Survive against all odds facing monsters and other perils in a dark fantasy tale. A quick (20-30 min), tense and unforgiving solo game. Test your survival skills in the dark fantasy world of Unbroken. You are the only one left alive after your group was ambushed by monsters - now you must avenge your friends and reclaim your freedom. Quick to learn, easy to set up and playable in a brief 20-30 minutes, the game will challenge you to make the right decisions or fall victim to the many dangers of the monster-infested caverns. Plan wisely and take calculated risks - you do not have much and must use every resource at your disposal to prevail. Each journey in the dark is unique as you play as one of four different characters and face a variety of monsters and encounters. Your character gets better with experience and so will you - Unbroken is a game that encourages and rewards repeated plays to refine your strategies.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
A long overdue shipping update
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 04:36:47 AM
(this update is posted on behalf of Golden Bell Studios)
Hello everyone,
We hope that you are doing well and keeping healthy. Our apologies that there was such a long stretch of time without a project update. We would like to provide an update on progress as well as explain this delay and describe the next steps.
First of all – we’d like to assure you that we are still working on delivering the games. The circumstances are very challenging, but our goal is to make sure we deliver games to all of you. Because of the challenges – this will take some time, but we felt it important to reassure you of our commitment. The costs to fulfil the remaining units require both us and Artem as the original project creator to spend thousands of dollars out of pocket to keep games moving, so there’s a limit to how quickly we may get things done. But rest assured that we are doing our best.
The well-documented global shipping crisis made our challenging shipping situation almost impossible. It led to severe complications in terms of delays of shipments as well as cost increases. In fact, the delays of booking a new round of freight shipments are the main reason why this update is coming in so late – these took months to book. We wanted to make sure that we have something tangible to share with you.
Even with these freight shipment delays; we have been committed to moving games as much as we can. Artem was able to keep sending copies directly from Canada and now that we have replenished stock at our Chinese warehouse, more copies are getting out every month.
Below you will see breakdowns of progress by region with a list of countries where fulfillment has been completed. It should give you an idea both for immediate next steps (and your options to speed up delivery of your game) and what’s coming up next. As these freight shipments arrive, we will be posting further updates to keep you informed of next steps (we will make sure to avoid lengthy update pauses in the future).
We want to acknowledge that the delivery of this project has been hindered by a great number of issues and challenges and we wish we could get your games to you sooner. We are doing what we can, please bear with us.
North America – 100% complete
All backers in North America should have their game. If you do not or require support, please connect with Artem at [email protected] .
Europe – 48% complete
What’s done: All backers in UK, Ireand, Poland, Sweden, Bosnia, Belarus, Slovenia, Serbia and Russia should have their games. If you are in one of these countries and have not received your game(s) or require support, please connect with Artem at [email protected].
What’s happening now: Artem will be sending games from Canada to Ukraine and Iceland throughout August. These should arrive no later than end of October. The next shipment from China will include all games for backers in Bulgaria. All other European backers have the option to expedite their shipment by providing a top-up of $10US + $5US per copy to Artem. Please contact [email protected] to arrange this.
What’s coming up next: We have two freight shipments on the way – one heading to France and one headed to Netherlands. Both should arrive in early September. Clearing customs and getting these from port to distribution point will take a few weeks as well. Once these shipments arrive, these copies will be sent out. The first wave will include backers who are able to help with a reduced shipping top-up. The only reason we will be asking for this is to speed up the delivery. Once that wave is cleared, we will prioritize the remaining copies to fulfill as many orders as possible.
The exact timing of this and steps you will need to take will be described in the next update as the shipments arrive in the European fulfillment centres.
Asia – 40% complete
What’s done: All backers in China, Israel, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam and Malaysia should have their games. If you are in one of these countries and have not received your game(s) or require support, please connect with Artem at [email protected].
What’s happening now: Games are being sent from the Chinese warehouse as funds become available. The next shipment from China will include all games for backers in Qatar, Turkey and Taiwan. All other Asian backers have the option to expedite their shipment by providing a top-up of $10US + $5US per copy to Artem. Please contact [email protected] to arrange this.
What’s coming up next: We will continue covering Asian countries from the Chinese warehouse as funds become available and hope to send these out in the shortest time possible given the constraints.
Oceania – 33% complete
What’s done: All backers in New Zealand should have their games. If you are from NZ and don't have your game(s) or require support, please connect with Artem at [email protected].
What’s happening now: Games are being sent to remaining backers in Australia from the Chinese warehouse as funds become available. Australian backers have the option to expedite their shipment by providing a top-up of $10US + $10US per copy to Artem. Please contact [email protected] to arrange this.
What’s coming up next: We will continue covering Australian backers from the Chinese warehouse as funds become available and hope to send these out in the shortest time possible given the constraints.
South America – 47% complete
What’s done: All backers in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru should have their copies. If you do not or require support, please connect with Artem at [email protected].
What’s happening now: Artem will be sending games from Canada to Uruguay throughout August. These should arrive no later than end of October. This will only leave backers from Brazil still not covered. Brazilian backers have the option to expedite their shipment from the central Chinese warehouse by providing a top-up of $15US + $5US per copy to Artem. Please contact [email protected]to arrange this.
What’s coming up next: A dedicated shipment to Brazil is on the way. It is scheduled to arrive in early September. Clearing customs and getting these games from port to distribution point will take a few weeks as well. Once these shipments arrive, these copies will be sent out. The first wave will include backers who are able to help with a reduced shipping top-up. The only reason we will be asking for this is to speed up the delivery. Once that wave is cleared, we will prioritize the remaining copies to fulfill remaining orders as quickly as possible.
