Update #18 - Happy New Year!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 11:38:31 PM

Hello again to everyone out there in the Every-Verse.   I hope that everyone is managing to stay safe, and enjoying their holiday season.  It is time to check in with the good, the bad and all the rest.    Fray, like most Kickstarter projects has been a project that has incredible highs and some pretty low lows.  We were expecting to have been able to fulfill the project in October, and obviously that goal has been missed.   We thought we had lined everything up correctly, had a factory ready to go, a fulfillment partner ready to go and just needed to polish the rules and graphics files before firing away.   

Unfortunately, our fulfillment partner pulled out on us, leaving us to scramble to find a replacement, book ocean passage and handle some meaty logistics.  Our factory has been great, but has suffered some struggles of their own.  Prices have skyrocketed in both manufacturing and transportation.   Finally, the files gave us some headaches of their own to get just right.    

That is my doom and gloom description of what we have seen over the past months. 

Now for the good

We received word from Eastar that the models have been completed.  There are currently TONS of champions sitting around in the factory, waiting to get their fight on.  We are pretty excited by how they came out in the end and are eager to get them in their boxes, on the water and to your table.   This is by far the hardest component with the longest manufacturing lead time, so it is a huge victory. 

As we mentioned in the previous updates we had two big 'problems' on our hands.   1. That the costs of just about every piece of this project had gone up well beyond expectation and 2. We absolutely did not want to face trying to fulfill in the holiday season.  We had some experience from our other game last year that led to long lead times, lost packages and a just generally unpleasant experience for our customers and us.   

While the monetary problem has been a problem, it has allowed us to revisit the game obsessively to perfect files more and more.   To be very blunt, we had no choice but to wait to finish the project as we needed time to get the missing funding.  This, while frustrating in regards to our fulfillment timeline, has led us to a better and better game. 

At the moment I am currently doing final tweaks on the punchboard files.  Eastar and I have gone back and forth seemingly 50 times to try to get things just right.  It looks awesome.  

The timeline as it stands -

The most complicated components have been manufactured and are complete - the models, the dice are being done now and the cardboard components are next up.   The current tweaks that I am working on will be completed this weekend and sent over.   The factory will then send us one final set of proofs.  As soon as we say go, it can be done pretty quickly considering what is already complete.  We are expecting to have the proof of the punchboards approved and everything ready to fire in the next 3 weeks.   Unfortunately this means it is now impossible that we can get the containers on the water before Chinese New Year.   The plan is to have the factory finish running off these last components and assemble the game once they get back.  This means that the games can hit the water in late February/March, and actual fulfillment looks to begin in April. 

Believe me, we did not want to run 6 months behind on fulfillment.  We cannot express how much we have appreciate the support and genuine love we get from the community, the last thing that we wanted was to let our supporters down.   Your words have been encouraging and your patience is appreciated more than you can possibly imagine.   We love games, and we want to be able to keep making them for years to come.   We learned a lot of painful lessons in this campaign, some of which we could not have possibly seen coming.  

Future Updates

I have been too laxed on writing new updates because so much has been fluid for so long now.  I want to make a point to say that as this timeline progresses, I will be sending out updates every 3 weeks or so.  Hopefully they are all short and just say "we are exactly where we expected to be", but they will be coming.   

Thank you

Brian & The Brain Sandwich Games Team

October Update
about 3 years ago – Thu, Oct 07, 2021 at 12:26:52 AM

Hello everyone! We hope that everyone is staying healthy and safe out there. It is time for another update to keep you all posted with where we are at.

Production

We have had a bit of trouble communicating with the factory this past week due to a holiday, so our information is slightly dated, but we didn’t want to wait any longer to send the update. Production is being done in a couple phases, with the models being done first, then the other components and assembly. The models have been completed and the other components are in the works as we write this. We are pretty excited about this obviously as just the thought that there are a ton of Fray models waiting to take the field is encouraging.

We did catch a somewhat noticeable error in the rulebook layout that is being corrected this week and sent back to Eastar. We don’t expect this to slow production at all.

The hard truth

Mark and I have had a struggle on our hands pretty much since the campaign has ended given the current environment of the Kickstarter boardgame world and the world at large. Shipping delays, rising costs, a complicated production process, etc. This has led, as you are all aware, to us being delayed in the fulfillment of the game. As you have all put your trust into us, we wanted to be as transparent as possible about the problems that we are currently facing.

