One Journey Ends, Another Begins 🌱
8 months ago – Wed, Aug 13, 2025 at 02:00:33 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

It’s hard to believe, but it has been over two years since my last official campaign update on July 29, 2023. In that time, I’ve stayed in touch with many of you directly, answering questions, resolving shipping issues, and sending out missing components. I also attended SPIEL in Essen last year, where I had the chance to meet some of you personally. And every time I receive a personal note or photo of you playing Forests of Pangaia with friends and family, it reminds me why I started this journey in the first place ❤️!

To those who had difficulties with fulfillment or are missing parts, I want to apologise again. Your patience and persistence mean a lot to me. If you still need support, please reach out to me. I have a replacement stock of spare games at my home and will personally make sure every pledge is complete 📦.

Looking Back: The Journey of Forests of Pangaia

After the campaign ended, many publishers reached out to me and were interested to bring the game to a broader audience. However, ultimately the production cost made the game too expensive for retail and the required margins simply weren’t there. I eventually decided to keep Forests of Pangaia as a Kickstarter-exclusive game.

Alongside the positive feedback I’ve received, I’ve also listened closely to criticism from various channels. In games with less experienced players, I noticed a few recurring issues:

• The charming visuals suggested a casual game, but the mechanics were an entry barrier  for many casual players.
• New players often mixed up the order of phases and needed constant reminders.
• The Blessings cards were unbalanced and were often left out entirely.
• The first rounds often felt repetitive and lacking strategic depth.
• The game’s ending sometimes arrived unexpectedly.

My initial idea was to address the issues mentioned above, but also split the game into a simplified base version and a more complex expansion. Why? This would allow the game to be produced for the retail market, reduce production costs, and make it more beginner-friendly. For over a year, I worked on new rule iterations, ensuring they were 100% compatible with existing Forests of Pangaia components so backers of the Kickstarter edition could play with the new rules alone and not require additional components.

However, the constraints of backwards compatibility made it difficult to address the issues of pacing, accessibility and balance that I wanted to fix properly. Every promising change came with a caveat that took away part of the charm or flow. This was especially true when it came to designing a basic version that wouldn't feel like a compromise. I developed some good variants, but I always reached an unsatisfying point. A friend eventually summed it up perfectly:

“Tommy, you cut back all the branches to the bare minimum. The tree is alive – but now you have to grow it again to make it beautiful.”

That was the moment I decided to take a new path, to create a sibling game in the world of Pangaia. Something fresh and independent, while still honouring its predecessor. 🌱

The Dawn of Pangaea 🌳

When starting this new project, I set myself five guiding principles:

• Maintain the trees and overall production quality of Forests of Pangaia.
• Design a stellar base game with a separate expansion for retail viability.
• Make it more accessible for casual players without losing strategic depth.
• Create a smoother, more dynamic gameplay.
• Keep the philosophy and style of the Pangaia world.

But one thing was clear: I would not launch another Kickstarter myself 🤯. As much as I loved the journey – the pressure, responsibility and time demands are something I can’t take on again.

That’s when Marc and Sam from Treecer Games stepped in. I had followed their work since before Forests of Pangaia and I admired their professionalism. Back then I analysed their campaigns closely and used their community update style as a blueprint for my own campaign. Since moving to the Basel area three years ago, we’ve met up many times to share our experiences and have become good friends.

Last year, we started to discuss the option of launching my new game on Kickstarter and they offered to take over “anything I don’t want to do” – that was an offer I couldn't refuse 😄! We agreed that I will focus fully on game and product design, as well as campaign preparations, while they handle communication, production, finances, and – my old nemesis – fulfillment logistics.

I’m deeply grateful for this collaboration with Treeceer Games. It allows me to focus entirely on game and product design, safe in the knowledge that I have professional partners who have already successfully produced and delivered multiple games. I'm excited for what lies ahead and will keep you updated as we progress with our new venture! If you would like to receive updates, you can find the project here:

Thank you all once again for your ongoing support and encouragement over these past years. Forests of Pangaia will remain a unique, Kickstarter-only creation – but the forest is growing again, and I look forward to sharing its new branches with you soon.

