Hey everyone, Jason here. I wanted to jump in and give an update on how things are going to shift for the BGOTMC as we work our way into our new “wallets in boxes” product model.
If you didn’t catch the recent updates on that, our next campaign will feature our wallet games in boxes, all printed at a manufacturer and shipped to us. It’s a huge change for Button Shy, and we’re really looking forward to the opportunities that it provides (easier to show off the games, easier to get into stores, less work in the office hand assembling games, more focus as a company on making great games and sharing them with everyone).
But with this new production model, our shipping times will change considerably. From the time we order to the time the games arrive, it’ll be like 6 months. So the Board Game Of The Month Club will shift in some ways. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of making it so that the shift isn’t a bad shift, but I’ll leave that up to all of you to decide.
Assuming all goes as planned:
Every 3rd month you will receive a game shipment with 4 boxed wallet games (these are the 4 featured in each Kickstarter campaign).
Twice a year that game shipment may include an extra game if you’re eligible (there's the yearlong supporter package for those that were here for the entire previous calendar year and black friday gift for those that were here for the previous 6 months - this one is all new)
Every month you will receive a small package. This is also brand new. It’s still in the works but the plan is a little magazine style brochure with some fun content like interviews and game previews, but also some pages will be dedicated to playable games that you can play right from the brochure. We have plans for 2-3 items there so far and I can’t wait to share them. Imagine OLD SCHOOL BGOTMC style. But also, one of these ideas is all new and really cool but I can't reveal it just yet.
With that in mind, within a single year you should receive 12 of the monthly brochures and 16-18 wallet games in boxes. Also, all of the wallet games in boxes include a single expansion right in the box.
TIMELINE FOR CHANGES
With moving these games to a new manufacturer, it’s a long and slow process. We’re hoping to launch our Spring Wallet Games campaign in early April, but we can’t move forward until we are 100% on everything. So it’s taking longer than planned getting all of our sizes and pricing down. But here’s what we’re thinking.
The four Spring campaign games will be here to ship in your October Package. But here's how the months before that will play out:
August - August game brochure ships out. Featured game is Astro ROVE (but shipping in October)
September - September game brochure ships out. Featured game is The Rise Of A Jarl (but shipping in October)
October - Featured games are Everything Machine & Shaper, ready to ship along with the previously featured games Astro ROVE, The Rise of A Jarl, and the October game brochure. And by August we will have just wrapped up the Summer Wallet campaign at Kickstarter, which is lined up to be the Patreon November, December, and January features, with all 4 games shipping in January and game brochures shipping out monthly in between.
Does all of that make sense so far?It’s all lining up nicely, but here’s where it gets funky. June and July currently do not have games assigned. We switched over from the old production (which is quick and works pretty well with our old monthly shipping format) to the new production (which has this long initial delay before it kicks in) and with the timing, those two months get weird. They are too early for the new model, and too late for the old.We’ve been working on figuring it out. We’d like to do something really special for those two months for everyone who is supporting us during our transition period, and even more so because it’s the last two months before the monthly brochures and quarterly games start. It may be something BGOTMC exclusive (or close to it with just a small production run) for June and July. We have a lot of thoughts and just seeing where the budget stands on making them happen, so we will keep you in the loop as we go there.
EXPECTED ISSUES
Now I expect a few issues with the new process here.
Game Swaps:
With this new plan we will be doing away with swaps. So if you are part of the club, you will receive only the featured games. We can't offer any swapping out of games. We've always offered swaps because someone may have joined the club in March, but backed a campaign in January, and they'll end up getting a featured game that they already Kickstarted. I still don't know the best solution to this, but I think we can refund the Kickstarter payments for anyone in that position. It's messy, but it's the best option so far.
Joining for less than 3 months:
To prevent someone from joining late into a 3 month cycle and having to figure out what they are going to receive, we will likely only accept new patrons during the 1st month of the 3 month cycle. Leaving early:Now if someone leaves early? We still need to establish a policy on this. Since we are shipping some smaller things out and PNPs monthly, but assigning a portion of each month's funds to the 3rd month package, it gets quite complicated. We will figure this out and post the new policy for all to see. Other than that I don't foresee any major issues, but I'm sure some of you will, so please send questions.
So if you made it this far and want a quick recap:
You’re still getting as much as before, and probably more. But due to the new production method you will get four games every third month, with tiny monthly packages during the months in between.
We’d love to hear all of your thoughts, good and bad. And we will have more information and some good stuff to tease as we get closer. Thanks everyone. I am really excited about what we're working on here, and I hope you will be too.