📚 Alba - an Open World Adventure Book 📚

Chapter 38...
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 25, 2022 at 01:35:31 AM

Hello, Adventurers! 

Just a quick update from us while we wait for quotes from the factory! We had an amazing weekend at the beginning of the month at UK Games Expo (relatedly, thanks to everyone who stopped by the stand!), and we had a great time meeting everyone. 

It was lovely to chat with so many people who are just as excited about our projects as we are. On top of meeting with so many of you, we also met with some potential new factories! 

While we’re still getting quotes from our existing factory LongPack, we’ll also be getting quotes from a number of other factories in China and a couple within Europe.

Although LongPack are absolutely amazing partners to work with and we know they can create the product we need them to, they are also based in Shanghai, which is MUCH more prone to lockdown than… well, basically anywhere else in China. 

To give some context, Shanghai has an estimated population of ~26 million, which in comparison to countries is more than the population of all of Australia, or about half of South Korea. 

Shanghai is about 16x smaller than South Korea (and more than 1200x smaller than Australia - though Australia is famously quite large).

So, y’know, pretty densely populated. 

Because of the dense population, Shanghai is much more susceptible to Covid outbreaks and subsequently much more likely to head back into lockdown than basically any other region in China. At the moment, we’re in contact with 3 additional factories in China and two printers in Eastern Europe to see where will be the best fit for printing Alba. 

Not to sound like a broken record, but Alba has a LOT of pages to be printed across a huge number of books. As we’re getting quotes back from them, we’re taking into account cost per unit and how long it will take them to produce the books/ extras, as is standard across all our projects. We’re also taking into account how long it will take them to source the materials to make the books, how long it will take to ship the books to our fulfilment centres, as well as whether or not it seems likely that the country/ region will head back into lockdown again. 

We’re hoping to hear back from all/ the majority of the potential manufacturers around the end of the month so we can make a fully informed choice. We've also asked for paper samples from all of them, so we guarantee the quality is what you deserve.  These should be in early next month, at which point we'll be able to make a fully informed choice. 

We’ll update you on what decision we make, as well as what factors led to us making that choice, hopefully in about 2 weeks when we've received the samples and had time to compare.  

Best, 

Team Inside the Box x

Chapter 37…
almost 2 years ago – Thu, May 26, 2022 at 12:17:46 AM

Hello, Adventurers!

We have some great news from the factory - as of 1 June, it’ll be reopened! Shanghai will finally be out of its lockdown, which is amazing.

At the moment, we’re focusing our efforts on our other Kickstarter projects, since the factory is going to be focusing on completing productions rather than starting new projects for the next few weeks.

We’re in touch with the production team to make sure we have updated quotes and are up-to-date with current supply chain issues, and we’re hoping to have a quote hammered down in the next few weeks. As the factory has been closed for over 6 weeks,  at the moment they don’t know when they’ll be back to full capacity or when they’ll finish their current backlog.

We’re hoping to have solid news by this time next month (end of June), as that should give the factory plenty of time to go back to full capacity, clear out some of their backlog, and begin new productions again.

Best,

Team Inside the Box x

Chapter 36…
about 2 years ago – Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 06:19:10 AM

Hello, Adventurers!

We have an update for you, but we’re sorry to say that it’s bad news

When last we posted an update for you all, we let you know that there was an unexpected lockdown in China and we were going to be handling it as best we can. Unfortunately, the situation has gotten worse since then.

Shanghai, where the factory, port, and most of the workers are based, has been put under complete lockdown for the foreseeable future, to help deal with rapidly rising Covid cases.

This means that the factory is completely shut down - although everyone we’ve been in contact with seems to be doing well, there are many reports of people not being able to access food and medical care, so this is a very serious issue. Please understand that while lockdowns and restrictions may be over where you are based, they are still very much an issue in other parts of the world, including where we produce our games.

Based on the information the factory has given us, they are estimating that the factory will reopen sometime in June. This has not been confirmed by the Chinese government, it is an estimate based on the information the factory has been given by the government.

We are looking into other locations to print the books themselves, so that we can get some of the games out to you, but things like the pins and Dagger’s Dagger boxes are going to need to be produced in China, because other countries just don’t have the infrastructure to produce it.

With that being said, by our next update we’re hoping to have some more clarity on the situation at large, when we can begin production in China for the things we need to produce in China, and whether or not we’ve successfully found printers outside of China that can produce as many books as we need at the high quality that you as backers both expect and deserve.

We appreciate your frustrations at this project taking so long - we’re backers too, and we know how frustrating delays can be. We’re doing all we can to get the games to you as quickly as possible.

As ever, no matter what, our focus is on battling through and doing whatever it is we physically can to keep things going, get projects moving, and ultimately get you your games.

During the last couple of years, we’ve seen many friends and colleagues in our community lose their businesses, lose their jobs, and projects go uncompleted. No matter how hard it gets, our team is dedicated to seeing this through. We know it’s going to be hard, but seeing you all with games in your hands that you can enjoy will be worth every bit of hard work.

As part of our commitment to getting these games out to you, we’ve made the difficult choice to pause issuing refunds. This is to help ensure the success of the project as a whole - if too many of our backers leave the project at this late stage and we issue full refunds to them, we may be put at risk of not being able to fulfill the rest of the games.

As it stands right now, we won’t have issues with fulfilment, but with the rising cost of shipping eating into our margins and costing us significantly more than we charged already, this is why we’ve decided to halt refunds to guarantee the project can still be fulfilled when the games are with our distribution partners.

Team Inside the Box

Our staff are people too, and have no control over a total lockdown across the globe. While we understand frustration, we do not tolerate abuse of any kind towards our staff or other backers. If you are abusive towards anyone in the comments, you WILL be reported to Kickstarter.

A quick update on the current Lockdown in China
about 2 years ago – Fri, Mar 18, 2022 at 10:31:13 PM

Hello Adventurers,

We’ve just been notified by our factory that, due to a serious increase in Covid-19 cases in Shanghai and across China, all workshops and factories have been locked down.

They are currently uncertain when they will reopen. Senior staff are able to work remotely, so we still have active communication with the factory. They’re keeping us updated with information as they get it themselves, which we’ll pass on to you.

We’re putting out this message across all channels, to make sure as many backers, fans, and followers know what is going on as possible. Please be patient as we learn more about this situation, and any delays it may cause.

We’re hoping to have a better idea of where things are in the next week, but we wanted to make sure you were aware of the recent shutdown as soon as possible.

Best,

Team Inside the Box

Chapter 35…
about 2 years ago – Tue, Mar 08, 2022 at 09:51:37 AM

Hello, Adventurers!

Relatively quick update for you today!

The factory has been notified to begin production on Alba, but has been having problems sourcing enough paper to print all the books.

Again, Alba is a massive book, we’re printing a very large number of them, and the pulp and paper industry has been put through the wringer since the pandemic started as there have been significant changes in how paper is used.

That said, we’ve started the process and production will begin shortly!

What about the app?

The app is still being worked on, but we’re approaching completion!

We’ve now finished proofing the text and making sure any structural and formatting issues are noted, and we’re just waiting on our Developer Chris to finish sorting out the issues.

There were some very interesting edge cases, largely related to the differences between the standard and the special editions. We’ve checked with Chris, and they all seem to be simple enough to fix, so we’re not expecting it to take too much longer! As soon as they’re fixed, we’ll be putting download codes into BackerKit!

Best,

Team Inside the Box x