A dragon-themed tile exploration game that bites back! Grow your dragon, learn unique skills, and hoard the most gold to be victorious!
Hey guys.
I don't have anything new to share at this time, but as promised I have some more samples we got from the printers.
Happy New Year everyone. Hope everyone had a good Christmas holiday. Sorry for the delayed update, but from here on out I will do my best to keep the every 2 weeks (Give or take a couple days) schedule.
So this past week got sent pictures of sample from the printers before everything is finalized for the printing run. Not everything is settled on the colors yet, but here are a couple of the images for your viewing pleasure.
What do you all think? I have some more images, but I will save them for the next update, just in case there is not enough progress in between now and then.
Hi all,
Many of you have stated that you would like more regular updates, even if not much has changed as far as progress goes.
I have decided that for the duration of this project we will post a new, regular update every two weeks.
I am away for work for the next week, but for the next update (December 14) I will prepare a financial report for you all. This way you can see where the money you gave is going. Above all I want this to be transparent, even if it has been a struggle, and I have made poor decisions. You guys deserve to know.
More of you are starting to ask about getting refunds now. This is very understandable considering how things are going. We cannot give refunds at this point as we are already short funds. If I started refunding people at this time we would not even have a chance to complete the project.
Michael posted a update in the comments. Here it is.
"Things are moving along at Glacial speed as per usual with this project. It seems like there is always another snag as we get closer. Nothing major but there are a few differences in our files from what they quoted us so they are needing to "update" their pricing again. Hopefully we can get this resolved quick and get some actual production samples made soon."
Now, it is extremely disheartening to have to post updates when there is nothing to update you on. I know you all want to know when there is progress, but you will all have to be patient on that front, as we also have to be. The only other option is for me to post a weekly "Nothing new to update" post.
In my last update I was all excited about Panda's cheaper rates and had decided to go with them for printing. However, after this I discovered that not only is their minimum qty for miniatures 2000 copies, they jack up the price significantly if you want any less than the minimum 1500 copies of the game.
The miniatures in this game, while I thought I had figured out everything I needed to, have completely blind sided me. Kickstarter does not allow us, as a Canadian company to run our campaigns in US funds, even though all of my bills end up being USD. While the US dollar/ CAD dollar conversion is a major thorn in my side, the miniatures have been what has broke me. So badly did I want them to work, I was going to go ahead against all reason, until I sat down again and actually crunched the numbers. Even without making any miniatures, I will have a significant shortfall, around $20,000 CAD depending on what the dollar does in the next month or so. This will come out of my own pocket (more accurately the banks). If I decided to say yes to the miniatures right now I don't think I could even loan enough money to pay for them. I have a good day job and make decent money, but I am the only income in my household as my wife is the champion of our house and takes care of our kids.
I wasn't sure how much information to share with you, the kickstarter raised a large amount of money, and I feel terrible that everything is costing more than I had planned on. That being said, you supported me and you should know how things stand.
I have signed a contract with Bangwee to make 1000 copies of the game without any miniatures, 800 deluxe, and 200 standard. Files should be there shortly and then printing shouldn't take long. This will cover all of the Kickstarter orders and leave a few for spares, defects ect. There will not be a retail version as it stands today, you will have the only copies.
Since we have already invested a substantial amount of your money into sculpts I really want to find a way to make these minis come to life. The only option I can come up with is for me to mold them and make them myself. This will require an injection molder (which I can get fairly reasonably if I go with a manual one), and molds, which I can make. ( I also know a few guys who can help me with this potentially.)
With your blessing, I would like to try running a campaign for just the miniatures, which would hopefully raise enough for an injection molder and materials to make the minis. This would mean you having to chip in extra funds to see the minis you already expected in your games. I just can't see any other way to make it happen without me going bankrupt or crazy.
If I do run another campaign, I may run it on Indigogo or some other platform as I just can't deal with the dollar exchange anymore.
As much as I love the games we have made, this industry, and the people I have met along the way, it has at times been extremely stressful and disheartening.
I have a couple of games that have been in the works for a while, but with how this one has gone, I don't know if I have the heart to make more. We will see I guess.
The big problem is money, it always is. I love this business, but trying to run this out of Canada, with the game industry being run in USD has run me close to giving up so many times. I even experienced my first anxiety attack at Gen Con in 2015 stressing about the cost of everything.
I can understand if you want to tear me apart, just realize that I have always had the best intentions, and will continue to fight to get this done. I have lost more sleep than I can count, and my family has suffered because of the stress. I know dawn comes in the morning, but sometimes it's awfully hard to see the light side.