Delivery Timelines, Apocalypse Dice, Forteller, and Essen SPIEL – (GAMEFOUND UPDATE 83 – CHRONICLES OF DRUNAGOR: AGE OF DARKNESS APOCALYPSE)

This is a huge one! Delivery timelines for each region, Apocalypse Dice set, PDF translation status for Italian, Polish, and Portuguese, Apocalypse Language production, Forteller Upgrade, Essen SPIEL 2023 highlights, and a new giveaway!

Dear Backers,

We hope this update finds you in good health after a productive week. It’s our priority to keep you informed about all aspects and developments of this project, and there is a lot of important information that we want to share with you.

In this update, we’ll talk about:

• Shipping Update and Delivery Timelines — Apocalypse (EN) and Language CoD are on their way to you!
• PDF Translations for Italian, Polish, and Portuguese — Translation status and next steps.
• Apocalypse Dice Set — Check out the video from the latest batch of dice!
• Apocalypse Language News — Production timeline for German, French, and Spanish games.
• Forteller Upgrade — New platform coming soon.
• Essen SPIEL 2023 Highlights — Video message from Rick and an image gallery.
• New Giveaway — Join the community discussion here.

Shipping Update and Delivery Timelines

Before we get into it, let us just say how much we appreciate your understanding and support throughout the whole shipping process. Our main goal is to have the games in your hands as smoothly and soon as possible, so you can enjoy the result of the wonderful journey that we went on together.

Please note that the information below applies to:

• English Single Wave (Wave 1 and Wave 2 combined in a single shipment)
• English Wave 2 (Apocalypse)
• Language Wave 1 (CoD Reprint)

To make sure that all backers will get the most precise information, we have broken down the delivery schedules into sections according to the regions below, with fulfillment companies in brackets:

• US, Canada, and Rest of the World (Whalebacker)
• UK (ZATU)
• EU (Fulfillment Europe)
• EU — Games in Spanish (Maldito Games)
• EU — Games in French (Intrafin)
• Brazil (Calamity Games)
• Oceania (Aetheworks)
• Asia (VFI)

US, Canada, and RotW

Status: EN-ROUTE

There are 9 containers with games in total:

• Four containers have already been delivered to the warehouse. These have the reprint products and a portion of the Apocalypse products.
• The remaining five containers are currently on their way to the USA, with an expected arrival at the port on October 27. These containers hold the rest of the items.

Delivery timeline: We expect the last-mile delivery process to begin by November 20. From that point, it should take 1-2 weeks to deliver the games to backers from USA and Canada, and up to 1 month to deliver it to RotW backers.

Support and communication: For replacements or any other issues, please use the CGS ticket system

UK

Status: EN-ROUTE

Delivery timeline: The last-mile delivery process is scheduled to kick off in the first week of December. This is when the games will begin their journey to your doorstep.

Support and communication: For replacements or any other issues, please send an email to fulfilment@zatu.co.uk

EU

Status: EN-ROUTE

**Please note that there are separate sections below dedicated to backers of Spanish and French games.**

There is a total of six containers dedicated to our European backers.

• Four containers are scheduled to arrive at the port on October 31.
• The remaining two containers are expected to reach the port on November 30. These last two containers experienced significant delays in their arrival as they were awaiting some factory clearances.

In order to avoid further delays considering the status of the last two EU containers, the deliveries are divided into three different shipment categories (they may or may not be delivered at the same time):

• Category A: German Wave 1 (CoD Reprint)
• Category B: English Wave 2 (Apocalypse)
• Category C: English Single Wave (CoD Reprint and Apocalypse) and language independent items for backers that pledged in German, French or Spanish.

Important note about language-specific items: The non-language reprint products are in the last two containers. Because of this, backers who have ordered language-specific (German, French, and Spanish) items will receive their shipments in two parts. One part will contain all the language-related items, and the other will have the language-independent items, such as Build Your Own Dungeon, Hero Trays, or the Darkness Dice Set.

Delivery timeline: Deliveries are expected to start in the second week of November.

