Some production progress despite the COVID-19 outbreak, and a new Kickstarter adventure!
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 10:31:44 PM

Dear backers,

the situation with the COVID-19 virus outbreak is getting more and more serious here in Italy (and to a lesser extent, in the EU in general). We've been all working from our homes for almost three weeks now. Our team is safe, as long as we follow the guidelines and avoid getting out of our homes as much as possible, but getting business done in general is painfully slower than it usually is in these days. Please bear with us :)

We have some new samples to show you.

The first photo, for some reason, heavily altered the color of the miniatures, but show the bery high level of detail you'll find in the final product. The second photo gives you a better idea of the color the miniatures will have. We also have a few pictures of the first resin samples of the expansion unicorns!

We received even more samples, but they are stuck in our office which is closed because of the measures taken by our government to prevent the spread of the virus, and we don't have any photos available right now... but we should be able to have some pictures soon, stay tuned :)

One final news. We just launched another Kickstarter campaign. Our new project is Vampire: The Masquerade - Vendetta, an asymmetrical competitive card game of strategy, bluff, and deduction, designed by renowned game designers Charlie Cleveland (Subnautica) and Bruno Faidutti (Citadels) and set in a "World of Darkness" version of Chicago. You choose one of the vampire clans (Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue) at the beginning of the game and take the role of a scheming vampire of that clan: your goal will be to gain enough influence to seize control of the city and become its new Prince.

We would like to specify that this new project will not have any impact on the delivery of Unicorn Fever. They are in two completely different stages of development. Unicorn Fever is in its final pre-production stages (we're basically waiting for the Chinese factories to get back to full speed to start the real production process). Vendetta is in its final development stages (which means we're still working and improving upon the game design, a work that is done by a different part of the team entirely).

We would be very grateful if you will decide to check our new campaign and, if you like what you see, support us in this new adventure, even in these difficult times!

We'll keep you posted about the production of Unicorn Fever, of course, and if you are in one of the areas affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, take care and stay safe!

Sincerely,

the self-quarantined Horrible team :)

Small production status update & possible impact of the Coronavirus on production times
about 4 years ago – Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at 01:34:52 AM

Dear backers,

just a small production update: the work on all graphic files has been completed for the English language, and the work on translations to Italian, German, Spanish, and French is well underway. We're mostly on schedule with this part of the job! Here's a PDF of the English version of the final rulebook here, if you want to take an early look. 

Since the last production update back in December, we also received the first "complete" production samples of the giant unicorns... and they are absolutely gorgeous!

Finally, a bit of slightly worrisome news: you may be aware of the ongoing Coronavirus epidemic in China. The factories we're working with are not in Wuhan, but the Chinese government has forced basically all factories nation-wide to extend the Chinese New Year closing period, and this means that they are only starting to get back to work in these days (a few weeks later than expected), and in a much diminished capacity. It's difficult for now to estimate the actual impact on the production schedule of Unicorn Fever, but it seems likely that we may have to deal with at least a few weeks of delay. The situation is still pretty difficult to evaluate, but we believe the safety of people comes first, and we hope you won't be too disappointed, should a delay really concretize. We will keep you posted along the way as we receive more news from our factories.

Until next time, Happy Valentine's Day from us and our unicorns!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

Last call for survey updates! The deadline is January 15.
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jan 08, 2020 at 08:46:43 PM

Dear backers,

happy new year! This first update of 2020 only serves as a friendly reminder: the last day to make final updates to your surveys on Backerkit is January 15. After this date, we will lock your reward selections and charge cards for shipping costs, add-on item purchases, pledge upgrades, and pre-orders. Note that only your items will be locked—you will still be able to update your shipping address up until we lock addresses for shipping, which will only happen towards the end of the production of the game, a few months from now.

More than 90% of you have already answered your surveys, but there are still slightly more than 200 backers who still need to do so. To all of these backers: please remind that if you fill out your BackerKit survey or pay for extra shipping after the January 15 order due date, we’ll still receive your information but your shipment may be delayed, so hurry up! :)

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://unicorn-fever.backerkit.com/

Thank you all again for being so responsive to answering our BackerKit survey—even though it may not seem like much as an individual backer, you have no idea how tremendously helpful this has been for us  when trying to keep track of all 3124 of you!

Thanks everyone for your support!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

Merry Holidays from the Horrible Guild team (and our crazy unicorns)!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 11:20:24 PM

Dear backers,

it's been almost two months from our latest update. Our work on Unicorn Fever has been progressing at a steady pace, but there has been nothing really news/update worthy until now. We've been tweaking the text on rulebook and cards, working with our factories to set up the production of the core game, the expansion containing the 3 extra unicorns that were unlocked during the campaign, and the rest of the extras and add-ons that will be delivered to the backers of the various pledge levels. We will have a series of more significant updates to share early next year (the first one will most probably contain a preview of the final rulebook file, and some pictures of the first prototype of the dice tower, that is currently in pre-production).

To entice your unicorn fever (pun absolutely intended), we would like to share the first pre-production pictures of the giant unicorn action figures, both pre- and after assembling (but still unpainted). This is the next production step after the 3d-printed painted prototypes that were shown during the campaign.

Another funny moment we would like to share: after we finalized ther design of the giant cloth board that will come with each Ultimate Pledge, we printed a 1:1 black-and-white mockup to make a final check. We knew it would be 120 x 60 cm because we calculated how big it needed to be to accomodate for the giant unicorn action figures on the racetrack, and we knew it was definitely on the big side of the spectrum (hence why we called it "giant") but this was the first time we actually had a physical example of how big it really is to look at with our own eyes!