As you are all backers of Kickstarter projects, I am sure none of this will come as a surprise. You have probably heard it before in the updates of other projects. Simply put, the Fray project is operating at a loss as this point. Manufacturing costs have risen consistently over the past year and a half and the time from quote to engagement alone saw an unforeseeable 20% increase. Shipping is not helping the situation at all either. As many of you are well aware, container shipping is as much as 500% higher than it was when we were planning this out. We factored in the unknown. We didn’t factor in this much unknown.  This is an unprecedented time and if you, like us, are curious about how difficult a time this is for board game making and you want to kill a few minutes this article sums it up pretty well:

 https://time.com/6096497/board-games-shipping-crisis/?fbclid=IwAR2hDAX_Sqv-ym8PoAodGvzIFgUljAZO422KX0S-zAh7aB8mWtMlCSxUewU 

What this means for Fray…

Mostly, nothing.  We have discussed this at length and Mark and I are both committed to getting out the best possible game that we can to those that believed in us. We still very much believe in the project, even more so now after interacting with you all for so long and seeing the overwhelming support behind us. We made the decision a long time ago that no matter what, we would 1) of course fulfill this project and 2) not compromise the quality of the game in any way. Without going into too much personal detail, the ‘loss’ has been accounted for and will not disrupt production in any way.

What this means for you…

We have made a difficult decision, and we hope that we will not disappoint you all too much. It looks like production will be complete in time for fulfillment at the very end of the year.  For a few reasons, we have decided that we need to push fulfillment into 2022. First, the costs of fulfillment during the holiday season explode without the global environment that we are currently in, which just makes it all that much worse.  To be candid, we need to keep the out of pocket costs down as much as we can at this point. Second, and most importantly, fulfillment during the holiday season is an absolute nightmare. Last year our first project, which is in the retail pipeline, did extremely well with sales in December. Then the last mile delivery carriers lost or delayed about 15% of all of our shipments. Based on our own experience and the state of things, we think that a global fulfillment effort in the midst of the holidays would be nothing short of a disaster.

This translates to a Q1 2022 fullfilment.  We will be able to nail down a more exact date as we get closer.  

Ok Fine, but what about the surprise you teased?

In a previous update we briefly mentioned we were working on something to share.  We had a high level stretch goal in mind during the campaign for 3D plastic scenery to be included.  Unfortunately it didn't shake out and given all the costs we mentioned above there wasn't a way to fit it in to the game no matter how much we wanted to.  Since we already had all the artwork for the scenery tiles we came up with a solution.  We are partnering with a 3D print company who will be selling through their online store full plastic terrain models, sculpted from our artwork.  All the pieces are approved by our team and will be available on our partner's site closer to fulfillment for backers that may want to enhance their playing experience with officially licensed terrain.  

Lastly, we want to thank everyone for their patience.  We apologize that this is taking longer than we promised but we are doing everything we can to get the game in your hands as soon as is possible. We will report back soon with pictures from production!

Thanks,

The Brain Sandwich Team

Delays..we hate delays
over 3 years ago – Sun, Aug 08, 2021 at 02:51:53 AM

Greetings to everyone out there in the Every-Verse.  As many of you have already suspected, we come with sad tidings of manufacturing and shipping delays.  We were originally estimating that backers would  start receiving the game this month but unfortunately shipping will be delayed.  We were hoping to have a clearer picture of the timeline before we sent an update but we can't wait any longer so here's what we know:

When will you get the game?

Manufacturing is in progress and is scheduled to be completed in September.  At that point the freight will  await pick up by freighters which will take the games to the fulfillment centers in the US, EU, AU, CA etc where it will then ship to all backers.  Right now we are expecting that backers will start to receive their games by November. That is an estimate at the moment but we are doing everything we can to get the games out as soon as possible.

How did this happen?

The COVID-19 crisis has created a massive backlog, as it has with many other industries, in the global logistics world. If you've backed any other projects on Kickstarter during the pandemic then you're familiar with what's going on.  This situation is creating a lot of extra costs and delays but we are working through it.  

