Ship News and an Epic PDF
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 02:49:02 AM

Hi there! I hope you've been having a great couple of weeks since last we talked. Today I have a little bit of shipping news, and also something really cool: the PDF for the two new scenarios, as well as the rules for the easier variants! Let's get into it!

Shipping Update

Europe - There were four boats to France. The first three are through customs and at the warehouse. The final boat to France is the MSC CLORINDA. It is scheduled to arrive in port on September 27th. 

US - There were four boats to the US. The first three are through customs and at Quartermaster. The final boat to the US is the YM UBIQUITY, which is scheduled to arrive on October 2nd. Which means that, unfortunately, it looks like shipping has actually been pushed back even a little bit further than we were initially hoping/thinking. Sorry for the bummer on this, guys.

Australia - The products are being packed in China and should be finished by the end of this week. After that, they will get on the boat. The boat is supposed to arrive in port at the beginning of October.

Asia - The products are on their way to VFI's warehouse. They are supposed to arrive there by the end of this week. After that they will be packed and shipped out directly from the warehouse.

Unfortunately, the powers that be in the US decided it would be a good idea to place new tariffs on goods being imported from China (after dropping the previous tariffs we had mentioned,) and those tariffs have now gone into effect. We ended up paying an extra $2,000+ for the third shipment, and expect to pay an additional $5,000+ for the fourth one. Don't worry, though, US backers: we're just going to eat this cost, so you won't have to pay any extra. (At least we got the first two through before this happened.) Going forward, though, a word of warning: currently, all board games manufactured in China will have an additional 15% fee tacked onto them (based on their production cost) when they come in the US.

Profundum PDF

Okay, now for something cool! This is a PDF of the booklet that will come in the Profundum box. (So, for anyone who got Profundum, you will also receive a physical copy of this.) This PDF includes the two scenarios unlocked during the campaign, some rules clarifications (especially for scenario 4) and - drum roll, please - EASY MODE VARIANTS! You heard that right, folks: your pleas have been answered. The variants to make your game of Deep Madness easier are finally here. (There's also a breakdown of the Profundum box showing where everything goes, which will be much more useful in the printed version than it is currently.)

Click here to download the Profundum PDF English version

French version

Spanish version

German version

Italian version

The first scenario in this PDF takes place before Chapter One in the base game, and it's the beginning scenario that we recommend new players start out with. (As opposed to the infamous Chapter One - though that one now has its own easy variant in this booklet as well.) This is a retooling of the scenario we used our first year at Gen Con, for those who are interested.

The second scenario is certainly not as easy as the first, and it technically takes place after the Another Dawn "true ending" scenario in the Uncounted Horrors box (which takes place after the core game itself.) Having said that, it's pretty light on story, so you can really play it wherever/whenever. The cool thing about this scenario is that, if you happened to get The Faces of the Sphere, you'll now have a specific scenario to use those gnarly Visages in. If you didn't, though, this scenario will still be completely playable.

In the coming weeks we'll also release a slightly tweaked/updated rulebook PDF for everyone. This is 95% identical to the rulebook that's already out there, but we did make a few clarifications throughout to make the rulebook easier to understand. (Including the previously mentioned changes to scenario 1 and 4 that are included in the Profundum PDF.) So keep an eye out for that!

Dawn Delayed Again - to When It was Always Meant to Launch.

So, for those of you who've been paying attention to Dawn of Madness, you'll have noticed a trend - namely, that its launch keeps getting delayed. (Lol.)

The reason for this most recent delay is that we ran into some problems with the graphic design following Gen Con, the extent of which didn’t completely become clear to us until near the end of August. We're starting to recover from that, but we've come to realize that we're not going to make September. Which is probably just as well. Because we all know what month comes next…

And let's be honest: no one can do Halloween quite like us. So this October, prepare yourself. Because those dark days are going to be bathed in madness.

Following are some small part of the pictures from Dawn of Madness. Enjoy!

(If you haven't checked out the KS preview, you can find it here. There's also a video I put up on there a couple weeks ago going over a bit of what kind of game Dawn is. More is coming soon!

Well that's it for this update! Talk to you again soon!

Address Lockdown is Today!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Aug 27, 2019 at 02:19:10 AM

Hi everyone! I hope you've had a great couple of weeks. This is going to be a short and sweet update, and this time I actually mean it! 

