Gifts Galore

Backerkit Surveys, Local Pickup Information, and More
3 months ago – Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 01:40:56 PM

First up, the results are in: Boxes it is! 

Every game will come with a box included 🥳

Aside from that, this is a longer update, so here's what's inside:

• BackerKit surveys coming soon
• People who logged in with Apple ID need to send us a direct email address
• Local pickup information
• Cookie cutter update

Ready? Here we go:

BackerKit Surveys

You will soon be receiving an email with a personal link to finalize your pledge via BackerKit. This survey is essentially a shopping cart which will allow you to: 

• select your holiday(s) for your game(s) 
• add any extras you'd like on top of rewards included in your pledge level
• provide your shipping address
• and pay any relevant add-on costs and shipping fees.

A handful of people have been selected by BackerKit for what they call a "smoke test"—an opportunity for a few backers to test out the survey and make sure everything is working smoothly. So please check your emails, and if you were selected, enjoy the early access!

If you did not receive the early survey, don't worry! The surveys are exactly the same, and we will not run out of anything, since the manufacturing order will be placed only after all survey responses are collected. You can expect to receive your survey tomorrow.

Note that you will receive the survey in the email associated with your Kickstarter login (the same place you should be seeing this update).

For those who used Apple ID to sign in to Kickstarter:

We need a direct email address to send you the BackerKit survey, which is necessary to fulfill your rewards. Please email us or message us through Kickstarter with the email you would like us to use.

Local Pickup

Local pickup will be available in San Jose, CA and in Kalamazoo, MI.

• For friends and family in nearby cities (e.g., San Francisco or Grand Rapids), please select Local Pickup. We will be in touch to arrange getting the game to you!
  
  If you believe you will be unable to cross paths with one of us in early December, you are also welcome to choose for your rewards to be shipped (with the associated fee). In that case, please provide your full shipping address when prompted.

To select the local pickup option: 

On the very first screen when you are asked to select your country, toward the top of the dropdown list is the option "Local Pickup." It will look like this: 

You must select this option to avoid being charged shipping fees.

Then, on the screen where you are asked to provide your shipping address, you are welcome to put "N/A" for everything except the state. Please fill out the state to help us ensure we have the right number of games in each location!

• Note: if you miss the Local Pickup option on the first page, you can also select it on the shipping page.

Cookie Cutter Update

If there's a theme to this campaign, it's learning while always trying to do better for you.

With absolutely everything you get from us, we want to ensure that it's high quality and reliable. So of course, we tested out a sample of the cookie cutters!

Unfortunately, the original design of the cutters—a single piece, that both cuts out the cookie and imprints the design—turned out to be quite difficult to use. We tested multiple recipes, and multiple methods. The thing that worked best to get the cookie dough out of the cutter was oiling the cutter first, which isn't a great option. 

The good news:

Together with the manufacturer, we've made an update to make these much more user-friendly!

The cookie cutters will now come as two pieces (per design): 

• An outline, to cut out the cookie shape
• A stamp, to imprint the adorable penguin

Note that the stamp piece comes with a convenient handle, visible below.

We recommend cutting out the cookie, leaving the outline cutter in place, and stamping the cookie (with the cutter as a guide) before removing the cutter. Lightly flouring the stamp created a crisper imprint. And don't forget to flour your surface before rolling out the dough, that also helps! This is the result:

This style of cutter is easier to use but equally adorable! 

The other thing to note: the price to you will not change.

Questions or problems? Please contact us!

A quick survey response from everyone will let us place the order with the manufacturer as soon as possible, which means getting the games to you sooner! So please take a few minutes to fill out the survey when you receive it.

If you encounter any problems with it, please let us know via email or in the messages here on Kickstarter, and we will help you out.

Of course, if you have other questions, we're here to help with those too.

Once again, thank you for all your support!

Please VOTE! Major change possible:
3 months ago – Fri, Aug 16, 2024 at 10:18:25 AM

When we started looking at component costs, we were considering the game as we envisioned it, and that meant punch-out circular tiles with numbers, to be used for randomly selecting Mystery Gifts during game play.

