More Boats in the Water and a ... (checks notes) ... TV Recommendation?!
almost 6 years ago
– Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 02:10:29 AM
I'm happy to report that the Budapest Express and the Ever Lissome are underway! They're scheduled to hit port in the US around October 22. You can follow their progress via the Marine Traffic Tracker: Budapest Express, Ever Lissome.
For our non-US backers, you'll be happy to know that those shipments are not too far behind. The Xin Qing Dao will be leaving port next week and should hit Australia in just a couple of weeks. The Zim Vancouver will head out roughly the same time and should reach its home city by the end of October. We don't have a boat assignment for our EU shipment yet, but it should be leaving around the same time.
Of course, I'll update as more information comes in. In the meantime, when it comes to logistics: No news is good news. As long as the ships avoid the icebergs, typhoons, and Kraken we should be in good shape.
Now, from icebergs to Goldbergs. (Couldn't resist.)
For those of you who don't know, The Goldbergs is a great family TV sitcom set in the 80s. Their season premiere is tomorrow, Wednesday, September 26, at 8:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 Pacific on ABC. They're doing a spoof of the great teen flick, Sixteen Candles. It should be another great episode. They often have fun cameos too, and we expect this episode will be no different.
All Hail, Poseidon! (And Some More Production Videos Too)
almost 6 years ago
– Tue, Sep 18, 2018 at 01:33:38 AM
The big news this time around is that the games are on the water. Well, at least the first two waves. In the end, we have 9 different SKUs (unique products) and more than 50,000 copies of just the base game coming our way. Given the size of the game box, this is, by any measurement, a massive order. Therefore, it is necessarily going to take the factory a couple of weeks to complete and take many shipping containers to get everything where it needs to go.
A couple of boats are already on the water, and at that point, really, all we can do is beseech Poseidon or make an offering to Davy Jones or something for clear weather. But if you want to follow along, you can click on the links below, which will take you to the vessel tracker page for that ship. You can even click on the "show on live map" button there and watch it crawl along the map. It takes about 6 weeks to get from China to the US east coast.
OOCL CHONGQING (3 containers) (Savannah, GA, US) (ocean tracker)
OSAKA EXPRESS (5 containers) (Savannah, GA, US) (ocean tracker)
We also have 3 more ships lined up for the Canada, EU, and Australia runs, which are set to load up in the next couple of weeks. Once those shipments are underway, I'll post another update with the details.
These two vessels have almost everything among them. (We've had to air ship the Deluxe Marble set since they are coming from a third-party vendor. One of these days I'll post an update about those damnable deluxe marbles.) Some of the copies of the base game are going to PSI for regular distribution. They take a full month to process inventory into their warehouse. They are set to release around Black Friday. The majority (including all of the other SKUs) are going to Quartermaster Logistics for the Kickstarter fulfillment. They should start shipping around two weeks after they receive them. So, upshot, games should start getting shipped out to US backers by Mid-November and should be received before Thanksgiving. We won't know how fast QML can get these out, so we can't say for sure how long the full shipping process will take. However, barring significant hiccups, most every backer should get their games by early December at the latest.
The other regions are on roughly the same timeline. The shipping lanes are shorter -- in the case of Australia, very much shorter. So, while they'll end up leaving port just a bit later, they should be getting into backers' hands at roughly the same time.
As always, the further along we get, the more information and the more certainty we have. And, as always, I will continue to keep you posted on these developments.
Now, since you've stayed with me this long and the production videos from the last update seemed to be such a big hit, I present ... more production videos!
Careful, this one is mesmerizing:
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Sometimes, manufacturing is just waiting around for the robot to do its thing:
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And the grand finale:
Ships, Ahoy! -- "How do I change my address?" -- And some Manufacturing Videos Too!
about 6 years ago
– Fri, Sep 07, 2018 at 01:04:25 AM
Things are hoppin' Johnny over here, so let's jump right in and get straight to the point. The first batch of games is on the boat. I say "batch" because the full order is so large it's being broken up into multiple shipments. I'll update as soon as we confirm launch and even give you a link where you watch the ship crawl across the Pacific if that's your bag. The short version and the most important thing: Everything is still on schedule for folks to get their games by Black Friday.
Now that orders have been locked down, the number one question I'm getting is: How do I change my address? From this point forward, you need to update your address in BackerKit with any changes. You can continue to update your address up until we lock them down, which will be in October some time. You can find your survey in BackerKit by entering your Kickstarter email address on this page:
https://fireball-island.backerkit.com/
Please don't message or email me with your address change -- that doesn't do any good. If you're having trouble figuring out how to do it in BackerKit, you can contact their support directly. They are super helpful and will walk you through the process a lot better than I can.
The good folks at Longshore were kind enough to send some cool videos of the game being made.
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And, finally, a really cool video of molten glass being cut and shaped into spheres ... MARBLES!
RETAILERS - URGENT - Locking Down Orders
about 6 years ago
– Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 01:40:51 AM
Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication with the manufacturer, we do not have the margin of error for the number of units of each SKU that I anticipated. My priority is that I do not want to get into a situation where you have sold preorders that I can't supply, and your customer ends up getting their copy after the game shows up in distribution. That would be intolerable. The result of this is that I must begin locking down retailer orders sooner rather than later.
We are going to lock down retailer orders on Monday, 8/27.
IMPORTANT: As we promised, we will not charge you until the games are ready to ship in November.
For those of you who have specific needs or concerns, we might be able to work with you to keep your order open a bit longer. If that is the case, please contact me directly by replying to this email, and we will get it sorted out.
