Hello, everyone!
I know I've used the term "flood relief" to describe how the studio members have been working over the past few months - except for sporadic messages on Discord and other social media platforms, we've been devoting all of our energies to whatever we can to bring in cash for the studio to get through the months that have come closest to bankruptcy.
I know that "business difficulties" are no reason to keep quiet, but the situation indeed changes from day to day, and it's always hard to keep track of what we're doing when we want to post an update.
I apologize for the fact that many of our players have been unable to keep up with our progress as a result.
Before we start the official content of this update, a few top things:
1. we have not gone bankrupt until now and have no plans to do so in 2024.
2. we will not lower the standard of our products or reduce the portion sizes.
3. as of now, there are still more than a dozen players' refund requests that we haven't finished processing, and we will do so by February 2nd.
4. we are still working on new products, the beginning of this series is not perfect, but it will continue.
Here is the maintext:
- What's been going on these past few months?
In August, at the end of the PM phase, things seemed to be looking up.
Although we hadn't found the right way to publicize it, the PM results looked good. This new influx of funds will go a long way in relieving us of the pressure to get the subsequent deliveries flowing.
Then, when we were moving forward with the factory in September, both PayPal and Stripe froze our funds.
After our efforts to communicate, Paypal unfroze the funds in late September - oh yeah!
And Stripe returned our entire order - too bad!
Since Stripe accounted for a large portion of our order quantity, we didn't know how much to order from the factory for a while, and had to ask the factory to move forward with production first, with some quantities and details confirmed slowly.
Then we set up a Shopify page to turn over the order information, etc.
Then we recovered these orders by PayPal by sending email orders to everyone. Up until today, about half of them have been recovered.
Then, the mold broke, pulled back to the mold factory to repair, and pulled back to the factory to continue production, we told the factory a thousand times, hope that the Chinese New Year before the completion of the English and Japanese versions of the production, the factory said, "your money came too late, we arrange as soon as possible, but there is no time to sample before production."
I thought about it, and since the Chinese version had already been produced anyway, I didn't think there would be any other problems.
Then in December, the surprise came.
PayPal froze a large portion of our funds and set a 60% rolling reserve for us (equivalent to, for every $100 we receive, Paypal will hold $60 for up to six months), and we don't have enough money in PayPal to make the final payment to the factory.
Negotiated for a long time, unsuccessfully.
That's right, now you buy our products from our online store, and a good chunk of that money we have to wait six months to get out.
Another surprise came on January 24th - we received samples of the pilot production.
I think you've guessed it.
There was a problem with the product, both "RDL Core" and "Cavalry" were missing 1 card, and some of the cards had the Japanese and English prints mixed up.
By the way, we checked and it really wasn't the factory's fault - we were in too much of a hurry to submit it ourselves, and the file was done wrong.
So now, one of our members has traveled to Dongguan to oversee the packaging of Heavy Metal.
Here's a sample from our inspection. By the way, we hadn't realized the problem when we took this photo, and it was a good time.
These are all the things we've been dealing with since the last update, until today.
- Where's my refund?
First of all, I'm very sorry to say that there are still a dozen or so player refund requests that we haven't processed as of this writing, and we'll have them processed by February 2nd.
As you should be able to see from the running tally above, due to repeatedly switching platforms and payment methods, we've had some confusion over player orders, and with the fact that we didn't have Paypal money at our disposal until this week, it's taking a bit of time to reconcile the orders and issue refunds now.
Your request for a refund will be processed, not a penny less, and again, we apologize for your anger.
- What's next?
February 10th is the Chinese Lunar New Year, and factory production and shipping will be affected for almost a decade or so before and after that, so if all goes well, this batch will be produced and shipped by the end of February.
The progress of the second batch (UN and game packs) has been less affected instead, with delays before the year leading to some content being delayed until after Chinese New Year.
We're aiming to deliver the Chinese crowdfunding version at the end of March, and then produce the other language versions right after that.
- Well, it looks all upsetting. So any real progress on the project between the last update and today?
During this period, our design team produced some new products - as will be mentioned later, we hope to sell these to get money to continue development;
Oh, I'm not going to cover this in this update yet, but we'll talk about it next time - we're getting ready to roll out the painted finisher pieces, so once you get your hands on them you can just open the box and start fighting.
