Sketches, Painted Angels, UK/EU Delivery, & more!
over 1 year 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! 😇
over 1 year 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 😱
over 1 year 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

We're On A Boat! 🚢 Freight Shipping Has Begun!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 03:40:25 PM

We have GREAT news with a single sad note in regard to shipping that you're going to want to read, but there's more! We have pics of t-shirts, our first official *review* of the game, an updated timeline, and a story about one of the most epic Deliverance games I have ever played. Read on for details...

We're On A Boat! 🚢 Toot Toot!

Okay, so it's happened. We finished manufacturing and sorting for our shipping companies to pick up products during the first 2 weeks of June...

"... and product was seamlessly loaded on to ships for delivery to all of our various shipping hubs around the world..."

... is what I WANTED to write, but there's a small caveat that will make our UK/EU backers have a sad.

First, here is the good news: 3 of 4 shipments went beautifully!

Then, the bad news: The UK/EU shipment got out, but it is 2 weeks behind everyone else.

I'll explain each region's shipping situation below (feel free to skip to your region).

Asia Region Backers: 

VFI Asia is prepping for delivery right NOW to our Asian backers. Here is the ETA given to me for delivery times for the Asian region by VFI (this also includes some "rest of world" backers in places like Brazil or Israel). Keep in mind, this is once they ship games which should begin in early July:

 China / Honk Kong / Mongolia: 2-3 days

Taiwan: 7 days

Japan / South Korea: 14 days

Singapore / Malaysia: 21 days

Thailand / Philippines / Vietnam: 30 days

Indonesia / Israel: 45 days

Brazil: Freight begins in October this year (wow Brazil takes some time): 99999999999 days (is what it feels like)

Short story about VFI Asia -- They were 3 dice sets short of product, BUT ...

... our awesome rep Rebecca from Longpack came to the rescue! She had exactly 3 dice sets in her office to hand them so they could fill orders! Sometimes, errors like this happen, but I am thankful for a manufacturer that is as responsive as Longpack. She even sent me picture evidence. I'm totally going to send their team some Deliverance shirts as a token of my appreciation for how well they have treated me and YOU, my backers during this process (more on shirts later).

North + Central American Region Backers: 

Bridge Fulfillment helped me with freight and logistics for 2 containers, and all of this product was loaded around mid June. The product is currently on an ocean freight liner on its' way to the US East Coast, where it will disembark and be transported by rail to Bridge Fulfillment in Smyrna, Georgia. They estimate arrival in July, and have told me that delivery in the USA will begin in early August! They will send product to Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico from there as well.

Important note for ALL Painted Minis / Angel & Archangel Investor backers: Our awesome professional painter that is producing your minis,  Jason of Splintered Brush Studio, is Canadian, and will receive ~60 Angel Mini sets to paint from Bridge Fulfillment. Some of these will be fulfilled from Canada, but the majority will likely be shipped from Canada back down to Bridge for final fulfillment due to the majority of these orders being from US-based addresses (it all depends on the advice I get from my awesome Bridge team).

Typical fulfillment times to the US from Bridge once sent out range from 2-5 days to most of the USA (though Alaska and Hawaii will take longer). I'll keep you posted on the specifics of when you can expect your product once it is shipped out in our next update on July 31st.

AUS & NZ Backers:

Aetherworks coordinated their shipment on June 16, and estimated the arrival of the shipment for YESTERDAY (June 29)! They told me it would then take 5-7 days from that date for the Aetherworks warehouse to receive the goods. I estimate 7-14 days for them to process and begin delivery. That means that fulfillment of this region will begin around mid July! Yay :D

I have all the positive things to say about Aetherworks so far. They have made this process extreeeeemely easy. Y'all are blessed to have 'em taking care of you down under!

