February Production and Latest Timeline Adjustments
about 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 01:03:55 AM

Hello Puzzlers!

In this Update You Will Find:

• Progress on the Safe Box Build
• Our Latest Timeline Update
• Our Plans Moving Forward

The Safe Build Progress:

• Over this month, we have continued working on the build for the Puzzle Safe, and have fully assembled 50 so far, and have assembled the components for the next 50 Safe Boxes. 
• After adjusting for the issue with the wheel on the right wall that we discussed in our last update, we have also found that this mechanism is working much more smoothly, which we are really happy about.
• We also continue to laser-cut all of the pieces for the remaining boxes in the game, and are ready to start assembling these boxes once we finish with the Safe.

Timeline Update

In response to our progress over this past January and February taking longer than we had originally planned for building the Safe, we would like to ask to adjust our timeline one more time. When we decided to extend our timeline in August, we really thought that we had scheduled out all of our time to ensure that we could meet the new ship date. We built around 100 of the puzzle chests in a week, and based on this pace, we projected that we could also build around 70 of the Puzzle Safes in a week. For the most part, we’ve been able to keep up this pace to assemble all of the components of the Safe. However, when we started putting all of the components together (gluing up the bottom, right wall, left wall, back, top section, and door piece), this has been taking longer than we initially intended, because there have been a few pieces that we have to sand and adjust before clamping and gluing everything. While we can put together all of the components to make about 75 safes in a week, we discovered during these past two weeks that we need about 20 minutes to assemble all of the components during the full glue-up for the Safe. This is where we test all of the pieces together, sand any part that has too much friction, and screw in the hinges on the Safe’s door. We thought the glue-up would only take around five minutes during our assembly planning, and the additional time the main reason why we would like to adjust our timeline.

In analyzing our production schedule, we believe that we need:

• 10 weeks to finish staining and assembling the Safe Components: to build 70 of the individual right wall, left wall, top, bottom, back, and front door of the safe per week – from mid-February to mid-April
• 8 weeks to glue these components all together into the full Safe Box : gluing 20 per day, and 100 per week, from mid-April to mid-June
• 12 weeks to finish the remaining boxes in the game: from mid-June to the beginning of September

                         6 Weeks for the Cryptex Box, at 120 per week,  6 Weeks for the Three Smallest Boxes

•  3 Weeks to pack and ship the full game: From the beginning of September to mid-September

We are so sorry that the fabrication process has been taking longer than we expected. The Safe is the most complicated puzzle box in the Labyrinth, and we want to make sure that every box that we send out is one that we can be excited to send. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate all of the comments and messages that we have received from backers over these past few weeks urging us to take our time, and to focus on creating the highest quality experience possible. We love reading your messages and comments, and are so thankful for all of your support. We want to create puzzle boxes that you will want to keep for years, and we are so proud of the boxes we have built so far.

As we move forward, we want to continue to be completely accountable and transparent in our production process, and we hope that you will message us if there is any more information that we can provide on our end. We are going to continue posting two updates a month so that everyone can see our progress during our final phases, and all of the build photos as we continue to work on the Safe. 

Thank you so much, and happy puzzling!

-The EAG Team

January Production Updates!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 02, 2022 at 01:53:36 AM

Hello Puzzlers!

It has been a little over three weeks since our last post, and we’ve been busy! In this update, you will find:

• Progress on the Safes
• New Locks!
• First Production Sample for the Pin!

The Safes

• Since our last update, we’ve been gluing up more of the component walls for the Puzzle Safe, and starting to move to full assembly of all of the walls. It is very satisfying to see these parts coming together!

