Update 31 - How Revealing...
about 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 03, 2023 at 08:49:36 AM

tl;dr - Surveys, preorder store, and $30 off discount extended to April 30, 2023 (cards will be charged June 1). Production is on track and we've got some reveals!

Hello Seekers! 

Can you believe it's already March? I've got another full update for you but we'll start with an important announcement:

/// DEADLINE EXTENDED TO APRIL 30 - CARDS CHARGED JUNE 1

We are extending our BackerKit store and survey to April 30, 2023 (previously, March 10). 

We’re doing this for a couple of reasons:

1: The date extension gives new backers, and backers on the fence, more of an opportunity to get the $30 discount available on BackerKit until April 30.

2: It gives us a little more time to nail down shipping rates. It's been something we haven't been able to get around to, but we will take care of it this month.

Your credit card will be charged later (on June 1). You'll be charged for new purchases, sales tax, VAT, shipping, and any upgrades all together in one go (you won't be charged again for the pledge you made during the Kickstarter campaign). 

With this in mind, we are keeping our community challenge (of reaching 90% survey completion) but extending that deadline to April 30th. Complete your survey by going to https//kinfire.backerkit.com.

Questions? Drop them below or in our Discord. You can also get personal assistance by emailing [email protected]

/// PRODUCTION UPDATE

We are making good progress towards our August 2023 date to start fulfillment. We're currently wrapping up the print review process. We've had several iterations on color and are expecting the latest production sample to arrive in the coming days. Once approved, the materials will go into mass printing and assembly-- we'll be sure to update you when that happens.

For the rest of this update, we prepared 5 reveals to share with you.

....

This section might contain spoilers, so feel free to skip to the bottom.

....

One reason why we've been picking on colors is that we've got these GORGEOUS, full-color acrylic standees...

REVEAL #1 - Back in Update 12, we shared some WIP sketches of our re-designed Seeker standees. 

And look at them now:

It's so exciting to see these characters come to life! Some of the colors turned out a bit darker than we liked, so we've gone back to tweak them a bit. Even though we're still adjusting them, thought you'd like to see how these are shaping up!

REVEAL #2 - On the topic of acrylic standees, here's a glimpse of the enemy acrylic standees. 

I was tempted to throw all 45 of them in a GIF but we wanted to keep plenty of surprises waiting for you. 

What I love about our acrylic standees is that the acrylic is shaped to fit the outline of each character (versus having a standard, uniform acrylic shape). It's a small detail that elevates each piece. 

Additionally, each quest features unique enemies with their own unique combat behaviors (no recycled bandits here!). Our enemies come in different shapes and sizes, and so the standees need to be up to the task!

The Enemy Acrylic standees are part of the upgrade kit (sold separately from the base game) and can also be purchased as an add-on. These are components that you can use to replace the cardboard standees that come with every copy of the game. 

Which brings me to...

Reveal #3 - Here's a peek at what's inside one of the Quest Folios:

Reveal #4 - And... something our team's been gushing about... check out how the folios are set up in the box:

Reveal #5 - Last but not least, some of you wondered what was going on here:

Din'Lux was not yet ready to show you when we launched the Kickstarter campaign. But after months of hard work, we're proud to finally give you this glimpse:

Din'Lux, the great City of Light, the last remaining stronghold in Atios. While most of the world has been transformed by a mysterious storm known as the Darkness , Din'Lux still stands, protected by its kinfire lighthouse. It is a beacon in the night, a symbol of hope to all who have survived. Read more about its design in Update 15 and Update 17.

We put so much effort into the details of this city so that its stories will blossom over the course of your campaign. Can't wait for you to experience it!

/// REMINDERS & ETC

>>> Survey Completion is at 81% (+1%)!

• If we can manage 90% by April 30, we’ll plan something special for the community as a thank you.
• Need assistance on your order? Please email [email protected]. Whatever you need from updating your name to requesting order changes, just reach out and we’ll help you soon as we can.

>>> Shipping update coming soon!

• This is in progress! Update soon. Stay tuned.

>>> Audio Narration updates coming soon!

• We’re partnering with Forteller to develop an audio narration experience for Kinfire, which is included in the Upgrade Kit for premium backers and is available as an add-on.
• Our team is very hype about this and we can't wait to share more with you!

--

Thanks again for your continued interest and support! 

ahj00ma

Update 30 - CHIT'S GETTING REAL
about 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 03, 2023 at 11:18:41 AM

tl;dr - We're reviewing print proofs and are planning to share some photos (possibly videos) on that in the near future. In the meantime, read about our manufacturer (Gameland), check out our 2023 conference plans, and brace yourself for some incredible updates coming soon.

