(Almost) December Campaign Update
2 days ago – Sat, Nov 25, 2023 at 07:34:34 PM

It’s not quite December yet, but we have some updates on the fulfillment front that we wanted to share ahead of our usual schedule. We also included an FAQ section to address some of the common questions we’ve seen so far, along with links to resources/help in case you have questions once you start playing the game.

Before we dive in, heads up that this campaign update will take the place of our usual update on the 3rd of the month. Our next scheduled campaign update (which will likely be one of our last) will be on January 3rd, although we may send out a one-off update before then if needed.

United States (Gamerati)

We’ve gotten a number of questions around the US shipments since backers received UPS tracking but haven’t seen any movement yet. We reached out to Gamerati on this, and they confirmed that this is expected due to how they handle their shipments.

They print off every tracking label before they begin shipping, which triggers a UPS email with an estimated delivery date. This UPS email assumes the game will be shipped out on the day the label is created, so the ETA is not correct. The true shipment notification is when you receive an email from Gamerati - this means they are actually about to ship your game out. The UPS ETA will update once the game has actually shipped.

Gamerati has shipped out a large portion of the games already and expects to finish the rest by the end of next week. In the meantime, please disregard any ETAs you may have gotten from UPS until you get the email from Gamerati since that’s the true shipment notice.

As always, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] with any issues relating to the game or shipping and we’ll work with Gamerati as/if needed.

Canada (Pick & Pack)

The Canadian shipment will be arriving at Pick & Pack on Tuesday the 28th, and they expect to begin shipping orders out by the end of next week or early the following week!

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Pick & Pack with the tracking number. Please review the details on Pick & Pack’s website for any issues related to shipping and submit a contact form if necessary. You can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself.

EU/UK/Rest of World (Spiral Galaxy)

The EU/UK/ROW shipment arrived at Spiral Galaxy yesterday and has already been received. Spiral Galaxy sent out final address validations and expects to begin shipping games out by the end of next week or early the following week!

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Spiral Galaxy with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] for any issues related to shipping, and you can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself.

Australia / New Zealand (Armarlo)

There was a slight delay in getting the Australian copies shipped out, but things are back on track now. Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Armarlo with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] with any issues relating to the game or shipping and we’ll work with Armarlo as/if needed.

Asia (VFI)

All VFI orders have now been shipped to their respective hubs, so we have updated the table below with the latest details. As always, the estimated arrival date is the arrival to VFI's hub in that region - not the estimated arrival to backers:

Note that you can always check VFI’s website to see the status of each hub once it ships out from VFI. Most hubs will also have an email address you can use to contact them in case there are any issues with shipping.

Once your game ships out from its hub, you will receive an email from the hub with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] (or the associated hub) for any issues related to shipping once your game has shipped, and you can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself.

Spanish Version (Maldito)

Maldito will be responsible for fulfilling the Spanish version of the game to all regions. The Spanish shipment is being picked up from our factory today and should be received in Maldito’s warehouse by the end of December. They currently expect to begin shipping the Spanish copies out in the second week of January.

Local Pickup (Minnesota and Wisconsin)

The local pickup pallets are being delivered on Monday, and pickup events are next weekend! We’ve included the details for the events below for reference:

Addresses for each location are below:

Games By James (Saturday 12/2 from 1-5 PM)

Ridgedale Center, Suite 2245

12731 Wayzata Blvd

Minnetonka, MN 55305

Boardlandia (Sunday 12/3 from 1-5 PM)

2701 N Oneida St B

Appleton, WI 54911

For those who aren’t able to make the main events, we have scheduled smaller pickup events for the following weekend at the same locations:

Minnesota (Games by James): Sunday 12/10 from 2-4 PM

Wisconsin (Boardlandia): Saturday 12/9 from 2-4 PM

If you aren’t able to make either of the events in your area, we’ll arrange alternate pickup options on a one-off basis. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at the events!

We’ve seen some questions around token counts, specifically for the investigator/spirit ability tokens in the base game. The rulebook says there are 14 tokens included:

The token count is accurate, with two callouts. First, 12 of the tokens are small (15mm) whereas the other two are larger (30mm). Second, the token pictured right in the middle (the campfire) is actually from the Nightfall expansion. That is 100% a mistake on our part - that token is not in the base game so it shouldn’t be pictured there.

