Anime 5E Shipping Update and VTT Progress
about 5 years ago
– Fri, Sep 03, 2021 at 02:14:12 PM
Happy September, backers! It’s been a while since we checked in, so we thought a September update was a good idea since we have important news to share.
Production Update
Production is going well with the numerous factories we are using. Printing on a wide range of physical materials (paper for books, cardboard for tower, neoprene for trays, acrylic for dice) means that we need to source production from multiple suppliers. Not everything will be completed at the same time, naturally, but everything is looking great so far. We’d even go so far as to say spectacular from the proofs we’ve seen (see previous updates for a few photos).
Shipping Update
Unfortunately, we don’t have good news on this front. Although we distributed the Anime 5E PDF copies on schedule in May as promised, delivery of the printed products will be delayed. When we created this campaign, we posted under the Risk and Challenges section: “Unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic restrictions may result in some delay, though we hope that worldwide vaccination initiatives help control this unpredictable element.”
It looks like the worst has come through, with the Delta variant playing havoc on worldwide shipping schedules. There’s delays at the origin ports in China due to a lack of shipping containers (there are tens of thousands waiting on ships to unload) and shortage of workers, delays at the US and international docking ports due to a shortage of workers, and delays at customs due to … wait for it … a shortage of workers. Not only has shipping costs gone up roughly 500% compared to freight costs from a year ago, but the capacity limitations at receiving ports means worldwide shipping is in for a bumpy ride.
If you’re interested in reading more, here’s an eye-opening article about the record-breaking backlog of container ships waiting to dock in California (as you can see from the photo above). tl;dr There are currently 44 ships awaiting entry (over one week on average) into California ports, when there are normally only zero or one waiting. https://www.businessinsider.com/shipping-delays-china-supply-chain-record-ships-stuck-california-ports-2021-8
So what does this mean for physical shipping of your Anime 5E rewards? We have been told by our factories, freight broker, and publishing industry peers that we most likely will have shipping delayed until January or February 2022 if the worldwide goods movement situation doesn’t improve dramatically. Looking at the rising COVID-19 cases and subsequent labour disruptions this causes, the prospect of such an improvement is slight.
We hate to be bearing such bad news – especially since these problems are out of our hands and there is nothing we can feasibly do to accelerate the timeline. We are anxious to deliver your physical Anime 5E rewards, and will do so as soon as possible. Until you receive them, we hope you will enjoy the PDF rewards and digital stretch goals.
Virtual Tabletop (VTT) Update
We are still in the research phase of our VTT development for Roll20 to ensure we will be fully informed once we work to find a developer (since we can’t do this ourselves). It’s going slower than we would like, but we remain committed to porting Anime 5E to virtual platforms. That said, an exciting new opportunity presented itself recently and we are happy to release the news.
The wonderful owners at Fantasy Grounds reached out to us recently to express interest in bringing Anime 5E to their VTT platform. They took the time to explain how Anime 5E would work on their platform and how its substantial user base will benefit from an integrated Fifth Edition module. We were impressed by Fantasy Ground’s initiative, and have signed on with them as the first Anime 5E supported VTT.
We expected to work with Roll20 initially and other VTTs afterwards, but this was too convenient an opportunity to pass by. Fantasy Grounds will be searching in their development community for a programmer to create the Anime 5E module and then work will begin. If everything proceeds well, Anime 5E may be supported on Fantasy Grounds before the end of the year, or early in 2022.
We are still eager to proceed with Anime 5E support on Roll20 and other VTTs that are welcoming to the game, though a timeline is not currently set. We will provide additional information when we have it. In other words, if we haven’t posted an update about it, there is no updated information available.
That’s all for now. Thank you again for your continued support. Stay safe!
PS.
- Complete your BackerKit survey ASAP if you haven’t already
- If your credit card it rejected, contact [email protected] to pay via PayPal
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