Production Sample Arrived and Approved!
8 months ago – Mon, Apr 01, 2024 at 02:38:43 PM

Ahoy, Fellow Crewmates!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy Easter if you celebrate. Apologies for the late monthly update. I poorly planned to write the update on the 31st and forgot it was on Easter and also didn’t realize that my backup day would be on April Fools' Day.🤦‍♂️ Don’t worry, I have no intention of fooling anyone with this update. 

Production Samples

For those of you who follow our Facebook group and Discord server, you might’ve seen the video I posted last week about unboxing the new production sample of the game! I will link that here: 

As it turned out, I might have been too hasty in the video to assume everything was good to go. When I opened the expansion box a few moments later, I discovered that there had been two card misprints:

As you probably guessed, these cards are not supposed to have the same image on both sides. I contacted the manufacturer immediately and they were quick to own the mistake and to reprint those two cards in a fairly fast turn-around time. This did extend the production by about a week. The two cards are now done and I've approved them, as well as the rest of the prints. All games should be assembled and packaged by the end of this week, followed by loading onto boats and making their journey to the fulfillment centers. (Bridge Distribution in Georgia USA, and Ireland and VFI in China). 

Here are some comparisons of the last production print vs the new one:

New Timeline

Even though the games should still arrive by mid-May at Fulfilment centers, the printing and assembly took a few weeks longer than expected, and we had to shift our scheduled fulfillment start date. (The date that our fulfillment partners could start our project in their queue of fulfillments.) After speaking with our partners, our next available slot for fulfillment will be mid-June.

Believe me, I know it feels like we are making slow progress but it's progress nonetheless! This 

Next month I plan to start filming the official “How to Play” video and I hope to have freight tracking information to share with you all!

Locking Addresses Final Notice
9 months ago – Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 09:52:46 AM

Hey everyone, 

Super quick update this month. The factory is back from its break for the Lunar New Year. Printing and assembly is underway and should be finishing up over the next couple of weeks!

Locking Addresses Final Notice

The main purpose of this update is to let folks know that I will be locking final addresses this Sunday, Feb 25. This is so I can begin to export the final shipping info to our fulfillment partners. 

If you plan to be at a different address by April/May, please make sure to update your pledge on BackerKit. 

If you are unsure where you will be located in April/May, please change your shipping information to a secure friend or family address so that you will be able to receive your game. 

You all will be receiving an email from BackerKit as a final reminder to make any changes. There have been a few issues with folks not being able to change their State. 

If you have any issues updating your info please reach out to me at [email protected] or send me a private message on Kickstarter.

Cheers,

-Joseph

Queued for Printing
10 months ago – Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 12:20:57 PM

Hey Everyone! I hope 2024 is off to a good start for you all. As far as updates go there isn’t much to report on this month. We're just waiting for our queue to restart printing next month.

I figured I could address something that Sammy and Jed commented on last month regarding the new box print proof still looking faded compared to the prototype. Although I agree that the final proof box does have some slight differences from the prototype, I am happy with those changes. Please note that photos from the last update and even the one below are not great in showcasing the true colors due to lighting. This is exactly why I had to mail the manufacturer all the printed components so they could see with their own eyes the colors I wanted to match. Here is another comparison of all three versions:

MAGFest Recap

I mentioned last time that I would be attending MAGFest. I'm sorry for those who attended and couldn’t find our table. My daughter came home from daycare with COVID the week before and then the whole house ended up with it. So unfortunately I had to withdraw at the last minute. I hope to be back next year!

Gen Con

I applied to be an exhibitor at Gen Con this year. Unfortunately, I did not make the cut. Although this was crushing news, I'm trying to stay positive and looking for alternative ways to be at GenCon with We’re Sinking. I plan to apply to run several demo blocks during the show and can’t wait to meet backers! If you would like to be a part of our demo team at Gen Con please fill out this form We’d love to have your help and support!

I hope to have much more to update you on next month! 

Cheers,

-Joseph

Happy New Year! - Timeline Update
11 months ago – Sun, Dec 31, 2023 at 08:36:25 AM

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had an amazing holiday season. Reflecting on the past year, it's both felt like the longest and shortest year in recent memory. There have been numerous new chapters, with the pinnacle being the joyous arrival of my beautiful daughter. Navigating my first post-Kickstarter project has proved to be a much longer journey than I ever expected. Like many of you, I share the frustration that the game is not yet in our hands. Another thing I have truly appreciated over this year is the love and support from all of you. It has helped me through rough times during a strenuous production process.

While I hoped to conclude the year with more favorable news, I bring a mix of updates. The positive:  the manufacturer has received and verified my prints, after a brief stint in customs. They promptly produced samples. (see below) I was very happy with the outcome and gave the word to restart production.

The less-than-ideal news is that our slot in the busy production schedule won't come until February, which puts it in the middle of the 16-day-off Lunar New Year. When the production team comes back from holiday they will finish up printing and assembly. Consequently, production won't conclude until the end of February, setting the freight shipping timeframe to March. This means games will not start fulfillment until April.

This project has been my life for the past 3+ years and I’m eager for it to be finished so you all can finally enjoy it and I can move on to the plethora of other ideas I have waiting in the wings, including more We're Sinking content.

Upcoming Conventions:

MAGFest (January 18-24)

If you're in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Northern Virginia area), catch me at MAGFest (Music & Gaming Festival) next month. I'd love to connect with backers! I'll be stationed in the Indie Tabletop Showcase Hall, presenting the latest We're Sinking prototype with the final ship, dice, and box insert. Additionally, I'll be conducting playtests of our next game, Toppings.

Look out 2024! We’re about to make a splash! 

Happy New Year to all!

-JF

A Short Update
12 months ago – Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 08:51:05 PM

Hey folks, I hope everyone had a fantastic November. For those of us in the States, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was a busy November at our house, between out-of-town family visits for Birthdays, and Thanksgiving, and everyone in the house getting sick for over a week.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to report this month. We are still in the process of correcting the colors and double/triple-checking proofs. Earlier this month I spent a significant amount of time parsing through each card to make sure the colors were correctly being represented in CMYK and making small tweaks here and there. I printed all the cards out and sent them to the manufacturer in China. After a week delayed in customs, they finally arrived at the factory on Wednesday. The manufacturer will use these prints as a side-by-side comparison with their in-house prints.

I hope to begin mass production printing again in December and have more to share. 

Happy Holidays everyone!

Cheers, JF

Below are photos of the printed cards that I sent to the manufacturer so they can use it as a basis to color correct: