Cubes don't roll so well. This 12-sided die is numbered 1-6 twice. It is rounder, and balanced. It's the iconic d6 evolved -> d(2x6).
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Penultimate update; Online store open (with 48-hr backer deals)
almost 9 years ago
– Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 11:10:48 PM
Dear Team Backerkit,
Summary
We did it! What a long, strange trip it has been.
This is the second to last update.
Almost every single Kickstarter and Backerkit order has been sent out. Please contact me if you haven't gotten the dice or an email with your tracking number.
The Online store (www.doublesixdice.com) is now in soft open. For the next 48 hours, you backers will have access to the Kickstarter exclusive dice and a 15% off coupon code, ORIGINALBACKER (intended for backers only, so please don't share).
After 48 hrs, I will remove the Kickstarter dice, turn off the coupon code, and publicly announce the opening of the store.
The next and last update will have final numbers (all the costs, and how much profit I made, kicking it forward plan), perhaps a survey, potential affiliate linking (so you can get rewarded for referring folks to the store), and final thanks and thoughts.
...
DETAILS
Online Store
at www.Doublesixdice.com
Made with Shopify (theme: Brooklyn). Cost: $29/month.
Kickstarter Exclusive dice
There are about 210 Glossy Black with Kickstarter greens left over (mostly from canceled pledges).
There are about 310 Glossy Kickstarter Green with black (surplus order).
They are priced at $1.25 each.
Those I don't sell in 48 hrs I may have to add as bonuses to my next Kickstarter project (since I did say they are Kickstarter exclusive).
Misc
In the last update, I screwed up the link for the Go7 Doublesix Dice gaming box. Try again HERE, choose your logo when you check out, and use the code D6D10 to get 10% off.
Our friends over at Everything Epic made Secrets of the Lost Tomb, the first game to officially feature Doublesix Dice (their version). They are currently running their latest Kickstarter, Fate's Fortune Relaunch.
Your fellow Doublesix Backer Bob is running his own Kickstarter digital RTS game, Not Your Space.
The social media love DD6 has been getting is awesome! See some backer photos on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed.
No rest for the weary...I need to keep working on the online store.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate it. I am truly grateful for you all.
Matt
Final Stretch: International orders Update, and more...
about 9 years ago
– Wed, Nov 04, 2015 at 11:17:44 PM
Dear Team Doublesix,
SUMMARY
Almost all (99.9%) US orders have shipped. Please message me if you haven't yet received an email or package.
International orders will be picked up by Asendia next week, not this week. Reasons for delay are listed below.
Refunds, replacements, and missing items will be processed after all Backer orders have been sent out. There will only be refunds for international orders (no second shipment).
My mom left for California today to visit my brother and his family. If not for her help packing dice these past 7 weeks, I would have had a nervous breakdown. I am forever grateful.
MISC: DD6 earrings for sale; Doublesix Dice boxes for sale at Go7; some images of misfit dice (seeking more); some images of damaged packages; DD6 featured in KS game; backer Jazzy Bear is running a card kickstarter.
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DETAILS:
International Orders
Most of you should have gotten emails indicating your dice are being packed, with some saying they will be picked up by Asendia this week. However, they are going to be picked up next week. I am sorry about the added delays on this. The reasons are listed below (for the curious).
Customs Slip issue #1:
Though prior international orders made it through marked as "Gift," Asendia advised that since we are doing bulk processing and mailing, the packages should be marked as "Merchandise" on the customs slip, not "Gift," or run the risk of getting flagged and delayed.
Though I changed the Shipstation settings to mark all orders as Merchandise, the changes weren't being made. I spoke with three different Shipstation reps about this, until we determined it was a Backerkit issue.
It took a while for Backerkit to determine that this was the result of them making Gift their default, and it wasn't being overridden. (Note: I recommended that Backerkit should make that designation optional on their end, or at least warn users).
Customs Slip issue #2:
Once we had to repush all global orders so they would be marked as "Merchandise," the customs slips started doubling up (indicating two of each items).
This was so complicated to address that the founder of Backerkit was on the phone all day with Shipstation to work this one out.
Barcode Issue:
Asendia required an image of a sample mailing label to make sure the barcode was readable. Based on a photo I sent them, they said it wasn't. Since my iphone scanner could read the barcode, I thought they needed an actual sample to test (not photo), so I mailed them one. Two-day priority mail took 4 days to get there.
Meanwhile, Asendia said Shipstation could help me with this resolution issue. The Shipstation tech support person I chatted with didn't know how to do this.
When Asendia got the sample, they said it wasn't readable, and told me to check with Shipstation again. The next tech support person did know how to fix it.
While we were waiting to figure this out, packing was delayed because I didn't want to print out all the labels until I knew they would be acceptable.
Misc:
This weekend, my computer crashed (requiring two days to fix). My backup Chromebook can't run the Shipstation software. I eventually went downtown to get my work laptop, but time was lost during a busy Halloween weekend.
We ran out of bubble mailers (my error: I ordered one skid, which was only about 5,250 units). I over-nighted many more, and some of better quality (poly bubble mailers are more durable). But one packing day was lost.
My mom left today, so it is only me, my wife, and a neighbor or two to pack the remaining dice during evenings and weekends (my mom worked during the day).
I need to pack all global packages into boxes, get them on pallets, and wrap them up in my driveway. I need to print out the manifests, and calculate all the individual weights for Asendia and pay for them prior to pick-up.
....
Other:
Earrings: backer Ed has been making earrings, and will make more. You get him the dice and $5, and he will make them and mail them back to you. Message me if you are interested.
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Go7 Box: Below is a sample Doublesix Dice box from Go7. To learn more, click HERE. Once you choose a model, you can indicate the engraving before checking out. Used coupon code D6D10 to get 10% off. Thanks, Bobby!
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Misfit Dice: Please send me more photos of your rejects (ie. rare collector's dice).
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Damaged packages: Some orders didn't make it all in one piece. Which is why I am upgrading to poly bubble mailers for larger international orders.
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Backer Kickstarter: Jazzy Bear (yes, the Triplefour is named after him) is currently running his own Kickstarter (but it ends in 12 hours). Check out Might Heroic Mini playing cards the HERE.
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Secrets of the Lost Tomb Doublesixes: Here is the first game to officially feature Doublesix Dice. Chris from Everything Epic produced them himself, via Ningbo. The boxes look great, and I am considering making some for my own gift boxes.
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Almost done! Entering the final stretch.
Thanks for all the great feedback, support, and patience.
Matt
US Random Roll 2 with Add-ons, and International Orders
about 9 years ago
– Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 12:22:27 AM
Dear Team Doublesix,
SUMMARY:
About 4,925 packages have been shipped. Most of you seem to be happy with the dice, and I am thrilled hearing about that.
If your friends are wanting to order some dice, please have them sign up at www.doublesixdice.com, where they will be contacted once the store launches.
US Random Roll 2 with Add-ons is the last US batch to be processed, but there is still a hold up that I hope will resolve this week.
There are some loose US orders that I continue to find and send, including special requests, and a few Random Rolls that were lost in the shuffle because of similar Kickstarter names.
The remainder of the International Orders will be shipped in bulk, during the week of November 2nd (estimated), because it will now be handled by Asendia, to save on shipping costs.
US RR2 with Add-ons were among the first Random Rolls to be imported from Backerkit (BK) to Shipstation (SS), the postage and labeling software.
Though I was able to also import each random roll quantity for each backer (after tech support in BK wrote a script to help with this), I screwed up and didn't assign each single die a weight (of 0.16 oz). As a result, each order in SS doesn't have the proper weight, which means it doesn't have the right postage.
I attempted to delete all 475 orders, to try to re-import the corrected data, but for whatever reason, SS doesn't allow one to delete orders, just cancel them (and they remain in the account, just as "Cancelled"). I even spoke with tech support and asked if they could delete those orders on the back-end, but they said they couldn't (they could only nuke ALL the data, which I didn't want to do).
Since the orders are still there (and won't go anywhere), it is not allowing me to re-import, or even override the old data (as I was told it would).
In the meantime, I moved on to fulfilling US RR2 without add-ons, where I learned from my mistake and was able to import the proper weights.
Solution attempt #1: after speaking with one tech, I was told to create another channel and store in Shipstation, and try again. I did so, and called it Backerkit #2, but the data from Backerkit still never made it into the 2nd store during repeated attempts
Solution attempt #2: after completing all the US Random Roll 2 without add-ons this weekend, I shut down store #1 (made it inactive), and then reset the API keys in SS, and plugged those in a new channel in BK. That didn't work, even after I deleted the old SS channel in BK.
