You Need Some Optimism
about 6 years ago – Sat, Mar 14, 2020 at 02:42:06 AM

We can learn something about the course of the Covid-19 virus from the Chinese experience. While many of us are in the midst of panic, China has, in large part, moved past that. The Panda factories are at 80% and expect to be at 100% by the end of the month, their employees are safe and virus-free. I am reviewing final digital proofs for your anticipated copy of Obsession; production will begin in a matter of days. 

As part of my day job, I am in hospitals all the time. The risk is low, and the level of care is remarkable. When you're cracking open your copy of Obsession (which will have ZERO little Covids living there), these events will be in the rear view mirror.

Address Lockdown

I have had a few questions about when I will lock addresses. Typically, I will wait until the last possible moment before locking them down, which will be the day I am required to submit my final list to Quartermaster Logistics. With the delays, I anticipate that will be in mid-May now.  If you want to change your address, email me and I will send you instructions. 

Obsession Glossary

For those of you who want to review the Glossary, please take a look at this 28 page monster (if interested, you will want to download the file—look to the toolbar on the right side). There will be a quiz next week.

Thanks!

Dan Hallagan, Kayenta Games

One More Covid-19 (coronavirus) Update
about 6 years ago – Mon, Mar 02, 2020 at 12:11:41 AM

It is certainly easy to get caught up in the always measured and rational world of social media news and opinion about Covid-19 (*ahem*), so I am perhaps over-communicating on this topic. I think it is useful because I am graced with inside information, if you will. In a recent conversation with Panda:

Not a single employee or any of their family members from our factory or our partner factory networks contracted the virus. Every day more employees make it back to the factory and we are at around 50% production staff and grow daily. Hopefully in a month this will be a memory of the past.

I am sure challenges remain, but it is not the apocalypse. In our corner of the problem, the news is—most importantly—good for our partners in China and their families, and it is also good for the future of Obsession and Upstairs, Downstairs.

Obsession Rulebook

In the meantime, I'll post the production version of the Obsession rulebook here (if interested, you will want to download the file—look to the toolbar on the right side). It was redesigned with one goal in mind: any rules that ended up in the Glossary the first time around (resulting in my inadvertently hiding a few key rules) have been extracted and are properly presented in the rulebook.  The consequence is that the rulebook is now 16 pages (up from 12). 

Note that the QR Code still takes you to older instructional videos ; my new computer has arrived (the necessary solution to my problem), and I will be creating a variety of instructional videos for that QR Code in the coming weeks. Also, for anyone observing that there should be 95 gentry cards, 94 is the correct count; the 95th card is a surprise that must wait for you all to discover on your own.

Thanks!

Dan Hallagan, Kayenta Games

Another Covid-19 (coronavirus) Update
about 6 years ago – Sat, Feb 22, 2020 at 01:18:15 AM

Greetings! I think it is high time for a little good news about this damnable bug. Just a few minutes ago, I received this email from Panda:

This past Monday our factory passed its safety inspection and all our workers were cleared to return to work. As they travel back, those coming from low risk areas have a 1 week quarantine period and those coming from higher risk areas have a 2 week quarantine period, but still even in the last few days operations have resumed in small ways; all the wood, dice, bags, etc. for Obsession and Upstairs, Downstairs are already headed into mass production as those factories are up and running now. We hope that by mid March our factory is back to full speed, and we will be able to get better ideas on timelines for all projects starting and in mid production. Thank you so much for your patience in this extremely tough period as we do everything we can to both make sure your projects are taken care of as well as the safety of our workers.

There are many good things in this message! First and foremost, no Panda workers have contracted the virus. Secondly, a number of employees who had traveled to the Wuhan area for Chinese New Year are cleared to return. As it relates to our game, the manufactured components are the most time-consuming part of the project; Panda has to make and paint 295,000 meeples for our order, which is over 750 pounds of butlers, cooks, lady's maids, footmen, and more! That this part of the project is already underway is much earlier than I had anticipated and a good sign for the project timeline overall. Finally, I have been nothing but impressed with Panda's open communication and professionalism during this difficult time.

