In-depth Fulfillment Update, Initiative Tracker Update
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 08:34:33 PM

Hello Backers, 

Thank you so much for your continued patience with us through this Kickstarter. There were many production hiccups we hit: revamping processes, machinery breaking down, illnesses in our crew, to name a few. We were hoping to be able to get back on track after the July tier shipment, however the August tier has been creeping in the opposite direction slowly. Here is a full update as to where we are, where we are going, and when each tier can expect their screens given the current status. Let's get right to it. 

Production Update

We’d first like to stress that fulfilling this Kickstarter is our primary focus and our absolute priority. We have pulled everyone possible from our general production - which at this point is usually ramping up to prepare for the holidays - to focus on getting this campaign fulfilled as quickly as possible.  

We currently have a total of 17 craftsmen working on GM Screen: seven on Classic panels, three on Rotational panels, two on Chests of Holding, two on Two-Way Towers, one on Shelves of Storage and Initiative trackers, and two craftsmen in milling, rough cutting GM Screen components for everyone else. There’s a focus on Panels because they’re the bottleneck at this point.

Of the 79 orders remaining in the August tier, approximately 40 are complete and will be shipping out by the end of the week. 59 Classics and 46 Rotationals that need to be made still for August which will be done within two weeks.

For the September tier - the largest tier - we need a total of 713 Classics and 277 Rotationals. The Classic Panels will take roughly five weeks to complete, and the Rotationals roughly seven, putting us on track to complete the September tier nine weeks from now.

October tier is on track to be completed a further two weeks after that, with 187 Classics and 77 Rotationals total. To be clear, that’s 11 weeks from now.

Finally, pre-orders will be completed 14 weeks from now: three weeks after the October tier, with 232 Classic Panels and 120 Rotational.

Our goal is to have all Kickstarter tiers through October in hand before Christmas. You may note that the above timeline would fall short of that goal, and that is correct - we are going to strive to exceed our current pace. But we do want to be up front about the actual pace of production at this moment. We will push as hard as we can to try to meet this goal.

Initiative Trackers

Initiative trackers are nearly caught up to the rest of production; the final run for August is on track to be done tomorrow, so if you’ve already received your order, your initiative trackers will be on their way shortly! If you’re still waiting on your order, you can expect to find your trackers included when it arrives.

More Fulfillment Updates, Initiative Tokens
over 6 years ago – Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 11:53:52 PM

Hello Backers!

As many of you are already aware, we are currently behind on our fulfillment schedule. We continue to adjust the workflow in the shop and refocus production to adapt. In terms of results, July is fulfilled and August is solidly underway. August backers can expect to receive shipping notifications (and in some cases, receive their orders) within the next few weeks.

September backers are slated to be near the end of October with our current fulfillment schedule. All backers in the September delivery tier should have received an email to your Backerkit email containing a $25 gift certificate that can be used on our website. We look forward to getting your GM screens into your hands as soon as possible, and we will continue to strive to make the wait as short as we can.

Good News Everyone

The brass initiative tokens have come in! Now that they are in our hands, we will finalize the initiative tracker dimensions immediately. Given that the tokens were machined outside our shop, we wanted to verify all the dimensions ourselves before building Initiative Trackers to ensure a perfect fit once they arrive. Now that we can do so, we'll get these finalized and out the door as soon as possible. We are currently estimating completing these in late October/early November.

Closing Thoughts

We apologize for the delays and difficulties we've encountered. This is a very challenging project, and a very challenging time of growth for our company as a whole. We value each and every one of you and appreciate your patience and support of our project and our craftsmen. We all depend on that support, and always have - from the first pledge on our first campaign, to your pledge now.

While fulfillment has not gone as smoothly as we hoped and planned, we give you our word that we will fulfill all of your orders as soon as possible, and that your screens will have the quality you have come to expect from Wyrmwood. That's our pledge to you, and there's nothing we take more seriously than that.

~ Wyrmwood

Fulfillment Update, Timelines & an Apology
over 6 years ago – Wed, Aug 23, 2017 at 12:33:18 AM

Backers,

Few plans go perfectly, and Kickstarters are no different. Douglas, our CEO, wanted to address some of the issues we've been having lately. The full text follows, but the abbreviated version is this: fulfillment has been running behind, and communication isn't where we want it to be. This update will detail the situation, apologize and lay out how we're attempting to make amends - for those of you affected by the delays (July and August backers), we'll be issuing you credit on our website for $25. We expect to be fully back on track and caught up in time for September backers.

