He who controls the spice.. er freight... controls the universe - latest Mission Catastrophe News!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 17, 2021 at 02:08:36 AM

"To the fine crew of the Casimir! Thank you for your patience - we are nearly through the first Asteroid field..."

The familiar voice over the comms sounds reassuring... wait, the ... first Asteroid field?? Ahh, you're sure it's fine! Frankly, you just needed to know there was anyone out there, as you began to wonder about the status of the core systems, life support and engines. Craving news about the ship's course, you find out the following: 

DEADLINE TO ENTER ADDRESS INFO IS NOW

The computer systems need your final, final address, as we're about to enter the shipping stages of this adventure. All crew have until end of day, Nov 28 to check that we have your final address for shipping. If you are missing a quick link to your survey, you can check Backerkit here: https://missioncatastrophe.backerkit.com/

PRODUCTION UPDATE - FINAL STAGES

So what is happening in production? MANUFACTURING IS NEARLY COMPLETE! We are pretty excited and we want to tell you all about the mass production sample we were sent. This is the copy before all the copies are assembled, and it consists of everything we'll see in the final game, in final form. Everything from determining orientation of items in the box, final colors and punchboard details, component review and more are handled at this stage. Now we did find a few things amiss here, so morale was a bit rough in October at first as we worried for further delay, but we have worked through all of these things with the plant. Here are just a few examples of what we saw:

• a) the mass production cardboard is THICKER (yes thicker) than the digital proof copy, and as such, some of the punchboard die cuts didn't punch as well as we wanted at first. We were able to adjust this die before print.
• b) the Gametrayz lid was too tight. The plant adjusted and now we feel it has the proper snap to it. 
• c) the oxygen cubes used in the final copy were the wrong blue. This is seemingly a small detail, but we aren't leaving a component behind in our final flight checks. 

There were a few more notes but we worked out each and every one. Overall, the production is well done and we're hoping we've now seen the final, beautiful version of the game. The mass production of these games is finishing THIS MONTH!

Another fun picture comes in from our partner Drawlab in Greece, making our metal ships and coins. These unique kickstarter rewards passed their fridge test and are headed to their final destination!

SHIPPING UPDATE

And now we begin an exciting new journey.. to find a boat. You may recall from one of our summer updates that the freight situation around the world is quite jammed, unpredictable and costly. Some campaigns are opting to hold inventory to see if this calms down next year. Our plans are to forge forward, and get this mission done. We want assure you that while there will be increased freight costs, we are choosing to not pass any of it on to backers. We're ready to get this game to all of you! Now that said, this doesn't mean we'll get our first boat, or that there won't be more tricky parts to this, including jammed docks and slow holiday season logistics. Additionally, different regions of the world will get games at different times. 

BUT WHEN??

Picking a date before a boat situation is locked is tricky, but a hopeful crew *might* be able to see the boats all arrive in mid January, and fulfillment centers start shipping at the start of February. Some backers in Asia may see their games as early as late 2021! We'll be updating in December and a couple times in January as we have news on this. 

GIVING THANKS

As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States, we are thankful for this crew, for all of your support for this - the first campaign for Cardboard Alchemy - made possible by all of you! Last Thanksgiving, we were funding this dream game of first time designer, Matt Walters. Mission Catastrophe is a blast - it looks great, it plays great, and it's beaming to your tabletops soon! 

Next month - production pics from the plant and more boat news!

Cheers, Peter and Brad and the Mission Catastrophe team!

Uh, everything's under control. Situation normal.
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 09:24:53 PM

Hello crew!

This is one of those updates that is just here to say "we're still here". No new major news as production is underway on Mission Catastrophe, and we're still just as excited as ever that this game is coming to your tabletops. There are still 2-3 months of production ahead on minis and some of the components.

SEATBELTS, CHECK

A couple of exciting notes as we head further into space... We have been going back and forth the plant on some details and are still in awe about the production quality. In recent "stand the box upright" tests - NOTHING MOVES out of place. :) The ship is stable and cruising at this point to the other side of the production galaxy. In addition, we have confirmed that sleeves work well and fit the card wells. 

