March Madness
about 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 06, 2019 at 11:06:16 PM

Greetings Legends,

It’s the first Tuesday of the month, everyone, and that means update day! This Tuesday is also special because it’s Fat Tuesday, so Happy Mardi Gras, and laissez les bon temps rouler!

And speaking of good times, we’re getting closer and closer to bringing Legends of Sleepy Hollow to your tables. Panda’s factory is now fully up and running after Chinese New Year and we should be seeing those final production miniature proofs any day. We’re also expecting final proofs on the wooden bits and we’ve submitted the final components specs and preliminary assembly schematics. One key logistical part of any board game production project is making sure everything fits in the box, but for Sleepy Hollow that also means making sure that everything is placed in such away to help avoid spoilers when you all open it up. You can see the assembly schematic below, which is a way for us to create a visual vocabulary with the factory. There will be some tweaks as they begin assembly, but we thought it would be cool to show you a part of that process.

On our end, this month is dedicated to final file production and editing. On Panda’s end, they’ll be prepping the punchboard molds and working with us on prepress logistics. We’ll be sharing pics of what we can when we start to get physical proofs of certain things in the next couple of months. 

As for the updated production schedule, the hope right now is to have the game delivered to our warehouse by mid-July, which would mean we’d prep the games and start shipping them the week after we receive them. 

That’s about it for this update, but we also wanted you all to know that we brought some mock-ups and samples of the game to New York Toy Fair in February and it was really well received. Below is a pic of the retail box in the PSI booth; and just remember that the game will come with the retail sleeve shown here, but the box art from the Kickstarter campaign will be underneath!

Thanks again for all the support and patience. We’ll be back soon with lots more to share!

All the best,

Chris, Ben, & Matt

A Very Sleepy Update
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 05, 2019 at 10:42:14 PM

Greetings Legends,

First off, apologies for this update being so late; official update day snuck up on me! 

Production progress at the factory right now is a tad, erm, sleepy since we are right in the middle of the Chinese New Year celebration. Panda Game Manufacturing's facilities should be back up and running toward the end of February, so we'll see much progress with file work, and they can wrap up our first batch of production proofs for the miniatures - which is very exciting! This next batch of minis will be our first look at what the final product will look like and how the plastic looks and feels. Once we pull the trigger on these all the finals will roll out quickly.

In the meantime, we've all been working as diligently as we can in getting the rest of the files ready for the factory once it's up and running again. All the art is now completely done for the game, and we're making sure that the graphic design and story are all cohesive for pre-press. 

There's not a lot more to share right now, but it doesn't quite feel right not to post at least a little teaser. So here is a very small section of the map that Colin created for the epilogue expansion that you'll all receive. 

The attention to detail that Colin has provided in all these map tiles is amazing, and we can't wait for you all to see how gorgeous they're going to look on your table as the story unfolds.

We'll be sure to update you all as we move forward, and especially as soon as we have new miniature news. Until next time, thank you so much for your continued support and patience. Happy gaming!

All the best,

Chris, Ben & Matt

A New Legendary Year
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 01, 2019 at 11:19:43 PM

Greetings Legends,

It’s the first Tuesday of the month - and the first day of a new year! Of course, the first Tuesday means it’s time for an update.

Truth be told, there’s not much new to report on the production front. In the last update we shared the details on production delays and those are all still in effect. Although December has been filled with travel and holidays, production has continued and we are working at the same expected pace. We hope to see the first production samples of the minis from the factory soon, and we will post pics of those samples as soon as we get them. Hopefully you’ll all see an update before the regularly scheduled one next month.

We hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to a great 2019. We are excited to finally get this awesome game out to you all this year. Until next time, thanks for being awesome and happy gaming!

All the best, Chris, Ben, & Matt

Happy Haunted Holidays!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 12:42:11 AM

Greetings Legends,

First off, Happy December! Tis the season for scary ghost stories and tales of glories, and luckily we’ll have tons of both in Legends of Sleepy Hollow. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to deliver in time for you all to get the game on the table this holiday season. But, rest assured, you’ll be enjoying this amazing game for many holidays to come.

