Deliveries have begun! Europe and Australia: December. USA and Canada: January.
over 2 years ago – Thu, Dec 02, 2021 at 02:06:46 AM

Hi guys,

The Asia and Middle East orders have all been delivered, save for about 5 that were returned to my shipper. I'll reach out to you if you are in that batch. Europe and Australia will ship next week. USA and Canada: See below, under "Where is my game?"

This project has been really, really expensive, on almost every level. It is sort of funny to think that a deck of cards and some tokens has caused 18 months of chaos in my life, but that's pretty much the situation. Every single partner company, from the manufacturers to the shipping couriers – everyone – has been increasing their fees pretty much nonstop. I decided that the buck stops with me on this project. You get what you ordered at the price you already paid.

Please be patient with this particular project, and consider supporting my games in the future despite these delays. I won't be utilizing the same printing and shipping structure from now on. I know which aspects of the publishing chain are disrupted, and I can avoid those mistakes from now on. My next project is called "Monsters," and it won't have ANY delays because it's already printed and on the way to me. I plan to print and ship primarily within the USA for next few projects.

What caused the delays?

(Skip this part unless you like to read about boring stuff)

From my global shipping/logistics partner, sent to me yesterday:

The whole shipping system is in crisis mode right now.  Our ports are having unbelievable issues and there are delays  everywhere.  I would say we are still another 2 weeks at least until QML receives…maybe longer.  Even the carriers can’t tell us when goods will be released because of the immense traffic/congestion.  It’s the  new SNAFU in the shipping world lately. Hang in there man.  We thank you for your patience and understanding.  It will get there.

Basically, one of the problems with shipping right now is that the unpredictable delays with manufacturing causes a snowball effect– it can take 3-12 days to schedule a truck pickup and deliver the cargo to the ports. Then the COVID restrictions, coupled with increased demand, cause a buildup at the ports as the cargo gets loaded onto a boat and sets sail.

The real problems start when the cargo reaches port in the USA. There's increased demand due to COVID, plus due to the holidays. Plus, there's increased scrutiny at Customs, especially searching containers that originated from China. Earlier in the year there were nearly 1000 COVID cases at the ports here, which backed up things further. There's also a lot of political intrigue that goes into these things, including port layoffs and union issues at the exact same time as a massive upward spike in online purchases due to the social distancing efforts in place.

In the USA truck drivers can't afford to show up to pick up a load and then wait around all day and not have the load ready– they have to cancel their pickup and take a different assignment. This snowballs things further.

Where is my game?

Europe: The games are unloaded and shipping soon; probably not this week, but hopefully by end of next week. I'm not sure exactly when your order will ship. It's better to just wait for tracking.

Australia: These are ready to ship. Awaiting resolution of a minor billing dispute; likely will begin shipping from NSW middle of next week or so.

USA: We're still looking at mid-January for you. Sorry. The prices to ship were so massive (COVID surcharges, holiday surcharges, extra fees for storage, extra fees for shipping via FedEx or UPS, etc. etc.) that I finally decided to just ship the remaining USA orders to ME here in L.A. and fulfill them from here. It is so annoying because I wanted to ship directly to the Port of Los Angeles, but the port here was backed up 2-3 months(!), so I freighted the goods through the Panama Canal to New York, and now it is going on a truck to Florida and then getting loaded onto ANOTHER truck and coming out to L.A. I'm going to just ship these myself with Stamps.com. It's nice, because now I can pay my assistant for an additional 2 or 3 days of work to help pack and ship.

Yesterday I found out the boat was delayed another week, so assume it will arrive in Florida in 3 weeks, then assume it will reach California around January 5th, and give me 7-10 days to get it all out. I'll ship most of it 3-day Priority Mail if possible.

CANADA: Unfortunately, your orders will be delayed further, most likely.  Probably first week February. Shipping to Canada was difficult before, but much harder now. I've got a partner company in Vancouver that can handle the shipments. But now the goods are coming to me in California prior to getting shipped up to the fulfillment partner, and then going to you. I'll let you know when I know.

That's it! 

