Update 26- Surveys and Sales Tax
over 1 year ago – Mon, Nov 07, 2022 at 11:36:30 AM

[tl;dr- Common issues when filling out the pledge manager, sales tax information, production update, Kinfire episode 5]

Happy Friday, Seekers! I hope you all had an outstanding October and are ready to fall right into November. This month’s update has a lot of crucial information, so please take the time to read through.

*Please note: Next month we will be attending PAX Unplugged, so our monthly update will be on the second Friday, December 9th, instead. If you're attending PAX Unplugged, come see us at Booth 3226!

///Pledge Manager

Fill out your surveys! We’re at 67% of backers having completed their backerkit surveys. If you don’t fill it out, it’s very hard for you to get your game!

We’ve identified a handful of common issues people are experiencing when filling out their survey, so check out this quick FAQ in case anything pertains to you.

Q: I lost my survey link/email or never received it

A: First try going to https://kinfire.backerkit.com/ to get the survey re-sent. If that doesn’t work, reach out to [email protected] with the email used for the campaign and we can get you your survey link.

Q; I ordered multiple copies of the game during the campaign and they’re not showing up in the pledge manager

A: If you go to add the copies to your cart, you may see a balance due thanks to the increased cost of the base game in Backerkit. Please reach out to [email protected] and we can sort it out for you.

Q: I accidentally selected an add-on that I don’t want/need

A: We’re seeing this mostly with the card sleeves, since they got added to the premium collection as a stretch goal so late in the campaign. 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.

If the add-on was a mistake, please reach out to [email protected] so that we can get it removed. Otherwise, your order will be locked on December 31, 2022.

/// UPDATE ON SALES TAXES (U.S. Backers)

“NOTHING IS CERTAIN EXCEPT DEATH AND TAXES” ammarite? Actually, we were quite uncertain about sales taxes because it’s a very complex topic.

Imagine that each country, state, city, and district within a city could require slightly different things from you… and that they can change these requirements at any time, without notifying you. Welcome to sales taxes.

TL;DR ON TAXES FOR KINFIRE BACKERS - We’ve updated the sales tax policy on Backerkit. In most cases, U.S. backers will see sales tax estimates removed because we determined that collecting tax wasn’t necessary.

Q: What territories will be charged sales tax?

A: California, Illinois, Missori, Minnesota, and Florida.

Q: Why am I charged sales tax if some other crowdfunded campaign didn’t charge me sales tax?

A: This could be for a variety of reasons:

• Most likely, the other campaign had different circumstances than we do.
   
  • Generally there are two things that can trigger sales tax:
     
    • Economic Nexus: Triggered when a seller sells at a certain sales volume within a state or district. For example, most (but not all) states require collecting sales if you sell over $100k or 200 separate sales transactions.
    
    
  
  

-OR-

• Physical Nexus: Triggered by a variety of conditions, including having employees based in a state.
   
• Less likely, the other campaign is dealing with sales taxes differently than we do.     
  • Some campaigns might not realize that they should charge sales tax.
  • Some campaigns may have baked the sales tax into the reward tiers.
  
  

The above is not tax advice, and may not be up-to-date if you’re reading this long after we published this Kickstarter Update.

Q: Can sales tax policy change in the future?

A: Great question! Laws and circumstances may change over time, so we are likely to update the sales tax policy over time. But we’ve done our analysis and are locking the policy in for Kickstarter backers and pre-orders through Backerkit. This means you don’t need to worry about changes in 2022.

Q: Will I get a refund on any sales tax that was charged?
A: You have not been charged for any sales tax yet so there is nothing to refund. If you saw a sales tax number when you completed your Backerkit survey (thanks BTW), it was only an estimate for what will be charged when the preorder store closes on 12/31/2022. With the tax update that we’re applying this week, we are removing the sales tax for all states except CA, IL, MO, MN, and FL.

At any time you experience a billing error, you can reach us at [email protected].

As a reminder, shipping will be charged separately a month before fulfillment (~Summer 2023).

