A Quick Update and Diving Deeper into the Forest of Teeth!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 03, 2020 at 12:41:39 AM

Hey guys! We don't have an enormous update for you today, but we wanted to keep you in the loop with everything that's going on.

The development team has been fine-tuning the gameplay flow using Emily's encounters and finales, as well as working on Claude's encounters. We're pretty excited about how different the two wanderers feel at this point and the flavors that are developing for all of the wanderers, and we're feeling pretty good about the framework that's coming together. Unfortunately, very little of what we've been doing involves things we can easily put into pictures, so it's hard for us to show you anything right now. As you have likely noticed from the last few updates, we like to show you the progress whenever we can, but sadly this isn't one of those times.

As for the miniatures, the tooling process is continuing unabated. We don't have many samples left to show you, but we'll still post the few that remain when we get the samples.

The Miniature Box contains 54 miniatures as a result of stretch goals, so it looks like we'll have to enlarge the size of that box from 310mm  x310mm x 130mm (12.2in x 12.2in x 5.11in) to 433mm x 323mm x 150mm (17in x 12.7in x 5.9in).

Here's a side view of the Miniature Box's layout:

There will also be two layers of vac trays inside the box. Here's a look at our initial layout mockups for those:

Yeah, we were pretty desperate for pictures in this update. =D

So, one other thing some of you who follow us on social media may notice is that we will be launching another campaign this year for the game Twisted Fables. (We gave a brief teaser for it at the end of the Dawn of Madness campaign.) We wanted to assure you that this game won't take away from Dawn of Madness or the team much at all, because not only was the game designed by a freelance game designer in cooperation with our team, but the game is basically finished. It's a smaller game and will have a smaller, more laid back campaign. If you're interested in following along with it, you can like the Facebook page we've started at https://www.facebook.com/TwistedFablesGame/.

Which reminds me of the one question we are asked more than anything else: when will we launch the next Deep Madness reprint? Well, we're still working on the new stuff that would be included in that campaign (you can't run just a straight-up reprint on Kickstarter), so I'm not sure. I think it would be after Twisted Fables. It could be that we won't be able to launch it until early next year, though if that changes, I'll let you all know.

But now, I think it's high time we travel back to the Forest of Teeth!

The Forest of Teeth Part 2

It's been a while since we last visited the Forest of Teeth. So, just as a refresher, here was the start of the story:

The sunlight drowns behind the green canopy as you step between the trees, their branches strangling the day as they seem to lean hungrily, greedily, down toward you. You advance deeper into the forest's belly, your gaze flicking left and right as you scan the undergrowth for movement. You used to know this place like the back of your hand. At least, you think you did. Even now you feel the pulse of its power as the emerald life radiates around you, but it's stranger somehow. More feral. Perhaps that's not a bad thing.

Eyes follow you in the gathering gloom, marking your progress deeper into the forest's belly. This place is alive in more ways than one, and it is as watchful as ever. Looking over, you catch one of the eyes looking at you. Picking up a stick, you stab the thing out. The branch squeals in pain and alarm as it is blinded. The other eyes blink in surprise, their lids cracked and rough.

Something shifts in the forest behind you. Sticks snap under the feet of whatever is back there. It is tracking you. Stalking you. You can almost smell its faintly sweet aroma.

Up ahead is a fork in the path. There appears to be a clearing down the left-hand route, while you think that the way to the right may take you to the network of caves that run beneath the hills of this place. You could very easily take either one, but a third option is also presenting itself to you: in front of you is a fallen log, and below that is a small hollow. You know someone is coming after you. Perhaps you should hide there and try to catch your pursuer unawares.

--

It was pretty close between the option to run for the caves or stay and ambush our pursuer, but in the end, the ambush won out. Having said that, there also seemed to be many of us who thought we should hide and see what we're up against first. So, we'll take a peek and see if we can take it. Just a word of warning: this will be (or at least a version of this will be) in the final game, so some slight spoilers may lie ahead! Let's get to it!

