Hello everyone!I have been VERY busy with the launch of the Re;MATCH Kickstarter campaign, so I apologize for the lack of updates here.
There hasn't been much to share in the last month as we get closer and closer completion with manufacturing, particularly with the 3 week pause during Chinese New Year. But we are VERY close, so close in fact, that I will be locking your orders and collecting shipping fees in order to prepare to properly allocate POND to their respective shipping hubs.
But first, here is some pictures of the box and the box insert samples!
Very happy with how the box insert came out. The color is great, and the embossed logo just makes it feel super premium. Was definitely worth the extra cost imo. This is just a sample though, so the edge of the insert is hand cut. I posted these on instagram a month ago so you might've already seen these if you're following me there~
The mass production of the meeples have also been completed! BUT I am not happy with the green color on the cowboy frogs. It's a bit more yellow / neon feeling compared to the approved samples, so I am having them remade. Because the mass production of the boxes, inserts, and cards are still underway, this should not cause any delays.
The stickers and enamel pins have both finished mass production! The stickers are CLEAR plastic stickers, meaning the parts that are white is completely transparent. These stickers will look really really good on water bottles, laptops, whatever you want!
All of the 3 shirts have finished mass production as well! I already received samples and took pictures of them in a previous update. Very happy with the color and quality of the print. They feel very high quality~
Finally we have the 500 piece puzzle! This was a really fun one to produce because several of my friends have been on a big puzzle binge recently, even going to puzzle competitions! I'm excited to host a little puzzle competition of my own with this puzzle by giving them each a copy to use~
The optional add on socks are being produced. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the price I want with the original supplier, so I am finding my own new supplier and re-did the design a bit to include the hero frogs and a long cowboy frog on the sock! I'll hopefully have samples of it next week, and will share it in the next update.
In the mean time, orders will be locking in 48 hours, so if you need to update your address or want to purchase any additional add-ons, please do so now!
The Art Friends Expansion is SO HECKING CUTEEEE
I am very confident everything will be ready to leave the factory sometime next month, although when specifically you can expect to receive your games will largely depend on how long it takes for the games to arrive at your region's shipping hub. I will provide more exact dates once the games are ready to leave the factory.
Re;MATCH is a highly asymmetric 1 vs 1 puzzle fighter game that uses MARBLES. I'm SUPER proud of how fun this game is, and it's entirely available to try on Table Top Simulator now! Check the page for links, tons of real (not sponsored) reviews, and more!
If you find issues in the rulebook, please come to the discord and let me know! For campaign backers at the Indie Savior tier or above, your name was credited in the back of the rulebook. If yours is missing or you want to change it, please email me about at [email protected]
Production Print Proofs have been approved!!!
All of the game's printed components have been proofed and approved. The last thing I am waiting on is now the game box insert as we need to get a sample of that to be made first.
I am splurging and making the game come with a custom green insert with an embossed logo, which adds a lot of extra cost for the mold and the ordering of custom plastic color mixing (vs just using black or clear plastic)
I've also splurged on the dice, making custom injection molds for the dice instead of using screen printed dice, because I just feel like the indented dice faces make it feel way more premium.
I am very excited to say that all production files have been submitted except for the rulebook at this point.
We had already entered both the meeples and the custom dice into production last year because those take the longest to get through but now all of the cards, player boards, game boards, and the game box has been entered into production!
Hopefully this means by next month we will have samples, and by the end of March the games will be ready to leave the factory.
All of the backerkit pledges will ship either directly from China (for those of you who live outside of the US) or first be imported into the US to then be shipped across the states.
In the mean time, please fill out your pledge manager if you have not yet done so!!! We are missing about 20% of you still!
The samples of the 3 t-shirt designs have also come back and they look ADORABLE. I know the sizing chart has been slightly confusing, but the measurements are essentially standard uni-sex American shirt sizes.
In these pictures, I am wearing a 2XL. I am 5'11" tall and weigh 230 pounds. They are a bit loose on me but are identical to most 2XL shirts I own because I prefer to wear loose fitting shirts.
I'm also wearing pajamas and my face is a mess so I put cat stickers over them for your benefit. These are mirror selfies that have been flipped horizontally.
Hope these photos help you decide which shirt you want! Please fill out the survey soon because I'll be using the current numbers to project how much of each shirt and at what sizes I need to order them at.
Sorry for the silence in the last few months. It's been a whirlwind for me in the last few months. After GenCon, POND went on a bit of a break. The artist, PondHQ, has been busy working on her own kickstarter of adorable backpacks, while I (Ming, designer & publisher), revisited my hometown in China for the first time in 9 years for a whole month.
