Pledge Lock Down Starts this Weekend
about 7 years ago – Fri, Aug 04, 2017 at 05:24:49 PM

Fulfilment Begins!

The plan is to start locking down any Pledge Manager Surveys that contain just completed designs as physical prints from tomorrow.

It'll take a few days to filter through and lock down the surveys, after that we begin the print run and shipping process, which is likely to take up to three weeks or more.

If there any changes you want to make in your Pledge, now is the time to do it.

Which Designs are Complete?

It's easier to list the designs that aren't complete; so, if your order includes any of the following designs as physical mats then it won't be locked down, printed or shipped in this fulfilment run.

• Town Square*
• Ocean Ruins
• Town Gate*
• Winding Alleys*
• Dock Side*
• Temple*
• Ventilation Shaft
• Graveyard
• S.V. Kodiak
• Autumn Castle (all parts)
• Corporate Lobby
• City Square
• Parking Lot
• Down Town
• Street Market
• Winter Castle (all parts)
• Wilderness Monster Lair
• Nomadic Steppe Village

* including interior versions

Unfinished Designs Timeline

All these unfinished designs are planned to be complete by the end of August, when we'll lock down and fulfil all remaining orders.

Some More Design Updates

These are some of the recently completed designs.

First Lock Down Dates
about 7 years ago – Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 06:46:30 PM

First Lock Down Date

Around 90% of backers have completed the Pledge Manager, so it’s almost time to start Locking Down Pledge Surveys and get the first print run underway.

We’ll begin Locking Down completed pledges next weekend, this will just be for backers whose order comprises of only designs that are complete. It may take a few days to filter through the completed Pledge Surveys so they won’t all be Locked Down at the same time.

Credit Card Funds

Just so you’re aware, any backers who have paid for add-ons or shipping via a credit card, those cards will be charged on the 7th of August.

Design Status

The current status of all of the designs can be found on our Design Status sheet, available to view on Google docs here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1go8Ip2eNAcpAZgtanZwVouqAcoZHrns5VwI7GdFlvxA/edit#gid=0

We’ll be trying to get some more designs completed before the Lock Down and plan on sending an update out at the end of the week to confirm design status with regards to the Lock Down.

Digital Content

The next collection of digital titles are getting setup on DriveThruRPG alongside the design work so we should be able to send codes out in a week or two (these are the first batch of Stretch Goal designs).

We’re also still working on our own digital distribution method to run alongside DriveThruRPG, but it’s not quite ready yet.

Some Recently Finished Designs  

For more variations and larger images please visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/battlemat/

 

 

 

 

 

The 48"x24" version of the tavern Room adds a back room, rear yard and space to the front of the tavern.

Progress Tracking Sheet
about 7 years ago – Sun, Jul 23, 2017 at 07:48:49 PM

Who doesn’t love a spreadsheet!

This is the link to the Google Sheets workbook I’m using to track the progress of the KickStarter designs, and where you’ll be able to get the latest status information.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1go8Ip2eNAcpAZgtanZwVouqAcoZHrns5VwI7GdFlvxA/edit?usp=sharing

This is a Read-Only link to the actual workbook I use and will be updated regularly.

It looks like this:

This is what the headers mean.

• SKU - Stock Keeping Unit, this is just a code for us to keep track of each title.
• Collection – This is which collection (wave) we’re planning on releasing the design in
• Design Name – The name of the design as it appears in the Pledge Manager
• Base Design – The Design completion status (Done = Design finished | WIP = Work in Progress | No = Design not started or in very early stages)
• Grid Overlays – Have the 4 variations with different sized grids been created?
• Cover – Has a cover image been created?
• VTT – Have virtual tabletop optimised jpeg versions of each variation been created?  
• FB – Have images of this design been put on our Facebook page?  
• PDF – Have the multi-page pdf files for each of the grid variations been created?  
• DriveThru – Has a title been created on DriveThruRPG and the tif/jpg files been uploaded?
• DriveThru + PDF – Have the pdf files also been added to DriveThruRPG?  
• Zip – Have the tif/jpg files been zipped and uploaded to bulk storage?  
• Zip + PDF - Have the pdf files also been added to bulk storage?

A Couple of Notes:

The PDF files are time consuming to create; I've separated them out so they don't delay the completion of the base designs.

The bulk storage mentioned is a cloud storage provider I'll be using to provide an alternative location to download each title as a zipped collections of files. This solution is still being finalised, but should be an option soon.

Some Design Updates

Here's a few design updates, find the other variations and more designs on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pg/battlemat/photos/). 