--

You dash forward, your footsteps nearly silent as they race over the forest's floor. Leaping over the log, you duck down into the hollow below it. Quickly you look around, surveying your surroundings. A half-broken branch dangles from another tree to your right. Maybe it snapped when your covering fell. The bright white molars and incisors lining its bark make you think it might serve as a wonderful club. Reaching up, you yank it off and cradle it in your palms as you peer through the crack between the ground and the felled trunk. Your breath comes in short pants as you wait, sweat beading on your forehead.

The forest grows hushed around you - apart from the sounds of your pursuer moving steadily in your direction, its feet crunching loudly over sticks and brush. The sweet odor is growing stronger now. It almost smells like... honey.

He comes into view beyond the trees. He is dressed in a sharp business suit, his black shoes glinting even in this twilit forest world, his black tie sharply contrasting with his white shirt. But it is not his body which gives you pause.

In place of a face, the man has a honeycomb. Dozens of tightly packed holes are arranged in an organic geometric shape, honey dripping from the latticework structure and down onto the collar of his jacket. You see bees hovering around his head, landing in his black hair and crawling into the myriad holes in his face before taking flight again. You find that you can't see the back of those holes. Each one has its own little pool of shadow collected within it, making it seem that each opening is its own miniature tunnel into oblivion.

You realize you are frozen in shock. You didn't know what you were expecting, but it wasn't that. The log lined with teeth slips from your fingers, thudding on the ground. The honeycomb man might not have a face, but he does still have ears. His head jerks toward you. He is moving faster now. He'll be on you in moments.

--

He's almost on us, guys! What are we going to do?

A. Run

B. Fight

C. Try climbing a tree and hope he can't follow us.

Now, don't feel like you just have to answer one of these, either. You can tell me what actions we should take, or whatever you'd like. Let me know what we should do in the comments!

(Also, there were some really good and thought-out comments in our last little foray into the forest. If your idea didn't make it in, don't worry! I'm creating a "swipe file" with your ideas, and maybe they'll make it into the game somewhere else - or even later on in our little story. ;)

Pledge Manager and Gameplay Update (A Big/Important One!)
over 4 years ago – Sat, May 30, 2020 at 11:06:28 PM

Hi there, friend! We've got a big update today, so buckle up! 

Pledge Manager Update

First of all, the pledge manager. I've been talking about this with the team, and we've decided that we will go forward with closing the pledge manager on May 31st. The reason for this is because we need to make a pretty sizable payment to our manufacturer, and the more we're able to put down now the bigger our potential discount is (and thus the more we'll save later.) However, in order to do this, we will need the funds raised in Backerkit to ensure everything continues running smoothly. 

However! We know some of you need more time due to the current worldwide situation, or for other reasons. So, for people who need to have the pledge manager open for longer for whatever reason, simply don't finalize your pledge yet. Anyone who doesn't have their pledge finalized yet will not be charged on May 31st. You'll get updates every once in a while from Backerkit telling you to finalize, but other than that there will be no problems with this. We want to make sure you don't have undo financial pressure on you during this time, so if you can't afford the game yet, don't worry about it. You can finalize when you're able to. (Having said that, if you're able to finalize now, we ask that you do so in order for us to give the manufacturer as accurate of a count and to maintain as much of a financial buffer as currently possible.) 

What if you decide you want something down the road but don't know right now? No problem. We set a precedent during the Deep Madness reprint that we would help out our backers however we could, and we're going to continue that. So, if you would like to add something to your order down the road, we'll be happy to help you with that. We still don't know if we will reopen the pledge manager after the first wave (though if we do it will not contain wave one items), but we'll be happy to add stuff to your order at any time if you contact us. 

Speaking of contacting us: if you need to reach us for any reason (making sure your pledge isn't finalized yet, adding stuff after May 31st, etc.), you can always do so by emailing [email protected] or [email protected]. 

 Gameplay Update

You guys have been very patient waiting for gameplay updates, and today we will have the first glimpses of a lot of the changes coming to Dawn of Madness! Now, we want to preface this by saying, there are a LOT of pretty major changes. As such, I am fairly confident some of you may not like all of them. But please bear in mind that every change made has been for the good of the overall game experience, and we are working hard to ensure that you get the smoothest, least fiddly, scariest, and most fun experience that we can create. The "name of the game" has been streamlining for ease of play, and to make sure you're thinking about (and enjoying) the experience rather than having to dwell on the crunchy, dry stuff. So, without further ado, let's get into the changes!

