Production Update, Post Release, and Forged by Geeks Changes
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Jun 29, 2018 at 07:51:23 PM

To start and get this out of the way, as many have presumed (including myself in the last few updates), there is another delay.  Panda is now anticipating that we will be able to load it on boats by end of September which would mean people will get copies 1 year late, around the end of October 2018.

Now, I do not say the next thing lightly.  

I do not expect any additional delays.

Seriously, about 4 weeks ago, even though I didn't post an update, I finally got confidence that manufacturing is going and it will get done.  Part of it was the progress on the molds and part of it was Panda staring the initial billing process.

That isn't to say there won't be any more delays, because, well, that's how things go.  But I truly believe the first copies will arrive in backers hands by the end of October.  In some outlying areas, this could mean copies don't arrive until late November or December, but they should get to backers this calendar year.

PRODUCTION UPDATE

From the above, you can guess, but its going.  

I will freely admit that I was personally the cause of a recent 2 week delay.  I didn't get Panda updated box art when they first requested 2 weeks ago for the new box size and that is now the long pole.  I officially delivered the art a few minutes ago and it has already passed pre-flight tests.

They have the new insert design done, but are going to wait to send samples till they have the first final production pieces for the entire game to verify its good.  If it's not, it will take roughly 15 days to turn around a modified version, but as long as it doesn't take more than 2 iterations this will not cause further delays.  Any modifications should be minimal, but the insert remains the biggest risk of further delays.

• BOX ART VALIDATION COMPLETE - JULY 13th
• REMAINING GAME PRODUCTION COMPLETE - SEPTEMBER 7th
• FINAL ASSEMBLY COMPLETE - SEPTEMBER 28th

Then the literal slow boat from China to distribution in the EU, US, and Australia.  From the US, we will be trucking things up to a distributor in Canada as well.

Since signing copies will take longer, we are looking at flying those directly to us to get everyone to sign before mailing them out so backers of signed copies do not see additional delays.

POST RELEASE

Assuming production of the main game completes on September 7th as planned, we will start production for the fully sculpted Alien Miniatures at that time.  This will be a 4 - 6 month process, if things go about as well as they did with our towers.

The Alien Miniatures will come in a separate box that unfortunately will not fit into the main box as we had hoped.

We plan to start releasing the free maps approximately 1 month after the first copies arrive at backers and continue to do so for 2 years or 24 free maps as originally promised.

We are only producing 2,000 copies of the game, the bare minimum allowed.  If we manage to sell the extra roughly 900 copies (have to keep a few for replacement parts, review copies, demos, and such), we may do a reprint, but honestly I am not sure we will be able to do so.  More on that below.

FORGED BY GEEKS CHANGES

So, delays hurt.  They hurt a lot.

Right now, we are in the hole by a ton of money to put it mildly.  If we sell the remaining copies, we won't even break even.

Being that we cannot guarantee we will sell all the copies, all our other projects have officially been put on hold and both Rico and myself are returning to our previous careers at this time.

This is actually how I ended up causing the 2 week delay for the updated box art.  I was interviewing for jobs over the past 3 weeks almost non-stop, followed almost immediately by some salary negotiations, background checks, etc...

Rico is already back at work and I am officially scheduled to start my new job on July 16th.

If Defense Grid: The Board Game meets our backers expectations, we hope word of mouth and maybe a few review copies we send out will sell the remaining copies within 3 - 5 months.  If we are blessed enough to have this happen, it may open future doors, but for now, Defense Grid: The Board Game will be our one and only project.

That doesn't mean that we plan to just drop it on the floor and run to the hills.  We fully intend to support everyone who buys the game through the 24 free maps, updated rules, FAQs, Q&A, tutorial videos, etc... as long as people are playing and loving the game.

Thanks as always!

Anthony Hanses & Rico Hall

Box Insert sample received!
about 6 years ago – Sat, May 05, 2018 at 12:51:10 AM

So, we got the box insert sample finally!

It is a significant change from what I originally posted we were hoping to make, and I still have to test some things out, but the main takeaway from me telling you about this is that progress is being made.

Right now, one of the concerns with the insert is fitting sleeved cards, after all, we are including sleeves for some cards and when you make an insert meant to hold the whole game, people will want it to hold their cards while sleeved.  I will be testing this out with a variety of sleeves I have at home and getting changes made if needed to the design to fit sleeved cards.  I have been told that small changes like this shouldn't be a big hit on the schedule, but at this point, I can't honestly say I know what the schedule is, so...

Beyond this, my biggest concern is whether or not the design has sufficient space to hold all 57 Alien Standees with the chipboard tokens in them.  I will be loading in some of our old prototype metal standees and seeing if it will hold all of them comfortably.  If not, this will be an issue we have to get resolved.

Once the insert is approved (or potentially updated and approved), I will have to update the 2 art files for the box art, and that is it.  So I guess I lied a bit when I said I was all done in the last update :(.  I do have to do this art change, but this is literally less than 4 hours of work once they send me the templates and they have said the box manufacturing is one of the final manufacturing stages, so it should not be holding anything up or cause any additional delays.

