Hike! ❄️ Kickstarter is 99 % fulfilled
4 months ago – Fri, Dec 02, 2022 at 04:24:28 PM

Hello everybody,

we are happy to tell you that the statistics in our post-campaign pledge manager show we are 99 % fulfilled. In practice, this means all of the pledges with complete surveys and successfully charged credit cards have been shipped, which is over 3000 packages. According to the tracking info, there are less than 100 still on the way, the majority of those traveling overseas. We estimate that they should all reach their destination in a week or two.

At the moment, there are still around 100 backers who haven't completed the surveys and around 20 backers whose credit card payments haven't gone through. If you are one of them, we kindly ask you to complete the survey and contact your bank to resolve the payment so we can send you your pledge. We will be sending them out on a weekly basis. If you need any help, please contact us at info@snowboardgames.si.

We are currently shipping out late pledges/preorders, and the Kickstarter pledges with the late survey responses. We will keep the preorders with the preorder discount open for a little while longer, so if you know anyone who would like to buy Hike! they still have the chance to preorder it here.

📣 Hike! on BoardGameGeek and social media

Hike! has a dedicated page on BoardGameGeek, and we kindly invite you to contribute photos and rate the game here.

We are also very happy to see all of your posts about Hike! on social media, and we would like to thank you all for posting! We apologise if we don't respond to all of the posts and stories. We are still pretty busy with shipping and shipping-related customer support, but we want to tell you that we're seeing them and let you know that we are very grateful for helping us spread the word about Hike! So thank you again, and feel free to tag us in any future posts! 

🏳️ Rulebook translations

The rulebook pdfs are available here. At the moment, they are available in English, French, Italian and Dutch, the German version is coming next (hopefully by the end of the week), and we will keep adding more translations as they are ready.

The resources for customizing the empty husky cards are also available on the above link in case you want to add your furry friend to the Hike! pack.

📦 Some shipping statistics

In the past weeks, we have shipped more than 3000 packages to 56 countries across all continents except Antarctica. The majority was shipped with the standard post, and around 5 % were shipped with express shipping. Around 2 % of the backers chose local pickup, either in Essen or in Hrastnik.

We shipped all of the games ourselves. This means packing them, importing them into our order management system, creating shipping labels, signing them and sticking them on the packages. We had a pretty awesome system by the end, and we know for a fact that all of the packages have gone through the hands of at least one of the game designers, namely Nika or Blaž. That's probably not a very important statistic, but we thought it was a cool one. 😊

In the shipping process, we emptied around 7 pallets with Hike! base games, more than 1 pallet of expansions and 1.5 pallets of cardboard packaging material and we roughly estimate that the combined weight of this is between 2.5 and 3 tonnes. Which makes for a good workout. 😄 We are very proud that we shipped most of Europe in cardboard packaging without plastic, and that we have reused a lot of original packaging that came from the factory.

🧭 What comes next for SnowBoardGames

We still have some Kickstarter loose ends that we have to take care of, including shipping out the pledges with the late survey responses, rulebook translations, shipping-related customer support (if you need it, please contact us at info@snowboardgames.si), shipping preorders, etc., so this will be our focus for the next few weeks. 

Then, we hope to set up an online store on our web page, so Hike! can be available post-Kickstarter too. And we hope we see Hike! on the shelves of some of the game stores around the world. We've had 8 retailers supporting this campaign, and we would like to express our sincere thank you for believing in us.

And we also have a few ideas for new board games. One of them is already partly developed, and we plan to continue with the development in the following months. 

And you know what? None of this would have happened without this campaign and without all of you amazing backers who believed in us and who made it possible for us to start this SnowBoardGames journey. So thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! ❤️

We wish you a great rest of the week

Your SnowBoardGames team 

Hike! ❄️ 2850 pledges shipped and rulebook translations
5 months ago – Sat, Oct 29, 2022 at 04:53:23 AM

Hello everybody,

we have some important news for you. 😀

🎉 The majority of the shipping is completed

We were on a shipping marathon these past weeks, and we are proud to say that 2850 pledges have been shipped. Our internal goal was actually 2881, the number of pledges that had the surveys completed and the credit cards successfully charged by 28th September when we created shipping groups. So we missed our internal goal by just a little - we're so sorry if your pledge is one of those and we'll send it in the 2nd half of next week (we have national holidays in the 1st part, so delivery services aren't working).