We just wanted to remind you that today is the day we're going to lock down addresses! So, if you have any last-second changes, please be sure to get those in today!

Not sure how to do that? Try logging into your Backerkit account at https://www.backerkit.com/backer_accounts/sign_in. Don't have a backer account? You can also search for your survey at https://deep-madness-second-printing.backerkit.com/. In either case you should be able to get in there and edit your address from there.

This, of course, means that we are moving just one step closer to everyone getting their copies of Deep Madness! Woohoo! With that in mind, let's move on to shipping news!

Shipping Update

The last ships to North America and the EU are officially on the water! We'll let you know when they have arrived safely and gotten to their respective warehouses. We will be using Quartermaster Logistics in the US and BigBlue in the EU as our shipping partners. The Canadian orders will be shipped up from the Florida hub at Quartermasters to Snakes and Lattes (at least I'm pretty sure it'll be Snakes and Lattes), who will ensure that there are no import fees or the like for our Canadian friends. 

Oceana orders (Australia, New Zealand, etc.) are going to be packed imminently in China and then shipped out from there. Once they arrive in Australia they will then be shipped out via Aetherworks. Now, in our first campaign the fact that Australian orders shipped after everyone else caused some concern. However, in that campaign at least, Oceana orders were basically the first to actually get delivered. So don't worry about that delay. It'll work out. (And your orders will already be packed, whereas the others will still need to be once they arrive at their destination hubs.)

Asia orders will be packed after the Oceana orders and then shipped directly from China via VFI.

Last of all, apparently the situation changed slightly for South American orders. Those seem to have been shipped to the EU hub and will be airmailed from there once they arrive. Sorry about the miscommunication on that.

Okay, we'll be back really soon with more information for you all, including a couple really fun things coming up. Stay tuned, and have a great week! (And once again, if your address has/will change during September, today is the day to change it!)

Shipping, Address Lockdown Update, and a Few More Pics
over 4 years ago – Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 03:10:49 AM

Well we made it through Gen Con (and had a great time doing it, too). Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by the booth to say hi either for the first time or once again. It was wonderful to meet or see you all. (And for those of you who weren't able to make it, hopefully we'll get the chance to meet/see you in the future somewhere!) 

Having said that, though, we have shipping news, as well as the date that we will have to lock down the addresses! Then, after that, we'll have a few more pictures of the awesome new stuff!

Shipping and Address Lockdown Date

The first wave of boats should reach their countries within the next couple of days (if they haven't already.) The final wave of boats should leave next week sometime. That means we are drawing ever closer to getting this game into your hands. (Woohoo!) 

As we draw closer to the fateful day when shipping will begin in earnest, we are going to need to look at locking down addresses. To that end, we are going to lock down addresses on August 25th. Please try to have your address updated by that date. 

Don't know how to update your address? Try logging into your Backerkit account at https://www.backerkit.com/backer_accounts/sign_in. Don't have a backer account? You can also search for your survey at https://deep-madness-second-printing.backerkit.com/. In either case you should be able to get in there and edit your address from there.

Don't know where you're going to be living in September? In this case I recommend having your game delivered to a friend or family member nearby who would be able to accept the game for you and hold onto it until you can get it. This could avoid a whole slew of problems for you in getting your package if you're moving in September. You can also contact us if something comes up and we'll see what we can do. I recommend contacting us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/deepmadnessgame/ or sending me and Cherry an email at [email protected] and [email protected] respectively. 

Having said all of that, once again, please try to have your most current address in Backerkit by August 25th to ensure that everything goes smoothly for your delivery!

Pictures of More Stuff!

Now the fun stuff! We have pictures of those final few things we maybe only showed at a glance in the last update. Enjoy! 

Gen Con and Dawn of Madness

As mentioned above, Gen Con was great this year. It was as hectic as ever, but it was a ton of fun to show off some of what we have coming up. Here are a few pics from the convention, taken by backer/booth helper QuoteStar/Maddie:

And here's a few more I took.

Okay, that's it for pictures. Do I have more? Of course. But I don't want to drown you in photos, and I think I've gotten pretty close here. I will mention just a couple other things, though: if you are interested in getting some of those limited print run Celestial resin figures, we're currently running a Gen Con special on their website, so you can get them at Gen Con prices. You can find them at https://shop.celestialgame.com/ if you're so inclined. We're figuring out how we can maybe sell some of the other stuff that we had at the show, so stay tuned for that.

