State of GTG - May 2018

General GTG General Discussion
#1

The general state of business here at GTG HQ is definitely anxiety-enducing, and it is only going to get worse for the next few months! First though, here's some things we achieved in the past month:

  1. Maggie has really hit high gear with her livestreams on Twitch! She now does multiple a week.
  2. Gen Con events went live.
  3. We had many hours of detailed meetings about all of the things we need to make and print for Gen Con.
  4. We extensively re-worked the GM chapters for the SC:RPG Core Rulebook
  5. We attended PAX East in Boston.
  6. We hired two new people, who will be starting in May and June! More on them in a future update.
  7. We got into (and won) a minor disagreement with a real estate agent.
  8. Matt packed up the bulk of our Gen Con stuff.
  9. We bought a ton of calendars.
  10. We set up two new offices.
  11. We reached the point where we have printed enough Spirit Island that they need to rebuild the molds for the plastic.
  12. An enormous amount of work for SC:RPG, Sleepy Hollow, Spirit Island, and several other projects, all of which is tough to enumerate in a list like this.

Real quick, let's talk about how absurd the OblivAeon shipout is going to be.

Our current warehouse has enough pallet bays for roughly 10 cargo containers worth of goods. These days, we are generally about 75% full at minimum any given time because we have so many different SKUs. Due to stocking up before the busy season (Q3 and Q4 for board game companies), our warehouse is right now around 100% full; we have a few empty pallet bays, but also an aisle full of goods we are storing.

Over the course of the next 10 weeks, we will be receiving and shipping out 30 cargo containers worth of goods, both OblivAeon stuff (about 15 containers), plus a bunch of Spirit Island, various reprints, and various games that we ship on behalf of other publishers. If you do the math, you will notice that is 300% of our maximum pallet capacity coming into a warehouse that is already at 100% capacity. Should be fun.

Anyway, here is the status of all of our works in progress!

In Stock Since January

  1. Nothing!

Shipping to Backers

  1. Nothing!

In Transit; On A Boat

  1. Spirit Island (even more)
  2. Spirit Island: Branch & Claw reprint
  3. SotM: Core Game reprint
  4. SotM: Vengeance reprint

Completed Mass Production; In China

  1. SotM: Stuntman, Benchmark, & Void Guard
  2. SotM: Complete Hero Variant Collection
  3. SotM: Ultimate Collector's Case
  4. SotM: 5th Anniversary Foil Villain Collection
  5. SotM: Promo Cards
  6. The giant OblivAeon KS shipping cartons.

In Mass Production

  1. Spirit Island (even even more)
  2. Spirit Island: Branch & Claw reprint
  3. Spirit Island: Promo Spirit Pack reprint
  4. SotM: OblivAeon
  5. New Bedford reprint
  6. SotM: Shattered Timelines & Wrath of the Cosmos reprint
  7. Various SotM mini-expansion reprints

At Factory; Pre-Press Work

  1. Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Current WIP Focus by GTG

  1. Sentinel Comics: The Role Playing Game core rulebook (Christopher, Jenn, Critical Hits)
  2. Prime War (Christopher)
  3. Sentinels of Earth Prime (Christopher)
  4. Spirit Island expansion (Paul + Christopher + Jenn)
  5. Sentinels of Freedom video game (Christopher + Adam)
  6. A new and improved website (Jenn, Paul, Joel, etc)
  7. The History of Sentinel Comics (Christopher, Adam)

I'll see you next month!

#2

New people? :3 Now that's interesting...

#3

Wow, they managed to destroy the Spirit Island molds from overuse.  That's a success story right there.

#4

Here is some things I found interesting from this post:

 

1) Real estate agent dispute --- is this something that would have affected the warehouse or are you guys trying to expand?

2) Calendars? Wait are we getting Sentinel comics calendars????? ME WANT!!!!!!

3) 300% capacity? Where are you going to go with it all? I know at least 15 of those containers should be coming in and then going right back out but that is a lot.

4) Prime War should be number 1 not number 2  on the things to do list :(. Wish we would get more news on that and hopefully soon.

5) Sentinels of Earth Prime is number 3. So excited to play this. Hopefully we get some deck previews over on kickstarter soon.

6) Sentinels of Freedom looks like fun. I want to play but can't preorder it right now. Once it hits my ps4 (or switch) I will be playing like crazy.

#5

Even if you can't make a full pledge level, donating even just a few bucks to the KS would be greatly appreciated. :slight_smile:

#6

Craig is working on providing excellent customer service and growing our Citizen program into an elite corps of game experts.

(Since Paul likes to leave me out of these things)

#7

It's okay, Craig, we see your true value. :)

#8

Where can I find this Craig? :stuck_out_tongue:

#9

One day I shall join this elite squad of gamers. This year, however, I shall be mooching about spending far too much on art...

#10

Lies and slander Craig. The Con just run on their own. There is nobody getting up badges and organizing it all.

Also congrats on breaking the mold.

I Wish RPG books didn't need a Gm section but it is the best way to get new people to play. I mean I remember reading the Gm section the first time so it is important.

#11

GM sections of books are where all the 'behind-the-scenes' stuff happens, like rules and clarifications and all that crunchy stuff. It'd be safe to say a good portion of game mechanics live in a book's GM section.

I'm all for them making sure these sections are as easy to read and understand as possible, since I'm the one who'll most likely run games of SC: RPG in my group. And I need all the help I can get.

#12

Yeah, I'm not sure why one would think the GM section is just for new players.  It's how you know how to build balanced encounters, design villains, allocate rewards, and all that stuff.  Sentinels RPG doesn't need as much of that sort of thing as other RPG's (D&D especially), but it does need some.

#13

 

sadly after the delays in Oblivaeon, Prime war, and Earth prime, as well as several video games, my wife no longer allows me to back things on kickstarter or preorder things. I have to wait till it hits retail.

#14

That makes me a sad panda. :frowning:

But, I understand the reasoning.

Quick reminder that the KS is in it's final hours now, so if you can donate, please do. We just unlocked Guise, and we're so close to getting the combat simulator level next!

#15

Not trying to complain, simply to understand - there are numerous items in this list which have been in "Completed Mass Production; In China " for months (e.g., SotM: Complete Hero Variant Collection has been in this state since October 2017.) Is there an easy-to-explain reason that this happens? TIA.

#16

It’s because all of the OblivAeon related content is shipping together at one time in cartons they had made for easier distribution once they receive them.  

#17

@TML

What Powerhound_2000 says is exactly the situation!

As it happens, the number of different products, and the size of the print run for each product, means that we are running up against the capacity of the factory to produce items! As a result, they are having to go one at a time through the list of products and hold on to them once they are done. After all of the products are done, they are packing them into shipping cartons for backers, and then packing those in the containers, and then shipping those here.

I've actually gotten unofficial word from the factory that they are now solidly into this "packing stuff up" step! We'll definitely have a lot more to update you all on officially next month!

#18

Well, that is good news !