Pics, updates on logistics and upcoming steps
over 4 years ago – Wed, May 27, 2020 at 07:10:03 PM

Dear backers,

last mile looks so long (and indeed it is), we hope that this little update will help you understanding where we are and how we are managing the shipping process. 

First: we appreciate your support, many of you wrote us private messages to us and we replied to all, trying to share as much as possible the commitment pushing us to solve every little hurdle along the way.

Now, what's next.

The game is still moving from WinGo Games to WorldTrans Logistics (Hong Kong). Murphy was right - if something may go wrong it actually does - and it took us weeks to solve minor burocratic requirements that we did not expect. Good news: the game was ready weeks ago and all the shipping agents/parties are now apparently aligned and working. Bad news: we hoped we would have been at this stage weeks ago, while it took us longer.

Why did we lose additional 3-4 weeks? 

While opening a copy of the game for an unboxing video we requested to WinGo Games team in China (in order to have some videos we could share), we noticed that the yellow dice had 4 "hit" faces instead of 3. We were asked if we would prefer not to say anything or to wait 2 more weeks and replace all the yellow dice in the boxes. Of course we didn't want to ship a "broken" game, therefore we lost 2 weeks and had all the yellodice replaced.

Here is the video of the wrong yellow dice we received at first..

...and here is the correct version, we had to wait for (!)...

After that, with the cargo ready at WinGo Games warehouse, we had to complete and sign the shipping agreement with World Trans Logistics - which took us another couple of weeks (signed via Adobe Sign on May 21st)

 Finally, we completed the last tranche payment to WinGo Games and we ordered the cargo delivery to HK / World Trans Logistics. Could it be a straight forward task? The answer is no - since the Chinese bank refunded the payment and asked us to redo it with a different client account name - apparently changed since our previous milestone payment. Nevertheless, we are sorting this out and we already ordered WinGo Games to deliver the cargo to HK - and that's where we stand now!

What will happen when the cargo will arrive to World Trans Logistics warehouse? Cargo handling and storage should take 1 day, pick and packing (unit by unit) should take 2 more days (including barcode application to each of the games), then the shipping agents we already selected through Easyship platform should pick each game and deliver it directly to you - with no custom delays associated to pallet deliveries (we wanted to avoid it - even if we will actually spend more then expected).

One thing makes us extremely proud: we managed to make a game that we believe you will enjoy. It took us more then expected. Way more. We had more technical issues, more material issues. Logistic process was a mess, way more complex then what happened with our past campaigns (e.g. WarAge). We had to deal with a very delicate country/international condition (COVID-19 outbreak) and with a very complex China situation (including last week strikes in HK). But we believe that not giving up is the best prove we can share of our commitment. 

We hope we could count on your patience and support for a little more time, we are close to the intercontinental stage of delivery and we are confident we can make this happen soon. Thanks in advance.

Ops, I was almost forgetting: here is the unboxed game video we asked to WinGo Games...enjoy!

 ...and here you can find some pics!

Cargo ready to leave the warehouse
over 4 years ago – Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 02:13:43 AM

Dear Backers,

here we come again, with a positive update in a very negative moment. 

First of all we wish all of you and your families are safe and fine. We had the (unlucky) opportunity to follow the impact of covid-19 outbreak since its very beginning, as we were working with our China-based manufacturing partner WinGo Games - that had to stop its operations for a long while, and as we are all based in Italy, that had more then 10,000 covid-19 related deaths as of yesterday evening. Business wise, as you may know Italy is under lock-down since early March and we don't actually see strong improvements as we speak, nevertheless there is little less that could be done to limit the spread.

That been said, with manufacturing and logistic operations back on track in China, we were notified few days ago by Hedy from WinGo Games that the cargo with 8 pallets of Zero Gravity Games is ready to be carefully packed and leave their warehouse!

What happens now? Shipping the pallets to EU/US and then having each game packed and shipped to each backer would have been our "A plan", but due to logistic complexity associated to the outbreak we had to rework the plan: the cargo will be shipped to Hong Kong (Kwun Tong area), handled there by World Trans Logistics and each game will be directly shipped to each backer. 

We are managing this final step with Easyship platform, which allows you to identify the best shipping option for each delivery, leveraging on UPS, TNT and other international service providers. Everything will be tracked and reported. Date were easily exported from BackerKit, reviewed to consider the address update notification we recevied by email or private message in the last months, and then uploaded to Easyship.

