A BIG Production, Freight, & Fulfillment Update
over 2 years ago – Sun, Aug 14, 2022 at 06:35:24 AM

Hello Everyone & Happy Friday! 

For those of you who don’t know me yet, my name is Price, COO of Cephalofair Games, and I run the day-to-day here at Cephalofair.

I’ve been working with Isaac since my own personal copy of Gloomhaven 1st Printing arrived in 2017, and it’s been an exhilarating ride watching—and consequently dealing with (#ThanksChildres)—every project as they’ve grown exponentially in size, breaking our established infrastructure, operations, and workflows. It’s been the best problem to have, and I’m honored to be overseeing these final steps getting Frosthaven to your door.

Below I have outlined a summary of where the project is at, and what our plan of attack looks like as we navigate our way towards (as each of our publishing peers/vendors/partners has oh, so graciously made clear) the largest fulfillment project this industry has ever seen. So, you know, no pressure.

You’ll be getting more regular updates from me on this project as I do my best to play mother hen to the 100+ containers we’re splitting up and shipping all over the world to get your games to you. So let’s dive in:

The PRODUCTION!

• Production has been underway for some time now, and all components are scheduled to be completed August 31st!
• Production Steps:
  1) Material Handling & Prep—In this stage materials are ordered, organized, and prepped for printing of artwork. (DONE!)
  2) Art Printing & Drying—Flat paper artwork is printed for punchboards, card decks, rulebooks, etc. (DONE!)
  3) Component collation—Printed artwork is cut and adhered to paper and cardboard core materials. Card decks are shrink wrapped, character envelopes are packed, miniatures tuckboxed, etc. (WE ARE HERE!)
  4) Assembly—All the final components hit the assembly line and are put in their respective inserts, trays, and (finally) THE BOX! This is the last stretch before containers are loaded for freight shipment. (Begins Aug 31st!) 

I've put together a quick HOW IT'S MADE compilation of various production steps I filmed both while visiting our manufacturers, and some actual Frosthaven production shots sent to me in the last few weeks from our printer—take a peak! 

I hope that gives some insights to how the game comes to life! I had so much fun visiting our manufacturing partners and learning more about each of these steps. It's by far my favorite part of the process and there is still so much to learn!

So now let's dive into post-production logistics:

The PLAN!

• FROSTHAVEN BY CHRISTMAS!***
  This is the goal! ***That being said, a number of things could still interfere with this, and we remain resolutely transparent and realistic. Knowing the scope of this project, we would rather not set premature guarantees, but please know this is what we’re aiming for and how we’re stacking the deck. (Boat pun intended) 
  • We’re shipping 100+ containers folks!
    And yeah, that’s just the game alone. Not counting add-on products.
    Understandably, that will not be all at once, but staggered on a weekly output basis. 
  • 7 International Fulfillment Centers
    We ship from within the US, CAN, EU, UK, and AU/NZ- so you should not see unexpected duties, charges, etc.
    If you fall outside these regions, you should expect to pay duties. International backers are typically aware of this fact already, but if this is your first large international order, please be aware we cannot control this, as it’s a legal requirement that varies by country, and is not assumed or collected by Cephalofair on your behalf. 
  • Regional Breakdown:
    68% North America
    17% Europe
    8% United Kingdom
    4% Oceania
    2% Asia
    1% Other 
  • Addon Products
    Addons have and will be delivered to each fulfillment warehouse first to ensure once games arrive, orders are immediately being picked, packed, and shipped promptly.
    We separated addon production specifically to not delay production of the core game, which requires significant attention.
    This means extra freight costs/logistics for us—but the expedited timeline is worth it!
  • Retail BACKERS are BACKERS
    We’d kindly like to emphasize this as this was our first campaign to contain a retailer pledge level, and this has been something true since we launched the campaign. What does this mean? It means fulfillment to retail backers and individual backers will happen simultaneously, shipping products as equitably and strategically as we need to from an operational standpoint. This may mean you may see Frosthaven for sale at your favorite local game store (FLGS) before your copy has arrived—but it’s because that retailer ALSO put their money down years in advance, during a pandemic, and helped make this project a reality. We primarily focused on working with independently owned, brick & mortar stores. We thank these small business owners for taking a chance on us and our largest project yet, and it’s important to us that they get their orders in by the holidays just as much as we hope to get yours.
• Frosthaven will NOT be available via traditional retail distribution until 2023 from our 2nd printing, which won’t happen until well after this project fulfillment has concluded. 
• A comprehensive list of these 600+ International retailers can be found at www.cephalofair.com/store-locations.
•  United States Fulfillment: US fulfillment easily represents the majority of this campaign and as such required us to get creative, and proactive, to avoid project bottlenecking. We have, for the first time, partnered directly with UPS for US fulfillment. UPS is set up, and accustomed, to receiving large daily quantities of containers and getting those orders turned around to customers within days. We’re really excited to be partnering with them on this project.
  • U.S. Shipments will be delivered and sent from two main warehouses:
    Western States: Reno, NV (30% of orders)
    Eastern States: Hebron, KY (70% of orders)
    This will allow for even more consistent warehouse output and put 98% of our US customers “in region”, meaning the shortest possible delivery windows. Exciting!
    Chris (Cephalofair’s Sales Manager) and myself will be making site visits to share further insights, oversee fulfillment launch, and supervise quality control measures. We’re excited to jump in and get our hands dirty! 

