February has been a different kind of month and I held out as long as possible because I wanted more HARD NEWS. I’m bummed to say I can’t tell you exactly when you’ll get Red Tides. And the biggest elephant in the room is the Pledge Manager, a couple of words I’m about ready to fight. Pledge Manager is STILL in the works, lesson learned.
That being said...
Manufacturing Update
Chinese New Year wrapped up and the factory is back in action. As expected, they came back to a backlog. Ours is in the queue, all files approved, nothing blocked… but we don’t yet have a clean “this is the exact date production finishes” answer.
Rather than pretend we do, we’ll wait and share real timing once it’s locked. This phase is less flashy. No dramatic dice videos. No shiny prototype photos. Just queue position, throughput, and patience. But we are in it.
One Last Tweak Before Production
One of the advantages of the slight manufacturing delay is that we had a small window to make one more adjustment before files fully locked.
After years of playtesting we’ve amassed a couple of “if only we had time” wish list items. One of those was specifically, Specialists.
Specialists are the upgrade slots on your ships that allow you to shape your play style. In the early days, our philosophy leaned closer to competitive deck construction. There was a certain dependability around pursuing a specific build and trying to execute it as cleanly as possible.
What we found over time was that the most fun moments did not come from perfecting a build beforehand.
They came from reacting.
Reacting to the Plunder available.
Reacting to the moment in the engagement.
Reacting to what your teammates were building.
Red Tides plays better when the fleet evolves together rather than each captain executing a pre-written script.
So we expanded the Specialist pool to introduce more variants that cover a wider range of scenarios.
Read more about it on our Discord General Address: https://discord.gg/fC3NEP3Vuj Direct Post: https://discordapp.com/channels/1199013414211682404/1199014072520282273/1477005517225197732
Beyond the Factory
With production largely in the factory’s hands for now, we’ve been shifting some of our energy to what comes after fulfillment. Getting your games to you is still the north star.
At the same time, if Red Tides is going to live a long life, we can’t wait until the containers are on the water to think about retail, distribution, and long term availability.
That world is proving very different from crowdfunding, to say the least! Different packaging realities (man, am I tired of thinking about how to wrap up dice) and big-time different expectations from retailers and distributors.
We’ve been talking with folks who live in that ecosystem full time and trying to be thoughtful about who we align with. If we move forward with partners, it will be because they share our commitment to quality and presentation.
International Backers
For those of you outside North America, this is for you!
We’re continuing to clean up EU regulatory requirements and international documentation. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s necessary work if we want smooth fulfillment and broader availability.
We’re working with Vesuvius Media, who also run the Hive platform. They have deep experience with global shipping and distribution, and they’re helping us navigate the realities of international logistics.
Long term availability outside North America will ultimately come down to demand. Retail distribution requires scale to make sense. As fulfillment unfolds, we’ll be watching closely to see where Red Tides is gaining traction around the world.
Wooden Tokens – Thank You
We also want to give a real shout out to the backers who jumped into the BackerKit comments and Discord conversations about the wooden token solution (see the shipple prototypes in teh Just for Backers section below). The final approach was not something we dreamed up in isolation. It came directly from that back and forth.
That’s something Micah and I have been talking about a lot lately. We built Red Tides in a bubble for over ten years (12? 15?!).
Most of the core systems were hammered out just the two of us, iterating, arguing, refining, testing. That gave the game a very strong spine. But it also meant we didn’t have this kind of live feedback loop. And honestly it’s been energizing.
Right now, we’re neck deep in logistics, documentation, freight planning, manufacturing coordination, compliance, and the thousand invisible gears that make publishing work. We are not currently sketching new factions or tweaking cannon math.
But that season will come again. When it does, we want to be more intentional about involving this community.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not design by committee and a poll for every decision but structured, thoughtful engagement where it makes sense. Early looks. Focused feedback. That sort of thing
The wooden token discussion remind ed us that this doesn’t have to be a ten year bubble ever again.
For now though? We wait for our slot on the production line.
