What’s Got 8 Legs and Flames?
over 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 13, 2019 at 03:09:01 AM

Pardon the shortness of this update. I’m out in Reno, Nevada at the GAMA trade show, telling all the retailers about our great games. It’s also a popular time to announce new products. Yesterday, we announced Unmatched, a new take on Star Wars: Epic Duels. But we’re also announcing the next Expansion for Fireball Island: Spider Springs!

This new expansion is another island tray, like Crimson Cutlass, but it actually slots into the main island in one of the gaps between the side trays. You still get to it through the caves, but now it interacts with the main island. Specifically, a broken bridge connects them, with an ember marble on it. When a fireball hits it or when you launch it directly, it drops down into the new tray. At the base of the tray, is a spring-loaded web contains small plastic spiders. When the marble hits, the catch releases, launching the spiders into the air. In short, more mayhem.

Spiders are worth negative points at the end of the game. The new location also offers new treasures (spider eggs!), another snapshot location, and even a new way to get off the island (submarine!).

And I haven’t even mentioned the Arachnoclysm!

I’ll post more when I get back, but in the meantime, feel free to ask questions.

MASSIVE UPDATE - Shipping Done, Replacement Parts, App, Alternate Modes, D&D Module, and the Webstore
over 5 years ago – Sat, Mar 09, 2019 at 12:25:38 AM

Lots of stuff to talk about, so let's get to it.

Kickstarter fulfillment is complete.

We are calling the KS fulfillment done for all hubs. Now, let me be clear: Not everyone has their games. However, we have sent out all of the games to everyone who completed their survey. There are also a few cases where we have lost shipments that we are replacing, and that sort of thing. But, importantly, you should have all of your rewards or know the current status of them. If not, the most likely culprit is that you did not complete your survey in BackerKit. If that's the case, please do so immediately. I will make one last pull from BackerKit to find any stragglers at the end of next week. After that, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to fulfill your order completely, or we might have to charge additional shipping.

If you completed your BackerKit survey and you do not have your game, please email [email protected] to assist you.

I will work with them to fix any problems, but you will get faster service emailing them directly rather than having me play middleman.

Replacement part fulfillment is ongoing.

We are about one-third of the way through supplying replacement parts to folks who completed the replacement part form. Reminder, if you have a damaged or missing part, please use this form to request a replacement: https://goo.gl/forms/cxkcgUnSCeJLdE8g2. This process has been steady but slow. Each replacement part request is essentially a custom order, so it actually takes longer to fulfill than a regular KS pledge.

If you completed the replacement part form, you do not need to check with us about the status.

You should get an email when your replacement part ships. We have a good process going now, so we'll keep working our way through things. It might take us another 3-5 weeks to get through all of the requests. If you do need help, you can always email us at help@restoration games.com. (I used to give out my direct email. This address goes to both myself and Jenn, our Chaos Wrangler, so you get twice the help.) We really appreciate your continued patience.

Say hello to C.H.A.R.

We have updated our app with the Fireball Island module. You can find it in the iOS App Store, Google Play, and the Amazon app store. This is a Restoration Games app with modules for all of our games, so the best way to find it is to search for "Restoration Games", but you can also use the links below:

iOS App Store

Google Play

Amazon App Store

You will see that it currently includes the soundtrack, score sheet, first-player randomizer, and token randomizer. We will continue to refine the app to add additional content and improve the overall user experience. In the meantime, if you notice any bugs, you can report them using this form: https://goo.gl/forms/HFt5oHPTLRbzBMOF3. That sort of feedback is very helpful.

Cooperative and Fun Run Modes

The rules on both of these are done and are currently being playtested. We hope to get these modes out in the next 30 days or so. It will depend, of course, on how the testing goes.

D&D Module

The draft of this is also done. Honestly, we were planning on a pretty streamlined module like you might have found in Dungeon magazine back in the day. But, honestly, Rob and I (and our game groups) were having too much fun coming up with ideas, so it kept growing. It's like 10,000 words! We have it the hands of an editor right now. It might take us a little longer than 30 days to get this out, but again only because we keep growing the project. (Can you say isometric maps?!)

Items on our Webstore

For those of you who want to pick up some of the KS items, they are now up on our webstore (in bare bones form). Right now, it's just the Treasure Trove, painted minis, and card sleeves. I am not publicizing them immediately to give backers a head start on getting what they want. Keep in mind, we have limited stock on these. While we might reprint something if demand warrants, there is no guarantee. Also, keep in mind that we have to price these at full value in fairness to folks who got them during the campaign, as we promised.

