Production Underway
over 4 years ago – Sat, Jun 06, 2020 at 02:43:29 AM

Hi everyone,

I'm happy to report that, as of this week, mass production for all paper components is underway. This includes the English edition as well as all other language localizations. Of course, most of the hard components, such as the resin blocks and the wooden pieces, have already been in production for awhile now. Because those pieces have a longer lead time, we usually get them started months in advance of the printed components. 

Pre-press took just a bit longer than we had anticipated, mostly because we had to make sure that every language partner had their files approved, but the delay is small and we already accounted for it in advance. As of this moment, the project is fully on schedule. The games should be ready by July, will be on the boat in August, and should be heading towards you all by sometime in September/Early October. That's a very loose timeline and there are still some possible delays, but we wanted to give you guys a rough estimate now, and we'll keep you posted as manufacturing ends. 

John Company

While Drew has been busy coordinating the print run, I've been pushing along John Company 2e in the evenings. Things are going fairly well at the moment. As many of you all know, we had been pursuing a version of the game with minimal changes that would allow for an easy update kit. But, for the last few weeks, I decided to branch development and explore some slightly more radical approaches to the game. This may prove to be a dead-end, so I don't want to go into too many details, but I don't mind sharing a picture of the playtest board.

Compared with the last image I shared on the live stream a couple months ago, you'll notice this board is a little taller. That space allows us to give basically every game element a space which will organize the area of play and give players a better sense of what is up for grabs. 

The goal of this iteration is to accentuate the points of leverage in the game and try to clean out some of the false choices. We're also doing a lot of work on some of the foundational elements of the game's cash economy and trying to give players more room for creative negotiations.

Right now if development continues moving apace, I'm guessing that we'll be able to put our crowdfunding campaign for John Company together sometime in the fall, perhaps right after we complete the fulfillment the second printing of Pax Pamir. It's too early to know for sure though, and we're not trying to rush anything. If the project needs time, the success of this campaign makes it easy for us to take our time.

The Discord

Pax Pamir is lucky to have one of the best discord channels around. Over the past few weeks, I've gone ahead and expanded that discord to be an all-purpose Wehrlegig Games channel and to cover other related titles as well. If you'd like to play a game of Pax Pamir online, I guarantee you won't have trouble finding players here. In addition, when we start ramping up the development for John Company, we'll be hosting a lot of the playtesting on that channel. If you'd like to join it, you can use this link:

The Wehrlegig Games and Friends Discord

Best,

Cole

Flying through Prepress, Golden Geek Nominations, and some Odds and Ends.
over 4 years ago – Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 12:40:14 AM

Hi everyone,

This past weekend, Drew and I went through the digital proofs for the second printing of Pamir. I'm happy to report that the English files for Pamir are very nearly ready for printing. They will likely be fully submitted within just a couple days. The files were in pretty good shape so this part of the process has been pretty painless. With their completion, Pamir is officially off my desk, so I'll be turning the majority of my attention towards John Company. I'll be sure to update everyone over the course of production as well with any updates. Currently everything is either on or ahead of schedule.

Golden Geek Nominations

Drew and I are are very happy to announce that Pamir has been nominated for five Golden Geek Awards!  I've been an active member of BGG since 2003, so this is a special honor for me. Without its community I likely wouldn't have started designing games in the first place.

If you are an active member of the community, you can vote by following this link. 

Even if you aren't a user, I suggest everyone check out all of the nominees from last year and previous years. Many great games have been nominated, and I've discovered more than a few games that I would have completely missed otherwise in years past.

Tomorrow's Stream

Reminder that Ross (@moregamespls) will be streaming a solo game this week! For folks that want to experience the solo game, come hang out with Drew in chat and watch Ross go up against Wakhan. We'll be hosting his channel on our twitch page, but you are also welcome to give him a follow to get a notification when he goes live for the stream on Monday, April 27th: 19:00 BST | 14:00 EST | 11:00 PST

BackerKit

Thank you all for getting your pledge manager response in such a timely fashion! Our response rate is currently at 80% which is very good for this stage. If you haven't done it yet, please take a moment to check your email and follow the link from Backerkit. If you did not receive your survey, check your email and spam folder for a message from Wehrlegig Games. You can always reach out to [email protected] if you have any difficulties and we are happy to help you out.

That's all for now. Thanks again, everyone. 

Cole

Time for the Pledge Manager!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 05:34:36 AM

Hey all.

Drew here. Things have been pretty busy since the campaign wrapped up so allow me to share a few updates for everyone. 

Backerkit

First up, as many of you have seen, our Pledge Manager (PM) Backerkit has sent out surveys to your email! We are partnering with Backerkit to help us manage your pledge information on their platform. These PM surveys are incredibly important for each backer to fill out, Crucially, Backerkit safely collects payment and shipping information for each backer so we can keep track of each order!

If you have not already, check your email associated with your KS account for your Backerkit survey and allocate your pledge by selecting add-ons and covering the cost of shipping. We will not be charging any Backerkit balances for shipping fees and add-ons until we at least a few weeks away from the start of our fulfillment phase. We will lock order quantities in June and around late August, we will lock shipping addresses. We plan on charging cards when we ship in Sept/Oct. Generally speaking, the sooner you complete your survey the better!

Depending on your pledge level, you will need to review and confirm your order in Backerkit. This means allocating your KS pledge toward different add-ons. Many pledges are simply sent to Backerkit as a credit that must be allocated. If you pledged beyond the pledge level requirement, the total pledge acts as a credit that will need to be allocated to add-ons and/or shipping fees. If you have a balance that remains in Backerkit, you will need to submit payment information for Backerkit to keep on file, which again, will be processed when we near the shipping date this Fall. 

