A Special Christmas Present For You All 😇
5 months ago – Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 02:25:49 PM

It's been a whirlwind of a month for me, both due to the delivery of our baby John Constantine Lowen as well as the receipt of games for our UK backers, the opening of our webstore, and continued work on all aspects of our upcoming expansion! But most awesome of all -- we prepared a special Christmas surprise for you...

But First, An Update On Our Remaining Pledge Items

T-Shirts for International Backers (EU, UK, Asia, and AUS/NZ)

We have our international t-shirts to send out. They're ready, but I need to compile the addresses and get them sent. I confess this has been my delay, which I will handily blame on my new infant son born early this month. There just wasn't enough time to do everything, and I knew it would be too much for me if I were to add this task on top of a very tall pile of family responsibilities! My wife just started her third week of recovery, and I have been a full-time dad as well as leader of Deliverance and our Crowdfunding Nerds marketing agency, so I have had to make some purposeful delays to certain items like this on my task list. Sorry everyone for the delay, but I do promise to send your shirts this month!

Painted Angel Miniatures

Our painting studio (Splintered Brush Studio) is about 70% complete with the painting of 55 sets of angels. Originally, the head of the studio, Jason Gibeault, estimated completion for the end of this month. 55 sets x 9 angels per set = 505 angel models!

He has all models spraypainted (primer and base coat done), and 5 models are completed. However, he still has 4 models remaining to do the detail work. After that is complete, he will pack them up and we'll get them shipped! I do not expect to have these to you guys by Christmas based on the current workload remaining, but as always, I will keep you posted as to the status on our Facebook and Discord communities and through comments on Kickstarter when I have something to report!

Custom Sketch Art (Archangel Investors)

I received all of the incredible sketch art from Dan Maynard. They blow my mind that I have them in person. These are truly one-of-a-kind art pieces that deserve to hang in a prominent place :D I can't wait for you all to look at them! They're also delayed due to baby John, but I do expect these will be sent out and delivered by Christmas for you Archangel Investors 🎄😇

THE ABOMINATION THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS?!

It looks like the Grouch is up to no good, assaulting the holiday spirits of the Saints of Fallbrook (the "who's whos" of Deliverance). You're going to need to put a stop to his plans, or there won't be any holiday cheer left to celebrate!

You're going to battle against Cruel Archers to keep the hearths of the Saints lit, you'll need to escort a special person acting in the spirit of Saint Nicholas delivering gifts to the poor, and you'll need to put a final stop to Og's plans to ruin Christmas for everyone by healing his hatred for everything that moves (and then sending him to the abyss with a big lump of coal for his naughty attitude).

But before you can do that, you have to get the upcoming Deliverance scenario pack! It's not currently available, but once it is, it's going to be free for all backers and fans of Deliverance (Merry Christmas)!

These new scenarios are the very first of our Deliverance "Skirmish Missions" teased in our last update. I am pleased to announce that we plan to send out quarterly Scenarios for download, and we might just include a full Scenario Book as an add-on during our next Kickstarter campaign if this is appreciated by our community!

Scenarios are one-shot missions with special Campaign rules and victory conditions that use the Skirmish XP and leveling system. They can each be played on their own with optional Challenge rules, or in some cases, sequentially in a fun mini-campaign like this first set of 3!

How can you get this free 3-mission Scenario pack? Be on the lookout for an e-mail coming to you guys later this month with the download inside! If you're not subscribed to our email list, you should do that! This might make for a fun bonus to those Deliverance games you're buying for gifts this Christmas! And speaking of that...

Christmas Order Deadline: Dec 8th

We have been informed by Bridge (our US fulfillment partner) that the last webstore order date for arrival by Christmas is December 8th! That means if you're planning to buy a gift, do it right away! We're working to get some stock to Amazon that could arrive later than that, though it'll cost more there.

For other regions, we have stock in AUS/NZ, the UK, and the EU. Games and add-ons will ship within those regions duty-free!

More Expansion Teasers!

We shared the first look at a new angel earlier this month via our email newsletter, though some of you might have already met this angel!

I'll keep the spoilers to a minimum and request that y'all do the same! Meet Corra, a playable angel in the upcoming Deliverance expansion 😇

Now, Meet John Constantine!

My son John Constantine Lowen was born November 8th at 11:36pm at 8lbs, just 24 minutes short of his older sister River's b-day 🥰 He wasn't named after the comicbook demonslayer, though that is sort of an awesome coincidence 😆 Little dude is #7 for us, and our SECOND son born since the the Deliverance Kickstarter. Babies and cross-country moving are my top reason for delay, and I think with little Johnny, our family is probably at the end of the baby phase. My wife took some baby pics and they're adorable, so you get to see a few of them!

What's Next?

December is going to be a month of hard work on the Deliverance expansion, because my wife will finally be recovered enough to take over. Christine (my wife) is such a hard worker -- being a dad to 7 while trying to keep all the ships running is a crazy thing. I can't wait for her to be at 100% again!

I also need to give a shoutout and thank you to my awesome staff at Crowdfunding Nerds & Next Level Web. They have entirely taken over and done such an incredible job... I'm their boss and they're my employees, but it sure feels more like they're my friends. I would go to the fires of Mount Doom with any one of them (provided they weren't Boromir, who would try to take the ring of course). I try to show appreciation in many ways, but they are the unsung heroes of Deliverance, because their hard work and try hard attitudes is what allows me to work on Deliverance!! Rick, Sean, Alex, Ryan, and Jacob, thank you for what you do!!!

