RPG Timeline Update and Gloomhaven Art Preview
5 months ago
– Tue, Jul 02, 2024 at 01:57:05 PM
Good day! I hope everyone is doing well today. We've got an updated RPG timeline for you, as well as some more Gloomhaven art to share now that almost all of it is finished. But first, I want to get in the habit of addressing some of the most prominent concerns from last update's comments.
First, there are a number of concerns from people who did not get charged for wave 3. We consulted with Backerkit, and found there were multiple orders that didn’t get charged because they were already in “fulfillment” status, which caused them to not get automatically processed when we closed the PM. Backerkit will be processing all these orders tomorrow morning.
We are also seeing some frustrations over the response time to support emails. Like I mentioned last time, due to the end of fulfillment and charging for wave 3, we have an increased volume in support tickets and the response time does go down. We were also hindered by the storm in the Midwest that knocked out power to our support team for several days.
We’re currently at just over 400 support tickets and are about 2 weeks behind in response, however we’ve assigned an additional team member to assist, and yesterday alone they were able to get through over 200 tickets. They’ll all be working diligently over the next couple days to get as caught up as possible before the end of the week. We appreciate your patience!
Shipping Update
EU: We expected all EU orders to have been shipped last week, but Fulfillment Europe had a few slowdowns. They have been working to get the remaining orders that contained Envelope X out. There are about 70 orders left, and they’ve committed to having these all shipped by the end of the week.
Brazil: We’ve received replies back from most of you with your CPF#, and these orders have been added to Fulfillment Europe’s queue, these will be shipping after the rest of the Envelope X orders have been processed. We still have 5 Brazil orders that we’ve tried contacting multiple times, so if you haven’t sent us your CPF# yet please check your email!
Asia: Fulfillment continues here with no changes from last time. You can track the progress of your region here:
https://vfi.asia/hubs/ (The project is listed under Frosthaven.)
Israel: We’ve had multiple people emailing asking about shipping to Israel. These orders have already shipped with VFI, and they have now updated their page to reflect this.
RPG
I want to talk about the RPG next, as we've got important timeline updates for you. As we speak, the first chapters are coming out of editing, and we are gearing up to start the layout process and commission all the art we need. So from here, this is the timeline we're looking at:
- We anticipate getting initial drafts back on the full book layout by mid August.
- The final book should then be fully edited, polished, and full of art by mid-late September.
- Proofing with the factory will likely take a month, so we should be ready to print by the end of October.
These are our best estimations up to this point, but as we hit November, our estimations become unfortunately even more unclear. The issue is that manufacturing in November and December (especially for books) can get a little chaotic. I'd like to tell you that we'll have everything on boats by the end of the year for fulfillment in the beginning of next year, but it is just unclear at this time, and we'll very like see some production delays because of the timing - delays that could even cause production to bump up against the Lunar New Year, causing further delays.
We're going to have to play it by ear and update you as we go, but I want to set your expectations now that we may be looking at production into February and not be able to fulfill until the second quarter of next year. We'll do our best to keep things moving when we get to production, but I want to make sure you're aware of the realistic possibilities.
Also, I want to note that these are timelines for the book. We also obviously have the cards and the deluxe box to produce as well. We'll be working on these in tandem, of course, and they shouldn't cause any delays leading up to submitting all the files to the factory, though confirming the assembly of the deluxe box is one of the reasons we're anticipating a month for the proofing process.
With all that said, we also have a new designer diary for you from Danielle. It's kinda long, so I'm going to post it below the discussion of...
Gloomhaven New Edition
June was a big month for the creative team! Outside of map tiles, we have only two outstanding art pieces that will be in by the end of the week, plus a handful of very minor art revisions that should also be done by the end of the week. Map tile art, however, has been a bit more of a struggle, as we still have several outstanding pieces, but we're confident that the delay here won't cause further delays in efforts down the line.
Here is a creative update from Arch, the art director:
Creatures, Bosses, and Summons! Pictured above is a sampling of new art pieces that you’ll see throughout the new edition of Gloomhaven. I’ve had the honor of working with a number of incredibly skilled artists on this project, and I can’t wait to fully reveal what they’ve been working on. In addition to a reimagined set of map tiles, there will be more than 50 all-new illustrations to enjoy in this updated classic. These efforts have not only helped to further illuminate this updated game, they’re also helping us build a properly lived-in world for the upcoming RPG.
In addition to these efforts, our graphic designers have continued to work hard to bring all these pieces together. Their expertise allows us to make a game that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but easy to follow as well. They’ve been working with the game design team with a sharp focus on all the details. About 70% of the game’s overall layout is complete at this point, with cards and other general components now in a phase of active review and revision. The rulebook and scenario books are well underway.
The creative team is starting July off strong! We expect to be finished with layout and related revisions for Gloomhaven by the end of this month, at which time we will begin the thorough and discerning process of proofing everything from copy to color combinations to ensure a smooth production run.
RPG Designer Diary from Danielle
Greetings Mercenaries!
