Update 46b: Quick update, production update and address lock extended!
8 months ago
– Tue, Apr 30, 2024 at 09:58:11 AM
Hey everyone, this is just a quick update to share some important info regarding production, address locking, and the pre-sale. Read on!
Production Update
After reviewing the mass production sample, only one significant thing was caught that needed to be fixed. The dashboards for the German Operative Expansion had some misprints that needed to be corrected. Luckily that was a quick fix and didn't take much time, so there was no real delay as a result.
With everything having been checked and approved, LongPack has moved to assembly and palletizing, which should be done in the next week or two. After that, the games will be heading to the port! We hope to have some images after their assembly as they get ready for their journey across the water to post in the next update!
Address Lock Extended
After discussing things with Bridge Distribution (our main fulfillment partner), we were advised to wait to lock addresses a little longer to make sure there weren't going to be any last minute changes. So, we will be extending the locking of addresses until at least the end of May, possibly a bit longer. We'll have a firm date once the games are on the water and a clear arrival date can be estimated. As always, we'll keep you posted.
Upcoming Pre-Sale
As mentioned in the last update, we will be having a pre-sale on our overstock to help us cover the increased shipping costs that we have incurred. This should be launching within the next two weeks. We will be announcing full details soon, but there are a few things to keep in mind:
First, remember that we were originally going to use the overstock for conventions here in the US, and we are only doing this pre-sale to help us cover the shipping rates. Due to our overstock being concentrated in the USA, we will likely have to limit our sales to North America because shipping would be very high to other parts of the world from the states. As an example, I checked with Bridge what it would cost to send an Extinction pledge to Germany and it was about $100 (plus VAT of course), which is just crazy. We know it's not ideal to limit the regions we can offer this in, but this isn't our ideal situation for selling our overstock. That being said, we're still working to see if there are any cost effective ways to sell to other parts of the world, but it's not looking likely.
The other thing to understand is that since pledges are locked, adding additional items for existing backers isn't easy or straightforward. We can't just unlock the pledges as that would create issues on the BackerKit backend that would be a nightmare. What this means is that if an existing backer wants to add something they missed, it will have to be done as a separate order, with a separate shipping charge. We spoke multiple times with BackerKit to see if there was any way to allow existing backers to add items to their pledges, but every solution just created different issues, so it just doesn't appear to be something we can do, although we are still checking into a few things.
On the upside, we are going to offer the same prices as we did during the campaign for all items. It would certainly be justified if we raised the prices considering it's been two years, but it didn't sit right with us because the games are already paid for under the rates from two years ago, so it didn't feel right to charge more when we don't have to.
That's it for now, we'll post more soon regarding when the games are shipping out of China and when the pre-sale will launch.
Until next time, watch your six!
Update 46: Production finished!
9 months ago
– Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 09:59:21 AM
Hello all, time for another update! We’ve got some production news (with pictures), and an important reminder, so read on!
Locking Addresses April 30th
As mentioned in the last update, we will be locking addresses at the end of the month, so if you need to update your info, please do so. If you have any questions or issues updating your survey, reach out to us at [email protected].
Production Update
The printing for Earth Under Siege is complete! Whoo hoo! The factory has sent us a mass production sample copy for us to review to make sure the final product doesn’t have any printing issues that weren’t apparent before. That sample should arrive later today! Once we have it, we will spend the next few days looking it over in fine detail to make sure there were no printing errors. Provided there are no issues, LongPack will begin assembling the games and getting them palletized for shipping. If all goes well, the games will be ready to ship out of China in the next few weeks! It’s happening!
Here are some photos LongPack sent me of the final mass production copies (note that there are no miniatures in these pics, since they have already sent us minis for review, also, I'm not sure what the brown cardboard trays are for at the bottom of the image, I don't think they're supposed to be in the shot):
Here is a production video they sent showing some of the printing process:
Printing Process
Shipping and Pre-Sale on Overstock items
As mentioned above, shipping out of China should commence early to mid May, with the games arriving at the Hubs June/July. We will be using Bridge Distribution for most of the fulfillment (along with their partners in the EU/UK), with VFI Asia handling the rest.