We all hope you will enjoy the game as soon as it will arrive in the upcoming weeks, it was our toughest adventure as game publishers but we never gave up and your trust and patience were of crucial help in the past months.

Best

The District Games team

Pics and videos: components manufacturing completed!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jan 16, 2020 at 11:42:02 PM

Dear backers,

here we come with a colorful update rich of videos and pictures that you hope you will enjoy. WinGo team completed the production of every component, including the long awaited corner modules in their 2.0 version. We are now finalizing the shipping program together with the shipping company that will take care of picking up the pallets from WinGo warehouse, moving it to the regional hubs and shipping the game to each of you!

1. Deep dive into the box and board

First, some pics  of the box and board manufacturing process. No issues here, we optimized the size of the board to fit everything into a regular-size box, in order to help WinGo team and mitigate any "custom production" risk .

2. Inlay and plastic corners

Moving forward, let us share some videos of the transparent inlay that we designed to safely host each miniature and game component...here you go with it!

On top of this, let us spend a brief while on another video we love: the revised plastic corner modules, with a locking system able to perfectly lock the pieces together forming a complete frame! 

3. Magnetic miniatures

And finally, the miniatures! Here you can find a video highlighting the final version of the magnetic mechanism...

...and some pics of the teams, printed with different colors!

Now that the manufacturing process is done, we are running as fast as possible into the shipping phase, committed more then ever to make everything we can (and sometimes we fail in "communicating" - apologize for this!) to ensure that the good work done so far by all the people and providers involved will be brought to you at its finest level. 

Next update, dear backers, should include the name of the final shipping company selected and a shipping timeline! Don't forget to prepare a solid shelf where you can keep the game...this is a 5kgs juggernout at the end of the day! :)

Best

The District Games team

A tale of corner modules...
about 5 years ago – Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 02:28:20 AM

Dear backers,

three weeks have passed since our last update and unfortunately we are still waiting for the production of Zero Gravity game to be completed. We - as District Games - are as anxious as you to have the game shipped around the world, nevertheless we trust the experience and attention of our manufacturing partner WinGo Games in taking care of each single detail. 

All the components - from the box to the magnetic miniatures, the cards, the board and dice and rules - were finalized and approved long time ago, but in September/October the WinGo Games team proposed an optimization to the plastic corner modules that hold the board tight in its 3D shape (as you can probably remember from our previous updates) and our team decided to trust their recommendation and to wait them to rework the mold for such component. The objective of the rework was twofold: making the frame easier to be put together and making the 3D board stronger and stronger.

We are working closely to WinGo Games (Hedy and her team are awesomely competent) and we are having constant follow-ups to provide all the required support in getting the game done. We are confident that your support will be soon rewarded with a unique game worth the months you had to wait for.

That been said, we are grateful for your patience: walking a new path is as exciting as challenging, but we are getting through it together and we are 100% focused on this project!

Next step: we are looking forward to getting back with an update about the finalization of the corner modules mold and the subsequent production (at scale) of such modules - in order to complete and ship out your games. 

We will share updates from Hedy and the whole WinGo Games team as soon as they will be available.

Best

The District Games team

Dice and news!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 12:13:35 PM

Dear backers,

we want to update you on the upcoming steps, since we finally see the light!

We are still waiting for a confirmation from WinGo Games manufacturing team that the game production phase is finished, few days of delay from their side arised due to the opportunity to improve the plastic corners and provide a rock-solid stability to the whole arena.

We have to say that the optimization was totally unsolicited, but we enjoyed it from the very first sight being us engineers...and here below a preview of the improvement in the frames that they made for us!

That being said, we also received this brief video showing us the custom dice you will find in all the games...simple and neat - as we hoped for!

As you may recall, different colors mean a different number of "hit" sides on the die. Since we didn't have the chance to touch these dice with our hands before (the prototype we approved did not include the dice, which were finalized a bit later), we enjoyed this video like kids!! :)

SHIPPING

You should have been received the communication from BackerKit that the pre-order phase was finally closed, we already downloaded the whole set of addresses and details to brief the shipping agents, and few of you also mailed us to inform us about some last minute change in their address.

If you still need to change your address, don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected] - we are still able to change any address in our list!

We can't wait to share with you an update about the games having been shipped, thank you so much for your help and patience so far - we are done with everything and we are in contact every day with Hedy and the rest of the team at WinGo Games to be sure that the games will be out as soon as possible!

Best

The District Games team