June update: New lenses, pre-production files and rulebooks
almost 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
almost 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!
about 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: Free of 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 items and 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!

We wish our friends at Meeple Source a great campaign! If you are interested, you can visit their Kickstarter page.

Until next time, take care, stay safe and have fun!

Sincerely yours,
 Everybody here at Thundergryph Games

Illustrations, pre-production and Bazaar opening!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 09, 2021 at 08:01:19 PM

Dear Explorers,

We hope you are all doing well!

This update is packed with information about the progress on Darwin’s Journey, the opening date for our Thundergryph Bazaar (pledge manager), and a special announcement for a live stream!

Illustrations finalized

First let’s start by saying that we are done with all the additional illustrations for the game, for both Special Actions and Adventure cards of the Fireland expansion. Here you can see some of them.

Files and pre-production

It looks like Panda has finished the pre-production of all the wooden bits, including the player lenses and items unlocked during the campaign. They have communicated that all the items will be shipped to us later today, which means we will be able to share all the photos with you next week!

We have been working on several aspects of the game by organizing all the components in a way that will make sense for both the production and for when you will read the rules.

We have marked each tile and card in the game with a unique number and symbol if it belongs to any expansion (or mini-expansion).

We also have been working on the Fireland expansion rules which are ready for the layout creation and all the bits related to the player aid.

The player aid has now become a player aid small booklet and it will include all the icons of the common actions on the game for a quick glance on the back; and the explanation of the 26 Special Action tiles, the 19 Beagle Objectives, the 28 Crew cards, and all the information related to Animal Companions, Great Ships, Objectives and time penalty on the inside.

It will become a compendium of information that you can easily look at by cross-checking the number on the tile or the card you want to learn more about.

As soon as all these files will be ready, we will be sharing them with you for a final check.

Thundergryph Bazaar opens on April 22nd

The Thundergryph Bazaar, it's our way to call our pledge manager (powered by Backerkit). You will receive an invite on April 22nd with the access link. As we are getting closer to the launch, we will also share more news on what items you will be able to find. The Bazaar will be open for around 3 weeks, and after that, your credit cards will be charged.

As this has been our most successful campaign so far, we definitely need to be very careful with our organization and for that reason, we are not offering the ‘ship now’ options for the additional items.

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;

6) Choose your address for shipping, and update it anytime before fulfillment.

If you have any questions about this, be sure to use the comment section below to ask them!

Special live stream on April 9th

Join us live on Twitch on April 9th at 8:00PM CET 2:00 PM EDT to celebrate our 5th anniversary as a board game publisher!

We will be revealing and playing something new for Darwin’s Journey and we will give away several prizes, including a Silver Ticket to one lucky winner. The Silver ticket is a free all-access pass to all our releases for a year (shipping included!)

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!

Until next time, take care, stay safe and have fun!

Sincerely yours,
Everybody here at Thundergryph Games

Darwin’s Journey playmat and tournament final!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 12:58:35 AM

Dear explorers,

We hope you are all doing well!

Yesterday we met with Panda after their Chinese Holidays break and we are set to start pre-production on several components of the game.

We also met with Jonathan Cox to work on the rules for the expansion and discuss all your insights about the rulebook.

We will be working in the next 3 weeks to finish all the files required for each of the editions and we can’t wait to show you photos once we receive the samples.

We don’t have a final date yet for the Bazaar, but we are aiming for it to be by the end of March if all the pre-production of the add-ons arrive on time.

Darwin’s Journey playmat

For now, we would love to give you a peek at one of the items that you will be able to get in our Bazaar (pledge manager) once we are live: the Darwin’s Journey playmat! It will come in a robust illustrated tube. If you were a backer of the Matchbox Collection you can expect the same quality of the material. Playmats will be double-sided and exclusive to our Collector's edition backers.

We would require to print a minimum quantity of 1’000 with a special upgrade if we reach 3’000 copies sold. The price will be revealed once we launch the pledge manager, but as usual, we will be pricing it honestly.

Darwin’s Journey tournament final match!

We will be live on Twitch in a few minutes, 24th February at 8 PM CET - 2 PM PST to commentate on the final match of our tournament live, where four very experienced gamers will be competing through the Galapagos in a tense scenario.

Be sure to tune in to Twitch. We will be answering any questions live and doing giveaways of the Playmat and other add-ons!

Until next time, take care and have fun!

Sincerely yours,
Everybody here at Thundergryph Games