BackerKit Survey & Pre-Order Store
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 03:32:47 PM
BackerKit Survey
Surveys will go out on Monday 01/30/23. The survey has already been submitted to BackerKit, reviewed and approved. We are going to wait the recommended 14-day window after the close of the Kickstarter campaign since there are still roughly a dozen backers that need to fix their payment methods. If you are one of those backers, don't hesitate to message me via Kickstarter and we can work things out. For example, one backer asked if they could downgrade their pledge—we are able to allow them to cancel within Kickstarter and then manually add them in via BackerKit at another level. Please let me know how to best support you (we know the economy is tumultuous and every person's situation is different and personal).
As a friendly reminder, shipping will be charged via BackerKit as we didn't charge it within Kickstarter. This was in case anyone wanted to add extra add-ons during the pledge manager period. This allows us to track the total shipment weight and provide the most accurate shipping price. For EU/UK backers, reminder that there is a VAT charge as well.
The survey has a due date of 2/28/23. Please try to get in your survey at that time as it helps us greatly with planning. I can assure you that there is more than enough inventory being produced for all the backers, but getting your information regarding size and color preferences is very helpful in terms of knowing which SKU's we'll need to ramp up production on. If you need to make any changes after that date regarding shipping address, we'll be happy to assist, but please lock in your size/color choices by then.
There is a "smoke test" process with BackerKit where 5% of you will receive the survey first. This way, in case there are any bugs, you will hopefully spot and flag them so we can fix them for the other 95%. Just wanted to let you know in case some of you wonder why you either got or didn't get a survey at the same time. You smoke testers will most likely get your surveys early on 01/27/23.
Late Backers
A few supporters that missed the original Kickstarter window had asked for a way in. You have all been manually added in via BackerKit and have been messaged back at this point. Congrats, you just made the cut. For anyone seeing this post on 01/20/23 and forward, please use the BackerKit Pre-Order store below to participate.
Pre-Order Store
Here's a link to our BackerKit Pre-Order Store which is already live. Please feel free to share this with anyone who missed the original Kickstarter campaign. Note that all of these items are available for MSRP and not the discounted/bundled rate we gave to Kickstarter backers (If you were a Kickstarter backer and you want to purchase more, wait until the survey goes out and you'll get the discounted add-on rate). We will ship the BackerKit pre-orders within the same launch window as Kickstarter backers, and before our retailer shipments (so there is still some perk to pre-ordering here).
We did it!
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 11:49:55 AM
Thank you backers for coming out to support Heavy Play and for getting the word out to your playgroups. The feedback from the card gaming community has been super positive and I love the ideas and suggestions that have been coming in (aka we'll work on a bigger deckbox size asap for you thick sleevers and token lovers).
Surveys will go out early next week via BackerKit. Kickstarter suggests waiting 2 weeks after launch to ensure payments clear and for backers to make sure their shipping information will be correct when the product ships (are you going to move around April/May?). Awesome news to share is that we're going to let ALL backers pick ALL their colors across ALL reward levels. For example, if you backed the $40 RFG Deckbox + RNG Dicebox bundle, you now have the option of mixing up your colors instead of just getting a single color. You'll see this extra level of customization reflected in the survey.
Our factories are currently shut down for the lunar new year holiday so no major developments on the production front for a few weeks. I'll keep everyone up to date as they come online and our stuff starts moving again. We were able to run production on the Warlock Black and Cleric White CURV Sleeves before they went on break so those units are already on standby.
People have asked for more IRL photos of all the products/colorways before they make their final color choices in the survey. I'll be posting these pics to our facebook page just to keep these more informal, behind the scenes shots separate from our other content. These are straight from my kitchen table and not in a professional studio setting (like our other channels). Note that all the photos I'm about to post this week are of "T1 or T2 samples". These are the first rounds of samples that come off the tooling and not the final build. T1 samples were used to shoot the Kickstarter video. I will note in each page description where color tweaks have happened between the rounds (or what is still pending). "T-Final" samples are in transit to me now*, so I'll post another set of updates once those final colors are in. Please don't be afraid to ask questions as I'm an open book when it comes to the development process. There's also some shots of how other non-MTG card games look with our boxes (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Flesh & Blood, Card Fight Vanguard, DBZ).