Support and communication: For replacements or other issues, please send an email to customerservice@fulfillment-europe.com

EU — Games in Spanish

Status: EN-ROUTE

Delivery timeline: The deliveries are expected to start in the first week of December.

Support and communication: Any concerns or need for replacements will be addressed directly. We are in the process of finalizing communication channels with our dedicated support team.

EU — Games in French

Status: EN-ROUTE

Delivery timeline: The deliveries are expected to start in the first week of December.

Support and communication: For replacements or other issues, please send an email tosav@intrafin.be

Brazil

Status: EN-ROUTE

Delivery timeline: The games should arrive to Brazil on November 27. Deliveries are expected to start in the first week of December.

Support and communication: For replacements or any other issues, please use the CGS ticket system

Oceania

Status: EN-ROUTE

There are two containers designated for this region.

• The first container (with Apocalypse items) is set to arrive on October 28.
• The second container is scheduled to be collected in China by October 26 and should arrive within the following two weeks.

Delivery timeline: Deliveries are expected to start in the second week of November.

Support and communication: For replacements or any other issues, please use the CGS ticket system

Asia

Status: EN-ROUTE

Delivery timeline: Deliveries should start within two weeks from now.

Support and communication: For replacements or any other issues, please use the CGS ticket system

PDF Translations for Italian, Polish, and Portuguese

Italian and Polish: We are thrilled to report that the translation of the text is already completed. However, this is only the first step in the process of creating the Italian and Polish files. The next step is to put the translated texts into the proper layout in a PDF format and ensure seamless integration with all the in-game elements, such as images and interactive elements like the doors. We expect that these files will be ready within the next four weeks. We acknowledge the community’s eagerness to access these files and assure you that your wait is drawing to a close.

Portuguese BR: In addition to the news about the Italian and Polish translations, our team also made significant progress with translating the Portuguese texts, which are, at the moment, about 60% finished. Once the translation is finalized, the Portuguese files will undergo the same meticulous formatting procedure that the Italian and Polish files are now going through. The expected delivery timeline for the Portuguese files is approximately 3 months from now.

We genuinely appreciate your patience throughout this critical phase of the project. Your trust and understanding have allowed us to tackle such a huge task with the amount of precision and dedication it deserves. We are dedicated to delivering a polished and enriching experience, and your ongoing support is instrumental in achieving that goal.

Apocalypse Dice Set

We were delighted to receive an exciting email from Jon Lunn at Spidermind Games, saying that they have produced a new version of the Apocalypse dice set. You can see what it looks like in a video that Jon sent us (link here).

These dice are now on their way to us for a comprehensive evaluation and quality control. Once they arrive, we will share high-quality images with you so you can see the remarkable progress that has been made in the quality of the dice.

We understand that the delay on Spidermind Games’ end didn’t make it possible to ship the dice along with the remaining Apocalypse items. However, we want to reassure you that Spidermind Games is handling this matter meticulously and that the dice will be delivered without incurring any additional cost to you.

We are actively tracking the production progress of the dice sets, and as soon as we have them in our hands, we will update you with all the details. Thank you very much for being so patient. We can’t wait to have the dice rolling on your table!

Apocalypse Language Production Timeline

One of the invaluable outcomes of being present at Essen SPIEL was the opportunity to meet with all of our language partners and review our collaborative efforts to further streamline the processes for both pre-production and production stages of the Apocalypse Language items. This experience allowed us to effectively implement what we have learned during the Reprint production to enhance the efficiency of the Apocalypse Language production.

Delivery timeline: We are happy to inform you that the timeline for the delivery of Apocalypse Language remains consistent. The whole process will cover three crucial phases: translation, e-file verification, and production. All three language versions (German, French, and Spanish) are currently being translated. We estimate that the production will be finished by August 2024.

We will keep you informed about all new developments so you know what is happening during each stage of this project.