Thanks to all for the universal good will, encouraging messages, and patience. Enjoy the weekend! As another small token of appreciation, I am revealing the 'prototype' tile that will be included in one of the Backer-Developed Promotional Tile punchboards:

The idea here is to explore modifier tiles that can be fed into the market to enable events and permit custom balancing of certain aspects of the game. This tile is placed in the £800 market space at the start of Season 2, and when it 'hits' the £500 space (as it slides down when tiles are purchased), it triggers a costume ball. This ball is actually a method for creating prestige connections earlier in the game to ensure balanced access to these all-important guests. Y'all gonna be my playtesters for the idea :)

Thanks!

Dan Hallagan, Kayenta Games

Covid-19 (coronavirus) Update
about 6 years ago – Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at 11:18:40 PM

Greetings. It is not a surprise that the news coming out of China continues to be challenging. For full transparency, I am reproducing here the email I received yesterday:

I think the last paragraph is illuminating; I had wondered if I had chosen another geography to produce the game (there are very limited options given the type of game quality needed) if production would be underway. Clearly not. This is a global issue...and a global gaming issue.

Thanks for your patience! Of course, the Kayenta Games promise of a 100% refund is always available at any time to any backer as this situation develops (if needed, contact me directly at [email protected]). 

As a token of my appreciation, I have added a bonus tile to the Upstairs, Downstairs expansion, resurrecting and fine-tuning an early tile I had developed a year ago.

 The rules are as follows...

Thematically, the accomplished cook + the upgraded facilities completely break down any social restraint whatsoever!  The early-game power of the tile is limited in several ways: it is expensive, players have limited access to prestige guests, and it plays only once before converting into a permanent ability.  Yet, this gives the cook a needed boost in late-game value when family reputations climb and her base power (inviting guests above the family's reputation) ceases to be useful.  I do not exclude it from initial population; watch players scramble when this baby hits the market early!

Also, I will be continuing to produce and refine videos. Heading into the studio (my kitchen LOL) right now!

Dan Hallagan, Kayenta Games

Coronavirus/Production Timeline Update, New Video
about 6 years ago – Tue, Feb 11, 2020 at 01:49:45 AM

Coronavirus

Last September I put "there will always be unforeseen developments in manufacturing and logistics that are beyond our control"  into the Risks and Challenges section of the Kickstarter page; little did I know what that would entail.

The Chinese government extended the Chinese New Year break for an extra week to establish prevention and identification protocols for coronavirus, and they are permitting factories to reopen today, Monday February 10. Panda Games has made the decision to push back the start of production by one more week to take extra measures to protect their workers and reduce the chance of an outbreak at the Panda factory. The new date to resume factory operations is tentatively Monday February 17. 

This is not a minor undertaking.

During the week of Feb 10 to 17, Panda will be asking workers to isolate and quarantine themselves at home or in their dorm rooms. Their health will be monitored and their temperature will be checked twice a day. If any of them show signs of fever or symptoms of the coronavirus, they’ll be sent to the hospital. If there are no signs of coronavirus in any of their workers after a week, then it is likely that they are healthy and Panda will resume operations next week on Monday February 17.

The impact on this project's schedule will be a domino effect. Those who follow Kickstarters closely know that the Chinese New Year looms large in the mind of every developer; either you push hard to get production well underway before the CNY or you queue up with all the projects waiting for the end of the holiday and get busy as soon as everyone returns. To lose two weeks of production creates a larger backlog and pushes back everyone by more than two weeks. However, I applaud Panda's caution to ensure the safety of their people and that production resumes without interruption; I have a lot of confidence in this organization.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, I had some optimism that my Southeast Asia backers would start getting their games in mid-April with the ROTW following right behind. Now, I have trouble predicting the impact of this delay; I am circling the end of May on my calendar...a reasonable guess, but still a guess. I will update as I learn more.

Solo Estate Challenge

In the meantime, I am getting my video self together, and I will have time to film quite a bit. I will upgrade the RAM on my computer in the next week or so to get Premiere Pro back online, but here's a look at my static cam showing the new solo game! I broke it up into four unequal videos. Remember, this is unedited, but it shows that I have solved my camera setup issues. I make 5,000,000 mistakes in the 3rd video (LOL) as I started to run out of steam (and forgot my mental health break). One odd thing: when I zoom the camera, the sound is hard to hear. Weird. This is rough, but there's good stuff here. Enjoy!

 Thanks! 

Dan Hallagan, Kayenta Games