That said, we were hoping to have production completed by June instead of September.  Why was it delayed?  We said in a previous update that our manufacturing partner informed us that their facility in Guangdong, China was subjected to power rationing.  An impact that apparently stemmed from COVID.  This slowed down the process. A lot.  Furthermore we took extra time polishing and refining the game, adding a single player survival mode, and getting some extra art made for various components.  All in all we think the effort is going to really show once you get the game to your table.  The samples we have seen are amazing and we'll follow up with some pictures in the next update.  

Its also worth a mention that our original logistics partner dropped us.  We won't name names but that was a big blow to our plan and forced us to scramble to find a new partner to get the freight to the fulfillment centers where they ship out from.  We have a new partner and are coordinating with them for pick up when production is complete. 

We promise to follow up soon with more pictures of the game.  In the meantime, feel free to comment or message us with any questions.

- The Brain Sandwich Team

Minis - A closer look!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Jun 13, 2021 at 03:53:13 AM

Hope all is well out there in the Every-verse.   We have a few quick things to drop today.    In the last update we had promised that we would show a closer look at the proof models.  Included at the bottom of the update are close ups of each of the individual proofs for the core game, the stretch goal necromancer and the Kickstarter Exclusives.   We will put the reinforcement pack models in the next update when that comes around.  We hope you love them, we are very pleased with the level of detail that has been maintained throughout the whole process.  

With the models all but done, we are turning over the final graphic files for the rest of the game so that full on production can begin.  Production will begin soon and then it becomes a waiting game to get the shipping/fulfillment phase completed and backers around the world playing the game!  Again, we cannot express how grateful we are to each of you for your continued support.  

Per My Last Email

As many of you may or may not know, Fray is our second successful Kickstarter campaign; Our first being the office party game - Per My Last Email.   As our active work with Fray winds down, we wanted to let you all know that we are going to be heading back to Kickstarter in the near future with a 2.0 campaign for PMLE.  We are adding cards to the core game, and adding two new expansions decks - Work From Home and Customer Service.   Also, this time around, we will be opening the game up to backers outside of the United States.   It has been amazing to watch this game mature since its Kickstarter, and we look forward to supporting it with more content.  We hope to see some of you on that campaign when it launches.  If you are interested you can find the preview here, to be notified on launch.  

Now, lets get to the cool part.... 

The Models - Core Game

We'll be following up soon with more images from production and maybe even a surprise announcement 😊

- The Brain Sandwich team

Miniatures! Updates and Pictures
over 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 01, 2021 at 11:35:31 PM

 Hey everyone, some exciting news to go over today!  

Miniature Samples

The biggest part of manufacturing in terms of difficultly and effort is definitely the minis.  After a few minor changes to the original sculpts a complete batch were run off for our approval.  We took a couple of shots of the minis as we inspected them for the approval process.  Please, forgive our photography skills in the pictures that follow...

These are just a few pictures, we plan to follow up with yet another update in the very near future with each of the models one by one. 

      The models are just about final as you can see (one or two small tweaks still pending), and we are working with Eastar doing the back and forth with the rest of the printed components.   We expect to have this all complete by the end of the month, so that we can move into full production.   This puts us right on schedule in regards to fulfillment, at least at this point, but more on that at the end.  We CAN'T WAIT to get this game to you.   Since the campaign, all of the quality of life improvements we've made seem worthwhile, especially when looking at these miniatures.  We genuinely think that you will be happy with the final product and cannot thank you all enough for your patience.

These are some shots of all the models spread out on the game board itself.  

Here are the Kickstarter exclusives.  They are two of our favorite models of the whole bunch!

And the Necromancer and Zombie that were added in as a stretch goal.  

Manufacturing Challenges

Unfortunately it's not all good news.  This past week we received word from our manufacturer in China that their facility in Guangdong is now being subjected to power rationing.  We don't know what effect this is going to have on production.  Both Brain Sandwich and Eastar are doing everything we can to keep the fulfillment on schedule and at the moment we are still right on track and we feel pretty confident we'll be able to get through this without delay but we want to be transparent as possible so it warranted a mention.  We'll be keeping an eye on the whole process and we'll update accordingly.

We will be back with an update soon but in the meantime feel free to message us or comment if you have any questions. 

-The Brain Sandwich Team