/// PRODUCTION STATUS

We were bracing for a slow month in January as people shake off the holidays and resist the temptation to hibernate. Instead, we got a bunch of updates from manufacturing that we’re extremely excited about.

We’re working through all the samples as fast as we can in order to give you all a neat preview of what everything will look like. But for now, here’s a quick taste:

In the last update we shared that molds were underway and here’s an update on how the plastic destiny chits are looking:

Upgrading the destiny chits to plastic was the very first stretch goal because Kevin felt so strongly about investing more into this component. The destiny bags and chits are such a central component of Kinfire’s combat that he wanted it to be a nice experience. Imagine reaching into a velvet bag, feeling around for that one buttery-smooth chit you’ve been hoping for. Moreover, this component upgrade makes the chits more able to withstand some gentle jostling and jangling– mayhaps the occasional, slap-down-eye-contact-jazz-hands reveal?

Last but not least, in Update 29, backer Justin Ho asked if the box insert would accommodate sleeved cards

We weren’t sure if our manufacturer had begun the molds for that item when he asked. We’re happy to report that they are able to adjust the size of the well in order to fit sleeved cards.

For sleevers out there, please note that the welcome box cards are not shuffled frequently. The status and armor cards get returned to their decks between play. Only the exhaust cards will carry with you until you’re able to rest at an Inn.

We've shared this previously, but as a reminder: your seeker deck will get the most action and the seeker boxes will fit sleeved cards. For these reasons, we were excited about the final stretch goal from Update 22, which upgraded the custom sleeve set* to include 6 designs (one for each seeker). The set includes 150 sleeves: 25 per seeker, covering the 18 cards in your deck with room for sleeving any exhaust you pick up along the way. You all helped us achieve that and we hope you’ll enjoy.

*NOTE: The custom sleeve set is included in the upgrade kit for Premium backers. You can also purchase it a la carte as an add on (log into backerkit to adjust your survey or purchase on the preorder store if you're not yet a backer).

/// MANUFACTURER SPOTLIGHT: GAMELAND

We had a vision for Kinfire Chronicle’s unboxing experience that would make this epic campaign adventure game feel manageable for the average player. We know all-too-well about the stress of keeping your play group intrigued (but not overwhelmed) in the moments of a first reveal. We also wanted each leg of the journey to bring new surprises and joy, each time you return to the box.

In order to achieve an experience that felt both well-considered and high-quality, we needed the right partner. So it’s a pleasure to tell you a bit about our manufacturing partner on Kinfire Chronicles: Gameland.

Gameland was founded about 17 years ago by James Ying. James started the company with 5 staff members and they’ve quickly grown to over 90 employees today. Gameland is based in Ningbo right outside of Shanghai with access to the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan (the busiest port in the world). In addition to manufacturing games within their own walls, they have longstanding relationships with well over 100 suppliers for those special components. They’re built a business around partnering with innovative game publishers to manufacture premium games, including Too Many Bones, Hall of the Mountain King, and Cloudspire.

Importantly, they also own final assembly and QA in-house– which are critical elements for us. Kinfire Chronicles requires a lot of hand-packing of very specific components into 21 quest folios, 6 seeker boxes, 1 loot box, and 1 welcome box that come in each box.

In the past several months, what has stood out for me about working with Gameland is how they show up to each meeting with enthusiasm for the game, ideas for making the product even better, and practical ideas on how to get more for players within our constraints.

If you’re designing a game and looking for a manufacturer to work with, there are a lot of great options all over the world. Our best advice is to talk to a few to find the best fit for your project.

 /// CONFERENCES 2023 - PLEASE SAY HELLO!

We’re still planning out our conference schedule this year but thought we’d share a small update on where we plan to be. If you’re around, please stop by and let us know you’re a backer! We’d love to have you join for demos and 101s.

•  OrcCon [Feb 19 | Los Angeles, CA]. If you’re LA-based or just happen to be in the area on Sunday February 19th, be sure to stop by OrcCon to give Kinfire Chronicles a try in person! I’ll be running demos myself from 2-8pm in International B. We’ll share a signup sheet in the discord next week in case anyone’s interested.
• GAMA [Apr 24-27 | Reno, NV]
• Origins [Jun 21-25 | Columbus, OH]
• GenCon [Aug 3-5 | Indianapolis, IN]
• Pax Unplugged [Dec 7-10 | Philadelphia, PA]

Tell us about your favorite conferences in the comments below and we’ll see if we can make it!
 