Boss Fights

One of the biggest changes to the entire game is going to be to the boss fights. Basically, in playtesting we discovered that it just wasn't that fun when only one Wanderer got to fight his or her boss at the end of a campaign. It left other players feeling kind of gipped. So, we've changed the way the boss fights work. Now, rather than only fighting one boss/ending at the end of a campaign, you will fight a boss/get an ending at the end of every game. This will essentially add three games to a four-player campaign (for a total of eight games rather than five), and will ensure that everyone gets a sense of closure for their story.  It will also remove the slight feeling of competitiveness that may have come from jockeying to play your ending, but, honestly, this game was never about that. It was about working together to get the pants scared off you. 

Now, on the surface this may seem like only a relatively minor change. (I.e., "Hey! We just added a few games to every campaign!") However, this will have a huge cascading effect on many aspects of the game. These include:

•  Now the Abominations must be killed before you can get into your finale. If the Abomination doesn't die, you lose and the game is over. (Think of the Abomination as kind of the gatekeeper mini-boss keeping you from the real boss.) We're working out how the legacy aspects of Abominations will work in the new version now that their progenitor has to die in the previous game. But we think this will also add another layer of tension to each game, since it's no longer an option to let that beastie just do its own thing and hope for the best.
•  This will change the way Memories and Inner Offerings work. Previously, Memories were little side encounters you could have to draw you deeper into your story, unlock new abilities, and gain extra points toward your endings. Well, because of this boss fight change (and the changes to the board, which we'll get to below) Memories don't work quite as well as they used to, so they've been adapted a bit and combined with the Inner Offering powers to become more of a level-up system that unlocks new abilities. We're still working out the details on this system, but it'll be more of a gradual unlocking of sweet, sweet powers to help you throughout the game rather than just buffs to your current stats. 
•  Because of the changes to Memories, Inner Offerings and Boss fights/Endings, you will now only ever use one story book in any game. In the previous version, there was a certain amount of skipping between story books when you dove into Memories, looked at Inner Offering setup rules, etc. That skipping between books is now a thing of the past, meaning you can safely stow all of the other story books in the box and not bother with them until that chapter starts.
•  Now, the tragic bit: the puzzle pieces have gone away. Don't hate us! We're really sad about this, too, but with this change to the boss fight mechanism they just weren't necessary any longer. Plus, we'll be perfectly honest: as much as we loved them, they were fiddly. Supremely fiddly. Maybe we'll be able to find some other way to bring the beloved puzzle pieces back, but, for now, they have been sidelined. (That's a nice, easy-to-take way of saying dust-binned.) 
•  But the redeeming good news: the round tracker! A number of you have asked to see the round tracker, since it is one component we never did show off during the campaign all the way until now. The reason for that is, until the game system was firmly in place, we honestly didn't know what the final form of the round tracker would look like or how it would work. But now we do. And, in my humble opinion, it's freaking sweet. In fact, let's get into the round tracker in its own little segment!

The Round Tracker

The round tracker looks a bit like an X, but every part of that X is a supremely usable part of the game. The middle of the tracker is a dial that will track what round you're in (as its name suggests), and what entry you should go to in the story book to see what events happen that round. Then, on each end of the X is another dial. These dials will show you how many points you've accumulated toward a particular ending. Yep: no fiddly adding, no sifting through pieces, you will now know at one glance which ending(s) you're edging toward. (In my mind, this could also add a bit of tension, as you see the red or purple doors slowly, inexorably, ticking upwards. LOL!) Furthermore, this will allow us to do some really cool in-game things, such as inserting all sorts of story choices that depend on how many points you've accumulated toward a particular ending. (This will be in addition to consequence tokens, which will still be there for very specific events.)

Want to see the round tracker for yourself? Well here you go! (Please keep in mind that this is just a rough mockup that we made, not the final professionally designed version. That one didn't quite make it in time for the update. For instance, in the final version I would expect the story point turn dials to likely be brighter.)

