Nevermind The Distraction

July ‘24 Update: Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
7 months ago – Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 09:40:05 PM

I’ll be honest, since the large part of the current effort is out of my hands, I’m a little unsure what to write about, but you know me, I’ll find some excuse to ramble. Last week marks the 4-year anniversary of the day I first came up with the idea of Nevermind The Distraction. I know the exact date, because my phone tells me the day I took this first picture testing an early concept using cards from another game.

Life sure has has taken some interesting turns in the four years since that photo, but that’s a story for further down the scroll-bar.

Let’s first talk about the real reason you’re here:

Nevermind The Progress

July went mostly to plan (more on that in a second). I’ve gone through and set up as much of the fulfillment related stuff as I can ahead of time, and I believe I have gotten oceanic freight all figured out. So essentially, I’ve done as much as I can on the things I have direct control over.

Heading over to the things I don’t have direct control over, our manufacturer partner has unfortunately admitted to a delay of a month due to “internal process” issues—having nothing to do with us—with the completion of mass production now being projected for the end of August.

This has set up an interesting personal growth opportunity for me, because I’m trying super hard not to be… put off… by this setback. I keep reminding myself that the project was delayed previously because of my own slow progress with the rulebook and you all have been enormously gracious and supportive. The least I can do is show the same patience and grace to the manufacturer that you have shown me.

Essentially you have all set a high standard I’m working hard to live up to. Some days I even succeed.

Manufacturing Delay - Impact to Schedule

Theoretically, a manufacturing delay of a month should —and still might—mean fulfillment is only being delayed by a month. However, this will push us into the time of year when it is common for things like overseas manufacturing and oceanic freight to bottleneck as the retail world prepares to stock up for the upcoming holiday season. This can mean even less shipping container availability (more on that in a minute), longer oceanic freight times and crowded sea lanes and ports.

What this means is I felt more confident about my fulfillment estimates when it looked like we’d be receiving everything in Sept/Oct. Now that it is looking more like Oct/Nov, I’m… less confident those dates are solid.

So while I would tentatively say that adding a month to last month’s fulfillment estimates is a good target, I would temper this with the disclaimer that we are going to be entering the time of year when expectation flexibility may be appropriate.

One other disclaimer/reminder is that I do still need to approve a final mass production copy of the game before it can go out and there is always the chance something unexpected happens there which could cause further delays. Obviously I will keep all of you (over)informed should something like this come up.

Manufacturing Delay - Impact to Budget

If you’ve been following freight news—first of all I’m sorry for you—you’ve probably heard about the spike in freight costs due to container shortages in the last couple months and you may be wondering if this, and the delay, is going to affect the project.

The answer is both yes (for me) and no (for you). Luckily, though the cost of a container has in some cases tripled since this time last year, it is nowhere near the increase we saw during 2020, which was as high as 10-15 times the normal rate. When I was budgeting this project, I tried to add some reasonable waggle room to account for uncertainties like this so another Covid-like event wouldn’t outright kill the project.

This means that while freight and shipping are back on the rise, as of right now it is currently tracking to fall within my budget contingency. So there will be a budget impact, but it will be internal and WILL NOT affect any of you.

Nevermind The Next Steps

In terms of next steps, there’s not much for most of us to do right now besides wait. I think I’ve got everything lined up and ready to go once we have approved the mass production copy and it’s ready to hit the water.

I’m probably going to fill my waiting time in August by starting to work on the new website/webstore so it will be ready to launch after fulfillment this fall.

I’m also going to start working on developing an interactive how-to-play tutorial that will be hosted on the app DIZED. If you haven’t seen this app, it is a very cool resource for learning your favorite games as you play.

Not Yet Locking Shipping Addresses

In last month’s update, I mentioned that I would be locking down shipping addresses in BackerKit sometime in August in preparation for fulfillment. Due to the delay mentioned above, I’ll keep this open for another month and probably close it in early September.

