May 27, 2017: Hong Kong, China, And Game Manufacturing

I'll be out of the office the first third of June, visiting our factories in China and getting a close look at the status of:

• Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game - We have seen the tooling samples, and now the game is moving into final production. Over 5 pounds of GURPS roleplaying-game goodness in a single box!
• Munchkin Shakespeare - The plastic pawns are in tooling, the rest of the game is in production, and I may get a chance to meet the sculptor who worked on the game pawns.
• Ogre Miniatures Set One - Tooling is still being tweaked, but I may get to see the steel molds as they currently stand. I am not sure if I'll get a look at the current CAD work on Set Two, but we do know that project is reaching a point where we can start building the Kickstarter plan to bring those new minis to life.

Additionally, we will also run through dozens of other projects and discuss upcoming games. These trips to the factory are always productive, even if we accidentally let four years slip between visits; the last time we were there, Sam and I oversaw the final assembly of the Ogre Designer's Edition and were blown away at the number of people working to complete the game. My understanding is that the current projects are small enough that there's less hand labor involved, so it will be good to see some of the automation behind game assembly.

As a personal gift, I have also scheduled two solid days for myself in Hong Kong to enjoy the city. I may take the ferry to Macau one day - Macau was once a toy manufacturing center, and the chance to set foot on the land where toys like the Marchon Road Bots (cheap transforming robot toys of the eighties) and millions of Matchbox toy cars were made cannot be missed - and I am certain at least one afternoon will be lost to toy shopping. Hey, after long days of travel and factory visits, I deserve some me time, right?

-- Phil Reed