Logistics & Packaging
about 4 years ago – Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 11:30:59 PM

Dear People of Pangaia,

It's been a tough two weeks and I'm afraid my update today will be less positive than planned. While regulations regarding the pandemic are gradually being relaxed in many parts of the world - China continues to follow its 'Covid zero' policies, leading to significant restrictions and factory lockdowns.

I feel almost naive, hoping that the effects of the pandemic were about to fade out. I'm sorry to say that Eastar was affected by a temporary lockdown as well and there has been no production progress since my last update. So far I didn't get a new ETA regarding the end of production and I don't want to share any self-made estimates at this point, without proper information from my manufacturer and logistics partner.

Although there is nothing new - for completion I have attached the production sheet below for your reference.

 Address Changes

Of course you can change your address 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 have been investigating the best practices of board game shipping and packaging material and since this is my first project I consulted the amazing Kickstarter community of fellow creators for advice and feedback. As the corners of the game box are crushed easily I was primarily concerned on how to prevent this case. I want to share some of my research and thought process with you:

• The classic "book box" comes with 2cm folded padding on two sides and can be produced to fit the game perfectly. It is commonly used to ship books and is also a good choice for small and medium sized games.
• For heavy games (>3KG) some creators advise to use custom shaped EPE foam. It is by far the safest solution, but it comes with a significant volume increase and production cost. EPE foam is well recyclable and there are even foam types that have bio-degradable properties.
•  Cardboard corner protectors are a solid go-to solution and very flexible even for multi-game orders. 
•  Plastic corner protectors made of soft rubber material are known to have a slightly better protection factor compared to cardboard, but come with a higher environmental footprint.

After some evaluation I have decided to go with the classic book box for all single orders (including single orders with wooden insert). In my opinion the solution offers a great balance between environmental impact and protection value. All multi-game orders will be shipped with cardboard corner protectors instead.

Here you can see pictures of a white-sample box of Forests of Pangaia, fitted into a custom-shaped book box for shipping. Please note the 2cm padding on the left and right.

For the backers who ordered a wooden insert there will be an extra 2cm space to fit the organizer.

FYI - As you might know we follow a zero-plastic policy but I'm planning to make one small exception: All game boxes will be shrink-wrapped following the industry standard, otherwise I would risk the danger of scratched surfaces during the manual fulfillment process. I hope this is an acceptable compromise.  🌱

Trademark

As if the pandemic-caused delays weren't enough, we seem to have run into some trademark conflicts regarding the name of the game. If some of you happen to have experience in that regard or can offer advice - please reach out to me via PM.  🙏

Last but not least...

I want to end the newsletter on a good note - so I'm happy to announce that we collected 1171 donations through Backerkit and raised €3.416 EUR for reforestation!!!  🌳

If you are interested, feel free to check out the various reforestation projects on Tree-Nation and let me know your favorites for the coming tree-planting efforts!

That's it from me! I will hopefully be able to share some better news next time. Enjoy the beginning of Spring and see you in two weeks 😊

Best, Tommy

Final Production Phase 🌳
about 4 years ago – Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 04:49:18 AM

Dear People of Pangaia,

I'm incredibly happy and relieved to announce that all files have been FINALLY submitted to our manufacturer and we have entered the last production phase! At the same time I'm still surprised how certain things turned out to be way more complex than originally expected and how much longer I needed to prepare all files in their final form and iteration. 🙏

I must say it was hard for me to "let go" and add my last touches to this product. Coming from the digital gaming industry - I'm very much used to this stream of constant updates, bugfixes and improvements to a game that is never really finished. This situation is entirely new to me and I had to declare a product to be "done", although there are tons of things I would still like to improve. It's not a perfect product but I certainly did the best I could and I hope you will enjoy it! ❤️

As you can see in the table below, all main production steps are either finished or in full swing. Based on the latest estimate of my manufacturer the production will be finalized by April 8th. 📣 That's again 2 weeks later than the last estimate but I'm confident that there should be no further delays regarding this phase. I will share an updated timeline as part of the next update.

Last Address Changes 📦

In order to prepare the fulfillment process I went ahead and accidentally locked all addresses prior to the announced date. I now unlocked all addresses again - apologies if that caused confusion for some of you. Of course you can still change your address until MARCH 20th.

To change your address use this link here or send me a PM via KS or Backerkit support to share your latest shipping details with me.

