New Year’s Doggolutions: Animal Shelter Gift Basket, International Shipping, Custom Dogs, and Token Stands!
over 5 years ago – Fri, Jan 11, 2019 at 04:21:24 PM

Happy new year, hoomans! Brian here.

We’re so happy to see your continued photos and play reports. It’s great to see so many people (and pups!) playing and enjoying the game. Keep tagging us @makebigthings or share using the #gooddogbadzombie hashtag. It really is a delight!

What’s left for the project

•  Gift basket for the One Tail at a Time rescue shelter: This is in progress and close to being done! More info below!
•  International Shipping: We are working incredibly hard to get EU and international games sent to you!  We began the process well before the holidays, but because of all the back-and-forth involved in communicating with warehouses, VAT tax representatives, our manufacturer, and our shippers, we weren’t able to get all our representatives on the same page before they all left for their holiday breaks. Now that our representatives are all back, I am coordinating with them daily to get a clear sense of timelines. 
•  Custom Dogs: We have picked our work back up on making your custom dogs! We’ll be sharing an update soon detailing the process of their creation!
•  1 and 5 Player Variants: These are in development! We’re working on fine tuning mechanics and will post to our website and here when these play variants are ready.

With that...OTAT!

One Tail at a Time gift basket!

We made a promise to use a portion of funds raised from the campaign to purchase a basket of gifts, treats, toys, and resources for the One Tail at a Time dog rescue shelter in Chicago. We talked with OTAT about what items would be most helpful for their shelter this year, and with that, supplies have been ordered and the gift basket will soon be on its way!

Here’s Lupin unboxing some of the shipments, only slightly sad he doesn’t get to eat all those treats, but mostly very happy to share them with doggos in need.  

Thanks to all of your support, this was made pawsible! We’ll be sure to share pictures and a video after we’ve dropped off the basket! 

Custom dog tool

We launched this tool right before the holidays, which means we know it’s possible folks missed it, so we just wanted to drop a reminder! The custom dog tool, which you can use to print out your own homemade version of the custom dogs, is available now. Give it a whirl! And share pictures of your cards with us on social media—we love seeing them! 

Unlikely Ally stands

We’ve heard some of you that you’d like stands for Unlikely Allies! We designed the components expecting people to swap out tokens as needed, but we also understand the preference for keeping every dog in a stand.

We’re placing an order for extra card stands that we will ship out free of charge! If you’d like a set, please fill out this form by Friday, January 18th. (If you've already requested card stands from us - no need to fill out the form! You're all set.) The stands that we can supply will have a shorter height to make our shipping affordable, but have no trouble holding our tokens. (These shorter stands will also be the ones that we include with custom dogs.) 

We expect it to around a month to receive and process these stands after we've placed the order. If you’d prefer stands that are available now, you can order these from Gamecrafter, which are similar to the taller model in the base game.   

Hero dogs in action!

Again, thanks so much for your support. We’ve loved seeing your pictures of the game in action, and hearing about how you’ve enjoyed playing the game has meant the world! Feel free to tag us the next time you post the game (Twitter and Instagram: @makebigthings and Facebook: @Make Big Things) and use the hashtag #gooddogbadzombie 

Best,

Brian

Bonus Custom Dog Card Creator Is Live!
over 5 years ago – Sun, Dec 23, 2018 at 06:59:32 PM

Hey hoomans! Brian here.

We’ve got exciting news. The bonus custom dog tool we previously announced is finally live!

As a reminder: This does not replace the custom dog cards $75 and above backers will be receiving. This is a fun bonus thing we wanted to offer to all of our wonderful backers! The custom dogs you are receiving will have illustrated backgrounds, photo-filtered dogs, and will be printed on high-quality stock.

This online tool will let anyone design and print their own custom dog card. We recommend using this online tool on a desktop/laptop rather than a mobile/tablet device. In addition, if many people are accessing the tool at once, there’s a possibility it will slow down our website a bit. So if you can’t access it right away, just give it a little time and then try again!

Without further ado, you can access the bonus custom dog tool here: http://makebigthings.com/good-dog-bad-zombie-custom-card/

You’ll see a blank dog card that looks like this: 

When you upload your picture and fill the information out, you’ll be able to download and print out something that looks like this!

Our initial testing of the tool has gone well, but we’re expecting you’ll find some bugs we missed. If you do run into any issues, the best way to get that to us is emailing us: [email protected]. Please don’t post bugs to the comments section of Kickstarter, as these comments quickly get buried and there’s no easy way to track them. We will do our best to respond to any issues as quickly as possible, but our replies might be somewhat delayed due to the holidays.

We hope you have fun with this and enjoy playing the game as your doggos! Thanks for everything!

Have any shipping issues? Send us an email! 