-Joey

SHIPPING DATES!!!!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 28, 2021 at 03:10:12 PM

Hi all,

I finally have estimated shipping dates!

I was so sick of the games sitting on a loading dock in Shanghai for 2 months (waiting for a boat to become available), so I finally decided to have the non-USA orders loaded onto planes. I've been waiting almost a year to begin promoting my next game Bad Koalas, and I want to fulfill as many of my current orders as possible first. So I'm just paying the extra money to air ship 4 out of the 5 shipping lanes, the ones to Australia/NZ, Asia/non-EU Europe, EU, and UK/England.

Sadly, the largest batch of orders is the USA/Canada, so it is prohibitively expensive to air ship. Those will still need to be shipped on a cargo ship. But I'm not going to delay the other backers just because of the unique situation with cargo delays to the USA.

Non-USA/Canada Backers

Now that I am air shipping these, it will take 2-3 weeks to arrive at the warehouses and get unpacked and set up for individual orders, and then up to 2 weeks additional to arrive on your doorstep.

Asia, Australia, European Union:

Estimated delivery: December 1, 2021

UK and Middle East:

Estimated delivery: December 18, 2021 (due to delays with Customs)

USA/Canada Backers

The bad news is that the USA and Canada orders represent the largest batch of products (several pallets), and unfortunately it is prohibitively expensive to ship those by air.

Note: I have been informed that sometimes the boats simply don't leave on time. Or arrive on time. Or go through Customs on time. Or get delivered on time. I'll let you track the cargo ship when it finally leaves port in Shanghai. In the USA, California ports are totally backed up, so I'm routing the ship through the Panama Canal to Florida. This increases the ocean delay by 8 days, but might save 2 months by not sitting at Long Beach.

The cargo ship is currently scheduled to leave Shanghai 10/30/21 with an arrival in the US on 12/10/21. Then it is expected at the Florida warehouse 12/17. Allow 2 weeks to pack and ship, plus I am guessing the warehouse crew has 7 days off for the holidays. So we are looking at estimated delivery for most USA backers January 10. Allow 10 additional days for Canada, January 20th.

USA Estimated delivery: January 10, 2022

Canada Estimated delivery: January 20, 2022

Final Chance to Update Your Address

Please do not update your address unless you actually have moved in the last 3 months.

First, check your address at BackerKit by going to:

https://growl-madness-and-plagues.backerkit.com/

Then, if the address needs updating, you should update it at BackerKit, but you absolutely MUST email the logistics company and update your address here:

https://www.qmlogistics.com/contactUs.html

If you have since moved to another country, your address will get flagged due to insufficient shipping fees, so email me at JoeyVigour dot com/contact if you need help with that.

-Joey

Unboxing Video!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 15, 2021 at 06:18:38 PM

Here's a long video update and some out-of-focus footage of the components. Since the games are on their way soon, I can no longer directly make changes of address. If you are moving in the next month, update your address by using the form here.

Stay spooky!

Joey

Production Samples Look Great! - Video update
over 2 years ago – Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 11:06:10 PM

Hi all,

The expansions are printed (and have been for a long while), but they were waiting on my approval prior to assembly. If you recall, the previous versions of the cards had to be reprinted because the colors didn't match the original base game closely enough. Luckily, the new version is fixed.

Video from Gen Con 

I was at Gen Con over the weekend, so I had the manufacturer airship the first sample production copies directly to Indianapolis for me to approve. Obviously, I would have preferred to have fulfilled these expansions last year and then actually be able to sell them at the convention, but welcome to 2021, when global manufacturing and shipping is in total unmitigated chaos.

So I didn't have any new products to sell (the Chaosmos expansion is also held up in Shanghai), but I demoed my new games and sold game bundles from my distributor (including the final copies of GROWL available), and I still made some money at the show. Overall it was a great success. As far as I could tell, everyone at the show was very respectful of others' space, and so far no one I know got sick at the show. We were allowed to set up the booths without masks, but obviously the show mandated masks for the complete duration once the show started.

The GROWL license has now officially moved on to another publisher and I'm excited to share what is happening with that project when I am allowed to.

