Two minutes ago! BAM! Games are in California! Constantly refreshing that shippin' tracker actually worked!
Well, well, well, look who showed up (in California)!
Timeline Updates?
None. Nothing really changes from the last update about how things will progress through to games-in-your-hands. We're still working on the Pledge Manager for handling shipping once the games arrive, so expect to see that pop in your inbox in the coming days.
How Many Times, Mr. Nick?
How many times, what? How many times did I write this update? Only two. And I wrote it on Tuesday at Noon, Central Letty Time. If my fingers don't get twitchy on this update, today, it'll for sure hit your inbox--well you know what day it is you're reading this; oh boy am I excited.
Two (Life) Rules
My Dad gave our family two rules to live by:
Always be safe.
and
Do your best, and have fun.
Here's hoping y'all are able to enact these while the final preparations for this game are put into motion. The team and I are doing our best to provide relevant and reliable information in these final weeks of this whole adventure. Now I'm going to go off and try to sneak Letty some treats. (Don't tell Melissa, Letty's supposed to be on a diet.)
Hey everyone, welcome to the first annual update for the Adventuring Letty campaign!
Jokes aside, each time I've authored this message, including today (geeze), something has come up that either would yield additional questions I could not answer, or details that would yield even more hypotheticals that were just too far up in the air. Most of you are connected to me directly, and have pinged me after the campaign for updates, and it's same rhetoric I gave you then ("Here's what little I know, I don't have enough answers to keep you happy") -- y'all have heard a lot, but I think I've some solid information. And all good news, I think!
Earlier today, a good friend pinged me about the update; he gave me confidence that even if the update's not perfect, just share something. I owe you all that, apologies for the radio silence. Y'all helped bring my dream to life, the least I can do is share in some of the bits and bobs of information I have - and of course what I'm excited about.
## So! Mr. Nick! What in the world is happening?
Let's start off talking about the super simple piece that's burning most: game's made, on the boat, headed towards the fulfillment center. Does the fulfillment center look strangely like my living room? Maybe. But let's talk about fulfillment in a moment.
Next burning question: "omg Mr. Nick, WHEN!?" The short answer is soon. Based on initial estimates, Adventuring Letty should land in Los Angeles at the start of February (the 7th), and make its way across the country to Chicago a week or two after that. The far-end of the estimate, like everything is delayed and takes ages -estimate, puts the game in Chicago February 28th. Now we're talkin' boats, and traffic, and yada yada, variables that could impact the estimates, but largely I've no reason to believe there have been any hang ups.
## Estimates Shmestimates
My own dear mother, insistent I share my location with her 24/7 so she knows when I'm out on a walk or sitting at my desk -- well her habits have hit me hard. While not meant to be an official record of how the game's progressing, I have been constantly refreshing this ship-tracking page every day watching the progress. While largely I'm sticking to the estimates provided by the manufacturer, it is a tad optimistic that the ship may get to port in the states sooner than the dates I am sharing. It's just what happens at the port is a big unknown. I mean, most of this was meant to be a learning experience, so chalkin' up the World Cup -like anxiety of watching the ship to part of the learning experience.
A large part of the (lack) of communication these last few months has been due to answering these inevitable questions - and not having clear answers. From our small project being reprioritized in its production to - what I can only call - weird windows for when the product could leave the other side of the world: I really wanted to give solid information when I had it. This is more an explanation, not an excuse.
## What is on its way?
Well, aside from some humble pie, everything in this update should be considered good news! So you may remember from the campaign the imagery of the thing we wanted to make was this 5x7 box with some cute Letty illustrations that Bea Joy Javier made, yeah?
Fun fact: That "S'mores" toy is significant because when Melissa and Letty met at the shelter, they were calling her "S'More" before she became the Letty we love.
At the campaign close, we had all the assets and materials we needed to bring this product to life. Our manufacturing partner, Sarah, helped us explore some options that would require a tad more investment from us to nudge the game into a few upgrades. So we kinda went ahead and did that!
