Production Progress, PM Opens for North America!
about 2 years ago – Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 06:56:47 PM

Dear backers,

We have a bunch of updates and we're excited to share them with you!

Artwork and Components

After some discussion within the team, we have revamped the artwork of the Item Cards, Geisha standees, guest tokens, and Geisha Row Cards to make the colors easier to distinguish and stand out more.  The print files are coming together step by step.  Here are some photos to share with you!

Shipping Costs and Weight

Since our last update, there are some backers asking why the shipping costs are higher than our estimated numbers shown in the KS campaign.  We apologize for the increase, but the primary reason is the weight increase.  With all the unlocked stretch goals (promo cards, tiles, inserts, a package for the 7 mini-expansions, score sheets, wooden meeples & tokens, calendar, etc.), the total weight for "Everything Hanamikoji" (the most popular pledge level) with padding and box is over 1.5 kg, which is way heavier than the original weight when we launched the campaign.  And although they are all considered "small box" games, the "Everything EmperorS4" package actually weighs about 2.4 kg.

A secondary reason is that the quoted prices have gone up.  As mentioned before, we have tried to save on costs by looking to go through consolidated ocean freight rather than air (which has also gone up).  Unfortunately, in the first week of April, we received an updated quote for the ocean freight from our forwarder - it shows a 50% increase in ocean freight cost!  We had to re-calculate the shipping fees and asked for new quotes from 3 more forwarders, but the prices are similar.  It's clear that the ocean freight is not ready to come back to "normal" in 2022.

We're sorry about the increased shipping cost.  However, the primary reason is the final KS version is upgraded with so many goodies due to all of your support.  Despite the "small box", we packed it with tons of artwork & components and even more games.  Because of that, we hope you'll be pleasantly surprised by the value you're getting even in light of the shipping costs.

PM opens for the US, Canada, and Mexico

We want to apologize for the delayed opening of the Pledge Manager (PM) to our North American backers.  As mentioned, some of the delays are due to our surprise in getting higher pricing and us having to do additional homework to see if there are other options.  

We will open the PM for backers in the US, Canada, and Mexico today. The Late Pledge (aka the Pre-Order store on the BackerKit page) will be open to people who missed our KS campaign.  Please share with your gaming community if you think someone might be interested in our games. :)

The PM for Europe and the rest of the world will be ready soon afterward.

Rules Update

We have wrapped up most of the playtesting and have finalized the base ruleset, which includes further streamlining.  In particular, we plan to include 3 game modes: Introductory (without guest tokens), Standard (with guest tokens), and Advanced (guest tokens + Counteroffer token + Hidden Offer token (New! Stay tuned for more details).  Expansion rules from the goodies are also finalized, and you should be able to mix and match almost all of them (Hanamikoji Action Tiles mini-expansions) with the Standard game mode.  We plan to share the details via our Designer Diary in our next update.  You'll be able to get the scoop on all the exciting news then!

Thank You!

Last but not the least, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all backers by sharing this KS-exclusive designers' thank-you card.  We are very thankful for all of your support and patience and want to make you a proud backer of this campaign!

Happy Gaming!

Smoox, Jerry, & Eros

PM Opens for ASIA, AUS, and NZ. Notes for Retailers & Group Orders.
about 2 years ago – Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 01:27:31 AM

Dear backers,

PM for ASIA, AUSTRALIA, and NEW ZEALAND

We have opened the Pledge Manager for backers in all Asian countries as well as in Australia and New Zealand.  Meanwhile, the Pre-Order Store (aka Late Pledge) on BackerKit is also open to the above-mentioned regions now.  The Late Pledge will contain all the stretch goals unlocked during the Kickstarter campaign.  It's your friend's last chance to get all the goodies at the best price!  :-)

The proxy email accounts of APPLE PAY

If you used APPLE PAY to back the campaign, please send us a private message to change your communicating email to ensure you won't miss future emails from us. ;)

PM for US & CANADA this week, EUROPE next week

We will open the PM and Late Pledge for the US and Canada later this week and for the backers in Europe & rest of the world next week.  Stay tuned!

PM is scheduled to be closed before the end of April.  We will send reminders to you in case you might miss the deadline. 

