Founders of Gloomhaven

The Wooden Stuff: Production Week 15
about 6 years ago – Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 01:49:31 AM

Hello founders of Gloomhaven!

Well, I got back from a week of gaming last night and found a lovely little package full of wood waiting for me. Four bags of wood components just like this:

All of the screen-printed bits look really great. Here are the completion tokens and the active player marker:

Along with all of the race meeples included in the game:

And here is a sample of all the bits included for a single race (in this case the Valraths, with their awesome little tails):

And speaking of gaming all week, we did get in a game of Founders of Gloomhaven, and the pieces performed admirably.

I had some more detailed pictures than this, but, well, it's a long story. My phone is not behaving properly.

There was some slight bowing of the player boards when we played, but this was likely due to them being the first off the line and not given the proper time to cure before being sent to me. I will make sure the factory pays serious attention to the issue to make sure it doesn't happen in the rest of the production copies.

Now that the printed components are united with the wood components, I am excited to get to play this some more this weekend. I'll have two copies available for play at the Gloomhaven celebration I mentioned last week, then I'll be sending one of those copies off to Paul Grogan so he can start working on the rules video.

The schedule outlined in this update is still going strong, so there's not much more to discuss. See you all in about two weeks with more pictures of the game in action!

Factory Printed Materials: Production Week 14
about 6 years ago – Tue, Mar 20, 2018 at 01:53:52 AM

Hey there, founders of Gloomhaven!

Thanks for all your words of understanding about the last update! I am back from my trip to Texas (with a "Tabletop Game of the Year" award from SXSW in tow), and I am in possession of all the printed components of Founders sent to me by the manufacturer. It is basically the complete game, minus all the wood and acrylic bits (which should be coming next week).

So here is a picture essay of this beautiful game for you.

Everything looks great in person. I think the factory did a stellar job with everything.

I did unfortunately note a couple typos when I was looking through everything (nothing game-altering), and it is too late to go back and change those at this point. Also the quality of the cards is the same as Gloomhaven's for the cross-over events, but the printing ended up a little darker. It shouldn't cause an issue integrating them into the Gloomhaven event decks.

Other than that, no issues, so I'm happy!

I'll be playing this copy in a couple days at a board game weekend I am attending with some friends, so I'll have pictures of these final components in action next week, along with pictures of the wood components. See you then!

Timeline Update: Production Week 12
about 6 years ago – Fri, Mar 09, 2018 at 12:55:36 AM

Greetings founders of Gloomhaven!

Well, I said I'd let you know when I knew more about the production schedule, so here I am with a small update on that. The short of it is that the factory is not expecting to be able to start freight shipping the game from China until the second half of April, which means the game won't likely be delivered to you until the end of May at the earliest.

The main problem here is that the production of the wooden meeples is taking much longer than I expected because there are so many shapes and they all require screen-printing. I'm talking to the factory about the possibility of speeding this up at all, but we also need to be wary of causing them to rush the production and increasing the chances of defects and mistakes (something I am very familiar with on the second printing of Gloomhaven).

I know it is disappointing to hear that the game will take even longer to arrive, and I am sorry for the delays and disappointed, as well.

I should be getting an advanced copy in 2-3 weeks, and I will show that off extensively in a video when it arrives. My March schedule is a little full, so the next update will be coming in a week and a half. I won't have the copy by then, but it should be in my hands for the following update.

That is all for now, so I'll see you next time.

Lunar New Year Hiatus: Production Week 11
about 6 years ago – Fri, Mar 02, 2018 at 10:23:29 PM

Long time, no see, founders of Gloomhaven!

I am sorry for the long time between updates. There wasn't really anything happening because of Chinese New Year, and still, I said I'd be back in two weeks, and then I didn't come back in two weeks, so, yeah. Sorry about that.

The good news is that the factory is back to work now, so we are starting to have activity again, but unfortunately I haven't quite yet been able to get an update from them on where they are with the production and what sort of timelines we're looking at. I was hoping to get that today, and when I didn't, I thought about putting this update off for longer, but then I thought that you all deserved to hear from me.

So what's the plan moving forward? Well, when I do get a concrete timeline from them, I will let you all know in another update (probably next week), and then we'll go from there. This update is mainly just to let you know that I am still alive and thinking of you and progress is being made.

Also, did you know that I am having a party? It is mostly about Gloomhaven reaching the #1 spot in the BoardGameGeek rankings, but I am hoping to have an advanced copy of Founders of Gloomhaven at that point, so I'm sure that will be a focus as well. It's at the end of this month in Lafayette, IN, and you can find the details here (there are only a few spaces left).

All right, I hope everyone is doing well and that I will be able to give you all some more concrete information soon! Until next time!

Making Games: Production Week 7
about 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 07, 2018 at 12:21:38 AM

Greetings founders of Gloomhaven!

Very small update today as I don't have much exciting news to offer. We received the proofs right after the last update, and there were a few things to fix, but nothing major. We are in production now, though I don't yet have an ETA on when that will be finishing yet.

I do have some images of some of the meeples to show you, but that is about it at this point:

Hopefully I'll have more images from the factory it share in upcoming weeks, but the Chinese New Year is starting, so we might have a couple more short updates coming.

I'll still check in, though, to give you the news. Thanks for being patient with the project. It's coming along!