Friendly reminder: Backerkit surveys locking on July 10 (this friday)!
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Jul 07, 2020 at 09:14:45 PM

Dear backers,

with 3 days left before we lock our pledge manager, 12% of you (around 1140 backers) still need to answer their survey. As we previously announced, the last day to make final updates to your order is July 10 (this friday), so make sure you complete your survey before then. If you haven’t answered your survey yet, please keep in mind that if you fill out your BackerKit survey or pay for extras and shipping after the July 10 order due date, we’ll still receive your information but your shipment may be delayed.

When a survey is locked, it means that your reward selections are locked and that we will charge cards for add-on item purchases, pledge upgrades, and pre-orders (if you chose PayPal as your payment method while it was still available, instead, the missing funds have been charged immediately, so you're all set in that regard). Please note that PayPal payments are still unavailable due to technical issues out of our control, and won't likely be back before the order due date, sorry for the inconvenience.

Even if we're locking orders (so you won't be able to change, add, or remove items from your pledge), please note that you will still be able to update your shipping address up until we lock addresses for shipping, at a later date closer to the start of the fulfillment.

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://railroadink.backerkit.com.

Thanks everyone for your support, and stay safe!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

The overview of the rules for all add-on expansions is finally here!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 12:43:48 AM

Dear backers,

we were originally planning to release a more comprehensive and complete list of all rules for all expansions (at a more final, print-ready stage of development) during the pledge manager phase, but it was taking us way too long, as we're also very hard at work on the production side of the project. Since many of you have been asking for at least an introduction to the expansions (especially those available as add-ons) that we didn't introduce during the campaign, we created a special page on our website containing an overview of all the expansions available in the green/yellow core boxes and in the add-ons expansion packs! Overviews for the stretch goal expansions will also be added to this page in the near future.

These are still more of an introduction to the core mechanisms of each expansions, rather than a full-blown, rulebook-level explanation, but it should be enough to help you decide if you want to get that one expansion pack you've been tempted to add to your pledge but were waiting to know more about before deciding.

In other related news, with 10 days left before we will lock down our pledge manager, we're happy to report that 84% of you already completed their survey, with a good 47% also purchasing add-on items in addition to those already included with their pledge. The most popular add-ons so far have been the two classic Railroad Ink games (the Deep Blue and Blazing Red editions), with the Engineer Expansion Pack in third place. We're also very pleased to see so many of you choosing to join the closed beta of the upcoming digital version of Railroad Ink with the Founders Editions. Thank you very much for your support!

The last day to make final updates to your order is July 10. After this date, we will lock your reward selections and charge cards for add-on item purchases, pledge upgrades, and pre-orders (if you chose PayPal as your payment method, instead, the missing funds have been charged immediately, so you're all set in that regard; please note that PayPal payments are currently unavailable due to technical issue out of our control, sorry for the inconvenience). And don't worry: even if we're locking orders, you will be able to update your shipping address up until we lock addresses for shipping, at a later date closer to the start of the fulfillment.

However, there are still slightly more than 1500 backers who still need to answer their survey. If you haven’t answered your survey yet, please keep in mind that if you fill out your BackerKit survey or pay for extras and shipping after the July 10 order due date, we’ll still receive your information but your shipment may be delayed.

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://railroadink.backerkit.com.

THANK YOU!

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 10'000 of you!

Thanks everyone for your support, and stay safe!

Until next time! Play Horrible, join the Guild!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

Backerkit surveys are incoming!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 11:57:39 PM

Dear backers,

we are excited to announce that we have started to send out your fulfillment surveys! Due to the huge amount of surveys to send, we're sending them out in batches, so that we can ensure there are no technical issues. It may take a few days before you receive yours, so don't worry if you don't receive it immediately. The survey will be sent to the email address associated with your Kickstarter account, and the email subject will say "Response Needed -- Get your reward for Railroad Ink Challenge" and it 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

During our previous campaigns 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 to 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://railroadink.backerkit.com 
• Maybe you're checking the wrong email account. Your survey will be 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 "Railroad Ink Challenge" or "Response Needed".
• If all else fails, go to https://railroadink.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 on July 10: 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. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO CHARGE MY PAYMENT METHOD OF CHOICE?

PayPal payments will be charged immediately. Credit card payments, instead, will only be charged when we will lock your orders on July 10. Keep this difference in mind when choosing your payment method!

5. 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. You will have a few weeks of time, as we said above. After that, you will still be able to update your shipping address (but only the 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!

6. WHEN WILL STUFF SHIP?

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

7. 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 or PayPal directly in your BackerKit survey.