Forteller News

We’ve been talking to Forteller about a couple of issues we found in the app, and we are absolutely delighted that Forteller have gone above and beyond by taking the initiative to enhance their whole platform, addressing all door-related problems, improving the interactive elements within the book, and crafting a more immersive environment for Chronicles of Drunagor enthusiasts. Forteller is excited to announce these transformative enhancements, as they are poised to elevate your gaming experience to new heights. We firmly believe that these changes will not only fix existing issues but also immerse players in the world of Drunagor like never before.

Thomas, the CEO of Forteller, has shared this exciting message with all our backers:

“Hi friends! Next week we’ll have some visual teasers to share – but to get it started:

Current target is Nov 3rd to unveil our web player. This will ultimately be replacing the mobile apps – I could write a PhD dissertation on why the app stores impede us in terms of speed, quality, and financially; but I’ll just point you to Spotify’s endless war and the EU’s lawsuits for that.

We will be providing a list of which games will be fully available in the new web app; several are done, more in progress; but ultimately our entire library is migrating.

The web app will work on mobile devices including iPhones (Apple again see above lawsuit reference – refuses to implement EME that every other vendor has implemented as its part of the W3C spec – EME is required for non proprietary encryption).

Other neat things:

We’re moving towards a fully edge based infrastructure in lieu of cloud data centers; this means moving resources and API calls <100ms away from where-ever you are in the world as they will live and execute on CDN servers.

We’re adding MORE mechanical text and context from the game books tied to the narrated story passages as we have more flexibility with dynamic content moving away from native/store approved apps (Apple is notorious for rejecting and preventing any efforts to allow dynamic content/construction of themed/skinned concepts and would require constant builds and submissions to tweak the content vs load in from an editor).

I look forward to showing what our team has been working on with blood sweat and tears.Thank you for your continued support!

Keep on gaming,

Thomas St Pierre, CEO/Owner”

Essen SPIEL 2023 Highlights

First of all, thank you very much if you have stopped by our booth to talk to us! It was absolutely incredible to meet many of the backers in person and to have a chance to talk to you, hear your feedback, and share what we are working on.

Check out the message that Rick has recorded for you during the event:

For us, it was absolutely incredible to see that all demo sessions were fully booked almost immediately, with a lot of people signed on a waiting list as well. Ultimately, it is the best feeling for us when we see the joy when people play not only Apocalypse, but also Dante, or Beaver Creek (from ForFun Games, our sister company). Witnessing all of that firsthand really gives us an incredible amount of energy that fuels our effort to move forward and constantly strive for innovation and improvement with every project we make.

SPIEL Image Gallery

As you have surely noticed, this whole update is full of images from Essen SPIEL, but there are a lot more that we just don’t have room to post here. To bring the event to you, show you what it was like, and also let you peek a bit behind the scenes, we have published a full Essen SPIEL image gallery on our website.

• Check out the Full Essen SPIEL 2023 Gallery

New Giveaway

In the previous giveaway, we asked about your thoughts on updates, and an incredible number of you have joined the discussion by sharing their thoughts! Would you like to know which crowdfunding campaign was voted the best? We have collated the results into a short article that you can read below.

• Article – Community on Crowdfunding Updates

In a new giveaway, we’d love to hear your thoughts on board game media! Whether it comes in the form of community websites, YouTube videos, blogs, or podcasts, there’s a lot of new content released every day for a happy dose of board game-related consumption. We add our own bit into this mix by posting updates, news, and articles in which we share all sorts of things as well.

What kind of content do you like and what types of media do you enjoy. Join the new discussion and let us and others from the community know! As a thank you, we will give away a pledge from the upcoming Dante campaign to one random person who participates.

• Enter the giveaway

Previous giveaway winners

Winners of the previous three community discussion giveaways are:

• João O.
• Adam T.
• Jesús P.

Winners of Boardmeister Gofundme giveaways are:

• Cabel D.
• Richard S.

Please check your email (including the spam folders) for a message from Rick, or get in touch with us directly at customerservice@wearecgs.com

Thank you for your amazing support through the whole production stage of this project! We can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comment section. Have a great week!

Sincerely,

CGS Team