Last but not least, for those who wanted a bit more Dawn of Madness info, I put together a hasty video this last Friday once I received (most of) the prototype components in the mail. If you're interested in learning a bit more about this game, I posted it on our preview Kickstarter page here: http://bit.ly/DoMPreview (And sorry for the crummy editing on it. Like I said: I did it fast.) 

More info on Dawn of Madness and everything else Diemension Games to come!

Well that's it for this update, friends! Talk to you all again soon! And don't forget to update your address!

More Shipping Info, More Monstrum, New Pictures, and Gen Con Info!
almost 5 years ago – Wed, Jul 24, 2019 at 03:39:40 AM

Hi friends!

I hope you've been having a great couple of weeks! 

I intended to have this update out to you all last week, but work on Dawn of Madness kind of eclipsed my world and left everything else by the wayside. Sorry about that. I'll try to make it up to you today. Last update I showed you some pictures of the prototype Monstrum, but I promised we'd have pictures of the final thing coming soon. Well, they're here! Along with a video! We also have some more news about shipping, some pictures of the new finalized minis, more videos, as well as some fun stuff about what's coming up at Gen Con! This might be one of those mega updates, so I'll put the part many of you are likely most interested in right up front. Then you may descend deeper into the madness if you so choose - but do so at your own risk.

Shipping News

The first of the ships bound for the US should have already departed (I haven't heard this for sure, but according to the timetable it should be pretty close at least), while the first ship bound for the EU (the CMA CGM AQUILA 0KN2ZW1PL) should head out of port on the 24th (Yeah. Tomorrow.) and arrive in Le Havre on August 16th. For our Australian/New Zealander friends, the plan currently is to pack the Australian orders before shipping them, while everyone else's will need to be assembled when they arrive at their destination port. Because of this, their ship will be a bit later than everyone else's, but there shouldn't be any real major discrepancy between those deliveries and the rest of the world's. Now, just as a reminder, we will also need to book a second boat for both the US and EU. I haven't heard specifically about the second boats yet, but they should be closer to the end of this month. Which means that it's looking more and more certain that shipping will start in September. There have been four containers loaded thus far (two to the US and two to the EU.) Here's a couple of pictures of the containers:

Now, for those not in the EU, North America, or Australia, we will ship your pledges directly to you from China via airmail. This is about the fastest method we could find to get you your pledges (much faster than the first campaign where most outliers went to the EU first and then were shipped out to the rest of the world from there.) Canadian orders will be included in the shipments to North America, but for those who were in our first campaign, don't fear. We anticipate things to run much smoother this time than last time.  I'll let you know more as soon as we have news to share. 

Monstrum Boxes

I promised you more Monstrum, and we have it in spades! To the pictures!

The number one comment I received after the last update was asking what the bottom of each tray was like. I had actually anticipated this question and had a picture of that all ready to go, but at the last moment I heard that the bottom material may have changed and so had held off on that. Well, I can now confirm that we went with a really tough, resilient foam that hardly bends at all when held in one hand. The factory gave us several options, with a couple of cheaper ones and then the expensive one. We went with the expensive one. 

I hope you're happy with the choices made on Monstrum, and that this makes you even more excited to get yours!

More Pictures!

But those aren't the only pictures we have for you today! No indeed! We have finalized copies of a bunch of the new stuff, including Faces of the Sphere and the Chang Yuan art book! Here we go!

Gen Con

As some of you may be aware, a little shindig called Gen Con will be starting next week! (Which, honestly, I find terrifying. There is still a ton to get done in the next week. =D) We have so much awesome stuff planned for Gen Con, and we really hope you'll be able to stop by and say hi to us. We will be at booth 2149 this year (we're finally not shoved in the literal farthest corner by the bathrooms! Maybe this means we're moving up in the world!) We're right next door to Funko and just North of the Family Fun Pavilion, which sounds like the perfect location for us in all honesty.

All kidding aside, we would absolutely love for you to stop by and see us. I (Byron) will be there, and so will Roger, our lead game designer, creative director, CEO, and fearless leader. (We wear a lot of hats at Diemension. =D) We will also be joined by some of our closest friends and family who we somehow bribed into helping us for another year.  But what all do we have planned? I'm glad you asked that! Tell them what we have for them, Johnny!

