Long delays, but project is healthy!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 16, 2021 at 04:10:21 AM

Hi guys,

In the last update I asked if it is okay to delay this project to complete the playtests, and the response was universal support in favor of giving us time to finish it properly. Thank you so much for understanding that this past year has been absolutely brutal – the pandemic has had a huge effect on my publishing schedule.

I've been able to finish the Plagues expansion playtests, but the Madness expansion can't be fully experienced using online platforms, so it is (still) extremely behind schedule testing the new stretch goal content at high player counts. I've been running it at my weekly in-person playtest group, which thus-far has been limited to only 4 or 5 people (due to my extreme difficulty getting in-person players during the lockdowns). Several of my friends and playtesters have offered to help once they get vaccinated this month. I've set a goal to submit the project for manufacture on May 15th, which is 6 months later than my original schedule. At the current rate, we're not likely to ship until end of summer at minimum. I'm very sorry.

Why so far behind?

We're still dealing with Covid-related delays. Los Angeles has been a major hub of virus cases, and lockdowns have been brutal here for a full year. While I was happy with the state of the game a year ago, the huge number of new stretch goal cards we added during the campaign created a bottleneck - we can't include the content without testing it, and we can't test it while all of our playtesters are under mandated quarantine. To be perfectly honest, I finished what I thought was the complete Madness and Plagues sets back in February or March of last year – but I STILL have not been able to get an in-person testing group together to test with the full player count (10) due to the lockdowns. I very likely will not be able to do in-person tests at high player counts in the coming weeks, but I'll be able to confirm game balance by testing at 6 and 7 players and simulating higher player counts with tricks like playing with dummy hands. I can also test a lot of it online. In other words, I will do my best to make it perfect, but I won't delay the project much longer - I intend to submit for manufacturing very, very soon - certainly within a month at latest.

Minor Improvements

Plagues has not changed, but in the past few months I've improved the Madness expansion. The previous iteration played great for hardcore fans of the base game, but was too complicated for casual players – every single Gold card had a unique trigger that each paired with the madness effects of a different Bite. Now most of the madness effects are static and don't require a trigger – and the ones that do are triggered in a simpler way, using a shifting trigger card you keep in your hand. Gold has a slightly different function as well, and can be spent to gain powers. Everything is more elegant now, but the basic gameplay is the same: Bites carry madness, so the more mad you are acting, the more likely you are to be a human (since humans can't pass Bites). Mad players who start acting more sane are likely to be wolves who have passed their madness away. Wolves have to be careful to pass madness that won't give themselves away, but they can target their neighbors with specific types of madness that advantage the wolf team. I'm not sure which of these expansions is my favorite, but I am positive that they are different enough that one or the other (or both) of them will be a hit with your group.

Moving Forward

Since I don't want to launch any new projects until this one has delivered (or at least until we have a firm, committed shipping date), I haven't been able to keep an assistant or full time contractors. I've been doing most of the asset-generation myself for cost reasons, so I'm spread thin on my time. The pandemic has severely impacted my income stream, as distributors and game stores have paused business and/or closed completely, Brexit cost me thousands in fees, and at the worst possible time Amazon took down all my GROWL listings because they want to charge me a massive child-safety testing fee – which feels like a shakedown. But we're still here, and the state of the game itself is very good despite the delays. I personally am very happy with these expansions; they are so different from the other expansions for the game.

Once I submit the game for manufacture I'll shoot new teaching videos, and at some point once I have some extra time I will make an updated print and play version. Everything is behind, but I guess I've already explained that. I can't offer refunds at this time; shipping costs have raised significantly in the past year, so please understand the position I'm in. You will get your product; I promise!

Let me know if you have questions. If you need to message me about your address change, please give me until Monday to respond.

As soon as I have an actual manufacturing date and shipping date, I'll let you know. Again, very sorry for the delays.

Cheers and stay safe!

-Joey 

Quick Update; Pandemic Woes
about 3 years ago – Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 12:50:37 AM

Hi all, here's a quick update for you since there's not a lot of momentum on this project. It is not possible for me to get large playtest groups together; I still have not been able to test all the new stretch goal cards at high player counts - the pandemic lockdowns here in L.A. are very strict, and my game group is out of commission. I can't test anything with more than 4 or 5 players currently, and I need to be testing up to 10 player games to guarantee proper balance and compatibility at all play counts. (Yes, we do playtest the Plagues expansion online using Tabletop Simulator, but it is not easy to test Madness, which is more of a physical expression style expansion. It works much better in person.)

Madness/Plagues was supposed to ship in March, meaning I would need to have submitted my files already. So it is already going to be at least a month late, even if I stop playtesting now.

