Quick Update after Essen
about 8 years ago – Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 01:27:48 PM

Hi Everyone!

On the same path from the last update, we are making progress through shipping to EU/UK/World, slowly but surely.

Just before Essen, we were able to cobble about 20 games of Dragon Tides for backer pick up at the show at the last minute. Unfortunately, due to not knowing what to expect there, the rep was moved to different areas of the convention hall as security prevented him from staying where he wanted to be. He was only able to give out 4 of the 20 games he had from people at the show contacting him via Skype. The remaining 16, he sent out via post to international backers on his current list. If you were one of the ones who he sent it out to, you would have received an e-mail with tracking number. 

Although Essen pick up wasn't successful, we'll be working with Ideaspatcher, PSI and Aetherworks to try to work out a localized pick up from their facilities now that everyone is back from Essen and had time to regroup on their end. We'll continue to also work with GBG in getting more shipment out by the second week of November, or sooner if they can arrange for it with us. When that happens, I'll post an update with the number of games that are expected to be sent out per HUB to give you a better idea at the distribution. 

Address Updated?

If you have not yet received your base game, please update your address (if you need to) as soon as possible by sending an e-mail to us at [email protected] with the subject line "DRAGON TIDES ADDRESS UPDATE". This is going to be VERY important as I hope to get more shipping bursts out in the next couple of months.

For anyone who pledged for Dragon Tides at a convention or somewhere outside of the campaign or BackerKit, please also send us an e-mail with your address update to make sure we have it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do NOT send mail to [email protected] as that e-mail does not belong to us. Any other questions or inquiries, please send to [email protected], post a comment in the comment thread, or send us a Kickstarter PM. Thank you!

Homebrewing

So a while back I uploaded some photoshop templates for homebrewing character cards and character sheets. Since it was the first time I really ventured into it, it was brought to my attention that it wasn't as intuitive as I thought. So, I've redone them and placed them in a dropbox along with a Scenario builder template that includes tokens, items, and the existing map boards that will help you create your own PDF scenario. Please let me know if these work better or if you have any suggestions to improve the quality of these templates for you:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/34o78febpv8fe93/AABRKcsyDWkoChYu4Ew7iQbFa?dl=0

Enter the Challengers

I'm currently working on building out the character sheets and cards for the unlocked characters and expansions to release as PDFs for you to download while we continue shipping the base games. I hope to have most of them ready in dropbox for the next update. These characters include:

• The Widowmaker (Snuff 'Nuff)
• White Moon (Snuff 'Nuff)
• Number 13 (Snuff 'Nuff)
• Lady Yo (Infernal Affairs)
• Phoenix Lim (Infernal Affairs)
• Oscar Kham (Infernal Affairs)
• The Blackbird (Halloween Special)
• Cindy Fairchild (Stretch Unlock)
• Muscles Hawk (Stretch Unlock)
• Lion Sloane (Stretch Unlock)
• Colt Booker (Stretch Unlock)
• Casey Storm (Stretch Unlock)
• Cherri Seneca (Collaborator Unlock)
• Candy Kunoichi (Collaborator Unlock)
• The Operative (Collaborator Unlock)
• Zhi Lan (Collaborator Unlock)
• Oscar Kass (Collaborator Unlock)
• Rabid Skunk (Collaborator Unlock)
• Domino Bonepart (Collaborator Unlock)
• Brunhilde (Fairytale Games Character)
• Valkyrie (Fairytale Games Character)
• Esmeralda (Fairytale Games Character)
• Briar Rose (Fairytale Games Character)
• Cinderella (Fairytale Games Character)
• Snow (Fairytale Games Character)
• Red (Fairytale Games Character)
• Goldielocks (Fairytale Games Character)
• Mulan (Fairytale Games Character)

Other Information

For information on the status of Fairytale Games or its miniatures, please check out the updates for those campaigns this week. 