The exact timing and steps you will need to take will be described in the next update as the shipment arrives in Brazil.
South Africa –Artem will send the remaining copies from Canada in September, arriving by November. Contact Artem at [email protected] if you require support for these.
Peril Pack I expansion update
A reminder that the design for the first expansion for Unbroken, Peril Pack I is complete. It introduces 8 new monsters into the game as well as 5 new characters (in addition to the 2 new ones already released) and a dozen new skills. Peril Pack I is available in Print and Play format through BackerKit . Purchasing the “Advanced Access to Expansions” perk unlocks the file for both the current expansion and future ones in PnP format.
We are also working on the physical release of this product. The Banshee is the first character developed. All art is being done by one of Golden Bell’s founders, Rachel Korsen, as well as one of Golden Bell’s lead artists, Nikki Storme. Both Rachel and Nikki worked on the story art for Unbroken and are excited to continue this path. We will provide an expected release date in the coming months.
All profits raised from the Peril Pack I product go towards completion of the base campaign. We hope people from the fulfilled regions will consider joining us on the new campaign as we aim to apply the many lessons learned and avoid the mistakes we made.
In conclusion
We will continue to work on getting as many games delivered as possible in collaboration with Artem. Our deep thanks to backers who are providing additional financial support – this helps make sure we can do this faster. We are also grateful for the patience of backers after such a long time. It is not being taken for granted. We look forward to sharing our progress in the next project update coming when the freight shipments land.
Remain Unbroken.
- Golden Bell Studios team
Getting to the 80% mark! Initial Australian and Asian shipments complete with more to come.
about 4 years ago
– Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 08:17:01 PM
(this update is posted on behalf of Golden Bell Studios)
Hello all of you patient Unbroken backers,
Work continues to bring Unbroken to all the backers despite financial difficulties and delays. With another ~900 units covered through European Wave 2 and Asian/Australian/NZ Wave 1 (we know, all these wave numbers are starting to be confusing, our apologies) – we are at 77% completion and are going to cross the 80% threshold soon.
We are acutely aware of how delayed things are for so many of you but please know that we are doing whatever we can to get these copies to you, given the financial difficulties.
Europe
All 2,000 units that were shipped to Poland (and all the additional remaining ones we had with Spiral Galaxy in the UK) have been delivered. This covered the folks who have graciously helped us with the extra shipping costs (once again, our deep thanks for your additional support).
Certain countries are already covered completely regardless of backers providing extra payments. All backers in Poland,Ireland, Sweden and the UK should have their copies in hand. We continue to look for ways to create partnerships that allow for affordable ways to distribute units and will update our European backers as soon as possible when that information becomes final.
Our special thanks to the Swedish shop Alphaspel who did great work in distributing units to backers in Sweden. We wanted to clear up some confusion about this partnership. Alphaspel did not do this work for free and were reimbursed for their services. Everyone was happy with the terms and backers got their games in a timely manner so again our thanks to Aplhaspel for their hard work in getting Unbroken delivered in Sweden! They are practically done with the distribution, but if you are in Sweden and require any help with your order – please e-mail them at [email protected].
European backers who provided the additional shipping fee or those from UK, Ireland, Sweden or Poland who did not yet receive their games – please contact us at [email protected]. While we are happy to offer support, please note that all vitriol filled messages will be promptly ignored, deleted, and blocked.
We have directed a new freight shipment of ~1,000 units to Europe that will arrive in France before end of year - the specifics and timing of getting these units to backers will be in the next project update, when we have a concrete estimate of the freight's arrival. That is to say that progress is ongoing and we are committed to keep things moving and getting copies to our European backers.
We are committed to delivering all units regardless of backers’ ability to provide the extra shipping cost, but if you would rather not wait – you can provide the shipping top-up within the next 2 weeks for your copy to be included on the next batch shipment from our central warehouse in China in November. The costs remain the same as they were for the previous advanced European waves:
All copies for backers in China have been sent out and delivered over the past month.
We have also delivered all copies for backers who helped with the extra shipping fees as part of Asia Wave 1 (covering about 15% of the Asian backers). We worked with a new distributor for this distribution and they did a great job in getting copies to backers in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and Russia, among others. If you are in one of the groups above and are having trouble with receiving your order – please contact [email protected] for help.
We will continue to send out the remaining Asian units as funds become available over the coming months. It is a challenge, but we will get it done and will announce the timing as it becomes available. For backers who would rather not wait there is an opportunity to join the next Wave that is ready to ship right now! (There are only ~200 units left in this distributor’s warehouse so act while you still can!)
Backers from this area are folks that we had to ask for most patience as it took the longest to get anything arranged here. We have finally found a workable line to deliver to Australia and have started with the backers who have generously provided extra shipping. Those copies have shipped and should be arriving throughout the remainder of October. If you’d like to receive tracking info for your package – please message Artem at [email protected] and he’ll share the tracking link. We hope these games get to you soon, we are very excited to finally get these into Australia!
Much like with the Asian copies – now we are putting together the funds to allow us shipment to remaining Australian backers (and continue looking for ways to do so at lower cost). If you are in Australia and would rather not wait – you can provide a shipping top-up to have your game shipped and delivered in November.
Please provide the top-up ($15 plus $5 per additional game) through here:
Our financial situation is difficult but we continue raising funds through all available channels and as soon as that’s possible – we will let you know via project update.
New Zealand backers will be receiving their copies shortly from China – their addresses will be locked and copies shipped out in the next couple of weeks, arriving in November. Our sincere thanks to Artem for using his personal funds to cover this portion of the project. If you have any questions on those – please connect with Artem at [email protected].
