Printing wrapping up! Baron Blade's deck! Shipping container purgatory!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Jul 12, 2021 at 06:29:20 AM

Good morning, Sentinels fans!

Printing has been going swiftly at the factory, and they're in the final stages of putting everything together and boxing it up now! Once that's done, this quite large print run of not small boxes will go into a series of cargo containers to make its way to us — more on that in a bit here. First! I want to show something off.

Baron Blade's deck

As you likely know, Baron Blade is special. He's not the scariest villain, but he was one of the first big ones, and he is one of the most recurring. In Sentinels of the Multiverse, his deck is specifically created to be an ideal first game experience, and we've leaned into that with Definitive Edition. The game comes with both a rulebook and a lore book, and in the Villains section of the lore book, it also lists the order to put Baron Blade's cards in for a curated first game experience! (Note: Don't look at the image below or the video under that if you want to avoid spoilers of what that first game might involve!)

We wanted to make that as easy as possible, right out of the box, so we had the factory individually package and specifically order Baron Blade's deck. To get it right, they have to do it by hand. Here's what that looks like!

Thrilling, right? It's good to see everything coming together here. Sure hope everything continues to go as smoothly and nothing bad happens as we get ready to ship this out!

Shipping Purgatory

So, first off: nothing is wrong yet. Nothing is delayed. Everything is on time. BUT! We're apprehensive. International freight shipping has been a MESS all this year and most of last year, for a wide variety of reasons, many of which you're likely aware of. There's even been some notable press about it. It's been a challenging year and a half for most every industry. Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition is just now making its way into the pre-shipping process, so it can't yet be held up, but we're anticipating that it will be. We actually have a dozen or so other cargo containers (full of things like Spirit Island and Medium and Legends of Sleepy Hollow and more) at that same port, impatiently waiting in line for any dang boat that can take them to us. 

So, what does this mean? Honestly, we're not 100% sure now. We're definitely going to get you your games as fast as we possibly can, but there's not a lot we can do if boats won't take our cargo containers from China to the US. We don't anticipate this pushing the release of the game until next year or anything so drastic, but we also don't reasonably believe that we'll have the games in hand here in the next month or two, like we normally would at this stage of the process. 

I know this is disheartening news. Trust me, we also are struggling with how disappointing and frustrating the state of things is here. And there's a chance that Sentinels goes into cargo containers, and those containers leave the port right away and come straight here! It's just a fairly low chance. We reasonably believe that shipping will be delayed by a month or more, but we're optimistic that the boats will be up and running properly again some time this year. Cross all your fingers and toes for luck.

Even though there's not YET a problem — just an incredibly likely potential one — we still wanted to be as transparent as possible about our transitional transportation concerns. We will keep you updated as to how shipping goes. Hopefully, next month I'll have new and thrilling news! It's possible. This month, things look bleak, but also very up in the air. They could land any number of ways. So, if you've got any ability to destroy some Villain or Environment Ongoing cards to help us out here, we'd appreciate it. 

Still, lots to look forward to! We're very pleased with what we've seen so far from the factory, and we're all primed and ready to send you your games as soon as we have them in hand! So, bear with us, and we'll get through this together!

Until next time, keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher

Another Quick Update about BackerKit!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 08, 2021 at 09:18:04 PM

Hey, everyone!

On Friday, I noted that the BackerKit just went live. Then, over the weekend, a bunch of people reached out to say they still hadn't gotten their BackerKit e-mail yet.

I found out what happened!

After we hit the "make it happen" button, BackerKit takes two business days to make the "test" go live, which gets sent to 5% of backers (randomly selected). Then, 2 business days after THAT'S all done, it starts sending the remaining 95% in waves. So... this process is going to take a while. That means you should have an e-mail from BackerKit by the end of this week, I believe. Sorry for not sharing these details when we went live — I didn't know any of this until this morning! I was also quite confused, but we should be in good shape, now!

OK, until next time!

-Christopher

Super Quick Update: BackerKit is Launching NOW!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Jun 06, 2021 at 07:58:37 PM

Hey, folks!

Just popping in for a quick update to let you know that the BackerKit is about to be live! You should all be getting e-mails that give you the info you need to finalize your pledge and address and all that!

The factory is still rolling, and I'll have a pictures and videos and more for you in next month's update for sure! Plus, some definitive news about where the games are and how the shipping process will go! Something to look forward to, for sure. 