While I was in China, I also got to visit several manufacturing companies as well met up with my business partner in China after working with her for over 6 years! I learned a TON about how all of the components for games are actually created, and really gained a new appreciation for just how much knowledge and experience the factories and it's workers need to make high quality games.
Right after I returned, I had to prepare for my favorite board game convention of the year: Pax Unplugged! My next board game campaign, Re;MATCH, will be launching on March 3rd next year (hopefully, this is right around when POND will start shipping) so I have been pouring alot of energy into marketing this game.
Re;MATCH is a 1 vs 1 asymmetric PUZZLE fighting board game
But now I'm back from Pax Unplugged, and I've been focusing my energy on POND again. Thankfully, I had anticipated this schedule, so the original estimated timeline of shipping by March 30th is not too far off.
In terms of manufacturing, I am beginning with the 2 items that take the longest to produce: the Dice and the Meeples. Thankfully, both of these things are language independent, as I am also working with 2 localizers to get a Chinese and Russian version of the game made. I tried reaching out to German and French localizers, but in the end was not able to find anyone interested in POND, but I am just not very well connected, so maybe when POND comes back for a sequel, I can get those to happen.
Additionally, after talking with my manufacturer, there is SO LITTLE interest in a version of POND without the meeples (Less than 1% of backers are for the non-meeple version) it would actually be way more expensive to produce the small handful of copies without the meeples (different box art, different assembly set up, plus punch boards...).
Because of this, I've decided to just go ahead to upgrade the ~30 ish who pledged for a non-meeple version of POND to a Deluxe edition of POND for free. (Saving you 15$). You will still not be receiving the art friends expansion though.
Speaking of the Art Friends expansion, I've added some more friends to the mix! The Art Friends expansion now features FIFTY unique cards! With a mix of hero frogs and regular frogs, the pack will feature over 75 cards. It's really a very hefty expansion that will add a lot of variety to your games~
With all of these details finally decided upon, the pledge manager is NOW OPEN and has been emailed out to all backers~!
If you have questions about your pledge manager, please do not hesitate to reach out through Backerkit support.
Ugly bare skeleton layout of the rulebook (this is not final!!!)
So, what is the current timeline of events?
Manufacturing for components without language has begun (meeples and dice specifically)
The game map quad fold board and custom insert will begin manufacturing next. The gameboard will have UV masking, and the custom insert will be created using a custom light blue plastic to look extra aesthetic.
Everything else will begin manufacturing by early January.
Assembly should begin in early March and be ready to leave the factory by mid March.
All customers outside of the USA will have their games shipped directly from China, which should start by early April (basically nearly meeting the original expected ship date of March 30th)
The rest of the games for USA customers will be loaded into a shipping container to be freighted to my warehouse in Atlanta GA. It should take around 30 to 45 days to import these games, so then shipping for USA customers should begin by end of May.
I will be air shipping a few boxes of POND to me in order to sell at Pax EAST. If you attend that convention, come say hi! I have the Ming Dynasty promo card that I'll be signing and giving out to backers & convention customers.
Thank you for everyone's patience, and I hope you all have a great holiday season as we head into the end of the year!
PondHQ, the illustrator of the POND board game, is launching her own kickstarter for a collection of adroable ocean backpacks! They're all waterproof, well cushioned, and super spacious!
Not to mention they have TAILS???
Please help her make these bags into a reality~ Follow the Kickstarter page so you don't miss the early bird discounts!
POND continued progress
Gameweaver is continuing to help with playtesting and we are now trying to do some blind playtest sessions using our draft rulebook. If you read rulebooks to learn how to play board games, consider giving the rulebook draft a read and leave some comments where you have questions!
We've also made a slight change to the template for starting cards by removing the cost from cards that start in every player's decks. What do you think? The cards feel a little empty without the cost in the top right corner, but, these cards aren't purchased and always say 0 berries, so the cost corner felt rather redundant. This also frees up the design space for me to make some 0 cost promo cards, although I'm not sure if I'll actually do that.
Anyways updates are light this month as I am focusing on playtesting. I think the game is very close to finalized, so if there's no more changes needed, I'll be working on the designs of the art friends expansion cards next.
I am currently pretty hopeful that everything will go to print by the end of the year, which should result in fulfillment happening by March or April of next year, as it usually takes 3 months for production and 1 to 2 months for the games to travel from China to the USA.
