September 3, 2020: Kickstarter Reports, September 2020 Update

2020 has been a difficult year in many ways, and those difficulties have bled over into our Kickstarter fulfillment. (Specifically, the international side of our Kickstarter fulfillment.) To give all of you a better idea of where our open projects stand, this report for September goes into detail on the status of all currently unfulfilled Kickstarter campaigns.

To keep close track of our Kickstarter efforts, we recommend following both the Steve Jackson Games and Warehouse 23 accounts, as well as liking and following our Facebook page.

Steve Jackson Games' Coasters for the Party

• August 19 (2020) to August 24 (2020)
• 393 backers, on schedule
• In order to eliminate shipping complications and delays, this project was only open to the United States. BackerKit surveys open next week. We will list the coasters for sale on Warehouse 23 once Kickstarter fulfillment is complete.

The Fantasy Trip: Hexagram #5 and Ardonirane

• July 27 (2020) to August 10 (2020)
• 725 backers, on schedule
• The BackerKit survey closes very soon, and we look to be ahead of schedule. Estimated delivery of November 2020, but we think we will be finished by early October.

Steve Jackson Games' GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge

• July 1 (2020) to July 13 (2020)
• 2,781 backers, ahead of schedule
• PDFs only means that the fulfillent side of this project has been smoother than on some of our other campaigns. Surveys are closed and many backers already have their rewards. The team is wrapping up the Warehouse 23 library stage of the project and we expect to be 100% finished by the end of the month.

Steve Jackson Games Summer 2020 T-Shirt Collection

• May 12 (2020) to June 1 (2020)
• 516 backers and on schedule
• The last of the international rewards have mailed out. It is now up to the international mail services to do their job. Fingers crossed! 

Car Wars Sixth Edition by Steve Jackson Games

• November 29 (2019) to January 6 (2020)
• 3,936 backers, behind schedule
• The files and minis are at the factory, with the miniatures taking a lot of back and forth to clean up the details and make each look as incredible as possible. We are choosing to be a little late in delivering the game over the choice of shipping the game with minis and components that aren't as good as the early prototypes suggested. Please see this Kickstarter update for more information on the delays.

That makes for a total of five open projects, breaking down as:

• One in the final stages of delivery. (International rewards.)
• One at the factory and behind schedule.
• One in the final part of the PDF fulfilllment stage.
• Two on schedule.

At our current rate, we'll be able to shift four of these five Kickstarter campaigns into the All Done! column in October.

So that we minimize the chance of delays going forward, we will not offer to ship Kickstarter physical rewards outside of the United States. The cost -- in both time and money -- is too great for the return, and we cannot keep projects open for months as we wait for international fulfillment to complete. Where possible, any successful project that offers print rewards will eventually find its way to Warehouse 23. As an example, we opened pre-orders on Hexagram #5 and Ardonirane recently, making all of that project's physical rewards and add-ons available to everyone to pre-order if they wish.

-- Phil Reed