Shipping status, an amazing story… and Merry Christmas!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 23, 2022 at 06:25:21 AM

Hello friends! We are going to skip one update per month theory because we want to inform you about all the news related to shipping. We've been working hard and learning a lot about international logistics in the last weeks, but the most important thing is that the pieces continue falling into place. Straight to the point, this is the current status of Scarface 1920 shipping:

•  China: the hub that distributes to all of Asia from China has already received the games
•  Australia: the ship already arrived in port on 15 December and the games are scheduled to arrive at the distribution hub on 9 January
•  Europe: the ship leaves the port of Ningbo on 27 December and is scheduled to arrive at its destination port on 1 February
•  UK: the ship leaves the port of Ningbo on 29 December and is scheduled to arrive at its destination port on 30 January
•  United States: the ship left the port of Ningbo on 20 December and has not yet confirmed an estimated date of arrival at the port of destination, but we will soon know
•  Canada: the ship left the port of Ningbo on 12 December and will arrive at its destination port on 10 January.

IMPORTANT: All the dates we handle, especially at Christmas time, are subject to change. We are being transparent with you because we have been on "your" side of the story many times and this is what we would like to have been told. That said, we insist that the dates could suffer variations because there are a number of variables, beyond Redzen Games or Shipquest’s' control, that make it impossible for us to make any definitive statements. As always, we will answer any questions you may have in the comments or on the BGG.

AN AMAZING STORY

Since Redzen Games went public back in May 2021, a lot of amazing things have happened to us and made us very happy. For example, that our first Kickstarter reached 7420 backers. Or that a wonderful community has been born around Scarface 1920... when you haven't even played Scarface 1920. Or that we've finally been able to see, on a the table, the final version of a game so many years in development. Scarface 1920 is making us very happy, and each of us who are part of the project has a wonderful story to tell, but today we want to tell you what is undoubtedly the most incredible of all.

Tobias and Kathi are a couple from Germany who spent a good part of their lockdown playing board games. That experience, like for many of us, brought them closer than ever and helped them to grow in their shared passion for board games. When they crossed Scarface 1920's path, they didn't hesitate for a second to become backers.

As you know, one of the great things about Scarface 1920 is that every backer could put their name -or whatever they wanted- in the Special thanks booklet. And this is where the story gets interesting: Tobias and Kathi agreed that they would put the name of their dog, Phoebe, in the book... but Tobias had other plans. Instead, Tobias chose another dedication: "Kathi, will you marry me? Love, Tobias.”

Lovely, isn't it? Well, not quite, because international logistics, as we have been telling you over the last few months, prevented Tobias from getting the message to Kathi on the date he was expecting Scarface 1920. When he contacted us to tell us this incredible story, we all knew what to do: we had to send Tobias one of the Special thanks booklet to complete his purpose, directly from the factory by airplane. And so we did.

A few days ago we received a communication from Kathi explaining that just as she read the message and put the booklet away, she saw Tobias kneeling with a ring in his hand. "I said yes, of course," she said. "Thank you for making this unforgettable moment so special for us!" As you can see, some stories end well....

We will publish an update before the year ends explaining the status of the shipping to close 2022.  Oh, and one last thing from all the team:

Shipping status and two surprises
over 1 year ago – Tue, Dec 06, 2022 at 12:23:08 AM

Hello friends! In the last update we showed you the roadmap for these weeks, during which we have had more work than ever. Being totally transparent, we have good news and not so good news.

The process of leaving the factory and starting the shipment is slower, more complex and more tedious than we expected. In this case, our inexperience has surely influenced us, since as you know Scarface 1920 is our first board game and also our first experience in the world of intercontinental logistics, but also a new wave of restrictions and new lockdowns in China due to the coronavirus. In addition, and as our Shipquest partners have told us, normally a container that has already been booked is loaded onto the ship in 3 or 4 days, but before Christmas this process takes longer due to saturation.