And a final thank you to YOU, my Insiders, for being a fan of this project I made. When you share your reviews and experiences with the game here, BGG, YouTube, and on social media, every single one of them is like a breath of fresh air and a joy to read!

Kindest regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

UK/EU Delivery, A Baby, New Expansion Reveal, & More!
6 months ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2023 at 03:57:44 PM

We have a ton for you in this update! UK & EU backers, rejoice, for your shipping is nigh!! For those that are fans of Deliverance, you're going to love a few of the reveals we give in this update. And for those that need a bit more convincing to rip that shrinkwrap off the box and set it up quickly, I have something for you, too! Read on for details...

Timeline? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Timeline!

Since we have generally completed the delivery of our game to most regions (save a limited number of backers with an error or a broken Meddling Imp standee), I'll forego the general timeline you're used to and get specific about our remaining regions for delivery!

First, Why Should You Play Deliverance?

This was an interesting question I got to answer on a podcast that aired today. I thought you guys might really enjoy it. The audio is below, which you can play as you read this update! I'll add a bit of written commentary after the Spotify audio link:

This podcast was about 30 mins long and focused on Deliverance. Here are some timestamps for you (not links, but they're useful if you want to skip to the relevant section!

0:00 - An introduction to the podcast and a bit about my life. 

5:15 - We get into how Deliverance came about (which has some new info I haven't shared before for those interested). 

9:43 - Deliverance is NOT an easy game.

11:38 - Game design is a lonely road (a bit of an aside).

13:16 - How I would describe Deliverance to a new player?

14:32 - Mechanics of Deliverance & how it plays.

19:48 - Why should I play Deliverance?

29:50 - Concluding remarks.

UK Delivery Update

We put GamesQuest through a lot this month. Before I get into what happened since our last update, I'll share the end from the beginning: UK will be delivering imminently! Some of you UK backers may receive packages as early as next week Monday! Shirts + painted minis will be shipped separately.

So for those interested, here's a bit more info. Working with GQ took a while. I approved addresses about 2 weeks ago, but I finally received confirmation and a request to pay for the estimated shipping costs earlier this morning (on the 31st). We paid immediately! Once we paid, I was told that the orders would go to the warehouse staff to process shipments! Woot! 😊

The delay for GQ was due in part to our requirement that they split the EU orders off so we could send them to HappyShops and fulfill from within Germany (more on that below). It was a bit of an emergency, because the way that they intended to send shipments was going to cost us a crazy amount of money we didn't plan to spend. For every juicy bit of drama (lol), read the EU update.

Lastly, for our UK and EU backers, we will be shipping T-shirts in early November to you guys from the US. For those that ordered painted minis, we will be shipping those from Canada when Splintered Brush Studio has finished with them.

EU Delivery Update

EU backers, rejoice! Our Deliverance games made it into HappyShops, and all you should have received an address confirmation to your inbox earlier this week! The short version of the good news is that we are on schedule for EU deliveries to begin next week! Shirts and Painted Minis will ship separately.

The journey to our final shipment to the EU was a long and winding one. If I could have gone back and done something over, this would have been it. I would have shipped direct from China to HappyShops. You would have received your games 2 months ago, and I would have dealt with less headaches and paid less in fees. This is a lesson we will carry with us for next time, I promise you.

So what was all the drama? Some of you on our Discord community heard the news as it was happening, but let's share it here for others!

So, it turns out our OSS VAT reporting only works if we fulfill from within an EU country, but GamesQuest changed the plan and wanted to air-freight games to backers from the UK using IOSS. Americans are totally confused right now, so for y'all that are reading this, that means the €7500 we paid for VAT wouldn't count, and we'd have to pay it again on top of €6-10 more per package (~280 packages). So, because we did not want to needlessly spend €10,000 on top of paying €7500 more for EU VAT, we pulled some emergency pit maneuvers and asked GamesQuest to split the shipment into pallets destined for the EU, which we air-freighted to HappyShops in Germany for within-EU fulfillment. Everything was going swimmingly, and then we got held up by German Customs officials. I was scared, because that can take weeks to resolve, but thankfully, they approved our games and forwarded them to HappyShops, along with a bill to me for $700 as a sign of tribute to their position of power 😆

Many of you in the EU have been very active and encouraging in our communities while not even having a copy of the game. I really appreciate you guys! Once you get a copy, I can't wait to chat strategy!

Baby Deliverance & Deliverance Support

Christy, my wife, is over 39 weeks pregnant. She could have a "deliverance" any day now. She hasn't yet, but I feel like by the time anybody in the UK or EU receives Deliverance, I'm going to be exhausted and dealing with my 7th baby. I'll make sure to post pics in our Facebook community for you guys that want to see!

I'm currently trying to decide between John Constantine Lowen or Constantine John Lowen as his name. I'm not trying to name him after the epic demon-slayer from the comics and movie, though I think that's sort of awesome. We love the name John, and my father-in-law's name is Constantine which we also love.

