Payments & Timeline ⏱
over 4 years ago – Thu, Nov 25, 2021 at 03:14:49 PM

Dear People of Pangaia,

As I announced in the last updates I have locked all the orders and started to charge for the add-ons and shipping costs. 🙏Thanks everyone for filling out your address and payment information so diligently! I'm happy to say that 96% of all locked orders were processed without any issues!  🎉

If the payment failed, what to do?

Some of you might have received an email with the header: Your payment has failed for Forests of Pangaia. Here a few typical reasons that might have caused this:

1) Your CC expired and you need to update your card information.

2) Your account might have insufficient funds or temporarily reached the credit line.

3) The transaction got flagged by your bank and needs your authorization.

If you already updated your card information, Backerkit will try to charge the new card right away and you will get an email notification shortly afterwards. In all other cases I will try to charge the failed cards again every week on Wednesdays. The next attempt to charge the cards will be on November 24th.

If you want to fall back to Paypal, please send me a PM through Kickstarter or a support request via Backerkit (the Pledge Manager).

PPC & Tokens

I'm currently still waiting for the first PPC (Pre-Production Copy) and it will be delivered by the end of next week. This is one week later than I was planning, so I pushed the Sample & Approval milestone one week out and marked it with a red +1 on the timeline below.

In the meantime I wanted to share with you at least some preliminary samples of the wooden tokens that are part of the Premium Edition. 😀

Timeline Updates

🚨 More importantly I must announce that I will have to push the estimated delivery of the game to May 2022. Originally I was planning to finish the production of the game before mid of January to avoid a collision with Chinese New Year (CNY) - a major holiday in China. During 2-4 weeks the entire country is literally on pause and most factories are closed during this time - our manufacturer is no exception. This delay was mostly caused by the work on the wooden tokens that took longer than anticipated and heavily melted my internal time buffers. I expect that we'll not manage to fully finish the production before CNY and we might have to face a 2-4 weeks pause between January and February.

Of course I'll keep you posted on any timeline changes during this process. Please check out the timeline graphic below as a reference (the numbers next to each dot refer to week numbers).

👀 To fast forward a little: After the production step all games will be moved to a warehouse in Hong Kong for fulfillment. During this step every individual package will be prepared and labeled and bulk-shipped in a container to different regions via sea freight (EU/UK, US/CA, AU/NZ, ROTW). After custom clearance the parcels will be handed over to a courier service for last mile delivery. More details on this process will come in future updates.

Tabletop Simulator 👾

In case you're interested in a digital sneak peek: I just updated the Tabletop Simulator workshop again to include the latest production assets! I also included the little Automa deck used for the Solo mode. If you have not tried it yet, please feel free to check it out and let me know what you think. 

 ℹ️Tabletop Simulator is a purchasable application on Steam to play tabletop games digitally. Usually it's 50% discounted during Black Friday, so keep an eye out next week!

SOLO mode - A letter from Marvin

As you probably know, the current Solo mode was designed by our community member Marvin Herzan during the campaign! It was quite a rollercoaster to get it ready for production and from the beginning to the end it was just a pleasure to work together with Marvin on this expansion of the game. I want to take the opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to MARVIN for immersing himself in the world of Pangaia and spending countless hours tuning and playtesting!! Here's the message Marvin asked me to share with you guys:

Dear Pangaians, 

Tommy allowed me some space here in one of his updates and I'd like to seize this opportunity to express my gratitude to you. I was blown away by the positive responses and broad support my suggestion for a solo variant received. Thank you so much for this! 

I fell in love with Forests of Pangaia right when I saw it - great theme, lovely components, beautiful artwork - honestly, what's not to love about this game? When the call for a solo variant came up, I strived to contribute a variant that would not only have interesting and challenging gameplay, but would also be immersive and feel meaningful. Also I wanted to create something that could also be extended into a cooperative game variant.

I immediately had some rough ideas, revolving around a Corrupted Spirit that would hurt the lands instead of letting healthy forests thrive, and giving way to some kind of race between the forces of good and evil, while still remaining true to the core rules. One evening I finally sat down with a very rudimentary makeshift version of the game to test my ideas. I ended up spending the whole night, sitting on the kitchen floor, moving dice-trees and scraps of paper around while refining my ideas into a set of rules. 