We’ve made note of these two issues and will fix them in the next print run. Here is a comprehensive list of the 14 investigator/spirit ability tokens that are in the base game:

Moving on, we’ve only gotten one question about this issue so far but we’re guessing we’ll see more so we wanted to make sure we covered it. The flashlights all come with a protective film on both sides to prevent them from getting scratched.

The protective film itself gets scuffed very easily, and it also makes the flashlights harder to see through. Make sure you peel the film off both sides of the flashlights before you play the game! It can be a bit tricky to get off, but it’s easiest if you start from the narrow edge of the flashlights. Here’s an example image in case you’re not sure - the flashlight on the left has had its protective film removed, whereas the flashlight on the right has not:

Note that the flashlights will get fingerprints and dust on them over time, you can simply wipe them clean with a microfiber cloth and you should be good to go!

Lastly, we wanted to share these resources again in case you have any questions about the game once you get it. We have posted an official FAQ thread on BoardGameGeek, which will be the primary place for people to ask questions about the game.

There are also QR codes throughout the rulebook that will take you to the rules page on our website, which will have short videos explaining each section (along with a living FAQ document).

As always, you can also post on Discord, in our Facebook group, comment on Kickstarter, or email us at [email protected] with any questions or concerns. We’re here to help and want to make sure you enjoy the game!

The infrastructure for the map editor is up and running! We’re working on the finishing touches (along with testing) and are still on track to have it go live in mid-December. We’ll share a post on social media once it goes live, and we’ll include more in-depth details on how to use it in the January campaign update.

All retailer orders that have been paid for have had their orders sent to the fulfillment centers and have either already shipped or should be shipping out within the next two weeks. If you haven’t paid your invoice yet (or if you aren’t sure), please reach out to us at retail[email protected] and we’ll talk through next steps!

The three of us are meeting up next weekend for the first time since convention season, and we plan on putting together some content that we’ll post on our website and YouTube (and include in the next campaign update). The main output will be an updated playthrough, but we’ll also do our best to finally film that unboxing video and get a condensed how to play video created!

We’re all done with conventions for this year, but we have quite a few planned for next year! The full list is below:

Protospiel MN: February 2-4, Bloomington, MN

Con of the North: February 16-18, Plymouth, MN

GAMA Expo: March 4-7, Louisville, KY

Protospiel Twin Cities: May 31-June 2nd, Roseville, MN

Origins Game Fair: June 19-23, Columbus, OH

Gen Con: August 1-4, Indianapolis, IN

2D Con: August 23-25, Minneapolis, MN

We’ll share booth details for the bigger conventions as soon as we have that information. We hope to see many of you at one (or more) of our conventions next year!

The timeline has once again been updated! Fulfillment is officially underway, although we left freight and warehousing as “In Progress” since the Canadian shipment hasn’t quite been received yet (but will be in three days). All other regions have completed freight and warehousing for the English version though!

We’ll be in touch in January, but as always please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns in the meantime. As a reminder, you can expect our campaign updates to come out around the 3rd of each month (except December since this serves as December’s update).

Thank you once again for your support in helping us make The Stifling Dark a reality!

This is Matt, Jeremy, and Ethan, failing to come up with a witty ending…

Fulfillment Update!
11 days ago – Thu, Nov 16, 2023 at 04:38:26 PM

It’s official: the first copies of The Stifling Dark are out in the wild! Backers in China and Hong Kong received their games at the end of last week, multiple months ahead of schedule. As you’ll read in this update, things are progressing well and we’re thrilled to see how smoothly things have been going.

Now that copies are beginning to ship out, we’ll update your BackerKit pledge with the tracking number as soon as we receive it from our fulfillment partner. Note that it will almost certainly be after the fulfillment partner has already sent it to you, so make sure you keep an eye on your email (and your spam) for your tracking details!

We’ve included estimated timing for most of the regions below, but keep in mind these dates could change if we run into any hiccups between now and then. We’ll include tighter timelines in our next update, which we currently plan on sending out per our usual cadence on December 3rd (unless we have significant fulfillment updates before then).