Time for another design diary. I feel like I literally just wrote May’s diary, and I think that’s because June flew by so fast. I just got back from running games at Origins Game Fair, and it was once again great fun and a great success. If you had a chance to play games with the Lurking Fears team, I hope you had a great time. Please let them know how much you appreciate them, because they worked extremely hard to bring you our game in its playtest state.
If you missed Origins, Lurking Fears is also running Gloomhaven at Gencon, though the events are already sold out. If you’re really just looking to see the rules differences, I’ll be at the booth showing it off. You won’t get the full experience of playing a session, so if you’re looking for that, keep an eye out for
open slots with the Lurking Fears team. If you just want to say hi, I’d love to meet you and chat, so come on by.
Last month, I told you I’d have a preview to show you, so let me preface it with a little back story. When Isaac was originally working on the RPG, the goal was to let folks use their board game components to play the RPG. As we worked on the mechanical aspects of the RPG, the need for some major differences became apparent. I know I’ve already talked about how we’ve changed up the powers and cards, but that posed a new problem. You can’t just pull your character cards from your Gloomhaven box and play the RPG. I originally thought I’d figure out how to do a conversion guide, but the mechanical conversion is so drastic that I’m not sure translation is truly possible for the casual player.
This meant that I needed to ensure that players did not need the RPG cards to play the game if they didn’t have them or didn’t want to buy even more Gloomhaven components. The cards are still present, and they are still extremely useful to streamline your turn, keep check on what you plan to do, and are great play aids. Ultimately, I wanted people to be able to write their card powers down on their character sheet and know exactly what they were capable of doing if they didn’t have access to the cards.
So, after making all the adjustments to the class and ancestry mechanics, we’ve been hard at work converting symbols and shorthand into long-form RPG text to make what each power does extremely clear. We changed up some language to accommodate this, so the RPG talks about “primary actions” which are the actions you find at the top of a card, and “secondary actions” from the bottom. We did this not to be confusing, but to ensure that if someone isn’t playing with the cards, they aren’t wondering why we called the actions top and bottom. We also wanted to ensure that players could use their “ability cards” to do non-combat things, and knew they were accessible for that. So we renamed “ability card” to Skills specifically so we could reference them outside of combat and outside of needing a card.
All that said, here are a few Skills from the Mindthief.
Mindthief
The mindthief puts abilities called Augments into play. Augments last until the scene ends or until a new Augment ability is used, which replaces the existing effect.
While their Special Skills in battle allow them to seize control of an enemy, in noncombat scenes they get a sense for what others might think or feel. A mindthief gains a bonus on Attribute checks when Expending their Special Skills for reading another’s intentions, detecting lies, understanding another’s motives, or establishing a rapport with another. In an exploration scene, the mindthief may use an appropriate Special Skills to establish a connection with a thinking character or object capable of humanlike emotions or empathy, granting a bonus to Attribute checks when appropriate.
Basic Skills: These are the Skills that the Mindthief learns that do not need to be Expended on use.
Debilitating Strike
Level: 1
Initiative: 48
Primary: Make a melee attack 2. Add +1 attack for each negative Condition the target has.
Secondary: Control one enemy within 20 feet to move 5 feet. If Ice is present, force the controlled enemy to suffer 1 damage.
Frigid Knife
Level: 1
Initiative: 27
Primary: Make a melee attack 3. If Ice is present, inflict the Wound Condition on the target.
Secondary: Control one enemy within 20 feet to move 5 feet. If Ice is present, force the controlled enemy to suffer 1 damage.
Special Skills: These Skills must be Expended on use.
Into the Night
Level: 1
Initiative: 14
Primary: Make a melee attack 4 with Advantage. If the attack kills an enemy, gain the Invisible Condition. Infuse Dark!
Secondary: If you have not moved this round, gain the Invisible Condition. You may not perform Move abilities this turn! Infuse Dark!
Bonus: Advantage, +1
You wrap yourself in dark, disappearing from sight in an instant.
The Mind’s Weakness
Level: 1
Initiative: 75
Primary: Augment: Add +1 attack to all your melee attacks. Then, make a melee attack 2. You may control the target of the attack ability to make a melee attack 3.
Secondary: Control one enemy within 20 feet to make an attack 2. If Ice is present, force the controlled enemy to suffer 2 damage.
Bonus: Advantage, +1
With a little psionic twist, the mindthief pulls their target’s greatest weakness to the forefront, driving them to act in desperation.
Paralyzing Edge
Level: 1
Initiative: 8
Primary: Make a melee attack 2 that inflicts the Stun Condition. Infuse Ice!
Secondary: Move up to 15 feet. If Ice is present, inflict the Stun Condition on an enemy within 5 feet.
Bonus: Advantage, +1
The mindthief draws down the cold of ice to freeze their target’s mind, putting them into a stupor.
Possession
Level: 1
Initiative: 12
Primary: Control one enemy within 20 feet to make an attack 4 that inflicts the Muddle Condition.
Secondary: Move up to 15 feet. Then, Heal yourself 3. Infuse Ice!
Bonus: Advantage, +1
The mindthief takes control over their target’s mind, making them act in ways that are against their very nature.
