Please visit the following link for more information on the Airship Campaigns hardcover book
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skies-of-sordane/airship-campaigns/
This is the ONLY print run of this book. It's a limited edition print and will never be ordered again.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Manufacturing Update #7
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Apr 06, 2022 at 05:57:26 PM
Hey everyone!
As promised, here is a new update. I will be going into the main delays for the project which, unfortunately aren't the book, but the map tiles. I understand many of you did not order the map tiles (while many of you did) and, even though the book is pretty much ready to go, we can't push the button to print the project until everything is finished - which includes the map tiles as I will outline below. The good news is there really isn't much to do. It's all about communication and formatting at this point and then we just have to wait for the PPCs to come in, check them and GO GO GO.
Airship Campaigns Status - Ready to go to get the new Pre Production Copy - just waiting on the map tile issues (explained below)
Airship Map TilesDelay
Well, these are almost finished. It's safe to say that these were not planned properly. We added them to the campaign rather hastily and it unfortunately bit us in the butt a little bit in terms of time scale and cost. The original product the manufacturer sold me on was not what I was expected so when we got our PPCs back for them earlier this year, I was very underwhelmed. The stickers weren't good enough, the map tiles weren't thick enough and the boxes weren't good enough quality - they needed a rework all-round. As such, the factory had sent me a bunch of white samples (basically what the product will be without any of the art on it) so I could verify the quality of the materials before we get the 2nd round of PPCs in our hands.
As such, I have been keeping everyone updated on the progress and we are nearly there. Another thing causing a delay in the map tiles being finished would be the method in which the factor asked us to prepare the files. Originally they wanted each map tile to be in its own file, but later have asked us to supply them in one large format. Normally, this would be *relatively* quick, but we had to change graphic artists for the map tiles in the last 7 weeks so it changed the process / time needed to actually make the changes. They are now almost done, and the factory should be making the new PPCs next week - I will be sharing pictures as soon as we get them!
So, those are the reasons for the delay. The increase in product quality has also meant our margins are much, MUCH smaller on the map tiles than we originally anticipated so we decided to reduce the quantity we order as a company to keep in stock to be more manageable. This meant we needed a new quote from the factory and we got that signed last week so that's all good too!
Since last year, shipping fees have gone up 10x so we have been working with our freight partner to get the most accurate numbers for shipping fees from the factory to distribution (which is in the US for this project). This isn't so much a delay - just informing you all about the world of freight atm. Tis quite a mess worldwide atm!
The final delay is that the situation in China has made it very hard to get immediate responses from the factory as we did before. They have been through multiple city-wide lock downs this year. Causes delays in communication which adds up sadly.
Summarize Delays Since February
- Needed a new quote from the factory
- Needed to personally test different quality materials for the map tiles in person (sent from factory and reviewed by myself in person)
- Needed to change the format of each map tile's delivery to the manufacturer
- Changed the graphic artist doing the files so changing the file format took longer than it normally would
- Covid has caused communication delays from China
It's safe to say we have learned A LOT on this project. All of those lessons we are applying to finishing this project and moving onto our next 2 projects (Aldarra the board game and planning for the next book we plan on doing).
We greatly appreciate the patience here and I am immensely sorry for the delays. I will, as always keep you all informed of the process and keep everything as transparent as possible.
STL Bases Released
And finally, a small update for the STLs! As promised, here are the final 2 packs for the bases STLs! That's all 30 STLs for the bases now released! Enjoy =)
Now a bit of a plug for our next project - Aldarra.
As most of you are aware, we launched Aldarra back in February, but had to cancel due to an immense amount of feedback from the community. We have shrunk down all of the miniatures to a more manageable size to not only increase the usability, but mainly to reduce the cost. As such, we have reduced the cost of the base game by $100. Which is a huge accomplishment for us and we really hope it will make the game so much more accessible to everyone. We also have an updated Early Bird bonus that will be a set of free premium metal coins!
We would love to have your support on this new venture of ours. We have never been quite as excited about a campaign as we have about this one and succeeding would open some massive doors for us as a company in the future. We are really looking forward to this Kickstarter! Any and all support is most immensely appreciated!
We have free STLs you can download as well
Thanks everyone! Hope you all have a pleasant week. I will be updating you all on updates from the factor as soon as I can and have something to report!
Benny and the AM team
Manufacturing Update #6
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 11:54:42 PM
Good Weekend, All!
