Shipping & Taxes added, Production Update
4 months ago – Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 06:15:16 AM

Greetings Slayers!

Shipping & taxes (VAT and sales tax in some states) have been added to Backerkit and are ready for review. On January 15th (afternoon PST) we plan to lock orders and charge the remaining balance.

We also have a few Product Updates including swapping 2 foils and an Updated Sleeve Guide with final card counts.

Final Review

You can now review shipping fees, and we recommend that you check that your address and credit card are up to date. Although if you know that your info in Backerkit is correct, you don't need to do anything else. You can get a Backerkit link here, or by contacting us at [email protected]. If you haven't used the Pledge Manager yet, please do so! 

Shipping costs are updated below. They've generally gone up a few dollars, and a few more if you're getting the Table Playmat (which ships separately). Increases are mainly due to shipping in 2024 (instead of 2023), and the game getting heavier during development. Prices include a $5 subsidy, and the Table Playmat has an additional $5 subsidy (so Neow's All-In shipping is $10 off). Please keep in mind these prices do not include add-ons. 

Rest of Asia (this changed): Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.

Rest of Europe: Belarus, Bosnia-Hersegowina, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Monaco Norway, Switzerland, Serbia.

We are not shipping to Brazil, Iraq, Iran, Russia, and Ukraine. We also cannot ship to PO Boxes domestically or internationally. Due to the size of each package, there is too great a risk of the package being bounced back to us.

Product Updates

Die - The wooden die in the core box is now 18mm instead of 16mm.

Table Playmat - Is now 1166x787mm (about 100mm wider).

Metal Coins - Is now 30 coins (instead of 28).

2 Foils were swapped - The 2 Foil relics were causing production problems where we couldn't get the card backs to match non-foil relics, making them unusable. So we swapped them with cards that narrowly lost votes: Blasphemy and Defragment. We're sorry that we couldn't make the foil relics work! We hope you enjoy these new additions.

Updated Sleeve Guide

Art Sleeves Guide - The game already comes with all sleeves required to play the game, 450, which leaves 23 extra. The foils and Beta Art are intended to be a cosmetic option to swap out cards you already have. You don't need to get more sleeves for them unless you're using them in addition to the non-foil or non-Beta Art version. You should be ok using the Claw Pack without more sleeves if you're not sleeving any additional add-ons. Recommendations:

-Sleeve Exclusives (55 cards: 36 Foils, 10 Blank, 9 Claw*) - 1 pack Art Sleeves
-Sleeve Beta Art (381 cards) - 4 packs Art Sleeves
-Sleeve Exclusives & Beta Art - 5 packs Art Sleeves 

*Claw Pack comes with 1 instruction card that doesn’t need to be sleeved.

Clear Sleeve Guide - You can sleeve cards like relics, monsters, and events with clear sleeves if you want. Counts for those cards are below. You can sleeve all of them by getting the Sleeves for Everything Else add-on.

• 235 Poker cards (63x88mm) - 250 clear sleeves in Sleeves for Everything Else
• 112 Small cards (44x63mm): - 120 clear sleeves in Sleeves for Everything Else
• 26 Large cards (88x127mm) - 30 clear sleeves in Sleeves for Everything Else

Production is going well! Next update will have some Production pics. Until then, we wish you a Happy Holidays from everyone at Contention Games and Mega Crit! 

See you in the Spire,

Production has begun!! Shipping Timeline
5 months ago – Sat, Nov 18, 2023 at 11:38:16 AM

Greetings Slayers,

Production has officially begun!! We're currently on track to finish production before Chinese New Year, which puts us on the following timeline. 

Timeline

Our current shipping window is late-March through mid-May with most units arriving in April. Delays can still happen, so keep an eye on updates.

• Early December - Shipping rates are added to the pledge manager. 
• Early January - Lock orders and charge cards.
• Late March - Fulfillment begins.

Please make sure your address is up to date! You can edit your address in Backerkit. If you lost your Backerkit link, you can request a new link here: https://slaythespire.backerkit.com/ Contact [email protected] if you need help accessing the pledge manager or updating your order. 

Expect shipping rates in our next update. It's been a long climb to make it this far, but the end is finally in sight! 

Until next time...

