It's been some time since my last update, and I thank you all for your patience. It's been a challenging time for Bully Pulpit (and the world) for the last few months. I'm here to finally give you an update on our progress.
When I last wrote I talked about the tariff situation and how we were exploring other options for printing Zhenya's Wonder Tales, such as working with European manufacturers. Those efforts took a while to negotiate and ultimately proved fruitless- printing in China is simply the most cost-effective option available for the quality that we want. Even with the 145% tariffs that we were looking at in May, it would still be cheaper to use our Chinese partners.
With that in mind, and considering the temporary tariff "truce", we finally decided our best option was to continue with our original plan and use Panda Game Manufacturing and hope for the best. We submitted our files and found that there were some adjustments that needed to be made, so we've been working on that with the help of our friend Hal Mangold (thanks Hal!).
Now we're at the stage of reviewing the digital proofs from Panda. Once those are approved Panda will create a print proof and ship that to us to check. We'll likely have that by mid-August, and we'll be sure to share photos of it with you.
A shot of the digital proof for some of the cards, laid out in a 54 card printing sheet
Once that's approved (and assuming no problems that need to be fixed), production will take around 8-12 weeks. Freight to our warehouse partners in the U.S. will likely take another month or so, which means we're expecting to have it in hand by early December.
Please note that we're crossing our fingers that the tariff situation will be reasonable when it's time to ship. Currently the government is saying the tariff will increase to 55% in August. If it increases again, we may be forced to warehouse the games in China until there is an affordable window of opportunity.
Assuming an arrival in December, and depending on holiday shipping delays, we would expect shipments from our warehouse to you to take 1-2 weeks.
TL;DR - printing for Zhenya's Wonder Tales is finally underway, but our estimated delivery is delayed by two months.
We've been holding off on making the pledge manager available until we had a better sense of our plans and shipping schedule, but we'll get that together soon and let you know when it's ready.
I'm happy to go into details about the costs in the comments for anyone who is interested.
It's been a month since our last update, and in that time we've finalized our print files and started putting together the pledge manager for you. At the time, I said that the U.S. tariffs were going to make things more challenging for us but that we were prepared for such a contingency.
Well in that moment the tariffs in place for China were 20%, only ten percent more than we were expecting when we started. That was something we could handle. Now with the tariffs at 145%, we're no longer able to simply absorb those costs.
Obviously we still plan to deliver Zhenya's Wonder Tales to all of you who supported us, but we hope you'll understand that it may take a bit more time.
We're currently talking to our Chinese printing partners about options, including simply printing the game and letting it wait in their warehouse until conditions are more favorable to ship it to the U.S.
We're also looking into alternative printing options in Europe, where the printing cost will undoubtedly be higher, but the tariffs will, hopefully, be lower.
As you can imagine, this is frustrating for us, and for all of our peers in game publishing. What we want most in the world is to make weird games and put them in your hands. We'll do our best to make that happen as quickly as possible!
The Zhenya’s Wonder Tales campaign is now complete!
Thanks to all 565 of you who backed this project and for everyone who shared the game with friends and showed us your support! We’re very pleased at the success of this campaign, especially considering the very difficult moment in which it’s happening.
If you've seen the recent U.S. tariff news, you know that manufacturing games is about to get a whole lot more expensive. It's possible that this will be the last time we'll be able to feasibly offer a game like this, or to reprint our other boxed games.
I hope that I’m wrong! Perhaps if enough of us tell our representatives how much this impacts us, they will step up and make things right so we can all continue to live our lives and happily play games together.
In any case, we hope that you take advantage of the preview PDF we made available during this campaign and give Zhenya’s a try at your table while you’re waiting for the final version. If you do, please let us know how it goes!
What Comes Next?
The campaign may be closed, but our work continues!
It will take a few weeks for all the funding to get sorted out between Backerkit and the banks, and we’ll be using that time to get the pledge management tools set up here on Backerkit. We'll let you all know as soon as that's ready, which will most likely be in May.
We’re currently working with the pre-press team at our manufacturer and fine-tuning the layout of the cards and rulebook. We expect to hand the files over to them shortly to get a proof and make sure everything is coming together as we expect it to.
While we’re expecting our costs to go up dramatically due to tariffs, we budgeted for contingencies like this and don’t expect any problems delivering the game as planned. We’ll be talking with the manufacturer more about that and keeping our eyes on the news, so we’ll let you know as we find out more.
