Tiny Polka Dot — The colorful math game for young kids

Tiny Polka Dot is shipping (and arriving)!
about 8 years ago – Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 11:29:44 PM

I've been talking to our warehouse in Battle Creek, MI this week, and it sounds like they expect to get nearly all the games out in the mail by the end of the week. This means that, with luck, backers in the US should receive their games by the end of next week. (For international backers it may take longer.) I can't tell you how excited we are to get these into your hands.

That's because I just got the first box of games myself not a half hour ago.

 I must say, I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I've been sharing Tiny Polka Dot with pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade teachers for some time now, using our prototype decks. These are way better. The colors and graphics all turned out beautifully, including the updated fonts for the numerals. The updated card back is much nicer than the original. The rules cards are great, and I think it'll be that much easier to get started playing with rules on the small accompanying cards, instead of buried in a long set of instructions.

Most importantly, the final cards have more thickness than our prototypes, and that's a big plus. You could bend them if you put your mind to it, but they are much sturdier than the old version. They have a good hand-feel, a nice weight, and I think they'll be easier to pick up and play with.

In all, they look great, they feel great, and no glaring typos or other errors have jumped out at me. So far, so good!

I can't wait for the Tiny Polka Dot decks to reach all of you. Thanks again for supporting us and our goal to bring beautiful, playful, meaningful mathematics to the world.

Tiny Polka Dot will ship in one week
about 8 years ago – Fri, Dec 02, 2016 at 11:09:44 PM

We just heard from our printer that they're expecting to have Tiny Polka Dot games ready to ship by the end of next week. We're really excited to have them so close to arriving!

Most of you don't need to take any action. Just sit back, and we'll have your games showing up throughout the middle of December. (Possibly longer for non-US backers.)

If you've moved or if you need to update your address (or fill it out your survey for the first time), you can do so by going to https://tiny-polka-dot-the-colorful-math-game-for-young-ki.backerkit.com/ and entering the email you use for your Kickstarter account to get your survey resent to you.

Can't wait to get the games into your hands!

Print and Play distributed and printing process underway
about 8 years ago – Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 05:15:02 PM

Everyone who ordered the Print and Play should be receiving instructions from BackerKit soon on how to download the Print and Play file. We decided to create a printer friendly version with white card backgrounds, as well as the full color versions. Hopefully, this will give you a good option depending on whether you plan to print them up on a home printer or have access to a higher quality commercial printer.

If you want a print and play file and didn't get one in the original order, we'll make them available over the next week or two at tinypolkadot.com.

Meanwhile, all the proofs are now okayed, and the production has started. We anticipate the printing will be done between November 28 and December 2. As soon as it is printed, we'll begin shipping them out. Domestic orders should arrive in early to mid December. Orders outside of the US will vary, but I hope that the bulk of them will arrive before Christmas.

We're very excited to have the process underway. We've updated and tweaked many features of the game, and the whole thing looks beautiful. Even though the card backs no longer look the same as in the prototype being used in this picture, I wanted to pass along this photo from one of our playtesting families.

This child's mother reported that he decided to play a "super" game of memory, using the entire deck of cards. Just goes to show that when kids play, they continue to challenge themselves in ways we might not have thought to.

Proofs!
about 8 years ago – Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 12:11:03 AM

 We received the proofs for Tiny Polka Dot on Friday, and combed through them to correct every error. Overall, they're looking great!

Next steps: our graphic designer returns from a brief vacation tonight. He'll check the colors and send them back to our printer. Then we send them an updated copy of the files to reflect the corrections, and repeat if necessary.

We'll keep you updated as more news develops!

Prime Climb arriving, final designs going out, and timeline
over 8 years ago – Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 10:47:43 PM

It's taken us longer than we expected, but the final designs for everything—box, instructions, rule cards, and cards—will be going out for proofing this week. Super excited to have them so close!

One innovation we decided on is rule cards. Instead of describing each game separately in one big instruction packet, we boiled the rules of each game down to its essentials and wrote them on a small rule card that is included with the game. These cards should allow a much easier way to access different games you can play with the Tiny Polka Dot deck.

Once we get the proofs back, we check them over, make corrections for color, design, etc. (there may be a little back and forth here) and then send them off for printing. I was hoping that it would take 4-5 weeks to print, but our manufacturer is now telling us to expect more like 8 weeks... they got busy, unfortunately. This bumps our delivery date into December. This is a bummer, but if there are no more major delays, we should still get the games delivered with plenty of time before the holidays.

Once the proofs go out this week, the next, concurrent step will be to create the print & play from the final designs. That should be relatively quick, and I can't imagine it taking us more than another 5 - 10 days to get it out to everyone who ordered it.

Meanwhile, I'm seeing in the comments that Prime Climb has begun arriving for the folks  who ordered it as a reward! Nice to see the delivery process beginning.

We'll keep you informed. I hope to be writing another update soon to tell you that the proofs are okayed and the print & play is going out. 

Onward!