Kickstarter

At last a proper Roman game with proper Roman legionaries properly XstealingX requisitioning materials from people.   Geekus Maximus

Review copies haven't gone out yet, but we now have the first formal review from a big name game reviewer!

The PLAYMOBIL® Legion reviews "Glory To Rome, Black Box Edition"

I'm delighted to finally have Glory To Rome given the proper Playmobile Legionary review treatment - thanks Mya!

Incidentally, if you've not seen Mya's reviews they're well worth checking out - who would have thought that a set of kids toys could do such a great job of explaining Euro games - here's a scene from the Zombie In My Pocket review she did a couple of years ago:

The PLAYMOBIL® Legion reviews "Zombie in my Pocket"

The Main Shipment

We hit one more ridiculous issue with export licensing earlier in the week which meant we missed this week's shipment window, but we do now finally have the Shanghai pick ups scheduled for Monday, with the ships leaving port on Thursday and Friday next week.

The games are scheduled to arrive in Boston on July 19th and Rotterdam on July 22nd, so with a few days for customs clearance it looks like we'll be sending the main shipment sets out in the last week of July / first week of August.

I know: more delays, yuck!  On the other hand, we have pick ups scheduled!!! This means that the dates are (finally!!!) getting pretty firm - I can't believe how long this took but I'm incredibly glad the games are now moving!

The main air shipment was collected today. I don't have the booking sheet yet, but we should see the copies here in Groton, MA either end of next week or start of the week after.

Asia / Australia / New Zealand

Sorry guys.

The extra complexities in getting the main shipment out of China also got in the way of planning and setting up the local distribution for the sets being sent directly out of Shanghai.

Good news is that we are now (again... finally!!!) moving there too - on Friday our shipping agent confirmed receipt of the 420 copies. I need to get timing confirmed but I'm expecting the advanced shipments to be sent next week with the remaining sets starting to ship the week after that.

Rubble / Thinker Backers

Your packs will go out after the main air shipment arrives - so they should ship out in the week of June 29th

Local Pick Up

Firstly, local pick up is now closed.  Right now it looks like everyone who has a pickup ID of 41 or below will get a copy. If your number is 42 or higher then chances are you'll have to wait for the main shipment, although that will also depend on your location.

Amsterdam copies were given out last week. Wake confirmed that he received the Oxford copies this morning and so they're available for collection.

US copies are mainly coming on the air shipment next week and then need to get sent out to the various locations, so it's still going to be a week or so before we get them into your hands. We will give more details once the shipment arrives.

Active Duty Services, Wedding Presents and Special Pleading

Once the main airshipment arrives we'll be holding back a few copies here in Groton "just in case" but unless we do actually find we start needing them then we'll be able to start releasing them through July as the main shipment gets closer.

If you are an active duty service person deployed (or being deployed) in harm's way, or there's a clear reason why you need the game on a specific date (e.g., as a wedding present) then please let us know and we'll see what we can do about getting you a copy.

Note that we're talking about at most five or six sets - or none at all if we start getting "Where's my advanced shipment" emails and find that a few people slipped through the cracks on the original distribution - so no promises, but let us know and we'll see what we can do. 

Huge, huge, thank you!!!

Jacky Xu from Shanghai Dafa spent almost a day last week helping us get the export licensing issue resolved - I can't tell you how grateful I am, especially since Glory To Rome, Black Box Edition is actually the first of our games since 2010 which has been printed by a different company.

Seriously though, I can't recommend Jacky / Shanghai Dafa highly enough - Jacky has been an incredible and patient business partner through the various ups and downs we've had over the years and working with Jacky has been an education in getting stuff done in China. His company printed Plato 3000 so if you are a publisher (or considering a kickstarter run of your own) you'll have a sample of what he's capable of.

Plus his office chair looks like it came out of a racing car - what's not to love!

 Back in America

I got back home Tuesday night with half a dozen copies of Blackbox in my luggage after being out of the US for almost a year. When I left the house was still full of my ex-wife's stuff (including a baby-grand piano) and we'd just started moving the games company in from the garage; I've coming back to find the place a working small business with the personal stuff I have left in the US in boxes upstairs. 

