Production Complete. Shipping is being booked.
6 months ago – Thu, Jul 18, 2024 at 05:21:22 AM

Dear All, 

Mass Production of Hamlet Deluxe and Hamlet by the Lake is fully complete. We have received the mass production sample and it is approved. 

We are currently working on arranging pick up of the copies from the factory. This will take a few more days.

A more comprehensive (and a more image heavy) update is incoming, but we wanted to post this as many of you requested it. 

David

Let's roll some Hamlets off a press: By the Lake Edition. (Image Heavy Update)
10 months ago – Fri, Apr 12, 2024 at 04:22:31 AM

It's Pre-Production Copy Time!

The production copies for Hamlet By The Lake and Hamlet Deluxe Edition arrived in the post last week. Over the last few days, we have been working on these and spotting any issues with them. We have prepared new files and sent them off to the factory with corrections, and we just received the new proofs back from the factory through last night. Max is already on them.

The changes will not require us to send another production copy, we can approve the changes online. This means we are not far from commencing with the print run.

Let's talk about what we found out.

The Wooden Church

The Wooden Church overall is excellent. It feels chunky and substantial. It's much less high than the old church. That combined with the new graphic design makes it so it is much easier to be able to see the costs of Church deliveries even when the Church is on the board. Better visibility, better reliability and it looks handsome in both its wood finish as well as the stickers with the updated art.

We found an issue that the stickers were not perfectly matching one of the pieces. We've updated the files and all is good now.

The Menu Board

We love how this turned out. The construction is sturdy and its very easy to assemble. It's has a nice bling factor and looks lovely on the table. We wanted to keep the fit of the pieces together a bit loose, since we wanted to leave the back reversible. But we found out that this makes it a lot more fiddly to move around and store, so we decided to tighten the fit so it stays together better.

The Cards

No issues here. The Cards look lovely, no mistakes spotted. You can see them in the above photos. They have a nice linen finish. We like linen finish.

The Punchboards.

Of course we were excited to see the new graphic design in person. We are frankly quite pleasantly surprised at how much more readable the new GD is, even if the changes are subtle and still match the old design just fine. Kudos to Max for this one!

There was one issue that we spotted with the punchboards - the colour of blue that was printed on the lake tiles was a little too dark for our liking (you can see it above). We asked the factory to brighten it up a little and we also added some brightness in the files.

The Boats, The Fish

Oh, these are really cute. When we saw those little fish in our hands we were very very happy, and the boats make us feel like a seafarer, especially when we put a little flag on them. Since the last version we had tested, we made the Boats a little wider to ensure they are stable and to make it easier for you to place your flag on them. We're happy with how they look and how they feel - Approved.

The Bag and Fish tokens

Yeah, these are really cute, nothing to complain our our side. Feels good to touch, to play with. Great stuff, no changes. 

Solo Player Aid

In this version we have added a solo player aid to the game. Although the print was correct, it was folded the wrong way. We intended it to be folded in a Z fashion, so that if you're playing just the base game, you can leave part of it unfolded, and then unfold it from behind if you would like to add the rules for Hamlet: By the Lake. We advised the factory to fold it the right way and we added this small notification on it so that it makes it clearer how it should be used.

Rulebooks

No big issues here. We found some typos in the printed proof, we fixed them and updated the files. We added a version number to them for easy reference.

Timelines

We sent the above amendments to the factory last week and we just (as we were writing this) received their response. We will likely be able to approve everything digitally, which means we won't need to wait for stuff to arrive by mail.

At this point, assuming we are able to approve everything within the coming week (likely earlier), and assuming 6 weeks for manufacturing - we should have everything ready to ship in early June.

Timelines for Freight at the moment are fluctuating quite heavily, some of our shipments have taken 6 weeks this year, and some others have taken closer to 10. We will need to see the ETA at the time when we book the shipment(s). However from the Mighty Boards side, final files have been provided to factory and largely the timelines from now on are not in our control.

Although it appears it will be tough to deliver in July, it seems we should be able to still ship out to backers in the summer, before the end of August. As said above, this is difficult to discern with certainty at the moment, as it is unclear how long shipping will take until we place the booking, which should happen in about 6-8 weeks from now. At this point there is not much left to do on our side but to wait. The next update will be when we book the shipment, and games will be on their way to you and we will have a clearer idea of when the games will reach you.

Finalise your orders immediately!...Please.

One final point, within the next days, we will be confirming the final order quantities. There are still a number of you who have not finalised your orders. We will put a cutoff point till April 19th (next Friday). Although we do order a few extra copies for replacements, if your order is not yet finalised by then we cannot guarantee you will receive a copy. 

Join the Mighty demo team

We're looking for demoers for Hamlet: By the Lake at Essen SPIEL! Would you like to be part of the demo team? Send over an email to [email protected].

If you're interested in demoing some of our other games too, we're looking for demoers for Gen Con, SPIEL and PAX Unplugged. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to join us!

Thank you for being the amazing backers you are. 

The Mighty Boards team.

Progress update - Rulebook and Solo Player Aid
11 months ago – Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 07:24:28 AM

Hello Villagers,

Here's a quick update on current progress. At the end of January we sent out the game files to the factory and they have begun to process them and started assembling the pre-production copy. Right now, the factory is taking a break because of Chinese New Year.  

When they return from the holiday (around the end of this month), they will finish assembling the pre-production copy and send us a sample for us to approve. We will share some pictures once we receive it!

