February Fulfillment Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Feb 01, 2023 at 09:36:03 AM

Welcome, backers.

It's February 1st! A new month - let's see how things have been proceeding.

Key Takeaways

• The big news: the GM bags have started to arrive! I say "started to" because they were split into several shipments. The first air shipment got here last week, and much of it has been shipped out. The second air freight shipment arrived this week, and has been received in our system. Those bags should cover our needs for the next month and into March. The final shipment is coming by sea, and should arrive towards the end of March - that will be the balance of bags to close out the project. For a look at the final production bags we're shipping out now, see below!
• Production is generally going well, but Two Way Dice Towers and Modular Storage Towers are going a bit more slowly than we'd hoped. They were also quite popular, so they are proving a bit of a holdup, often being the last item needed to clear an order for shipment. This is the major reason we haven't caught up with our original fulfillment schedule. We're also short a handful of Druid panels, due to a veneer issue that was caught late in the production process, regrettably, but this issue has been cleared up and shouldn't remain a problem much longer.
• We continue to make up ground and get more orders shipped by the day. Unfortunately, the bags arrived with only about 5 work days to go in the month, and there was a limit to the amount of orders we could push out the door in that time, but it's certainly helped.
• I had hoped to be fully caught up with our schedule by this update, but that proved a bit too lofty of a target and I was overly optimistic. I apologize for that. However, I do expect that we will continue gaining ground throughout this month, and we're continuing to focus labor and streamline the process on the more difficult items to get these numbers up.
• A look at our monthly shipping numbers may help explain my continued optimism: in November, we were only able to ship 58 orders due to the missing items and overall slow start to the production. In December, that increased to 227 orders, even though many items weren't available yet, and we weren't expressly focusing on GM Screen shipping. In January, we've shipped more than double our December total - 455 orders. So while we remain behind our schedule, the trend of significant improvement is there. For more information on our trends, see the charts below.
• As always, please keep your address up to date with us, so we can be sure to get your order to you. If you've moved recently, or you know you WILL be moving, but aren't sure of the details, just let us know everything you can via direct message here on Kickstarter, and we'll update your order accordingly.

Production & Shipping Charts

 The following two charts shed some light on the overall state of production and fulfillment:

GM Bags: Final Production Models

Here's a few quick photos of the production run bags. They look and feel great, and are definitely the way to transport your Screen in style! Now these are not color-corrected, ideal photos, just quick snapshots, so take these with a grain of salt. I just wanted to give you a look at the final products that we're now shipping out to backers.

Finding Your Fulfillment Wave

Lately, backers have been wishing to verify their estimated  fulfillment month, and finding it difficult. There is a process you can  follow to find your wave. All you need is any email from BackerKit.

Open any BackerKit message, and click through to view your order on  the website.  You can use your order confirmation, or the link in your  original survey invitation - any BackerKit link concerning this project  should get you there.

Once  on the BackerKit site, at the top of the screen, you'll see the  project name and image, with your Kickstarter pledge information. Click  the reward level - it will read "$0 Reward" - and a popup will appear.  Your  fulfillment wave is listed there!

If you can't locate a BackerKit message, or have trouble with this process, send us a message and we'll be happy to confirm your wave for you.

By The Numbers

Below are the total number of backers in each fulfillment wave, as well as the number of shipped/pending status backers in each. Note that the total number of backers in each wave will change as we begin each new round of fulfillment, due to backers who have failed to respond to the survey being rolled into the next wave. Pre-orders remain open.

 Wave 1: November - 474 backers

• 355 shipped, 119 pending
• 74.9% fulfilled

Wave 2: January - 746 backers

• 210 shipped, 536 pending
• 28.2% fulfilled

Wave 3: February - 1,015 backers

• 75 shipped, 940 pending
• 7.4% fulfilled

Wave 4: March - 1,190 backers

• 30 shipped, 1,160 pending
• 2.5% fulfilled

Wave 5: April - 1,192 backers

• 27 shipped, 1,165 pending
• 2.3% fulfilled

Wave 6: May - 2,346 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Wave 7: June - 444 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Pre-orders - 473 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Rise and Grind

At this point, the next steps are fairly clear: work to ship out more and more orders, and continue to ramp up our efforts to gain ground on fulfillment, day by day, order by order. That's the plan - there are no major shortcuts, so it's just a matter of seeing it through and giving it our all.

I had set our sights on a pretty aggressive target - being fully caught up and on schedule by this update. Unfortunately, that did not occur. Still, we are not merely treading water - we are making strides towards that goal, so I'm still happy to report increasing progress and good news, even if it falls short of the news I'd hoped to be giving you at this moment.

