Orbital Blues: Afterburn

New Year, New Update
16 days ago – Thu, Jan 02, 2025 at 07:54:55 AM

Hi everyone, 

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! 

Everything from the four major items for the product (box set, slipcase, core book, expansion) is now fully produced. 

We've had the physicals of Afterburn for a full few months now, but some of the other production runs have been delayed. The Rogue Anthems slipcase and Tales from the Outlaw Galaxy slipcases have been particularly complicated, even with the able and dutiful support of our colleagues Longpack in China. 

Since most stuff is now fully printed, we're focusing on moving it to our dual fulfilment centres. Studio2 in the US handle our US orders, and everything else will be coming out of our shiny fulfilment centre at Transglobal in the UK.

Moving all these books around is a mammoth undertaking. First, we're moving all of our books from the UK warehouses to the US. Alongside that we have to get all of the Longpack produced stuff from China to the US (well before the Chinese Lunar Festival). Then we have to move our Chinese produced stock out of the US and over to the UK for RoW fulfillment, avoiding the Suez Canal and potential accompanying delays from literal pirates. This is requiring multiple freight tracks, lots of commerical invoices and packing notes, and a real headache for myself and our customs partners. 

We've also had to reprint the GM screen and order an offset print run of Orbital Blues: The Wanderer, as both of them have outperformed our expectations on Backerkit pre-sales! Thanks for your support. 

This means we're still a while out from fulfilment, and we'll keep you updated as to the final delivery times. We're doing everything we can to get books to you as we can.

I would guess we'll be freezing addresses and charging cards in early February, so there's still time if you want to grab some more toys on Backerkit.  

Speak again soon, and in the meanwhile please continue to be a sad space cowboy. 

Thanks 

~ Zach

On behalf of Sleney, Clark and Cox.

Woah There Cowboy! We've got Samples!
2 months ago – Mon, Nov 04, 2024 at 03:56:39 AM

Short update, not much has really changed in OB land. The exception is that we have samples of the three core products from the project in our hands now and they look very bloody good. 

We're still a while out from fulfilment, and we'll keep you updated as to the final delivery times. Manufacturing has now begun and we're aiming to get you books as soon as you can. 

Speak again soon, and in the meanwhile continue to be a sad space cowboy. 

Thanks 

~ Zach

On behalf of Sleney, Clark and Cox.

PS: Once more I am here to plug our sad gay vampire RPG, Paint The Town Red. It's got a few days left on Backerkit. I'm the main writer and my main collaborator on the project is Johan Nohr of Mork Borg / Into The Odd fame. Free quickstart on our website too! Do swing by! 

Hold your Horses! We have Pictures of Books!
3 months ago – Fri, Oct 11, 2024 at 08:04:03 AM

You are all long overdue an update! 

We're hard at work making books. We've had print versions through of the Afterburn, and all of them are sitting in our warehouse. We've had proofs through of the Tales from the Outlaw Galaxy collection (minus the slipcase) and the Rogue Anthems boxset. Sorry for the low quality photos, I don't have these in my own hands yet, they're mostly at the warehouses. 

I'm afraid this means there are going to be further delays to the project. We could start shipping Afterburn books to you, but then we're looking at 10 weeks or so until the finals of the Tales from the Outlaw Galaxy and Rogue Anthems to be delivered from China, and this kind of split fulfilment isn't possible and isn't a good experience for our remaining customers. 

The main challenge here has been communicating with a new printer on a weird type of retrofuture project. Finding 3000 VHS cases in 2024 has been a challenge, and they've been bouncing in and out of availability over the last 12 months and we've been bulk buying bit by bit, but we finally got em all and we're manufacturing now!  

This is also a very large project from a shipping and packing perspectiver. The top level pledges have something like 12 SKUs (stock keeping units for the unitiated) basically seperate items we have to track, pick, pack and check for everyone to get the right books on time. 

To support this, alongside our big Gardens of Ynn project, we've been actually upgrading our warehouse providers by moving to a new supplier. Finalising the rates for the new providers has been the reason we've been delayed on getting our Ynn Backerkit out. We're having to set up new accounts, sign new contracts, work out taxes and handling fees, calculate new rates, and then get all this information into Backerkit correctly. 

It might seem, from the lack of updates, like we're delaying, moving at a snails pace or being evasive, but we're actually working dead hard behind the scenes to make sure everything makes it to you in the best way possible. I always say to my collaborators that when choosing between "good, cheap and fast" I just ask for really good, and that's true here. I've even hired a new, full time employee (welcome Tom!) as an E-Commerce and Logistics Manager to help make sure that fulfillment for this and other projects moves forward freely. 

I'm hoping that we'll have everything ready to ship out before the end of year, and the remaining components move smoothly. You can all still update your addresses in Backerkit right up until the point of fulfilment. No need to email us if your address has changed. 

Stay patient with us, and know we're working!  

Thanks 

~ Zach

On behalf of Sleney, Clark and Cox.

PS: If you think vampires are cool, we have a new project that came out on Backerkit yesterday. They're sad, just like the space cowboys. Come Paint The Town Red with us! It's got me and Johan Nohr of Mork Borg / Into The Odd fame bashing out a sad gay vampire RPG. Free quickstart on our website too! 

Physicals Update + Typos Catching
5 months ago – Tue, Aug 06, 2024 at 04:37:17 AM

Hi all

The various digital products we are sending to print are all due this week.

If you notice any typos in the new docs or in the original Orbital Blues book, please email them to me at [email protected] by the end of the week.

I'm now expecting that physical delivery will occur in October ish for non-US backers and early November for US backers.

We won't be looking Backerkit addresses or charging cards for some time, so update your info there if your shipping address changes.

Thanks

Zach

The Afterburn Digital Release
6 months ago – Wed, Jul 31, 2024 at 03:49:02 AM

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