#14 Happy New Year/Decade
almost 5 years ago – Sat, Jan 04, 2020 at 11:32:52 PM

Dear Team DoubleSix,

SUMMARY

1) Happy New Year and Decade to all of you and yours. 

2) MEA CULPA: Been 2 months since the last update (yikes!). I am sorry.

3)  PRODUCTION and packing won't be completed until the end of February. 

4) PLEDGE MANAGER (PM) has been mostly built, thanks to Jazzy Bear, and should come out in several more weeks.  You can preview and share the Pre-Order store here (it is meant for late backers, not for campaign backers): https://dd6gen2.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

5) DELIVERY DATE ESTIMATE: You should have your dice in hand by May.

6) REFUNDS: Please message me if you want that refund, no questions asked. 

...

DETAILS

1) Happy New Year and Decade to all of you and yours. 

2) MEA CULPA: Been 2 months since the last update (oof, time flies).  For those of you not yet sick of my apologies and excuses: I am sorry.  Jazzy Bear is doing a crap-ton of work providing information and immediate updates in the comments section and answering questions, and he built almost all of the pledge manager, with no assistance.  If not for him, I would have had a nervous breakdown.

While I do post in the comments, I have gotten in the habit of wanting to only post big updates, which make them less frequent, but also makes me avoid working on them.  For the rest of this campaign, I will post more frequently, even if there is little to report, as we are rounding the corner and entering the home stretch.  

For the next Kickstarter (Gen 3), I hope to start posting more frequent and shorter updates as information comes up and in, and might even let Jazzy Bear take more of the lead on that entire campaign, as he has been very involved and helpful since the first campaign, and is a 40 year TTRPG (TableTop RolePlaying Gamer) veteran and DM.

3)  PRODUCTION and packing won't be completed before Chinese New Year, which is starting around Jan 15th for some of the factory workers, and will take about a month.  

Run 2 is under production—They were off for one week this month to cooperate with the government's annual environment and security check.  There was also a delay as they wanted to create a new mold for the Otakus as the old one started to have paint bubbles in the tails (I only recently learned about this, as they told me about this after the fact). 

Run 1 is completed, and packed (80% in 4-packs, and 20% loose) and in cartons, which also takes time to order (and they miscalculated the cartons needed). 

4) PLEDGE MANAGER (PM) has been mostly built, thanks to Jazzy Bear, and should come out in several more weeks.  You can preview and share the Pre-Order store here (it is meant for late backers, not for campaign backers): https://dd6gen2.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

In this pre-order store, you can see the dice photos and collector's pack (but as a backer, don't order anything).  You KS backers will have better shipping and lower pricing.   Jazzy Bear found a way to get all of you wanting MORE dice than your initial pledge at a lesser price, while still covering costs.  More to come about the PM in the next update, including the changes he had to make to the Kickstarter Pledge Manager (we are using Backerkit).

5) DELIVERY DATE ESTIMATE:  Hopefully Production and Packaging for both runs will be completed by the end of February. Shipping on a "slow boat from China" can take four to six weeks and then US customs is usually two more weeks, so end of April. At that point the dice will be at our fulfillment center (likely Gambler's Warehouse in Texas) and ready to be picked and packed from your Pledge Manager selections and finally sent to you! This should mean you have your dice in hand by May.

6) REFUNDS: I have begun to provide full refunds to those who aren't happy with the product (e.g. color options aren't appealing) or the service (this is taking too long, not enough communication, we missed the holidays, etc).  Please message me if you want that refund, no questions asked.  Do remember that you are getting these for significantly below retail, so it will be worth the wait!

Rollin' on,

Matt (and Jazzy Bear)

#13: The Halloween Update
about 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 07, 2019 at 01:15:29 PM

Dear Team DoubleSix,

SUMMARY:

Pledge Manager (PM):  Again, this will come out AFTER all production dice are completed, which will also allow you to update your mailing address. 

Delayed Delivery: Your pledge will be delayed, and unlikely to arrive in December, as previously estimated.  I am sorry about this.  Reasons for this listed below. 

