Fulfillment starting soon!
29 days ago – Thu, Mar 02, 2023 at 01:16:11 PM

Hello Kiwi island!

As promised, updates are coming on higher frequency now that fulfillment is close!

Just as we did when we fulfilled Dodos Riding Dinos last year, we would like to host a Painting Party to show us your painted minis in social media with the hashtag #kiwichowdown or in BoardGameGeek or our Discord. Stay tuned because we will be giving away prizes to the most original painted miniatures and to random winners.

Please look for your region to find the relevant info to you and the current status of your rewards...

North America

•  United States & Canada: Games have arrived to Gamerati's warehouse. The project is on queue for fulfillment to start in March! Canada will take a bit longer than US pledges to arrive. We have shared backer lists with them and at this point if you need to update your address there might be additional fees for redirecting package. Contact kickstarter@dracostudios.com with the subject "KCD support" if you need assistance. 

•  Mexico & Local Pickup: [ES] Los juegos están en camino aún desde Estados Unidos hacia México. Estimamos que lleguen a México en dos semanas para iniciar envíos. Durante estos días Detestable Games contactará a patrocinadores mexicanos para confirmar dirección de entrega o instrucciones para recoger en alguna de las locaciones disponibles en Guadalajara, Puebla o CDMX. 

Europe

• United Kingdom: BoardGameGuru confirmed that the cargo arrived to Felixstowe Port on Feb 27th and soon to arrive to their warehouse. They plan to move swiftly with fulfillment. This means that no further changes in addresses are possible. Contact kickstarter@dracostudios.com with the subject "KCD support" if you need assistance.

• Rest of Europe: Cargo was expected to arrive to port on Feb 27th, we are working on the paperwork needed to clear from customs. As you recall, this project was our last game where we subsidized a considerable investment on freight and VAT, before new regulations took place. We expect the games to arrive to Happyshops (Germany) within the next week and hopefully start fulfillment by mid March. 

• FRANCE / BELGIUM / Other French speaking countries in Europe: As pointed out by our backer Chucky95, I have failed for the 2nd time to have backers in France to receive their copies before they arrive to retail stores in France. This also happened in Dodos Riding Dinos and I am very very sorry about this. While backers of this campaign received a free item of their choice (expansion or Nest miniatures) I understand that one of the perks of backing a Kickstarter should be to receive your games before retail. Since the cargo for all our European backers is consolidated and sent to Happyshops in Germany, this took 3 weeks longer to arrive than the copies of our official French distributor, Legion Games. They picked their cargo and managed their own logistics, and given the project was delayed and they also had commitments to keep with their retailers who preordered, I can understand the urgency to get them shipped and out for retail. Nevertheless, I would like to hear our backers in Europe who ordered their game in French: what could we do to compensate for this? I have some ideas already but I would like to hear from you and it is important for me to let you know that I'm terribly sorry for the poor experience. As an avid backer, I know the feeling of seeing a game on retail before my KS copy arrives. What I can assure you is that you will get your rewards, even though it will take a couple of weeks. Moving forward, I think we will change our KS strategy for localizations, but I know that some of you might not care about future projects so let's have a conversation to find how can we make up for this. You can comment in this update so that the related info is in one place.

Asia

5 days ago, VFI informed us that the project is on queue for fulfillment so the first parcels might be arriving very soon! At this point, no address changes are possible but you can contact kickstarter@dracostudios.com with the subject "KCD support" if you need assistance.

Australia 

This time we are working with VR Distribution instead of Aetherworks for fulfillment to avoid the communication issues we met during Dodos Riding Dinos. Process is different this time and even more so because they recently changed their way to operate for pickup. Cargo is about to be picked up from the factory and on their way to their warehouse. We will keep you posted about news. Address changes are possible if you send an email to kickstarter@dracostudios.com with the subject "KCD Address Change AU/NZ".

Africa & South America

Happyshops is in charge for fulfilling pledges in countries that were included in the "Rest of the World" category. We expect the games to arrive to them within the next week and hopefully start fulfillment by mid March. 

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That's all for now. I hope to have more updates in 1 or 2 weeks to post another update. If you receive your games, please let us know!! We would love to hear about it. KWEEP!

Storing guide
about 1 month ago – Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 12:21:04 AM

Hello kiwi island! 

As many of you know, Will and I became first-time parents on December and we entered parenting in hard mode with our little kiwi staying in the hospital longer than expected. Fortunately she's healthy and we are back with great news for you! We are very sorry for the long wait on this update but our team took care of keep progress with the logistics.

