Shallow Sea

Production Complete!

🌊 Shallow Sea Update at a Glance:

🚢 Ocean Freight Booking in Progress

🇺🇸 We’re Covering All U.S. Tariffs

💪 Help Us by Grabbing Card Sleeves

✅ Mass Production Copy Overview

📨 Action Required by Backers Now: NONE

🐢

Hello, everyone!

Here where we are, the days and nights are starting to warm up, and it’s shaping up to be the perfect weather to play a round of Shallow Sea.😉

With that said, we’re thrilled to bring you a deep dive into where things currently stand, and this month’s update is a big one! We’ve got news, production milestones, a request, and even a sneak peek at the final products you’ll soon be receiving. Let’s sail right in. 🌊

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🚢 Ocean Freight Booking in Progress

We’re excited to share that mass production officially wrapped up on May 20th! Hurray! 🥳🎉 Want a closer look? Make sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom portion of this update for detailed photos of the final product!

Probably what many of you are now wondering is, with mass production complete, are we looking at a concrete ETA? Well, with productions having concluded on May 20th, we’re now arranging ocean freight to our regional fulfillment hubs, so I’m happy to say that the first few steps are already underway!

Once shipping arrangements are finalized, we’ll receive updated ETD (Estimated Time of Departure) and ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) details. This will help us estimate more precisely when each region’s fulfillment will begin.

We plan to share this information in our June update, so stay tuned for that if you’re eager to know when your copy will be making its way to your doorstep!

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U.S. Tariffs 

As we’ve touched on in our last update, the U.S. government has imposed a significant tariff increase on Chinese imports, raising the rate to 145%. This sudden change has impacted many industries that rely on Chinese manufacturing, including our us.

Luckily, there is a 90-day grace period during which the tariff is temporarily lowered to 30%. This gives us a brief but critical window to bring shipments in before the full tariff increase takes effect.

We are working around the clock to ensure our shipments arrive within this grace period. To protect our backers from extra costs, Bad Comet will fully cover this 30% tariff charge for you. We want to make sure your pledge arrives on time and without any surprises.

But that’s not all. The sudden rush to ship goods during this grace period has caused a surge in ocean freight demand, which has driven shipping costs higher than expected. It’s an added challenge and expense, but rest assured, we are shouldering those increased freight costs as well.

We are doing everything we can to take this load off your shoulders. All you need to do is keep your fingers crossed with us that everything arrives smoothly and on time!

However, if you’d like to support us during this time, one great way is by picking up our official Card Sleeves. They're not only a perfect fit to protect your cards, but every purchase really helps us offset some of these unexpected extra costs.

This support will mean a lot to a small company like ours, it helps us keep production and delivery moving forward smoothly, and it directly contributes to overcoming the challenges we’re facing right now.

(And yes, our sleeves have already received love from backers before, so, player approved! 😊)

We’ll talk more about the sleeves and how to get them in the next section.

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Support Us and Protect Your Cards

As we mentioned earlier, this unexpected situation has added a heavy financial burden to our small team. If you’d like to support us during this time, one of the most helpful ways is by picking up our official Shallow Sea Card Sleeves.

These sleeves were previously only available through our pledge managers in game-specific editions, including Shallow Sea, and we’ve never offered them afterward. But it turns out that backers really loved them and often asked if they could get more.

Over the years, we’ve received some wonderful feedback. One backer told us they were "the best card sleeves that I ever used, and I sleeve hundreds of games." Others shared that they "love the feel of these" and wished they could purchase additional sets. Messages like these meant so much to us, and they’re what encouraged us to finally launch our own line 🥰

If you’ve been curious about our sleeves, now is a great time to try them. They not only protect your cards beautifully, but your support by purchasing them will genuinely help us carry the extra costs we’re facing right now. Every sleeve pack added makes a difference, and we’d be so grateful.

You can easily get the sleeves through Hive. Just follow the steps below:

How to Add Sleeves to Your Pledge

If you'd like to add card sleeves to your Shallow Sea pledge, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Pledge Manager

👉 https://www.hiveinteractive.net/pledgemanager

2. Log in

Use the email address connected to your Kickstarter or Late Pledge. No need for the original invite, Hive will recognize your account automatically.

3. Click “I’m a Backer”

At the top left corner of the Hive page, click the “I’m a Backer” button to see your backed projects.

4. Find Shallow Sea and click “View Details”

Under “Backed Projects,” locate Shallow Sea and click View Details.

5. Click “Reopen Pledge”

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the orange Reopen Pledge button.

6. Add Sleeves in the Add-ons Step

Once your pledge is reopened, go through the steps again until you reach the add-ons section. You’ll find three sleeve options available:

100 Mini Card Sleeves (44×68mm) – $5.90

100 Standard Card Sleeves (63×88mm) – $6.90

100 Large Card Sleeves (70×120mm) – $7.90

Click the green + next to any sleeves you'd like to add. These sleeves work for Shallow Sea and an array of other games too so make sure check the dimensions of any other cards that are in need of some sleeves😉.