South America
While we don’t have immediate specific estimates for these units arriving – we have made progress on making arrangements here.
For backers from Brazil – we have identified a way to ship these from China, but because of well-known difficulties with shipping – we want to test it out before sending large volumes. Some of these test copies were sent with the Australian/NZ Wave 1 shipment and once we confirm that those arrive in Brazil – we will proceed to make plans to ship the remaining ones as well. This will be confirmed in the next update.
For backers from Chile, Peru and Argentina – Artem will be sending those from Canada over the next couple of months. Our thanks to Artem for covering these countries! Shipment time will be a couple of months, but these should arrive towards end of the year.
If you are from Brazil, Chile, Peru or Argentina and would like to expedite your copy going out by contributing a portion of the shipping costs – please contact Artem at [email protected]to make these arrangements.
We had several South American backers who were able to receive their copies at a US address (and have it forwarded). We are happy to arrange that to expedite things – if that’s an option for you please connect with Artem at [email protected] and he will help dispatch a copy to the US address of your choice at no extra charge.
We want to assure you that despite the delays we are here, progress is being made and we continue to work looking for solutions. We are committed to getting all copies delivered to backers.
Completed regions
A reminder that at this point all backers from US, Canada,Mexico, UK, Poland, Ireland, Sweden and China should have received their copies. Same is true for backers who helped with the extra shipping in Europe and Asia (with Australian/NZ copies on their way in October). If you are in any of those groups and don’t have your copy yet – please e-mail [email protected] for help.
Next Shipment
As noted in individual sections above – we will dispatch future shipments from our Chinese distribution center in bi-weekly waves starting this week. These will contain all backers who are able to provide extra shipping help through links shared above. In the meantime, we are putting together the funds to ship all the remaining games.
Our priority remains to make sure every single copy of Unbroken is delivered regardless of backers helping with the shipping. We will continue to work to get these units to you and appreciate your patience while we raise the funds necessary to do so.
Progress on new Unbroken content
The Unbroken Peril Pack I, containing 8 new monsters, 6 new characters and a dozen new skills has been available for some time to backers who have the Advanced Access to Expansion Content perk. While the current version of the PnP files is still in the printer-friendly no-art format – we invite you to check it out by purchasing the add-on for a limited-time reduced price of $5 through BackerKit (once you do it will become available through Digital Downloads).
We wanted to also give a brief update on our plants to publish the physical version of the Unbroken Peril Pack I in a more detailed fashion. For the art, Rachel is currently swamped with her semester at school now but will have a load of free time come December during our winter break. During this time, she’ll be producing a lot of sketches and we’ll show everyone what they think and then we’ll have Rachel finalize those art pieces. As for the design, Artem finished the game design of this and all that’s left is the Graphic Design which Nikki will work on also during her winter break from school. We are very proud of her as she finally decided to go pursue her undergraduate degree and got nearly a full ride in scholarships, it is very well deserved! As for the writing, Marc and Rob will be meeting in December (once Marc’s Universities are also on Winter break, there’s just a short window but it’s penciled in!) to further develop the story and outline the Art Book with Rachel that we’ll be providing to everyone. Rob & Marc will be working on the flavor text for each card during this time as well. While it’s not today or tomorrow, it’s truly just around the corner and something that we’re all excited to dive back into the world of Unbroken. Hope you’re all excited!
Unbroken fan contributions
We’re very grateful for the many amazing submissions we’ve seen from folks enjoying Unbroken around the world and wanted to share these with you. To start off, here are some amazing photos taken by Fredrik Shulz from Sweden (check out his Instragram for some truly awesome board game photography)
Next is a great idea from Marcel Claxton from Switzerland – he is working on “sleeves” to house the monster cards that would contain the monster stories on those so that players could learn more about the foes they encounter in Unbroken. What a great idea, Marcel! We look forward to seeing more of those come up to share with the backers!
We are very grateful for all fans who are enjoying Unbroken and who share their enthusiasm for the game in online communities.
Halloween sale on Cauldron!
With Halloween just around the corner - we hope you get to celebrate it in a safe and fun way this year. To help you make the most of this spooky time - we are offering a 40% discount on Cauldron: A board game of competitive alchemy also designed by Artem and offering a fun, light and interactive experience brewing potions and yanking ingredients from you opponents. You can grab Cauldron for only $29.95 for a limited time on our website. Needless to say - profits generated by these sales will help us keep Unbroken copies moving for remaining backers.
To wrap up
We are glad to be making progress. We wish it would be happening faster and we wouldn’t have to ask for so much of your patience and potential support with shipping. But we are doing our best moving these units under the circumstances. Please know that we cannot wait to have all these games delivered and this campaign wrapped up. We are certain this moment is coming closer and we thank you for staying with us and remaining Unbroken.
Sincerely,
- The entire Golden Bell Team
Shipping continues! Europe W2, Sweden and Asia W1 coming up, Ireland complete and next steps.
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 11:58:10 PM
(this update is posted on behalf of Golden Bell Studios)
Hello all of you patient Unbroken backers,
After a bit of a delay we are happy to bring you an update on our work to deliver all games to those waiting for them. Slower processes during the summer as well as the many logistical challenges introduced by the COVID pandemic made for slower pace, but we continue to make progress where possible and are cautiously optimistic about the next Wave for Europe and the upcoming for Asia.
Europe
Most importantly the European Shipment Wave 2 is about to depart from the Polish warehouse of Green Logistics Polska. These units will be sent next week and will include all backers who were able to graciously help with the extra shipping costs.
