Shipping Added - Lockdown Is Coming!
about 2 years ago – Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 07:56:35 PM

Greetings builders and pilots!

Shipping charges for all territories have been added to the surveys (with the exception of retailers). As you may recall, we delayed added shipping charges so we could double and triple check the estimates we posted on Kickstarter and make sure they would hold for 2023.

Good news: the estimates were solid, and we are sticking to them. In fact, we have been able to slightly discount the Fleet bundle shipping in Zones 1 and 2. I suggest all backers go and look at their survey and confirm that everything looks in order. Keep the following things in mind:

• Remember that playmats have separate shipping charges. Those are added into the total. If you have a higher than anticipated  shipping bill, it's likely you have one or more playmats ordered. Sorry, BackerKit does not display this shipping charge as a separate line item, but you can experiment with your cart to see the effects of removing items. The Kickstarter page has the playmat shipping prices.
• Shipping is charged by weight. Please remember that some items (e.g. the starter, toys, consoles, and  builder pack) are chock-full of plastic and add to the shipping. Adding these items a la carte may push you up into the next shipping tier. 

As always, you can send us an inquiry through BackerKit or a Kickstarter message if you think anything is incorrect or need any help.

Lockdown Coming

With the addition of shipping, the BackerKit for non-retail backers is final. We expect to lock orders Dec 7th and charge cards about 48 hours after that. This allows PAX Unplugged attendees time to jump on board after seeing the game for the first time at the convention.

Tooling

Steel has been cut for many of the new Snap Ships Tactics items. The factory has sent over some photos of early test shots of the pieces. Note these are before the tools have been polished and before the items have been painted. It's just the tip of the iceberg, but fun to see nonetheless!

Scenario Rules Designed

Josh has completed a second round of revisions to the bonus scenarios - Beacon Rush, Asteroid Scramble, and Last Stand - unlocked during the campaign. You can playtest these scenarios in the Vassal boardgame engine. Join our Discord and DM me (Scott - Snap Ships) or Josh Derksen to gain access. We appreciate those who have already put in some miles on these cool new scenarios!

Survey Complete

Thank you to everyone who filled out the Tactics survey mentioned in our last update. Your feedback was immensely helpful. And congratulations to JN who won our raffle and chose a Claymore, Spitter, and Sawfly as their reward! Here's a summary of one of the questions:

PAX Unplugged Dec 2-4

Once again we will be running demos of Snap Ships Tactics at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia. We will have retail space in the Lynnvander Studios booth #3323 and a large demo area running games of SST. Stop by to pick up some kits, play a match, see the prototypes, or just say hello!

Thanks for hanging in there!

Tell us what you think!
about 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 20, 2022 at 09:21:41 PM

Greetings builders and pilots!

Apologies if some of this update is the same as the email blast we sent to our larger fan base (many of you are not on that list).  Game production is getting underway as we feverishly work to finish all the design and art files. Snap Ships Tactics is a complicated beast - there are a lot of little details we are working on every day. But fear not, the schedule stays intact. BackerKit will remain open for the next several weeks, but soon we will be adding in shipping charges and starting to lock down your orders (don't worry, you'll get plenty of notice).

But while you wait patiently for that day to come:

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! 🫵

Here's a short, three minute survey that will help us learn a bit more about what we can do to make Snap Ships Tactics better:

As an incentive to complete our survey, one random respondent will receive: $50 worth of Snap Ships kits (USA only), or $50 credit in your BackerKit order (USA or rest of world). 

   Answering this survey in a HUGE help to us - thank you in advance for your time! 

PAX Unplugged

We will once again be demoing Tactics at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, December 2-4. We will have a booth for sales of Snap Ships kits and a large demo area with 1v1 and 2v2 games of Snap Ships Tactics. Last year Unplugged was a blast - one of the true highlights of convention season. We hope to see you there!

PAX Unplugged demos last year.

Lastly here's a preview of some of the part card artwork - on the individual part cards these images will be very small, but here's the level of detail and care being put into each one:

A part card with placeholder art, Lance Cockpit and Komplex Ball Turret illustrations.

Thanks for your support - please hit that survey link above or right here!

Cons on Cons on Cons!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Sep 17, 2022 at 09:37:16 PM

Greetings builders and pilots!

Just a quick update to let you know what's happening out here in in the deepest reaches of Forge space.

BackerKit is Open

A few weeks ago you should have received an email with a link to your BackerKit survey. The add-ons are live and you can further customize your order using the awesome tools on BackerKit. If you're missing your survey you can find it here: https://snapshipstactics.backerkit.com/ 

We plan to keep the survey open at least until the end of October. We'll give you plenty of warning when we add the final shipping charges and prepare to lock down. So far 72% of you have completed your survey; that's a great start and let's keep it going!