We are thrilled that the games are being delivered to your homes. We poured so much love and time into every step of the process for this game: from creating the mechanics to playtesting, production, and now getting it into your paws. It’s been so rewarding to see your pictures on social media of people receiving and playing their games. We love seeing your play reports and experiences so keep them coming! Thank you!

We’ve also had some folks have shipping issues with their order. That’s definitely to be expected when you ship out thousands of packages all at once. If there’s anything we can help you with, the best way to be in touch with us is by email: [email protected]. This allows us to track our responses to your message and keep messages organized in one place.

We will do everything we can to solve any issues with your shipment. Our replies might be slightly delayed during this holiday week—we greatly appreciate your patience and support!

Thank you all for being the best canine rescue party a hooman could hope for!

Warm regards,

Brian

Shipping Updates, How to Play Video, and of Course...Your Dogs!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Dec 18, 2018 at 11:03:52 PM

Hello hoomans!

We want to start by saying how cool it’s been to see your games arriving all throughout the US and Canada. It means so much to see your photos and to hear about your experiences playing for the first time!

For folks in the US who haven’t received their games yet, you should have received a tracking email from Blackbox. We’ve gotten a number of reports of games arriving early, but for those who haven't received them, they should be arriving within Fedex's shipping window. If you’re not sure what your tracking number is, please send us a Kickstarter message and we can look up your info!

Now, down to business!

Domestic Shipping and Shipping Goofs

We’re so happy to hear that the games have arrived and people have started to play! We put so much love into this game, and you all are the ones who made it real. We’re glad to be sharing it with you.

With 2,000 games being shipped out for the holidays, there are bound to be goofs. If something was missing from or damaged in your shipment, reach out to us via Kickstarter messages or email ([email protected]). We’re here to help!

International Shipping

We’ve been working with our manufacturer and fulfillers daily coordinating international shipping. Know that we haven’t rested in our efforts to move international shipping forward as quickly as possible. There are a number of extra steps involved when dealing with getting the games safely to our UK warehouse, including working with a customs broker, navigating international freight shipping, and import taxes. Some of the companies we're working with are being impacted by holiday delays and closures, so we know the process may seem like it's moving along slowly, but we’re getting all of the ducks in a row to get you updated shipping information as soon as we possibly can.

Custom Dog Uploader

We’re doing final testing on our custom dog upload tool before sharing that tool on our website! We hope to release the uploader in our next backer update and we aim to have it live by Friday. Our programmer Jason Woofenden did an amazing job and we can't wait to share it!

How to Play Video

Finally, we’ve uploaded a how to play video to YouTube. This video walks you through setting up the game, flow of play, and includes some gameplay tips for your first time!

It’s so amazing to see these games arriving in your hands. As always, if you have any questions or need help tracking down a shipment we’re here to assist! We'll have more updates soon, including information about our gift basket headed to the One Tail at a Time shelter in Chicago!

Now, here’s a few more of your pups posing next to their games!

 More soon!

Brian, Evan, and Hannah

Good Dog, Bad Zombie begins shipping today!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 10:28:05 PM

Hoomans! It’s here! The moment we’ve all been waiting for. Good Dog, Bad Zombie starts shipping out from our Blackbox facility today! 

Here’s the info we have:

• GDBZ base games and expansions will begin shipping from Blackbox to US and Canadian backers today: Monday, December 10th. 
• Blackbox has told us that almost all of the shipments will probably go out in one day, but it could take up to Friday to send them all. We’ll post another backer update after they’ve verified with us that all packages have shipped. 
• Non-Canadian international packages have not begun shipping yet. We’re working with Blackbox to coordinate dealing with customs and warehousing and working on getting these out as soon as we can. We’ll let you know when we have more information, and we're working to get these moving as quickly as possible!

We’re so excited to get you these games and we’re here to answer questions along the way! We’re so proud of what the GDBZ community has made together!

Custom Dog Cards

As mentioned in a previous update, custom dog cards ($75 backers and above) will be shipping after the new year. We’ll be able to narrow this estimate in a future update after all base games have shipped and everyone has a few weeks to breathe.

In addition, we’re nearly ready to launch the online tool that will allow people to design home-printed versions of their dogs! We’ve gotten to play around with an early version of it, and it’s really cool. Here's a couple screenshots of the tool in progress:

 And here's what it looks like after you've filled out the info and uploaded the picture:

We'll let you know as soon as this is ready!

PAX Unplugged 

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and picked up a game at PAX Unplugged! It was amazing meeting so many backers in person, and it felt so special being able to hand-deliver your games.

Every step of this game has been a labor of love. From our 3-person design team to our US manufacturer working with us daily to hash out really challenging design and production questions. This was an ambitious game to produce the way we did. We've worked so hard to bring this to you, and we’ve learned so much along the way. Now, we’re ready to send Good Dog, Bad Zombie out into the world. You made this pawsible. 

