Keymaster
CREATOR
9 days ago
Project Update: El Nino, Golden Week, and the American bison
Grüezi, backers!
First, a thank-you
96% of you completed your survey on time. With that many answers in, we could decide how many games to send to each part of the world with a lot more confidence. Thank you guys so much for being on top of it. This is by far our most punctual pledge manager. We can't say the same for our backer updates or containers.
Where things stand
Parks Europe wrapped up production on September 24th. Containers were booked well in advance and scheduled to depart between the 24th and the start of China's Golden Week holiday. None made it out of China on time. Our U.S. shipment is currently on the water, Canada, Europe, and Australia are sitting at the port, ready, waiting for their boats. And VFI should be receiving their truckload soon.
Based on the latest tracking information, here's when we expect containers to arrive at our fulfillment hubs:
- Australia: late October
- U.S.: early November
- Canada, UK, and EU: late November
These are hub arrival dates, not doorstep dates. When a container arrives, it joins the queue behind other fulfillment projects and the holiday rush. We'll update you as each hub confirms its schedule.
What happened
In short, several things. A typhoon hit the factory that makes our wooden pieces and set production back a handful of days. That delay was small, but had a material impact in the end.
Our games leave China through a port called Yantian. This summer, four typhoons hit China's coast in about seven weeks. Every storm shuts the port down, and when it reopens, all the trucks and ships that were waiting show up at once.
To keep from being overwhelmed, Yantian started limiting how many containers it lets in each day. Those limits are still in place, so containers wait their turn before they can even reach the dock.
Ships are running behind, too. A ship that's late at one port is late at every port after it. And this is a record year for Chinese exports, with August shipments up 25% from last year, so more cargo than usual is competing for space.
Then there's Golden Week, a national holiday in China from October 1–7 that comes right after another holiday in late September. Many factories, warehouses, and trucking companies close for it. Anything that didn't make it out before the break has to wait until everyone's back at work.
To put this in perspective, port delays across Asia are now as bad as some of the worst stretches of the pandemic, with roughly one in ten of the world's container ships stuck waiting. This isn't a repeat of 2021, though. The ports themselves are running at full speed, so the backlog is clearing faster than it did back then. Plus we have almost 30% more container capacity globally compared to 2021. So far, the ports where our games are headed haven't seen the same backups, and we're keeping an eye on them too.
What we're doing about it
We can't make the ports move faster, but we can speed up the rest of the trip.
- Putting backers ahead of stores. We're working with distributors in each region to set store release dates so backers get their copies first.
- Paying for faster shipping where we can. In North America, we are routing our containers through the West Coast ports. And instead of using the rail networks we are transloading (i.e., throwing them on the back of semi-trucks) so they can be delivered directly to the fulfillment centers.
- Working closely with our freight forwarder. That's the company that books space on ships for us. We're working with them to track every container, keep the paperwork in order so nothing gets held up at customs, and grab an earlier spot on a ship whenever one opens up.
If you've ever queued for a via ferrata on a sunny Saturday, you know the feeling: the route is open, everyone's clipped onto the same cable, and you move at the pace of the line. Our games are packed and clipped in. We'll keep you posted as each container departs and arrives.
Now for something lighter
Parks Europe made its short-feature debut with "a buffalo ditty" - While we know that the American bison is not going to be the star of Parks Europe, we felt the crossover was warranted. I hope it brings a small laugh and you enjoy a peek at the MPC game quality.
Tennessee game days
Lastly, Matt was up at Tennessee Game Days, his local con, and put his advanced copy of Parks Europe into the gaming library. Lo and behold, that attracted a couple of backers! It was great to meet fellow hikers and hear about their experience with the game. This couple in particular are first-edition owners of Parks, making the jump over second edition and into Parks Europe. In addition to having a great experience with the production of the game and navigating their first game with the snow mechanics, they were pleasantly surprised with the competitive nature of no longer being able to dally on the trail. For those of you who haven't played Second Edition yet, one of the key rules we implemented (which we recommend implementing in Parks First Edition as well) is that now the trail is cleared when there is one color hiker left on the trail. This means that if one player has both of their hikers on the trail, they can no longer just take consecutive turns until one of their hikers jumps off the trail.
Questions?
Email us anytime at [email protected].
Bis bald,
Matt & Mattox
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