Progress
about 3 years ago
– Tue, Mar 30, 2021 at 01:54:05 PM
Hello everyone,
A short update.
We're continuing to do the mastering and mold-making required for the metal figures. The game itself is awaiting a fresh quote from the manufacturer. That was delayed a short time because of instability in the paper market, which caused them to put a freeze on any new quotes. They have our most up-to-date bid specs and we're expecting a new quote any day.
Our designed, the very professional and talented Tim Toolen has converted all of our card graphics into the format preferred by the printer. This week he will probably be working on the graphics for the rule booklet itself.
That pretty much all for now. As soon as Tim finishes his part and I have a quote in hand, I'll sign off on the manufacturing contract and upload the graphics to their cloud for their production department to run with.
One of our backers is also experienced at designing game box trays, and I'll be collaborating with him on the tray as soon as we have the final measurements for everything.
Thank you all for your support, and I'll post again around the middle of April, or as soon as a new bit of news develops.
All the best,
Forrest
PREPARING FOR PRODUCTION
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Mar 11, 2021 at 06:56:59 PM
Hello Backers,
I'd like to update you on the progress of the project, now a little over a month after the conclusion of the Kickstarter.
We've finished editing the text of the rule booklet and we've chosen a designer who will put together the graphics for the book and the game box. His name is Tim Toolen, and he's a fantastic artist with a long and illustrious history in the industry. He will also be going over the artwork we've done and making sure it meets the technical requirements given to us by the printer. We've sent him everything at this point, including a lot of the stuff we didn't use in our Kickstarter; things he'll draw from for inspiration and for spot illustrations.
The figures will all be produced in the US. We've got all the masters we need for the cartoon figures, and we're printing and mastering the Gunfighter's Ball versions this month; I think we have three or four left to go, a figure which includes the expansion characters. In about a month we'll have production molds done and figures will start rolling off the line. Our plastic casting contractor will be given everything he needs to get started as well. The figures will probably be the first thing completed.
Last of all, we'll be getting a final quote from the printer and begin uploading the files that Tim is creating for us.
Thank you all for pledging. I share your excitement and eagerness to get a final production copy in hand! In the meantime, remember you can tweak your backerkit profile until September. 89% of backers have completed their first run-through, which is excellent and gives us good rough numbers to plan figure production.
Please keep the questions coming, and I'll do my best to find you an answer!. The staff of Backerkit.com will also be fielding technical questions about their cart (which is where your help desk questions go). I've found them to be a bunch of nice folks.
All the best,
Forrest
Knuckleduster
PLEDGE LEVEL SWITCHING
about 3 years ago
– Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 02:47:42 PM
Hi everyone,
I went poking around in the pledge manager dashboard and figured out how to allow people to switch in and out of levels. This should benefit some of you who would like to reconfigure your pledge to arrive at the right format of minis for each item. It might be less cost effective to switch levels, so be careful. Keep in mind the pledge manager remains open till September, so there is no urgency to your decision.
I mastered a batch of minis for the game yesterday and I'll be printing and mastering the last of them before the month is over. By the end of March, the graphics will be finalized, the last bid specs will be drawn up, and we should be set to go to press in April with the printed materials.
Please keep your questions coming!
All the best,
Forrest
FIGURE MASTERING
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 02:22:08 PM
Hi everyone,
I thought I'd share some pics from the shop today. Here are a couple of trays full of metal masters and some 3D prints with base castings glued on and ready for mastering in the vulcanizer. We make 9" round, centrifugal-casting ("spin casting") molds, cast duplicates of each figure, clean each casting to get rid of flash and parting lines, then put them into production molds (which are also 9" rubber).
We're almost done mastering all the figures, but making production molds will take some time.
The plastic production follows a completely different timeline and their methods are fairly mysterious to me:)
These figures are completely raw masters. You will catch glimpses of trusses that were sculpted into the figures at various points to help them survive mastering without snapping barrels and hands off. Those are removed and the contact points filed smooth before production molds are made.
Please keep your questions coming, and stay warm out there!
Forrest
EMAILS
about 3 years ago
– Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 06:04:43 AM
Hi everyone,
I'm getting some instances where people aren't receiving their email link from Backerkit. I will be contacting them today regarding this problem. In every case Backerkit's system says the email was delivered, when they have not been received by the backer. My guess is that some email systems bounce the emails as spam, even though they're not showing up in a spam folder.
I'm going to try to find a link everyone can have which allows you to just go straight in and find your survey.
More news as it develops . . .
Forrest