///Production Update

We are progressing quite nicely on the production front and are still on track to get manufacturing begun before the Lunar New Year. All of our cards have been checked over with a fine-toothed comb, we’re putting the finishing touches on the back of the box, we’ve got the upgrade kit sizing finalized.

Here’s a quick peek at the first couple punchboards:

Each quest will have its own punchboard, so you won’t have to spend a lot of time punching out a bunch of tokens before you start playing, but you still get that satisfying moment once a game.

And we have a surprise! One addition to the game that we didn’t expect but are SUPER thrilled about is new card trays for each quest folio.

There’s nothing worse than opening a box and finding the cards have gone everywhere (okay, there are worse things, but not for this example, okay?). And we found that when the cards were put loosely into the quest folios that not only did they get shuffled around, but they bulked up and made it hard to close. So now each folio will have its own organizer so setup time is decreased and everything tucks away neatly when it's time to put it away. This was an unexpected but very welcome addition to the game.

///Kinfire Playthrough Episode 5

The wait is finally over! The Kinfire Playthrough episode 5 is here! Felicia Day, B. Dave Walters, Angeless, and Brandon Chen begin the battle of Quest 3 in dire straits, but you can see them really getting the hang of their characters as they handle their card decks.

We have one more episode to go after this! We are planning to do a watch party of all 6 episodes in our Discord so be sure to join us to get information on when that will be happening.

—

That’s all for this month’s update! I hope you have fun plans for the weekend (I’ll be attending my cousin’s wedding tonight and may or may not be bringing some card games…)

Festively,

Risa Petrone

Community Manager

Update 25- Pledge Manager is now open!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Oct 18, 2022 at 01:48:34 AM

[tl;dr: Instructions for pledge manager, which closes on December 31, 2022]

Seekers! Double update this month! Keeping this one short, let’s dive in.

• Backerkit surveys have started to go out, you should be getting yours very soon. If you haven’t received emails from Incredible Dream Studios ([email protected]) by the end of the week, please reach out to [email protected].
• The last day to add or upgrade your pledge will be December 31, 2022. If you upgrade your pledge you’ll be charged on December 31, 2022.
• Shipping rates will be finalized and charged separately in summer 2023, when we are closer to fulfillment. We will give you many warnings to lock in your address. If you fill out your survey now, you will be asked to provide payment information for shipping. However, you won’t be charged for shipping until we post our final shipping rates. 
• We are offering the board game for $119 ($30 off discount) in the pledge manager for late pledges and pledge level upgrades. The upgrade kit can be purchased as an add on for $76.
• If you pledged extra during the campaign for multiple copies of the board game and/or premium collection, your cart might not reflect this yet so please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions or problems.
• If you pledged at the Board Game level or higher, keep an eye out for an email from Incredible Dream Studios ([email protected]) in addition to your BackerKit survey.
  

We’ll be back on Friday November 4th (the day after my birthday!) with our next update. In the meantime, go fill out your pledge manager! And if you want to follow what we’re up to in-between updates, you can join our Discord or follow our social media. We’re so excited to be moving into this new stage of development, and we’re glad you’re along for the ride.

(And because I can't do an update without some art, I've got some of that for you too. The Seekers are getting ready for Halloween! Keep an eye on our socials to see their full costumes...)

Until next month,

Risa Petrone

Community Manager

Update 24- Pledge Manager Now Opening on Monday October 17th
over 1 year ago – Fri, Oct 07, 2022 at 09:28:36 PM

TL;DR:

• Email surveys will start going out on Monday October 17th
• Don’t panic if you don’t get yours exactly on that day
• Click the link in the email to fill out your survey, enter your mailing address, and add any add-ons you didn’t add before
• Deadline for late pledges and add-ons is December 31, 2022
•  Shipping and taxes will be charged ~1 month before fulfillment (est. Summer 2023). Mailing addresses will be locked then too.
   

Happy Friday, Seekers! We can hardly believe it’s been over 2 weeks since the campaign ended. We’ve been hard at work ever since, getting everything ready. We’ll have more info on the production process in our next update, this one we want to focus on your BackerKit surveys. For those who are new to crowdfunding, the short version is that Kickstarter is where we raise the funds, and BackerKit helps us handle organizing the nearly 2,500 of you who pledged for this game in terms of shipping and fulfillment (you’ll also hear this called the “pledge manager”).