United States (Gamerati)

The US shipment arrived as scheduled on November 10th and was received and unloaded by Gamerati yesterday. The local pickup pallets were shipped out today (local pickup details are a little later in the update), and the Canadian pallets have been packed up and will be shipped out shortly.

Here’s the craziest news of all - the US orders are in the process of being shipped as we speak! We weren’t expecting them to go out for another 2-3 weeks, but Gamerati has been incredibly quick to receive the games and is already printing out shipping labels and packing slips. They plan to begin shipping copies out tomorrow!

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Gamerati with the tracking number. Please reach out to [email protected] with any issues relating to the game or shipping and we’ll work with Gamerati as/if needed.

Canada (Pick & Pack)

We expect the Canadian shipment from Gamerati to arrive at Pick & Pack in 1-2 weeks, then Pick & Pack will need time to receive it and prep for shipment. We’ll provide more specific timing on delivery once we get a bit closer!

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Pick & Pack with the tracking number. Please review the details on Pick & Pack’s website for any issues related to shipping and submit a contact form if necessary. You can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself.

EU/UK/Rest of World (Spiral Galaxy)

The EU/UK/ROW shipment is aboard the APL Lion City, which departed from China on October 14th and is now expected to arrive at port on November 20th (four days earlier than originally expected). We expect it to take about a week to get to our fulfillment warehouse (Spiral Galaxy) and then another week to receive and sort the inventory, once again assuming there aren’t any hiccups or delays. We’ll provide more specific timing on delivery once we get a bit closer!

Keep in mind that we will be initiating the address lock for UK/EU/ROW backers in two days (on November 18), and you will have 48 hours to make any last changes to your address before your survey is locked down. Make sure your address is updated before then if you need to make a change!

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Spiral Galaxy with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] for any issues related to shipping, and you can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself.

Australia / New Zealand (Armarlo)

The Australian shipment arrived as scheduled on November 4th and has been unloaded at Armarlo’s warehouse. They are actively working on getting the games shipped out and expect to have the shipments out by the end of the week.

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Armarlo with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] with any issues relating to the game or shipping and we’ll work with Armarlo as/if needed.

Asia (VFI)

As mentioned at the beginning of the update, backers in China and Hong Kong have received their games. The games for multiple other countries have been shipped to their local hubs, and we have updated the table below with the latest status. As with last time, the estimated arrival date is the arrival to VFI's hub in that region - not the estimated arrival to backers:

Note that you can always check VFI’s website to see the status of each hub once it ships out from VFI. Most hubs will also have an email address you can use to contact them in case there are any issues with shipping.

Once your game ships out from its hub, you will receive an email from the hub with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] (or the associated hub) for any issues related to shipping once your game has shipped, and you can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself.

Spanish Version (Maldito)

Maldito will be responsible for fulfilling the Spanish version of the game to all regions. The Spanish version of the game has been manufactured and is being consolidated in a single shipment from China with some of Maldito’s other games. We’ll provide more updates on timing once we have them!

Local Pickup (Minnesota and Wisconsin)

The local pickup events have been locked in! See below for details for each region:

Addresses for each location are below for reference:

Games By James (Saturday 12/2 from 1-5 PM)

Ridgedale Center, Suite 2245

12731 Wayzata Blvd

Minnetonka, MN 55305

Boardlandia (Sunday 12/3 from 1-5 PM)

2701 N Oneida St B

Appleton, WI 54911

For those who aren’t able to make the main events, we have scheduled smaller pickup events for the following weekend at the same locations:

Minnesota (Games by James): Sunday 12/10 from 2-4 PM

Wisconsin (Boardlandia): Saturday 12/9 from 2-4 PM

If you aren’t able to make either of the events in your area, we’ll arrange alternate pickup options on a one-off basis. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at the events!

The how to play videos are now live on our website! Note that we will be filming an updated playthrough when we’re all together at the beginning of December for the local pickup events, and we’ll post that on YouTube / our website as well once we’re done editing it.

Now that the videos are done, the map editor is our last remaining to-do. We’ve been hard at work and hope to have it live by mid-December (approximately a month from today), but we’ll keep everyone posted once it’s ready to go!