All the very best,
Tommy ❤️

Project Status & Welcome Josh 🌟
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jul 29, 2023 at 12:47:37 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

It has been a long time since the last update and I owe you an apology. Especially to those who are still waiting for their package to arrive and have made numerous attempts to reach me. I won't lie, this project has pushed me to my limits like no other project I've done in my life. As much as I enjoyed the experience and the initial journey, I can't ignore the fact that years of overtime and night shifts have taken their toll on me. Over the past few months, I have been slowly collapsing under the constant pressure and I have not been able to maintain the level of quality that I set for myself and this project. Transparency is a balancing act, and I'm sharing this with you in good faith to let you know that I'm still here and getting back on my feet.

To recap - since the end of the campaign in the summer of 2021, my third child was born, we moved and started a new life in the south of Germany. My "hobby" game project had turned into a major endeavor, and I treated it with all the professionalism and attention I could muster. However, I am not running this project as a business and I have a regular job to financially support my family. And especially since we started the global fulfillment by the end of 2022, it has become increasingly difficult to meet the growing demands on all fronts.

Although the “major blocks” of fulfillment around the world were officially completed, many open issues remained unresolved. My poor decision to work with Floship was exacerbated by their terrible courier selection, inexperienced project management, and opaque operations. The high demand for troubleshooting and the dramatic increase in shipping costs have turned the overall balance upside down. Here's an overview of expenses versus income to give you a rough idea. 

As I started to cover the growing costs with my personal savings, my morale and project stamina began to decline rapidly, making it increasingly difficult for me to find the energy to stay up late solving problems and staying on top of things. I admittedly fell into a depressed state, felt generally overwhelmed, and began to show symptoms of physical and mental fatigue. Lately I have been quite unresponsive to many backers who are still waiting for support and answers.

📣 To be clear, this is not an excuse. Everyone who backed the project can expect their pledge to be delivered, and I will do everything I can to support those who have not yet received their game. I just need time to resolve the issues.

On the bright side  🌟

A few weeks ago, Josh contacted me to offer his expertise and help with logistics and operations. I'm very happy to announce that even though it's very late in the project, he will be joining me to help get this project over the last mile and hopefully lay the groundwork for future projects. Please meet Josh!

Alright, but where is my game? 👀

Now back to logistics. All orders are officially shipped, but some packages are either lost in transit 🅰️ or have been returned to a local warehouse 🅱️ after a failed delivery attempt.

🅰️ The shipment is lost in transit – this is actually a tricky case because most of the time the courier (especially Hermes) does not officially report the package as lost, making it difficult for me to get a refund. Also, the item has to be reshipped by air mail from the main warehouse in Hong Kong, which is quite expensive. I'm in the process of shipping the rest of my stock to my home in Germany. Once that arrives, I will be more flexible in handling any outstanding requests by simply shipping the items myself.

🅱️ The shipment was returned – this case is a little simpler. I am notified when packages are returned to the local warehouse and need to be reshipped. In this case, I contact you personally to confirm your address again and make a reshipment request to Floship. For EU fulfillment I have decided to use DHL from now on because Hermes is performing so poorly. Unfortunately, returns & reshipments are not covered by insurance and I have to pay for them all myself, so please make sure to use the tracking links I will share with you to avoid unnecessary expenses.

To complicate matters, Floship continues to charge me far more than we initially agreed upon, and due to insufficient funds in my account, operations are sometimes halted until my account is cleared. This "stop and go" situation has been a pain point for several months now, unnecessarily prolonging the fulfillment process. There is not much I can do about it, and Josh and I are currently reviewing all past invoices to correct their errors and request a refund. ... 🤯

However, please use the form below to submit a request if you have not received your game. I won't get back to you right away, but Josh and I will share this information with Floship on a regular basis to update the list of outstanding shipments and continue the investigation.