Dragon Tides News
over 8 years ago – Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 11:35:53 PM

Hello Dragons,

It’s been quite a while since the last update. Fortunately I bring good news. After long wait, I can confirm the progression of Dragon Tides towards getting Wave 2 files ready for print before the end of this year. It’s been a long road since the campaign end, especially with all the fumbles along the way, but we are once again moving.

SHIPPING 

After several meetings with GBG, we are happy to announce that we are now able to work out a way to handle shipping in bulk increments versus “all or nothing” as it were previously. In other words, we can “pay as we go” in chunks so that shipping wouldn’t have to stop completely at long periods of time. Of course, this still means we are still continuing to work on these invoices so that the first wave of shipping Dragon Tides can be complete, specifically for EU backers. Previously our hands were tied but we are finally able to try setting up some form of localized pick up. Once the details are ready we will post an update.

Also, for anyone in the US, CAN, or AUS who have not yet received your games, please send an email to: [email protected] with the subject line title “DRAGON TIDES SHIPPING” along with your name and shipping address.

RULEBOOK 

Currently, we are reworking the entire rulebook for any mistakes or errors that were pointed out to us after the release of the game. We’ll have a clean version complete by the end of this month. In the meantime, we’ve posted the retail version up here for anyone who wants to review and call out edits as well.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/turum7ohimekuaf/AABBQhYIHOfou_eR5kv0JhDra?dl=0

Our intention is to include a fresh copy of the rulebook in Wave 2 of our shipping as a courtesy and thanks to you.

WAVE 2 SHIPPING 

Following the finalization of the rulebook, we will begin getting content for the Stretch Goal unlocks and Jade Dragon scenarios ready to release to the printer by the end of this year. For those who’ve asked, this also includes the original character sheets for Tiger Ip, Goliath, Ivan Castle, Train Wong. Before sending files to print, we will post them for download as PNP files.

RAISING FUNDS 

Our art studio, Wonderland Studios has been taking up freelance jobs, ⅓ of which goes towards the shipping and production of the entirety of Dragon Tides. By September we will have funds to put the first small burst shipment to EU.

OTHER CAMPAIGNS 

For more info on Fairytale Games products, we’ll have updates before Sunday this week.

HOMEBREWING 

For those who have been wanting to create some cool homebrew Signature Move cards and Character Sheets, you can grab the official homebrew PSDs here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/34o78febpv8fe93/AABRKcsyDWkoChYu4Ew7iQbFa?dl=0

Be sure to share and post on BGG. We’re looking forward to see what you come up with!

CONNECTING 

We will begin utilizing our Facebook and Websites once again, starting September so that those who aren’t able to follow along on Kickstarter will have multiple channels to receive consolidated information for game production across the board. Kickstarter has helped us with a hard reset for our Kickstarter e-mails. So starting today (Aug 18th), we have a fresh inbox. Previous messages for each campaign have been deleted but anyone who messages us through it now, will be seen and replied to in a timely manner.

Return of the updates
over 8 years ago – Tue, May 31, 2016 at 12:14:49 AM

Hi Everyone,

For the last couple of weeks I had been away to help a close friend of mine deal with the passing of his father. Thank you for your patience and allowing me some time to help him with his loss. It was very difficult for his family and since there was a lot of things to handle between the states and internationally, things needed more time than planned and took a lot out of all of us emotionally and physically. For those who knew about it and were able to reach out to me, thank you for your kind wishes and support. It truly means a lot to me.

For EU and World Backers, we are still working hard on gathering funds to send out your games. Since creating the Art Studio, things are doing better. We are slowly but surly building funds on our end towards shipping. So far we've raised a couple thousand dollars for Dragon Tides. I know at face value it doesn't sound like much, but it actually means we're doing something right, especially since this idea was derived suddenly, with the support from our previous consensus. It's a good start and I believe we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this wave soon. Which reminds me.... are all of your addresses updated? If not, please be sure to log into your BackerKit account to do so just in case we get our funds in order sooner than later to start shipping.

