Retracing Darwin’s journey to the Galapagos in an exciting Worker Placement euro game by Simone Luciani and Nestore Mangone.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
August update: Playmat photos and short update on rules
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Sep 02, 2021 at 11:58:53 PM
Dear Explorers,
We hope you are all doing great!
In this update, we wanted to show you the updated rules with all the final layouts, but after a meeting with Jonathan Cox yesterday, we believe we need to revise a few elements before we can publish them. We will postpone this to our next update that will happen as soon as possible in September.
You can expect rules for the Base game, Fireland, and all the mini-expansions.
Thanks for your patience while we work on the last few steps to complete this important task. After this, we will start to work on all the translations.
Production is ongoing for the components while the rulebooks and boxes will be done before assembly.
Playmats
We received the playmat for Darwin’s Journey, and we are very pleased with the final look and feel.
Here you can find some photos made with natural sunset light for a pinch of nostalgia.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
Thank you so much for reading this update and we look forward to talking to you soon!
Until next time, take care, stay safe and have fun!
Sincerely yours, Everybody here at Thundergryph Games
July update: Mass production begins. Rulebook creation Interview.
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Aug 02, 2021 at 04:57:14 AM
Dear Explorers,
We hope you are having a great day.
We will be showing a bullet point list of things achieved within July, just like we did last month. If you are in a rush, you will get a good summary by reading the following list:
What we accomplished over the last month:
The team took alternate summer breaks to keep things going during summer, therefore we are happy to announce that we sent to our manufacturer our purchase order last week with all of the files (excluding the rulebooks that will be printed later in the process). This means we are officially in the mass production stage.
It looks like many games are under manufacturing at this time and the production process will be slower than usual. From what was communicated to us, we are aiming at 85-90 days of production and then we will undergo assembly. Hopefully, by that time, the freight situation will be much better.
If you are interested in knowing more about the development side of the game and take a look at the packaging of what you will be receiving, please keep reading.
Rulebooks
While we are still working on the layout for the whole set of rules (we estimate another 10 days for completion), we had a lovely chat with Jonathan Cox, our rulebook author, during one of our live streams. You can see the full interview in the following video.
The case for the playmats
If you have ordered the playmat for Darwin’s Journey or you are a proud owner of the all-in bundle, here is the transport case for your double-sided playmat. We hope you like it!
Packing
We have been working a good amount of time on the different sides of logistics, as this game has several different items that we are bundling during assembly to avoid any mistakes during fulfillment.
The Base Game backers will receive:
Darwin Journey’s Base Game
Scenario Booster pack (all the Stretch Goals unlocked inside an envelope)
The Collector’s Edition backers will receive:
Darwin’s Journey Collector’s Edition containing all the following as a bundle (in the same box):
Darwin’s Journey Base Game
All the deluxe bits for the game (like metal coins, counters, and wax seals)
The Fireland Expansion content
Scenarios Booster pack (all the Stretch Goals unlocked for the base game)
All Stretch Goals unlocked for the Collector’s Edition
For the ones of you getting additional items for the game like Darwin Worker mini-expansion or Falmouth Port, you will receive them in a separate envelope/tuck box.
As we did for our Matchbox Collection, we are manufacturing custom double-layered cartons to ship the games to you.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
Until next time, take care, stay safe and have fun!
Sincerely yours, Everybody here at Thundergryph Games
June update: New lenses, pre-production files and rulebooks
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Jul 01, 2021 at 09:58:42 PM
Dear Explorers,
We hope you are all doing well.
We have been really pushing all the work required to enter production as soon as possible and we are glad to communicate that all files (excluding rulebooks and boxes) have been sent to our manufacturer.
We will try to condense everything that happened in a short bullet list for you to read in a minute.
📌What we accomplished during the last month:
The rules for the Base game, Fireland, and all mini-expansions have been written, proofed, and corrected. At this point, we are working on the layout and we hope to have great news in our next update.
All the files (excluding rulebooks and boxes which will be sent later) are with the manufacturer
The production quantity has been sent to our manufacturer, we are awaiting the purchase order.
All the pre-production pieces of the game have been completed excluding the new printed components, which we are waiting for.
Rulebooks
We have learned a lot during the writing process of the rules and Jonathan Cox has been incredibly helpful. We would love to share this with you in our next live stream, so we have invited Jonathan to join and discuss our process.
Friday, July 2nd at 8:00 PM CET / 2:00 PM EDT we will go live on Twitch.
Be sure to follow us to receive a notification. We will be discussing the rules, playing Darwin’s Journey, and raffle some prizes for our backers.
If you cannot attend, don’t worry. We will upload the interview to our Youtube channel and post it in our next update.
Wooden Lenses
We received your feedback about the wooden lenses and our manufacturer has been working on reducing the thickness and adding a stronger and more opaque finish to the lens.
Let us know what you think, but we believe these are much better. Please keep in mind that this sample is not painted.
What’s next?
Next month in our update, we will be able to share a bit more about the rules and we will mainly talk about: logistics, how we are packing the games, what and how you will receive depending on your pledge, explained with a minimal infographic. Don’t miss it!
Until next time, take care, stay safe and have fun!
Sincerely yours, Everybody here at Thundergryph Games
📌 The Bazaar is closing and more pre-production photos
over 3 years ago
– Fri, May 14, 2021 at 02:46:17 AM
Dear Explorers,
We hope you are all doing well.