It's strange to be back, especially as it's only for a few weeks (I'm planning to return to Europe in mid July) but I do truly love this place, even if I don't get to live here much anymore. It's easy to be glibbly think "If I mess up I lose my house" when it's 3000+ miles away; tougher when I'm actually here sitting in it.

The past few years have been tough times for a lot of people, and while I've had quite a few scares I've been blessed by always being able to pull things together successfully in the end. My new project is starting next week, so Amber will be taking over the updates for here forwards.

Sorry, yet again, for the rough ride. Putting the games onto a boat next week will be a huge milestone though - and so while I'm quite sure there are a few more hiccups to come, we really should be starting to get through the worst of it.

Cheers,

Ed Carter
Managing Director
Cambridge Games Factory
www.cambridgegames.com
YES! We'd love to see your game idea

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.     Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Origins pick up went according to plan - now it's done we can admit that we sent about 3 times as many sets as were requested and virtually all of them were handed out (although we did run out of some of the Promo Items). 

The initial feedback we're getting from people who have received their copies are extremely positive - you can see an "unboxing" video here. 

An "unboxing" photo story from "DiceHateMe": 

Note these are from regular backer and not affiliated with us in any way - I couldn't be happier with the video he put together but it's his personal opinion about the set.

European and American advanced copies (including Merchant Patron sets) were all sent out last week so should now be arriving.  If you've not received your copy yet please contact us at Kickstarter@cambridgegames.com and we'll check the tracking numbers. 

I'm afraid Asian / Australian Advanced copies are still in Shanghai - more details below - not good, I know, but it's high on the list to get fixed.

Now that we're through Origins and the US / European Advanced copies are out we're shifting gears to making the main shipment work - there are a variety of updates. I'm afraid that some of the news isn't great. We're making progress, but slowly.

Jeremiah Lee leaving Cambridge Games Factory

After four years working with Cambridge Games Factory, Jeremiah Lee handed in his notice shortly before Origins. Over the years Jeremiah has been our main face at US conventions as well as this Kickstarter project; he's accepted a similar role with Indy Board and Cards - doing what he loves without risking the choppy seas of Geek fury and occasional (light-hearted?!?) death threats to his children.

When we started this Kickstarter I was extremely pleased with how the Cambridge Games Factory team was coming together but knew this project would test the team to its limits - especially when we came in almost four times higher than our request amount. These past couple of weeks I've actually really enjoyed the luxury of being able to dedicate time to getting things back on track, but it's been bitter-sweet knowing that Jeremiah won't be an active member of the team when we get there.

On the other hand, I'm delighted for Jeremiah. This is a great opportunity for him and I have immense respect for Travis and the Indy crew. We'll be continuing to collaborate with Jeremiah as a designer (Zombie in my Pocket is one of my all time favorite games).

Amber Ying takes over as Kickstarter lead

While I do intend to replace Jeremiah eventually this doesn't feel like the right moment to bring new leadership onto the team - so short term Amber Ying (Operations Director) is taking over as primary contact for the Kickstarter program, as well as managing the store contact program and handling day to day sales inquiries.

Amber has been reading through the threads on BoardGameGeek, etc. so she knows what she's signing up for but please be nice to her. Amber is the one who kept the company together when our previous Operations Director quit last year and I've no idea how we'd get the games to you without her running the factory. That means I'm going to have to take her off the 'front line' if she starts getting the same kind of heat that Jeremiah was taking - and I'm running out of people to step into the role in her place.

Wakefield Carter takes over store updates

Another key area of Jeremiah's responsibility was providing regular updates to our store community - especially those that have also pre-ordered the new Black Box edition. Wakefield Carter (Commercial Director) is taking over this program. He's in the process of putting together an update which should get sent out in the next few days.

Store Pick Up Program / Now Hiring!!!

So far Jeremiah and Amber have had confirmations from about half the stores on our list that they're interested in participating in our store pick up program - and only a couple who have outright rejected the process - but with Jeremiah leaving and Amber's responsibilities increasing we need a couple of extra hands on deck to complete the calls in the next few weeks before the main shipment arrives.

We're therefore looking for a couple more people to help out with getting the Kickstarter out the door. Cambridge Games Factory makes a point of being a company run by gamers, for gamers so if you're interested in a few weeks of work and are within commuting distance of Groton, MA (where our factory is) then we'd love to hear from you. The roles will be a combination of outbound calls to stores and assembling promotional packs, etc. - please email Kickstarter@CambridgeGames.com for details.