How is this relevant to you? Deliverance backers (especially in the UK/EU) need to be supported, especially in this time of deliveries! I have asked my good friend and long-time Deliverance helper, Adam Glass, to come on board full-time and assist me with support requests in addition to game design. He's ready and trained up (and he has been handling support requests for the last week). My life is very complicated, and so that I can be a GOOD company that does more than tell you how much I care, I recognized the need to expand our team to give you guys the ongoing support you need.

If you have a support request, you can use our support ticket system on HivePM as always, but you may now also email [email protected] for help. Adam or I will get back to you, and it will be pretty quick!

Shirts, Painted Minis & Sketches

I addressed shirts a bit in the above updates, but we're going to send international Shirt orders in November -- I hoped to send these earlier, but it didn't make any sense to send before UK and EU backers confirmed addresses. All international orders will be sent out at the same time, including to Asia and Australia regions.

In regard to painted minis, Splinered Brush Studio has informed me they hope to have these completed by the end of November! There is hope that these will arrive in time for Christmas. I may request they mail them direct from their location in Canada, rather than mailing them to Bridge and having Bridge send them internationally for time and cost's sake. I'll have an update on this when we get closer to delivering these!

For you Archangel Investors, your sketches are complete, but I threw a monkey wrench into the mix here and had another sketch crafted that took a while -- my wife saw the beautiful sketches and asked that we get one of these, too! I couldn't tell her no, because she is my Christine, Voice of Thunder, and I love her and also didn't want her to Lightning Stab me. These are coming this November!

Garphill Games Made Something Awesome

I am so excited to share this game with you guys! We have an amazing Christian themed game that is made by a fantastic company that knows great games. Garphill Games (famous for awesome games like Raiders of the North Sea) has launched Ezra And Nehemiah on Kickstarter! 

They only have 51 hours to go as of the time of this writing, but dude you should go and back this now. It looks amazing, the theme looks really well implemented, and I'm backing this right after I finish writing this update. 

It does help that Sam (one of the designers) loves Deliverance, but this was an instaback for me anyway. As always, I want you guys to know about worthwhile Christian projects that are high quality games -- it seems many more are showing up. I think there is a serious demand in the market for *high quality* Christian-themed games!

One More Thing You Need To See 😆

We're in full-swing with our Deliverance marketing, sending copies to reviewers and seeing some fruit from that crop up here and there. I do expect to see a lot more coverage in the next month (and if you have covered it, let me know so I can share)!, but I thought this was really cool. The Babylon Bee did another tabletop video, and covered Deliverance so beautifully. Check it out here:

I nearly died when they referenced pouring water on Space Hulk. I have personally played with that copy of Space Hulk, and it is so beautiful... I also greatly appreciated that little alien's sacrifice. He will be remembered by us all, I hope 😆

Deliverance Expansion Plans

Every so often, I am asked if we are working on the expansion for Deliverance. The answer is that we are! We're deep in development of the Deliverance expansion, and we have really big plans for the game that scales beyond traditional expansions. It's also perfectly on-theme for Deliverance 😉

Let's first give a general update on the progress and plans for the future:

We're deep in development as I said, but the goal is to finish much of the work before we go to Kickstarter. My aim is to cut our estimated delivery timeline in half, and to beat that delivery timeline. I plan to get our manufacturer working on the miniature sculpts and digital manufacturing proofs even before we launch on Kickstarter. We will have the game developed and tested, thanks to Tabletop Simulator and our thriving Discord community's willingness to playtest content with us! We have a larger team working on Deliverance, and we have established relationships now with both our manufacturer and shipping partners, and we have all the lessons from this massive project under our belt. We're considering a launch next summer. We're not rushing to go back to KS, but we want to do this right!

So, what am I willing to reveal to you today? This is something I have considered much, but until now, I haven't decided on what to share. So let's share something new we're working on:

Skirmish Missions!

We have received so many requests for ways to play the Campaign missions as "one-shot" experiences, and our response to this is to craft scripted missions that you can set up and play at game night or at board game conventions. 

Skirmish Missions use the normal XP gain and scaling difficulty levels of Skirmish mode and combine things like interesting special rules, secondary objectives, or alternate victory conditions (some of which are showcased in Campaign missions). You may need to battle through constantly spawning hordes of demons to escort a Saint to a particular location, fight a brand new Lieutenant boss for control of an area of Fallbrook, or encounter spawning waves of demons triggered from the time track on the Darkness Board!

The best part of this is that you're not going to need to wait for the expansion or pay for anything more to enjoy these. More on this is coming soon... I highly recommend you join our email list if you haven't already!

I promise pics of the baby next time :) See y'all again on November 30!

Kind regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

Sketches, Painted Angels, UK/EU Delivery, & more!
7 months ago – Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 09:14:52 AM

We have some *really* cool sketch art to share as well as Deliverance reviews, big news about UK & EU delivery dates, custom-painted angel mini updates, a personal update from me, and much more! 

