Hike! ❄️ A quick shipping update
over 1 year 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!
over 1 year 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
over 1 year 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

Hike! ❄️ Time to enter your address
over 1 year ago – Mon, Sep 19, 2022 at 11:50:37 PM

 Hello everybody,

we are happy to report that the surveys are coming along very well, with more than 75% of them completed! 😊 Thank you to everybody who has completed their survey! 🙏

WE WILL START LOCKING ORDERS AND ADDRESSES ON THE COMPLETED SURVEYS IN THE NEXT DAYS, SO FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO MAKE ANY CHANGES - NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT. 

You will receive a notification about it via email. Once the orders are locked, we will charge the credit cards (we will post an update before we do), and when the funds are collected, we can start shipping out the games. We plan to send the first pledges out before the end of September, and then ship gradually over a few weeks. 📬

🔥 For anyone who still needs to complete their survey, we kindly ask you to complete it at your earliest convenience, as this will help us move along with the fulfilment. 

We are using Backerkit as our pledge manager, and the survey links have been sent to you via email. If you haven't received it, please contact us, and we will re-send it. The Kickstarter pledge items and add-ons are already entered in the system, and for anyone wishing to upgrade the pledge, you can select additional Hike! base game and Events and Traits Expansion copies.

Shipping will also be charged in the pledge manager, and you can choose between standard and express shipping. We are also providing 2 local pickup options, one in Hrastnik, Slovenia, and one in Essen, Germany, on Spiel 22. You can select the local pickup option on the page on which you enter your address, in the 'Country' box, where you select 'local pickup' option from the list of countries. It is somewhere at the top. It applies to both Hrastnik and Essen, and we will send a follow-up email about your preferred location when the fulfilment starts.

So that's all from our side for this update. Things are really busy here, and we're making the last preparations to make sure everything runs smoothly when the shipping starts. 😊

Have a great day and keep an eye out for the next update!

Your SnowBoardGames team

Hike! ❄️ IMPORTANT FULFILLMENT UPDATE
over 1 year ago – Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 04:26:25 AM

Hello everybody,

today's update is probably the one you have been waiting for:

We are going to send out SURVEYS and open the POST-CAMPAIGN PLEDGE MANAGER in the NEXT DAYS.

You will receive an email notification, and we kindly ask you to complete the survey at your earliest convenience, as the sooner they are completed, the sooner we can start sending out the games.

🔝 You will be able to add additional Hike! base games and Events and Traits Expansion to your pledge, so if you want to upgrade your pledge, this is the time to do so.

📬 Shipping will be charged here too, based on your address and the total weight of the items. We will be shipping the games with Slovene National Post, which estimates that the delivery time will be 3-15 days, depending on how far you are from Slovenia, Europe.

We have done our best to lower the shipping costs as much as possible, and we will be doing the shipping ourselves, so we are happy to tell you that we have managed to stay within the estimated prices given during the Kickstarter campaign.

Moreover, we were able to lower the shipping costs for EU a bit. We have also decided to absorb some of the shipping cost for the Rest of Europe, Canada and Rest of the world - areas where backers may be charged additional fees by their customs - to hopefully offset the additional cost for you.

Depending on the survey status, we may start shipping the games in September. If you are not sure about your address in September and October, please contact us on [email protected] and don't submit the survey.

📬✈️ We are providing an express shipping option with DHL, which you will be able to select in the survey. The DHL prices are a bit higher, but the delivery time is estimated to be 3-5 working days for everywhere in the world.

🤝 We have also decided to provide two free local pickup options:

The first one is in Hrastnik, Slovenia, and we will arrange the pickup individually.

The second one is Spiel 22 in Essen, Germany. (Thank you to everybody who compleated the survey in the previous update!) We will attend the Spiel where we will share a booth with some colleagues from Slovenia, and the pickup will be available every day during the fair. Hike! will also be on display there, and we warmly invite everybody to come check it out and say hi.

🎠 We have put Hike! on the Spiel'22 Preview list on BoardGameGeek and we plan to present the game at the fair. We would immensely appreciate your like here, to help Hike! get more attention. This would really help spread the word about the game and about SnowBoardGames! You have to be signed in to your BGG account and the like / thumbs up button is on the left, next to the cover photo. Thank you for helping us spread the word! 🙏

👉 We noticed that some backers that chose Husky Enthusiast pledge (which contains Hike! base game, Events and Traits Expansion and First player token) added the second Events and Traits add-on to their pledge, effectively ordering 1 Hike! base game, 2 Events and Traits Expansion and 1 First player token. We have contacted the backers and we got some replies that this was not intentional, so we manually removed the duplicate expansion, and you will be able to use the freed funds for shipping. If you are one of those backers and have questions, or you have an unintentional duplicate add-on that we haven't spotted, please contact us at [email protected].

So that's all about the technical stuff related to fulfilment. Now for some background info: we have received the Compass First Player Tokens and we love how they turned out. 😊

We have also received the cardboard packaging, waterproof bags for shipping overseas, and some other stuff we will need for fulfilment. We are waiting for paper bags with SnowBoardGames logo for local pickup - they will be arriving soon - and the Events and Traits Expansion, which are scheduled to arrive before the end of September.

So we're preparing for the fulfilment sprint, and we're really excited about this step! 😄 How about you?

Be in touch soon, so keep an eye out for the survey email! 🧐

Your SnowBoardGames team