Are there problems with the game? I want to know!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jun 04, 2019 at 12:01:13 AM

People are receiving their games! This is awesome, definitely keep me in the loop that the game was received safe and sound!

People are complimenting their games! Great, I'm excited that you're excited, and I will absolutely take clips from your positive reviews and feature them on my website & social media (once those are back up and running).

People have issues with their games?! Color issues, etc?? I want to know.

I do not have my copies of the games yet - I've been putting off having them delivered to myself because I want a bunch of them and I'm anxious about the shipping costs. This means I haven't been able to possibly witness any issues in real life, so people's reports, pictures, videos, etc., have been important to me in seeing what's going on.

I can tell you a couple of things based on what I've seen so far:

The Insert

You. Have. No. Clue. How. Frustrated. I. Am. About. The. Freaking. Insert.

I don't know how to growl in text, but if you can imagine the above with a good hearty growl, feel free.

I spent countless hours designing, paying & waiting for proofs, redesigning back and forth with the factory to get the exact shapes & depths for the insert, including packing requests...and it's still off. The second "deck hole" isn't long enough to hold the cards (much less the cards with a sleeve), and I can't imagine HOW that got past the factory, since it was the simplest request I could have asked for (two pockets to hold cards).

I'm just....GRR. 

This has affected every copy of the game, and there's not much I can do about it right now, so please don't worry about trying to bring it to my attention. I am very sorry, though, and I'm going to look into what I can possibly do about it now in the aftermath.

Tile Backs

I have not been made aware of any other color issues, so if there are some concerns, let me know, but I have heard plenty about the color inconsistencies on the back of the Map Tiles.

I have gone back and checked correspondences - I paid for and expected spot color treatment on the tiles, and I'm not really sure what must have gone wrong. Spot color allows for very specific colors to stay specific from printing to printing, without variation...or, it's supposed to.

If your copy has been affected with inconsistent color on the tile backs, or anywhere else, please:

Contact me

Send me your name, address, a picture and detailed description of the issue, and I will look into getting you replacement parts. The factory automatically sent a few dozen extra games specifically to be broken into so we can replace things - hopefully we can get you sorted in the long run.

etalia.leslie[at]gmail.com

or send me a message here on Kickstarter and we'll get it worked out eventually!

Magically Shipping Games! {Batch 1}
over 5 years ago – Wed, May 22, 2019 at 12:43:27 AM

~I know almost nothing.

I wanted to put this right up at the top of this update so you might get an inkling as to why this is the first time you've heard from me this month. The fulfillment companies are very forthcoming and informative...to a point. 

At this point and time, I don't have Master Tracking Lists (which I've been promised by Quartermaster; the UK hasn't responded to queries yet), I don't know who's receiving what unless they've clued me into it.

I also don't know WHEN shipping has started for WHO - I've paid the invoices as of last Friday, but haven't received word on when shipping will start. I know it must have already started in some places, though, because people are receiving their games!

~What I do know:

Batched Shipping

As is becoming more common for Kickstarters nowadays (from what I can tell, anyway), I've had to create shipping batches in order to be able to afford postage. 

Postage costs continue to be overwhelming. I know we've talked a LOT about postage costs up until this point, but until the fulfillment companies actually got their hands on the games to weigh them accurately, everything up until this point has been a hypothetical.

I want everyone to receive their game, but, as warned several times, it may take time. 

At this point, one of two things will happen - I'll spend most of every paycheck I get every other week on shipping AND/OR the house will sell. 

Have I mentioned we're getting ready to sell our house? Yeah. The money from the house sale will be a windfall that will help me finish paying off any remaining postage costs....if there are any in July (at the earliest - selling the house is the easy part; waiting on the money exchange takes longer).

Who was in Batch 1?

If you live in the following countries, you will be receiving your game soonish (or already have? again, no idea):

• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Denmark
• England
• France
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Scotland

USA backers - games are also going out here, but since the whole country isn't being serviced, obviously I couldn't add you to the above list, sorry about that. 