General status

Games left the factory before Chinese New Year to our different fulfillment partners around the world. The shipments for Europe, Australia, Africa and South America are still on their way but the ones for Asia and North America have already arrived to the warehouses and are on queue to begin fulfillment! 

Locking addresses: We sent a reminder via Backerkit to let you know that we are locking addresses. If you need to update your address please hurry and send us an email to kickstarter@dracostudios.com with the subject "KCD Address change" including your new address. We can only change this manually on our end.

Storing guide

 Now that you will receive your games, you might be wondering how to fit everything in the box. And just as we shared on War for Chicken Island and Dodos Riding Dinos, here's a guide that will show you how to store all the components from the base game and available expansions in the box, even with sleeved cards!

1. All action cards go at the top-left compartment.  //  In the next compartment place the leader, season, and solo cards.   //   In the compartment at the middle, place the mini expansion cards: Objectives and Goals.  (Note that if you don't sleeve your cards, these can fit with the other cards and leave the middle compartment available). At the bottom compartments and top-right, one place the Kiwi tokens and cardboard nests of each player (Once again, if you don't have the 5th player expansion, you'll have one compartment available for other components).

2. Place Goowi mini (with plastic insert) at the very top-right corner and the snap bases just below it.    Place in the compartment at the middle the reference cards, tokens for Victory points and general tokens (turn order, priority, 1st player marker).

 3. Place the season board at the center –you'll see a slight recess at the plastic insert divisions where the board fits.

 4. Place the flock boards (player mats) at the center. You'll also see a slight deboss where these fit.

 5. Place all the island sections at the top and leave some space at the bottom.

 6. Place the cloth bags with their respective tokens inside (Fruit and Domain markers). Make sure that the tokens are at the bottom of the bags. These bags will also help a bit from Kiwi tokens shuffling around (unless you vigorously shake the box, of course).

7. Place the miniatures tray at the top.  If you have the Nests miniatures as part of your rewards, you'll find compartments for them. Otherwise, you can use these to store other tokens from the bottom tray in a more organized way such as the cardboard nest tokens, victory points, or even the snap bases and Goowi miniature if you have the Gooey Chow Down expansion.

8. Add the rulebook...

 9. Close the box!

And there you have it! All items available in this campaign that are related to Kiwi Chow Down fit nicely in the base game box. As mentioned in the instructions, if you don't sleeve your cards or you didn't get the nest miniatures add-on or the Gooey Chow Down expansion (with 5th player components), you will be able to have more space to organize the components a bit more loosely and even use the ziplock bags included in the game. 

We hope this guide is useful for you! As gamers Will and I love to keep our games very organized at shelves and inside the box!

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That's all for now but now that fulfillment is about to start, stay tuned for more updates (shorter ones but more frequent).

We can't wait to hear your kiwi experience with your loved ones! Thanks so much for all your support and patience!!!

KWEEEEEEEEP!

Production copies have arrived!
3 months ago – Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 04:01:57 AM

Hello Kiwi Island!

I'm so happy to be writing this update because... KWEEEEEEP! The mass production copies arrived !!

Regarding the miniatures, the level of detail is, once again, great! Take a look for yourself! They will be a freat addition to the aviwn archipelago! 

Goeey (5th player expansion) was also received and the translucent material make the miniature "extra goeeey!".

The nest miniatures are also amazing and we are so eager to see your minis painted!

The plan remains the same, games should be shipped before Chinese New Year from Panda and fulfillment should be around March.

Due to the revised timeline on this project, you are still on time to add any extra add-ons you would like. If your order is already locked on Backerkit, please send an email to support@dracostudios.com with what you would like to add and we can manually add the extras.

A gift for you! 

Now, holidays are about to come and we have a free gift for you from our Dragonbond universe, a Tetzcoatl's bust with his Christmas hat is waiting for you!

RAGE 2022 

This weekend, the team will be in Guadalajara, Mexico for the RAGE convention! Our games are nominated to the Quetzalera award and we are excited to show demos of our games.

Happy Holidays !! 

 Kweeeeeeep!

Plastic samples arrived!
6 months ago – Thu, Sep 29, 2022 at 09:50:48 AM

Hello Kiwi Island! 

I'm so happy to share with you good news, after our talk, THE talk, with Panda GM and seeing daily progress/updates on our projects, we reached an agreement and we deem acceptable what they offered to us moving forward. We have proof of progress being made at greater speed now and plastic miniatures are here! 

