The Ship is Here!
about 2 months ago – Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 10:57:38 PM

Hey Crew!

Lots to share this month as we near mass production. So let’s start off with the big one. . .

The Ship

The ship is here! There is one spot we are going to work on to see if we can minimize a minor mold seam. But other than that, I am beyond thrilled with the final ship mold and the color.

The sails are made of a very durable and flexible pvc plastic.

The Dice

The dice photos I shared with you last month made their way to me so I could look them over in person. They look great! The only exception is the Siren dice. I received blank dice in various shades of purple so that I could pinpoint the right color. You can see the final purple I chose below. I’m sure it will look even better once it’s embossed with the icons.

The Timeline

The longer production timeline to get the plastic molds done was unexpected but it did allow me some time to continue playtesting the game, make tweaks to the balance, and polish the rulebook. All this means that there have been some changes to the game, specifically to some of the components:

• 9 Cannon Dice instead of 12 (I realized during playtesting that 4 dice for each cannon type was redundant and would never actually be played at once. Now each cannon type has 3 dice instead of 4)
• 9 Cannon Cards instead of 12 (Since the dice correspond to a card there was no need for extra cards either)
• 3 Permanent Breach tokens instead of 4 (4th was redundant)
• 4 Threshold Sheets instead of 2 (Having 1 threshold sheet for each player count really helps balance the rate of sinking.
• Punch Board tokens in Expansion (After several playtests I decided to make some of the enemy abilities into tokens instead of cards)
• Extra Water Cards Totalling 95 Water Deck Cards instead of 85 (Extra water for 5 and 6 player games)
• 1 Extra Monster Breach card totaling 15 Breach cards instead of 14

I’m confident that these changes are the right choice for the game but it does mean that I am later submitting all the files than I originally had hoped.  I plan to submit the rest of the files over by the middle of April. The good news is that this will still put us near the original August/September timeline for fulfillment. The bad news is, I ate into all the extra buffer time I allotted for during the campaign. So if any issues arise during production, shipping or distribution it could indeed impact the fulfillment times. My best estimate for the pledge manager is now May or June.

Life Changes

The next time you hear from me I'll be a Dad! As some of you may already know, my wife and I are eagerly anticipating the arrival of our first child, due in the last week of April. While I am filled with excitement, I'm also extremely nervous. Nonetheless, I cannot wait to embark on this new chapter in my life and welcome our bundle of joy with open arms. On the off chance that she decides to come early, my above estimate for delivering the final files mid-April might be delayed unfortunately while we adjust to things at home for the first few weeks. I appreciate all your patients during this crazy time. See you all next month!

Cheers,

Joseph

Plastic Mold Progress
3 months ago – Tue, Feb 28, 2023 at 01:07:55 PM

Hey Crew!

I wish I had more exciting news this month but the molding process is taking a little longer than I'd expected. That being said I have some new photos from the team at Boda.

Dice

We're ironing out the color of the dice. As you can see, they are looking much better and closer to the desired colors, except for some reason the Siren dice came out light blue instead or purple here. Boda will be taking another pass on the Sirens. Also, you may have noticed that the cannon dice are a darker color than presented during the campaign. I made the decision to have them match the color on the cannon cards so that they color-match like the rest of the dice in the game. I think we are close to that color but it’s been tricky matching it perfectly from CMYK to Pantone colors.

Dial Fasteners

Last month we ran tests on the plastic molds for the Dial Fasteners. This month Boda did tests on the silk-screen icons that will help distinguish each character's dial beyond the colors. I’m really happy with how the tests turned out!

The Ship

Boda is finishing up the molding process and is about to begin testing the molds. I’m hopeful that the tests will go well. But we may end up needing to adjust the tolerance so that each piece fits perfectly.

Pledge Manager

Apologies for the delay, but I’m continuing to hold off on the Pledge Manager until we are closer to production. I’m considering holding off until during production so that we will have a closer shipping estimate based on the window of fulfillment.

Even though the pre-production process is taking a little longer than I’d hoped, I did add in a few buffer months into the timeline to account for any hiccups so right now we should still be on schedule for our August/September fulfillment window.

I hope to have all the finalized components by next month.

Cheers,

Joseph

Dice Samples and More
4 months ago – Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 06:35:46 PM

Hey Crew!

Happy new year!

Our Manufacturer, Boda Games, started coming back from Lunar New Year this past week. Here are the updates they had to share for this month.

Dice

Progress on the dice molds are coming along, we received a few photos of proofs. The final dice will be made of resin, 16mm, and embossed with white icons. There are a few dice sets that I need to adjust the colors on but I was still really excited to see these!