I'm going to be planning out the next few batches, again, based on the timing/size of my paycheck, and I'll send group emails so you'll know which batch you're in - that'll happen later this week after I've been able to get the time to sit down and hash it out.

The above accounts for 169 backers. This initial shipment used up any/all monies I had been saving up for postage. If that sounds like a small number of shipments, please remember that shipping costs are anywhere between $9-$20 per package, and that doesn't take into account the warehouse handling/import/VAT/etc. fees that get tacked on after the sticker price.

QUALITY

So far I have heard EXCELLENT news about the quality of the game upon arrival. The shipping boxes provided by the factory did exactly what they were supposed to do in protecting the game, and the fulfillment companies have been doing what they need to do by receiving and shipping them out correctly.

If/when you get yours in the mail, feel free to write a comment, send me a note, etc., letting me know how it was received!

If your game arrives damaged or if you find errors please email me at etalia.leslie[at]gmail.com with pictures of the damage/errors and as detailed a description as you can, so I can figure out how to handle it. Each fulfillment company has a few extra games specifically so we can correct errors or damaged copies whenever possible.

---

I'll update again soon with more information, I hope!

I'll also tackle the comment sections in the next couple of days, sorry I've been hands off. We're on the last of the house renovations this week and a dear friend is getting married this weekend (I'm a bridesmaid!) on top of work and kids, so I've been pulled in a lot of different directions lately - but I see the emails and I'm working hard behind the scenes to continue to keep things moving!

One down, one to go!
over 5 years ago – Fri, Apr 26, 2019 at 12:19:19 AM

The games have made it to the United States as of today!

.

The text in this image is small, sorry about that. Here it is copy/pasted:

---

"Hi Leslie,

Here is the warehouse receipt for the goods which arrived today. I've added the product to your account's viewable stock. The products look nicely preboxed. Please allow a bit more time to finalize the proforma invoice now that we can confirm the weights in house and account for the pre-boxing. We'll have this over to you in the next few days.

Kind regards,

Chris"

---

The note I got from both the UK and OTX today is that they're expecting the final shipment of the games to get to them next Monday (April 29th).

I remember writing the first shipping update and thinking, "watch them definitely not arrive on April 22, especially to both locations at once," and here we are. 

Shipping Hubs

One thing we were talking about in the comments on the last couple updates was the possibility of creating shipping "hubs" within a few geographical locations, to possibly ease the shipping costs in those areas.

I haven't reached out yet to those of you who have offered, because I went ahead and used myself as a proof of concept for family & friends who are within easy driving distance here in central Virginia. I emailed Quartermaster two separate mailing lists, and they reference the "proforma invoice" above as saying they'll have it finalized this week. 

If there is a significant savings between the two invoices, then I'll definitely put the call out to those of you have spoken up, and we'll see what we can do. If there isn't, well...likely we're just going to do things business-as-usual styles.

Where's the Website?

PlayIHG, the company's website, is officially offline as of now. Honestly, I couldn't stomach spending money on keeping the website alive when I feel so anxious about being able to meet all the other costs coming in. 

It would be $16ish month-to-month or $144ish for the whole year, and neither of those would let me do sales - a commerce plan on Squarespace is $312ish ($26/month billed annually) or $30ish month-to-month (plus tax). 

Yes, all we really need is a free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter account, but take any anxiety I've told you that's made it hard to keep you updated on Kickstarter and multiply it by 1,000 when it comes to any of those accounts. The very thought of trying to cultivate a casual, carefree conversational style while basically wringing my insides out just feels like an insurmountable blah.

HOWEVER, I am going to be taking the time, hopefully soon, to fully rehab those accounts so they can fill the hole of the website being gone. Hopefully we'll be able to bring the website back online sometime soon, and things will get back to looking normal.

Tell Me Something Good Now?

