Status Report (2019.11.05) - Manufacturing COMPLETE! Locking Addresses Soon in Prep for Shipping!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Nov 05, 2019 at 08:53:15 PM

Tl;dr: Games are manufactured and being packaged for shipping. We have pictures. We will be locking addresses on BackerKit next Wednesday (2019.11.13).

Manufacturing is Complete!

Destination Danger has been manufactured and we are set for final packaging and shipment. We are thrilled with the quality of the game and are excited to get these into your hands. We are waiting for final information on the timing of shipment (and ultimately which ship we will be on and port of entry), at which time we'll have a strong forecast for when to will start shipping games to your doorstep. As you know, we are painfully new to this, so we're trying to stay clear of further speculation until we have more hard data to work with. 

Here's some pictures of the finalized product: 

We also have some images of the play mats as they are all ready to go! 

Hopefully you are as excited as we are that DD is looking great and nearly here! As mentioned, we do not have specifics on final delivery to backers yet, but expect to start shipping out of Texas in December.

Locking Addresses on BackerKit

We will be locking shipping addresses soon. That means you have until next Wednesday (November 13th) to update your shipping address in your BackerKit survey.

If you need to review your shipping address, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://destinationdanger.backerkit.com. 

If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out. We appreciate all of you for being on this journey with us! It has been a lot of learning to get where we are today, but we strongly believe we are better prepared for the future and will be able to deliver on our commitment to get you your backer rewards. Thank you for the patience - we're nearly there!

Courage!

Jeff @ Guardian Moon Games

Status Report (2019.10.02) - Manufacturing Update, including samples! Digital Dangers update.
over 4 years ago – Wed, Oct 02, 2019 at 11:09:47 PM

Tl;dr: Samples have been approved, full production in the next week or so. Pictures of card and play mat samples. An update on Digital Dangers!

Manufacturing is a GO!

Samples from our manufacturing partner have arrived and we have pictures to share with all of you (see below). We did have to cycle back and forth with Gameland a bit to make sure things are perfect, and we have approved the samples you see below. We are now waiting for our slot in the queue, which is delayed slightly as China is on holiday this week. We've been told we should have a more clear timeline soon on the manufacturing window, how long to expect for shipping, etc... We will update you all as soon as we have that update!

 We also have samples of the Destination Danger play mat, for those who purchased that via BackerKit. We are thrilled! Here's a look at the final product:

Digital Dangers Update    

As part of the "Game +" pledge tier (and up) we have been working on "Digital Dangers" that will pull players even deeper into the Destination Danger story. Here are some images of one of these completed files (which will be sent out to backers in the coming days via BackerKit): The canopic jar that contains..."The Mummy's Heart".  

Using Lindsey Alvord's incredible illustration as inspiration we have modeled the Mummy's precious purloined pottery in 3D! This will enable the discerning adventurer to 3D print their very own copy of this rare artifact. While we were at it, we decided to make the jar functional as well!. You can print out a version of the jar that has a screw-on head to keep all your precious things inside (please don't put a real heart in there...please!). With the affordability of 3D printing today it is easy to find a friend, library, or small business that will 3D print your canopic jar.

Again, we'll be uploading this to BackerKit and sent out to backers at pledge tier Game+ and higher within the next few days. 

 (A note on printing tolerances: While the two piece screw-on jar was designed with printer tolerances in mind it may be necessary (due to the variations in printers and printing methods) to scale up the jar top by .5 - 1% to make sure that it screws together with the bottom part. Also, depending on printing material, the jar shouldn't need any supports to print. See image below for a few examples.)

We're doing our best to stay on top of things and keep the project moving as quickly as possible. I'll be back in a couple weeks with another update. Hopefully we will have a more clear timeline for finalizing manufacturing and getting shipping going to our team in the US!

Courage!

Jeff @ Guardian Moon Games

Status Report (2019.09.04) - Continued Work w/ Manufacturing. Art Prints are in Motion.
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 05, 2019 at 03:14:54 AM

Tl;dr: Things are going well w/ Manufacturing as we try to speed things up. Art prints have arrived w/ Lindsey and she has signed them - they look great!

Manufacturing Update

We're actively working with Gameland on getting our initial sample put together. Most things are moving along well, but the time zones (US to China) and Labor Day delayed a couple feedback loops. We are testing a few things with them, including how we want the tuck box for the main game to work. Based on feedback from players, the tuck box will be slightly oversized for the main game, which will allow those with the expansions to slide their cards into so everything is together. Based on what we are hearing, this won't be a problem for gamers who only have the core game - the field guide will have more room to breathe.

Here are the current designs we're almost final on (note: the white nothing on the lower-right is where a UPC will be):

 This extra breathing space will be useful, because the Field Guide is now 24 pages of goodness! A lot of work has gone into honing the language in the Field Guide to support new Game Masters and encourage players to extend their creativity. Once we get the PnP files all setup the way we like them, we'll also include an update to the Field Guide for everyone who backed at the corresponding levels.

Art Prints are ON THE MOVE

Here's a quick snapshot of the Art Prints at Lindsey's home before she signed them. They are shortly making their way to Texas where we'll keep them safe and sound in preperation for fulfillment. Lindsey told us that the prints look fantastic - see for yourselves!