All those backers will get a shipping notification via e-mail with tracking information and their package should arrive within 2 weeks of shipping. If your address has changed in the past two months or if you want to double-check that your unit is going to the right address – please message Artem at [email protected] with the correct address and he will make sure the correct information is in the spreadsheet submitted to the distributor.
There is a small number of units left in this batch so if you’d like to join Wave 2 please follow the links below to provide the extra payment and add your copy to the Wave 2 list. It will be finalized and submitted on 8 am EST of Jul 27:
All other European countries (e.g. Norway or Switzerland) can use the “outer countries” link above – the shipping fee is $25 (unfortunately a more affordable option isn't available) but it doesn’t increase with extra games up to 6 games.
Ireland
We were able to work with Spiral Galaxy Games (our thanks for their work!) to distribute all Irish copies in June. Our thanks to Artem (and by extension those who supported his GoFundMe drive) who provided the funds that made this distribution possible. All Irish backers should have received their games in June – if you did not please contact Artem at [email protected]
Sweden
We have come to an agreement with a Stockholm-based games shop Alphaspel to distribute the units to all backers in Sweden. Alphaspel will receive the Swedish units by mid-August and around the same time we will send out a 48-hour notification and lock the Swedish addresses. Once Alphaspel receives the final list of addresses they will offer an opportunity to pick your units up in store (Stockholm), have it combined with another order you’re expecting from them or to be sent separately via DHL. All games are expected to be sent out to backers by end of September. We are grateful for Alphaspel’s help in getting copies to backers in Sweden and look forward to marking another country’s deliveries as complete.
Europe Next Steps
With the 2,000 units from Wave 1 and 2 distributed across Europe we will focus on looking for an opportunity to bring in another freight shipment of Unbroken units into Europe to continue this distribution. Detailed information on this shipment will be shared once it is booked – we look forward to continuing to get games to our backers in Europe and apologize it’s taking so long.
Asia
In absence of news from our distributor partner in China, we have made arrangements for the factory to send the Wave 1 copies to Asian backers directly who have graciously supported the optional top-up shipping cost. This shipment will also include all backers based in China.
We will be sending a final address reminder to this group this week and these units will be shipped within the next month.
With this shipment being very close we extend a final opportunity for backers in Asia to join it – if you provide $10 (+$10 per additional copy) through this link : https://goldenbelldirect.com/unbroken-shipping-for-asia-first-wave/ your copy will be shipped within the month. The deadline for this is 8 am EST of Jul 27.
Updates for the remaining copies in Asia will be provided as new information becomes available as we continue to work on solutions to get all copies delivered.
Australia/NZ
We have not been able to make progress on these shipments, though we realize how incredibly delayed these are, particularly for backers who provided the extra shipping. We do apologize to backers in these regions and want to assure you that we continue to look for ways to get those units delivered (given our financial difficulties).
This work is now our top priority and we look forward to sharing a solution that gets Australian/NZ games closer to delivery soon.
We are working on arranging freight shipment to a partner that would be able to hold on to the units and ship them out as funds become available, starting with the units for backers who provided extra shipping help (we might also be able to ship these without need for freight to get them delivered early, working on different possible solutions here).
We look forward to sharing more concrete information once it’s available and expect to have a firm plan in place by next update.
South America
We have not been able to make progress on these shipments, even though with Artem’s help we have identified a set of reasonably priced shipping options that exist from Canada to South American countries. Several COVID-related shipping restrictions are prohibiting moving copies around right now through that plan, but we are monitoring these restrictions and look forward to providing a solution once the restrictions ease up.
We did get a few requests from South American backers who were able to receive their copies at a US address (and have it forwarded). We are happy to arrange those – if that’s an option for you please connect with us at [email protected] and we’ll get a copy to the US address of your choice.
We also recognize that this group has been very long without a solution and are sorry that we do not have better news for you at this time.
We want to assure you that despite the delays we are here, progress is being made and we continue to work looking for solutions. We are committed to getting all copies delivered to backers.
Completed regions
All backers from the US, Canada, Mexico, Poland, UK, Ireland and Europe Wave 1 should have their copy by now. We have recently shipped a batch of units to the US customers who had their copies missing and those should be all delivered by now as well.
If you are in one of the completed regions and your copy is missing please connect with us at [email protected] for assistance.
Upcoming new Unbroken content
We are very excited to have received the final version of the new batch of Unbroken content from Artem. Tentatively titled Peril Pack I it will introduce 8 new monsters to the game (2 per Level), increasing the variety of dangers the players must face. The pack will also provide 5 all-new characters to try out as well as expand your selection of Skills with 14 new options.
On Artem’s behalf we’d like to thank the playtesters who have committed their time to testing out the new content and making sure it’s fun and balanced.
For those curious about what the plans and timelines look for this material, here is our tentative plan! While our Universities are shortly in session, we have been working diligently to plan out the illustrations, writing, and graphic design for this product. Our plan is that by the end of the year our artist Rachel will be done with the illustrations. At that time, Marc & Rob will write all the flavor text and consult with Artem. Simultaneously, Nikki will be working with Rachel on putting together the Lore/Art Book for Unbroken which we will either make available by Print on Demand or mass production depending on what people would prefer (we will poll for interest later).
Everyone who got the the Advanced Access to the Expansions perk as part of their pledge will be getting a digital final version of these products ~2 months before general release, as will be the case for all new Unbroken content! The current B/W non-illustrated version has been made available to this group via BackerKit through the Digital Downloads section - we hope you enjoy it!