Hey everyone. Just another quick update. All of the files have been updated and sent to the manufacturer and we are just waiting on them to check all the files to send us a new PPC (Pre Production Copy). Hopefully that will come next week and if all is good, we hit the GO button! Super excited to finally be here. Time really moves fast, but we can seeee the light!
Thanks again for your patience! Also, we should have the 2 new packs of bases up in the next few days to a week as well (I will send links for those when I put out the next manufacturing update).
Also, the first two PDF adventures are currently being formatted and we should have those out in a month or so as well!
Benny and the AM team
Manufacturing Update #5
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Mar 18, 2022 at 03:12:11 AM
Hey all!
Another quick update today. We are nearly ready to get the new PPC (Pre production copy) back from the factory for final approval after the material changes we made to improve the quality. We have sorted out the map tile issues and are just waiting for the files to be edited and uploaded from our team!
I will update you all once we have submitted the final files and after we receive the new PPC from the manufacturer for final approval! (Pics will be shared!).
I apologize for the further delay, but we are getting there. Covid is not making it easier with shutdowns constantly happening in China right now
Be safe out there everyone!
Benny and the AM team
Manufacturing Update #4
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Mar 10, 2022 at 12:46:00 PM
Hey everyone. Just a quick one today. As promised. I will be updating you all every week until we go right into manufacturing in the next week or two.
I am still in a holding pattern until I get new quotes back from the factory for the material change we have decided on for the map tiles to improve their quality. We have also sent a slight altercation to the book content as well, but nothin major and that is basically ready to be push into manufacturing. We are very nearly there to the manufacturing date. Just have to decide on the final material and quotes which are sadly taking longer than I originally wanted them to. We have to make sure everything is right before we put the final order in. We do not want a subpar product to be shipped to you =)
Have a great week everyone! I will be in touch again next week to update everyone on the progress!
Benny and the AM team
Manufacturing Update Part 3 + New Digital Files Released
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 10:59:26 PM
Hey there everyone! We have some updates on manufacturing, our latest Kickstarter and some new digital releases for you!
Not much to report right now on this front. We were supposed to put in our order on the 25th, but there has been some manufacturing quote delays from the factory we were waiting on (to get the prices a bit lower down) and we had to check the white-samples that the factory sent us for the new map tiles boards (see Manufacturing Update #2 for info on this), but the samples they sent us were warping as soon as we took them out of the box. There may have been some reasons for this, but we are looking into it to 100% make sure this will NOT happen when you get your own products.
As such, we are still in a holding pattern until the factory gets back to me on this. I'm really looking forward to finally pushing the big "Print our Product" button, but it really has to be as good of a product as possible.
I will update you all every week from now on until we go to manufacturing because it should be very soon.
Digital Releases
Next, we have some of the final digital releases for you all!
High-Res Ship Maps
First off, we have ALL of the digital ships maps. The Stretch Goals for these have all been completed (except for the 3 PDF adventures).
It's important to note that some of the ships in the Airship Campaigns book / PDF may have slightly different layouts as their high-res counterparts. The info in the book is just to give a default setting for the ships. We gave the artists creative liberty on some of the maps so they maaay be a little different
Second Note: Instead of a full ship map for the last stretch goal, we decided to do all 5 of the smaller ships. It makes it more useful for you all to have some options =)
STL Bases
We have 10 of the 30 STL bases done. We will be releasing the others in the next week or two!
Next up, we will be releasing 1 or 2 of the PDFs. I sincerely apologize for the delay on these. My personal attention has been diverted from checking the work to release as we have been focusing on Aldarra. That's my fault. They are finished and ready to be released, but we have other items like STLs we need to do which may be released later for those PDF adventures. It's safe to say, these stretch goals were a bit more extra work than we expected - we will get them to you soon!
Thanks again everyone, and sorry for the delays on the manufacturing! I hope you can all understand that we don't want to send a subpar product. We are so close!
Aldarra Kickstarter
As some of you may be aware, we launced Aldarra on the 22nd! Many of you may have taken a look at it and had seen the price point we arrived at. With the sheer amount of plastic and minis we wanted to put in the box, we really thought it was a manageable price, but as our numbers suggestions (along with a ton of feedback), we were wrote. You can read the cancellation update here. We will be relaunching that campaign soon. And, if you are interested in getting notified when we relaunch, with a much more reasonable price point, and smaller miniatures (cheaper shipping too haha), please go here to sign up to our newsletter to get notified =)
