Àiyé - Mancala Tableau Builder + LOOM + Dragon Scrolls

Update #9: Production Status + Pledge Manager + Fulfillment + GenCon + ColorSym!
about 1 month ago – Mon, Jul 13, 2026 at 08:24:09 AM

Production Status

As of last month, production has been 100% completed. There aren't anymore errors that we've found or that we feel need addressing in any capacity. We learned from the Potion Perils rulebook situation and triple checked everything. Now, that doesn't mean we're perfect, but we think anything major has been avoided. All the games look phenomenal. One thing we decided to do was transition some of the quality of LOOM. Due to production costs and scope of the game, we decided to make 2 versions of the game to make it more widely available. It was originally designed with quality in mind (which you'll see), but we made another "retail friendly" version. The retail version is a thinner box without anything special to it. It's very much a standard box with a standard insert. ALL of your pledges have automatically been upgraded to the Deluxe version which features all the upgraded quality, storage, and magnetic playmat lid. We believe this transition was necessary to keep the game moving while also honoring all of the backers.

Pledge Manager

We're still missing about 8% of pledge completions, so if you need help or have just not gotten an invite, please let us know so we can get it situated. As for the date of close, we're actually going to be leaving it open until the start of fulfillment for the US. We should have enough units staying overseas that the occasional order can be managed.

Fulfillment

As of this morning, the games are now officially staged to be picked up. We had an issue with our freight setup where the calculated shipment was over by ~4 pallets due to suboptimal planning and packaging. 4 pallets was enough to put us over the container limit, which meant the pricing for freight had gone up astronomically. Due to case sizing adjustments, we managed to fit everything into a single container. We had to offload an additional pallet to a local partner to make the cut, but it works out so we have more units in the region which could technically fulfill worldwide should we need it. Now, we just wait for the new date (which should be this week) for the games to get on the boat for the US. For everyone else, your pledges will be fulfilled directly from our partners in China called China Division. They have informed us that they would be able to start fulfilling in as little as a few weeks. I've heard from friends that they do good work, so I'm hoping things are smoother overall this time around.

GenCon 2026

If you haven't already heard, Moon Saga Workshop has been selected for the GenCon 2026 Marketing Fellowship. We'll have our first booth at GenCon! It's an extremely exciting opportunity that we thrilled to take advantage of. This means we'll have a 10x20 booth where you can come visit to see the new games and even some secret future releases!

With this opportunity means it's extremely important we have stock. As originally planned earlier in the year, the factory had guaranteed delivery of all units that would allow us to fulfill before GenCon However, due to several of their errors, this made it impossible to achieve. Thankfully, this factory is extremely loyal and they have offered to air freight units of all the games (completely paid by them) so we can have a successful debut at GenCon. 

What this means for you all: We will NOT sell or give away any Kickstarter Exclusive items at GenCon. While we did our best to get you your items in time, the least we could do is honor that. What we'll also be doing is allowing any backers who ordered individual games(excluding Aiye) to pick up their copies of the games at our booth. We are limiting this to 20 units of each title, but will make arrangements should there be remaining stock at the end of the show. You must email us to coordinate pickup using the same email you pledged with before GenCon to pick up your pledge. Additionally, NONE of the titles will be available in retail in any capacity until fulfillment begins. While GenCon is a major opportunity for us, releasing in retail before backers receive their pledges is extremely disrespectful. 

ColorSym!

In other news, Moon Saga Workshop, in collaboration with Grok Games (Not Grok AI) and Boardssey have released an open-source colorblind accessibility system, free forever! https://colorsym.com/

It was amazing getting to develop this for Parks and Potions, and even more amazing that someone (Luis Francisco) saw the potential in the system I took so much time to develop. Check out the article on Board Game Wire! Since the release of this system, it has been developed on to add even more colors. This means the current Parks and Potions system is technically inaccurate, but still works perfectly fine as the version 1. Now that it is standardized, we shouldn't have anymore issues with out of date implementations!

What's even more amazing is the reception in the community already! Scott Morris of Steelwing Games reached out to let me know that they will be adopting it for their latest game, Rainbow Blvd. 