• For example: folks that pledged $5 for the replacement tokens Update Kit will have a $5 credit in Backerkit. They would need to select the the Update Kit add-on, allocating their $5 toward the update kit, and then getting a shipping price for that order total. Folks who pledged $5 and didn't want an Update Kit will be able to instead allocate their $5 towards a copy of Pax Pamir. This allows each pledge level to be a bit more flexible.

If you have questions, feel free to leave a KS comments or, if you have something specific about your order that you want direct assistance on, feel free to reach out to [email protected] 

What's next?

I am happy to share the news that we've started mass production on some of the components! The resin blocks and wooden cylinders and cloth mats are being manufactured right now. The printed, paper-based components are soon to start too! We are nearing the end of the design verification stage, and soon will be starting the big bulk production for every copy of Pax Pamir! Games will be assembled and packed on pallets in June, which will  then be shipped across the world in July-August. 

In short, we are on schedule and things are looking positive for our timelines.

Come hang out on Twitch!

Ross (@moregamespls) took the wonderful photos of Pax Pamir on the Kickstarter Campaign and will be streaming a solo game next week! For folks that want to experience the solo game against the automated opponent, mark your calendars! Come hang out in chat and watch Ross go head-to-head with Wakhan. We'll be hosting his channel on our twitch page, but you are also welcome to give him a follow to get a notification when he goes live for the stream on Monday, April 27th: 19:00 BST | 14:00 EST | 11:00 PST

Okay, I think that wraps up plenty for now. I'll do my best replying to comments and making changes as needed in Backerkit. I've already found an error with the "Rest of World" shipping rates, and I will be correcting them shortly. So please let me know if there is any strangeness with your pledge. Thanks again for your patience and support.

Stay safe everyone!

Drew

The end of the beginning and what is next
over 4 years ago – Sat, Mar 28, 2020 at 01:49:59 AM

All you wonderful Backers,

THANK YOU! When we started this campaign a few weeks ago, Cole and I never expected this many people to come out and support Pax Pamir. We had a relatively small print run for the first printing, and we truly were not thinking it was going to require a larger print run than the first campaign. We're just floored and so humbled by your pledges for this game. You not only helped fund this reprint, but you helped afford us the time to work on new projects for the next year. For that, we'll remain grateful for years to come and we promise to continue making the best history games we can.

So, what now?

So, here's a rough timeline about what's to follow. Right now, Kickstarter pledges are getting processed and we'll be transitioning over to the next phase of the campaign, the Pledge Manager period. For those folks that are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, your pledge will be transferred as a credit to our 3rd party Pledge Manager, Backerkit! We will be using their platform to help backers understand how their pledge will be allocated and for backers to get accurate shipping rates for their order. It also really helps us keep track of everyone's shipping addresses for a safe and secure fulfillment.

In the coming weeks, each backer will receive their own unique Backerkit Survey. This email will be sent to your email associated with your Kickstarter account. You will then be able to add your shipping address and select any and all add-ons to your pledge. In Backerkit, you'll see the full, itemized contents of your order and you'll get the finalized shipping cost. You'll need to submit payment information to your Backerkit pledge for shipping and all add-ons that may exceed your pledged amount. Backerkit will process those costs once the pledge manager is closed.

Our pledge manager period will open in a few weeks and will stay open until around May (date TBA) when we will close and lock all Backerkit orders. Though Backerkit will lock the order before we ship to our regional fulfillment centers, your address may be changed until around September. Expect a delivery address confirmation a few weeks before we start fulfilling orders this fall.

Wait, I missed the campaign!

If you are reading this and you are not a backer, worry not! We plan on launching a Backerkit pre-order store for those that missed the campaign. The price of pre-ording Pamir will be a bit closer to MSRP, but late-backers will have access to join for this print run through May. We will not be producing more copies to enter tradtional distribution channels for large scale online retail, so joining us as a late-backer is your best way to ensure you get a copy. You'll have access to the same add-ons and shipping options as our Kickstarter Backers. We'll have a grace period for folks that barely missed the campaign too.

Again, thank you all for an incredible campaign, and expect to hear more from Cole and I this spring as we continue to work on our Wehrlegig Games.

<3 Drew

An Art Essay and a little Celebration
over 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 10:56:06 PM

Dear Backers!

Yesterday the campaign had crossed 350,000 dollars. We don't have any kind of stretch goals coupled to this campaign, but that number felt important. With everything happening in the world right now, the continued success of this campaign has me almost mute in amazement. I am overwhelmed by the show of support for the game, and doubly happy that the success of this printing means that Drew and I can keep working on titles like this.

Today, I have just a couple things I wanted to share. First, I wanted you to know that I finally got my act together (with Drew's help) and found and posted the essay I wrote about the graphic/product design behind how Pax Pamir: Second Edition looks. We decided the best place to host that essay was probably our website, so there it shall sit for the foreseeable future. You can find it here.

Finally, to celebrate the end of the campaign, Drew and I are going to do a little freeform livestream on Twitch tonight! Things will get rolling around 8pm CDT. I'll hook up a camera and show off a few artifacts from the development of Pamir, and, if there's interest, Drew and I might even show folks a few things from our work on John Company. If you're interested in the live stream, you can find it on our Twitch page here. For folks that can't make it, the video will be hosted on the Twitch page for a while afterwards.

Again, thank you so much for all of your support. See you soon!