If I'm not able to get the bonus content properly playtested, should I simply delay the release of Madness and Plagues until the summer? Vaccines are supposed to be available in Los Angeles by March, so I should be able to get my group back up again by then and finish all playtests. And since this is a party game, how many of you would even be able to play this earlier than summer anyway?

A couple new cards

Undead bonus cards

Here's a couple bonus cards for your old Undead expansion that will come inside Madness/Plagues. You need Undead to use them. (Undead is currently sold out if you didn't already buy it from the Kickstarter, but it will be back in limited print before we ship.)

Sorry for the delays; this is a strange time to live in. I'm excited to show you some of the new games I've been cooking up while we wait to get this one out the door.

Masters of Mutanite

Here's a new game from Knapsack Games that I worked on with designer Andrew Federspiel. It is a really fun game where you build a deck of mutant powers and then throw toxic waste and trees and cars and things. There’s lots of social/surprise aspects with cardplay and I really think you should give it a chance. It is LIVE on Kickstarter now.

That's all for now. Stay safe.

Joey

Playtesting and Preview of Plagues!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 07:27:08 PM

Hi guys,

I've been drifting behind schedule due to playtesting delays (see below), but likely will submit the files to the printer within a few weeks. Hoping to submit everything by early December, followed by 2-3 months of manufacturing and 1-2 months of logistics getting things delivered. I'm not going to hold up delivery in specific regions in order to deliver worldwide simultaneously. (I tried to do that for the original GROWL Kickstarter and it ended up delaying the game for almost everyone.)

Playtesting

Playtesting all the new content continues. All the art is in at this point, other than the art for some of the stretch goal cards. One bad thing about hitting all the stretch goals is that each new card needs time to be playtested at multiple player counts, and that has been a huge frustration for me. Covid quarantining and lockdowns are very strict here in Los Angeles, and I have not been able to get more than 4 people together in person for a few months. Separate from the government mandates is the social pressure that prevents our playtesters from doing their own group gatherings, even with other people who have been quarantined. This Kickstarter was primarily focused on two new expansions, GROWL: Madness and GROWL: Plagues. Plagues is not difficult to test online, but Madness is incredibly difficult to test online due to its nature, so most of my testing has been for Plagues thus far. 

Plagues - Print and Play Next Week!

My goal is to get a printable version of GROWL: Plagues up for you by next week - it consists of 22 cards and 30 Plague tokens (formerly "heresy" tokens), so it won't be too difficult or expensive to print out. I will likely also make it available on Tabletop Simulator some time later. If you would like to volunteer to print out the expansion and be an official playtester, please join the Social Deduction Network on Discord and pop into the GROWL channel, or message me on Kickstarter if you get this update after the link above expires.

Preview of Plagues art

Sorry for the low resolution; next week you'll see everything in high res.

Ok, that's it for today!

-Joey

Shipping Update for "WAVE 1" BACKERS + EUROPE BACKERS
over 3 years ago – Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 10:35:04 PM

This update is primarily for backers who have not filled out the BackerKit survey, plus backers in EUROPE.

Make sure you fill out your survey! If you have a question, please email us vigourgames   [at]  gmail.com   - some people did not realize there was additional shipping, and some backers didn't understand that there are two "waves" of shipping. New content is going out in March, and we only ship earlier if your order did not contain new stuff.

When do you charge cards?

We charge cards for shipping/add-ons within 2 weeks of you filling out your survey. If you want shipping charged instantly, you can pay via PayPal. Otherwise, we charge in large batches about every two weeks. The NEXT time we charge shipping will be November 1st.

Final Changes by December 1st

If you have a large order and need to wait to confirm it, the last time you can make changes to the survey will be December 1st. We are transitioning to a new licensing deal with a larger publisher for 2021, so we are setting the December 1st deadline for "stragglers" to fill out their survey to ensure fulfillment.

Sold Out 7 Sins/Undead

Unfortunately we are currently sold out of the 7 Sins/Undead expansion pack, so they no longer appear in BackerKit, and you can no longer switch to a tier that comes with it. If these expansions were part of your tier or add-ons and you already completed your BackerKit survey, you'll still receive them with your order.  (We did not oversell the expansions, we just have almost zero left for new orders.)

If you want the 7 Sins/Undead - either as an add-on, or if you want to switch to the Super Deluxe tier (which contains it), please email us  vigourgames   [at]  gmail.com   with the subject line "7 SINS WAITLIST." We'll stay in touch with you if we do a reprint, or if other copies become available. We'll also likely make a print and play version available by the end of the year. 

Halloween Delivery in Europe?

