A sincere thank you and a surprise announcement
about 1 month ago – Wed, Mar 06, 2024 at 09:58:55 AM

Hello everyone, We hope you are well!

First of all congrats to our winners of the hand-signed card set of our previous update: 
Colyavin, hoteltokyo, Tepo, BlackTaxus, Kellyke, KonkeyGong, Saphir, TheLappn, Jack Dryke, Haukeliseter. We will be reaching the winners by e-mail to request your address.

A bit of time has passed since we last talked, and a lot of things have happened! Darwin’s Journey has entered the top 150 games on BGG and we are so excited to have received new nominations and awards!

I traveled to Cannes for the As D’Or ceremony and while we didn’t take the win, I thought about how thankful I was to all of you for the incredible patience you had while we were working on improving this game.

We all hope that you are proud and that you are enjoying the game. If you have not voted on BGG yet, please rate the game as you see fit, it would help the game!

A new exciting expansion is in the works

We don’t want to spoil our surprise announcement but we can confirm that a new map and mechanisms are part of the new expansion. If you enjoyed the Fireland Expansion, this new one is for you. We expect to release it on Kickstarter this year with a great turnaround thanks to our reprinting times (the game is starting its 5th print run).

To celebrate, we are having a special event on our webpage with a few discounts and the possibility of becoming one of the characters in our next expansion. Don’t miss out!

A new evolving card game from Simone Luciani and Virginio Gigli

Darwin opened up a great opportunity for us to work on more complex games, and we are so excited to announce Etherstone, the evolving card game that has a similar combo feeling with a completely different game experience. 

Draft a hand of 7 cards with countless combinations and experience a combo-chain card game of strategy.

If you decide to pledge for the game, we have a special gift for you, the limited edition Life Dial, only available for returning backers.

We hope you will be able to visit our Kickstarter page and give us your opinion in the comments below!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this update and we look forward to talking to you soon!

Sincerely yours,
Everybody here at Thundergryph Games

Soundtrack, Survey, and win a hand-signed card set!
11 months ago – Sat, May 27, 2023 at 09:02:16 AM

Hello everyone, how are you doing?

Before we touch on the news of this update, we want to thank you for all your kind comments on different forums and social networks. We hope you continue to enjoy Darwin's Journey for a long time.

We will talk about fulfillment and replacements, further down the update the soundtrack, the survey, and our special contest!

Fulfillment

We apologize to those Norwegian backers who haven't received their game yet. In the month of March (with the required Customs documentation as it is not a country belonging to the EEC), all the packages left our warehouse in Barcelona. We were unaware that the warehouse in Germany was moving (a mandatory step for some northern European destinations). This created many problems: some packages were returned, others were relabeled and reached their destination, and the rest we consider lost. The situation has been improving in recent weeks and most Norwegian backers have finally received their game. If you have not received your package yet, we trust that within a week you will have it. Again, we apologize.

For our backers from Asia that have not received the game yet, all the packages have been sent from VFI to the different hubs. We know that the process has been slow but it has not depended on us but on the carrier, since as you know VFI received all the stock before the Chinese New Year. Clearly, VFI's workload did not help speed up the delivery process.

Replacement parts

We have prioritized all the replacement parts that could affect gameplay in some way, and we are processing these as soon as possible. We are still sending them, and if you haven't received your replacement yet, it's just a matter of a few days more. We appreciate your patience. Regarding damaged boxes, once the fulfillment is over we will evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. We tried to make the cardboard and packaging strong enough to protect the game, but there are factors beyond our control. Please take into account that the manufacturer does not send empty boxes for replacement. We have to open games, empty them and send the box. We appreciate your collaboration in not requesting a replacement if the damage is minor.

Answer our survey and win a hand-signed card set

We imagine many of you have tried the game or are about to try it for the first time.

We have created a very short survey where you can let us know what you think about a few aspects of the game to improve how we make games for the future.

If you want, you can share your email with us to participate in a drawing of 10 hand-signed card sets composed of three character cards you already know, but hand-signed by Simone Luciani, Nestore Mangone, and our dear illustrator, Paolo Voto.