Our rules team finally finished the Chinese version of the 1.0 rules, and yes, this is now being touched up and translated, as they're going to be submitted to the factory with the second batch of content after the first of the year;
Our product team finished designing and ordering the last few molds for the second batch (UN and game packs), and a "white knight" helped us cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars in production costs for these molds, which allowed the second batch of production to finally move forward;
The terrain you can see in the picture is new, yes, it's the same kind of cooler "pod houses" that were at the show, and they're being made out of plastic!
Our mold factory completed the preparation of the other molds for the second batch, which had been in storage for a long time because the second batch had been delayed;
In January, when we were at the bottom of our funds, one of our players lent us hundreds of thousands of dollars in working capital, and I'm very grateful to him for being another one of our "white knights", which made it possible to secure the delivery of the second batch (both the crowdfunded version and a small batch of stock).
- You didn't mention the third batch.
Regarding the third batch, the GoF, we are seriously looking at how to re-design the mold.
Please give me a little time to explain why we're doing this:
In one of our earlier updates, we mentioned that some of GoF's model shapes received more comments from players, and we were already working on the design tweaks we were going to make at that point.
In addition, after both the RDL and UN designs had been finalized and plastic models produced, we realized that some of our previous design ideas weren't very good, such as too many parts and overly complicated assembly.
Now that GoF's projected goal is to start making the molds in June 2024 and then deliver them by the end of the year, we now have time to apply the experience we gained previously to this set and make it less difficult for players to make.
As for cost, while redrawing the molds will result in a loss of previous drawing costs, the easier putting-together process should result in better sales when it comes to long sales, making up for that loss.
The modeling will not change drastically, and the GoF art style will be retained.
Just in case it's been too long since I've seen it all and forgotten - GoF looks like this.
- Okay, let's talk about the new product？
First of all, most of the new products introduced today belong to the LAB series, which is EMBER's small-batch production series.
This series of products will use 3D printing, resin molding, metal molding, laser cutting, and other processes to put some experimental products on the market in small batches.
The first 5 models are all conversion kits, which allow you to transform the plastic kits into specialized bodies for the two teams in the side story "Stop Loss".
The gray parts in the rendering require the player to use RDL's base kit, while the red ones are 3D printed parts from the conversion kits, which also include cards for the converted parts, most of which have different attributes than the original ones, allowing for a wider range of parts to be used in the game.
The first, the Enhanced Mire, transforms a normal Mire into a Geji Squadron type, including an improved Mire Core with enhanced scouting and communications capabilities, a shotgun attachment on the AC32, and an empty hand on the left arm - their Mires do not carry "choppers", as they favor long-range combat, and a standardized lower limb with a special shape.
Of course, a special quad missile launcher is also included.
Inside the picture, the antenna on the left shoulder snapped off a lot during testing, but I really want to keep it, so I'm considering replacing it with a copper rod.
The second is another conversion kit that transforms a Dune into a Geji Squadron Leader: the standard lower limb is converted to an auxiliary arm lower limb, and a new AC35 sniper rifle is added, along with the Centipede's classic quad missiles, to maximize long-range attack capabilities.
This auxiliary arm-type lower limb can be used to trigger a weapon's two-handed phrase in-game, and I know it's a bit weird to use this to trigger a melee weapon's two-handed phrase, but given the clarity of the rules...
The third is another conversion kit for the Mallard's commandos - dual pile drivers and dual pistols to give the Mallard a UN-like feel. As an elite squad, the Mallards are equipped with special combat cores, and the data packs on their backs are special mission props.
By the way, while it may look like a giant HDD, in EMBER's worldview, inside this data storage device is a specially designed magnetic tape.
The fourth model is known as the "Bomb Duck", and the Mallard Squad added a specialized attack head to the shotgun, giving it both close-range fire and melee capabilities.
These shotgun attack heads work against mechs, they are very, very hard and reinforce the structure of the shotgun itself when added.
