May 4th Update: Suppliers and Timetables

Good news, everyone!  We have made a lot of progress toward getting these mats to you.

The Supplier Situation

We have narrowed the field from literally hundreds of suppliers to down to three.  These few suppliers are letting us review samples right now.  Since they are both competing against each other, you can see how we might not want to show any pictures until we pick the one definite supplier we want.  It won't be long until we do pick, though. (Likely in the next two weeks.) Then we should be able to show samples and give more details.

We have also decided to work with domestic companies. That is, American companies. All our earlier delays were due to us personally trying to work with people overseas, and I think everyone can agree that those delays were not okay. 

These companies are sourcing a lot of their materials from overseas, though, and so we have a bit of a delay in getting our samples. For instance, the reason this update was delayed from being made on the 1st was because one of the samples arrived yesterday (the 3rd). 

Which brings us to the issue most people care about the most, the projected timetable!

The Projected Timetable

Please keep in mind that right now these are estimates, but they are realistic estimates.

Right now we are getting the samples perfected from each supplier.  Each round of samples takes about 2 weeks. As we narrow the field to one candidate, that number can get a bit more accurate, but right now, that's about the case. We anticipate going through two more rounds of samples before they get it just right. But we do anticipate getting it done just right, which is very exciting! 

Then, it would be about 30 days for an initial production run. This seems like the fastest road to getting everyone's orders fulfilled.  

After production, shipping from the factory to us (GameNightLife) would take about 30 days. 

Based on all that, it is possible that we could start shipping out by the end of August.  

This is pretty great for time, considering that we were just introduced to these suppliers less than a month ago. They see the potential for this product, and the other items we plan on making, so they are eager to form a good relationship right from the start.

Quality Check

Someone asked about what quality control steps we would be taking this time. 

First off, we are only working with American companies. That helps quite a bit. That means a more clear and enforceable contract, faster communication, and easier resolution of any problems. They see the potential for this product (and the others we have talked about), and so they are interested in making sure it is done correctly for a long-term relationship. Also, they have a lot more resources in place to take care of the problems that arise in their factories. 

For instance, they routinely train the people working on their assembly lines to be able to spot errors in products that are being made, and have comparisons on the spot to check every piece. 

Also, there will be frequent audits by a 3rd party inspection company during production, and a big inspection just before shipping. This inspection company is known for being rigidly difficult to please, and the factories know it.  This means that what we get will adhere to the specs we give. (We do plan on having video of that when we are in production, by the way!)

Furthermore, the factories we're going to be dealing with do stuff for much larger companies than ours (like Mattel). Those companies have such ridiculously tight parameters on their products that these factories are able to do extreme precision with their printing and engineering. (So, correct color and cuts won't be an issue for these factories!) 

Marker Erasing

Lastly, someone asked about the way erasing worked after not just days or weeks, but after *months* of being left on. Our original samples, that you saw in the Kickstarter videos, do manage to wipe off cleanly after months of being left on.  (For whatever reason, the color purple needed a little water to come off all the way, but it still erased cleanly.) The longest one we had was 6 months, and it wiped off cleanly.

That is amazing to us.

We're working to make sure that the same materials get used in these mats. (We don't just want to sell them, we want to use them, too!)

What is Next?

As always, progress will be tracked here on the blog.

We will put out official Kickstarter updates for major news, which hopefully will be coming much faster now that we are at this point in our relationship with the suppliers.

Because many people have asked, we figure it bears repeating here: If you want to change your address, or update what tiles you picked, just do it at the website where you took the replacement survey: gamenightlife.com  If you have any trouble, just ask; we will help. But it should be pretty automatic.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop us a line!  We will get back to you as soon as we are able.  

We'll try to answer any questions about this update in the comments.

We are finally getting there! We can't thank you enough, but we can certainly say it often, because we mean it: Thanks for backing us!

More good news!

