Final Weekend + Back-End Fulfillment Info + Muscular Clown
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Jun 01, 2018 at 10:34:10 AM
Hey guys-
We're about to enter our final weekend before this campaign ends (next Thursday). We really appreciate all the support, and are thrilled to get our project out into the world.
Some have inquired regarding shipping costs as well as pledge management post-campaign. We have put the shipping cost up front (and it represents us trying to weigh risk of price changes against losing money on a box, etc), so that we don't give you any surprises months from now. I've had a few bad experiences where shipping was not included in the initial pledge, and was later shocked by the price for shipping I had to add (usually getting EU based games).
We don't enjoy this experience, so we figured you wouldn't. The downside for us is, a lot of the cost is up in the air. It's easy enough to figure out what US shipping will cost us, but anything else depends so heavily on amount of interest (as well as ill advised political maneuvers) which are outside of our control.
In any case, that's all risk we're shouldering in order to get the game out. What you've pledged should be all that you end up paying.
In the same vein of convenience, we're looking to use Backerkit as our post-campaign pledge manager - perhaps some of you have backed projects that use them. The reason for this is similar to the reason for our shipping cost up front - basically that other methods annoy us as backers ourselves.
"What do you need now!? I backed this game, just send it to me, what's all this nonsense!?" is a thought I've had too many times. We've found projects that use Backerkit to be the least infuriating, and they're very good at back-end support - so that's who we want to use.
We'd also like to take this chance to give a big thank you to the crew that made our promotional video, Muscular Clown.
We've known this group for a while, and have always been impressed with the stuff they put out (check out the web series, "The Street Wizard's Apprentice" - inserted below). They were tremendously professional and fun to work with, and gave us a video we were thrilled with from scratch. Concept through execution, it was all Muscular Clown.
Cheers to that lot, and we can't wait to see what they put out next.
Progress Continues + "For Your Consideration"
over 6 years ago
– Fri, May 25, 2018 at 08:38:17 AM
Hi Everyone-
We've had another week of advancement, though not as powerful as our day 1 or late week 2 rushes. Our new reviews (positive) will soon be up on the main page, as well as the following video.
This is an episode of "For Your Consideration", from the channel "How To Be A Great Game Master." In it, Guy interviews Chris, our chief creature partner (who created and fleshed out the world setting of Ironrise). This covers a lot, from passion to procedure, so give it a watch!
-Ed
Updated Oceanic Shipping + Another Review + OneShot
over 6 years ago
– Wed, May 23, 2018 at 07:02:07 AM
Hi Everyone-
We're very excited to be funded, but still working on getting as much exposure as possible. We've weighed out a lot of risks vs. rewards for various price levels shipping to Australia and New Zealand, had a long talk about it, and ultimately settled on:
We should do everything we can to get this game out there to people who are interested. In the worst case, we might lose a bit on each of these units to cover the cost of shipping, but it's within our risk allotment for the sake of getting the product out there.
So, we've set a shipping option for both Australia and New Zealand at $30. It's still not cheap, and it's 1/2 the MSRP cost of the item itself, but it's everything we can do to make it as close to reasonable as possible. We're going to add the "Australia Friendly" tag to our banner, which we hope is fair. It's the same shipping cost as EU, and we think we justified that tag.
Not sure which one to use
Since there was not already a particular price set for AUS/NZ, I didn't have to create a new backer level like with Canada. Instead, these places should be selectable shipping locations on the drop down for the core backer level. If we miraculously get an enormous amount of backers from Australia, we might be able to revisit the cost and bring it lower - in this case, I will let everyone know, and create a "special" backer tier for it. Canadians - note that this will be the case for you too, if we get a lot more Canadian backers, we may be able to create a new tier.
China & Asia Pacific - Still working on those shipping options.
Now for some review news! Bell of Lost Souls has a review up for Ironrise, and even though it's a "first impressions" review, it pretty completely goes through a lot of the mechanical guts of the game.
I'd also like to take a moment in each of these coming updates to acknowledge help where we've had it. Our play through video, which I think is a fantastic way to get a feel for the game without actually playing it (see the main page), was made possible by James D'Amato and the One Shot studio.
Through them, we were afforded the opportunity to use a professional studio to display and demo our product - something which is usually very hard to access. They have allowed us, and many others like us, the use of a platform which would not otherwise be available. Cheers!
Thanks everyone for your support, and feel free to hit us with any questions you might have in the comments section.
-Ed
We Funded!
over 6 years ago
– Tue, May 22, 2018 at 04:36:31 PM
We just hit our $20,000 goal, just short of the 2 week / half-way point in our campaign. We'd like to thank everyone who has supported this project by backing and/or sharing. A boost from friends and family increasing pledges, as well as a lot of Canadian support in the last two days accelerated us to our primary goal pretty quickly.
What now? Well, we're still working on trying to get the shipping price for Australian, New Zealand, and Chinese backers down a bit. I had originally hoped to give you lot an update on that today, but it will likely be tomorrow. Many thanks for your patience.
Otherwise, we're going to be trying to show off this game wherever we can, and push forward to try to get to some of our stretch goals. As stated before, there aren't any actual items on the line with stretch goals (nothing held back), but there is a quality component. Basically, if we fund higher, we're able to make this game out of nicer materials.
If you're in the Chicago area, and are interested in a live demo on Thursday, we're playing at Dice Dojo at 7pm. Send us a message if this interests you.
We are constantly building out the world setting of Ironrise, adding stories, artwork, and lore. Our next pieces of art will feature a Hero and Villain from the set of playable characters. If you'd like to give these characters a look over, and weigh in on which you think should be on the artwork, please check out our survey HERE.
Thanks again! This game will exist in the world! It's ALIVE!
Update #5 - 60% Funded, Game Overviews.
over 6 years ago
– Fri, May 18, 2018 at 08:55:07 PM
Hi Everyone-
We just got over 60% funded, which we're pretty happy with in the second week. Progress still shows us hitting our goal, and we're thrilled at the prospect of getting this game into your hands.
A tidbit on the world setting - specifically, transportation. Here's an image of the vehicle of choice of the Hero characters originally exploring the setting - the Ceylon.
Emblematic of technology in the world of Spirel, this light freighter was the vehicle in which the Heroes in the original Ironrise narrative explored their world.
An overview of the game was conducted by Nerdarchy, and can be found HERE.
