Locking Addresses Wednesday
almost 2 years ago – Wed, May 18, 2022 at 12:25:49 PM

Sorry for a second update today. I should have mentioned we will be running the final backer report on Wednesday as we wrap up credit card charges. After Wednesday, no address changes will be possible (not easily at least). So please, do us a favor and double check your address in BackerKit if you have moved in the last 6 months and may not have updated that since the initial BackerKit survey went out. 

Brian

Attempt Two to Charge Cards that Failed Last Week
almost 2 years ago – Tue, May 17, 2022 at 04:05:28 PM

Quick update for the start of the week. 

Remaining Credit Card Charges

We are going to attempt to charge the credit cards for the last 28 people who had cards error out last week; this will happen around 12p EST. After that, if we have not received payment, we will withdraw the name from our shipping list until those individuals are able to pay for their shipping/add-ons. There are a few people who reached out to us already; don't worry, we know who you are and will continue to work with you via messages. 

We can honor the shipping prices from the KS through early June, but after that, anyone who reaches out after that time will be charged the actual shipping at that time. We currently are collecting less than what the actual shipping is due to higher than expecting increases between the quote we received last year (what we based our KS shipping quotes on during the campaign) and the second quarter 2022 actual shipping prices. 

We will do our best to accommodate everyone as much as we can because understand life happens, but unfortunately, between the shipping costs in the third quarter potentially increasing again (who knows) and storage fees with the fulfillment centers to storage the undelivered games, we do have to consider our costs as well after the initial waves of deliveries go out. 

Freight Update:

We will provide more details later this week as we get confirmation. I do know the shipping for the UK has arrived at the docks over the weekend, and the US was scheduled to arrive by now (waiting for confirmation). We will provide an update once the games are heading to/have arrived at the fulfillment centers. We should be weeks away from some people receiving their games now. We are pretty excited :)

Thanks again for all of your support, 

Brian Moats and Jon Usiak

Usiak Games and Designs

Credit Charges Processed
almost 2 years ago – Thu, May 12, 2022 at 03:47:27 AM

Hello all, 

Just a quick update. We started the processing of the credit cards this morning. Everyone who had their orders locked and ready for payments have had an attempt made to charge for their game/shipping/VAT/Tax. There were 61 payments that did not go through; if you got an email saying that the charge was not successful, please correct the card on BackerKit or reach out to us with any further questions. 

Additionally, there are 34 people that pledged $50+ who have still not completed their survey and therefore, have not been charged for their shipping/VAT/Tax. So, I encourage you to check to make sure your order has made it through the payment process. I may send one last email to everyone who hasn't completed this step. 

Let us know if you have any questions. 

Jon Usiak and Brian Moats

Usiak Games and Designs

Update: Credit Cards Charged Next Week and Timeline Updates
almost 2 years ago – Mon, May 09, 2022 at 12:42:09 AM

Hello Everyone,

We have some updates we wanted to pass along. 

For those who want the short version:

• Freight should be arriving at the docks over the next 2 weeks (May 16th US / May 14th UK).
• Update your address in BackerKit ASAP if you will not be at the address originally provided.
• Some backers will likely receive their game by mid-June.
• Credit cards will be charged next week (probably around May 10th). This is for the shipping, add-ons, and VAT/Taxes that were charged via BackerKit using a credit card. Those who paid with PayPal have already been charged.

That wraps up the short version.

For those who want a little more detail:

Freight Updates and Updated Timelines

We received updated freight progress over the last two weeks. We are finally getting to the final stretch of this campaign; this means we will be finalizing orders and charging credit cards next week (more on that below).

Here are the estimated dates of arrival as well as when we were provided the update by our freight forwarder:

• US Port Arrival Estimate – May 16th (update as of May 4th)
• UK Port Arrival Estimate – May 14th (update as of April 22nd)
• Games to start arriving at Backer’s homes – Second half of June

These dates are estimates provided by the freight forwarder. We are assuming it will take 2-4 weeks for the games to be offloaded at the docks and to arrive at the fulfillment centers, and the fulfillment centers will need 1-2 weeks to get everything boxed and shipped. This means we should start seeing some backers receiving their games in mid-June.