Soon, you’ll receive an email from us with a unique link to your BackerKit survey. We’ll be getting this process started on Monday October 17th (that’s a week later than we initially quoted when the Kickstarter ended). Some may receive the email sooner than others, so don’t panic if someone you know gets it before you. BackerKit sends them out in waves. We highly recommend starring/saving the email, as it’s the easiest way to get back to your survey.

It’s very important to respond to your survey as quickly as possible since we need this information to fulfill your rewards. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You do not need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, just click the survey link to respond.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact us at [email protected].

If you signed in with Apple through Kickstarter, your email address might be a private relay email address. If you don’t receive your survey, we can help locate it and update your email address, please contact us at [email protected] with your Backer ID # found on your Kickstarter confirmation. You can learn more about your email hiding for your Apple ID here.

After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts. We expect to close the survey for add-ons by December 31, 2022.

Shipping fees for this project will be calculated at a later date once we have the best estimates. We plan to enter & charge backers for shipping and taxes one month before fulfillment when we have better estimates of what it will cost. We will alert backers when shipping costs are finalized & before we charge your cards in your BackerKit survey.Don’t worry, we will keep you informed all along the way.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under “Lost your survey?” on our BackerKit project page at https://kinfire.backerkit.com/

(Okay, I said I would focus this update on BackerKit surveys, but I have one quick thing I need to show you. Check out some of our updated art for each Seeker’s Lantern card! These are still WIPs, but wanted to show you some of the cool things we’ve added.)

Have an awesome weekend, Seekers!

Risa Petrone

Community Manager

Update 23: The Road Goes Ever On
over 1 year ago – Thu, Sep 22, 2022 at 10:01:39 PM

[tl;dr- switching to monthly updates on the first Friday of every month]

Seekers, it’s the morning after the campaign. For the first time in 21 days, I woke up without an alarm (10 minutes after my alarm would have gone off, but still), I had my morning coffee without checking where our funding was at (yes I stayed up late to make sure we passed that $300K stretch goal but still!), and I ate breakfast without writing an update in my head (I immediately started writing this when I went to work, but still!) It’s a brave new world we’re living in.

Long story short: WE DID IT!!

Kinfire Chronicles succeeded and it is all thanks to you. You helped make this happen. I speak for our entire team when I say: We are immensely proud of, and grateful to, this community of backers for taking this leap of faith with us and making Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall a reality!

///WHAT COMES NEXT?

Today is going to be a quiet one at Incredible Dream. We’re taking some much needed rest and recovering from the campaign.

As you saw in Update 21, we’ve iterated with our manufacturers on prototype (white box) samples. Now that the campaign is wrapped,we’ve got to update Gameland on where we landed with stretch goals. We expect to make the print order before the year ends, and that will set off a chain of events to get this game to your doorstep.

Our art team is hard at work adding more illustrations to the memory cards, introduction box, and putting the finishing touches on our giant city of Din’Lux. Cathy, our story editor, is going through each and every card by hand for one final proofread. Kevin Wilson is making some last minute adjustments to the rulebook thanks to backer feedback (thanks for playing on Tabletopia!). And yours truly is working to make sure you still have the same awesome content on our social media, such as the next episode of the Kinfire Playthrough series.

If you’re not following us, now’s a great time to start! Here’s all the places you can find us: https://linktr.ee/incredibledream

///MONTHLY UPDATES

Moving forward, we’re going to switch from daily updates to monthly ones. We’ll have an update for you on the first Friday of every month (unless it falls on a holiday, in which case we’ll move it to the following Monday). At a minimum, we’ll let you know where we are in the production process.

In the near term, updates may be short and sweet. As we get closer to fulfillment, we’re happy to (over) share where things are at. Feel free to leave comments of course, I will still be checking them. Just don’t expect the same speed of response as when we were active. If you are looking to engage with us more regularly, find us on any of our social channels: https://linktr.ee/incredibledream.