ALCHEMY UNIVERSE

As a crew, we just finished up a very big Kickstarter in Flamecraft. Currently ranked the 97th most funded game and 54th most backed game on Kickstarter! (We are blown away, and thank you to any of the crew here that joined us on another adventure! And if you missed - late pledges are available - just sayin!). 

What does this mean for Mission Catastrophe? Well, it means a few things worthy of note!

•  1. Our Discord has grown, and more fun people are around to play Mission Catastrophe - on Tabletopia! We've added more chat channels, and implemented a bot to host events. JOIN US on DISCORD! Or, launch a game right now on TABLETOPIA: http://tinyurl.com/MCTabletopia 
•  2. We are sharing Mission Catastrophe on the Flamecraft pledge manager. The hope is that by expanding the print run a wee bit, we can help offset some of the very big freight costs that are still looming in our flight path.
•  3. Lucky Duck Games has signed Mission Catastrophe for worldwide distribution. (LDG is our partner on Flamecraft too). They will show Mission Catastrophe at Essen (!!) to potential localization partners already buzzing about Flamecraft so that it may have a shot at some retail release. Lucky Duck will present the deluxe production of the base game. Keep in mind, we are holding the KS promo cards forever for this crew only and right now, the expansion content is also not being considered for retail, so there is quite a bit of this game that remains exclusive and rare! 

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Uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?

Cheers,

Peter and Brad

Tomorrow Starts Today!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Aug 11, 2021 at 05:01:17 PM

Engage!

We’ve topped off the anti-matter fuel tanks, stowed any loose items (including Gyzma) and are going to warp speed. Mission Catastrophe is headed into production now! Issues with the box, tray and robots have all been sorted out (as you can see below) and we’re moving forward at ludicrous speed.

First, the new tray is neatly organized, with a brand new GameTrayz design:

Underneath the asteroid tray, the robots sit ready to obey orders (for now), and the minis all have a home. There are two complete wells for tiles (base and expansion), and the jumbo cards provide a stable base over the empty well if not used. 

The PIP and mini cards have room for sleeving, of course. The escape pods now have their own place on board too. One of these escape pods may even be THE ONE you pilot to victory! 

There are levels to this ship. (AND the side of the box tells you how to store it!)

Under the Ship Integrity board are the modules and jumbo cards. Under those, the fuse board snugly sits over the red charge cubes and yellow status cubes, with even some room if you want to store fuses here too. (otherwise the cubes are all under module stack 1). The red cubes in particular are set in a big open sloped section to make it easy for scoop out. 

The crew of this vessel is ready to go. Bright cheery and fun minis and stellar components await you in Mission Catastrophe!

Thanks for taking a look - there will be more pictures and video when we're looking at a fully produced copy in hands in a couple of months. 

 Sensors Detect Another Craft - Flamecraft Launches today!

But wait! There’s another mission for those willing to travel with us to a whole new world of amazing art. Flamecraft - our next game which launches on Kickstarter TODAY! (7am PDT time)

After surviving a catastrophe in space you’ll want to take shore leave in this enchanted town filled with artisan dragons who make wondrous things. And since you’re one of our crew you’ll get a free art coaster with any pledge.

Back To The Stars

That's not all! If you want a peek at our third game, designed by the extraordinary Luke Laurie, be sure to sign up for our newsletter for the first glimpse in late August of this epic worker placement, engine builder in space! 

Exciting times - thanks for reading and we’ll share more soon!

Cheers - Peter and Brad

Mission-not-a-Catastrophe Production Update
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 02, 2021 at 03:29:24 AM

Hello crew!

Might want to buckle up... this update might get a bit bumpy. Don't worry, we did know there were asteroids ahead. Mission Catastrophe continues into production!

SHIPPING

So.....speaking of incoming meteoroids,  international freight conditions are a hot flaming topic these days because cost of shipping containers (from China to distribution centers) has gone up 3-5x worldwide as availability of these containers is in short supply. This poses real issues with those indie creators with deluxe games and tight tight margins. (Ahem)...

For this project, this does not mean anything yet as we are not at the shipping stage and we have time (for better or worse) in production to look into all options, talk with partners, colleagues and freight companies and come back to you. We just wanted to give everyone a heads up.  At the end of this update, we've linked two recent videos by content creators Quackalope and BoardGameCo if you want to find out more about this complex situation.

