State of Production #3 👀
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Jun 07, 2022 at 03:43:53 AM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

I want to take a moment and say that I keep feeling humbled by all your positive comments and kind words - especially during the challenging phases of this project. Thanks so much for being such a supportive and amazing community!!

In the coming two weeks our manufacturer will be wrapping up the production and starting to prepare the games for logistics. Fingers crossed there won't be any further impediments 🙏

We're close to the finish line and after another round of QA I gave some last feedback and instructions to ensure that the treetops fit nicely and stack well. All components passed the fit test and are ready to be painted this week!

For the final fit test of the treetops we checked if the treetops:

•  Fit tightly to ensure the general stability of the entire stack.
• Are gently removable and don't fit too tight for ease of use.
• Sink in deep enough to keep the center of mass as low as possible.

The stack size used for this fit test is a bit larger than actually needed in-game. The most common stack size in a game is 2-3 treetops while the rules allow to stack a maximum of 6 treetops.

Please note: The components in the video are currently not painted and will be slightly larger after they receive a thin layer of paint. This subtle size change can have a significant impact and we did additional fit tests with painted components as well.

Address Changes 🔓

Because of the timeline shifts and the changing ETA I kept your addresses unlocked. If you need to change your shipping address, please follow this link here or reach out to me via PM if you need assistance.

Last but not least ...

There was a pleasant surprise - Solo-mode designer Marvin came to visit me in Berlin! 

To recap: The second week of the FoP campaign was dedicated to a game design jam and I asked all backers to contribute and come up with a community-driven SOLO variant. Marvin dedicated countless hours to iterate over his version and finally he was selected as the winner! In the following weeks we had many calls to further refine the rules and last Thursday we finally met for the first time in real life! 🌱

It was a great evening and we played a few rounds of Forests of Pangaia to test out his new COOP variant 😱 (spoiler).

I met many wonderful people during this campaign and I'm so grateful for being part of this!! Our Kickstarter community is simply amazing - online and offline 🥰

That's it from me for today! Thanks everyone for following the regular update!

In two weeks I will share an updated timeline again, taking into consideration the latest events.

Best, Tommy ❤️

State of Production #2 🐌
almost 4 years ago – Mon, May 23, 2022 at 06:09:25 AM

Dear People of Pangaia,

Today my update will be short again as unfortunately the situation compared to last time didn't change much. 😯

Production 🐌

China keeps holding on to their zero-Covid policy, Shanghai has been under lockdown for over seven weeks and restrictions across the country are as tight as ever. Our manufacturer's production velocity got reduced to a snail's pace but they are doing their best to deliver as promised within the government restrictions.

The components are almost completed and the last remaining production step is the coloring and assembly of the wooden trees. The production manager at Eastar estimated another 4 weeks to complete this last step. This is much longer than previously communicated and those erratic shifts of estimates make it very hard for me to plan ahead. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it but adjust the timeline and keep you posted on the planning. ✍️

However, I can share with you a small preview video showing a player board from the finished mass production. It's a simple fit test to check if the components fit the respective insert areas on the board. I hope you like it!

These reports of delays must sound like a broken record ... but we're almost there. Thanks so much for your  patience and continuous support that you shared so far! I'll keep you posted on the progress and see you again in two weeks! 🌱

Best,

Tommy ❤️

State of Production 🌳
almost 4 years ago – Mon, May 09, 2022 at 04:31:43 AM

Dear People of Pangaia,

Today's newsletter will be short as I don't have much news. Our manufacturer Eastar is entering the last mile of the production, while continuously facing minor setbacks regarding COVID. But most of the components are already finished and within the next two weeks we're expecting to start the assembly process.

Regarding shipping, please refer to the timeline I have shared with you in the last update here.

Address Changes 🔒

All addresses will be LOCKED on Sunday May 22th to prepare the fulfillment process. 

In case you need to change your shipping address, please follow this link here or reach out to me via PM if you need assistance. 

Trademark Questions ✍️

The topic is still not closed but I want to give you a quick update on the current state. I'm still in touch with the other party and we're coming to an amicable agreement. The important point: the fulfillment of the Kickstarter campaign is not at risk and the games will be delivered to you without any changes. But most likely I will change the title later and not publish it under the same name in the future.

Apologies if I wasn't very responsive in the past two weeks, I'm currently on a trip through Italy with my family and most of the time we had bad internet. Since yesterday we're staying at a wonderful place in the heart of Tuscany - and we even have wifi 🌟

I expect to share some more substantial news in the next update. Until then I wish you a fabulous start of the week and enjoy the warmth of early May. 🌱

Best,

Tommy ❤️

Logistics & Packaging #3
almost 4 years ago – Wed, May 04, 2022 at 11:32:35 AM

Dear People of Pangaia 🌱

The past two weeks have been tricky but we start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There are further COVID-induced delays on the manufacturing level and a resolution regarding the packaging material topic.