Coda Cards and Resistance Cards

Another area that has changed pretty significantly are Coda and Resistance cards. How so? Well, they've been combined into one. 

Previously Coda cards would have a game effect on the front, then a bit of flavor text and a puzzle piece symbol on the back. Well, the puzzle piece is no longer necessary, but more Resistance cards certainly are. So, on the back of every Coda card will be a Resistance card. That means every Coda card you collect could be used to help fight the Abomination, but at a price. You see, in order to use that Resistance card, you have to permanently discard your Coda card and the game-changing ability/buff it gives you. (Just as a reminder, anyone can now fight the Abomination using a Resistance card. This is not limited to the Central Wanderer or his/her Malformations.)

This will add another layer of strategy and choice to the game, and force you to ask: how badly do you want to win? Badly enough to sacrifice that awesome ability you've had for half the game?

Because of these changes, we suspect that you will no longer be holding onto Coda cards for a really long time - excepting maybe your absolute favorite couple. As such, we are seeing what happens when there is no Coda card limit. (Previously you were limited to four active Codas at a time.) Should this prove to be the way we go (which it almost certainly will be), then the Rearrange action will also be done away with, since it will no longer be necessary. Yes, this does, in theory, mean you could walk around as a superpowered badass with ten active Coda cards. But it also means you'll lose the game when the Abomination doesn't die, and all of your teammates will hate you.

Here's a look at the new Coda/Resistance card. These are still a Work in Progress (WIP), and should not yet be considered quite final. 

Domain Cards

Another component that has changed slightly are the Domain cards. Not much, but a bit. Basically, we're making the Domain cards much more unique than they have been, and putting new pieces of art in the center of every Domain card. This means that Domain cards will now be more like unique items, but the sort of twisted, strange items you'd expect to find in Dawn of Madness.  (You're not very likely to find an assault rifle or an adventurer's sword here, for example. =D ) There will likely be 5 or so that are specific to each Wanderer's world, and then 40 that will be more "generic" to the Otherworld. (And when I say generic, think "Screaming Mind Gash" (generic) as opposed to "Used Syringe" (Emily's world.) Yes, I did just come up with that off the top of my head. No, you're not guaranteed to get a Screaming Mind Gash in the final game. LOL!) Should this be the direction we go, then the expansions will each include 5 of their own Domain cards in them. 

Here's a mockup of a new Domain card. This is a WIP that will no doubt be refined further. 

Game Board and World Shards

We've been working hard on the game board, but unfortunately we just haven't landed on a design that we're satisfied with yet. (We've scrapped two or three designs since the one you saw during the campaign because they just weren't "it.") However, we do know exactly what will be on it. 

Basically, there will now be only the bigger World Shards, the connecting paths, and the Mental Capacity tracker on the game board. Everything else has been removed. (I.e. Encounter cards, card deck slots, etc.) While this is absolutely NOT the final game board, this mockup should, at least, give you an idea of how it will function:

Seriously. That's something I just slapped together in Photoshop. It's not the actual game board. =D

Now, the World Shards, as we've discussed before, have increased significantly in size. There will now be 16 of them for every Wanderer's world, and no other Wanderer's world will be present on the game board at any one time. In addition, as I mentioned above, the Major Encounter cards have been removed from the board. Actually, they've been eliminated altogether, and the contents from them have now been moved to the bigger World Shard cards. (There will still be Encounter cards for Minor and Unlocked Encounters, though.) In addition, the numbers that previously were on the game board (1-16) have been moved to the World Shard cards, allowing for a bit more randomization in general, and further cleaning up the look of the game board as well.  The three Sentience icons are still in the upper left corner of the World Shards, as they've always been.

One major change to the World Shards is that, on the back of every World Shard is now the Boss Battle/Ending side as well. So, when you're ready to play the ending, you'll just flip the World Shards over and you're good to go. Now, not every World Shard will necessarily offer access to a boss encounter in a given ending. (Only about 8 of the World Shards will have an encounter tied to the ending you're playing through.) But that just means you'll have to move faster in order to get to those encounters. =) 

Here's a work-in-progress version of the front and back of the new World Shards. (One of the back, and several of the fronts.) As with everything else, this is still a WIP and will be refined further as testing continues.