Second Half of Production:  Based on the survey results (which you can see HERE), we are going to produce the following dice (and it will be made from a new master mold, with the 2nd pip on the 2 side further away from the edge): Pearl Dark Gray with Teal, Frosted Dark Gray with Silver, Pearl Brown with Teal, Glitter Pink with White, Glitter Gold with White, and Frosted Red with Silver. 

Video:  Close up of the repainted dice.

Next steps:  Choose and prepare the Pledge Manager (PM), and finalize dice bags and collectors mix combinations.  Please feel free to check comments sections of the main page for news and answers between formal Updates. 

DETAILS:

Pledge Manager (PM):  This will come out AFTER all production dice are completed.  This is so the PM will be able to include photos of each die off the production line, so that all backers will be able to see and order exactly what they are going to get.  It will also allow you to update your mailing address at that time (no need to try to do so now). 

Delivery Update: I am sorry, but due to various delays, you are unlikely to get your dice in December.  Delays have been a result of a combination of factors: 

• (A) For the first half of production, several backers, and myself, noted that a pip on the 2 side was too close to the edge (photo below: old mold on the right). It might not look too bad on the mold, but after production models undergo some tumbling and polishing, the pip gets even closer to the edge. 
• Starry Games decided to produce a new master mold (photo: on the left) in order to move a pip away from the edge (on the 2), after a period of trying other ways to address this issue (they were somehow able to fix a similar issue with the 3 side).  I was prepared to continue using the old mold, but Starry decided (on their own and behind the scenes) to produce a whole new mold for the second half of production.  Good news: the second half (Gen 2.5) will have a slightly better appearance.  Not as good news: it slowed us down, and these dice won't exactly match the first half of production (Gen 2.0).

• (B) Also not at my request (I told them I didn't mind a slightly larger pip), they went in to find and remove dice with the single pip being a different size than the one on the opposite side (around 13-17% for these 7 colors) and reproduce them.   Apparently, one of their 4 engraver machines (which engraves the single pip on one side) was off. 

• (C) They repainted 25,000 dice from the first half production (15,000 Clear Dark Blue with Gold, and 10,000 of the Matte Black with Red), at my request.  You might recall, the red was darker than the samples, and the gold was not nearly as shiny as the samples. 

• (D) Various holiday breaks and periods where Nico was at international gaming conventions. 

What should speed things up a bit:

• Starry has started packing the 4-packs in little ziplock baggies (at $0.025 each).
• And I am planning on using Gambler's Warehouse to pick and pack and ship the orders, which should be way quicker than me and my mom doing it again.  

Video:  Close up of the repainted dice. Intro by Jazzy Bear. 

Second Half of Production:  Based on the survey results (which you can see HERE), we are going to produce the following dice:

As well as: 

• Clear Yellow with White
• Clear Orange with White
• Clear Purple Otaku with Gold
• Pearl Teal Jazzy Bear with Orange
• Pearl Dark Gray Monty with Teal
• Frosted Dark Gray with Kickstarter Green
• Clear Dark Blue with White

You can see how many of each were ordered on this spreadsheet.

For the Matte Black with Light Gray, Nico wrote: "For the black dice, we will remove the plant oil on the surface so that you and gamers can see the matte surface at the first glance."  Oiled dice on the right, and the left will be closer to the final production version.  Looks like the pip paint also is effected.  

Next Steps:  Preparing Pledge Manager, and finalizing dice bags and the composition of the mixed 4-packs. Please feel free to check comments for info in-between formal Updates, Jazzy Bear doing a great job answering questions and bringing everyone up to speed, and I will also chime in   

Finishing the fight,

Matt

#12: Final Samples and Final Rating
about 5 years ago – Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 01:56:23 AM

Dear Team DoubleSix,

It has been a while (for various reasons; thanks for your patience), but finally, the last samples have arrived.  Let's make it quick:

SUMMARY:

1. Video and photos of:

A) 4th Round New Option Prototypes

B) 4th Round Final Prototypes (to be mass produced)

C) Actual production samples of the first half of the mass produced dice

D) Final options for up for consideration: rate the dice HERE. 

DETAILS:

1. Video tends to provide a more accurate visual representation of the dice.  I filmed by a window during the day.  Intros produced by Jazzy Bear.  