Psychic Assault
Level: 1
Initiative: 77
Primary: Augment: Your single-target melee attacks may target enemies up to 10 feet away from you. Then, make a melee attack 3 that inflicts the Curse Condition. Then, control the target of the attack to Move up to 5 feet.
Secondary: Move up to 20 feet. Inflict the Curse Condition with all attacks you and enemies you control perform this round.
Bonus: Advantage, +1
With a blast of psychic energy, the mindthief overwhelms their target’s senses.
Withering Touch
Level: 1
Initiative: 18
Primary: Augment: Add the Poison and Muddle Conditions to all your melee attacks. Then, make a melee attack 3 that inflicts the Immobilized Condition.
Secondary: Jump up to 25 feet. Then, make a melee attack 2 that inflicts the Poison and Pacify Conditions. Infuse Ice! Lose this Skill.
Bonus: Advantage, +1
The mindthief infuses themselves with the staying power of ice, and with a touch, petrifies their target with a creeping cold.
Conventions
Origins was a great success! We debuted our life-sized first scenario of
Buttons & Bugs, and people couldn't get enough of playing a real life mercenary in the game. Plus, all tables were full of players for the Gloomhaven RPG sessions.
We also brough in a promo scenario for
Buttons & Bugs. for Origins, and we'll be releasing another one at Gen Con. Any promos that you miss, you can always find
on our website to print and play.
Here is the link for the Origins promo.
Our next convention will be San Diego Comic Con, July 25 to July 28. And then, of course, the biggest gaming convention in North America: Gen Con in Indianapolis, from August 1 to 4.
And that's all there is to share this time! I look forward to continuing to get your concerns addressed and update you on the progress being made.
Until next time!
Artist spotlight and RPG designer diary
5 months ago
– Tue, Jun 18, 2024 at 02:39:14 PM
Good day! I want to start by saying that your comments are being read, even if we don't respond to them right away. Some issues are better addressed globally through these updates, and other issues are better addressed through support.
For instance,
if you are having trouble with your order - whether you are still waiting on a wave 1/2 product in a region that should be fully delivered, or you need to change your address, or you'd like a refund - you are, of course, more than welcome to post about it in the comments, but you should also
contact [email protected] for resolution.
As we reach the end of fulfillment and mark regions as complete, we do see an increased volume in support tickets and our response time does go down, but our support staff has been working extra hours to get caught back up, so we ask for your patience as we get everything resolved.
Shipping update
As stated last time, US, CA, AU, NZ, and UK have all completed wave 1/2 fulfillment, so I don't need to continue updating you there.
EU: The container of envelope X arrived last Thursday and orders were then able to get shipped out. This process is still ongoing, but should be concluded by the end of this week at the latest. I will update this space when we have word from the fulfillment center when they are finished. Everything else has been completed here, so if you are still waiting on an order that does not include envelope X, then something has gone wrong and you should reach out to
[email protected].
Brazil: All backers that responded to us with their CPF info have had their items shipped out, but a handful still have not gotten back to us, and we can't ship without it. So if you haven't responded with your CPF number, please do so immediately. We will also be sending out another reminder email soon.
Asia: Fulfillment continues here with no changes from last time. You can track the progress of your region here:
https://vfi.asia/hubs/ (The project is listed under Frosthaven.)
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Gloomhaven new edition
Work is going well on finishing up art and graphic design at this point. We're still on track to have all art in by the end of the month and graphic design done by the end of next month.
What we thought we'd do in the meantime is spotlight one of the artists working on the project (and he was also the principal artist on Buttons & Bugs). So here is...
The development of Buttons & Bugs challenged the art and graphic design team to introduce a sense of whimsy to the World of Gloomhaven – A place traditionally expressed with a visual language influenced by high fantasy and grounded in a very real-world color palette. It became clear that this game would benefit from a distinct treatment by way of brighter colors and simplified character design for easier viewing at this unprecedented (for us!) small scale.
It just so happens that Mofei Wang is an expert at this!
Q: Quick! What’s your elevator pitch?
A: My name is Mofei Wang, an illustrator and concept artist based in Australia. I've been working in the game industry for several years. I studied the arts from a very young age. After I went to university, I started to learn artistic design and landscape architecture. After graduation, I worked as a landscape architect for a while but still found myself more interested in illustration and art. So, that is how it began.
Q: What was your first paid illustration project?
A: Back in 2019, at the beginning of my illustrator career, I received a commission to create several landscape and cityscape illustrations for a custom D&D campaign. That was not an industry-level job, but it was my first paid illustration project as an illustrator. My first board game project was creating card illustrations for the game called
Viking Raiders, which Neowulf Games published.
Q: What is your favorite class to play in the World of Gloomhaven? What’s your favorite part about it?
A: My favorite class by far is the Tinkerer. I've always love to play support roles—keeping my team in top shape with buffs, gadgets, and potions. What more could I ask for? It's like being the mastermind behind a perfect symphony of victory!
Q: What's one of your hobbies? What do you like about it?
