Good news!
almost 4 years ago – Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 03:13:54 AM

Hey everyone!

In the midst of all this everyday craziness all around the world, finally some good news! We just got in some first pictures from mass production. Check it out:

What's next?

The next stage in the process is that one of the sets will be assembled and shipped to my address (the "mass production copy" or MPC). I will review it and make sure everything is ok so we can greenlight the Assembly phase. 

You may remember that I already got an assembled copy back in April (watch the unboxing here). That was the PPC, the pre production copy. This copy was manufactured on a smaller printer - it does not represent the production value of the final copy, which will be much higher. 

The PPC is a last chance before Mass Production to spot any errors, problems with color and the like. My wife and I have double checked every single card, every word, every comma on all 216 cards, the rule book and the box. The colors have been adjusted and some spelling errors and other small oversights have been corrected. That being said, the PPC already looked really great. 

Can't wait to see the final MPC. 

Stay gefährlich everyone - and stay safe!

Friedemann

Mini Update
almost 4 years ago – Mon, Jun 08, 2020 at 09:14:13 AM

Hey everyone!

There's not much to report, just wanted you to know that I'm still here and that we're still in the mass production phase and everything is going as planned. I'm currently putting together the shipping plan. 

Looks like we're going to be shipping with OTX, and fulfillment will be taken care of by Quartermaster Logistics in the US, VFI in Asia and Australia and Happy Shops in Europe and the rest of the world. I have been assured by Panda and numerous blog posts that these are some of the best fulfillment companies to work with.

Again, final delivery is to be expected around late August / early September.

Have a good weekend & stay gefährlich!

Friedemann

Production Update, Rules for the PnP
about 4 years ago – Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 07:58:07 AM

Hey everyone! 

Had a talk with Tyler from Panda last week and learned some new things which I wanted to share with you. 

Pre Production Stage? Done. 

We've already finished the Digital Proof and Pre Production Stages of the project. My wife and I checked every single card in both the German and English version for errors, checked every single chord, note and text and I'm pretty sure we got rid of at least 99% of mistakes now. It's 216 cards, x2 for the two languages, x2 for fronts and backs - that's a LOT of text. I did the calculations and it's more than half the words of my last book.  

So what's next? 

We are good to go with Mass Production! That means the cards will now print on a large scale. According to Tyler, this will take another 7-8 weeks (conservatively). Then I will be sent one last copy of the game (the MPC, or mass production copy), which is assembled from the final printing, meaning it will be 100% like what you will get. This is one last chance to check for problems (although at this point, an error would be very costly and time intensive, so I worked day and night to make sure that doesn't happen). Then we will go into Assembly, where the remaining copies of the decks are put together (at this point, they're still just punched out cardboard and need to be transformed into boxes, decks and assembled into the final product. Assembly is expected to take another 1-2 weeks. Once that's done, we move into the ocean shipping phase, where the decks are being shipped to warehouses in the States and Germany via freighters, which will take another 6-8 weeks. From there, we move to the final stage, fulfillment, where the decks are being sent out from Fulfillment hubs (Quartermaster Logistics and Happyshops). This will take up to a week. 

So where does that put us, time wise?

If you do the maths, you will see that that puts us at late August or early September. That's one month later than I stated on the Kickstarter page, and I apologize for that. Why the delay? Well, Corona, obviously (which pushed back Pre Production), but also we unlocked a bunch of Stretch Goals (like the German version and two new Decks, Structure and Rhythm) which added some time after the Kickstarter had ended. 

I want you to know that this project is my top priority and I will do anything to get you your decks quickly, but I also want them to arrive safely and without any spelling or content errors, production issues or design problems. 

Also, this new deadline is a worst case scenario, and it's possible that we will be able to get there quicker, I just don't want you to get your hopes up. 

Besides, until then you can enjoy the digital version of the Songwriting Decks on Songcraft.io, which you also unlocked as a Stretchgoal, so maybe that will make the waiting a bit easier :)

Rules for the Print Files

A lot of you have asked about the rules to the PDF Print Files. You can find those here. 

Stay gefährlich,

Friedemann

PPC Unboxing Video & Canohead Escape Room
about 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 02:02:00 AM

The Pre-Production Copy is here!

And it looks awesome. I must say, I'm positively surprised about how everything looks - the colors look way better than I'd hoped, the box feels nice and sturdy and the rhythm decks align perfectly. 

Check out the unboxing video here:

Where does that put us, timeline wise?

We're a little behind schedule, but late July is still on the table at this point. I will be doing Quality Control for my Pre-Production Copy over the weekend and talk to Justin over at Panda on Monday morning. 

I will have to re-upload some files to circumvent spelling errors, small printing mistakes, color adjustments, that kind of thing, and that will take a little while. However, I think it will be worth it - I don't want you to end up with a deck that isn't 100% perfect.

Once the newly uploaded files are proofed (digitally), the Pre-Production phase is officially done and we're moving into mass production! 

The Canohead Escape Room

This Wednesday, I released an Escape Room for my Nu Metal project Canohead. You don't need to be a fan of the music to be able to play it. Also, it's free and online, so if you're stuck inside, it's something fun to do! Check out the announcement here:

Stay gefährlich,

Friedemann

[Instructions] Songwriting Decks Digital
about 4 years ago – Thu, Apr 09, 2020 at 09:47:14 AM

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