Treasure Trove

Painted Minis

Card Sleeves

And that about wraps it up. I'll leave you with these two little tidbits. First, we are heading to the GAMA Trade Show next week in Reno, Nevada. This is where a lot of publishers announce their offerings for the upcoming year, and we are no exception. There just might be something of interest for our Fireball Island fans. Second, we want to see what you all have been doing with your Maker Kits. In fact, we're planning on running a contest soon with a spiffy little prize. So get cracking!

Last Call for Canada!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 01:32:34 AM

The primary purpose of this update is to let all our Canadian backers know that it has been over a month since all of those shipments have gone out, and we'll be winding down Canada fulfillment at the end of next week. This means, if you are a Canadian backer and you have not received your items, please contact QML immediately at [email protected]. After next week, the excess stock will be returned stateside, which means we will have to charge additional shipping for any stragglers or issue a partial refund less the charge for the return shipment. It's worth mentioning that the number one reason folks haven't gotten their games yet is because they never confirmed their address in BackerKit. Obviously, we want everyone to get their stuff, but I can't send it out if you don't confirm your address.

Important: This is totally separate from replacement part requests. If you are in Canada (or anywhere else) and made a replacement part request, do not worry. If you filled out the replacement part request form, you do not need to do anything. We sent out the first batch of replacement parts, the second is going out as we speak, and the third batch should go out next week. As I've mentioned elsewhere, this is not as efficient as the standardized orders for the actual Kickstarter rewards, so it takes a bit longer to get through them all. We hope to have all existing replacement parts out by the end of the month, but I will keep you posted.

Finally, a quick update on the app. We had the functionality mostly done, but we really weren't happy with the graphics and overall look of it. So we're going back in to polish it up so it's up to our standards. It'll probably be another couple of weeks to get that all done and tested. Likewise, the D&D module is about half written. Rob and I have been swamped as our meticulous plan of staggering the development schedule on our next slate of projects went horribly awry, and everything is getting wrapped up all at the same time. In short, we expect to have both of these out to you all sometime in March.

All Shipments Are Out and Replacement Parts Soon To Follow
over 5 years ago – Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 12:44:11 AM

Let's get right to it:

All of the Kickstarter Pledges have now been shipped, and the last of the EU backers should have all received at least notification of shipment by now. This is important because it means that if you have not received your pledge or a notification that it has shipped, there is a problem. Most likely, your pledge never made it out of BackerKit to the fulfillment hubs due to some problem in BackerKit, such as an incomplete address or faulty payment method.

If you have not received your pledge or a notification that it is in transit, please email [email protected] and use the subject line "EU Fireball Tracking".

QML will track down the problem and fix it and work with us if the problem is in BackerKit. I'm not ready to declare the job is done until everyone has their game, but we are that much closer, which is great.

Now, as I mentioned before, GamesQuest was short about 30 copies of The Last Adventurer. If you are one of the backers affected by this problem, you should have received a direct email about it last week from QML. We have shipped out additional copies to GQ today. They should receive them next week and get them out to backers shortly thereafter. (With regard to it showing up on GQ's retail site, that was a single returned copy that was automatically entered into their inventory and posted when it was returned. It should be down soon, but ultimately is just a single copy anyway.)

The replacement parts are finally at the hubs. We are finalizing the parts request list from the form, and these should start shipping out first thing next week. Keep in mind that there are a decent number of requests and these are not nicely uniform like the regular pledges. So it will take a little while to get them all processed, but it shouldn't take too long. I'll post an update when these are all out the door as well.

Dice Tower Kickstarter Is Live - Lucky Hat Souvenir Promo Card
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 01:01:58 AM

Just wanted to give you all a heads up that the Dice Tower Kickstarter is live right now. The Dice Tower is a wonderful content provider for the board game hobby. They do 2000+ videos a year, one of the longest-running game podcasts around, host multiple conventions, and just do an amazing job of bringing new people into this hobby and shaping it into a welcoming, positive environment for all sorts of people to enjoy. I really can't say enough about them. I consider Tom a friend, and Restoration's own Suzanne Sheldon is a major DT contributor as well.

If you are already familiar with the Dice Tower, this is just a friendly heads-up that their KS is live and you should consider supporting it if that suits you. If you are not familiar with them, this is a great opportunity to dive into some of their fantastic content.

I should also mention that, as part of our support for the Dice Tower, we have provided them with a Fireball Island souvenir promo card. They do promo cards as packs; we are in Promo Pack B. If you're not interested in the other cards or the pledge level is too steep, do not worry. They usually have the individual promo cards available at conventions and at CoolStuffInc after the KS fulfillment is done.

As for our own Kickstarter, I should have an update tomorrow with the current status of EU fulfillment and parts replacement.