Update #8: Production Status + Pledge Manager + Wizard Community College + Origins
2 months ago – Sun, Jun 07, 2026 at 03:35:13 PM

Production Status

Quite a bit has happened since the last update, but we have some exciting news! Production is for the most part complete! There were a couple of snags, but we seem to have gotten them figured out. Check out some of the production videos: Aiye Production Videos

We received the mass production samples, and not everything was up to standard. Fortunately, this has only delayed the process by about 7-10 days, but it looks like we're still super close to meeting the final timeline. 

Issue #1: Dragon Scrolls was REALLY dark

It may not be entirely noticeable in the image below, but the colors came back really dark. It was dark enough that it was definitely out of tolerance. We requested a quality control inspection on the product and the facctory determined that they would reprint the units and recycle the only ones. Thankfully, it's all paper. The card on the left is the original digital sample which shows the expected outcome. The card on the right is the mass sample which is clearly darker and doesn't show the colors as expected. It's also much harder to discern and takes from the overall aesthetic of the game.

Issue #2: Failed Proof of Aiye

We don't even know how this got past the absurd amount of proofing done by so many people, but it did. While it's sort of insignificant overall, it does play a role on the expectations of the product. While this alone wouldn't have caused issues, the bottom was slightly off compared to the top of the box. This together prompted us to request a reprint of only the bottom. This was also a pretty quick turnaround. Check out the "Move" floating around 😅

Dragon Scrolls Quetzal Promo

Check out how cool the quetzal promo came out! The original didn't really offer the same vibrancy, so we had to reconfigure the templates for print. The quetzal is an ongoing promo figure that has been with the Moon Saga brand since the release of Parks and Potions. I'm excited to see what other ways we can implement it in the future!

Pledge Manager

Most of the issues with the pledge manager have been resolved, but there are a couple lingering. If you're still having issues, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll get you situated. As soon as we confirm the delivery window next week, we'll announce the closure of the pledge manager as we prepare shipments to their respective hubs. This should be within the next 10 days or so.

Wizard Community College

They've arrived! Wizard Community College has now arrived as in ready to start fulfilling preorders this week. If you were one of the backers from the previous campaign, you should have already received your copies. If not, we should be able to help coordinate resolution.

If you're interested in picking up a copy on the preorder fulfillment, get your order in this week! They should all be going on out by Friday. Preorder Wizard Community College

Origins 2026

We'll be at Origins! If you or anyone you know would like to help demo some games at Origins, we would love your help! We're currently seeking 2 more volunteers to help with the demand and run demos. If you're interested in attending, please reach out for full details. 

Update #7: Pledge Manager Issues + Garden Club! + Tiny Series
4 months ago – Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 06:52:07 AM

Pledge Manager Issues

As some of you have probably encountered, there are some relatively frustrating issues in the pledge manager. There aren't many issues, but we've identified several edge cases that have to be handled manually at this point. If there's an issue with your pledge, please reach out through the customer support options available through BackerKit. 

Top 2 identified issues:

1. $1 prebackers - There was some confusion on this which has led us to decide not to do use this strategy for future campaigns. If you were a prebacker, and you also got the 72 hour early bird incentive, there's a chance your pledge has an additional copy of the Aiye Collectives Expansion. Your pledge is fine if you don't have a problem with that.

2. $99999 shipping - As part of configuration, some countries have been uninentionally marked as invalid locations. Additionally, if your pledge goes over a specific weight, it will flag the system to default to this ridiculous shipping amount. A few backers have purchased so many items that it triggered this response. If this is your case, we might have to provide a manual adjustment to your shipping costs. It's a system thing, so we can most certainly handle these cases.

We're currently sitting at about 65% completion on the surveys, so we're doing pretty good for less than a full week of it being open. If you haven't received an invitation, check your spam folders for one coming from BackerKit. We'll be sending out reminder invites early next week for those who have missed it.

Garden Club! - Chris Couch Games

Our friends over at Chris Couch Games have a campaign for Garden Club ending tonight! Not only is this game being published by an amazing person, but it was also designed by 2 of the nicest people in the industry: Kristen Mott and Andrew Stiles. Chris Porter is known for his most recent title, Holiday Hills, as well as Kraken Skulls and Jingle Bell Roll. Kristen Mott is the designer behind games such as Stable Times and Insectarium. She even has another game currently live called Prowl! Andrew Stiles is famously known for his design of Wine Cellar. A wonderful and timeless title. 