A: Well, besides doing art, I guess gaming is another big hobby for me. I love games not just for the gameplay itself, but for the unique opportunities they provide to experience different worlds, roles, and experiences that may be impossible in reality. Games are not only the reason for me to decide to develop a career in arts but also continually inspire and fuel my artistic creativity.
Q: Do you have a "warm up" routine that you always do before you start creating?
A: Once inspiration strikes, I write down a few keywords related to my idea. From there, I search for many references or just inspired images based on these keywords. This phase is crucial for expanding and refining the initial concept. Once I created a mood board, I began with loose sketches without restricting myself to any particular direction. These sketches could be characters, landscapes, or objects, allowing my imagination to roam freely. This routine consistently expands my mind and fuels the generation of the idea of what I wish to create.
Q: What have your biggest inspirations and influences been?
A: I have a deep passion for the fantasy world and history, as well as a profound appreciation for the beauty of nature. These elements consistently inspire me, and I aspire to create based on them.
Q: What's your favorite subject to draw and why?
A: I don't have a particular subject to draw, I love and try to draw everything. But if I had to say, I think I really love to draw animals or humanoids. That's because I love animals, of course, but I also think different animals possess unique beauty and easily exhibit distinct personality traits. As parts of our world, humans and animals offer countless combinations to express beauty and unique perspectives, always providing intriguing ideas.
Q: What's one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring artist?
A: Based on my previous experiences as an artist, I would suggest stepping out of your comfort zone and trying to draw new things. You never know what projects are waiting for you! Keep curious, flow your mind, and don’t forget to always try some new games!
Working with Mofei has been a pleasure. We hope you’ve enjoyed his vibrant artwork on
Buttons & Bugs just as much as we have. Visit his portfolio at
https://www.artstation.com/mofeiw to see more!
RPG
The team is still working hard here to get the final chapters done and sent to editing, which will be happening this week. Once that is done we'll be in a much better position to provide an official timeline update. For now, I have last month's designer diary from Danielle to give you more insight into the process:
Greetings Mercenaries!
First, some UKGE news! I spent my time in the vendor hall at our booth running short demo games for folks all weekend. We ran a tiny scenario as a first look at the new rules and how everything works together. I’m pleased to report it was a smashing success. I was able to teach people how to play the game within 15-20 minutes, then we jumped right into the scenario. Some of the players I met were old-hat at Gloomhaven and only needed to hear the differences from the board game, and some people were totally new to Gloomhaven, having never played the board game before. Both groups of people were able to easily pick up the flow of the game and play through the scenario with only a small amount of time taken to remember some smaller “this is a way you can use your abilities.” All in all, I was able to teach the game, introduce a small mission objective, watch as the mercenaries finessed their way into a location, and ran a combat all within an hour and a half.
Some major takeaways from the experience:
- Combat is lightning fast compared to other TTRPGs. The longest combat I ran went on for about 5 rounds and that took at most 45 minutes.
- The ability to freely mix combat and non-combat actions was both intuitive and flexible. People quickly decided to do all sorts of interesting things in the middle of combat and before it.
- I had one group complete the mission with almost zero combat because they got some lucky draws on some clever activities. I love to see this kind of result!
- Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their sessions and I kept hearing over and over again how pleased people were with how natural and effortless it felt to switch between roleplay and mechanics.
These are all very good signs that the game is as good as it can be, and doing everything we wanted it to do. All the playtesting we do in the upcoming weeks will be to identify individual balance or mechanical issues that need tweaking. Which is all extremely normal and on track for where I thought we would be after our changes at Gloomcabin.
Some other highlights from UKGE were meeting so many fans who had backed our campaign and had nothing but glowing things to say about their experiences with the board game. So many people were thrilled to tell me how they couldn’t wait for the RPG to come out so they could get their hands on it. Several people told me that they were looking forward to a quality project, and were unbothered to wait a little longer to ensure it was the best it could possibly be. This is always heartening to hear, because I feel the same way, and I’m dedicated to making the Gloomhaven RPG the best product it can be, and as enjoyable an experience as playing Gloomhaven when it first arrived way back in 2017. I really think we’re making something so good and special, and that kind of product takes time to get true quality. We’re smashing it out of the park right now, and I can’t wait for you all to see it.
Speaking of which, I’ll be attending a lot of conventions this year as we gear up for the RPG’s release. I’ll be at Origins Game Fair in Columbus in the middle of June and at Gencon in Indianapolis at the start of August. I’ll be running games there, and hanging out at the booth, so if you get a chance to stop by and say hello, I’d love to meet you!
That’s it for now. Next month I’ll have another preview to show you.
Conventions
Just a quick note that some of the team will be out at Origins this weekend. If you are attending, we'd love for you to stop by to check out Buttons & Bugs, the new edition of Gloomhaven, and the RPG. We might even have a little Buttons & Bugs related surprise for you...
So that's all there is for this week. We will be back of course in two weeks to give you more progress updates as we work as hard as we can to get these projects across the finish line. I know it has been a long wait, but we will get there. Until next time!
