Prepare to drop deeper with an epic expansion to the premier "drop-style" tabletop game. Then complete your story with Tavern Tales!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Join us in celebrating!
about 3 years ago
– Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 08:01:52 PM
Happy Sunday!
We're thrilled to have hit yet another major milestone in this campaign! Here's a Thank You video that will take you on a brief journey through all the crazy awesome things we've worked on over the past few months:
We'll provide links to all the final rulebooks in the next update (there are FIVE of them!!), and of course we'll also keep you updated on the global shipping situation as things develop on that front.
In the meantime, THANK YOU for all you've done, and we hope you'll join us in raising a glass tonight!
Cheers!
Updates on delivery timeline and game trays prototype video
about 3 years ago
– Mon, Apr 05, 2021 at 05:41:21 PM
Happy April!
We hope everyone had a fun April Fool's Day yesterday - I know we did! TO BE CLEAR, now that the day has passed, I feel compelled to make sure you all understand you should NOT attempt to submerge your dungeon drop game in water!
With that said, we do have some updates we’d like to go over now, so let's get to it!
Delivery Timeline
Ok, this has been one hell of a strange ride. There are 3 forces have conspired against us:
Darrin'shome: As we informed you about a month and a half ago, Darrin's house fire forced him and his family (who are all fine, by the way!) to move out for an extended period. Since then, they have been forced to move TWO more times - once to another unit in the same building, and then finally to a new building intended for longer term (but still temporary) living. Of course all of this was happening while he was also fighting with insurance and mortgage companies, simply trying to get his house rebuilt. Needless to say, Darrin's availability has definitely had an impact on our throughput.
In the end, if nothing else was working against us, this MIGHT have netted out to not affect our timelines much, since we had sufficient buffer room built into our schedule... but that buffer has now been consumed. Therefore, we are 100% at the mercy of the next two items...
Global shippingissues: We were already in a global shipping crisis, as another of our recent updates detailed. This continues to be the case, compounded by the additional new item below. We won't know the exact impact to our project until we get closer to the time we need boats and containers, but indications are that there will be some impact to our ability to ship goods to all different corners of the planet.
The straw that broke the camel's back: I'm sure you all saw news about the boat that blocked the Suez Canal for a week. Can 1 boat really have an impact on global economy and shipping lanes? HELL YES! And unfortunately we will be seeing the after-effects of this for some time. As above, we won't really know what this will mean for us until we get closer to our actual shipping dates, but the potential for a domino effect here is undeniable.
Bottom line: The bottom line with all this is that our digital files are done and in transition to our manufacturer, but our ability to get those final products from China to you will unquestionably be affected. We will continue to be 100% transparent and up front with you as things develop. I continue to maintain that I don't believe these dynamics should result in much of a delay, but we'd be stupid to think they won't have some amount of impact. More to come.
Game Trays prototype video
Check out the latest prototype of the game trays that come with the Treasure Trunk! More improvements will be made to these, but here you can see a good Work-In-Progress:
Some freebies
We will post final, official PDF versions of these to our Tavern Tales page on www.PhaseShiftGames.com, but for now we wanted to show off some freely downloadable scenarios for Tavern Tales!
That's it for now folks.
Until next time, cheers!
Big product announcement!
about 3 years ago
– Fri, Apr 02, 2021 at 02:10:24 AM
Big news!
We could not be more excited about this upcoming release!:
Are you ready to DIVE into the dungeon?!
Cheers!
A couple previews, and worldwide freight update
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 10:23:50 PM
Good morning!
Wanted to give you a couple previews, and also update you regarding the worldwide freight situation. Let's start with that one...
Worldwide Freight Situation
Background: In short, it's not good. Across the globe, there is a massive shortage in freight containers (those huge metal boxes that store dozens of pallets of goods that get loaded onto ships), primarily due to the spike in consumers ordering goods during covid rather than going out. This is especially true and problematic with China, the primary source of most goods being ordered. Please note - this problem extends WAY past the tabletop industry.
