Canopy

Boardgames for the Planet
about 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 23, 2021 at 01:24:28 AM

Hi Canopy Backers!

Today is Earth Day and I wanted to reflect and share what we have accomplished with Canopy and what plans we have for the future in regards to environmentally focused and sustainably produced boardgames. Canopy is in production and moving along smoothly. I am still waiting on the updated timeline of when production will finish so I will share that in the next update. The rest of this update will be dedicated to environmental topics so if you are interested please read on and if not we will see you next update.

A Forest Canopy

With your help and generous support we have been able to plant 11,347 trees in partnership with Treesisters. I chose to partner with Treesisters as they have a very dedicated, community and equity focused approach to tree planting. As an organization they have helped to plant over 16 million trees worldwide and I am excited that the Canopy campaign has contributed to that. 

Here is a link to the Fundraiser I set up for Canopy that shows all of the funds that were donated as part of the campaign - Canopy Fundraiser 

Here is a link to an article about how the trees we helped plant are helping to save Jaguars in Brazil - Saving Jaguars

Where are the Trees

When I first set out the tree planting goal I hoped to plant all of the trees in the Amazon. I soon realized that most organizations don't work exclusively in one region and have tree planting partnerships around the world. While it would have been cool to have one forest project where all of the funds from Canopy went, I think it is equally awesome that our campaign which was funded and supported by people all around the world, is helping to plant trees all across the globe.

Next Steps in Sustainability

We are proud of the steps we took to produce Canopy in as environmentally friendly manner as possible. These included using Forestry Stewardship Council certified wood, foregoing plastic bags, components and shrinkwrap, and working to keep the box size to a minimum. However, there is more we can do and we are excited to keep pushing and exploring possibilities. Things we are looking into for the future include:

• Finding shipping and transport options with lower carbon emissions and/or producing the games in multiple regions so they have less distance to travel.
• Using new environmentally friendly materials like eco-leather to make plant-based playmats. 
• Partnering with museums, schools, and other organizations to share our games to provide opportunities for climate education.
• Creating the Green Board Games Facebook group. 
• Designing and publishing games that teach about the most effective ways to reduce climate change.

Green Board Games

Creating a Facebook group focused on boardgames that are environmentally focused and/or produced in environmentally friendly ways is something I have been thinking about for a long time, but never got around to doing.  Today being Earth Day and that coinciding with this update, inspired me to finally set up the group and get it running. It is a brand new group and you all are the first people I am inviting. My goal is to create a welcoming group that is a fun to place to share and learn about new games with environmental themes and to highlight creators and publishers who are working to produce games in a sustainable manner. If you would like to join click the link below:

Green Board Games Facebook Group 

Thanks as always for being part of Canopy's creation and community! If you have any environmentally related actions, ideas or thoughts please feel free to share them in the comments. Take care and I'll be back in a a few weeks with the next update.

Tim

Canopy Production is Under Way!
about 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 04, 2021 at 01:59:30 PM

Hello Canopy Backer,

I'm writing this update with extreme joy and excitement because Canopy is finally in production! After many months of adjustments, holidays, updates and revisions the mass production process for Canopy is underway. The rough timeline for Production is two months (I'll have a more detailed timeline in the next Update) so games should be ready to load on ships by early June.

Shifting Requirements

While production is underway we did have one final wrinkle that almost delayed the process. It came to our attention that we were required to have an address in the EU listed on the box in addition to our address in the US. Fortunately, we were able to start the production process while I checked with our distribution partner to see if we could use their address. They gave us the okay and I have added their address to the boxes today and have uploaded them for our manufacturer. 

Pledge Manager Closing 

As production is underway we will be closing the pledge manager and pre-orders in two weeks on April 15th. The majority of you have already finalized your pledge and those pledges are locked. However, if you wanted to add a puzzle or additional copy of the game you can email me at [email protected] and I can add it to your pledge.  Shipping addresses will still be able to be updated for a month or two longer, and I will send out an update two weeks before addresses will be locked. 

