Space Cats Scratch Back: Project Progress, Updates, and Next Steps
over 7 years ago – Wed, Jan 09, 2019 at 07:48:14 PM

Hey space cat rebels!

Now that the holidays and new year are over, we’re starting to catch up on things. We’ve gotten the chance to connect with a lot of you over email, and it’s been great to hear about how you’re enjoying the game! 

Honestly, it means the world to hear from people who have played the game and enjoyed it. Thank you all so much for the support!

Alright, now so let’s talk shop:

What if I’m in the United States and my game hasn’t shown up? Should it have gotten to me by now? Yeah, definitely! If you’re in the US and your game hasn’t arrived yet, email us: [email protected]

What if something was missing from my order (except for the custom cats)? If you didn’t get something per your backer level or add-ons, email us: [email protected]

Mistakes are bound to happen when you ship out nearly 1,000 games at once, but we’re here to help fix any problems! 

International Shipping and Custom Cats

Now it’s time for us to dive into the remaining pieces of this project!

Next on our agenda is Canadian shipping. We’re going to start sending these out this week. After we finish those, we’ll begin shipping across the ocean to our EU and UK backers. 

Then we’re going to start work on the custom cats! These will take a us a little bit of time to process and finish once we’re able to get rolling on them. We are coordinating with our artist and printer, and the speed will largely depend on their availability. 

Please keep in mind that we’re a small team, so this is a one step at a time process for us. We worked incredibly hard to get the games and expansions out to our US backers before the end of the year despite the setbacks chronicled in the previous updates, and now we’re going to be a little more forgiving with ourselves and our work-life balance as we finish the final parts of the project. Thanks for your understanding and support! As always, feel free to be in touch if you have any questions. 

Coming Up Next

TESA has a bunch of exciting projects planned for the year, including that soon we will be announcing our next game! We’re thrilled to be developing a larger schedule for game production in general, and making a multi-year release plan. 

In addition, a little bit ago, a nice article came out about TESA and the work we do to produce games, both in house as well as for non-profits, movement organizations, and more. If you’re interested in reading more about our work, check out the article here: TESA Collective creates custom board games for social change.

Power to the Cats

For those of you who’ve played so far: What cat abilities are your favorite so far? Are you a Pouncer, a Freedom Fighter, a Medic, a Hacker, or a Smuggler? We’d love to know!

Also, if you play the game about post on social media, tag us (Instagram: @tesacollective, Facebook: @The TESA Collective, Twitter: @toolboxfored) or use the hashtag #spacecatsfightfascism. We'd love to see the game in action.

As always, we're deeply appreciate of your support and enthusiasm. 

Talk soon,

TESA

Boring but important shipping update - please read! (The ballad of Martha)
over 7 years ago – Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 09:28:03 PM

Hey space cat rebels!

At this time, almost every copy of Space Cats Fight Fascism has been shipped. The remaining ones yet to be shipped will go out by tomorrow. 

But we had one last shipping adventure to get through. 

Due to the delays mentioned in the previous update, we had to skip using the fulfillment of our normal warehouse in Michigan if we were going to get these games to you before the end of the year. So instead, we decided to use a local mom and pop fulfillment business, near by our manufacturer. Basically, it's this one woman named Martha.

And Martha is a life saver. 

To give some context: many small board or card games ship in single bubble wrap mailers. That's never been our preference. We feel that, when possible, actual box mailers provide far more stability and protection. So that's why we ordered 1,000 priority mailer boxes from the USPS. Here's the thing, though. The USPS never delivered them. We called and called and called. But they refused to tell us where the boxes might be. Honestly, we started to sweat it.

That's when Martha decided to drive up and down throughout the Bay Area, trying to either find which warehouse the mailers were stuck in, or collect enough of them on her journeys to start the shipments. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to find them, and she wasn't able to find enough boxes to replace them. (They had to be specific USPS priority mailers.)

Finally, she said to us: Look, if we don't act now, the games will not reach people in December. So she came up with a solution. During her drive to search for the boxes, she found several stashes of USPS priority bubble wrap mailers as well as extra bubble wrap. She thought she could make another journey to collect those. She thought there were enough of the mailers and bubble wrap to ship out the games to all of you. We didn't love the idea and advocated we wait longer for the boxes to arrive. Martha thought this was a bad idea and argued against it, saying that she thought USPS would not be delivering the 1,000 boxes - either at all or until later in January. Alas, Martha was right. More days passed and the boxes didn't show up, and USPS refused to tell us where they were. We felt despair.

