Crossing the Finish Line!!
about 1 month ago
– Thu, Sep 26, 2024 at 11:01:52 AM
Hello Again Everyone!!
At long last I finally get to come back to Kickstarter with the BIG HYPE!
Today, I got the spectacular news that our Tales of the Phoenix Lore Book delivery was finally going to be complete! (It was only a casual 480 hours late... but as a bit of a perk we got a little money back because their shipping timeline was three weeks late)! Circa three hours ago I eagerly sat outside as the lovely DHL man approached my house:
With a little bit of effort from the two of us lugging all the boxes out of the truck, we finally got it all up on the porch for me to start unloading directly into the packages of the x20 of you who have been so patiently waiting with me on this!
As of right now I am, as promised, sitting right outside of the USPS office in my home town, frantically typing out this message so that I can get it to you as quickly as possible! And of course, I am so excited I didn't even share a copy of the book yet! Though it was an agonizing wait, it came out absolutely beautiful and I am so happy to get it in the mail for you!
And with this, it is somewhat hard to believe that the Phoenix Farm Kickstarter is Officially Complete! (What an indescribably wonderful relief). The timing of this project turned out to be such a wild ride, and I am so grateful to have had such a wonderful batch of people on our side while we navigated this puzzle. I could never possibly thank you enough!
By now some of you already have your copy of Phoenix Farm, and by this time next week hopefully so will the rest of you! (Maybe a little bit longer for those of you in Europe/Canada). I hope that those of you who already have the game have been enjoying it! It would be truly great to see some pictures & feedback from the community if you have a chance to get it on the table in the coming weeks! (Be sure to send some pictures along to me at [email protected] or tag us on our instagram: @Librarium_games. We would be so very happy to hear from you & share your story!!) Other than this, I know that there have been a wealth of questions going on, so please do not be bashful to reach out if you have questions of your own (whether it be about the shipments, the components, the rules, or the gameplay!)
This being said, we have finally finally hit the finish line here. So, unless something crazy happens, this will likely be the last update I post here. It has been great. We will be striving our hardest to continue developing amazing games for you over here behind the scenes, and cannot wait to bring another masterpiece to life... but for the time being, I think its about time for a little nap ^_^*
Thank you so very much again everyone. 💕 I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to bring this game to life. We could not exist without you or the amazing support of our community.
Alexander Massar Founder & CEO Librarium Games LLC
Updates from Santa’s Workshop
about 2 months ago
– Tue, Sep 17, 2024 at 02:53:52 PM
Hello friends,
To be honest, I was so sincerely planning to come to Kickstarter today with nothing but the best of news…. But unfortunately I’ve got a mixed bag of good news & bad news…
Let’s celebrate the good news first! This week I finally compiled all of the shipping information from BackerKit and began turning my entire home into a shipping facility! (See below)
As of right now, 73 of 93 packages have officially shipped for fulfillment! (Hooray!)
As you can probably assess from that last statement though, clearly we’ve got a small problem with the remaining 20 packages 😓
So here is the infuriating tale of the Tales of the Phoenix Lore Book:
Way back in July, I began the ordering process for the physical copy of the lore book. It took a few weeks to get it all sorted out & put to print, and all the whole time I had been communicating as clearly as possible that I needed the book in hand before the beginning of September. We had a small bit of delays in the process, but we were confirmed on a shipping arrivals estimate of September 6th.
After getting this date & confirming the arrival of the games during the last week of August, I came here to update everyone on our objective to package and ship everything for September 16th. I was feeling pretty confident that we would finally have everything in hand for fulfillment by the very latest last Friday (the 13th…) but alas I was wrong.
So, of course, I called the company last week looking for updates about where our package was. Several times over I was told that it would be shipping out by the end of the week, with a 2-day shipping timeline for it to get to us. Once again, feeling well informed, I decided to spend yesterday prepping all of the packages, with the hope that by today the books would arrive while I was affixing shipping labels to everything that was done.
And here I sat…. Staring out the window all day long…. Desperately hoping for what we had been told to be true…. Until 3:00pm when I decided it was too late. At that point, I drove down to the post office with my big bins, head sunken, knowing that only some of you would be getting shipping updates today 😭
Meanwhile, these sad unfinished babies sit upon my desk, wondering why they don’t get to leave the house today.
And so, after that long narrative, for those of you who did not receive a shipping update today, I am so sorry. Every single step of our whole plan this year has been stupidly delayed, and every time it’s been a problem completely outside of my control. But I promise you this, within 1-hour of the books arriving on my doorstep, they will be in the packages, sealed, labeled, and on their way to the post office! And as soon as they are dropped off, you’ll be hearing from me immediately after, probably while I’m still sitting in the post office parking lot.
