Hi Ultimates,
It's been some time, but it's another Friday!!
Project Status & Expectations
Molds & Samples
The manufacturer has just let us know that they're making good progress on the molds. They will start assembling(!) the mold next week and then make the first samples of the final product. That should be exciting to see!
Here you see a small portion of the mold. You can make out the big "12" for the d20 and the "20" for the d10(0).
I know, this is not a very high quality image, but it's the only image I have at this moment. In the image you're only seeing a very small portion of the mold. Actually only about 1/20th of the entire dice. What's important to look at here is two things:
The sharp details on the protruding numbers and arrows;
The sharp and straight corners between faces with minimal rounding.
Both of these things are giving me very positive feeling about the first samples that will come out of this mold.
Ok, so assembling the mold, what does that mean? Well, because this dice is so complex with all these small 'non-releasing' parts the manufacturer had to split the mold up into multiple pieces. I'm sure this has been a puzzle for them even though they have experience with these kinds of products and molds.
Estimated Timeline
I need to adjust the estimated timeline a bit again:
Assuming that samples are poured next week. They need to be painted (maybe in the same 1 week?) then shipped to the Netherlands (+1 week) for me and the purchasing agent to check. Checking will involve making pictures of all sides of the dice and describing and communicating (+1 week) to the manufacturer the parts that are good and the parts that still require improvement. Based on the impact of the feedback they might need to make and ship another sample for checking (+3 weeks).
When the samples are approved they will want their final payment on their account (+1 week) before they can plan our production. Since we are not the only once using their services this 'production time' of 4-6 weeks is probably mostly waiting. After that the purchasing agent will check the dice on site (+1 week) before it will all be shipped to the Netherlands (+4 weeks).
From that point on it's a first shipping test run (+1 week) and they I can start packing and shipping all the other dice to Kickstarter backers over an expected 3 week period.
If I kept counting correctly that gives us an estimate of 20-22 weeks from today before dice are actually going to be arriving in your mailboxes. This is about 5 months give or take, which would mean fulfillment would take place in December 2022 or January 2023.
Of course, this is an estimate and I will do everything to get to shipping these earlier then later, but I simply do not control every factor involved.
I already talked with my purchasing agent about this and if there is some way to speed this up, but according to them I can only be ready for when the manufacturer requires our response. Pushing them to work faster and harder will not result in a good relationship and can actually harm the product quality by a lot.
I hope you all can be patient for just a bit more, but my mailbox is always open in case you want to get in contact with me about this news.
Pledge Manager
You can still make changes to your address information yourself by going back to the PledgeBox link in your mailbox. Before the dice will be shipped I'll send out a reminder for everyone to check their address information via mail & Kickstarter. For anything else you can contact me at info@lenpolygon.com
New LEN polygon RNG project
Because I've not been able to do anything for the dUltimate dice project, and because my brain keeps coming up with different ideas I've been slowly working on some other stuff which you might find cool.
I'm not going to show what's it is exactly about just yet, but it has to do with RNG and once I have tested and polished it a bit more then you'll be the first to hear about it ;-)
For now, I want to use this part of the update to talk about a little bit about this project and what's it about. I guess you can call it a development blog!
What is random?
RNG stands for "Random Number Generator". And RNG's are everywhere. Your dice are randomly generating numbers for your tabletop or boardgame. Your phone or computer is using RNG to create keys for secured connections. Any video you ever played is using RNG to randomize levels, damage, or the contents of a treasure chest for example.
But when is a number random? Is "7" random? Or "83279"?
We call something random when it is unpredictable. When we do not know what the output will be beforehand. When we translate this to a d6; you have no way of knowing what the outcome of your next d6 roll will be. Since the distribution of numbers 1-6 each have the same probability of showing up. Because of this the d6 is a random number generator with an output of 1-6.
But there's more to that story... which I will continue next week!
Keep on rolling!
-Len