///PLEDGE MANAGER

Please be on the lookout for emails from me, Risa Petrone. We are working with Backerkit as our Pledge Manager, and plan to open it by October 10, 2022. The Pledge Manager is a simple survey where you can update your shipping address and pay for your shipping and taxes. We will also make add-ons available for purchase in the Pledge Manager.

The number one reason backers don’t get their pledge is because they didn’t fill out the pledge manager. If you don’t tell us where to send it, we can’t send it to you. We’ll do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen, but help us help you! I’m stressing it now so you won’t wonder why you’re getting so many emails from us.

If you’re a new backer or haven’t backed in a while, If you’ve never filled out a pledge manager before, don’t panic. I’ll have very clear instructions ready when the time comes.

What if I move before you ship my products?

One month prior to shipping,we’ll notify you through email to confirm your shipping one last time in the Backerkit platform.

How much time will I have to purchase add-ons and late pledges?

We haven’t determined that yet but will update everyone as soon as we know. This is going to be influenced by when we send files to print, which we currently expect to do before the end of 2022.

What will be the price of the board game and the upgrade kit in the Pledge Manager?

The board game will be available in the Pledge Manager. Please look to our next update for more information.

The upgrade kit will be available as an add on for $76. If you had backed the board game during the campaign at $99, and decide to add on the upgrade kit for $76, you will get the same price that premium backers got for the combo ($175). Upgrade kit add ons are limited to 1 per backer.

We’ll address more questions (e.g. digital mapbook where?) in the next update.

—

I may be a broken record but again, THANK YOU! This has been one incredible journey, and we’re so happy to have made it with this community. You all are the best!

Warmly,

Risa Petrone

Community Manager

Update 22: One last goal...
over 1 year ago – Tue, Sep 20, 2022 at 11:26:11 PM

[tl:dr- Stretch Goal update, Localization update, Daily Reveal #3, Second update coming later]

Hold on to your lanterns, Seekers. This is gonna be a long one.

Where are we at in the campaign? As of today, we’ve unlocked 6 additional hours of gameplay content, including: 175 new story cards, 14 new standees, 10 allies, 7 maps, 6 folios, 11 focus tokens, and 11 enemy sheets. With your help, we also upgraded components like the Destiny Chits– now that they’re plastic, they’ll be more durable as they bang around in the Destiny bag (which is now also getting a design upgrade). All cards have been made premium to black core with linen finish, for that fine snap when you shuffle. Additionally, our art team has been at work adding more art to memory cards and story card backs. We’ve upgraded our welcome box to be even more welcoming, with an organizational insert tray, a fabric pull tab, and a brand-new illustration. And for our premium collection backers, we are adding one DIY quest folio to the box, as well as an additional gold treasure pack, and, as of this morning, a set of 13 alt skin Seeker cards for your player boards.

Phew! I think I got it all.

But we’re not done yet! Keep reading for more info on the daily reveal and our community gift (printable skins). We also have one last stretch goal that we can see in the distance and are hoping to achieve.

///STRETCH GOAL UPDATE

Let’s start with our latest unlocked stretch goal!

Why not encourage some roleplay and offer your playgroup some choices? In the upgrade kit, we are now including 13 cards that offer alternative versions (cosmetic-only “skins”) of the Seekers.

As announced yesterday, we’re also including our first community skin: Cosplayer Valora. Thanks to everyone who participated in our community conundrum series!

As promised, we also wanted to make some of these skins available– regardless of backer level. Here is a printable for 7 skins, including Cosplayer Valora.

You can print these out in color or in grayscale on a nice cardstock and you’re good to go! (Don’t worry, we’ll send these out again when we’re fulfilling, no need to bookmark this update)

///NEW STRETCH GOAL

This is it, friends. The final stretch goal. And it’s a bit of an upgrade to an upgrade.

Right now, the Premium Collection includes 150 card sleeves (which are also available as an add on). These sleeves have one custom design.

But we can do better than that, right? How about SIX custom designs, one for each Seeker??