Until then, I’ll be sitting on my porch, anxiously awaiting the mail.
I’ll be back as soon as I can my friends, and as always, thank you so very much for your patience.
Alexander Massar Founder & CEO Librarium Games LLC
How the Tables have Turned!
2 months ago
– Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 01:47:29 PM
Well friends...
It's been what... 72 hours since our last update? Yet in such a short time, literally everything has changed! Here's what happened:
Tuesday August 27th, 7:30am :: I wake up to an email from our manufacturer with the absolute most wonderful news that our shipment has finally cleared the intensive customs examination! I am absolutely thrilled by this, but anticipate that it will still be about 3-5 business days until the truck can get to this side of the country. Just because we cleared customs doesn't mean that we have an official delivery timeline yet, the truck needs to build a manifest timeline & get in touch with us still to schedule delivery.
Tuesday August 27th, 5:30pm :: I get the phone call from A Duie Pyle. The lady on the line asks me if I am ready to schedule the delivery timeline for the truck. I excitedly tell her that I am (anticipating a conversation about next week). I also ask what the fastest timeline is that they might be able to make the delivery to us... and the answer left me shocked: BETWEEN 10AM-2PM WEDNESDAY August 28th!? THE NEXT DAY!? (this cannot be real).
Wednesday August 28th, 7:30am :: I am packing my car up with all of the construction gear I might need in order to build our booth for the Renaissance Faire (which opens on Saturday). I drive myself down to CT, get registered at the fair grounds, and then spend the next several hours building the skeleton of our booth:
Wednesday August 28th, 2:30pm :: While I am in CT, our friends back at the home base were busy intercepting the delivery truck. Unloading the pallets, stocking the boxes, and getting everything organized!
Wednesday August 28th, 9:00pm :: I return back home, grab x4 cases of the games, began sorting out everything we will need for inventory on the Kickstarter & for the opening day at the Renaissance Faire, and then proceed directly to bed time, in utter disbelief at the events of this day. After nearly a year of planning, designing, marketing, ordering and nervously waiting, we somehow managed to get the delivery x3 days before we open our seasonal storefront, and still leave us on a decent timeline to fulfill this Kickstarter behind our original promises!
So What's the Plan Now?? WHEN DO WE GET GAMEZ!?
I'm glad you asked, because, of course, I just spent the earlier half of this week completely changing all of our plans to accommodate the fact that the game was going to be too late to meet our advanced timeline (facepalm).
Since this weekend is the opening weekend at the faire, I need a few days to rearrange our plans. I also want to offer a few days for those of you who have not finished the survey to get one last chance (since we just promised an extension to the timeline). All this being said, here's my new (and hopefully last) timeline update for the final approach of this Kickstarter Campaign:
Monday, September 9th :: BackerKit & the PreOrder Store will be Closed.
I am going to offer up a single extra week in September for any and all people around the universe who want to snag something from the pre-order shop. I am also using this time to give a final warning to the 12 or so people who have not yet filled out the BackerKit survey. This is your very last chance to give me (or edit) your address information.
Tuesday, September 10th :: BackerKit Charges & We Collect Shipping Info
After the store shuts down, there will be a short delay, and then the next day BackerKit will charge anyone who added something to their package. The only reason this is relevant is because I don't want anyone getting unexpected charges on their card & not knowing why. If you see a charge from BackerKit on this day, its a signal that our closing of the store is official!
Monday, September 16th :: SHIPPING DAY!
If everything goes according to plan, I am going to be spending this entire day printing out all of the shipping labels, packing the bags, and getting everything over to the Post Office! It will take quite literally the whole day to make this happen, but when I return home from the mail center, I will be reaching out here again, and this will likely be the next time you are hearing from us... TO CELEBRATE A VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN!
If there is anything about this plan, or this timeline that changes I will post another update here. However, it is my hope that this will be our last message until shipping is complete and the games are officially on their way to your home!!! (I am so excited!)
If any of you have any questions or concerns about this timeline, please feel free to reach out! But for now, I'll just leave you with a simple: "Can't wait to see you in a few weeks my friends!"
Alexander Massar Founder & CEO Librarium Games LLC
Troubleshooting New Timelines...
2 months ago
– Sun, Aug 25, 2024 at 02:21:11 PM
Hello Friends,
In case you missed the last update, our pallet containing Phoenix Farm has been seized by customs upon its arrival to the United States for intensive examination. From what I have been told, the games were taken off of the boat, and will be held until investigation is complete. After what has now been almost two weeks of total silence otherwise, we are still left without any update regarding what our status is or when we will regain a shipping timeline for the last leg of this journey.
