Progress Report #2 // Pre-Production
over 1 year ago – Wed, Nov 02, 2022 at 03:55:49 AM

Hello lunarians!

It has been too long since our last update and I apologise for the radio silence. Carly & I have finally completed our house move and I started back at work yesterday in my new office, aka The Thunderdome, aka actually just our spare bedroom. It has an obligatory wall of board games and a sweet dual monitor setup so I'm very happy with it :D

Progress

Pre-production for Moon is going to plan: Haakon has finished creating all the necessary artwork and is now close to a final draft of the rulebook. We are creating print files for the cards and all the other components so we can send them to the factory and get some initial digital & physical proofs before we make the mass production order.

We've tweaked the heart and resource tokens a little bit, making them double sided with different values on each. This way, players can 'make change' without having to reach across the table to the general supply quite so much. It also means we can greatly increase the total value of the tokens in the box without adding extra weight or cost to the game. Here's a screen grab from Tabletop Simulator...

Here's the overview of where we're at. The "in progress" items should be complete in a couple of weeks.

Pledge Manager Stuff

Orders Lock December 1st

If all goes to plan, the pledge manager will remain open for changes to your order until December 1st. After that, orders will be locked so that we know how much of everything to print. Backers who ordered extra items in the pledge manager will be billed for them at this point. An email will be sent to backers 48 hours before the pledge manager is locked and before any charges are applied.

After orders are locked, the pledge manager will remain open for address changes and you are free to update your shipping info at any time. If you've lost your pledge manager access link, you can retrieve it here using the email address you use for Kickstarter. If you still can't access your pledge, please email us on [email protected] and we can either help you gain access yourself, or update your info for you.

Shipping Fees

Due to the volatility of prices, shipping fees for this project will be finalised once we have the most up to date estimates for all backers, which can only be done closer to the time of shipping. Missing payment information may delay shipping out rewards, which is why we ask for it to be entered into your BackerKit survey. You can rest assured that your card information will be stored safely and securely on Stripe, which is a certified PCI Service Provider Level 1. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry. Sinister Fish Games never has access to your card details, and any charges will  automatically be preceded by a 48 hour email alert.

You'll be able to review the final shipping costs (and update your payment details if needed) on your survey before we charge your cards. If you wish to cancel your pledge and receive a refund at this or at any time, you are free to do so via an email to [email protected]

New Zealand & Australia Pricing

Some good news for our backers in AUS and NZ - unless the situation changes significantly from now, we will be able to partner directly with Aetherworks in Australia and offer reduced shipping to both countries. A Moon // Base or Super pledge will cost £12 to ship, and a Moon // Full will cost £14. Australia was previously £16 / £18, and NZ was £25 / £26.

In Other News

Villagers and Streets are both coming to BoardGameArena quite soon! Villagers is in alpha testing right now, and Streets is pre-alpha. Both are playable and work really well, they just need to be played & tweaked some more before they're ready for release. We will be asking for people to help with testing, which we'll do via our community pages on Facebook and Discord - we'd love you to join us on either platform.

That Is all!

Feel free to ask questions in the comments, and if you have any customer support issues please email [email protected] - we do not offer support on any other channel, but our new support agent Kris is eager to help you via email from Monday to Friday during UK office hours.

As always, even when we're quiet, things are happening! We'll try to stick to a roughly monthly update schedule from now on, and so we'll see you next time.

Take care, and play games!

Dave

www.sinisterfish.com

Progress Report #1 // Pledge Manager
over 1 year ago – Wed, Aug 31, 2022 at 12:59:32 AM

Lunarians!

Hello there - it seems like an age since we last spoke, but my calendar informs me that it's been less than a month. I have a swift update for you today regarding general progress on getting Moon ready for print and the imminent opening of the pledge manager!

Art & Design

Haakon has been busy tweaking various graphic design elements, such as making the yellow tokens a little darker to contrast better with the white resource icons, and improving the readability of the Assimilate icons. He has also updated the files for the tokens with the new double-sided design which will reduce the amount of "banking" you'll have to do during the game.

Also done is the art for the three storage boxes included in the Deluxe edition, but we anticipate this might be fiddly to get right in practice so we'll have to see what the first samples are like before we can call them complete.

Game Development

Nick & Haakon have been working on some balance issues relating to certain pink cards, and on integrating the Valkyrie expansion with the solo mode. It looks like good solutions have been found in both cases, which basically wraps up the development of the base game and expansion. Our private Tabletop Simulator mod has all the latest changes, and we will make them public once we're happy that nothing is *too* broken :D

Pledge Manager

I've been spending most of my time getting the Moon pledge manager ready in BackerKit for everyone, and I'm pleased to say that it's now complete. For those who are unaware, the pledge manager is a system we use to collect all our backers' shipping information and to allow extra items to be added to pledges - it also lets backers upgrade and downgrade pledge levels.

Every Moon backer will soon receive an email invite with a URL linking to the survey on BackerKit. Each link is unique to the backer, so don't share it! We will send survey links to the email address associated with your Kickstarter account.

Today we will begin a "smoke test" of the system, sending survey links out to a randomly selected 5% of backers. Assuming a successful test, we'll then send everyone else their links. The entire process should take 2-3 days so please be on the lookout for an email from BackerKit before the end of this week. Please don't skip the survey because if you don't give us your shipping address, we can't send your pledge!