The Box We did an upgrade to the packaging. Two-piece boxes are cool. There's something satisfying about a clean open and close of the packaging of a game. And more specifically, something delightful about a magnetic closure on a game. So: we did that. What'll show up in the mail is this fancy little magnetic box that opens up to show you the instructions booklet, the new tokens (we'll get to those in a minute), and the deck of cards for playing the game.
The Box! And a note from Letty.
We hinted a tiny bit at future expansions for the base game, "Adventures" we're calling them. May have gotten a little too excited at the prospect of brining those to life, so a little preview of their artwork is all over this box. "Camping," "Beach Day," and "In The City" are what you can see, here. Also Letty's tail, ha. (She knew I was distracted when we were crackin' open this production proof at the brewery.)
The Token Throughout playtesting and development, the "token" of Letty - the two sided card that passes between players indicating who has Letty's attention - well it was just another card. It served its purpose, it was clear during playthroughs what that card represented. However, during clean up of games, and setup of future games, the Letty "token" would get a bit lost in the rest of the deck. In a few instances during playtesting, the Letty "token" would even get accidentally discarded. Anyway, we solved it: we upgraded the Letty token to a nice little punch-out piece of cardboard. Now when you play, the token won't get randomly discarded, it's bigger (wider, for sure) than a standard poker-sized card, oh and there are two! You don't need two to play the game, just one, but each token is still double sided. Since we playtested this game with some younger generations, and because it's all "this dog I love" -themed, I'm anticipating a chance that a token may suffer through some tough love. So there's an extra just in case.
The new Letty token: Cardboard punchout with the same level of adorableness as before, but easier to use.
Hmm, "easier to use?" How does one claim something is easier to use than a poker card? Too late, I'm rollin' with it.
The Cards Ok so I'll swoon about card quality upgrades, but largely since I didn't send out the prototypes to everyone here, I'm not really giving you anything to compare this upgrade to, really. So even without the frame of reference, feel my excitement about upgraded card quality! *pauses for you to feel it!* (There's probably a pun in there with respect to card texture. I think I've been doing this for too long.) Anyway! Cards are a bit easier to fan out in your hands (and the hands of smaller-sized players), they're a bit tougher when performing riffle shuffles, and overall they seem to be a bit more durable. (Somewhere around 230 games is where the prototype's cards started to fringe or fade on the edges, just due to normal wear and tear. While we haven't played nearly that may games with the production-proof the manufacturer sent over, there's a noticeable difference in these cards.)
Oh, little glare on the Letty in that first one.
The game itself doesn't have 54 cards (think: 52 card standard deck of cards + 2 jokers), so there are two cards with some pictures of Letty (for real life!) to help round out the decks. These aren't playable cards, but adding playable cards to the game likely would've had to go through all of the testing and balancing that Perfectionist-Mr-Nick would've demanded.
## I want the game! What's next to get my pledge?!
There are two things (plus one optional step) that need to fall into place (besides the game getting here, of course). First: while the current "fulfillment center" does look suspiciously like my living room, we are partnering with a local organization to assist with the fulfillment of orders. They'll handle the packing, labeling, and shipping of the orders. This piece is still in motion and largely shouldn't slow the process from games-at-Mr-Nick's-house to in-your-hands. Second: The Pledge Manager here on BackerKit. Do I know where Steve lives? Yes. Does that help ship to Ann-Marie? Not at all. So we're still going to need to use the Pledge Manager to collect all'y'all's addresses where you'd like me to ship your pledge. BackerKit's Pledge Manager does allow for picking up an extra copy of the game or two, that's built in; however that's not really the motivation for the Pledge Manager. There are extra copies of Adventuring Letty available, but our main focus is getting your pledges out to you. If you had art work as part of your pledge, there'll be a way in the Pledge Manager to pick which piece of art you want, too.
The third optional step is tied to everything that happens after the pledges are fulfilled. I wanted to do something to give back to the community around Letty, and Melissa had this great idea that we take a portion of post-campaign sales and donate them to the Friends of Chicago Animal Care and Control. That is 100% the plan, but there are some logistical or operational things that need to happen to ensure we get the donations to the right place and all this legal-related-mumbo-jumbo is in place to make sure the dogs are benefitting from the donations and everything has been accounted for appropriately. This step isn't a blocker or even really affects getting pledges to y'all. It'd be nice if it was sorted at the same time as we get pledges out the door - but not necessary for you to get your game.