We’ll still be posting our regularly scheduled update on December 3rd (or possibly a couple days sooner if we have major fulfillment news before then).

Thank you once again for your support in helping us make The Stifling Dark a reality!

This is Matt, Jeremy, and Ethan, (im)patiently waiting for the local pickup pallets to get here…

November Post-Campaign Update
25 days ago – Fri, Nov 03, 2023 at 09:04:09 AM

We’re back with our regularly scheduled update! We got our first snowfall of the season, a good 2-3 inches on the day before Halloween (great timing, Mother Nature). Despite that, we hope everyone had a spooky Halloween and that nobody ate too much candy, if there is such a thing.

As mentioned in our update last week, we will be initiating the address lock for many backers right after sending out this update. We’ll provide lots of juicy details on fulfillment in this update, including boat names and rough warehouse delivery timing for each region along with what to expect once your game ships. Let’s get to it!

The address lock will be initiated for US and Canadian backers right after this update is sent out (along with a second wave for Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and the Spanish version of the game). EU/UK/rest of world backers will have their address lock initiated on Saturday, November 18th.

Once we initiate the address lock, you will receive an email from [email protected] with the title “Last call to update your shipping address for The Stifling Dark: A Horror Board Game!” It will include your address and phone number in the email, along with a link to your survey in case you need to update your address. Your address will be locked 48 hours after this email goes out, so make sure you update right away!

We mentioned this last month, but it is worth repeating: If your survey is not completed or your payment has not gone through by those dates, you will not be included in the cutoff for the first (and primary) wave of fulfillment so your game will be delayed! This means that any US or Canadian backers who haven't finalized their survey yet have missed the cutoff and will be included in the second wave.

It’s time to get into the fun fulfillment details by region! Note that we’ve provided approximate delivery dates for Asian backers since their orders have landed in VFI’s warehouse and will be fulfilling fairly soon, but we will send out one-off campaign updates with more specific dates for the US, Canada, UK/EU/ROW, and Australia/New Zealand backers closer to fulfillment since a lot can happen between now and when the product lands in our partners’ warehouses. Without further ado:

United States (Gamerati)

The US shipment is aboard the Humen Bridge, which we think is a very fitting name for a ship carrying a horror board game. It departed from China on October 18th and is expected to arrive at port on November 10th. It will take about a week to get to our fulfillment warehouse (Gamerati), assuming the ship arrives on time and our games aren’t delayed at customs.

We expect it to take about a week for Gamerati to receive and sort everything. They will ship the Canadian orders up to Pick & Pack and the local pickup orders (more details on this a bit later in the update) to us before they begin shipping out the “normal” US orders to try and time things as equitably as possible.

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Gamerati with the tracking number. Please reach out to [email protected] with any issues relating to the game or shipping and we’ll work with Gamerati as/if needed. We’ll provide more specific timing on delivery once we get a bit closer!

Canada (Pick & Pack)

As you likely read right before this, the Canadian shipment is combined with the US shipment and is expected to arrive in the US on November 10th. We expect it to take around 3 weeks to get from the port to Gamerati to Pick & Pack, then Pick & Pack will need a week or so to receive and sort everything.

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Pick & Pack with the tracking number. Please review the details on Pick & Pack’s website for any issues related to shipping and submit a contact form if necessary. You can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself. We’ll provide more specific timing on delivery once we get a bit closer!

EU/UK/Rest of World (Spiral Galaxy)

The EU/UK/ROW shipment is aboard the APL Lion City, which departed from China on October 14th and is expected to arrive at port on November 24th. As with the US shipment, we expect it to take about a week to get to our fulfillment warehouse (Spiral Galaxy) and then another week to receive and sort the inventory, once again assuming there aren’t any hiccups or delays.

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Spiral Galaxy with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] for any issues related to shipping, and you can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself. We’ll provide more specific timing on delivery once we get a bit closer!

Australia / New Zealand (Armarlo)

The Australian shipment is aboard the Cosco Hong Kong, which departed from China on October 16th and is expected to arrive at port on November 4th. As with the US shipment, we expect it to take about a week to get to our fulfillment warehouse (Armarlo) and then another week to receive and sort the inventory, once again assuming there aren’t any hiccups or delays.