We'll continue to work hard to get every order out as soon as possible, and we thank you for your support and patience as we work through fulfillment on this large-scale project. I'll be back at the mid-month mark with the latest numbers and news. Until then, thanks again - have a good one out there!

~ Ed Maranville, VP Crowdfunding Fulfillment for Wyrmwood

Mid-January Fulfillment Update
over 1 year ago – Sun, Jan 15, 2023 at 08:17:00 AM

Welcome, backers.

Here we are, at the mid-January mark. Let's check in on our progress.

Key Takeaways

• We're in a transitional period right now. Labor has been shifted into the project, and is getting up to speed very quickly. We're building a lot of inventory up, and are pretty well-positioned, but are clearing the last two bottlenecks, which by now are very familiar: Modular Storage Towers and GM Bags. I have good news on both fronts.
• Modular Storage Towers are in active production, and are starting to land in inventory, with the first coming through this past week. At the mid-month mark, we have begun shipping them out - so, as expected, this issue got cleared in January, which is great news. As more Towers comes through, we'll be able to ship many orders we couldn't before.
• The GM bags should be complete and in the process of getting shipped out to us as you view this update. We'll get a tracking number for that shipment shortly, and as soon as I know when that's arriving, we'll begin reserving inventory for all the GM bag orders that, until now, we haven't had the ability to ship. The first batch, sent via air, are expected to arrive close to the end of this month, but once they do our shipping department's number one priority will be to get these long-awaited orders out the door and on their way to you as quickly as possible.
• As a result of the above, the numbers haven't moved dramatically since our last update, in terms of shipped packages, but we'll see a big impact of these two moves in the next one. We've taken measures to smooth out fulfillment, but Kickstarter is prone to these kind of swings when our orders come in.
• To put it in perspective, about 6% - less than 20 - of the remaining orders in November don't contain Modular Storage Towers or GM bags, and less than half of the remaining January orders.
• As always, please keep your address up to date with us, so we can be sure to get your order to you. If your order ships out and we need to correct the address after the fact, fees will apply, since shippers hate it and won't do it for free (when they'll do it at all). So, it's always best to let us know as soon as you're thinking of it - like maybe now? If you know you WILL be moving, but aren't sure of the details, that's still okay - we can put your order on hold until you have the details, just to be safe.

A Note on Fulfillment Waves

Lately, backers have been wishing to verify their estimated fulfillment month, and finding it difficult. There is a process you can follow to find your wave. All you need is any email from BackerKit.

Open any BackerKit message, and click through to view your order on the website.  You can use your order confirmation, or the link in your original survey invitation - any BackerKit link concerning this project should get you there.

Once  on the BackerKit site, at the top of the screen, you'll see the project name and image, with your Kickstarter pledge information. Click the reward level - it will read "$0 Reward" - and a popup will appear. Your  fulfillment wave is listed there!

If you can't locate a BackerKit message, or have trouble with this process, send us a message and we'll be happy to confirm your wave for you.

By The Numbers

Below are the total number of backers in each fulfillment     wave, as well as the number of shipped/pending status backers in  each.    Note that the total number of backers in each wave will change  as we    begin each new round of fulfillment, due to backers who have     failed to respond to the survey being rolled into the next wave. Pre-orders remain open.

Wave 1: November - 474 backers

• 199 shipped, 275 pending
• 42.0% fulfilled

Wave 2: January - 746 backers

• 164 shipped, 582 pending
• 22.0% fulfilled

Wave 3: February - 1,015 backers

• 40 shipped, 975 pending
• 3.9% fulfilled

Wave 4: March - 1,190 backers

• 20 shipped, 1,170 pending
• 1.7% fulfilled

Wave 5: April - 1,192 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Wave 6: May - 2,346 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Wave 7: June - 444 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Pre-orders - 454 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Cleared for takeoff!

I'm glad that we're finally ready to pull ahead on this project. As you're aware, it's been creeping slowly forward, with a very slow start in November that hasn't gotten much faster yet. Thank you for your patience during these early phases of fulfillment. I look forward to bringing you strong numbers at the end of the month, as our throughput increases and the bags and Storage Towers make their way to you.

I'll be back around the 1st with the next update. Until then, thanks again for your support - this is a huge project, and it's great to see it finally getting off the ground and spreading its wings, here in the second wave of fulfillment.

~ Ed Maranville, VP Crowdfunding Fulfillment for Wyrmwood

January Fulfillment Update
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jan 03, 2023 at 08:57:33 PM

Happy New Year, everyone!

As we leave 2022 behind and look forward to 2023, let's take a look at how fulfillment is going.

