Smash Monster Rampage

SLIGHT REVISION BY GAME SALUTE FOR SHIPPING INFO
over 10 years ago – Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 12:43:55 PM

Ship Naked estimate complete: Processing of shipments will start next week
over 10 years ago – Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 12:43:45 PM

The State of 5th Street
almost 11 years ago – Fri, May 29, 2015 at 03:36:44 PM

This is a post that would've gone up within the next week or two, but I’m having to post it earlier than I would've liked because Smash Monster Rampage has hit the retail market.

Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted to run a board game publishing company. Starting 5th Street Games in 2011 was a lifelong dream for me. Unfortunately, due to a variety of factors, I'll be filing a personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy within a couple weeks and shutting down 5th Street.

Although various issues have led to this point, the main factor was Smash Monster Rampage not being available when expected due to production delays. This caused 5th Street's cash reserves to dwindle, since I didn't have the revenue available from SMR to offset the business's monthly costs. By the time SMR was ready, I didn't have the cash on hand to pay the invoices owed to the manufacturer. This led to a catch-22 in which the manufacturer wanted payment before it would send me the products, but I needed the products in order to raise the revenue to pay the manufacturer.

We worked out a deal where I would forward to the manufacturer all purchase orders from distributors, the manufacturer would send me the reserved Kickstarter copies to send out to backers, and the manufacturer would hold the remaining inventory and fulfill distributor orders until the sales covered the remaining invoices. However, I have yet to receive the Kickstarter copies.

For the past several months I've been scrambling after loans and angel investors, trying to find a way to save the company. I've started talks with other board game publishers who might be willing to purchase some or all of 5th Street's catalog. None of those efforts panned out, though.

As a result, after exhausting every possible avenue I can think of, and every avenue that everyone I know can think of, I have no other option but to file a personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy. There aren't enough sales to cover the business's monthly payments, and the sales that are occurring are going straight to the manufacturer. This affects 5th Street because the credit lines set up for the company were personally guaranteed by me.

There is one small bright spot, though. The manufacturer is willing to ship the Kickstarter copies for Smash Monster Rampage, the Farmageddon expansions, and Mob Town to backers through Game Salute. You'll need to pay the shipping yourself—which sucks, because you already paid it once—but this option will get the game into your hands. If the manufacturer had sent me the Kickstarter copies, the product would've been caught up in the impending bankruptcy, so this actually works out a bit better for backers. I'll provide details about getting your copies through Game Salute when I have more information.

I'm so sorry for the frustration this Kickstarter has caused you and for not being able to deliver Smash Monster Rampage when promised. The buck stops with me, and you all have my deepest apologies.  

I am privileged and honored to have had your support during 5th Street's run. Some of you have been with me from my first game, Castle Dash. Thank you for sharing 5th Street's vision. I wish I could have lived up to it.  

I've also been privileged to be part of the Kickstarter community. I sincerely hope the situation with 5th Street doesn't affect your opinion of Kickstarter. The vast majority of projects that fund are delivered successfully, and there are lots of awesome projects that could still use your support.

Ship Naked has inventory, finalizing shipping estimate
almost 11 years ago – Sun, May 24, 2015 at 06:00:24 PM

A quick update on Ship Naked getting you your game: they've received the inventory for Smash Monster, Mob Town, and the Farmageddon expansions (and the surveys for those respective campaigns).

The current step they're working through is figuring out the rough shipping cost for each campaign. Once that's finished, Ship Naked will provide me with the link for you to log into their site and pay the shipping and receive your game. From what I'm told, this should be expected by mid-May or so.

Best,
Phil

Ship Naked clarification post
almost 11 years ago – Wed, May 06, 2015 at 10:40:37 PM

I've been asked to clarify some details about what will happen to the games that were produced and were to be sent as rewards to backers. To be as transparent as possible during this difficult period, here is what has occurred up to now and what is going to happen over the next few weeks. Our manufacturer, QPC, has printed up the games. They are owed funds that can't be paid by 5th Street Games which they could recoup in part by selling all of the games.

QPC has generously decided to make the best of a bad situation by giving away the copies of the games to the backers for these campaigns, a significant amount of product. Given that they have already lost significant sums of money due to the current situation, they are not able to cover the cost of outgoing shipping to backers. QPC will be receiving the backer lists / surveys from 5th Street Games to calculate the outgoing shipping costs for each level by campaign.  

Backers will have a period of time to send payment to QPC via PayPal along with their full, current mailing address, phone number, and email address to facilitate delivery. For all the backers who send in payment for shipping by the deadline (to be announced), QPC will then provide a shipping list to their fulfillment provider, Ship Naked, who will in turn ship out those games to backers.  

QPC is not required to do this and I appreciate their generosity in being willing to offer a way for backers to still get their games, rather than receiving nothing at all, since 5th Street Games is no more. As soon as the details of where to send your PayPal payment to QPC and the deadline for backers to submit their request to have their game shipped, we will post again here. My thanks to both QPC and Ship Naked for their help in making the best of this difficult situation.