From the top left corner and going clockwise, in this picture you can see: Flavio, our production manager; Noa, our graphic designer; this humble scribe of yours; Hjalmar, one of our lead game designers; Laura, game designer and sales manager, and Lorenzo, our other lead game designer and CEO; we were all looking at the giant cloth board paper mockup with awe and astonishment... it's really giant! What have we done? XD

We'll be back in 2020 with more (and more meaningful) updates. In the meantime, we would like to wish you all a merry holiday season and a happy new year!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

Backerkit surveys are incoming!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Nov 01, 2019 at 02:17:43 AM

Dear backers,

we are excited to announce that your fulfillment surveys will be sent out over the next few days! We're sending them out in batches so that we can ensure there are no technical issues. The survey will be sent to the email address associated with your Kickstarter account. The email subject will say "Response Needed -- Get your reward for Unicorn Fever" and will be from [email protected].

In your survey, you'll be asked for the following info:

• Your final shipping address
• The add-on items you want to receive with the money of your pledge (if applicable)
• You will also have the ability to change your reward, or buy additional items (at exclusive Kickstarter prices) that will be shipped alongside your reward.

Last year we got a ton of questions around survey time, so we've gone ahead and laid out all the answers we can think of below. If you've got a question, we kindly ask that you start by reviewing the FAQ below.

KICKSTARTER SURVEY FAQ

1. WHAT IS BACKERKIT?

BackerKit is a 3rd party service that helps project creators like us make our backers happy by sending out easy-to-use surveys and giving them another chance to take advantage of our Kickstarter discounted prices. We've worked with BackerKit on all of our previous Kickstarter projects, and their services just keep getting better and better. So, please don't be alarmed by the backerkit.com URL or the BackerKit logo at the top of the survey... you're in very trusted hands.

2. WHERE'S MY SURVEY? I CAN'T FIND IT.

• No worries, surveys are sent in batches to ensure there are no technical issues. Check your email periodically between now and the middle of next week.
• The quickest way to get to your survey is to go to the following site and enter your Kickstarter email address: https://unicorn-fever.backerkit.com
• Maybe you're checking the wrong email account. Your survey was sent to the email address that is associated with your Kickstarter profile. Not sure what email that is? Login to Kickstarter, click on the  icon in the upper right of the screen, and go to Settings > Account.
• Search your inbox and SPAM folder for "Unicorn Fever" or "Response Needed".
• If all else fails, go to https://unicorn-fever.backerkit.com, click the FAQ link, and then click the Contact tab. The kind folks at BackerKit are here to help!

3. HOW MUCH TIME DO I HAVE TO FILL OUT MY SURVEY?

The sooner you fill your survey out and submit it, the sooner we'll be able to plug your shipment into our fulfillment system, but you don't need to fill it right away. We plan to lock your orders in mid January: at that point we will "lock down" your orders, preventing you from making further changes to your order so that we can have a final count of all the items we need to produce, and start the mass production in time to deliver your rewards according to the planned schedule.

Note that we cannot lock down surveys that are incomplete. You must fill out your survey in full in order for us to ship you your rewards.

4. WILL I BE ABLE TO CHANGE MY SURVEY AFTER SUBMITTING IT?

Yes, you'll be able to change anything (your address, add-ons and even pledge level) up until we are ready to start production. This should be around mid January, as we said above. After that, you will still be able to update your shipping address for several more weeks: you just won't be able to add or remove items from your order anymore. When we will be finally ready to ship your rewards, we will also lock down your shipping data, send your info to our shipping partners, and begin shipping your stuff. We'll tell you before we lock down shipping data, so that you will have time to make one last pass at them!

5. WHEN WILL STUFF SHIP?

As we specified on our Kickstarter project, you should receive your rewards in the month of July, 2020. Obviously we'll keep backers posted if anything about our planned fulfillment schedule changes.

6. HOW WILL PURCHASING ADD-ONS WORK ON BACKERKIT?

It's actually very straightforward, much easier than on Kickstarter itself. You can specify which add-ons you would like to receive together with your pledge just like you would in an online shop. If the cost of those items exceeds what you pledged, you can pay the difference via credit card directly in your BackerKit survey.

If you pledged more money than the value of your award+shipping, you'll see a credit when you get to the add-on screen in the survey. As you add things to your reward, that credit will decrease. If your credit  hits 0€ and you keep adding things, then you will owe additional funds. Once you are finished adding stuff you can pay those additional funds via credit card in the next step.

7. MY PAYMENT FAILED. WHAT DO I DO NOW?

If your payment failed via Kickstarter, there's still a chance for you to get your same rewards for the same Kickstarter price. You will still have a survey emailed to you, but it will show that you pledged 0€. You will be able to pick whichever reward and add-ons you want, and then pay with a credit card, at the same price every other Kickstarter backer is paying.

Some international payment methods (particularly international bank cards) might not work with Backerkit's payment system. So, you may have to use a credit card for the payment to go through.

8. I'M MOVING SOON! WHAT SHOULD I LIST AS MY SHIPPING ADDRESS?

Give us your expected shipping address for the month of July, 2020. If you don't know what your address will be during that time, we recommend filling out the address of a close relative or friend that you can trust as a backup solution (make sure to also warn them in advance that they may receive a package on your behalf). As we said above, we'll let you know when we're going to lock shipping address data, and at that time you can go in and enter your correct address.

Until next time!

Sincerely,

the Horrible Guild