Delays with international fulfillment and customer service backlog
over 2 years ago – Sun, Oct 24, 2021 at 05:36:58 PM

I have some updates for international fulfillment. The information is going to vary from region to region so I'll address each region individually.

Canada

The games are still at the port stuck in customs. Apparently some of the documents were messed up and Deep Water Games has been on the phone with the freight forwarder nearly daily regarding this issue trying to resolve things. We should be able to provide some kind of update on this next week.

Australia

Fulfillment for Australia has been underway for a little while now and all the pledges except for a handful are now in the mail. There is unfortunately an issue we need to address, though. As mentioned in a previous update, the factory was able to resolve the blueprint color mismatch by opening all the expansion boxes and replacing the cards with the correctly colored cards. In our minds that meant we wouldn't need to send out replacement packs to Australia, but that ended up being a mistake.

Backers who pledged for "Everything New" or any of the expansions without the base game should have also received replacement blueprint cards for the base game. This is assuming backers who are only getting the expansion material already own the 1st print run of Fantastic Factories and that those cards need replacing in order to match the expansions. However, we overlooked this issue for our international backers and did not send out base game replacement packs in Australia as we should have.

Right now Deep Water Games is exploring options as how best to address the situation. There will be more info on this in a future update once we figure it out.

EU/UK

You'll note that in our last update that we anticipated fulfillment to start in EU/UK on October 4th but that has not happened yet. This is due to the mistake we made regarding the base game replacement packs (see above section about Australia). Deep Water Games realized this mistake before fulfillment started and air shipped a bunch of replacement packs, but those replacement packs unfortunately have gotten delayed in customs. Apparently there's some issue around the packs' declared value (what do you declare as the value for replacement packs that are never intended to be sold?). Once these packs clear customs and arrive at the warehouse, fulfillment can start. Our fulfillment partner in the EU/UK wants to wait until they've received everything before they start packing and shipping pledges unfortunately.

Asia and rest of the world

Fulfillment should be starting any day now.

Contractor color mismatch and other color mismatches

We've gotten some reports from backers that the contractor cards from promo packs or expansions sometimes don't match in color. We've also gotten reports that even with the replacement packs the blueprint cards still don't match the rest of the games. Unfortunately I don't have enough data to know the exact extent of this issue. It does seem like the factory's quality control and consistency has been extraordinarily poor, and it's been causing a lot of confusion and frustration all around. I really apologize for the situation.

For many people, the color differences won't affect their enjoyment of the game. But I think that we would be failing to deliver on the promise of a seamlessly integrated expansion to Fantastic Factories if we didn't address the issue for the many backers for whom it matters. To that end, any backers who run into color matching issues that aren't addressed by the replacement packs can contact [email protected]. We are committed to doing everything within reason to get this right. That said, this is a good segue into the next topic.

Customer Service

Many of you have already written into Deep Water Games' customer service email. This color mismatch situation was not something we had anticipated, and as you might imagine, this has created a big flood of emails with requests and questions. We currently are at a 5 day response time but are working to get that quicker. Please be patience as we work through the backlog of customer service requests. If it has been more than a week since you've received a response, please feel free to email us again -- it's possible that some emails get lost in the shuffle.

Once again, I really appreciate everyone's patience as we work through all the challenges.

- Joseph

US pledges shipped and international fulfillment update
over 2 years ago – Sat, Oct 02, 2021 at 01:32:17 AM

International fulfillment update

Thank you international backers for your patience! Here's the current status for various regions:

• Australia is ready to start fulfilling
• EU/UK is scheduled to start fulfilling on October 4th
• Canada shipment has arrived at the Vancouver port since September 10th but has been stuck there due to congestion delays
• Asia and rest of the world is waiting for a shipment of promo cards to arrive before starting fulfillment

US fulfillment

At this point there are fewer than 50 US pledges left to ship out. These final few pledges are some of the trickier pledges to pick and pack. If you pledged for a particular Kickstarter level and didn't have any add-ons, you should now either have a tracking number or have received the game.

Tracking your package

If you are looking for your tracking number and are having trouble finding it, look for an email from Deep Water Games from the address "[email protected]" with the title "Your items for Fantastic Factories: Manufactions have shipped!". Please check your spam or marketing folders of your email as well if you're having trouble locating it.

I've also heard reports of tracking links not working. In many of those cases, you can work around that issue by copying the tracking number and searching for it on Fedex's site instead of clicking through the emailed link. This seems to be a weird issue on Fedex's side of things.

Once shipped, it looks like it can take up to 2 weeks for the package to arrive. If you have not received your game or a tracking number at this point, feel free to reach out to [email protected] and we can check on the status of your package.