We are currently shipping the orders that do not contain sleeves or the new expansions. Most orders to the USA, CA, Australia, and Asia have been shipped. Europe is taking a LONG time due to COVID delays, and unfortunately, those of you who have not yet filled out your survey should not expect delivery by Halloween. As mentioned, if your order contains NEW content (Madness/Plagues/sleeves), you will have to wait until it is manufactured and shipped early next year (March).

European Union

We had a higher-than-expected number of orders to the EU (despite the high shipping costs), so please be patient in Europe, as most remaining EU orders are being shipped from our other warehouse in Hong Kong. In some cases, a few of you filled out your surveys early but won't receive your "wave 1" content as soon as we promised - sometimes we simply can't control shipping times, and other times we make mistakes that result in small delays.

VAT: We reimburse!!!

We are currently shipping the orders that do not contain sleeves or the new expansions. Of those, we have fulfilled about half of the EU orders from inside the EU, so there's no VAT fees for you. However, we ran out of some items in the EU, so we're shipping some of the orders from Hong Kong.

If you live inside the European Union and the post office tries to charge you VAT tax, please email us a photo of the surcharge and we will reimburse it. This is a result of some of the orders being shipped from Hong Kong rather than from within the EU. Some countries outside the EU have their own local taxes, and we don't reimburse that, but we do not expect our backers to pay VAT fees inside the EU. Very sorry for the inconvenience. Our email address is vigourgames   [at]  gmail.com

Sorry for any inconveniences. We're busy getting new art commissioned for all the awesome stretch goal cards. We'll do an art update soon to highlight some of the new cards you guys earned!

-Joey and Halley

BackerKit surveys have been sent! Check it out!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 29, 2020 at 10:41:00 PM

The Pledge Manager is live!

Go here if you didn't get the email. You will use the pledge manager to pay for shipping and add-ons.

Retail?

We are not going to retail in most countries anytime soon, but if you want to save on shipping you might be able to convince your friendly local game store to order a 10-pack for 50% off. Have them email us (vigourgames at gmail dot com).

7 Sins/Undead Expansions working again!

For some reason, the 7 Sins/Undead expansions had vanished from the store yesterday, but it is working again. It's only $10 for two expansions. You want these expansions! Also without them, your new Stretch Goal cards for the Undead won't be functional!

Which Sleeves Do I Need?

• For $10 we offer 200 sleeves for the base game and the original 4 expansions, plus about 40 extras for people who want to use additional cards to increase the player count to 15. 
• For $5 we offer 90 sleeves for the new Madness and Plagues expansions. The backs are the same but the sleeves are in the correct quantity for the new expansions.
• There appears to be an additional $1 or so that gets added in shipping for many people when they get sleeves. We're sorry about this, but it offsets the "pick and pack" fees our shipping companies charge and we have to charge it if the weight goes over a certain tier.

Yes, the new sleeves come with extra Undead and Night sleeves to cover the brand new stretch goals we unlocked.

Shipping Cost Sadness

While the shipping costs have not gone up, the estimated prices have only gone down in parts of Asia. We were not able to solicit better prices than our original estimate outside of Asia. USA prices are pretty good, so if you can provide a USA address it will save you a lot of money.

A lot of people have asked us when COVID "peak" shipping prices will go down. Sadly, we do not anticipate this happening due to the pandemic inspiring shippers worldwide to raise prices for all of 2021.

For those of you expecting free shipping, we're sorry for the misunderstanding. We always promoted the true cost of shipping on the page. There is no way to turn off the misleading “$0 shipping” text in Kickstarter if we charge shipping via BackerKit, which is why we have the shipping document and the disclaimers. For some people, the cost of shipping is more than the game. This is the actual cost we are charged for shipping, and we're not charging you the VAT fees or other tariffs. To contrast, the new Kickstarter for Ultimate Werewolf Extreme is charging $23 to ship to EU Europe.

I hope this explains the situation and I hope you understand where we are coming from. We're really sorry if it seemed like we were not direct or ideal at communication.

Refund?

If anyone wants a refund, we can process that. Just message us. We would prefer to find another solution as we can only process 75% refunds - Kickstarter, Stripe, BackerKit, and our ad agency has already taken their cuts. I know this is frustrating for a few of you, but we're a small company and can't afford to pay several dollars per backer. As we have said repeatedly, we originally intended this Kickstarter to only be for USA backers, and finally relented and allowed international backers at the actual shipping prices we are being charged. Hopefully you can understand these woes and still be willing to back.

Immediate Shipping?

Message us if you want part of your order to ship immediately for additional costs. Only the new sleeves and the plastic plagues tokens and the new Madness and Plagues expansions need to be printed, so the other items are ready to ship if you want to pay for two shipments. We are working through these; please be patient.

-Joey and Halley