Batch 3 - Production Update #2

Hello hello everyone!
It's been a little while, sorry for the radio silence about the production of the Batch 3 Inscryption Board Game!

One thing I often forget, is that most of you are new here and don't know all the details of how the game is made or what has happened in the past!
I always assume if I've said something before, there's no use to say it again. But I need to remind myself that while I understand every last detail, a lot of you have never heard of it before.

Overall things are going well, we're still on track for the 4-6 month time frame, but it's looking like it will be closer to the 6 month end of that timeline. No major challenges but a few unexpected delays. Keep reading on below if you want all the details.

Repainted Delays

For anyone who ordered the Repainted cards standalone, there's been a small delay.

I have all the cards and boxes ready to go, but we're just waiting on the artist signatures. We sent off the cards to be signed with express shipping on the 3rd of July, but the package was held in customs for a few weeks and only just arrived. (so much for "express")

Professor Eggnog is currently signing the cards and is expecting to return them via express shipping tomorrow. So hopefully this time around it will only be a few days, not a few weeks.

As soon as I get those signed cards back I can ship out any orders that had them standalone.
For anyone who swapped the cards in their full box order, that will still be sent later on when everything else is ready.

Full Box Updates

Our production process is a mix of parts we make ourselves, parts we have custom made for us, and a few existing parts.

Generally the parts we make and the existing parts are straightforward, and the custom manufacturing and shipping is where the delays can appear. Here's a breakdown some bits and pieces!

Batch 2 to Batch 3 conversion

A few customers from Batch 2 wanted to update their orders with the new Batch 3 sigil cards. And I also had some leftover stock from Batch 2 that I planned to update.

However, the printing company has updated their main printer and there are some slight colour discrepancies. There's not really a good solution for this. So I'll have to decide what to do with these extra stock from Batch 2 down the line. Definitely not a priority at the moment.

"Retail" Packaging

While we're on the topic of printing, lets talk about packaging.

Throughout this whole process I've been trying to keep as much manufacturing as possible in Australia, but unfortunately it's just not possible with a lot of parts. Some things are astronomically more expensive for a lower quality, and others are just not even made here anymore.

One of those is the printed "retail" box that your order comes in. (We're not in any retail stores, but that's the name I give these boxes seen above)
I contacted several local companies to try and get these made here, but after enough digging I found out they all outsource overseas anyway. So I work directly with a company overseas who has just finished production on these.

For our overseas partners, I have an independent inspection company physically visit their factory to inspect not only the quality of their products, but also their working conditions and health standards.
While this isn't perfect, as these inspections are pre-booked ahead of time, it still gives me peace of mind that our major suppliers aren't doing anything dodgy. One day I would love to become B-corp certified, but that is a long way away.

Brass Bells and boxes delay

There's been a minor delay with the bells and boxes production too. They're all almost finished and should hopefully ship to me within the next week. But this is shipped by sea, which takes about 40 days on average.

So I'd expect those to arrive in mid September assuming no unexpected delays. These will be the last things we are waiting on.
Almost every other part has either already arrived or is well on it's way.

As we can't complete anything until we have every single part. We have to wait until the last bit arrives before we can start our main production period.

The Gauntlet

The last period of production is what I've been inspired to call The Gauntlet. This is when we have all the parts ready to go and we do final assembly, quality check, packing and shipping.

As this is just myself and my wife working on these, this is the non-stop busy part where we try to get out the orders as quick as we can.

It usually takes 1-2 months of solid work including our weekends to get all the orders out. We can only do so many per day.
I bring in friends and family where I can to help out.

I'd expect to start The Gauntlet mid to late September assuming no more unexpected delays.
Which means the bulk of the orders should ship in October or November. I ship in the order in which they came in. So the lower your number is, the earlier it will ship.

Who the heck is this guy?

That weird looking guy above is known as the Red Handfish. It is estimated that only 100 Red Handfish survive in the wild, with both populations limited to two small patches of reef in Australia. Traveling no more than 30 metres per year, the species is highly vulnerable to disappearing over the brink.

I mentioned last time that we donate to environmental charities.
We locked in our donations from Batch 3, and we chose FAME. The Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species.

This charity allows you to donate towards specific projects that work towards saving some endangered wildlife in Australia.

Each and every one of you contributed to this, and I'm super happy to say we were the final donation required for the West Kimberley Rock-Wallaby project.

And we also contributed towards Saving the Red Handfish from extinction You can read more about those projects in the links.

I had a call from the Managing Director of FAME thanking us for the donation, and I wanted to pass that thanks along to all of you. This couldn't have happened without every last one of you.

I'm sure I've missed something, but this is all the updates I can think of at the moment.

I'll try to send another update in a month or so, regardless of how much there is to talk about. Trying to make this a regular thing.

Thanks again for all the support and kind words we've received. As always, feel free to get in touch anytime with a question, or even just to say hello!
nathan@crypticcrafter.com

Cheers,
Nathan
CrypticCrafter