Great news everyone — Realm Runners is officially in Production 🎉

We want to first thank everyone here for your continued support, enthusiasm, and patience as we navigate these endlessly unpredictable times. It means the world to us as we get closer to getting Realm Runners on your table ❤️

You may have heard that the 145% tariff on China that completely paralyzed this project has been lessened to 30% for the next 90 days. To be clear, this still really sucks for us all. Basically what we are now dealing with is a 30% raise in costs which is nothing to celebrate. BUT it melts the ice enough for us to pave a path forward and get this game made.

While we are in production, these tariffs will still affect our timeline a bit as countless other people in our position are also moving forward with production at the same time. There is a bit of a log-jam effect going on both with manufacturing and (especially) freight. After speaking with our excellent manufacturers in China (Panda Game Manufacturing), here is a tentative look at our timeline moving forward. Keep in mind these dates can (and likely will) shift for better or for worse and we will relay any shifts as they happen:

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MASS PRODUCTION (typically takes 10-12 weeks) — production has begun! The first finished copy of Realm Runners, called the Mass Production Copy (MPC) will be shipped to us for final approval hopefully by late June or early July. This is the final checkpoint before assembly and shipping.

FINAL ASSEMBLY (typically 1-2 week) — after the MPC has been approved by us, Panda's production team will finish final assembly and prepare the products for shipping.

SHIPPING (TBD) — Once all the games are shipped form China to our USA warehouse (freight) we will begin shipping to all of you! The timeline for this will depend on the availability and cost of boats from China to USA. How the tariffs will affect freight timelines and costs are still a little blurry as of today.

📝 You can all expect BackerKit surveys once we know Realm Runners is on a boat heading our way. In the survey you will be able to confirm your shipping address and add any last minute items to your order. 

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If all goes as planned I'm hoping Realm Runners will land in our USA warehouse by early September. Of course it can be sooner or later than that, but the ecosystem is just so rattled by these tariffs that it is a bit unpredictable at the moment. If you do the math, this also puts us outside of the 90 day window for the 30% tariff. No one knows what will happen after that 90 days, but we're hoping the China tariff goes down further, not up. We will share all the ebbs and flows as they happen 📦
 

We will check back soon as more details, and a more solid timeline, emerge. And in case you missed it, check out the video below for an in-depth look at the final Realm Runners prototype.

Thanks again for your continued patience, and be on the lookout for more updates soon!

Jason Furie & Skinner ✌️

Hey everyone 👋 As promised in our last update Skinner and I are going to host a LIVESTREAM on FRIDAY, MAY 2ND at 2:00PM PST 📺

Even though we are in a bit of a (hopefully temporary) holding pattern due to the tariffs, we have A LOT to celebrate and share with you all!

Realm Runners is 100% complete and ready to go into production when the coast clears a bit. During the livestream we plan to:

📅 Give more updates on our project timeline
✨ Show off our final physical prototype including ALL game components
👁️ A closer look at the glorious minis, add-ons, and freebies
⁉️ Live Q&A ask-us-anything time
🤙 Just hang out and talk about cool nerdy stuff

VOTE in the poll below to tell us where our time is best spent!

Hope as many of you join us as possible FRIDAY, MAY 2ND at 2:00PM PST ✨

See you soon,
Jason Furie & Skinner 💀

Hey everyone 👋 here's a picture of me contemplating the juxtaposition of how excited I am that REALM RUNNERS is 100% ready to go into full production with the grim reality of the bullshit tariffs that are affecting the entire world for the worse at the moment. As you can see, the grim side of the teeter-totter is taking over a liiiiitle bit more this week 💀

I appreciate your patience as we did pause on updating sooner hoping to have more concrete answers and solutions to move forward. But every time we made a plan to move forward, things got worse the next day. It is clear to us now that it's more important to check-in more regularly than before as we navigate this situation so we are committed to doing that until we get this game to you. We appreciate your continued, excitement, patience, and understanding as we figure this out together. It's not easy.

Here are a few things I just want to highlight before I dive in with more updates:

So what's next — where do we go from today?

At the moment we are on a temporary (2 week) pause on manufacturing that may extend to a month to see if this new tariff is a new normal or just an ignorant temper tantrum.

So before we start problem solving and eating these costs, we are giving this daily-changing situation a moment to breath, so expect another update soon to learn where we stand. We will be nothing but transparent with you all, please just remain kind and understanding as we navigate.

We are also working with Panda to explore some options revolving around short term storage solutions in China. This may allow us to go into production sooner, and then it's just a matter of when we ship the game instead of when we make the game. We are hopeful this shit storm will lesson or pass but it needs a little time.

I hesitate to get into the nitty gritty of what extra costs we may need to pass on when we send surveys, but brace for that as a possible outcome. We are willing to eat some of the costs, but it is impossible for us to take it all on at the current 145% tariff. This current rate is indie-creator killing. Small scale operations like us simply can't handle those numbers. Remember, the tariff is on the whole order including all our excess stock. So even if we have to pass on some of the tariff to the consumer, we (Jason Furie and Skinner) still need to cover the tariff on all the excess stock coming our way that amounts to tens of thousands of dollars we simply don't have.

Skinner and I are planning a livestream in the near future to give y'all a much needed human element so we can get some face-time with everyone 😘 We will try and make it fun and not just a doom and gloom session. I will bring the final prototype we have to show it off as well. You gotta see every inch of this game!

So stay tuned for more info on the livestream and our tariff situation as it develops.

Please just hang in there with us as we find the best path forward. We are not planning to cancel this game and hope to get it to you sooner than later.

Jason Furie & Skinner ❤️✌️🕊️