Evil Dead 2: The Official Board Game

Golden Week: Or, The Giant Pause Button
over 6 years ago – Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 01:31:32 AM

Hey backers,

Are you ready for probably the driest update to date?? It's normal-Taylor again, here to talk manufacturing!

For today's production update, I'm quoting chunks from the last big, key email from October 8 between the manufacturer and I. This struck me as the easiest, most direct way to communicate how things are going. The italic pieces are from the manufacturer, followed by annotations written by me now for this update.

Sorry for keep you waiting. Government put two holidays together for making a long holiday season. (1 week) They want this to encourage the traveling business. But it harm the factories here…

The holiday being referenced here is "Golden Week", a national holiday that occurs twice a year in China in which virtually all businesses close down for at least a week. The one in January/February is more well known as the Lunar New Year; this one is for National Day.

Here is the update and plan:

Final stl files to you: Next Monday once they back from the holiday.

Though all the figures have been revised and approved for a few weeks now, we're still waiting on the final STL files. Those are the 3D files we use with our 3D printers and what we generate 2D renders from. We expected these in yesterday, but they haven't come in yet. They're important for us, but there are definitely higher priorities.

Rest Sculpture to you: Next Monday once DHL back from the holiday.

The manufacturer is shipping the physical samples of the revised figures to us to have. We have all the previous figures, which we've shared pictures of, so it'll be nice to have the family all together. Again, this is important stuff, but not the highest priority.

Molding: I will arrange the molding order tomorrow once the mold factory back to work. And as we agreed, attached here is the molding fee. Totally now 17 moldings. We share the cost of two added molds with you Once you confirm, we will send you the invoice for your payment.

We've received and arranged payment with this invoice, so everything is golden here. "Tomorrow" refers to Monday the 9th, so that day is the beginning of our 30 day timetable for mold production. I think we've mentioned that "17 molds" number before, which is pretty high; the reference to the molds being shared are for the figures the manufacturer misunderstood the size of. They're splitting the cost of those molds with us because of the misunderstanding, which was pretty cool of them. As recently as yesterday, we got a production question on the mold, which means progress is going as expected.

Arrange another meeting on Oct 12th around: We need to discuss about the painting. We need to discuss about other elements, like artwork. My proposal is after those to be confirmed, we can make mock up sample here while molding.

Part of the reason this update is late is that the above-mentioned conversation hasn't happened yet. The painting we need to discuss is what was mentioned in the last update: how much painting will affect production schedule, if it makes sense to ship in two waves, and if it's worth anyone's while to opt out of paints (which, of course, you're all still able to do, if you'd like).

The "other elements, like artwork" he references there is pretty much everything but the figures: Box, cards, rules, etc. Those files have been sitting finished as PDFs in our Drive folder for months, waiting for this very moment to shine. We're still on track to have production on these line up with the figures finishing, so all the final pieces can come together at the same time.

And then he said thanks, asked if there were any questions, and signed off with warm regards. He's a pretty nice guy. I'll be posting an intermediary update once we have another big production update.

TLDR: China has a week long vacation in October, but it was accounted for. We're on schedule, but not a ton of new stuff to show.

Keep it groovy out there.

Taylor, on behalf of Team Space Goat

Production: Figures 100%, Making Molds, Paints
over 6 years ago – Mon, Oct 02, 2017 at 12:43:00 AM

Hey Deadite Hunters!

Happy 1st of Halloween—that's what this month is called, right?

Anyway, here's what's going on:

It took a couple days longer than expected to get this final file in, but we're happy with it. The Classic was the last figure to be officially approved, which it was on Friday. It'll be included in mold #7 (of 14), so production on the first couple molds started a couple days earlier. That 30 day countdown for mold production has begun and we'll be updating as we go along.

A question popped up a couple of times in the comments and we're glad it did: Will paints add extra time to production timeline we gave? We went back to the manufacturer to confirm, since we assumed it was included in "production time", and it turns that it will add extra time. Here are some questions we're still waiting on answers for: By exactly how long? Can we make the painting process easier? Would it make sense to ship in two waves? What if some folks want to opt out of paints? We'll let you know as those answers come in.

We're happy to report those items that will be shipped early to US backers made it to our order fulfillment hub. It took two trips, one on Friday and one of Saturday; we're talking on the phone tomorrow and we'll get that delivery schedule.

