Cardboard, Malibu, and News about Tak

Hey there Everyone,

Today I was planning on sharing some of the adventures I had at San Diego Comic Con. I was going to talk about my first year as an official Guest of Honor there, include links to videos of some of my panels, and maybe even fess up to the fact that I drank some rum and did a *little* bit of drunken tweeting.

My standee(Also? My very first Standee. Cartoonified by Nate Taylor.)

But other news takes precedence over a chatting about how I goofed off at a convention. We have some info about Tak, and I owe it to y’all to give you details as soon as possible here on the blog. I wanted to be sure you heard it from me at the same time as James sends out an update over at the Kickstarter.

As many of you know, (because you backed it) we recently ran a kickstarter for Tak.

What you might not know is that James and I had been working together on the project for more than two years before the kickstarter ever launched. We talked about concept. We discussed the shape the kickstarter would take. James playtested the game exhaustively. And we spent a long time bringing together all the things required to make not just the *idea* of a game, but the game itself. We needed art. Boxes. Wooden pieces. Linen Boards. Wooden boards. Different wooden boards. Little baggies. Design for capstones. A printer for the book. Illustrations. Prototypes. Quotes. Etc etc etc.

There’s a ton of little things that go into making a game. And that’s not even counting logistical stuff like warehouses to store stuff, packaging and transporting all the pieces, assembling the game…

And then you haven’t even started the process of fulfilling everyone’s orders. All the picking, packaging and shipping that involves….

kvothe___bast_by_cerseidm-d9s2oyq(No. Not that kind of shipping. The other kind.)

Simply said, there’s a lot of moving parts to make something like this work.

So for months before the kickstarter, we were getting quotes, making prototypes, finding printers and shapers and makers who could turn Tak from a beautiful daydream into a beautiful game. Then we crossed our fingers, pulled the trigger, and hoped y’all would want to be a part of it.

Then this happened.

TakFinal

When I say that we weren’t expecting this level of success, I’m not being midwestern or modest. Yeah, I was pretty sure we’d hit $50,000 without much trouble. But my realistic expectation was that we’d hit something between $250,000 and $500,000. Hell, the contract James and I wrote up between the two of us, didn’t even include terms for anything higher than $700K.

Because of your enthusiasm, we blew the doors off the kickstarter. But some types of success are problematic. There’s a big difference in producing 5000 games, and producing 20,000 games. The scaling breaks down at a certain point.

Recently, we found our wooden piece manufacturer wasn’t prepared for an order of this size. And this isn’t a podunk guy in his garage, either. We’re talking about a professional woodworking facility here. But even though they’re pros, they don’t have an infinite amount of space. The wood has to be bought, dried, stored, milled, and finished. There are a finite number of hands and machines that they can use to perform these tasks.

Early on, James and I agreed that we wanted to produce things here in the US. We didn’t want them made cheap in China in sweatshop conditions. We wanted well-made, craftsman wooden pieces made in a shop that follows good safety regulation and and pays their people a decent living wage. Because of that, we had to accept that things would cost a little more, and take a little longer….

But then the kickstarter pretty much doubled our absolute best case-scenario…

Anyway, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. Like so like many other hugely successful Kickstarter campaigns, Tak is going to ship a little late.

And I am so sorry about that. I thought we were pretty much bulletproof. We planned our best plan. We padded our schedule. Even so, we’re going to be late.

The good news is that it looks like we’re only going to be shipping about a month late, which isn’t bad for a kickstarter that raised more than 20 times its original goal. To say nothing of the fact that if you’re a fan of my books, a month is barely even a blip on the Rothfuss Late-o-Meter.

Gech. I just made myself sad with that joke. Again. I’m sorry. I hate disappointing y’all.

The first batch of pieces will be finished the first week of November. After that, the games must be assembled (at the board game plant) and shipped twice (once to the warehouse, and then to you). Which means that our earliest date to begin shipping these rewards will be mid-December.

Most of the other perks we’re making are on schedule or ahead of schedule. But we didn’t collect enough money for shipping to pay for sending everything out separately. With one exception.

DBox5

Devi’s Box and Devi’s Board are still scheduled to ship on time. (Either if you ordered them in the kickstarter directly, or if you upgraded to them in the Pledge Manager.) The reason is that Wormwood is making their own pieces for their board, so they aren’t affected by this production delay. And we always planned on those boards being shipped directly from Wyrmwood Gaming, so the shipping cost was already factored into that item’s price.

And since I’ve mentioned the Pledge Manager, please note that the deadline to update your information and/or upgrade your order is August 5th (about a week away). Not only will that be your last chance to order the kickstarter exclusive stuff, but he more people who complete the pledge manager, the smoother the fulfillment process will go. So if you haven’t gone in and done that yet, please consider doing so.

James has written his own update over on the kickstarter here. So if you’re looking for more info, or if you have questions, head on over there.

Later all,

pat

This entry was posted in appearances, Beautiful Games, Nathan Taylor. By Pat23 Responses

23 Comments

  1. Richard Bissmire
    Posted July 29, 2016 at 2:58 AM | Permalink

    Hah, first time I’ve come across the term ‘shipping’.
    Cool that Devi’s box is shipping separately, makes me feel better about the shipping costs…

    • Posted July 29, 2016 at 1:26 PM | Permalink

      Yeah. We’re packaging those *really* carefully…

  2. F.N.T.
    Posted July 29, 2016 at 7:58 AM | Permalink

    “if you’re a fan of my books, a month is barely even a blip on the Rothfuss Late-o-Meter”

    Small if, big laugh.

