Post Essen
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 12:19:16 AM
Hello Backers!
Sorry for the delay, but we have had trouble getting some information and completing some tasks that we expected to be simple. Details will follow, but this investigation has not delayed manufacturing and fulfillment.
Let’s start with a quick summary: all physical deliverables for the core and all expansions are being manufactured. This process started quite a while ago and we have already seen the final production core game and all the minis from stretch goals. We are very happy with the results. This is great news, obviously, but it also means are we now fairly hands-off and we rely on other people for information.
Manufacturing will be completed within a month. We are asking for a firmer date, but we do not have one at the moment.
Then we start shipping. Remember, Ludo Fact will complete the manufacturing in Germany, so shipping will proceed faster than you may have seen on other Kickstarters. Packages heading out in Europe do not need to be transported by sea, nor will they have to clear customs. Transport to the east coast of the US is faster than shipping between China and the west coast. What does this mean?
- The earliest we can start shipping packages to backers will be in the second half of December, which will be to EU backers.
- The latest we expect packages to actually arrive will be mid-February, for US and Canadian backers.
Nothing is as certain as change, so remember this is just the information we currently have. Expect some slow down over Christmas (we have planned for this when we created the above date range). This covers the majority of our backers, but some smaller markets might be delivered later than this.
This may seem unnecessarily vague, but this is both complex and not completely predictable. For example, Ludo Fact have to wait for the components that have been made and shipped from China to clear customs into Europe before they can be assembled in Germany. Customs clearance times can only be estimated, not predicted. Worldwide fulfillment depends on factors as small as the volume and weight of pallets, which is unknown at the moment. One thing we can say for certain is that everyone involved is working hard to find the fastest solution to get the games to you.
We have tried to re-open the Pledge Manager, but this proved to be too slow and difficult. We have backed projects using BackerKit that have re-opened their PM so we expected this to be simple. We were very surprised to find that these were custom solutions created for those projects by the BackerKit service team. Working closely with our contacts at BackerKit, we look at many other options, but they were all manual, time consuming and error prone. Reopening the PM will not be possible.
As we have said in the Kickstarter comments, you are still able to change your address in the PM. Now is the time to do that! We will close this option soon. Once we get a more accurate delivery schedule we will give you notice, but you do not have much time, so do it now. You will not have much notice when we close this option.
Dark Game Games had an excellent time at Essen. Here is a report from Peer:
SPIEL always is special for us. A place where the world comes together and so many people enjoy each others company while playing board games and just generally having a good time. Some of us have been to SPIEL before, but for Dark Gate Games it was the first time with our very first game and I really don't have words to describe how it felt. It was amazing, unbelievable, but also very exhausting. We met so many great people including some of our backers who had the chance to have a look at the production copy of the core game and even try The Order of Vampire Hunters out as a short demo game, playing one round during daylight and one round during the night. We also had all of the stretch goals from the Kickstarter on display. We are happy to report that we received a lot of very positive feedback.
On Wednesday we attended the press show and showed the Order of Vampire Hunters to the press for the first time. We had a lot of interest from everyone and some great conversations. You can see two video interviews with me with a couple of German websites here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiKfBiNsGqA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTROqC19i1M
The videos are available in German only. Furthermore, we ourselves played a game of The Order of Vampire Hunters later that day and what can I say? We lost!
During the course of the weekend, we taught and played many, many games of The Order of Vampire Hunters, talked to visitors, backers, publishers and colleagues alike, had fun working hard and tried to get some sleep. Sometimes it worked quite well and sometimes... well, as you know the Night never rests! ;).
Don't worry if couldn’t get to SPIEL this year we have you covered. Here are some pictures for you, along with a big thank you to Björn, Macs and Michel who helped us out and did an amazing job teaching the game to so many people who stopped by over the weekend.
We will return with more information as soon as we have it.
Good Hunting!
Safe and Sound
over 6 years ago
– Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 12:48:31 AM
Hello Backers!