If you are not a part of this group but interested in getting this access - please send Artem a message via KS or at [email protected] and he will help you. We’re extremely excited to be getting this next stage of Unbroken unlocked for everyone to enjoy and hope you’re as eager to play it as we have been!
Here is a preview of one of the new characters from the Peril Pack I – the battle-hardened Veteran.
We are excited to be working on new Unbroken content not only to grow the world of the Dark – but also because all profits generated by sales of this product will go right towards completing any outstanding orders from the base campaign. This is one of the several revenue streams we are working on to ensure that we can get all the units to backers of the original campaign.
Finally, to leave you with something awesome at the end of this update – we are proud to share with you the expanded map of the Unbroken caverns that Artem has created. (We knew you could do it, Artem!) It has grown by 40% from the original (that was included in the base game) and the new locations are connected to the monsters you will find in Peril Pack I.
Hope you are having a good summer and most importantly – that you and your families are staying healthy and safe from the pandemic. We look forward to keeping you informed on our progress and coming up with more solutions to see this project through despite the challenges. Please remember, we are still here, are not going anywhere, and will see all our projects come to a satisfactory conclusion where everyone will be able to enjoy their games and look forward to a brighter future together!
Sincerely,
- The entire Golden Bell Team
Europe Wave 1 is out, Wave 2 coming up. New content up for playtesting and next steps.
over 4 years ago
– Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 08:33:10 PM
(this update is posted on behalf of Golden Bell Studios)
Dear all of you patient Unbroken backers,
First off, we hope that you and your families are staying healthy and safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The circumstances across the world can be very uncertain and stressful and we wish all of you strength, resilience and most of all – good health during this difficult time. The challenges that all of us face can often seem insurmountable, but remember that we all have each other to get through this.
We hope that for those of you that have received Unbroken you will find solace in getting to play this Solo game, and for those that don’t have it yet, please consider using the PNP (available through your BackerKit) or TableTop Simulator version to help with the wait. We once again appreciate your patience.
With over 1,200 shipments departing from the Green Logistics Polska’s warehouse last week, the project finally reached backers across Europe and exceeded 12,000 fulfilled pledges (~70% of the total). Lots of work is still ahead but we are proud of this progress. We want to all once again stress that our goal is to fully complete Unbroken despite the challenges and we hope that you are with us in saying “one step closer!” Our entire team echoes these sentiments, while we wish circumstances could have been different, we’re nevertheless still dedicated in ensuring the rest are delivered. We know how difficult it is waiting for something that you are excited for but want to assure everyone that you will have your games!
Europe Wave 1
Copies for all Wave 1 backers in Europe went out two weeks ago. Those included copies for all backers in Poland as well as those for backers who kindly helped with the additional shipping costs. Those units have been making their way to backers in Europe (we’re thrilled to finally have the games in backers’ hands!) and should arrive within two weeks of dispatch.
For those that wanted a quick recap of what the delay was with Wave 1. A brief summary is that as COVID-19 was breaking out in China, we had luckily moved the games out of the Port just in time. However, what happened was that Chinese New Year hit and when the games docked in Poland there were additional documentation needed to show that all 2,000 units that were imported were for the Kickstarter backers. Once that was shown, there was a stamp of approval needed from the Factory but because of their prolonged CNY closure due to the Coronavirus outbreak this was an impossibility. Eventually, we had to wind up getting hard copies of necessary documents for the Customs Broker and Agent and Fedexed everything for a “wet” signature. This, believe it or not, is the short and synthesized version. We want to stress that this was NO ONE’S fault. This was an unpreventable casualty of the crisis, and we are happy it was resolved as quickly as possible. We appreciate the patience during the last leg of the journey for all of the units part of Europe Wave 1!
Here are the units departing from the warehouse in Poland in early April
Wave 1 contained orders of backers who were able to generously help with additional shipping costs. If you want to check whether your game was a part of Wave 1 or have a question about your shipment – please connect with Artem via direct message or [email protected]
We hope that all backers in Wave 1 who receive the game get to enjoy Unbroken. We also want to extend our thanks to the Green Logistics Polska team for their exceptional work on getting those orders out during a very busy time. Let’s give a round of applause to GLP being able to brave out the storm and of course to Artem for making an amazing game and helping out whenever he could with this shipment!
Europe Wave 2
Wave 2 is going to consist of the remaining units in the GLP warehouse (~700 units). We hope that the safe delivery of Wave 1 copies will help instill confidence in the process we put in place for delivery and more people join this wave by helping with the additional shipping costs.
If you’d like to join Wave 2 - Please provide the extra payment via links below:
Packages can be shipped to other European countries as well, but the price is somewhat higher (mostly due to those not being in EU). If you are in one of the European countries NOT listed above but would like to provide a top-up of $25 through one of the two links above – your package will be shipped as part of Wave 2 as well. The good news here is that that amount does not increase for additional copies in your order, so if you are in Norway and have 3 copies coming your way – a top-up of $25 will cover all three copies. If you require any help or assistance with this – please contact Artem at [email protected]. Backers may wish to combine their orders – in order to do that we would need to receive specific instructions that you’d like your order to be shipped together with the order of another backer (please specify their name / e-mail). If that backer has provided the necessary top-up – we will include those copies together. Contact Artem at [email protected] to arrange this.
The Wave 2 list is limited to 700 units – once that threshold is reached we will disable further contributions through these links. The Wave 2 list will be finalized in 30 days (on May 23, 2020). The people on the resulting list will have a couple of days to provide their final address and the data will be sent to GLP to get those copies out so that they arrive in late May/early June.
