Update #58: A short update with a lot to see
over 8 years ago – Fri, Aug 12, 2016 at 11:26:35 PM

Dear backers, it's been less than a month since our last update, but we couldn't wait to share a couple cool things with you all!

We Have Minis!

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll save you a lot of reading. Here are a few photos of production prototypes straight from the manufacturer. And believe me, they look even better in person! 

Unboxing Video

If a picture is worth so much text, what is a video worth? Let’s just round up and call it “priceless” :) Here is the unboxing video we promised!

One note about the video: The box inserts you see were made by our team (from cardboard they had lying around) as stand-in for what will actually come in the box. The production inserts will be thicker and more full-sized to fit the box nicely.

Last Chance for Pre-Orders. Seriously.

The Pre-Order store will close on Monday, August 15th, so if you’ve been holding back for some reason, this is your absolute final warning!

Hero Master- a new project by our artist Jamie

Hot on the heels of last year’s Season's Grim Things, our amazing artist Jamie Noble has created a new line of humorous greetings cards for fantasy fans and gamers.  

They are currently available via his successful Kickstarter, but only for a couple more days! As a bonus, there’s a limited supply of Season’s Grim Things cards available as an add-on… just in time for this holiday season.

So hurry over to Kickstarter to check them out! 

Here’s a quick sample to whet your appetite:

Still on Schedule

Hopefully you aren’t sick of hearing about it, but we’re still on schedule for delivery as planned, despite there being an unbelievable amount of stuff to work through in the final steps of preparation and production. Yay!

Update #57: Important notices
over 8 years ago – Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 11:48:33 PM

Hello backers! It's been a little over a month since our last update, so we wanted to keep you all in the loop with what's happening. There are some important bits of info in here, so please keep reading!

Production is On Schedule!

The printing of all components is in process with Panda and expected to be fully completed just in time for Essen. We even upgraded a few materials to ensure superior quality and customer satisfaction.

All of the Witch’s Grotto and Hideout miniatures have already been manufactured by Prodos and are complete. They will be flying to China very soon to be packed with the rest of the components.

Reminder of MSRP changes

Due to unexpected increases in production costs, we have to increase the MSRP to cover the cost of the retail edition. After pre-orders close, the MSRP will go up. This will not affect backers at all… your prices are locked in. It just means that if you want to get a copy at the current prices, you’d better pre-order now. 

And speaking of pre-orders...

Pre-orders are closing August 15th

After August 15th the store will reflect the increased MSRP and will only list items that we have left (meaning a much more limited selection). We can also not guarantee delivery everywhere for orders after that, since we'll have to lock down the shipping arrangements. 

And speaking of shipping arrangements...

Shipping Addresses will be locked on Monday, Aug 1st

Please please please make sure that your shipping address is correct. After Monday we will not be able to change it. This has to be done early, as we have only so many games going to each country. We may still be able to accommodate IN COUNTRY address changes for a bit after this date. If such happens, please contact us via email ([email protected]).

Essen Reminder

Don’t forget to come see us at Essen! We will be in Booth# 2-D127

If you are scheduled to pick up your game at Essen, but can’t make it yourself, please email us ([email protected]) as soon as possible to let us know who will be picking up your game. ID will be required.

What’s in the box?

Jalmari has been working on a sweet unboxing video. It's almost done, so keep an eye out for that in the next update. We should also very soon have some new photos of the miniatures for you to drool over.

#56: So close we can almost taste it...
over 8 years ago – Sun, Jun 19, 2016 at 12:20:15 AM

Dear Backers,

It’s been a busy month.

As usual the good stuff is right at the beginning. But if you realize that you still haven’t filled your BackerKit survey, get to the bottom of the update pronto!

So, are we printing yet?

Our resin miniatures have been cast and they are currently sitting in massive cartons waiting to be shipped across the globe. And PVC plastic might or might not be pouring into molds as you are reading this. :)

The rest of the components are almost on the production line, but first we want to triple check the physical proofs and confirm with our production partner, Panda Game Manufacturing, that the issues we have already found have been fixed. We are almost literally a “yeah, go ahead” away from being in production. In fact, we could have already started printing but since we are well on schedule and the release date won’t get any earlier no matter how we rush, there’s very little reason to not go a bit OCD with making sure everything is in order!