Replacement cards

This is a repeat of what I've said in previous updates. If you are receiving the game in the US, you'll probably notice that there are quite a few loose packs of cards. Some of them are promo packs but some are replacement cards to fix a blueprint color matching issue.

For detailed instructions on what you should do with those cards, please refer to this update.

If you want a deeper explanation of the color matching issue, please refer to this update.

Color mismatches

If you still are running into color mismatch issues, and it's important to you that all the card colors match, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll figure it out.

I plan on having the next update in about 2 weeks time, at which point I hope to have some good progress to report on international fulfillment.

Joseph

Wrapping up US fulfillment and details on replacement cards
over 2 years ago – Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 04:34:03 AM

US fulfillment update

Unfortunately Deep Water Games didn't quite finish shipping all the games out last week. It looks like we have shipped 2762 pledges out of 3349 in the US. That leaves just about 500 left to finish this week. I will send out an update next week or when those have all been shipped, whichever is earliest. If you have not received your game or tracking number yet, do not worry. Not all the pledges have been shipped yet.

Tracking numbers

If you are looking for your tracking number and are having trouble finding it, look for an email from Deep Water Games from the address "[email protected]" with the title "Your items for Fantastic Factories: Manufactions have shipped!". Please check your spam or marketing folders of your email as well if you're having trouble locating it. Once again, not all pledges for the US have been shipped yet, so you may not have received this email yet.

Additionally a few of you have mentioned receiving the tracking numbers after having already received your package. I looked into this and identified a gap in the process where we weren't sending out shipping notifications in a timely manner. We've since fixed that issue so hopefully moving forward people will be receiving tracking numbers more reliably and on time.

I've also heard reports of tracking links not working. In many of those cases, you can work around that issue by copying the tracking number and searching for it on Fedex's site instead of clicking through the emailed link. This seems to be a weird issue on Fedex's side of things.

Detailed replacement cards instructions

It can be a bit overwhelming and confusing to receive so many separate packs of cards outside of game boxes so I'm going to break it down in detail with pictures to hopefully make this as easy and clear as possible. I'll cover the two most common backer scenarios.

Everything New!

If you pledged for Everything New (Manufactions, Subterfuge, Playmat) then you can expect to receive *7* packs of things outside of the game boxes. They are as listed:

• Faction Promo Pack (showing BIG Pharma, comes with Manufactions)
• Promo Pack 2 (showing DRAW Studio, comes with Manufactions)
• Manufactions replacement pack (showing Academy, comes with Manufactions)
• Subterfuge replacement pack (showing Airport, comes with Subterfuge)
• Promo Pack 1 (showing Cryolab, comes with either expansion if you didn't also receive the base game)
• Base game replacement pack 1 (showing Aluminum Factory, comes with either expansion if you didn't also receive the base game)
• Base game replacement pack 2 (showing Power Plant, comes with either expansion if you didn't also receive the base game)

Everything

If you pledged for everything, you can expect *5* packs of things outside of game boxes (everything labeled in green in the photo above). The are as listed:

• Faction Promo Pack (showing BIG Pharma, comes with Manufactions)
• Promo Pack 2 (showing DRAW Studio, comes with Manufactions)
• Manufactions replacement pack (showing Academy, comes with Manufactions)
• Subterfuge replacement pack (showing Airport, comes with Subterfuge)
• Promo Pack 1 (showing Cryolab, comes with either expansion if you didn't also receive the base game)

What goes where?

The Faction Promo Pack and Promo Pack 2 can be simply added to the Manufactions expansion. If you already own the base game and have the promo cards, Promo Pack 1 will replace the corresponding cards. Otherwise if you don't have the promo cards already or are receiving the base game through this campaign, you can simply add the contents of Promo Pack 1 to your game.

For each of the replacement pack cards, take the blueprint cards from those packs and replace the blueprint cards in the corresponding game box. The blueprint cards that game in the game box can be discarded.

Please note that the replacement cards are intended for replacing the blueprints only! The contractor cards do not need replacing since they do not have the color issue. Note that the Manufactions replacement pack accidentally has additional copies of the contractor cards, which are extra and can be discarded.

Color mismatches

We're receiving occasional reports that despite the factory's effort to match cards with the replacement packs that there are some games where the blueprint cards still do not match. Deep Water Games has opened several boxes to check for this issue but did not find any boxes with problems in their random sampling so hopefully this problem is rare. If you find that after using the replacement packs that some of your blueprint cards are still noticeably different in color, and this affects your experience with the game, please contact support at [email protected] and we'll work it out.

Thank you everyone for your patience, and I'm excited to see Fantastic Factories on people's tables!!