UK & EU Region Backers:

To address the sad news here, we had a lapse in communication with our freight handler for the UK (UK and EU are traveling together). I wasn't happy with how it turned out, and at the end of the day, the only person I can truly blame is myself. However, I was pretty disappointed. Our other shipments made it out without a hitch, and communication was excellent. I didn't get that with the UK freight handler, and felt overall that communication was reactionary. Bottom line is I gave them what the other companies needed to get it all done, and this freight handler didn't get it done. We had 2 extra weeks of sparse and, at time, frustrating communication. But in the end, we finally gave them what they needed, and as I type this today, we have the product destined for UK/EU being loaded into a container and onto an ocean freightliner bound for the UK.

Once we get into the UK, Gamesquest is our vendor that is handling fulfillment! They will receive the product into their UK warehouse, then immediately send off the EU product to their EU warehouse as they start UK fulfillment. This ended up being the most sensible route for fulfillment (EU shipping law is quite difficult to navigate -- Many companies have decided simply not to sell into the EU, but I also see many companies, including ours, doing this in the future to make sure they don't exclude our EU patrons). 

In the end, we're tracking 4-6 weeks for product to arrive at the Gamesquest warehouse, meaning fulfillment is *still* estimated to begin "on time" in August. However, it's 2 weeks we lost that I know I can save next time given this experience. My fulfillment skill definitely leveled up handling this situation!

Overall Project Timeline Update:

Given all the info above, here is the TL;DR on our 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 (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!

Given the above delay for EU backers in particular, I expect your region's final fulfillment may actually begin in September. I will keep you all posted on this next update as I get more info from Gamesquest.

What might delay this timeline?

I need to prep you all for this JUST IN CASE it happens. Each of our freight containers need to pass a Customs check in their country's port of entry. We have all our paperwork in order, but it is still possible that we are randomly selected for additional screening. I have seen this result in a delay of 2-4 weeks. While unlikely, it is a possibility. I wanted you all to be prepared. Let's pray and hope for a smooth conclusion to Deliverance's freight journey!

T-Shirts Have Arrived! 🔥🔥🔥

Hands On Originals finished and delivered nearly 900 T-Shirts to Bridge Fulfillment's warehouses. We will be sending shirts out to Gamesquest for UK/EU fulfillment with your games, but Asia and AUS/NZ regions will have these sent directly from Bridge in the US (Asia and AUS/NZ ships out so quick... I'm jealous)!

Each of the designs are screen-printed on high-quality CVC fabric, so they will last. I was very pleased to see how detailed the updated Michael, the Archangel looked on his shirt. The colors really came through beautifully on them all. The "Halos" shirt fabric came out a bit lighter than I expected, but I actually really like it. It offers a nice contrast to the muted dark colors of the other designs, but isn't so bright that it calls extra attention to itself. I LOVE those halos and how the "Free Action" icon pops. They're each a real conversation piece, and I can't wait to see you all walking around with these at conventions, in pics at game nights, or just a selfie style pic showing your epic loot off! 

I convinced some of my family and friends at my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym as well as my awesome wife Christy to model the shirts for me. Check out the final shirts!

The Most Epic Deliverance Game Ever? A Story.

I played an epic Deliverance game with a few fans that happened to live just a few towns over from me! We met at the D Pad, which is my awesome friendly local game store, and the plan was to give them a guided tour and first playthrough.

But after just a few minutes at the table, I could tell that Joshua and his two sons weren't novices, so there's no way I could let their first game be an easy run.

We started their first game on Heroic difficulty, and this decision is where everything just started to slide uncontrollably toward insanity...

The game started out well enough -- After setup and a quick rules overview, we jumped in.

As an aside, -- I really like to let the game do the teaching after the setup. Most of the "rules" of the game are explained on the various cards, which are delivered to you as the action happens in bite-sized chunks. The rulebook is 32 pages, but if you're familiar with these sorts of games (video OR board games), you only really need to review the first ~12 pages to dive in and get going.

In a 4-player game, the first round goes easy, but the start of the second round is when the epiphany strikes -- These Darkness cards will destroy us if we don't deal with them! That's a really magical moment in the excitement of the game. It makes you suddenly feel like you're in a real fight that you could lose!

