Games on Boats...
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 11, 2025 at 10:36:21 AM
Hello, backers. Apologies for the radio silence, and thank you all for your patience. This update contains some black-and-white data about where your games are, where they are going, and when. It also contains some behind-the-scenes info to help explain what this process has been like for me.
First, most importantly...
2000 copies of Bah Humbug and the 12 games of Christmas are printed. They are packed. The are now en route toward 2 fulfillment centers. (I.e., the two businesses who will ship individual games out to you).
There are 2 shipments:
For backers in the US...
Your games will come from Quartermaster Logistics (Orlando, FL). They are one of the leaders in the industry for fulfilling Kickstarter campaigns. They will also warehouse additional copies and spare parts.
Game status: aboard shipping vessel
Current location: last seen in Savannah, GA (as of today)
Estimated delivery to Miami: March 14
Estimated delivery to Quartermaster: TBD
Estimated shipping to US backers: TBD
Quartermaster already has our backer list, addresses (and all the changes), and a team ready to send out the games. All the shipping funds have been collected from backers. So now it's all a matter of waiting on the games to arrive.
Behind the scenes: We had a surprise last week. These games are subject to a new tariff on all goods entering the US from China. This means we have an extra $800+ invoice to pay. Because we kept all the Kickstarter funds separate, we should be able to pay this without any problem.
For backers in Canada, UK, Europe, and the rest of the World...
Your games will be sent by Spiral Galaxy Games (UK). They are another powerhouse for sending out Kickstarter games around the world. They are also experts in handling taxes and importation of games. That has been one of the most complicated parts of this whole process. Spiral Galaxy will send the games out to everyone who is NOT in the US. They will also warehouse extra games and spare parts.
Game status: aboard shipping vessel
Current location: China Coast (reported March 10)
Estimated delivery to London Gateway: April 12
Estimated delivery to Spiral Galaxy: TBD
Estimated delivery to non-US Backers: TBD
I am working with Spiral Galaxy to make sure all the addresses are correct, and that they have what they need to ship. The taxes and shipping are set aside. So, like the Quartermaster shipment, this is a matter of waiting for the boat to reach the port.
Behind the scenes: For us, the biggest challenge with this shipment has been navigating the VAT (value-added tax) process for the UK. It's been a lot of paperwork and reporting, even though we haven't shipped anything to backers yet. At one point, we learned we had been double-registered and were accumulating penalties on an account that we didn't know existed. The good news about this is that my good friend Simon, who lives in the UK, has been able to help us through much faster than we could have managed on our own. We haven't had to pay any penalties. We've also been able to help Spiral Galaxy prepare help documents to assist other publishers with this process in the future.
So, in summary, the games are on boats.
From where I'm sitting, there isn't much I can do to speed up the process of getting the games to you. I do plan to keep a close eye on where games are, and communicate with both fulfillment centers to make sure there are no unnecessary delays. And I'll update the estimated dates over the coming weeks as they change or things get delivered.
What now?
Backers who never answered the BackerKit survey. There are a small number of backers who have not completed their surveys, despite many reminders. I've emailed each of them one last time, hoping we can get your addresses and send your games. But if I am unable to reach you or get an address by April 1, I will be refunding those games.
Marketing. Quartermaster logistics will start announcing pre-sales for Bah Humbug this summer. I'll also be updating the website and reaching out to retailers who previously expressed interest in the game. We aticipate being able to get it into stores well before Christmas 2025.
How-to-Play videos. This is something I hope we can get together for this summer. Whether you're a retailer training employees to play the game, or a backer playing with family, we want to make sure it's easy to learn Bah Humbug. However, due to events of the past 12 months, I've lost all the camera equipment I used to have, and don't have a budget right now to replace them. So I'll be reaching out to co-creators and content creators to help me make sure we can have helpful, well-produced video content.
Future Kickstarters? Some folks have asked me if I plan to move forward with any of my other games via Kickstarter. And a few backers have told me they will never back anything I do on Kickstarter again. I don't blame them. This project has taken longer than expected, and not gone as smoothly as expected.
I've learned that fulfilling a Kickstarter is about 100 times more complicated than it seems from the outside. At the surface, it's about creating something wonderful, colorful, and different. It's about getting people excited about what you're creating. But then the following 90% or more of the process is paperwork, emails, spreadsheets, forms, phone calls, messages, payment processing... On top of that, it's means relying a lot on other people, other schedules, and holidays in other countries. So it's hard to be small and nimble, and create things on a reasonable timeline, which was my original plan with game design. There hasn't been much fun or exciting about this part. At least not for me. Most of the time, it has been downright frustrating.
In short, I wanted to build a bungalow, but this is more like building a cathedral.
For that reason, I can't imagine doing another Kickstarter alone, or even with a partner. If I do self-publish again, it will be as part of an experienced publishing team, and people who love doing the things that I find very difficult.
For now, I'm just hoping I can get my creative drive back and start designing games again. It's something I stopped doing about a year ago. But I'm starting to play games again. And I'm developing a new appreciation for language-independent games. Any games I design in the future will likely be much simpler than the Bah Humbug project.
Thanks for your continued support.