This cocktail has caused some delays in shipping although, as we told you, we also have good news and the process (FINALLY) is well underway. Shipping is advancing full steam ahead (no pun intended) in some regions and is about to do so in others. Continuing with our transparency exercise, we give you a summary of the current status of shipping by region:

•  Australia: On board. The ship in which the games travel, in case you want to follow up, is the Hyundai Vancouver 0281S.
•  Asia: On the road. Yes, road, not ship, as it is being delivered to the warehouse in China. 
•  Canada: Already booked. Waiting for the assigned ship. 
•  Europe: Already booked. Waiting for the assigned ship. 
•  UK: Already booked. Waiting for the assigned ship. 
•  United States: We are processing all import and customs documentation, as there are many restrictions when it comes to bringing shipments from China. Also, as mentioned, it is a tedious process that we must finish before we are assigned a ship. It will not lengthen.
   

As soon as they leave China, we'll give you the names of the ships so you can see how Scarface 1920 is coming closer to your homes.

IN TOTALLY UNRELATED NEWS…

Not everything is bittersweet, and not everything has to do with boats, permits, calendars, documents and boring bureaucracy. In addition to working on a series of news that we will tell you about soon, we have contacted several content creators to offer you a series of Scarface 1920 How to Play and Gameplay videos.

Among the ones we wanted to show you, two of our most awaited ones are these videos made by the amazing people of Meeple University: a Standard Mode How to Play and a Solo Mode How to Play. In the case of the Standard, it is the first How to Play video to be published with 100% of the final rules of the game. If you remember, we posted some How to Play videos during the Kickstarter campaign, but some of the rules and card texts have been adjusted since. In the case of the Solo Mode, this is directly the first How to Play video to be published. By the way, for those of you who love to look closely, in both videos you are going to see details, characters or mechanics that we had not yet shown. Of course, both videos come with a timestamp, in case you want to see specific moments of each game.

SOLO MODE

STANDARD MODE

As always, you can ask your questions and we will be more than happy to answer them, both in the comments or on the BGG. Enjoy the videos and see you soon!

Confirming calendars, a trip to Essen and an awesome photo shoot
over 1 year ago – Wed, Nov 02, 2022 at 01:00:25 AM

The person who writes these lines is a different person from the one who negotiates with the manufacturers, and from those who test and polish the game mechanics, and from the illustrator who has given life to the characters. The person who writes these lines can assure you that he has asked a question with -too much- insistence during the last few days weeks months: when will we have definitive shipping dates for Scarface 1920?

We already told you that, due to a series of color problems, we had to recalibrate, adjust and print the boards and boxes. In addition, these days we also detected an error in a News card that has also been adjusted and reprinted. Well, although we had a fairly specific idea of the delivery dates when we answered your questions in the previous update, the time has come to confirm they were correct and make those dates official. And as you know that we like to be totally transparent, we leave here how the production process has developed in the last month:

• Mass printing: 10th Oct ✓
• Oil drying: 13th Oct ✓
• Surface finishing: 17th Oct ✓
• Die cutting: 24th Oct ✓
• Shaping process: 29th Oct ✓
• Final assembly: 5th Nov

That means, friends, that next November 5th (which is already in 5 days!) our partners in China will finish the assembly phase and will deliver the products to Ningbo port, where it will be loaded on different ships and from where it will be taken to the international distribution hubs in Australia, Germany, UK, USA and Canada. Our Asian hub, in China, will also receive its share of products, but no need for a ship in that case. As we already told you in the shipping update, once the products arrive at the hubs, each backer's box will be packed with its corresponding pledge level and addons, and shipped to your homes (last mile). I repeat: this process starts... on November 5th!

To Essen with a Scarface 1920 game in our backpack

Part of the Scarface 1920 team traveled to the Essen Spiel fair in early October to meet some distribution, manufacturing or promotion partners. Although Redzen Games didn't have its own booth -everything will come-, we were able to have very interesting meetings, we laid the groundwork for distribution agreements for new countries and we had the opportunity to meet and interact with some of our backers. In fact, some of you saw the game fully deployed, as we played some demo games. It was a pleasure to meet some of you! We'll be back!

Our manufacturing partner, Eastar, showcased Scarface 1920 in their booth. Many of you were able to see all the miniatures in the shelves, as well as the game box right by some of the best games of the moment. It was amazing to see our game among some titles as huge as Nemesis, Foundations of Rome, ISS Vanguard, Tainted Grail or The Great Wall. We are so proud to see our game, your game, in there.