Hope you had a groovy weekend,

Team Space Goat

The Off-Schedule Production Update Saga, Part 2
over 6 years ago – Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 01:24:23 AM

Hi Backers,

Taylor here again with another as-we-go production update. There'll be a couple more of these before we go back to regularly scheduled updates—once our production schedule is a little more stable.

This morning (our time) the manufacturer sent over pictures of the final figure samples: those tricky few that we really wanted to get right. Here they are!

Annie's original dagger was too flimsy, bendy, and fragile. The official Kandarian Dagger prop from the film also happens to be 36", so bigger is definitely better.

This issue on the Severed Hand was our mistake and we were pretty embarrassed how long it took to catch it. The original model of the hand we'd been using was a left hand while Ash cut off his right hand in the film. It was a very quick fix once identified.

While we had always planned and provided direction for the Killer Tree model to be double-sized, the sample we received was the same size as everything else. It definitely needed to be bigger. Since each figure is actually assembled from multiple small parts from the mold, scaling up a figure requires the manufacturer to reassess how to divide it up into pieces and how to arrange the new pieces into a mold.

We asked for the grooves to be etched deeper into the Necronomicon so that the designs we actually visible on the figure.

Our dear Rotten Apple Head was also originally sent to us woefully undersized. Fortunately this figure was designed to be this full-bodied size, so it didn't need too much fussing with to make sure all those details—especially in the side faces—were present at the larger scale.

The chainsaw blade was much too thing and needed a bit more meat to its teeth. The manufacturer gave it more bulk so it won't bend on your board.

All of the above figures are approved and ready for molds. We confirmed the spreadsheet today that has the mold breakdown: which figure goes in each of the 18 molds we'll need for production.

The Classic still needs a little work. It was scaled up, but unlike Apple Head, it just didn't have the detailing to look good at the larger size. The manufacturer is working with one of their trusted studio partners to fix it up and it should be ready to go by early next week. This won't delay mold production any further though, since there are enough other molds to work on in the meantime.

We hopped on a Skype call a couple hours ago to talk about production moving forward. A few follow-up emails and spreadsheets later, here I am writing this update. Here is how our upcoming time table breaks down:

• Creating the Molds: ~30 days
• Testing the Molds: ~7 days
• Mass Production of Figures: ~45 days
• Assembly of All Components: ~10 days

I really wish I had some ability to add those numbers up and get something that I could say for sure was before Christmas. This was the schedule the manufacturer gave us tonight and it's the info we'd use to calculate an estimated delivery date to post in an update like this one. Instead of doing that, I'm just posting the info here so you can see what's going on behind the scenes. We'll keep updating as we move forward along that schedule and we can watch our calendars together.

Meanwhile, Space Goat staffers pulled a couple long days prepping the aforementioned early shipping products for the order fulfillment company. This was mainly counting, sorting, and giving everything little barcode stickers so they could be scanned and properly processed. Shon will be driving them down to the shipping hub tomorrow, getting there around noon. We'll have more delivery info on those once they're received.

This does mean that addresses need to be updated. If you're in the US, chances are we're about to ship something to you. Please confirm your address by managing your pledge in BackerKit. BackerKit has an amazing support staff who can help you if you have any questions.

I'll post another one of these as-we-go updates early next week, depending on when we get a good batch of useful information to share. In the meantime, have a groovy weekend.

Best,

Taylor, on behalf of Team Space Goat

The Post-Manufacturer Talk Update
over 6 years ago – Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 09:20:59 PM

Hey backers,

This is Taylor writing. While it's usually me writing updates, I'm writing this one as Taylor, not "Team Space Goat," to break form in a few ways. I am deeply sorry this game is late. From a business standpoint, we absolutely want you to have Evil Dead 2 as soon as possible—it's our reputation, it's our product, it's an investment. For me personally, though, it really sucks not having you all able to play this game. I think you'll love it once you do.

Production has been delayed for many reasons throughout this last year. Some of those were mistakes (honest and rookie) we made, some were due to incorrect information we got or complications with vendors, and some were due to difficult decisions we had to make. No matter what though, it's on us. Evil Dead 2 is a Space Goat game and we're going to stand by it being the best dang game we can make—and that means owning the mistakes and delays too because we believe in this game.

