An innovative branching narrative gamebook, set in a desolate post-apocalyptic world. How will your journey end?
Peter still owes his employees wages, missing pension and redundancy.
To all backers,
Last month I promised that I would send out an update by the end of January with whatever news I had.
As I said on the last update, I've been busy in the background working on solutions to complete the remaining parts of the project.
I'm not in a position to give you concrete information on exactly when games will ship, in what order etc - as I promised not to do so unless I was 100% confident of the results.
What I can say at this stage, however, is that specific, significant, progress has been made.
I am hoping to be able to give you all a much more clear picture of the remainder of this project soon, but regardless I will update you all by the end of February as promised.
Peter.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hello, Adventurers!
Sorry for the confusion after our most recent update - we’ve been spending the last few days sorting out things on our end.
TL; DR: We are getting quotes from different factories because they may be able to produce the games more quickly and more reliably than our current factory can. We’ll update you in ~2 weeks with our decision, as well as why we made that decision.
Yes! But we're looking at backups.
Our default plan is to print with LongPack, the factory we’ve been working with for our more standard board game production for the last several years. They have a proven track record in production, we know the quality of materials they have access to, and they will be 100% able to produce the games.
With that being said, they are based in Shanghai, which at the beginning of June got out of a ~2 month-long total lockdown, after a ~2 month-long partial lockdown. If you’ve backed any of our other projects, you may be familiar with the lack of movement that’s been going on there basically since this calendar year began. Shanghai is very densely populated, meaning it is much more likely to go into lockdown than other areas in China, which has a zero-tolerance covid policy. This government policy has led to no notice lockdowns in areas of China which has made it near impossible for affected businesses and communities to plan for and respond to.
As Shanghai is more likely to go back into lockdown, we’ve approached other factories, both in China and in Europe, about production costs and logistics. We’ve heard back from almost all of them at this point, and are waiting on physical samples from the ones we haven’t worked with.
We have sent over files to LongPack to confirm setup - us getting additional quotes is not delaying the project or costing us more time, it just means we haven’t committed to going with them rather than anyone else.
In short, so we are 100% sure what the quality is.
Although we receive quotes based on standard components, where the factory sources these from varies, and so the quality or exact specification varies as well. Different factories also have different machinery, which will produce things differently. This can be as small a difference as using the same machine with different inks, leading to different end products, to as large a difference as not having the capacity to do certain effects. Once we have physical samples, we’ll be able to see what can be produced by each of the factories and make sure it’s the quality you deserve.
We’re getting a requote from one of the factories right now, but we’re expecting to have finalised quotes and samples in hand by the end of next week. It’ll take us a few days to confirm everything and request requotes if necessary, so we’re expecting to be able to share the info with you in about 2 weeks. Sometimes it takes a bit of back and forth with the team at the factory to ensure they're precisely clear on what the project needs, or to suggest alternative production techniques that may save time or improve quality.
Key information that each quote has is:
These are the main things we will be comparing, with special attention to the amount of time it will take to source external materials and the amount of time to produce the end product, as they will have the biggest impact on delivery.
We’ll also be taking into account how likely the region is to go into lockdown - as we’ve said before, Shanghai is very likely to go back into lockdown, which isn’t something we have control over.
This depends on where the production is processed. Usually, this would take between 3-6 months, depending on the complexity of the components and how difficult it is to source them at the time.
We’re aiming for c. 3-4 months from approval of a quote to mass production being finished and ready for pick up by our shipping partners. Again, we’ll get a rough timeline from the factory we end up going with, which we will share with you when we approve the final quotes.
Once we have the quote finalised and approved, we’ll get the ball rolling on the fastest digital sample we can get (some companies allow for expedited samples, some do not).
Digital samples are when the game is produced using smaller scale machinery than the final game will be made on, but using the same or similar processes. This will allow us to see what the game will actually look like and confirm 100% that everything is perfect. The main difference is that these samples are printed with a 'digital' printer, which is similar to the kind of laserjet or inkjet printer you'd see in a local print shop - which don't have a huge set up time and can spit out one of something quickly. In mass production, factories use huge offset presses that take a considerable amount of time and resources to set up that are then ultra fast.
Here's a video explaining how offset printing works:
Once the digital sample is approved, we’ll immediately go into mass production, where the larger machinery is used to produce the games at scale. During production, we’ll get a mass production sample - this will be a copy of the game as you will get it, using the same machinery. We get this sample in addition to the digital sample to make sure there are no problems with the files they’re using and give it a final look - making sure the game is complete, all components are present, and there are no issues with things like print effects.
Once we’ve approved this sample, mass manufacturing will be completed, and the games will get on a boat to our fulfilment centres, where they will be sent out to you!
As we've been focused on the logistical challenges of the various lockdowns and the impact of that on the project as a whole, the app has obviously been paused - but we've got an exciting update for you on the app front this update. The audio edition!
You'll remember from the campaign that we promised an entirely narrated version of Alba included as part of the app experience, so you can switch between delivery via text or audio for your adventure. The narration was completed by the same amazing narrator as the main video, Rob Sharp. Rob has narrated, recorded and edited every individual title, section and instruction in Alba (both standard and special edition), and the end result is something we're really pleased with.
Below is the whole of Chapter 1 in audio format for you to explore. We hope you enjoy!
Click the image to go to the Soundcloud page so you can skip between sections when making your choices.