PRODUCTION

First, a picture of designer Matt Walters posing with the very first pre-press copy of his game. IT IS REAL. This is not a hologram! This copy arrived in June, and we looked it over as a team.

The good news is - most of the game is in fantastic shape and it is out of this world! The not-so-great news? There are some small but significant issues, in terms of the box side drawer and the Gametrayz (see below). We've been addressing these all month to go into full production. It does mean we're not going to show all the tray pics because... there will be an entirely new tray. We are still going to show some fun pics and share all the main notes here so you're all up to speed, and then hopefully begin July with a new sample to finally enter production. 

SIDE TELESCOPING

Side-telescoping (the drawer open) became a bit of a production challenge. We are going to need to drop it to continue making the best possible game. We used to wonder - why don't more games have a drawer? It's wicked cool right? Well, for bigger games, (heavier and deluxified games) that drawer has to be structurally sound for consistent pulls. And we found now that it is definitely... not. :(

While we are sad to lose the feature, one positive note is that the side-telescoping bound our choices on a few things, and now frees us up. For example, Gametrayz had to plan for a big gap between the tray lid and the box lid. As production went on, our manufacturer kept having to increase the size of the overall box to accommodate fitting issues, and this gap worsened. Gametrayz usually works to the level of the box bottom for the best experience, and we doubt  the ol "stuff the sprues on the bottom" would make this right with the drawer system.

GAMETRAYZ

We got the tray. It looked so cool. Awesome and purple and... not at all good enough. 

A few things didn't fit right and some parts were just underwhelming for an experience. Both Gametrayz and our team thought the cubes and the discs and the tiles would fit as designed. In practice though, there were too many things not up to par, so we've been hard at work redesigning it, with Gametrayz. Gametrayz of course has a full summer calendar, and we just now today got this new render, with files to come hopefully early next week.

It's hard to explain everything going on in the redesign, but we're happy to talk out any of the nuances in the comments. To give an idea of the process - Here's a deeper dive into the robots, control tokens and docking tray, which also needed an adjustment. First, the original concept had control tokens between each robot. Then, in production, the dual-layer boards made everything thicker (whoops), so the tray added a center well instead (second version seen below, pre-press copy):

The dual thick cardboard changed the mini too (for an example of a ripple effect). We ran into a new snag, the tray only fit 8. As we have been behind our target schedule we agreed to this and decided it wouldn't be so bad if 8 control tokens fit elsewhere. But now, with the tray having other issues, we're taking this opportunity to fix it, to make it right. As gamers, we want those tokens near the robots when you would need them.  Gametrayz tinkered and came up with a new docking station design. Amazingly, the tokens are all fitting without much change, and the Asimo-V robots are still happily destroying the ship with a smile.

The new trayz are improved in every way -  to better accommodate tiles if you don't have expansion tiles, sleeved cards fitting better, minis with more space, fixing storage of the number tokens and cubes, and much more. With v2.0 trayz, we believe this ship will fly smoother than ever!

NEW PRE-PRESS COPY

We're submitting a new box file (sans drawer), updating a couple of files (rules and minor tweaks) and of course looking to get the latest tray now as well as minis in color to make final approvals. We'll be back in July with more news.

TIMELINE

There's no question now that all of the steps along our art, development, and production approval process have caused some damage to the timeline as we once knew it. We entered a worm hole, and all original projections seem unknown until we can get a firm date on production starting. We will get that date. In the meantime, we are plotting our shipping course, and we are still very excited to begin making many copies of this amazing game. We know you will be excited as well when you can see this in person and get it to the table. The game continues to get support and interest from potential partners for post KS release, and content creators who played it are anxious to shout it out again. 

CARDBOARD ALCHEMY - STAY TUNED!

Our next giveaway on Youtube is coming up - SUBSCRIBE if you want to win an amazing deck builder releasing next month called "Art Deco", signed by designer Ta-Te Wu. It's really innovative in the deck building genre, and we're excited to share some new copies!