Wave 3 pledge manager closing and rough timeline for new edition of Gloomhaven
6 months ago
– Tue, Jun 04, 2024 at 12:45:20 PM
Good day! There's a lot of stuff to get through to today, so let's get right to it. I want to address the continuing issues we have with EU shipping, and also give you a rough timeline for where we are with the new edition of Gloomhaven.
But first, I want to let you know right up front that
we are closing the wave 3 (Gloomhaven) pledge manager this Friday, June 7. What this means is that if you have made any changes to your pledge since the wave 1/2 pledge manager closed, you will have your card charged on the 7th. Then the pledge manager will be unavailable for a short time, but return for wave 4 (RPG) and 5 (miniatures) products. If you need to change anything in your order after the pledge manager closes, please contact
[email protected].
Shipping update
Before going into region-by-region shipping, we do have unfortunate news about EU orders that contained Envelope X. We discovered a mistake on the inventory count we had on Envelope X in the EU. We thought we had enough product remaining from our last fulfillment, and then didn't discover this miscount until last week when we were notified that we did not have enough in stock to complete all orders. This means that we have 390 orders left to ship pending the arrival of Envelope X from the US.
I am deeply sorry about this. I know shipping in the EU has been a significant struggle that has left a lot of you unhappy, and the string of apologies may be wearing thin. The realization of this error upsets me more than anybody, but the best thing to do now is correct this mistake as quickly as we can.
We have air freighted the missing copies of envelope X to the fulfillment center. These should arrive later this week, and Fulfillment Europe will be shipping out the remaining orders as soon as they arrive.
In order to prevent these types of issues in the future we’ll be doing the following on future waves:
- Review of product counts by upper management to avoid inventory errors.
- Weekly meetings between our logistics manager and fulfillment partners including: updates on any expected shortages or potential delays, as well as an estimated percentage of how far we are in each region.
- Clear communication on what is shipping vs. what hasn’t yet if multiple containers of SKUs are being shipped at different times.
And now here are the rest of your shipping updates:
US wave 1 and 2: COMPLETE.
Canada wave 1 and 2: COMPLETE.
AU/NZ wave 1 and 2: COMPLETE.
UK wave 1 and 2: COMPLETE.
EU/ROW: Other than the 390 orders mentioned above, we have 76 orders to Brazil that are just being prepared to ship now. This is due to the shipping laws requiring a backer CPF# being attached to the package. Our team contacted these backers directly to get this info, then these orders had to be added back into the queue with the new information. The affected backers in wave 1 and 2 will have their CPF# added to their info for future waves. If you are in Brazil and only have items in wave 3, 4, or 5 but have not added your CPF# to your address, please do so to avoid any delays in the future!
Asia: All hubs now have been shipped! You can track the progress of your region here:
https://vfi.asia/hubs/ (The project is listed under Frosthaven.)
Gloomhaven new edition
Okay, so now let's talk about Gloomhaven. We've been working hard over the past two weeks to get to a place where we can confidently communicate a timeline to you on when the new edition of Gloomhaven will be delivered, and while we were able to put something together, I have to admit it is still not as concrete as I would like. I need to emphasize that these are still estimations at this point, and that we will continue to work over the next few updates to firm up these estimations as much as possible.
With that said, here is our estimated timeline for project completion, but please also read all the caveats below:
- All art complete: end of June
- All graphic design complete: end of July
- Proofing complete: end of September
- Production complete: end of November
- Freight Shipping complete: end of January
- Fulfillment complete: end of March
The first two items on this list are what we feel most confident about. The creative process can take longer than anticipated, but there should be enough wiggle room in that estimate to get everything finished up.
From there, we are expecting a lengthy proofing process, based on our experience with Frosthaven. There are a lot of files, and we want to minimize mistakes. We'll likely go through multiple rounds of digital proofing and a round of physical proofing, which can take extra time.
And then from there, we're estimating two months for production, two months for freight, and two months for fulfillment, but I have to emphasize again these are all estimations. We're not going to get a confident timeline on production from the factory until all files are submitted, and we can't start booking freight until we establish that timeline, and we can't coordinate with our fulfillment partners until the timeline is more solid as well. So this is to provide you some updated expectations, and we'll be firming up these estimations in future updates as we hit our milestones.
There is also the matter of add-ons, as well. For add-ons we are manufacturing ourselves, like the removable stickers, work won't begin on those until the necessary files are completed for the base game, but with the shorter proofing and manufacturing process on these, we aren't expecting problems. We are also still coordinating with our partners for outside add-ons, like narration and inserts. We don't anticipate any speed bumps there, but will let you know if they arise.
The next thing to address here is, why is Gloomhaven so delayed from the original estimations? With a roughly estimated delivery of March, we're almost a year behind schedule, which is incredibly embarrassing. I'm not going to go into detail on every misstep that was made here, as I don't think that's productive. What I think it ultimately boils down to, however, is that a project manager was never assigned to the project after playtesting was completed, a blunder that I (Isaac) fully own. We had a lot of projects going on at once, and ended up without someone dedicated to making sure that this project moved along as efficiently as it needed to. The project is in a good place now, and moving forward, I'll be dedicating as much time as is needed to get it across the finish line.