I think I also have a stack of stickers unrelated to the campaign around here, somewhere. If I can find them I'll throw them into every order, too.
Stickers, anyone?
## I have more questions!
Awesome! Since I'm spending the next few days (and weeks?) here on BackerKit with the Pledge Manager, y'all's pledge information, etc, I'll be super active. We don't have any "release party" planned for March, yet, though that is something we'll likely want to do for our folks in the Chicagoland area.
## What's Letty been getting up to, anyway?
Well it's always an adventure with Letty. Lately she's been over the moon about the snow in Chicago. (Last few days have been more cold than snowy, but does that girl love the snow!) Mmm, do we -- yeah ok let's share the other something special.
So unrelated to the game, I had some friends do up a comic of "Adventuring Letty" what feels like a thousand years ago. Check out this piece that hangs proudly at Letty's place.
The first "Adventuring Letty" project I took on, with the help of some friends.
The immensely talented Max Bare & Melissa Sue Stanley brought this to life. I know, another Melissa, but different Melissa.
Then sometime I think as recent as just before our campaign, another comic artist and children's book creator Justin Castaneda ran a crowdfunding campaign to promote a self-published comic loosely based on his niece (super adorable). Well we managed to sneak Letty into one of the stories in that campaign - Letty, a race car driver. Still distractible by butterflies, though.
Special appearance by Letty, in JuJu's World of Play
And a bunch of other cool stuff we'll share another time, because this was supposed to be about the game, not Mr. Nick swooning through photos and projects of Letty.
Ok one more.
Fall 2024, ready for an adventure!
Alright thanks for your patience both with the project and getting through all of this content. If you fancy more Letty photos, she's over on the 'gram. Expect to see more alerts from BackerKit in the coming week (singular) about Pledge Manager, refined shipping estimates (as they come in), and maybe I'll find a surprise or two to share out.
Hey friends! This update is all about end-of-campaign housekeeping details. We'll throw a Letty photo in to try and keep things cute, but this is mostly business-stuffs. We'll try to keep it brief.
Too Long; Didn't Read:
- We won't charge for shipping until closer to fulfillment (we're estimating late-summer this year) - If you haven't already, please finalize your pledge payment before March 13th - Once everyone's pledge payments are collected by BackerKit, we'll send out the "survey" which will capture your shipping information, and selection for artwork you may have pledged in to get.
Shipping Charges (Later)
The short story is every prototype we've made of the game, isn't a reliable model for how the final product will ship out. It's solid for generating estimates, but until we receive a "proof" or "preproduction copy" of the game, our shipping estimates will remain estimates. With that in mind, and because a large percentage of y'all are international (yay, thanks fam!) we want to get shipping right. So we will be punting collecting shipping charges until we're closer to actually shipping you the product. There are also a lot of Letty's dog-park-friends' parents that are backers. Which means we could arrange for dog-park pick-up of your pledge rewards (or "thank yous") when the product comes in. Similarly: we'll make all of those arrangements closer to when the final product arrives at our "fulfillment center." (cough Which looks vaguely similar to Mr. Nick's living room. cough cough)
Finalizing Everyone's Pledge Payments
We're at about 80% maybe 90% of completing all of the pledges' payments. If you haven't finalized your pledge payment, please do that before March 13th (next Wednesday). As soon as the pledge payments are collected by BackerKit, the next phase of the project can begin. You can click through this update to the campaign (from your email or wherever you're reading this) and tidy up your payment information to keep things moving along.
And for the record, no, you cannot pay for your pledge in dog treats. I don't know who floated this idea at the dog park, but I've been asked thrice this week "how many bones is enough?" and while I find it hilarious, BackerKit doesn't run on dog treats. I mean, I type this and I still laugh, maybe snort a little.
So by Wednesday next week, March 13th, please have your pledge information up to date and paid for and then we can move on to...
"I'm a dinosaur! RAWR!" hashtagLettyPhotoWithNoContext?