This is my update for today. Since most of the time I will be addressing specific issues with your orders, I will no longer be sending public updates on a regular basis, but will instead focus on direct communication via email.

However, I will send updates if necessary, and of course a final update once we manage to resolve all remaining shipping issues and officially close the campaign.

🙏 Thank you for reading the newsletter and for your continuous love & support, understanding and infinite patience.

Best, Tommy ❤️

Logistics #11 📦 - UK, EU & CA
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 22, 2023 at 04:49:04 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

The fulfillment stage of Forests of Pangaia is (slowly) coming to an end, although I'm still very much involved in backer support and solving the difficulties regarding the topics I already highlighted in the past newsletters. Today's newsletter will cover:

• French/German version mixup
• Pending Hermes deliveries in EU
• UPS returns for UK

 🇫🇷 / 🇩🇪 Version Mixup 

Finally some progress on this front. I have received my IOSS number and we proceeded with the direct fulfillment of the copies to our German/Austrian backers via Air Mail using DHL Express. The pick & pack is currently in progress and the games will be shipped from HK this week. I will also start the reimbursement process of the return fees. Once the packages have been handed over to DHL I will share the tracking link with you via Backerkit – keep an eye on your inbox.

Some backers who claimed to have received the wrong version have not yet returned their game to me. Please follow the instructions I have sent you via email. 🙏

 🇪🇺 EU Hermes: Pending Parcels

Unfortunately, I still have no feedback from Hermes about the 30+ parcels that are still pending or lost and were supposed to go to France and other EU countries. I keep poking Floship for news but apparently Hermes is only processing support requests every 2 weeks (not a joke). Let me quote Floship here: "We are currently following up with Hermes for an answer. Unfortunately, their new customer service policy only allows them to respond to combined requests every two weeks, which has caused delays on our end."  🤯

However, in case the parcels will be actually declared as lost, I will be able to ship you a replacement copy directly from Germany using DHL. But I think there is still some hope that the games are just stuck in some logistics pipeline. Please ping me if your parcel (un)expectedly shows up. If you have not done it yet, you can use this form to let me know that you have not received your game yet. Thank you for your patience.

Needless to say, even within the pretty rough landscape of courier services, Hermes stands out  particularly poorly and I will certainly never choose them again. 😞

🇬🇧 UK Delivery with UPS

All games that were previously returned to the Floship Lithuania warehouse have now been reshipped again using UPS. I hope the issues are now resolved and everyone received their game or got their fees reimbursed. 🙏

😯 I need support, how can I reach you?

You can reach out to [email protected] for any support requests and I will follow up as soon as I can. Although as mentioned last time I have been struggling to reply to all incoming support requests in time. I'm doing my best to address every issue one by one, but if I have not replied to your message yet please ping me again. 

This is already it for today's newsletter. I will be back with a general update in 2 weeks. Thanks for reading and for your continuous support! 🌱

All the best,

Tommy ❤️

Logistics #10 📦 - Canada & Europe fulfillment
almost 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2023 at 06:10:16 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

Another three weeks have passed and I want to give you an update on all open fulfillment topics, covering the  French/German version mixup, pending UPS and Hermes deliveries and the fulfillment in Canada.

But before we dive into those topics I must apologize for my bad responsiveness on Email and PMs. Recently I have been struggling to keep up with the stream of support requests and I've built up a backlog of unanswered messages. I'm doing my best to resolve the current issues step by step, please don't take it personally if I have not answered your message yet. 🙏

Region: Europe 🇪🇺 🇬🇧

🇫🇷 French / 🇩🇪 German version mixup — Around 150 backers in Germany and Austria were affected by a mixup of versions and received the French version instead of the German version (claim form here). I have been in touch with Floship and they finally acknowledged the fact they did a mistake (🙄) and will cover the cost of replacement (at least the shipping). Floship agreed to send the replacement games from the Hongkong warehouse to the respective backers directly via airmail. In order to directly ship airmail parcels to the EU I just need a special IOSS number that I'm currently applying for. As soon as I get that number from the local authorities we can ship those parcels out.