This news (or rather lack there of) has now pushed us back far enough on our timeline that we need to re-strategize how we are handling the plan & moving forward from here. Without the games in hand, we can make no other progress on the shipping agenda, and we are coming up with new ideas for how to handle opening weekend at our seasonal storefront. Here's the new agenda:
Our BackerKit Pre-Order Store & Surveys will be kept open for another month, now currently re-scheduled to close on September 30th.This gives us the opportunity to let those who have missed their surveys a few more weeks to catch up & also allows us to keep the Pre-Order shop available for those who visit us in person at the fair.
Until we get cleared from customs, we can make no promises about the exact timeline of what happens next. I am personally praying that we get through this as quickly as we can, but it is entirely possible that we will still not have the games in hand by the end of September if we have no updates from customs in the next 2-3 weeks.
As soon as we know more, you will know more!
In the mean time, I am at least happy to announce that just about every single other item is completely ready to go for fulfillment! Check out these cool finishing steps for the Magic Dice Jars!
Here we are putting the finishing wax, the stamps, the final ink, and the chains onto each of the jars going out for Kickstarter Backers!
And here is a completed set of x6 dice in their cute little jewelry box for those who invested in the 6-player package for the game!
I simply cannot wait to get all of these amazing things out in the mail for you (and also to clean up my desk a little bit in the process! haha). As soon as there is any news to be shared (good or bad) you will be hearing from us again immediately! Til then, let's all just hope that this nonsense concludes quickly!
Thank you so much for your patience and your continued support,
Alexander Massar Founder & CEO Librarium Games LLC
Surveys, Shipping, Chaos & More!
3 months ago
– Mon, Aug 19, 2024 at 12:13:51 PM
Hello Friends!
Are you having a crazy month, or is it just me?
As I am sure most of you (or at least 70% percent of you) have seen, the BackerKit surveys have successfully gone out to all of the backers for Phoenix Farm! This is wonderful, because things seem to be going nice and smooth for those who have filled it out. However, some of you (the other 30%) have missed the boat so far... and I wanted to write today's update as a reminder to the people who haven't filled out the survey. Please remember:Anyone who has not filled out the survey fails to give us the shipping information that we need in order to get the games to you!!! Check your email, and double check the spam folder if you can't find it!! To clarify one last time, the survey isn't the typical kind of survey for getting feedback... It is the last part of filing for your order. Without it, you will not get the game! ONE WEEK FROM TODAY THE OPTION TO FILL OUT THE SURVEYS WILL BE CLOSED AND IT WILL BE TOO LATE!!!
Okay. That's enough bold text. Here's some other updates about how things are coming along!
1. As of last week, we have hit a somewhat unexpected snag with the process of transporting Phoenix Farm from Hong Kong to the United States. It seems to be that we have been placed under a "Intensive Customs Examination" for our shipment upon arrival at the US port. The unfortunate news about this is that we have no idea what sorts of delays this might cause for the delivery date of the game... once taken by customs, it is out of our hands until the reports come back telling us the results. Until this part of the story is over, I have nothing else I can tell you, because our shipping team is also being put on hold at the moment. For now, the best we can do is cross our fingers, and hope that things move swiftly through the process. (I swear, between this instance & our past with manufacturing The Great Chase a few years back, I have no idea what I've done in life to cause so much international drama!). As soon as we know more here, you will be getting feedback and timeline updates from me immediately!
2. In the last few weeks we have been getting everything else ready to go on a great timeline! As you can see in the photo above, we've been making strong progress on preparing the magic dice jars! (look at all those beautiful random numbers!). This is the third case that I am working on, which means that roughly another x200 are ready to go! (and all dice for the Kickstarter will be getting boxed up soon for shipping preparation!)
As you can see in the photo below, all x750 of our customized neoprene player mats have also arrived safely! The centering and color quality came out absolutely beautiful on this batch, and I am so excited to share these with those who ordered them! (and if you are having some FOMO, just remember you can update your pledge in BackerKit ;-)
Originally we had set out to get all the pledges out the door for the first week of September. As of right now, 8.5 out of 10 stars on this quest are in alignment... but until we clear customs I can no longer offer you a concrete date for us to get this done (and I personally dread the idea that we will be returning to the Renaissance Festival in a few weeks without our newest products as well). For now, all we can do is hope that we get lucky, and that somehow this pallet magically arrives upon my doorstep sometime next week! In the mean time, just keep hanging in there, and expect to hear back from us again as soon as the good news starts rolling in!
(AND DON'T FORGET TO GO FILL OUT THAT SURVEY IF YE HAVEN'T DONE IT YET!!)
Thank you again for reading, and as always for being patient while we make the magic happen over here!
Alexander Massar Founder & CEO Librarium Games LLC