So, the reason you're all here: Our manufacturer rescheduled our call to Thursday evening his time, so about 6AM our time. The final version of the minis will be done the day before and he'll be far more prepared to go over the rest of production once that step is done. In the meantime, we'll post updates as information comes in to keep you as in the loop as possible. This update is going up so late tonight because I was really hoping for an email from our manufacturer first, in order to provide a few more details we asked for, but it's an hour til midnight and I haven't gotten it yet.

What did happen today was that we talked with our US distributor and will begin shipping the following rewards to our US backers:

• Evil Dead 2: Beyond Dead by Dawn Deluxe TPB
• Evil Dead 2: Tales of the Ex-Mortis Comic Bundle
• Cabin Dice
• Evil Ed Signed Card
• Necronomicon Ex-Mortis Poster Print

Space Goat head, Shon, will be personally driving those items to the fulfillment center (it's actually only about two hours away) this Friday and they'll begin shipping immediately. Once they're received by the warehouse, we'll provide an estimate on when you can expect to get those items.

I said above that "the final version of the minis" still needed to be done, so I'd like to talk about what's up with that. I shared in a past update (#82 from 7/15) pictures of figure samples. What we thought were little errors with easy fixes, like sizing issues and the durability of thin bits, turned out to be much more of a process. Our original sculptors weren't experienced enough to produce the type of files we needed for production; the sculptor we first hired to fix the figures took several months too long and, though he did great work, wouldn't work within our current time frame (read: extreme urgency). The manufacturer worked internally and with a studio to fix those errors and we split the costs between us. What we're getting on Wednesday is the final, completely revised version of these figures which the molds can be made from.

That "October at the latest" date we gave a few months ago was the date the manufacturer gave us based on their assumption that the figure samples would have no revisions. When the samples came back with issues, we couldn't proceed without fixing them. That decision is what led to this delay and current uncertainty of a new delivery date. It's similar to what happened in those crazy first weeks of the campaign, when the first manufacturer expected us to make a very small game without any stretch goals, leading to that ridiculous November 2016 date.

Evil Dead 2 really did end up being a huge game. The Deluxe version has 97 figures with 51 unique sculpts, which is more than or on par with some of the biggest, multi-million dollar games that've come through Kickstarter. Of course Evil Dead 2 doesn't have the same super complex rules of some of those games, but it got bulky. It's currently on a very average production timetable as other similarly miniature-heavy games, which is an altogether slower scale. Evil Dead 2 pretty much evolved to a chunkier breed of game than what we launched with—and that's the beauty of Kickstarter, which we're immensely grateful for—and we're learning how that change of scope effects each stage of production only as we reach those stages.

As one other small gesture from Space Goat, as thanks and as apology, we have a couple discounts on our storefront MerchGoat.com we'd like to share with you. We know a lot of you were hoping to have a game signed or gifted by October. If you're not a US backer receiving add-on comics, cabin dice, the Evil Ed card, or a poster early, hopefully you can find a comic you or the demon haunting you will enjoy (if you are, you can definitely still use the discount). Use the code DEADITEHUNTER to get 30% off the cart and APPLEHEAD for free shipping on orders over $100 (they can be combined on a single order).

I'll be updating again after our call, which is scheduled for Thursday of this week. I'm expecting to have those final figure files to share. The goal is to leave that call with solid delivery dates that we just haven't had up to this point.

Thank you for sticking with us. I really want you to play this game. We've refused to half-ass anything throughout this process and I'm betting it'll be worth it.

Best,

Taylor, on behalf of Team Space Goat

Production Update Prequel
over 6 years ago – Sat, Sep 16, 2017 at 12:40:00 AM

Hey Deadite Hunters!

Today is an update day, but we're pushing back a full post until Monday, 9/18. We have a call Monday morning with our manufacturer to get a full production update from them. There are some hard dates we'd really like to have and we bet you'd appreciate those too.

You can be absolutely sure that no one wants this game shipped and in your hands as much as we do. There were some errors in the figures we simply could not let go to print and we do recognize that that creates delays in the schedules that we put out. We're very fortunate to have such a good relationship with our manufacturer because we're not compromising when it comes to the quality of this game. We're immensely appreciative of your support and understanding when it comes to making the best game we can.

It's clear to us now that an October delivery date is no longer feasible. By Monday, once we have a new date on the calendar, we'll share that with you. Absolutely no matter what: backers will receive their games before retail. This is very important to us and, no matter the delays, backers will receive their copies first.

Have a good weekend, folks. Talk to you on Monday.

Team Space Goat