Timer App Preview and Locking Addresses
over 3 years ago – Fri, Aug 07, 2020 at 12:19:41 AM

Hello again backers! Today we’re excited to share a first look at the 5-Minute Mystery Timer App, and also let you know about our next milestone for the project: locking addresses!

But first, an update on when you can expect to receive your games.

Shipping Update

Since our last update, production has finished and we’ve been hard at work making the arrangements to ship the games to each of our depots. And while this has certainly been a crazy year, we’ve done everything we can to deliver this project on time.

Here’s a quick summary of when we expect to be able to deliver your games:

If you live in the US or Canada, we anticipate that the majority of you will receive your games in September as planned, but there may be some that spill over into October. We’ve experienced some shipping delays out of our control that set our schedule back a bit for North America.

Also, we originally intended to do a pick-up event for backers who live in or near our hometown of London, Ontario, Canada... but because of the pandemic, we may need to alter the plan or possibly cancel it. We’ll consider our options and provide an update about this event closer to the fulfillment date.

If you live elsewhere in the world (Europe, Asia, or Australia/New Zealand), then we have great news for you: so far our shipments to those regions are ahead of schedule. You should definitely receive your order in September as planned (and some backers may even receive theirs in late August!)

Regardless of where you live, please keep in mind, that there is still a chance that there could be unexpected delays related to port congestion or customs clearance. If that happens, we will post an update.

Locking Addresses

Tomorrow, you’ll receive an address confirmation e-mail from BackerKit to let you know that we are about to lock down addresses. Please take a moment to make sure that the address and phone number you have on file is correct. The final day to change your address will be Friday, August 14.

With business out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff!

Timer App

We’ve almost completed the 5-Minute Mystery Timer App and are on schedule to have it ready by the time you receive your games. We’re excited to share some screenshots to give you a sense of how it looks and works!

 Once you start up the app and close the title screen, you’ll be greeted by the Museum of Everything’s distinguished walrus curator, Scrubbles McBubbledy.

One major difference between 5-Minute Mystery and our previous 5-Minute games is that the time limits for mysteries aren’t always 5 minutes— they can be either more or less, depending on the difficulty of the case. Fortunately, Scrubbles is here to help. From this screen, you can choose which case you plan to solve, and Scrubbles will read you his lines from the case file card and set the correct time limit for you.

 The timer itself has the same basic functions as our previous timer apps, but it’s set in Scrubbles’ study and features updated aesthetics and music to match the game. And, of course, Scrubbles himself serves as the narrator to provide helpful reminders and encouragement!

And that’s it for today. Please make sure you check your address in the coming week so we have everything in place to ship your games when the time comes!

All the best to you, and stay safe and well!

A Sneak Peek at the Game Box
almost 4 years ago – Thu, May 21, 2020 at 05:25:50 PM

Hello backers! We hope you and your families are all safe and well.

We have some exciting news to share today: we’ve just received our production samples from the factory. Feast your eyes on these: 

In Other News... 

We’re Still on Schedule!

The factory tells us that they will complete production by the end of June, which means that we are still on track to be able to meet our promised delivery date of September 2020. There is still a chance that we’ll encounter unavoidable delays in shipping or fulfillment, but if that happens, we will let you know by posting an update as soon as we can.

We Love Mysteries, but...

...we don’t want to have to do detective work to figure out where to ship your game! So if you haven’t completed your survey yet, please do so right away!

Just go to 5-minute-mystery.backerkit.com and enter the e-mail address linked to your Kickstarter account to access your survey.

If you have any questions, reach out to Pete at [email protected]. He’s always happy to help!

Change of Address?

If you need to change your address for any reason, just go back to your survey by entering your e-mail address at 5-minute-mystery.backerkit.com, then clicking “Edit Your Address” at the top right.

Thanks for all your support!

Virtual Tour of the Museum of Everything, Second Floor
about 4 years ago – Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 02:01:46 AM

Hello again, museum patrons! It's Scrubbles McBubbledy again, here for the next installment of our museum tour.

Now that I’ve had a nice long nap, I’ve finally got the energy to make my way up the stairs to our second floor. So let’s have a look at what we have up here! 

This way, please...

The Hall of Ancient Egypt

This room features artifacts recovered from the burial kennel of King Pupp. The statue in the middle depicts the young Pharaoh-hound himself, who was said to be so adorable that his subjects would spend hours of their day watching short videos of him gnawing on toys, chasing squirrels, and barking at the royal mailman. Although he only ruled for a few dog-years, we are fortunate that many of his priceless artifacts were found intact, and we’re proud to display them here.

The Medieval Armory 

Here we see a collection of weapons and armor used by Alexander the Mediocre. This guy actually conquered a pretty sizable chunk of Asia, but he just never caught on for some reason.

The Aquarium

This fabulous exhibit, which was selected and funded by our generous museum patrons, showcases a variety of exotic marine life. Our star attraction is Bertie the blue whale, who visited the museum as a youngster, but then consumed so much krill at the food court that he grew too large to fit out the door. 

Hi, Bertie!

The Office of the Curator

Oh, right, this is my office! I’m so busy, I don’t usually find time to get up here, you see.

Strange, I don’t remember ever having a skull on my desk. I wonder where… oh… oh dear, I did tell that poor intern to wait for me in my office, didn’t I?… but that was years ago! 

...Let’s move on, shall we?

The Arboretum of Exotic Plants

Ah, the arboretum! One of my favorite places to come to relax. Those feisty fellows there are Bolivian piranha plants, which live on a strict diet of Italian plumbers. If you ever visit the museum, be sure to stop by for feeding time, every day at 10 am and 2 pm.

New Exhibit - Under Construction!

