA/ROW - Shipment scheduled to arrive in Florida March 14th after passing through the Panama Canal. US and Canadian orders will be split out, and Canadian orders will be transported north. All orders not covered by the regions below will ship out of this region.

- UK/EU - Shipment scheduled to arrive in Southampton, UK March 11th. Orders will be split as needed per EU region before fulfilling.

- AU/NZ - Shipment scheduled to arrive in Sydney Feb 24th.

- ASIA - These will be picked up at the manufacturer as soon as workers return after CNY.

LOCKING DOWN ADDRESSES

So, it's getting to that time. If you've moved or just want to double check your address, please do do NOW on backerkit.  I'll be pushing the button to lock down addresses this evening. Once addresses are locked and the final addresses are sent to the fulfillment house, it'll be unlikely they can be updated before shipping out, especially in the AU/NZ regions as it's looking like they'll be getting their copies first.

If you don't have a link to your survey handy, you can get it through THIS LINK. Otherwise if you send me a PM, I can press a button to have backerkit send you a link.

Till Next Time.

Keith

MPC Approved!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 02, 2018 at 12:29:35 AM

Hey team,

It's update time!

PRODUCTION

Things continue to march forward.

• I've received the MPC (Manufactured Proof Copy) of Monsters & Minions from Panda.  I've approved it and final assembly has begun, now that they have the final dice from their dice supplier.  See some images below.
• All shipping documentation is signed and our shippers are ready to move the games onto boats as soon as Panda wraps up the assembly job.
• We're still on schedule to have the games on the water before Chinese New Year.  It's going to be close, but Panda continues to assure me that we're on schedule to get them out before they go on holiday.
• In the next week I'll have some early copies of the expansion, so Meeple Realty can lock in the final design of the wooden insert. That will be locked down and manufactured while the rest of the games are on the water.
• Once the games are on the water, I'll make a call for final address changes before I lock them down.

CONVENTIONS

PAX South - I had a great time with Eduardo and Dustin at PAX South showing of my next upoming design -- Skulk Hollow.  Lots of love for the game from the many people who gave it try. We were running 3 demos at a time from open to close every day. I did a quick interview with James Hudson while I was there.  Check it out.  On the street meetup at 2:40. Interview at 4:46.

Polar Vortex 2 -- I spent last weekend in DuPage IL doing Roll Player demos at Polar Vortex.  It's a small con, but a lot of fun. 

Con of the North - I'll be up in Minnesota the weekend of Feb 16th hanging out with gamers there.  If you're around, stop by and say hello.

OTHER COOL STUFF ON KS

There have been a massive amount of cool projects on Kickstarter in this first month of 2018. I wanted to share some of the ones I'm backing and why.

Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Kraken - This one is from one of my best friends and fellow game designer Kane Klenko. Kane and I often playtest each other's games. I've played this one quite a few times over the last year helping Kane figure out how to make this expansion as awesome as possible. Worth a look, for sure.

 

Endeavor: Age of Sail - I love this game. It's a nice medium weight euro game that came out quite a while ago. After I first played it, I tried to find a copy, but it had been out of print for a while and was very hard to find at a reasonable price. This new version looks great, and they've added a few bells and whistles to make it even more amazing.  It's awesome to finally be able to get a copy. Recommended.

 

Till next time!

Keith

The New Year...
over 6 years ago – Thu, Jan 11, 2018 at 12:18:54 AM

Hey team,

It's been almost 3 weeks since the last update, so I wanted to send out the latest info before heading out to PAX South in San Antonio TX this weekend.

PRODUCTION

Base Game & Metal Coins & Frogkin Boards

These parts of the production are complete. These will be shipped with the Monsters & Minions Expansion, when it's ready.

Monsters & Minions Expansion

I was hoping to have the MPC (Manufactured Proof Copy) on Jan 1, but it's taking Panda longer than anticipated to complete it. I should have it in my hands next week. 

One important element when scheduling with manufacturers in China is Chinese New Year (CNY). Most workers in China stop working during all of February due to CNY, including board game manufacturer workers. So, it's important that these get done before the end of January or else we lose an entire month on the schedule. The good news is Panda has committed to having all our games printed, assembled and on their way to their destinations before they break for their holiday.

Unfortunately that still puts our delivery timeline into the end of March, given the time needed for freight shipping, customs, warehousing, and fulfillment. The project delivery is going to be late. Not super late, but later than I planned/promised. Apologies for that. Assembly times at their facility have been taking longer than previous years, which is super disappointing/frustrating. As more information becomes available, as always, I'll be sure to continue to let you know what's going on.

New Year

2018 is looking to be an awesome year for me and Thunderworks. I have big stuff planned and I'm looking forward to sharing more of it with you as we get further into the year.

In addition to the design work I did on Skulk Hollow from Pencil First Games that I mentioned last month, I have been working on a 45 min, 1-2 player game set during the Russian Revolution in 1917 designed by Brett Myers called Dual Powers. I hope to bring it to Kickstarter before summer. Illustrations are from Kwanchai Moriya and Graphic Design is from Luis Francisco (Roll Player Graphic Designer).

 Here's a preview of the box cover:

 I wish you and your friends/families a happy 2018.  

Till next time.

Keith