Here's the video for those who hate text:
 https://youtu.be/zxLCAC2vg6E

Here's the text for those who hate video:

So, with the assistance of Aptus, we have engaged with literally hundreds of factories.  After lots of vetting and help from Aptus, we have narrowed it down to five factories that we are confident that could pull it off---it's now a matter of who could pull it off the *best*.

So this month, Jerry will be visiting facilities in person. At the end of that, and we should be able to pick a factory, and get started with production ASAP.  This means an estimated shipping date will be coming fairly soon!

As soon as we have the estimated shipping date, we will put out a Kickstarter update, to let everyone know where we stand. (And we should be able to show some production-level samples then, too.)

So, thanks for your patience, and thanks for backing us. 

Good news!

https://youtu.be/_689GqA2n6s

We're now working with Aptus to investigate hundreds of factories.

This means we will spend less time looking for a factory, and more time working with a factory.  Which means that we will deliver all the sooner!

We will, of course, let everyone know via Kickstarter update (and on here) the moment we have made a selection on which factory.  And we still intend to show production with lots of video updates as we move forward.

But right now, we are glad to be working with engineers who have connections of this caliber, and we are excited about how quickly things should be moving in the near future.

Stay tuned; we will give regular updates!

Update: Everything is going about as well as can be expected!

For the interested, here's the video:
https://youtu.be/6WdiY9Ubllk

For those who just want the quickest summary possible:

1. Jerry is doing fine even after selling his house. He's not going to starve; don't worry about him.
2. We are searching for a new manufacturer. That takes time, but we are confident that one of the people we've been talking to can pull this off.
3. We are still waiting for the escrow company and the third party inspection folks. That takes time too, but it seems to be progressing.
4. We are now protected in over 100 countries! That's pretty cool. This helps protect you guys against lousy knock-offs that are cheaply made, too, incidentally.

And that's it for now!  Remember to email us if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks for supporting us!

Everything's coming along nicely!

So, we haven't posted in a month.

Not a long time by regular kickstarter standards, but a bit of a long time for us.

Every couple of days we get ready to post something, but then the patent lawyers say "Wait no don't post that," and we wait for more paperwork to be done.

This makes for very boring blog entries, like this one.

Production continues without any hitches.  It's pretty cool to see the machines in action, and *hopefully* we will have the "How it's made"-esque video ready to show before shipping.  (Which, as a reminder, is likely to be in February.)

Otherwise, there's a lot of weird boring clerical stuff, like import taxes.  (We're still trying to figure it all out ourselves.)

But we are still here, still working hard, and still eager to ship as soon as they get in our hands!

If you have questions, feel free to ask!  We just haven't had a lot to report the last couple of weeks besides "Everything's fine," and it seemed odd to us to just repeat that with such frequency.  But we figure a small reminder couldn't hurt, especially since it's on this blog.  (Which is for people who are more closely following our production progress.)

So, as always, thanks for reading, and thanks for backing us!

Production has resumed!

We solved the supply chain problem!

We got the right magnets!

We're back on track for production!

We even have an estimated shipping date (at last!).  We think it will be in February.  We know it's a lot later than we originally expected, but we thought it was more important to get it *right* than to get it *fast*.

This video shows just how good those magnets are, especially with that powerful double-metal upgrade you guys unlocked in the Kickstarter:

https://youtu.be/Y1KN2V4lC9s

Remember to send us your questions!

We will have other things to talk about in the weekly updates, but it'll be more interesting if you guys ask us your questions.

And thanks for all your patience in this.  It is definitely coming together, and we are excited for the future.

And thanks for supporting us!

Weekly Update: 15-10-06

Although we are still waiting on the magnets to arrive at the factory, we did get a still image camera, and you can see some pictures of the gray, green, and blue below.

These aren't the finished product, but they are pretty close.  In person, the blue tiles' lines are as visible as they are on the green tiles.  We really aren't sure why the camera doesn't pick them up.  We may wind up lightening them anyway.

Here's a video for those of you who hate reading!