The production is still on schedule but there are lockdowns happening in several cities in China recently.  We are not sure if the delivery of our outsourced materials will be delayed.  If there are any changes in the schedule we will let you know in a timely manner.

Retailers & Group Orders

We found that using the BackerKit system for retailers is not as smooth as we thought.  So we would like to ask you to place your order in a conventional way through emails.  When your PM region is open, please send us the list of items you want and we will take care of your order from there.

Best,

Smoox, Jerry & Eros

PM opens for JAPAN and KOREA. Other regions soon to follow.
about 2 years ago – Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 03:58:51 AM

Dear backers,

We will open the Pledge Manager for backers in Japan and South Korea today. Meanwhile, the Pre-Order Store (aka Late Pledge) on BackerKit is also open to people in Japan and South Korea now.  For any of your friends in these regions who are late to the Kickstarter campaign, please let them know that now is a good time to join in!  :-)

If everything goes well, we will open the PM and Late Pledge for all other Asian countries next week, and for the backers in the US and Canada the week after that (end of March). We would love to open the PM up for our European backers as well, but due to the invasion in Ukraine, fulfillment conditions in Europe are currently in flux.  We will open the PM for Europe when we confirm the situation with our fulfillment partners.  

Once the PM for your region opens, we will notify you by sending out the survey to your backer email and also posting it as an Update to catch your attention.

We are saddened by the tragedy in Ukraine and we know what it's like to live next to a superpower neighbor.  To offer our support, we will be conducting a charity sale on the Taiwan Boardgame Design (TBD) website where the profits of the proceeds will go to the government-run charity drive.  Click here to know more.

Stand with Ukraine for world peace,

Smoox, Jerry, & Eros

HAPPY NEW YEAR OF THE TIGER! (And Pledge Manager updates)
over 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 02, 2022 at 02:06:49 AM

Dear backers,

Happy New Year of the TIGER! 

While you are reading this update, our team is celebrating the Lunar New Year with families and friends and we’d like to send the festival spirit to every one of you.  We wish you all the best in the Year of the Tiger, as we say out loud “虎年行大運！” (Great fortune in the Year of the Tiger!)

It’s been another rocky year behind us, and the future is not as bright as we might have imagined… Some of you may have heard that two major game/toy conventions, NY Toy Fair and Nuremberg Toy Fair, had been canceled due to COVID19, again! Games Festival in Cannes is still in plan (Have you checked out the nominee list for As’Dor?), but we have canceled our original plan to attend the festival. (I missed the sunshine on the beach in Cannes in 2019 so much!)

The pandemic has changed the industry (and our life, of course) so much. We can only hope that with the vaccination and booster jabs, we can coexist with the virus peacefully (?) in the end.

Playtesting Progress

Over the past few weeks, playtesting has continued both in person and via Tabletopia. We have made good progress on better defining the gameplay rules (e.g., geisha growth values, geisha powers, rules around rainbow guests) set out as part of the stretch goals as well as continued to streamline some of the original rules and components based on the feedback received. We look to share more details via updates, designer diary entries, and draft rules later this month, as well as updating the version on Tabletopia for you all to try!  Would love to get your feedback later!

The shipping quotes are increased for 2022...

On shipping, we have good news and bad news.

The good news is that we will have fulfillment hubs in the US and Europe, as we have promised during the Kickstarter campaign. This means that our backers in Europe no longer have to deal with handling VAT fees themselves, and potentially lower rates versus air shipment.

However, the bad news is that we recently received new shipping quotes from both hubs and the fulfillment prices will go up by around 10% in 2022.

During the KS campaign, we hoped for steadier or even “re-normalized” future shipping costs. But apparently, COVID-19 is causing new trouble for everyone…

With the new quotes, we need to re-evaluate the shipping costs and reach out to a few more fulfillment companies if needed. Since our fulfillment will begin in May. Maybe there is still time for some good news to happen... (fingers crossed)

The 1st wave of Pledge Manager opens for backers in Japan and Korea soon 

For the ease of our first hand-on experience of the BackerKit PM system, and the fact that we need to recalculate the shipping costs for the US and Europe (the majority of the backers), we decide to open the PM to backers in Japan and Korea first. During the first wave of PM, we might find some bugs to fix or some options to be adjusted. And then we will open the PM for other regions step by step. This can help us get things done at a less pressured pace.