Nevermind The Other Random Stuff

I’ll be at Gen Con! (Sort Of)

I’ve had an unexpected opportunity fall in my lap and I’ll be going to Gen Con! I’ve actually never been to Gen Con, so this is an exciting development for me!

When I say I will be at Gen Con, I mean "I" in the personal sense. Zentrovert Games and Nevermind The Distraction won’t have an official presence there (official presences costing what they do and with new exhibitors being limited and subject to vetting/hazing first anyway) but I will be there and I’d love to meet you!

I will mostly be helping out at the DIZED booth (#2760) but will also be wandering and taking in the glorious overwhelm of it all. If you’re at the con, find me at the DIZED booth and say “Hi!”. Let me know you’re a backer and I guarantee at the very least a nice crisp high five! I’ll have the pre-production prototype of Nevermind with me, so if you’re curious to see it in person, I always love showing it off!

And now for something off-topic:

Some Rambling About Life and Serendipity

I mentioned in the opening that it was four years ago this month that I came up with the idea for Nevermind. I’ve said in other places that a very large part of the inspiration for this game came from a podcast called The Outpost put out by Orange Nebula—the creative team behind the board games Vindication® and Unsettled®. 

I was first introduced to Orange Nebula as a company when I backed their game Unsettled on kickstarter in late 2019. I was so inspired by the way they ran the campaign with such focus on community engagement, I became a huge fanboy and started listening to their podcast which immediately resonated with me on a deep level—being a designer myself, though in a different profession.

In summer of 2020, with catching up on past Outpost episodes keeping me sane during the second Covid lockdown, there was an episode where the O-Neb team talked about designers having a responsibility to do more than just make stuff to sell, but to dig deeper and try to have a positive impact on people’s lives. As a hospital designer, I couldn’t agree more, and that night, the idea for Nevermind the Distraction was born. It started off only intending to be a free print-and-play that might help folks through the difficulty of the pandemic but... here we are.

I joined Orange Nebula’s Discord shortly after they launched it and made lots of great friends on there. It became my go-to online home-away-from-home while I was developing Nevermind and waiting for Unsettled, which ended up fulfilling in 2021 and became one of my favorite board games of all time.

In 2022 around the time I was deciding whether or not to take Nevermind beyond print-and-play, another Unsettled fan reached out to me on the Orange Nebula Discord and asked if I would be interested in working with him to develop some fan content for the game, to which I agreed—because it is a super fun game. We became fast friends and worked many months on developing a fan-made “planet” (expansion) for Unsettled for no other reason than the joy of doing it. Through an unlikely string of coincidence, serendipity and mostly dumb luck, the folks at Orange Nebula found out about our fan-planet and showed interest in watching—then helping—it develop.

Long-story-short, my Unsettled design-partner and I ended up spending the last couple years collaborating with the O-Neb team on two new expansions for the game Unsettled which went to print and were just released as official content on their website last week—on the four-year anniversary of the exact day those same people inspired Nevermind!

Working closely with the team that inspired my own foray into game design to develop content for my all-time favorite game has been one of the most surreal, fulfilling and overall wonderful experiences of my life. I equate it to being inspired to learn guitar by listening to Eric Clapton only to end up later becoming one of his opening acts!

I tell this story half as a testament to how weird and wonderful life can be when you let it, and half to publicly thank Tom Mattson, Marc Neidlinger and the folks at Orange Nebula for letting me play in their sandbox and to especially thank my design partner Reed Phillips, whom none of it would have been remotely possible without.

Life doesn’t happen to us, it happens for us and really amazing stuff is possible when we slow down long enough to be receptive to it.

Alright, that’s enough rambling for this month. Let’s keep our finger’s crossed for good news next month!

-AJ

June ‘24 Update: Manufacturing is Underway!
8 months ago – Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 09:04:32 PM

I know, it’s update time again already? Yep, there goes June, making a beeline for the treeline. It sure does have a unique run, but it is hot out and that get-up is… well, it’s a choice for sure.

Anyway, June was pretty decent for me. our dog seems to be making slow but steady progress in the right direction (finger’s crossed) and I got to see the final product on another project I’ve been working on which was a surreal and very cool experience. How about you? How’s your month been?