As we look to the future post-campaign, we're considering many options, including a possible travel-sized version, which would look quite different. This led to a big discovery, which boils down to:

🎉 If we do a micro deck of cards to draw numbers instead of circular number tiles, we can include boxes for every game. 🎉

It's shocking that the price difference is that significant, and we would still be subsidizing costs a bit. But that means you have a decision to make! 

Here's a preview of the tiles:

And here's a preview of the cards:

For reference, the tiles are 1" in diameter (about the size of a quarter), and the cards are 1.25" x 1.75" (so a little bigger).

Aside from the box being included, another perk of the card deck is it's a little easier to wrangle without a special bag (or container) involved.

The choice must come down to the majority's preference (we can't do both), so please make sure your voice is heard!

Which do you want more?

How to vote:

We're keeping this as simple as possible, so please comment with one of these two options:

• Box
• Tiles

"Box" means you'd prefer to get a game box, with a card deck for drawing numbers instead of number tiles.

"Tiles" means you'd prefer to get the number tiles and stick with the festive bag (unless you choose the box as an add-on).

Additional thoughts absolutely welcome, but one-word comments are all we need to count your vote! 

Please respond by end of day August 22nd!

--

A quick note for the couple people who already added a box as an add-on: if we do boxes for all, you would get an equal credit in the pledge manager, and if that doesn't get used up for shipping or other add-ons, then we will refund the difference for you.

We did it!!! And what's next:
4 months ago – Thu, Aug 01, 2024 at 01:03:22 PM

🎉 Thank you so much for helping us make Gifts Galore a reality! 🎉

Thanks to your generous support, our campaign raised $3,147 and surpassed our first stretch goal! This means you should be receiving your rewards by this December.

For everyone who pledged for 1 or more game(s), if you haven't already confirmed with us, please let us know how to credit you on our website. 

Two Late Pledge tiers are available

Late Pledges allow folks who missed the campaign to contribute and receive rewards. We've decided to make two tiers available:

• Gifts Galore: Fashionably Late — One standard copy of the game (your choice of holiday!) for $49, and the opportunity to add more games, for $49 each.
• Holiday Hero — All the benefits of the original Holiday Hero tier, including the Early Bird benefits, for $120.

So if you have friends who are interested in the game, please let them know there's still time to get a copy this year! 

Please note: 

If you pledged during the campaign and want to add extra copies of the game, you will be able to do so at the original $45 price in the pledge manager! So don't change anything right now, but do keep reading.

Late Pledges will contribute to Stretch Goals!

All Late Pledges made by end of day (Pacific Time) on August 17th will contribute to our Stretch Goals. So if we reach $4,500, everyone's pledges will be upgraded as follows: 

• Note: the Deluxe tier will not be opening.

And if Late Pledges bring us to $6,000, every game will include a box! As promised, those who added on the box would receive free US shipping instead.

The Pledge Manager:

Mid-August, we will be sending out a survey which will allow you to:

• Confirm which holiday(s) you want for your game(s)
• Select extra add-ons like the Little Ones / Малыши expansion decks, additional games, and more
• Provide your shipping information
• Pay any shipping charges or confirm local pickup

We will send out full instructions closer to then, but keep an eye out after August 17th. The sooner everyone completes the survey, the sooner we'll be able to place the order with the manufacturer and get production started!

Thank you again for helping us turn our idea into reality! We’re thrilled you’ll be playing our game this holiday season! 🥳

Just hours left! And announcing our New Year's surprise:
4 months ago – Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 09:03:43 PM

We're about 40 hours away from the end of our campaign, and just $86 from our next stretch goal!

These final hours can make a big difference, and we'd love to be able to offer you as many extra goodies as possible! So if you know someone who may be interested, please consider sharing the Kickstarter link and letting them know why you backed. 

And don't forget to share this adorable—and very grateful!—penguin on your social media:

Now is also the time to double-check that you are in the pledge tier you want. While you'll be able to add on extra standard copies of the game, expansion decks for playing with kids, and boxes in the pledge manager, you will not be able to select a different tier at the current price after the campaign ends.

• 2 Late Pledge tiers will be available (details soon), but they will be at a higher price. 