A Message from Douglas

My name is Douglas Costello and I am CEO of Wyrmwood.

I have launched 6 Kickstarters over the years with my team - and I have never had to write an update like this one. I am disappointed to report that we are currently running about a month behind our delivery targets. While in the past we have occasionally missed one or two backers in a ship out, we have never been delayed in a Kickstarter fulfillment to such a degree. And while not all of our backers from July and August have been impacted by these delays, a majority of them have.

I am here to take full responsibility for the delays our backers have experienced, give you folks a thorough update as to where we stand on our delivery targets, and lay out our game plan moving forward.

Current Build Delivery Dates

Currently our plan is to finish shipping our July deliveries in August. Finish shipping our August deliveries in September. And be back on track with our September backers having their systems shipped out in September.

Currently we are almost done with our July ship-out and a good amount of our August build is done - but not shipped yet. I have around 15 craftsman working on these items as quickly as they can, albeit without sacrificing the quality you have come to expect from Wyrmwood. We are making great strides and, I believe, turning the corner on a challenging fulfillment. As you can see from the timeline above, our expectation is that we are back on track for September's ship out.

While we have considerable experience in fulfilling Kickstarters at Wyrmwood, we didn't properly appreciate the scale of complexity this project would entail, or the time needed to address issues. Complexity grows exponentially, and the effects cascade. This, coupled with the unforeseen difficulty in producing some of these items, led to significant delay in the production and shipping of the packages. While this is not, nor is intended to be, an excuse for the delay, hopefully it is an adequate explanation as to why things have happened the way they have.

Current Status on Initiative Trackers

All Initiative Trackers will be shipped out in October.

After speaking with our manufacturer, a US based metal piece fabricator, in regards to our order of brass initiative tokens, while confirming that these are frustratingly running behind schedule as well, I was given a shipment date of 9/27, the latest we have been told they will arrive. It is possible that they will arrive sooner, but this is dependent on their production flow. While these delays are beyond our direct control, we could have sourced the part sooner so that the delay on their part did not impact you. I take personal responsibility for this.

Upon receipt of the tokens, we will build the Initiative Tracks to match the thickness of the tokens we receive. While we could build them now, the last thing we want is to find that the tokens we get don't fit the tracks as they should.

Nonetheless, we should be able to ship out all trackers by October for the July, August, and September Backers.

Comments and Messages

Wyrmwod customer service, in addition to fielding questions via email, phone and social media, is tasked with checking in on the Kickstarter comments section every business day to respond to questions. This has not been occurring, due to a combination of factors, and the responsibility for not keeping that team running falls ultimately on me.

Moving forward, this will be rectified. Every question will receive a response, and the comments section will be reviewed daily. Customer service is an absolutely essential part of Wyrmwood, we take it very seriously, and this was an unforced, unacceptable error. Which leads to my final point.

All July and August Backers will receive a $25 Wyrmwood Gift Card

While a $25 gift card doesn't make up for our shortcomings, I hope it goes to show that we are serious about making things right, and that we care. These gift certificates are going to be e-mailed to every backer from the July and August Delivery Tiers. If we end up slipping on the September deliveries, we will send out gift certificates to those backers, as well.

We are dedicated craftsmen who are committed to exceeding expectations. Running a month late on a project is offensive to my sensibilities as a craftsman. I am sorry for the delay, and I will do everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Thank you, as always, for your support.

~ Douglas Costello & Wyrmwood

Shipping Underway - July and August Addresses LOCKED
over 6 years ago – Fri, Aug 04, 2017 at 11:02:07 PM

As we mentioned last week, shipping was set to begin this past Monday, July 31st, and it did. As orders become completed and available, they're being shipped out, and the rate of shipments is steadily increasing from this point forward.

As we finish July, we will move directly into August shipments, so those addresses have been locked as well. If you have a last-minute address change you aren't able to edit in BackerKit, please send us a message as soon as possible.

Revised Timeline

A brief word on production status: we are in full production on the GM Screen components, and will continue to ship out July orders, immediately followed by August, and then onward through the rest of the tiers.

We are striving to complete the vast majority of Early Bird orders over the next week, and moving directly into fulfillment of the August pledges. These will begin shipping towards the end of the month, but there's a strong chance we will complete shipment of August pledges over the first week of September, as well.

