Quick news
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 01:29:59 AM

All packages have left our warehouse. Now, all we can do is resolve incidences and help with the FAQs. This adventure is approaching its end for us.

USA vessel is near the California coast, arriving to Los Angeles tomorrow. I hope customs don't delay the shipping too much.

Asendia took all international packages and they should be sending everything this week. How long it will take to start the shipping? I don't know, but I assume its just a matter of days.

Any incidence you may have with the shipping or contents, write me at [email protected]

We have a spanish FAQs here: https://www.darkstone.es/index.php?topic=10726.0

We have english FAQs in the BGG rules section of the game: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/168537/pandemonium/forums/66

I'll try to keep these sections updated and visit them regurarly to answer your questions. However, remember we're not a dedicated tabletop games company and I won't be working on this day and night. Be patient, please.

Some people asked for a larger version of the skill trees, because the cards size is quite small. You can download all of them here (english + spanish):
https://goo.gl/3uVGF7

I'll upload some rules summary and quick start guides, in the upcoming days, so it's easier to start playing.

Remember that some of the old information of the campaign is completely outdated, we've been improving the game since the campaign ended and discussed all the changes made to the project in the more than 80 updates available here.

Manuals have some minor misprints, for example, the Spectres and Crow miniatures are not present in the components count, but they are present in the rules description. So, remember that there are 5 miniatures of each creature + 1 miniature per boss and 1 per character + 150 tokens and 350 cards.
All unlocked stretch goals come inside the box, only add-ons come outside the game box.

 Once you receive the game, try to approach it open minded. It won't be perfect, but it sure can provide a lot of fun; we've experienced some great moments playing it.
Remember that only 1500 people in the world have this game, and you're one of them. Thanks again to make it possible.

See you in our next update.

Shipping continues and games are arriving.
almost 7 years ago – Sat, Jul 01, 2017 at 12:40:20 AM

Games have arrived in Spain and most of Asia. They should be arriving to Australia soon and the USA/CA vessel left last wednesday as planned.
Here you can follow its route:

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:1044176/mmsi:477518600/vessel:MOL%20BRIGHTNESS

The estimated arrival time is 11th July as we announced in our last update.

EU packaging is almost finished, it took more time than expected, but Asendia is picking everything next week, and EU games+add-ons will be leaving to backers. Depending on the country, they will arrive between 3 and 5 days, once Asendia sends them.
Also, all outside EU add-ons will be travelling by plane to USA, CA, AUS, Asia, etc.
Asendia is also managing these shippings.

Remember that any shipping incidence outside EU should be commented to [email protected]

Any incidence with the game components or inside EU must be directly commented to us [email protected]

We checked several games before sending everything and they were all perfect, but we don't know what the manufacturer did in the asembling line, so problems may arise. Don't worry, we'll attent you and solve everything as soon as possible.

As many people asked for some add-ons, please be careful when unboxing everything, as they are outside the main box, acompanying the packaging/protecting box. Some are really small, like the skull marker or the life/fear tokens. Take your time to check the inside of the packaging.

 Rules and FAQS

As people start to play there will be doubts and questions. We'll happily answer them all, but that would be great if communitu helps with that. Right now, I'll open a FAQ in english in our website (it will be a fixed post during next months) and the great guys at Darkstone forums have opened one in spanish here:

https://www.darkstone.es/index.php?topic=10726.0

Also I'll open a bunch of new threads in the Rules section of Pandemonium on BGG, so everyone can ask related doubts. Please, keep these threads clean and just ask or comment rules. Leave your impressions in the general or sessions sections, not in rules. Thanks.

Here you have some unboxing that backers are already doing. More will be showing in the next weeks. Thanks guys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EbeW658Qb0

Last but not least, I need to thank you again for supporting this project.
With kickstarter becoming more and more a perfect plattform for big companies pre-launching their huge projects, I'm glad to see users that also like to help lesser known games and take the risk of making them possible.
Pandemonium has crosspromoted with some kickstarter projects in that same line, games like Perdition's mouth or Slaughterville, games that need kickstarter to exist. And that is what makes kickstarter great for me, its ability to give birth to new and strange projects.

But this, you already know it, is only possible thanks to your contributions and help. We're not a dedicated tabletop game company and we never planned Pandemonium to be a business for us; we're just a couple of guys wanting to create a game and launch it. Be sure, It would have never been possible without kickstarter.

Now games are arriving and you could like it or hate it,maybe you are pleased with the components or you expected more of it. I know it won't satisfy everyone, but I can only assure you that we put a lot of efford into it and we did the best we could/know.
If I had known then all I know now, I'm deadly sure we would have made a better project. It would be great in terms of gameplay, production, shipping, communication, everything. We're much more trained and confident now; the learning experience has been incredible.