📣 Please note: I can only send you a replacement if you have returned your copy of the game. If you have not done so already, please follow my instructions I have shared with you via email earlier. The shipping costs of the return will be issued via the standard Kickstarter refund procedure, so please make sure your CC on Kickstarter is up to date.

Berlin Local Pickup — Everyone who opted for local pickup in Berlin, please find your games at the local game shop Spielwiese in Berlin/Friedrichshain and follow the instructions I shared with you via email.

Pending Hermes packages & expired tracking numbers — Many backers from France and Italy reached out to me because their games have not arrived yet and the tracking information shows no progress since February 24th. On top of that Hermes also started to expire the tracking links, making it harder to investigate the current state. Some other games have been returned to our warehouse after Hermes wasn't able to deliver on the first attempt. I have informed Floship about this and will push the topic internally. If you need support, please let me know by filling out this quick form.

United Kingdom 🇬🇧 — As a quick recap from last time, the official process on how to reclaim the customs fees with UPS is to send an email to [email protected] and share your parcel details and bank information. Backers have reported to me that UPS is actually responding fast and the refund process worked for them. 

The parcels of some backers were returned to the Lithuania warehouse and soon those will be sent out again. This process took a little longer since the shipping cost per parcel is over 30 EUR and I argued with Floship to cover those costs from their side, since it was their mistake that led to this situation. However, next week I will inform affected backers via email and share the new tracking number as soon as the packages are on their way.

Region: Canada 🇨🇦

The delivery in Canada through Canada Post is in full swing and I have shared all tracking numbers with you via Backerkit. From the feedback I have received so far the last mile delivery seems to be running smoothly.

Some of you may have received a different version to the one originally ordered. Please remember the email I sent on February 13th about the warehouse incident and the process I triggered to find an alternative. If you have any questions, please reach out to me via [email protected].

Hopefully all those last mile delivery issues with Hermes and UPS and problems with mismatching versions will be resolved very soon and you are able to play the game without interruptions! 🙏 Until then – I hope you all enjoy the warm embrace of early Spring and have a rejuvenating walk through the forest! 🌳

All the best, Tommy ❤️

Logistics #9 📦 - UK, EU, CA & Rules Errata
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 04, 2023 at 06:31:54 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

The fulfillment roller coaster continues and Floship knows how to keep us busy. Apologies for not being as responsive to emails and PMs, I get more messages than I can handle at the moment and I still need some time to go through everything.

I have shared two intermediate updates in the past weeks to inform you about the recent incidents and pinned some comments to keep you up to date about the latest news. Today I will give an overview on the current state for all regions.

Region: UK 🇬🇧

The aftermath of the UPS delivery continues to affect UK backers. Some backers who previously accepted the parcel now report to have received an invoice, even when the fees were declared as 'paid' during handover. 👀

As previously mentioned in the comment section, Floship informed me that the internal system of UPS needs around 3-4 weeks to fully 'process' the changes regarding the import fee. Especially for those orders which were already in transit before the import fees were officially dropped. I strongly assume that those invoices have been triggered automatically but will be considered void once UPS finishes processing the changes.

I recommend ignoring the invoices from UPS until the fee is considered void. However, if you feel uncomfortable with that advice and prefer to pay the fee and reclaim the fees right afterwards, please see below. 

💸 I have already paid the fees,  what is the reclaim process? 

I have reached out to everyone who filled out the UK Delivery Survey and reported to have paid customs fees (so far 25 backers). The official process on how to reclaim the customs fees with UPS is to send an email to [email protected] and share your parcel details and bank information. Backers report that UPS is responding fast, but I have no information on the final success rate yet. If you need assistance or more details, please ping me.

⚠️ My package was returned to the Lithuania warehouse, what now?

I have not received an overview of the current delivery state and don't know the total amount of games that will be or have been returned to the Lithuania warehouse yet.  The procedure will be to ship them again to the UK, this time with the correct import terms from the very beginning. Once that process starts I will personally reach out to affected backers via email and share the new tracking number.

Region: EU 🇪🇺 / CH🇨🇭

The EU fulfillment is in full swing and over 60% of backers have received their game already 🎉! Everyone should have received their tracking number by now as well, although many backers outside of Germany report that the Hermes tracking is not reflecting the actual state reliably and is almost useless. Again Floship is not giving me any insights here, but since Hermes is using a partner network to deliver to certain countries (e.g. Colissimo in France) I suspect that the communication between the partner and Hermes is not working well and status updates are sometimes lost in translation.

However, most tracking numbers should not be in 'pending' mode anymore but at least reflect that the parcel has been routed to your respective destination country. If you have trouble finding your package, please let me know. Unfortunately I can't help personally but I can submit a support request with Floship to investigate.

I have ordered the German 🇩🇪 version but received the game in French 🇫🇷 - what now?

One of the largest mistakes discovered so far is a mixup of about 200 French and German copies. Floship fulfilled the wrong version by accident and I have been in touch with backers to mitigate the situation. So far, only German backers received a French version, not the other way around. 

If you are affected by the problem, please fill out this quick survey and I will get in touch with you about the next steps. You will need to return your copy using the original carton and send it to my home address. Again Floship is very unresponsive and didn't get back to me yet about the replacement procedure – instead they are still 'investigating' the root cause. However, I will need to either send you replacements directly from Hong Kong or move the remaining warehouse stock to my house and do the fulfillment myself. I'm leaning towards the latter since I started the process of clearing the HK warehouse already. I will be able to share more details on the next steps after the Easter holiday.

Region: Canada 🇨🇦

The container arrived at the port of Vancouver on March 30th 🎉! The games are currently going through customs and being transferred to the local warehouse. We need to consider 14 days for import and warehouse management, before the parcels are handed over to a local courier for last mile delivery. I have not received any tracking numbers yet and I'm waiting for a timeline for the next steps. I will inform you as soon as I have any further information.

As mentioned last time, I have clearly communicated to Floship (multiple times) that all games will go through a standard import process before delivered to you. No custom duties are due upon delivery.

Region: Australia 🇦🇺

Considering our journey so far I'm almost surprised that the Australia fulfillment went smoothly. Except 3 pending parcels, all backers happily received their game. 🍀

 Region: US 🇺🇸

We finally managed to clear the US warehouse and have all remaining packages sent out. There are 12 packages still in transit and hopefully I can mark the US as 100% fulfilled by next time.

If you have not received your package by now, please let me know and I will investigate the whereabouts. 

As usual, please find the overview chart of the current state of global fulfillment below.

Game Rules Errata 🎲

I'm super excited to hear and read about your first play throughs, get your feedback and see all those wonderful posts of your game parties on social media! In that context I noticed two issues that I want to mention here:

1) Too few Life tokens – some 4-player parties report running out of Life tokens towards the end of the game. I'm referring to the 40 wooden Life tokens here. A quick solution is to count the large Life tokens as 5 points instead of 3 points.

2) Blessings card exploit – a more severe issue is a potential exploit where (on occasions) you can chain multiple blessing card purchases, by always going for blessings that give you resources. That way you can skim through the entire Blessings deck until you get the exact Blessing card you want. A quick solution is to limit Blessings purchases to 1 per turn.

If you notice any other issues or have recommendations on balancing, please reach out to [email protected] or join our Discord server and raise the topic there.

I wish you all the best for the upcoming Easter holiday and safe travels for all the games that are still in transit!

All the best, Tommy ❤️