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from Armarlo with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] with any issues relating to the game or shipping and we’ll work with Armarlo as/if needed. We’ll provide more specific timing on delivery once we get a bit closer!

Asia (VFI)

The Asian shipment has been received at VFI, they have invoiced us for the parcel shipment, and we have paid for it. As such, shipping from VFI is imminent and Chinese backers will likely be receiving their games within the next two weeks. Here is the estimated timing for the various countries we are shipping to from VFI, noting that the estimated arrival date is the arrival to VFI's hub in that region - not the estimated arrival to backers:

Once your game ships, you will receive an email from VFI (or their shipping hub) with the tracking number. You can email [email protected] for any issues related to shipping once your game has shipped, and you can email [email protected] with any issues related to the game itself.

Spanish Version (Maldito)

Maldito will be responsible for fulfilling the Spanish version of the game to all regions. The Spanish version of the game has been manufactured and is being consolidated in a single shipment from China with some of Maldito’s other games. We’ll provide more updates on timing once we have them!

Local Pickup (Minnesota and Wisconsin)

We’re excited to announce that we will be hosting our Minneapolis local pickup event at Games by James in the Ridgedale Center (Minnetonka, MN), and our Appleton local pickup event will be at Boardlandia (Appleton, WI)! Aside from being fantastic game stores, both of these locations are backers and supporters of our game, and we are also regular patrons of these stores.

The current plan is to book a 4-ish hour window at each store where backers can pick up their game and even break it out to give it a whirl! You’re still welcome to come even if you didn’t select local pickup (or even if you aren’t a backer) and we’d be happy to hang out and chat with you. Both stores will have games available for purchase too!

We’ll be posting on social media and emailing all local pickup backers with the specific date and time of their event (along with other details) once we’re able to lock that in. Please keep in mind it will be fairly short notice since we want to get you your game as quickly as possible, but we can’t book the date until we’re confident in the date that we’ll be receiving the games.

For those who aren’t able to make the main event, we will schedule a smaller pickup event approximately a week later. If you still aren’t able to make that event, we’ll arrange alternate pickup options on a one-off basis. We can’t wait to meet even more of you at these events!

Whew! That was a lot of fulfillment info, so we’ll keep this section relatively short. We’re thrilled that the game is delivering 2-3 months early, but that also means we had 2-3 less months to finish the videos and map editor than we were expecting! Not to fear - the videos are done being rendered and just need voice-overs before we upload them, and we continue to make good progress on the map editor.

Also, we wanted to share some resources in case you have any questions about the game once you get it. We have posted an official FAQ thread on BoardGameGeek, which will be the primary place for people to ask questions about the game.

There are also QR codes throughout the rulebook that will take you to the rules page on our website, which will have short videos explaining each section (along with a living FAQ document). Keep in mind the videos haven’t been uploaded yet, but they will be soon!

As always, you can also post on Discord, in our Facebook group, comment on Kickstarter, or email us at [email protected] with any questions or concerns. We’re here to help and want to make sure you enjoy the game!

Invoices were due yesterday, so if you haven’t paid your invoice yet (or if you haven’t filled out the intake) your shipment will be delayed. If you paid your invoice by the due date you will be included in the upcoming round of fulfillment, so you’re all set!

We have followed up with all retailers whose payments we’ve received to this point, but If you’re not sure you can email us at reta[email protected] and we’ll let you know for sure.

We have a special treat for everyone - our manufacturer (LongPack) just sent us this amazing video showcasing the production of The Stifling Dark, which is from about a month and a half ago. We still owe everyone an unboxing video (which we'll get to soon, we promise), but we think this is just a tad cooler!

Lastly, we still plan on doing another livestream / playthrough soon once things calm down a bit. We’ll announce that on social media once we lock in a date!

We’re all done with conventions for this year but we have quite a few planned for next year, including a brand new Protospiel convention that is being organized by friend and fellow designer Eric! If you’re in the Twin Cities area we definitely suggest checking out Protospiel Twin Cities this summer. The full list is below:

Protospiel MN: February 2-4, Bloomington, MN

Con of the North: February 16-18, Plymouth, MN

GAMA Expo: March 4-7, Louisville, KY

Protospiel Twin Cities: May 31-June 2nd, Roseville, MN

Origins Game Fair: June 19-23, Columbus, OH

Gen Con: August 1-4, Indianapolis, IN

2D Con: August 23-25, Minneapolis, MN

We’ll share booth details for the bigger conventions as soon as we have that information. We hope to see many of you at one (or more) of our conventions next year!