Result: The result of this is that shipping costs and times have increased DRASTICALLY. Sorry for the dramatic use of ALL CAPS there, but this point really needs to be made clear. In addition, the cost of raw materials for paper and plastic parts has also increased significantly - you know, all the stuff that's typically found in a board game. If you have not seen this same statement from other publishers yet, you will. Everyone is feeling the effects of this situation, and unfortunately it is not expected to go away for another 6 to 12 months. We are hearing reports that some publishers are literally telling their backers that their orders will be 4 to 6 months delayed as a direct result of this situation.
What about thiscampaign?: Ok, let's break this down into individual problems and look at each one separately:
Increased costs for paper and plastic materials - does this mean you will need to pay more for your pledge? No. We have already placed the down payment for this project with our manufacturer, so our order for Dungeon Drop: Dropped Too Deep and Tavern Tales is unaffected. However, if you backed other projects in recent months, don't be surprised if you see some creators issuing less positive statements.
Increased costs for shipping - does this mean you will need to pay more for shipping? I want to say no, but honestly it's too soon for me to be absolutely certain of this. For example, if freight costs increase by 20%, no problem - we will eat that difference in our profits. If freight costs increase by 50%, we would cry many tears, but likely still cover the increase ourselves. If freights costs increase by double or more, which is what we are starting to hear from others, we would have a massive problem to figure out. Before I say more, let's move on to that last question, because the two questions are very intertwined...
Increased time for shipping - does this mean you will not get your pledge on time? Based on what I'm seeing and hearing, I think this is a very likely outcome. How much of a delay would there be? I have absolutely no idea. I'm providing a link to a NY Times article below that does a good job of explaining the situation across the globe, in case you're interested to learn more. Bottom line is things are SUPER volatile at the moment. We are still about 2 months away from when freight would begin for our project, so we simply need to wait and see where things are at come that time. I would hate to see a significant delay, but if the containers and/or boats are simply unavailable, then there's quite literally nothing I can do about that.
So let's take those last two questions as a pair now... shipping costs and time. These two are intertwined. Meaning, at the moment, shipping costs and time are INCREASING with every passing day. But at some point, presumably, it will be the opposite... as people get their vaccines and start going out more, decreasing their online buying, shipping costs and time will DECREASE with every passing day. So I expect there will be a "sweet spot" - a timeframe when it makes sense to get the project on a boat, when both the costs and delay will be bearable. Again, it's too early to tell now, but I wanted to be sure to provide as many details up front as possible.
With that out of the way, let's get on to the more fun stuff!
2nd Printing Upgrade Pack preview
Here's a video where I show off all the cards and rulebooks included in the 2nd Printing Upgrade Pack. As a reminder, this pack is included in EVERY copy of Dungeon Drop: Dropped Too Deep.
Treasure Trunk White Sample Preview
And finally, here's a video showing off the latest white sample of the Treasure Trunk. Super excited about this!!
That's all for now folks. We will keep you posted as things progress. Thank you!
Wizards & Spells expansion images
about 3 years ago
– Sun, Feb 21, 2021 at 01:40:43 AM
Happy Saturday!
As promised, we were able to render some great images of the latest Wizards & Spells art and components, so you can review and then make any final decisions before we close the Pledge Manager surveys in 1 week.
Wizards & Spells
We're absolutely thrilled with how this 5-player expansion has come along. Here's some promo images for your viewing pleasure:
One thing to note - the box shown in the images above is definitely not final art. But it will have a box, and we anticipate that box will be 4x4x1 inches (exactly 1/4 the height of our normal cube box). Of course there will also be a full rulebook inside.
Here's a preview of the rules pages for Sinister Spells, one of the two new game modes included in the expansion:
Pledge Manager closing in 1 week
Please make your final decisions and close out your pledge manager survey (if you haven't already) by February 28th. Please remember, if you do not close our your survey, and/or if there are extra charges due and your credit card is declined, then we CANNOT ship you your pledge.