And talking about physical proofs, what do you think of this?

This is our hand-made physical proof box, the only existing physical copy of Perdition’s Mouth at the moment. Including everything from the Gamer’s Bargain Bundle apart of the miniatures, it weighs approximately 4,8kg (over 10 lbs). It takes two hands to lift! The final box will also be an inch taller than the proof here - because we can’t even close this thing all the way!

Somebody once told us that Perdition’s Mouth isn’t substantial enough… Guess so, if you normally play with bricks!

Moved, moving, going to move?

Please notice that the option to change your delivery address on BackerKit will close on July 23rd. Be aware that we’ll love you more if we have a correct shipping address for sending you board gaming goodies!

IMPORTANT! We are still missing backers...

Come on, guys and gals! You backed us, surely you also want to get your game and add on goodies you are perfectly entitled to get? 99% and then some have filled their BackerKit surveys well on time, but there’s still ten (10) people who haven’t done so. If you just realized that you are among those 10 remaining people who still haven’t filled their BackerKit survey, bear in mind, that unless if you do so, we don’t know what send and to where. :(

And for the rest of you, good job! Feel free to relax.

Update wrap up

Well well… That was a short newsletter for such a busy month. When things are on track, no news really is good news.

Oh, what’s that? You wanted to see what’s in the box? Hmmm... If there’s enough of interest to take a little peek into this part of a board game making process, express that interest. Maybe we could open the proof-box for you next month and show you something properly tangible extra early… maybe in the form of candid shaky cam footage? But whether that happens or not depends on your reaction to the idea. So, how curious are you? Do leave a comment if the idea piques your interest!

For now, that’s all folks! Keep having a jolly good summer time! And remember that if you see a cultist wearing sunglasses (or just regular glasses), don’t pull your punches. Honor codes won’t do you much good when you’re being eaten by a bug demon.

#55: Proofs, Miniatures & more
over 8 years ago – Tue, May 17, 2016 at 11:00:55 PM

Dear Backers,

Once again, loads has happened since the last update…

So, where is the production going?

We have received the digital proofs of Perdition’s Mouth components, checked them, fixed a few lingering minor issues, and sent them back to the component printing company, along with a thumbs up. We are expecting the physical proofs to reach us next week, meaning that we’ll also have the material choices locked down soon too. As I’m writing this, we also have all three designers (on both sides of the Atlantic) scribbling signatures for the signed copies. This means we are a merely weeks away from giving our production partners the go sign to start molding, printing, and assembling shelf-ready copies of Perdition’s Mouth!

I should probably also mention that some of the first miniatures have already been produced! We’ve got two different miniature producers working hard to ensure we meet the planned schedule while also providing the best possible miniatures for your gaming pleasure. The more complex miniatures will be made out of durable resin plastic mix and the rest miniatures will be PVC plastic. We have also listened to our backers’ collective wisdom, and will provide the victim-in-a-cage miniature unassembled (as opposed to every other miniature that will be preassembled). Truly, painting the victim through a cage in any satisfactory manner would be virtually impossible.

Here’s a little sneak peek of the “real deal” miniatures…

On other news…

Localized rulebooks – Unfortunately we’ll be producing physical copies only out of the German rulebook due to production limitation. We are still going to make rulebooks localized (at least) in Spanish, Italian, and French available as two different PDF versions, these being the printer friendly high resolution PDF and a lower resolution PDF for digital use.

Please find the Indesign Markup Language file (.IDML) for anybody who’d be interested in localizing the rulebook to any language we haven’t managed to find a translator for. Return us the translated IDML-file and we’ll make your translation available as full PDFs along with the ones which we are already have localizations coming up. And of course, we’ll also grant the translators some sort of extra surprise benefits related to Perdition’s Mouth!