Key Takeaways

•  November orders continue to ship, though we're still waiting on the GM Bags. January shipments are already in progress, as well as a handful from later waves. Specifically, with what's going out today and tomorrow, we should have around a third of November fulfilled, around 10% of January, and even some of February and March out the door by the end of the week.
• During December, no fulfillment was scheduled, but we still shipped over 200 orders, continuing even amid our holiday crunch; we didn't forget you! [Note, the video number of 100 is out of date]
• We saw a nearly 4x increase in orders shipped between November and December. November, as you recall, had a slow start, with development finishing, production stations getting created and put into use (see below), and missing vendor items. I expect that from December to January, due to the moves we're making and our post-holiday bandwidth opening up, will likely show another, similar increase of about 4x, which would allow us to get back in line with our original fulfillment timeline by month's end. I'll let you know how this projection is looking in the next update, on the 15th! 
• The Modular Storage Tower is moving into production imminently, with the final beta version set for approval. With that approval, they'll move to active production and should hit inventory within 1-2 weeks, shipping out in January - as expected.
• GM Bags are being produced and prepped for shipping now, and are expected to ship out to us in the first half of January. They will arrive mid to late January, and that will clear up the last external roadblock for shipping, allowing us to move through the remainder of November orders and get caught up.
• There is some confusion over backer numbers, and I wanted to clarify that a bit. Our fulfillment order is not based on backer number, except that it determined your production wave. That is, the earliest backers are in the November wave, etc. Within a wave, shipment order is based purely on inventory availability, NOT backer number. So, a backer with a later backer number than yours may receive their order first, if the items they need were finished sooner than the ones you need. Producing strictly based on backer number would greatly slow down fulfillment and production and just isn't a practical way to approach things, when there is so much variety on offer in the project. Our goal is to complete all orders as quickly as possible, and we always ship orders as soon as we can.
• As we've discussed, this means that sometimes backers in later waves can have their orders ship early. For example, you'll see below that we're shipping January orders, and even some February and March orders. This is because the items they need are available in excess of what's needed for November - which frees those items up to be shipped to these later backers. Most of the March orders are just for a few items, or even just dice - which makes sense. There's no reason waiting to ship these simple orders when we can easily clear them up now, so the system allows us to do that.
• Because of this, it's really important to keep your shipping address up to date with us. For example, if you were one of those March backers I just mentioned, and you were moving in January, you can see why it's important to let us know, even though your estimated fulfillment month was March! So please, once you know you'll be moving, let us know the relevant dates and your new address, if you've got it. This way we can make the adjustment and make sure your order gets to you.

GM Assembly Area Shop Photos

Here are some photos of the newly laid out production areas for the GM Screen, including the finishing booth. All photos taken at our MA facility (during lunch, so as not to disturb anyone - hence the lack of people!). These stations are greatly facilitating our speed in fulfillment, and will allow more rapid acceleration in the weeks ahead. 

Insert Installation Guide

Installing gemstone, acrylic and wood inserts into Display Panels (and Display Vaults!) is a simple process, but it helps to see it done before you attempt it yourself. We've created this video to help our backers, and it can be found permanently on our website.

By The Numbers

Below are the total number of backers in each fulfillment    wave, as well as the number of shipped/pending status backers in each.    Note that the total number of backers in each wave will change as we    begin each new round of fulfillment, due to backers who have    failed to respond to the survey being rolled into the next wave. Pre-orders remain open.

Wave 1: November - 474 backers

• 154 shipped, 320 pending
• 32.5% fulfilled

Wave 2: January - 746 backers

• 80 shipped, 710 pending
• 10.7% fulfilled

Wave 3: February - 1,015 backers

• 28 shipped, 987 pending
• 2.8% fulfilled

Wave 4: March - 1,190 backers

• 20 shipped, 1,170 pending
• 1.7% fulfilled

Wave 5: April - 1,192 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Wave 6: May - 2,346 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Wave 7: June - 444 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Pre-orders - 481 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Onwards to 2023!

As we move forward, we continue to pivot more labor to fulfill the GM Screen project, and production is ramping up week by week. Now that we're back from the holidays, we're beginning to see a marked increase, and this should continue throughout the coming weeks and months.

It's been a slow start here as we cross the finish line of 2022, but we've got our foot on the gas and are speeding into 2023! GM Screens, coming to a table near you - real soon. As always, valued backers, thank you for your patience and support.

~ Ed Maranville, VP Crowdfunding Fulfillment for Wyrmwood

Wyrmwood & Dispel are BACK! The Elemental Collection is LIVE on Kickstarter NOW!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Dec 14, 2022 at 10:34:47 PM

Hello, everyone!

Your regularly scheduled update will be coming on the 1st, but we have a special announcement for you in the meantime.

