Production Decisions
about 2 years ago – Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 07:37:47 AM

This is a long post, but we're getting close to fulfillment and we're making decisions to correct issues that emerged in production. We don't want to force everyone to go back to the pledge manager if they're fine as-is. But we also want to give you choices based on what we've found we need to do as plastic hits the molds. 

Changes are bolded, and you can still modify your pledge in Backerkit if you'd like.

Large InFUNity Tiles

The large Hat tiles have proven to be a continuing challenge in production. Their 1/4 inch thickness makes the cycle time really long, because if a tile doesn't cool enough before ejection, then it warps and doesn't sit flat on the table. Cycle time in the machine is pretty directly related to cost. Along with the their other issues we've talked about before (ejection pin marks and the "belly button" at the point of injection), we don't want to offer them for retail sales.

These tiles may still be fine for your intended use. We're already using them for game prototyping, and they're fun to play with (and super durable!), but making them suitable for mass production would require a return to the drawing board and new molds.

CHANGES: Large InFUNity Tile sets are increasing from 21 to 24 Hat tiles (8 each of red, blue, yellow), with no price change, to make up for issues with the Turtles. We'll also include a green Turtle, but it won't fit the Hats (see below).

Large Turtles

The Turtles are a slightly smaller size that doesn't match/interlock with the Hats, and our master frame isn't big enough to resize the Turtles with a new mold. To make up for that, we're adding three extra Hats to the large set. We're still making a limited run of Turtles, but we wanted to warn you about the size issue. 

CHANGES: We'll include a Turtle with each large tile set. We'll also fulfill the add-on sets of 10 Turtles. Again, just be aware that they don't fit with the Hats of either size. Our apologies.

InFUNity Minis

Minis production has run much more smoothly! Replacement mold cores have arrived and testing is good -- without the ejection pins on the Minis themselves, it takes some extra ejector strokes to detach the set, but that works just fine.

Here are images of the two sides of an injection of tan Minis.

The A-side of the core has not been switched out for this test, so there is still a mark on one side of one Mini from the air poppet. That will be gone in the final run. Otherwise, it will look like this:

Minis will come as these sets of four on a sprue, which you'll clip off at the gates just like other plastic figurines.

CHANGES: Looking at costs, we've realized we can give our backers 50% more Minis than we'd promised! With each set of 48 Minis, we'll now also send a bonus set of 24 in assorted colors. Woot!

Modifying Your Pledge

We haven't locked orders in Backerkit, so you can go in and modify your pledge if you like. For example, if you don't like our large tiles fixes, you can switch from Primary Patron (large tiles) to Mini Maxer. We also created a new backer level, "FERVID FAN - Minis Only," for those who backed for three sets total who would prefer to get only minis.

CHANGE YOUR ORDER: We've updated our date to lock orders to March 4. We encourage you to review your reward choices ASAP, if you'd like to make changes!

Production Update & Future Options
about 2 years ago – Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 07:50:50 AM

Thanks to all who gave us feedback on the last update. There's nothing for you to do now, but we wanted to share our plan of action…

Full-Size Tiles

Full-Size Hats with Marks: We're proceeding to manufacture the full-size Hat tiles with the ejection pins as close to flush as possible. We're making enough to fulfill backer rewards, but not enough to release it into the retail market as a packaged product, at least not until we get more feedback from customers when they have it in hand.

Turtle Substitution: Full-size Turtles are a new hurdle. We've discovered that the Turtle mold is mis-sized, just a bit too small. That means they can't connect with our full-size Hats. You can tile a surface with Turtles alone, but that's not what we'd planned. We looked at making a new Turtle mold, but besides the question about ejection pin marks, the size we'd need to make the Turtles so they can interlink with hats is too big to fit into our frame.

The obvious solution is to remove the Turtles from the full-size sets, and replace them with Hats. So we're increasing the full-size tile rewards to be 24 tiles (8 Hats of each color) rather than 22 (7 Hats of each color + 1 Turtle). We hope you'll agree that this substitution is a fair trade.