Deep Madness

We will have bunches of Deep Madness stuff on display, including many of the new products from this campaign. We will only be selling a few small DM accessories (such as 3D doors and dice bags) at the show, though, because we wanted to make sure you guys got the big stuff first. (We will offer sign-ups for people who missed this campaign and may want a late pledge of the game, but these quantities will be very limited.) What we will have, though, is DM swag! We have a pin and two art prints available, all limited to 100 pieces each. These aren't currently planned to be sold anywhere but Gen Con (though if demand is high enough, who knows?), so be sure to stop by first thing if you're interested. 

Dawn of Madness

We know a lot of you are really interested in learning more about DoM's gameplay, and at Gen Con we are going to deliver! We have prepared a sample/prototype of DoM (including a 25,000-word storybook, which is approximately 1/10 of the total content that will be in the final game - yes, you did read that right. There will be approximately 8 books of content in the final game, if all goes well in the campaign.) The components are not finalized or complete, but we think you will still be able to get a really good feeling of DoM's gameplay, as well as experience what horror can actually be like in a board game. (I am honestly really looking forward to scaring the crap out of at least a couple of people at Gen Con... I mean, not literally, but...)

Not able to make it to Gen Con? No worries. We won't leave you out. I'll be uploading a bunch of pictures and videos to various locations on the interwebs, so you'll get your dose of DoM, too. Be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook page and the Deep Madness Universe group. (I'm even going to do a couple of videos with Roger going over the gameplay and his creative process in designing the game. Shh, don't tell him, though. He doesn't know yet.) 

Also, if you're a fan of DoM's art, we will have a pin, a T-shirt, and four art prints available for you.

Celestial

So, some of you are also probably aware that we are developing another project: a small-scale, low-key little project called Celestial. JK. The only words that can be safely used to describe Celestial are EPIC and MASSIVE. I mean, the average size of the minis are Epic Monsters or bigger in Deep Madness, and that's just the normal figures. (For those who backed Deep Madness, the Lei mini you received is one of the smallest minis in the game. Maybe the smallest.) I often describe Celestial as Game of Thrones meets Lovecraft meets cyberpunk meets Chinese mythology, and that kind of sums it up. Sort of. 

While DoM took up a majority of our time leading up to Gen Con, we have made some really good progress on Celestial, too. This year we'll have a visual feast for you with nearly 50 gorgeously painted models on display. We'll also have a partial demo, though it will unfortunately not be fully functional. Still, you'll get at least a taste of Celestial's gameplay. (This assumes, of course, that I can finish the giant 3D game board in time. As I said, we wear many hats at DG. =D)

We will also still have the Celestial Genesis resin miniatures for sale at the Con, at some sweet, sweet Con prices. We'll also have art posters and a T-shirt available. What's more, if you buy a resin mini you'll get a free art poster, and if you buy three or more then you'll get a free T-shirt! Score!

Twisted Fables

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. Did I just unveil a THIRD game that we're working on?! 

Why, yes. Yes I did. (Mic drop.)

And what's more, this one will be fully playable. 

Twisted Fables is very, very different from the other games mentioned thus far. It is not a plastic-fest: it is, instead, a 1v1 or 2v2 brawling deck-builder. Players fight on a horizontal game mat, building their asymmetric decks with the fairy tale heroines of lore (always assuming, of course, that said heroines lived in a multiverse that collided, unleashing wildly different versions of each character from the ones you're familiar with.)  So will you be Red Riding Hood, the cybernetic sniper assassin? Or will you be the decidedly dark, poisonous Snow White? (Apparently she ended up taking after her step-mom in her adult years.) Regardless, the winner may just be able to win a gift at Gen Con. 

Anyway, that's what we have planned for Gen Con.

So how about that? Information overload yet? (Or did that set in at about the halfway point?)

You will probably be relieved to know that that's all I have for this update. For those of you going to Gen Con, I can't wait to meet you in person. (Or see you again, as the case may be.) I hope you have a good week or two, and we will talk to you again soon!

Updates and Pictures and Shipping, Oh My!
almost 5 years ago – Tue, Jul 02, 2019 at 03:23:33 AM

Hey all! I hope you've had a great week!

