Fulfillment Update
about 1 year ago – Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 01:19:42 PM

The final stretch

Hello friends! A quick update to just let you know the current status of fulfillment:

UK: All games are sent. So, you should be lip syncing by now!

AU: Aetherworks, my fulfillment partner in australia, has had the address list for about two weeks and the games are already in their warehouse. They haven't yet sent me an invoice to begin processing. I'm prodding them with weekly emails. As soon as they contact me the games will go out immediately.

US/CA: I have found a new fulfillment partner in north america, called Whalebacker. I think they are kind of new on the scene but they are board game people and are eager to do a nice job. I'm happy to say the cargo has already reached their warehouse and is inventoried. I sent today the final address list for US and Canada. I expect people to receive their games by the end of next week. 

EU: The cargo is currently being inspected by customs. I mean, a board game called Extravaganza? Who would believe that. Not ze germans! We are expecting to receive the games in the warehouse (I am using happyshops) sometime next week. They already have the final address list and the invoices are paid, so it will be processed as soon as it arrives.

boardgamegeek

If you want to discuss the game or have any rules questions, you can write in the forums of the game page over at boardgamegeek. I will be monitoring the forum there in cases there are any questions or discussions that would delight in my presence :D

Oopsie!

An error has been found in the rulebook. In the final scoring example, the category tokens are not placed on the correct numbers in the illustration. The text is correct. Eventually I'll fix it and post a new version of the rulebook to the boardgamegeek page. 

Missing Components

If you have any missing component issues, please reach out to me via DM on kickstarter.

Have a fabulous rest of the week :D

- Aaron

Freight and distribution update
about 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 27, 2023 at 09:23:05 AM

Let's talk distribution!

Since it's the last week of january, the originally planned arrival dates for the games to the distribution centers, I wanted to send a quick update about where are all the games, shiny jewels and chonky lips. 

EU: the ship is now planned to reach hamburg on febuary 9th, with berthing on the 11th. You heard that right. Berthing. I guess it takes a couple more days to reach the warehouse and then fulfillment can begin. So, looking at roughly 3rd-4th week of february to receive your games.

US / CA: the ship has landed and the container is on the way to the warehouse. expected to arrive at the warehouse on feb 1st. More on this below... insert ominous foreshadowing...

UK / Australia: the games have already arrived at the respective distribution centers. I am currently getting into direct contact with them to begin sending out the games ASAP.

Funagain Drama

It wouldn't be a kickstarter project without a little drama. The company (Funagain Distribution) I hired to manage distribution for the US/CA/UK/AU, has revealed that they are going out of business in two months. It is a bit of a shock, given that they have been one of the bigger providers of this service in the industry for awhile. As part of their announcement, they have indicated that they will fulfill all projects that are ongoing and on the way to the warehouse. Presumably this includes my project. But, the problem is that I have not received any kind of communication from funagain in over three weeks, despite numerous attempts to reach them. 

For the UK and AU, these are separate distribution companies that Funagain was partnering with, so I've been able to reach them directly to actually begin sending those games. Ideally this will happen within the next two weeks, once all the paperwork has been completed.

I ask for a bit of patience and understanding as I sort out the US / CA shipments, I am doing everything I can to reach funagain to ensure there won't be any issues with my fulfillment.

Stay fabulous :D 

- Aaron

Happy Holidays to everyone on the naughty list :D
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 23, 2022 at 04:13:55 PM

I hope everyone is having a relaxing end of the year! It's been awhile since my last update, but lots of good news to report. 

Mass Production Proofs

I received the shrink-wrapped mass production proof about a month ago and it looked great! There were no issues and production went forward. We played the game a bunch of times and all the components feel and look amazing. 

Since I was making so many edits to the rhinestones, we decided to speed things up by just doing the final proofs over email with some images. Here's an image of the final proofs of the deluxe components from the factory. 

I am really happy with how they came out :D Luckily, due to handling the proofs over email, there were no production delays. 

Production Complete

I'm happy to report that as of Dec 22, production has been completed, and everything is already on boats and in planes on their way to the global distribution centers. 

