We wanted to share a short progress update and explain where things are at with tooling, as this is the most important step before we can move into full manufacturing.
Tooling is the stage where we create the physical moulds that are used to make every part of The One Dice. These moulds shape the outer shell, the internal parts, and how everything fits together. Once they are finished, they are used over and over again to make every single dice. As a result, this stage must be completed properly. There is no shortcut here.
This part takes time because it is very hands on and very precise. The moulds are made, tested, adjusted, and tested again. Samples are produced, checked, and refined until everything feels right. Small details like how parts fit, how the dice feel in the hand, how durable it is, and how consistent every unit will be are all locked in at this stage.
If something is rushed here, it can cause problems later that cannot easily be fixed. Taking the time now means the final product will be reliable, consistent, and built to last. It also means that once we move into full production, we can do so with confidence instead of crossing our fingers.
While tooling is not the most exciting stage to look at from the outside, it is one of the most important steps in the entire process. This is where The One Dice truly becomes a finished product rather than just a prototype.
TOOLING PROGRESS
These photos show real progress behind the scenes, even if it does not look flashy yet. This is the stage at which The One Dice moves from a prototype to a product that can be manufactured at scale.
The detailed steel items within the are components of the injection mould tools, assembled to produce the complete tools. Some of the photos show a process of these tool parts being produced (ref image below) and other photos are of the finished tool cavities, used to produce the plastic form of the design.
Here the mould is inside the machine during a test run, where early sample parts are made to check fit and alignment.
This is another angle of the mould halves, showing how the parts will sit and release cleanly during production.
These cavities show where the dice parts will form, with the surfaces smoothed and checked for consistency.
This shows one half of the mould being machined, where the core shapes that form the dice parts are cut into solid metal.
This image shows a more refined mould section, where the main cavities are already shaped and being fine tuned.
The finished tools shown will be loaded into the injection moulding machines and used to manufacture all plastic and TPE elastomer components of the One Dice and Charging Case. You can see one of the tools fitted into an injection moulding machine, with some plastic parts still in situ.
This photo shows the mould installed in the production press, where pressure and alignment are tested before full production.
These metal blocks are the outer sections of the mould, which hold everything firmly in place while parts are being formed.
These metal blocks are the outer sections of the mould, which hold everything firmly in place while parts are being formed.
On the survey side, we are currently preparing everything behind the scenes. Surveys will be sent out in the next two to three weeks, so please keep an eye out for them. Our main focus at the moment is ensuring the tooling and manufacturing setup is completed correctly before we proceed to the next steps.
As always, thank you for your patience and continued support. We will keep you updated as we move forward.
If we hit £6,000 we'll be ordering more cassette tapes! This poll is to gather interest to help us decide how many tapes to order. Currently, the tapes are sold out, and were only available as part of the Caver's Bundle, which gives you all the physical and digital rewards available in this campaign.
Munchkin Second Edition is filled with updates, tweaks, and new additions. Vote below on the change that has you itching to Kick Down the Door to Second Edition!
January's coming to an end soon, we were a little too aggressive in our timelines. Since our last update, we had to figure out a small issue on the manufacturing-side for the sarcophagus boxes.
Everything has been resolved. However, we had to get a new final sample to approve. Here are some images of it + a quick video of a manufacturing-run sample. Our factory has told us that they will be shipping before the Chinese New Year, but that still means around another 1-2 months before we are receiving product into our warehouse.
We're really proud of the product and decided to put in the extra time to make it right. We've also learned a lot about manufacturing deluxe wooden boxes so this sort of delay shouldn't happen in the future.
The next steps have not changed, and we will not be locking in addresses, until product is received in our warehouse. At that time we'll confirm addresses and lock in final shipping. Thank you again for your patience.
Thanks again for your support, and we'll be back with another update in February or March!
Hey friends, I apologize for the quiet - recovering from a discord hack and resulting reformat + full reinstall of the computer. We will be posting a full update next week, which we had hoped to get out before new years as mentioned earlier.
1) No game data / art / etc was lost. Just a bunch of my time, and the ability to make the PnP happen - I need my computer running properly for that.
2) The focus right now is on the extra game modes (Escape, etc) and the campaign system.
3) As always, if you want a refund, I can process that anytime. Send a message to [email protected] if you want out.