Each day, we seem to get closer and closer to completing this project. In the last update, we said we had 3 boxes and 2 rule books to go. Since then, we have:
- Completed all 3 boxes.
- The “From Blood to Dust” rulebook content and layout is almost approved.
- Content for “The Night is Darker” has been approved and layout has started.
We need to check that the graphics in “From Blood to Dust” print well at high resolution and then it’s done. This should be a trivial step and we are not expecting hurdles. Layout for “The Night is Darker” is being done by the same graphic artist, using the same page styles, so we expect this to be quick, too. Let’s say a week.
Once these two rule books are uploaded, we will have delivered everything that Ludo Fact requires for manufacturing and we will get a schedule for delivery. Remember that production has already started, so we may be closer than you think!
Here’s one of those boxes:
Talking of Ludo Fact, they have sent us the internal box and inserts for the core game and stretch goals. They look lovely and will keep your minis safe.
As we said in the last update, we will be at Spiel in Essen, next weekend. Come by, play a game and have your picture taken. It will be great to see you all. Sorry, no games will be for sale or available for you to pick up. You can meet us at Booth H-127, in Hall 6.
After Essen we’ll be back with updates describing the digital deliverables, such as the Hunts for Nyx and Rat and the translations. Don’t worry, we have not forgotten these! We should be able to post the completed expansion rule books too.
Good Hunting!
The Finish Line
over 6 years ago
– Mon, Oct 09, 2017 at 01:59:18 AM
Hello Backers!
At this point in the campaign, we know you are focused on the delivery date. We are sorry to say that we are not finished, yet. But the rest of this update is good news.
The Order of Vampire Hunters core game is completely finished. Every single part has been submitted to Ludofact, down to the box it comes in. Production for the base game has started. We are very proud of the rule book. It’s a little longer than planned, but 12 Hunts, 2 branching Campaigns, and 50+ diagrams take up space. We’ve posted a low resolution copy here for you to see:
www.darkgategames.com/rules_final
If you see a typo … let us know in a couple of weeks ;). We want to take a few moments to enjoy this.
Here’s the box, too. It’s going to look great on your games table:
We need to review a copy of the Castle Dracula rulebook later today. It contains three simple changes (“add a full stop here”, really simple stuff). If this passes the review, the Castle Dracula rules are done too, leaving us just the box to finish.
We are still working on completing the rule books for From Blood to Dust and The Night is Darker, and those two boxes.
So that’s all we need to finish: 3 boxes, 2 expansion rulebooks. All cards, maps, tokens for all games and all packaging, rules sheets, etc, for the small expansions, are done.
More good news. Ludofact is being really helpful. They have started production on the parts they have and will continue with the rest of production as soon as we deliver. Much of the production will be done before we give them these last few parts and it should not take long at all to print the last of the paper and card for those rule books and boxes.
Once we submit the last item, we’ll get the firmest dates we can from Ludofact and the fulfillment team and let you know immediately.
As we are sure you know, Spiel in Essen is the biggest board game convention in the world. We are going! Yes, we will have the smallest booth at the world’s largest convention. We will have a few copies of the core game to demo to people. If you are a backer, please drop by and play a game with us. We know you have two questions:
• No, we will not be selling the game. We will only have a few advance copies, but more importantly, backers will get the game first. This is important to us.
• No, you can’t pick up the game at Essen. We won’t have enough copies, it creates paperwork problems for shipping and to be honest, we don’t think it is completely fair for some backers to get it a little earlier than others.
We have run many games in game stores as part of our play testing and it’s always fun to show the game to new people. We want to shake hands with as many backers as possible, so please come by booth 6#127 to see us.
We continue to be extremely busy on these last components. We’ll give more information as soon as we have something solid to share.
Good Hunting!
The Vampire Horde
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Sep 01, 2017 at 01:41:50 AM
Hello Backers!
This just a short update to let you know things are moving along well and many solid milestones have been met since the last update.