Nevermind The Progress

Luckily, everything has gone pretty much per plan since May’s update. I received the final proofs and printed pre-production sample—Life Edition—from the manufacturer the day after the last update. This one has the bigger box, stiffer insert and printed rulebooks. I’m happy to say everything looks great!

As predicted, within two days of receiving these (still in May), I approved everything and gave the manufacturer the green light to move us into mass production!  Can I just say what a huge load off my mind that was! The manufacturer says this should take around 8 weeks.

June was spent mostly melting. By melting I mean both literally in the desert heat and figuratively in emails and spreadsheets as I started working through planning freight and fulfillment logistics. This is by no means a big project by Kickstarter standards, but that doesn’t mean international logistics are any less of a brain burner for a newby. We’ve got 297 copies of the game headed to 206 backers in 18 different countries funneled through 4 different fulfillment houses. Can you tell I’ve been marinating in numbers all month?

Anyway, each of the four fulfillment houses have their own unique and very particular way of doing things that has to be tackled regardless if they are shipping 200 copies or 20. So the database of backer data has to be split up by region and reformatted to the specifications of that fulfillment company... etc, etc. Then, of course there’s oceanic freight coordination...

My mom is reading this right now and I know her eyes are glazing over. She prefers the fun updates to the “informational” ones. Sorry Mom, you can probably stop here, this one only gets worse.😬

Nevermind The Next Steps - 
Now Including Updated Timeline!

Now that manufacturing has started and we have some more concrete dates to spring from, I have an updated (and hopefully-mostly-accurate-ish) timeline for you all!

*Disclaimer: The following is based on a tasty goulash of real dates and/or durations, semi-educated guesses and good ol’ fashioned hope. There is some reasonable margin for wiggle built into this, but the world has a funny way of wobbling at us when we least expect it. Any stage of this process might be hijacked by unforeseen circumstances that could effect this timeline which is currently estimated to have fulfillment begin sometime between September 2024 and Blizzard Soon™.

Manufacturing

End of May
•  Mass Production Begins 
(This one actually happened and is therefore not subject to disclaimer above, woot!)

End of July
•  Mass Production Complete
•  MPC (Mass Production Copy) sent to publisher—that’s me—for final approval

August
•  MPC Approval
•  CE Testing & Reports
•  Final Assembly and Transit Packing
•  Oceanic Freight Out - late Aug / early Sept
•  Domestic Freight to China fulfillment hubs - late Aug / early Sept

Freight & Fulfillment - By Region

Europe / Asia / Rest of World
(Fulfillment direct from China - no oceanic freight)
•  Late August - Ground Freight to Fulfillment Hubs
•  September - Fulfillment Begins

US & Canada
•  August - Oceanic Freight Out
•  September - Oceanic Freight In Transit
•  October - Oceanic Freight Arrival
     •  Ground Freight to Fulfillment Hubs
     •  Fulfillment Begins

Okay, so new timeline aside, what’s in store for July? Well, for those of you in the northern hemisphere, summertime!, for me, you guessed it… more logistics! I put a good dent in the planning phases of it this month, but there’s more to go. I also need to start working on the website that I’ll be selling the extra copies through post-fulfillment.

Addresses Locking Down in August

Just a pre-warning that BackerKit is still open for address changes and will be for another month or so. If you need to update your shipping address, you can do it from your BackerKit survey link before August. Sometime in August, I will need to lock down those addresses and send them off to the fulfillment hubs. If you need to change your address after that, it can still be done, you’ll just need to contact me directly.

Well, that’s it for June. I hope everyone else is as excited as me that it feels like we are moving into the final-ish stretch!

Have a great July!

-AJ

May ‘24 Update: A Time of Tiny Tweaks
9 months ago – Mon, May 27, 2024 at 10:08:15 PM

Holy cow it’s the end of May already?! It feels like it was just last wee…

 Oh, right.