Last year, Wyrmwood & Dispel launched one of the biggest dice Kickstarters of all time. This year, we're collaborating again, just in time for the holidays! The Elemental Collection is a highly limited, thematic collection of sharp-edged resin dice sets from Dispel, and engraved and inlaid Dice Vaults from Wyrmwood.

Click the image above - or this link - to check out the offerings. But don't delay! The project is only live for 12 days, and ends on Christmas Day. And once these dice and Dice Vaults are done being sent to backers, they'll never be produced again. Pledge now and claim yours today!

~ Wyrmwood & Dispel

December Fulfillment Update
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 02, 2022 at 04:22:30 PM

Season's greetings!

It's December, so let's check in and see how the first official month of fulfillment has been going.

Key Takeaways

• As we discussed, shipping got off to a slow start for a couple of reasons, but we have been processing and shipping as many orders as possible. We had about 160 orders in the November wave that were possible to ship, given the items that we're waiting on from our suppliers. We've shipped about 50 of these orders thus far, but will be continuing to ship heavily this week, into next. Slight correction: some shipped orders were from later waves with available items. See the numbers below for the breakdown.
• Any November backer that did not have a shipment headed their way by end of day yesterday will have a $25 gift certificate included with their order when it ships out. We'll ship as many orders as we can during December, working around our holiday season website fulfillment. We apologize for any inconvenience and delay. Happily, though, the issues we've faced are generally all set to become things of the past.
• Production is picking up steam, and continues to go well. We have hit some typical snags, but these are being worked out and smoothed over, and our development process continues to bear fruit and output good product. One source of delays, the panels having to go from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania for finishing and back to Massachusetts for completion, is set to be cleared soon: the finishing booth is up and being tested in our Mass shop as we speak. Update: Initial testing looks good, and we are beginning to successfully output finished panels in MA. 
• The Modular Storage Tower is coming along nicely, now that we've got the shelves and drawer prototypes, and this item remains on target to begin shipping in January. The prototype build of the tower is scheduled to be reviewed today, and after that it gets handed off for development, which prepares it for full production. This should be ready to go for January, as expected. The shelves and drawers should be arriving towards the end of December, as well.
• The first batch of final gemstone inserts have arrived, and they work! We've begun boxing these, and the remainder of the early batch are due soon. We'll be shipping these out to backers imminently, so this is the first of our major supplier bottlenecks to be clear. The remainder of the order is due to arrive during January, which means - barring any unforeseen problems, of course - the end of gemstone insert issues for this campaign. 
• The GM bags have been ordered and are in production now. Based on the data we have, they are on track to arrive early in January. So, at this point, there's nothing to do but wait - we've cleared the color issues with these. There's a chance these could be pushed back a bit due to the factory getting hit with COVID lockdowns or the like, but they are still aiming to have the order complete and ready to ship (via air) early in January. I'll keep you apprised of any changes.
• As we move forward and shipping picks up, please remember to keep us up to date with any current or anticipated change of address you may be facing, as soon as possible. We want to be sure to get your order to you - don't let your GM Screen become a housewarming gift for the new tenant at your old place!

By The Numbers

Below are the total number of backers in each fulfillment   wave, as well as the number of shipped/pending status backers in each.   Note that the total number of backers in each wave will change as we   begin each new round of fulfillment, due to backers who have   failed to respond to the survey being rolled into the next wave. Pre-orders remain open.

Wave 1: November - 476 backers

• 46 shipped, 430 pending
• 9.7% fulfilled

Wave 2: January - 745 backers

• 4 shipped, 741 pending
• 0.5% fulfilled

Wave 3: February - 1,015 backers

• 8 shipped, 1,007 pending
• 0.8% fulfilled

Wave 4: March - 1,190 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Wave 5: April - 1,192 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Wave 6: May - 2,346 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Wave 7: June - 444 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Pre-orders - 344 backers

• Fulfillment not started

Happy Holidays

As I explained last time, the update schedule will be on a brief hiatus this month; given no fulfillment wave is planned for December, I'll pick back up on the 1st, in the New Year, with an update on how things are looking.

We'll work hard to get all of your orders out as soon as we're able, including shipping out what we can in December. But in general, our priority is going to be positioning ourselves for a strong fulfillment during January. After working up to a bit of a jog this past month, we want to hit 2023 running. Thank you for your patience while we get up to speed.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, whatever you may be celebrating and whoever you're celebrating it with. As one year draws to a close and another begins, may you find yourself looking forward to the future and what it has in store for you. While no one can know exactly what that is, at least you know one thing coming your way in 2023: the best GM Screen ever made. I'll do what I can to get it to you as soon as we can!

~ Ed Maranville, VP Crowdfunding Fulfillment for Wyrmwood