New pictures of the PPC!
over 5 years ago
– Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 02:33:56 AM
Hello everyone,
We keep working on the project everyday, and as you asked, and we have received the Pre-press copy (PPC) earlier this week.
We are very happy about it, it’s great to see the results. So here are some pictures about:
The First player token:
The end of the horn has been damaged with the transport because it was not packed in a box and it's the master copy (that is not in the same material), so it's more fragile.
The Hunt and Scheme Cards with the KS exclusive Character, the Black Mage:
The Black Market cards with the tokens and the Order Cards:
The Pink and glow in the dark boxes + the expansion:
This expansion box will have some slight modifications (already given to Panda, not integrated in this PPC batch).
Notice that on this legendary box, the glow in the dark is not printed. We received the glow in the dark effect in another shipments as you have seen in the previous news.
The Unicorn cards in the expansion:
The Bi-color Pigicorn cards:
The Hunt and Scheme cards for the two characters in the expansion:
- PPC of the pink, glow in the dark and expansion boxes was received and components were approved this week.
- We need to slightly change some files as we spotted some mistakes. Once these new files are provided to Panda (tonight), we will do another round of digital proofs. After those digital proofs are approved, mass production for the print components will begin (no need for new PC as the quality was approved already)
- Miniature has been approved. Work on the mould has begun.
- We have a slight problem with the mats as they do not fit in the box with the tray. Panda Games is currently looking to see if, by reducing the size of the mats, they could fit under the tray so everything in the KS version can fit in the box. Otherwise, we will have to ship the separately.
Regarding the timeline, there is no change for the moment, we expect to deliver everybody late December 2018. We will know more about the timeline in the next few weeks.
Concerning the pledge manager, there are now 312 backers who hasn’t filled their survey on Backerkit, we plan to send an email as a reminder in the next few days.
For those who want to change their details and can’t find the link for their Pledge Manager, please send us a private message (it’s the only way to change your details). Also, the pledge manager is partly closed and you can’t change your pledge anymore.
For your information, the Pledge Manager will be fully closed by late October, when we will have a more accurate timeline for the deliveries. We'll send an email to everybody before the credit/debit card will be charged!
Have a nice day,
Tim.
News about the production
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 10:02:04 PM
Hello everyone,
First, we understand your expectations and your needs towards the communication. We always try to communicate as soon as we have relevant news to share with you. Sometimes, the work in progress is quite long, the manufacturing requires lot of work. For instance checking the digital proof and doing all the corrections took us way more time than we though and we had to react on the 1st unicorn miniature problems.
We want you to know that all the team is very involved in this project and everyone is working hard on it. We know it’s longer than we announced but we’ll do everything we can to send you the copies the sooner we can, by the end of 2018.
So here are our current situation:
- We have received a printed proof for the legendary edition box, and it really glows in the dark as you can see on the pictures below (though it was hard to make a dark dark picture):
(We also asked for another test with an alternative technique that seems to glow a bit more)
- We have received a Pigicorn sample to validate the final design. Say hi to Pigicorn :
- Panda sent us pictures of the new first player token that requests a metal casting. We think it looks way better than the previous version:
- We have received the player mats, we are very happy on how it looks, (the material is the same as a mouse mat):
- All the digital proof are now perfect, and we currently are solving the last details such as the tray material choice and confirm the mats are fitting in the box.
Regarding the timeline, we will not be able to fulfill the orders before Essen, nor to sell it there, and we are very sorry. We expect to deliver everybody by the end of December with the new timeline we have from Panda.
Also, we asked them to send us news of the production every week so it will be easier for us to communicate more frequently. Panda is doing a very good job, they finalize everything the faster they can.
Concerning the Pledge Manager, there are still 316 backers who hadn’t filled their survey on Backerkit. If you want to change your details and you can’t find the link for your Pledge Manager, please send us a private message.
Also, the Pledge Manager is partly closed so you can’t change your pledge anymore, you can only change your details. The Pledge Manager will be fully closed by late October and your credit/debit card will be charged for shipping at this moment, so please check all your details asap!