If you pledged more money than the value of your rewards+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 or PayPal in the next step.

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

If your payment failed via Kickstarter, there's still a chance for you to get your 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 or with PayPal, 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.

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

Give us your expected shipping address for the month of December, 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 the shipping address data, and at that time you can go in and enter your correct address.

Until next time! Play Horrible, join the Guild!

Sincerely,

the Horrible Guild

10039 times thank you!
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 03, 2020 at 11:53:07 PM

Dear backers,

the campaign is over, and you completely blew us away! 10'039 backers who pledged 508'163€, if someone told us these numbers before we started the campaign, we would have thought they were crazy! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Without you, we wouldn't have unlocked so many additional content for this game!

Oh, by the way: if you missed the final LIVE Challenge, you can watch it on our facebook page and play against Hjalmar and Lorenzo! It's like traveling back in time! 😂

Now we'll have to wait until Kickstarter will transfer over the funds you pledged to us (this can take up to two weeks). Then, we will send out to all of you an email invitation to BackerKit, our "pledge manager", where you will be able to fill your final survey to confirm the items you wish to receive with your pledge.

We’ll give you a heads-up before we send the survey so that you can watch for it. You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to answer your survey. The invitation email will contain a link to your personal survey. It is important to submit your responses as quickly as you can since we need this information to confirm your pledge (including language choice, add-ons, and shipping address).

If you need to change your survey responses, purchase add-on items, or update your shipping information, you can click the link in your survey email again or request your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page. (This page will only start working after we send the surveys out.)

If you prefer, you can contact us directly and give us your information, but answering your survey will help us get your rewards out to you faster. BackerKit helps us save lots of time by streamlining the survey process, automating data organization, and providing us with pledge management software to make it easy to process your pledge reward shipments.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey link will be sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that  you prefer to use, please contact us.

We'll take a few days to rest now, but we'll soon be back, head down, to finalize all aspects of the game and move to production as soon as possible! You will hear more from us soon. Have a good night!

Until next time, take care and stay safe!

Play Horrible, Join the Guild!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team

The final countdown! Challenge #11 results! More add-ons! A final, LIVE Challenge!
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 03, 2020 at 09:59:04 PM

Dear backers,

what an amazing journey! With just a few hours left before the end of this unbelieavable campaign, we'll admit that we are a bit exhausted... but also very happy! We have a few final surprises and announcements to make. First things first, let's take a look at the results of Challenge #11!

• as we announced yesterday, more than 20 boards with all of the Goals achieved have been submitted, so an 100 points were obtained already.
• in the meantime, you also submitted more than 20 boards with a Railway worth at least 25 points; 100 points more obtained.
• additionally, more than 140 boards have been submitted in total (we told you could do better than 33!), so a whopping 400 points have been obtained simply with the number of boards that you enthusiastically sent!
• Finally, our Facebook post has been reshared more than 600 times!

So we're very happy to announce that, with more than 1200 points obtained, the Underground Expansion has finally been unlocked! Hurray! This was the final stretch goal of this campaign, and it will be included with each pledge at the Basic level or higher!

For the record, the highest score we received this time was sent by Daniel K., who also made us giggle with his nice Alf doodle (A, L, and F where the letters of the Goals available for this challenge, and we were wondering if anyone would have noticed).

We also have a few more "add-on related" news! First of all, we made a slight mistake with the prices of the two add-ons we revealed yesterday: they were swapped in the graphics that we showed. You'll be able to get the cloth bag for 4€, and the dice tray for 5€ (and not the other way around). Sorry for the confusion! Additionally, we updated their appearance, and we decided to expand our offer! Take a look!

Additionally, we decided to introduce 1 more add-on: a pack of 5 enamel pins, 1 for each core box of Railroad Ink (Blazing Red, Deep Blue, Lush Green, and Shining Yellow) and 1 with our logo! You can see a preview of all of their graphics, and a real picture of the HG one which is already in our hands, here below!

We have one final announcement: we have a very special final challenge for you. No stretch goals to unlock this time, just an occasion to have fun and celebrate this amazing campaign, all of us, together! We invite you all to tune in later today at 21:00 CEST / 3PM EDT on our facebook page: we will livestream a full game of Railroad Ink Challenge and you'll be able to play with and compete against Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva, the horrible creators of Railroad Ink, in real time! Unsheathe your markers, ready your boards, and join the final challenge! Will you be able to defeat the masters?

Play Horrible, Join the Guild! See you later!

Sincerely,

the Horrible team