The timeline has once again been updated! Both freight and warehousing have been moved to in-progress status. We expect freight to be fully completed by next month’s update, and fulfillment will very much be in progress by that point!

We’ll be in touch next month, but as always please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns in the meantime. As a reminder, you can expect our campaign updates to come out around the 3rd of each month.

Thank you once again for your support in helping us make The Stifling Dark a reality!

This is Matt, Jeremy, and Ethan, channeling our inner Morgan Freeman…

Addresses Locking Soon!
about 1 month ago – Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 04:39:02 PM

Happy (almost) Halloween! The time has come - fulfillment is on the horizon and we are going to be locking addresses for the majority of backers a week from today! This mini off-cycle update contains important details about fulfillment, so let’s jump right in.

We’ve already locked addresses for Asian and Australian backers, along with backers of the Spanish version of the game. We will be locking addresses for US and Canadian backers next Friday (on November 3rd), and the UK/EU/rest of world backers will be locked beginning Saturday, November 18th.

These dates are incredibly important. If your survey is not completed or your payment has not gone through by those dates, you will not be included in the cutoff for the first (and primary) wave of fulfillment so your game will be delayed!

The good news is that the vast majority of you are ready to roll, but there are still some backers who haven’t completed their surveys or whose payment has failed (and whose games will not be fulfilled in the initial wave if these issues are not corrected soon). We have contacted those backers separately via email, and BackerKit has been sending automated reminder emails on a regular basis as well.

If you’re not sure what the status of your survey is, you can always look up your survey by entering your email address at https://sophcerb.backerkit.com/ or by searching for emails with “The Stifling Dark: A Horror Board Game” in the title to see the emails that BackerKit has sent.

For those of you whose surveys are completed and whose payments have processed, all you have to do is validate that your address is up to date. When we initiate the address lock, you will receive an email from [email protected] with the title “Last call to update your shipping address for The Stifling Dark: A Horror Board Game!” It will include your address and phone number in the email, along with a link to your survey in case you need to update your address. Your address will be locked 48 hours after this email goes out, so make sure you update right away!

For our FLGS / retailer friends - you should have all received an invoice from us at the beginning of October. As long as you pay your invoice by the due date you will be good to go. If you pay late or if you haven’t filled out the intake form yet, your shipment will be delayed.

We’ll still be posting our regularly scheduled update on November 3rd, and it may or may not have information on expected delivery dates to our various fulfillment centers (along with vessel names for those who are interested in tracking along), so keep an eye out for that!

Thank you once again for your support in helping us make The Stifling Dark a reality!

This is Matt, Jeremy, and Ethan, constantly hitting F5 on vesselfinder.com even though we don’t have a premium subscription…

October Post-Campaign Update
about 2 months ago – Tue, Oct 03, 2023 at 11:59:34 AM

Fall is in the air, and Halloween is just around the corner. What better time than now for some updates on everyone’s favorite spooky game? The past month has been spent on a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and things continue to move along nicely.

We have a lot of great content in this month’s update, ranging from manufacturing updates to soundtrack updates and (gasp) a fulfillment timing update. There is important information relating to fulfillment in this update, so please make sure you read through the development and PSA sections if you want to get your game!

We’ve been mentioning this at conventions lately but haven’t officially announced it until now - we expect to deliver The Stifling Dark at least one month early! We set our delivery estimate to February 2024 on Kickstarter, but our internal goal has always been to fulfill before then and we’re pleased to announce that we are on track to do so.

We should be delivering in January, if not December. Note that this will vary a bit by region - backers in Asia will likely receive their games on the earlier end of the spectrum, whereas backers in Canada will be on the later end of the spectrum. We should have some more precise timing in next month’s update, but we wanted to let the cat out of the bag now since we’re close enough to be confident in that estimate.

