This page is designed to fill YOU in on certain subjects that we might ordinarily have covered right ON the KICKSTARTER page, BUT…
We’re trying a different approach this time around, which involves having the Kickstarter page be MINIMALISTIC in nature so that YOU can easily navigate it and find the information you want more easily, but at the same time to enable you to come here and read more DETAILS if you so desire.
The items listed below are in ALPHABETICAL ORDER by headline.
Let’s Start With…
24-HOUR APP SALE
HOW TO BUY THE APP:
Note: To get the app through this Kickstarter is a two step process…
1: Become a member of the E-Club to receive all the benefits including the invitation to the private 24-Hour Sale at the app store.
2: Buy it at the app store for $2.99 during the 24-hour private sale.
(thus the total investment is $5.99 for the app and other E-Club goodies)
As we prepared for this Kickstarter, we looked at the pros and cons of MANY possible delivery methods, and this one seemed like that best way overall. Trust me when I say that delivering apps all over the world on both iOS and Android is trickier than you might think.
Example: At one point we were going to try to charge $6 for the app via this Kickstarter and when it was time to deliver we would then gift the apps to all of the backers. This remained our plan right up to the point where we found out that in order to do this for the iOS backers we would need to establish accounts at hundreds of iTunes stores around the world and handle each transaction very carefully. Keep in mind, that was just for the iOS folks (Android was going to be MUCH worse than that). Thus our costs would have been much higher and we would have needed to charge more for the app. This did not seem like a good solution for YOU, our backers.
Yes, it’s true that there will only be one BIG Sale like this, but what if you do miss it?
It is our hope that backers can view this as a calculated risk with manageable downside. Meaning that, with a $3 total cost, even if you did miss the sale, you are not out much.
But more importantly, we hope backers can gain much more than $3 in value from the assortment of membership benefits, and if you can, then you’d feel alright about the situation even if you did miss the sale for some reason.
BUT don’t worry! We will be giving YOU advanced notice, including repeated reminders as we get closer to the actual sale. With this in mind, we hope that you WILL be able to take advantage of this money saving opportunity!
EARLY ACCESS
Let’s take a look at the assorted aspects of this topic starting with…
STRETCH GOAL DELIVERY
In this Kickstarter, Stretch Goals #1 and #2 involve us (CMG) arranging to have some of the backers play the app DURING the Kickstarter. Delivering quality boardgames made out of cardboard is something we have a lot of experience in and pride ourselves on doing well, BUT making and delivering electronic versions of those cardboard games is something we are a LOT less experienced with.
With this in mind, please bear with us as we wade in and try the waters in this NEW and exciting area. In all honesty, though we’re new to this, we are VERY confident that delivering on these Stretch Goals will be quite smooth and hassle-free. That said, until we actually do it, we can’t go as far as to say we are 100% sure it will work. Or it might work, but the process is much more intensive than expected.
It is for this reason that we will want to see strong evidence that Stretch Goal #1 was implemented well (easily and hassle-free) before we solidify Stretch Goal #2.
If this seems to NOT be the case, we may end up changing Stretch Goal #2 to something else (one of the characters possibly). This is NOT expected, but is a possible outcome. We’ll just have to cross the bridge when we come to it, so stay tuned!
REQUIRED
90% of iPhones, iPads, or Android devices will work. Here’s the particulars:
iOS: Requires TestFlight app (free) & iOS 8.0 or later.
Android: Device Requires Google Play & Android Version 4.4 or later.
INSTRUCTIONS
iOS Players
A. Provide First Name, Last Name and Email Address
B. Download TestFlight for Apple App Store for Free
C. Backers will receive an email from iTunes/Apple to download the App. MUST OPEN EMAIL FROM THE DEVICE THE APP WILL BE DOWNLOADED TO
Android Testers
A. Provide First Name, Last Name and Email Address
B. Android users must have Google Play on their Device.
C. Backers will receive an email from Acronym with a link to become a Tester on Google Play. Click link, Click “Become a Tester”. At the bottom of the email, Click “Download Police Precinct on Google Play”
GUARANTEES
We want you to be able to back this kickstarter with confidence, and with this in mind we are offering the following guarantees…
E-CLUB
If you pledge at the $3 E-Club level and make every effort to find value in your membership for at least 90 days after the end of the Kickstarter campaign, but are unable to do this (for any reason), simply send us a message via Kickstarter asking for a refund, and we will happily comply.
CARDBOARD
If you pledge at the $25 OR $84 levels and find (for any reason) that you are not satisfied with the rewards sent to you, then simply return them to us within 30 days of receiving them for a full refund.
LINKS
We are in the early stages now of developing a links page especially for Police Precinct, come take a look at where it’s at now.
NON-USA OPTIONS
If you are seeking to back this particular Kickstarter and you are located in another part of the world (outside of the USA), then we think that you will be VERY happy!
That’s our hope anyway!
For you, there is not an availability of cardboard at this time because we are effectively “sold-out” on a world-wide basis. Meaning that the entire UPLIFT print-run has been sold (from our perspective), which leaves us with a fairly small reserve in our Denver facility (allocated specifically for this Kickstarter and the US market). For this (the lack of cardboard), we’re sorry!
Now to the good news…
The aspect that we are very excited about for YOU is the availability of Police Precinct in App form (which works on both iOS and Android along with both phones and pads).