We have been sent proofs of all the cards in the game and all expansions. They have been approved and the manufacturer is printing them now.
The Hunter’s dice was sent to us and have been approved. The first Hunter’s dice were too yellow. The second color is more of a pale white, much more of a bone color. So all dice are now approved and in production.
We are working on the layout of multiple documents at the same time, currently the main rulebook and Castle Dracula. Some small rulebooks, rule sheets really, are done. This is the only remaining significant task.
And the reason you are here: all miniatures have been approved and are now in production! The final samples are here and they look really good. Trying to get perfect photos of so many minis is very time consuming, so we mainly have group shots.
If you have seen Zombicide: Black Plague, you know what to expect. The details are crisp and the plastic is quite hard. These were just bundled up together when they were sent to us and there was very little bending and no broken parts. These are production minis, in the final color for the plastic. Don’t forget there will be bonus colored base rings to distinguish the Hunters from the Vampires.
We are very happy with the results and pleased that mass production has started.
Ludofact continues to be very helpful. Layout is taking longer than we want, but they are letting us move the production window slightly. We do not want to give firm dates until we are sure we can predict exactly how long layout will take, but at the moment any delays are small.
Good Hunting!
Recap
almost 7 years ago
– Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 12:08:36 AM
Hello Backers!
Once again, our workload has kept us away from making these updates. We are still trying to get everything ready for our production window. We’ll recap what’s been achieved and fill you in on new progress.
Miniatures
All digital models were tweaked and uploaded a long time ago. We have seen and approved resin castings of 3D prints from these models. Production of the steel molds is progressing for all the miniatures simultaneously. We are expecting the first prototypes of the production miniatures soon – the manufacturer said they should be able to send them to us in about a week.
Cards
All cards for all expansions have been uploaded for printing. We have received and approved the white samples. We expect to receive the final versions of the cards for approval in a week.
Boxes
We have sent the files for the first 4 boxes, others are still under way.
We were asked about retail boxing in the comments. As we have said, we have not struck a firm retail distribution contract at this time (although there is some interest out there), so we don’t really have any “retail boxes”. At the very least, we would expect a distributor to add their logo to the boxes we have created.
However, all items that were not Kickstarter exclusive will be in retail-style boxes. Kickstarter exclusive rewards, for both free items and optional buys, will be packaged in plain kraft paper boxes. The free rewards will be packaged together, one kraft paper box for Hunter rewards, one for Slayer rewards.
Dice
We have received prototypes of the custom dice. The engraving has been approved. Some dice are completely approved, for others, we are tweaking the color a little. Again, we are expecting to get the final versions for approval in about a week.
Map Tiles and other Punch Boards
All art is complete and we are ready to upload the files when the manufacturer is ready for them.
Rule book and Hunt Definitions
All rules for the core game and expansions are complete. Only the 5/6 player rules need to be formally written up for The Night Is Darker expansion; this is the smallest of the large expansion rule books. All Hunt Maps and Primary Objectives are complete. A few Secondary Objectives are being tweaked to add more variety.
Layout is lagging behind. We have completed the layout for 5 small documents. We need to complete the other documents by the end of August. We believe this is possible.
Schedule
We are enjoying a very good relationship with Ludofact. They have given us helpful criticism on many of the deliverables, such as the minis and the cards, but they have been most helpful with the schedule. We have been slightly late with a few deliverables so far and they been very accommodating.
If we can get the larger rulebooks to them before the end of August we are still on target for our production window. We believe this is still possible. Once we get this task completed, we will be working with the production and fulfillment companies to get you new, firm, delivery dates. If any of you are doing back of the envelop calculations for this date yourselves, do not forget the final boxing occurs at Ludofact in Germany, not China. We have seen backers assume shipping starts from China. To give you some kind of ballpark, if we can get the rule books done in time, we will have copies in our hands in the last week of October.
More information to follow: we’ll update you on the rule book progress and show you the prototype production minis soon.
Good Hunting!
