Makin' Meeples
almost 6 years ago – Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 09:54:29 PM

Hullo meeple friends,

Production starts tomorrow!

Thanks so much everyone for your phenomenal response to the Backerkit survey.

At the time of writing, only 9 of you have not completed the survey, and we had a little trouble charging the cards of 5 of you. (It usually happens because our bank is Australian, and your bank is suspicious. Fair call, we were a convict colony after all)

See you at Gen Con

If you are going to Gen Con 2018, we'd love to see you at Booth #224.

We will have the meeple production samples so you can see what you backed, along with our entire coin range. Extra cool things for you include our Deven Rue Compass Rose which looks right at home on a board game board, and also our Shut Up & Sit Down First Player Token, the only badge of authority that really counts. Come and say hello!

Our first game: Rochi

We are also super excited to be previewing Rochi at Gen Con. It's the very first game release from King of the Castle Games. 

Rochi is a fantasy gambling game created by ace game designer James Ernest (Tak, Kill Dr Lucky, and many more Cheapass Games) with Sonia Orin Lyris (author of The Seer, from Baen Books). The beautiful cards are illustrated by Mark Ferrari.

We will have our preview decks with near-complete art at our Booth #224, and we are also running the first ever Rochi event - if you are free at Friday 3pm, come play with us!

Rochi is coming soon to Kickstarter. For now, enjoy this first look at some of the cards!

That's all

While we're crossing the world to go to Gen Con, our production crew will be hard at work on your meeples. Assuming that all goes well, we look forwards to sending them to you in September.

Best,

Mark, Andre, Penny & Jackson

Survey lockdown is this weekend
almost 6 years ago – Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 12:05:47 AM

Hello meeple friends,

This is a very small update to remind you that we will lockdown surveys this weekend on Saturday 21 July, and charge your cards on Sunday 22 July.

We're thrilled to say that a whopping 93% of you are already locked in, which surely must be a record! Thanks so much.

Soon you too can take your meeple buddies on location, like Blue Water Meeple below!

Best,

Mark, Andre, Jackson & Penny

BackerKit surveys: 3 days to go
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 09:48:51 PM

Hullo meeple friends,

Thank you so much for your rapid response to the BackerKit surveys!

We finally had clearance to send them out on Friday, and at the time of writing, a massive 323 backers have responded (take a bow!), while a mere 85 backers are still deciding.

This means we are definitely going to go ahead to lock down the survey on 21 July, and charge your cards for postage on 22 July.

So, if you want to be absolutely sure you'll get the meeples you want, please finish your survey now.

Increasing Pledge Level is cheaper than Add Ons

As we wrote last update, if you feel like you want more Meeples, the best deal is to increase your pledge level, rather than buy extras as Add Ons.

There are some exceptions. If you have only pledged for a single Meeple Pack, then adding one Add On pack is the same price. And, if you pledged for Ten of Everything or for Eight Packs, you're already getting the best deal (and your Add Ons are cheaper).

But, if you are anywhere between Two Packs and Seven Packs, you can save between AU $6 and AU $13 by increasing your Pledge Level instead of buying any meeple pack Add Ons.

For details on how to make that change, see our last update.

Pre-orders are live for those who missed out

Do you have any friends who missed out on the campaign?

Pre-orders are now live, and anyone who orders here will also receive the limited edition Mt Fuji meeple. If you are so inclined, please share the link:

https://deluxe-metal-meeples.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Kickstarter shout out: Edible Games Cookbook

In 2012 I had the pleasure of working alongside Jenn Sandercock as we worked on the educational computer game Knowledge Quest, in which brave adventurers defeat monsters by their superior use of spelling and grammar. (Take that!) 

Jenn has combined her love of gaming with her love of baking to produce The Edible Games Cookbook, a delightful book about how to bake perfectly playable board games... and then eat them!

The book is fully funded, and the campaign ends in 3 days, so if the idea sounds appealing then get your tastebuds over to the Kickstarter page and start drooling, I mean, backing.

Keep it going!

Thanks again for your quick response. It's also a credit to BackerKit, who make this stuff so easy for you to fill out, and for us to see the data.

Here's an action shot to finish up this time: we took the meeples for a spin in Stone Age. I love using them, the hefty weight as you commit to placing your workers feels so satisfying!