REMINDER : Promo Item Packs for Advanced / Asian Copies

The games themselves are heavy, while the promo items are complicated (who came up with the idea for all those choices!?!) so we're splitting up the collation / distribution process.

Most of you won't notice any difference but Advanced shippers and shipments to Asia, Australia and New Zealand will come in two parts - you'll receive Glory To Rome, Plato 3000 and the BlackBox Promo cards first, followed by a second shipment with risers, mini-camps, I.V Promo cards, etc.

Shanghai collection running behind schedule

While the operations team (Amber and Chris Sniezek) are full time employees, and Jeremiah was paid for the Kickstarter project, right now everyone else (including me!) are doing this unpaid because we love being part of a (hopefully someday successful) games company. The upside is that we all get to work with a skilled and engaged team with far more experience than we could afford to hire based on our turnover; the downside is that tasks owned by this management group can be at risk to outside scheduling pressures.

Across the management team, Christopher Rao, Heiko Gunther and and I are most "swingy" - we all run our own businesses and so can usually carve out time when we need it (it's good to be the boss!) but also have periods where a project breaks and we end up with little or no time for the games company. Often we can see these periods coming (and plan for them) but not always.

Unfortunately for various reasons Christopher's schedule has been extremely tight over the past couple of weeks which means his current tasks - getting the games picked up from Shanghai and setting up the Asian / Australian shipping process - have been taking longer than expected. Yesterday we did finally get the corrected quote back from our shipping line but that's still not quite a firm date - the next steps are submitting the booking forms and export clearance so that we can get slotted onto a specific vessel. Once we've done that we'll finally know the arrival date and be able to provide more detailed plans / schedule for delivering the main shipment.

Christopher and I have discussed the situation and he's assured me that his agenda is much clearer now so he'll be able to start making better progress going forwards. I've asked him not to respond to questions about this on BoardGameGeek until the pick up is actually scheduled since I (and I hope you) would much rather he was spending his time getting us moving again rather than getting caught up in trying to explain why we are behind.

At the same time I recognize that given our track record, "Christopher says he has time now" does not inspire much confidence. This is an area he knows better than I do so I'm not keen to switch it to someone else, but am monitoring the situation closely and will move it in the next couple of days if we don't start to make better progress.

Asia / Australia / New Zealand

Different topic, same story. We've been slipping on the schedule due to Christopher's availability. With Origins completely (as well as Jeremiah's transtion) I will be able to get more involved now - more info in the next update.

Local Pick Up

As a reminder, we have a few spare advanced sets which will be available for collection in the following locations:

Cambridge, Massachussets - Amber Ying
Ann Arbor, Michigan - Jeremiah Lee
Seattle, Washington - Christopher Rao
Saarbrücken, Germany - Heiko Gunther
Oxford, United Kingdom - Wake Carter
Amsterdam, Netherlands - Ed Carter

Everyone who's already signed up (and received a pick up ID of 28 or lower) has an advanced set reserved for them; we still have a few more left and so we're adding two extra pick up locations:

Portland, Oregon - Christopher Rao is at the 18xx convention from June 21 to June 24 and can bring copies for collection there.

Oakland, California - within a few weeks of our first publishing Glory To Rome back in 2005 it was being played in Oakland by a dedicated group of supporters. We're a New England company and so it was stunning to discover these guys, 3000 miles away, playing a game that had sold less than twenty copies.

The story of how it happened was involved a failed games convention, a burglary and a set of guys who fell in love with the game despite it's terrible artwork and square cornered cards - at the time Carl and I were still hand assembling the decks which we'd printed like business cards - and so since we still have a few early copies to send somewhere it feels like that's the right place to do it.

Advanced pick ups are on a first come, first served basis - please email Kickstarter@CambridgeGames.com if you want to reserve a copy.

My Schedule
As I've made clear, Cambridge Games Factory isn't my main paid employment. Over the past few weeks I've been dedicating most of my time to getting things back on track but I've also been putting together a proposal for my next full-time project. It is looking like that will start either next week or the week after, at which point you will see my active participation in the project scale back again.

