Puzzle Production Update - June
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Jun 27, 2022 at 10:18:51 PM

Hi Puzzle Backers!

The puzzles have finished printing! We received mass production samples last week, and they look great.  They've been approved for final assembly, and then they will be packed up and loaded on ships headed to the U.S., Germany, and Australia for fulfillment. Here's what to expect:

• Your orders in the pledge manager will close this week. If you want to modify or add to the contents of your order, you have a few more days to do so: you can look for an email with subject line "Survey Confirmation -- Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzles: The Heart, Brain, Eye, Hands & Feet" from BackerKit to make any changes (or recover your access here).
• We'll use those item counts for packaging and loading shipments to the U.S., Germany, and Australia. We expect these to depart next month and take about 6 weeks.
• As shipments approach their destinations, we'll send an update that we're locking in addresses through BackerKit (late August or so).
• Fulfillment will begin as soon as we have everything processed and able to send out, probably around October. 

Let us know if you have any questions about this process or any trouble making changes to your order.

"First in Flight" — Last Week on Kickstarter

We're also excited to announce our latest board game, First in Flight, currently on Kickstarter until Thursday! First in Flight is a deck-building, push your luck board game about the historical race for early aviation. It features gorgeous art from Amelia Sales and Tomasz Bogusz depicting early flight pioneers like the Wright Brothers, Thérèse Peltier, Glenn Curtiss, and Bessie Coleman. We hope you'll check out the Kickstarter and join us on another project.

That's it for today! 

Steve & The Genius Games Team

Puzzle Production Update - May
almost 2 years ago – Fri, May 27, 2022 at 10:05:55 AM

Hello Puzzle Backers,

Today I have some production updates on the Puzzles. Everything is approved and headed into production. Our manufacturing partners had several Covid-related delays over the past few weeks, but we made it through, and we're excited to finally be printing..

Here's our best guess at an updated timeline, with the caveat that lockdowns are an ongoing reality: production and assembly are expected to be completed in July. From there, freight shipments will head to the U.S., Germany, and Australia (ocean freight takes about 2 months). Once the shipments arrive and are processed, fulfillment should take another 2-4 weeks, depending on the region. All told, we're looking toward fulfillment around October. We will continue to move this along as quickly as we're able to. 

This also means that the pledge manager will be closing next month (probably June 17th). If you decide to add to or modify your order contents, please do so before then. You can still change your address until we're ready to begin fulfillment.

Other Projects

In the meantime, we've continued working on a handful of other games and puzzles that we're excited to show off soon. Right now, we have a new set of our Children's Books currently on Kickstarter! The Science Wide Open 2 series covers important Women in Science in the disciplines of Botany, Engineering, and Medicine. We're also reprinting our previous series on Women in Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. These  books engage children's curiosity about the world around them while highlighting inspirational stories from diverse settings. If you've got young scientists in your life, check them out!

That's all for today. We'll continue to keep you updated every month or two. We appreciate your support and patience!

Steve & The Genius Games Team

Puzzle Production Update - March / April
about 2 years ago – Thu, Apr 07, 2022 at 05:45:38 PM

Hi Puzzle Backers,

Today is a very quick update on puzzle production. We have finished and reviewed all of our edits to our puzzle files and the puzzle piece shapes. The final tools have been created, so we're just waiting for production to begin. The factories have recently had some covid-related closures and delays, but we're not expecting this to interfere too much.

We'll continue to keep you updated, and the pledge manager will remain open for now. 

Hope y'all are well!

Steve & The Genius Games Team

Puzzle Production Update - February
about 2 years ago – Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 03:59:04 PM

Hi Puzzle Backers!

Today I have another quick update on how our production process is moving forward. At the time of last month's update, we had made improvements to the puzzles and were waiting for new die molds and samples to test. Over the past month, we've received and built these samples. They've been a lot of fun!

We have made a few final changes to the artwork and are preparing and final-checking our final print files now. We expect to receive and approve proofs within a couple of weeks, then head into production. We're getting close! 

We'll keep you updated and the pledge manager remains open for now. Let us know if you have any questions.

Steve & The Genius Games Team

Puzzle Production Update - January
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 05:59:47 PM

Hi Puzzle Backers!

Today I have a short update on pre-production for the Anatomy Puzzles and a fun announcement. 

In the last update, we'd received the first round of samples. We were very happy with the designs, but wanted to make a handful of improvements to make them better puzzles. We've finished all these changes to the puzzle art and piece shapes, and have submitted them back to our manufacturing partners. They've created new die molds as needed, and are printing another round of samples. We expect to have these in hand later this month to assemble and check before we begin mass production. As per the last update, we still expect mass production in February-March and fulfillment in May-June. We'll continue to keep pushing this forward as quickly as we can (without compromising quality), and we'll continue to keep you in the loop. 

The Pledge Manager will remain open (for changes to your order) until production is complete, and you can change your shipping information until fulfillment begins. 

More Kids Puzzles Coming Soon!

Last year we adapted our first set of 7 anatomy puzzles into a 100-piece Kids Floor Puzzle. We had this for sale during the campaign, and it's available in the pledge manager. The puzzle has been a huge hit, and the first printing sold out over the holidays. While working on your puzzles, it occurred to us what great kids puzzles the organs could make as well. We'd already done all of the hard work for the full "adult" puzzles, so the kid versions were relatively easy to create. 

Our next pair of Kids Puzzles will be the Heart and Brain. These were the 2 designs that have been the most popular during this campaign, and we think they'll make great kids puzzles too. They will be 100-piece floor puzzles and include an anatomy guide with fun facts about the corresponding anatomy and physiology. We're planning to make these puzzles (and the Full Body reprint) available through a Kickstarter launching next Tuesday, expected to fulfill in July.  The 2 new puzzles will be limited to the U.S. and Canada for this Kickstarter, but we plan to make them available worldwide as soon as we can. A couple of quick notes:

• The kids puzzles won't interfere with or delay this campaign in any way. At this point, the only thing left to do for your puzzles is to test out our final samples and wait for printing and shipping. The kids puzzles piggy-back on the work we've already done. It is also much quicker to design and produce the tools to make these simpler puzzles, so they will be finished on a shorter timeline. We certainly wish these puzzles would be in your hands before beginning another campaign. In this case, the production and manufacturing scheduling has given us this extra time. Your puzzles will be on the way soon! 
• The campaigns and pledge managers all still run independently — there won't be an option to combine shipping, for example.
• The Kids Full Body Puzzle is a reprint. It's been available for the U.S. in a handful of places — our site, Amazon, this pledge manager, and now the upcoming Kickstarter. If you added it in this Kickstarter's pledge manager and want to pick up the full kids set instead, your pledge manager can still be edited for another month or two. (In fact, the Full Body puzzle should be back in stock in the U.S. soon, before either kickstarter fulfills, if you want to have it sooner.)

Let us know if you have any other questions or feedback. 

Follow along on Kickstarter if you're interested in Kids Puzzle versions, and we'll hope to see some of you next week! 

That's it for now. We'll continue to keep you updated and hope to show the new samples next month.

Steve & The Genius Games Team