See you in the Spire,

Beta Art, Delay, & New Ascension
6 months ago – Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 09:41:09 AM

Greetings Slayers,

We have Beta Art and some other pics to show you! A few items are holding us up from starting production. We're waiting on a more specific timeline from our manufacturer, but as of now the earliest we can deliver is April. This delay gave us a bit more development time which we spent on more Ascension content, balance tweaks, and storage refinement. On to picture time!

(Below) We have a Beta Art sample, and yes it fits sleeved cards!

(Below) We experimented with a few different ways to save your gold. These themed bags came out better than expected! We're planning to add them to Retail & Collector's editions.

(Below) The exclusives will come in this nifty box. A few of them are taking longer than planned to prototype.

(Below) The Heart Keys are still a work in progress, but so far we like what we see! We're working on a special tool to give the sides a 3d shape. 

Delay & Schedule

A few items are holding us up from starting production: mainly trays, foils, merchant playmats, and localization file tweaks. Resolving these issues and waiting for prototypes puts us on track for April at the earliest. Our manufacturer is figuring out where we fit into their schedule and will give us more information soon. Our delivery window should be much clearer by our next update. We'll also have a better idea of when we'll need to charge cards by the next update. 

(Above Red) We noticed that item cards don't stay in place when tilting the box, so we need to make the separating walls higher. (Above Blue) We planned this area for Act decks, but it's not working out. It's too big if you don't sleeve, and the sections on the bottom get in the way instead of helping, whether you sleeve or not. New tray prototypes with fixes are on their way!

This phase of a project can be a bit frustrating, where so much of the game is ready to go but small things can hold us back. We're 95% of the way there, please bear with us while we get these final bits right!

Development

Whenever we get more time to tweak the game, we can't help ourselves. Our experienced playtesters asked for more of a challenge at the highest difficulty levels, especially with 3 or 4 players. So we created a 3rd set of even harder Elites for Ascension 12, and added more Ascension 7 enemies. 

With these changes, whatever your skill level, there should be a difficulty level that's challenging for your group. 

That's all for now!

See you in the Spire,

Prototype Pics! Traditional Chinese!
8 months ago – Sat, Sep 09, 2023 at 10:04:40 AM

Greetings Slayers,

We're now offering Traditional Chinese in the pledge manager! We received the production prototypes and have pics below!

Traditional Chinese

You can now switch your pledge to Traditional Chinese! Everything will be available in Traditional Chinese except for Beta Art. Neow's All-In pledges for Traditional Chinese will come with English Beta Art by default, but you can contact us if you wish to have Beta Art in a different language. 

To change your language: access the Pledge Manager (contact us if you've lost your link), click "Edit Your Order", "Edit Your Pledge Question Responses", then go to the language question and change your choice. If you're having trouble switching, you can email [email protected] or message us here on Kickstarter. 

Production Prototypes

We received production prototypes from our manufacturer! These prototypes use the same equipment as final production, so they allow us to see exactly how things will look.

 (Above) We designed a new HP board with a spot to track 100's (left).

(Below) We added 39 card dividers to make box organization easy.

We're really happy with how the prototypes came out! They're pretty much where we want them except for some tweaks to the trays and colors. We're now waiting on prototypes for the exclusives and working on small items, like packaging for the art sleeves and a Storage Guide.

That's all for now! 

See you in the Spire,

Minis and Trays
9 months ago – Fri, Aug 04, 2023 at 10:35:46 AM

Greetings Slayers,

We have minis and trays to show you! The rest of the prototype is coming in a couple of weeks. But for now, it's picture time!

(Above) We went with an orange lower tray to contrast better with the sleeved cards. The sleeved cards are fitting well! 

(Above) We finally have minis in the color we want! To give you a sense of how hard this was, below are all the colors that didn't work. The pictures don't quite capture the color accurately, but trust us when we say we nailed it :)

(Above) The upper tray is clear and the token tray fits inside it. (Below) Playmats go underneath the boards in the Collector's Edition. 

Production Prototype

We're really excited to see the prototype that's coming soon! It's a production prototype, which means it uses the same equipment that is used in mass production. So if it looks good, we should have no surprises when we hit the final print button. 

Pledge Manager

If you backed on Kickstarter and haven't used the Pledge Manager yet, please do so! We can't ship your pledge unless you use the Pledge Manager on Backerkit. If you didn't get an email invitation to Backerkit, please contact [email protected]. (If you Late Pledged, you can disregard this information).

That's all for now! Until next time...

See you in the Spire,