So that's a look at a few of the DoM gameplay and component updates we've been working on. I know this update hasn't answered all of your questions, but honestly it's already so long that I think we need to stop to avoid information overload. (Plus, we have to save something for future updates, right?) 

Please keep in mind that nothing we've shown here is final. For instance, we're still working out the flavor text size and placement on the World Shards, etc., and several of these were just straight up mockups that Roger and I made. (Like the game board.)

Now, let's end this update on another high note and show you a couple more tooling samples from the factory! As with previous tooling samples we showed off, these do not have their final bases and may change slightly from the final version you will receive. (Should they change, it will only be for the better, though.) 

Okay, that's it for this update! Did you make it all the way through? LOL!

I hope you're still doing well, and that your world is maybe starting to get back to normal. Talk to you again soon!

More Mini Samples and a Brief Update
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 02:50:47 PM

Hey, guys! It's been about a month since our last update, so we thought we would drop one here for you. There's still not a whole lot to report, but we do have some more cool pictures! Let's get into it!

First, the factory has continued to send us miniature samples from the tooling process. As such, we have several more to show you today! Please note that the tooling process is ongoing, and these are not necessarily identical to the final minis that you will receive. Having said that, we're still pretty happy with how things are looking, and we hope you'll agree! (Oh, once again, these are not on their final bases. The final bases have a cool cracked earth look to them, as seen in the campaign.)

Next, we have some game development news! We've made some major progress on many of the gameplay changes promised during the campaign. These changes will largely effect World Shard cards, Encounter cards, and Memory cards.  However, there's one big problem with showing the changes off: because everything in this game is so based in story, we basically have to wait until we've formed the stories around all of the new mechanics. In other words: the team's waiting (at least in part) on me. 

I've been off finishing a novel we promised for our last Deep Madness campaign, so I haven't had as much time to rework the story content as I otherwise would have. However, there's a light at the end of the tunnel: I only have one chapter left to write in the novel, and then I'll be able to shift most of my focus back over to Dawn of Madness where it's so needed. Once we are able to fill out the new bones with some fleshy, fleshy stories, we'll have a lot of cool stuff to show you. Stay tuned! It's coming! Promise!

Next of all, we have a couple new pieces of art to show you guys! We've had several new pieces of art come in recently, but we thought we'd just show you these right now to whet your appetite:

Okay, that's about it for this update! In the next one we'll get back to our little story we're writing together, but for now I'm really focusing on getting this book done as quickly as possible. Oh! One other thing! If you won something in a contest for Dawn of Madness, your prize should now be in your account! Log in to your Backerkit and you should see your prize in there. If you have any problems, though, you can always reach out to us at [email protected] or [email protected]. We'll get it fixed for you.

Last-last thing. (LOL!) Our pledge manager is still currently set to close at the end of May. However, we are keeping an eye on the situation worldwide, and, we're going to assess everything as we get closer to the date. If you need to add something after the pledge manager closes, though, no problem. Just let us know and we'll help you.  Also, a big thanks to everyone who has completed their pledge manager already! (We're currently sitting at about 60% completion.)

I hope you're doing well wherever you are in the world. These are certainly interesting times to be alive in, aren't they? Have a great week, and stay safe! Until next time!

Game Development and the Coronavirus
almost 5 years ago – Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 03:43:23 AM

Hey guys! It's been a little while since our last update, so we figured we'd drop one on you. We don't have too much to report yet, but we didn't want you to think we had forgotten all of you. Let's get going!

COVID-19

First, let's just address the elephant in the room. It seems that madness spreads wherever we are, because just about every member of our team has been in one of the hot zone areas for the coronavirus - specifically Beijing, Washington State, and California. LOL! Luckily, we are still able to function pretty well if we stay home and work. (As the Washington branch of Diemension Games, I pretty much "self-quarantine" all the time, so I'm well ahead of the curve.) 

All kidding aside, though, we seriously hope that all of you are safe and sound. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone effected or impacted by this virus. Hopefully this will all be over soon, and in the meantime we hope you'll be able to get in a few board games while you're stuck.