The samples look great. I'll send photos when I have more time; I was totally slammed at the convention. They are in my friend's car on the way back to California this week. To set up/ work the booth, and run events, I worked from about 9am to midnight (without breaks), every single day from Wednesday to Sunday. Brutal work, but staying in business is important to me so I can get the games to you! 

Timeline for shipping?

I don't know. Globally, manufacturing is behind, shipping is delayed, and shipping costs are about 6 to 7 times normal. I won't charge anyone additional fees though; I'm eating these horrible increased costs; it just lengthens the timeline of release. The ports are all stuffed, and each container still has to be inspected and loaded and then unloaded. I assumed it would ship next month. I'm starting to wonder what the heck is happening for real. How crazy is this actually going to get? I don't know.

Okay, I'll let you know more when I know more.

Joey

Photos of Madness and Plagues!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 06:33:55 PM

Hi guys,

As far as I can tell, your copies are printed and sitting in a warehouse overseas. I've given up on timetables at this point. I'm in the wrong business for these times.

Updated addresses?

I'm mostly caught up with the Kickstarter messages. I'm in the middle of difficult logistics related to four different games. Please message me again if you are still waiting for a response from me. I'm not 100% caught up on messages, but I am close. You can also email me at VigourGames [at] gmail [dot] com.

BackerKit

The orders are locked. If you are getting 1000 emails from BackerKit, let me know; sometimes I forget to lock individual orders, and that can cause their automated emails to keep getting sent. So sorry about that. It also seems like some backers get the emails despite being all finished and locked! You can email BackerKit if you want them directly: support [at]backerkit [dot] com.

No idea about ship dates yet.

My original plan was to fulfill all your orders a year ago. Instead, I'll have only one copy at Gen Gen next month to show, and I won't be running any demos of it since all my Gen Con events were canceled (by the convention) to reduce Covid spread. More on Gen Con soon.

I wanted this shipped a year ago. Now I'm hearing that some people are ordering their Christmas presents now, in August(!).... I tried to buy an iPad directly from Apple to use as a point-of-sale system at Gen Con, and even that was going to take a full month to arrive! But I'm not sitting on my hands during these delays; I'm working on new designs, and working with multiple companies  to get your products shipped.

Here's some "proof-of-life" photos!

As I mentioned during production, I left space in the expansion box so you can carry a base-game deck inside it (for those of you who wanted a more portable solution for the game). Additionally, I left space so you can store your plastic upgraded tokens there, if you bought that add-on.

It's funny to me how anti-climactic these photos look after a full year delay. I'm not really sure what to say, other than at some point this will be delivered to you. I'm probably going to be printing simple card games in the USA from now on, if the international shipping problems continue into the future.

Note: As mentioned in a previous update, I changed the box concept from a flip lid to a tranditional box with thumbholes. The back-and-forths with the factory were getting tedious,  and I chose a simpler box rather than delay the game further. When printing games, there are queues for the manufacturing process; the simpler the job, the faster it gets printed and shipped. 

I'm waiting, just like you.

Every step of the process this whole past year has been frustrating and slow. And expensive. This has been a terrible year for international shipping. I retweeted another publisher recently who posted that their shipping fees to move their games to the USA was $16,000 above their original quote of $4000 (5x the price!). Cardboard and plastic prices are through the roof as well.  I will be making major changes to my future plans as a result of all this chaos. For example, I'm doing my reprint of the Undead expansion in the USA this month rather than in Asia, and I'm printing it "on demand," which is a euphemism for "make no money on the project, but get it soon."

I've got a bunch of new games to show you, but I'm trying to wait until my current projects are shipped before proceeding. The main focus right now is on games for 1-4 players. I also have really cool party games for big groups, but I'm going to hold them for the future and see how things go.

Korean Language

The first 4 expansions are now available in Korean, via Popcorn Games. 

The future of the license

I'll be removing my GROWL catalog of products from my website next month, as I'm setting up some new plans with the GROWL license. The game will still be available from third party sellers, and I'm hoping to get all 6 expansions into the hands of 3rd party sellers before the license pivots away from me....

There's some exciting, strange happenings with GROWL coming up soon, including a big announcement likely happening early next year.

-Joey