The reason we’re comfortable making this announcement is that manufacturing is officially complete! Mass production finished up late last week, and the games will be ready to ship out from our factory later this week / early next week once the Chinese holiday has ended. Keep in mind this is just the freight shipment to our warehouses (which will take multiple weeks). The warehouses still need to receive the product and ship it to each of you after that, so you’re still a couple months out from actually getting your game.

With fulfillment fast approaching, it is essential that you make sure you have filled out your pledge manager (which most of you have) and that you keep your address up to date. We’ll have more details on this in the PSA section, but if you’re not sure you can navigate to https://sophcerb.backerkit.com/ and enter in your email to check your status. Similarly, if you are a retail (FLGS) backer, make sure you check your email for important invoicing details.

In other news, Tabletop Audio has officially completed the soundtrack for The Stifling Dark! You will be receiving a link from BackerKit to download the files shortly, otherwise they should be available for streaming on Tabletop Audio’s website closer to fulfillment. Note that you will only receive an email from BackerKit if you pledged at the base level or higher and have completed your survey.

We’re continuing to work through the how-to-play videos and map editor, and we can’t wait to share those with you once they’re complete! We’ll likely have another sample or two to share in our next campaign update, so keep an eye out for that.

Lastly, as we hinted at last week we were in conversations to get The Stifling Dark into distribution. We’re happy to announce that we will be partnering with Flat River Group (Impressions) to do so, and we can’t wait to see The Stifling Dark in more retailers around the country! We’re still very early on in the setup process, but make sure you put in a good word with your local FLGS!

We moved this section up near the top for this month’s update since you will not get your game if you don’t fill out your survey or if your address is incorrect! Make sure you read this section in its entirety to make sure everything is ready to go.

Now that fulfillment is around the corner, it’s a great time to double-check to make sure you have filled out your survey and that your address is up-to-date. You should have received an email confirmation from BackerKit when you completed your survey, but if you can’t find it or you aren’t sure you can always look up your pledge by going to the below link and entering in the email listed on your Kickstarter profile:

https://sophcerb.backerkit.com/ 

You would’ve also been getting monthly reminder emails from BackerKit with the title “Reminder — Response needed to deliver your reward for The Stifling Dark: A Horror Board Game” if you haven’t filled out your survey yet, with the latest email being sent last week. We also emailed all base and deluxe backers manually last week in case the BackerKit emails weren’t going through.

We will also begin locking addresses soon since fulfillment will be starting soon. We will do this by region as fulfillment is getting close, and we will send a final warning through BackerKit before doing so. You will have three days to go in and make any changes before addresses are locked (meaning they can’t be changed any more). Keep in mind you can update your address at any time, so there’s no need to wait until you get the notification if you need to update anything!

We decided retailers deserved their own header this month since we are approaching invoicing and fulfillment. We sent out emails to all of our retail backers on September 6th, and followed up again on September 26th if we hadn’t heard back yet.

We will be sending invoices out shortly, so please let us know if you don’t receive an invoice or if you have any questions on it. Note that we will not ship your order until the invoice is paid, so please take care of that at your earliest convenience.

Nothing new to share from a media standpoint this month, but we plan on doing another livestream / playthrough soon once things calm down a bit. We’ll announce that on social media once we lock in a date!

As mentioned in last month’s update, we’re all done with conventions for this year but we have quite a few planned for next year. The full list is below:

Protospiel MN: Date TBD, likely in January in the Twin Cities area

Con of the North: February 16-18, Plymouth, MN

GAMA Expo: March 4-7, Louisville, KY

Origins Game Fair: June 19-23, Columbus, OH

Gen Con: August 1-4, Indianapolis, IN

2D Con: August 23-25, Minneapolis, MN

We’ll share booth details for the bigger conventions as soon as we have that information. We hope to see many of you at one (or more) of our conventions next year!

The timeline has finally been updated! Manufacturing is complete, so we’ve updated the timeline accordingly. Next month we’ll be able to set the freight portion to in progress, and shortly after that we’ll be on to warehousing and fulfillment:

We’ll be in touch next month, but as always please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns in the meantime. As a reminder, you can expect our campaign updates to come out around the 3rd of each month.

Thank you once again for your support in helping us make The Stifling Dark a reality!

This is Matt, Jeremy, and Ethan, making videos and editing maps…