So make extra sure you're signed up for the rewards you want!

Thank you so much for your support in getting us over our initial funding goal so that Gifts Galore can be brought to life. Let's finish strong!

--

A quick note to our backers who don't speak Russian: 

The rest of this post will be in Russian, as is our New Year's game. It is about the New Year's special, and it's quite similar to this post with the Christmas reveal. 

You are of course also very welcome to add this New Year's item to your pledge as well!

--

Как мы и обещали, добавились новый Add-on и новый Pledge Tier. Оба позволяют получить наш Новогодний сюрприз:

🎉 Очаровательная формочка для вырезания печенья 🎉

Формочка вырезает печенье вместе с отпечатком пингвинчика в картинке (смотрите выше).  

• Формочка создана из FDA-certified food-safe filament, и ее можно мыть только в ручную.

Надеемся она вам понравиться столько же, сколько и нам!

Не забудьте добавить формочку к вашему pledge tier до 1pm PT первого августа (4pm ET).

--

Инструкции для тех, кто не знает:

Для того, чтобы добавить формочку, нажмите на "Manage your pledge":

Потом нажмите на "Change your pledge":

У вас будет возможность подтвердить ваш Pledge Tier, а на следующей странице, вы сможете добавить формочку (или несколько 🥳).

• ВАЖНО: для тех, кто выбирал Early Bird tiers, если вы поменяете ваш tier, вы не сможете вернуться в tier с Early Bird benefits. Так что будьте внимательны! 
  
  Зато у вас будет возможность проверить все ваши изменения до того, как они будут завершены.

Если у вас будут вопросы, свяжитесь с нами, и мы постараемся помочь!

Important! Boxes, Stretch Goals, and more:
4 months ago – Fri, Jul 26, 2024 at 08:40:13 AM

Just under one week to go! We're so close to that bonus stretch goal and excited to see what happens. Thank you so much for getting us to this point 💕

Quick summary of today's update:

• $6,000 Stretch Goal revealed
• Announcing a brand new add-on to include a guaranteed box with your game (subsidized cost: $10)
• Games without boxes come with a festive bag and simple storage solutions included (pictured below).

Read on for all the details:

We are learning so much through this campaign, from Kickstarter's functionality to how flexible we need to be with Stretch Goals, and more. We are constantly evaluating our numbers and seeing how we can improve your experience of our game. 

We came into this campaign focusing on the components necessary for play, like the game board and card decks. We were trying to keep costs as low as possible for a small print run.

What we underestimated is just how important boxes are to some backers. While we did think through practical storage (see below), we didn't consider that you may want to show off our game as part of your collection! The good news is that the boxes are already designed.

Unfortunately, we can't include boxes for everyone just yet. However:

🥳 They will be included with each game if we reach our $6,000 Stretch Goal! 🥳

If we wanted to include boxes sooner, they would cost an additional $12.35 (plus extra shipping fees & taxes) per game. So we'd be paying about $15 per game out of pocket, which we simply can't afford.

Still, for those who really want a box, we want to make that happen for you! And thanks to the generosity of our backers (shout out to a couple extra generous ones in particular—you know who you are), we are able to subsidize the cost a bit:

🎉 We will be offering the box as an add-on for $10 🎉

Curious about the design? Well the front is as pictured in our header, and the backs for each holiday are as follows:

There's still time to make tweaks, so let us know what you think of the designs!

This add-on is completely optional and in no way impacts your pledge if you don't want to pay extra for a box. All games without boxes will come with a festive bag like this: 

Please note: All card decks will include tuck boxes (like these, but direct from our manufacturer) to make storage simple. 

Also, number tiles will come as a single board, for you to punch out, but we've already played with our copy 😉

📣 For those who do want to add a box right now:

• Simply edit your pledge to include this add-on before the campaign ends next week.
• If we reach that $6,000 Stretch Goal, you will get free US shipping instead for each game to which you added a box.
• Please keep in mind, there is a possibility that future (larger) print runs will include a box for less than that $55 total price you would currently be paying for a game with the box. However, you would get your box this year!

We're doing it for you, so we'd of course love to know what you think of these changes! 

And please reach out with any questions or concerns.