📨 Still to ship

Next, we have a little over 260 pledges where the surveys were completed later or there were some issues with the credit card payments (for shipping or things added in the post-campaign pledge manager). Some issues were successfully resolved (thank you for your quick response!) and the pledges are prepared to go into shipping. For others, the credit cards will be charged this weekend so please keep an eye out for this.

And then, there are around 300 original Kickstarter pledges where the backers haven't completed the survey. There are some pledges without rewards in there, so we're not really expecting them to complete the survey, but there are also quite a lot of pledges that require the shipping address. We will send email reminders to those backers and if you are one of them, now would be a great time to complete your survey.

We will wait for a few days to give you some time - if you have any problems, don't hesitate to contact us at info@snowboardgames.si. The shipping of these pledges will begin at 9th November.

👉 Late pledges

The above info is for the pledges placed through Kickstarter when the campaign was live. For pledges, placed later on Backerkit - we will start shipping when the shipping of this second Kickstarter round is completed. You will receive email notifications before we do, and you don't have to do anything at the moment.

For anyone who missed the Kickstarter and wants to join, the late pledges (or rather preorders?) are still open here: Preorder Hike! A card-drafting racing game with huskies on BackerKit The price for the game is still a bit discounted from what the retail price will be. These preorders will be shipped in November, so now is really the last chance to join. (If you know anyone who would be interested, please feel free to share the link! 😊)

🏳️ Rulebook translations

We are happy to tell you that the first translation - French - is ready. You can download it here.

We will take the time next week to work on the other translations too and we hope (well plan) more will follow soon by the end of next week. They will be available on the above link too.

We would like to take this moment to thank our awesome translators - they reached out to us and offered to do the translation in exchange for a copy of Hike! Our sincere thank you for your work and for helping Hike! reach people in their native languages.

So I think that is all the technical details from our side. How are you all? We still can't fully believe that over 2800 packages have been sent worldwide from our garage, and it's been an exciting journey. 😀 We are a bit tired from the last two weeks' tempo, but we also feel very proud. We're glad to hear that the games are reaching their destinations - no matter how well you prepare, it's still a scary moment when you hand out those carefully wrapped packages to a postman, knowing that they're going on a 1000km and longer journeys, and you question, whether you have really packed them sturdy enough so they reach their end destination safely. It feels like skipping some steps when you go from 0 packages sent to 150+ packages sent per day, but we're learning quickly, so it feels quite natural now. The geek in me (Nika writing) is looking forward to reviewing some shipping statistics when the fulfilment is done, I suspect there will be some interesting numbers there. 🧐 Maybe they could be included in the next update. A lot of work to be done by then in any case!

We wish you a great weekend 😀

Your SnowBoardGames team

Hike! ❄️ A quick shipping update
6 months ago – Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 12:15:52 AM

Hello everybody,

here is a quick update with the latest news. 👇

As of Monday, we are back from Essen and shipping is in full swing. From Tuesday on, we have been sending out steady 100-150 games per day (our daily record is 152 😄) and we feel pretty confident that we can push these numbers a bit higher next week. We're getting the hang of the order management software and our packing process is getting more and more optimised. Our muscle memory is forming, so we're getting faster at it, which is awesome (and we're starting to dream about packing the games, which is a bit less awesome 😆). The one thing we are still a bit behind with is sending out the tracking numbers - exporting them from our order management system and importing them to the pledge manager is a bit fiddly, and it took a while to figure out the best way to do it. But I think we have it now, and we will likely have all of the tracking numbers imported before the end of the weekend.