We battled through the minions of Fallbrook and made it to the mighty Fallen Prince, Legion! Once Legion and his hordes were defeated, the town would be delivered from evil, and we would win the game. 

Legion had other plans.

One by one, Legion mercilessly beat down our angelic heroes. We began to break ranks and seek shelter, but none was to be found! Legion was unstoppable, and his hordes were ever-growing.

The last angel was struck down by the Legion, and all was lost...

BUT WAIT! One of our clever players revived using the Crown of Life!

We stood against Legion with three defeated angels, and the final angel on the battlefield, Sardius, stood against all odds and in defiance of the Legion.

Using his command over the earth to steady himself, Sardius stood silent and unflinching among the denizens of evil and swaths of Darkness that surrounded him, despite having only a single point of health remaining.

The next round began, and Sardius narrowly avoided certain doom through the use of Prayer cards by defeated team members. The shouts of encouragement coming from the gates of Heaven in the distance could be heard as whispers in Sardius' ears.

The great angel stood tall, shielded himself with great stones, and opened great sinkholes in the earth itself, swallowing the ranks of demons before him.

Falling to a knee, the ranks of demonic hordes beat on his shields, and despite his greatest effort, the demonic horde stood victorious over the angel. Battered and broken among the demonic ranks, his vision clouded and went dark.

But what was this? Ranks of his defeated allies stood tall once more at the Heavenly Gates?!

He bought time for his allies to make a return!

They razed through the remaining demonic hordes, until only Legion remained.

But the Legion would not be satiated. He began to once again cut through the angelic ranks in stark silence.

We fought back! Some of us were cut down as our allies pounded damage on the Legion. We danced in and out of his range as best we could, and in the end...

We defeated him, winning the game! Only two of us stood at the end, boasting a combined total of FOUR health between us.

This scenario might not have felt like this to a casual observer, but this was the story playing in all of our minds.

Several weeks later, this still feels fresh in my head.

As a fellow fan of Deliverance that has no copy of the game myself (for I have given them to reviewers), I can't wait for my game to be delivered to my house.

Here is the review Deliverance received on BGG after the game from Josh:

I wanted to give them an entertaining experience without "helping" too much as the game's creator. As a result, we had a crazy good time! Maybe I should have helped more? 😆

I may have gone a little overboard on the story, but I hope y'all are excited!

Deliverance Official Review: Sam Healey

The last thing I feel is of note that I should include in this update... We received our first content creator's review! The legit pros and cons of Deliverance according to Sam Healey in his LIVE review he did on June 30:

What's Next?

Much of what happens next is out of our control, but we're going to do all we can to ensure Deliverance has a smooth ... delivery... to your doorstep!

Look out for updated shipping timelines in next month's update along with more reviews.

Until then, thank you for following and supporting Deliverance. I couldn't have done it without you, my fellow Insider.

Kind regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

I spent $150,000 of your money this week. Hope you don't mind 😁
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 31, 2023 at 03:49:23 PM

Welcome to the May update! Timeline updates, manufacturing completed, freight coordinated, and much more! Get a load of a near-misprint fixed at the last minute, and hear how I spent $150,000 of your money in a week! Exciting times 😁

First, Read This! "To Do" List: Review Your Address

Many of you have reviewed your information on Hive. Most of the minor address errors have been resolved, but I wanted to add 1 more urgent reminder to check your address *IF* any of the following are true about your account:

1) If your Zip Code begins with a "zero" (0) 

2) If your address contains special letters not native to English such as ö, ü, ß, ñ, or Chinese/Japanese language characters.