Regarding schedule updates, I was hoping to have that as well for this post, but alas, I didn't get anything from Panda in this regard, yet.  All I can say is that they have confirmed it is in manufacturing, there is a delay, but do not have a new estimated date or timeline for me yet.  As always I will keep you posted as I hear more regarding the schedule and when you will get your copy of the game.

Here are a couple pictures of the current sample for those that are interested.

Thanks as always and feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

Anthony Hanses

Project Update and Reassurance and Upcoming Projects
about 6 years ago – Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 02:09:15 AM

PROJECT UPDATE

Just wanted to do a quick post about where the project stands right now.

As mentioned previously, it is basically entirely out of my hands.  Last I have heard is that Panda was supposed to have the re-designed insert ready 3 weeks ago, then last week, then this week.  I will keep pushing and if the timeline for delivery changes, which I am expecting it to again, I will share what I have.  

As far as I know, the insert was the only thing not 100% locked and our design wasn't manufacturable, so we need the new design to move forward and its not something we can do :(

REASSURANCE

Naturally, after this many delays some backers start to question if we are still manufacturing the game and capable of doing so.  We have received a few people asking about this and I figured more are wondering, so here is a screenshot of our business banking account from BECU.

 As you can see we are fine financially to make the game.  In addition, we have about $250,000 available to us through other sources if needed to get this done.  It will be made.  Its just a matter of when Panda is able to deliver.

UPCOMING PROJECTS

As it has been a while since Defense Grid: The Board Game was completed on our end, we started working on more games.

One game is a fairly simple party card game that is almost ready to go to Kickstarter.  Before we launch the Kickstarter, we wanted to ping our current backers and ask quite frankly, would you be pissed if we launched another Kickstarter before we finished delivery of your currently backed project?

Thanks as always!

Anthony Hanses & Rico Hall

Custom Maps and Waves for Photoshop CC
about 6 years ago – Sat, Feb 24, 2018 at 07:04:17 PM

So, I got a pretty positive response in the last update regarding the idea to release the custom map builder to everyone.  So, I spent all night finishing it up.  

Remember this is just our first attempt at doing anything like this and its only available for Photoshop CC at this time.  We welcome any ideas from people on how to improve usability of these files and any requests for other design apps to support in the future.

Right now, if you are not really familiar with Photoshop, you may have trouble using this.

Sometime in the next few weeks I will create a video walk-through that demonstrates how to use the Photoshop file.  Until then, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

WANT TO SEE WHAT IT PLAYS LIKE?

If you create a really cool map and wave set, you are welcome to send it to me.  If I have some time, I will set it up and play it on camera for you to see how it goes using some of our PPC components mixed with some of our old prototype pieces.

DOWNLOAD LINK

The following link takes you to the OneDrive folder that has the current files.  As we add compatibility with other applications, they will appear in the the same folder using the same link.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlF1YaA0uk9vn7gJYKqv9f-dtAD72A

In addition to the current Photoshop CC compatible file, I uploaded all 10 official maps in the final Map Booklet PDF.  This is a great resource for those looking for ideas for maps you can create with the tiles and waves that can work well with them.

DESIGNING YOUR OWN WAVES  

This is a LOT easier to do than the Maps.

1) Select a Wave and a Slot for the alien you want.  Then click the eyeball to add the Alien you want for that Slot.

The design I created supports up to 8 Aliens in each of up to 12 Waves.

2) On the bottom of the page is the "Aliens Used" list.  By default, the counts are set to how many of each Alien is included in the retail box.

Once you are done creating your waves, you should reduce these counts to exactly how many of each Alien you are using.

3) If you don't want all 12 waves (we recommend most games have 7 waves), simply remove the eyeball icon from next to the extra waves to hide them.

4) You are welcome to update the HP bonuses for different waves to be easier or harder as desired.  Within each Wave layer folder is a "Bonus Health" group that you can edit.

We also included these for Waves 1 - 3 which normally do not have Bonus Health, but you will have to add the eyeball next to them to make them visible.

BUILDING YOUR OWN MAPS

1) Click an eyeball to add a map tile to your map

2) You can only use either the "A" or the "B" side of any numbered tile.  You cannot use both at the same time unless you expect to have 2 copies of the game.

3) Map Tiles 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 all have 3 copies included in the game.  

Note that the back of all map 16, 17, 18, and 19 tiles (12 in total) are Barrier tiles.  In other words, you can only have up to 12 Barrier Tiles, but for each tile you use that is numbered 16, 17, 18, or 19, your Barrier Tile max is reduced by one.

4) Use Edit -> Transform -> Rotate to spin the tiles.  We recommend always rotating tiles in 60 degree increments to make sure everything will line up.

5) If after assembling the map it doesn't fit on the page, while in the layers list, hold down the "CTRL" key and click each tile one by one until all tiles are highlighted.  Once all the tiles are selected, while still holding "CTRL" key, press the letter "T".  This will start a "Transform".  Now you can use your mouse to drag corners and resize the entire map at once.  While resizing, we recommend you hole the "Shift" key so that nothing distorts in weird ways.