 

 

 

 

Get Ready, the Pledge Manager Link is Coming!!
about 7 years ago – Fri, Jul 21, 2017 at 12:29:52 AM

Key Points

This is quite a long update so here are the main points:

• We will be sending out the Pledge Manager Survey Invites over the next 3 days.
• You will receive an email with a customised link to your BackerKit Survey web page (this will be sent to your KickStarter email address by default).
• Below are notes and screen shots detailing how to navigate and use the Pledge Manager Survey.
• This is where you select your designs, add on anything else you may want and finalise postage.
• The pledge manager will automatically credit your link with the amount of money you pledged and paid already via KickStarter. Additional add-on items and shipping will need to be paid for here.
• Once you confirm your survey it's still possible to go back and makes changes up until your Survey is Locked Down (which is when we start processing orders).
• Once your Survey is Locked Down you will NOT be able to make any further changes! We will send an update out before locking down pledges though.

Pledge Manager Survey Walkthrough

Before you use your link I thought it would be helpful to run through some of the key points and features to help you navigate your way.

You should find the process fairly user friendly, I have added more explanation than you should need!!

I have filled in an example here for you to see what it might look like, and have selected the £20 (The Big Table) Pledge Level having Pledged £35 during the KickStarter. When you see fields pre populated below (postage etc) it will be for our example backer who lives in the US.

Lets Get started.

Starting Page

When you click the link you will see this page. Obviously your link will be personalised to your pledge and location.

Check it's the right email and country and click Get Started.

Notes:

• You can switch Pledge levels if desired here or later in the Add-Ons section.
• The Bundle Pledge levels have reduced pricing for any add-on mats (10% off).
• Switching pledge levels is only possible if switching to a pledge level that includes the digital rewards.

Questions

You will be presented with some questions to answer based on the selected Pledge Level.  

The Design field is to select the design you would like, the Pledge manager can’t display all of the images so please visit our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/battlemat/) to look at the design options.

The Grid field lets you select from 1” or 1.5” squares and hexes or select None for no grid.

The Extension Variation field can be set to Yes to get the variation copy of a design (this is for placing two larger mats side-by-side).

Click Next: Add-ons when ready.

Add-ons

In the Add-Ons section, any additional funds pledged beyond the amount required for the Pledge level are shown, this will be minus shipping costs for the Pledge Level which are also shown in this section. 

If you’re not interested in any Add-On Items, just use the Skip to the Next Step link.

To select an Add-On just click View.

Select the desired options and quantity and click Add to Cart to add an item, click Continue Shopping when done.

To exit without adding an item just click Continue Shopping without clicking Add to Cart.

The Balance will be updated to reflect the change with any selected Add-On items now shown above the Balance. 

Note that add-on items can be removed using the Trash Can icon if required.

Click Next when ready.

Shipping

I believe the address supplied in KickStarter will be imported and pre-filled in to this section, please check that this is the correct address for shipping physical rewards, amend as required then click Next.

The Pledge Manager will attempt to validate the address, double check the details and click Submit when ready.

Confirm

The Confirm section will show all the details of your order and will also include any additional shipping costs required for Add-On Items selected.

You can go back and make changes (Design choices, shipping address add extra add-ons etc.) up until we Lock Down the surveys, which will be when we start the printing and shipping process. 

Pledge Manager Lock Down

We’re planning on two lock down dates, the first will be around two weeks after the surveys are initially sent out, where we’ll Lock Down the Confirmed Surveys for anyone whose order is entirely comprised of designs that are ready for print.

These will then be printed and shipped (around a 3-4 week process).

The second Lock Down will be when the rest of the designs are complete, which is estimated as the end of August, with the remaining surveys locked down then and printing/shipping takes place for those orders. We’ll keep the updates coming so you’ll know what we’re up to and what to expect from us and when.  

Next steps for Matt is to finalise the remaining designs!  

First Digital Rewards
about 7 years ago – Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 08:48:29 PM

Just a quick update to let you know that the first wave of digital reward links have now been sent to all backers whose pledge level include the initial digital designs. 

The code will be sent via DriveThruRPG using the [email protected] email address with a subject line of Free Digital Download of RPG Encounter Mats Collection I [BUNDLE] from DriveThruRPG.com.

If the email doesn’t arrive, please check your junk mail folder as it may have gone there.

We've used the emails supplied in the KickStarter survery, for any backers that haven't filled out the survey yet we've used the email supplied by KickStarter .

This collection has 48 titles and includes the initial 20 designs in all size formats.

There are high resolution .tif and virtual tabletop optimised .jpg files included.

PDF Files

Only a few titles have the multi-page .pdf files at the moment, these are in progress and will be added over the next week or so, but I didn't want to delay getting the rest of the files out while waiting on pdf proccessing. Once they're added to a title in DriveThru RPG they'll appear in your library and be available for download.

Pledge Manager

The Pledge Manager will be submitted for review to BackerKit tomorrow, and assuming they don’t find any issues, we’ll be sending out the first invites later this week. 

We'll send out a detailed Pledge manager update to show how the process works later in the week too.

Thanks