Unfortunately for us, shipping rates are quite a bit higher than when we locked down the pledges, mostly due to fuel costs and the situation in the Red Sea. We’re going to have to subsidize about 15k out of pocket to cover the shipping, which is a real bummer, but these things happen. The good news is that we won’t be asking for any more money from backers, so no worries there. However, we decided to do a pre-sale on our overstock to help us cover the costs. We don’t have a ton of overstock, only about 150 of each item, so this will be a very limited pre-sale. We had planned to use this overstock at conventions to help promote the game, but it makes more sense to try and sell them now to help cover the shipping costs.
We’re still working out the details on how exactly we’re going to run the pre-sale and we’ll announce the plans soon, so if there are a few items you missed but wanted to pick up, this may be your chance!
That’s it for now, we will post a short update next week to let everyone know if there were any issues with the mass production copy or not, and to remind everyone one last time about addresses being locked.
Until next time, watch your six!
Update 45: Mini Update! Locking Addresses April 30th!
10 months ago
– Mon, Mar 04, 2024 at 11:14:17 AM
Hello everyone, we're posting just a quick update today, with a longer update coming later this month (see below).
Locking Addresses April 30th!
As the title says, we will be locking addresses at the end of April, so please make sure your address is up to date so we can get your pledge to you! Also, there are still about a dozen backers who's surveys have not been completed. We have reached out to these backers multiple times via KS messaging and emails but haven't received a response, so if you are reading this and you are one of those backers, please complete your survey so you can receive your pledge!
Production Update
Production is ongoing, and the factory has promised to send me pictures of the process later this month. After we receive those, we will release another update showing the progress. So far, they have sent me a few images of the miniatures, which you can see below:
Marissa is just itching to wade into these guys with a machine gun and some grenades...
Brutal, lethal, and hard to kill. Hunter Killers...learn to fear them.
For those getting the expansion, Assault Drones are a major pain to deal with. These things have high health and take only half damage from incoming attacks (rounded down). Add in the fact that they are robotic, which makes them immune to most negative conditions, and you've got one extremely durable enemy.
That's it for now, as mentioned above, we will post another update late this month once we have more images from the factory. It's getting close, exciting times! :)
Until next time, watch your six!
Update 44: Production Update and Final Rulebook!
11 months ago
– Thu, Feb 01, 2024 at 01:08:57 PM
Hello everyone, welcome to another update! Read below for an update on production and a link to the final rulebook and campaign book!
Production Update
Since our last update, both the German and French translations have been completed. The last few weeks were spent going over those files to check for errors and getting the files formatted to LongPack’s specifications. After long hours spent every day, including weekends, the files were finished and uploaded to LongPack last week! This means all final files are now uploaded and the printing of the cardboard components can be finished.
Plastic Tokens
Shortly after the last update we also received the plastic token sample, and they are awesome! The colors look great and they are thick enough to feel very solid and satisfying when playing. Check out the images below:
Timeline
For those that don’t know, Chinese New Year is a national holiday that lasts from February 10th until February 24th. During that time, most of the country is shut down for celebration. Some businesses shut down longer, including LongPack’s manufacturing plant, which closed starting today, February 1st. This means that production on the printed components won’t fully begin until end of February, or beginning of March. Printing should be done by the end of March. After that it will take LongPack 2-3 weeks to assemble and package all of the components. If all goes well, the games should ship out of China sometime in late April, or early May. After that, it is about a month to get to the various hubs around the world (or more if there are still issues disrupting shipping lanes at that time). So, tentatively, we will be fulfilling in June or July, but we’ll have a better timeframe once LongPack is back from holiday and have actually begun the final manufacturing.
