How much fits into a 40 feet container?
Hello Frostlanders!
Today we’ll continue the hot topic of deliveries – we are eager to see you play the game, and you want to see if it fits your Kallax! There’s plenty of information and details on that topic, but we’ve also got news on other matters that we’re still working on regarding this project.
Since this update is long (even for our standards 😉 ), we decided to give it a table of contents to help you navigate:
- English edition logistics status (EN)
- Delivery addresses being locked for the English edition (EN)
- European editions logistics status (DE, FR, SP, IT, PL, CZ)
- German version Law card second printing
- Manufacturing error on 3 markers for the Frostlander expansion
- Korean and Brazilian editions mass production
- The companion app status
- Frostpunk: The Board Game demos during One More Game in Wroclaw and Essen Spiel’22
Let’s get this party started! The Generator is on fire!
EN edition shipping
Our last update ended with the message that we’re waiting for the Mass Production Copies (MPC) to arrive for us to check. Everything arrived soon after, and all their components were checked and approved by us. So, the assembly of all the boxes could be completed by the manufacturer.
Game boxes are ready to be placed on the pallets and moved around the factory.
All possible forms of pledges were confectioned and packed into dedicated transport packaging. Labels that provide information about what is in the box (sort of unique key/number) were placed on the boxes.
Mid-September, the games were ready to begin their journey – the English version of Frostpunk: The Board Game for Kickstarter backers and pre-orders have been assembled into containers and left the factory!
Trucks with the containers reached the Ningbo harbor, where they were loaded on the deck of CSCL ATLANTIC OCEAN. On September 22nd the ship began its long voyage East.
The current position of the vessel can be traced under this link: https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/CSCL-ATLANTIC-OCEAN-IMO-9695145-MMSI-477967800
The estimated time of arrival of the ship is planned on the 1st of November, its destination port is Gdańsk. Next the containers will be subjected to customs procedures and payments and delivered to our two logistics partners. One of the hubs will fulfill all the North American pledges (UPS Air Service) and the second will fulfill all the European pledges (on land courier services: UK – Hermes Parcel UK Home Delivery, DE – DHL, FR – Colis Privé Standard, SP – Envialia Home Delivery Standard, PL – InPost, other countries – DPD/FedEx mostly). The packages will be reaching you in mid-November if no unexpected, generic catastrophes occur!
The UK are asking us if customs fees will be applied to their pledges. Current regulations state that no customs fee is due if a package’s worth does not exceed 150 GBP. Our logistics partners informed us that the packages will be formed and sent in such a way that a value of a single package won’t exceed this value.
On the 23rd of September a container for Australia was loaded on the deck of the EVER UNICORN. The vessel arrived to Sydney on the 9th of October, where the container will spend a couple of days recovering from the journey in the carrying hands of the customs officers. After the treatment, it will reach our partners at Aetherworks, who will be fulfilling your pledges. The packages should start reaching you in early November.
The packages for Asia will be completed and sent after the Chinese holidays that, last until the 8th of October. These packages will have the shortest route to travel that’s why we weren’t rushing their shipment. After few days these packages will reach the VFI warehouse from where they will be sent to the backers. The deliveries will happen early November.
Considering the schedule above, on October 14th, we will be locking the addresses of all the backers who pledged to get the English version of the game. Once all addresses have been locked, we will generate final shipping lists and pass them on to the logistics hubs of our partners so that they can proceed with the deliveries. This moment is approaching, big steps! Like ripples in your glass of water big 😊.
The retail copies of the English print run are still inside the manufacturer’s warehouse. They will be handed over to retail partners as soon as we will be certain that they reach retail market after our backers have received their copies of the game.
12 containers…
Besides a dozen or so pallets that will go to VFI Asia, the first wave of Frostpunk: The Board Game English edition (core games and all add-ons) neatly fit into 12 40-feet containers! Such a 40-feeter is no small beast… I mean, you can literally live in one such container…
… or send a couple of cars in it…
…or fit a cruise missiles launch system.
But our containers are packed to the brim with board games:
Please keep your fingers crossed for good weather on the oceanic paths that our games will travel and as always, drink to the health of those who are at sea!
DE, FR, SP, IT, PL, and CZ editions shipping
Our localization partners are receiving their MPCs for approval as we write these words. It’s a very important moment for them and for us; they experienced the same emotions that we did a month ago when checking the English version. Not all version have yet reached their publishers, but we do know for certain that: FR, IT, PL and SP are checked and approved! This means that we can provide a green light to the manufacturer to begin the final assembly of the packages with these language versions. We’re still waiting to get the approval for the MPC for CZ language edition.
The DE has one Law card that needs to be reprinted (it is a text edition error, not a manufacturing error), and together with Frosted Games and our manufacturer, we’re fixing this issue so that all the DE edition games have the right Law card inside. The correct card will be inserted next to other cards in the box. Printing and assembly shouldn’t take longer than the 20th of October, as the card is approved and in print now:
It is a week longer than we anticipated, but we want you to receive the quality we’ve all worked so hard for. Neither we nor our partners will settle for anything else than 100% quality, so there can be no talk of stickers, self-print materials, etc. We are very sorry for the situation and count on forgiveness and understanding from our German backers. As for the delivery time impact, it won’t cause any since we have to face another issue but more on that in a moment.
The peculiar case of 3 little markers
The mistake on one Law card in the German version of the game is not the only issue we’re facing. We’ve discovered that there is an error on 3 Sickness markers that are a part of the Frostlander expansion. The icons that determine the type of Citizens affected do not match the colors of the given type of Citizen. These icons aren’t very big, and the markers themselves have the right colors… but it is a mistake nonetheless, and it must be fixed!