 The KNOWN!

• This will be one of the longer fulfillment projects our industry has seen. No question about it. So we intend to provide regular updates with some of the most transparent information and logistical insights we’ve given to date to make your wait as exciting and non-stressful as possible. 
• Factory output is the largest fulfillment “bottleneck” to this project. We ask for your patience and understanding as our factory and fulfillment partners take on this massive endeavor. We will be pushing for results, but also asking for responsible and sustainable workloads for everyone involved at every step of the process. 
• We will be conservative in our first few weeks of output to ensure quality control and train and supervise staff on assembly and container loading. 
• We intend to scale up, potentially doubling our output after the first 3-4 weeks of shipments. 
• There is no rhyme or reason to fulfillment order—unless we state so. Backer number, geographical location, etc, are not indicators of when you’ll get your game. 
• Rest assured, you WILL be notified when your shipment goes out, and we’ll be doing our best that’s not until your package is ACTUALLY shipping because no-one likes a stagnant tracking number! (That’s the worst…right?)

 The UNKNOWN!

• Assembly/Freight Hiccups?
  Both the assembly line, and load out of containers, require the most manual work, supervision, and coordination. If we hit a snag here, we will be responsible in assessing and pivoting strategy to ensure successful and quality output. 
• World Events?
  I feel like this can go without saying at this point, but there are a myriad of world events from war, factory lockdowns, ongoing pandemic, etc. that can and may put unexpected hurdles in the way. We have been doing our best to plan around known hurdles, but will be transparent and keep our backers updated on new hurdles as they come up and how they affect the overall timeline. 
• Completion Date?
  As stated before, our main goal is to be transparent and realistic. Knowing the scope of this project, we would rather not set premature expectations, but please know getting this project completed by the end of 2022 would leave us feeling the most proud based on where production is at, and the amount of planning we and our fulfillment partners are putting into this BEFORE the games start flowing. But things will be subject to change—we'll keep you posted!

I’m sure there are some things certainly not yet touched on, but we will have many more updates as things heat up, and I look forward to sharing more details as we’re able to. Please feel free to let us know below what questions you may have or would like discussed in future updates, and we’ll be sure to review and address as many as we can!

FROSTHAVEN. IS. COMING.

P.S. Don’t forgot - you can still update your address at any time by emailing [email protected] up until your order ships!

Ruminations on shipping
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jul 30, 2022 at 01:39:18 AM

Hello! No news to report quite yet on the Frosthaven front. Production is still going strong! We're also still working on smoothing things out for Frosthaven's long logistical journey, and we're anticipating having more production insights and fulfillment plans in the next update. What follows in this update has no new info on the Frosthaven project.

Speaking of logistical journeys, though, I know there have been a lot of waves recently in the crowdfunding community regarding the fulfillment of various projects, and first and foremost, I want to reiterate to you that you will NOT be asked for additional funds to complete the shipping of Frosthaven.

I will also say, however, that I understand why some companies feel the need to take such drastic measures. While I can't directly speak to what is going on in projects other than our own, the simple fact of the matter is that the last year has been incredibly rough on all game publishers when it comes to the logistics of moving physical products across the globe.

The global freight crisis that began last year and still persists to this day saw the cost of ocean freight rise by 300%-400%. And the recent invasion of Ukraine has caused a sharp rise in gas prices, which has caused a commensurate surge in ground shipping costs. Add to the that the countless ripple effects of a global pandemic that is still raging, and it has just been one punch after the other for anyone trying to fulfill a product right now.

Some companies, like Cephalofair Games, have the financial flexibility to weather the storm and accept the losses, but others understandably do not. All I would advocate for is a little patience for those who are now encountering so many unforeseeable extra costs. Because I think we are, as a community, rounding the corner on this. Crowdfunding, in particular, has continued to persist through the pandemic and we're starting to see more positive shifts toward a new normal, but that varies significantly based on the publisher, geographic locations, existing infrastructures, and ability to pivot while combating other ongoing logistical hurdles.