The fifth is the Scout Duck, the Mallard Squad's supporter, equipped with the recognizable Aurora Modified Core and a drop-type Scout Drone, the eyes of the Mallard Squad, which I believe will have a bright performance in the side story.
The above five conversion kits are all scheduled to be released in February/March, and parallel, we will also release the side-story "Stop Loss" mentioned earlier, as well as the corresponding battle story packs, which will allow players to play as either "Mallard" or "Geji". "Centipede.
In the battle, you will experience the best negotiation skills on the back of the moon - even if both sides are in the same RDL faction.
Another more lightweight product, is the previously mentioned Modeling Hands, 3D printed hand parts that allow you to easily recover a weapon after discarding it, or simply to give a more natural and beautifully stylized look to a miniature's empty hand.
The first modeling handset is expected to contain 8 pairs of empty hands, and the pictures show just two of them.
The other key news this time around is that we'll be releasing a Neutral Manufacturer Unit, and this is what it will look like:
This mech was originally the personal work of independent designer Lancelot, and we thought it would be a perfect fit for the worldview of EMBER and introduce more industrial-feeling elements to EMBER very nicely, so by entering into a partnership with Lancelot, we added it to the game, thanks to Lancelot for creating it!
This mech, as well as its other sibling units, will have interchangeable parts that can be used as in-game units to debut in combat, and they belong to a brand new neutral manufacturer that can be hired by whichever faction your team belongs to.
They'll also have unique rules and playstyles that can create fantastic chemistry with your original team!
We'll continue to release more definitive information about it and its brethren as we go along, and will open for sale once we've finished preparing the first batch, which will be roughly in March/April as well.
Aside from that, we're moving forward with our gift line.
We haven't forgotten that when the crowdfunding was first successful, we drew lucky players for 1/24 MAP statues, only then this was always delayed for various reasons.
Recently, we did a sample and are in the process of doing more - yes, along with official product delivery, we'll be giving these upgraded lucky prizes to the winners of that year's raffle and expect to have this line in a saleable state after May.
I know it looks small compared to this glue bottle. But it looks huge when it's in my hand - or it could just be that I've been looking at 80mm MAP pieces too much.
Above, the most recent development progress can be seen as we try to produce content that has a shorter relative duration and can quickly impact the player's gaming experience.
In this way, we hope to keep the game environment active, especially before UN is delivered, and hopefully enrich the players' experience with these new products.
In addition, the main purpose of bringing this content to the present is to earn working capital for the studio's operation, and all the proceeds will be given the highest priority to be used for developing GoF's molds and ensuring the delivery of crowdfunded products, so please rest assured.
- So, how will your products be sold subsequently?
If you are a player who participated in the 2019 Crowdfunding (or 2023 PM) and has paid for shipping, we will be sending out the RDLs soon, really soon, so hang in there a little longer and you'll receive your product!
If you are a player who participated in the crowdfunding but did not pay for shipping - there can be a variety of situations:
Credit card payment was made and returned by Stripe / Forgot to pay / Didn't get the email at all / Credit card payment was made but wasn't returned
We are still sorting this out and will follow up with an email to communicate with you.
If you didn't participate in the crowdfunding campaign and are interested in the product at this time, we will open up the online store after processing the current refund:
Mainland China users can search for "鲤鱼杂货铺" on Taobao.
For those in other regions, you can visit our official store https://www.queti-tectonics.com/.
These two channels will continue to exist in the future and will be our official online store, but most of our SKUs are not yet available if you click on them right now, as refunds are still being processed for the next few days.
Finally, if you're a retailer, you're more than welcome to come and talk to us!
Before this, we knew nothing about trading across borders or how physical sales should work, so we couldn't give a definitive answer to all of our retailer inquiries.
Now we are ready and very much looking forward to talking to our distributor friends from all over the world in good faith, so if you are interested, feel free to send us an email!
Above, that's all there is to this update.
Finally, let me personally, once again, say thank you to all of you who have been following us up until now.
Whether your reason for following us has been one of anticipation to see this project delivered successfully, or one of skepticism to see how this thing ultimately works out, I am very grateful.
We've made it through 2023 in a persistent darkness that will light up but not light up, and I believe that in 2024, the light of day is just ahead of us.