Time for an update on the most fascinating and sexy side of any business: Manufacturing and Freight!

We recently announced that, later this year, we will release a physical token pack of all currently-released Experimental characters, called "The Carousel". As it is the first major product we've made since the main game, we want to give you a peek behind the curtain at the process. 

We started late last year when we designed some products and then checked them again and again and again. (And then again.)

This still does not protect against errors in the physical products. Nothing does. Nothing can.

That’s why our manufacturer, Panda, next sends out a “Pre-Production Copy”. It’s a hand made version to check before signing off on mass production. Magical.

Above you'll see Evin and Jams hard at work examining the PPC (don’t get those letters mixed up) for “The Carousel” and confirming that there are no mistakes. As you can see, it’s a fun task!

(I am actually writing this as we await the results of this check, and will now write the rest of this post as though they have reported back good news because I am an optimist. I hope that I do not later have to edit this.)

…

Luckily, they’ve reported no errors! How very fortunate.

This will be confirmed to Panda, who can now start production on the 11th of February. We produce everything together to make use of shared materials across products and ensure it can ship at the same time. It’s economical.

Everything means the main game, game accessories, merchandise and, of course, The Carousel token sets. We’ve also got a beautiful journal, t-shirts and hats in production. These all have their own PPC, examined by Evin, Jams, and lil' Simit. 

You may spot some extra large tokens in the above pics - this is a product, a set of cool (& hot) drinks coasters. These unfortunately did not pass our quality control and we will consult with Panda further and create these at a later date. But that’s why we have the PPC! 

Accessories mean sets of token boxes (the same three are included with The Carousel) and extra replacement character sheets for the locations that don’t yet have them in stock.

And, of course, “The Carousel”’. We are excited to get these token sets to you. Here’s some extra info and answers to questions on these…

The Carousel token set includes every currently released experimental character. It also includes those aforementioned three newly-designed token boxes so you have something to put them all in.

We had previously hoped the official expansions would be the next Clocktower release. However, with the time needed to create these expansions stretching beyond what we had first imagined, we have decided to grant the wishes of many fans and create a physical set including the experimental characters we’ve made public. 

“Experimental’ means these characters may still change. And many will feature in the expansions (along with plenty that are yet to see the light of day).

So, what's next?

First, we cross our fingers, hold our toes, and hope the next words I'm writing are accurate too. Manufacturing takes 6-10 weeks. Shipping to our various fulfilment centres takes another 6-8 weeks following that.

This leaves a hopeful timeline of late April to mid June, barring absolutely anything going wrong (and that’s a big ask for international freight shipments).

We hope the above gives a clear insight into why we cannot give a more exact release date.

We look forward to linking this article in response to the many inevitable emails asking us for an exact release date.

Thank you all for joining us on this journey. It has been a joy to create some more products and we can’t wait to share them with you.