Deep Madness: Madness Reborn and Reprint

The Latest on Shipping
5 days ago – Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 11:42:52 PM

Hi guys! We just got a new shipping update, so here's what's happening. 

Shipping Progress

Europe

Two containers previously scheduled to clear customs last Monday spent the week waiting in Hungary instead. Because there were so many goods waiting for Hungarian customs to clear, only one container cleared last Friday and was delivered to the Polish warehouse over the weekend. Customs should clear the other container today (April 22). It should then arrive at the warehouse tomorrow (April 23). After counting all the goods, the warehouse will make a delivery plan. We will continue to follow up with them and pass what we learn along to you.

The US

The ships to the East and West US are currently at sea. (Yay!) We'll keep you updated as they arrive and clear customs. As a reminder, the West Coast Vessel/Voyage is the COSCO ENGLAND/062E, and the East Coast Vessel/Voyage is the GERDA MAERSK/19/W.

Canada

Our shipping partner loaded the Canadian orders onto a ship last week. The Vessel/Voyage is the NAVIOS AMAROLL/52E, which will leave the Yantian port on April 23 and arrive in Vancouver on May 11.

Australia

Our shipping partner also loaded the Australian orders onto a ship last week. The Vessel/Voyage is the WIDE HOTEL/0032S. It will leave Shenzhen port on May 2 and arrive in Sydney on May 14. Due to the small quantity of Australian orders, we couldn't fill an entire container and had to combine our orders with other goods. This fact limited our options, making this ship the best choice we could get.

Other Regions

Our shipping partner also packed other regions' orders last week. Those are being dispatched directly from China in short order. 

Tracking Numbers

• If you're a backer in the US, Australia, or New Zealand, you can now see your tracking number information on your pledge's Backerkit page. Since the goods are still at sea, you won't see much movement from them until May.
• We've learned that Canadian orders must be affixed with a waybill once they arrive at the Canadian warehouse. Thus, we unfortunately won't be able to provide these tracking numbers until mid-May after the ship arrives.
• Our partner is currently sorting the tracking information for other regions' orders. We'll upload them by the end of this month.

Finally, some better news! We'll keep you guys informed as soon as we hear more. Hopefully, that will be very soon! Have a great week, and I'll talk to you again shortly, my friend!

April Shipping Update
16 days ago – Thu, Apr 11, 2024 at 09:35:43 PM

Hey, guys. I have good news and bad news today. The bad news is that there was another delay—this time caused by this game. The good news is that things are finally moving again. 

What Happened

A few days after we sent out the last update, we received a complete set of every Deep Madness product from the factory. We were supposed to receive these products before the Chinese New Year holiday to confirm that all items were in order before shipping, but that couldn't happen in the time allotted. However, because we were eager to get stuff on boats before the CNY holiday, we agreed to the factory's proposal to ship immediately after production without them waiting for our final confirmation.

This was a mistake. 

Upon opening every product, we inspected each component and found that the core game rulebook had several pages with color distortion. We immediately requested the factory to reprint this rulebook. They replaced the upgrade kit's rulebook with a correctly colored version, and backers who purchased the core game will receive an additional rulebook with the corrected colors. (Feel free to discard the core game's rulebook or keep it as a spare. It's the same content, just with the wrong coloring.) 

The factory completed this reprint and replacement work on March 17th. However, this unexpected episode caused more than a week's delay, teaching us a valuable lesson: don't ship anything before you've checked it, no matter how tight your timeframe.

Since then, we have been urging the factory and the packaging warehouse to expedite the process and compensate for lost time. Finally, they responded, allowing us to pass on the latest progress to you. I wish it were better news, but at least there's movement.

Shipping Progress

Europe

The cargo ship carrying the DM goods arrived at a port in Poland last week and has just completed customs clearance. Meanwhile, a train carrying additional DM items (like the replaced upgrade kits and reprinted rulebooks) will arrive at the station on April 15th. The team will begin packaging and shipping products once all the goods have reached the warehouse. We are communicating with Green Logistics regarding the follow-up plan, which we'll relay to you in future updates.

Everywhere Else

The warehouse in China began packaging games on March 20th, proceeding in the order of East Coast US, West Coast US, Canada, Australia, Asia, and finally, other regions. Orders going everywhere besides the EU are being packaged in China rather than at a local fulfillment partner. Once they make it through customs, they will be delivered directly by a local courier.

The initial week of packaging did not go as smoothly as planned. Our partner found that the planned machine-automated packing process had a higher error rate than expected due to this project's 50+ SKUs, leading to a switch to entirely manual packaging. This change significantly slowed the process compared to our partner's initial expectations. 