Last week we had the first half of my promised update, which focused mainly on Dawn of Madness. This time, though, we will regale you with the promised Deep Madness news!

First of all, we have some fantastic news for our US backers! THE DREADED US TARIFFS HAVE BEEN DROPPED! (We can now all breath a collective sigh of relief.) At least for the present time, the tariffs that would have added what was essentially a 25% manufacturing tax have been tabled, meaning that we can all stop worrying about it. Woohoo!  With that out of the way, let's get onto some pictures!

The Latest Trip to the Factories

Our team took a trip out to our factories this last week to check in on the progress, focusing especially on the reprint items. Here are some of the awesome things they saw: 

The punchboards and room tiles are all ready, and are being flattened until the assembly.  

All the cards are being shrink wrapped before final assembly begins.

The dice are being stored in plastic bags. 

The reprinted miniatures have all been placed in their plastic trays and are now being stored in boxes.

Now, we also got a couple up-close looks at some of the new stuff! Below you will find pictures of the new Another Dawn dice from The Faces of the Sphere, as well as a sneak peek at the almost finished Omega Ravenous! (Epic Ravenous's final name, by the by.) Note: this still isn't the completely finalized Omega Ravenous, but we're getting close on it. We'll be receiving more stuff in the coming weeks, and we'll be sure to show it to you when we do. 

Monstrum Prototype Pictures

You guys have been so patient for this, which we really appreciate. But, today, I can finally give you what you've been asking for: pictures of the Monstrum box! Now, a couple of caveats about these pictures. First of all, this box is quite the world traveler,  and as such it has some damage to the top of it.  Needless to say, yours won't come with this. Next of all, this is the same sample box that I showed you one picture of a while back, and, as such, it is not the absolutely final version of the box. I'm not positive what all is changing with the tweaked box, but I believe that there are some changes to the interior foam. Finally, this is not necessarily the optimal arrangement of minis in these pictures. We had a great guy named Pete (you can find him on Facebook as Gameturners) paint some miniatures for us, and these are exactly the same way he put them in the box for us. I didn't tweak the layout to what it would optimally be, in other words. 

I'll be honest: I'm not really proud of these pictures. But hopefully they give you a good idea about the box.  Like I said, this is not the final version, and there are still some tweaks that will be present there which aren't here. But even right now I'm really impressed with this box. (Man it has a lot of foam in it!)

We didn't want to wait any longer to show you something of the Monstrum since you've been waiting so long, but I have it on good authority that in our next update we'll have pictures of the final one.  In fact, it's supposed to be in our hands within the next week. Want some proof? Well, here's our final Monstrum box sample just waiting to ship to us. 

And now here's a shot of it crushing a miniscule Deep Madness core game box. 

Shipping Update

Thus far we have booked one ship to the US: the CONTI ANNAPURNA-001E. It is set to depart China on July 14th. We have also submitted our request to book our first ship to the EU, though we haven't heard for sure yet if that one is finalized. The ships to other regions should be scheduled before too long, also. 

As mentioned previously, we will book a second ship for both the US and the EU containing all of the new stuff, which will be closer to the end of July. (I believe we also mentioned this before, but just to reiterate, we are booking one ship for the reprinted materials and one for the new items because the factory's warehouse isn't big enough to hold everything at once. As such, we have to split it up.) This does mean, though, that it looks like we will be closer to September than August for delivery. (Darn it.) We'll keep you all updated as we know more.

DoM

Last of all, just in case you missed the last update, we officially have a preview page up for Dawn of Madness. You can see it at http://bit.ly/DoMPreview. And we have also been doing a big crossover with Petersen Games for their game Eternal Adversary. They have a crossover pack of 9 Dawn of Madness sculpts over there, and each of those minis has an awesome turntable video. Whether you're interested in EA or not, you should at least check out those turntables if you're interested in DoM. (The same minis will be in Dawn of Madness - there will just be more copies of several of them in EA, with 19 minis total in the pack.) You can stop by EA's page at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petersengames/eternal-adversary/description to see those videos. (You'll need to look through the updates for the last week to see them, because they're not featured on the main campaign page. But they're pretty cool little videos, so I think they're worth the search. =)

Well that's it for this update! We'll be back with more news as soon as we have it, but have a great week in the meantime! (And happy 4th of July to our US friends! Don't burn down any houses!)