Our shipping order is a bit random, and we can't give you any estimates of when your pledge is going out, so we kindly ask you to be patient. We know that's not fun, but we promise to focus all our resources on shipping, so you get it as soon as possible.

The Spiel '22 experience was great - it was really awesome to meet everybody in person and have a pickup option. 🥰 We were thrilled to see that the demo table was full all the time and that we got a ton of positive responses about Hike! so we are cautiously hoping that Hike! has a future after the Kickstarter too. This was our first experience with a large game fair as exhibitors and it was an intense one. I think the amazing atmosphere at the fair and the adrenaline carried us through, but we're still trying to catch up with sleep. Not complaining though. 😄

The local pickup here in Hrastnik is going smoothly too and it is a pleasure to be in touch with the local community. 😊

As more games are being delivered, we are getting some questions about the pdf rulebook translations. Unfortunately, we have to tell you that they are not quite ready yet and we need a few more weeks. We still need to change some images to the new version, do some proofreading and some additional translations of the text that was added later. We hope this doesn't cause too much inconvenience to you.

For everybody that already got their game - it makes us happy to learn that the games are arriving okay, so thank you everybody for letting us know! If you have any feedback, we kindly invite you to share it, and if you have any photos, feel free to tag us on Instagram and Facebook.

We're looking forward to sending out more games in the next days! 😀

Your SnowBoardGames team

Hike! ❄️ The shipping has started!
6 months ago – Sat, Oct 01, 2022 at 09:43:35 PM

Hello everybody,

📨 we are excited to announce that the fulfilment has officially started and that the first 50 games are already on their way to backers! 🥳

We plan to ship another 150 games out on Monday, and then we leave for Essen, so the shipping will be on pause until next Monday, October 10. After that, we plan to send out a steady 100-200 games per weekday. 

We will be doing the shipping ourselves. We will focus most of our resources on preparing the games for shipping and sending them out, so we may be a little less responsive in our interactions or updates. We kindly ask you to please be patient with us and wait for your tracking number (you will receive it via email once your pledge is shipped), and not drown us in support emails and messages. That said, if there is an urgent matter, you can always reach us via message here on Kickstarter, or send us an email. 

BACKERS THAT SELECTED LOCAL PICKUP: Expect an email with more information about the pickup over the weekend. We're excited to meet you.

BACKERS THAT HAVEN'T COMPLETED THEIR SURVEYS: Don't worry, your pledge is secure and your survey will stay open. We ask you to complete it at your earliest convenience so you can receive your pledge. If you didn't receive the link to the survey, contact us and we will resend it.

BACKERS THAT USE APPLE LOGIN: It seems that there is a high chance that you didn't receive your survey. Contact us and we will send you the link.

BACKERS THAT HAVE PROBLEMS WITH CREDIT CARDS PAYMENTS: Don't worry, it's perfectly normal with any projects that some of the cards don't go through the first time. There are many reasons why, one of the more common ones being the fact that we are charging the shipping in Euros, and some banks flag transactions in foreign currency. In any case, please contact your bank and clear the transaction with them, and if it doesn't work, please contact support via the form in the survey. 

BACKERS THAT PLEDGED LATER: You likely didn't get the survey email. That is as intended. We are currently only locking the surveys for original Kickstarter pledges. If you pledged after the Kickstarter campaign on Backerkit, you have likely already entered your shipping info. We will be locking these pledges after we ship the Kickstarter batch, and you will receive a notification before we do. So you don't have to do anything at the moment and keep an eye out for the email notification.

🙏 WE NEED YOUR HELP: As we mentioned, we will be on Spiel '22, where we will be presenting Hike! We won't be selling the game there (we will only have local pickup for Kickstarter pledges), but it means a lot to us to attend and share Hike! with the board-gaming world. We kindly ask you to help us reach more people by giving us the 'thumbs up' here: https://boardgamegeek.com/geekpreview/55/spiel-22-preview?q=hike And feel free to share the link with your friends, family and your 4-legged friends! Thank you!

