Far Away is in the final stages of production. The files have been sent to Boda, our manufacturing facility in China. The game design is effectively complete. So let’s talk about what this means for the game and you.
The next milestone is receiving the proof copy from the manufacturer. We had a copy made through GameCrafter last week, but that serves a different purpose. The GameCrafter version allowed us to comb through the components and look for mistakes in the art and text. It’s a copy you can play and, thus, analyze the play experience. We’ll be taking it to SHUX for everyone’s enjoyment.
The manufacturing proof is a different beast. This is a copy using the actual equipment that will spawn another 2000 copies once we give the go-ahead. We will scour that copy for problems with the production, not content. We need to ensure the die lines are lined up, the cube colors are right, the cards have the right backs, the missions are shrink wrapped together, and nothing’s missing. Changes after this step are those we need to make, not ones we want to make.
This proof is airmailed to us from China. It’s not a cheap process, but it’s a fast one. When we used the same company to manufacture Drink!, the proof arrived in just under two weeks. This one may take a few days longer because Far Away is more complex and we accidentally overlapped with a Chinese national holiday (National Day).
Once the Cherry Picked crew signs off on the proof, manufacturing begins. We haven’t been given a time estimate for this step yet, but Drink! did not take more than a week to be made. The real time factor was shipping. Our palettes of Far Away will cross the Pacific Ocean by boat. Then, they go through importing procedures at the Port of Seattle. Finally, they are taken to our Cherry Picked office.
Up until now, CPG has had complete control over the project’s timing. The extra few weeks spent shoring up the art and design was our decision. For a brief period, the project is out of our hands. We’ll take the opportunity to update this site, schedule video shoots, and create the other rewards our backers are due. Stay tuned for further updates on the proof and manufacturing process.