A) Here is video of the new final options (not all will be considered):

 Which include:

 ...

B) And here is a video of final prototypes slated for production (these will be mass produced):

Which include:

Note: The orange will be more clear.  They said they made a mistake in the prototype production.

Note: Though the KS Exclusive was requested to be Frosted Dark Gray, the sample doesn't match the previous Frosted Dark Gray samples (like the one with gold, pictured from factory, and after being coated with natural oil from hand use).  I have requested that the production run match the frosted dark gray with gold. 

...

C) And here is video of the actual final production samples, as seen in the Gen Two order spreadsheet.

Which include (photos are of production samples, not original prototypes): 

.

Note: They will not be able to repaint the Frosted Light Blue w/ White (to change it to gold), so these will all now be available as a Limited Edition (15,000 units produced) for this campaign.  I haven't decided if I also want to try again and produce Frosted Light Blue with Gold.  

 .

 .

Note: They are currently repainting the dull gold to brighter gold, and the darker red to lighter red. However, I now have 1,000 units of the darker red (they were airmailed in, so will be eventually for sale as a super Limited Edition, but not for this campaign).

.

D) Final options for consideration: Below are the ones to be considered for final production (please rate here).  Watch the video clip to get a better sense of the look. 

Many of you might be understandably disappointed with the options, especially if your favorite other combos are not being considered.  I ruled out the combos that didn't have a significant contrast between the paint and the base color/effect, as well as any that might be too similar to combos currently or previously produced, and, frankly, the ones I didn't really care for personally (the perks to running the show, I guess).  I am trying hard to balance various factors, but realize not everyone will be happy.  Thanks for understanding. 

For this final options, you are being asked to rate each on a scale of how likely you are to order a 4-pack. I will use the final ratings to determine the remaining combos to be massed produced.  Thanks!

 ..

 ...

Again, don't forget the rate the above dice HERE.  

Entering the home stretch of production!

Thanks,

Matt

#11: Production has begun!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 09:34:18 AM

Dear Team DoubleSix,

Summary

This update did take a while. 

We got photos of some of the latest samples, and more are still to come. 

Production began around July 1st.

We are taking steps to ensure the best quality possible. 

I am estimating the dice will be ready to leave China around September, which will be around the time the pledge manager will go out.

Yes, we will be offering Mix Packs, and they will be available as 4-pack choices, and as add-ons.

.

Details

Why the delayed update?  Communication with China slowed down a bit because Nico was on "personal leave during 5th July to 15th July," and I was waiting for some relevant news to share (like photos of the samples).  I also went on a few vacations, like this weekend. 

.

Latest Samples: here are photos of some of the latest samples.  

. 

.

Notes: Pearl Brown might look better in person and on video, so I am looking forward to that.  The Pearl Green w/ Gold Jazzy Bear sample was made to consider for a future Zelda/Triforce(Trifours) version.  That Monty base color doesn't look too much the previous Pearl Dark Gray sample, but we will see how they look in person. 

.

.

Clear Orange doesn't look so clear, so I asked about it.  Looks like there was a communication problem...

Nico wrote: "For transparent orange dice, it’s because the photo you attached looked like “not as transparent as the yellow one”, we follow the photo to make it as close as that one on purpose, it seems that’s our misunderstanding. But it doesn’t matter, if you need it more transparent, we can do that for sure, as the capacity of production is limited right now, we will not arrange resample this one, but you have my word: we can make it as transparent as usual."

.

Pending Samples:  More samples are still to come.  From Nico: "some samples haven’t been finished ‘cuz the production also runs at the same time right now. It’s a bit slow, sorry about that."

Here are the ones that were requested and are still pending:

• Pearl Brown with Gold, Silver, and Teal
• Glitter Gold with Black, and White
• Clear Orange with Black
• Clear Yellow with Black
• Frosted Dark Gray with Kickstarter Green
• Frosted Clear Red with Silver
• Pearl Green with Yellow (to consider for future Jazzy Bear)
• Jazzy Bear: Pearl Teal with Orange 

.

Production Update: Production officially started a few days prior to July 4th.  I sent the 30% deposit on June 4th, and Ben wrote "we had start the first batch production few days ago."