*The box just arrived at my door right before hitting send! Need 1-2 days to properly review and photograph these.
Please also follow us on social media for more frequent updates. We're @heavyplayllc on all channels. Here's how to think about where to go for what:
Over the next 2-3 weeks, here are the major to-do's and milestones that we're working on:
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BackerKit Survey - Get the survey out to you and lock in your requested colorways. You'll be able to add on items via BackerKit all the way until delivery date. Some have expressed wishing they could have changed to another reward tier--message me and we'll figure out how to make up the difference and manually override things.
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Item Setup at our 3PL - Getting every SKU programmed into our warehouse's system. Debugging all the logistical backend.
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Retailer/Distributor Discussions - Talks have been going really well with the buyers. Need to officially lock in terms so that we can get product into your LGS's as close to our April/May launch timeframe as possible. There's also a lot of trade-facing content we'll be generating (sell sheets, ads, etc.). Don't worry, KS units will always ship before retailers. We're producing more than enough units to fulfill everyone out the gate.
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Shopify Presale - We'll likely turn on presale on our heavyplay.com shopify website just to allow another channel for people to get in before the launch. Again, these shoppers will not get prioritized over KS backers.
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Launch Marketing - We're lining up additional reviewers and publication channels to help promote the products when they go live around April/May. Let me know if you're interested in supporting that push via your media channel.
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New Products - Start working on the variants that many of you have requested (additional sizes, colors, windowless MAX deckboxes, etc.). Just to be super clear, these are not part of the launch set and will trail our launch collection by 3-6 months. The goal is to not disrupt this first generation's production schedule, while quickly getting new items in development right after.
Again, I just want to say thank you to everyone who backed the project. Don't hesitate to ask questions and I'll be back with another update soon.
Randy
We're super close! Help get us across the line.
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jan 09, 2023 at 03:12:01 PM
Hi everyone, especially recent backers from The Dive Down Nation.
If you haven't heard the podcast yet, check out the latest episode of The Dive Down and subscribe to their podcast.
We're 5 days away from the end of the campaign and only about $200 away from our goal. Please take the time to tell your gaming friends about us, post on your social accounts, and help get the word out. We just need a few more people to back us and we'll get across the finish line.
Check out our Twitter profile. We've got new content there like another packaging shot. Our packaging art direction is inspired by cel-shading and model instruction manuals (my Gundam models called to me). I hope you think they're "Perfect Grade"!
Randy
Thank you, backers! Check out some packaging!
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Jan 05, 2023 at 10:53:48 AM
Hi backers! Thank you to everyone who has come out to support Heavy Play and our product launch.
Please continue to help spread the word about our Kickstarter campaign. There's still a gap to our funding goal, but rest assured—wherever we land near the end, we'll close the gap and ensure the Kickstarter campaign is successful. It's all good—we're well-funded and pot-committed.
The CURV Sleeves have already started production and we're doing our material buys for the ETB Playmat and RFG Deckbox and RNG Dicebox lines (making lots of magnets). Packaging samples are also starting to trickle in and they look great!
We've had some exciting calls with major gaming stores and distributors. There's lots of interest when it comes to getting us into your LGS's. Stay tuned and we'll let you know where to find our products in retail.
Also make sure to listen to this next episode of The Dive Down when it drops later this week! Stan, Dave, and Shane were kind enough to have me on to talk about Heavy Play, the design process, and the products. They tested out some samples and it was great to hear their first impressions.
Please also follow us on Instagram and Twitter ( @heavyplayllc ). We're posting new content every few days, including lots of stuff that didn't show up in the Kickstarter video. There's also new videos up on our YouTube channel that cover that different products separately. Please let us know if you want any specific product or interaction shots and we'll share the pics via those channels.
Again, thank you to all the backers so far. The feedback has been super positive and we can't wait to get all this gear into your hands.
-Randy