Belle has also graciously volunteered to return as backup for updates to ensure that even when I'm unable to do so, she can at least communicate with you all to answer questions or provide whatever news is the most current. I think that's yet another thing we've needed all along, in order to prevent more congestion here.

Following, here are the immediate items per your request, that I want to have ready in the next couple of weeks:

• PDFs of the Stretch Goal characters downloadable for you
• PDFs of the Fairytale Angel character Boards/Cards
• PDFs of the Guest Character Boards/Cards
• PDF of the Market Square for anyone who hasn't received your games to print and play while you're waiting.
• PSD of blank character cards/boards for you to use to create your own

For those interested in updates on the Fairytale Games items, please refer to the kickstarter campaigns that apply. I've been making updates to those areas, trying to keep things separate from Dragon Tide news.

Oh, one other thing.... we're redoing all of our websites so please don't be surprised that any of them are down. They will be until we can finish updating them. I'm not sure if you grabbed the rules primer for Solo/Co-op mode before we suspended the main site. Just in case, I'll put it in BGG and dropbox along with other deliverables mentioned above.

There is some pretty cool news as well. Some of our artists have started working on new art again. So we'll start revealing some of them when they're ready, namely some of the Variant characters in their movie and video game versions.

Video Tutorial and Prequel Tiles!
almost 9 years ago – Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 08:40:59 PM

Hi Everyone! I have some progressive news to share with all of you following up with some of the solutions mentioned previously.

After getting sick with the flu for about a week, I was invited to the GAMMA Tradeshow on a whim last week. For those of you who have never heard of the show, it’s a smaller convention that focuses on connecting distributors and retailers to game companies and publishers. Being there, I was able to meet several companies who would consider distributing our products, which would allow us to reach more retailers for sales. As mentioned before, one of the solutions to help pay for our outstanding invoices was from retail sales. This was a step in the right direction.

GAMMA

At GAMMA I also met with Greenbrier Games to discuss a possible warehouse pickup for any backer who would like to pick Dragon Tides from EU hub in France. Though it's only a small percent of backers who might be able to do so, in the grand scheme of things this any picked up copy of Dragon Tides will decrease the overall Invoice balance for EU.

Another great part of GAMMA was meeting publishers from all walks of the industry. I was excited to find a publisher interested in Martial Arts: The Card Game 2 and if all goes well in the next couple of weeks, we will sign with them so that I will give them the rights to the game. This means, they will be running their own campaign, producing, and distributing the game themselves, and providing us royalties for it. I can’t give the full details because of our NDA, but basically, they will give us a small percentage of their kickstarter and a smaller percentage of royalties for each unit sold (per quarter basis) after costs. These funds will go directly into paying our shipping invoices and I will set up a bank account that will only hold these funds for shipping.

WORKING SCHEDULE

This coming week I will be setting up the following things: 

Merchandise Shop: 

I’ve selected some of our artwork to be used for online shops like spreadshirt, Cafepress, Tee-Fury, etc. There will be some artwork I am not allowed to use because of licensing as you probably guessed, but there are some great pieces. As well, there will be art from other AJG games as well. This weekend I’ll pick a shop to go with and start uploading artwork this week. Once ready, I’ll update you all a link and you can tell me if you’d like to see anything else of if you have other suggestions. I’m really excited about this as one of the solutions as these sites create great merchandise without us having to worry about anything but uploading artwork since they handle production, shipping, and fulfillment themselves.

Backerkit:

This week I will try to edit and re-open the Dragon Tides account for anyone who wants to donate funds towards the shipping pool for Dragon Tides only (There will be a separate one for Battle Royale, if anyone is curious). Keep in mind it isn’t mandatory and that whatever is donated will go directly towards shipping for this campaign. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to have an individual backer pay for their own shipping since our fulfillment centers aren’t able to set that up (I’ve asked numerous times already.) But the goal is to have this open later this week if possible.

