Hello everyone!

We are rapidly approaching the end of manufacturing! 

Manufacturing Update!

Current delivery estimate: September-October

We are still on track for a September-October delivery (for most backers -- depending on your country of residence, it may arrive sooner or later. This assumes minimal delays in customs)

This is the planned schedule for the next few months:

• Early August - manufacturing and assembly finishes
• Late August/early September - games at Asia fulfillment center and getting shipped to backers
• September/October - games at Australia, Europe, and North America fulfillment centers and getting shipped to backers. Canadian orders may be a little later as those orders have an additional leg in their journey.

Note:  our manufacturing and fulfillment partners are currently arranging the freight details, so we don't have exact dates yet and this timeline is just an estimate.

Status by component:

It took us a few weeks to finalize the design of the plastic box tray (fitting sleeved cards in the box required a couple redesigns), but we approved it for production a couple weeks ago and it is in manufacturing now.  (See the "Plastic Box Tray" section below for pictures and more info)

In Manufacturing

• Plastic box tray
• Printed components (cards, tokens, boards, box)

Manufacturing Complete

• Wood first player token
• Dice

In a couple of weeks we'll receive one of the first mass produced copies from the factory in the mail. If everything looks good, we'll approve it and the factory will assemble (put everything in the boxes) the rest of the games.

Fulfillment

Here is a general overview of our fulfillment plan, although some details may change.

Once our manufacturer finishes assembly of the games in Shenzhen:

For games going to Asia, games will be trucked to our Asia fulfillment center in Longhai, China. They will package orders and ship to backers.

For the rest of the world:

1. Games will be split up into shipping containers by continent (Australia, Europe, North America) and delivered to port to be loaded onto ships.

2. Once the ships arrive at the destination ports they will go through customs. We will pay duties and EU/Australia/Canada VAT.

3. The games will be freighted to our regional fulfillment centers (in NSW, AU; Hants, UK; Florida, US). Then they will be packaged into orders and shipped to backers. (For games going to Canada, a few pallets of games will be forwarded from Florida to a Canadian fulfillment center and then packed and shipped.)

French Rulebook Translation

The French Rulebook Translation by Séverine Riehl is ready! Thank you, Séverine, for all your help! 

Although the physical game only contains an English rulebook, you can download free PDFs of the rulebook in English, German, Spanish, and French at https://www.fantasticfactories.com/rules

If you find errors in any of our rulebooks, send us an email at 
             translation@fantasticfactories.com

We're working on Thai and Hungarian right now, so those should be finished next.

Plastic Box Tray

The plastic tray to organize components in the box was the last piece we needed to approve. We received the prototype sample in the mail a couple weeks ago, and it works great. 

 (click on the photos to enlarge) 

And finally, just for fun, this is what it looks like if you carefully flip the box over on a table, lift it away, and dump out all the components: 

Card Sleeves

The plastic tray has enough extra room to fit the cards even if you sleeve them. (This complicated the  design process significantly, as we had to consider the size of both sleeved and unsleeved decks)

Sleeve Size

All the cards are "poker" size, and we assume most "poker" or "standard" size card sleeves will fit.

The exact card dimensions are: 2.5in x 3.5in / 64mm x 89mm

If you want the exact sleeves that we used in our tests and in these photos, they are Dragon Shield "Matte" sleeves. This is not an endorsement (and you may prefer different sleeves). Justin simply had enough of them lying around for all the cards.

Sleeve Quantity

There are 3 types of cards in the game (all the same size, see dimensions above):

• 78 Blueprint cards (with matching Blueprint backs)
• 18 Contractor cards (with matching Contractor backs)
• 6 dual-sided player aid cards (5 player aids + 1 Solo mode player aid).

Keep in mind that the 6 player aid cards have information printed on both sides of the card. Normal card sleeves are opaque on one side, so you cannot use those sleeves for these 6 cards (the 5 player aids + the Solo Mode player aid).

If you want to sleeve those 6 cards and be able to read both sides of them, you will need 6 clear sleeves (clear on both sides).

Chipboard sheets

When you first open your game, the first things you'll find will be the rulebook and 2 chipboard sheets.

After you punch the tokens out of the 2 sheets: save the sheets. Don't throw them away!

Instead, put them back in the box, underneath the plastic tray. The sheets give the tray a little extra height so that it sits flush against the box lid when you close the box and helps keep components in place.

(Don't worry about remembering: we'll mention this again when the games start arriving. The chipboard sheets have instructions printed on them, as well.) 

Up Next

• We should have either the Thai or Hungarian rulebook translation done soon.
• In the next couple of weeks the manufacturer will mail us the first mass produced copy for us to check and approve, and we'll have pictures of it in a future update.

Talk to you again soon, and thank you for all your support! 

Joseph and Justin