Project Updates for Marvel Zombies - A Zombicide Game on BackerKit Page 8

Pledge Manager Reminder + Addressing Shipping Costs
over 2 years ago – Fri, May 13, 2022 at 07:04:50 AM

Look alive, Heroes!

First off, in case you haven't read the previous update regarding the Launch of the Pledge Manager, please do so now, as it contains lots of very important information to ensure the delivery of your pledge.

Completion of the survey is the single most important part of ensuring that you receive your pledge.

MAKE SURE YOU PAY AND SUBMIT YOUR SURVEY BY THE DEADLINE. Please be advised that this is the final deadline to guarantee your pledge and that we will produce based on the numbers of confirmed orders in Backerkit. If you fail to confirm your survey by the deadline, we will be completely unable to offer you a pledge later.

For backers familiar with the BackerKit system, please be advised that unlike other projects, your payment will be processed immediately as soon as the order is placed. You’ll still be able to edit your address until the deadline, but the items of your pledge (pledge level and optional buys) will be locked as soon as the order is finalized, no longer being editable from then on. So be sure to fill out your survey carefully, including all the products you want, within the selected shipping option's deadline.

From the moment we launched the Pledge Manager with the final shipping fees, we've read every comment you and your fellow backers have made, and we take your viewpoints and frustrations very seriously. We respect the trust you place in us when you make a pledge and constantly feel the weight of the responsibilities that come with that trust.

First and foremost for us is the responsibility to deliver the game as promised. Every step of the way, from production to fulfillment, we are focused on ensuring that you get the game you pledged for. We are proud of our track record in this regard. As the worldwide leader in crowdfunding, we have never failed to deliver. Even during the shutdowns and challenging shipping conditions at the height of the COVID pandemic, we delivered multiple projects, absorbing all sudden price increases. We always honor the agreement made with our backers when they confirm their pledge, never requesting for extra funds even as the actual shipping costs turned out much higher than what we charged.

We have never made any money on shipping in any of our campaigns, and that remains true for this one as well. There is always some discrepancy between the initial shipping estimates and the final shipping costs. They are, after all, just estimates, calculated using incomplete product information and the shipping cost info available at the time. On this campaign, however, that discrepancy turned out considerably greater than we could anticipate, due mostly to how global conditions over the last few months dramatically impacted shipping and logistics costs.

As many of you know, there are a number of challenges facing the specialty board game industry, and most of those challenges directly affect the price of shipping. Like many publishers over the past two years, we’ve experienced record high container rates, paper and packaging material shortages & price increases, increased storage fees while products await containers, higher overall logistic fees, and increased handling & labor fees.

Additionally, after this campaign ended, major new challenges appeared, and the above problems were exacerbated by world events. The invasion of Ukraine, the further disruption of supply lines and resource availability, the ongoing spike in gas prices, last mile fuel surcharges, record high inflation in March/April, and increased ground shipping rates, have all contributed to price increases at every stage of delivery. This is never something we want to discover after a campaign ends, much less news we wish to deliver to backers, but the increased costs are the reality of the situation, and not something within our control, nor a cost we can fully absorb as we’ve done in the past. In our experience, shipping prices never go down, only up.

To that end, we are constantly reviewing every aspect of the way we run our campaigns, including how we calculate shipping estimates and will make any improvements possible. We are also studying ways to make future packaging more efficient to reduce overall shipping volume and costs.

We are grateful for each and every backer of this project, as we are for every backer on our previous 49 campaigns. Thank you for making this game come alive, and for joining us for the wild, nearly three-week campaign - it's always a blast hanging out with you. For everyone who has completed, or is in the process of completing, the pledge manager - we are working hard to deliver you a fantastic game. And to those of you who have decided for any reason to bow out - we appreciate your time with us, and we hope you give the game a shot when it hits retail.