Art Studio:

I’ve started registering the name of our new Art Studio and will be completely set up for business in about 2 weeks. Following, we can officially receive projects and funnel profits towards shipping. I’m currently working on our first project, which is good news. Our art studio will provide illustrative talent specifically for the tabletop and video gaming industry, though any and all types of projects are welcome.

URGENT! ADDRESSES

Since I’m trying to aggressively clear out the shipping invoices as quickly as possible in order to get the games to you all,when we open BackerKit, please update your addresses. That way, whenever we’re able to clear shipping for EU, they can ship immediately once they’re paid. As well, it's good to keep it current for when Wave 2 happens.

DRAGON TIDES TUTORIAL

Before I had the flu, I was fortunate to have my Niece visit and help me with putting together a super amateur tutorial video for Dragon Tides. For those interested, we used the Marketplace Scene from Shakedown in Little China as our example (which is a much better example than the actual basic tutorial since you get to really get to try out several gameplay options). Check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzKjI_dtnN0

And as always, please excuse the film, audio, editing, and overall quality of the video. Actors/Actresses we are not.

PREQUEL

I'm still working on it, but I should have the prequel scenes complete to show off and for you to download as a PNP while you wait for it to be printed with the Wave 2 items. As well, for those who were wondering, in the same light the original "non-edited" character boards will also be posted for you to download as well.

Meanwhile, here's a look at the 4 Prequel map tiles for Bruce, Luke, Brandon, and Viktoria. Their prequels follow their storyline and offer unique gameplay strategies for each scene!

Solutions and Solutions!
almost 9 years ago – Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 07:19:26 PM

Hi Everyone, 

As I hinted on during the week, I have some promising news for you all. Not the instant solution, but something we can absolutely work with. Also, I know that during last update, by combining the campaign messages together, I ended up confusing everyone. So to clear things up, I’ll make sure to keep all updates separate between campaigns, though some information will be the same. 

First thing, I heard late last week with a report separating all outstanding shipping invoices. From THIS campaign, we need to take care of $14,906 to conclude fulfillment for EU and the rest of the world (this includes some cushion for those who might have been missed in the US, CAN, and AUS). 

Why did the funds for this campaign cross over to the others? 

Actually, it has not. In fact, I had to pump my own funds into this campaign to finish producing the base game. How can that be? Surely print production, art, sculpts, moulding/casting, tooling and shipping didn’t take everything? Yes it did if you also included a very hefty royalty for both characters. 

Last week you posted some suggestions on raising funds needed. I refuse to pay a penny more. Why are you asking me to do so? 

That was not my intention. The last update was to open a discussion and NEVER did I demand additional payment from backers. Those were just brainstorms which came from backers on the comment threads who wanted to volunteer additional funds to help. It wasn’t a call to action, so please don’t misunderstand or jump to conclusions. There is no mandatory “pay or you don’t get shipped” ultimatum. 

So then are you running another Kickstarter? 

No. Based on the overall suggestions and concerns, even with the best intentions and even by not asking current backers to add a cent, I believe that it will backfire given that those who do not see it as us trying to save the situation will end up being negatively vocal during those campaigns. Though it would be counterproductive to do so, I still understand everyone’s feelings from each perspective. So to save everyone grief, we will not run another Kickstarter for this case. 

Then what do you suggest? 

The past couple of weeks I’ve been meeting with several companies, banks, investors, and publishers for ideas and to figure out a solution. As a few backers mentioned, the best solution isn’t just one solution but a collection of them. Here are some of the current ideas: 

• Artwork for Indie Companies One of the things I’ve managed to do well in these past few years, have been finding very talented artists and making them exclusive to our team. It took many risks and interesting illustrations to find the best of the best. So in the next week or so, I am starting a new entity to provide artwork and graphics for game publishers/designers who are interested in creating their own game for Kickstarter or retail. As soon as the entity is registered, I have our first client lined up. This will help provide extra income that will go towards the outstanding balance as well as build relationships with other companies/publishers. This is great because I do not have to physically create anything new nor do I have overhead expenses. 