One of the reasons for our visit to Essen was to give a production copy of Scarface 1920 to Mateusz Zajda, a very talented board game photographer from Poland. Mateusz has worked, for example, for projects like Flamecraft or Everdell Spirecrest, as you can see on his website or Instagram. Well, we wanted Mateusz Zajda to do a photo shoot with Scarface 1920. Mateusz loved the idea and we loved how it turned out. We leave you with a little sneak peek of the amazing photo shoot of promotional images he delivered this week. Cool, aren’t they?

In the next update we will give you the name of the ships so you can track your games, as well as an ETA for each hub. That means that Scarface 1920 is getting closer and closer to your homes, but also that we will no longer be able to make address changes for shipments. From now on, all of you who change your shipping address, once your delivery company is assigned, will need to contact them to provide the new details. See you soon!

A typhoon, a color problem... and a premium board game
over 1 year ago – Wed, Sep 28, 2022 at 01:13:16 AM

When you face the challenge of making a board game, and you think about the difficulties you might encounter along the way, you think about whether you will be able to make a balanced game, whether you will manage to make a truly immersive experience or even whether you will find the right partners to make an optimal product. But, in no case, do you think about pandemics that change the pace of the world's population, global transportation crises, ships stuck in canals or typhoons that wreck factory productions.

Yes, friends, misfortune has once again crossed Scarface 1920's path, in this case, in the form of a typhoon (the terrible “Muifa”) that has affected the game's production at our chinese manufacturer's warehouses.

The images you see above are from two weeks ago, when we had practically completed 100% of the process of manufacturing the game and when we had already started to write the corresponding update, in which we were going to finally tell you about the definitive dates. We even had organized the transportation and delivery in port with Shipquest and were waiting for the final confirmation.

Despite the typhoon, our partner cut the deadlines to the maximum to deliver a final copy of Scarface 1920 to us last week. And it arrived. And what we found was exactly what we wanted, that is, a game with all the details taken care of to the maximum, a premium product at the height of what we expected... except for two things: the box and the main board.

You already know that one of the pillars of Redzen Games is to make premium products. And so are all the components of Scarface 1920, checked one by one in its final version, but neither the board nor the box are at the level of excellence we expect. There is no problem with the design or the material, but there is a problem with the color calibration at the printing stage.

After discussing it with our Chinese partner, with whom we share this level of demand, they are in complete agreement with us and are already reprinting the boards and boxes to adjust them to the desired result for all parties. It would not be fair, neither for you nor for us, to receive two components as special as the board and the box without it being the best board and the best box we can make.

These are the reasons, as we were saying, why we had to cancel the update we were working on and why we have not yet been able to set the final dates, much to our regret. The situation is complex and we still can't be specific, but we preferred to be transparent with this update. We don’t expect the reprint and final assembly will take long, but we are right now waiting for updated timeline, which the manufacturer will give us this week. And of course, we will update you as soon as we have them.

Before leaving, we leave you with a couple of images of Scarface 1920 in its final version. These are no longer renders, nor samples, these are some of the components from the game you are going to receive soon.

We hope that, this time, we will be able to talk about dates in the next update. Thank you for your patience and understanding, see you soon!

Rulebook. Reglamento. Règles. Anleitung. 규칙서
over 1 year ago – Thu, Aug 25, 2022 at 03:50:10 AM

Hello friends! After flooding you with photos of the (almost) final version of Scarface 1920, which had a tremendously good feedback (thanks, we love you!), we are going to do exactly the same, but with text. After several months of work, we can finally offer you the translated final versions of the rulebooks in all the available languages, besides the English version we already saw. 

Many of you requested to be able to read the rulebook in your language. We contacted the publishers, who are in charge of localizing the game to each language and distributing its retail version in their corresponding countries, in order to be able to share them with you. And we already have them here in French (thanks, Légion Distribution), German (thanks, Grimspire), Korean (thanks, Korea Board Games) and Spanish (thanks, SD Games). You can't imagine how proud we are of this image...

Below you will find the two rulebooks (Standard game and Solo mode) in the five languages in which Scarface 1920 will be available for now.

• English
• German
• Spanish
• French
• Korean

By the way, there are still a few backers -very few- who haven't finished paying the shipping yet. If you have any questions, you can contact us through the comments, Instagram or [email protected]. Come on, we are super close to having Scarface 1920 in your hands!