• We did hit a slight hiccup in the build progress while we were doing quality testing in this phase. The right wall of the safe is one of the most complicated components in the game, and it has three different wheels that all need to be able to spin smoothly. When we did our initial glue-up of the pieces in the right wall, we checked to ensure that the wheels could spin without any major friction. (Otherwise they can get snagged while turning, which can be frustrating for the puzzle.) However, when we started to glue the right wall to the rest of the safe walls, we did another round of quality testing to check the wheels again, and discovered that in about 50% of the pieces, the wheels were getting stuck.
• We think this occurred because we clamped the pieces in the right wall together after the initial gluing and testing of the wheels, which made the back of the wheel and another piece inside the right wall press together as the glue dried. Having these two pieces press together created too much friction, which interfered with the wheels’ movement.
• While most of the wheels could still spin, this was not the way that we wanted to leave these boxes. So, we spent about a week and a half disassembling these parts, sanding off the old glue, checking the wheels again, and then regluing them. We just re-checked all of the right walls that were reassembled, and are happy to report that all of the wheels are now back to rotating smoothly. On the most recent right wall builds we have been using much less pressure on the clamps, which has completely corrected the issue.
• In the end, we are really glad to have caught this before it was too late. Issues like this are one of the reasons that we are happy that we are building all of these puzzles ourselves---it makes it much easier to check the quality of the pieces every step of the way!

Component Updates

New Locks

• In other news, we received a new shipment of locks for the Safe early last week. We love the antique brass look!

The Pins!

• And, finally, the first sample for the enamel pin stretch reward is in! We’ve been through a couple rounds of design review for this pin, which is based on the Puzzle Safe. We are so excited to have the production sample printed, and we especially love how big it is.

What’s In Store for February?

• More Assembling the Safes! Once we finish the Safe Builds, we will have completed the three most complicated boxes in the game.
• Then we're on to putting together the Cryptex Boxes, which we have been cutting out the pieces for during December and January 

As always, thank you all so much for your messages and comments of support! We love reading them so much, especially during this cold cold Boston winter. We’re hoping to continue posting two updates in February, and plan to make our next post (with more pictures of the Puzzle Safe build process) around February 15th.

Until next time, happy puzzling!

-The EAG Team

Happy New Year!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 02:01:16 AM

Hello, and Happy New Year!

First, our apologies that this update is later than promised! We were waiting on shipments for the new locks and journal that got held up during the holidays. We'll make sure to post one more update this month to make up for the delay!

In this update you will find:

• Progress on the Safe builds
• Pictures of a big new lock shipment
• The Newest Draft for the Collector’s Journal!
• Plans for the rest of January

 The Puzzle Safes

• This past month we decided to try to be a little light on our feet, and chose to shift our assembly schedule around after we received news that our favorite makerspace would be shutting down during January. While we do have our own laser cutter that we love to use, we also have access to another more powerful laser in the makerspace that can make the cuts in the 1/4" Wood for the puzzle boxes about 6x as fast. This faster cut speed ultimately saves us a TON of time when we're lasering the thicker pieces for the puzzle boxes. 
• So, we chose to prioritize file cutting for the other puzzle boxes during December to take advantage of the time with the more powerful laser, and focus in January on finishing the assembly on the Safes. In January, we also plan to use our personal laser to cut puzzle parts that are made of less thick wood, where having a more powerful laser does not make a big difference in the cut speed. Overall, we are still at a good place in our timeline, after shifting our benchmarks around to work with this adjustment.
• We've also been working on continuing to stain and glue the components for the Puzzle Safes! In the photo below you can see some of the progress on the doors for the Safes, before the installation of the knob wheels.  (There are a few photos of these knobs in Updates #17 and #16 as well, for reference.) Now that we have all of our Safe pieces cut out and ready to go, the assembly is running smoothly, especially in comparison to our Puzzle Chest build, where we were cutting the files and building simultaneously. We're trying to carry forward the lessons learned from each box's assembly process, and the muscle memory from building is especially useful as we move forward.

New Components:

• Earlier this week, we also received the latest component shipment: the full order of locks for the Puzzle Chest! We've been testing them and resetting the combinations, and are really satisfied with the quality so far. We don't have many components that we aren't manufacturing ourselves, so every time a shipment comes in with the kind of quality that we are hoping for, it is a huge relief. 

• Another package that we were especially excited to receive this month was the final production proof for the Collector's Edition Journal! We've been going back and forth with our leather partner on the design, as the original leather selections were not soft enough, and the Labyrinth stamp on the cover was not showing clearly. The current iteration is super soft, and, as an added bonus, the leather smells fantastic.
• We also have the final proof for the BackerKit Journal Add-On leather on the way, and will aim to post photos of it in the next update.