Remaining Europe
We are exploring arrangements with a variety of partners to complete the fulfillment to the rest of the European backers. We will be sharing information on this progress once firm arrangements are in place. We regret how long this is taking but are doing our best given the budget constraints. As described below, all our revenue raising efforts are aimed at generating more funds to facilitate the completion of this portion of the project.
Australia/NZ/Asia Wave 1
A reminder that this portion of the shipment was going to be sent directly from a distribution center in China (company called SendFromChina). As you can expect, the COVID-19 related lockdowns in the region had a severe impact on their ability to receive and send packages, so those units were not able to move during the last several months.
Now that the lockdown is slowly being lifted, they are dealing with a huge backlog of shipments and re-routing some of these to alternate locations. It is a time of incredible volume for them and unfortunately this leads to significant delays in processing. Currently, SFC plans on opening a new warehouse location so our agent there is keeping us in the loop once this is completed and notifying us when they’re ready to continue shipping our orders.
We will continue to work to arrange these shipments as quickly as possible, but given the circumstances we must ask you to be patient with this – it does not look like this is going to happen in the short term as we deal with these delays. We acknowledge that those are already pledges that are significantly overdue and that you paid extra to receive, but we are doing the best we can under the circumstances. Once a timeline is available, we will happily share it via project update.
Remaining Regions (non-Wave 1 Asia/Australia/NZ, South America, Rest of the World)
We are committed to raising revenue through all our available channels to enable us to complete these portions of the campaign. While no specific estimate exists at this time – we will continue to work on fulfilling the pledges one region at a time as we are able to do so.
Completed Regions
All backers in US, Canada, Poland, and UKshould have their copies by now.
If you are missing a copy in the US or Canada – please connect with Artem via direct message or [email protected]. While we can’t ship out missing US copies right now (our warehouse is only shipping essential goods at the time due to the pandemic) – we will make sure to follow up on your missing order as soon as restrictions ease.
If you need to follow up on an issue with a UK pledge – please connect with Spiral Galaxy at [email protected]and they will get in touch with us as necessary.
New Unbroken Content on the way!
On Apr 13 Artem kicked off the playtesting of new Unbroken content that includes 6 new Characters, 14 new Skills and 8 new Monsters to pit your survivors against. The playtesting will last for a couple of months to make sure the new content is balanced and engaging. If you’d like to help with the playtesting – please connect with Artem at [email protected] and he will provide you with instructions.
Here is a small preview of the new Level 2 monsters.
Once the content is finalized and laid out it will be made available in digital format to all backers who have Advanced Access to expansion content as part of their rewards. We will also make physical copies of this content available for pre-order in regions where base game fulfillment is complete. All profit generated by this will be dedicated to completing the fulfillment of outstanding pledges for this campaign.
Pre-order your Unbroken Plush today!
Have you ever felt lost and alone in the Dark? Well the Altema Plush Fox will help you escape the dark catacombs! We have gotten some incredible feedback from dozens of fans and have perfected one of our next Plushies. Love them or hate them, these little guys can come right to your doorstep! We have extensive experience manufacturing plush toys and have fulfilled all our past stuffed animal campaigns.
Our stuffed animal factory has a 90 day lead time, so we expect to have these delivered for you by December in time for the holidays! All plushie orders will be shipped from the US via USPS First Class mail as soon as the units are received. We are offering a SPECIAL Backer ONLY price of $17.95 for the first 72 hours of today’s launch of the Altema Fox Plush so don’t miss out! All profits generated from this plush will be redirected into further fulfillment of the Unbroken base game. We have gauged there is a sizeable enough audience to run this pre-order as the minimum order is only a couple hundred units so we know we’re going to blow past that right away! I hope you’re as excited as we are to see this long-awaited toy enter your collection!
Once again, to reiterate, all profit generated by these sales will be directed to completing the fulfillment of the base Kickstarter as getting those games to backers remains a priority for us.
Unbroken Custom Insert Instructions
Our crafty backers from Germany lost no time in creating awesome custom storage solutions for Unbroken. Thanks to the dedicated work of Gerd Flessner we would like to share with you his guide on crafting an excellent custom Unbroken insert that holds all of the components nice and neat:
You can view a full detailed guide on crafting the foamcore insert here. Thanks, Gerd, for your awesome work and for sharing these!
GoFundMe Progress
Generous contributions to Artem's GoFundMe have continued to help us move the fulfillment along, so those are greatly appreciated. The donations have recently surpassed $5,000, so Artem will be working on a new map, growing the world of Unbroken for the next update! The new map will hint at the dangers the players will face as part of the new content currently being playtested.
All contributions to the GoFundMe are greatly appreciated and go directly into fulfilling the remainder of the campaign - thank you for considering it!
On a personal note
We realize that this Kickstarter has faced many challenges and that delays, shifting timelines, and some of the communication on our end led to backer frustration. We want to take this opportunity to say that we genuinely feel bad that all copies have not yet been delivered and we apologize for the fact that the campaign may have been a frustrating experience for you. The last thing any of us here want is for any of you to feel resentment towards the campaign or anyone involved. This game was born out of a passion, love for gaming, and a shared dream. While we admit we could always do better, we also know that this has been an incredible and humbling learning experience. From this experience, we promise, we’ve learned a lot. The campaign has had its highs and its lows, but we aim to finish strong which is why we’re all still here. We are not ones to give up and hope that you all see that and are excited for the day Unbroken reaches your table!