This is how it ought to be:
And this is how it is:
This mistake is a manufacturing error since the icons on the source files were right – the same on the accepted samples. Then how is it possible? One of the line operators changed during production, and he made a mistake. This issue does not affect the entire print run, but we have no way of checking the scale of this issue. So, from our perspective and that of the manufacturer, the entire print run of these markers requires fixing. Our manufacturer will have the new markers ready by the 10th of October and will exchange the wrong ones in all the Frostlander expansions that are still in the factory. When it comes to the Frostlanders that are on their way to you (English version for KS backers) the correct markers will be added to your packages in the fulfillment centers. These 3 markers will be packed into a zip bag with an apology note explaining what these 3 markers are – for those who don’t read our lengthy updates 😉.
We are truly sorry for this issue, and as it turns out, even with a strict quality assurance policy, errors can happen, especially if they occur in the later stages of production. This whole thing should not drastically impact the deliveries of your pledges (shouldn’t cause any delay for the English version and a little one for all others). The fixes will be ready by the time the containers arrive at the ports, and thanks to air services, we can get everything to the logistics hubs on time. The fixes will be added to EN language parcels in the hubs, and we will need only 2-3 extra days to do that. And for the DE, FR, SP, IT, PL, and CZ games, even if we add a week of extra time for packing them to containers, it is still possible that the games will reach European backers as planned – in December.
BR and KOR editions status
We’ve got some good news for the BR & KOR edition backers. Up until now, we only had the BR edition files ready for print, but by the end of the month, the KOR and Chinese editions should be ready (our Chinese edition partner joined after the Kickstarter campaign this is why the Chinese edition wasn’t available on the Kickstarter). This will allow us to begin manufacturing these editions at the end of this month. The delivery will take place at the beginning of next year. We will inform you about the progress in the upcoming updates.
Iceberg Box
We’ve got another picture for you, something many have been waiting for! The Iceberg Box is in its full glory with UV enhancements. So shiny!!!
That would be all as far as the manufacturing and logistics are concerned… but definitely not all for today! Some might say it is an inception… Frostpunk is a digital product in its primal form after all 😉 but we’re also working on the digital aspect of the game… the companion app.
So here are a few words from Dawid regarding the app!
Frostpunk: The Board Game Companion App
Since the app will bring along a new and optional Trade mode to the game, we want to make it as transparent for the players as possible. As a result, we’ve spent a lot of time on the Trade list screen, especially regarding the favor bar reward for you to make educated decisions when it comes to your trade routes.
We already have a pretty exhaustive player aid card in the game, but the app will also include the detailed information about each phase as well as the knowledge base section—all in one place without reaching for the manual.
You’ll be able to setup a scenario to use only as a phase tracker or weather deck when you are not interested in playing with the Trade module.
Aside from selecting different languages for the app, you’ll be able to change many sound settings that go along with the music and dynamic sound effects. But who would really want to turn off Frostpunk music? It’s amazing, isn’t it?
Frostpunk on One More Game – Wroclaw Games Week
On the last weekend of September, we had the pleasure of presenting the MPC copies of Frostpunk: The Board Game (the ones we received for approvals) to the attendees of a board games event in Wroclaw – my (Jakub) home city and the localization of our office (the biggest one since we are quite spread out). The event was organized by my friend Patrycja who – with her husband Maciek – runs the best (in my humble opinion 😊) board game café in Wrocław – the place is called Awaria Prądu, so if you’re ever visiting Wrocław, Poland drop by, and there’s a good chance we will meet 😊 there. Patrycja is a member of the Loud productions team who sponsored the event. It was amazing to see people react and interact with the game and our devs. Almost the whole GCU team was there, and we had a small reunion over the tables. Great stuff!
Frostpunk: TBG was presented on 3 tables: one had the Core Box, the second had a Core Box with expansions, and the third one (*will tell you more about the table itself below) had all the pre-shaded add-ons from the Kickstarter.
All 3 tables were occupied non-stop throughout the whole event. Our devs and testers had a practice run before we all meet up with many of you in Essen next year 😊. The feedback we received was heartwarming! We can’t wait to hear your impressions and wait for those ships to swim faster :-). Of course, it matters to us what you will have to say the most since it was you who helped bring this game to life! Please find a few photos from the event below to help you ease the waiting 😉.
We’ve also had our first try making our own swag and prepared a few gadgets for those who visited us at the OMG event. Please let us know if you like these gadgets and we will make sure to bring some to the events we plan on visiting worldwide next year!
Frostpunk at Essen Spiel’22
Our German edition partner Frosted Games, had an MPC copy of the German version of the game with them at Essen Spiel’22 (of course, the game was not sold there). As far as we know, the game had a great reception there!
If you were at Essen Spiel’22 and saw Frostpunk: The Board Game please share it on our Facebook group 😊 Frostpunk: The Board Game | Facebook
That would be all for today. It seems like the project is coming to an end but believe us there is no less work with it than it was when we begun 😊.
Let’s all keep our fingers crossed for our manufacturer to swiftly and accurately fix the mistakes we found and for the logistics partners not to fail the hope we have placed upon them in delivering your pledges. As aways we’re grateful for your comments and feedback it is a great support and often a more boost we need to keep going like a scout party returning from a long exploration 😉.
Stay safe and brace yourselves… the Frostpunks are coming!
Jakub & GCU Team
*PS
The magic table you see here is actually called the Enchanted Table and it was created two wizards from Magi Lignorum. We’ve already used the table before while recording a playthrough at the 11 bit studio headquarters. Keep an eye out for it and subscribe to the soc media channel of the wood working wizards as they intend to hit the crowdfunding scene with their foldable, portable table. We’ve used it and it is pretty amazing, especially if you don’t have a big flat or a house and if you move a lot.