BackerKit is Live
almost 9 years ago
– Sat, Mar 05, 2016 at 09:47:37 PM
Hi everyone, we sent out the BackerKit surveys last night in a soft launch in order to work out the bugs.
BackerKit Survey Login
https://official-catan-collectors-series.backerkit.com/
Preorder Page to share with friends who didn't back the Kickstarter
https://official-catan-collectors-series.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Our wooden manufacturer is working. Way, way more slowly than I'd like, and earlier this week he said he's taking a 1.5 week hiatus to do a cabinet job, which I found extraordinarily frustrating since we have enough work to keep him in business for probably the rest of the year, but he says he'll be back at it next week. I'll definitely be showing up to make sure that is the case. I can't really force him to work, so all I can do is try to show up and provide some accountability for his work.
I've had to close out my inboxes for the day, and there are still 193 backer support messages in our primary business mail, and over 200 Kickstarter messages to resolve backer issues, but I will be working over the weekend to resolve as much as I can before getting back in touch with BackerKit on Monday for the complicated issues.
As soon as we get all of the bugs ironed out (hopefully by Monday evening), we're going to launch a pre-order campaign and giveaway contest to help spread the word as far as possible.
We're hoping to be able to increase the size of our Catan Bag vendor order as much as possible so that we can have plenty of inventory leftover to put on Amazon after we fulfill these Kickstarters.
We've already raised $14,000 so far, with no buzz or marketing push yet, which is huge. We're keeping a relatively low profile until we get everyone's pledge completely squared away, but as soon as we're all set, we're looking forward to having fun with this preorder campaign. If we hit the $100,000 mark that will leave us with enough profit leftover to fulfill every single product from both Kickstarters in parallel immediately, which will be ideal. I'm optimistic we'll hit that, but we'll work on that after Monday.
Also, I've had some very good communication with Guido from the Catan team, and we have an additional meeting scheduled in two weeks with the rest of the new Catan Studio team. We're all anxious to put the Mayfair issues behind us and get back to having fun and building cool products.
Still working
almost 9 years ago
– Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 10:27:29 PM
I've had conference calls with our BackerKit support rep and am averaging 5-7 support tickets/day but we're eventually going to get there. The way the BackerKit system is setup, once we create database items, if we need to make a change, we have to manually email their support and ask them to change it for us. I know, I don't understand either, but from what I hear they're working on changing that for the next release. The BackerKit will be sent out when it's complete, I have no way of predicting when it will be released with all the support we're requiring now. Please remember we have our core business of Amazon etc that we are managing at the same time so we can't dedicate full 8 hr workdays to completing the BackerKit. When it's done, it will be sent out. Until then, please hang tight.
Also, for those of you who are posting my personal social media posts in the Kickstarter public comments, please stop. I've blocked most of you, but some of you still seem to think that I don't have a right to also enjoy living a normal life while I work to fulfill these Kickstarters.
I don't post social media posts about me working because, news flash, nobody cares that I'm working. Some of you seem to think I need to have a livestream GoPro setup on a hover drone around me 24/7 just so you can see that I'm working on fulfilling these projects every waking hour. I don't need to prove to you I'm working. Trust me, no one on this planet is more anxious and motivated to get these Kickstarters fulfilled than me. This is my full-time job and has been since the beginning (except for that Mayfair debacle period where I had to get a part-time job at Starbucks and be an Uber driver, but that's in the past now. Yay Asmodee! :-) Can't wait to work with those guys). It's unrealistic and disrespectful to expect me to not live a normal healthy life, which is why those who've taken to posting my personal life in this public forum are now blocked. This world is a place filled with nice people, don't let the internet turn you into a not nice person.
To be clear, 99% of everybody here is absolutely amazing, and I get private messages and Twitter @ replies from super supportive backers which mean the world to me (THANK YOU, I <3 YOU :-). But supportive, encouraging people who understand what it takes to create something new from nothing don't feel the need for public infamy and mock outrage, so they typically don't post publicly which skews the public comments to be mostly negative. Hence, I no longer read the comments.
I'll update as soon as the BackerKit is live. Thank you.
BackerKit Issue Resolved, Moving Forward
almost 9 years ago
– Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 04:54:32 PM
Hi everyone,
BackerKit has answered all of my questions. Their support is quite good even if the software is extraordinarily frustrating to use sometimes. Will make edits tomorrow after I get back from the wood shop, then submit for review. Here's a preview of the BackerKit survey.