We want to sincerely thank you as more than 85% of the backers have completed their pledges during the past 3 weeks, which is a record for us!
We are on track with the ETA of Nov 2021
⚠️Charging cards
Today, May 13th is the last day to add any add-on you may want. If you have not received the email from Backerkit, you can visit this page to recover your access.
Tomorrow, May 14th at 17:00 CET we will be locking the pledges and charging your cards.
❔ What if I missed the Bazaar?
No problem, you will still be able to complete the pledge, but you won’t get access to the add-ons related to our previous titles.
❔ I want more pictures of the add-ons I’m buying
We will be showing the progress as we have done in the past, and we are doing our best to hear your feedback and apply the changes during our pre-production.
❔ Can I change my address after the Bazaar closes?
Yes, absolutely! You will be able to update your address until the end of production when we will arrange the freight.
❔ I have a question that is not answered above
Please write your question in the comment section of this update.
More samples of the Collector’s Edition
We recently received the last wooden piece that we were missing, the treasure chest of the Pirates mini-expansion.
We also received pictures from our manufacturer for both the bags in the Collector’s edition. One for the wax seals and one for the metal coins. We hope you like them!
Rules update
Jonathan Cox will soon finish the rules for Darwin’s Journey, and we will start working on a new layout for the rulebook.
We will hopefully update you soon regarding this for you to be able to approve them before we go into mass production.
Until next time, take care, stay safe and have fun!
Sincerely yours, Everybody here at Thundergryph Games
📌 Bazaar opening information and new sample photos!
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 04:44:17 AM
Dear Explorers,
We hope you are all doing well.
The time to complete your pledge has arrived. If you are familiar with the way that our pledge manager works, you are totally fine, just be sure to check your email tomorrow. If this is your first time with us, be sure to read this update.
Index of topics discussed in this update:
1) New sample photos of the wooden components 2) Thundergryph Bazaar instructions 3) Live stream tomorrow for Darwin’s Journey: Falmouth port 4) Meeple Source’s Kickstarter campaign
(1) More samples arrived
We recently received the last wooden components that we were missing.
The realistic wooden player lenses look great, but we still need to work on the plastic center as the one proposed was too clear. We will try different things such as a more opaque finish, and we will also try to add a hint of amber color.
These are not final, but we will be working on them until we are completely satisfied with the result.
We also received samples for the Adventure tokens, the commemorative Beagle Ship, and the Ghost Ship along with Falmouth’s pieces and the special markers for the Collector’s Edition. About the markers, we will try something different before accepting these ones.
(2) Thundergryph Bazaar
The Thundergryph Bazaar is our way to call our Pledge Manager (powered by Backerkit). You will receive an email invitation on April 22nd with the access link.The Bazaar will be open for around 3 weeks, and after that, your credit cards will be charged.
In the Bazaar, you will be able to do the following:
1) Pay for the shipping cost of your pledge, if you haven’t already;
2) Upgrade your pledge or add any additional items from Darwin’s Journey campaign;
3) Access to a limited quantity of our past Deluxe editions;
4) Access to a selection of released retail titles, including the different promos for each game;
5) Select your preferred language of choice for Darwin’s Journey;
6) Choose your address for shipping, and update it anytime before fulfillment.
Invite waves:
We plan to send a smoke test today to a selected amount of backers to monitor their experience and fix any problems that may arise.
Tomorrow starting at 4:00 pm CET / 10 am EDT we will start sending the invitations. Please take into consideration that it might take up to a few hours for the system to send all the invitations.
Limited past games:
The games available in the Bazaar will be based on the stock of the warehouse near you. If you are interested in a particular item but cannot find it, it means we are out of stock. Hopefully, everyone will find the game they want!
We charge a very small additional shipping fee for certain items:
Big Games: 3€ as additional shipping cost.
Small/Medium Games: 2€ as additional shipping cost.
Small mini-expansions and add-ons: Freeof any additional shipping costs.
How to upgrade your pledge:
In the Welcome screen of the Bazaar, you will be able to see a small link to upgrade your pledge.
This is what will be available for Darwin’s Journey:
1) Darwin’s Journey mini-expansion
2) Darwin’s Journey Falmouth Port mini-expansion
3) Darwin’s Journey wooden player lenses
4) Darwin’s Journey playmats
Darwin All-in add-on bundle will include all of these itemsand a pack of sleeves for a 20% discount.
You will be able to find out more about all of this tomorrow in our Bazaar.
(3) Darwin’s Journey live stream tomorrow!
Join us live on Twitch on April 22nd at 8:00 PM CET 2:00 PM EDT with Simone Luciani to play Falmouth port mini-expansion.
We will be giving away add-ons for the game and answering your questions live.
Be sure to follow us on Twitch to get notified when we go live or make sure to mark it on your calendars, we would love to see you there!
(4) Meeple Source KS campaign
Our friends at Meeple Source are creating a set of beautiful meeples suitable to Darwin's Journey, in their current Kickstarter project. Paolo Voto was the guest artist for this set which includes explorers, workers, boats, and tents that are suitable for the Collector's Edition and expansion, along with the HMS Beagle and a pirate ship. We shared a booth with Meeple Source at the last Gen Con and we are very proud of Paolo Voto that was chosen to collaborate with them!