And I certainly appreciate your patience on this project as we've dealt with our own issues and delays caused by the various ripple effects of the pandemic (and a desire to make everything in the game as great as possible). And Cephalofair Games is very fortunate to be in a position to not have to ask for more funding or shipping subsidies, but we are still not immune to the lost margins we know our other peers are experiencing, whether they are asking for subsidies or not.

It costs money to manufacture and ship games, and that cost, quite simply, is increasing, whether we like it or not.

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But, hey, before I leave you, let's end on a good note! I hardly ever plug other board game projects, but, well, I helped design this one, so I feel it's justified. The second printing of Return to Dark Tower just hit BackerKit Crowdfunding this week, and we couldn't be happier for Restoration's success!

If you already have the game, there's the new Covenant expansion, and if you don't, then there's plenty of options to help you out with that as well.

It is interesting to me that once a game I designed has been published, I don't really play the final form much because I've already spent so much time with it, but Return to Dark Tower just keeps me coming back for more. It might be because the final form of the game is so much greater than the prototypes with very incomplete technology I had to play with. The tower is such a monumental presence on the board, and the variability of the app always keeps me on my toes. It is a lighter game than Gloomhaven for sure, but it is just good, clean fun.

So that's it. Sorry for another update without much news on the project, but this should be the last "slow news day" for a while. I'll catch you next time with more logistics info!

Production continues
over 2 years ago – Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 03:52:31 AM

Hello! Still not a lot to report from the front this week. Production continues to move along, with all files now approved. We are still in the thick of working out all the logistics of fulfillment, but in the mean time, I've got two things to bring to your attention.

First, we’ll soon be sending out an email from BackerKit asking everyone to confirm their address. This does NOT mean Frosthaven is ready to ship, and it is NOT the last chance you’ll have to update your address. This is just so we have the most up-to-date information for each shipping region. You’ll still be able to update your address anytime before shipping starts by contacting [email protected]. Additionally we’ll also be sending out another email later this year when we are about to start shipping giving you one more opportunity!

Second, if you've been wondering how you're going to transport your giant copy of Frosthaven around once it arrives, we may have a solution. We have partnered with BoardGameTables.com to produce a Frosthaven-sized carrying bag, which just became available for pre-order this week. You can find it here. This is also coinciding with us opening up a new pre-order for Frosthaven to sell off excess copies from the first print run, which you can find here. And just to be clear, fulfillment for this pre-order will occur only once the Kickstarter orders have been fulfilled, so you'll still get your games first!

Oh! And feel free to visit us at Gen Con and check out Frosthaven! Our booth is #257. We'll also have a new cosplay from Monica Paprocki! Other than that, I hope everyone is doing well and continues to do well as we move into the final legs of this journey! Stay safe, and I'll catch you next time!

Moving along
over 2 years ago – Sun, Jul 03, 2022 at 01:56:44 AM

Hello! This is a "not much news" update. As printing is underway, we are finishing up the final digital proofing process with the factory and have been giving the go-ahead to start printing files as their proofs are approved. A couple of the files needed additional iterations, but we are almost fully through proofing everything.

We are also still working through freight and fulfillment schedules with our partners, and will let you know when we have more information to share there.

In the meantime, take care of yourselves and each other, and I'll catch you next time!

Starting Production
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 05:53:41 AM

Hello! I am here today to happily tell you that we are starting production! After our extensive reviews of the proof copies, we are moving forward with production on all the elements that weren't revised during the review. The components that were revised will begin once we get back digital proofs of all the files we changed so that we can verify that all the changes we implemented were actually implemented. That may sound weird, but there are a lot of files, and we have gone through a lot of iterations of each, and so we need to just go through one last fail-safe protocol to make absolutely sure all the right files are being used before we print 100,000+ copies of the game.

The review was extensive and thorough, and I'm feeling very confident in the overall integrity of the game now. Having been able to view everything together and see how it all connects together (or didn't connect, in some cases that have since been changed), I think we are delivering to you an outstanding product that is 100% complete. There were a lot of revisions, ranging from narrative inconsistencies I found, to using some cleaner language in some special rules, to lightening up some of the artwork just a tad to make it pop more, to revising some of the plastic tray layouts to make everything fit a little better. We tightened all the bolts, so to speak, and now this beast is fully ready for action!

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Also, in case you missed the announcement earlier this week, I just wanted to let you know that our next project, Miniatures of Gloomhaven, will be launching on BackerKit Crowdfunding, as opposed to Kickstarter. We'll be launching the project in early 2023, after this Frosthaven project has been fulfilled, and it will feature over 500 miniatures for all the monsters and summons in all Gloomhaven and Frosthaven products. We'll also be offering a second printing of Frosthaven, along with some other exciting stuff that has yet to be announced. You can follow this link to learn more and sign up for updates. We've been working on all the sculpts for these monsters for a long time now (there are a lot!), and I just wanted to share some teaser images for some Frosthaven monsters.

See you all next time!