There are two areas where this outbreak has certainly impacted the game development. The first is in manufacturing. Our manufacturer was hit really hard and still isn't back up to speed, so there have definitely been delays with the miniature tooling process. (Having said that, there was some pretty great progress in regards to miniatures that happened regardless of the delays, which we'll show you below.) 

The other problem that happened during the Chinese lockdown was that in-person game testing was slowed significantly. That should pick up again by the end of the month, though, when our Chinese branch can get back into the office. 

Game Development

As mentioned above, game development has been stymied somewhat over the last couple of months, and as such we still don't have too much to show you yet. The new gameboard is in the works, but there's a lot to be done on it so we don't have that yet, either. However, also as mentioned above, we have a few tooling samples to show you, as well as several new illustrations. We'll start with the illustrations. These are all from Emily the nurse's story. I hope you like them!

This first image is not just a new illustration, but a sample of where we're currently heading with the overall design of the World Shard cards. Obviously there are still a few tweaks to make to this, but it's getting closer. (Pay no attention to the text. It's place-holder stuff.)

The next few images will appear either on Coda cards or in the story book itself.

Next, we also have several plastic miniatures to show you. These are not the final miniatures, but rather tooling samples that will be further refined to maximize details and ensure the best miniature possible. They do not have the finalized bases, either, but rather regular, boring round bases. The final versions will have the cool cracked ground bases that you saw during the campaign. These just came in recently, and we are super excited to show them to you. Today we have Catherine, her Malformations, the Symptoms, Renascence, and the Masquerades!

As we get more batches of miniatures in we'll be sure to send you an update so you can see all of the mini goodness along with us. 

Well, that's it for today. We'll keep you guys updated with all of our new work on the game as soon as we have something cool to show you. In the next update or so I'll try to have the next segment of the story we're writing together, too. 

Also, just a reminder that the pledge manager is still open, and will be until May 31st. If you have lost your survey link, you can find it by going to https://dawn-of-madness.backerkit.com/. If you have any questions or comments, too, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. We'll be happy to assist you. Last of all, for everyone who won a free item through a contest, we haven't forgotten you. It is entirely my fault that your prize isn't in your pledge yet, but I'm working to get that remedied ASAP.

Stay safe out there, my friend! I hope that you and your loved ones are well. Talk to you again soon!

Shipping Costs Broken Down
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Feb 14, 2020 at 12:37:35 AM

Hi guys! After the last update we received a lot of feedback and questions regarding shipping prices. So, I wanted to take a couple of minutes and go into why prices are what they are. This will be kind of a nuts-and-bolts update and not the most fun, but it is something that certainly effects you if you want to get Dawn of Madness.

Looking back, my greatest regret regarding this matter is that I didn't push harder to get at least a rough estimate for the all-in shipping during the campaign. We were told that we wouldn't have the quotes in time, and, in the heat of everything, maybe we didn't try hard enough to get them. (Of course, if the quote was wrong,  we would then have an entirely different problem on our hands... LOL!) The closest we got was telling people it would likely be comparable to Deep Madness, which wasn't good enough. We should have gotten the estimates sooner, and I apologize about that. 

Otherworld Shipping

As for the shipping cost for the Otherworld level, it did rise when we added in the stretch goal content. Some could argue (and have argued) that we should have included potential stretch goals in our initial shipping estimate. The biggest problem with this is, there was no guarantee we would unlock everything. There is never a guarantee that a Kickstarter is going to be a success. And, honestly, I have seen Kickstarter projects that failed in large part (not in entirety, but in large part) because they estimated their shipping based on what they expected to unlock through stretch goals. As such, the message above our shipping estimates, which read (in short), "The following estimated shipping prices are based solely on the Dawn of Madness Core and Miniature Box, and may vary after any unlocked stretch goals and optional buys are factored in" was about as close as we could get. I realize there is a case that can be made the other way, too, and for those who are upset by this, I apologize. You could also say that we knew that we would unlock everything because of daily unlocks and the like. But the thing is, we didn't. Daily unlocks were not our original plan. Unlocking giant parts of the campaign sans stretch goals on the last day were also not our plan. The circumstances during the campaign forced us (or at least we felt they did) to take drastic action, and that action completely changed and reshaped the entire structure of the campaign - from our most controversial moves to our most popular ones. Our plan originally was to advance entirely through stretch goals.

