Exploriana - The board game of exploration and discovery.

Shipping Update
over 4 years ago – Mon, Sep 02, 2019 at 07:33:05 PM

Apologies for the delay in this update, but we've had to get our information right for this one. This is because it's unfortunately about a delay in itself. As I mentioned before, we were confident that everything would arrive in time, but that if anything could go wrong, it might be the minis for the deluxe pledge. That concern has realised itself, and is going to put us back until the end of the month. 

The Minis

We've been working with the manufacturer of the minis, and have found some ways to speed things up, but we're still behind where we'd like to be. As you can see from the photos below, we're at an early stage, although the figures are looking great! I know we've said it before, but we really would much rather get this right than give you guys something sub-standard. Word Forge are known for the quality of their miniatures, and unfortunately this takes time.  

What does this mean for shipping?

We have decided not to go for split shipping, as it inevitably causes problems both ends, and is unrealistic for this size of project. We will be shipping all pledge levels at the same time, and we are ready to go with all the other components, so as soon as the figures arrive with us, we'll be able to start sending packages out. 

If you do have any address changes, then please do send them through to us in a private message and we'll make sure anything is handled. We've had a few so far, and it's not a problem at all to let us know. 

Thank you all for your patience, we're looking forward to getting the game to you and seeing it on tables!

Thanks, Dicky

Manufacturing Update!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Aug 01, 2019 at 12:46:31 AM

This is a quick update to let you know where we are with everything, and thankfully we're on schedule! The games should arrive with us around the end of August, and once we have them we'll be able to start the process of packing and shipping everyone's packages. 

Cloth Bags

We've finalised our manufacturer, and are finishing up the details of the design. We're on schedule to have these before the games reach us, and will post pictures as soon as we have them! The cloth bags will be used to hold lost explorers, and better randomise which ones are laid out!

Enamel Pins

We've received our first samples, and are so happy with the way they've turned out! 

As you can see, they're nice and chunky, and will look great on any lapel or whatever you want to pin them onto! One will be included in every Trailblazer pack.

Resin Sculpts

The only thing that could feasibly hold us up is the resin sculpts, both of explorers and the relics. These are progressing as we'd want at the minute, but there are a fair few steps that we still need to go through, and so we're keen to make sure that these are the deluxe components we promised. We'll do our best to make sure that this is the case without holding up the process too much!

Events

We're still trying to spread the word on Exploriana, and so will have demo copies out and about from time to time. This weekend, we'll be at Yogscon in Bristol, with two copies to play along with our good friends Chance & Counters Boardgame Cafe. I'd like to emphasise that there will be no copies for sale, just demo copies! Later on in the year we'll be at Dragonmeet, and we may have even more exciting news on this front for the next update!

Thanks as always for being patient with us, we're committed to getting you this game looking and playing the best it can be, and hopefully I might see a few of you at the weekend in Bristol!

Dicky

Manufacturing and other processes
almost 5 years ago – Wed, Jun 19, 2019 at 01:23:39 AM

Hi all, 

This is the time in the campaign where things naturally slow down in terms of information. This happily is a case of no news is good news, and we can report that things are on schedule, and we'll be delivering on time if not earlier. 

Manufacturing

As you can see, we're entering the final processes of the game being made. We've seen a few copies, and they look fantastic, and our only problem with the quality control sample was a couple of bruised boxes from the journey. We're in contact with Longpack to make sure as much as is possible that this doesn't affect any more copies. 

Kickstarter exclusives

Longpack are our manufacturers for the retail version of the game, and whilst this is almost finished, there are a couple of things that are still progressing for your exclusives. We're waiting on samples for elements of the Trailblazer pack, namely the enamel pin and stickers, and once we've okayed these samples, manufacting for these should be fairly straightforward and swift. 

WordForge games have also started work on the resin sculpts, and we're really excited to see how these turn out. Realistically, these will take a little longer to finish, as we want to make sure they are of the highest quality possible, so quality control may take a little longer. As I previously mentioned, even with these taking a while, we are still on schedule, and aiming to deliver on time. 

Shipping

Once the retail games are in our hands, we will lock the addresses in Backerkit. Please do make sure your address is up to date, you still have some time to change it, once we're due to lock them we'll post another update giving you guys some warning. 

Thanks, Dicky

Stands, Samples, and Surveys!
almost 5 years ago – Sat, May 04, 2019 at 03:33:48 PM

Welcome back! As promised, we’re back a little sooner than usual, with a big bumper update for you all! We’ll be looking at our first sample of the game, letting you all know about our plans for the UK games Expo, and clearing up any lingering confusion with pledge managers and surveys!

An ample sample!

The first thing we have to say is that apart from a couple of tiny issues, we’re really happy with this! The cards look great (these were not linen finished, although the cards in the full game will be), and all of the artwork really pops! The player pieces have a really nice finish, and the colours are exactly what we wanted. 

There are a couple of issues, mainly to do with some of the lost explorer tokens being offset, but otherwise, we’re happy that this set has been a success and we can proceed without expecting any delays! 

UKGE

Seeing the sample has made us even more excited to head to the expo, we can’t wait to show off the game and get you guys playing! There’s been such an evolution of the game since its first expo three years ago, it’ll be fascinating to hear what you guys think of the developments and if you guys love them as much as we do! 

We’ll be in Hall 1 with plenty of tables free, and the whole team there, ready to teach you the rules and get games underway quickly! We’ll also have display tables set up so that if you’ve got a packed weekend of gaming planned, you’ll still be able to pop by and check out the game without it taking too much time!

Investing in a large stand was a big decision, and with this in mind, we’ve managed to secure a limited number of copies to sell on the stand. They will be standard retail copies only. The version that all our backers are receiving will include the Kickstarter exclusives and to be clear the deluxe edition is still being made so these will only be ready to send to backers after UK Games Expo.  We’ve made this decision purely to cover the costs of being at the expo, which are not insignificant. It was a decision not made lightly, and we hope you can understand the reasoning behind it.  We are still on schedule to get your copies to you earlier than planned, and will continue working hard to keep this the case. If you see us at the stand, feel free to come have a chat and get a progress report in person, we’ve really appreciated your support, so it’d be nice to throw a couple of personal thank yous your way! 

Survey Solutions

We’ve had a couple of people asking about changing addresses, you’ll be able to do this until we lock the addresses at [approximate date]. We’ll be sure to give you guys plenty of notice before that happens.

For any other problems regarding surveys and pledges, let me know via [email protected] and we’ll attempt to resolve them as quickly as possible. 

Just a small one
about 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 09:34:39 AM

Hi there, 

As the title suggests, this is just a quick update as we'll hopefully have a bigger one next week! We're in a bit of a lull at the minute waiting on our manufacturer, but we're also gearing up for a busy few months! 

We expect to see samples very soon, and then assuming they're ok, it's all go from there! There'll be much more on this in the next update. 

In other news, I'm sure that loads of you will be getting very excited with the UK Games Expo coming up! I'm very excited to announce that the whole team will be there in force! We'll be demoing the game, we'll have loads of tables set up so that you can play, we'll basically be letting the world know about this game of getting to know the world! We look forward to seeing you all there, the Expo has a special place in our hearts, because we always get such good feedback from you guys, it'll be nice to see some familiar faces and great to welcome some new ones to the Exploriana family!

See you there, Dicky