NOTE: a few of those specific prints are for our "Get in the Game" backers, which is why they may not look familiar. 

I'll be back in a couple weeks with another update. Should be significant!

Courage!

Jeff @ Guardian Moon Games

Status Report (2019.08.20) - Destination Danger Files are COMPLETE! Manufacturing this week.
over 4 years ago – Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 12:38:21 AM

Tl;dr: Files are complete and will be submitted to the manufacturer this week! Print & Play update will go out after manufacturing copies are sent out. Project retrospective will be forthcoming once manufacturing is complete

Files Complete

Destination Danger is COMPLETE. All artwork and layout designs are ready for manufacturing and will be submitted this week. See below for more details on why our timing was impacted once again, but we are thrilled to have arrived at a final product. The team has really dedicated themselves to making the best product they can, especially in consideration of the personal difficulties that impacted our project timeline, so we really hope you're all pleased.

Each of the items, characters, campaigns, and maps has come out looking really stunning. We're excited to see what the sample looks like in the coming weeks - we know it won't be perfect, but it will give us a really solid indication of what the final look and feel will be. 

We will keep everyone posted as we receive feedback from Gameland (our manufacturing partner) and have our eyes on samples to approve for final manufacturing. We've received some assurance we can expedite the samples to get a final approval done pretty swiftly as Gameland has been extremely understanding of some of the personal circumstances impacting this project and very supportive of helping us make up some time!

Updated Print and Play Forthcoming

With artwork and everything complete, an updated Print and Play will be sent out to everyone who backed the project at the appropriate levels. We need to format and adjust everything to the manufacturers templates first, then we'll make sure everything is in a PnP friendly layout for everyone. This will also include the finalized version of the Field Guide in the format it will be manufactured in. 

Thank You & a Forthcoming Retrospective

I want to thank all of you for your patience with us on this project. I also want to make special mention of those who reached out privately in DMs and via other means to wish our team the best as a few members have dealt with multiple, extremely difficult life circumstances. I always struggle with how much I should open the curtain to the inner workings of our small band of creatives...but I'll do my best to be both transparent and respectful. 

After the last update when we felt we were lined up for imminent success, a member of our team dealt with a life threatening situation in their immediate family that consumed their time and attention for several weeks. These types of things happen in any company, and the right thing to do is to support individuals and their families - they are why we do what we do. In large organizations, it can be a bit more straightforward to find someone to help step in and move work forward while the individual impacted is unavailable. In a small company, where everyone has a specialized skillset, that is significantly more difficult. In a brand new company with limited industry contacts on top of that, it can be devastating to a project timeline.

I've chatted with a few acquaintances in the indie game development community over the last couple weeks, and they each suggested that the first project always introduces more unknowns than you could possibly imagine. It makes perfect sense, I guess we always just want to believe that OUR project will be different... The key is to learn as much as possible so you're better setup for success in the future. With that in mind, the team is going to hold a thorough retrospective on the whole project once we've gotten through fulfillment and we will share the outcomes of that with all of you.

We're nearly there!!!

Jeff @ Guardian Moon Games 

Status Report (2019.07.04) - Final steps to Manufacturing
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Jul 05, 2019 at 02:53:40 AM

Tl;dr: We are finalizing everything for manufacturing. Some amazing artwork. 

Progress Update

I will start with all of the good news: the Field Guide, and the artwork and maps for the expansions are being finalized by our layout designers for manufacturing. They are also doing a final pass on the core game to tighten up a few things, then we are off to manufacturing. We are partnering with Gameland, who have a great track record and are doing a ton to help us get Destination Danger over the finish line. We are excited to work with them, and they have agree to some very aggressive manufacturing timelines - things look really good.

Wait, wasn't Destination Danger supposed to be at manufacturing already?

You may remember that we hoped to be at manufacturers several weeks ago. Between then and now, life happened and we were delayed. The game is still happening and we are right about there, but we did not meet our timeline and we are incredibly sorry for that. There are multiple reason why we missed our planned timeline (including a few that are intensely personal for a few members of our extended team, which I won't be sharing)... 

Speaking personally, as I am comfortable sharing my own failures in managing the project, I did not effectively build enough buffer into our timeline, accounting for the challenges that are likely to impact any game during development. Our initial timeline was very aggressive, and even our amended timeline was naive (both my fault). At a minimum, I should have planned on similar delays to ones we experienced pre-campaign (on our extended team) and my wife was having a baby in June (our third boy) which is a momentous life occasion that would certainly need my attention. The timeline, as shared in our campaign and in updates, was flawed and I personally take the blame for that. I am sorry.

We are thinking through some options for something we can throw into each of your shipments as an additional thank you for your support. We care a lot about the fact that we missed our timeline and are extremely sorry. I will provide a more precise and clear timeline for fulfillment once we have everything in Gameland's hands and we start dealing with more traditional logistics. 

Artwork

For those who love an artwork update, here are some character cards and maps for the expansions that have been finalized since our last update.

Thank You!

We are almost over the development finish line! We have made commitments to each of you and we are working toward fulfilling those as fast as we can. Until then, we'll do a better job of updating you all over the next few months - that's a commitment I will keep.

Courage!

Jeff @ Guardian Moon Games