Manufacturing ⚙️

Unfortunately, due to COVID cases 😷 there was another jam in the production pipeline of our manufacturer Eastar. Many workers were required to go into emergency quarantine for a period of time, which has pushed our schedule back further. I'm very sorry but there is nothing I can do about this 😓. Eastar is fully aware of the delay incurred and they are pushing the project with the top most priority. 

Timeline Overview 🕑

To help speed up the process the games will be trucked to our Hong Kong fulfillment center in 2 separate deliveries. The first batch of games is supposed to arrive in Hong Kong on May 18th and the second on May 28th. 

🚨 Please note: The recent COVID-induced delays accumulated to a significant amount and my current estimate of the final delivery to you changed to AUGUST 2022. 🚨 

As a reminder: All orders will be bulk-shipped in 3 containers via sea freight during June/July (I have estimated 8 weeks for the freight shipping; the individual timelines need to be adjusted by our logistics partner once the containers are booked). After arriving at the respective ports in Europe, US and Australia the packages will be handed over directly to a courier service for last-mile delivery. Orders from Asia will be shipped directly from Hong Kong.

Please find below our updated timeline, including all recent adjustments and interruptions (each dot = 1 week).

Address Changes  ✉️

Of course you can change your address here as long as we don't officially start the fulfillment process. Please reach out to me via PM if you need assistance.

Packaging Material 📦

I had an emergency meeting with our logistics partner regarding the concerns raised previously that the single-game box is insufficiently protected during shipping. We worked on a solution that includes more padding to avoid dented sides and corners.

To recap: The packaging solution for a single game was a book box with built-in padding on 2 sides (in general a solid start) - but it was ordered as a tight-fit. That means there was no room left for buffer material, which made 4 of 6 sides prone for damage. 

Solution: Unfortunately it was almost impossible to squeeze any protection into the existing boxes, except plastic corners (but these won't protect the 4 other sides from dents either). After evaluating various alternatives, we opted for ordering another set of bigger cartons and using them as additional outer wrappers. Those bigger cartons will have extra space for buffer material and also benefit from the existing protection of the book-box carton inside. It's probably not the most "elegant" solution, but at least we don't have to throw away all those existing boxes. And having two nested cartons is actually a good protection and should equip the games well enough for their long journey.

That's it from me for today. Again I was hoping for better news regarding the timeline, but it seems that we must hit every possible bump on this road. Fingers crossed that we'll have more luck after the games are loaded onto the cargo ships! 🍀

I hope the April weather is treating you well and you can enjoy some beautiful warm days outside 🌳.

All the best,

Tommy

Logistics & Packaging #2
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 01:49:03 AM

Dear People of Pangaia,

In today's newsletter I will follow up on the topics raised last time regarding the state of production, packaging material and the open trademark question. 

State of Production ⚙️

Luckily the temporary factory lockdown has been lifted and the game production at Eastar fully recovered and is now in full swing.  Unfortunately the reduced productivity affected our timeline (again) and we're now facing another 3 weeks of delay. Based on my last information the production will be finished by the last week of April. 🚨 Beginning of May we are planning to deliver all games to Hong Kong for fulfillment and freight shipping. I'm still waiting for an updated schedule for the freight shipping and I will share a new timeline graphic as soon as I get reliable information. My deepest apologies for this rocky part of our journey. 🙏

On the bright side: the cards, bags and spirit tokens are done and ready for assembly.  👍

I'm also sharing with you 2 videos of the silk screening process - giving the last touch to our spirit tokens. I must say that I was surprised to see that this particular step is not done by a machine but through classic manual labor :) 🎨

Packaging Material 📦

Thanks again for sharing your experiences and feedback regarding the packaging material. Many of you raised their concern that 4 of 6 sides are not sufficiently protected and require more padding in order to avoid dented sides and corners.

Short story: I do agree with you and I'm already working on a solution with our logistics partner to ensure a safe journey of the product and minimize the risk of damage.

Long story: From the very beginning my priority was to prevent any damage during transit as otherwise all the hard work would have been ruined on the last mile. I pushed my logistics partner to provide their best solution and specifically required padding and corner protections on all sides. They advertised the padded book box as their best product and claimed to have made extremely good experiences with this type of packaging. The feedback from other creators was very positive as well and I finally trusted their expertise against my own good judgment. Now after collecting your feedback I was reassured that my first instinct was right. I will change the packaging material to include extra padding to protect all sides and corners.

Trademark Questions 👀

First of all, thanks for all your help and good counsel via PM regarding this topic. 🙏 Please note that I can't explore this in much detail but at least want to give you a high level summary on the current state:

There is a registered TM on the name 'Pangaia' - although so far only related to areas that are unrelated to boardgames. The party owning that TM reached out to me recently and raised their concerns regarding a potential conflict. We are on friendly terms and currently working on a compromise that is respecting both interests. Of course I want to find a solution ASAP to avoid further delays and will give you an update as soon as we have a solution on the matter.

Again, I'm not amazed to hit so many road blocks during this phase, but I'm doing my best to resolve them as soon as possible to ensure a smooth rollout of the project. Thanks for your continuous support! ❤️

All the best,

Tommy 🌱