Locking Addresses
With delivery looming on the not-too-distant horizon, we will be locking address soon. We don’t have a firm date for that yet, but it will be sometime in March. If you have moved since you filled out your backer survey, be sure to update your shipping address as soon as possible. We will definitely post another update giving everyone another notice to update their info, but doing so sooner is better than later. If you have any issues updating your address, reach out to us at [email protected]
Final Rulebook
Below is a link to the final version of the rulebook in English, French, and German for those that would like to read it:
English
German
French
Also, for the first time, we are posting the campaign book rules section which show how to run a campaign, apply rewards, handle Overlord battles, etc. Note that all missions were removed from this version to keep that part of the game a surprise for now, but in the final version there are 21 campaign missions, and 25 special op missions.
English Campaign Rules
The Future
While we still have to finish manufacturing, and then fulfillment, the development for this game is obviously finished. Moving forward, we have several products in the pipeline in various stages of development. The first will be a reprint campaign a couple of months after fulfillment, where we will offer all of the existing products again, as well as a new expansion (with a new game mode) and new stretch goals. We are not planning on a large number of new products for this campaign, just the single expansion, along with some cosmetic add ons (such as more 3D terrain, a new plastic tokens pack, etc). We will have a returning backer tier for those that want all of the new stuff at a discounted price.
On a personal note, I have to say, that submitting those final files was more difficult than you would think. After 5 and ½ years of working on this game, it was VERY hard to let it go, knowing that I can no longer make changes, tweak things, polish it, etc. It’s like watching your kid go off to college in a way. You just have to have faith that you did the best you could to make it the best it can be. I’m not going to lie, it made me a little choked up. I hope all of the love, hard work, and dedication comes through to you when you finally get it, and I hope you all enjoy playing it as much as we do!
Until next time, watch your six!
Update 43: Happy holidays!
12 months ago
– Sun, Dec 31, 2023 at 12:58:43 PM
Happy Holidays from Dark Horizon Games!
Greetings everyone, we hope you are enjoying your holidays and that you and your family are happy and healthy! We’ve got a short update this month to catch you up on the current state of production. Here we go!
Production Update
We received the sample a couple of weeks ago, and we’re happy to say that everything looks FANTASTIC! We are really, really happy with how well everything turned out. There are only a few issues that need correction that LongPack is working on, including a few adjustments to the trays so the components fit a bit better.
One of the adjustments we made was to the box design. LongPack sent us two box styles to see which we thought would work better. The first one was what was shown in the video from the last update, with a deep cardboard insert which all of the trays were stacked in. However, we decided to go with a socket box which makes accessing the components much easier. With this type of box design, the top half separates from the bottom, as you can see in the image below:
The top half of the box contains all of the miniatures, while the bottom half contains all of the cards, dice, tiles, and tokens.
Another correction we made was to the white dice in the acrylic dice pack add on. Initially, the white dice were completely clear, which looked pretty cool, but made reading the die faces a bit difficult. Ultimately we ended up going with more of a frosted die so they could easily be read, as shown here:
We also had to do some experimentation with different types of bindings for the books to see what works best. LongPack is planning to send us the latest version (with sewn bindings) which we should receive next week. At the same time, we should FINALLY receive the sample for the plastic token add on, which we have yet to review. These are the last two things that need to be reviewed. However, we also need to receive the final translated files before final production can actually begin (more on that below).
In the next update will post some additional images of the components and show how everything fits in the inserts, including the GameTrayz.
Translations
Both the German and French translations are nearing completion and both should be done in the next week (give or take). Once we have those final files, we will have everything we need to finish mass production. As mentioned in the last update, the miniatures are already complete (which is the longest part of manufacturing) so all that needs to be done are the printed components, assembly, and packaging. We will post an updated timeline from LongPack when they give it to us, which should happen within the next two weeks!
That’s it for now, we’ll be back next month. Happy New Year everyone!
Until next time, watch your six!