With less than 100K and a lot of components and expectations after the campaign, we had a lot of pressure and risk producing the game. We were very cautious and we were, I won't lie to you, a little bit afraid to mess things up.
We changed manufacturer, we changed shipping company several times, we had to negotiate and discover a lot of new things... being our first time producing a physical product a lot of problems arose. Too much work for two guys, but we're stil alive :)

It's been hard and sometimes frustrating, but its an experience that I'll personally never forget. I think it's important to try new things and to learn. This has meant a lot of learning for me and I've met some great people along the way.
Apart from managing to launch a game, these have been my main reward.

I don't know if the future will give me the opportunity to participate again in a project like this, but for sure I know that I'll always keep playing and enjoying this great hobby we all share. And I'll always remember that someday I was able to create my own game. And I'll always be grateful to you all for helping us in that long road.

Enjoy and see you soon in the next update.
Marc

Shipping update.
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 12:49:56 AM

Hello, next week some of the games will be arriving home. Finally, we have come to the end of the road.
Packaging has been more complex than we expected, for example we lost a full week just trying to understand and manage the labeling system of one of the companies we work with.
Combining add-ons has been really hard, because we had a lot of combinations. It took some tome to prepare everythinh to start packing.
But we're experts now :D

Althoungh we already had some games ready to ship to their owners last week, we need to send all packages together, as every shipping company has to receive them in the same pallet.

Tuesday 23 June all Spanish games will be collected by Correos Express and will start the shipping from their warehouse, which is a 24-48 hours delivery service.
Those who asked to collect their games at a local tabletop shop, please don't worry, I'll mail you personally to announce the arrival of your packages to the collecting shop.

Asendia, who is managing EU shipping, will collect their packages at the end of the week, and they are a 48-72 hours delivery service.
Depending on the time they need to start their shipping from their facilities, EU backers should start receiving games first week of July.

All these companies have a tracking system, so you'll receive a notification once everything is coming home. Please, be patient, we'll inform you regularly.

Expert Xpress started distribution of the international games this week. Asia, Australia and some other countries will receive a mail with the tracking number, if they haven't received it yet. Please, make sure you allow this adress to  get pass your spam filters:

[email protected]

Any incidence you may have, please contact they in that same adress. If they can't solve it, then contact us, through kickstarter or our usual mail: [email protected]

Please, remember that we're not a dedicated tabletop company, we just managed to create this kickstarter project thanks to your contributions. Which means that we have our own daily jobs and our time is limited.
As you know, I've always managed to answer your questions, on the forums or privately, but if you flood our mail with unnecessary questions, our response time will be affected.
However, don't hesitate to contact me privately if you have any doubt or problem, I'll do my best to solve it.

America games (USA, Canada and México) were planned to be delivered earlier, but sadly, there were some problems that delayed their departure from China. The shipping company expected to find a vessel quickly, but that was not possible.
Luckyly, at last we have a solution to that matter, and they gave us a vessel name and delivery date. Below you can see the readiness and sailing schedule:

Vessel: MOL BRIGHTNESS
Voyage: 015E
Service: PS7
Carrier: NYK
Receiving days: 17Jun-20Jun
CFS&S/I: 20-Jun
Stuffing day: 23-Jun
ETD: Shenzhen: 28-Jun
ETA: Los Angeles/Long Beach (15/13/15): 11-Jul

Once there, the main obstacle will be customs, because the games don't need any packaging, so they will be shipped inmediately when hitting the forwarder warehouse.
Luckily, you'll receive games during the last two weeks of July.
Probably you'll receive add-ons before games arrive, in case you ordered any.

Finally, we've decided to include a free bookmark to all those backers that ordered a complete pack of add-ons, to thanks your special support to the project. I hope you like it.

 Of course, I need to thank you all for your support to this project. But I'll be updating soon next week, because I need to give you more information, show the progress of the shipping and comment a few more topics.

Enjoy the weekend!

Shipping and packaging Pandemonium
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 12:12:06 AM

We're really close now. All games arrived to the manufacturer's warehouse in Spain. They have started packaging and once finished, the games will leave the warehouse to the different shipping companies and you should receive the game soon after that.

Customs took a while, because they wanted to scan the games, which cost us another $500. But all packages arrived safely to the warehouse and we've been able to visit them and help organize the combination of add-ons and backers adress labeling.
There are a lot of different combinations and this will be a complex task, but I'm sure they will finish it as fast as possible.
We expect to be shipping the games to our EU backers in two weeks. Before July, everyone should have got Pandemonium home.