Joseph

Fulfillment update - final week of US fulfillment
over 2 years ago – Tue, Sep 14, 2021 at 09:42:59 PM

Sorry we didn't post an update earlier. Deep Water Games is currently in the final week of getting US pledges shipped out. If you have not received your game or a tracking number yet there is no reason to worry. We are not shipping the games by region so someone receiving the game last week in your city doesn't mean your shipment has been forgotten or lost. Once the games are in the mail, it may take up to  a week for it to arrive. So please do not be concerned if you are in the US and have not receive your game until 2 weeks from this update.

If you get tracking information from FedEx or USPS for a package coming from Ox Eye Media then that's probably from us! Ox Eye Media is Deep Water Games' parent company, which is why you'll see the shipping label come from that name.

Future updates

I know it can be anxious waiting for the next update, especially when the current phase of the campaign is actually getting your games! To help set expectations clearly moving forward, I'll be including when I expect our next update will be as well. Once all the games for US backers are in the mail, I will provide another update. You should expect this update to come early next week.

Airport blueprint quantity misprint

It has come to our attention that there is a minor misprint involving the blueprint card, Airport, which is part of the Subterfuge expansion. The rulebook and the pips on the card indicate that there are 3 copies of the card when there are actually only 2 copies of the card included in the game. 2 copies is correct and is what was intended so this misprint should not affect gameplay. This was the last change made in development and somehow the quantity change to 2 copies did not make it into the visual changes for the card and the rulebook. Sorry for this mistake and any confusion it may cause.

Additionally the rulebook says there are 16 blueprints when there are in fact 18 in the Subterfuge expansion.

Lack of baggies in the base game

Another frustrating situation we've encountered with the manufacturer is the lack of plastic bags within the box. This is an issue we identified early in the process but it seems the factory failed to follow through with their promise to fix it. Unfortunately there's little we can reasonably do for backers at this point so we apologize for this error as well.

International fulfillment status

Time in ocean freight has been longer than expected. We are expecting boats to arrive at their respective ports around now. After which there will be about 1 week to pass through customs and then 2 weeks to start fulfilling. So we're looking to have fulfillment start in about 3 weeks time.

Replacement cards

I will likely be repeating this information over the next few updates because not all backers have read the previous updates. For those of you who have been following the updates closely, this is not new information.

In the box we are shipping to US backers there will be some additional packs of cards that are not within a game box and are not the promo cards. These are replacement blueprint cards to fix a color-matching issue we encountered with the manufacturer. Please note that for the Manufactions expansion, the replacement cards also include the contractor cards which don't actually need replacing. It was logistically easier for the factory to do it this way.

For full details on the color-matching issue, please refer to this previous update.

Verdant - A spatial board game about houseplant collecting

One last thing. While waiting for Fantastic Factories to be manufactured, I (Joseph) joined the development team for Flatout Games' new project, Verdant! Verdant is a puzzly spatial board game of houseplant collection and care. We've been friends of Flatout Games for a while now and when they offered me the opportunity to do development for their latest game, I eagerly took them up on it.

Today, Verdant has launched on Kickstarter! Few games are as colorful and puzzly as Fantastic Factories, and this is one of them. If this game looks up your alley, please check it out.

- Joseph

Fulfillment is about to begin!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 10:47:11 PM

Hey fantastic backers!

We had a little delay with the replacement cards. There was an unfortunate mistake with the factory's shipment. We found out we were missing the base game replacement cards. However they're arriving tomorrow!

USA

We're about ready to start fulfillment, we are finally receiving the last product we need tomorrow to start fulfillment so on Monday we're going to start rolling out US packages! We are anticipating the fulfillment to take 2-3 weeks to complete!

International

All of the product is on their way to their respective hubs! The latest we're anticipating being able to have them start is September 20th.

Replacement decks

A lot of you have been curious about the replacement decks. I want to clear some things up. We're doing everything we can to ensure nothing gets missed. So, lets break it down:

1) All of the NEW base game is fine.

2) Manufactions and Subterfuge in the English print run had the color misprint. We caught it in time to replace the cards in the box for all international orders.

If you backed at everything new or any of the individual expansions that means you already have an old base game that won't match the new cards. So, we're including EVERY single blueprint card reprinted for you including the promo cards.

If you backed at everything tier you're going to get the new base game which doesn't need a replacement deck and you'll receive replacement decks for Manufactions and Subterfuge.

If you for example pledged for Everything and an additional Manufactions you'd receive a base game deck, 2 Manufactions decks, and 1 subterfuge deck. Because we're assuming if you're ordering an additional expansion it's for someone who already has the base game.

There's obviously lots of possible combinations but I hope this gives you some good insight into what we're doing and how we're approaching it.

That's all for now! Can't wait to get these in your hands. 

-Nolan, Deep Water Games