/// REMINDERS & ETC.

>>> Survey Completion is at 80% (+2%)!

• If we can manage 90% by March 10, we’ll plan something special for the community as a thank you.
• Need assistance on your order? Please email [email protected]. Whatever you need from updating your name to requesting order changes, just reach out and we’ll help you soon as we can.

>>> Shipping update coming soon!

• As we get closer to fulfilling your orders this summer, we’re assessing 2023 shipping rates and are working towards an update for you. Stay tuned.

>>> Audio Narration updates coming soon! 

• We’re partnering with Forteller to develop an audio narration experience for Kinfire, which is included in the Upgrade Kit for premium backers and is available as an add-on. 
• We’ve had over 150 actors respond to our casting call and Adam, Forteller’s amazing audio director, hasn’t been seen since.
   

--

Thanks for reading through another meaty update. Our team is working super hard on a number of fronts to create exciting experiences for you. We’re very excited to share it all with you soon. But most importantly, none of this would be possible without your support and the bets you've made on our team. On behalf of all of us, thank you!

Best,

Jane

Update 29- New Year, New Adventures
over 1 year ago – Sat, Jan 07, 2023 at 03:43:29 PM

tl;dr- We’re on track to fulfill by August 2023. In the meantime, preview the welcome box upgrades and join the discord for an opportunity to preview our online world bible... but don’t forget your survey!

Happy New Year, Seekers!

I hope you all had a wonderful, restful, and reinvigorating holiday season. Our team had some much-deserved R&R, and now we are back and ready to rock. One thing that’s been on our minds over the break is how thankful we are for all the support we’ve received this past year. We’re feeling well-equipped to navigate the many adventures ahead.

A goal we have this next year is to further develop and support our growing community. We’d love any feedback or ideas you have, on things you’d love to see from us! Share your thoughts in the comments below.

So far, we received some positive feedback about our transparency and detailed updates so we’ll continue to share as much as we can. Here goes!

///Production Status

As mentioned in our last update, we sent off the pre-press files back in November. For the past month we’ve been addressing feedback to improve the quality of the print, as well as reviewing and approving samples. We’ve already started manufacturing custom molds for things like the plastic destiny chits and all those nice inserts that will keep your box organized (including the quest folio card trays that we added in after the campaign, see Update #26). This part of the process takes several weeks.

If this isn’t your first Kickstarter, you’ll know that most manufacturers in China shut down for about a month in observance of Lunar New Year (January 22). The break was factored into our production plan. We are 100% on track 😎.

But before those words come back to haunt me, I want you to know that we’re doing our best to monitor several global situations that can impact our timelines, including: COVID-19, supply chain, and freight. Countries, including both the US and China, are still experiencing waves of the disease. Additionally, China is rapidly shifting its approach to the pandemic, which creates uncertainty on how quickly people will adapt and manage through the adjustment. This, combined with the war in Ukraine & Russia, is contributing to weirdness in global supply chains and freight.

What does this have to do with receiving your copy of Kinfire Chronicles? Hopefully nothing, and we start to fulfill shipment of the game by August 2023 as we’d planned.

What is Incredible Dream doing about it? The team’s done its best to deliver files to print as quickly as it can and give ourselves some room for the unknown. We’re trying to stay aware of these issues so that we can work with our partners early and communicate proactively with you.

In my years producing games and animation, one adage that sums up years of trial-and-error is “hope for the best, plan for the worst”.

We do this because we care. We hope to earn your trust.

///SPOTLIGHT: Welcome Box Upgrade

As briefly described in Update #21, your support during our Kickstarter campaign helped us unlock upgrades to the Welcome Box. This stretch goal is a pure quality-of-life improvement to the game. If you’re like me, the mention of fabric pull tabs, art, and insert trays gets me giddy. But who doesn’t like some visuals:

Here’s a video on the white box sample for the Welcome Box:

And here's a video showing how the welcome box fits in with everything:

The fabric pull tab was something we were really hoping to include in the game, but it didn’t make the cut as a crucial part of the experience and the added cost was tough to justify at a small print run. We were thrilled when it was unlocked because it’ll make the unboxing experience just a little bit fancier... a little bit easier.

