Production is complete!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Aug 14, 2023 at 03:49:56 PM

Hi everyone,

A quick but important update.  The last few months we’ve been going back and forth with the printer to get the game components right.  Things like bleed and pantone colors and other frustrating stuff.  After getting it finally sorted, the factory went to work and we have now finished production on the entire order!  We’re in the endgame now…

Last Steps

The factory is sending us a final complete production unit to verify everything is 100% right.  Once that’s done the order will get ready to ship from China to our depot locations.  The freight should be at the shipping port in the next few weeks.  After that it takes about 5 weeks by ship to land at the warehouse.  From there the units will be sorted and shipped to all of the backers.  Our expectation would be that fullfilment will start in the fall, but timing is still uncertain. 

Once the games leave the factory we’ll let everyone know the final steps are beginning.  At that point we will close the pledge manager and lock in all the shipping addresses.  

Shipping

We don’t have concrete information on shipping specifics yet.  Shipping costs have run over our already exceeded budget and we are still figuring out the most effective way to ship the units.  There is still some work to do but now that the games are finished the hardest part is over.  We will do everything possible to make sure all of the games are delivered in roughly the same window to all backers.  We will have future updates on shipping when we know more.  

Note to Backers

We know many of you are frustrated by the very extended length of time this project has taken and some of you would have liked more regular updates along the way.  All we can say is that a long while back we solemnly promised that one day you would have the game, and now that production is complete, we can absolutely guarantee that you will.  

Thanks,

Bry, Mark and the whole Brain Sandwich team

Full Production Sample has arrived!
over 1 year ago – Tue, May 02, 2023 at 02:19:04 PM

Hello everyone!  Today we have a major milestone update.  The factory sent us a full prototype of the main game, the reinforcement pack and the kickstarter exclusive pack (so basically everything).  We unboxed it and took a bunch of photos to show off.  Without further ado:

Everything came out as good as we hoped.  There was a few minor things we’ve asked the factory to fix, such as modifying a few slots in the tray inserts so a couple minis aren’t so snug, etc.  We also asked to include plastic bags to keep components stored.  Mostly all little things.  Overall we are very pleased with how the final product has turned out.

Final Timetable

We’ve hit critical mass in terms of completing and delivering this project to everyone.  The factory is pushing us to finalize a few last details so we can wrap up production as soon as possible.  Right now as things stand we are expecting the games to be on their way from the facility to the shipping port by mid/end June.  From there they’ll be making the journey to everyone’s home so hopefully we’re looking at a summer fulfilment.  More information to follow in the next update.

- The Brain Sandwich Team

Still At It
over 1 year ago – Thu, Mar 09, 2023 at 06:17:12 PM

Hello Everyone,

Not much new to report but we wanted to make sure everyone knows were still plugging away.  

We really appreciated the positive and encouraging responses we received on the last update.  Thank you all of your patience and understanding.

As far as updates go we had some set backs, including a long illness that slowed up our progress.  We finally got all the files through after maybe 7 more rejections on various card files and we expect ***fingers crossed*** that they will produce the final proof in short order.  This sample will be identical (barring any undiscovered issues) to the final product.  As soon as it gets shipped we’ll do a full break down of pictures and post them in the next update.

Thanks again.

- The Brain Sandwich Team

Pictures, Updates and Real Talk
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Jan 07, 2023 at 09:05:33 PM

Hello,

We hope everyone had a nice holiday season.  We got a few updates from the factory.  Here are some pictures they sent us:

We are very pleased with the quality of the samples.  Everything looks great so far and there’s not much left to go.  We should have pictures of the item cards and player boards soon so we’ll include them in the next update.

Real Talk

We have seen a lot of critical comments about delays and lack of information.  Trust us, we are sympathetic to your frustrations.  We’ve seen comments comparing the speed of fulfilling our campaign to other larger (and much more successful campaigns).  On the surface it may be confusing as to why this is taking so long, despite the delays that resulted from COVID in both manufacturing and shipping.  With all of those setbacks we would never have been able to deliver this under the original estimated timetable, but we could have gotten all this done faster than we have.  So why didn’t we?  

Well, money, to put it plainly.  Despite the fact this campaign funded, after you take into consideration development expense (cost for things like artwork, prototypes, etc.), pre-launch and post-launch marketing expenses, the fact that this was a relaunch of a campaign that was originally unsuccessful (additional sunk marketing costs), Kickstarter’s cut of the proceeds, Stripes cut for transactional fees, the backers whose credit cards were declined, the increase to manufacturing because of COVID, and the 500% increase to shipping (which is finally down to about pre-COVID numbers) once the game is in your hands we would have lost thousands and thousands of dollars.  

We ordered 1000 units to be produced because that was the factory minimum.  After we get the game out to our 788 backers, if we sell all remaining copies at full MSRP (and do so at a modest ad spend) then the project will more or less break even... maybe.  So, how did this cause delays?  Well, for starters, that rulebook you’ve heard about in previous updates, we had to do most of the graphic design work ourselves.  We had hired designers to finish it, but weren't satisfied and have been going through edits. None of us are graphic designers.  It has taken us months longer to do then it probably should have.

So it cost us time.  And even if it didn’t, we still couldn’t have shipped the games.  The cost of shipping has been too inflated.  We are finally seeing reasonable numbers that will allow us to move forward with our shipping plans, plans that wouldn’t have been possible 6-12 months ago.

In retrospect we should have canceled the campaign after it finished and refunded all the pledges but back then we didn’t know what we didn’t know.  Rest assured, we were and still are committed to not collapsing the campaign and to fulfill our obligations.  We are working on how to get the game to you and we aren’t going anywhere.   Despite all of the challenges, despite the loss, despite everything we 100% will fulfill this project.   

When will you be getting the game then?  We don’t honestly know, not 100%.  It will be soon though.  We still have a few hurdles to cross before we can get these games from the factories to your front porch and until we cross those hurdles we can’t accurately predict delivery timing.  But we will cross them and it will be sitting on your porch as soon as possible.   

All of this being said.  We are close.  Very close.   We have approved almost every sample.  The factory has run off almost all of the components.  There is very little left to manufacture before we navigate the logistics of getting shipments complete.   

Thanks for reading this and we hope it sheds some light on the challenges we are facing to bring this game to life.  We’ll be back soon as we can with more news.

Thanks,

The Brain Sandwich Team

Still in Printing
about 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 02, 2022 at 01:41:25 AM

Hello Everyone,

We have progressed since the last update but not as far as we expected.  Our revised estimates from May projected we would be done with the final print run by October.  Unfortunately we are still in the printing phase.  After many rejections on different components (rulebook, we’re looking at you), it seems like we are finally past all the graphic design work that has hampered us.  

We said in the last update we were trying to get the game to backers this fall and we did everything we could to make that happen but it’s not feasible at this point.  Current trajectory has us finishing printing sometime between now and mid December.  After that we start fulfilment and we’re working on getting a revised schedule for that.  

We hoped to include final pictures from production in this post but we should be able to include them soon.  We know we’ve tested (and continue to test) the patience of many of you but thank you for hanging in there. 

Thank you.  

-The Brain Sandwich Team