Tiny Games Series

Envy Born Games currently has several titles ending in a few days. One of these games, Prowl, is also designed by Kristen Mott! (She's kind of stealing the spotlight)... This is a publisher who has inspired many things at Moon Saga Workshop as I've felt welcomed since day 1. The generous time and guidance extended to me has been invaluable. I'm proud to say we've made some amazing friends in the industry!

Update #6: Production Status + Pledge Manager Open + Shipping
4 months ago – Thu, Apr 16, 2026 at 07:57:50 AM

Production Status

As of the start of April, production has started! We had 2 minor corrections during final proofing that are now cleared up. Doubtful we caught every single error, but at least there shouldn't be anything significant on the final. I've asked the manufacturer to capture some images / videos of the process to share with you all. It's all very exciting to see how quickly we've gone from campaign start to full production. We don't have an anticipated completion date yet, but we're looking at somewhere by the end of May.🤞

Pledge Manager Open

As of last night, the pledge manager has officially opened. There were some delays due to the PM configurations not being set correctly. It should all be corrected now, and surveys are expected to go out in waves, so don't be concerned if you don't receive one until the end of the weekend. Before reaching out, please check your associated pledge email and spam folders. If you're an AppleID user, it's possible your email may be out of reach. If this is the case, please reach out and we'll get it situated for you. The pledge manager is expected to stay open until production is complete as we prep shipments to fulfillment hubs. This is likely going to be at the end of May. For VIP backers, you should see your reward added to your pledge automatically without additional charge. If you're a VIP backer and your reward was included in the tier you backed, you should be credited towards your shipping.

Shipping

Backers are expected to pay their shipping and provide a current mailing address to receive their pledge. For all US backers, we managed to bring some rates down a touch. Due to the ongoing oil situation, carriers are opting to increase rates as much as 8% "temporarily". If rates go beyond what was expected, we will supplement it at no additional cost to you. This goes for tariffs as well. For all backers in regions where VAT is expected, we're using a VAT friendly shipping service which will be reflected in your cost of shipping. This will cover shipping and VAT for your pledge from our hub to your door. You are NOT expected to pay any fees beyond what's reflected in the pledge manager. If for any reason you receive additional requests from your local government, please reach out and we'll handle the coordination. Shipping is currently anticipated to begin for most regions in July. US and Canada will likely have a few weeks delay as they may be just arriving by GenCon.

Update #5: Campaign Success + Pledge Manager + Freight Concerns
5 months ago – Thu, Mar 19, 2026 at 08:13:34 AM

🎉Campaign Success 🎉

We did it! We already knew we hit the goal, but we did 4x better thanks to all you wonderful backers! We've been doing a lot on the backend to keep this momentum moving through into fulfillment. Not only have we had great success on the frontend of the campaign, but we've done some great preparation on the backend as well. We'll keep you updated on every major milestone we hit so you can enjoy the ride with us.

Pledge Manager

The next step in the crowdfunding process is to get the pledge manager situated. For those of you who have not backed a campaign before (and those others who forget), the pledge manager is a necessary part of the process where we will collect your shipping details to prepare for fulfillment. Typically, this process is open for a while due to campaigns finalizing assets and such. However, since we're already ready for print, we expect the pledge manager to only be open for a month or so before it's closed. Please keep an eye out for an email and an update when the pledge manager opens. It'll be up to you to complete this in a timely manner. It's expected that the PM will be open sometime next week.

Freight Concerns

With the ongoing uncertainty in the region, there have been numerous reports that freight may be delayed. It's our hope that we won't have to worry about that, but it's likely at least going to play a slight role in the process. For all countries outside United States and Canada, this should not have an impact on you as we'll be partnering with a team in China to ship directly to you. If you have any concerns of your own, please comment here so we can address it.

Thank you all again for such a wonderful campaign. This wouldn't be possible without your support. 

-- 
Chris Eastridge