Tree Colors 🎨

I have received the last color samples from the manufacturer and was able to pick the final color palette! The entire process wasn't easy and I want to share a few learnings with you:

• 🌳 Texture: My goal was to preserve the original wooden texture and use a semi-transparent color effect, like the wooden stain I used for the prototype. This is not the standard for board games and it took me a certain amount of time to explain to my manufacturer what I want. It also took a while to find a suitable paint for the mass production and even now I'm not 100% satisfied with the result.
•  👀 Reality check: I had to order new samples over 4 times because there was a discrepancy between the color appearance on the sample book vs. the color applied on real wood. To explain - usually wooden components are painted white before applying the colored varnish to achieve a higher color fidelity. Semi-transparent effects are much less predictable and require some trial and error.
•  🛍 Variations: When I ordered color samples I just picked 4-5 colors per order, only to find out afterwards that I need much more variations. I could have saved many weeks if I would have ordered multiple variations per color at once. In hindsight I even got this advice from a fellow creator prior to the campaign but I didn't fully grasp the procedure back then.
•  💡User experience: It was difficult to find a color palette that is color-blind-friendly while staying true to the autumn colors that I envisioned for this game. Thank you Sabrina & Rossano for giving me so much input and feedback regarding the CVD aspects. I hope we have found a good compromise now. 

I know the differences are subtle in b/w and it would have been way better to have shape variations to differentiate the trees better. But unfortunately I wasn't able to find good alternative shapes to overcome this issue. To compensate for this weakness I will share a little digital booklet on how to add markings on the treetops to differentiate the trees better, in case some backers might have trouble with the current palette. Again kudos to Sabrina for sharing this idea!

Last but not least...

I want to share with you the first mass production samples of the 5 canvas bags to keep your wooden tokens. As you know I want to avoid the use of any plastic material - that's why these bags will be used as natural packaging for the tree and resource tokens when each game is assembled.

Also I share for the first time the design of the premium token bag. I hope you like it :)

In comparison to the bags I shared in a previous update I made some minor improvements by slightly increasing the thickness of the cords and adding the face details of the spirits.

That's it from me for today! I hope you enjoyed this update - next time I will share more details on the delivery timeline and the fulfillment plan.

Have a wonderful week everyone and stay safe! 🌳😘

Cheers, Tommy

Last Mile Production 🐝
about 4 years ago – Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 02:55:22 AM

Dear People of Pangaia,

We're entering the last mile of the production phase 🐝! I will keep this update very short and simple and just focus on my 3 hot topics this week:

1) The Playerboard, Punchboard & Game box are waiting for a free spot in the Eastar print queue and will be produced this week! I look forward to marking them as ✔️.

2) I'm currently waiting for one more PPC package containing the last color samples for the trees and the optimized paper insert. I iterated on the color palette of the 4 player colors and need to confirm their contrast in different lighting conditions. More about this next time 🎨.

3) I received the latest iterations from the 4 different language editors of the rulebook and updated all Indesign documents accordingly. After final approval I will upload all of them this week for eproof and printing 👀.

I'm still aiming to finish the production within the next 3 weeks until the end of March. For a visual summary, please see the table below.

The Rulebook(s)

To give you one last chance 😱 to look at the rulebooks before they go into print I'm sharing the PDF previews here. I have enabled comments again, so please feel free to leave your feedback using the online PDF comment function.

The French Achievements 🇫🇷

First of all I must thank you again for all your feedback regarding the A/B translation variants as part of the last update! After reading carefully all your thoughts and comments I summarized the following points:

• Almost all seem to agree that version B is generally more beautiful, atmospheric and in tune with the French language.
• But the majority finds version A more clear from a gameplay perspective, as it doesn't require additional explanation.
• Some even considered the use of "SUPREMATIE", "MAITRISE", "ROI" too harsh and war related / not fitting.
• Many were against a reprint in general as it will raise the ecological footprint and waste a lot of material.

Again your feedback helped me to get a holistic view on the topic and to understand what matters most.  ❤️ As I want to deliver the best product possible I took the following steps:

1) The editor and I found a compromise and followed the clarity of A (that doesn't require additional explanation) while leaning on some aspects of B to make the titles sound more natural. After all that hard work I don't want to give the impression that the text is machine translated -  because it's NOT 😀

2) I worked with the manufacturer to reprint just the updated cards with minimal overhead. All unused cards will be used as promotional material and samples - so nothing is actually going to waste 🌱.

And as some of you asked the last time - The rulebook comes with a dedicated section explaining all cards in detail. Please find the page extract below (page 13 in the PDF).

Last but not least...

I want to share a tiny update from my manufacturer showing the white-sample proof of concept of the new spirit slots on the updated playerboard I introduced in update #26 (Please ignore the frayed outline, this is just a fitting test). I'm super happy with that decision - can't wait to see it coming all together in the final product 😊!

That's it from me for today. Can't wait to wrap up the production phase and start fulfillment!! 🌟

Have a wonderful start of the week everyone! Take some time and walk through a forest, breath in and listen to the whispers of the wind... 🌳 🌬

Best, Tommy

Pledge Manager - Last call 📣
about 4 years ago – Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 12:45:45 AM

Dear People of Pangaia,

Thanks so much for your amazing feedback on the last update! I always love to go through all your comments and I'm grateful for your trust, support and kind words! 🙏

Please find the current production table below, although as you can see there was no progress since the last 2 weeks, because of the national holiday in China. Starting from this week the production team will be back in the factory and our game production will continue 💪! 