Next: I will speak with tech support again this monday to see how we can fix this problem. Worst case (but not so bad) scenario is that I open up a whole new Shipstation account and resume from scratch.
...
International Orders
My initial research indicated that USPS was the best way to ship packages under 4 pounds globally, so that is what I started doing. The lightest packages were being shipped at $12.21 per package, even though I charged $8 during the campaign (my naive mistake).
While I was doing this, a manager at the Post Office told me to contact their field agent to see if I could get a better deal, so I put global shipping on hold as I attempted to do this.
The field agent was a very nice guy, and tried to help, but would never call me back. So I had to keep calling him to follow-up, and catch him when he picked up the phone. Meanwhile, he was telling me that he had to check in with the main post office branch in our area to get answers. Eventually, he told me that there was no deal.
However, during this time, I saw a recent episode of Shark Tank, where the dudes at Foot Cardigan said that could ship their socks globally for $3. So I contacted them to see who they used, and eventually, found out that they use Asendia.
After speaking with Asendia, it looks like they will be able to help me out at a significant savings (about 30-40%, which is several thousand dollars). Fortunately, they integrate with SS (they partnered earlier this year), but it won't happen until the 26th. The packages will still be trackable, and will take about 4-10 days for delivery.
Once my SS account syncs up with Asendia, I will be able to print all the labels, and pack all the global orders to be ready for a truck to pick them up on Nov 2nd. They will be taken to Philadelphia to be processed, and then trucked to fly out of JFK in NYC that week. So instead of slowing rolling out and shipping all global orders over the next couple of weeks, they will all go out at once. I am really sorry about this delay, but I hope you can understand my wish to recoup some costs.
...
Hoping to be all done by Halloween, where I may hand out dice instead of candy,
Matt
Shipping Progress Chart
about 9 years ago
– Mon, Oct 05, 2015 at 12:12:25 AM
Dear Team Doublesix,
SUMMARY:
About 3,000 packages have been shipped.
Random Roll 2, US Bulk (no add-ons), and several international groups are next.
You can track my shipping progress via this chart, which is explained in the video below.
Looks like most of you are happy with the dice, which is tremendously relieving and gratifying.
Contact me at [email protected] if your order is incorrect, and we can discuss your options (for US orders, I will mail you your missing items; for International orders, mailing you again is too cost prohibitive, so we can discuss refunds).
Below is a quick 3 min video explaining it, but the main points are:
Find your SS (Shipstation) section based on Pledge Tier, and US or Global, and Add-ons or No Add-ons.
You can see, in real time, when I start processing labels in that section.
The darker the green total for that section, the more processed it has been.
It is too difficult to process orders based solely on Backer # (so I haven't been purely shipping out earlier backers first). I have to do batches, instead. I am sorry about this, as I know it is not exactly fair to some of you.
.
Why some sections are delayed:
Bulk US, no add-ons: This package happens to weigh a hair over 16 oz (1 lbs), which bumps my cost from $2.89 per package, to $5.20. This is a difference of about $2,000, which is a significant amount for a campaign where I may not make a profit at all. I have been exploring my options, and it seems that it may be OK to mail them at $2.89, so they will start going out this week.
Random Roll 2: These are just a beast to fulfill, as each basic order has a different number of dice, which also means different weights and postage. We will be tackling them this week.
International Orders: We had shipped out about 400 of these when a manager at the Post Office told me to contact a Field Sales agent to try to get a better rate. I finally spoke with that agent on Friday, and should know by Monday what my options are, at which point we can resume shipping Global orders. I also have to manually alter the customs sheet for orders containing more than 5 items, so that slows things down drastically (vs. batch printing).
And some side news:
Has it been so long, you forgot what dice you are actually going to get? Check out 4ier's latest visual overview (all dice are glossy or marbled, unless labeled as flat). The link takes you to a zoomable image. Thanks, 4ier!
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I dropped off some samples at the FLGS, Victory Comics (they still haven't let me know if I can leave orders for local Backer pick-up). This could be the first retail outlet to sell Doublesix Dice!
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But speaking of Backer pick-up, Billy (from Denver) was passing through DC so he stopped by to hand pick his puppies. Me, my wife, and daughter, Quinn, met and chatted with him, tickled to have met our first Backer. Thanks, Billy!