If you lose your link before filling in the survey, and you have access to the email account associated with your Kickstarter account, you can recover your invite here: https://moon.backerkit.com

Customer Support

Most issues with the pledge manager (including missing pledge invites) can be dealt with by BackerKit directly - you can get in touch with them here.

If you need to contact Sinister Fish, please do so by emailing [email protected] or via our website contact page. We do not offer customer support via Kickstarter comments or messages, or by any of our social media platforms.

Shipping Fees

BackerKit has a new feature we are using which allows us to bill for shipping much later in the process, close to the time of fulfilment. This allows us to give you the most accurate price, which we think is the best option for all concerned. I am aware of some high-profile crowdfunding projects surprising backers with astronomical shipping fees and I'd like to reassure you that barring further catastrophic global events, the price you'll pay to ship Moon to your door will be in line with the estimated pricing on the campaign page.

That is all for now - keep watching the skies for that survey link!

Take care, and play games.

Dave

Stretch Goal #13 // The End!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 02, 2022 at 06:23:28 AM

Lunarians,

What an ending! We've passed 8000 backers and almost made it to £400,000, which is beyond amazing and makes Moon our most successful campaign yet. We genuinely can't thank you enough!

We easily smashed the last stretch goal while I was asleep (always a pleasure to wake up to), and we are now home free, with all stretch goals unlocked!

I hear the concerns some of you have raised about foil / holo cards being difficult to read on the table, and worries that they can curl over time. We hadn't considered this when we planned the stretch goal (obviously stretch goal focus groups are needed in future). In response we will do the foil Valkyrie structure cards in addition to the regular ones, so you can choose which you use. I hope that's a satisfactory solution.

Finale Livestream with Haakon, Nick, and Dave

Sadly, we will be livestreaming the end of the campaign from 12:30 GMT on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook, but nonetheless, we'd love you to join us and ask any questions you might have. Seriously, please ask us something because we have literally no material prepared. Doesn't even have to be about Moon :D

Once that's done I'm going to go & collapse in a ball for about half an hour and then see if I can think straight enough to function normally for the rest of the day. Unlikely, but I am quite good at pretending.

What Happens Next?

As soon as the campaign ends you'll be billed by Kickstarter for whatever is in your basket. I'll then tinker around with the pledge manager (BackerKit) until it's ready to launch, and you'll be able to adjust/upgrade your pledge, and select add-ons. The pricing will all be the same as on Kickstarter, and we will bill for any extras and shipping all at the same time toward the end of this year or early 2023. We'll give you plenty of notice.

Reprints

We will try to reprint any out-of-stock add-ons, particularly Streets: Deluxe Edition. BackerKit has a neat way for us to gauge and track demand for them, so don't worry if the item you're looking for isn't available right now - it might be later.

Shipping

Not only are we billing for shipping later, but we are also planning to calculate it later, so you probably won't see any shipping estimates in the pledge manager right away.* We're doing this to give you the fairest deal on shipping - if prices fall in the coming months, we'll pass on the saving to you. If prices rise considerably, we will have to increase shipping fees, but I suspect that the really scary increases have already happened.

* I say "probably" because this is a new feature in BackerKit that we haven't enabled yet, but hope to in time for the opening of the pledge manager.

End Bit

Once again, huge and heartfelt thanks go out to all our backers from everyone here. Your support allows us to continue doing this full-time, which feels like an amazing privilege, and we are very grateful for it. Thanks also for making this a really fun campaign, which despite the creeping madness I'm currently feeling, has actually been relatively stress-free. In fact, we should do this again sometime!

Take care, and play games!

Dave, Haakon, Carly, and Nick

www.sinisterfish.com

Stretch Goal #12 // Final Stretch Goal!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 02, 2022 at 06:14:13 AM

Lunarians,

What a ride the last ~24 hours have been. We've added over 900 new backers - hi everyone, glad you could join us! - and hit our 12th stretch goal. Printed rover meeples are unlocked and will be included with the Moon deluxe edition.

All of which brings us to the final stretch goal, and it's one for everyone. A couple of you have mentioned panoramic art on the bottom of the box to match Streets and Villagers, and I'm happy to say we'll be carrying on that tradition with Moon. But that's not the final stretch goal, this is...

Hopefully we can hit this goal before the campaign ends tomorrow, but if we don't we'll count any pre-orders we get in the pledge manager and keep track of it there. We will also do a livestream for the last hour of the campaign so please join us for that if you're free - we'll post all the info in an update.

To those of you looking for add-ons which are no longer available (Streets: Deluxe Edition for example), we are going to reprint out-of-stock items if there is enough demand to meet the minimum order requirement. The pledge manager offers a neat way to track this, so we will figure everything out in BackerKit.

That's it for now - please secure your seatbelts and prepare to land, on the Moon!

Take care, and play games!

Dave

Stretch Goal #11
over 1 year ago – Mon, Aug 01, 2022 at 06:57:25 AM

Lunarians!

The final burn has been initiated, 48-hour reminders sent, and we've blasted past another stretch goal!

Moon: Deluxe Edition now has three storage boxes which double as six component trays for the four resources, rovers, and heart tokens used in the game.

Next up, we have an upgrade for the deluxe edition which we think you're going to enjoy...

I'm going to keep it really brief and leave it there for tonight, but we appreciate you all very much. Now let's hit that goal!

Take care, and play games.

Dave