• I've got half our freight costs saved up, thanks to the incredible generosity of my AMAZING backers! Between you all and the majority of every paycheck I've been saving for months, we're making great headway. 
• There is a very good chance that less than 1% of the games will be damaged in any way, thanks to the excellent pre-packing done at the factory - this will hopefully result in fewer games needing to be replaced upon receipt!
• I have so much good will toward everyone! We will all be basking in our excellent new rabbity games by summer, and it feels great to know that!

Gratitude Post & more info
over 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 04, 2019 at 11:37:19 PM

Whaaaaat~ another update so soon after the last one? What's going on??

You all have seriously given me so much love and support since that last post that I just had to glow it right back at you, for real. It's like y'all recharged me enough that I could find the energy to do this one on top of everything else on my plate, it's amazing.

ALSO - would you be okay with me running a GFM to raise money toward shipping? It would make it a lot easier to be transparent about how much money people are bringing in to help toward my final goal. Use the Poll or respond in the comments.

tl;dr - my original shipping adjustments didn't age well & didn't scale to the weight of the game going up; 10 people have gone out of their way to help; Kickstarter is part bringing on investors & part "gimmie that cool product"; again, everyone will get their game, regardless of donating more toward shipping, just gimme a bit more time.

What happened with shipping??

I've seen a lot of comments/messages with a shocked "free/$5/$10 to my location??" kind of vibe to them, and I wanted to address that more directly -

When this project started, it was intended to be a $50ish, 3 pound game (based on costs of components at the time of estimating, and estimated weight based on the test prints I had made).

I used the Stegmaier model of discounting the cost of the game and adding back in a shipping subsidy so I could say "free shipping" for the US & Canada & discounted shipping everywhere else, because at the time of the Kickstarter that was the really popular thing to do. (You'll maybe note that a lot more projects do "real-time" shipping costs once your project is actually ready to ship, so you're paying the exact amount of your exact shipping costs - if I ever do another project, this is exactly how I will handle things.)

I actually charged more than what I thought I'd need to charge for shipping (as well as a bit more for the "upgraded" coloring book addition version of the game), and used what-was-current-then international shipping rates to determine what would work for various countries. I figured that some people would pay slightly over what they actually needed to for postage, and some people would pay slightly under, and it would all come out in the wash.

Well...then time passed. Shipping rates went up, and so did the weight and quality of the game. Suddenly I've got a much more expensive, 5 pound game, and both freight and postage rates became higher and higher. 

How could I possibly change the weight of the game? A lighter box would bend and eventually break; lower quality tiles would cause them to wear out faster. Taking away small things - like maybe no meeples? - made very little weight & cost difference to the bottom line when the most expensive things were the cardboard & shipping, and keeping them made the game so much more interesting and adorable. I would have had to remove entire sheets of tile to change the weight dramatically enough to drop it into a lower weight category, and that wasn't reasonable.

The Transparent Nature of Kickstarter

In the interest of continuing to keep things transparent - 10 people have sent money to help defer the cost of their shipping - some even indicated that they specifically sent extra to cover the cost of even more people's packages - and between the 10 of them I've got an extra shiny $282.02 in the shipping account (yeah, I love that extra .02 cents too, haha). The freight costs are just over $14k, so literally every cent helps. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Backing a Kickstarter means bringing on a whole board of investors into a project. You've got a lot of people who are interested in that project becoming a reality - not just because they invested money, but because the creator wants for them to invest a certain amount of emotional zeal into the final product. Or, at least, I did, which is why I ran polls and took every opinion into consideration while creating different aspects of the final game. Being transparent about a project's costs and timelines is a result of wanting backers to feel involved and educated in what they're paying for and when they'll get it. 

While having that information is nice, though, ultimately people just want the thing they paid for, and I honestly get that! I didn't mind the negative comments that come along the way - as I've said in response the comment section, those feelings are valid. Admitting failure isn't an option for me, but admitting delays started feeling like failure at some point along the line, much admitting that we ran out of money.

