Cytress: Cyberpunk Board Game

Hi Cyberpunks,

I know it’s been a while since the last update, and I want to start by explaining why. Getting updates from the factory can be a slow process. Something as simple as requesting a photo or video can take months to materialize. Here’s how it typically works: I send a message to the publisher, who then contacts the manufacturers, who then need to relay the request to the factory where the actual printing happens. With so many links in the chain, it’s easy for a message to get delayed or forgotten. And when that happens, I follow up, the publisher follows up, and so on. Rest assured, I’ve been pushing hard for updates, and I appreciate your patience as we navigate this process.

Since it’s been a while, this update will be a long one to cover everything we’ve missed.

Printing the Components (Video from Factory!)

We’ve been making progress on printing all the components for the 5,000 copies of the game you’ve backed. Take a look at this image—it shows just one box full of resource boards. Now imagine boxes upon boxes, each containing different components like faction boards, tokens, and cards. It’s a massive operation.

I had asked for photos of the black punch boards (the ones with the faction boards), but unfortunately, they forgot to send those. Not to worry, though—I’ve already sent a follow-up email to get those photos. This is just part of the back-and-forth we’ve been dealing with, but it’s all part of ensuring we can keep you in the loop.

Printing the Rulebooks

Another big milestone is the printing of all 5,000 rulebooks. Here’s an image of the rulebooks fresh off the press. At this stage, they still need to go through the cutting process to remove the bleed margins. These were one of the last components to be printed, which ties back to something I mentioned in a previous update: the factory prints everything in chunks.

Here’s another image showing trays upon trays of rulebook pages—it's super hectic but also kind of exciting. You can also see a sheet of rulebooks before they’ve been cut into individual pages. It’s incredible to finally see all the designs come to life on paper. Balancing the colors for printing was a journey in itself. I remember spending months tweaking the colors because what looked perfect on a screen often didn’t translate well to printed material. It was a learning process, and seeing the final results is so rewarding.

 

Behind the Scenes

I’ve also got a video to share with you, showing the printing process in action. In it, you can see someone taking a fresh sheet hot off the press and preparing it for the next stage—cutting. I’ve been waiting a long time for this video, as the rulebook was completed a while back. It’s great that they were able to record this for me, but like everything else, it takes time to get these materials sent through.

I wasn’t the one filming, but I’m glad we could get a glimpse of the process. It’s a fascinating look at the sheer effort that goes into making all these components.

Miniatures and Component Previews

We recently received samples of the miniatures, which you can see in the images below. As you can see, these tubes look fantastic (can you tell that its actually brown color?)—they’ve got that darker, gritty cyberpunk feel we were aiming for, especially compared to the grey tubes we had before. For those of you interested in painting your minis, these are a great choice. They’re straightforward to paint, and with a quick airbrush job, they’ll really pop, looking just like the ones on the box cover!

 

Understanding the Printing Process

To give you a bit of insight into what “we started printing” really means in the manufacturing process. It’s not as straightforward as you might think!

When we say printing has started, it doesn’t necessarily mean the components are immediately rolling off the presses. At LongPack (our manufacturer), starting printing usually means the job has entered their queue. For example, something like the game boxes might only take a day or two to print, but that’s just one step in the process.

After the boxes are printed, they typically remain flat-packed until assembly. Why? Because fully assembled boxes take up a huge amount of space. The factory waits until all the components are ready to assemble everything at once. This helps them manage space and logistics, but it also means there’s often a delay between printing and assembly.

Here’s where it gets even more interesting: I don’t usually know exactly where assembly happens or how they coordinate it. The manufacturers don’t tend to share those details with us—it’s all part of their internal workflow. As long as everything moves smoothly, I’m happy to let them handle it.

What I can tell you is that things are moving forward. While it might seem like printing and assembly should be quick and linear, it’s actually a carefully orchestrated dance of managing space, timing, and resources.

Component Production and Quality Assurance

Manufacturing is scheduled to finish in late January, but there’s always the possibility of a few days of delay as the factory recovers from unexpected issues. So far, everything is moving along well. Most of the components have been signed off, but there has been some back-and-forth on a few items like the miniatures and Kickstarter extras. These extras are more complex to produce, and while they add risk of delays, we want to ensure the quality meets expectations.
 

Production Timeline and Chinese New Year Challenges

The game is scheduled to finish production by January 23rd (as you can see from the production schedule sent by Long Pack). However, there’s always a risk with timing because of Chinese New Year. We're working to get everything out of China before the holiday, but that’s not always guaranteed. Every year, this period creates challenges because everyone is trying to ship their products before the holiday starts. Depending on the timing, operations in China can shut down for seven to fourteen days as you'll see in the next section.

 

Shipping Risks During Peak Season

Even if the game is finished before Chinese New Year, there’s no guarantee it will get on a boat. For instance, in the past, we’ve been lined up for a boat leaving before the holiday, only for someone to pay double to take our spot. Since paying double is extremely costly for us, especially with lower-value products like board games, we often have to wait for the next available shipment.

 

Estimated Shipping Timeline

At this stage, we’ve been told the game should be ready to ship by late January. However, there’s a chance it could leave the port after Chinese New Year, depending on logistics. Our shipping agent will handle all the arrangements, including booking the containers, and we’ll provide updates as soon as we have more details.

 

Closing and Appreciation

If everything stays on track, the games should ship by late January or, at the latest, early to mid-February. We don’t anticipate any further delays beyond that point.