That's when Martha reminded us that she's been doing mass mailings for 15 years, and she wouldn't propose a solution if she thought it'd fail. She said while the games might not be as protected as they would be in a box, they should be safe, and this was the only way to get them to our backers in December. 

So we said: You know what, Martha? Let's do it. We trust you.

Martha immediately jumped into action, driving around the Bay Area, collecting the mailers and bubble wrap. She finally got enough of them, turned back around, and began the process of packing and mailing out games. All by herself. 

Martha made this possible. Without Martha's persistence, follow up, advocacy, and hard work, your games would be stuck in a warehouse still, waiting for USPS to deliver these boxes, and probably wouldn't be delivered until later in January. 

Oh, and the best part? All of the mailers Martha got are priority mail mailers. So they should be to you very shortly. 

So, some stuff. As always, it's possible that things get damaged or go missing in shipping. The best thing to do, if that happens, is send us an email (and if the game is damaged - include pictures!). Our email is [email protected] - we will immediately send you a replacement. 

• If your game shows up with a damaged box, feel free to pull out the contents and give the game a whirl. Like we said, just send us an email with a picture of the damaged box and we will send you a replacement game immediately, but that doesn't mean you have to wait to play the game. Stuff happens, especially with holiday shipping, but we're committed to doing right by you.
• If your game shows up with any missing parts, let us know and we will get those shipped from our manufacturer to you right away. 
• If your game doesn't show up at all, it's probably been intercepted by the rat pack, but we'll get you a new one shipped. 
• A reminder: Custom cats will be shipped in the new year, as will international backers' orders. 

Because we had to have Martha ship the games, she doesn't have the capacity to email everyone individually a tracking number. That's okay. Martha is still awesome in our book. But if your game doesn't arrive by the 25th, let us know and we'll grab your tracking number. Or, honestly, if you're feeling antsy right now, let us know and we'll grab your tracking number. (Send an email to [email protected] and we'll email you back). Martha sent the tracking numbers to us in a batch, and we can pull them out individually, no problem. 

Pictures of the game!

We finally got our own final copy of the game. We're so happy with how it turned out. Thank you for the support! With your help (and Martha's), this game is now real. We cannot wait until it gets into your hands and hear about how you defeat the Rat Pack!

We'll have more soon! For now, stay rebellious. 

Viva Martha,

The TESA Team

Despite wild fires, Space Cats Fight Fascism ships out next week!
over 7 years ago – Sat, Dec 08, 2018 at 08:09:05 PM

Hey space cat rebels!

Wow, do we have a story for you. 

Actually, we're pretty tired, so we're going to just summarize things - and maybe some day after the dust has settled, we'll write a behind the scenes post that goes into detail. 

Basically, we faced some incredibly unexpected last minute hurdles. The rat pack tried to sabotage us. Some of our materials were destroyed in transit to our fulfillment house during the California wildfires. FedEx inexplicably decided to delay another freight shipment of our materials significantly. Oh, and there's more. But let's not dwell on all that. Honestly, it's exhausting just typing out.

Because, here's the good news that gives us a sudden burst of energy: we worked our tails off to overcome these hurdles, replacing the parts that were lost in the fires and with some awesome collaborations from our manufacturer. And we believe the base games and expansions are shipping next week, via priority mail, to domestic US backers. Our manufacturer also found a fulfillment house in the same city as them, which speeds up the process considerably. They have told us they are all over it, "like bees on honey."

We know that normally, a small delay on a Kickstarter is not a big deal - these things happen. However, committing to deliver a game in time for Christmas is something else. If we'd committed to delivering the game in January, and it got to you in February, we don't think anyone would be too concerned. However, we know it's different with Christmas and the new year. So we've done absolutely everything we can to make this happen. We so appreciate the support all of you have given us, and we absolutely cannot wait to get you this game. 

Now, the dice are cast, and the rest remains up to the fates. And the fulfillment center. 

Again, we believe this means the base games and expansions will arrive to US domestic backers in time for Christmas. But if any more hurdles come up, we'll do everything we can to overcome them. For international backers, we hope you'll understand that with stuff being destroyed by wild fires, we need some time to recoup and figure out how to get our supplies to our international distributor.

Maybe we'll make our next game Space Cats Fight Climate Change!

Custom Play As Your Own Cats

As we detailed in our last update, the custom "play as your own cats" were delayed in order to get the base game and expansions out in time for the holidays. We're going to take a little time after the new year to get in an extended cat nap to get some much needed rest, and then we'll put together a plan to work on the custom cats and get them shipped to you. 