As mentioned a couple of updates ago, we are behind on our production schedule. The miniature proofing and tweaking process took far longer than we expected, but we definitely wanted to get everything just right before putting them into production. They are now fully in production, and we should have our first production set to take a look at soon. Art production has also progressed slower than we would have liked, but the quality is amazing, some of the best we've ever seen for one of our games. Colin has wrapped all the maps for the base game, and is almost done with the map for the Epilogue (expansion). Ksenia and Abigail are almost done with the rest of the art for the character upgrades and cards, and we are on track to have a majority of production files done by the end of December – we’re just going to have to push through the holidays a bit.

We estimate that we are about three months behind on the production schedule. Because of the time of year we will also lose a month for production because of the Chinese New Year celebration in China. So, in full transparency, the soonest the game would get to us to ship out to all of you is sometime in April. This game has been a massive undertaking – very much like designing, developing, and producing eight games at once – but despite the challenges of it all, it has also been an incredibly rewarding experience. We are so proud of this game – this work of art – and we know the wait will be worth it. We appreciate your patience as we make it the best it can be, and we will continue to keep you all updated on the timeline with each update.

Hey, speaking of works of art, we said we couldn’t show you more of a certain map, but this is too good not to share. This one is double the size of all the other maps in the game, and it’s going to be an incredibly immersive experience when you get to the chapter. This won’t really spoil anything since there’s no context or story to go along with it, so you don't have to avert your eyes!

Unplugging

As mentioned in the last update, the Greater Than Games/Dice Hate Me Studio crew were all at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia last weekend, and it was awesome! We had Legends of Sleepy Hollow on display in our demo room, and many of you came by to say hi and check out the minis.

We will be at many more shows next year, and will be unveiling even more of the game as we get proofs from Panda Game Manufacturing. We’ll be sure to keep you all updated on where and when to check the game out!

That’s it for this update, but we sincerely hope you all have a wonderful holiday season filled with friends, family, and lots of great games. Until next time, happy gaming!

All the best,
Chris, Ben & Matt

Pointers, PAX Unplugged, and Production Progress!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Nov 07, 2018 at 12:00:10 AM

Greetings Legends,

We hope you all had an awesome Halloween! November is here which means pumpkins are still in style in the states before Ol' St. Nick steals the spotlight. We plan to make the most of it!

Since it's the first Tuesday of the month it's time for an official update. Production continues to move along at a nice pace. Colin has completed all the maps for the base game and just has the map for the Epilogue Expansion to complete this month. Ksenia has just about wrapped all the art assets for the cards and we're working hard to get everything together, proofed, and ready for the printer by the end of November.

Last month we mentioned that we took another pass at the damage ring pointers on the miniature bases. Well, after a few comments from all of you we thought we could maybe take one last pass to make them the best they can be. So, last week, we approved the final design for the damage indicators, which you can see in a 3d render below. There's no denying that this change is way better and will make assessing damage in the game much, much easier!

The minis are 100% approved now and the Panda plastics team are creating the molds and prepping to pump them out as soon as possible. 

PAX Unplugged

Speaking of miniatures, we're working hard to have a full set of them at PAX Unplugged, an awesome con in Philadelphia on Nov. 30 through Dec. 2! 

We hope that some of you can make it out to the show and stop by to say hello. Greater Than Games will have a booth (#2501) and a special demo room (#203B) where you can check out all sorts of awesome GTG and Dice Hate Me Studio titles, including Legends of Sleepy Hollow! 

Updating Addresses

We wanted to mention that if you have moved since you submitted your address, or plan to move in the next couple of months, you can always log into BackerKit and update your shipping info. so you don't have to worry about Legends of Sleepy Hollow getting to you! We will post an update here before we lock BackerKit down which will be a couple of weeks before delivery. More info. on that in the next update.

Back to Work

That's about it for this update, but we did want to mention that we haven't forgotten about Lost in the Woods. Robert has used this time to do some more development work on the game and we've added a couple of features that will make this awesome little solo game even awesomer. We'll talk more about that in the next update!

Until then, we hope you all have an excellent November, and happy gaming!

All the best,
Chris, Ben, & Matt