    On a day mostly spent shuttling buckets between my sick son, daughter and wife, that made me “heh” in a very good way. Thanks.

    • Posted July 29, 2016 at 11:58 AM | Permalink

      Damn. You’re in the trenches. Hope things get better soon.

  3. Karissima
    Posted July 29, 2016 at 9:48 AM | Permalink

    Please don’t be sad about being late. I’ve waited over 2 years for a kickstarter product to ship, and it didn’t make me enjoy it any less when it finally came.
    Additionally, I wish there was a way for those of us who aren’t trying to get this for crimbo to sign up to be in the second or third wave of shipping. I don’t need my items before the year ends, and I’m sure there are others that are willing to wait, so that backers who ordered Tak for a gift can get their set in time. (Or, at least close to on time, maybe.)
    Thanks for the time and energy you have spent bringing us this wonderful game!

    • Posted July 29, 2016 at 12:37 PM | Permalink

      That’s a cool idea. I wish there was some sort of mechanism for that too….

  4. James
    Posted July 29, 2016 at 10:23 AM | Permalink

    What’s this? Minor production delays to ensure that backers receive a quality product crafted by well paid artisans who love their craft? How reasonable!

    I view this the same way I view book three. It will arrive when it is done, 99.99% awesome, or better, when it is a product that you can be proud of. There may be delays, but it will arrive. Please don’t be sad because a bunch of people on the internet blew through your most optimistic projections.

    Thanks for caring Pat!

    • Posted July 29, 2016 at 1:02 PM | Permalink

      Thanks for being so understanding….

  5. Jsherry
    Posted July 29, 2016 at 10:25 AM | Permalink

    Dear Pat,

    I love that we live in a world in which Netflix gives us—in one instant— an entire season to binge-watch at our leisure.

    I also love that we live in a world in which we still get to know the exquisitely torturous pleasure of waiting (sometimes for years) for authors to take the time to lovingly craft the next installment of story in the loves of characters we have grown to love.

    We have more of the former than the latter these days. Thank you for being part of providing the balance. We need more practice at patience.

  6. Posted July 29, 2016 at 11:23 AM | Permalink

    Dear Pat, you guys are aces. I seem to find myself smiling inside whenever you speak of anything with that marvelous sincerity of yours.

  7. MrPensees
    Posted July 29, 2016 at 6:24 PM | Permalink

    I think most people who help kickstart projects expect delays, and as far as kickstarter goes a month or two isn’t bad.
    As for the book, we all want it and know that you want to give it to us. Take your time. Enjoy your family and your life. We don’t want you to end up hating the story that we’ve fallen in love with because you feel rushed. The waiting will just make us happier when you have updates to give us <3

  8. korvys
    Posted July 29, 2016 at 7:28 PM | Permalink

    Underestimating the passion of geeks is never a good idea. Thanks for the update.

    Will the delays affect those of us who only purchased the book?
    Perhaps that’s a better question to post on the Kickstarter page itself?

  9. Jzone
    Posted July 29, 2016 at 8:53 PM | Permalink

    Uhmm… I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d still like to hear about the silly Adventures of Pat at Comic Con when you get around to it.

    As for Tak I can’t imagine who gives a shit between 6-7 months and 9-10 months from pledge day. If you aren’t interested in waiting you don’t buy in the first place.

  10. F.N.T.
    Posted July 30, 2016 at 2:45 AM | Permalink

    Thanks, but given that I had time to check out and post on your blog, I don’t think I deserve as much sympathy as the actually-ill people!

    All good now, thanks – although bleach and antibacterial cleaner look like being the smell-track to our weekend…

  11. F.N.T.
    Posted July 30, 2016 at 2:47 AM | Permalink

    Hey, check out the eejit over here who tried and failed to reply to an earlier comment, creating a sort of random, free-disassociation pseudo-dialogue…

    D’oh.

    Looks like it’s time I gave up the Internet.

    • Posted July 30, 2016 at 12:56 PM | Permalink

      I too have goofed the internets in my day….

      *Fistbump of solidarity*

  12. DDMD
    Posted July 30, 2016 at 7:35 PM | Permalink

    No prob with the delay. I’m grateful for your willingness to share the rules/videos. We will just have to have some pieces hewn from stone to hold us over.

    Looking forward to the 3rd book. If a trilogy has only two books so far is it temporarily called a bilogy?

  13. likeashadow
    Posted August 1, 2016 at 7:00 PM | Permalink

    More game news. Still no book 3 news.

  14. CerseiDM
    Posted August 2, 2016 at 12:20 PM | Permalink

    OMG Pat thank you so much for linking to my art!!! I’m so happy you liked it enough to actually put it in your blog! <3 You're the best.

  15. ced
    Posted August 3, 2016 at 9:44 AM | Permalink

    I’ve been told that being late with your deliverables indicates strength of character and high moral fiber, but seriously, you call this late? When it comes to being late you are a total pansy. The “standard” in my field is to multiply every schedule and budget by pi (and that’s *after* you thought you’d done a really good job accounting for everything — if it was a blind-ass-guess to start with you multiply by pi^2).

    So I say, bravo for being as on top of things as you are!

  16. TheBadger
    Posted August 12, 2016 at 4:04 PM | Permalink

    My buddy ordered your Tak rulebook and made his own set. The leather board turns into a pouch to carry all the pieces.

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