So that's all the important technical info out of the way. Now for some background data for anyone interested, as it wouldn't be a SnowBoardGames update without it. 😊

The expansions were delivered on Friday, right after the last update, and the delivery was the smoothest, most chilled and effortless one so far - we're starting to become experts at handling this stuff. 😋  (It probably also helps that the construction on the road to our warehouse is finally at a stage where the road is fully operational again, so the drivers making the delivery are probably less stressed too. Shout out to them, they really handled the less-than-optimal road condition graciously.)

And then this last week has been pretty busy, mostly with setting up the order management system and making sure all of the necessary bureaucracy was taken care of. And yesterday, it was D-Day. Blaž and I took the first two games to the post office ourselves. They were both domestic shipments, and we wanted to make sure everything is in order with the way the package is prepared, and the shipment is automatically entered into the system in our order management program. And it was, so today, we shipped out some more pledges, randomly selected from different regions, to sample the shipping to different parts of the world. We spotted a few things that could be improved, but overall, everything looks good. The Essen shipping pause, which I admit, seems a bit annoying, will actually be perfect, as it will allow at least some of the pledges to reach the backers, so we will know the whole shipping system works. Not that we're expecting any problems, but it's nice to test it anyway before we send out 3000+ packages.

So overall, we are still really happy with how this project is going and with the timeline, and hopefully, the shipping goes smoothly too. 🤞 We don't plan on posting another major update for at least a few weeks now, unless something unexpected happens. But we are thinking about posting an update comment (maybe once or twice a week) under this update. That would not be taking too much resources off the shipping, and you can be in touch with how the Essen and shipping go.

What do you think?

We wish you a great weekend

Your SnowBoardGames team

Hike! ❄️ Locking orders and shipping payment
6 months ago – Fri, Sep 23, 2022 at 12:56:12 PM

Hello everybody,

🔒 we are at almost 85% of surveys completed, and the inflow of surveys is starting to slow down, so we think it is time to continue with the next steps. THE SURVEYS THAT ARE COMPLETE ARE GOING TO LOCK around 10 pm CEST (Central European Summer Time) today, which is around 4 pm EST (Eastern Standard time).

💳 Once the surveys are locked, we are going to start CHARGING THE CREDIT CARDS for shipping and items added to your pledge in the post-campaign pledge manager. We kindly ask you to please keep an eye out for the credit card transaction and email notifications, in case you need to confirm anything with your credit card provider or make updates to your payment information in the pledge manager.

📨 It then takes a few days for us to receive the funds from the post-campaign pledge manager to our bank account. We are going to take this time to set up our space and optimize the packing process (we are going to be doing that ourselves), and welcome the delivery of expansions, which are already in Slovenia, to our office in Hrastnik. So we think it is highly probable that we will be shipping the first games out next week. Exciting, right?

BACKERS THAT HAVEN'T COMPLETED THEIR SURVEYS: Don't worry, your pledge is secure and your survey will stay open. We ask you to complete it at your earliest convenience so you can receive your pledge.

BACKERS THAT PLEDGED LATER: You likely didn't get the survey email. That is as intended. We are currently only locking the surveys for original Kickstarter pledges. If you pledged after the Kickstarter campaign on Backerkit, you have likely already entered your shipping info. We will be locking these pledges after we ship the Kickstarter batch, and you will receive a notification before we do. So you don't have to do anything at the moment and keep an eye out for the email notification.

That said, how are you all? We've been really busy, but at the same time really excited, and you can feel the anticipation brewing amongst the team. 😊 It is similar to the one that we felt before we launched the Kickstarter campaign. The project is entering a new stage and there are a lot of things that are new to us, like using order management software, and shipping out 3500 packages in a few weeks. So it is a bit scary. But as before, we feel we are well prepared. We have done our research, talked to people that have done this before and prepared as much as we can in advance, to make sure the fulfillment goes smoothly. So we are really looking forward to this next step and we are thrilled to have you with us on this journey! 💗

We wish you a great day

Your SnowBoardGames team