An epic fantasy game pitting 1-4 heroes against an intelligent, malevolent tower.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Quite a bit has changed since our last update. We understand that, for most folks, this campaign isn't first and foremost in your thoughts. On the other hand, we will continue to keep you up to date on the whole process. Hopefully, as you work through this difficult time, the game will show up one day and help contribute to a return to some semblance of normalcy. I know the whole team is looking forward to that day when we can all sit around the table together and defeat the Tower.
Despite the massive upheaval the virus is causing around the world, it's effect is fortunately manageable for Restoration Games in general and Return to Dark Tower in particular. Our team has always worked remotely, and this part of the year was always going to be a little quiet on the schedule for us given our focus on Return to Dark Tower. Fortunately, everyone on the team is currently healthy. So we're keeping our heads down, continuing to work on making this game for you, and even starting to work on other games to release down the road. Working on projects that far ahead, helps give us perspective that there is a brighter future coming. From our entire team, we hope you are weathering the situation well enough as can be expected. Please be safe, adhere to physical distancing protocols, abide by your local directives wherever you might be, and be kind to each other. And, of course, play some games!
On the manufacturing side of things, no news is good news. The situation in China is stabilizing, and the factory has already returned to near full capacity. They continue to work on the engineering of the Tower to streamline and optimize as we get ready to move into actual production. As of now, there is no change to the production timeline. The good news there is that, assuming there are no adverse developments, the fulfillment timeline remains on schedule as well.
The other side of that coin is that we must put in our manufacturing order under the current schedule, meaning that we cannot realistically push back the lock-down date for BackerKit. We are reading the comments. We know that the current situation makes this campaign a distant secondary concern for some of you. However, we don't have any confidence that the situation will improve or even stabilize for any given region if we were to push it back a month or even two. Whereas, the uncertainty of doing that could potentially cause problems for us on the manufacturing side. Moreover, after we lock down BackerKit, our retailer backers will still have an opportunity to do preorders for some additional period of time. As you are no doubt aware, retailers are also having an extremely difficult time right now, and we are hopeful that the ability to sell preorders for this game might help them in some small way. Remember, you can continue to go into BackerKit and make changes to your order up until we lock it down, so feel free to take the full time to make a decision on what's best for you. Conversely, if you want to lock your order in immediately to avoid further volatility, you can contact BackerKit customer service, and they will do that for you, or you can message me directly. And, as always, we are happy to work with our backers, so feel free to send me a message if you have specific circumstances we can assist with.
Finally, we thought you all might get a kick out of seeing just what goes into the Tower. So here's an exploded view of the plastic components (not final and not including the mechanical or electronic components):
I hope you'll pardon that headline. There's actually not much to update you all on. But I'm heading out to the GAMA Expo all next week and didn't want to go a full two weeks without you all hearing from me.
First things first, no news is good news. Nothing to report from the manufacturer. We are still in the early "DFM" (design for manufacture) process, where the engineers on our team talk to the engineers on their team and say a whole bunch of things I don't understand.
BackerKit continues to roll along. We've gotten a pretty good response rate so far. If you haven't completed your survey yet, please try and get it done ASAP. You can always go back in and continue to make changes until we lock it down. That lock down date continues to look like it's going to be April 10th. If you haven't gotten an email from BackerKit or can't otherwise find your survey, please message me in Kickstarter, and I should be able to send you a direct link to your survey.
As for the design team, we've made good progress on both the Alliances expansion and the competitive mode. We did find a few errors in our app data. We are in the process of cleaning those up. As soon as we do, we'll get the playtesting kits out. About that.... I was expecting just a handful of folks to respond to our call, but I guess I should stop being surprised about all the enthusiasm for this project. We literally had hundreds. That said, we can't realistically use that many playtesters, so we'll be doing some sort of lottery to select folks. If you don't get picked for some reason, please don't take it personally. And we'll be showing off more stuff as we move along too, so you won't be missing out.
Speaking of showing stuff off, I always like to give you all a little sugar to help the medicine go down, so here's a look at one of the scroll treasures in the game. Oh, what do you know, I guess there was something sneaky going on.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Our smoke test went off pretty smoothly, so we have opened the pledge manager and are now sending out the surveys to the remaining backers. This update should provide you with all of the information you need to navigate BackerKit and get your survey completed. I know it's a lot of information, so please read it carefully. And feel free to refer back to this update if you have questions down the road.
In short, your BackerKit experience has two parts. You'll complete a short survey. Then you'll finalize your order, enter your shipping address, and complete your payment. This second half is just like shopping at a regular webstore like Amazon. Items included in your Kickstarter pledge level are already in your cart, and the money you pledged in Kickstarter is already in your account. You'll "shop" for additional items and "spend" your money.
It might take a couple of days for you to get your survey. There are a whole bunch of backers in this campaign, and we'll be sending them out in waves. So, please be patient if you don't get your survey email right away. If you haven't received your survey email by Friday, double-check your spam filter. If you don't have it, message me here on Kickstarter, and I will check it out.