And, as I said in a comment on the last update, there's nothing out there that speaks to this sort of thing. I've seen - and backed - projects who have run into similar problems - they run out of money during production, and suddenly freight & postage costs are above and beyond their resources. Backers (understandably) end up asking for a refund, but there is no "refund money" available - creators are often normal people, not a corporation that can just pull money from a different department or from their stock portfolio or something to cover costs. I honestly feel incredibly guilty any time I spend money on anything these days, whether it be for my youngest kid's birthday (she just turned 2!) or on groceries, because every cent feels like it belongs to my shipping account. 

The only advice I've ever seen is "don't ask backers for more money" - which I 100% ascribe to. I don't want anyone feeling like they won't get their game if they don't give me any more money. I'm desperate for you all to know that. 

So the best thing I can ask for is more patience while I get it together. If you want to send me a few extra dollars to help cover some shipping costs, check the comments of this post for more information. If you just want your game, it will come to you! Less time to wait now than ever before.

Much anticipated first-leg shipping schedule update!
over 5 years ago – Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 12:47:43 AM

Hey there!

Lemme first say that I see everyone's comments as they come in, and I apologize for being unresponsive. Life has been very tumultuous the last several months, and it's been easier to just put my head down and try to get things done than it has been to try and emotionally expend myself further into better customer service. I would say that I'm going to "do better," but I'm not sure that I will actually be able to do better, and I would rather stop giving empty promises.

I have made sure to update addresses for anyone who has messaged me, though, and from what I can tell, everything should be fine on that side of things. 

On to the update!

Shipping!

So the first leg of the shipping adventure will be a split shipment from Shanghai to both the UK and USA.

.

After some non-communication issues from GamesQuest in the UK, I decided to get on board with Spiral Galaxy as our UK fulfillment partner. They assured me that they will be sending out a final "check your mailing address" notice to everyone on their particular list (all EU & non-US/Canada packages) sometime during the weeks leading up to the final shipment to make sure all games get to the right people.

Our USA & Canada fulfillment company will be Quartermaster, and they also will issue a final mailing address check, the same way. 

This means those of you who aren't sure if your mailing address will be changing before the delivery window - you'll have a chance to update your address shortly before the actual mailing, which should help you with things.

OTX has been an excellent shipping logistics partner, and I honestly don't know what I would be doing without them right now. Moving on.

$$$$ Update?

I know, I know, I promised an primarily money-focused update a month ago. 100% of the Kickstarter-raised funds have been spent on the production (art, factory, etc.) and other business costs of trying to get this game to you. Everything from this point forward is out of my household pocket, including freight and postage costs.

I'm not planning on asking any backers for any further money to help cover these costs, but I am going to have to ask for further patience: it is ultimately very possible that the final shipping of the games (from the US & UK warehouses to your doorstep) will be delayed while I continue to put together postage funds. 

I'm honestly not sure what else to say about this. If I ever do another Kickstarter, I will definitely know exactly how much to ask for in shipping, because this has been a huge lesson for me to learn.

Future Updates

I will keep you up-to-date as I have more information - this is the key phrase that has been slowing updates down to one update a month lately. The further I've gone into this project, the less of it is in my hands - the printer, shipping liaisons, fulfillment companies - I've ended up in the "last to know" position several times lately. I'll continue to ask for regular updates and hope that communication continues to come in, well, regularly. 

Honestly, I likely won't have another update for you until the ships have landed next month, unless something weird crops up. (Please let nothing weird crop up.)

Finally, as always, thank you.

For your continued patience, for your original support, for your flexibility, etc. etc.

I'm adverse to fill you all in on the personal stuff that's been going on that has made basically everything in my life much harder lately, but knowing that the game will be actively getting to you in the next couple months is a bright and shining goal that I can't wait to accomplish.