Hi Everyone

Receiving the physical Pre Production Copy

Exciting times - we have been reviewing the 'pre production copy'(PPC) of Plague Inc: The Board Game that we received from Panda GM (the people printing it). This is a copy of the game made for us to check what the game will be like when it is made in bulk by the factory.

A proper box!

We reviewed every part of the printed game with a fine tooth comb to spot things that needed fixing / editing. I'm a perfectionist so want to make sure everything is perfect! Here are some of our key findings (note - I tend to focus on the negative bits that need fixing - everything that I don't comment on looks great :P ) :

• Game Box - tweaked design a bit to make game title more prominent. Also needed to update some text

• Box insert - needed to improve storage of game in box - investigating different shaped tray or provision of bags

• Rulebook - few rule tweaks from final playtests to update + typos fixed

• Trait cards - some cards have inconsistent colours - after much head scratching - this was found to be due to the method we were combining the files. Getting someone from Panda to combine them fixes it (thanks Darrell :) )

• Event cards - some of them also have inconsistent colours. Also needed a few text tweaks from final playtests

• Country Cards - Russia and Chile have old style airport icon which could be cut off when corners rounded - needed fixing. Also Mongolia has country stats text incorrectly bolded

• Single Player rules - few typos fixed

• DNA Score counters and Plague Tokens - not happy with quality of pieces - factory going to redo with different technique to get them up to standard and also experiment with different translucency options

Early on in the examination

We worked late into the night for days in order to get all the updated files finished and Panda are now doing a great job turning things around to get us an updated PPC for us to (hopefully) confirm. Once this is done, we can move into mass production!

Production and delivery timelines

I'm afraid we have used up the contingency time and are at risk of delivering 0-2 weeks later than targeted. The issue with the card colour inconsistency and the token quality has knocked our schedule which is annoying - however, I hope you agree it is better to fix them than risk shipping an inferior game.

We should receive the updated materials from Panda early next week and once approved, we will then be able to lock down final manufacturing dates and give a more precise shipping date.

Hope you found this all interesting - I'm really proud of the game and how it is looking - I can't wait for you to all be able to play it :)

James