Backerkit Update and Our Production Partner is...
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 10:41:39 PM
Hey there Cow Army! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to get back to us through Backerkit and complete their survey.
Our plan originally was to put orders through at the end of each day, but it's been brought to our attention that this will not let you adjust your order after you complete the survey. On your suggestion, we decided to make a change and leave the surveys open until the end of May or early June. This will allow you to go back and adjust things in your order before we put the charges through.
We will send out an update giving everyone at least one week notice of when we will process your orders, and charge your credit card, or other payment method.
If anyone has any questions, please let us know. If anyone would like their order processed earlier, again, please reach out and we'll be happy to help.
In other Cow News, we're proud to announce that our production partner for Escape from Dulce is Ningbo Eastar! They have a great reputation for putting out top notch games, are incredibly responsive, and have amazing pricing! You might even have a game or two that came out of their factory. They've produced Lords of Hellas, Potion Explosion, and Raise Your Goblets and are currently working on Nemesis, and Bones series 4 by Reaper Miniatures. That's a pretty impressive resume!
The quality of game components and the minis is incredibly important to us because we want to give you the best quality game we can!
Money has been transferred, and not by a cow shaped hot air balloon unfortunately, and they've started reviewing the minis and punchboard sheets for mass production.
The gears are turning and we are all one day closer to delivery!
Backerkit is up and your Surveys are being emailed!
almost 6 years ago
– Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 07:06:47 PM
Hello Cows! We have reached the next step in this process and Backerkit has started to send out surveys. Please take a look at your in box over the next day or two, and you should find an email in there from Backerkit.
This will give you the opportunity to purchase additional add-ons, and get another copy of the game if you want one. For the $1 backers, this is your chance to up your pledge and still get a copy of the game at the Kickstarter price.
Backerkit will also give you a shipping rate, based on what you choose to purchase, and where you live. QuarterMaster Logistics will be our fulfillment company and the shipping rates they provided were the best we could find. Our shipping table is set up on the basis of weight. We felt that was the fairest way to get everyone the best rates for their areas. For example: if you order the base game but also want a shirt and some dice, the shipping rate will go up once the combined weight goes to the next level. This is a more cost effective method for the backers than adding a flat one or two dollar shipping fee to add-ons.
Once you complete the survey, you will be charged for any additional purchases you choose to make, and shipping. If you really want that expansion, or an extra set of dice, but can't afford it right now, just wait to complete the survey until you can afford it. We will continue to take orders for at least the next month, until we have to give our final production totals to the factory. We will send a follow up message to everyone who has not completed their surveys approximately 1-2 weeks before we have to close the survey down.
If anyone has any general questions or concerns about this process, please let us know in the comments section. If you have a private question concerning your particular order, just send us a message. We want to ensure this process runs smoothly and at the end of the day, everyone is happy!
Now go check your email!
Backerkit Update and Other Goodies!
almost 6 years ago
– Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 01:38:57 AM
Hello Cow Army! We've been hard at work setting everything up in Backerkit, and have submitted everything to them for review. This means that once they approve everything, which will take a few days, our Backerkit will go live. This will give you the opportunity to buy additional add-ons, or snag another copy of the game for a friend. For those of you that pledged $1, this is your chance to adjust your pledge and still get Escape from Dulce! We are also going to start taking pre-orders for the game as well, so that anyone that missed out on the Kickstarter campaign can still get in on the fun! All prices will remain the same for the pre-order period.
Our next update will let you know to look for the surveys sent out by Backerkit. This should hopefully be over the weekend.
While we did our best to accommodate your requests for the various add-ons, we unfortunately will not be able to offer the wooden token upgrades a lot of you were asking for. While we had a lot of interest in these, we fell short of getting to a number that made us feel comfortable with offering these at this time. This is definitely something we will be revisiting down the line and hope to offer them on the next go around. This came down to a financial decision and we hope you understand.
On the plus side, we will be offering everything else that was shown in the poll we sent out. Extra sets of dice, various T-shirts, and Cow Army embroidered patches will all be available for anyone who wants them!
We are also proud to announce that we've chosen Quartermaster Logistics as our fulfillment partner! We looked at quite a few options, but found that Quartermaster has the best shipping rates, is extremely responsive, and has a great reputation! While they are based in the US, they partner with other fulfillment centers around the world, to ensure our international backers also get customs friendly packaging and rates. These are the Cows who we've entrusted with shipping your games to you on time!
We'll be making an announcement about our production partner within the next week. We're in the process of finalizing our contract with them, and don't want to get ahead of ourselves. They've made some top quality games and we think you'll be excited once we let you know!