RPG
I know I still owe you an update to the RPG timeline as well, which will happen soon. Rest assured it will be much more positive than the
Gloomhaven timeline update, given
Danielle's been running a tight ship this entire time. I'll see what I can put together for the next update.
In the meantime, you should check out Danielle's other major project,
At the Gates, a high-fantasy RPG that has two days left on Backerkit!
Conventions
In other news, some of our team are on the convention circuit right now!
First we were at Phoenix Fan Fusion where we got to introduce Frosthaven and Buttons & Bugs to a bunch of people playing our games for the first time. Thanks to our amazing booth staff Adam, Moira, Kristina, and Travis for all your help!
Our next stop was across the pond at UK Games Expo. We got to see some familiar fans and meet a lot of new ones. Danielle was running the RPG, showing a sneak peek of the upcoming adventures to be had, and Buttons & Bugs was a big hit! We couldn’t have done it without our expert lead booth staff Esther and Julian, along with Chris E, John, Weston, Bill, and Wilting Moon. Huge thanks to you all for making UKGE a success!
We’ll be heading to Edmonton, AB in Canada next for Game Con Canada, June 14-16. If you’re interested in being part of our booth staff, we have a couple more positions available. You can sign up
here!
And then in two weeks, we will be headed to Origins in Columbus, Ohio, June 19-23. We’ll be running multiple RPG demo slots with Lurking Fears and have a fun surprise planned at our booth. If you’d like to be part of the booth team
let us know!
That's all there is to go over today. Remember that the wave 3 pledge manager is closing on Friday, and I'll catch you next time.
Wave 3 pledge manager news, EU shipping clarifications, and an RPG designer diary
6 months ago
– Tue, May 21, 2024 at 01:03:28 PM
Good day! It's a Tuesday! If you didn't see
our last update, we have decided to
move updates to every other Tuesday in order to better engage with you—it gives us more time to prepare the update, and more time to answer questions after the update is posted. So you'll see these updates posted on Tuesdays moving forward.
Wave 3 pledge manager
Before we get into anything else, I want to let everyone know that we are going to push back the closing of the pledge manager one last time to June 7, the Friday after our next update. This will be explained further down below.
EU shipping issues
So in an effort to do better with engagement, I want to first address the fulfillment of waves 1 and 2 in the EU. The fact that there is so much frustration and confusion here is totally on us, and I apologize for that. For update after update, we were reporting what our shipping partners were reporting to us, but the problem was that you were experiencing something different than what we were reporting, and we weren't listening to your feedback. Had we listened earlier, we could have done better to clear up the confusion and solve whatever issues there were. And so, while we are late to do so, we'll try to clear things up for you as best we can now.
First of all, containers of Frosthaven did arrive at our EU fulfillment partner back in the beginning of March, and they began fulfillment of that. However, the container of add-ons got delayed (both in transit, due to the Suez Canal issues, and at port), so only orders of just Frosthaven were able to be fulfilled at that time. This is why it looked like nothing was being fulfilled, even though we were fulfilling as much as we could. We should have been more clear that no orders with any add-ons were being fulfilled, and I apologize for that.
Even after the container of add-ons and Buttons & Bugs did arrive, we had two other main issues that caused shipping delays. First, there was an issue with DHL where they would not allow Buttons & Bugs to ship in the cartons we’d created due to the size. This required ordering mailing envelopes they could place Buttons & Bugs in. On top of waiting for the envelopes to arrive, this also caused an extra step in the packing process that took time. Second, the warehouse team had an illness that spread through their facility completely shutting them down for several weeks. While we were notified that there may be some delays due to some illness, we did not realize that the entire warehouse had shut down. All around, there could have been better communication with the fulfillment center, and better communication with you, and we are working to improve both.
Shipping updates
EU/RoW: The good news is that the fulfillment center has everything they need and is fully operational, and so have been sending out lots of orders. They reported that they have about 500 Buttons & Bugs left to ship (out of 6000 total), followed by some remaining larger Frosthaven orders requiring longer pick times (we are still waiting on precise numbers for these, and I will update this space once we get that later this week).
Asia: Unfortunately, due to a clerical error and a miscommunication with VFI, some regions did not get shipped out with the others, but have either shipped now or are in the queue to ship ASAP. This is especially frustrating for us as well, as we try to improve communication, and I apologize for the further delays here. We are going to do better on future waves.
Here is the breakdown by region of what has shipped:
China/Hong Kong: Parcels shipped starting on May 15th.
India: Shipment expected to arrive at the fulfillment center on 5/30/2024.
Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates: Shipment expected to arrive at the fulfillment center on 7/02/2024.
Thailand: Shipment expected to arrive at the fulfillment center on 6/20/2024.
FedEx regions (like Cyprus): These have all shipped. Backers should've received a tracking number to their provided email.
Our fulfillment partner has also provided a link to us with a page they update,
you can view that here, and they’ll be updating it as more product ships (the project listed under
Frosthaven).
UK: All but ~50 orders have shipped as of May 3. Our fulfillment partner had an incorrect inventory count on one product, delaying these specific orders. We’ve rushed a box to them and expect to have these few remaining orders shipping out within the next week.