I honestly wasn't anticipating the many, many iterations of playtesting and simplifying of the rules that were to come. The ruleset was 'breathing' in a way: Blowing up with fresh ideas again and again only to exhale every bit and fragment that wasn't vital to keep the solo variant working and balanced. Tommy was very stringent during this process, but also incredibly helpful. He made sure this mode fits into the game and doesn't feel misplaced. I've only seen glimpses of all the efforts he coordinated and put into this himself. I'm sure you all can tell by the diligence of his updates: There's a great game a-coming!

The beauty, simplicity and tranquility of Forests of Pangaia sparked a fair amount of inspiration in many of us - the dedicated discord channel bears witness to this. I feel deeply honoured that my ideas get to be a part of this project and can't wait for all of us to hold a copy of this game in our hands!

- Marvin Herzan (@MaKo)

Thanks so much Marvin for these kind words and sharing a glimpse into your design process!!!  ❤️

 Last but not least ...

Finally I'd like to do a small informal poll regarding the localization of the game title. I'm a little on the fence whether the title "Forests of Pangaia" should be also localized for other languages or should be kept as it is. Both approaches have pros & cons and I'd like to gather more information from you guys to make a call.

🇩🇪 Die Wälder von Pangaia ?

🇫🇷 Les Forêts de Pangaia ?

🇮🇹 Le Foreste di Pangaia ?

What do you think? I'm leaning towards keeping it simple and stick to the original English title but I'm open for suggestions. Let me know your thoughts about this topic. 

I wish you a great start of the week! 🌟

Cheers, Tommy

Trees & Tokens 🗿
over 4 years ago – Mon, Nov 08, 2021 at 01:37:36 AM

Dear People of Pangaia  🌱

This week's update I want to start by looking at our current timeline: We finished our wood testing-phase and have iterated over several ways on how to produce the wooden tokens. As a quick recap, per game unit we're talking about:

• 66 rotational pieces (Trees and Treetops)
• 20 flat meeples of 10 mm (Spirits and Seeds)
• 80 flat tokens of 4-5 mm (Premium Life points and Resources)

During this process I had to face several setbacks and find alternative solutions or make compromises in order to move forward. Today I want to share a few of those topics and to explain the design changes.

Trees & Treetops

During the prototyping phase of the wood turning process we discovered that sharp corners have the tendency to get slightly "chopped" in mass production. It's not a regular artefact, but sharp corners definitely increase the probability of this issue. To reduce the margin of error we slightly tweaked the original design of the treetops to soften the corners a bit. See a picture of the latest design below. I'm still trying to push for a more pointy top, but overall I think the compromise is acceptable, considering that it will result in less production errors.

Spirit Meeples

On the meeple front, most of the problems I'm facing come from the requirements of the spirits with all their small details. From all spirits the deer is the hardest case with all those delicate antlers.

a) Fine Details: The most obvious problem is the length and width of the antlers. They are prone to break in general and we reduced the length and made the individual antlers a little wider to increase stability. 

b) Thickness: In order to let the meeples stand vertically they need to be at least 10mm thick. Additionally they are made of beech wood which is harder than other wood types. To cut through 10mm beech wood efficiently requires a very hot laser. But unfortunately the strong heat made the antlers very brittle and sometimes break even faster. On some occasions the laser even burned entire details, rendering the piece unusable. 🔥

It literally broke my heart to simplify the shape further and further, but there was no way around it. We considered using alternative carving techniques like CNC and tool-based carving, but those techniques allow even less details and after many tests I decided that using lasers is so far the best way to go.

Luckily the Life and Resource tokens are pretty standard and have not created any complications so far. Pictures of those will be shared in the next update.

Pledge Manager 📣

Quick reminder that your orders on the Pledge Manager will be locked and charged soon. In case you have not filled out your survey yet or want to add something to your order: now is the time.  📣

➡️  Order Lock: 14. November - All orders will be locked and credit cards will be charged shortly after.

Check out the last update for tips & tricks.

Last but not least  👀

Some of you asked me in the comments last time to show a preview of the default insert that will be part of every game. I don't have a physical copy of the insert that is presentable and also I was waiting for the feedback of my manufacturer about the assembly feasibility (even though it's not very complex). But to give you an idea I want to share at least a rendering of the insert. Please take it with a grain of salt, as this is just a simple rendering and the real insert might look different.

