It's (Almost) All Here!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Dec 08, 2021 at 12:33:04 AM

SOON!

We've been receiving cargo containers galore in the last couple weeks! Cargo containers with games like Medium and Spirit Island, with promo packs and accessories, with products for other companies that use our warehousing and operations services... AND! Cargo containers with Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition products! Yes! We're getting them! Tons of them are in our warehouse now!

OK, that's the good news. Now for some expectation managing.

We don't have EVERYTHING yet. There's not a ton of different individual products needed for this ship out, fortunately. Core games, packs of foil cards, and packs of card sleeves covers it. But we're still in the process of receiving a lot of cargo containers, and until we have the complete inventory of all of those three things, we can't really start the shipping process. If we did, got part of the way through it, and then had to stop to unload more cargo containers to get the rest of what we need, it would create two big problems. 1) We'd be sitting on multiple unloaded cargo containers for days if not weeks, which is expensive, inefficient, and takes up a lot of space. 2) We would have a NOTABLE gap between when the first of you got your rewards and when the last person finally did. That's not great. We could have started this process about a week ago, but doing so would have been asking for trouble. At this point, given how many cargo containers we're still receiving and how much product we're waiting on, the warehouse's reasonable expectation is that the ship out process will begin within 2 weeks. This means that the entire ship out will NOT be done by the end of the year, but it will be started before the end of the year, and everyone should have their rewards in hand before the end of January. 

This certainly isn't the timeline we were hoping for, but at the same time, it's the most concrete timeline we've had in months! So, "SOON" now actually means something, and that something is a timeline that is pretty soon, in the grand scheme of things! 

Business News

Some new news here: as of last week, Greater Than Games is part of Flat River Group. I wrote about it on the GTG website. What does that mean for you? Not much, for the most part! We're all doing the same stuff here, just more so. Functionally, it's going to result in us making more games, doing a better job at keeping our games in print, and adding more people to fill in the gaps. It's amazing what you can do with additional resources! Anyway, we wanted to let you know, but don't worry! Don't panic! All is good here! Just some business business stuff, you know? If you want more info, feel free to join me and Paul for our Q&A livestream on the GTG YouTube channel this Thursday at 2:00 PM, Central time.

I'll post another update before the end of the year with more info about the ship out, given how much things are moving now! Talk to you then!

-Christopher

More boat news! Progress is real!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Nov 04, 2021 at 05:04:05 AM

Good morning, everyone!

I just got some thrilling news!

That's our boat! The boat carrying the Definitive Edition cases! It's in the US port! Things are looking up!

(They're looking at the massive pile of cargo containers on the ship. That's why they look so happy. Just trust me on this one.)

OK, so, time to manage expectations: this doesn't mean we'll have the games in hand as soon as we'd all hope. In the "before-times", this would mean the games were likely 1-3 weeks away from our St. Louis warehouse — the cargo containers would need to be unloaded, everything would have to go through customs, then the containers would take a nice, relaxing train ride from the port to St. Louis, and then they'd be transferred from the train to a rail yard, put on a truck, and brought to our warehouse! All of those things still have to happen, but each step takes FAR longer now. Everything is very backed up and understaffed. Customs will certainly take longer. Trains are booked up (though they're less concerning than any of the other steps, actually). And there is a massive shortage of both trucks and truck drivers. So! We're still feeling somewhat hopeful about having games in our warehouse by the end of the year... but it might be just barely. We'll see! Even still, great that progress is happening.

As a result, now that things are heading our way, we'll be closing the BackerKit on November 12th so we can finalize everyone's addresses and start printing shipping labels and such. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out by e-mailing us at [email protected].

OK! More news in a month, but I'll jump in here earlier than that if I learn something new!

-Christopher

Photos! And, even better, BOAT NEWS?!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 06, 2021 at 08:08:57 PM

Ahoy, Sentinels!

Sorry for the update being so late in the day. Normally, I like to send these out first thing in the morning, but I was waiting on some important news before I posted. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I'm going to make you wait by showing off some photos I took last week.

Sleeved Sentinels

There have been requests to see the whole set sleeved, and who am I to say no to that? Especially when we have such a nice set of sleeves made especially for this game!

Ooh, what fancy boxes!

Full of packs of sleeves?! Go figure!

That's... a lot of card sleeves! Enough for all the cards in the game, as well as all of the foil Hero, Villain, and Event cards!

Big cards sleeved!

Cards sleeved IN THE BOX?! The Villains fit neatly in the special box, to keep them separated from the good guys. No fighting in the box!

Everything fits! Great success!

OK, no more delays. Let's hear about a boat.

Boat News

TODAY! Today is the day! The games have been packed into several cargo containers, and those cargo containers are ALREADY loaded onto a boat! Has that boat moved yet? I don't know! It's certainly scheduled to do so! How confident am I? 72%, at best! But that's far better than before!

