Games are on the Way!
about 5 years ago – Mon, Oct 07, 2019 at 07:02:01 PM

Good news, everyone! The warehouse has begun shipping out all the backer copies, and some have already arrived over the weekend. I have not gotten the finalized tracking spreadsheet from them, so you may wind up receiving your game before I have tracking data on it. Sorry about that!  

Missing Components / Replacements

If there's anything missing from your game, our replacements form is at asmadigames.com/replacements  , and we'll send out bits as soon as we can. 

There's one error in the rulebook on the components page, where it lists 72 credit tokens instead of 64. Your copy should have 20x 1, 16x 3, 16x 10, 12x 30. I added up the numbers wrong when we produced the rulebook, sorry about that! 

BackerKit Surveys begin, Boat soon, Target Dates!
over 5 years ago – Sun, Jul 28, 2019 at 10:29:44 PM

We've set up the BackerKit to begin sending out surveys (they require a small batch be sent out before the main batch, to account for any errors. A few people should've gotten them already!)

When you get the survey, you'll be able to enter your address, and add additional copies if desired. A handful of people chose "No Reward" despite pledging the amount for a game - you'll be able to fix that in BackerKit as well.

Production Status

Production of the games is nearly complete, and no issues have arisen so far. We had to fix the design of the insert from the advance prototype, but only minor changes. 

Ideally, the game will be on a boat in the next couple weeks, and our goal is to have it in backers' hands in late September! It's taken a bit longer than planned to get this to everyone, but I think you'll all be happy with the finished product.

Gen Con

We'll be in Booth #2455 all weekend, and I will have my one copy of Phoenix Syndicate there if you'd like to see it. We'll also be showing off One Deck Galaxy and 1001 Odysseys. Stop by and say hello if you're there!

Production Samples!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 06:32:31 PM

Hey everyone! Took a little longer than anticipated to get the samples in, but they are here and I've got photos to share. Everything looks really pretty, and I'm quite happy with how this is coming out. First up, the box itself:

And some shots of the assembled board with agent tokens + ships on it:

One of the biggest changes we made from the previous prototype runs was to make the gate icons, production icons + system letter larger, based on feedback. I think it was definitely the right call, seeing these in person! 

You can also see here for the first time, the player agent tokens + ships. The ship model came out great - they're easy to pick up and move, durable, and don't obscure too much of the tile underneath.

Here's the player board with a couple cards slotted underneath - the plastic cubes weren't part of this sample, it was just the cardboard + paper materials:

And the Corp Board, with advantages + some credit chips above it. The credit chips are nice and big, so as to indicate your massive pile of wealth!

Here's a shot of Trade Routes + Upgrades:

We're going to pore over these and make sure there aren't any errors, but assuming there aren't, the paper bits can go into production and that shouldn't take too long - the biggest time sink was the creation of the plastic molds for the ships, and that's all done! Once this is loaded onto a boat, we'll post the scheduled dates.

Some folks have expressed concern over tariffs - for this project, there won't be any impact to our backers, although we may have to adjust the MSRP for the final market. Still waiting to see how it plays out before finalizing the price details. 

Production Update: Ship model, Syndicate Logos / Agent Tokens, Rulebook
over 5 years ago – Wed, May 01, 2019 at 10:20:21 AM

Hey everyone - thanks for backing Phoenix Syndicate and helping us get this game out to the world! Apologies for being quiet since the campaign, we've been working on making sure the finished product is as good as it deserves to be. The campaign didn't blow up quite as large as hoped, but despite that, I want this game to be a quality product that has a space on your shelf (and other future customers' shelves) for a long time. We've signed a contract and used the KS funding + some other funds to pay for a run of 2500 copies, which is getting ready to go into production now. This is later than we'd hoped, and we'll have an updated production + delivery schedule in May.

Game Bits

The biggest hurdle we've been working on is pieces / models. When we got the quote back in the summer, we anticipated having plastic models for agents, ships, and directors. Getting the right idea for a ship took a while, but I'm very happy with the result. It's got a small circular base, with a solid connection to the ship. 

This sample piece is white because it is a molding sample - they will come in player colors:

We wanted something with verticality, that read as a "ship", and didn't obscure too much of the system tile where it was placed.  I think this model serves all those goals quite nicely! 

Agents proved harder. Nothing we did in plastic really worked out right - we had ideas for an interlocking piece, but eventually decided that doing the agents in cardboard was a better plan, because we could give them better color and insignias. And I'm glad we did, because Alanna made us some neat looking pieces:

They're still designed to be stacked to form bases, and we made the tips highlighted to be able to see very clearly at a distance where bases reside. That was often a problem with our prototype agents (wooden discs) and mono-colored plastic triangles didn't do much better. The insignias also are helpful with colorblind disambiguation.

Credit chips were easier, and we wound up with a simple rectangular design for your galactic monies:

Rules

The (nearly) finished rulebook for Syndicate is here: http://asmadigames.com/rules/Syndicate_Rules.pdf .  Why nearly-finished? Because we need to adjust the page size, which requires moving around some graphics bits. No major changes, just some graphical upgrades here and there. Turns out, an 8.5"x11" rulebook can't fit in a box that's 10.5" x 10.5". Oops. 

One of the things we're happy we had space for is a full list of all the Upgrade and Advantage cards (and some FAQ for each):

We considered an online FAQ, but decided this was a better way to go. 

What's Next?

With all the files headed to the factory, next up will be proofs from them, and our quest to find the One Inevitable Typo that always slips through the cracks. We should be putting out another update in the middle of May with more information. We'll be opening up the BackerKit for addresses and pre-orders around then as well. 

Funded in just under an hour!
about 6 years ago – Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 03:37:37 PM

Okay, so that's not true. But - it *was* funded just under an hour from when I woke up this morning, so it sort of counts?

This certainly went a bit slower than we'd anticipated, but thanks go out to everyone who backed and posted on our behalf about Syndicate - every little thing helped! 

Up next, after the campaign concludes this evening, is getting files and models ready for production. We're aiming to send all the files to the factory in early December to get everything underway.