Also, if any of your friends missed out on the Kickstarter, it's not too late! You can still late pledge on our Pre-Order store. 

Production Update

Speaking of locking down, we turned over the final CAD for the new plastic parts to the factory this week. Coming out of our recent conventions we made some subtle changes based on player feedback. For example, we added two more pegs to the deluxe console to aid in building, and we thickened up the move tool just a bit so it would have a more solid feel. If all looks good to the factory, it will be time to cut steel!

On the game front we released version 2.8 to our Vassal playtest group. Although the core game is 90% done, we're still tweaking small issues and revising any problem cards that we find. With all of the possible combinations of parts, rigorous testing is required before we release the game. Join our Discord to find out more info about testing the latest version of Snap Ships Tactics!

Cons Complete

We mentioned this in our last update, but we picked up a Best of Gen Con 2022 award from Gaming Trend, and they've now published the article. Such awesome company to be in; so many great games!

PAX West was also fantastic this year.  We  brought a small number of ships to sell as we just weren't sure what the attendance would be like in the Tabletop area. It turned out great. We got to introduce a whole bunch of people to Snap Ships and sold out of our stock by midday of day 3. 

We even ran into folks who remembered us from our 3D Printing days, before the toy line and long before the game! Thanks for hanging with us. For #FlashbackFriday here's a look back at our modest setup from PAX West 2018. We've come a long way!

Next up, PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia December 2-4 - with more ships, more news, cool customs,  and lots and lots of demos!

Onward...

We'll keep sending monthly updates just so you know we're working hard to get this game finished and you into the cockpit as soon as possible. 

Pledge Manager About to Open!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Aug 19, 2022 at 01:18:56 AM

The Pledge Manager through BackerKit is about to be live. Soon, you’ll receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. 

It's important to respond to your survey promptly so we can see what your shipping address is and what additional add-ons (if any) you would like to add to your order.

NOTE: we are not charging shipping at this time. We will evaluate the shipping rates as we get closer to our manufacturing deadline. We will add those fees, notify you so you may review them, and then ask you to lock your order. We expect this to happen in about 60 days.

You won’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://snapshipstactics.backerkit.com.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://snapshipstactics.backerkit.com/faq.

We are sending out out the survey "Smoke Test" this week. This means about 5% of you will get a survey, and assuming that goes well, we will then send surveys to all backers. Thank you for your patience.

Best of Gen Con!

We had a blast meeting many of your at Gen Con and showing off the game in the demo area. We ran a ton of demos and collected great feedback from new and returning players. We even picked up this nice little accolade from Gaming Trend:

Gen Con was busy and there was a lot of excitement in the air. We even got to hand out a whole bunch of 3D printed pieces to fans - we hope to see those used in your builds! Next up for the team is PAX West September 3-6. 

Please join our Discord for the latest news and info!

Late Pledges Now Open
over 2 years ago – Fri, Aug 05, 2022 at 10:58:58 AM

We are sending out this quick update to let you know that late pledges are now available online through BackerKit. If you have friends or family who want to join the fleet but missed out on the Kickstarter, please point them to our store! There's also a link at the top of our Kickstarter campaign page. We will leave the Late Pledges store open for business until we lock down for manufacturing. Late pledges help us with manufacturing by enabling us to increase the size of our print run, so please help spread the word. Not to mention, that means a bigger community for Snap Ships Tactics, which means more people to play against and more room for growth going forward!

Important: This store is not for backers; it's exclusively for those that missed the campaign. As a backer, you will get access to everything in the store when the backer surveys are sent out in about a week and a half. We are unable to send surveys until Kickstarter finalizes the campaign and passes that information along to us. We will give you another update as soon as we send out the initial surveys.

Please keep in mind that shipping charges will not be applied until we get closer to fulfillment.  This is true both for late pledges and original campaign pledges. For late pledges, we will evaluate the most current shipping rates and charge accordingly. Backers, however, will be charged either what we estimated in the campaign or the current rates, whichever is a lower price.

Gen Con 2022 is here!

We are currently at Gen Con demoing the game, selling Snap Ships kits, and showing off some awesome custom builds. You can visit our retail space in Hall F: Lynnvander Studios booth #3015. The game demos are in Hall B at the Green tables, right in front of Magic: the Gathering. Sign up here for a demo slot. But there are only a few left!

Thanks again for being  such a great community! Please join our Discord.