That is all the update for now. I'll be back in two weeks with another update and we should have a firm idea of the production timeline by then. Thanks for being along for the journey!

Tim

New Inserts and a Slight Delay
about 3 years ago – Fri, Mar 19, 2021 at 01:36:33 AM

Hi Backers,

Thank you all for your patience in waiting for these updates. As I said in a previous update we were hoping to begin production on March 15th. Unfortunately, one thing I keep learning in regards to production is nothing ever goes as smoothly or quickly as you would expect. This is especially true during this last year when the pandemic has made life topsy turvy across the globe.

Production Delayed by a Bag

Unfortunately, the cloth bag from the deluxe edition is the one item we are still waiting on to begin production. We received a sample earlier this week, but while it was printed with the beautiful artwork from Canopy, it was made of a flimsy, polyester material that does not work for this game. We have requested a new sample of the bag and that should be arriving by the middle of next week.  All the other pieces of production are in place, so once the bag sample arrives and is approved we will be able to hit go on production.  Thank you for your incredible patience during this process.

New Inserts and Box stickers

Last week I received samples of the new inserts and stickers for the retail boxes. The new inserts look great and each box now has 4 separate compartments to better sort the game materials. The retail game is quite snug, but that is by design. Check out the photos below:

Next Steps

Production usually takes around 2 months to complete. So hopefully by mid to late May I will receive a sample of the final mass production copy of the game. Once that is approved they will assemble all of the games and get them loaded onto ships. So we are currently still looking to begin fulfillment in July.

I am still locking in my fulfillment partner for the EU and setting up my VAT registration. Once manufacturing has begun I will get the shipping documents from the manufacturer and will be able to get that all set up with the sea freight company. International shipping is currently a pretty wild place with higher costs, extended delays at port, and other no fun hassles to deal with, but we have a solid freight shipping partner who I am confident will help us navigate it as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your support and patience and I'll be back soon to let you know production has started.

Tim

Final Rules as we Await the PPC
about 3 years ago – Tue, Mar 02, 2021 at 08:16:48 PM

Hello Canopy Backers,

Our manufacturer recently got back from the Lunar New Year holiday and took last week to get up to speed. We are waiting on some updated samples from them before we commence with production. We are hoping to receive those samples by early next week so we can make any final adjustments and then give the go ahead to start production. The updated items we are waiting to review are:

• Box Inserts
• Cloth Bag
• Box stickers for retail
• Box wrap for deluxe

Final Rules

I shared a semi-final version of the rules a few updates back, but wanted to share the final rules with you all. Follow the link below to view the final PDF. Several backers have expressed interest in translating the rules of Canopy and if you are one of them please email me at [email protected] and I can send you a larger version of the PDF.

Canopy Rulebook 

Shipping and Fulfillment

Now that we have final box sizes and weights locked in I have been working to finalize our shipping plan. Games will be shipping from the factory to fulfillment centers in the US, EU, UK, and China and from those hubs will be sent out to backers around the world. I have shipped several games using the same freight shipping company and fulfillment centers so I do not expect too much of an issue. 

The major change this time around is Brexit and how that is affecting VAT in the EU and UK. I am currently consulting with a few different fulfillment centers in the EU and once I have that sorted all the pieces for shipping should be in place. 

That is all the news for this current update. I'll be back in 2-3 weeks once we have a firm production start date and all the needed updates have been made.  Thank you all once again for your support and for helping to make this game a reality!

Tim

Files, Sleeves, Voting and More!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Feb 06, 2021 at 02:45:23 AM

Hello Backers,

I've spent the last week communicating with our manufacturers and making the necessary file adjustments to get Canopy ready for mass production. I have almost all of the files updated and will be submitting them to our prepress specialist early next week. 

Before I get to all the PPC news I wanted to thank all of you who have voted for Canopy on BGG. We are in the homestretch of the vote (ends on Saturday) and we are currently in the running for one of the top 5 spots in both the Science and Short Games categories. If you haven't voted yet, we'd really appreciate your support.