We are leaving the survey open for a month so everyone has the chance to join. The survey will close on June 30th, 2023. This contest is available just to our Kickstarter backers.

Rate the game on BGG

If you have an account on BoardGameGeek, we would love to know what you think about the game over there. If you have the time, please take a couple of seconds to rate Darwin’s Journey from 1 to 10. It will help us and the game immensely.

Soundtrack is online!

If you like music as background for your gameplay, Meeple Music has created a soundtrack for Darwin’s Journey. The soundtrack is available in many different streaming formats that you can find in the list below.

If the results are positive, Meeple Music is thinking about creating additional tracks for the Fireland expansion soundtrack.

We hope you will enjoy it! Click the button below to visit Spotify or search for Darwin’s Journey (Original Soundtrack) on your favorite music streaming service.

Looking back at the campaign and thinking about how much time and how many things happened along the way, we can say it was really an exciting and fulfilling journey for us.

A sincere thank you from the team to all of you for your patience and kindness. This game is out there thanks to you!

The official street date for Darwin’s Journey is June 30th, but in a few European countries, the release is coming earlier. We are already planning our 2nd print and that’s great news!

Thank you so much for your kind support and we will be talking again soon!

Sincerely yours,
Everybody here at Thundergryph Games

Fulfillment Update | April 2023
12 months ago – Mon, Apr 24, 2023 at 09:44:50 AM

Hello everyone, we hope this update finds you well!

We are happy to read that many of you have tried the game already and we appreciate your beautiful comments and ratings on BGG. We also appreciate your constructive criticism as it helps us to improve in the future.

If you are still waiting to receive your game, we are sincerely sorry. This has been a quite larger project than what we have managed in the past.

Everything has been delivered excluding a 5,8% that is in transit or about to be sent (please notice that transit time could be higher than 3-4 days depending on your region). 

Please do not worry, you are receiving your game

A few orders (1,2%) have been returned to the corresponding warehouses for incorrect addresses. We are taking care of sending an email to notify you. Please do not reach out asking about this.

Regarding replacement parts, we have been sending them since the beginning of the fulfillment process and we are still active behind it.

We are receiving a lot of tickets asking for the status of your order.

We track all orders that are in transit, verifying in most cases that they have been delivered in a few hours or a few days, depending on the destination.

You do not need to submit a ticket to know the status of your order.  If any incident arises we will contact you.

We have noticed that a few of you are not receiving the shipping notification email. This is out of our hands but you can be sure that your game will arrive.

If you are not available during the time of delivery, the transport company will reach out to you by phone or e-mail to let you know how to get your parcel.

Thanks for your patience and we hope once you receive it, you will be proud of making this game happen.

Sincerely yours,

Everyone here at Thundergryph Games

Darwin’s Journey | fulfillment update and insert guide
about 1 year ago – Wed, Mar 22, 2023 at 12:43:58 PM

For the Collector’s edition unboxing, click here. | For the add-on unboxing, click here.

Hello everyone,

We hope you are all doing well.

To the backers that already received and played the game, thank you so much for your kind words, ratings, and photos you are posting. We are through the roof that you really enjoy the game!

Comments have been a lot lately, and I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss them with you. In this video, I’m also talking about the special bond that crowdfunding creates between backers and the creator and how we are living all this experience together.

Status update on freight/fulfillment

Please be patient while waiting on your game, but if you need help, please contact us here. Do not use social network messaging or Kickstarter messaging. Thank you.

📦 Europe and ROW

57.8% of the packages have been delivered, are on delivery or in international transit. Our fulfillment center are steadily sending out copies from Monday to Friday. We appreciate your patience.

We are also sending out the replacement part requests we are receiving at the same time while the fulfillment is undergoing.

If you have not yet received an email from DPD with tracking, we would appreciate your patience because the volume of orders is important.

As a side note, order preparation is basically organized by item combinations, regardless of the country of destination.