BackerKit
almost 9 years ago
– Mon, Feb 08, 2016 at 08:38:18 PM
Hi everyone,
We're having an issue with the BackerKit software where people who pledged additional money for international shipping are viewed by BackerKit as having that much money to receive additional items, rather than as being international backers. We can't send it out until we fix this issue, but I'll keep everyone updated daily until we do. Thanks.
Good news update
about 9 years ago
– Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 10:49:05 PM
Hi everyone,
First, some important news:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/01/asmodee-becomes-board-gamings-new-monster-acquires-english-rights-to-catan/
For a quick synopsis, Mayfair Games no longer owns the rights to Catan. Asmodee now owns the English rights to Catan.
Last week I met with the US Director of Catan, whom I still have a great relationship with, and had a really positive conversation over lunch. It was very nice to regroup and reconnect with him after all the negativity with Mayfair. We both felt relieved to be able to just start right back up where we left off. I'm so glad that our team encouraged me not to go public with the details surrounding last year's issues out of respect for Catan and their team. It allowed us to start over from scratch and leave the past in the past.
It will be a bit of time for the transition from Mayfair to Asmodee to occur, so it will be some time before we obtain a licensing deal with Catan but I'm hopeful that we'll be able to work with their new team to create cool new products and improve the distribution of our current products. It still kills me when I get emails from fans in Australia and the UK who want to purchase our products and can't because international shipping is so expensive. Hopefully in the future that won't be an issue.
Production Update
Our wooden Collector's Series production has been abysmally slow for the month of January. Some progress has been made, but compared to the previous rate it feels like virtually nothing has happened. There were several delays in meeting with him and after meeting with the manufacturer on Thursday, I sat down with him and had a frank conversation regarding the slowness and the source of it. He was pretty honest and said that he got discouraged late last year and basically lost all motivation to manufacture. After a productive conversation he asked me to let the backers know that he apologizes for allowing himself to be discouraged and that he will be working every day to complete the fulfillment. I will be driving in to meet with him every other day or so to hold him accountable and ensure production is moving forward.
All other Kickstarter Production
All other Kickstarter production will begin after we complete our BackerKit process. Seafarers production will actually begin before we complete it, since we're finishing up our core business production for Amazon next week. We will be using BackerKit to formally unite both of our Kickstarters and make our fulfillment process simpler and more efficient.
During the BackerKit process everyone will be able to do the following:
1. Update your shipping address
2. Add-on additional pledge rewards. We'll have the following products available as add-ons:
- Resource card banks
- Seafarers Catan Board
- Catan Board Gaming Bag
- Knight of Catan T-Shirt
Important Note: We will not have any of the Collector's Series products available for sale again until we have a firm deliverable deadline from our manufacturer and are confident that delivery will be on time.
3. During the BackerKit process, you'll see what products you have coming your way. Those backers who pledged greater than $100 during the first Kickstarter have one resource card bank set coming. We've postponed this shipment until after the BackerKit is complete for simplicity.
However, any backers of the first Kickstarter at greater than $100 levels who are international backers will receive a $10 refund because the cheapest international shipping available for the card banks is $15, so it doesn't make sense for us to do that. If you are an international backer at the $100 Complete level itself, you'll still receive the card bank set because it will be included in your Seafarers Board Box.
4. The BackerKit will be sent out February 8th and will last one week. This will allow us to streamline that process, and begin production as soon as possible.
I should also note that I no longer read Kickstarter comments, as they've become a place to feed on negativity and I don't have time for negativity. Thanks for understanding.
Core Business Update
We've decided to transition to an Amazon-only fulfillment, which we're very excited about. What this means is that all of our products will eventually be available on Amazon Prime. This is good for a lot of reasons.
1. Free 2-Day Shipping!!
2. Amazon simply provides a superior customer experience. Amazon has fulfillment and customer service absolutely dialed in, far better than we ever could. During this past Christmas, our fulfillment provider Shipwire experienced order turn-around delays of up to 9. Days. During Christmas this was of course completely unacceptable. We were able to meet every Christmas Eve deadline for those orders which we promised Christmas Delivery but sometimes it required manually shipping extra boards overnight in order to make sure they had a board during Christmas.
3. Much simpler business processes. We'll now only need to ship to Amazon warehouses. Amazon's inbound shipment processes are extraordinarily simple and streamlined, so this will ensure our inventory levels are matched to demand more effectively.
We're looking forward to 2016, it's set to be a great year. :-)
