Fri Nov 17 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 04:45:37 PM
Dear Backers,
We're excited to tell you that Mysterious Case #117, The Kidnapped Crossworder will be shipping in December!
Very soon we will be sending out a survey via Backerkit to confirm your shipping addresses.
The components for the Mysterious Cases are arriving every day from all around the world. Just this week, we finally received the custom padlocks, playing cards, and many other objects that we've designed:
The quality of all three Mysterious Cases has always been our utmost priority; we want to immerse you in the worlds we are creating as much as possible. Our goal with the timeline of this campaign was to have all three cases ready at the same time to ship to you by this December. Unfortunately, our difficulties with the sourcing process is preventing us from achieving this goal. We have been doing everything in our power, working long hours and weekends to pull everything into place, but because there are so many different components, if one source falls through, other items are delayed while they wait for a replacement to arrive.
Therefore, we've had to make the difficult decision to focus our main efforts on ensuring that we can get at least one of the three Mysterious Cases, The Kidnapped Crossworder, out for our December deadline. Sadly, we are still lacking too many components for The Druids' Catacomb and The Star-Crossed Scientists to also to ship by then.
We are truly sorry for the delay. As creators we are always trying to make the best thing possible, but as Indiegogo backers ourselves, we know the disappointment that comes from having to wait for something you have invested in and are anticipating with excitement. This was an extremely difficult decision for us to make, and we wanted to be as transparent as possible about the situation.
We hope that you will continue to have patience and understanding. Please know that we are working 7 days a week and skyping with sourcers and manufacturers at all hours of the night as we work as hard as we can to get all of the Mysterious Cases shipped out to you.
Thank you,
The Armchair Detective Company
Tue Oct 17 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 02:58:38 PM
Dear Backers,
Since the studio fire, we've found a new space and begun settling in. It's not in our old neighborhood, but it's perfect for our needs as we wrap up sourcing and work hard to make up lost time.
The new studio, it's not small, it's cozy! And it really is much nicer than our other building!
In box news, we have been working with the team at SUNY New Paltz’s Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center (HVAMC) https://www.newpaltz.edu/hvamc/ to help us prototype and design one of the most important details for Mysterious Case #238, The Druid’s Catacomb: custom locks. For this Case, we have developed a series of custom dials: to open each box you must rotate the dials to their correct configuration. There are more than 30 dials in the Druid's Catacomb, so we had to design a part which would be easy to assemble but also not too expensive to manufacture in the tens of thousands(!).
Here are renderings of the lock's parts in a 3D CAD design program.
Working with the folks at HVAMC we have been able to figure out the best materials for the dials as well as the best manufacturing process to bring these custom parts to life.
The in-process prototypes...
This final prototype is also 3D printed, but the final product will be manufactured using a process called injection molding.
We are excited to let you know that all pieces sourced overseas for the Mysterious Case No. 117: The Kidnapped Crossworder, have been built and are being shipped to us from our sourcing consultants overseas. They are on a shipping container right now on their way from Hong Kong. Once they arrive in the US we will then assemble each case into its correct configurations, and send the cases off to you!
Everything being loaded off the truck in China!
We also want to give you a better understanding about why the delays to the cases are happening. For all three cases, there are over 500 different custom and sourced pieces. Some components we have sourced with ease and vendors have been eager to respond and quick to deliver. Other vendors for certain components will take weeks to get back to us after we place the order, sometimes requiring us to go with a new vendor for that object after months of back and forth. Often, we cannot move forward with sourcing smaller pieces for the cases until we have the larger pieces sourced and in hand. This obstacle has been the main reason for the delay in getting Mysterious Cases to you.
We are working hard, and thinking on our feet as we move forward through these challenges and exciting successes that will culminate to make the final cases, keeping quality as our highest priority.
We wanted to also give a heads up that as we move forward with the fulfillment of the campaign, we will be transitioning to a program called Backerkit, which will help us streamline getting our fulfillment to you. You will receive a survey from us via Backerkit allowing you to give us your most up-to-date shipping information. This program makes fulfillment easier for you and us, and we are excited to use it.