Here are the latest developments:

• East Coast US: The shipment was loaded onto the vessel on March 29th. The Vessel/Voyage is the GERDA MAERSK/19/W. It departed from the Yantian port on April 4th, heading for New York. The estimated arrival date is May 4th.
• West Coast US: The West Coast orders are nearly finished being packaged. The shipping facility has scheduled the shipment to be loaded onto the ship on April 12th. The Vessel/Voyage is the COSCO ENGLAND/062E. It will depart from the Yantian port on April 18th, heading for Los Angeles, CA. The estimated arrival date is April 28th.
• Other Regions: All remaining orders are expected to be packaged by April 18th. They will then either be shipped by boat or dispatched directly from China. We will update you with the specific vessel details and any new progress as soon as we receive the information from our partner.

Tracking Numbers

The domestic courier service has begun assigning tracking numbers to the orders packaged in the Chinese warehouse as they're completed. Thus, we have received all the tracking numbers for orders going to the East Coast of the United States, and by next week, we will receive all the tracking numbers for the West Coast orders. We are working to enter these tracking numbers into the BackerKit system to send out notifications to you all. (We're still figuring out this process, so please bear with us.)

I'm sorry that I don't have better news for you once again. I thought we'd be giving some final updates on the shipping process here, so I find this incredibly frustrating - as I'm sure you do, too. (Those of you who've been around for some of our previous campaigns know how much I hate the shipping process, so I suppose I should have expected more of this than I did. LOL!) However, I'm thrilled we caught the rulebook problem now rather than after your games had already shipped. (Better late than too late.) And, barring some further minor catastrophe, it looks like we're truly on the journey's final leg now. (Knock on wood.)

I hope we will have significantly better news for you next time - i.e., the ships have arrived, and the games are on their way. We'll send another update as soon as we have something to report (hopefully good.) Have a great week, and we'll talk with you again soon.

What's Going on with DM Delivery
about 2 months ago – Fri, Mar 01, 2024 at 10:45:49 AM

Hey guys! We have some new updates related to shipping today, so let's jump right in.

Firstly, for Europe, the ship carrying European orders (MUNKEBO MAERSK) departed from Shenzhen on February 12th and is expected to arrive at our warehouse in Poland at the end of March. Once it arrives and clears customs, our partner will begin packaging and shipping the orders. We will continue to monitor the shipping progress there and cooperate with the warehouse to prepare for delivery. 

Now, for the other regions. Due to the factory's schedule, the production and shipment times for DM and our other project, Dawn of Madness, have been nearly simultaneous. They have used the same manufacturer, packaging warehouse, and shipping company. Right before Chinese New Year, we learned of a quality control issue with Dawn of Madness that led to a reprint of some components. We didn't think that would impact DM initially, but it has. Not by much, but a little. All told, there has been an additional 2-3 weeks delay compared to our original plan. 

We're so sorry for this additional delay. Frankly, it freaking sucks. Having said that, we do have concrete information on the boats now, so here is our revised shipping schedule:

For the Eastern US, you may have noticed we decided to go with a separate boat there after all. We went back and forth on this, but ultimately, it seemed like this would be the quickest method. However, Eastern US orders will still be packaged in China. Then, they will ship out directly to you once they've cleared customs rather than waiting to be processed and packed by another shipping partner in the States.

Addresses

Not all of the addresses are locked yet, but most are. If you need to change your address and find it locked, email me at [email protected], and I'll change it for you. As I've said before, this is the ONLY WAY I can guarantee your email will be received and acted on promptly. If you message us through Kickstarter, Backerkit, Facebook, or another email address, the chances are high that I may miss it. So please email me directly to ensure I see it and can get you taken care of.

I currently have around twenty emails I still need to reply to that were sent in February. If you're one of them, don't worry. I see you there, and I'll get back to you. If you sent your email before February (specifically before February 5th), I encourage you to send it to me again.  

Okay, that's it for this update. I wish I could say everything was already on the water, but at least we have firm dates for when everything will get out. We'll talk to you guys again soon!

The Shipping Plan
3 months ago – Tue, Feb 06, 2024 at 06:45:05 PM

Hey, guys! We have lots to share today, so let's not waste time and jump right in. 

First, our schedule for some regions has slipped slightly. We'll discuss that below in the Delivery Plans section. 

Next, if you backed Dawn of Madness, you will likely have seen it had a QA problem that led to all of the games being brought back to the factory to check and reprint the affected components. To our knowledge, this problem did not affect any Deep Madness components. However, the complexity of this campaign led us to adopt a schedule similar to the one we now face for Dawn of Madness. (Dawn of Madness's Wave One only has a few SKUs to worry about shipping, while Deep Madness has dozens.)

Manufacturing 

The manufacturing process is officially completed. Hurray! Here are several pictures showing its completion. 

Delivery Plans

Okay, let's discuss those delivery plans mentioned earlier in the update. We will break this down region by region, as each differs.

Europe

We will continue to work with the Green Logistics warehouse in Poland for this campaign. We have booked a ship departing from China on February 10th. Still, due to various well-known factors like the tensions in the Middle East, the vessel needs to detour through Africa, extending the sailing time by 15 days and increasing the cost. (Though, that's on us and not something you need to worry about.) Therefore, the goods should arrive at the Green Logistics warehouse in mid-March. Once they've arrived, Green Logistics is expected to ship all packages before the end of March.

