Tue Dec 4 '18 Announcement
over 5 years ago
– Tue, Dec 04, 2018 at 11:30:34 AM
Hi all,
Shipping Update
Bad news first:
I had originally been told by the manufacturer that your games would be printed and ready by about November 5th, so I was disappointed to discover that not only is production not complete, but there were quality and sturdiness issues with the slotted insert that holds the cards for the Howly Growly.
I don't expect this problem will take very long to fix, and many items are already manufactured. But usually manufacturing can take a full 30-45 days, and shipping on the container ship can take 4-6 weeks. Then the fulfillment companies need 2 weeks to process and ship your orders to you. So we are a minimum of 8-10 weeks from your games arriving.
If you were hoping to receive GROWL by the holidays I am very sorry to disappoint you. I am now expecting delivery in mid February.
I will try to improve production speed in the future. I was diligent in responding to all requests from my manufacturer within a day of receiving them. But I'm also learning how unprepared I was for production insofar as the illustrations took longer than I estimated and I obsessed over the rulebook translations to make them as good as I could make them.
The Good News
Since the game was taking longer in manufacturing, and since I had some free design time, I went ahead and completed another expansion and got it tested and finished in time for production!
• I am including the 12 card Spells expansion for free in every copy of the Howly Growly Box. These are cards like Effigy Doll (which lets you send cards remotely during Night Phase), Monkey's Paw (which lets you keep the card you drew for yourself, but at a cost), and Chaos Cauldron (which slurps cards in and then spits them out again).
• I am including 4 bonus Bites and 4 bonus Wounds for the Bare Bones and Basic Box backers. This is the full 4-10 player deck. So if you backed for those tiers, you'll get a complete game for 4-10 players (rather than 4-7p or 4-8p like I promised). (I'll still have inexpensive copies of all the expansions for sale separately, even though they don't come with your 84 card deck.)
I've talked about the Spells in the livestreams and in the comments, but officially I never promised it as part of the original campaign. The Howly Growly Box currently has the 74 card deck, plus 10 bonus home tile cards to play with extra players. So 84 cards, plus the 14 cards for the Curses expansion (which adds some craziness). Now it will come with the Spells expansion as well. Including rules cards, there will be a total of 112 cards in the Howly Growly, 84 cards in the Basic and Bare Bones, and 145 cards if you got the 7 Sins/Undead expansion pack (either separately or in the Howly + Extras or higher tiers that include "7 Sins").
Components photo
PAX Unplugged is over, and I'm still in the process of traveling back to L.A. There's a couple pictures on my Twitter if you want to check out a shot or two of me demoing GROWL at the convention. Thanks so much to the Alvarado family (Brian, Sierra, and Emily) for helping me run demos.
I met with my manufacturer at the show and I got to view samples of most of the components. (I still don't have photos of the furry bags, but I've seen them and they look great and will post pics when I have them.) Here's some pics I took against my car hood:
NOT PICTURED: velvet coin/deck bag, coins, tiles, and blue furry monster bag.
(Please ignore all the wear and tear on the box, as these copies were stuffed in my backpack and carried around for several days without protection.) Note that the Howly Growly box will come with 6 slots for cards and expansions, plus space for the deck. (You can fit 2 decks if you reconfigure the insert!) The boxes have space for 90x68mm card sleeves as well.
Metal Coins Add-On
If you got the add-on metal coins, here's the first draft of them; I am waiting to see the final version. The value 3 coins will be more gold in color than the value 1 coins. You'll get 25 coins total, 20 "1" and 5 "3".
The coins included with the boxes will be hard punchboard, but linen-coated, color printed, and heavy-duty. They will also come with a high quality velvet bag, just like the metal coins purchasers get. The velvet bag is also big enough for the game deck, so you can carry the whole game in your pocket if you want.
Again, sorry to miss the holidays folks. But I'll send you a high-quality game that you'll love, as soon as I can get it sent. I'll update you as soon as I am informed production is complete.
Setting Up BackerKit for Indiegogo InDemand Backers
For you backers on this platform, I will be setting up a page to handle add-ons, so if there's an issue with your Perks just stay tuned and I'll send another update around December 15th letting you know what's happening.
I'm so excited for this game. The crowds at the convention over the weekend LOVED the demos and I know you'll be happy when you get it.
-Joey