If you have any problems completing your survey in BackerKit, please contact their support staff. They have excellent support and should be able to answer all of your questions. Please do not contact us via email or Kickstarter message with problems in BackerKit. It's not that we want to ignore you. Rather, it's important that we have one channel for dealing with survey issues so we don't miss anything. Rest assured, if BackerKit can't handle whatever issue you're having, they will, in turn, contact us, and we'll step in at that point.
You can have your name in the credits. When you click on the "Get Started" button, the next screen reveals a little surprise. We've decided to include the names of all the Kickstarter backers in the credits screen on the app. If you want your name included, you can enter it on that screen. If not, you can decline. If you are providing a name for the credits page, please just enter your name or a simple nickname. We have a great community here and know our backers will respect each other in how they're celebrated as a backer in the credits. Please understand that we'll be scrubbing the names submitted to remove any offensive terms (even ones that use numerals or other characters).
Your items and funds from Kickstarter will already be in BackerKit. BackerKit imports all of the data from Kickstarter. So whatever items are included in the pledge level you backed on Kickstarter will already be in your cart in BackerKit. Likewise, the money you pledge in Kickstarter will already be in your account. If you are not adding anything beyond what's already included in your pledge level and you included all of the necessary funds in your Kickstarter pledge, you can just check out.
You can upgrade your pledge level. If you backed at the "Map to BackerKit" level, you can upgrade your pledge to either "Charge the Tower" or to "Azkol's Fortune". If you backed at the "Charge the Tower" level, you can upgrade to "Azkol's Fortune". If you are getting the base game, Alliances, Dark Horde, and the Coffers, you'll want to upgrade your pledge level to "Azkol's Fortune" to take advantage of the pledge level discount, which is cheaper than getting all of those items separately.
You can upgrade your pledge level in one of two ways. The easiest way is on the very first screen of your survey, where you'll see a small link to "switch your pledge level".
You can also do it from the add-ons screen by click on the link under your pledge level at the top of the screen. This takes you to a pop-up with your pledge information with another link to "switch pledge levels".
You can add items to your order if you want to. If you want to get add-ons, you need to add them in BackerKit. This is where you can add the game mat, sleeves, art prints, and more. This includes items you already included money for in your pledge that aren't included in the pledge level. You might have added money to your pledge to cover the game mat, but you still need to add the game mat on this screen since it's not part of your pledge level. You can also use this screen to order multiple copies of the game, if you want to give an extra one as a gift. You will see "Azkol's Fortune" as an item you can buy on the add-ons screen. That is for folks who want to get additional copies of the bundle. You should not add that to your cart as a way to upgrade your pledge because you will get charged the full "Azkol's Fortune" cost in addition to whatever your regular pledge level was.
You can split your shipment between two addresses. If you are getting multiple copies of the game for multiple people, you can split them up so they will be shipped directly. However, you cannot do this on your own. You will need to contact BackerKit customer service. They will then split your order into multiple orders for each separate shipment. You can then assign a separate shipping address for each shipment. (Note: You will have to pay a separate shipping fee for each separate address.)
If you got the free coin, it will already be in your cart. You will see the "Coin of the Realm" in the add-ons section of your cart. If you believe you were supposed to get the coin for free and it is not in your cart, please contact BackerKit customer service, and they will assist you. (Reminder: You are supposed to get the coin for free if you signed up for notification on the special sign-up page, not from the Restoration Games newsletter or the Kickstarter notification.)
We will lock down the surveys some time in April. We've been saying end of March. However, it appears we've got a little more cushion in the manufacturing timeline before we need to lock down. So that date is now tentatively April 10th. You will get notification from BackerKit when the date approaches. Until we lock down the surveys, you can continue to go back in and make changes to your order, such as adding or removing items or changing your payment method.
We will run the credit cards after we lock down surveys. We will soon determine the exact date we will run the credit cards, but it will be after that lock down date. If you want us to run your credit card sooner for some reason, please contact BackerKit customer service, and they will be able to do that manually.
You can change your address up until we are ready to ship. Don't worry if you end up moving from your current shipping address. You can continue to go back into your survey and update your shipping address right up until the game is ready to ship.
Retailers have a few changes from these instructions. If you are a verified retailer under the "Bazaar Proprietors Only" pledge level, per the retailer terms, we will hold the pledge manager open for you a little longer and will not run your credit cards until we are ready to ship. Please remember that you may not offer the game for sale for online customers until after the pledge manager is closed for backers. We will notify you of all these dates before they happen.
I know this can seem like a lot to take in, but don't worry. It's not as bad as it sounds when you're reading it. And, most importantly, like I said at the top: BackerKit has excellent customer service and will be able to help you if you have any problems. And if you can't get the help you need, you can always contact me directly.