We wish we could push all the remaining units out to backers tomorrow, but we are just not in a financial position to do so as painful as it is to admit. We might not be able to do it right away, but we promise to keep working to find solutions and deliver the games that we can no matter how long it takes. All our efforts are aimed at generating the revenue to make it happen. We hope you bear with us while we do that and thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. Further, we hope that those who do have the game do enjoy it, serving as a reminder of our continued commitment to deliver this project completely. Once again, we want to apologize for any miscommunication from any of the staff here and want you all to rest assured that we have properly dealt with the situation so that everyone can regain confidence in us and the project. We will continue to provide these updates at least every two months to keep you informed of our progress on Unbroken.
Above all – stay healthy and safe in these trying times for us all.
Wishing you all the best,
Marc Goldner, Rachel Korsen, Robert Gross and the rest of the Golden Bell Studios team!
Europe Wave 1 starting to ship soon, US, Canadian, UK fulfillment complete and next steps.
almost 5 years ago
– Sat, Feb 22, 2020 at 12:57:27 AM
(this update is posted on behalf of the Golden Bell Studios team)
Dear patient Unbroken Backers,
Another update to keep everyone informed on Unbroken progress. With the UK fulfillment completed the campaign sits at 60% done with another 15-20% about to be fulfilled in Europe within the next month. While things are taking a long time – we are getting to that finish line slowly but surely. Our thanks for your patience during this process, it is extremely generous that many of you have been able to bear with us while we work through all the understandably frustrating hurdles.
Now for the regional updates:
Europe
The Wave 1 shipment to Europe took some time to clear customs – there was a lot of back and forth and extra documentation required to make sure the shipment could enter EU. We have finally finished this work and are happy to report that the games have arrived at the Green Logistics Polska warehouse! The delays we encountered with the customs is the reason why this update is being posted somewhat later than we originally planned.
The Wave 1 copies will be sent to the shipping address you listed when providing the extra shipping cost (thank you). If you moved since then (or want to make sure we have the right address on file) please contact Artem through direct message with your up to date address by Feb 28. After that the final list will be provided to GLP and the copies should arrive around mid-late March.
For full transparency to all those that have been asking about the customs delay: The ship arrived as planned on Jan 10 and the freight made its way to Poland in a timely manner but there were several angry backers that reported the shipment as fraudulent and had screenshotted our website claiming that we were importing these units to sell at $50; this of course is not the case. All units in this shipment are being imported for the BACKERS, and the backers alone. We went back and forth with the Polish customs office, and showed them all our invoices, explained what Kickstarter was, and after about a week we finally were on the same page. However, this isn’t where everything ended.
The Customs Agency initially wanted $23,000 to Import the goods because of that $50/unit price tag which wasn’t affordable and our partners at GLP couldn’t take that risk as a Consignee. Thus, we had to explain that the VAT was not to be charged against the $50 and showed our Commercial Invoice and the cost sold to each backer. By this time, Chinese New Year had started and we were unable to get the required documentation to prove that Unbroken is CE compliant, which it is. Due to the coronavirus crisis the factories took an extra week to continue to try and contain the virus (our best wishes to anyone being affected by this disaster). Once our factory returned, they were able to e-mail the CE and everything was good, that was until the broker was still concerned that we weren’t who we said we were because of those initial false complaints.
Thus, we had to air-mail HARD COPY signatures (not e-mail) and it took 5 days to get there. In addition, because of all the complications with this import, we had to take primary responsibility for it as the importer (as opposed to using local partners as is usually the case). That required obtaining a European business registration, known as the EORI number, which took over a week, prolonging the delay.
Eventually, they got our signatures, the CE certification confirmations, all the additional invoice proofs, our new business registration, all the releases for Customs and they hit us with Demurrage of $55/day (charge for having to keep the shipment at customs) even though this was not something we could have prevented. We agreed to pay this out of pocket to ensure that you backers could get this game. This is just a small example of how unforeseen and unexpected costs can hit a project like ours and is unpreventable. However, with all that we can now share with you the beautiful stack of games you’ve been waiting for!
Now the shipping process will get going. To address any potential skepticism, GLP has had an awesome track record of working with companies on huge fulfillment orders such as Awaken Realms so we hope that you are with us in our feeling that Unbroken is in good hands.
Our thanks to all backers who helped with the extra shipping costs – those are all included in Wave 1 shipment (along with all Polish orders). Folks who want to join Wave 1 can still do so by contributing additional funds through links below:
We have roughly 500 extra copies that we imported to be eligible for early shipping. For those that were on the fence of whether to take a leap of faith to get your copy, you now can, knowing that it will arrive shortly. This 2nd Wave will be open for 1 month (and limited to 500 units) and then we will send that list to GLP to ship at the end of March. We will be working on a 3rd Wave shortly thereafter as we still work on selling units at retail to generate funds to make it possible.
We will remain in contact with the distributor to ensure the process goes as quickly and smoothly as possible. We are excited to finally start getting the games to our backers in Europe. You European backers have been some of the most patient along with the other countries listed below and for that we thank you. We are internally working on ways to make this up to you so you feel whole again and we hope that receiving your copy of Unbroken is a step in the right direction!
Once Wave 1 is completed, we will focus on outstanding copies for all other European backers. Any new information we have to share will be communicated through future updates.
United Kingdom
All UK backers should have received their games by end of 2019. The games were dispatched by Spiral Galaxy Games and if there is an issue with your shipment – please contact [email protected]for a status update/resolution. They will loop us in as necessary.
Our big thanks to folks at Spiral for a fantastic job getting the games out to everyone and keeping backers informed and up to date. I think we all owe Spiral a huge round of applause for being able to work with us on fulfilling Unbroken at a feasible rate, great group of guys that we can’t thank enough!