Did Mr. Nick get distracted looking for a Letty photo? Maybe. Is he also weirded out he keeps switching from first person to third person in these little quotes? Also: maybe.
The Backer "Surveys"
We alluded to this in an earlier update, but we wanted to break it down for those of you new to crowdfunding. We'll over-simplify this part: campaign ends, pledges are collected, then the creator (us) sends out a "survey" that captures information needed to provide the "thank you" (pledge rewards) for supporting the campaign.
This will include the ability to select which illustration backers would want for their art-print, provide shipping information, and the like. Our product has simple components, so we don't expect a lot of complications with this last necessary piece, but it's smooth sailing from this last step - the "surveys" - through to getting your pledges fulfilled. It's not a complicated survey, just a question or two about preferences and shipping information (not payment for shipping, just "where is Mr. Nick sending stuff").
I also need to double check the ability for folks to "late pledge" when the surveys go out. I understand it's possible, but don't know enough at this moment to say for sure "hey if you missed the campaign, you can still get in on it before XX-date."
In sum:
- We won't charge for shipping until closer to fulfillment (we're estimating late-summer this year) - If you haven't already, please finalize your pledge payment before March 13th - Once everyone's pledge payments are collected by BackerKit, we'll send out the "survey" which will capture your shipping information, and selection for artwork you may have pledged in to get.
That's all we have for the moment. We'll add this information to the "FAQs" as well. We also created a support inbox we'll be using for support of the campaign for any questions that aren't already in the FAQ or whatever is on your mind. That email is [email protected].
That's all for today! We've a meeting with our manufacturing partner this afternoon, so all our campaign momentum is being directed right into the printer, like lasers. Pew pew pew!
Much love, ~ The Double Bear Rolled team (& Mr. Nick)
How'd this manage to go from dinosaurs to lasers in such a short amount of time?
Next steps look like this: we'll finalize how the Pledge Manager is setup, then we'll push hard with our manufacturing partner to get the presses rolling. For those new to crowdfunding, the Pledge Manager is how we finalize everything people will get from the campaign. We'll collect shipping information, preferences for art rewards, and a few other bits and bobs.
Campaigns I've supported typically keep their pledge managers open for about a week, and this also allows some folks to pledge late. We'll provide more details on timing and the like as we roll out the pledge manager. We want things to be smooth, clear, and this'll help keep things moving for meeting our timeline.
Today is a Letty play date, day. To shake off the last minute jitters, Letty and I went on a walk, and now we're cuddling on the couch. You'll have to forgive me for the brief and text only update. (BackerKit may have an auto-generated "campaign funded" email fire, too. We're trying to keep emails and updates to a minimum and focused on fun or essential updates.)
I owed this kind of update earlier, but we were so excited, I had to convince Melissa to let me have a play date with Letty so we could go on celebratory walks (and maybe enjoy a few treats). Adventuring Letty is happening! And to all of you, regardless of your pledge level, you are a big part of making this happen! We are humbled and very grateful.
I think my intention was to have today's "24 hours to go" update really be focused on more of the design decisions that went into the game, maybe even feature a little bit about the longer roadmap for the game, and something more personal about why I'm even doing any of this game stuffs, but let's keep this one short. I'll share a few ideas with y'all.
Giving Back (Post-Campaign)
First, crowdfunding enables us to manufacture and deliver the game to our "fulfillment center." That's what makes this whole effort - or makes the Adventuring Letty game - feel real. Melissa and I have also discussed how we can give back to our community, support education around dogs, advocate for adoption and animal services and the like. Where we've landed is to make a commitment that a big chunk of the revenue from any copies of the game sold after the conclusion of the campaign will be used to support the Chicago Animal Care and Control group - the folks who found, cared for, and facilitated Letty's adoption by Melissa. Crowdfunding gets us to the first step of having a product, and of course getting you a copy of the game to play. Everything we do after crowdfunding will have an aspect that ensures other animals who are looking for their forever home can have the best chance at finding their persons, and living long happy lives. We're still in the early stages of sorting out the more mundane aspects of how this will work - paperwork, ensuring we do everything by the book, making sure the way our future contributions will get to the right organization, etc - boring, not fun but necessary work to ensure we're setup to support animals like Letty for the long haul. We're going to try our best. If it wasn't for these organizations, Melissa might not have met Letty, and ---well let's not even go down that route. Letty is great.