On another note: I'm super happy to announce that I've provided all files to my manufacturer to create the first pre-production copy of the game, called a PPC. A PPC is a single copy of the game, containing all components in 'almost' production quality. It's not mass-produced obviously, so e.g. it's digitally printed instead of offset printed. But other than that everything else should be pretty close to the final game. I'm eagerly looking forward to receiving it and it should arrive in about 15-20 days.

This is it from me today! Have a wonderful Sunday evening and "see" you in 2 weeks  😘

Cheers,

Tommy

Wooden Insert & PM Deadline ⏳
over 4 years ago – Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 01:00:34 AM

Dear People of Pangaia  🌱

I'm quite happy to announce that we finally have a wooden insert that you can add to your order! It's designed and produced by Laserox in the EU.

Please note that the version you see below is still a draft version of the design, meaning that it will slightly change. The basic layout is tested and proven (👍), but I will make some adjustments on the final laser engravings and other decorations before it will be produced. The price of this insert is 34 Euro including shipping. You can get it here!

The game components in the image above are the pre-campaign prototype and don't represent the final Kickstarter Edition of Forests of Pangaia.

Pledge Manager Dates

Thanks everyone for filling out the survey and adding your shipping information to the Pledge Manager on Backerkit. In about 3 weeks all orders will be locked - in case you have not filled out your survey yet or want to add something to your order: now is the time.  📣

➡️  Order Lock: 14. November - All orders will be locked and credit cards will be charged.

➡️  PM Closed: 30. November - The Pledge Manager will be closed.

Lost your link?

After my last update, many approached me because they were not sure if they filled out the survey properly. In case you lost your personal invite link, please click here and request a new invite link via the public Backerkit interface, by using the same email address you are using on Kickstarter. But don't worry - you will receive a few reminder emails in case some information is still missing.  👍

Edit your order?

In case you already filled out your survey, just click the little "Edit Your Order" button on the top right of the final screen. Now you are able to change your shipping address or add more items to your order.

Tile Illustrations

It's been a while since I shared some progress on the tile art. As some of you might remember I posted an iteration of the tile illustrations in update#6, although I had very mixed feelings about the changes. At that time I wasn't sure how to move forward and reading your comments helped me to readjust my inner compass. Thanks for sharing your feelings and opinions once again!  💚

What many of you liked about the existing tile art was the tranquility and peaceful ambience. In this iteration I made sure to maintain the basic atmosphere, while ironing out some minor or major issues.

SUN - The Desert

There was nothing wrong with the SUN lands, so they just received a brush up and got some depth. Also those lakes got a touch of magic, just to underline the presence of the Spirits. 

 SNOW - The Mountains

Also here I was quite happy with the original concept, we just extended the mountain a little towards the lake to connect it with the rest of the illustration.

WIND - The Grasslands

The grasslands looked OK, but there was no concept of WIND in these lands. The reason behind it: I got the original artwork done already 3 years ago (😳) and since then the game design changed significantly. I felt it was necessary to change the illustration in order to reflect the game design properly.

RAIN - The Tropics

Ever since I was vastly unhappy with the RAIN tile - visually and conceptually. That's why this tile received by far the biggest change. I wanted to have a more positive metaphor and changed it from a swamp to a tropical setting. I love the playfulness of the new approach and how it adds to the general palette of different biomes of Pangaia. I hope you like it too, please share your thoughts 😀

 Timeline

And last but not least a quick glance at our timeline:

• The Italian and French localization was completed last week.
• I'm in the process of adding those to the final layout of the rule book and the cards. Once I'm done with that I will share those with you for additional proof reading.
• Beginning of November we will start with the first production of the wooden tokens. 

That's it from me - I hope you enjoyed this little update on the progress!  😌

Have a great autumn week everyone 🍁

Cheers, Tommy

White Samples 👀
over 4 years ago – Sun, Oct 10, 2021 at 04:18:30 AM

Dear Community

First of all: Thank you guys so much for the diligent read-through of the rule book! ❤️

It's amazing to have so many eyes go through the text and look for issues! The last 2 weeks I went through all your comments, ironed out ambiguities and prepared everything for the localization process. Currently the rule book is being translated into French and Italian, while I'm about to tackle the translation into German myself. I will share all versions once ready.