Please notice that we might take a bit more to answer because of the tickets we are receiving, but if you need help, please contact us here.

📦 United States and Canada

QML will start sending from this Friday an email to verify your delivery address.

If you have to change your address, please respond to the email that Quartermaster will be sending before fulfillment. For anything else you can reach us directly.

We have been informed that due to their carrier restrictions, they do not ship to PO boxes in Canada. Thank you for your understanding and for your collaboration.

If you want to stay updated you can visit the Twitter or Facebook page of QML.

Please notice that we might take a bit more to answer because of the tickets we are receiving, but if you need help, please contact us here.

📦 United Kingdom

Spiral Galaxy started fulfillment last week and we have seen that many packages have been delivered.

Spiral Galaxy is steadily sending out copies and we appreciate your patience.

Please notice that we might take a bit more to answer because of the tickets we are receiving, but if you need help, please contact us here.

📦 Australia and New Zealand

33,8% of the packages have been delivered, are on delivery or in transit.

VR distribution is steadily sending out copies and we appreciate your patience.

Please notice that we might take a bit more to answer because of the tickets we are receiving, but if you need help, please contact us here.

📦 Asia

VFI had the games delivered before Chinese New Year.

We communicated a starting date in the previous update but fulfillment has not started yet. We are pushing to start fulfillment as soon as possible, but it’s VFI’s liability when they will start fulfillment. We appreciate your patience and we apologize for the delay.

VFI will not send an email for address changes or any other information, so if you need help please contact us here.

Collector’s Edition Insert Guide

We took a few photos that will help you understand how to store everything inside the Collector’s Edition. We hope you will find it useful!

Thank you so much for your kind support and we will be talking again soon!

Sincerely yours,
Everybody here at Thundergryph Games

Add-on unboxing video, and more about fulfillment
about 1 year ago – Sat, Mar 11, 2023 at 10:40:54 AM

Dear Explorers,

We hope you are doing well.

Here is a message to update you on how fulfillment is progressing in each different zone. Moreover, the requested unboxing of the add-ons and a few words on Gon answered a few comments we received lately.

Important: We have been reading that some of you think that our retail partners will start fulfilling orders, but that’s impossible.

All the partner’s copies are still with us and we are awaiting mass-production samples approval before proceeding with the hand-over. The retail release date showcased on online shop or platforms are estimated and could change.

Darwin’s Journey Add-on Unboxing

For the Collector’s edition unboxing, please visit the previous update.

Status update on freight/fulfillment

Please be patient while waiting on your game, but if you need help, contact us here.

📦 Europe and ROW

The same day the containers arrived (Thursday, February 23), our fulfillment partner verified and inventoried the different items, and started packing and shipping with the urgency that we had required.

As a side note, order preparation is basically organized by item combinations, regardless of the country of destination.

If you have not yet received an email from DPD with tracking, we would appreciate your patience because the volume of orders is important.

📦 United States and Canada

The delivery of the containers to the Quartermaster warehouse was delayed for reasons beyond our control and was delivered on two dates: February 28 and March 2.

QML will soon send an email to verify your delivery address.

If you have to change your address, please respond to the email that Quartermaster will be sending before fulfillment. For anything else you can reach us directly.

📦 United Kingdom

Spiral Galaxy has informed us that it will start earlier than they had planned, that is, in the next two weeks. Spiral Galaxy started sending emails to confirm the delivery address.

📦 Australia and New Zealand

VR Distribution received the merchandise at its warehouses on March 8.

Since I already had all the information to organize the fulfillment they will start next week.

They are sending emails to confirm the delivery address, and we have already updated many manually.

📦 Asia

Due to the volume of work at VFI, the start of fulfillment has been delayed for reasons beyond our control.

They have all your information and of course the games in their warehouse since before the Chinese New Year. On Tuesday the 7th we have been informed that they will start next week.

VFI will not send an email for address changes or any other information, so if you need help please write to us directly

Thank you so much for your kind support and we will be talking again soon!

Sincerely yours,
Everybody here at Thundergryph Games