Here is a link to the spreadsheet we are using to coordinate: Gen Two Production order.  Remember, this is just the first large batch. There will be one more smaller batch (to be determined).

.

Quality control: to summarize how we will try to improve the quality over Gen One, we are taking the following steps (quotes are from Nico's emailed responses):

To prevent warping (found in some Gen One dice due to silicone mold overuse)..."Usually we will make new mould for dice per 50 times for production, one mould will produce around 100-120 dice per time."

To prevent stumpy dice..."The machine will lock the height while mass production...it can down to the preset height and stop automatically. We designed the metal base to lock the dice." 

To have consistent edge roundness...they will "control the time of polishing more strictly."

To center the engraved pip..."We will make new frame to lock the dice while engraving the top face in order to make the dot in the centre."

.

Production Timeline:  I asked for an updated production timeline, and Nico estimated the dice will be done in August, but I will say September, as we still have some more dice to produce, and I will need them to pack all the various 4-packs.  Nico wrote...

"summer is the busy season for dice production ‘cuz most board game exhibitions are in summer and we’re producing dice for many different companies, so the schedule is already full for the next 2 months. But no need to worry, we will finish your order in time, the latest update is, if there’s no any accidents, we can finish mass production within August and we will arrange quality checking on random 10% products for you."

.

Pledge Manager: as mentioned before, but bears repeating...the Pledge Manager (PM) will go out once we have photos of all the final production models, so you can accurately see what the final production looks like before making your choices.  So likely in September. 

The PM will allow updating your address, and adding funds to increase your tier level and/or add-on 4-packs a la cart.

.

Mix Packs: we will be offering mix packs for you to choose as your 4-packs, as well as add-ons, and are currently considering the composition of them.  

.

Slow rollin' right along,

Matt

#10: Pre-Pledgemanager
over 5 years ago – Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 08:16:27 AM

Dear Team DoubleSix,

Summary:

(A) Survey #9: The votes are in (499 votes; thanks for participating).  Here are the winners:

• (1) Frosted Light Blue will be with Gold (not white)
• (2) The next Jazzy Bear will be Pearl Teal with Orange
• (3) The next Monty will be Pearl Dark Gray with Teal
• (4) The Gen Two Kickstarter Exclusive will be Frosted Dark Gray with Kickstarter Green (Pantone 7479). 

.

(B) Final Samples have been ordered (and will take 18-25 days).  They are:

• Pearl Brown with Gold, Silver, Orange, and Teal
• Glitter Gold with Black, Red, and White
• Glitter Pink with White
• Clear Orange with White (and Black)
• Clear Yellow with White (and Black)
• Frosted Dark Gray with Kickstarter Green
• Frosted Red with Silver
• Pearl Green with Yellow (to consider for future Jazzy Bear)

New molds will have to be produced for the TripleFours because the silicone from the Gen One molds has degraded.  Once made, they will make the following samples:

• Jazzy Bear: Pearl Teal with Orange 
• Monty: Pearl Dark Gray with Teal 
• Otaku: Clear Purple with Gold 

.

(C) Pre-Pledgemanager: You can fill out a draft Pledgemanager HERE, which will help in gauging how many of each type of dice to produce.  

.

(D) Actual Pledgemanager: I know folks are excited to put in their order, but I plan to send out the PM once we have photos of all the actual production dice (explanation below).  So this could take a couple of months. 

.

(E) Quality Control: the reason behind the occasional stumpy dice has been explained, and promised to be remedied.  However, I still want to try to learn more. 

.

(F) Glitter Dice: Nico clarified that the paint color has a drastic impact on the glitter appearance (makes sense), and he sent an illuminating photo, which reminds me of the Adelson Illusion (both below).  This is why I decided to pull the trigger on Glitter Pink with White.

.

(G) Misc: Glow in the dark photos below; Silk bag details. 

...

DETAILS:

(A) SURVEY: 499 total responses

(1) Frosted Light Blue will be with Gold.  I am glad the vote went this way.

(2) The next Jazzy Bear will be Pearl Teal with Orange.  I am happy with this choice, as well, and so is Jazzy Bear himself.

