District Games Shop

Shipping completed!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Dec 26, 2020 at 12:00:25 AM

Dear Backers,

We are happy to announce that we managed to finalise the shipping of all games. If you haven't received it yet, rest assured: it's on the way!

As thoroughly explained in the previous update, District Games will cease to exist soon. We hope you appreciated our efforts in delivering the game as promised, despite all difficulties. It was truly a tough year, and we hope that 2021 will bring joy and serenity to us all.

Thank you for your support and enjoy the game! 

If you have any direct question we are happy to be contacted at [email protected].

God bless & Merry Christmas,

The District Games team

Games' shipping status
about 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 10:26:31 AM

Dear Backers,

here is an update on Zero Gravity.

Games were shipped and delivered to 244 backers via direct shipping from Hong Kong (mainly to US, Canada, Japan, China, Australia), while 140 backers are being delivered their game via sea shipping from Hong Kong to Italy, followed by direct shipping from Italy (mainly to EU and rest of the world).

COVID impact on logistics resulted into an average USD 10-11/kg shipping cost from Hong Kong to most of the countries, with peaks of USD 15-20/kg for some of them. Zero Gravity weight (5.02kg) resulted in an actual shipping cost of USD 50-55 per game for direct shipping to US and most of the other countries.

This shipping cost is around USD 30 higher than what we expected during our campaign (and what was before COVID outbreak), with a devastating impact – as you can imagine – on our projections. And this happened after we completed and fully paid the development and manufacturing of the game.

We had no doubts on covering all the extra-costs. In the fairest and most responsible way we could concieve, we sticked to what we committed for: turning the “3D magnetic miniatures game concept” real and delivering our best result to all of you - our backers. Your support along the campaign and the post-campaign period was helpful and we all made our best, in full alignment with Kickstarter mission. Difficulties were part of the adventure and we feel we all learnt a lot from it.

The fact that out of more than 100 total components, some of them (spawning points and flags, namely) were all green instead of team-colored was disappointing for us. Handling a reprint is not economically feasible, therefore as miniatures painters we will paint our own copies with the right colors as soon as we will receive them and hope you could do the same. Also, the fact that shipping companies did not allow us to include lights (due to the presence of batteries) into the boxes was a pity. We are still working on this, but it’s not something we believe we can easily address.

We were incredibly happy, though, seeing how the magnets were nicely embedded into the miniatures and how the iron layer inserted into the carton-board layers of the 3D board worked well. And we were incredibly proud of the plastic frame allowing the board to stand. It took us ages to optimize its design (3d printing series and series of prototypes to get to a final one), but it really enabled the whole concept to come true. And the minis themselves: we starred at them like kids, when we first saw them – real. This is meant to say, that we professionally and personally did (and still do) all we could to deliver the best Zero Gravity possible. And that 5kg box is a testament to our effort.

All the 244 games directly shipped from Hong Kong were already delivered in the past 8 weeks. The 140 games being shipped via sea shipping are still on their way. They left Hong Kong on September 16th (see here below the very exact moment in which we were informed they were picked up in Hong Kong) and are expected to get to Italy by the end of October, then in few days should be processed and delivered across EU and rest of the world.

All in all, 100% of the orders were now processed and shipped – finally. It took us way longer than planned and we appreciated the feedback received along this incredible journey.

As we track and oversee the shipping process completion, we are also facing the unavoidable economic issues that District Games is facing, due to a heavily over-costed campaign, mostly due to COVID impact on logistics and total lack of opportunities to sell/showcase Zero Gravity through live events and fairs, that made it impossible to further sell copies of the game and cover the over-cost we personally covered. We firmly executed all we committed to do, even if this was a painful and costly decision. And COVID did the rest. Therefore, District Games – after 8 years of games, ideas, projects and adventures, is no longer seeing any future. But still, Zero Gravity has been shipped to all of you and we are sure that knowing what it took to do it you will better put into perspective the situation.

We know that this final excursus is not related to the campaign, but we feel that as backers you deserve to know what this last effort meant for us. We hope you can appreciate the concept we turned into reality, even considering delays and minor issues.

We will update you as soon as the last games will arrive to Italy and will be then picked up by the shipping agents to finally reach EU backers through direct shipping.

If you have any direct question we are happy to be contacted at [email protected].

Thanks

The District Games team

Shipping update - 24% of the games delivered so far
about 4 years ago – Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 04:22:56 PM

Dear backers,

here we go with an update on where we stand with the shipping process of Zero Gravity.

Before we move forward, we apologize for the long waiting time, we are actively working on the shipping operations (as we will discuss here below) and we are keen to deliver 100% of the games as soon as possible. 

We already delivered 93 games (24% of total orders), with 294 still to be shipped. Most of the games were shipped to US, so far.

The reason why it's taking longer then expected is that we are coping with higher and higher shipping costs, due to COVID impact on logistics. What used to be shipped for €5/kg until one year ago, it's now costing more then €10/kg. With a 5.02kg game (as Zero Gravity), this gets to around €50-55 shipping cost per game. 

Here you can find an example of current pricing for shipping from HK to Italy:

This is way higher (>2x) then the cost we charged our backers for, and we are bearing this unexpected (and painful) cost in order to silently and diligently protect our backers and deliver the result we committed to in the most reputable way. In a nutshell, we are paying the overcost out of our own pocket, in a condition in which small publishing houses as District Games can not absorbe such unexpected change in global conditions. We believe this is the fairest way to honor District Games commitment. 

Due to this contingent situation, we are carefully assessing every saving opportunity as we move forward, sending few games per day while craving for optimization opportunities and negotiating with logistics counterparts. We will thoroughly ship all the games, up to the last one - no doubts on this.  

We started shipping games to US backers because we saw little optimization opportunities there, while we have been postponing EU shipping because we are based in Italy and we can possibly contain the cost with alternative solutions that we are working on.

We know it's taking forever for many of you and we appreciate your support and patience. We aimed at bringing to life a unique and ambitious project and we will take this to the end - proudly delivering our best result of such an incredible journey. 

Best

The District Games team

DHL, UPS and TNT are going to take care of the trip!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 09, 2020 at 10:44:07 AM

Dear backers,

a quick note to tell you that shipping from Hong Kong should be just starting in the upcoming days, with most of the US/EU orders being processed through DHL or UPS, few with TNT (e.g. Australia).

Addresses from 7 backers (out of 387) did not look complete, we are contacting them one by one to be sure that Easyship will have the right information.

FYI games have been packed into a 42x42x5cm box to ensure sufficient protection along the way.

We will update you as the process moves forward!

Best

The District Games team  

Games in Hong Kong!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 11:23:38 PM

Dear backers,

a quick update to touch base on the progress made in the last 2 weeks, during which we solved all the open points related to shipping process, day after day:

1. We were able to correct the payment issues (due to an incorrect information provided to the bank) that previously delayed the cargo shipping from WinGo Games to WorldTrans Logistics in HK. Confirmation of succesful money transfer arrived on June 10th from Hedy (our WinGo reference person)!

2. WinGo got the shipping address from WorldTrans Logistics and set up the cargo delivery to Hong Kong

3. The cargo, palletized, left WinGo Games safe and sound

4. We received on June 16th (two days ago) the confirmation from WorldTrans Logistics received the pallets!

5. We were allowed today to interact with Jose, the customer manager that will help us to setup the games pack and picking with direct delivery to each backer (full integration between BackerKit database and Easyship)

Over the next 2-3 days we will upload and confirm all the shipping addresses and order the direct shipping. 

We will be back with an update once this will be completed too!

Best

The District Games team