Dragon Eye Dice

New Dice from the New Production Run
over 2 years ago – Tue, Dec 14, 2021 at 11:09:22 PM

We have just received the first run of production dice from our new molds, and we wanted to show them off to you all. We are really pleased with how they have turned out and although there are still adjustments and improvements to be made, we are genuinely delighted with this first production run sample.

Prior to these samples, all dice up until now have been handmade, in small batches, using our 3d printed small batch molds. This run is the first batch from our manufacturing partner in China using our full production size molds.

This sample run marks the culmination of all the work we began just as the Kickstarter Campaign came to a close. The fundamental question needing to be answered was whether this entirely new way of manufacturing dice could be upscaled and what issues we would encounter on the way. The two most important elements of this upscaling were the central placing of each Dragon Vein Agate sphere and the orientation of the printed iris upon it.

The first part was technological, as we have invented a method of placing the sphere in the center of the mold during the pouring process, the test now was how this handles in large scale production. The next was the human crafting side of the process which is when the iris orientation takes place. As every iris is orientated by hand, we knew there would be small differences in each eye but what would be acceptable tolerance levels?

This is where science came to the fore and exact measurements were taken from the first practice run of the new molds. We studied the special placement as well as the orientation to calculate not only a level of tolerance but also to get a good idea of what levels this first production run was at, in terms of percentages of ‘passes’ (i.e. dice that made the cut)

In this image, you can see an example of a die closest to the pass mark.  We collated lots of information into a report and this was fed back to the factory and to our independent Taiwanese QC firm who we have asked to oversee the production.

The Next Step

After having received these first mass production run samples we will conduct another sample measurement of placement and orientation and feed these results back. We can already see from a cursory review that the accuracy has increased measurably, and this we can expect to continue further.

When it comes to the human orientation of the iris’ we expect a small margin in each dice but we are working hard to reduce this to the smallest we can. Yes we are examining these dice under a microscope and most players will not, but we want to ensure as close a perfect orientation as is possible.

With regards to the placement of each Dragon Vein Agate stone, we have noticed that on occasion the stone can shift slightly during the pouring and so we are working on addressing that although the instances of this happening have been very few and far between. If this does happen, none of these dice will pass the QC inspection.

Packaging

As well as the dice themselves, work has continued on producing the boxes that will house your little dragons. Apologies for the quality of the photos but these are the first samples coming from our packaging manufacturer.

We will be back when the eggs are done and the full set has been placed in its respective boxes with more shots, but in the meantime we would like to take this opportunity to thank you all once again for your support and may we wish you all a very happy holiday season.

Best wishes,

Jon & Oliver

Ice Dice Pre-Order - European Shipping now available
over 2 years ago – Fri, Nov 26, 2021 at 06:50:59 PM

An Ice Dice Announcement

Thank you to everyone who has taken advantage of the pre-order and grabbed one of the few remaining Ice Dice trays, but we have received requests to allow people in Europe to also get involved. We are happy to announce that we have switched on shipping to Europe from both our US and UK warehouses.

Anyone who still wants to grab a tray on pre-order, please head over to the Spidermind Games website. 

We have switched on the postage into Europe with the couriers we currently have a relationship with but many will notice that the postage is high going into Europe and extra high from a UK company, now that we have to charge European VAT and pay that every month. We are constantly looking at carriers into Europe and as soon as the prices drop we will be sure to adjust the figures accordingly. Please be aware, these prices are the exact amount being charged by the carriers and we are not adding any surplus for ourselves.

Thank you once again to all those who have taken us up on the pre-order as well as all those letting us know they have received their own trays. We are looking forward to finishing the deliveries as soon as we can.

Best wishes,

Jon & Oliver

Notice to All Backers
over 2 years ago – Sat, Nov 20, 2021 at 02:09:46 AM

A quick notice to let all our Dragon Eye Dice backers know about a small amount of leftover Ice Dice trays we have from the Ice Dice fulfilment. 

We have been asked by a few backers from our other campaigns when the Ice Dice trays will become available to purchase. From the 25,000 that were ordered we have around 1,500 left over. 