    (3) The next Monty will be with Pearl Dark Gray with Teal.  I personally preferred the red, but there seemed to be a clear favorite... 

     (4) The Gen Two Kickstarter Exclusive will be Frosted Dark Gray with Kickstarter Green (Pantone 7479).  This vote was closer than I thought it would be (though the Frosted Dark Gray with Gold sure is purty). 

  .

(C) Pre-Pledgemanager: 

Please take a moment to fill out this following SURVEY, which is like a pretend/practice PM.  You are asked to choose the 4-packs you are likely to eventually order.  It will help us gauge how many of each type of dice needs to be produced. 

.

(D) Actual Pledgemanager: 

I want to wait until I can get photos of all the final production models and add those photos to the Pledgemanager before launching it.  Then when people place their order, they can see and choose exactly what they will be getting.  I might even airmail in dice to film for video (though I will stay away from that red tray). 

Some of you might think that I could just add photos of the current samples, but I am worried that the current samples could be slightly different than the production run.  If this were to happen, I would then have to change some photos and tell folks to re-check their pledge choices, or backers might miss that update and then be unhappy when they finally get the dice, and the dice don't match their expectations. 

In the past, Nico has stated that the material mixed for such a small sample run (10 dice) is likely to look different than the mixing for 10,000 dice, which makes intuitive sense to me.

This fear is also based on my experience that each production run could look different because of the color mixing process.  In Gen One, some sample runs looked different from the finals, especially with the Pearls. Even with the Gen Two samples, we saw different gold paint colors, for example.  It seems that, unfortunately, getting the mixing ratios consistent for the base colors, paint colors, or even glitter/pearl/smokes effect is not an exact science.  

I know this delay will be frustrating and disappointing to some of you excited to make your choices sooner rather than later, and I get this.  I hope this decision still makes some sense to you, regardless.   

.

(E) Quality Control: as you can reference in Update #9, there were some recent stumpy dice, and I want to prevent this with Gen Two, so I asked why this happened, and what can be done about it. 

On June 10th, Nico wrote: "I checked with the workers who took part in last production, the problem is not on the polishing process, it was workers messing the testing dice which we produced while testing the machine, with the correct dice in the rolling container. Usually we should clean the machine after testing in case any wrong dice be messed in mass production, we made a big mistake. We will be more careful in the future."

This makes some sense, since I didn't notice it with the rest of the Gen One dice (the Flat Black with Red was more like Gen 1.5).  However, I noticed it on a couple of the recent samples, so I still want to learn more.  I am also just curious about the open-face polishing process, so I hope we can get even more clarity.

.

(F) Glitter:

I had assumed they had used a darker pink for the DD6 sample below, and requested that they make a light pink sample.  Nico clarified below.

.

"I’m sure that’s the same glitter powder as our previous sample cuz we only have one pink glitter powder. Glitter powder will reflect the colors surrounding, that means the ink’s color will also effect glitter dice’s color. I have some blank samples of light blue glitter dice left and I painted one with whiteout, put them together for a photo, you can see from the photo that the light blue glitter dice are the same run but different inks make them look different as the light pink glitter dice do.

We suggest you to choose white ink for glitter dice if you wish the color look lighter."

So I decided to order Glitter Pink with White samples. 

This effect reminds me of the Adelson Illusion (below), where both the orange dots are the exact same color, as well as the gray square they are on.  To be clear, I said this "reminds me of," so I am aware that it might not even be technically that related at all.  

         .

(G) Misc

Dice Bag: I love the feel and look of these (blue bag), so plan to order a bunch.  

.

Details from Nico: "The 4C printing silk bag is USD 0.410 (Size as sample).  These price is based on quantity 1k bag, if your order is less than 1k bag, pls let me know in advance. You can customise the size, color and artworks, usually size will effect the price a bit."
        .

Glow-in-the-dark: A backer requested a photo of these puppies glowing, which I should have included in the last update.  The first photo is immediately after charging, and the second photo is about 40 min later. 

.

There you have it.  Another update in the can.  Now, one week of the Pre-Pledgemanager, and then we officially go into production.

.

Sha-boing boing,

Matt