Europe Update + Charging Credit Cards
about 2 years ago – Fri, Mar 25, 2022 at 03:28:26 PM

Hi folks,

I've received an update that the Europe-bound shipment arrived at the fulfillment center there and is getting ready to ship! (I don't know the exact timeline of shipping to each European territory from there.) 

I will go ahead and charge all backers' credit cards (regardless of region). To remind you what you're being charged for: most folks paid for shipping after the campaign in Backerkit, but there are also some late backers that finished the majority of their pledge (plus shipping) there.

-Andy

Shipping Delays
about 2 years ago – Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 01:43:59 AM

Hi all,

Mutanite shipping is delayed for all territories. 

The US-bound container ship had been sitting outside of the US port for several weeks, unable to dock due to port congestion. It finally docked last week.  From here to clear customs and get to the warehouse, it should be at least another 6 weeks, which puts us in a possible May timeframe to ship out games to all non-European backers. (For Canada, Australia and other non-European international territories, there will be an additional step of getting the games from the US warehouse to additional fulfillment partners.) Given the amount of congestion at the US port already, I would not be surprised if there was a further delay from this point in getting through customs, but will keep my fingers crossed.

I am still waiting on an update for the Europe-bound container ship. My fulfillment partner there mentioned a couple different possible reasons for the delay having to do with container ship and fulfillment system delays, but the information is unclear so I'm waiting on a clearer update before passing that along.

When I have more substantial updates, I will let you know. Thank you for your patience.

Reiterating from last update: If your shipping address has changed, please update it on Backerkit. You can re-send your survey or log into Backerkit here.

-Andy

Freight Update
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 02:30:50 PM

Happy New Year!

If your shipping address has changed since the campaign, please update it on Backerkit. You can re-send your survey or log into Backerkit here.

I have a few updates for you today.

• I received the revised copy of the game and gave the green light on assembly in December.
• Games have been picked up from the manufacturer and should be leaving China within a few days, headed for US and the EU. I'm glad the games are making it out of China before Chinese New Year starts in February.
• I still estimate that backers will receive games in April.
• For funds charged through Backerkit (shipping fees and late backers): I have not charged credit cards yet, I will do this as it gets closer to shipping the games out.

That's it! 

-Andy

First Production Copy!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Nov 28, 2021 at 02:09:01 PM

Happy Holidays!

The first production copy of Masters of Mutanite arrived! Generally everything looks great, except for the coloring of the rulebook.

Here's a comparison of the pre-production copy rulebook (left) to the production copy rulebook (right):

So, the manufacturer is reprinting the rulebooks. I'll review the newly printed rulebook when it arrives (should be in the next couple weeks) before giving the full go-ahead to assemble all the games. 

Freight

Due to the global freight crisis, freight prices have risen dramatically and shipments have slowed. From talking to our partners, I still think the April timeline of game delivery is doable, but it could be delayed further. I'm working out the details and will let you all know when I know more. 

Lots More Production Copy Pics!

The production copy of the game looks awesome in-person. Some of the pics don't do it justice. The cards look especially great. 

Note that I'm shooting into the light in some of the pics below, so some of the standees may appear dark (like you saw in the review videos) but they're just right in-person.

Cheers!

-Andy

Pre-Production Copy
over 2 years ago – Tue, Sep 21, 2021 at 10:10:00 AM

Hello hello!

I received the pre-production copy of Masters of Mutanite and it looks glorious! Before jumping into the details, I wanted to put two updates upfront:

• The manufacturer is estimating 14-18 weeks for manufacturing from now, which puts us at mid-January for completion. Then there's still freight and fulfillment after that, so it's looking like roughly April delivery at this point.
• I shipped out most of the Apotheca and Knee Jerk related rewards to backers at the Triple Play reward tier. The only ones I didn't mail yet are to local LA folks I know personally, so if you backed for $100 and don't receive yours, let me know.

Now onto the pre-production copy! Generally, everything looked great! I've been going back and forth with the manufacturer on some small things, below is what we've been up to. Note that the colors in the pictures don't quite do it justice.

•  Plastic Clips: The biggest change is that the plastic clips are now plastic cubes. The clips that track life and mutanite did not slide well on the character sheets. On thinner card stock, they slid better, but the structure of them made them become askew very easily, which felt terrible. Seeing as you frequently update your life and mutanite in this game, we weighed several options, and in the end decided on red and blue plastic cubes to track life and mutanite, respectively. One thing that helped this decision was that, after talking to playtesters that have been close to the game for a while, they said they vastly preferred cubes over clips because they slide more easily AND because clips tend to ruin card stock over time. Also, the cubes add a visual coolness factor, which is a nice bonus :)

•  Character Sheets: The character images on the front/back of the character sheets didn't match properly, which is now fixed. Along with this, the mutanite tracks are now nudged down to be further protected from the perils of drift/bleed (changing from clips to cubes made this adjustment possible as well since we no longer have to be worried about the size of the clips' viewing window). To accommodate for longer cube travel on the mutanite track, it's been spread out a bit. To enable longer versus games, I also decided to add the +50 and +100 life chunks to the Player side of the sheets (like the Villain side has). Lastly, the small 2- and 3- damage numbers on villain traits/powers have been changed to be more readable.

•  Rules: Text and imagery are updated to accommodate the change to cubes. I also added tips for how to put the many stands on the standees when first setting up the game. Note that once stands are put on the standees in this game, they never need to be removed! There are enough stands for all standees at once, and they all fit with their standees in the box. 

•  Box Front: Brightened it up to pop more. In some lights it looks fine, but when not lit it looks a bit dark.
•  Box Back: Text updated to accommodate the change to cubes, and some other formatting fixes.

•  Mini Cards: These were intended to be grouped in shrink wrap as Starter Powers / Advanced Powers / Traits / Elemental Effects, but due to the layout of the print sheet, the manufacturer informed me that we can either optimize the sheet for color consistency OR for shrink wrap groupings. I chose to prioritize color consistency, since it's key to the secrecy of where cards are in your deck / opponent decks (especially relevant for Reactions). The shrink wrap groupings will be ok anyway -- the cards will come sorted, it's just that one kind of Starter Power will be separated from the others (and the rules clearly say, with pictures, what to put aside initially).

That's all, folks!

-Andy