Quality and Commitments

It pains us to deliver news like the above timeline. We take commitments to our backers - including shipment estimates - very seriously, and consider not meeting them to be a grave situation.

However, we were faced with a difficult choice as the initial runs of Classic and Rotational Panels were completed: they simply weren't up to our standards. Thankfully, this has not been the case with other components - the Two Way Towers, Chest of Holding and Shelf of Many Things have been proceeding very well, and we're actually ahead of schedule on some of them. However, due to the nature of the project, we need complete orders to ship.

So, rather than ship sub-standard product, we scrapped the panels, re-worked the processes, and did them again, because they needed to be right. We had hoped to be able to simply push harder so as to avoid missing the timeline, but that proved to be impossible, and for that we sincerely apologize.

We share your frustration, and will continue to do everything in our power to get you your components as quickly as possible, and we firmly believe that when it's in your hands, you'll agree that it's the finest GM Screen available anywhere.

We know that's what you pledged for, and we will not accept giving you anything less.

We sincerely apologize, again, for the delay and disappointment, and we hope that it will not diminish the years of enjoyment you receive from the Screen, once you're looking out over it on your table.

~ Wyrmwood

Last Call for Address Changes! Fulfillment Begins Monday
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 01:45:07 PM

Hello everyone!

First, we'd like to thank you for your patience during this process. We know how hard the wait is, and we apologize it hasn't come sooner.

We know you're all anxious to know how it's going, so we'll get right to it.

Shipping Update

First things first: any changes to your address should be made ASAP - we will be finalizing addresses in BackerKit shortly and locking these fields, so if you've been putting off updating it, do so now. We will finalize addresses on Friday, July 28.

Shipping for the Early Bird backers is set to begin in earnest on this coming Monday, July 31. We had hoped to be well underway by now, but regrettably we hit a few snags while finalizing production and getting all the necessary infrastructure in place.

We also experienced a material delay sourcing brass tokens - if you're affected, we reached out to you directly already - this has been resolved and we're finalizing the order on those now.

Once begun, shipping will continue as long as it takes, and we'll flow directly into the August orders once July is done, and September after that, and so on.

I should note that the nature of these delays isn't related to issues with the production process itself, but rather getting that process in place and squashing the bugs that crop up. The takeaway is that the delays won't cascade and push back everything - once these issues are solved (and the ones that aren't solved already are being solved now), they're done, and won't affect things further.

Of course, we recognize this comes as little solace to those of you who were hoping to have a Screen in your hands already, and we're deeply sorry for that. Know that we're doing everything possible to keep things moving and get you all your orders the earliest we can manage.

In the meantime, here's some more work in progress - though this work is mostly done, as these photos are coming from QC:

We've got much more inventory tucked away that will be shipping out, but it's considerably less photogenic when packed in boxes to keep the dust at bay. ;)

From this point out, we'll keep you posted via updates of every major shipping update - when tiers start shipping out, when they're complete, etc. So stay tuned, and again, we greatly appreciate your patience thus far. Thankfully, we won't have to impose upon it much further!

On the Road Again - Conventions Ahead!

We're going to hit the convention circuit hard in the coming weeks, while work continues in the shop. We'd love to see you if you'll be at any of these events:

• Gen Con 50: August 17th – 20th Indianapolis, IN
• Dragon Con: September 1st – 4th Atlanta, GA
• PAX West: September 1st – 4th Seattle, WA
• HASCON: September 8th – 10th, Providence, RI

There's a lot that's exciting about this lineup - we're making our triumphant return to Dragon Con for year two, it's the 50th anniversary of Gen Con, our first time at PAX West (and our first ever show on the west coast!) and last but not least, it's the inaugural HASCON, from our friends at Hasbro.

And, yes, you read that right - we'll be at two conventions at the same time. Another first for us!

Oh, and there's one more minor detail about these shows, which may come as a surprise those of you not following along on Facebook or our newsletter. Maybe you figured it out from the last update, but if not, we'll confirm it: we'll be showing our first-ever gaming table at these events. The plan is to have a table at each one of them for you to see and touch, and we'll have information on hand for those that wish to commission one for their own home.

So, all in all, we're a little busy. But we're buckling up, because we're moving full-steam ahead and have no plans of slowing down anytime soon!

~ Wyrmwood