Well, May has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me. The euphoria of finally being done with the rulebooks has been tempered by having a very sick pup around the house. Weird how things tend to balance out isn’t it? Luckily, much of the month involved doing small things while waiting on new samples from the manufacturer, so the somewhat distracted focus didn’t affect the project at all.

Nevermind The Progress

The big progress item for May, which you may have seen last week, was the Print and Play rewards finally going out. That was another huge weight off my shoulders (I’ll be wiping delay-egg off my face for a while). I hope you all enjoy the final PnP package! Let me know what you think in the comments. Is there anything I missed or could have done better? Is the How-to-Play guide doing its job okay?

In terms of the physical game, I mentioned in the last update the box needed to grow a little to accommodate the thicker insert material. That was done and updated files were sent off to the manufacturer in early May to have one last pre-production copy made to verify everything works. They are also running off a set of proofs for the rulebooks so I can take a look at those in person to verify it all looks the way it should. Those were shipped out last week and I was hoping to have them before today to let you all know how they look (and maybe show a few pictures), but the tracking now shows delivery for tomorrow, so… booo.

Other than that, much of May was spent catching up on small, boring, business things that were… deprioritized… while I was finishing up the rulebooks in April. I’ve also been incorporating the last bit of proofer feedback on the rulebooks as it trickled in and generally sort of gearing everything up to switch from design mode over to logistics mode.

Nevermind The Next Steps

The moment I have the rulebook proofs and last sample copy from the manufacturer—and have verified one last time it all works beautifully—I will let them know everything is approved and we can move into the production phase. If anything unexpected rears its big gnarly unexpected head, I’ll make whatever adjustments are needed, but I’m cautiously optimistic that we could be ready to smash that big green GO button within the week.

Once I give the manufacturer that green light, they will put us on their production schedule. I’m not sure what kind of backlog they have going right now so I expect there will be a little time as we wait our turn. We also need to go through the CE testing/certification process which is likely to add some time to that as well. The good news is this is a small run so once we get to our spot in line it should go pretty quickly. I was hoping to have more concrete dates by now but this Last Monday hit just a few days too soon.

While all the fun production/testing stuff is going on overseas, I’ll be going into full logistics mode—setting up and coordinating freight and fulfillment. It occurs to me as I write this that as fun as it is to wear so many different metaphorical hats being a one-man-show, I really wish I had some actual physical hats I could change into to really get into the spirit of the thing. What would a logistics hat look like anyway?

So yeah, production, logistics and hat shopping will be my primary focus for June, but time permitting, I also plan to start the ball rolling on the website redesign and updated how-to-play videos.

Well, I think that’s it for May. I hope everyone enjoys the start of their summer and I’ll see you next month with more detailed info on production timelines!

-AJ

Print and Play Rewards Incoming!
9 months ago – Wed, May 22, 2024 at 07:58:14 PM

We interrupt your regularly scheduled week to bring this important announcement: The Nevermind The Distraction Print and Play is here! Finally

If you backed the Kickstarter campaign (or upgraded in the pledge manager) at anything higher than the $1 level, the print and play files are included in your rewards.

What you need to know

The print and play files will be distributed through the pledge manager BackerKit. If your pledge includes print and play rewards, you should receive a few emails from BackerKit in the next day or so with links and instructions to log in and download them.

Unfortunately, BackerKit has a 250mb limit on files, so I’ve had to break this up into three separate files, which I think means you will receive three separate emails from BackerKit. I’m really sorry about that—it’s a limitation of the system I have no control over.

If you have any issues getting into BackerKit and downloading your files, please message me in Kickstarter or email me at [email protected] and I’ll make sure you get taken care of.

Nevermind The Print and Play

So you may be wondering what files you will be getting and the truth is, I may have gone a little overboard…

Core Components

These are the base components you will need to play every game such as the Mind Cards and Noting Tokens. A couple different options for the Noting Tokens have been provided for different styles of print and play construction.