Updated Timeline + Expansion Plans

We only have a few elements remaining to complete our delivery of this project! They are as follows:

•  Angel Minis. Estimated completion & delivery: November (Delivery in December)
•  Sketches. Estimated delivery: October!
•  Delivery to UK/EU. Estimated delivery: October 9 start!
•  Opening of UK/EU webstore. Opens November (after UK/EU delivery is complete)

On the other side of this project, we will begin to share expansion content! While we aren't planning an immediate expansion KS as is so common nowadays, we are working on it. Deliverance expansions take time to do right. Even with more help, it still take a lot of effort to craft such a rich game (I have 2 part-time game developers and Dan as our artist working full-time on this with me). The first game took 5 years before it was ready for KS, and 2 years to finish and deliver! Thankfully, with the clear design direction established by the base game and my extra help, the Deliverance expansion is only going to take about 2 years' work to complete, which started about 6 months ago. I expect we will return to Kickstarter (or Gamefound) around Summer 2024, and have a much quicker delivery time! 😇

Review Highlight: Man Vs Meeple

Deliverance reviews are starting to emerge now that reviewers have had some time to work with them! Alex of BoardGameCo did an unboxing video last week (his review is coming soon), and Jeremy Howard of Man vs Meeple just posted his review of Deliverance!

I don't want to spoil all of it for you, but in the end, he had some amazing things to say about the customization of the angels and his experience with the game overall, and he even said it has a chance of making it into his top 10 solo games for the year!! 💖

Our BoardGameGeek rating also continues to climb, sitting at 8.7 with 224 ratings as of this writing!!

If you haven't yet given us a rating on BGG, please consider doing so as it is a great way to help Deliverance become more visible to the world!

UK/EU Shipping Update

Gamesquest informed me that they estimate shipping for the UK and EU regions will begin on October 9th, which means that UK and EU backers don't have long to wait before enjoying Deliverance!

I have some more information to add for those that are interested -- Gamesquest is going to air-freight product (duties paid) to EU backers. That was a surprise to me, because air freight costs way more than sending to a warehouse and delivering via ground shipping. I had the option to pull the plug on this plan and force them to send everything to a German warehouse where fulfillment could be carried out, but that would have added *an additional month* to our EU region.

Based on everything you all have endured, I have elected to spend $6-10 more per EU backer to get your packages to you via air freight. This is going to cost a lot more, but I want you guys to know that you matter to me! I can never consider this project complete until my UK and EU friends have their games. And I want your trust for next time.

I will admit GQ has been a bit frustrating to deal with at times, because communication has been limited and not quite as free-flowing as with some of our other shipping partners (like Bridge). I have heard that their ordering systems are good and fulfillment is consistent, but that their fulfillment speed and communication need improvement. I will hold my judgment until after we get fully shipped and fulfilled, but I do plan to examine my fulfillment partners and consider our next moves carefully.

Who is your preferred fulfillment company for board games in the EU?

International Shirt Fulfillment

We will begin fulfillment of T-shirts to backers outside North America in October as well! If you are in Asia, Australia, UK, or EU, shirts will be shipping direct from Bridge in the US to you separate from your game orders. It's not ideal, but they're squishy and have zero risk of damage in a bubble mailer, so it's actually not that bad a rate to get it done like this! Next time, I'll probably print the shirts a month or two earlier and ship them early to our international hubs for packaging with games.

Many have asked if these will be available for purchase. I did print 10% extra stock for each size so that we could replace anything if it was damaged or went missing in transit, so whatever remains after that will be available for purchase in the future. We might have the extra t-shirts up on our webstore as early as November! Make sure to join our e-mail list to be notified when these go live, because when they're gone, they're gone!

Custom-Painted Angel Miniatures In Progress!

Jason Gibeault of Splintered Brush Studio is working through 55 sets of Angel Miniatures for our Angel Investors! Want to see a literal army of Archangels? Ok... maybe it's actually figurative 😆 Check this out:

Current progress has priming and spray painting complete for all angels (9 models x 55 = 495 minis, wow!). Most Michael, the Archangel models are completed, and we expect each additional model will take 1 week (55 minis -- our artist Jason has some seeeerrrrrriooouuusssss dexterity in his hands). If you tally them all, that is 8 weeks estimated for completion, placing us near the end of November. That means Angel Investors will get these delivered before Christmas 😇 

Once complete, the minis will be shipped separately, either from Canada (to Canadians) or from the US (Bridge to US and international Angel Investor backers). It is important to note, these are an *extra* set of angel minis, and they are nicely protected with that fancy plastic insert, but we will be wrapping them carefully so that any Cyclone Piledriver attacks by angry postal workers doesn't damage the merchandise. I don't want even a single one of these to be damaged, because we have so few of them O.o

Archangel Investor Sketches

This is something that is limited to just 7 of you reading this, but for those 7, you are the core of our company -- you believed in what we're doing enough to invest so much!

Each of these are original signed sketches by our concept artist, Dan Maynard. In a world full of AI art, these are likely going to be extremely valuable if Deliverance blows up. The problem with crafting beautiful concept art sketches like these is that they take a lot of time, and we have so few of them to gift. Doing new sketches is probably something Dan could survive off of full-time, but it doesn't advance the expansion from which Dan has a huge plate of work already 😆 We had two requests for Michael the Archangel, so rather than telling an "Archangel" Investor no... we made a second original sketch! 

My favorite sketch Dan produced is reserved for my wife and I:

These sketches, along with the remaining original sketches in Dan's art book, are headed their way to my home early this month, where I will personally frame and package them for delivery to our 7 Archangel investors. You should expect delivery of these in the last half of October :D

This art might be one of my personal most treasured possessions! I hope all of our Archangel Investors feel that the wait was worth it. You made a huge difference in our campaign, and I appreciate each of you so much!!

