BackerKit Surveys En Route
about 6 years ago – Fri, Nov 09, 2018 at 07:38:19 AM

BackerKit surveys are ready to go! Everyone should be receiving a survey in their inbox soon. We're launching now because we've finally received a physical copy of the game in its final form (look at that gorgeous boardgame up there). The dimensions and weight are finalized, so the shipping price quoted to you is exactly what we need to get the game to you. 

This update deals with three things, starting with the most important:

• Filling Out Your Survey
• Pre-orders and Pledge Levels
• Shipping/Distribution Questions

Filling Out Your Survey

Deadline: Party Fowl is currently in mass production. Assembling the boxes, shipping from China, sorting at the distribution warehouse, and postage means that we should be shipping around March. That means your survey needs to be filled out by Valentines Day (Feb. 14th) if we are going to get the book to you.

Getting to BackerKit: Click the link of the email you receive from Backerkit. If you don't receive a link, it's because you aren't checking the email associated with your Kickstarter account. If there are still problems after you check that, DM me through Kickstarter and I'll troubleshoot.

Questions: The BackerKit survey is going to ask for your address so we know where to ship the game. All other rewards should have already been received, so the only thing we are sending through the post are your copies of the game. 

Shipping Costs: Once your address is entered, BackerKit is going to ask you to pay the shipping fee agreed to in your pledge level. This fee is calculated based on the exact weight and dimensions of the game(s) you are receiving and the country of destination. This price is non-negotiable: it is the cheapest rate we could find to get this game to you. You don't pay; you don't get a game. If you have questions, please read the more in-depth explanation of shipping fees in the Shipping/Distribution Questions included below.

Charging Cards: Shipping fees will not be collected until the BackerKit survey deadline is up. That means charges will not go on your card until the deadline passes in 2-3 months time. At any time during that period, backers may change their address, adjust their pledge levels, add/delete pre-orders, and adjust shipping fees without any payment or refund of money. The shipping fee only gets charged once the survey response is finalized. 

Pre-Orders

Backers that did not receive a physical copy of the game may adjust their pledge levels now and pay only the difference. Additionally, backers at the physical level that want an additional copy may up their level to Double Duck or higher. All of these reward-levels are reflected in the shipping table and shipping fees will be adjusted automatically.

This is also a chance for people that missed the Kickstarter to pre-order copies and receive them before the release date. We would greatly appreciate it if you spread the word about the game on social media one more time by posting the pre-order link: (LINK)

Shipping/Distribution Questions

If you're familiar with the typical struggles of shipping physical rewards for Kickstarters, you can skip this part. However, in the interest of preserving the health, email inboxes, and sanity of Party Fowl's creators, we're including a more detailed rationale for the shipping fees required for physical rewards. 

The costs of the shipping fee reflects the exact dimensions of the game (171mm x 171mm x 36mm) and its weight (1.06kg). One of the reasons we've waited so long to get the BackerKit running is because we were waiting to have exact numbers and not estimates. It would have been much better for Party Fowl financially if we had been collecting pre-orders for the last five months, but we wanted to make absolutely certain the shipping fees promised through BackerKit were as low as possible before we collected addresses.

Kickstarter fulfillment is being handled by our new partners, ShipNaked. Shipping fees are based on their quotes for the game's specifications and destinations in the US, Canada, and the rest of the world (ROW). Now, before anyone quotes me shipping prices lower than that of ShipNaked, I must also mention that ShipNaked's partners, Hit Point Sales and Tabletop Direct, are doing FLGS distribution and online sales as well. This means that the final shipment of games from our wonderful manufacturer -- Panda Games Manufacturing in Shenzhen, China -- can be loaded on a single pallet and sent to a single location. 

Avoiding the need to split the shipment across an international fulfillment service, a domestic fulfillment service, a distributor, and an online retailer saves us from quadrupling the labor cost of shipping what is essentially the same amount of weight (actually, more weight, because we'd have to quadruple the number of pallets as well). So, while we admit a single game might be cheaper to ship if we used a re-mailer in the UK, that cost would not be cheaper once we factored in the need to send a separate pallet on a separate boat to a separate country with separate customs fees and divided all that additional cost among 56 backers (our entire international backer pool).