Both the How-to-Play book and main Rulebook are included in a few different formats for your viewing preference. There are the normal Page and Spread formats (spread is more like the physical experience) but I have also included a version pre setup for saddle stitch if you want to print and bind/staple your own rather than view it on a screen.

Distraction Packs

These are all of the Distraction Packs for both the Abstract and Life editions of the game. Each themed pack (10 cards and a divider) prints out on a single sheet of 8-1/2”x11” / A4 paper, to make it easy to pick and choose which ones you are most interested in if you don’t want to print them all.

Two versions of the Distraction Packs are included. One has card fronts with the dark shadow-y edge fade-y thing (that’s the professional term) being used for mass production—which has big chonky 1/2” round corners. Another version has the faded edge turned off which will probably look better for folks that are making their cards with smaller or no corner rounding.

Extras

This is where I maybe went a little overboard and included some extra stuff for those of you who are a bit more crafty. These are quality-of-life things and are not at all needed to play the game.

I’ve included a PnP version of both edition boxes as well as the insert with some loose instructions. You’ll need to be one of those aforementioned crafty DIY types, but I figure print and play folks generally are. I’ve also included the art for the playmat so if you want to make one as a game board or even send it out to have a playmat made on the fabric of your choice, you can.

Nevermind The Mea Culpa

Ok, so I know this PnP is release is embarrassingly late. When I set the estimated time frame for having it ready, I did not know I would later decide to spend several months rebranding and visually improving the whole project only to then spend several more months wrestling the rulebooks into line. That said, the improvements that have been made using this extra time have been well worth it overall (in my opinion) and I’m happy to send these files out knowing those of you printing home versions are getting as close to the mass production version as possible, not something “watered down”.

However, I still wanted to add something to sweeten the deal and atone for my lateness, and I think I came up with a solution.

Nevermind is a game about meditation, with the card imagery representing your thoughts. It stands to reason then, that the game is much more engaging when the art on the cards is as close to your thoughts as possible…

Distraction Pack Development Kit (DPDK)

I have included a series of working files to let folks with access to industry standard graphic software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign create their own custom Distraction Packs in a matter of minutes!

Do you have Photoshop and want to play the game with photos of your wedding, your pets or your favorite video game? Well, this kit is for you!

It is set up so all you have to do is overwrite the linked placeholder images with your own images and with literally just a few clicks, it will spit out a custom page with exactly the same graphic design, formatting and look as the “official” content.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking…

“Yaay, that’s great… for people with the right software. But I don’t have that, so what am I, chopped liver?” 

Hardly. In my final attempt to apologize for the delay, I’m extending this one-time offer only to backers of this campaign.

If you want a custom Print and Play Distraction Pack for your game and do not have access to either Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, I will make one for you!

All you have to do is prove to me that you’re a serious Print and Play gamer by making your copy of Nevermind using the basic files downloaded from BackerKit and then send a photo of you playing it to me at [email protected] (please use the same email address as your Kickstarter account). I will verify you are indeed a backer and reply with instructions on how to get me what I will need to create your pack. You will have to supply your own images (which I will delete once your custom pack has been created) so start thinking about which nine they will be.

I’m probably crazy for offering this, but I sincerely appreciate your support and continued patience with everything, so it’s the least I can do… and at most it’s only 233 times so… =)’

Okay, that’s it for this update. I’ve never used BackerKit for digital file distribution before so if there are any hiccups, bear with me as I work through them over the next few days.

Again, if you have any questions or issues, send me a direct message via Kickstarter or send an email to [email protected].

Happy playing!

-AJ

April ‘24 Update: Progress Rules!
10 months ago – Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 07:56:43 PM

I love this time of year. April generally has some of my favorite weather here in the desert, with our five days of spring usually falling somewhere in the middle of the month. April is also the month of my birthday, and this year was a BIG one. So what wisdom can I impart upon you all now that I’ve officially been breathing for over half a century? The most important thing I’ve learned is this:

It’s weird being the same age as old people!