Our Webstore Is Live!

Our PlayDeliverance.com webstore is live, and customers in the US can now order those add-ons you have been missing. We have limited quantities of Metal Coins, Acrylic Standees, Neoprene Playmats, and extra Dice Sets remaining -- Grab them while you can, and enjoy flat rate $10 shipping ($15 for Canada) for your trouble!

Our TTS Mod Is Updated!

Our free Tabletop Simulator mod for Deliverance has been updated with the latest cards and release content, including the addition of the Deliverance Campaign! Now, you can play with friends across the universe (as long as they have Tabletop Simulator)!

This, in addition to our multiple how to play videos, is an excellent way to learn to play the game ahead of when you get your games! You can even find a friendly teacher on our Discord Server if you hate reading rules!

Personal Update: Baby Incoming!

For those that feel like treating me like a transaction, you are welcome to not read. But for hilarity and life updates, continue reading!

Delivering nearly 3,000 games and addressing the resulting support tickets and community engagement explosion was a pretty exhausting process, since my life is already crazy between family stuff, work at Crowdfunding Nerds, an incoming baby (due Nov 6th), and ongoing Deliverance development!

Now that we're on the other side of almost all of the chaos caused by the Kickstarter campaign, I would do it again in a heartbeat!

And speaking of the baby... I'd love to show off my beautiful wife Christine, Voice of Thunder, who is currently 34 weeks pregnant!

I'm exhausted, but in 6 weeks or so, I'll be even more exhausted! I might even need to take a break from work and just play games, hang out with my baby and family, and tinker with Deliverance while finding any and every moment to recover from what I expect will be some brutal nights of no sleep 😆

What's Next?

It's been an amazing feeling to see gamers receiving and playing tons of Deliverance games across the US, Canada, Asia, and Australia regions. 

UK and EU, you're next!

I hope to see a ton of additional gameplay discussion and pics in our communities on Facebook and Discord from our European friends! Those are great places for answers to rules questions -- especially Discord, where you will get an answer within 15 seconds of posting your question most of the time 😉 We have some insiders there that are so awesome -- David R., Chazz, TheRoseCat, and others... I've got to figure out a better way to say thank you to our community members for being so active!!

Next month, I expect to report that the majority of our European deliveries have been completed! We are working diligently on an expansion for the game (which is gonna be awesome), and so I might be ready to share some details with you next month 😇

Until then, thank you for supporting Lowen Games to make awesome content like Deliverance!

Kind regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

P.S. - I wanted to mention a really cool project I backed that just came in from Kickstarter called Purim. It's a co-op game of hand management and worker placement that centers around the book of Esther and the aftermath of the dreaded chess match between Haman and Esther for the fate of her people. 

I was totally sold on it from that description alone, but also it turns out Funhill Games is going to end their run after ~10 years of business. They have made some great games, which you can find at the Funhill Games webstore. They reprinted Kings of Israel, which I have wanted for my collection for a long time. I saw my chance, and I grabbed it while I could! They have made the final printings of all their stuff, so order while you can. Remember -- nobody pays me for my recommendation, and to be frank, I don't think Lance had any idea I was going to share :D

🚚 Deliverance Delivers! 📺 Videos, Info, & Teasers Inside! 😇
8 months ago – Thu, Aug 31, 2023 at 12:21:42 PM

We have officially delivered most of our games to 4 of our 6 regions! We have an update for UK/EU folks, our Angel & Archangel Investors, a brand new "How To Play" video, a special Deliverance expansion teaser, and more!

August 31 Project Timeline Update:

During the month of August, we had several thousand games delivered to backers across North America as well as most of the remaining games deliver to Australia, Asia, and Africa (South Africa is still in progress). In addition to this, product destined for our UK & EU backers made port at the end of the month (the 28th), and so I have an update for you guys down below!

Part of me rejoices that so many have begun to enjoy the game, but we have over 350 backers in the UK and EU that still need their products, so I can't rejoice without reservation... yet 😇

Our Discord Server is buzzing with activity and rules questions, and our Facebook Community is exploding with pictures of people getting their games unboxed and to the table. We have started to see a bunch of new reviews and BEAUTIFUL pictures of the game on BoardGameGeek as well.

Let's take a look at our latest timeline:

•  Manufacturing: DONE
•  Freight (Ocean) Shipping: DONE
•  Fulfillment to North America, Asia, Australia, & Africa: ALMOST DONE
•  Fulfillment to UK & EU: IN PROGRESS
•  Archangel & Angel Investors: IN PROGRESS

I'll get more specific for our UK and EU regions below, but if you're waiting for product in one of the 4 regions that are "ALMOST DONE," then do these two things:

1) Read the regional updates below for details.

2) If you don't receive a tracking link or notification by September 5th, please fill out a support ticket on Hive (https://hiveinteractive.net/pledgemanager).

North America (US/CA/MX/PR): All packages are shipped and what remains should arrive shortly. Check your tracking numbers (They will be sent from [email protected]). 