Be on the look out for that next, very important, update within the next few days!
A sincere thank you for all of your support.
Sentient Cow Games
Donna, Craig, and Weller
Pre-Production Photos and Previews!
about 6 years ago
– Sun, Apr 08, 2018 at 11:32:14 PM
Hello Cow Army! First off, we'd like to thank everyone who participated in the poll we conducted last week. It was extremely helpful in gauging interest for possible add-ons we'll be offering through our pledge manager. We're still waiting to get some info from a few factories on minimum orders for some of the add-ons before we make our final decisions.
While we looked at quite a few options, we felt that Backerkit was the best fit for us as a pledge manager. They're reliable and have been very good at communication, two traits that we value.
It's going to be another week for Kickstarter to finish processing orders, and at that point we should have all the information we need to start building our Backerkit survey and pre-order page. Once that's all done we will start sending out surveys to everyone so that you can confirm your order and add the shipping. You will also have the opportunity at this point to purchase additional add-ons, or buy another copy of the game if you want.
While we're waiting for these things to be set up, we've used our time wisely and got a jump on setting up the final art files to send off to China for production. All of the punchboard sheets have been finalized, as well as all of the loot cards. Here's a couple of pics to give you a preview of what you'll be getting.
As most of you are aware, Escape from Dulce is the first in a planned trilogy of games to be released on a yearly basis. All of the games will have similar mechanics, but with some new twists thrown in, so that you'll be able to use characters from the first game in the second or third game and vice versa. We've built a whole crazy world here, and we've only just scratched the surface!
Here's some early box art we did for part 2, Secret Unknown Stuff: The Hollow Moon, and part 3, Secret Unknown Stuff: Lost in Time, as well as brief descriptions of both games. Enjoy the weirdness!
In the second chapter of Secret Unknown Stuff: The Hollow Moon, you’ll team up with a super-intelligent chimp named Joey Fixit to stop an alien invasion by blowing up the Moon. You will meet a whole new cast of characters, new enemies and allies, as well as a new multi-level game board of the base inside the moon! Play as a duo of dogs, a group of lab rats running a giant robot mining rig, or even the
Princess of the Moon Trolls!
In the third and final chapter of Secret Unknown Stuff: Lost in Time, you have stopped the impending alien invasion, but now realize that blowing up the Moon had catastrophic consequences on the Earth. Your party must attempt to journey back in time to stop yourselves from causing this chaos, but get lost in time instead. Hungry dinosaurs, angry
Atlanteans, evil clones and thieving time gnomes stand in your way!
In addition to these new games, we'll continue to develop and release addition expansions for EFD and the other games as we go along. We also have a few other games in different stages of development, so stay tuned! We've got a lot of stories to tell and we hope you join us for them!
Until next time!
Donna, Craig, and Weller
Sentient Cow Games
Potential Add-Ons and a Poll About Them!
about 6 years ago
– Wed, Apr 04, 2018 at 01:08:44 AM
Hello Cow Army! Access to our pledge manager will start very soon. We will notify you of this in an update. Once this opens, you will have the opportunity to adjust your pledge, so if you backed us for $1, you will still have a chance to pick up the game and anything else you want. Grab an extra copy of the game for a friend, snag an expansion you didn't get the first time, get an extra set of dice, or pick up one of our T-shirts to show your love!
To gauge interest in potential add-ons, please take a moment to fill out the poll at the link below. Some of the items have minimum orders that are required for us to produce them, so if you really want those wooden tokens, be sure to let us know. You can select as many items as you want to. The poll will be open for the next 72 hours and will end at 6pm PST on April 6.
Here's a link to the poll:
http://poll.fm/5xsnl
Please keep in mind that this poll is not a guarantee that items shown below, and in the poll, will appear as add-ons. While we do our best to accommodate your requests, we have to make sure there is enough interest for us to produce it.
Here's some pics and descriptions of the potential add-ons in the poll.
An additional set of 20 custom engraved Combat Dice priced at $10-$12.
An additional set of 5 custom engraved large 22mm Stat Check Dice priced at $5-$6.
A set of upgraded wooden tokens. This will include 53 Combat Tracker tokens, 48 stat tokens and 58 Objective tokens priced at $10-$12.
In addition to game add-ons, we'll also hopefully be offering 3 different T-shirt designs priced at $20-$25 each.
Cow Army 3"-4" embroidered patches priced at $4-$5 each.
There might be some other goodies available as well, but these are items that we need to gauge interest in. Please pick as many as you want in the poll, so that we have a better idea of how we can serve you as a company. Thank you for your support and your time!