United States outstanding shipments
Outstanding US copies have been sent out and should arrive no later than end of February.
If you’d like to confirm that your name was on the US re-send list please get in touch with Artem via direct message.
If for some reason you are still missing your copy by the end of February please contact us at [email protected] and we’ll arrange for a shipment so you can join the rest of many happy backers in the Dark!
Thank you for your patience as we complete the US portion of distribution. It’s another big milestone, that with some ups, downs, and the struggles in between we can happily say we have our feet halfway across the finish line and are eagerly excited to wrap this up to focus on the outstanding regions.
Canada outstanding shipments
Artem sent out all missing Canadian copies in January and at this point all our Canadian backers should have their games. If you have any questions or concerns around your copy in Canada please e-mail Artem at [email protected] .
Asia / Australia / NZ
We had trouble getting the Wave 1 for these regions out of the factory – despite numerous instructions and reminders (10+ since last December) the shipment still did not leave the factory before the facilities’ closure for Chinese New Year. It is a frustrating experience, especially knowing how quickly games can be delivered across Asia once they arrive at the distributor warehouse.
Now that the factory is open again, we will continue to follow up to get those copies to the distributor as quickly as possible to get them to backers – once the copies will start going out it shouldn’t take long, so we hope to have those delivered in late March.
Once the regions mentioned above are completed, we will continue organizing the fulfillment for other parts of the world. Specifically, the following are remaining, comprising about 20% of the overall project: Remaining European copies (outside of Wave 1), Remaining Asian/AUS/NZ copies (outside of Wave 1) and South America.
Sales via Amazon and advertising
As we have communicated before – sales in regions that have been completed will be used to generate funds to complete fulfillment for outstanding regions. We understand that seeing these copies available for sale might be frustrating, but that remains the most reliable way for us to generate funds needed to complete the campaign and that continues to be our goal – to meet the obligations to all backers regardless of their ability or willingness to provide extra shipment funds.
We have seen some negative reaction to our online advertisements. We would kindly ask people to refrain from compromising the online sales by filling the ads with negativity. We understand the frustration and anger – the campaign is certainly troubled, but generating sales is what brings us closer to completing it. Filling ads with negative reactions extends how long it takes us to generate those funds and delays delivery to all backers who have been waiting for their games for so long. Thank you for your understanding.
As a side note, we are requesting please once again to stop with the hate mail. The constant death threats, the voicemails, the phone calls, everything ranging from calling us racial/ethnic slurs, to wishes that we’d die of cancer, have simply gone too far. We are asking once again, to cease this behavior immediately, it is uncalled for, unacceptable, and frankly a hate crime on numerous occasions.
Playtesting for more Unbroken Content
We are excited to announce that Artem has a batch of new Unbroken content ready for playtesting that will be ready to share within a month. If you would like to help with playtesting the new material please leave your e-mail through this form. Artem will be circulating new content and playtesting instructions via e-mail to those who sign up. Once the new content is finalized, it will first be made available in Print and Play form to backers who have Advanced Access as part of their campaign rewards. As promised, for anyone that has provided Extra Top-Ups and would like to be added to this list, we will be sure that everyone gets these via the BackerKit downloadable distribution that will be emailed to you!
Golden Bell Communications
We would like everyone to know that we’ve restructured and reorganized our social media team. While several of Golden Bell’s devoted associates have helped helm the ship, mostly going forward Rachel has been helping respond to customers on Social Media (yet Rachel sometimes needs some help when she’s working on other things from various company personnel relating to handling social media), while Andy has been doing an incredible job working with thousands of customers on the Sales and Customer Support Side. While we appreciate all the help that Nikki has helped with Unbroken from art to comments and prior postings, her focus has lately been more geared towards back to basics with Art and Graphic Design, thus she will be missed from the comments as you’ve seen in recent months! While I myself, Marc, have always mainly focused on the Updates and working directly with the team, including Artem, I also mainly am now focusing on the shipping and logistics (with Rachel) on all the global games that are left to be delivered, as well as working to try and get Unbroken into distribution (with Rob) so that we can have our #1 priority of getting ALL Games out to our devoted backers, that is the priority! I still take the time to yield phone calls and relevant emails (albeit the real sickening ones are abruptly ignored), if you haven’t received a response from me and it is relating to sales or shipping of Unbroken please remember to email Andy at [email protected] as my inbox filters out shipping requests in order to make my inbox manageable. Thank you for your understanding here!
After much discussion internally we’ve decided that we are going to launch the Unbroken Altema Fox Plush Pre-Order in the next update. We are going to use PROFITS from this order and apply it directly to further shipping of Unbroken. The Plush will MSRP for $14.95 or $19.95 or $24.95 so please let us know what you find an acceptable price knowing this new piece of information and we’ll have it up and running by next month!
For those that questioned about investment, we have a very good relationship with our plush manufacturer over the years and they agreed to make the sample you’ve seen for free, and since Rachel had designed the toy, there was no costs to bring this to life. Several hundred people have expressed interest in this and we only needed 100 units sold to meet the MOQ of 500 so we are excited to be moving forward with this!
If anyone is still interested in supporting Artem’s GoFundMe Campaign you can find it here. The next update will include a new Unbroken map as one of that campaign's stretch goals!
Once again to everyone: Thank you for your patience with the project. Despite all challenges and delays our priority is to get Unbroken to all the backers and we are continuing to work to make this happen.
Hope your 2020 is off to a good start and wishing you all the best.
Kindly,
Marc Goldner, Rachel Korsen, Robert Gross and the rest of the Golden Bell Studios team!