💡 Not sure which type or how many sleeves you need? Use our handy Card Sleeve Calculator to find out. For more info on how to use the calculator, check out Update #8. For example, to sleeve all cards in the Ocean Tier, you’ll need 1 Mini and 1 Standard pack of sleeves.

7. Review and Confirm

After selecting your sleeves, just proceed to review your order and submit payment!

After adding your sleeves, proceed to the next screen to confirm your order and submit your payment.

⚠️ Important: If you’ve reopened your pledge, please make sure to go through all the steps and complete the entire checkout process again, even if you’re not adding anything new.

If the process isn’t fully completed, your pledge will remain incomplete and will not be fulfilled.

🗓️ The deadline to add Sleeves to your pledge is June 15th.

Thanks again for your support and for helping us navigate this tough situation. We’re so grateful to have you on this journey with us!

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✅ Mass Production Copy

With mass production officially wrapped up on May 20th, we received our Mass Production Copy (MPC) not too long ago and took a bunch of photos to show you exactly what backers will receive. We also have some behind-the-scenes footage from Hopes, our manufacturer, showing the packaging process in action towards the end. So let’s jump right in!

Please note:The day we shot the photos was a bit gloomy, so the lighting may not fully do justice to the final product. The colors in the photos may vary slightly from how they appear in person.

Here’s a quick shot of the main box. The vibrant blue really is rich and definitely eye-catching.

The rulebook turned out beautifully, and that linen finish, a chef’s kiss😘. The texture gives it that luxurious, premium feel that I love!

The boards look great! Super sturdy, with a nice, thick feel that really makes them satisfying to handle. And I can’t get over how beautiful the artwork is! It truly makes you feel like you’ve taken a dive into the Shallow Sea😍.

The punchboards are also vibrant and full of life! While I was taking these photos, some of them popped right off, and… I don’t know about you but, it took so much self-control not to punch them all out on the spot! 🤣

Here’s a quick shot of those tiles and the tiles in our trays!

Super nifty if you ask me 😉. The tiles sit nicely, and the cover gives a slight snap when it closes, so no worries about the box toppling over and all the tiles getting jumbled inside.

And what about these pouches?! Didn’t they turn out amazing? They have that silky-smooth feel, and I can’t get enough of the designs, they match perfectly with the tiles and meeples you'll be storing in each one. Pretty nice, right?😁

While we’re on the topic of storing things in pouches, just look at these fish meeples waiting to swim into the fish pouch! They’re absolutely adorable: vibrant, detailed, and bursting with color 😍. They’ll really bring the Ocean board to life!

Moving on to our cards, the linen finish was added here too, and ooh, I just can’t get enough! Each card, with its stunning artwork, really pulls you into the underwater world. We’re so excited for you to dive in and experience it yourself!

And our Score Pads!

Which we have a quick note on: During final checks, we discovered a misprint from the manufacturer, the score pads were meant to be 50-sheet pads, but were printed as 25-sheet pads. To resolve this, each game will include two 25-sheet pads instead. The total number of sheets is the same, and we’ve confirmed that usability and quality are unaffected.

Moving on to our expansions, first up is the Rare Fish Mini-Expansion, which comes pre-included in the base game box.

Each mini pack included in the base box comes with four adorable rare fish meeples, three unique cards, and a mini rulebook, also featuring that lovely linen finish!

Next up, our Nesting Season Expansion.

The turtle featured on the cover has a subtle sheen that makes it feel like it’s just about to swim right out of the box! It’s mesmerizing, truly hard to take your eyes off.😍

The rulebook for the expansion features the same stunning design as the main box and comes with the same linen finish as the base game rulebook.

The board is made from the same wonderfully thick and sturdy punchboard material as the base game; super satisfying to handle. And can we talk about those wooden eggs?! They're so darn cute, I can’t get enough of them!

We have 16 additional Coral Tiles as well as 80 additional Sealife Tiles in the Nesting Seasons Expansion so we’ll have plenty to enjoy!

The tiles and markers are also on our punchboards and they look GREAT! And those turtle markers? Aren’t they just the most precious little things🥰.

And of course, we’ve got these adorable turtle meeples to go right alongside them! 🐢🐢🐢

The cards and score pads all check out, and they look amazing! The colors are vibrant, the finish feels great in hand, and everything came together just the way we hoped. 🥳

And to wrap up our MPC review, here’s a quick side profile of the two lovely boxes. Each side features its own unique design, with the left and right sides carefully aligned to create one continuous scene, so when your copy arrives, be sure to take a moment to admire all the little details from every angle! 😊

Before we end the review section, here are some behind-the-scenes action from our manufacturer, Hopes!

First up, here’s a look at the moment the game boxes are pressed and formed, such a satisfying step in bringing the product to life:

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With boxes made and ready to be filled, in this clip, you’ll see the production line in action as components are carefully packed into each box by hand, making sure everything is present and accounted for:

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And yes, our expansions are given just as much care. They’re assembled, filled, and securely wrapped to ensure everything stays safe in transit:

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