Another mat design unlocked + common Q&A
about 3 years ago – Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 10:24:35 AM

Hi folks! Back again with another update. I was holding off on an update because I wanted to have some visuals to share also (aka more designs for pending mats) but the design process is taking longer than I hoped. Obviously there's only 3 days left in this campaign but I hope to be able to share some work-in-progress designs for the river + farmland map before the campaign ends.

I also added a newly unlocked stretch goal: 

"EVIL" Interiors! This map will feature full-sized interiors with interesting floor details to represent more evil races/factions. One side will be detailed stone floor tiles  (like an evil wizard's keep, dark-elf realm, etc). The second side will be a xeno-esque "hive" type environment that could work for a mind flayer warren, alien colony, etc. More info/design to come, but I doubt we'll be able to share any visuals for this map before the campaign ends.

This will be the last stretch goal for the campaign. At this point, there's six new designs in Wave 2, for a total of 13 map options available. My wife and I pack and ship these in our garage (which includes rolling them into tubes, boxing, shipping labels, etc), and adding more inventory options will really stretch our sanity and ability to keep things organized during fulfillment and I want to make sure we can keep things on track!

Commonly asked questions

I've had a lot of comments/messages with questions and I wanted to address a few of them here quickly:

Q: When do I select the mats I want?

A: There will be a pledge manager (BackerKit) that is used after the campaign where you will choose the specific mat designs you want included with your order.

Q: Can I buy more mats than I pledged for in the Kickstarter campaign?

A: YES - In the pledge manager you can up your pledge and get more mats if you wish. 

Q: How long can I decide to order more mats?

A: Kickstarter takes 2 weeks to fund once completed, and in that period I'll be sending out a survey wherein I'll ask all backers to estimate what mats and quantities they wish. This allows me to extrapolate what mats are needed and place a production order as soon as I can. Then, after the funding period, there will be another 2-3 week period where the pledge manager will remain open and you can finalize your design choices, purchase extra mats, etc. This will also give us time to show you the finished designs for the stretch goal mats so you can decide if you want them.

Q: Will there be mats for sale after the kickstarter ends?

A: YES - I buy excess quantity which I will make available but it's limited, and the popular designs sell out pretty fast. I'm working to possibly find a vendor to help me make these available all the time, but I'm not quite at that point yet.

If you have any more questions, just drop them in the comments below!

Jungle + Fey/Fairy Forest
about 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 10:20:20 AM

Hi folks! Some design updates for ya, we're closing in on the final design aesthetic for the jungle and fey/fairy forest! Here's the design tile:

As you can see we went for a more stylized look/feel on both, and a more dark/glow-ey vibe on the faewild, as well as some elevation change, mosses and more with a purple/blue color palette. Below is a more detailed preview of a larger section of both, you can click it to view a higher resolution zoomable version. Note that these aren't finalized yet but getting close. Faewild will have more small glowing bits (like in the preview tile above). Let me know what you think!

The next mat, farmland + river was also unlocked and we're working on previews of that now! Stay tuned for the next unlock option coming shortly as well!

Quick Weekend Update
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 05:04:09 PM

Hey Folks!

Sorry for the bit of a delay in the update - I was hoping to show final styles of Fae & Jungle, but my artist ran into some computer issues and wasn't able to work most of last week. He'll be back at it this week though, and we hope to be able to share designs for those 2 but also the nearly unlocked River + Farmlands map!

I do have a few things to share though - the jungle design is finalized and getting the "full map" treatment - we went with a bit more stylized undergrowth look/feel, still with plenty of vines and plants, and brightened up the vibrance a bit - take a look at a section of it here (note this is low resolution):

We went back to the drawing board for the Fae map and should have something to share soon, just know it's going to be much darker/purple-ish (almost nighttime) feeling with more col glow effects.

Also, we finalized the sticker sheet for Wave 2 - so all backers will receive a copy of this new one, in addition to the one that was created for wave 1:

Cheers and have a great rest of your weekend!

Pricing tweaks (backers, please read)
over 3 years ago – Sun, Aug 08, 2021 at 02:58:41 PM

Hey folks, I hope you're all doing well! It's been a great first day in the books so far and we're about 75% of the way to the funding goal. There have been great suggestions for stretch goal mat options and I'm sure we'll get multiple cool ones to add!

The main point of this update is unfortunately a big pain in the a$$. A backer pointed out a price disparity that seemed odd jumping from 4-5 mats in the international pledge options and it led me down a rabbit hole of facepalming and math fun. Long story short, the calculations I had used to price everything for this project, including primarily shipping costs, were incorrect due to outdated values from the last DungeonMats campaign (shipping costs have fluctuated drastically).

So--what does this mean? Well it means that pricing levels changed slightly.  You can see the new pricing level graphic (with an added breakdown of cost/mat at each level) here:

Some pledge levels changed slightly (some up and some down), including drastic reductions in the higher volume tiers but slight increases in some of the lower ones. You can see the changes (green means it went down and orange means it went up since launch)

If you pledge for a level that went down, make sure you update your pledge to reflect the new pricing. If your pledge level went up and you need to cancel your pledge, I totally understand--but hope you don't! You can either update your pledge now to the new pricing, or just add the difference later in the pledge manager, your call!

Super sorry for this inconvenience -- I hope the updates make the higher volume sets more attractive and accessible for those who want them, and they will keep the (already low) margins at a point that make the campaign viable and successful. Let me know if you have any questions -- cheers!

Sticker Sheet & Fae/Jungle Designs
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 03, 2021 at 09:56:42 PM

Hi folks, hope you're doing well!

After your feedback in the last update I put together a plan for the first few stretch goals, which are listed on the main campaign page. We just unlocked the new sticker sheet goal (meaning all backers will get one of the stickers sheets from the Wave 1 Kickstarter, but also one of the new sticker sheets!). As I noted the new sheet is a mix of sci-if and fantasy components. It's still a work in progress but here's a preview of some of the items (obviously more will be added to fill up the sheet):

JUNGLE AND FAEWILD/FAIRY FOREST

Work is underway on this design, and I'm looking for your feedback! Below is an image showing a small sample of each of the mats. Please note this is low-resolution compared to final version of what will be printed on the mats, and you can click the image to view a zoomable version on imgur.

JUNGLE - we went for a thick undergrowth with a mix of foliage, roots, and vines. It's a bit less stylized than the other forest map, and should work well for a thick/dense forest of jungle situation.

FAEWILD - Still not happy with this one yet and tweaking quite a few things - I think the streams feel a bit distracting so might dial those back a bit in terms of color vibrance and width/density. We're going to add a subtle glow effect to some of the flowers/mushrooms as well. The colored mosses feels too puffy as well and we're gonna integrate it more to feel more like natural growth.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!