Sincerely,

Team CMON

Pledge Manager Launching!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Apr 30, 2022 at 03:43:37 AM

Look alive, Heroes!

We're very pleased to announce that the Pledge Manager for Marvel Zombies - A Zombicide Game is now open via the Backerkit platform! If you haven't yet, very soon you’ll be receiving a link to your pledge manager: the Backerkit survey!

The invitation process can take some time, but our goal is to have all surveys out by tomorrow, so please don't worry if you haven't received your email yet. Also, please note that you don’t need to create a Backerkit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, just click the survey link to respond.

Completion of the survey is the single most important part of ensuring that you receive your pledge.

On the survey system you will be able to specifically select what Optional Buys you want to include in your pledge. If you want additional Pledges (Stretch Goals and Daily Rewards included), as well as additional copies of the Optional Buys, you will be able to purchase those as well. You will also be able to define and confirm your shipping address and pay for your shipping cost once everything is selected.

On the Pledge Manager we are offering all backers the option to choose 2-Wave Expedited Shipping for their pledges. By selecting this option, we will separate your pledge into two shipping Waves. The First Wave (Wave 1) will contain only the Marvel Zombies Core Box (however many copies you get within the 2-Wave deadline) and it is estimated to deliver around October 2022, about the same time as the Marvel Zombies Core Box is expected to go to retail. Then the Second Wave (Wave 2) will contain everything else in your pledge, including the box of Stretch Goals, Dailies, X-Men Resistance Core Box, and Optional Buys, and it is estimated to deliver around June 2023. Of course, by separating the shipments, the total cost of 2 different shipments will be charged, so by selecting this option you should notice an increase in your shipping cost.

The deadline for submitting and paying for 2-Wave Expedited Shipping is May 31st 2022. This option will no longer be available after that, and pledges with this option selected that are not paid and confirmed by the deadline will be automatically moved to Single-Wave Shipping.

If you choose Single-Wave Shipping or fail to confirm your 2-Wave Expedited Shipping order by May 31st, then your pledge will use Single-Wave Shipping, which means your full pledge will be included in the Second Wave (Wave 2), estimated to deliver around June 2023. The deadline for submitting and paying for Single-Wave Shipping is June 30th, 2022. If you fail to confirm your survey by the deadline, we will be completely unable to offer you a pledge later.

To sum it up:

2-Wave Expedited Shipping – Deadline May 31

Wave 1: Marvel Zombies Core Box (however many units added up until the deadline) – Estimated delivery around October 2022
Wave 2: Everything else – Estimated delivery June 2023

Single-Wave Shipping – Deadline June 30

Wave 2: Full pledge – Estimated delivery June 2023

You'll select your shipping option (2-Wave Expedited Shipping or Single-Wave Shipping) upon completing your survey, just before payment and confirmation, on step 3 of the process: Shipping.

When you enter your pledge manager, you'll select the optional buys you'd like to add to your pledge (if any) and then proceed to shipping. Once you have input your shipping address and confirmed it, the system will ask you to confirm which of the 2 shipping options you prefer, along with indicating their respective costs. Simply select whichever option you want and proceed to the next step (step 4: Confirm) in which you'll pay and confirm your order.

You'll be able to return to the Add-Ons section at any time before confirming your pledge and change the contents of your order, if you wish, and change your shipping information. However, once the order is confirmed, all edits to the content of the order will be locked. So please be sure you are satisfied with your order and shipping option before finalizing it. If you need any help or have any further questions, please make sure to contact Support.

DISCLAIMER: We are very aware that shipping costs for this project are generally higher than what our backers are used to. Unfortunately, that is the reality of international shipping nowadays. Given the many crises the world is facing, shipping costs have skyrocketed all over the globe. We are doing our best to keep the costs in check, and we definitely do not profit from shipping (it's almost always the opposite case), so we appreciate your understanding.