Munchkin Big Box was a historic event for us, made possible only by your support! Despite some significant shipping issues, our team and partners moved mountains to deliver Munchkin Big Box to over 9,000 backers and late pledges worldwide.
The Munchkin Big Box and Loot Box, exclusive to backers of this campaign, contained an amazing assortment of high-quality Munchkin swag and accessories to go with over 700 cards. We’re very proud of how this came together, and we want to thank our long-time manufacturing partner, GPI, for their assistance in creating everything you received.
Big Wins for the Big Box
As we mentioned earlier, the Munchkin Big Boxwas full of new records for us. This campaign attracted over 9,000 backers, more than 65% higher than any of our previous campaigns! We received comments and requests from backers to offer as many Munchkin add-ons as possible, and boy, did you show up for them. All told, we shipped out over 45,000 items to ~9,000 people. This averages about five items each, but not every backer was the same; some supporters dug deep and selected more than 30 add-ons from the store! And, not surprisingly, these were the most challenging to ship.
We also saw a lot of great feedback from those who had never held a Colossal D10. We said it was big – and we weren’t joking. Make sure you’re keeping that thing away from fragile items and properly using it as bragging rights at your next game!
Ouch!
We have a lot to be proud of with Munchkin Big Box, but nothing is perfect, and planning can only take you so far. We encountered some bumps along the way, and it’s essential to acknowledge them and improve going forward.
Throughout the Big Box campaign, we sought to find new ways to give munchkins exactly what they want . . . everything! We rolled out 20 stretch goals during the campaign, offering both upgrades (such as wooden Meeples) and all-new items (such as playmats and an art book). As you might expect, perfecting and manufacturing these new additions ate into the timing budget of our original estimates. Instead of fulfillment beginning in late 2024/early 2025, we were only just finishing manufacturing. . .
U.S. fulfillment for Big Box began in June 2025 and was completed in August, while international fulfillment started in July and proceeded through December. Unfortunately, the process took much longer than any of us expected, and we learned several lessons about both large and complex fulfillments. We also heard some feedback about the Fulfillment Update Thread. We wanted this thread to serve as a one-stop resource for the current status of fulfillment, and we appreciate the feedback we received from backers.
Munchkin Big Box Extra Items
Now that fulfillment has concluded, we’re in a better position to compile the final totals for the remaining extra items. We will then provide another update that includes a link to Warehouse 23, where Munchkin Big Box backers can browse through a limited selection of remaining inventory, such as a 200-pack of clear Munchkin Sleeves, the Five Playmat Set, Jumbo d6 Dice Set, and a few more items just for backers!
Thank you and as always, if you have any questions, please leave a comment below or visit our help site and send us a message.
- Darryll
And Now, A Note From Steve
Thank you, everyone, for making this such an awesome project. It's everything I dreamed of, and more. John knocked the art out of the park, the editorial and production staff gave it their best, and the support was overwhelming. A shout-out to BackerKit, too, for their good advice and hard work!
As you probably know, we're taking Munchkin into a second edition this year. It will still be the game you know, but it will start faster and finish a lot faster. But since you supported Big Box, one of your first questions is, "Did Steve just obsolete my whole collection?"
Short answer is NO.
Longer answer is NO, NO, NO!
Complete answer is that only one card, plus its variants – "Curse: Change Sex" – is truly obsoleted. Everything else you have is playable, and we've made up a guide for that. If you want to use your old card collection while taking advantage of the new, faster rules, you sure can. Your play mats are still good.
And the Second Edition crowdfund has something just for you, the Big Box owners. It's the Big Box Upgrade Set. It's going to provide the upgrade guide, two copies of the Second Edition rules, replacements for 50+ cards that were changed in important ways, a sheet of coins (yes, Gold Pieces are real now), and reference cards. And it's going to be cheap. It won't be going to stores; it's only part of the crowdfund. If you have it, you don't actually NEED the new edition. (We hope you want it anyway. We're not idiots. But we think the best way to sunset the first edition is to make sure you can play it as long and well as you like.)
Thanks again. See you at Gen Con for the release, I hope!
![DEADWEIGHT - [analog_survival_horror.rpg]](https://images.backerkit.com/active_storage/backerkit_production/blob/frf6238hax6wikfhl968f6o2xpxv?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&lossless=true&w=600)