Now, why not just eat that additional cost for the unlocked goals? They were, after all, supposed to be free added content. The reason for this is that, if we were to subsidize that additional cost (we will estimate it to be $15 per backer), then, just from our Otherworld backers during the campaign, the cost would be over $40,000. We are trying to be financially wise, and to ensure that we are able to deliver your game to you without using any shady tactics such as funding this game by running another Kickstarter. (A practice that seems to be becoming more common.) As such, this was a cost we couldn't absorb.

Core Shipping

Some have wondered, too, why the core game isn't cheaper, or the Echoes in the Mist expansion. After all, they don't have any miniatures in them. Well, they may not have miniatures, but they are loaded with tokens and books, both of which are heavy. In fact, much heavier than plastic. So, while we do save on space, we do not save on weight. Dawn of Madness will be heavier than many games on the market today, and it is because of all those books (and tokens) it will contain.

Two-Wave Shipping

It has also been postulated that the shipping is significantly more because we are doing two-wave shipping on this campaign. Honestly, I kind of thought this myself. But it's been brought to my attention that doing a single-wave shipment for an Otherworld pledge would save a - wait for it - whopping $5-7. (Unleash the fanfare of kazoos!)

Having said that, we realize this is an important issue for some people. As such, we are going to add a 1-wave option to the pledge manager. There is a bigger difference when it comes to the All-In pledge in some countries, which is the biggest reason we have decided to do this. 

Here is a breakdown of the difference between 1- and 2-wave shipping, to see if it's worth it for you:

The 1-wave shipping option will now be available in the add-ons section of the pledge manager. You can add it to your pledge if you would like.  Just keep in mind, this means your core game will arrive at least one year later.

Why the bigger difference between the All-In and the Otherworld? There are a few reasons. One big one is because at a certain weight it's cheaper to ship one giant box as opposed to two smaller boxes. For the biggest decreases (such as Russia and Mexico) it's because those countries will spend more time in air freight. 

But a bigger question might be, why such a small difference between one-wave and two-wave shipping for most countries? Once again, there are a few reasons. For countries that are mainly ground freight, the difference is extremely small. As mentioned above, the biggest decreases come when the weight goes up and air freight is involved. Another reason for the lower costs is because of our next point:

Subsidized Shipping

Believe it or not, we actually are still subsidizing shipping costs. We are not making money on shipping, even with these (frankly horrific) prices.  We are still eating part of the cost on basically every single shipment we will make. And, to be perfectly honest, by the end of this process we will probably eat more. On every campaign we have run, we have encountered enormous shipping snafus completely out of our control that have cost us a lot. (In our first campaign it nearly ended us.) I don't say any of this to make you feel bad (or to make you think you will suddenly get charged even more later on in the campaign - that has never happened on one of our campaigns, and we don't ever intend to start it), but just to be completely up-front with you. 

Another reason that the difference between the one- versus two-wave shipping is negligible is because a good chunk of that subsidizing is going into the second wave of shipments. However, if switching to one shipment, we would then have to pay to store the items from wave 1, which eats into our ability to subsidize the total shipping cost. 

Shipping Cost Breakdown

So if split-shipping isn't the problem, what is? Weight and size, but several other things as well. The truth is out: you're not just paying for shipping. There are a lot of other factors that go into that price as well. 

The shipping fee you pay is mainly composed of three parts: the sea freight and land freight from the factory to the overseas warehouse, the packing fee for the warehouse to process the order, and the express shipping from the warehouse to your house. It's not just from point-A to point-B: we pay more for the whole transportation process. In order to prevent any accident at sea, we get insurance for every container. For backers in the EU, UK, US, Canada, and Australia, we pay in advance for all of the relevant taxes, including VAT and tariffs, for the goods entering the local area to ensure you don't get hit with the charge at your door. In addition, we need to pay the management fee and storage fee to the fulfillment partners, as well as funding for potential mishaps that may occur along the way. We promise that the shipping fee we charge is to ensure that the game is delivered to you, rather than profiting from it. Actually, we pay more than the fee charged to you. As noted above, we are also subsidizing a portion of the first three parts mentioned at the beginning.