Separate Too-Small Turtles: Related, we'll manufacture a short production run of (too-small) Turtles, and are happy to sell them to anyone who'd like them, as long as you're aware that they don't match the size of the Hats. But the mold exists, and Turtles will tesselate a plane all by themselves, so why not?

Minis

New Mini Hat Molds: We're getting new molds for the Minis that won't have ejection pins on the faces of the Hats, so we can sell them into retail distribution. At a minimum, we'll be producing the "coffeehouse" sets of 4 colors (black/white/gray/tan). We're considering other color sets as well.

Mini Turtles: At the same time, we're making a mold for Turtles that will be sized to fit the Minis Hats, as we had originally envisioned for the larger tiles.

Post-Processing Experiments

Our experiments working on the tiles to remove the tool marks from production have yielded no good results. There are ways to do it, but they're labor-intensive and frankly messy. The best method I've found is sanding the tiles with power tools, which takes a long time and generates a LOT of microplastic dust.

The one experiment I still want to try is actually to make the tiles with a different kind of plastic — recycled polystyrene (ground-up sprues from gaming minis and model kits) — and then "melt" the surface with a solvent. Acetone is one such; better but much more expensive is d-limonene. This is like what people brush onto 3D prints to smooth the lines. Like sanding, this is not a practical general fix, but might be an option for certain use cases.

Changing/Updating Pledges

We have NOT locked pledges in Backerkit. Before we actually ship any rewards, we'll give you a chance to change your final reward based on what comes back from manufacturing.

Thank you for your help, support, and continued interest our crowdfunding projects! 

-John Nephew, 
Atlas Games Co-Owner

P.S. Our Newest Kickstarter …

Our newest Kickstarter is live NOW! It's the launch of an entirely new line called Enigma, that features three puzzle gamebooks. We're really excited about this new offering, and think you will be too! To learn more, visit our Enigma Kickstarter project.

The Enigma Kickstarter will be live until February 22nd. This line really does have something for everyone, so we encourage you to share the link with your friends and family. Thanks, again!

Production Update - We need your input!
about 2 years ago – Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 09:43:34 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Molding the Future of Recycling - Production Update
over 2 years ago – Wed, Dec 13, 2023 at 02:19:46 PM

Since coming to its nail biting finish, we reveled in the success of our InFUNity Tiles campaign - then set to work on production. John Nephew, Atlas Co-President started working with Updog LLC in Somerset, WI to start the process of obtaining a MUD frame, and finalizing the molds that will be used to produce the tiles.

Here's a digital rendering of what we will be working with! We have four molds that will be used in the MUD frame.

WIth the basics set up and the mold design is in its finishing stages, we will soon be starting production! At this time, we would we consider ourselves on track with our projected timeline. Please reach out with any questions and check in with your backer surveys if you haven't already!

Thanks for supporting us on this recycling project. We can't wait to hear what you think!

Smoke Test & Backerkit Surveys
over 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 29, 2023 at 01:03:56 PM

We're using Backerkit to manage pledges in this campaign. BackerKit allows you to confirm your Kickstarter choices, make any changes or additions you would like, and tell us your shipping address. It also allows us to calculate and collect shipping and tax. We won't actually charge cards for this until closer to the date we actually ship the rewards.

The first "smoke test" of surveys has gone out to 5% of backers. This gives us a chance to catch any problems before sending it to everyone. If you weren't randomly in the smoke test already, you should expect an e-mail with your Backerkit link within the next day.

Recycled Dice!

While tooling moves ahead for InFUNity tiles, we're already thinking about the next Replay Workshop project, using the master unit die frames that YOU helped fund! We think the next thing to try is going to be a full set of RPG dice. We're planning to run that campaign in March; we've created a Backerkit landing page where you can sign up to be notified when it goes live!

-John