In all seriousness, we have been assured that the containers are all packed up and loaded on a boat, and that boat will be heading this way soon. Usually, it takes about a month for the boat to get across the ocean, get through the line in the US port, and unload the cargo container. Then, the container goes to a rail yard, rides a choo-choo train all the way to St. Louis, goes from the rail yard here onto a truck, and then is delivered to our warehouse! So, if everything goes the same as it has in the past (which, of course, there's NO reason to believe this will be like it ever has been before... BUT I'M STILL HOPEFUL), we should have the games in our warehouse before the end of November! And then, we'll do our best to get them to you RIGHT AWAY! 

Can you taste it?! It's almost here! (Please don't taste your copy of Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition. It's not optimized for flavor.)

I'm really hoping that next month's update is "everything is proceeding as planned", because if so, we might all have Sentinels in time for the holidays!

Fingers and toes crossed;

-Christopher

It's September?! Already?!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 10:41:00 PM

Good morning, everyone!

Here's the most important part of this update: there is no new news. Let me explain how frustrating this is: INCREDIBLY frustrating. 

Since last month, we have shelled out additional stacks of cash in an attempt to get our games to leave the port. We have been promised numerous times now that our games have a "place in line", and that they will be loaded into a cargo container and that container put on a ship and sent to us "soon". However, there is no way for us to check the status of this mythical "line", and the worldwide shortage of cargo containers and container ships continues to be a significant problem, so our hopes and expectations are both quite low. We're very sorry that this means we not only don't have games in hand for you yet, but also don't have an actual projection of when we might have them, but we're doing everything we can to encourage the games to come visit us ASAP.

We got a couple of questions since last month's update that are worth addressing specifically. The first was "what effect will the shipping delays have on future Definitive Edition expansions/Kickstarters", and the answer is hopefully none, but time will tell. We're already up to our elbows in work on the first big expansion in the Definitive Edition line with hopes to have it on Kickstarter sometime in the Spring of next year, but that will require everyone who backed this Kickstarter having their rewards before then. Do we think the delays that currently plague us will persist to next Spring? We [expletive deleted] hope not! We want these games delivered NOW and are doing all we can to make that happen, but at the end of the day, we are at the whims of the international shipping crisis here. Anyway, we'll know better if the next Kickstarter will need to be delayed once this one is actually moving towards us, and then towards you!

Another question was if we could show off a set of Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition fully sleeved, and the answer is yes, soon! (And not the kind of "soon" that the shipping process is under right now.) We just got a full production set of sleeves like the ones anyone who ordered sleeves on this Kickstarter will be getting, and sometime this month we'll sit down with our pre-production copy of the Definitive Edition core game and sleeve it all with the appropriate sleeves! We'll take pictures and document this process and then show all of it off for next month's update. So, that's something to look forward to! Even if next month's update shows no movement on the cargo container front (which, ugh, I hope is NOT the case, but at this point... I'm not holding my breath), we'll at least have pictures of sleeves and sleeving and sleeved cards in a box for you!

Until then, keep on saving the Multiverse, and if you know anyone with some spare cargo containers or container ships, send them our way!

-Christopher

Shipping container update! Factory Fotos! (Phactory photos?)
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 03, 2021 at 08:40:36 PM

Good morning!

It's great to see you all this morning. Let's get down to the brassiest of tacks.

At this point, we're in the "hurry up and wait" mode, but we do know some things. 

• 1: The games are all finished printing!
• B: The sleeves are all done being made as well!
• III: The foil cards are also complete!
• Four: Everything is packed up and ready to leave the factories!

All good news! EVERYTHING that is part of this campaign is done being produced/created/printed/etc. Excellent! But why the wait? Because of shipping! Due to the current state of things in the world, there aren't enough boats, and there aren't enough cargo containers. Shipping charges for international freight are through the roof. However, we have paid a painfully exorbitant amount of money to reserve our place in line, which we are assured means cargo containers are being earmarked for our stuff, and that they SHOULD be going to boats soon. What does "soon" mean? That's a great question! One that we ask the ports with great regularity. It apparently means "within the next few days, or maybe weeks, or maybe a month or two". So helpful. 

So, this is a frustrating place to be, but we're making it work and just pestering the boat people a lot to make things move. Fingers crossed for progress "soon"!

BackerKit Closing When?

We have received some questions about when the BackerKit is closing, or where/how to update your address. The BackerKit is still open, so if you need to update your address, go for it! We're certainly not shipping the games for AT LEAST a month from now, as they're not yet headed our way — it takes about a month from the time they leave port to the time they arrive at our warehouse, so if you're moving in the next few weeks, definitely give us the address you're moving to.

As to when the BackerKit will close: honestly, we're going to keep it open so people can access their orders and update their addresses as need be right up until our cargo containers are ACTUALLY moving. So! Sometime in the not-too-distant future, but it's very up in the air. That said, when we ARE going to close the BackerKit, we'll post a minimum 48 hour head-up update letting you know that it's impending. So, nothing to worry about yet, but, again, "soon".

Look at these photographs!

The factory sent us some shots from the game being made and packed and quality checked and all that! Take a look!

And watch these cards rolling in!

I'll do another update the first Tuesday of next month, but maybe one will happen between now and then updating you that cargo containers are moving and the BackerKit is closing! Maybe! Hopefully! 

Until then, keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher