Logistics #5 📦 - Tracking & Fulfillment
over 3 years ago – Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 12:14:27 AM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

This week FedEx started the delivery in the US and the first backers have received their copy of Forests of Pangaia 🎉! I expect that the US delivery will be completed within the next 2 weeks. However, I must inform you about 2 caveats:

Tracking links: Unfortunately the US FedEx tracking links I shared with you earlier are not working! They have been replaced after the goods passed customs inspection and Floship didn't inform me or shared updated links with me so far. This is a terrible customer experience for you (and me) and I want to apologize for this inconvenience. I can still manually check the status of your shipment, so please PM me if you don't receive your package within the next 1-2 weeks. However, I already requested a list of updated tracking links and will share a new link with you as soon as I receive the list. 🙏

Second batch: I was also informed by Floship that due to high load, about 120 US orders were shipped with a second container on December 21st and will arrive at the port of L.A. in mid January (EGSU9165733). I will reach out to the affected backers so that you are aware of the longer waiting time.  🙏

State of Fulfillment 📦

My original expectation was that all orders will be fulfilled in parallel so that all backers are treated equally and receive their game around the same time. Unfortunately Floship wasn't able to do that and instead processed the orders in sequence. Additionally to that there was a significant shortage of work power during December, that caused a delay right after the US orders were processed. Please note that this unequal treatment was not my intention and was just caused by a logistical bottleneck. 

•  Europe:  🚢 All orders have been finally loaded on a container and are currently traveling by sea freight to Europe. You can track the vessel here: CAIU7409266. Floship took much longer to finalize the Pick & Pack and container booking, so unfortunately the latest ETA shifted towards the beginning of March. 
•  AU / NZ: 🚢 All orders are ready to be shipped via sea freight - we're still waiting for a container.
•  Canada: 🚢 All orders are ready to be shipped via sea freight - we're still waiting for a container.
•  Hong Kong, China, South Korea, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand: ✈️ All orders have been processed and handed over to a courier for final delivery via air mail.
• The orders of all other regions that have not been mentioned above will be shipped within the next 2-3 weeks and also delivered by air mail ✈️.

Please find the fulfillment status table below:

Premium Tokens 👀

Some backers who received their game reported to me that a few wooden tokens seem to be missing. If that happens I will of course send replacements your way. Just be aware that the total wooden token count is 80 (40 life tokens, 40 resource tokens).

The rule book refers to the count of cardboard tokens instead. The cardboard tokens are slightly more because there was space left on the punch board and I didn't want to waste it. That's why there are 48 life + 48 resource tokens made of cardboard, but only 40 life + 40 resource tokens made of wood (in case you ordered the premium version). 

Also please note: The dark corruption tokens used by the SOLO mode were a late addition and only exist in cardboard, not as wooden tokens. 😌

That's it from my side for today - I will follow up with all topics above in January 2023! 🌟

I wish you all the best for the new year, spend time with the people you love and have a great start!! And of course - if you already received your game and had the chance to play a few rounds, feel free to share your feedback or leave your rating on BGG:

 All the very best,

Tommy ❤️

Logistics #4 📦 - US container arrived!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Dec 07, 2022 at 04:46:40 AM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

Yesterday night I eagerly followed the live tracker of the container for all US orders (EITU0502677) reaching its destination and arriving at the port of L.A. 🎉! Considering how terribly clogged the worldwide logistics currently are, the actual sea travel of 20 days was quite speedy.

At the same time all EU orders were packaged and prepared for container loading. I have not received a definite ETA for the EU container yet. It's the peak season for container shipping and there is way more demand than supply at the moment. I keep pushing for priority but there is not much I can do unfortunately.

All orders for Asia, Australia, Canada and all other countries are still waiting for a slot to be pick & packed. The Floship staff is reaching its limits and I'm fighting for a priority slot.

Based on the latest feedback of my logistics partner I have adjusted the states and ETAs in the table below.

When will I receive my tracking number? 🧐

I will send out personal tracking links to each backer as soon as the parcels are handed over to the last mile courier (e.g. Fedex). Accessing the tracking link of your parcels before the handover doesn't make much sense because the courier does not have sufficient information to give you a reliable ETA.

Funnily enough neither Kickstarter or Backerkit are providing tools to send out emails with custom links. So I'm currently exploring other services to handle that part.

Last but not least... 🌟

Since the game won't arrive before Christmas 🎄 and some of you were probably expecting to give Forests of Pangaia away as a present I have prepared a little DIY gift card. You can download the PDF below and print it at home or your local copy shop.

Please note: Make sure to print at a 100% scale and don't rescale the content to fit the page size, otherwise the printed card will be too big.

Question to you: I'm happy to add more variants of the gift card based on your ideas! If you have special wishes for some variants, please let me know in the comments and I will keep adding content under the link below for the next 2 weeks. 🎨

I don't have any more news at the moment so that's it from me for today. As usual, my next regular update will go out in 3 weeks right after Christmas! I wish you wonderful Christmas festivities and a fantastic end of the year. Stay healthy, enjoy the good food and play some great games!!

Best, Tommy ❤️

Logistics #3 📦
over 3 years ago – Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 06:06:45 PM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

The pick and pack process is in full swing and we have recently completed the packing of all US orders - that makes up 40% of all orders! The orders for the EU and UK are currently being processed.

Unfortunately the process takes a bit longer than expected. With Christmas ahead we're in the peak seasons for the logistics and all customers are competing for priority. But our 1st container is filled and sealed! Our logistics partner is in the process of booking a ship for sea freight travel to the US.

Please find below the updated ETA table, now split by region. Again I tried to do my best with the delivery estimates – I'll keep refining them as we get closer to the final delivery date. 

I've received a Fedex notification... 👀

In the last 2 weeks our logistics partner created FEDEX tracking labels for all US orders. You may have received an automatic notification, but unfortunately without any context or description. I talked to Floship but apparently they have no control over that process, apologies if this caused some confusion.

If you have not received a notification - don't worry. I will personally send a tracking number to every backer myself after all orders are packed 👍

⚠️ Please note: When you track your shipment online, Fedex shows you a wrong approximate delivery date. Remember that all parcels are still in the container for sea freight - so please ignore that estimate until Fedex actually received your parcel.

Also for your reference I'm adding the weight of the game and wooden insert below:

• 1 premium game: 1.8 KG (3.9 lbs)
• 1 wooden insert: 0.8 KG (1.7 lbs)

Last but not least ❤️

I want to deeply thank all supporters for their generous donations, raising additional 2588 Euros!! Thank you so much for helping to cover the increased costs! 🙏 I hope you like the wallpapers I have sent you - let me know your favourite in the comments below!

That's it from me for today and I will be back in 3 weeks with more news about the logistics! To all the ones who are celebrating Thanksgiving next week I hope you guys enjoy the company of good friends and family all around the world!

Best, Tommy ❤️ 

Logistics & Donations ❤️
over 3 years ago – Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 01:16:51 AM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

First of all I want to deeply thank you for all your support and the offers to help me in covering the increased logistics costs. I have picked up some of your great suggestions and launched a small mini campaign via the payment providers Stripe and Paypal (see below). As a small gift I have prepared 5 mobile wallpapers that I will share with the contributors.

Next Sunday (and the following) I will manually share a link to the wallpapers to all supporters via email. So please make sure to leave your email address during the payment process (Stripe and Paypal will show a dedicated field for that).

For transparency I noted the approximate platform fees below the two options. So be aware that small donations (like 1€) are reduced very much by the platform fees of Stripe/Paypal.

State of Logistics 📦

We're moving forward and are in the middle of the Pick & Pack phase. What does that mean?

Pick & Pack: The phase starts with grouping all orders by the region of their destination, in our case it's US, EU/UK/CH, CA, AU/NZ and Asia. Starting with one region, every single order is processed and individually packaged, including the Add-ons you have ordered (the wooden insert). Finally the packages are labeled with your address and prepared for bulk shipment. Once all orders of a specific region are packed, they are loaded on a container for the 'first-leg shipping' via sea-freight.

Please see below the current planning table with updated ETAs.

 I will keep updating and sharing this table as we move forward with the logistics.

SPIEL'22 🎲

Originally I didn't plan to visit SPIEL this year - also because the games hadn't arrived yet and booking an official booth is quite expensive. But after all I decided to go for 1 day just as a visitor and I brought some early copies of Forests of Pangaia with me. 

I met with LuckyDuck games who showed interest in bringing the game to the retail market in the future. Eventually I found a free table and spent the rest of the day doing a little promotion and meeting friends. Thanks to everyone who spotted me and dropped by for a little chat. It was a very nice day 🌟

Last but not least...

I want to raise attention to a fantastic campaign for Zoo Tycoon by my friend Marc Dürr. They launched yesterday and funded in 5 hours - well deserved!! 🍀

That's it from me once again. After the first chilly winds we're currently back to a mild Indian summer. The kids enjoy preparing for Halloween and decoration activities are in full swing 🎃!

I wish you some great festivities and thanks a lot in advance for your donations!!

Best, Tommy ❤️

Pick & Pack 📦
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 04, 2022 at 12:01:57 AM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱,

Now that finally all games have been delivered to our central warehouse in Hong Kong we can start with the fulfillment process. The warehouse confirmed that all games have been added to the inventory and all orders have been uploaded. Before we dive into the details, I want to share a quick visual overview of our current timeline:

There was a certain chance that we could still make it for Christmas, but unfortunately we faced more unforeseen setbacks. So most likely you can expect your package to arrive in early January 2023.

Can I still change my address? 📯

All orders have been locked and uploaded to the warehouse. But of course - if you moved house and need to change your address - please reach out to me via PM and I will help.

Behind the Scenes 👀

For the ones who are interested in the details behind the scenes - here the topics that cause me the most headache.

🙈 Account Manager: My existing account manager at Floship changed employers and I got a new PM assigned for this project. Considering the onboarding overhead, this is hands down the worst timing for a PM switch ever 😕.

📦 Packaging Material: Back in March this year (!) I have ordered the cartons and packaging material for all orders. Now it turns out that some of that material was recently damaged and needs to be reordered. Floship is covering the costs but I (and all of us) have to pay with precious time. This is costing us almost 2 weeks.

💵 EUR / USD: I usually don't pay much attention to currency exchange rates because it rarely affects my life. But since Floship is asking for the upfront payment to cover all shipping fees I was faced with the volatility of the exchange rate between EUR and USD. When I checked the exchange rate last week it was at its lowest point in five years - luckily it started to recover again. Unfortunately all my funds are in a EUR account and looking at the scale of things this will be significantly more expensive for me than originally calculated. 💸

Of course this is nothing that affects you as backers but certainly it's one of my toughest learnings so far.

Last but not least ...

I know that many of you are eagerly waiting to receive your copy of the game and I wish I could do anything in my power to speed up this process. But at the moment all I can do is to clear roadblocks and relay information to you 🤝. Thanks so much for your patience.

The process of creating this game has challenged me in so many different facets and aspects over the last years ... creatively, emotionally and also financially. Every single time a hurdle is taken, another one is right around the corner. But despite all the trouble it's still one of the best things that happened to me and I'm thankful for every single moment. What's the project that challenged you the most in your life and what have you learned?

Enjoy the change of seasons, the chilly winds and the first cup of hot chocolate 🍃🍂 - I'll be back with my next update in 3 weeks!

All the best,

Tommy ❤️