Best,

Mark, Andre, Penny & Jackson 

Backer surveys this week
almost 6 years ago – Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 01:08:16 AM

Hullo meeple friends!

We are ready to send out the backer surveys for your Deluxe Metal Meeples.

Please complete your survey before Saturday 21 July.

We are using BackerKit as our pledge manager. The BackerKats recommend a smoke test to make sure everything is working as intended, so today we're sending surveys to 5% of you. 

If all goes well, tomorrow BackerKit will give us approval to send out to everyone else.

How the survey works

The survey questions prompt you to tell us which Meeple Pack you would like for each pack on your pledge.

 
After that, you can select any Add Ons, and you will see the amount of postage owing.

 
If you do want more Meeples, the best deal is to change your original pledge level. It is cheaper than buying them as Add Ons, as the price gets better in bulk.

To change your pledge, go back to the first page and look for switch your pledge level, below the big green Get Started button.

That will open a dropdown menu where you can select your new pledge. You will then need to answer any survey questions again.

 
After you have finished locking in your pledge and your Add Ons, you will see your final shipping amount. Remember that we are in Australia, so your local currency is probably stronger than ours. For our US friends, AUD $6 is less than USD $5.

You will be prompted to enter your address, and your credit card details. We will charge your card on Sunday 22 July.

Tip jar

Sometimes backers are kind enough to leave a tip. It has always been our habit to pass that directly on to the artist for the project. So, if you are so inclined, you can buy our ace meeple artist Daniel Solis a coffee. Cheers to you!

 
What happens next

After we charge your credit cards on Sunday 22 July, we will compile all of the survey responses and place our production order on Thursday 26 July, just before we leave for Gen Con on the Saturday.

We are back on deck on 13 August, and the meeples will be finished on 31 August, assuming all goes well with the antique plating and enamel process. We will then air freight them to our fulfilment partners in the first week of September. We'll check to see how their fulfilment queue is at that time, and give you an estimate on when you'll see them.

Questions?

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about the surveys. The postage is our best estimate based on all the rates provided to us by our shipping partners. We've kept the prices as low as we can by shipping to local hubs for you.

That's all for today. We'll send out a short confirmation when the surveys have all gone out. It's time to get your meeple on!

Best,

Mark, Andre, Jackson & Penny

Shiny happy last day!
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Jun 08, 2018 at 10:57:47 PM

Hullo Meeple Friends,

It's been a long and happy #meepleholiday, but our campaign is finishing in the next 24 hours. Thanks so much for meepling along with us!

Now's the time to have one last look at your pledge. Kickstarter will charge your credit card as soon as the campaign closes, so please make sure it's right for you.

Please remember that we will then charge the postage in BackerKit, the pledge amount just covers the actual meeples. The postage estimates are on the main page.

Here's some housekeeping and other business as we hit the end run.

Questions, with answers

We've had a few questions, so here are some clarifications:

I am pledging for multiple packs. How many of the bonus Mt Fuji will I receive?

Everyone will receive exactly one Fuji meeple. We wanted to make a special rare meeple. If you pledge for multiple packs, while you don't get multiple bonus meeples, you do benefit from the escalating discount on packs.

How many velvet bags will I receive?

Each meeple pack will come pre-bagged in a velvet bag of the same colour. So, a colour pack of 8 red meeples will come in a red velvet bag. The collector pack will come in a brown velvet bag. We'll make sure there is enough room in the bag for 10 meeples, so for all you TEN OF EACH COLOUR backers, you can rebag them easily.

I am a TEN OF EACH COLOUR backer. Can I add on more sets?

Yes you can. We will extend the special AUD $22 Add On Price to TEN OF EACH backers.

Are there any more Add Ons?

We have no last minute Add Ons to bring to the party. Our folding dice trays have been very popular lately, and we think that a nice generic board game tray would be handy to stop that one player from wreaking a trail of dicey destruction, but we don't have the art ready so we won't offer it just now. Is this something you would like to see? Let us know in the comments.

I have another question...

Great! Ask us in the Main Comments on the project page, or send us a message.

Let's do this thing!

Thanks again, everyone. It's been a joy to design and make these meeples, and we are so thrilled that 360 of you like them too.

To see us out, here's a gallery of all of the prototypes (note, these are the first version of the Yellow Flower Meeples). Start planning which ones you will select!

Best,

Mark, Andre, Jackson &  Penny