Please note that you’ll be receiving the survey in the same email that you used to back the Kickstarter project (or to late pledge through the Backerkit pre-order). If you need to check your information or pledge status at any time, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our Marvel Zombies product page. If you don't receive your survey invite by Friday, you should also be able to locate it on the Backerkit project page.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the Backerkit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, or If you have any issues/questions, please make sure to contact Support.

Until next time, stay hungry!

Extra Hydra Troops
over 2 years ago – Sat, Apr 23, 2022 at 04:29:50 AM

Look alive, Heroes!

We are on the final stages of getting the Pledge Manager ready to launch. It shouldn't take much longer now, maybe one or two weeks.

Meanwhile, the painters at Big Child Creatives are still hard at work, so let’s check out some more examples of what the character pieces from this campaign can look like when painted!

Today we will check out remaining samples from the Hydra Resurrection expansion that weren’t shared yet. All painted by BigChild Creatives.

Speaking of Hydra Troops, as we were putting together the Pledge Manager, we decided we could meet one last request from backers and create an extra Optional Buy:

For $20, the Extra Hydra Troops set brings exactly what the name says: an extra set of 14 Hydra Troops (the same set contained in the Hydra Resurrection expansion) for those who want to face a larger horde of armed zombies in their game. To use this set properly, you will need to have the Hydra Resurrection expansion, since it contains the rules and cards needed to bring these legions into the game.

This set is Kickstarter Exclusive in the sense that it won’t be going to retail as a separate pack, though the character pieces themselves are the same as the ones in the regular expansion. It will be part of the list of Optional Buys backers can add to their pledge once the Pledge Manager goes live in a week or two.

So, if you want to face an endless horde of armed zombie fanatics, make sure to add the Extra Hydra Troops set to your pledge once the Pledge Manager goes live.

Until next time, stay hungry!

Painted Marvels
over 2 years ago – Sat, Apr 09, 2022 at 02:19:49 AM

Look alive, Heroes!

We don't have much news to report at this moment. Things are just moving forward on their normal pace. Wrapping the Marvel Zombies core box, including the print files, box trays, and molds. Chipping away constantly at getting all the other character pieces ready for the molding process as well. Putting together the Pledge Manager (shouldn't be too much longer now)...

Yes, nothing too exciting to report on, but we're working so hopefully soon we'll have some cool new stuff to share.

The painters at Big Child Creatives are still hard at work, so let's check out some more examples of what the character pieces from this campaign can look like when painted!

Today we will check out some painted samples of Stretch Goals and Daily Rewards that weren't shared yet. All painted by BigChild Creatives. Still a few to work through, yet.

PLEASE NOTE GAME PIECES COME UNPAINTED

PLEASE NOTE GAME PIECES COME UNPAINTED

Until next time, stay hungry!

Development Update and Painted Marvels
over 2 years ago – Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 04:16:49 AM

Look alive, Heroes!

Let's quickly go over what's been happening over here.

The Pledge Manager is being set up and is likely to launch sometime next month. Backers should have a couple months to confirm their pledges. We'll keep you updated.

Meanwhile, the factory is hard at work preparing the molds for all the game pieces. The recent lockdowns in China added some extra hurdles, but we seem to be clearing that now. The Marvel Zombies core box is the first priority, seeing as it will be delivered in the earlier Wave 1, but all the characters are being engineered, analyzed, and approved.

In the development front, the last dots are now being put in the core box Missions, as they get ready to be sent to graphics so we can finalize the rulebook. All the other core box components are undergoing final approval with Marvel, so production can start as soon as possible.

There's still considerable work ahead of us, what with doing the final development passes on all the expansions and promos. But things are moving at a good pace and no major issues have gotten in our way.

The painters at Big Child Creatives are still hard at work, so let's check out some more examples of what the character pieces from this campaign can look like when painted!

Today we will check out some painted samples of Stretch Goals and Daily Rewards that weren't shared yet. All painted by BigChild Creatives! Still a few to work through, yet.