Many countries, unfortunately, have additional fees that must be taken into account, including air freight. These countries include some Asian countries, South America, Africa, and some island countries. These, tragically, are the countries where the shipping costs are truly exorbitant. In previous campaigns we heavily subsidized backers from these countries. This time, however, we haven't been able to subsidize them as much as we have in the past, because it's simply not feasible anymore. Having said that, they are still subsidized more than any other countries. In fact, in some cases we would save more by cancelling the order. But we don't want to limit the spread of our game, and we don't want to tell people that they can't buy it if they really want it. Some publishers have completely stopped selling to these countries. We don't want to do that. It doesn't seem right to us. But that is why the shipping charges to these countries are so utterly abysmal. We looked into other methods as well, but due to the limited number of copies we have going to each country the costs would, in the end, actually be more than the current ones.

Some Comparisons

We realize it seems absolutely outrageous to be paying $50 for a $139 game. We completely understand how ludicrous it sounds. But the thing is, you are really getting a ton of stuff for $139.  And a lot of it is heavy.  As noted before, we estimate that an Otherworld pledge will weigh approximately 12kg or 27 pounds, with 4 big boxes. The estimated value of these boxes would be approximately $278 if they were being sold in retail outlets. For reference, in the Deep Madness reprint campaign an Investigator pledge cost $40 to ship. (This was with Profundum, which was heavily subsidized.) Dawn of Madness weighs significantly more than Deep Madness, though: Dawn of Madness will be 12kg/27lbs, while Deep Madness weighed 9kg/20lbs with Profundum. Shipping prices, meanwhile, have gone up quite significantly even since we priced out that campaign, and are most certainly not expected to go down before we actually ship this one. 

An All-In for Deep Madness, meanwhile, cost $60 to most countries in the reprint. In Dawn of Madness the price is $66, and it's still heavier. Deep Madness All-In was 14kg/31lbs, while Dawn of Madness will be 18kg/40lbs. (The reason the prices are comparable is because Deep Madness had a lot more SKUs, and every SKU costs an extra pick-and-pack fee in the warehouses. )

I personally have also backed several large campaigns in the last few months that were comparably priced when the total shipment weight was factored in. Why? Is it because we board game companies are all out to gouge backers, or skim some off the top? Absolutely not. Is it because this is all a racket? Well - actually, yes. I believe that one is true. But it's not the board game companies who are the racketeers. I think people would be shocked if they learned how much their shipments actually cost because, despite we backers longing for the days when shipments were subsidized and everything was reasonable, I firmly believe most of our shipments still are subsidized, whether from CMON or Awaken Realms or pretty much anyone else. It just doesn't seem like it because the cost is so hellishly high. This is a problem with the international shipping industry as a whole. And everyone is paying these outlandish, unholy costs. Maybe the bigger companies do get a bigger discount, but I also believe that they are just better at hiding it than smaller, less established companies, because they have more funds to cover more of the cost. But I realize I'm creeping onto my soap box now, so I'm going to force myself back down. I have said before that shipping is my least favorite part of every Kickstarter, and that ranges from the cost to the delivery and everything in-between. Shipping sucks. I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again. But our company (and many others) wouldn't exist without it, so it's a necessary evil. I just wish it was less damaging to everyone involved.

Listen, guys, I wish something could be done about these shipping costs. I hate them as much as you. (Actually, probably more. I really hate shipping, not just because the costs are high but because it damages the relationships we have built together as a community.) But there's nothing I can do about them. Having said that, you're not stuck in this. If you can't afford the shipping or just don't want to pay it, no worries. I completely understand. Send an email to [email protected] and we'll refund you (minus Kickstarter fees.) We're not going to force you to buy our game or support this project, and we're not going to strong arm you or make you feel like the wool was pulled over your eyes. For those who feel that way, we apologize. It was never our intention. But I hope that, even if you decide to go, we can still be friends. 

Hopefully this has, at the very least, given you a little insight into the horrible, nightmarish world of Kickstarter shipping, and into our thought process. Sorry it was so dang long. We will talk to you again very soon.