So, backers from Japan and Korea should receive our emails inviting you to create for log in to your BackerKit account and then modify your pledge level and pay for the shipping fees. Your pledges will be shipped by air from Taiwan directly, which is the most robust and cost-effective method for fulfillment in Asia.

Playmat will be available in a separate online shop rather than in the PM system.

For those of you who are eager to get the playmat in the PM, we are sorry to tell you that we need to move the purchase of the playmat to a separate site from the PM.

The main reason is that shipping a 75 x 45 cm playmat along with the relatively small boxes of Geisha’s Road and stretch goals will only make the overall shipping costs higher than if we ship them separately. (The Odd dimensions of the package, extra paddings, and higher potential of damaged packages, etc.)

• For North American backers, we might ship the playmat in its own cardboard package by air to you directly from Taiwan. But we need to check the new fulfillment quotes to see if they can ship the long-shaped package at a reasonable cost.
• For European backers, we might ask our hub to deliver the playmat in its own package to you to save you from dealing with the VAT and customs by yourself. 
• For backers in Asia, Oceania, and the rest of the world, we will ship the playmat to you directly from Taiwan, which is the most cost-effective way.

We will keep you posted once we have the math done. And we will show you the design of the playmat in the next update. :)

May 2022 Fulfillment is still the plan 

Although we re-schedule our PM in a step-by-step mode, we are still on track for May fulfillment! Thank you all for your patience and understanding especially with regards to shipping cost challenges - you have all been an exceptionally reasonable group thus far and we have been blessed to have you as part of our first campaign!

Once again, wish you all a very happy, healthy, and fruitful YEAR OF THE TIGER!

More pictures to come in the next update!

~Smoox, Jerry, & Eros

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jan 06, 2022 at 01:58:34 AM

Dear backers,

HAPPY 2022!

It's been a weird year (again) because of the COVID ERA... But we made it though!

Looking back on 2021, we hope everyone can learn something from this experience, and stay safe and positive at the start of 2022! After spending some time with families in the holiday season, we are have refueled and are getting ready to tackle the road ahead. 

This is meant to be a relatively short update - the bottom line is that we still aim for the fulfillment of Geisha's Road project in May 2022.  We plan to provide a more comprehensive update around the Lunar New Year (Feb 1), but here are the highlights since the campaign ended:

1. Game design is in its final stages

Jerry and Eros are working on the final tweaks of the unlocked gameplay related stretch goals. In fact, we just had some open playtests in Smoox's 3-day annual gathering of friends. Feedback has been great so far and we will schedule some online plays after we revise the settings on Tabletopia.  We look forward to playing with you soon!

2. Artworks from Maisherly are coming in

Maisherly has been busy creating new artwork for the guests, while our graphic designer is working on the layout and graphic design of the new components. We will reveal more images when they are ready. Below are the illustrations of a few guests from Maisherly. If Eros allows, we will post more photos on Twitter. :)

3. Fulfillment partners are under negotiation

We have reached out to several fulfillment companies and have also been approached by some logistics professionals to figure out the best ways to deliver across the different regions. Currently, we are waiting for some production samples to get the package weight and dimensions estimate so that we can calculate the shipping costs based on the matrix provided by different shippers. 

This process unfortunately is taking longer than we expected. However, we want to be as exhaustive as we can here to explore the options and try to save shipping costs for all of you. We plan to lock our shipping plans before Lunar New Year so that we can open the Pledge Manager in February.

4. Pledge Manager and Late Pledge is scheduled to open in February

At the end of January, we will post a more detailed update about the latest progress. We will also open the Pledge Manager by then and you will be able to change your pledge level, adjust add-ons, and confirm/revise your shipping address. The Late Pledge will also be available for people who missed the campaign. The PM will be open until late March. After that, the production will begin and the aim of fulfillment in May is still in the plan.

Thanks for your patience. We're always in Discord and on Twitter. Feel free to contact us anytime. If everything feels right, then we will see you in the next update!

~Smoox, Jerry, & Eros