Vote Here

Files Updated

• Boxes: Due to Brexit, it is now required to add a UKCA (UK safety label) to all products. 
• Envelopes: We doubled the size of these so they can more comfortably accommodate tokens and cards. 
• Inserts: Adjusted the inserts to add more separate compartments. More info on this below in the sleeving section. 
• Rulebook: We caught a few last minute typos in the rulebook and they have been corrected. 
• Card Sorting: The cards come in three stacks and we have requested that the Advanced cards, Seed cards, and Shifting Seasons cards all be packed together for easy initial sorting. 
• 3D Tree Token: We adjusted the base of this making it larger and more stable. 

What we are waiting on from the manufacturer:

• Samples of the stay stickers that will keep the retail and puzzle boxes sealed. 
• Sample of the paper wrap for the deluxe game. 
• Sample of the cloth bag. 
• Samples of the inserts for retail and deluxe.
• Double confirmation that all punchboards are good to go for mass production. The manufacturing team has said that the jagged edges that were visible in the PPC were due to it being made on a laser cutter and would not be present in the final mass produced version, but I have asked for final confirmation of this.

Puzzle Report

My partner Tekela and I completed the puzzle last week. On the whole the puzzle is very well produced and the shape, size and vivid colors of the pieces were all very fun to work with. While all of the pieces fit together well, they were not quite as snug as some puzzles. This made moving already put together sections of the puzzle a little difficult. This is not a huge issue, but in the hope of making as high quality a product as possible, I have asked the manufacturer to look into this and they have said in mass production it should provide a tighter fit. 

 It was very fun to assemble the puzzle and get up close and intimate with Vincent's incredible artwork. Seeing the tiniest of details and gentle brushstrokes made me appreciate the art even more. The puzzle is challenging at times (blue sky) but was very rewarding. If you missed out on a puzzle and would like to add one to your order feel free to email me and I can add it anytime before March 1st. 

Sleeve Report

One of my main tasks last week was to look into how our boxes and inserts could accommodate sleeved and unsleeved cards. This is a challenging task as sleeved cards generally take up about 1.5-2x the amount of space as unsleeved cards. Added to this challenge is that we purposefully made the boxes as compact as possible to reduce the amount of resources used in production and shipping. With all that said here is what I found.

Deluxe Box

I created a template that should work to hold both sleeved and unsleeved cards. It will divide the bottom half of the box into 4 compartments, each of which can hold 1/4 of a sleeved deck of cards. The remaining components can be stacked on top holding the cards in place. I feel pretty confident in this design but will wait until I have received a prototype from the manufacturer for the final go ahead. 

Retail Box

Unfortunately, the retail box is very small and it is not possible to accommodate sleeved cards and an insert at the same time. However, by removing the insert it is possible to fit the sleeved cards and all other components into the box very snugly. 

As there are not dividers or separate components when the insert is removed it makes organization slightly more complicated, but the tight fit of the components helps hold the cards and tokens in place. While I know this may not be the ideal solution, it is the best we can offer without greatly increasing the box size. 

Current Timeline

Our manufacturer is currently on holiday for the lunar new year and will not be returning to the factory until the last week in February. Our project manager has informed me that it will take a week to get back up and running once they return, so we won't receive the next round of samples until early March. If all goes smoothly and the samples look good we are tentatively scheduled to begin manufacturing on March 15th. If we can keep to that start date the rest of our timeline will look like this:

•  March 15th: Manufacturing Starts
•  May 7th: Production finishes
•  May 14th: Final Assembly of games and Freight Shipping begins
•  June 15th-30th: Games arrive to fulfillment centers
•  July 1st: KS Fulfillment begins 

As you can see this puts us slightly behind our estimated delivery of June. My apologies for that delay. I will be doing everything I can to make sure we hit the start date and can stick as close to this new schedule as possible. I will of course keep you updated with any and all developments regarding production and shipping of the game. 

Thank you so much for your support and patience!

Tim