If you have any questions as we go forward, please let us know! You're welcome to reach out to us through Backerkit or directly by email to [email protected].
We’re in the final few days of our campaign, and we’re so glad to have you all with us. If you have friends who haven’t heard about the game yet, we hope you’ll tell them about it!
Interview with Zhenya
We asked you all for questions for Zhenya, and they were happy to answer them... for a small price. We’ve paid dearly for that, so we hope you enjoy the results!
Hey Zhenya, are you a real witch?
What an impolite question. Am I a real witch. What makes a witch real? What makes a worker of magic a witch? So little you know. Such shame you bring. If you want to learn whether I am a witch come find me. I am anywhere you see blood in the snow when the trees are quiet. I am beyond every green wall of stinging, cutting ozhyna. Find me and we can talk about witchcraft.
Cottages, with legs or without?
I am not who your question suggests, but I hold a great reverence for her.
Do you have any tips for getting blood out of wool? Asking for a friend.
Chop a hole in river ice. Tie a stout rope to a nearby tree. Tie the other end to the corpse and drop it, fully clothed in your wool, into the hole. In spring the wool will be as good as new after you lay it flat to dry. As an added bonus, the fat of the corpse will saponify (transform to a soap-like consistency) and will be perfect for making kasha.
Favorite recipe for weeknight meals?
Nothing warms my heart (or my stomach) on a busy weeknight like eating a delicious serving of kasha out of the skull of an old friend.
You will need: Two cow's horns of water, one cow's horn roasted kasha, forest mushrooms, garden onions, a good handful of human fat (preferably from a child), dill or other savory herbs, salt to taste.
To prepare: Boil kasha in water in your cauldron, then add salt and put next to the fire, covered, until kasha is tender. Cook first onions and then mushrooms in human fat until they are on the edge of burned. Add water and more fat as necessary. Season to taste, although they should be exquisite all alone. Add the tender kasha to this mixture and stir well. Garnish with dill and serve.
How do you prefer to take your fireweed tea?
Ah, you mean kostrytsya. I take it steeped until it is as black as my heart and twice as bitter. Perhaps with a little sprinkle of dried pivoniya as a reminder of lost youth. Good for the joints! Good for the guts!
Have you ever / would you ever date a werewolf? What qualities do you look for in a potential supernatural lover? What are some red flags?
Child, there is no such thing as a “werewolf”. There are wolf fairies, of course, who can masquerade as mortals, and these may be what you are speaking of. Zhenya is old; Zhenya does not date. But I have had many lovers and I always appreciate a partner with the Gift who knows not to tempt my wrath. Some red flags include the flag of Elbląski County, and the banner of my old friend Bohuslav of Švamberg.
What is your true name?
My true name rhymes with the fading light in a hanged man’s eyes. What is your true name, child?
Zhenya, what advice do you have for us Americans in these dark times?
It can always get darker, child. My advice is to cultivate fearlessness, for the creatures of the night and their mortal allies thrive on fear.
Why are you letting these people make this game?
They seemed so earnest, and they sought me out - which is an impressive demonstration of their determination or idiocy. A bargain was easily struck. I shall get a freshly pulled tooth every year and they shall have their little game. As long as the teeth arrive promptly I wish them the best of luck.
Have you actually played Zhenya's Wonder Tales?
No, mercy, no. "But Zhenya", Jason says, "It is a sort of game on cards that is not a card game, and you play-act and caper and jape," and I suspect it is some kind of riddle or trap. If I wish to "have fun" I will do something more to my own taste, like forcing fairies to dance until they turn to sand or chasing bears into pits.
Thank you for the questions! The campaign ends Thursday at 8pm EST!
Today is the last day of the Zhenya's Wonder Tales campaign!
We're down to the final hours! The project campaign ends at 8pm EST / 5pm PST tonight!
Still Waiting to Pledge?
If you've been waiting to pledge so that you can be fashionably late, now is the time to crash the party! We've got a place by the hearth for you, so we hope that you'll join us by choosing a pledge level today and adding an extra copy or the Roll20 edition while you're at it!
Thank you for your support!
For all of you who have already signed on to support the project, Thank you! We're so glad to have you here and we're excited to be able to make this project a real thing and not just a scary monster story we tell each other in the light of the fire.
