Hello Everyone,

This isn't an update I particularly wanted to write, as it makes me feel like I have failed you all. 

This update isn't all doom and gloom, but I wanted to send an honest and open update to everyone with my thoughts and feelings about where we are with the Kickstarter. 

It is a rather long wordy update but please read through the whole thing as I really need your help deciding what to do.  

Fulfilment

It’s taking a lot longer to fulfil the Kickstarter than i ever imagined it would. This is due to a few factors:  

1) Time to cast almost 18,000 individual tiles and accessories.  

This was a huge underestimate on my behalf, the mould making, and casting times are so much more than I originally thought.  

2) Time to paint about 17,000 of those pieces  

Again, my fault, I have never had to paint that may pieces before and I hadn't accounted for the extra time with having thousands of pieces at once being painted and going through a 5 or in some cases with the jade and the Asylum 13 stages.  

I have only painted what I needed to paint for orders as they came in or 5-10 sets for show stock before. The Kickstarter opened a lot of new pieces that I haven't painted before, and that are either small and fiddly to paint or just take time to between layers to dry. Long and short of it, I totally miscalculated the amount of time it takes to hand paint that amount.  

3) Getting the right pledge content together to send full pledges at the same time.  

I made the decision that the large pieces should be cast first as they take the most time to be cast, but I hadn't taken in to account that 65% of the pledges need the accessory sets and the pillar sets and all the other smaller pieces to dispatch them. Its only now that I am realising that wasn't the best way to do it, and while the casters are doing their best to switch tracks and get their moulds pushed through and have things made, it takes time for the process to be complete, and then they need to cast hundreds of grain sacks and coin piles to get the pieces to me.  

I didn't take in to account the logistics of collating all the orders, and that has lead to a delay in fulfilling the Kickstarter. Now there is no doubt that we will finish the Kickstarter or that anyone is going to be left without their tiles, I’m working 12-14 hour days 6 and sometimes 7 days a week.

I have a bunch of awesome folk helping me with spraying, painting, quick shading, felting and packaging, so the Kickstarter Isn't failing in that respect, and it won’t either, and we will be sending out our first pledged next week, and there is a chunk (10-15) to go, then there are another 20-30 waiting for pillar and accessory sets to send as well.

The Crux of the Issue, and the effect of the KS Fulfilment being delayed The real issue is outside of the Kickstarter. I haven't sold anything other than Kickstarter pledges since the KS went live. So that's nearly 5 months without a sale. All the money from the Kickstarter pledges obviously goes in to making the Kickstarter bits and moulds.  

Also I had the original timing of the KS fulfilment the way I had it because I have two big Shows coming up In September, Tabletop Scotland 1st & 2nd September, which we are sponsoring and Tabletop Gaming Live.  

I have already paid for the stand space and all that jazz, so if I don't go I’ll be losing the money for that, and also shows are the places we make our money to supplement the sales on the website. This puts me in a massive bind. I need to sell something to keep the cash flow going but I don't feel right selling any items that are in the KS without fulfilling them, which means currently I have no stock to sell at the shows, because everything is a Kickstarter item. So, I have a few options, and I want your help deciding what to do.  

1) Sell Items that have been available on the website before the Kickstarter, but not the new items from the Kickstarter.  

Things like the core set, which has been available in Resin since December last year, the cavern set, the large corridor tiles the compass rose tile, the magic circle tiles etc. These could be sold at full retail price because although the Kickstarter transferred them to Resin, they were not new items on the Kickstarter.  

Just to be completely clear, I would not sell anything that is new for the Kickstarter, the new crossed Hammer 4x4, the Treasure piles, the pillar sets, double door set, door set, decorative walls, the dungeon entrance, all of those new items would not be sold until the KS is fulfilled completely.  

I would also not sell anything that has not been completed for the Kickstarter. For example at the time of writing this update, i have finished casting all the cavern sets and all the Magic circles, and all the corridor and narrow corridor set casting.  These items are being painted and stored ready for when the rest of the pledge items arrive. 

I have not yet finished casting all the 5x5 magic circles needed for the Kickstarter, so at the moment they wouldn’t be going to the shows with us..  

2) Use some of the moulds I have here for things that didn't make it in to the Kickstarter, to create new items to sell. I have a few items, like the Lava tiles, Cavern Walls, L-Corner Gothic Wall, Large Patterned cross floor and a couple of floor styles like Ruined Stone and Tomb Floor as well as cobblestone and plain flagstone flooring, that didn't make the Kickstarter, but i have perfectly usable moulds here for those items, from when we cast them in plaster.  

I could cast up some of those in resin to put up on the website and to sell at the shows, and then I would also offer anyone who pledged on the Kickstarter a 20% discount on the new items, and if you were to order them before I ship your pledge I would include them in your package so you would get them at the same time.  

If I did this I would still like to sell Cracked Flagstone & Gothic Core Sets, at full retail price, as it is our main set, and anyone starting with our tile system would benefit from having access to it, and that is the reason we created it in the first place.

3) Create brand new tiles, and sets, like the Sci-fi or Sewer tiles that have nothing to do with the KS and sell those at the shows.  

This would take a lot more time than option 2, but it would separate the KS completely from anything being sold at the shows, and I wouldn't sell anything from the Kickstarter until it was finished.  

My personal preference is a mixture of option 1&2, some of the core items and some new pieces, but I would also be happy to go with option 2 (with or without the core set sales) and wait until the KS is complete before selling anything from the Kickstarter, if that's the preferred choice.  

I only have a few weeks to prepare for the first show so if you would like to respond then please do so quickly, so I can do everything I can to get over the blip that has happened because of the delay in the Kickstarter.  

You have no idea how much I appreciate the patience and support you have all shown me with this Kickstarter, and as a said, I really don't want to have to sell things before the Kickstarter is finished, but if I don't nip the issue in the bud now it could derail everything, so again thank you for your feedback so far and i look forward to hearing your opinions on the options above, and thank you for your support, it is very much appreciated!  

Normal pictures of tiles, and cool bits will resume after this I promise!  

Andy @ DMB  

This update has a lot of pictures in it, and a lot of text as i bring you up to date with the happenings of the past month, so bear with me while i do this.