US/MX: COMPLETE!
CANADA: COMPLETE!
AU/NZ: COMPLETE!
As always, if you’re in one of the regions marked complete and haven’t received your wave 1 or 2 products please contact us at
[email protected], and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
Gloomhaven new edition
The other major thing we could be doing better is providing updated timelines for the outstanding projects, with the schedule for the new edition of Gloomhaven being the major thing that needs to be addressed.
We are working hard to get a revised timeline together for you, but, unfortunately, we won't be able to have something concrete until the next update. What I can tell you is that there is an end in sight. All art should be in by the first week of June, and we're hoping to wrap up graphic design by the end of June, but I want to spend some more time getting concrete estimates together, along with taking those estimates to the factory and our other partners to coordinate and project the rest of the manufacturing and shipping process. We'll do our best to get that all together by the next update, but we may still have to make some estimates about the final stages of fulfillment.
And because we are unable to provide you with a timeline for this update, we don't feel comfortable closing the wave 3 pledge manager just yet. This is why we are pushing back the closing of the pledge manager to June 7.
RPG
As for the RPG, this could also use a timeline update. We are continuing through the editing process, with half the chapters sent off to editing while we finish revising the rest. This means we are now on track to go into layout in July. We can estimate from there manufacturing in August/September and freight and fulfillment in October/November, but, like for Gloomhaven, we are hoping to get a more concrete timeline estimate for you in a future update.
For a small preview of some of the RPG writing, check out Danielle's designer diary for last month:
Greetings Mercenaries!
I hope you’ve had a wonderful April. My update today is going to be a bit of behind the scenes on how the development process goes, along with a sneak peek at some WIP setting information.
Development of a project is fun, because you take the words a bunch of different authors have written, and you put them together in a way that makes it look like a single narrative voice. It takes a bit of style, and a firm understanding of the scope and desires for the project to do, so if you ever hear someone talking about the development process being difficult, believe them. For me, I’ve spent the past month compiling chapters, filling in holes in the text, and moving things around. I’ve also been consulting with Wilting Moon, our official lore keeper here at Cephalofair. This process has been extremely helpful and enlightening, and the amount of information and lore I’ve put into my brainpan in the past month or two has been extreme. The setting chapter alone is huge, and it covers a brief history of the world (including things that are major spoilers for the Gloomhaven board game), a detailed district guide for the city of Gloomhaven, some setting information for all the places nearby to Gloomhaven, and a bit lighter information on places further afield, such as Vair-in-Sul, the valrath nation, and Cyrgen, the eastern continent where quatryls and orchids hail from.
We’ve also got a whole chapter on the different factions that are active in Gloomhaven, and what it’s like to be a part of them. Your faction is a part of your gameplay, just like your ancestry or class, and informs the kinds of things your mercenary cares about, along with the kinds of side quests you’ll have to do while out on missions. These factions set up the political atmosphere for the city, and your mercenaries can engage with them as much or as little as you want. Speaking of, I think the idea of factions and how you interact with them is extremely cool. So, I’m going to share a little excerpt from the Merchant’s Guild to give you a taste of what those look like.
MERCHANT'S GUILD
In the human nation, the Merchant's Guild is literally the government. Composed of the richest of the rich across the nation, this group of oligarchs exerts a total stranglehold on commerce and politics nationwide, with only one exception: the city of Gloomhaven. Guild rule is very hands off. They control and finance both maintaining city infrastructure and law enforcement but little else. Private businesses handle the remainder, and even non-Guild businesses must tithe for the public fund. This often creates tension with the Keepers of the Great Oak, as the Guild explores new sources of profit that deplete or displace natural resources. It also creates a predatory economy of private business concerns.
Despite devoting extensive resources to it, the Guild has failed consistently to replace the military leadership of Gloomhaven. Bribes, mercenaries, spies, and assassins have all proved distressingly ineffective at destabilizing the Shields. So far, that is.
When it comes to its membership, those driven by a lust for money and power are usually drawn to the unvarnished avarice of the Guild. Likewise, those with a talent for paperwork and bureaucracy see Guild work as prestigious as well as profitable. Ambition and avarice join hands in its membership.
FACTION GOALS
The Merchant Guild’s goals always boil down to creating or protecting profit on one hand, and working to take Gloomhaven on the other. Everyone in the Guild works towards these goals. Starting agents serve as guards for Guild resources or VIPs, or acting as thugs against the Shields’ interests. Respected agents are trusted to "remove impediments", be they people or evidence, negotiate trade deals, and mediate business conflicts. All agents of the Guild within Gloomhaven find themselves engaged in espionage and sabotage against the Shields on a frequent basis. A number of them are also in place at the University, positions assured by Guild donations to the school.
Possible Missions: Protect or deliver a shipment of goods, kill or weaken members of the Shields, eliminate someone blocking the advancement of a new business venture.
FACTION ALIGNMENT
Allies: Needle-Eye's Freebooters prove to be reliable middlemen and information-brokers. The Sin-Ra Syndicate is a valuable investment when things have to get messy to secure profits.