Dial Fasteners

The dial fastener test molds were completed. We got some photos of the proofs. Boda Games is helping us adjust the tolerance on the two connecting pieces, I was very pleased with how the colors came out. The next step will be getting samples with the character logos print screened onto them.

Box Insert

Boyd of Black Magic Inserts has also done a fantastic job with our revised box insert that will hold all the components snuggly as well as hold cards in sleeves. There is room for future expansion content too. We’re waiting to begin the mold process for the box insert until we have proofs for all the components so that we can make sure everything fits perfectly.

Pledge Manager

I’ve decided to hold off on the Pledge Manager. This month I have been primarily focused on getting the rest of the files ready for manufacturing. I’ve been refining the rulebook and doing some minor tweaks to balance the game. The new pledge Manager timeline is going to be closer to the end of February or March.

That's if for January, see you all next month! 

Cheers, 

Joseph

End of Year Round-up
5 months ago – Thu, Dec 29, 2022 at 06:23:23 PM

Hey everyone! 

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season! I’ve been compiling a list of updates over the past month so here we go!

Votes are in!

It wasn’t much of a contest. The name “The Unsinkable II” won by a landslide! The name will be added to the prologue at the front of the rulebook.

Thank you all for the fantastic and hilarious name ideas. 

Speaking of ships…

The prototype is here!

The manufacturer’s (Boda Games) prototype arrived earlier this month. This is just a 3D printed copy but it’s a much higher quality than my own printer could produce. (Note: The final ship will be in a light brown plastic) There were a few ship sections that were a bit tight causing the layers to stick together. The intention is not for the sections to stick together but simply stack on top of one another. This allows for very easy removal of the bottom layers during gameplay. With changes made to the section tolerance, I gave the go-ahead to begin production on the ship molds.

Since the campaign ended there have been a few changes made to the ship design as well:

• Cannons have been moved to fit on the top section.
• Added more wood detail on the masts and framing.
• Added numbers to the bottom of each ship section to easily distinguish them.
• Slightly angled the masts back to fit the stylized look a bit more.
   

Other Plastic Molds

The plastic molds for the dial fasteners, as well as the dice, are in the process of being created. The plastic fasteners will be cast in colors that match the player's color and capped off with silkscreen for the character’s icon. The dice will be engraved/embossed in resin.

Changes to Chest Tokens

Some folks thought that the check tokens felt a little bland with their solid text. I agreed but had not thought of a solution yet. After spending a ton of time testing size and font legibility I think I landed with a great compromise.

Game Changes

After some playtesting feedback, I made a tough choice to make a slight change to the game. I promise you it’s nothing big and in fact, you will probably not even realize it was there. That was part of the problem… After watching several previewers play the game I realized they would often forget to set-up or take advantage of the “Locked Treasure” (A stack of 5 random items removed from the Water Deck at the beginning of the game. If players received chest tokens with a Treasure symbol on it, they could cash the token in for a peek at the “locked Treasure stack and choose x cards from it.) In reality, it’s very easy to forget to set this up in the game and it also doesn’t get used that often. I made the choice to remove the stack. The Chest tokens that you collect now, simply give you victory points, either 2, 4 or 6. This makes set-up much easier and there is less interruption of gameplay.

MAGFest

We had a great time demoing We’re Sinking at MAGFest last year and I’m excited to say We’ll be demoing again this year as well as taking pre-orders in the Riverfront Ballroom. MagFest is a Music and Gaming convention held every year in Maryland from January 5-8. It’s one of my favorite conventions in the DC area. If you plan on attending, please stop by our booth in the Board Game room and say hi.

Looking for Volunteers

I’m also looking for a few volunteers for MAGFest. If anyone would like to help teach and demo the game, I have MAGFest tickets up for grabs for anyone who can assist with 6 or more hours throughout the 4 days. Send me an email if you're interested!

Pledge Manager

I’m still aiming to have the pledge manager up before the end of January. However, I know I need to give the pledge manager its due attention. Right now it feels overwhelming to think about. But first things first is putting the final polish on all the assets and getting them sent over. The pledge manager will not affect the production timeline.

Late Pledge Store

Late Pledges are still open for anyone who missed the campaign. 

Bah Humbug!

If you’re still in the holiday spirit, check out Bah! Humbug, a cute charming game that packs a lot into a small package! 12 games about Christmas. Designed by some very talented people in the game design community.

I know this update what a bit boated so I'll save some for next month ;)

See you all in 2023!

Cheers,

Joseph

Manufacturer & Ship Vote
6 months ago – Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 10:44:22 PM

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