It's been a long time, but now that games are on boats, I can't imagine a situation in which backers won't have their games by this coming Christmas. It's not the timeline we hoped, but we will get there.
To everyone who is still following the project...
...to the people at Spiral Galaxy and Quartermaster (who are MUCH more capable at fulfillment than I would have been alone)...
...and all the other folks who are helping us cross the finish line, in whatever small way...
...and those who are just patiently waiting...
I want to say Thank You.
I'm really looking forward to sending everyone their games.
How to contact me
As always, the fastest way to contact me about your game, address, or anything else related to Bah Humbug is at [email protected]
Thanks again, and I hope to deliver more good news soon.
Emily
The Finish Line Is In Sight (but not as near as we’d hoped)
over 1 year ago
– Sun, Nov 03, 2024 at 08:06:13 AM
Hi everyone. Apologies for a delayed update. Over the past couple of months, it's constantly felt like I've been just one more week away from being able to share good news, so I've been waiting to post. But I admit I should have posted sooner.
The good news:
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Games are 100% complete, printed, and ready to ship. We thought we had the final version back in September, but one of the wooden pieces came out a different color than expected, and I made the decision to adjust that piece in all 2000 copies. Now everything is as it should be, and ready to ship out of China.
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We will be using Quartermaster Logistics for US orders, and Spiral Galaxy to fulfill all non-US orders. Both of these firms are experts at what they do. We are finalizing our shipping plan this week, with about 500 games going to Spiral Galaxy in the UK, and the rest going to Quartermaster Logistics in Florida, USA. We expect a very smooth fulfillment process once games arrive at these fulfillment centers.
The less-good news:
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We now expect games to be delivered to backers in 2025. Even though the games are ready, ocean freight takes a long time, especially in the final quarter of the year. While shipping from our fulfillment partners to you is relatively quick, it’s a long journey to get the games out of China, onto a boat, and to the fulfillment centers. I've looked into other distribution methods, or ways to shorten the journey, but this is the only feasible option for us at this point.
Once games arrive at the fulfillment centers, I will send another update. If you need to change your address, that's still possible. Please send me an email at [email protected] with "Address Change" in the subject line. We will update our spreadsheets again in January.
I know this timeline is not what everyone had hoped for, or what I promised at the start of this project. While I've learned a lot in the past 2 years, being a one-person publishing company has been a struggle for me. Combining games from over a dozen designers, working remotely from a developing country, coordinating printing in China, shipping games by sea to 2 different fulfillment centers (and the complicated logistics that entails), sorting through spreadsheets of data, learning about VAT, and delivering games to countries around the world...it's a lot of different "hats" for one person to wear. And it's a much different job than designing games.
I'm very thankful to those who have helped me over the past two years finding my way through this process. I also want to say thank you to Tyler at Panda Games, Jon at Spiral Galaxy, James at Quartermaster, and my friend Simon Beal in the UK for helping me get this project across the finish line in the weeks to come.
Most of all, thank you to the game designers, and to you, our backers, for believing in our company and our project, and for your patience as we finish delivering this collection. If you have any questions, need to change your order, or have additional feedback, I'm always available at [email protected]
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your continued support of Bah Humbug and the 12 games of Christmas and Small Furry Games.
I hope your November and December are filled with joy, games, and quality time with those you love.
I'll post again soon,
Emily
And the Community Contest Winner is...
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Jul 25, 2024 at 03:59:02 PM
We are happy to announce that all 3 of this year's Bah Humbug community contest finalists received great ratings from voters during the voting period.
It was a close race, but the game we have selected to release for Christmas 2024 is...
BAUBLES & WREATHS by Randi Samuels
Who will have the most decorated wreaths in the neighborhood?
Baubles & Wreaths is a competitive "climbing" card game for 3 or more players. Here's how it works:
- Players take turns playing Mail cards (representing ornaments) from their hand onto 2 different piles (representing Wreaths). They may either play a card that matches the top card on the pile, the next highest card, the next lowest card, or a wild card. If they can't play ANY card, they'll take a piece of coal. Playing certain cards will allow a player to "hop" over another player in turn order, gain bonus baubles, or discard coal.
- When you play the final card (a "12") onto a Wreath, that Wreath is yours to keep (and to score at the end of the game). Along the way, you'll also have opportunities to collect Baubles (red tokens). You may use these to decorate the Wreaths you collect.
- When there is only 1 Wreath left to decorate, the game ends. Then the player with the most points from the Baubles and Wreaths they have collected (minus points for coal) wins the game.
What we love about this game is that it is easy to teach, quick to play, and players end the game with little decorated Wreaths on the table in front of them.
The current game rules are available here. We will be working with Randi and our graphic designer over the next couple of weeks to finalize these rules, match them to the current cards and rulebook, test the game at all player counts, and prepare the final version for public release.
Thanks to everyone for voting in this contest, and all the designers for submitting!
In other news...
We are awaiting photos from Panda Game Manufacturing so we can show you how the game is being manufactured. They will also provide us with an updated timeline soon, so we can estimate your delivery date.
The PNP rulebook has been updated to reflect the final printed version. You can view it here.
I estimate the next update will be in early August.
Thanks for your ongoing support!
-Emily