We’ll be in touch over the next week with more shipping updates. In the meantime, a deep and heartfelt thank you. We couldn’t have done this without you.

Best, 

Brian, Evan, and Hannah

Good Dog, Bad Zombie is leaving our paws and heading to yours!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Nov 24, 2018 at 10:42:16 PM

Hello hoomans!

Brian here. We’ve got big news.

Good Dog, Bad Zombie is beginning its journey to you next week! We’re so excited we want to howl! Below is the ruff timeline:

• GDBZ will ship out from our manufacturer next week! This could be any day from Monday through Friday. They’re just finishing the assembly of the expansions. 
• Our manufacturer is based in Santa Cruz, California and our shipping warehouse is based in Los Angeles, California - so it will take only one business day of travel to arrive at our shipping warehouse! 
• Our shipping warehouse has told us it will take them 4 - 12 days to ship out all of the games once they receive them. This largely depends on the volume of other packages they have to ship at the same time. However, you will receive a tracking number via email when your package goes out!

As you can see, the exact timing is a little hard to tell. But what we know for sure is that next week, the games will start their homeward bound journey towards you. Once we have an update from our manufacturer about when it has left them, we will let you know. We’re so, so excited to get you these games! This means, pending any issues with individual shipments, GDBZ will reach people in the US and Canada in time for the holidays! (As we mentioned in our last update, it’s harder to know exactly for people in the rest of the world, as there are so many additional variables when shipping over the ocean.)

Custom dogs are officially delayed - but announcing our doggone cool back up plan!

As we’ve been chronicling over the past few updates, we’ve hit some road bumps with the custom dogs. It was our hope to get them out in time for the holidays, but this past week we had to throw in the towel for that deadline. There were two primary reasons. The first was fatigue. We’ve been working tirelessly on the GDBZ base game and expansions as well as these custom dogs. We reached the point where we had to acknowledge our limits. Second, our printer was concerned that printing the 1,000 custom dogs now could stretch out the assembly process, jeopardizing getting the games and expansions out in time for the holidays. We didn’t want to take that risk.

So, we are going to take a step back, rest up, focus on getting everyone the base game and expansions, and ship the custom dogs (for everyone in the $75 and above levels, as well as add-ons) as soon as possible in the new year. Again, we want to emphasize this will not delay your base game or expansions, as we decided to split up those shipments!

We’re very sorry the custom dogs - which so many people are excited about - are being delayed! We’re doing this so we do it right, not rushed. In addition, in our past few updates, we’ve mentioned we’ve been working hard on a back up plan if the custom dogs weren’t going to get to you by the holidays. We’re excited to share that backup plan now!

We’ve hired programmer Jason Woofenden (yes, that’s his name!) to develop an online tool that will allow people to make and print out their own custom dogs. These won’t have the illustrated backgrounds, dog filters, and as many of the custom fields you are getting - but we thought it would be a really cool feature and would be a great way to hold you over until you got your Kickstarter custom dogs! 

Here’s an example of what my dog, Lupin, will end up looking like with this tool:

We will share this with you as soon as the programmer we hired finishes it. Our hope is that will be around mid-December!

In addition, everyone who got the custom dogs will receive this letter from us. If you are giving the custom doggos as a holiday gift to someone, we hope this letter can serve as heartfelt acknowledgement that there’s more to come!

We’ll be at PAX Unplugged! You can come pick up your copy of the game from us there!

We’ll be converging on PAX Unplugged in a week and a half! And because of our above shipping timeline, that means we will be able to have a small batch of GDBZ games with us there. If you are planning to be at PAX Unplugged, you can pick up your copy of the game from us at the convention! We will be at the Indie Bazaar with a bunch of other small game publishers. Here’s a map of our booth location, number 1925:

If you are planning to be there, please fill out this form by Tuesday (Nov 27) if you would like to pick up your game (and expansions) from us at the convention. 

PAX Unplugged will be our first time selling Good Dog, Bad Zombie in person! All of your enthusiasm and support has made this possible - it’s the best feeling in the world that your copies are going to start shipping next week and to have the opportunity to share the game with a new audience! It's finally real!

We also just want to take another moment to say thank you. If you’re reading this update, you’re one of the people who believed in us and made this game pawsible. We are so grateful to all of you for helping us reach this point. We hope you love the game as much as we do, and we’re so excited it will start heading to you next week, and that we can begin sharing it with the world at large. Thank you for your support and belief in us!

Some more pictures of GDBZ!

We’re so happy with the way everything turned out! Here’s the game in all its glory, which you should have very shortly. As soon as our manufacturer lets us know the game is on its way to you next week, we’ll let loose another pupdate!

Best, 

Brian, Evan, and Hannah