Another reason we waited to launch the BackerKit until closer to the production date is because we wanted to allow time to adjust for the myriad of possibilities out of our control...such as Trump's administration pulling out of an international postal agreement, for instance. It's been said before in other Hebanon Games kickstarters, and by basically every kickstarter that's ever offered physical rewards, but some people always need to hear it again: WE DO NOT CONTROL THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE.

The prices they demand are the prices they demand. We are not a large company, and we have no ability to eat the cost if they decide to mess with the numbers. That's why we waited until closer to the shipping date to nail down these shipping fees, and that is why we explicitly promised the shipping fees would be charged AFTER the campaign in every pledge level. This was always the case. This was always promised. Shipping fees were not factored into the pledge price at any level for these exact reasons. Without a shipping fee, we can't get a game to you. Period. 

In Conclusion

• Fill out ya BackerKit
• Tell folks about them pre-orders
• Get ready for a great game to arrive sometime around March

If you have questions not addressed by the information above, let us know in a message or comments. Otherwise, keep partying, and thanks for supporting Party Fowl!

Digital Proofs
about 6 years ago – Mon, Oct 15, 2018 at 03:17:38 PM

Hello one and all,

Let me start off by apologizing for the radio silence. We've been hard at work over here, but it's difficult to post an update for this part of the process. It basically amounts to a lot of emails, measurements, and waiting (I know...SEXY), but I'll put you in the loop as best I can.

KC's art is done. He's even completed a bunch of Duck Pics for high-level backers! If you haven't gotten me your reference photos for portraits yet, be sure to do that soon. 

Our graphic designer, Simeon, has done a killer job getting the game ready for print. Panda Games is our manufacturer, and we're at the digital proofing phase. We need only correct the last of my dumb typos before the game is ready for pre-production. 

The first step of pre-production involves getting a physical copy sent over to us. At that point, we'll have an exact measurement of weight. If you've been wondering what's been holding up the BackerKit, it's that I'm not willing to guesstimate on something with such wide-reaching shipping implications. The second I have more information on the dimensions, I'll fill out the rest of the shipping tables and get the BackerKit launched. 

We'll be doing fulfillment through ShipNaked. Their partners, HitPoint Sales and Tabletop Direct, will ensure Party Fowl gets to your Friendly-Local-Game-Store and remains available to the fashionably late online crowd. If I had to guess (and this is an update, so I suppose I do), BackerKit should be asking for your shipping money and address around early November. Games should arrive sometime in January. That still puts us WAY in advance of our promised shipping date, so allow some time for adjustments if things go wrong. 

Alright, that's all we have to share. Thanks again for supporting Party Fowl: The Game of Drunk Ducks! We'll be in touch. 

--Caleb and Spencer

Party Fowl Print and Play
over 6 years ago – Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 02:59:37 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you again.
over 6 years ago – Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 03:22:55 PM

Well, the campaign has officially ended and we cannot thank you enough. For backing the game, tweeting and posting about the game, telling your friends about the game, and helping us make this game. Sincerely, thank you.

We're going to take a day and celebrate, and then get back to work on this thing. We'll be reaching out to our printer to start coordinating the production process. We'll be working with our wonderful artists to put some finishing touches on key items while wrapping up the print and play. And we'll keep you posted every step of the way.

But, don't forget, the party isn't actually over. Starting now, we'll be selling pre-orders through BackerKit and will be demo-ing games of Party Fowl: The Game of Drunk Ducks at GenCon. So, take some time to clean yourself up and then get ready to rally! 

Stretch Goals are in sight!
over 6 years ago – Thu, Jun 07, 2018 at 10:22:17 PM

We just broke $16k!

We're so thankful to all of you for supporting Party Fowl: The Game of Drunk Ducks! The campaign is just over halfway finished and we're waddling up on Stretch Goals, including enhanced components, more art by KC Green, an RPG supplement, and maybe even some expansions if we can keep pushing!

In the meantime, tell your friends, tell your family, tell everybody: THE PARTY IS JUST GETTING STARTED!