Why? The welcome box fits tightly in the game box. Something you’ll notice when you receive your box is that there’s not much empty space in it. Indeed, at 6.4kg (14.1lbs) there’s a lot of gameplay content that you’re getting. However, when we were first planning the box, Kevin spent a lot of time min-maxing dimensions so that the components would be tightly packaged together. 

This extra step of planning minimizes how much items knock into each other during transportation, which (hopefully) translates to less damaged goods on arrival and a longer-lasting product.

///Love world building?

Calling all narrative aficionados! We are looking for volunteers to participate in an "alpha test" for an online world bible that we wanted to publish for Kinfire. For more information, join our Discord and look for more updates during January.

///Survey & Shipping Reminder!

We’re up to 78% of surveys completed! If we reach 90% by March 10, we will come up with a special community gift for you all. Completing these surveys early is essential to helping us plan our logistics, which helps us keep shipping costs lower and shipping speeds optimized. Everyone benefits, so please do your part. Here’s how:

•  When: Complete your survey by March 10, 2023 (extended from December 31). You can always finish everything now and edit it later (when you decide you really do need to have that extra upgrade, after all). We will charge credit cards when the survey closes for any new purchases, add-on items, and taxes that are due. We’re currently still planning to charge shipping separately but will evaluate 2023 shipping rates and provide an update next month.
   
•  Where: Everyone has a unique survey invitation in their inbox (whichever email you used to pledge during the Kickstarter or preorder in BackerKit). This was sent weeks after the Kickstarter campaign closed and we’ve sent regular reminders as Incredible Dream via Backerkit. If you can’t find it or need help, email [email protected] for support.
   
•  Moving in the next few months? Shipping addresses won’t be locked until about a month before the game ships. But if you’re still unsure what your address will be, some people will ask a friend or family member to receive the shipment.
   

—

Thanks yet again for your support and feedback! See you next month.

Jane Hoffacker

CEO

Update 28- Back from PAX with a lot to say
over 1 year ago – Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 10:21:36 PM

[tl;dr- Updates galore! Production, pledge manager, holiday conundrums, playthrough series & refunds…. Oh my!]

Hello Seekers! Happy 2nd Friday! Thank you for your patience on this update, last week we were at PAX Unplugged having a great time, demoing the game, and getting very little sleep. If we ever have another planned update delay we will send a reminder and not expect you all to remember what we said from last month’s update 😊

This is our last update of 2022, so it’ll be a little longer as we look to the new year and get all our ducks in a row.

Alright, let’s dive right in!

///Production Update

Let’s get the big news out there first: WE HAVE OFFICIALLY SUBMITTED ALL FILES TO PRINT! *shoots confetti cannon* *does a backflip*

This was a HUGE undertaking. It means our game is now fully designed and content-locked. What happens next? We’ll go back and forth with Gameland, our manufacturer, to make final adjustments and test prints… you know, the kinds of critical steps to do before printing millions of cards (and more!).

Speaking of which! This month we received some sample images of the acrylic enemy standees. Take a look at this gorgeous Wyvern!

Just like the Seeker standees, each enemy standee will have its own custom stand. It's not too late to add these to your survey. In the add-on ($50) you’ll get 45 standees and bases (about $1.11 for each standee/stand set), or you can go for the upgrade kit ($76), which also includes all 45 enemy standees, plus the metal fate tokens, neoprene mats, Forteller narration etc. This is in addition to the 6 acrylic seeker standees and bases that you get in the base copy of the game.

We’ve also finalized our custom neoprene mat designs which are included in the premium collection or available as an add-on. These mats provide each player with a clear space for your Seeker sheet (which has your HP dial in it), your lantern card, your draw and discard piles, enemy focus tokens, and your standee (when not in battle). During the campaign we showed you Naz’s design, but here are the full set:

As you can see, each Seeker’s mat contains personal trinkets and equipment, their individual lantern design, and some more badass action poses. And for those curious, here’s a super rough mockup of how your game components will fit on the mat:

Lastly, our narration by Forteller is in casting! We are right on schedule, and hoping we’ll be able to start giving you all some samples in the coming months.

///Pledge Manager & Late Pledges Open a Bit Longer

Originally we had planned for our pre-order store to remain open until 12/31/22, at which point we would lock the surveys and charge cards for any additional purchases. We have decided to extend the pre-order store a little bit longer, for a few reasons:

1- Taxes. Gotta love ‘em. We’ve learned that we need to register for a VAT ID before we can collect & pay VAT… and this will take several months.

2- We heard a lot of requests at PAX Unplugged for some more time.