Australia/NZ: All packages were sent, but Aetherworks had a supply shortage for 5 backers. This stock is coming in from Asia region, and will be delivered with haste to these remaining backers. Not sure how we got some of the Australian stock in Asia, but this is how we're fixing it!

Asia & Africa: Most countries being fulfilled by VFI Asia are completed, but some are still in progress (Brazil and South Africa). If you are in an Asia region and you have not received an update, please wait for an e-mail from VFI Asia letting you know when and where the hub is being fulfilled. Our last few countries are being distributed now. If you are concerned, please feel free to fill out a support ticket and I will look into your package.

UK & EU: GamesQuest is currently in the process of trucking 600 games and a bunch of add-ons to their warehouse from the boat docks, where they will prep products for delivery to UK backers and sort products for EU shipping. EU customers will have products moved from the UK to Germany, and then shipped from within Germany to avoid unnecessary costs. I expect UK backers to begin getting shipping notifications from GamesQuest within 2 weeks. For our EU backers, I expect shipping to commence closer to the end of September since there are more hoops to jump through. For UK and EU backers, you should join our Discord and tag yourself with UK/EU to get notified of each and every shipping update!

Angel & Archangel Investors: We truly did save the best for last!!! Bridge Fulfillment had 49 orders on hold, because they thought we were going to send them the painted minis so all would ship together! I planned to ship them separately, as the painted minis are going to take another month of painting by the talented Jason Gibeault at Splintered Brush Studio. Games and add-ons are on their way, and painted minis will be shipped separately! In regard to our Archangel Investors, we are finishing up the custom sketch art (It should be complete tomorrow). After this, Dan Maynard will ship them all to me, and I am going to personally frame the art, then pack and send it personally to you! Thank you for supporting Deliverance as an Angel and Archangel Investor level for those of you that did -- I can say with confidence that I couldn't have done it without you.

Another Official How To Play Video!

Shea Parker of RTFM spent a lot of time with me this month developing a longer form "How To Play" video that feels a lot like getting taught by a friend at the table. He reviews how to play the game in both Skirmish and Campaign modes, and provides some entertaining commentary along the way.

Rahdo Playthrough & Final Thoughts!

In addition to his "How to Play" video, Shea Parker ran a full playthrough to help you guys get a feel for how a Deliverance game feels to play (He plays on the "Adventure" difficulty setting).

  If you'd like to hear Shea's "final thoughts," on Deliverance, check that out here!

Our Webstore Is Live in the US/CA!

If you live in North America, our webstore is live at PlayDeliverance.com!

If you wished you grabbed some Acrylic Standees, two more pairs of extra dice, the shiny metal coins, or that beautiful Neoprene Playmat, now is your chance! We only have around 150 of each add-on remaining! While that might sound like a lot, they're going to sell fast, and we won't be reprinting them until a future Kickstarter (which won't be until Q2 next year -- more on that below).

Want To Help? Rate Deliverance on BGG!

Many fans are sharing their stories all over social media about how their first Deliverance games are going, and the reviews are as great as I could have ever hoped for! People are finding that their non-gamer friends and family can understand the game quickly and have fun, while more experienced gamers can sink their teeth into the strategic depth of the higher difficulties.

If you are one of those fans, please add your review and rating to our BGG page! This will help more people to discover Deliverance in the future!

If you have previously given a rating on BGG after playing an earlier prototype copy or a version on Tabletop Simulator, now would be an excellent time to update it!

For anyone that would like to add a rating, please visit: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/273814/deliverance 

Support Requests & FAQs

Most of our games delivered without incident and in great shape! 

However, some backers reported a missing part like the plastic rivets for the health dials, a missing page from the Campaign book, a missing Acrylic Standee or a missing deck of cards. In one case, mini Christine, Voice of Thunder left her sword in Heaven! 

If you have a need to replace a broken or missing part, or did not get an item you ordered, please let me know by filling out a support request on Hive (https://hiveinteractive.net/pledgemanager). This is how I keep requests organized!

As long as we have stock available, we will replace any part that affects your ability to play the game. We cannot provide free replacements for cosmetic imperfections or minor damage that does not affect gameplay.

FAQ: Why does Michael have a Sardine on his back?!

Someone asked this way, and it made me laugh 😆

Our final stretch goal is an alternate art for Michael and Sardius. These cards were delivered double-sided, and are in addition to the Michael, the Archangel and Sardius, Stonespeaker cards found in the box. These are Kickstarter exclusive and will not be reprinted -- the only way you can get them is to get a 1st edition Kickstarter game!

Some folks were concerned that this was an error, but it is printed as intended!

FAQ #2: Why are my Acrylic Standees not see-through and/or peeling?!?!

They have plastic film to protect them on both sides, including both sides of the bases! You need to peel the film off of both sides (which can take a while), and THEN they will look incredible. Embrace the grind! 😆 And NO, this is not in error. If you're mad about peeling plastic, hopefully this fixed the problem you had :D

Misprints & Error Thread

Speaking of misprints, we do have a few in the game! If you want to keep updated with what is known and suggest a fix for something else that is not yet listed, please visit this thread on BGG!

 Expansion Information & Teaser!

I am constantly debating how much (if anything) I should share about our Deliverance expansion which is deep in development!

Here is what I'll share this update: Lord willing, we are planning a return to Kickstarter in Q2 of next year.