"Big Stretch" (Goals)
Second, let's talk stretch goals. In the beginning, we had left some ideas on the cutting room floor when it came to shaping and designing this product. Some of those things were just out of reach for the minimum order quantity we would have to manufacture, and since I was going to take deliberate approaches to this campaign, some of those ideas would have to wait. As you know we kept our pledge levels low as much of our target audience was new to crowdfunding, but we still wanted to bring a high-quality product. We're not a few folks in a garage tinkering away at a weekend project - we're looking to build out from Adventuring Letty into a wider array of games of all types and themes. We needed to ensure with this first game that we had reasonable expectations and so we didn't go total ham.
That said, if we blast upwards through 20% of our goal - maybe even 15%, I'll need to double check - some of the upgrades to the product will be possible. There's a story for another time about how tight margins are in the gaming industry - more informational than a sob story - and how even little upgrades like card quality or packaging design can have an impact on the manufacturing price. Total rabbit hole: Even changing the quantity of cards in the game, could lead to needing a deeper box, which means fewer copies of the game would fit into the shipping container, and on and on - it's less "house of cards" (ha, puns) and more of a "domino effect" to make small incremental changes. However, as I mentioned, our intention was to make as reasonable and high quality of a product as possible. If you weren't already a fan of Letty (or even Melissa or Mr. Nick) there's a good chance you were drawn into this game based on the illustrations (ha, more puns). We hope our core product will keep that good feeling going straight through to when we land the games at your doors.
So what happens if we make it significantly beyond our goal? Well we've 24 hours, less by the time I'm done editing this, left in the campaign. Let's say if we nudge up 15% past our original goal, we'll put out a poll for what kind of upgrade we should make available to everyone's pledge. No additional cost to any of the pledges, this will be a little something extra built into the final product you'll receive. It'll be something like an increase in card quality, upgraded packaging design, upgraded Letty "token" design, something along those lines. There aren't a lot of components in the game and we don't want a frivolous promise of what's possible. We've options with a slight up-tick in raised funds. Oh and that domino effect I mentioned? We'll ensure whatever options are available to this group doesn't go nuts with shipping. (We won't make a metal-box for the packaging that'll increase the weight of the game to like a backpack of treats, that'd be nuts.) (I also just said "backpack of treats" out loud, and I think she heard me, ha!)
Timeline Updates
None, and that's good news. Everything we estimated is still the estimate for delivering on this campaign. While all good news, my biggest insecurity if another container stuck in a major shipping route. Post-campaign we'll be very transparent about how the manufacturing process is going, what shipping details look like (to get to the "fulfillment center") and other key details throughout this journey. The goal is still to have Adventuring Letty in your hands before the big end-of-year holiday rush of games starts hitting your inbox. We want you to have time to play our game before your holiday purchases start taking up your game shelves.
Last "Demo" Session Before Campaign End
This evening Snakes & Lattes in Chicago is hosting a "Game Designer Night" where aspiring folks like myself will bring their concepts or fleshed out products to test them out with random (unbiased) players. While we put a good 200+ hours of playtesting into Adventuring Letty, it's still fun to play - even with my bias - and watch others play. We'll have one of our demo copies of Adventuring Letty there and be making an effort to teach and play with others. If you're in the Chicago area and want to play some games, stop on by. I'll literally be the only person in an eyepatch unironically, come say hi. (But if you do, I'm going to entice you to play.)
More text than delightful imagery in this update, I'm afraid. Though, I realize if you just read that, it's probably too late, you've already gone through the text. Derp. The post-funded exhale of stress I think might be affecting me - maybe I just need a nap. And a cuddle. And if Letty could type, she'd add "and some treats, please, Mr. Nick."
Gratitude, humility, and excitement cannot be overstated. You helped make this a reality, and I appreciate you.