We’ve mentioned previously that 150 sleeves gives you 25 per seeker, which is enough to cover the cards you will keep in your Seeker Boxes (and it will fit there, too). Functionally, having 6 unique designs improves these sleeves by making it easier to return an errant card to its home.

BUT ALSO OMG AREN’T THEY SO COOL LOOKING???

This is a big goal, friends! But if ever there was a day to accomplish it, it would be today.  And yes, with this stretch goal we will also upgrade the designs on the add-on to match. So those purchasing the board game and the add-on will also take advantage of this final goal.

///DAILY REVEAL #3

This is it, folks! Our final daily reveal.

NEW SIDEQUEST: THE LONELY TOWER (WHY SO LONELY? HE HAD TO LET HIS STAFF GO…)

Guildmaster Leera has sent you out to locate the famous wizard, Archmage Archibald, who has left the city to live alone in his tower. But when you arrive, things aren’t quite what you expected them to be.

This quest provides another hour of adventure with 29 story cards, 1 new enemy, 5 allies, and 1 new map. This one comes with 4 standees– not a typo! And our premium backers will also receive 4 acrylic versions of the standees.

Our favorite part of this quest is the unique mini game that melds the story and the combat together. If you’d rather leave the rest to surprise, then just keep scrolling. Otherwise, click the prompt card below to see more of The Lonely Tower!

///LOCALIZATION UPDATE

Jane (“ahj00ma”) here. Many of you have asked about our plans for localization. We’ve mentioned that we’ve been looking into it and I had promised to share the latest before the campaign ended.

As of today, we’re currently only committed to one English print run of the game. We are continuing to evaluate our options and update our community with plans over the coming months. We have no immediate, concrete plans to localize in other languages but are prioritizing German as a major region.

I haven’t made as much progress as I’d like in terms of being able to share concrete plans with you. I am sorry to let some of you down. I know some of you would much prefer to purchase a localized version of the game or would like to know when it would be available, in order to make the right decision for themselves. As someone who has a family that speaks multiple languages, I know it can be frustrating to not be able to fully share an experience with some of them.

Unfortunately I can’t make your choices significantly easier today and respect any choice you make. At least, I thought I should share some of my learnings, our immediate plans and thoughts on where we’d like to take things next.

First of all, as an independent board game developer there are a few options to deliver your game internationally. One is managing the process in house and publishing it, a very complex operation to master– especially if you do multiple languages at once. The benefit is having more control over parts of the execution to ensure quality; the risk is potentially mismanaging the process at the expense of your customers.  Another option is working with an established publisher, who has some local expertise and relationships. This eliminates some of the learning curve risk, but like any long term commitment, it takes time to find the right partners. Also– as a young, independent studio– we have much fewer chips to bargain with. Another common option is working with agents, who– like professional matchmakers– will introduce and help broker partnerships. These are all fine options that developers find success with, every day.

At the moment, we’re still exploring all these options and have not signed any deal. Our plans are to focus on delivering this first print run of Kinfire Chronicles, in English, to a quality bar we’re happy with. It’s just going to be easier to focus on making a great story-rich game in our native language. We are “walking before we run”, if you will.

In parallel, we’ll continue to explore the best options for our community– especially as we understand the interest for our game. Based on this Kickstarter alone, most of our foreign backers are based in Germany (should come as no surprise). So we are actively prioritizing to localize the game for German speakers. It’s not likely to be in our first print run (unless, by some miracle, we find the right partner). I’m thinking that the timing for that announcement could be as soon as the early half of next year.

We want to see this game in as many regions and languages as possible. We hope for the success to be able to achieve this. It may take us a while to get this in your language and region. Hope you’ll stay tuned for that and help us find great partners by telling us about your favorite localized games.

///SECOND UPDATE COMING LATER

We have a lot more information to give you regarding production schedules, our update schedule (moving to monthly updates rather than daily), and more logistical stuff, so expect a second update from us later today, or possibly tomorrow morning.

For now, we’re going to hang out in the comments, answering your questions, and getting ready to celebrate! No matter what, Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall is going to come to fruition. And we have you to thank for that.

With unending gratitude,

Risa Petrone

Community Manager