Check your e-mail, fill our the survey, and I'll be back with more news in roughly 1 month (unless anything big happens sooner than that, of course). Have a good weekend, everyone!

-Christopher

Physical Stuff Incoming!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Jun 02, 2021 at 10:45:04 PM

Good morning, everyone!

Things continue to move right along, production wise. We got a preview set of the foil pack of cards in the mail last week, and we are supposed to be getting the production copy (that means the real thing!!) of the core game in the next week or two! To talk about that second one first: the production copy is one pulled from the line of the print run. Meaning, if we have it in hand, that means there are hundreds more already being printed right now in China! And even more are still being printed! The one we're about to get is one of the first ones to come off the production line, so it's certainly early. And they are shipping it to us by air, so we'll be getting it much more quickly than you can reasonably move multiple cargo containers worth of product. But we'll have it in hand soon! So, except next month's update to be all about showing that off. Games might even be in a boat heading our way by next time! No promises there; the international shipping process is STILL recovering from the last year of terrible times AND the somewhat goofy but actually debilitating Suez Canal thing that happened earlier this year. Anyway, I'll keep you updated!

Foil Cards

We got 'em! Take a look!

How shiny! How majestic! And you can even see the box they come in, too!

Now, if you're looking closely, you'll see that the main hero character cards at the top of the images are sleeved! This does not mean that the foil cards come already sleeved — they do not. But! We did get a pack of hero character card sized sleeves and wanted to test them out. The fit perfectly! They're smooth and easy to slide cards into, but fit snuggly with not wiggle room. They're strong and look great, too! So, that's a little bonus, on top of the very cool foil cards!

I look forward to having even MORE physical things in hand to show you next time, as well as news about where in the world the games are!

Keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher

The Kickstarter Is Over! The Waiting Begins!
over 3 years ago – Sat, May 08, 2021 at 08:00:06 PM

Happy May, everyone!

What a thrilling month we had last month, right? I'm still beside myself from how fantastic it was, and not just because of the experimental cloning technology I'm trying out to get more work done. 

Now that the campaign is over, and the design and development work are also complete, we're all in the same waiting cycle together! So, I'll be posting updates once a month from here on out, until everything is delivered and resolved with this campaign. (I reserve the right to break form and post an extra update if there's some exciting bit of news that just can't wait until the first Tuesday of the month, though.)

Over here at GTG, we're working on a pile of other games as well, including a lot of content for Sentinel Comics: the Roleplaying Game, playtesting future other Sentinels stuff, and making a bunch of other, non-Sentinel Comics related games! It's a lot, but it's all pretty thrilling. Point is, we're not just sitting on our hands over here, even though there's nothing specific we can do to make this campaign fulfill any faster. Jodie and Matt in the warehouse are figuring out their packing and shipping plan so that, as soon as the printed games are in hand, they can start sending them to you right away! However, that won't be for at least a couple months, as the printing process takes months and the ocean freight process takes weeks, plus customs, plus a train ride to St. Louis... there's still a lot to go before we can send the games your way. 

Each month, I'll be giving you an update on the production and transportation of the games. Like so!

Physical Product Status

Well, the current physical product status is that there isn't a physical product. Yet. The factory has all the files and has been going through the arduous process of converting all the digital files to physical printing plates. I'll see if I can get some photos of that stuff from them. It's pretty cool! Anyway, at this point, the plate creating process should be complete, or just about complete, so actually starting to make the physical pieces that will be the Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition Core Game will start very soon! (If it hasn't already started! But, if it has already started, then we're only a day or two in, really.) Any way you slice it, we're at the beginning of this process. I'll update you as I learn more.

So! That's where things stand now. 

Oh, I was about to sign off without posting any arts, and that's not fun. Hold on — I'm going to ask the Letters Page listenership folks for a card reveal suggestion for the bottom of this post. (Also, I'm going to leave this train-of-thought writing in here. Wacky!)

OK! Various requests: a card from Akash'Bhuta's deck, a card from Unity's deck, a Gene-Bound card, and both the regular and First Appearance hero character cards for Argent Adept. Whew! That's a bunch, but sure!

From Akash'Bhuta's deck:

From Unity's deck:

A Gene-Bound card:

The Argent Adept's hero character card:

The Argent Adept's First Appearance hero character card:

There! Thanks, Letters Page contributors!

See you next month! Keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher