Shipping Update - Oct 30th
almost 9 years ago – Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 04:24:25 PM

Hi guys! This is a quick follow-up update to confirm that virtually all packages have been shipped.

In backerkit, we're at 142 shipped, 13 in Germany being reshipped, and 6 unshipped.

For the 13 shipped to Germany, that box arrived this morning, so those should be reshipped soon.

For the 6 unshipped, 1 is a brand new pre-order, which I'll package up and ship soon. 5 are orders that require some additional component, such as Maps or something. I have those components on-hand now that I'm back in Sacramento and setting up our warehouse, so they'll also ship shortly.

New Growth

In case I haven't mentioned it, Arcknight is growing in a few notable ways!

1> We're getting a warehouse, where we can properly inventory a small batch of our products, which should speed up shipments and workflow. If you feel like getting a few more sheets of something we've produced in the past, the turnaround time will be much shorter now.

2> With this new warehouse is an opportunity to get new, dedicated equipment. To start, we're getting a new printer, paper cutter and laminator! I'm very excited, and hopefully all the paperwork goes through for loans and such.

New Kickstarters

Spell Effects

In a few weeks we'll begin shipping Flat Plastic Miniatures, which will likely consume all of our time. This will also give CMG backers an opportunity to playtest their plastic, give us feedback, etc, and then we'll be launching a dedicated 'Spell Effects' kickstarter, headlining with 1> class-based spell sheets, offering the quintessential mix of spells for any given character class in traditional RPGs, and 2> "most popular" spell effect mixes, which include multiple different elements on the same page.

Additionally, this will include an opportunity just like last time to suggest any new combination of grid, size, shape, etc.

And, we've found that our objects sheets are particularly well received, so we'll be looking into creating more of those. There were also a few pieces to this project we planned to do but haven't followed through on yet, so we'll include those. Namely, the laminated gm/player cards.

Stupid Fight

Over the last few weeks, we've been cleaning up the rules and playtesting a prototype card game of ours we're tentatively calling 'Stupid Fight'. This card game has been entered into the PAX South Indie Showcase, and if selected, will be one of ~20 tabletop card games with a dedicated playtesting booth at PAX South.

Humorously, it was never meant to be a final name, but the more we play it, the more 'stuck' the name seems to be. It's my intention to offer a 'Naming Contest' with some sort of reward if anyone can best the name, but we're stopped actively trying to replace it. It has a nice ring to it, and fits the game well - which is a light hearted easy to learn and play beat-em-up card game. Players take turns drawing cards, placing body parts, and then activating those body parts to punch kick and headbutt their way to victory.

If you'd like to see some prototype gameplay, there's an unlisted youtube playlist of full demo games, and that'll allow you to see some of our art, which really is what makes this zany game a gem. Any stupid combination of body parts you can come up with fits together and looks pretty hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ4Y3W5aIkyEx_cfhCGOqlpugxdBUm4P8

Check it out, but keep in mind the game will not be available to back until we launch a new kickstarter sometime in late December+, maybe as late as the start of PAX South, and certainly we'll be posting again at that time.

Shipping Update - Oct 8th, 2015
about 9 years ago – Thu, Oct 08, 2015 at 07:02:53 PM

We're over 2/3rds shipped, with 30 remaining packs.

I'm leaving the OC for a few days, and then returning on the 16th I believe. I'm pre-boxing ~28 of the remaining packs, and we're waiting for a uline shipment for more packing envelopes. I'll pre-print the shipping labels, and they should go out Monday while I'm gone.

When I get back, I'll ship the rest, including the 2 oddball packs that need extra stuff made for them, and if the other 30 didn't ship for various reasons, I'll take care of it then.

The box of EU shipments is on it's way to Germany, where it'll be opened and reshipped. Hopefully that goes well. Honestly I don't like the whole EU shipping crap. I like the concept... but in reality it just means I hand product over to someone else to deal with it, and I never hear from it again.

If I have small time / private people do it, it might as well be launched into the aether of deep space for all I know. If I use a larger, legitimate company that does this for a living, there's like 35 forms, and TONS of expenses, because they're expecting a huge shipment of crates and warehousing costs, and all I want them to do is put it in the mail.

No good solution to EU shipping has come out of this campaign, and it worries me for the much larger shipping run we'll have on Flat Plastic Miniatures that's coming in a month or so.

If anyone lives in the EU, I'd love suggestions. For this small batch, I'm just paying my friend to receive and ship them himself because the 'setup' costs of using a redistributor were unrealistic since this is a tiny bundle and fits in 1 box.

I have actually considered shipping to a UPS pickup location, and flying to Europe myself for a couple days, to put all the packages in the mail myself. However, since I don't know how shipping works in any given EU country, this has risk as well.

Maybe a backer from Europe wants a house guest for a couple days and can show me how shipping works in [whatever country] haha.

Shipping has Begun!
about 9 years ago – Tue, Sep 01, 2015 at 08:19:15 PM

I've been in Anaheim since Thursday, getting things ready for the shows over Labor Day weekend. We had a few things to produce for 2CGaming, who will have a booth at Strategicon, where they'll be showing off their TPK primer with custom maps and minis from Arcknight.

Part of the time has also been spent getting all the CMG sheets ready to print, and that has gone as well as could ever be expected. The grids printed flawlessly, and all of the 1" grid varieties are done. The objects packs are all done. The 'Arcane' spell sheets are done and printed very well. Tonight we'll print the various sized grids, and continue work on the spell sheets.

Each day, I've packed up what could be shipped with the sheets that were printed. Today 31 packages went in the mail, and 16 more are ready to ship tomorrow. After whatever gets done tonight, we'll probably have another 30-50 orders that could possibly ship, but tomorrow morning i'll be heading back to Sacramento and then doing the Pacificon show over Labor day, so packaging and shipping will resume next tuesday.

Optimistically, we might be able to tear through 4-5 different spell themes tonight, but that still leaves a lot of spell sheets left. We'll finish them over the next week or two, and work out when to package them up once they're all produced and waiting.

EU Friendly Shipping

This will be our first actual dive into EU shipping, which is great timing for us since it'll prepare us for what to expect when the Flat Plastic Miniatures are ready. I've been in touch with Shipwire and a few other fulfillment houses if they don't work out. There's quite a lot of pomp and 'setup' and extra shit involved with this, since from their perspective, they're hoping to be locking on an ongoing monthly fulfillment contract. Questions like "After initial fulfillment, how many ongoing shipments a month do you expect?" and my answer is "uhhh... zero?" "Well, how many total accounts right now?" 18. How many total SKUs?" "In just these 18 or total for the project?" "Total, please" "We have over 300 unique sheets." You just have to imagine how they're confused and cringing at the same time. Yes, Shipwire, if you make me individually SKU each item, I have over 300 UNIQUE items. There are 39 unique SKU's going just to these 18 individual backers.

So we'll see. They may take this first batch as a trial run, and label each of these "packages" as their own SKU, I dunno. Step one is a mandatory 1.5 hour live webinar with the guy who will then become my personal shipping agent. Like I said ..... 'setup'. As I learn more, I'll let you know.

In the mean time, if anyone wants to go the route of "nevermind EU shipping, just send me my package through the mail" you can always email me. Several of them are packed and sitting at my feet now, I just can't send them since we promised EU distribution, and we didn't want EU backers getting hit with import tariffs and customs fees.

Here's what my staging area looks like right now : 

Why are they all white?

Oh noooo, we forgot to print on clear!

Really, this is just a white coating that's on the plastic. These things aren't just a "little" clear, they're VERY clear, and that means without a coating, the printer couldn't even detect the sheets to feed them and print them. The coating also absorbs static, which gets a bit crazy when you have large stacks of sheets. In most cases, your sheets will come with this coating still on them, all you have to do is peel it off.

Here's an example :

Irritated at Backerkit - Some backers were charged without comp. credit.
about 9 years ago – Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 10:03:47 PM

Well, I'm a little upset. I asked everyone to trust me and understand that I would be applying their complimentary credit to anyone who has 8+ sheets, that you will get your discount BEFORE your credit cards were charged.

In backerkit, the process is called 'segments', and it's your search and sort tool all in one,. With segments you can get a lot done, and without using segments you're nearly powerless.

So we designed a segment to show us all backers who finished their surveys, had added add-ons (it's ala carte, so that should include everyone), and had at least $50 pledged. Then, it's quite easy to see how many actually have 8+ sheets, at $10 a pop that should bring your pledge to $80+. Makes sense right? I could have picked any number under $80, but to be thorough I wanted to look through a lot of backers and make sure the sorting tool was working.

It "seemed" to work perfectly, I had a list of backers with at least a bit of add-ons, and I assigned quite a lot of comp credit. However, it turns out, some backers are not showing up in this segment at all, including at least 1 person with 8+ sheets.

Making matters worse, after we finished assigning the comp credit we DID charge cards. So, now I'm going through each and every account again to double check it. If you were incorrectly charged without your proper credit, I'll issue a backerkit refund, your money will be released, I'll apply the credit, and then we'll re-charge your card the correct amount in a day or so.

Rest assured, all will be fixed in the end, but this is exactly the type of shit that isn't supposed to happen, and NOTHING explains why they aren't showing up... I don't have another search tool, this backer clearly has 8+ sheets, and didn't get put in the list of people with 5+ add-ons.

Spell Effect Variety Sheets - Updated Full Sheet Graphics
about 9 years ago – Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 09:29:08 PM

Spell Effect Variety Sheets - Updated Full Sheet Graphics

Philip has finished re-creating the 'spell effect variety page' with his own art, and it's now available!

This will be spell sheet CMG-SVA100 and should be at the top of the spell list.

Corrections

Additionally, I had mentioned that a number of the 'full sheet' graphics were incorrect, and did not correctly show how the pattern would be made into full sheet graphics. We now have an update for the following full sheets:

We now believe that we've got everything that will be part of the Clear Map Grids campaign ready and available in backerkit.