Currently my last 2 remaining action items regarding the asset preparation are:

• Communicating the final color palette for the trees & seeds to the manufacturer.
• Finishing the layout of all rulebooks after receiving the final revisions from the editors.

Pledge Manager Closing

Luckily most of you (96%) completed their survey successfully and can relax 👍! To all others I have just sent out a final reminder email to please complete their survey.

 ☝️ Possible reasons for an incomplete survey are:

• Your shipping address is missing or incomplete.
• Your payment method is missing and we can't charge for shipping (Credit card or Paypal).
• You forgot to click 'Place my order' to finalize your order.

 📣 Last call: This is the last week to use the Pledge Manager to complete your survey and add game copies to your order. Next Sunday FEBRUARY 20th all orders will be locked and you won't be able to add copies of the game to your order anymore. Please use your personal survey link to access the Pledge Manager on https://pangaia.backerkit.com (or send me a PM if you can't find it).

 📦 Once your order is locked you are still able to change your address until MARCH 20th - right before we start fulfillment. Please see the last update for detailed instructions on how to change your address.

The Translations  🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇹

I've been working with professional translators and dedicated members from the community on the translations of the rulebook and we already went through several iterations! The process is taking much longer than originally expected, but I have received the latest revisions and will start the layout process on Monday - hopefully the last one. 🤞

Now in the case of the French translation I used the last weeks to get the feedback of a 3rd professional translator to iron out the last glitches and to triple check the version I expected to be final. Instead of minor corrections I received a complete overhaul of the rulebook with some significant name changes.

Question to the french speaking community: As you probably know the achievement cards have already been printed and they all have localized titles (see below version A). Now I received an alternative translation of those titles (version B). Do you consider the titles of version B significantly better to justify a reprint of the cards? I'm still waiting for the financial quote from the manufacturer, but I would like to hear your feedback about this as well before making a call.

The Wooden Insert

Meanwhile I received the wooden inserts produced by Laserox!  The main bulk of the production is already on its way to the fulfillment center in HongKong, where it will be packaged together with the games. I just did a quick assembly tonight to try it out. Check it out below - I hope you like it 😍

Last but not least

I'm incredibly honored that we got nominated for the Kickstarter Game Community Award 2021!

The award comes from the Kickstarter Games Team and is planned and executed by Booster Space, an agency that represents Kickstarter Games in Europe. If you want to support us, please give us your vote  here! ❤️ (You have to scroll towards the end of the page)

Thanks so much again for following our bi-weekly newsletter! Have a fantastic week - I will be back with news from the production in our next update in 2 weeks. 🌱

Best, Tommy

Timeline & Fulfillment Preview 📦
about 4 years ago – Thu, Feb 03, 2022 at 01:34:01 PM

Dear People of Pangaia,

Apologies for the late update this time - last week I fell sick and needed a few more days to recover.

But before we dive into today's update: Happy Chinese New Year - I wish you all the best and a fantastic Year of the Tiger!  💫

As I mentioned last time the production will be on hold during this national holiday in China and continue on February 14th, so unfortunately there will be no progress on the game production during the next two weeks. But the production team at Eastar managed to print all the cards before heading off into vacation 👍. 

Please find below the current state of our production by component.

All rulebooks are still under review and I'm planning to make best use of the next two weeks to further improve the quality of the translations.

Timeline Overview 🕑

Let's have a look at the current timeline: We're aiming to finish the production & assembly process by mid of March and deliver the goods to our warehouse in Hong Kong, managed by our logistics partner Floship. From there we will start the fulfillment process during the first 2 weeks of April. All orders will be individually packaged (Pick & Pack) in one central warehouse in Hong Kong and then bulk-shipped in 3 containers via sea freight during April/May (I have estimated 8 weeks for the freight shipping; this timeline needs 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 note: The current ETA for all orders is JUNE 2022.

 Please find below the detailed timeline, including all latest adjustments (each dot = 1 week).

Can I still change my address?

Yes of course, you can change your address anytime by following your personal survey link to access the pledge manager on Backerkit (send me a PM if you lost it).

 📣 Please note: The latest date to change your address is March 20th. After that date we start the fulfillment process and all addresses will be locked!

Step-by-Step guide to change your address:

• Use you personal survey link to access Backerkit on https://pangaia.backerkit.com 
• Click on "Edit Your Order" / "Edit Your Address" 
• Click on "Edit Shipping Info"

 🌎 If you need to change your country it might impact the overall shipping cost, that's why Backerkit is locking the country once you paid for shipping. In this case, please send me a Kickstarter PM or a support request via Backerkit with your latest address and I'll fix it for you 😉

Last but not least ...

Again I'm so sorry for the various delays that have accumulated so far 🙏! As a small token of apology I have upgraded the paper quality of the rulebooks from 128 gsm to 157 gsm including a soft linen finish. My biggest learning for the future: If you add buffers to your timeline: don't add buffer-weeks but buffer-months! 😮

This is it from me for today! I hope the update helped you to get a better overview of the current state. Until next time for the bi-weekly update!! 💚

Best, Tommy