US / EU: These freight shipments are currently scheduled to arrive at the ports / distribution centers around the last week of january.  

AU / UK: These shipments are going by air, likely should arrive a bit sooner. But the shipments were just created so I don't yet have arrival estimates. 

In all locations, once games arrive at the distribution centers they will only need 1-2 weeks to arrive at your homes. So best case scenario has you all having your games around the 1st /  2nd week of february. 

That's it!

I'll send another update once the games have reached their distribution centers, hopefully around the scheduled arrival time of end of january. Have a fabulous, loving, and relaxing holiday season and a wonderful new year! 

- Aaron

Rhinestones, Pledge Manage Lock, Shipping Logistics, Oh My!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 10:44:33 PM

Deluxe Rhinestones

I've recently received samples of the custom deluxe rhinestones and they are FABULOUS. I'm really happy with how the jewel shape turned out! They feel great in hand and look very nice in play. 

The samples have the rhinestone icon printed on both sides, but it is too difficult to perfectly align the icons on both sides, so I've decided with the final production I will only print the icon on one side. Since they are see through you'll still be able to see the icon through the rhinestone no matter which side you are looking at. Also, I decided to adjust the colors of the green, blue, and purple rhinestones. I've already approved the adjusted colors so production will get started immediately on the rhinestones.  

Pledge Manager & Shipping 

Production has been underway already for a few weeks, and will likely be finished around mid-december. So, it is time to finalize the worldwide freight and shipping logistics. I'll be locking the pledge manager on Nov 1st. If you haven't yet filled out the pledge manager, or if you'd like to make changes to your order or address, please do so this week! Ideally the games will be on the boats by the end of december. Freight isn't as busy or congested as during the height of the pandemic, so that hopefully means they won't need to stay so long on the boats. Delivery estimates depend on time it takes to arrive at distribution centers and if the games spend any extra time at customs. If all goes well then end of january delivery is possible. But more likely is sometime in february. 

That's it! Have a spoooky halloween weekend :D

- Aaron

September Update!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Sep 05, 2022 at 06:14:38 AM

Production is a go-go!

I’ve received the production copy last month and after some minor adjustments, everything is looking amazing!!! The pre-production has been approved so production has begun / will begin shortly.

I can happily report that everything fits inside the box. With the pre-production copy I sleeved all the cards and included the pre-production deluxe components inside (with the non-deluxe components also included).

There will be enough baggies to store the components, including some large baggies for the cards (even when sleeved).

This photo is from one of the playtests of the pre-production copy. There are some small differences in the final version (standees are different, cleaner punchboards, etc). 

Let’s talk deluxe rhinestones

After playtesting with the pre-production deluxe rhinestones, unfortunately I’ve discovered that my previous plan is not going to work. The original plan was to use actual acrylic rhinestones, and while they look amazing on the board, it it turns out they make horrible board game components! The first issue is that they are very difficult to pick up, due to their thickness and beveled edge. The second issue is that the silver coating on the back comes off quite easily, showing scratch marks that appear also on the front of the rhinestone. The third issue is that actual rhinestones would not be colorblind friendly.

I have been searching through the options that would allow me to use a component that already exists, but after exhausting all of these options the best path is to design a custom component. I initially wanted to avoid this to avoid the initial setup costs, but it seems to me to be the only way forward to ensuring that the deluxe rhinestones are supremely fabulous.

The current plan is to create a custom mold, of a faceted circular jewel-esque shape that has flat surfaces on both sides, using the same acrylic as the actual rhinestones. On the flat surfaces will be printed the rhinestone art via heat transfer, so they’ll then also be colorblind friendly.

The factory currently has all the files they need to create a sample, so I should have a sample within a couple weeks. This process may go through 1-2 iterations. But even still this should hopefully not add any time to the production schedule. As the development and production of the rhinestones should hopefully take less time than the production of the base game.

And that’s it! No updates to the shipping plan. Everything is all planned and ready to go, and we just wait until the games are produced to move forward.

Have a fabulous weekend!!

- Aaron