Thank you again all for your patience and understanding.
Cheers,
Tim.
Manufacturing launch is imminent!
over 5 years ago
– Fri, Aug 17, 2018 at 07:27:45 PM
Hello everyone,
Good news here, Valentin and I just finished a Skype call with JF and Philippe from Panda; mostly to validate the final quantities and talk about small details. We have completed most of the necessary stages before launching production with Panda, final steps are:
- This weekend, we will approve the digital proofs. Some details were off, but it's now almost solved.
- We requested to go for a metal casting for the unicorn after hearing your feedback on the resin version. We expect to receive some proof very soon.
This means that Panda will be able to go ahead with manufacturing the printed parts starting next week. We might receive a last batch of printed proof first, but that shouldn't take long as the sole purpose is to validate the paper quality, we expect to handle it within the week.
Regarding the timeline, we are looking on ways to accelerate shipping toward you with the objective of fulfilling every order before Essen in late October.
Note - Essen: we will present the retail version of the game at Essen Spiel, but if we end up not being able to dispatch pledges from the Kicksarter before the show, Kill the Unicorns will then not be available for sale at Essen.
Note - Pledge manager: Please make sure that you filled the PM with the correct postal address information. We are planing to close it by the end of August.
Cheers,
Tim
And here is one unicorn mini :)
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Aug 02, 2018 at 12:59:00 AM
Hi everyone,
Ok, that's hopefully one of the last, if not the last, news before official mass production launching for the printed components, which means that we are close from completion.
I'll confirm the final timeline as soon as we push the button, for now I still think we can be on track with the latest timeline, if nothing bad happens of course.
Here is where we are at :
-
We have fully finished the pre-press back and forth on the files, waiting for digital proof from the factory now. The Panda team being at the Gencon, it might take until end of next week to get that.
- We will also receive the last physical elements to validate, like the 1st player unicorn and a few things like the expansion box that we need to see before giving the go ahead, but not much.
Hey, by the way, here is the picture of the 1st player unicorn :
_
Aaand... you remember we told you that we had a surprise... ?
I think the following picture is pretty self explanatory:
_
So we haven't seen it in person yet, we will get it soon enough to give it a try in any dark place we find (oO)... We already think it's awesome :)
I'll let you know very soon about the official launching. Can't wait ^^
Cheers,
Tim
News about the pre-press process
almost 6 years ago
– Tue, Jul 10, 2018 at 01:54:26 AM
Hello Backers,
Hope you are all going well :)
Things are taking much more time than expected, and we are sincerely sorry about that. We know some of you are mad about the delay, but I assure you that we are putting all the necessary efforts to finish each step in a timely manner.
As for the news, it’s always complicated to communicate to say that we are just still working on things and moving forward before having any substantial information to give. But I’ve heard your calls to get infos and here they are. Please keep in mind that we are trying to communicate every 2 weeks (+/- 5days), but of course, if you feel that you deserve a news sooner, don't hesitate to send a message :)
We are still in the long process of the pre-press, we got the 3rd feedback from Panda and not everything is perfect yet :
-
A few issues were found on the print files and we are sending corrected files to Panda this week.
- Yet we haven’t got the first player token in hands, but we know that Panda is working on it and we will show it to you then.
- We are spending more time than expected on the thermoformed piece that is important for the game parts to be hold in the box. This is the last part that has to be done in the pre-press manufacturing process as we needed to have the other pieces to make sure those fit. We wanted to try a new technique with injected pulp as we believe that plastic can be avoided. Though we are kind of exploring some new territories there and it takes more time to get a similar feeling, we might have been a bit ambitious there. We are waiting for some new pics and see how it comes out.
So, as you asked, here is an approximate on the timeline if we manage to launch within the two next weeks:
-
2nd part of July - Launch of the mass production
-
End of August - End of the mass production of the KS copies.
-
End of August /Begining of September - Importation preparation
-
Mid-September - Importation
From that last date, depending on where you are located in the world, the first backers in Asia will receive the boxes within 10 days and US and EU backers will have to wait a few more weeks for importation.
Let me know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Tim