If one of these two situations describes you, and you have not yet reviewed your address, be sure to do so in Hive (Gain access here: Hiveinteractive.net/pledgemanager). If the information looks correct, there is nothing more you need to do. If it is incorrect, please submit a support ticket to me in Hive, and I will fix that for you :)

Timeline Update

As I type this, Deliverance game assembly is nearly complete. Games and all our add-ons are being prepped and sorted for regional fulfillment. Our final completion date where our shipping partners can pick up the product is June 5th, so we're running on schedule! We had only a single minor delay, which was related to the Neoprene Mat -- it was almost misprinted, so we had to make one last tweak to the art file before mass manufacturing. More on that below :)

Here is what our timeline looks like:

•  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 (In Progress): Deliverance gets sorted for regional fulfillment & begins freight shipping (4-6 weeks for ocean freight).
•  July 2023: Deliverance arrives and is sorted at our shipping partners' warehouses around the world.
•  July - August 2023: The final "Deliverance" from local warehouses to your homes begins!

More Manufacturing Pics

For everyone's curiosity, I asked the factory to send a progress update for me to share in time for this update, and they obliged and also sent along some pre-assembly pics. Enjoy!

Upgrades Complete

Everyone that wanted to add items to their pledge have been updated. As a result, almost all add-ons are sold out! We will hang on to the remainder until after we have fulfilled all orders, and then anything else will be added to our website store.

Speaking of Our Website...

Did you know that we are working on a new fancy website for Deliverance? It's not completed, but if you'd like to explore a work in progress and offer some feedback as we develop, head over to PlayDeliverance.com! It is as of yet unlinked, but there might be a hidden thing or two in there to discover 😎

The "Angels" page might be of particular exciting interest to you if you'd like to learn about some of the detail, lore, and inspiration behind all the characters you unlocked during the campaign 😇

Wanna See The Thing We Almost Misprinted?

This was a close call 😨 Thankfully, the final version of the Neoprene Playmat correctly says "Darkness Track" and "Initiative Track" like it should! Also, the picture really doesn't capture how beautiful and vibrant this mat is, but wow you all are going to be REALLY happy when you see it!

Fulfillment & Huge Wire Transfers

We are now entering the stage of the process where we watch a boat slowly travel across the world to regional fulfillment centers. The four regional centers we are using are as follows:

• Bridge Fulfillment (USA & Canada)
• GamesQuest (UK & EU Region)
• Aetherworks (AUS & NZ)
• VFI Asia (Asia & "Rest of World")

Your random insider look into my head of the update is as follows (😆): I have been paying huge wire transfers and watched $150,000 vanish from the company bank account in a week to pay for all the freight, shipping estimates, and the final balance owed for manufacturing. Wow. It's not really spoken about, but wire transfers are like... permanent. If I get it wrong, everyone loses everything. While everything went so smoothly, I checked and re-checked and verified and confirmed every single digit and letter asked of me for these transfers. Publishers really never talk about how money is spent during a KS fulfillment, and you trust that it's all going well, but that has been a seriously sensitive part of any campaign. The only wire transfers I've ever done that got close were for my house! I take being a steward of your money as my Insider and Kickstarter backer *very* seriously.

What's Coming Next?

Much of what transpires next is outside of our control. We have placed our prize in the hands of capable, reliable, and proven fulfillment partners. However, as many of you that are seasoned veterans of this process understand, unforeseen delays are *still* possible.

For example, Bridge (our US/CAN fulfillment partner), recently moved to a larger warehouse space to support the influx of business that came to them from Funagain Fulfillment closing its' doors. This is causing delays for their current fulfillment. I have heard it should be resolved by the time our campaign is ready to fulfill, but truth is I am not banking on perfection.

As always, I will keep you informed on the final day of every month (and if there is important news to report, maybe even mid-month for a special update). A mid-month update is not likely for June, unless I get news worth sharing!

And lastly, because some you have been asking across our various social channels, we are indeed working on Deliverance expansions! I am not yet ready to reveal anything beyond what we shared in past updates, but I expect to share more as fulfillment progresses and games get into your hands!

We are working hard behind the scenes to make more content for you, and just like the first game, I will want your help and your suggestions to make it as awesome as it can possibly be!

Until next time, Insiders!

Kind regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team