Nevermind The Progress

April was very productive and overall a much needed change from the stress that was March. At the end of last month’s update, I mentioned I was waiting on a new round of proofs and prototypes from the manufacturer and that showed up a few weeks back. The great news is that all of the minor color correction that had been done looks spot on and the new prototype is just about perfect!

The less great news is that the new thicker insert material didn’t work so well, but more on that below.

Also, the new fabric for the cloth bag was very close but still not quite right. Some additional fabric samples showed up this morning and one of them is just what I was looking for. 

OK, but what about that RULEBOOK?!

I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of relief it brings me to say that the rulebook is finally done! I put the finishing touches on the final draft and sent it off to the proofers early last week.

Here are some teasers...

The feedback I’ve gotten from the proofers has so far been very promising! Once I’ve collected and incorporated their comments, all content will finally be complete and we will be ready to begin manufacturing…

…just as soon as we solve that dang insert problem. But, we're close!

<Insert challenges here>

Just in case you’re morbidly curious about the nitty behind these gritty sorts of things:

I’ve mentioned in previous updates some problems with the insert. Basically what’s been happening is that when the insert is being folded during fabrication, it is getting crushed in places that aren’t intended for crushing (unfortunately, our campaign wasn’t quite successful enough to meet the insert crumple-zone stretch goal).

The first attempt to fix this was to use a stiffer material; basically a very thin “fluted” cardboard. That’s the revised prototype I received earlier in the month.

The material is thicker, therefore stronger, and wasn’t getting crushed in the same way the heavy card stock was, but, if you’ve ever tried to fold a piece of cardboard along a crisp line, you can probably imagine what happened. The result was… well, not worse exactly, but certainly still not acceptable.

So the next attempt was to combine the two materials, laminating the originally planned heavy card stock to the thin fluted cardboard, the result hopefully being both sturdier and having nice crisp edges at the folds. The test sample of that version showed up in the mail just this morning and…

Looks like just what the doctor ordered!

Unfortunately, this sandwiched material being thicker also means the insides of the insert are now starting to get crowded and the space for the cards isn’t quite space-y enough anymore. So I will to need to increase the box size a smidge to account for the thicker insert material. This means minor adjustments to the box and insert art files to accommodate a bigger box.

Unfortunately-er (for me), a bigger box has a sort of domino effect on price. The cost of manufacturing goes up, but so does the weight/size and because of that, shipping costs. These are not large costs by any means; we are talking fractions of an inch and grams of weight, so pretty negligible on a per unit basis, but it does make a noticeable difference when multiplying by 1000.

And, to be perfectly clear, these additional costs WILL NOT affect the project fulfillment in any meaningful way. These costs all fall within the contingency set aside for just this sort of thing, so other than the time lost to fixing this issue, it will not affect backers at all.

Nevermind The Next Steps

The hottest thing on my radar now that the rulebook is done is to push out those Print-and-Play rewards, which are, let’s be honest, embarrassingly late (I know I’m embarrassed!). I’m going to add a few extra things to help atone for the delay and I’m hoping you will all be excited by the extras. Look for another update within the week with instructions for how to access the final print and play files.

Other than that, May is going to be all about solving the insert-now-box-size issue and (finger’s crossed) passing the ball over into the manufacturer’s court to get on their production schedule. Once all this production-y stuff is off my desk and slung overseas, my main focus will be turning toward lining up freight and fulfillment. Time permitting, I may also start looking at getting the website rebuilt with the new branding look and ecommerce platform. I also need to refilm the how-to-play videos so they are available when you all get your games.

By this time next month, I should have a very clear idea on the timeline for manufacturing, freight and fulfillment.

Print and Play Rewards Incoming!

Yeah, I know I just said it like a paragraph ago, but for those of you who skim like I do, I thought it might bear repeating with a header. Now that the rulebook is done, the print and play rewards are incoming very shortly! All I have left to do is put the finishing touches on some “extras” and get it all uploaded to BackerKit. I will be posting an off-schedule update soon explaining everything, including how to get your stuff.

Ok, I think that’s it for this month.  Have a great May everyone!

-AJ