US and Canada

We are cooperating with a logistics company in China that will provide us with a one-stop service. They will package pledges in China, ship them to US West Coast warehouses, and then initiate local deliveries. Their services have many distinct advantages, including fast packaging services in China and shorter shipping schedules from China to the West Coast ports. This should help shave weeks off of the methods we've previously used - particularly considering the current issues stopping up the Panama Canal and the fact that, once again, this project has an unusually high level of SKUs, making pick-and-pack take much longer at other partners we've worked with previously (especially if they already have a backlog of projects to work through.) 

However, with the Chinese Spring Festival holiday quickly approaching, we've learned many workers are taking early leave, leaving the warehouses short-staffed. We initially considered dividing the orders and sending some out to the East Coast before the Chinese New Year, as we had planned with Dawn of Madness. Still, with all the factors involved (particularly those mentioned above), we realized that it would actually take longer than just waiting and shipping it all simultaneously. It would save face in that at least some of the North American orders would have gone out before CNY, but it would have actually taken longer for those pledges to be delivered in the long run.

Therefore, we have decided to wait approximately two weeks until after the Chinese New Year. The warehouse should begin packaging orders on or around February 19th. We will continue communicating with them to nail down an accurate schedule, so expect more information in the following updates. We are sorry for this additional delay. Still, we believe the time saved with this method could actually see you get your pledges sooner than shipping them off to the East Coast before CNY.  

Asia, Australia, and Other Regions

These orders will be packaged in China and shipped to your region, just like US and Canadian orders. Unfortunately, the Chinese Spring Festival will also get in the way here, meaning our shipping partner can only start processing them after the holiday on or around February 19th. As with the US orders, we'll provide more information in the following updates.

Locking Addresses

Some of you may have noticed that we haven't locked addresses yet. The reason is that once we realized this could be the new schedule, we didn't see the reason to keep you from editing your address until absolutely necessary. So, plan for us to lock the addresses on February 16th now. If you need to change your address, you can still do that until that date. (If you need to see how to do that, see our last update here.) If you need assistance, then the best way is to email me at [email protected]. I cannot guarantee any other method will be seen, but I've been checking that inbox regularly.

Well, that's it for this update. I wish I could say that everything was shipping out as we speak, but at least it shouldn't be too much longer. Have a great week, and we'll be back with more info as soon as it comes our way. 

IMPORTANT: Production Wrapping Up! Locking Addresses Imminent!
3 months ago – Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 10:22:13 PM

Hey, guys! Well, it's taken quite a bit longer than we had anticipated, but we've received word from the factory that they will be finishing production on Deep Madness before the end of the month. Hurrah! That means we will be locking down addresses soon in preparation for shipping. 

Progress Update

As we mentioned previously, the factory has been slammed with projects recently, many of which they have been working on simultaneously. This caused the delay we mentioned previously and made it slip even further than we anticipated. However, the process is finally wrapping up, and they are getting ready to move this project on to the next step.  

We were waiting to get some pictures from the factory, but it looks like they'll take a little longer to arrive than we could take for this update. So, we'll have some final images to show you likely in the next update.

This delay does have an interesting side-effect. If you also backed Dawn of Madness, you'll get that game simultaneously with this one. Over the last few months, it seemed to go back and forth on whether these projects would ship together or not. However, the factory has informed us they will finish both games by the end of the month as they have been printing the last few components for both together. This was not planned on our part, but it does make sense why they would do this. And we are, of course, thrilled to be getting both games out. 

We will discuss the shipping process more in our next update, though we're already working to schedule boats for the regions that need them. What matters more now, though, is that we need to lock down addresses ASAP to start preparing shipments. As such, we will lock addresses on Monday, January 30th. 

How to Change Your Address

Moving soon or moved recently? There's still time to lock in your new address. You can access your survey through your Backerkit account here:

Once you're in Backerkit, click on the picture in the upper-righthand corner, then click Your Pledges & Surveys.

Then navigate to Your Surveys and find Deep Madness. 

Then, on the next screen, click to edit your address.

Next, put in your new address, then click Next.

And lastly, be sure to click Place Your Order, and you're done.

If you don't have a Backerkit account, you can also look up your survey here: 

And if you're still having problems, you can email me, and I'll help you. Speaking of which...

Emails

I have been working through emails again, but if you're concerned that I haven't gotten back to you yet (or you contacted us through a different avenue), email me at [email protected]. I'm working to get to everyone, but it doesn't hurt to make sure I see your request (especially if it's been a while since you sent it.) 

Next Steps

We will try to put out one last-call update before officially locking everything down. Then, following this (or perhaps in this update), we'll provide information about shipping progress and, hopefully, boats. 

One concern many have had is over the Chinese New Year celebrations. There is a chance that one or two of the boats will be delayed by the holiday. However, the majority should get out before that happens. Our current goal is to get everything out before the ports close down, and our factory thinks that's still attainable. 

We're entering the final stretch, guys! Thanks for your patience, and we'll talk with you again soon.