All the best - and stay curious!
The Armchair Detective Company
Fri Sep 8 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Sep 08, 2017 at 09:59:27 AM
ALL KINDS OF NEWS
HELLO ALL,
It has been a busy month here in our studio. The items for The Kidnapped Crossworder are on a boat on their way to us from the manufacturers, and the Druid's Catacomb components won't be too far behind!
FIRE IN OUR STUDIO BUILDING!
One week ago, on Friday evening, Simon was working alone in our third-floor studio in NYC when he heard strangers calling up to him from the street. They alerted him that there were flames on the roof of the building and he should evacuate immediately. As he made his way to the exit, the hallways were already filling with smoke! No alarms went off(!), and Simon believes those strangers saved his life.
The blaze quickly developed into a six-alarm fire and was covered by many local news outlets.
http://pix11.com/2017/09/01/massive-fire-rips-through-5-story-building-in-lower-manhattan/
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/huge-fire-rips-tribeca-building-article-1.3462069
Much of the building has been badly damaged and the Department of Buildings has posted a "vacate" order - which means we are not allowed inside without permission from the FDNY.
We believe that we may someday be able to retrieve our archives & prototypes from the building – but for now, we are hunting for new office equipment and a new place to work, and we are not yet sure how this will affect our production timeline.
We will keep you posted as the situation develops.
NEW ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE COMPANY PRODUCTS AVAILABLE FOR ORDER NOW!
Just before the eventful weekend, we wrapped up the final details for a new product which we have been looking forward to announcing: Cipher Lock Cards.
In the course of designing our Mysterious Cases, we had to develop a new type of mechanical locking card, which allows certain items to be locked away until the right puzzles are solved.
We thought many of you might like to try your hand at using these cards for your own puzzles, so we're now offering blank Cipher Lock cards in our store!
There are two varieties of these unique cards: the Greeting Card and Postcard. The Greeting Card opens like a book, and the Postcard holds a small drawer which slides out.
To unlock the cards, your recipient must turn each of the three dials to their correct positions. We are offering add-on sticker packs with specially cut dial stickers so you can easily customize the combination and add style to your card.
NEED IDEAS FOR YOUR PUZZLE?
Stay tuned! We'll be posting ideas and links for you soon!
Thanks,
The Armchair Detective Company
Fri Aug 18 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 02:45:45 PM
Dear Mysterious Case supporters:
We are excited to give you a quick update to show you how the Mysterious Cases are progressing. Below you can see the hundreds of boxes for Mysterious Case #117, the Kidnapped Crossworder, which have been built and are about to be shipped to us now!
We have been working closely with a custom box manufacturer to design and mass produce these boxes, which will be packed full of secrets and surprises for you to explore!
More to come very soon!
Mon Jul 10 '17 Announcement
almost 7 years ago
– Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 04:45:40 PM
Dear Mysterious Case supporters:
As summer has been heating up, so has the activity in our studio! The design portion of the cases is wrapped up and we are now focused on gathering final components of the materials and clues from sourcers around the world.
The components for the cases include almost any material you can imagine: wood, resin, glass, fabric, stone, clay, and more. We are working hard to make sure the authenticity of the objects, and your final experience, are never compromised.
Here are some examples of what we have been sourcing just this week.
Below are some images of the finalized specs for one of the boxes.
We have had some comments from you about more frequent updates. We understand and apologize for keeping you in the dark. We try to make sure our updates keep you up to speed on our progress, while also being fun and interesting (otherwise, it would just be photos of us sending emails). We also try to make sure not to give away too many of the surprises and secrets from the Mysterious Cases themselves. This stops us from showing you a lot of the neat things we are working on.
However, we understand that you want to hear more about the progress of the project, so from now on we will keep to a more frequent schedule of updates to make sure everyone knows how things are going.
We are on track for our Winter 2017 release date, which is our highest priority.
To tide you over until the next update, we have created a small DIY paper puzzle you can make at home! All you need is a black & white printer, regular paper, and a pair of scissors.
DOWNLOAD THE HEXAGON POCKET PUZZLE HERE!