Also, we're hosting pre-launch puzzle contests right now to win a dragon miniature for our next game, Flamecraft. The puzzles, designed by Richard Malena-Webber (who brought you Mission Catastrophe interactive adventures), are fun word play while we wait for KS LAUNCH ON AUGUST 10!

AND one more thing - as a thank you to you for being a supportive backer of our projects, you can get an art coaster on the Flamecraft KS for free with any tier. The robots may have some competition for best art coaster designed in this series. I mean, dragons... you know?

Thanks for reading and for your continued support and patience. We appreciate it very much, and look forward to sharing more final pics as the game enters production this summer. 

Cheers, Brad and Peter

All we have to do is get one of each of these resources, and then we did it, right??

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Additional links on the shipping/freight situation - again, the situation for our game is yet to be decided, but here's some context on the shipping news worldwide.

QUACKALOPE AND BOARDGAMECO TALK SHIPPING

Thanks so much for reading/watching and talk again soon!

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe! - A Mission Catastrophe UPDATE
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 27, 2021 at 06:59:34 AM

Hello friends!

This is the First Mate checking in. It doesn't appear that we've hit anything. Wait, hold on. Nope, still good. What's new in space? Well, a lot actually! Turns out you can pilot the ship (PLAY THE GAME) today on the holodecks (TABLETOPIA). More on this AND some exciting production pics in this update!

PRODUCTION SAMPLES ARE ARRIVING!

We've beamed aboard (had shipped from China) ACTUAL minis to our tabletops! This is such an exciting step, even though the minis are still grey and not yet in color, they are officially THE minis. They have been through a few steps to adjust for the perfect fit in the gametrayz mold. Check out these pre-production miniatures - your crew!

The next stage is the pre-production full game with all the parts - box, trayz, cards, bits and more. This edition is expected in early June, and if all looks good, we can go full speed into production! We'll need to update in June with a new timeline when we find out more on production and freight schedules from the manufacturing teams. 

COINS AND MAGNETS 

And now, teleporting to Greece for add-on news - Draw Labs has produced a wonderful sample of the coins and magnets! We are looking forward to holding these weighty silver treasures in our hands/pseudopods! We'll be starting production of these and the robot coasters (made in the USA) very soon!

YOU CAN PILOT THE SHIP... RIGHT NOW!

Big news! Thanks to a certain key member of the crew, a Commander Brad Brooks, we have a fully functional play experience of Mission Catastrophe on Tabletopia NOW! AND it's just for you! That's right, we're only posting the link for our KS crew and on our Cardboard Alchemy Discord (sure, we know it may be shared, and it is OK to bring friends on the ship). The main thing is - we are choosing not to make the mod public on Tabletopia yet (requires this link to find it) so that you, our backers, may experience the game first. Enjoy! 

Mission Catastrophe on Tabletopia - BACKER LINK: http://tinyurl.com/MCTabletopia

The latest rulebooks are there, and the cards are up to date with our print files, so you can test out the "under pressure" spacesuit mode as well. You can host a game for 2-6 player counts and competitive/team modes at this time.  You can also seek us out in Discord if you prefer us to host and teach the game, or search the galaxy for the designer, Matt Walters. Cheers!

KEEP THE COMMS OPEN

We're always giving away things here at Cardboard Alchemy, and you really don't want to miss it - we've got a current contest for a signed copy of Letter Tycoon, Dwelling of Eldervale rare wooden treasures AND we've launched a puzzle contest for a free miniature on our next title, Flamecraft. 

If you haven't entered all three of those, here are the ways to reach us on all the socials:

•  YOUTUBE - check the Letter Tycoon giveawayand the Play Dwellings contests! 
•  CARDBOARD ALCHEMY SITE - Flamecraft landing page is up, with contest! 
•  DISCORD - Puzzle help, chat and games! Come here to set up a game of Mission Catastrophe or test Flamecraft early!
•  INSTAGRAM (@CbAlchemy), TWITTER (@CbAlchemy), FACEBOOK /cardboardalchemy news , events and sneak peaks!

We would add Tik-Tok videos, but we already have Tee-Turp-Tik-Tok as a member of the crew, and it might get weird...

Thank you! Cheers,

Peter and Brad