Thanks again for your patience and support. I’ll keep you updated with progress and share more photos and details as we go.

Best,

Sean and the Cytress Team!

Hello dear backers!

We've been working on the production process and wanted to share the latest updates with you. We are moving forward with the printing process and remain focused on delivering a Cytress in a way that meets your expectations.

We had handed over the print files to our printing partners. We received the collated proof print files from the printers and noticed an issue with the box cover sizing, which we have since fixed and shared with them. We're currently working on improving the insert design they initially proposed and have requested an estimated completion date, which we will communicate once we have the information.

Regarding the miniature molds, we've been collaborating with their miniatures & plastics specialists to modify the waste tube files slightly to meet viable production methods. After a series of discussions and refinements, we're happy to announce that this process is now complete. We await samples to test how well mass produced waste tube pieces join together. 

Please be assured that the printing process occurs in batches, allowing us to efficiently manage production. Rest assured, we are printing the components that have been fixed and approved, such as the blackcore boards, while the miniatures, which require more fine-tuning, will be printed in the later stages of production.

We expect to have further clarity on a completion date for production in the next few weeks. So I hope to be able to provide a reasonably accurate estimate for the delivery date in the next update. We appreciate your understanding and support throughout this process. Your support for our project is invaluable. 

Stay tuned for more updates as we progress. 

Best,

Sean and the Cytress team

Dear Backers,

Yes, you read that correctly – this is not a joke! I'm ecstatic to share that Cytress is finally ready for print! After a long, winding journey, we've arrived at this thrilling milestone, and I couldn't be more grateful to have you by my side.

This process has been filled with highs and lows – happiness, excitement, and everything in between. Your incredible support and understanding have kept us pushing forward through every challenge. Your belief in Cytress has been truly humbling and has motivated us to create the best possible game for you.

One of the key components that had been holding back our decision to print was the Stratos Tower. Ensuring the tower's structural integrity and functionality was crucial to delivering the best gaming experience possible. After extensive collaboration with our manufacturer, we've now resolved these issues and are confident that the Stratos Tower meets our high standards. With this obstacle behind us, we're thrilled to have the green light to move forward with printing Cytress.

Another month has gone by, and I wanted to personally share the progress we've made. I've been diligently chasing the manufacturer to expedite the process, working towards a sample that we can finally say yes to.

1. The slots are still too tight. And damaging the paper layer. I think the manufacturers didn't address this well enough and they know it. They are reprinting these blackboard sheets with widened slots this week.

2. The tower's height was incorrect on the wide tower support level on level 2, preventing it from sitting flat. The manufacturer is working on fixing this issue as well.

These updated samples should arrive next week. Once I approve the new widened slots, the printing components should be ready. I'm also considering using a mat laminate on the box for added strength and protection. Although it may dulls and darken the final colors, your input would be invaluable. Should I request both versions for comparison?

While we've faced some challenges, we're getting closer to the final print date. Thank you once again for your support and understanding as we make the final push in this marathon to bring Cytress to life!

Lastly, I apologize for the delayed update—it was due to ongoing communications with the manufacturer. Rest assured, if the next sample arrives early, I won't wait until the start of the new month to update you; I'll provide an update right away!

Best regards,

Sean

Dear Backers,

I hope you had a good Easter break. I want to share with you the progress we’ve made since the last update last month. There were a few things that needed tweaking—some minor and some requiring structural changes. As I mentioned in the last update, these things needed to be fully addressed before we head into printing. So please understand, we’re not striving for perfection here; it's for the integrity of the product. Now, I’ll be breaking down each of the changes. You can reread the last update to see why we needed to address them, but without further ado, let's begin.

1. Brightening the box cover: DONE. It took us a few iterations to find the right saturation and exposure that we're happy with. This task took us a week to get right.

2. Enhancing Token clarity: DONE. To counteract the murkiness, we actually changed the artwork slightly so it stands out more. This task also took us a week.

3. Improving transport tokens: DONE. See “enhance token clarity”; we took the same approach.

4. Completing Faction Boards: DONE. This was quick and easy, taking only 1-2 days.

5. Enhancing Stratos Visibility: DONE. Besides the repositioning of a few elements, this took up half a week.

6. Strengthening Structural Integrity: Tested a few designs, now waiting for the next sample to see how it holds up.

7. Consistency in Finish: We've requested a slightly different finish for the next Pre-Production Copy (PPL) to address any concerns regarding consistency in appearance.

Now, you might be asking, does it really take that long for these things to be done? Yes, surprisingly, it does. From sending feedback to the graphic designers, them working on those, and then them sending it back to us, followed by discussions on where to go from there (i.e., “did we reach our goals, etc.”), and then sending it to sample printing, and finally shipping the samples back to us to review and provide feedback. They all add up, and all of a sudden, a month passes. We were due to print late March (last week), but the work that came back to us didn't make us feel like it was ready. It still needed a couple of tweaks. So, in terms of timeline, some of you have been asking, all I can say is, as soon as possible AND as soon as we look at the PPL and feel “okay, this is good, let’s pull the trigger.”

As you can see, now that we’ve addressed many of these changes across the board, the next PPL will tell us how soon we can get to print. We're not trying to hide anything; the stuff that we’re working on is the only thing we’re working on to get right, so there won’t be any “oh, there’s more things to be worked on, etc.” in the future.

Yes, it's taken some time, but we’re nearly finished, so please be patient once more.

Best regards,

Sean