That doesn't mean I'm down to zero participation - just that I'm going to drop back behind the scenes and focus on making sure the work keeps moving while letting Amber, Wake, etc. make the public updates. In particular, I've arranged to spend the first few weeks of my next project back in Boston, so I'll be on site during the next critical weeks to make sure the promo packs are being put together properly, etc. before returning to Europe in early July to lead the European distribution process.

Thank you, yet again, for your patience - it's been a long road with far too many twists on it, but truly - we're in the home straight now.

Cheers,

Ed Carter
Managing Director
Cambridge Games Factory
www.cambridgegames.com
YES! We'd love to see your game idea

Another quick update - I just spoke to Jeremiah and he's now on the road to Origins.  Everything arrived on time so the games (and all promo choices) will be available to pick up there from tomorrow onwards.

ADVANCED COPIES - ON THEIR WAY!

 

Americas: In addition to frantically preparing for Origins, Jeremiah has also got all of the American advanced copies packaged up and ready to ship - right now they're in his van, but he's promised to get them to a UPS store tomorrow, so they'll be with you extremely soon.

Europe: I also packaged up and sent out the European Advanced copies today (via Post.NL / TNT) so they'll be arriving in the next couple of days.

Asia / Australia: Still a work in progress - I need to get an update from Xu Bo / Christopher but right now it's looking like they'll be shipping early next week, with the regular sets to those markets going out shortly afterwards.

LOCAL PICKUP

To make absolutely sure we could get games to advanced backers first we sent a few extra sets to both Europe and America as 'safety stock'.  Some of these are going to reviewers, but we will have a few available for local pick up.

More details to follow once we know how many sets we have available, but if you're in any of the following areas and wish to pick up your game early please let us know by emailing kickstarter@cambridgegames.com 

Cambridge, Massachussets - Amber Ying / Factory

Ann Arbor, Michigan - Jeremiah Lee

Seattle, Washington - Christopher Rao

Saarbrücken, Germany - Heiko Gunther

Oxford, United Kingdom - Wake Carter

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Ed Carter

Stock is extremely limited and so for each location we'll prioritize requests based on the order we receive your email - please respond quickly to avoid disappointment!

A FEW OTHER TOPICS

Firstly, sorry about our sloppy email responsiveness throughout this project.  It's an area where I've had concerns for a while, but I didn't realize quite how bad it had become until a couple of weeks ago when I had time to re-engage in the project.

Since then I've switched us over to an automated Email tracking system so that at the very least I'd know that every email coming in had an owner and was getting dealt with - we're still working through a few teething issues (e.g., "Yes - you do need to send an acknowledgement email for every change of address") but we're getting there.

Secondly, there are a few things that simply should not have happened:

1) Indicating that we were almost finished sending out the I.V promo packs to Rubble Backers when actually we weren't even planning to start until the rest of the promotional items (including Plato 3000) arrived.  The false information got out due to a stupid internal miscommunication - stuff happens - but we should have done a much better job of correcting the misunderstanding once we realized what had occurred.

2) Our original schedule which had the Origins sets arriving in the US before the Advanced shipping games.  Fortunately you guys spotted it before the shipment had been picked up so we were able to correct the issue - huge thank you to Chris Lacota, especially - but the initial plan was poorly thought out, sorry.

I also recognize that we're badly overdue with an update to stores and distributors - with Jeremiah and the team heads down getting ready for Origins I've not wanted to push the issue up to now - we'll aim to get specific information out sometime next week.

FINALLY

I've hinted I have some ideas about ways to make up for dropping the ball on this stuff over the past couple of months.  It's certainly not the only thing I have in mind, but one thing I do intend to do - once the games are shipped and the dust has settled a little - is facilitate an open "Lessons Learned" session on BoardGameGeek, including the whole Cambridge Games Factory team to make sure your feedback is heard and acted upon.

Thank you for your patience - we've never produced anything of close to this quality before so I'm really looking forward to hearing what you guys think of the games now that we're starting to get them into backers' hands!

Cheers,

Ed Carter

Managing Director

Cambridge Games Factory

www.cambridgegames.com
YES! We'd love to see your game idea

AND FINALLY...

The next urgent task is getting games available for Origins pick up, as promised  in the last update.