6) Feel free to remove Tower types from the bottom section to create restrictions regarding which Towers players are allowed to use while playing your Mission.

As an example, if you don't want players to have access to the Cannon Tower, remove the eyeball icon from next to both the Tower Image and the Tower Text to hide it.

INDIVIDUAL MODE POINTS

When playing custom maps, this is the amount of points players are given to upgrade their AIs before starting the Mission.  This number is in the upper right corner of the Map page.

Without having played the game, this can be hard to estimate what to give players.  Until the game is out, you are always welcome to share your map and waves with me and I can help or you can look at the Mission Booklet pdf file on the OneDrive share and compare your design with our official maps to help set a number.

In general, the more points you give, the easier it will be on the players or the more complex and difficult you can make the maps and waves.

SHARING YOUR MAP AND WAVES

The easiest way to do so is to export each page as a PNG file.

To do this, simply click File -> Export -> Quick Export as PNG

You can then upload the image to a service like Imjur to share with others.

If you want to get really creative and have access to Adobe Acrobat, you can take the 2 or more PNG files and combine them into a PDF to share.  If you need help doing this, just send me a message.

DESIGN SPOILERS

Not going to post any spoilers here, but if anyone wants to chat about our lessons learned when making the game, I am happy to discuss how to design waves that are interesting or that can challenge players. 

Feel free to message me directly on Kickstarter, but be warned, some of what I can tell you will spoil some of the surprises and fun that you would otherwise encounter on your first play through of the game.

Thanks again!

Anthony Hanses & Rico Hall

Chinese New Year, Small Component Changes, Custom Maps, and YouTube Demonitization
about 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 02:43:37 PM

So, to start, I was hoping to not mix these two, but Google has decided to demonetize our YouTube channel because we are about 230 subscribers short of the magical 1000 subscribers needed to stay monetized, even though we exceed their required watch hours by 8 fold.

As a result, if anyone here is willing to help us out by subscribing to our channel, it is greatly appreciated.  We stream board games weekly including Gloomhaven, Kingdom Death Monster, Pandemic Legacy Season 2, and are adding Charterstone soon.

http://youtube.com/forgedbygeeks

Now onto what most of you actually care about :)

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Chinese New Year ends on Monday, so we should begin to get some new updates.  This will hopefully include status on our box insert.  Right before the extended national vacation started, we did run into a small issue with the height of the insert, but we have 2 potential solutions to solve the issue.

1) Pay 4x more for the mold 

2) Split the mold into 2 molds that are stacked on top of each other.

We are leaning at doing #2 as we should be able to use the 2nd mold to also hold all the Tower Miniatures, but we won't know for probably 1 - 2 weeks.

CUSTOM MAPS  

I have the first version of the Custom Map and Wave maker nearly completed. It is currently only built for Adobe Photoshop, but I plan to port it to many more tools over the next few months.

We are trying to decide whether or not we just refund the 114 backers who backed this item and give it to everyone to open it up for the broader community or if we keep it for just those backers.

The main question is whether more people would like to make Custom Missions or if it is just the small group that really was interested.

Please let us know below in the comments.  Also, if you are interested or currently a backer and what tools you would love to use to layout the maps and waves for your custom missions.

As a fun note.  While we only go to 10 waves in the game itself, the custom tools right now support up to 12 waves per page.

SMALL COMPONENT CHANGES

So, speaking honestly, the game came in extremely over even our high end of expectations in costs to manufacture.  We can afford it, so that isn't an issue, but we did a deep re-evaluation of some of our components to make sure we were not putting in stuff that didn't need to be there.

What we found is that we have a ton more tokens for the pillars than are actually needed for the game, with 1 exception.  We actually were 10 tokens short for the "1" HP trackers.

As a result, we have made the following changes to the tracking tokens.

HP Tracker “1” 160 up from 150 

HP Tracker “5” 55 down from 120 

Shield Tokens 60 down from 70 

Shot Tokens 24 down from 30 

Slow Tokens 20 down from 30 

Stealth Tokens 20 and Cores 12, both no change.

In addition, we are looking into reducing the height of the Shield, Shot, Slow, and Stealth tokens from 8mm to 4mm or 6mm.  This frankly isn't to save money, as that would likely only shave off about $0.23 per copy produced.  This is actually a usability change.  Shrinking these tokens will allow gamers to play more HP tokens on the pillars.  This is important for one of the things we hope to add in the future if the game is popular enough to justify the work.  

We are hoping at some point to offer printable and/or purchasable Alien Cards that expand the game to support 5 or 6 players at once.  In order to do so, HP totals on the Aliens would have to increase substantially.  Potentially as much as 2x for the 6 player game.  Needless to say, that is a lot of HP tokens, especially for the Juggernaut.

Thanks as always!

Anthony Hanses & Rico Hall