Rulebook and Solo Player Aid

In the meantime we have created the release candidates for the rulebook for Hamlet: By the Lake, which you can find linked here. They are still subject to proofing. Any comments are appreciated! 

• Rulebook Hamlet: By the Lake
• Rulebook Hamlet: By the Lake SOLO

Oh, and by the way, here's a sneak peak at the Solo player aid that we have created, it folds so that you can hide or reveal the "By the Lake" section whether or not you are playing with the expansion! 

The timeline

For now we wait for the factory to return to work and send us the pre-production copy to approve, then we move along with manufacturing!

• End Jan - Files closed, send everything to the factory DONE
• Mid Feb - Factory break (Chinese New Year) IN PROGRESS
• End Feb - We will receive the Factory Sample to check before print 
• Mid March - Approval and adjustments + print start 
• End April - Printing Complete
• Mid June - Arrival in our Warehouses worldwide
• July - DELIVERY!

Until the next update!

Your Mighty Boards Team.

P.S.: Happy Valentine's Day! We're giving away a special gift this year... 

Development update and happy holidays!
about 1 year ago – Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 08:38:07 AM

Dear Villagers,

We wanted to give you a quick update before we all get to enjoy the holidays a bit! 

Graphic Updates

Hamlet: By the lake is very close to being ready for primetime. Our graphic designer Max has been working on the remaining illustrations, namely the menu illustrations, the new church as well as the menu board. Come take a look! 

The new wooden Church will come with updated stickers:

 
The beautiful menu board will have a mix and match option! Will you be placing cards on the weathered blue side or the plain wooden side?

We've also added new illustrations to the cards - check these out!

Timeline

The team has also started working on the graphic design elements of the rulebook, the new tiles and prepping files for print. The whole team will be off for the holidays, but we should be able to finish everything that remains by the end of January and send files to print then. 

The timeline would look something like this:

• End Jan - Files closed, send everything to the factory
• Mid Feb - Factory break (chinese new year)
• End Feb - We will receive the Factory Sample to check before print
• Mid March - Approval and adjustments + print start 
• End April - Printing Complete
• Mid June - Arrival in our Warehouses worldwide
• July - DELIVERY!

We'll be taking a little break during the Holidays and will be back with you on January 8th!

Happy Holidays!

Your Mighty Boards team.

Closing Pledges, Testing and PAX Unplugged
about 1 year ago – Thu, Oct 26, 2023 at 09:24:40 AM

Lovely Backers,

Now that the SPIEL madness is over, it's time for a Kickstarter update! We're getting close to the finish line for Hamlet: By the Lake!

A SPIEL to Remember

SPIEL was amazing. We are SO grateful for all of you who came to help out and play with us! While the highlight of this edition was undoubtedly the pre-release of our newest game Art Society, we saw many of you eagerly line up at the Hamlet demo tables to give Hamlet: By the Lake a go! 

We also had productive discussions with our partners at SPIEL regarding language editions of the game. We plan to confirm these details at the end of the year, ensuring that the expansion will be available in more languages!

Testing and Tweaking

Our development team has been hard at work, testing the expansion. We're now in the final stages of this process, making end-stage tweak to the Season cards. Balancing is a crucial step, and we're diligently working to fine-tune the gameplay. Our playtesters' feedback and suggestions have been invaluable in helping us get it just right! We intend to finish this process by the middle of November, after which, our Graphics team will go in and start laying out files to send them to print. 

We have a slot reserved with the factory for the game to go to print at the end of December.

The games should be ready to ship from the factory to our warehouses in March, keeping in mind the Chinese New Year break. So far everything is on track with our original timelines and it seems we'll be able to start delivering the game to your doorsteps in July as planned. We can't wait for you to play!

Late pledges and surveys closing end of October

If you have finalized your pledge, awesome! You don't have to worry about anything. Sit tight and wait for news about Hamlet manufacturing and fulfillment!

If you have ordered Hamlet: By the Lake but can't finalise your order right now: Don't worry! Closing the pledge manager only means that we are finalizing the order numbers. It does NOT mean that you lose your Hamlet pledge if you can't fill in your (address and/or credit card) info now for whatever reason. If you don't have time to finalize your pledge now, you can still change personal information until fulfillment is commencing. That means that any address or credit card updates can still be made after this cut-off date. Of course, if you do manage to fill in all your info now, that helps us a lot to make the whole production and fulfillment process smoother.

If you lost your survey link, you can take these simple steps to recover it: Find your backer survey by searching for Hamlet: By the Lake and click on the 'Find Project' button. Under the 'Lost your survey?' section, enter the email you used for the project. Press the 'Get My Survey' button, and you'll receive another email with your survey link! 

If you run into any survey related issues, you can reach out directly to the Backerkit team on [email protected]. They are very friendly and quick to respond! For any product or shipping related inquiries or any additional questions, you can also contact us directly on [email protected]. We will always give you updates through Kickstarter whenever we have big news to share

PAX 2023: Calling U.S. Volunteers! 

Mighty Boards is going to PAX 2023! To make this event a roaring success, we need your help! We're on the hunt for enthusiastic (US based) demoers who are ready to join our team and help explain our games (mainly Hamlet and Art Society) to visitors. Do you think that could be you? Send over an e-mail to [email protected]!

Thank you all for your incredible support throughout this journey. Your enthusiasm and trust have been our driving force, and we can't wait to see you enjoy the game we've been working so hard on!

Talk soon!

Your Mighty Boards team.