---TOPICS ON THIS UPDATE---

• Plastic samples received 
• Upcoming conventions 

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Plastic Samples received! 

Just yesterday I got the plastic samples of the miniatures and they look gorgeous, the level of detail reaches what we had in mind for the third game of the avian archipelago.  

Nevertheless, we want them to shine for themselves and we consider they are a bit smaller than what we would like, so we asked Panda to do minor changes by increasing the size for each one of them before approving them. Nothing crazy, around 25% to 30%. 

 Remember that Goeey from the 5th player expansion box will come in a transluscent green plastic. 

Here are some images of how the models have changed for plastic injection:

As mentioned in previous updates, all printed components and samples had been approved already. We will just wait for this adjustment. All translations' files had been approved too. 

Due to the revised timeline on this project, the bright side is that you are still on time to add any extra add-ons you would like. If your order is already locked on Backerkit, please send an email to support@dracostudios.com with what you would like to add and we can manually add the extras. 

HERE you can see what extras we offer. 

CONVENTIONS

SHUX'22 

Will and Moy will be attending SHUX'22 from Friday September 30th to Sunday October 2nd. If you are in the area, come and say hi at the Vancouver Convention Centre Booth #504. 

ESSEN SPIEL

Pepe from Detestable Games will be attending Essen from Thursday October 6th to Sunday October 9th, if you are going, stop by at the booth of Taverna Ludica - Hall 5 / 5A101 - to say KWEEEP and see the Pre-production copy and the miniatures! We will also have some copies for sale of Dodos Riding Dinos and demos! 

We will continue keeping you posted in every step we take, but that's it right now. We have our patience being tested because we can't wait to hear your thoughts of the game and to have your copy in your hands. 

Until next update! KWEEEEP! 

Panda meeting and new ETA
7 months ago – Sat, Sep 03, 2022 at 05:33:09 PM

Hola Kiwi Island!

We're coming to you with not great news but with news, and as we promised, communication and transparency are key to us. 

As mentioned in previous updates, we have been expecting the plastic miniatures samples from our manufacturer Panda since February, which are needed in order to move to mass production. 

We were told several times that they were on their way to us just to find out that was not the case. The 3rd time that happened was during Gen Con and we have a serious conversation with our project manager at Panda. Last week it happened for the 4th time.  So we escalated our concern with the chief officers at Panda. 

This week we had a couple of calls and a lot of messages with the factory. It was a real shock to see that key processes for our games (not only Kiwi Chow Down) were never started, even though we were told the opposite, multiple times, for a while now. 

After a couple of years working together, we consider many members at Panda as friends and know they are good people, so we don't believe Panda staff lied viciously or with bad intent, but that it was definitely a very bad internal communication issue within their organization, resulting in false information being shared with us. 

While Panda dropped the ball (big time) on our projects, they acknowledged their mistakes and are committed to rectify things. Starting with taking accountability and sharing this message with you all.

The good thing is that we finally received accurate turnaround times and transparency on this matter, and we are seeing a significant increase in communication everyday by Panda staff. 

This major issue was a terrible hit for us because it means we lost a whole year of distribution sales and a frustrating delay in our projects' fulfillment with you, our beloved backers. 

But if there's one thing we are still sure is that you all will receive high-quality rewards because we won't rest until this project is fulfilled –like we have done with several others in the past– and Panda top-quality production will be satisfactory for everyone. 

We are getting more hands on deck from the Panda team to get the promised results at the new dates they shared.

KIWI CHOW DOWN

As we have mentioned, all digital proofs in the 5 different languages were approved and we were just waiting for the miniatures. The timeline ended up like this: 

•  Sample miniatures (including core game, 5th player expansion and nest miniatures) will be sent on September 22nd.  
• Shipping will begin on December 22nd. 

This means, after our experience with freight shipping and ports, the games will be arriving to their final homes by March/April. 

Regroup: Chicken Army! 

Preproduction copy arrived before Gen Con and minor changes were made. All files had been approved and production started. Production will be finished by October 25th. 

Nevertheless, we want to keep spreading the joy of Creature Kingdoms and in the comments, Steph proposed a great idea, having a Christmas party via Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia so you can play Kiwi Chow Down with us during the holidays. Moy will be planning this and we will share more information when the date comes and how we can play.

As Draco Studios, please rest assured that you will get your rewards, this was one of the major setbacks we have had with production but, as phoenixes (we need a game with them) we will rise from the ashes.

We can't thank you enough for your support and comprehension, until next update, finally with the miniatures samples: KWEEEP!