I've updated the PDF to include my latest adjustments. Please note that many images are still placeholders and I had no time to render them properly yet, but the text should be reasonably solid. Please keep writing comments on spelling issues, propose better wording and point out ambiguities. Thanks a lot 🙏😍

Timeline

Just to keep an eye on our high level timeline: During September I've prepared all files for the translation process. The localization started this week and by the end of October all translations should be ready. So far we're on track, but there are a few more hurdles to cross until mass production :)

White Sample

White Samples are created by the manufacturer as a first step to validate the design of your game components. Often they are hand crafted or produced in a prototype quality, just to see if the shape and thickness of the game components fit together and match expectations. In this case I received the 270x270 cm game box, including 4 punch boards, 4 player boards and the playing cards.

In the image below you can see one punch board containing the Tiles, as well as the leaf-shaped Life Tokens (3 points & 1 point) and round-shaped Resource Tokens. I have nothing to complain here: the thickness of the board is close to 3mm, the size of the 3 token types is imho well balanced and I'm quite happy with the shape of the leaves of the Life Tokens 🍁

The player board has inserts for the Treetops and Seeds. My Treetops fit those inserts perfectly, although I couldn't test the new Seeds yet because I'm still waiting for the wooden samples. The cards are no surprise and I must say the black core has a nice quality snap! :)

The entire first week of October was a public holiday in China, so unfortunately I have no major news regarding the wooden components. Hopefully I will have something to share by the next bi-weekly update.

Well that's it from me! There's still a lot of work waiting for me but we're getting closer and step-by-step we're building a game here! I'm excited  🌱

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!!

Cheers, Tommy

Rules & Meeples 🐾
over 4 years ago – Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 02:25:40 AM

Dear Community

Welcome to the biweekly update! Time is flying and this week I want to share some progress regarding the wooden components and the latest rule book! 🌱

Meeples

Our manufacturer started to work on the prototypes of the wooden components and the spirit meeples. The current shape of the spirits is quite complex and based on the first tests we might have to simplify a few areas to make them more robust. 

The antlers of the deer and the axolotl are especially prone to break easily (see video) and the design needs to be improved in that regard. I would prefer to keep the shape as detailed as possible, but some details could also be represented by using a subtle white screen print instead of a silhouette cut out.

Fortunately the other wooden components are not causing any issues and will be relatively easy to produce. For the Premium Edition, all life tokens (3 Life and 1 Life) and resources (Rain, Wind, Snow, Sun) will be made of wood as well and below you can see the selection of shapes we will go for. 

Both life tokens got a complete redesign and come in a 3-point and 1-point token. The white areas inside the life and resource tokens will be cut out.

Game Rules ✍️

I'm in the middle of a major overhaul of the rule book and included all the feedback and suggestions from the reviewers and the Discord community who helped me test the game. 🙏

At the same time I spent quite some hours testing all those great Solo modes and I'm happy to announce that Marvin's mode will be included in the official rules! It's been really fun to play and it brings a cool new dimension to the game!

The rule book will be split into 3 separate booklets:

•  Core rules - The main rule book with 12 pages
•  Advanced rules - An extra sheet with 2 pages (Achievements & Blessings)
•  Solo mode - An extra rule book with 4 pages

You can find the PDF link below. Please note that many images are NOT yet up to date, because I focused on the text first. I need your help - please read the rules and give me feedback on structure, clarity and wording. Every single pair of eyes can help to make the rule book better! I'd like to put a lock on the English copy very soon in order to start the localization process for the other languages.

Please leave your comments directly on the PDF so that I can reply quickly. Avoid leaving feedback about rules on the Kickstarter page, as I might have trouble understanding the context you're referring to. THANK YOU SO MUCH! 🌟

Last but not least...

Here are some updates on the current blessing cards. Some illustrations are close to final - some are early drafts. But they are "growing" every day and I wanted to share Marcel's work in progress with you :)

And we got a production baby!! The little guy 👶 is settling in at the moment and we're all soooo happy!!

I hope you enjoyed this update and I'll be back with more news in 2 weeks. Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Tommy  💚