If you need to update your address, please do so As Soon As Possible. We understand some changes could happen between now and June. We can update addresses manually after next week if needed, but please update your information in BackerKit if you know in June you will not be at the address you provided us in BackerKit initially.

Charging Credit Cards

Credit cards will be charged early next week (likely on May 10th). If a card fails to charge, we will notify those backers. You will have a week or so to provide an updated payment method via BackerKit. If we are unable to charge for shipping, add-ons, and/or VAT/Taxes by the time we have to provide the final shipping information to the fulfillment centers (around May 17th), those backers will not receive a copy of the game. Please check your payment method and confirm it is still valid to avoid any issues.

Alternately, if you no longer want the game or cannot afford to pay the remaining balance, you may request a refund for your pledge (minus fees outlined on the Kickstarter page, see “REFUND POLICY” on the campaign tab).

Reach out to us if you run into any issues finalizing your payments; we will help out as much as we are able to. Unfortunately, the costs of everything have risen so much that even we are having to absorb a lot of the increased costs just shipping the games out. We estimated a 10% increase between years as recommended by our fulfillment companies, but it actually increased about 25% in 2022. We have absorbed that extra 15%. That said, we certainly understand that everyone has certainly been impacted as well and may need to make decisions about what is a priority for their tightening wallets.

Future Projects

As Jon said in his last update, we are already hard at work creating the first map expansion for the game. Jon sent me the graphics of the hand drawn map and some of the new cards; it is looking pretty good already. We plan to continue internal playtesting throughout the summer via a secret Tabletop Simulator mod that we will invite a small number playtester to join us once we feel it has passed our internal thresholds (sign up for the email newsletter if you want more details about future playtest opportunities: https://usiakgames.com). Obviously, we are excited to hear your feedback about the main game we expect you will all have in your hands in the next 2 months, but we did want to tease our next project.

I have also been working on a card game that is set in the SKEPTICS universe as well that I hope to share more information about this summer.

We hope you are enjoying your weekend so far,

Brian Moats and Jon Usiak

Usiak Games and Designs

SKEPTICS Update
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Apr 23, 2022 at 07:16:25 AM

Hello everyone!!!! How are you all doing?! I am excited to give another quick announcement!

SHIPPING and FREIGHT

So our games are now on two freights, one heading to the US and the other to UK. Just to reiterate, the US will include Canada and Mexico orders, and the UK will cover all the other countries. We were told Freight could take up to 4-5 weeks to make their destination to our fulfillment centers but once they arrive the next step is getting these games out to you! 

Addresses

For those who need to change or update their address please make sure to update that on your Pledge Manager page. If you do so, please let us know so we can reach out to the fulfillment team to update.

Credit Card Charges

For those who are paying by Credit Card, they will be charged approx. mid-May as the games reach their destination. If you have not paid shipping yet, or are unsure if you have, you can check your Pledge Manager. There are only a few left who need to put in their info so most of you should be all set. If your card does not go through we will have to hold the game. The shipping fees could be slightly higher too if you are making a payment post Campaign and after the closing of Credit Card charges. Please reach out to us if you need help with anything. 

Soundtracks

Just a reminder that I will release the two one-hour soundtracks on Usiakgames.com/soundtrack once the first batch of copies reach our backers! As of now there are two 30 second samples up on the site.

Expansion Playtests

Another reminder that mid-Summer (once the Main game reaches everyone) we will reach out to our Master Pledgers, AND do a random selection on our Facebook and email subscribers, to play test the Next SKEPTICS expansion! The paper prototype is all ready to go and will soon be on TableTop Simulator! Brian and I will be testing it first before it goes semi-public :)

Well that is all for now and we hope you have a wonderful Weekend! If I missed something Brian might add on to this. Feel free to ask us any questions!

Jon Usiak and Brian Moats

Usiak Games and Designs