More Game Art Preview

Here's some more preview art from the game! We're so excited with how it turned out, and we can't wait until it's in your paws. Thank you for making this possible. 

 Best,

The TESA Collective

The rebellion lives! Game progress and timeline update.
over 7 years ago – Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 09:09:12 PM

Hello space cat rebels!

We apologize for the lack of an update recently. It's not because we haven't been working on the game - it's because we've been full steam ahead! Here's what's been going down:

Game Progress

Alright, time for some real talk. Over the past couple of months, we hit a number of unexpected hiccups. But we were able to persist through each one. To make a long story short, we lost a couple members of our collective (not out of anything bad - they just decided to pursue new career paths, and we wish them the best), Brian's newborn came down with a scary mystery illness (which was eventually resolved, and he's a fine, smile-y baby now), and much more. We won't bore you with the details. Because what is important is that we were able to come together as a collective to overcome the challenges in order to finish Space Cats Fight Fascism! 

We are so excited to get you this game!

Timeline

So, let's talk timeline. We worked with our manufacturer, Community Printers, tirelessly to figure out how to get this game into your hands before the holidays, despite all the unexpected roadblocks. And right now, it's mostly looking good. 

• Our original plan was to start shipping by December 1. And thanks to the work we were able to do as a collective, as well as some outside help, and the incredible collaboration from Community Printers, it looks we will only be shipping a little later than that. Our current goal is to ship on December 10th. 
• We believe this means that people in the US and Canada should get the game before the holidays. 
• For people in the rest of the world, it's a little harder to say. When we're shipping over the ocean, there's so many potential unexpected issues that can slow things down (farther distances to travel, customs, etc). Still, we're doing our best on that end to get it to people in the rest of the world as soon as possible. 
• The only exception to all of this is that we do have to delay the "play the game as your own cat" rewards to after the new year. We tried to determine how to get those out in time as well, but ultimately it came down to choosing to delay the whole project or just the custom "play the game as your own cats," because they are going to take extra time to print and assemble. So what we've decided to do is split the shipments up. No one's base game and expansion will be delayed because of the custom playable cats. Instead, we will ship those separately to everyone in the new year. This has the unfortunate side effect of increasing the cost of shipping on our end, but ultimately we decided it was worth it in order to get you the game and expansion as soon as possible. We're very sorry the custom playable cats are being delayed, but we hope you understand!
• As we said, things are mostly looking good right now for our plan to ship the base game and expansion by December 10. We are definitely moving at an incredibly rapid speed, and if any issues come up would change this, we will let you know. 

Components from the Game!

Alright, now that we've shared those nitty gritty details, we now want to share some highlights from the game itself! First, let's start with some of the finished card art: 

 Here's a preview of the base game and expansion components, unprinted: 

And if you're getting Secret Meowssions, we're excited to say we were able to include these awesome wooden cat meeples as part of that expansion! 

That's it for right meow! As we get closer to shipping out the game, we'll post more frequent updates. And if anything further were to occur that would delay the delivery of the base game and expansions, we will let you know.

For now, long live the cat rebellion!

-The TESA Collective 

Reminder: Fill out your survey by the end of this week! Plus: vote on our next game!
over 7 years ago – Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 08:05:39 PM

Hello space cat rebels!

Just a reminder, this is the last week to fill out your surveys to receive your rewards for backing this Kickstarter and select additional add-ons. You should have gotten your survey by email, but if you have not, go here to get your survey resent: http://space-cats-fight-fascism.backerkit.com/. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions. 

The deadline is Saturday, but pretend it's Friday just to be safe!

Game Progress

As of now, we are still on schedule! We have finished our playtesting for the base game, and we are just wrapping up our expansion playtesting. In the interest of transparency - which is important to us - we did hit one production hiccup that had the chance to delay the project by a month or so. As of now, however, that hiccup is resolved and we are back on track to getting the game to you in December! We'll let you know if anything further happens that could change that. 

Vote on TESA's next game

While we wrap up work on Space Cats Fight Fascism, we're also starting work on our next game. Right now, we have four game prototypes in the works, and we'd love your feedback on which ones are the most interesting to our community. So cast your vote to help us decide on what our next game will be!

Your Cats' Powers - In Graph Form!

We just thought this was a fun graph to share. A lot of your are getting custom cats for Space Cats Fight Fascism, and you had the choice of what power you wanted to give your cats. Here's a graph of what you've chosen - the spread is pretty even!

 That's it for now. Vive la feline resistance!