This form of Police Precinct is, in many ways, BETTER and more versatile than the cardboard, plus (of course) it comes with FREE SHIPPING!
The reason we think this is so cool for YOU is that in the past we have felt it necessary to charge an absolute arm-and-a-leg to ship you physical rewards of this freight intensive game (think heft-value to a high degree). BUT NOW, you can get the game at less than 1/10th of the normal cost, and thanks to electronic delivery, with infinitely less shipping cost (i.e. – none)!
If you have never played Police Precinct, we recommend this (The App) as a great way to learn to play and as a means of trying it out to be sure you like it well enough to invest in the cardboard. If in the end you really want to get it in cardboard, don’t worry because we ARE going to make more, so your day will come!
ONLINE PLAY
When YOU get ready to start playing the app with friends all over the world, the process is pretty intuitive and easy, but if you have any issues, you might want to check out this little tutorial we made.
QUANTITIES
THE SHORT VERSION:
Don’t be surprised to see quantities of available items fluctuate (generally increasing)!
THE LONG VERSION:
We are going to try to manage this Kickstarter in such a way that we’re able to deliver rewards MUCH faster than we typically have in the past!
There’s a lot that goes into this, and we want to stay on top of all of it so that you have MORE than just a good experience and feel more than just satisfied. We want to EXCEED your expectations!
We plan to start the campaign with certain pledge levels being offered on a limited basis (meaning that the quantities of rewards would be set relatively low). Effectively, we want to offer JUST the amounts that we know we can deliver to YOU rapidly. Then during the campaign, if we see a certain reward level getting low, we will react by attempting to add more if possible. In some cases, this might happen fairly quickly and easily, while in others it may ultimately prove impossible.
Some of the challenges we face will be based on personnel available to handle fulfillment in our Denver HQ, others might be related to the actual physical copies of the game which we have (or don’t have) access to (keep in mind that our distributor keeps a supply of our games stored in Atlanta and we might be able to acquire some of them for this campaign if necessary). These are just examples, but each instance of this will involve us navigating certain challenges and will often be related to negotiations with 3rd parties, so please bear with us for this process (and wish us luck).
Wait, one last thing — in some cases for assorted reasons, we may actually decrease quantities of certain rewards during the campaign. If this occurs, it will likely be done so that we can gain more control over delivering faster.
RAPID DELIVERY
We plan to handle the fulfillment process for this campaign in such a way that backers should be receiving rewards very quickly.
The plan is to go in this order:
STANDARD BACKERS ($84): Throughout the campaign we will carefully monitor the availability of items needed to supply backers at this level. We plan to ship the $84 rewards that have no add-ons first because these packages will be totally uniform in nature and thus easier to send in bulk fashion.
E-CLUB BACKERS ($3): simultaneously to the cardboard shipping process, we will be working on the delivery of E-Club items, which we want to start on ASAP after the campaign ends!
CUSTOM ORDERS (1ST $84 THEN $25): After the Standard $84 backers will come the more custom orders (which means some of the $84 backers who got add-ons and ALL of the $25 backers). These orders take longer to handle and must not be rushed. In the category of custom orders, the $84 ones will go first since they have been given guaranteed availability and faster shipping as features of their level. After this will come the $25 backers. There will be NO possible way to know DURING the campaign what is being ordered by Pack C folks ($25 level) and in what quantities, thus we will not be able to prepare, AND we may run short of certain items (in which case we will work out individual solutions with affected backers, including offering full refunds to those who desire this route over any other that we can suggest).
EXTRA DICE: If it turns out that we have orders for more custom dice than we have on hand, we will be forced to hold certain orders (in most cases this would mean those who ordered more than 6 dice). We would then ship those orders just as soon as the new dice arrived (they are being produced now and will arrive soon, thus if this even happens it will likely only hold up orders a couple weeks). If this does happen, we still anticipate delivering these orders on time (if not early).
TABLETOPIA
The crew over at Tabletopia has been super generous with YOU (our backers) by offing to gift to you a 30-Day Premium membership when you join our E-Club (approximate value = $10 USD). There’s even a chance that this would come with early access (before the general public). That’s about all we know about this particular E-Club benefit, partly because the deal we struck with Tabletopia specifically stipulated that the exact details would be worked out later (soon after the Kickstarter is over).
And, to see their pricing page go here and then hit the “Join Now” tab in the navigation bar. Once you get their, notice the $10 item (entitled “Game Scout”) — Tabletopia has confirmed with us that the following statement is true: “If someone were to purchase the Game Scout item listed on the Tabletopia site, they would be getting exactly what YOU (the $3 and higher backers of this project) will be getting as part of your rewards package.”
Furthermore, they confirmed that “YOU” means ALL of you regardless of whether, or not, you already have an account with Tabletopia (in other words, this offer is not JUST an introductory offer for new members of Tabletopia). And, as for timing, they say that there is no reason that we can’t roll-out this benefit directly after the Kickstarter ends through their early access program.
On the Tabletopia website, the Game Scout offer looks like this…
(Note: the above image is NOT an offer to “buy now” — it’s simply what the offer looks like on the Tabletopia site)
Here’s a video about Tabletopia worth checking out!
Here’s a video of Police Precinct being played on Tabletopia by a bunch of people YOU know! (Here’s the after-game discussion)
For more info about OUR thoughts regarding Tabletopia, go here.