We have opened a pre-order for these trays to all our backers before we open them up for retail in January.  This pre-order is for you to reserve an ice tray or two before they are sold out, but this pre-order will fulfil after the backers of the Ice Dice campaign have been sent theirs. We are therefore stating that this preorder will be posted in Jan.

We will order further trays but we cannot say when they will arrive so if you want a set sent in Jan, go through to our website (www.spidermindgames.co.uk) and get yourself a tray.

Production Ready Dice

We promised photographs of the dice when they had been completed and that moment is a step closer. The first finished product on its way to our media company for them to photographs and video. Pictures to come very soon.

Have a great weekend

Jon & Oliver

Backer Kit surveys are on their way!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 12:01:49 AM

Thank you very much for your patience whilst we got the survey ready for release. 

This survey has been released to collect postal addresses, postage payments and will allow backers to add on items not available during the KickStarter campaign.

It is our plan to run the survey until the end of November. Before we close the survey you will be able to update your pledge, increase add ons and change your delivery address. When we are looking to close the Backer Kit, you will all receive plenty of notice via email and from the updates page on Kickstarter. If this date, of the end of November, changes we will let everyone know well in time.

Backer Kit

We are running the survey through Backer Kit who are a third party platform, set up specifically to handle the pledge management side of KickStarter campaigns. If you have any issues interacting with the site, including any payment issues, please reach out to them in first instance as they are in a much better position to help you out. You will be able to reach them on [email protected]

If you have any product questions then we will be delighted to help out at [email protected]

Backer Kit will take payments through debit card, credit card and PayPal.

I Haven't Got My Survey

This usually happens when your email provider believes the Backer Kit invite is spam and removes it from your inbox. Here are some steps you can try, in order to get access to your Backer Kit survey.

• Add '@backerkit.com' as a safe recipient to your email platform
• Check in your spam folder for the invite
• Use this link to go through to the survey recovery page - https://dragon-eye-dice-the-chromatic-dragon-collection.backerkit.com/ 

As we do not handle the survey invites, if the above list does not help then please contact Backer Kit and supply them with an alternative email address to send the survey to. Help can be found at - [email protected]

Manufacturing and Product Updates

As well as using this update page to keep everyone up to speed with the survey, we will also be posting product development updates, so do keep an eye out for them.

Feedback and Comments

We love to read all the feedback, suggestions and comments we receive on the individual posts as well as the main 'comments' section of the campaign, but we cannot guarantee to spot every post, especially during heightened comment activity.

If you have a specific issue and need a response, please email our dedicated team on [email protected] and we will be happy to help.

That's it for this update and thank you once again for your support.

Jon & Oliver

Backer Kit off for approval and a test run
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 30, 2021 at 12:53:32 AM

We hope everyone is doing well and has had a chance to get around a gaming table. We fired up our Tuesday night D&D meeting after having hung out on Roll 20 for the last year. It was lovely to be back :-)

Since the end of the Kickstarter we have been busy creating the Backer Kit survey as well as continuing the work on the dice prototypes.

Backer Kit

We have completed the survey, uploaded the pictures and inserted the live shipping tables. What now remains to be done is a quick check by Backer Kit (our friend Brandon says he will take a couple of days) and then it is off for a smoke test. What this entails is the survey sent out to a few hundred backers to test the mechanics, that we have the correct add ons and correct pricing and that we are good to go. As long as this test doesn't flag up any major issues, we should then be good to launch the remaining surveys around a week after the smoke test launches.  As soon as the survey goes out we will post up here and on facebook with all the info you may need including what to do if you don't receive yours.

Prototypes

You have already seen some photos of the proof of concept prototypes, those made to ensure the 'Dead Centre' technology works, but recently we have been playing with the colour dye that will go into each dice. 

The red is a perfect example, as too dark and you lose the eye detail, too light and you get a pink die. We believe we have settled on the colour and so have asked for some samples. Once we get these we will put up some pictures showing you the development stages of these dice.

Thank you once again for all your support in getting this project launched and we are excited in sharing this creative journey with you.

Best wishes,

Jon & Oliver