Update #30: New Official Timeline!
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Jul 17, 2022 at 04:47:28 AM
First, the most exciting news - Manufacturing has begun!! This means we also now have some concrete details to share with everyone!
Manufacturing & Next Steps
The total time for manufacturing is 75 days from this moment. That is the time it takes to create injection molds and all the pieces. This puts the estimated date to ship from our manufacturer to our warehouse at around Oct 1st.
Due to rising costs, especially on fuel, we can no longer afford to send the pieces to our warehouse by air as was our original plan. We have to send it by sea. Shipping by sea takes 4-6 weeks, which lands us receiving the kits and pieces in early to mid-November.
You can expect an email from our shipping partner, Easyship, to finalize your shipping details at the end of October. Backerkit is still open for editing your shipping address at any time, and we will notify you before that is locked at the end of October.
The priority of who gets shipped first is based on a queue order of filling out the Easyship survey to finalize your details.
Context of the Timeline Delay
So, here’s the rundown of what happened:
Our first manufacturing partner sent us a sample piece that had very low detail. We sent the piece back with one of our prototyped samples so they could see what we were referring to regarding loss of detail. At that point, we also worked with them digitally to preview what they were going to make before they got into the weeds with more molds. Fortunately, we did not lose any backing funds in this process because they didn’t meet their end of agreement.
When the design files were sent to the manufacturer, their engineers were removing detail in order to make them work with their machines. As they were doing a poor job, we spent our time going back and forth with them, with us editing the pieces in an attempt to get them to work with their machinery, yet still not losing out on detail. This process was so frustrating for us, and taking so long, that we eventually brought in a few 3rd party consultants (it helps to know people - they didn’t charge us for the advice) to make sure we weren’t missing something ourselves and to help get this over the dang finish line. The final conclusion was that our designs are not an issue - we weren’t out of any norm in complexity or detail, and that the manufacturer wasn’t being clear and honest about their capabilities and limitations.
This brings us today! We are now working with a new partner, and yes, they are based in China. With this group, making high-detailed pieces is their specialty. Their engineers don’t need to make any edits to our files to create the molds - it’ll come exactly as it needs to. They are easily able to meet the detail and precision needed, previews of the pieces look great, and we’re now a go. Once tooling is finished, as many have asked, we will send updates with pictures!
If You Have Painted Pieces
It will take us 20-30 days to get through 100% of all painted pieces. They also will be painted and delivered to the same queue, so some people will receive theirs very soon after the unpainted pieces are shipped, while others will be at the tail end. We’ll ship as we finish painting.
Where the Party Is & Where They’re Going
almost 4 years ago
– Thu, Jun 30, 2022 at 11:25:09 PM
Through the last couple of months we’ve had to continue some back and forth with our manufacturing partner. The outcome so far is that this group cannot meet the needs to produce these pieces how they should be. This has been very frustrating and disappointing to us as we did not foresee this coming up before we started the Kickstarter. We sincerely apologize for the delays this has caused as we know you are excited and eager to get your kits and begin using them at your tables!
Our solution to solve this problem has led us to engage with new manufacturers who claim to be able to meet our production needs at our expected quality. We are determined to have a good set for awesome playability at the game table, which is why we had to make the decision to find a new company to work with for these final pieces. The last couple of weeks, we’ve been working out the technical details for production and finalizing pricing for the production.
When we have a new shipping estimate, we will reach out and send an update to all backers.
Thank you for your patience. Delays aren’t something any of us want, but it will be worth it for a better product at the end.
You May Need to Correct Your Tile Options
almost 4 years ago
– Fri, May 27, 2022 at 12:21:10 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Random Encounters Causing Some Slog Among Players
almost 4 years ago
– Tue, May 24, 2022 at 06:10:15 PM
Hi Backers!
There’s been a lot of adventuring happening since the Kickstarter ended that we’d like to share, including what has been accomplished so far and an unexpected delay we’ve run into.
Since getting our funding from Kickstarter, we’ve been able to prep our warehouse to receive all the kits and pieces that need to be produced. This is our hub to package and ship out everything that has been ordered.
We’ve had a few pieces where the quality was not where it was supposed to be. In discussions with our manufacturing partner, it was determined that we would need to have the molds remade and the pieces manufactured again. This means we are now making adjustments to how they are manufactured, so that they can come out looking good, functioning properly, and satisfying all of our expectations.
Based on the outcome of the quality check, we are now expecting unpainted kits to begin shipped around mid-late June. Painted kits are still on track to begin shipping throughout August (as we complete kits we will ship them).
Thank you for your patience in getting an update on this. We wanted to make sure we had all the information and decided our course of action before notifying everyone.
Best,
Brad & Bryan
Surveys Closing April 17th!
almost 4 years ago
– Sat, Apr 16, 2022 at 05:03:25 AM
After traversing deep below through strange corridors, fighting through many trials, evading nefarious traps, and facing many enemies... you find yourself standing before the very hands of time.
Staring into its strange and mesmerizing gears... ever ticking... ever turning, you are suddenly reminded that...
Your time to complete your BackerKit survey is nearly up!
The last day to make final updates to your order is April 17th. After this date, we will lock your reward selections and charge cards for additional add-on item purchases. You can update your shipping address up until we lock addresses for shipping (in a few more weeks).
If you fill out your BackerKit survey after the 17th, we’ll still receive your information, but your shipment may be delayed.
If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://epochtiles.backerkit.com/.
If you are still unable to access your survey after trying our project page link, please, please, please message us directly on Kickstarter ASAP so we can help you out and get you access to the survey.
THANK YOU!
Thank you all again for being so responsive to answering our BackerKit survey—even though it may not seem like much as an individual backer, you have no idea how tremendously helpful this has been for us when trying to keep track of all 819 of you!
Thanks everyone for your support and happy adventuring!
