Hey Everyone,

Ray with your May update!  

Mostly done with mass production! Here are some pictures:








The factory finished assembling everything - and everything looks great! We were on track to palletize and freight everything by April 27th, 2024. 

We found some issues when we inspected the final copies, just as we were about to confirm the pallet shipments. 

That unfortunately has led to a significant delay of about 4 weeks, as the factory has to cast more dice and print those sheets, then repack everything. Womp womp. It was a big bummer to us but at least we caught it before things got worse. 

Okay, so here's what we're looking at now:

Not ideal, and way longer than we anticipated. Sorry about that, folks. 

We're working out shipping rates so we can finalize those soon. That's the main logistics task for us this month.

If you are a physical backer of both Slugblaster and Wildsea: Storm & Root, could you please do us a solid by filling out this form?

Doing so will allow us to combine your orders so you're only paying one shipping rate. We know this has been requested by some, so hopefully this makes it easier on everyone to make sure that happens. 

Next update we should have shipping rates ready and hopefully the game will be done-done printing as well.

Also, Mythworks has a new comic called Sansha & Blanco! It's a suburban fairy tale about dogs and we think it's pretty awesome. We need about $1,100 more buckaroos to get it funded. Spare a bone?

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Thanks everyone! 


Ray

Hey Everyone,

Ray here with a March update! Apologies for not updating in February - first it was CNY followed by a lot of back and forth between us and the printer, which is still ongoing but we're close! Very, very close. 

Here are some pics of our recent proof samples along with some tales of production samples to go along with them:



The Book looks great in hardcover, though this digital proof doesn't have the Spot-UV layer that will be in the final. The cover image also needs to be nudged to the right around 5 mm to account for the fold on the left.


Interiors for the most part were clean, but we found a couple of messed up pages that had to be corrected.


The Pizza Box looks great, but we had an extensive discussion about the green color on it, and how we needed to key it to a specific Pantone color rather than rely on CMYK which wouldn't be able to express the full quality of the illustration. We also had a couple of issues with the side panels and inside panels printed upside down, but you can't tell in this picture! 



The Dice are nice and glossy and exactly how the renders look. No issues with these!



The Play Surface went through two revisions. We started with a glossy finish (top) but decided to go matte (bottom), which I think just looks a little nicer given the art. We also had to rotate the configuration of the images to make sure they folded properly.



No complaints about The Slugmix, which came out perfectly.


We did have to do a couple versions of the Enamel Pin, as somehow the original ended up being extra jumbo size. Something about inches and millimeters...

And we've yet to see the final proofs for the Stickers, though I'm sure they'll turn up great!


Here's another look at the book with the pizza box, all snug together-like. 

About to go into mass production, hopefully! Each component gets separately approved, and everything has been approved except for the book and the stickers. Then, we approve the final assemblage, and then everything gets packed, freighted, and off to the races are we! All told, we're about.... 60 days out, maybe? 

So, moving! We're moving... 

BONUS: A NOTE FROM MIKEY

Hi gang! While we wait for the new edition (It looks amazing, Ray!), I thought you might want to check out my newest game! It's called Two-Hand Path. It funded early last week and you still have a few days left to back it. Check out these images shared by playtesters!

 

ANOTHER sweet, sweet bundle of Slugblaster content designed by the awesome Wilkie's Candy Lab community during our second Wilkie's Goody Jam.  New devices! New monsters! A Soundtrack! And a bunch more.

All earnings from these jams go to support teen mental health. This time we are donating proceeds to Strongminds. Strongminds provides therapy to low-income women and adolescents with depression in Uganda and Zambia. X Gone Give to Ya




 

The magical step where thing goes from digital to real with a couple hundred more taps of the buttons. We're locking in specs from our final sent files, making die lines, talking about magic rocks, cutting up boxes, that kind of thing. 


It's going well but it's taking a little bit of back and forth. A little slower than we'd like. That said...

Here's what we're working with now:

Deliver Final Print Ready Files to Factory (January 2024) - We did this, and now they're speccing things out.
 Lunar New Year Shutdown (February 2024) - This happens this upcoming Thursday. Printers are back in office 02/18/24.   
Printing & Manufacturer (February-March 2024) - Looking more like March, to be honest. 
Ocean Freight (April 2024)- Boats! It's good to fill them up.  
Fulfillment (May 2024) - Final leg of the journey.

That said, we're sending out surveys for Slugblaster! Please help us out by filling them out. Doing so helps us get a final count and file paperwork like taxes. Yeah, fun stuff :)

The surveys do not have shipping rates yet. We are charging for shipping later. We're still building out the prototype so... don't know how much it weighs yet :D

Alright, that's it from us for now. Stay groovy everyone! 

Ray 

Hey Everyone,

Ray here with a printing update!

Over the past couple of weeks we've been barreling towards delivering the print ready finals, and things are going really well! We've made significant progress on the design of everything, including the interior of the box:





We're super stoked at how things are cookin' and looking forward to getting the final proofs in our hand. That said, we do have a bit of bad news today: it doesn't look like we'll be able to begin printing before the Lunar New Year, meaning we're probably delayed around two months.

Here's what we're working with now: 

Basically, we were facing a situation where our window was becoming increasingly narrow and the hours longer and longer to meet the crunch. All of this is pretty normal for creative projects looking to hit market / fulfillment, but because we're making something we haven't really made before, there was a high likelihood that any round of back and forth with the manufacturer (box not quite right, colors not quite right, etc.) would've led to us missing the Lunar New Year cutoff anyway.

I didn't want Mikey and the rest of the team crunching through the holidays, and so I made the decision to push us back until after CNY, knowing that doing so pushes back our timeline a few months. 

Plus! Doing so means we can definitely get the Solo Rules by Michael Elliot into the core book, which is a nice bonus :)

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Apologies for the delay, and thanks for understanding. Happy holidays, and see you next year! 

Ray

HO FO FO! 

It is I, Father Wilkie, dressed for cheer in the likeness of your traditional Santa man! Can you not tell by this beard of hairs and swollen abdomen? What of my suit of red human clothing or my team of bound ungulates? Is it all not perfectly convincing? Here now, have a play-object from my donation sack. Lap sucrose from your fingers with good cheer as my most indentured toymaker gives you glad tidings. 

Hey Backers! It’s me, Mikey, with your end-of year-update! We’re almost done finalizing all our print specs for everything, which puts us right on track with our timeline! Next up will be printing! 

The amazing Slugblaster soundtrack by Robyn Slack won the vote, but it was so close we decided to just do the solo rules too! Michael Elliot is putting the finishing touches on them this week and you will love them. Check out this list of Achievements your loner can hit.
 

Our jam ended Dec 1, but even if you missed the deadline you still have a few days to sneak something in for the charity bundle! Just send me your submission's itch.io link by Dec 15!




And that's it! Have a wonderful December, everyone! Stay warm and keep your loved ones close. 

Grateful, 

Mikey