What's Next?

• More Assembling of the Safes now that we have shifted our focus back to building, and more Safe photos of the component walls we've been putting together in phases. (We've been gluing the full right wall (photos in the previous update), front door, top, bottom, left wall, and back wall with our phased assembly method, and next it's time to pull them all together!)
• Moving to Starting to Assemble the Cryptex Boxes
• After a lot of trial and error in the design of the stretch goal enamel pin, we're expecting to receive the final production sample in the next week, and look forward to sharing new photos of it in the coming update.

As always, thank you so much for your messages of support, and please keep them coming! This project is just as much yours as it is ours, and we cannot tell you how much we appreciate your engagement. Sometimes we get so focused on the building that the time seems to fly by between our updates, and we really do love to hear from you between posts. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, and we hope that your 2022 is off to a great start!

Happy Puzzling!

-The EAG Team

November Production Updates!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Nov 27, 2021 at 10:51:20 AM

Hello Puzzlers!

To all of our US backers, Happy Thanksgiving! We’re spending the day with family and puzzles, and we hope that you are all having a wonderful day as well.

In this update you will find:

• Production Updates!
• Looking Ahead

The Puzzle Safes

• Our main goal for last month was to finish a majority of our laser cutting work for the Puzzle Safe, which is the largest and most complicated of the puzzle boxes in the Labyrinth. We’ve been laser cutting around the clock to get all of the pieces ready to go.

• We’re using a similar system that we used in constructing the Puzzle Chest, and are building each box in sections (rather than building each box in its entirety every time). This approach dramatically speeds up the overall production time because it allows us to get into more of a rhythm.

• We’ve been focusing first on the Deluxe and Collector’s Edition safes, and are really happy with how they are looking and functioning so far! We have about 90% of all of the Safe pieces cut out on the laser cutter, and are going to move to cutting out the pieces for the cryptex box next while we continuing building the Safes.

What’s Next

• Looking ahead, we’re going to keep building and staining the wood for the Safes, and next shift to building the Cryptex Box and cutting the pieces for the remaining small boxes of the game. 
• We’ll post another update before Christmas (if not earlier) with more pictures of the Safe builds.

As always, thank you so much for supporting the Labyrinth, and for all of your amazing messages and comments on our last post. We are having a blast working on this project, and are so excited to be building the Safes!

Happy Puzzling!

-The EAG Team

Update 18: The Lock Boxes are In!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 29, 2021 at 12:12:16 PM

Hello Puzzlers! In this update, you will find:

• News of an exciting shipment that we received yesterday
• Production Updates
• New component photos

The Key Boxes!

• It’s not every day that 850 Key Boxes arrive on your doorstep. After months of talking with potential suppliers, testing samples, sending back feedback, and waiting on the shipping, we finally received our order of key boxes! 
• We were so ready to open the key boxes and test them out. We're happy to report that they are working well, and we’re really pleased with how the puzzle design looks on them. The Key Boxes are the biggest part of the game that we are not building ourselves, and we are so glad that they are finally here!

Component Updates:

We also received and have been testing another big order of locks that will be used to secure one of the compartments in the Puzzle Chest. Based on our testing, we’re really happy about the quality of these new locks.

Production Updates:

• This past month was all about wrapping up the build on the Puzzle Chests for the Deluxe and Collector’s Editions, and testing out the final builds. 
• We are now working on the fabrication of the biggest box in the game, the Puzzle Safe. In the month of October, we have been spending a lot of time with the laser cutter to continue cutting out the different pieces, so that we can begin to assemble the components in this box.

Moving Forward:

It’s going to be a busy next couple of months as we continue assembling boxes! We are excited for the time ahead, and we're going to aim to have another post with more puzzle photos before Thanksgiving

Thank you so much for all of your continued support! We absolutely love reading your comments, messages, and encouraging posts on the Kickstarter page. If there are any questions that you have, feel free to message our team any time. We look forward to keeping you updated!

-The EAG Team