Change of CEO – Jalmari has agreed to take charge of running Dawn Matrix and Dragon Dawn Productions, lifting the burden of the less exciting responsibilities from Timo’s shoulders so he can concentrate on game design. While this leaves Jalmari very envious, we are all excited to have him steering the day-to-day operations. From your point of view, everything should remain largely the same as Jalmari has been an integral part of the DDP team since the beginning. All the contact details also remain the same and will reach the same people. So all in all… meh?

Logistics! Where does my game come from?

As we steadily approach printing, it’s time to remind you that you must provide a final shipping address no later than the 15th of July 2016. because we’ll be locking all shipping addresses on the 16th of July. We’ll mention it once more in our Summer update, but please take a minute to make sure it’s correct now so you don’t have to worry about it.

For shipping, we will use

• Aetherworks for Australia & New Zealand
• FunAgain for US
• Boardgamebliss for Canada (arriving through the US)
• European fulfilment details are still being worked out. The majority will go through Attacke (Germany), if not all.
• The rest of the world will receive their shipments directly from China. So unlike many other projects, backers in or near China might receive theirs first! :)

And that just about wraps this update up. Enjoy your summer! And remember that if cultists block your sunshine, kick ‘em in the face! And buy a parasol… It’ll give you the necessary cool shadow without dooming the future of mankind.

#54: Modena Play, Production update & Box
over 8 years ago – Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 11:28:59 PM

Dear Backers,

It’s been a little while since our last update, but we’ve been extremely busy behind the scenes. Here’s what we’ve been up to: 

Modena Play update 

Modena Play fair takes place in Modena, Italy. It’s the largest and most important of Italian game fairs. It has grown considerably since my last visit (2011). There was three person Finnish invasion team (me and the Playmore games guys). We had tables full constantly, found Italian distributor (which was the main goal) and got a lot of awareness of our games. Comments were very positive. It would have been hugely helpful if we’d have spoken more Italian than the typical “Mamma Mia” or “Frizzante Lambrusco Secco, prego”. However, we were in Casa Europa, the Italian method for arranging translations when needed. In essence the tireless Goblins of Venice worked from 09 to 20 every day in our full tables explaining our games, while we spent time just resolving most complex cases or talking with press.

And you can’t visit italy without mentioning that it’s a country with not only wonderful cuisine (and wine), but also magnificent people. We’re eternally grateful to friends from Treemme that they deemed us worthy of invitation.

We did a small video reel from some of the comments we got. It’s in italian, but we’ve been told that keywords are:”Fresh, Innovative, Solid, Clean, Challenging, Highly Cooperative, Very Funny, Good Miniatures”.

Which fairs should we go next? Tell your opinion in the comment section.

Production update 

The project is still totally on schedule. We’re working hard polishing the expansions and the rulebook through play testing and proofreading (now at 58th revision and available here), once again many thanks to those few who have spent countless hours in bug hunting. We expect to have color proofs of all materials very soon, which is the final step before things can actually be printed up. 

MSRP & Essen pricing 

We’ve done the math and arrived at our final MSRP pricing as well as that for selling direct at Essen and other such fairs/events. A lot of people have asked these details and it took longer than expected to actually get there, sorry.

In brief, the MSRP until September 1st will be: Retail edition $99US / 99€, Kickstarter Deluxe edition $129US / 129€ After September 1st those will go up $10 each. 

Fill out your backerkit please! 

Just a small plea to the 47 backers that haven’t yet completed their surveys - please please please go get your personalized survey link from: https://perditions-mouth.backerkit.com/ 

We promise it will only take a minute of your time. ...or send us the information needed by email and we’ll happily fill it up for you.

IT Admin?

Do you have a little geek inside you who likes to tinker with IT admin things? Yep, I know how it feels. Been doing that for 20 years. But now we’re looking for an additional IT admin geek for our linux based servers so that I could spend also that time with game development. It’s certainly no get-rich-quick-scheme to help us with IT-admin, but you’ll get to join our international crew and get all the benefit. Send me mail, if this interests you.

Box pictures 

Jalmari has been hard at work finalising the box art, which is one of the first things we have to physically produce, since putting them together takes a lot of time and effort. Check it out!