I want to be totally finished with the art and development of the game by then, and I expect to be able to deliver much quicker than the first go around.

Deliverance was an expensive and time-consuming beast of a game to make, but with our successful first KS, I actually had enough money to keep my artist working and hire a part-time game developer to help me make more Deliverance! We have been diligently working on the expansion, and this time, I won't need to start the next Kickstarter in deep debt. We're financially healthy as a company thanks to you all spreading the word about Deliverance!

For those of you that want some new content...

Ariel players will get to control the mighty Nebuchadnezzar, the Winged Lion! Her better half is not yet revealed, but I am certain those of you that love firing arrows in every direction or commanding a beast on the battlefield are going to adore Ariel :D

That's all for now! Thank you for your support, and thank you for your reviews!

Kind regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

Deliverance Is Coming + More... Like An Exorcist 😱
9 months ago – Mon, Jul 31, 2023 at 02:28:02 PM

We're back with an update on shipping and ARRIVAL status of your games (yay)! In addition, we share a few great resources for you to read before and after you begin your journey into the Deliverance game you're about to receive as well as updates on shirts, painted minis, the Exorcist 😱, and more!

July 31 Project Timeline Update:

We're almost there. During this month of August, many of you will receive your pledges you have diligently waited for these two years! It is a time of celebration for me, because this is the time you get to play the game.

I am excited to engage in the questions from community members and strategy discussions to come about Deliverance in our Discord Server, on BoardGameGeek, and in our Facebook Community. I look forward to celebrating the fruit of this labor with all of you!

Let's take a look at our latest timeline:

•  October 2022 (Done): Game & Story development completes!
•  October 2022 (Done): Some items approved for manufacturing (minis & coins)!
•  November 2022 (Done): Final print files submitted to the manufacturer.
•  NEW - December 2022 (Done): Factory produces final prototype for approval.
•  March 2023 (Done): Addresses & item order quantities locked.
•  March 2023 (Done): Addresses
•  April - May 2023 (Done): Deliverance gets printed!
•  May 2023 (Done): Deliverance finishes manufacturing.
•  June 2023 (Done): Deliverance gets sorted for regional fulfillment & begins freight shipping (4-6 weeks for ocean freight).
•  July 2023 - August 2023 (US/Asia/AUS/NZ Done + UK/EU In Progress): Deliverance arrives and is sorted at our shipping partners' warehouses around the world.
•  July - August 2023  (In Progress): The final "Deliverance" from local warehouses to your homes begins!* 

*UK/EU arrival est. Aug 26th. Delivery slated to begin in September.

Fun Reads First...?

I debated on where to post these articles I wrote in this KS update -- I know the shipping is important, but since many of you will get games this month, I think you should know these things! I think everyone should read the first article, and the second is there for you if the demons keep grinding you into angelic dust 😇

5 Ways To Make Your First Deliverance Play More Awesome

5 Tips To Boost Your Deliverance Skills

I spent a long time considering and working with our awesome community on Discord to come up with these really helpful (spoiler free) tips. The gifs in these articles are the cherry on top of a really good Ice Cream Sundae 😆

T-Shirt & Painted Minis Shipping

Many of you ordered shirts (We sold about 900), and about 55 of you are slated to receive a set of custom-painted minis, so let's give you guys an update on what the process is like for these before we get into regional shipping updates!

T-shirts destined for Asia and Australia regions will be shipping separately from your current pledges. They will be fulfilled from the USA. Shirts destined for US or UK/EU addresses will ship with your games. It is possible we may decide to ship the EU shirts separately and avoid the potential for issues with all the moving parts, but shipping them together is the current plan. Bridge Fulfillment (our US shipping partner) will be sending out packages of shirts in August to other fulfillment centers and to backers in the regions I mentioned.

Bridge is about to receive all of the boxes of unpainted minis, and will mail about 60 of them to Splintered Brush Studio for custom painting. We will not have extras of these. I will be keeping the extra sets for games I host (sooo excited lol). That said, if you really want to get in on this, it's not cheap, but I would be happy to receive your msg as long as you reach out asap (custom painted minis from our professional studio is $600). Once we send the sets of minis over in a week or two, I cannot add any more to the order.

Once the painted miniature sets have been completed by the Splintered Brush Studio team, they will mail them direct from Canada to Canadian backers, and either direct from there to other backers. There is a chance we will have them send back to Bridge for final fulfillment, but that will be determined later. The minis are contained in plastic trays that fit snugly in a cardboard box, so with typical padding, I expect no damage dealt to these valuable minis during transit!

US/CA Shipping Update

Our boat with 2 full containers of Deliverance awesomeness arrived at the port in Savannah, GA on July 27th. It is currently en route to Bridge Fulfillment, which is located in Smyrna, GA. I just uploaded all addresses to Bridge, so if you want to get your address changed, you now need to wait for their outreach. Y'all did a great job requesting address changes in a timely manner, but if it so happens that you still need help here, please send a support ticket request on Hive Pledge Manager.

Canadian orders as well as orders to Puerto Rico and Mexico are slated to be mailed from Bridge Fulfillment. I don't yet have an ETA on when shipping begins since the arrival of goods has not yet been confirmed by their team. However, I expect we will see shipping begin within 2 weeks of this update (barring any customs issues that they're keeping from me). 