Enemies: The Shields are the last bastion of militaristic resistance in Casskia, and the Guild believes it is only a matter of time before the overthrow the Shields' power. Those entitled whiners in the Weavers Guild Trade Union are also a persistent thorn in the side of business.
REPUTATION TIER
Debtor: Thankfully, the Guild’s loans department likes gold more than swords. Gain no Faction Benefits.
Goon: Prove your trustworthiness as an asset. When in a city, you may pay a Merchant’s Guild Banker 5 gold in ‘apprenticeship’ fees which gives you access to the Guild Bazaar. The Guild Bazaar contains one Concealed Dagger.
Promoter: You’re considered a reliable asset to the Guild. Gain a 20% gold bonus on top of your share of mission rewards. The Guild Bazaar now also contains an Opulent Robe.
Investor: Congratulations, you’re officially an employed mercenary. Gain a 20% gold bonus on top of your share of mission rewards. The Guild Bazaar now also contains a Merchant’s Insignia and an Exceptional Hat.
Mogul: You’ve made a real name for yourself in the business. Gain a 20% gold bonus on top of your share of mission rewards. The Guild Bazaar now also contains a Guild Signet Ring. In addition, once per scene, when you are targeted by an attack, you may make an opposed Finesse check with an adjacent ally to have them be the target of the attack instead, regardless of range or line-of-sight.
Hostile: Seeing your face on a poster wasn’t the best feeling. Possible consequences: A gang of bandits attempts to bring your head in. You are given a sizable debt to pay. Corrupt Guild agents in the city guard attempt to arrest or frame you.
AND THAT’S ALL I HAVE FOR YOU THIS MONTH. UNTIL NEXT TIME!
Conventions
We’ll have several of our staff at several conventions over the next month, so if you’re attending please stop by our booth! We’re also still
looking for a couple more booth staff for Game Con Canada in Edmonton, AB, June 14-16. If you’re interested in joining please fill out our application
here!
So that's it for this week's update. I hope this has been a step up from previous updates, though I acknowledge
there is still a lot to improve, and we will continue to work to do so. Until next time!
Schedules and an apology
7 months ago
– Fri, May 03, 2024 at 01:03:04 PM
Good day! We've got your regular shipping updates, as well as other important info this week, but first off, I just want to take a minute to apologize to you all. I know there has been some frustration with how little we interact with the community here on Backerkit. I thought we were doing good with the updates every other week, making sure people are informed of the goings-on, but if that is the only communication you get, that still is a little lacking, and I am sorry. Both I (Isaac) and the support staff should be more present in the comments, and so we're going to do better about that.
In discussing it with the team, we've decided one of the blockers for us is that updates are posted on Fridays. We move right into the weekend, where you're not going to see as much activity from us. So we've decided to switch up the update schedule and start posting our updates every other Tuesday. So this will be our last Friday update, and the next update will be posted Tuesday, May 21. This should give us time during the week to look at and respond to your questions in the comments in a more timely fashion.
And since we are talking about schedules, we have an official close off date for wave 3 of the pledge manager: Friday, May 24. Wave 3 consists of the new edition of Gloomhaven and all related products. Once we close off the pledge manager, we will open it a short time later for waves 4 and 5, and we will also open up pre-orders for Gloomhaven at full MSRP on our webstore. So you will get one more warning with the next update, and then we'll be charging cards.
And now, on to the shipping updates!
Shipping updates
US Wave 1 & 2: COMPLETE!
Canada Wave 1 & 2: COMPLETE!
Asia: Shipments to regional hubs should be arriving soon. We've asked for a timeline update by region and should have a detailed breakdown next update.
AU/NZ Wave 1 & 2: COMPLETE!
EU/Rest of World: In Progress! Shipping continues, and we’re expecting a couple more weeks to finish the rest of the pending orders.
UK: In progress! Shipping started last week and we’re seeing copies of B&B in the wild. We expect fulfillment to continue for a couple more weeks.
If you are in a region that has been marked complete but have not yet received your wave 1 or 2 items please contact
[email protected] so we can check on the status of your order.
If you’re in a region that’s still fulfilling, please stay tuned. Your order is coming soon!
Other updates
First let's talk about the new edition of Gloomhaven! We got quite a reaction to the vermling art last time, and I just wanted to emphasize one more time that it was work-in-progress. And while we do appreciate all the feedback on it, which has helped improve further iterations of that piece, I think from now one we'll do our best to only share final art, as that seems to be what is largely expected. We continue to make big strides here in getting the rest of the art together and all the cards laid out.
Big strides also continue to be made with the RPG. Our goal is to start handing the chapters off for editing early next week. This will be a piecemeal process as we finalize different sections of the book, sending them into editing one at a time. We've also started to get beautiful map work in from Francesca showing larger portions of the world. Still work-in-progress, so I won't show them yet, but hopefully we can share them soon!
So that's all the news we have this week. Just another reminder that the next update will go out Tuesday, May 21, and will be followed by the wave 3 pledge manager closing on the 24th. Have a good weekend, and I'll catch you then!