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And my wife has started working on social media, so feel free to follow our Facebook page, and/or our Twitter feed.
Thanks for continuing to be patient...we are all almost there!
Matt
Shipping update
about 9 years ago
– Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 12:18:55 AM
Dear Team Doublesix,
Summary: we are averaging about 1,000 packages shipped a week. But as the orders get more complicated, this may slow down a bit. Next update (this coming weekend), you will be able to see a database that clearly indicates which tier batches have been shipped (but no backer or ID info).
I am very glad and relieved that most of you seem happy with the product. A few of you are not, and others of you may not be once you get them. Once I am done shipping out orders, I will next work hard to make sure each one of you is satisfied (e.g. refund or replacements).
.
Command central.
One person picks, another double-checks and packs.
..
Details:
According to Shipstation (my postage and label printing software):
1,155 packages have been delivered.
1,163 are either in transit, or printed and packed (to be dropped off this week).
Please wait until next weekend's update before emailing me or commenting asking about your order. I am building a database that you all will be able to access that will clearly indicate which orders have been packed and dropped off at the post office.
I am doing batches of orders:
They are divided by US no add-ons, US add-ons, Global no add-ons, and Global add-ons.
I have initially focused on completing First movers, Early Birds, Random Roll 1, and early Bulk Backers (and US Standards with no add-ons).
Now that some trial global orders have been safely delivered, I am ramping up sending out early global orders.
I am trying to ship earlier backers first.
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LOCAL PICKUP
If you are in the DC area, and interested in pick-up, please message me. And if Labyrinth (DC) and Victory Comics (NoVA) are willing, picking them up there may be an option.
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TRACKING
You should get an email with your tracking # from Shipstation when I print the labels, but this could be a few days before I actually drop the package off at the post office. Once they are scanned in at the Post Office, you should be able to see this indicated at the UPSP website. Prior to my dropping them off, you will likely see "Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS" for your tracking #.
US orders over a pound (e.g. Bulk with add-ons) and Global orders are dropped off on Mon, Wed, and Saturdays.
All the rest are dropped off on Wednesdays only (see below).
Please double-check your order (item list) in the email, and message me immediately if it doesn't match what you are expecting.
FYI: The prices on the packing slip are my costs (not your costs), which is helpful for international orders (keeping the value low on the customs slip to reduce the chances that they will have to pay VAT).
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SPEED BUMPS
Here a few problems I am encountering that are slowing me down:
Random Roll: your roll count wasn't making it from Backerkit (BK) to Shipstation (SS), so they had to write a script that was able to do so, but it was based on your old Kickstarter name, and similar names are getting merged. So I have to clean all that up, and find about 180 missing backers. Meanwhile, most all US Random Roll 1 will ship this Wednesday.
International orders: the customs field on the label only allows 5 items, so for each order that has more, I have to manually go in and edit the customs field.
Software issues: Over the weekend, I transferred several batches from BK to SS, but then cancelled them because of mistakes. When I tried to resend them, they don't go through. I have reached out to SS to try to fix this issue (but they didn't get back to me today). Unfortunately, several of these batches were Early Bird US with Add-ons, and RRI Global (rest of Early Birds, including international, have been packed, as well as most all of First Movers; and the first 100 US Bulk with Add-ons).
Bulk Rate Parcel Plus Lightweight packaging is saving me some money, but now requires drop off at a bulk processing Post Office, which isn't open on Saturdays. This means I will drop off most of these packages on Wednesdays only (my day off). All international packages and US flat rate boxes (for orders over a pound, like all US Bulk orders with add-ons) can still be dropped off on the weekends at my neighborhood post office.
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QUALITY
Most backers seem to be happy with the quality of the dice. However, it looks like some of you have gotten bad batches. I apologize for this, and will try to work with everyone to meet their satisfaction. However, at the moment, I would like to focus on getting everyone their dice first, so if we could please wait several weeks before discussing alternative arrangements (like refunds or replacements), that would be great.
Why are some poor quality? As a few of you know, some of the Classics are lopsided because the large production run lead to some mold warping. Once I discovered and diagnosed the problem (after 80K Classics were made), I paid more to have more frequent mold swaps for the colored dice. The dice with smaller production runs are most consistent in their good quality (like the triple fours and non-stretch goal dice).