3- People spend a lot of money in December, and that’s not a fun time for an extra charge

With all that in mind, we are going to leave the pre-order store open until March 10, 2023. This does not change our production schedule at all, so don’t worry about that. This just gives you more time to decide if you need some extra goodies.

While we’re talking BackerKit, we also have a couple quick reminders for you:

-Apple ID: If your Kickstarter account uses an Apple ID your survey email won’t go through! We are working on identifying all those folks and contacting you but it would be a BIG help if you could proactively email [email protected] and let us know your name and what email you’d like us to switch your survey to.

-Premium Collection and Add-Ons: Remember that if you ordered the Premium Collection, the following add-ons are already included: Acrylic Enemy Standees for all enemies, 6 neoprene player mats, 50 metal fate tokens, custom card sleeves for each Seeker, and Audio narration by Forteller.

We have more than a few of you who backed the Premium Collection and also ordered at least one of these add-ons. You will not need any extras beyond what is included in the Premium Collection (for example: 50 fate tokens are the max you’ll need in the game). We are working to identify and contact everyone that this affects, but it would be a big help if you can quickly check your pledge and see if it applies to you. If the add-on was a mistake, please reach out to [email protected] so that we can get it removed. We will not remove an add-on without your consent, so if you don’t want 100 fate tokens, please tell us!

This seems like the perfect time for you to help us welcome Jake to the team! Jake comes from a long history in customer service, including for board game companies like Kolossal and Pandasaurus. They’re going to be helping us with getting your questions answered and your surveys filled out. Before this month, when you emailed [email protected] you usually heard from me, but now you can expect to hear from Jake. So if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out! We think they’re absolutely fantastic, and we hope you do too.

///Holiday Conundrums 

If you’re not following us on social media, first of all- do it! But specifically, for the next 2 weeks we are going to be doing some Holiday Conundrums on Mondays, with the winning sketch debuting on Friday. This past week was all about singing carols and the winner was Grandma Got Run Over by a Wyvern!

 If you want to be part of these votes, check our social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) on Monday! Voting goes until the end of the day Tuesday, and winning sketches are posted on Friday.

///Kinfire Playthrough Series

If you’ve been following our social media (or are in our Discord), you already know we’re behind on our Kinfire Playthrough series due to some very frustrating crashes. What you DON’T know (because we haven’t told anyone yet) is that we are going to be giving you an EXTRA episode! Once our editor started putting everything back together, we realized that we had a solid 7th episode there, and we figured that would be the perfect little gift to our community.

Don’t know what the Kinfire Playthrough Series is? We asked 8 familiar faces from the interwebs to learn the game in front of a camera, and cut this down to 6 7 entertaining episodes of 20 minutes each. Check out Episodes 1-5 here. You can still get your in-depth previews and reviews from the folks we all love like Rahdo Runs Through, Our Family Plays Games, Brother’s Murph, Before You Play and more. It’s a bit of an experiment and we hope you’ll tell us what you think!

If you’re not part of our mailing list, you can always join it to make sure to get notified when the episodes go live.

///Refund Policy

When you launch a Kickstarter campaign, the last thing you think about are backers asking to refund. And as a new publisher, we are still catching up to industry standards in areas like this. We’ve spent some time discussing a refund policy that gives backers flexibility without putting us in a bad situation as a company, and came to a policy that is fairly consistent with what we’ve seen:

“Refunds will be offered until 1 month prior to pledges being shipped. Any refund request received 2 weeks after the campaign has ended will be subject to a 10% cancellation fee due to Kickstarter fees (5%), payment processing fees (3-5%), and customer support.”

What this means is that up to 1 month before pledges are shipped (around the time we’ll be charging shipping) you can request a refund. We will refund 90% of your pledge. The reason is that when Kickstarter collects pledges (generally 2 weeks after the campaign ends), we are charged non-refundable fees from Kickstarter and credit card companies. If you do need a refund, please contact us at [email protected].

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That’s all for this month! I’ll end the update as I always do with my cry of “fill out your survey!” We are up to 76% of surveys complete, which is a big increase from last month. I think my nagging is helping 😊

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season, and we’ll be back on Friday, January 6th with another update!

Jovially,

Risa Petrone
Community Manager

QUICK REMINDER - December update coming Dec 9
over 1 year ago – Tue, Dec 06, 2022 at 03:23:18 AM

Hey Everyone!

Quick reminder that we will publish the December update on the 2nd Friday this month (Dec 9). We were at PAX Unplugged this weekend and are looking forward to sharing the update soon!