If it is warranted, I will give a mid-month update on shipping for the North American region. If you want to keep posted to the latest info, that often gets shared on Discord first.

AUS/NZ Shipping Update

I have been informed by our backers in Australia that Aetherworks sent out their first e-mail to confirm addresses on July 23rd, and that backers have been receiving tracking numbers in their e-mails as of Friday! I expect many of you Aussies and Kiwis will be receiving Deliverance this week! Once a tracking label is generated, the estimated delivery timeline ranged from 3-10 days depending on where you live.

Asia/RoW Shipping Update

VFI Asia has packed and shipped all packages to their various Asian hubs. They have also officially delivered our first Deliverance games to backers! This pic might look simple, but its meaning is amazing for everyone reading this update:

This confirms our first official backer recipient of Deliverance!

Many other Asian countries as well as our "Rest of World" backers are being fulfilled by VFI Asia. Our stock was packaged and exported to their various warehouses around the region early-mid July. Many of these hubs take time to arrive. Once they arrive, they are sorted and prepared for final mailing. Expect 7-10 days after hub arrival before packages are mailed to their final destination! You can see the estimated time to arrive to the hubs below. Based on the projections, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea will begin fulfillment by next week :)

China / Honk Kong / Mongolia: 2-3 days (SENT)

Taiwan: 7 days

Japan / South Korea: 14 days

Singapore / Malaysia: 21 days

Thailand / Philippines / Vietnam: 30 days (Sent to hub on July 7, estimated 3-4 weeks arrival, then fulfillment)

Indonesia / Israel: 45 days

Brazil: Freight begins in October.

If you need assistance, send me a support ticket on Hive. I will check the status for you with my VFI Asia fulfillment team!

UK/EU Shipping Update

Our shipment of product destined for the UK departed from China on July 23rd. The estimated arrival date of the ship in the UK is August 26th. Once this arrives in the UK, it will be transported to the GamesQuest warehouse where it will be split into UK and EU shipments. Our EU backers will have their games air-freighted to the EU warehouse in Germany (so you won't have to wait forever). I do not have a time/date estimate on when this is expected to begin, but I do expect to have something for y'all on this in next month's KS update. Our UK backers should begin to receive their games around the same time as the EU product is sent out, which when accounting for the trucking of product to the facility and 7-14 days to sort and prepare the product for delivery, puts us at estimated delivery for UK/EU to begin in mid-September.

The challenges I experienced with the freight company last month ended with the job getting completed, but I still feel a bit sour about it. We were supposed to ship on July 18th, but the boat docks rolled our container back 2 times to a shipment on the 23rd instead (due to whatever shipping fiasco was happening at the port in China at the time). I think that was totally out of our control, but I am sus after my interactions with the company we used to freight. In the end, we're on the boat. Whew!

In Other News...

We have two more content creators working on stuff. I got a game in with Shea Parker of RTFM and am SO excited about his upcoming "How to Play" video. He does an incredible job at keeping the video concise and entertaining, and often features sensible & attractive titles like: "How to play [game] in 17 minutes." His Twilight Imperium video is required watching before you play, and he is definitely my #1 go-to for snappy how to play videos without fluff. I am honored to work with him! I expect this video to be live by our next update on August 31st, which will be great timing for all of you US/CA backers receiving your games (Ant Lab Games also did a great How To Play Deliverance video, which is only 20 mins)!

In addition to Shea's channel coverage, he is also going to feature us on Rahdo Runs Through with both a full gameplay "Run Through" video as well as a "Final Thoughts" video on the game. We'll see how that goes 😉

Our next creator that is providing coverage for Deliverance is Jeremy Howard of Man Vs Meeple. He loves a great solo experience, and I hope he sees what I believe to be true about Deliverance as a solo game 😁

Last, and probably most craziest, we managed to get a Deliverance game in the hands of famed Catholic Exorcist Father Carlos Martens, who has served as an exorcist for the Catholic Church for over 20 years. They recently took some of his most gnarly case files and created the Exorcist Files Podcast. Having listened to it, I am so scared and intrigued... Despite being scared as heck (I don't usually watch/listen to horror anything) I am stoked to find such a high quality piece of Christian content existing like this. I am committed to the whole series now 😱😆 It launched in January, and has over 3M downloads. Check out the teaser trailer:

Bridge Fulfillment pulled every string they could to get a game into his hands during the limited window it was possible, and he thought the game was cool! This might actually result in an endorsement from an exorcist. Wow! Whether you believe in this sort of thing or not, you're about to play a game close to the subject matter in Deliverance. 

Conclusion

It always feels like there is a lot to say, but I can type on this subject forever. That is how much I love sharing with you as my backers and insiders. This doesn't feel like work -- it is purely pleasure that you all have cared about this passion project of mine enough to help it cross the finish line. For some of you, we have crossed it, and for everyone else, we're in the final lap!

Thank you all for joining me on this journey of mine, which began on a run I took in June 2016. Here we are together, still running toward the finish line together.

And to be clear, this is not the last you'll hear of Deliverance. An expansion is in the works, and while I won't be running a Kickstarter this year for it, you can expect more details on this emerging soon 😉

It's going to be an exciting few months to come!

Kind regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team