• Retail Sales Though not intentional, the fact is that I’m starting to see it for sale on the web and some stores as well. I’m not happy that the timing of this didn’t coincide with the complete shipping of backers, I believe there’s still a positive side to it. Namely, sales of this game will go towards the outstanding shipping manifest. Q1 is considered the end of March, so that’s basically when I will see anything monetary. And since GBG is our publisher, they handle distribution so you know that the money earned will go towards shipping (since they’re also our shipping/fulfillment partner.) 

• System for Volunteer Shipping I will either work with GBG or have a GoFundMe kind of system created for anyone who WANTS to volunteer to add shipping towards DRAGON TIDES ONLY. To keep things separate, I will have this system be SPECIFIC for Dragon Tides. Remember, this is a VOLUNTEER basis and NOT MANDATORY. 

• Merchandise So there’s a couple of websites out there that let you set up your own online store to create custom merchandise. If you haven’t heard of sites like Zazzle or CafePress, check them out. Basically, I can select several products such as Shirts, Mousepads, Stickers, Phone/Tablet Cases, Shower Curtains, Pillows, and Wall Art and upload our own Fairytale Games or Dragon Tides artwork to it. So for example, let’s say I upload the art for the cover of Dragon Tides’s Box on a T-Shirt, you can find it on my Zazzle Online Store and purchase it. Zazzle will then produce, manufacture, and ship it to you like a print on demand purchase. AJG doesn’t touch any of production or shipping. The money you spend on the shirt goes towards material, production (to Zazzle) and AJG will get a small royalty % per each shirt sold. If going this approach, the merchandise sold will go towards paying outstanding shipping orders for AJG’s Kickstarters. Really, check out Zazzle.com and CafePress.com to see what kind of interesting stuff you can get custom artwork on. There’s even a possible Monopoly board that if you all want, I can upload artwork to. 

• Martial Arts: The Card Game Series 2 So I’ve spoken to a couple of publishers who really liked the concept of the first game and are in discussion with us to see what they can possibly do with the second game. From what I understand, there’s interest in them wanting to publish the second game and giving us royalties or creating their own IP, but using the Velocity Engine (the gameplay mechanics for Martial Arts: The Card Game) under the hood of their characters/storyline. In both instances, I’m up for it since it would also bring more attention to the game line and bring in additional revenue to put towards outstanding shipping manifests. 

• Ok, I see the solutions. Better. But what about the extra stuff from this campaign? After speaking with several investors, I found one that has interest in AJG but is a complete novice in the gaming industry and MUST see some sales. Thus, all of the above solutions will help towards giving them a second quarter report. If they see substantial growth, they will put enough into the company to COMPLETELY help with the shipping of the rest of this project after it’s manufactured. Now keep in mind that Dragon Tides is still in production, nothing has stopped. Artwork is complete, Sculpts are complete and playtesting is still in the works. As some backers suggested, I will begin releasing content for any of you to help playtest as well. Once you and I are 100% that the content is ready for manufacture production, I’ll send them out. What I cannot do (after learning from previous mistakes) is to do batch production on items or send stuff to print without thorough proofreading by you all as well. 

• Is there an ETA for all the extras? Sadly no. Because of trying to work through the current shipping issue, I haven’t connected with the gameplay designers yet. I should be doing so in the next week or so to see what kind of schedule they have. As well, I will also continue to finalize the playtest of Solo/Co-Op mode so I can release it officially. Plus, I want to make sure I do everything I can to get the investor on board for obvious reasons since that will help with the financial burdens whenever we’re ready to ship Wave 2 out. 

So what do you think? Once again, the point of this is to continue to have an open and productive discussion. If you all think the above are positive steps in the right direction, I’ll get the ball rolling right away.