Good day! First of all, I want to apologize for missing the update two weeks ago. There really is no excuse, so I'll just say that it won't happen again!
Happy holidays to everyone! As the end of the year quickly approaches, things are moving right along as anticipated. For a more thorough look at where we are with all projects, you can take a look at this previous update. None of the timelines outlined there have changed.
Frosthaven production is now finished and has started freight shipment. Two containers have shipped out heading for the US, two more for EU/Rest of the World are scheduled to depart this week, and we have also arranged local factory pickup for our fulfillment partner in China. For the UK and Australia, the product is ready to ship, but is less than a full container, so waiting on the play surface books to finish printing.
Another important factor for ocean freight at this time is that our freight partners are rerouting all ships that were headed through the Suez Canal to go around southern Africa to avoid Houthi violence. This will add 3-4 weeks to delivery. Currently this is only affecting our shipments to EU/Rest of the World, but this sort of thing does have the possibility of slowing things down worldwide if it persists.
We are still in production on Buttons & Bugs and the Frosthaven Play Surface Books. We estimate both of these will be finished in production around the middle of next month. We had a slight issue with the sizing of the box for the books, where the final proofing copy didn't exactly match the width of the Frosthaven box itself, but we've adjusted the files, and the factory is now chugging away.
We're also still hard at work bringing things together for all the art and graphic design we need for the new edition of Gloomhaven. Dat has been making a lot of phenomenal new character art, which I'll just have to leave for you to discover in the game, because spoilers. All the narrative text in the game, roughly 125,000 words (the vast majority of which is new writing) has been organized and is in the middle of editing. Like with any big box 'Haven game, there are a lot of moving parts, but pushing this forward to completion is going to be our main focus over the next few months.
Well, some of our main focus. Danielle's focus will of course be to continue progress on the RPG. She has reviewed the outlines submitted by all the narrative writers and sent them off to work on their first drafts. I'm very excited to see what they come back with next month!
Note to retailers: The retailer pledge manager for waves 1 and 2 will be closing and charging payments on Jan. 5th. If you haven't yet received access to the pledge manager for whatever reason, please contact [email protected] ASAP so we can get you access.
One final note: If you ordered a Laserox wooden insert for Frosthaven, that started shipping directly out of Hungary last week, and so you should be receiving a shipping notification if you haven't already. This is a separate shipment from other Frosthaven items and was factored into the shipping cost.
Oh, and if it's of interest, I wrote up a little recap of our time at PAXU on the Cephalofair website. Also enjoy this great video from Above Board about Frosthaven!
I wish you a happy New Year fully of Buttons & Bugs, Gloomhaven, and the RPG. I'll catch you back here in two weeks!