This fabulous room is being constructed for our next star exhibit, an item so rare and valuable that people will come from far and wide to see it! I can’t tell you what it is yet, of course, but it’s going to be an incredible draw for the museum. It’s a beautiful item, just priceless… in fact, it’s so valuable we can’t even afford to insure it, so I sure hope nothing happens to it!

And that concludes our tour! I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into what our museum has to offer. These photos don’t hold a candle to actually seeing the real exhibits, though, so please consider visiting in person someday, if you can. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and each other!

Warm regards,

 Curator, The Museum of Everything

Virtual Tour of the Museum of Everything
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 02:46:20 AM

Scrubbles McBubbledy here, curator of the Museum of Everything!  

 Like so many other public attractions, we’ve been forced to close our doors temporarily because of this terrible pandemic, so I thought those of you who are stuck at home might enjoy a virtual tour of our fabulous exhibits.

So, without further ado, let’s have a look at what there is to see on the first floor of our museum.

 The Grand Foyer 

We begin our tour at the museum’s entrance. Note the stunningly ornate circular window feature, which was donated several years ago by Mr. Feathers Von Crane, a wealthy local businessman who commissioned the piece for his country estate but had to give it up because he and his guests kept flying into it accidentally.

 The Office of Archaeology 

This is the office of our Archaeology Exhibit Co-ordinator, Dr. Barkley Woofenheim. Here, he receives daily deliveries of ancient bones from digs around the world. He then examines each one and decides whether it will become an exhibit, or be set aside for him to chew on later.

 The Boiler Room 

This ancient heating system, forged out of pig iron by actual pigs, was recovered from a dig site dating back to the 5th century BC and… oh, for goodness sakes! Never mind... I’ve just wandered into the museum’s boiler room again. My, we do need to replace this equipment. Moving on…

The Warehouse 

Here’s where we store the artifacts for exhibits that are currently not on display. I’m pretty sure that one of these crates holds the Ark of the Covenant, but our warehouse manager is a bit absent-minded and forgot to label it. I’m sure it will turn up some day!

 Tiger Alva Eatison's Workshop 

Travelers from around the world visit the museum to see this recreation of Tiger Alva Eatison’s workshop, which is accurate down to the last detail. This is the place where Eatison and his staff perfected such world-changing inventions as the light bulb, the phonograph, and the self-cleaning litter box.

And that about wraps it up for today! But I’ll be back again later with a look at the second floor… once I’ve worked up the energy to take on those stairs.

In the meantime, stay safe and well!

Warm regards, 

Game Files Submitted to Factory… and Some Sweet Art!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 05, 2020 at 01:55:02 AM

It’s been a couple of months since the Kickstarter ended, and we’ve been hard at work getting everything in place so the factory can begin production. Now we’re excited to announce that we’ve just completed a major milestone: sending all the art files to the factory so they can get started on production!

With that process complete, now is the perfect time to update you on what’s coming up. But first, let’s share some of the finished art!

Final Art for Community Picks

Remember the characters and scenes that you voted on during the campaign? Back then, we only had sketches, but our talented artists have been busy producing the final versions for the game.

Here are the five new characters, chosen by backers and illustrated by Cam Kendell:

And here’s the freshly-installed Aquarium exhibit, illustrated by Alex Diochon:

We love how they turned out! We hope you do too.

So What’s Next?

Starting Production: Now that the print files are with the factory, they’ll be processing the files and sending us proofs to approve. We’ll check them to make sure everything is perfect, and then they can start actually making the games!

With all the unsettling news going around about the COVID-19 Coronavirus, you may be wondering whether our fulfillment schedule will be affected. So far, thankfully, the answer is no. While the virus has caused some delay, we built in plenty of hedge for these sorts of unforeseen events, and as of this writing we’re confident that we can keep our original fulfillment date of September 2020. We will advise backers with an update if anything changes.

For those of you in Europe, you may be wondering whether Brexit will have any impact on fulfillment. Again, the answer is no. Our European depot, GamesQuest, has assured us that the UK’s withdrawal from the EU will not affect fulfillment in any way.

Translating Instructions: We’ve had a few generous backers offer to translate the instructions for us so we can provide them in different languages. Thanks to all of you! We’ll be reaching out to you shortly.

However, we’d love to be able to offer a German translation of the rules, and don’t yet have a volunteer to do so. So if you’re fluent in English and German, and preferably have some experience with translating game rules, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Thanks!

Building the timer app: The timer apps for 5-Minute Dungeon and 5-Minute Marvel add a lot of quirky fun to those games. We love the adrenaline spike when the countdown is on, you’re just seconds away from either winning or totally losing, and the narrator is throwing shade at your team! We’ll be getting started soon on designing a timer app for 5-Minute Mystery, and we’ll make sure that it brings the same energy and flavor to the game.

Finding a local pickup location: Those of you who live in Ontario and backed one or both of our previous Kickstarters know that we love having a local pickup event where we can meet you in person (and refund your shipping costs!) Unfortunately, the venue we used for our previous local pickups, the Cardboard Cafe, has closed down. So we’re looking into other options.

If you live in London, Ontario and know the perfect place to host a pickup event, let us know at [email protected]!

Hey… Have You Completed Your Survey?

If you’re one of the backers who has not completed your survey, we need you to do so ASAP. It only takes a minute! Just go to https://5-minute-mystery.backerkit.com/ and enter the e-mail address linked to your Kickstarter account to access your survey.

If you have completed your survey, but you need to change your address, you can use the same link to access your survey, then click “Edit Your Address” at the top right. We’ll be locking down addresses in a couple of months, but we’ll send out an update when we’re about to do so.

And, of course, if you have any questions about your pledge or how to complete your survey, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected]. We’re always happy to help!

We’ll be sure to let you know if we have any more news to share. Thanks again for all your support!