About USA, Canada, Australia and Asia backers, this is what the fulfillment company told us last week:
"We are currently ready to ship.
All Canada will come to USA. Ocean is approximately 14 days and once we receive, it will be turned around in 1 day to send out to Canada and in the USA.
Backers in Canada and USA should receive their shipments in 21 to 25 days from the day we ship out from China. Backers around the world should receive their products in 14 days or less.
We will issue email notifications to each backer with their tracking number as we ship out, so that they are notified."

They told us that tomorrow we'd know the name/number of the vessel transporting the games. I'll notify you with those details.

Remember that all USA, Canada, Australia and Asia backers will receive their add-ons (if any) in a separate package. All add-ons will ship from Spain by plane, at the same time that EU shipping starts. In some cases you may receive add-ons before the game arrives, but we expect Pandemonium to arrive before add-ons.
Asendia is in charge of your add-on fulfillment.

Here I leave you with some pics of the artbook, which is one of my favourite add-ons:

 I hope next update will be to announce that all games are arriving to backers.
See you soon and thanks for your support.

So close... another shipping update!
almost 7 years ago – Thu, May 18, 2017 at 12:05:56 AM

 I always thought that shippment would be the worst part of doing this project. Maybe I was wrong, as production was a real pain in the ass, but we've just started distribution and is a complex process, full of hard work and headaches.
Let's cross fingers and hope that it all ends well.

Right now, we're really close to gather all games into the planned international hubs, where all packages should be send to your homes.
As you know, most of the games departed China some time ago and the vessel is about to arrive its destination. You can see the boat route in realtime here:

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:3247389/mmsi:373598000/imo:9606338/vessel:MSC_AMSTERDAM

The boat is docked in the Malta port right now, and just a few kilometers near its final destination, the Barcelona port in Spain. It's scheduled to arrive there the 20th of May, which means that next week, we can start packing the games.

It's amazing to see the traffic on our oceans in realtime; Greenland may be the most peaceful place on earth :)

 We'll try to accelerate the packing process the most we can, but I don't know how much time it will take, as it's our first time managing this.

There are several companies involved in the international shipping of Pandemonium. For Spain, the games will be distributed by Correos Express, which is a 24-48 hours service. For Europe and several non EU countries, we're using Asendia, a well known international company. For Asia, USA, Canada and Australia we're working with Xpert Express; they picked our games in China and are distributing them into several hubs in HongKong and USA to send them from there.

As we produced the add-ons in a different place than the games, gathering all the components have been one of the main difficulties of the distribution to backers.
Add-ons are a time, production, logistics and money killers and you must plan them carefully. I wouldn't repeat the add-ons production the way we did it.
That implies that some backers will receive the game before their add-ons arrive, which made the shipping for us much more expensive than planned.
There went the remaining money available for the project after a two years long journey, but luckily we made it (by the skin of our teeth, I must say).

Some add-ons, like the Aguilar painted mini will ship earlier, but most of the packages will be send together, so everyone receives them at the same time. That includes reviewers and stores that joined the kickstarter campaign.
All our backers have the same importance to us.

That's the plan for the next month:

1. The EU games will be in the manufacturer's warehouse next week and we'll start the packaging process, combining add-ons and adding shipping info on every package. Then the shipping company will collect all the packages and start shipping.
The shipping should last from 1 to 7 days, depending on the country.

2. The Asia games (China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Philipines) will ship from HongKong next week. So they should be the first ones to receive the games. Add-ons will be send from Spain as soon as all packages are ready. They'll travel by airplane, so the shipping would be fast enough.

3. The Australian games will depart to Australia next week by boat. Add-ons will be sent from Spain as soon as all packages are ready. They'll travel by airplane, so the shipping would be fast enough.

4. USA and Canada shipping is being controlled by Xpert Express and will depart HongKong, probably next week. They are really communicative and inform us in a daily basis. We're trying to accelerate this as much as we can. Changing our initial plans, so we could send the games from China instead than from Europe, was complicated, but everything is in hands of the experts now.

5. When the shipping to your home starts, we'll contact you by mail to remember that the game is coming home. The company will use your phone number to contact you, so please make sure it is correctly introduced in Backerkit/kickstarter shipping info.

Please note that we're now closing your Backerkit's surveys, because we need to send the shipping info to the different shipping companies so they can introduce the addresses in their systems.
If you change your address before summer or you need to make any changes, CONTACT US by mail. It is important that all shipping info is correct and complete.

The plan is that Asia and Europe receive the games during June, and that USA, Canada and Australia receive them during July. Australia could receive them during June as well, because it is near HongKong.

In the next two weeks, some of you will start receiving your games, so I hope everything arrives well. Before end of July, we expect that everyone will have Pandemonium and all add-ons home. And it will mark the end of this adventure for us.

Thank you all for joining us!