What an incredible campaign!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 11:09:33 PM

Thank you!

First and foremost, thank you so much for being a part of this incredible campaign. What an incredible finish to a wonderful campaign, it came so close to getting that Both Ways expansion. Now, we know that one of the main questions on everybody's minds is whether or not there will be a way to get that locked stretch goal. We are happy to report that there will be a way to do this!

While we were not able to unlock every stretch goal that we had planned for this game, we want to make sure that we can offer a few more extras for those who may want them. In order to be able to do this and ensure that all of our costs remain consistent with what we have planned, we will be offering a few stretch goals as addons in the pledge manager. We have crunched the numbers and found that for $1 you will be able to add all 4 of the following things to your copy of your game:

$1 addon gets you the following four things:

The Both Ways mini-expansion includes 10 new remittance cards that can be added to your remittance draw pile adding new powers to the remittance action.

The Pingyao History Guide is a comprehensive look into the history of Pingyao city and how the mechanics of the game were heavily inspired by the thematic history of the city.

Get 1 new event card and 1 new story card to further increase the variability and strategies available in the 1 player game.

Includes stickers to add unique family names to each of your agent tokens.

An additional $1 addon gets you:

If you would like to have transparent card sleeves for all of the cards in the game you can add them in the pledge manager for $1.

So now what?

Now that the Kickstarter is completed we will be doing the following things:

• Getting the pledge manager ready
• Finalizing the rule book
• Starting production

The pledge manager will be sent out within the next couple of weeks once we have finalized getting the addons into it and ensuring everything is in order. We will send out another update once the pledge manager is ready.

Since this game has already been published in China, one of the only pre-production items we have left to do is finalize the English rule book.  We have received a lot of helpful feedback from backers about the rules and are working to implement those so that we have the best version of the rules possible. If you would like to, or already have, read the rules, we would be happy to hear any corrections and suggestions you have.

As you may already know, Chinese New Year is well underway and that means that all manufacturing has been put on hold. Additionally, due to power limitations and being unable to import coal, there is currently a blackout in China which is likely to delay the start of production. The total production time for this game typically takes 3 weeks, but with these delays we expect to need about a month or so for the production. Once production is ready it should go relatively quickly and we will keep you updated on our progress as soon as we begin this stage. We are very optimistic about our timelines and are excited to be able to get these games to you by our estimated delivery date!

Please let us know if you have any questions about the process or need any additional information about anything regarding Pingyao: First Chinese Banks. While we go through the production process of this game we will also be preparing for the Kickstarter launch of our next game later this year:

Dunhuang: Pearl on the Silk Road

Our next stop in our journey of the Chinese City Series will be taking us to Dunhuang during the Tang Dynasty!

Dunhuang was a very important city along the Silk Road, home to the "Thousand Buddha Grottoes" which formed a system of over 500 temples across 16 miles. These grottoes housed intricate paintings within the inner walls which detailed a rich history of the activities of the gods among mortals. This cultural landmark made Dunhuang a very important destination along the Silk Road not only for the artistic and cultural impact, but also as a key location along the road for the trading of goods.

Our next game Dunhuang: Pearl on the Silk Road is a highly variable game with 16 different setup "packs" accommodating a variety of different play styles and is designed by Wu Shuang who also designed Pingyao. In every game, 3 of the setup packs are selected, thus adding replayability through the various combinations of the packs. The primary mechanisms of the game are focused on worker placement with variable worker abilities. 

If you want to stay updated about all of our projects and when we plan to launch, please sign up for our  e-mail list.

Thank you again for all of your support and encouragement throughout this campaign. We cannot wait to bring you Pingyao and show you more of what we have to come!

Another Stretch Goal!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 11, 2021 at 09:02:24 AM

With only 10 hours to go we have unlocked another stretch goal! The custom-shaped manager agent tokens have been added to every copy of the game. These agent tokens are used in the game to add managers or presidents to your bank branches and will replace the plain circle tokens contributing to a more thematic experience.

We cannot thank you enough for your continued support and help in bringing Pingyao: First Chinese Banks beyond an Asian market. As we come to a close of this campaign we will outline our timeline of what is to come continue and then we will provide you a minimum of a monthly update regarding progress. If you want to stay update-to-date with all things Jing Studio (giveaways, offers, campaign announcements, etc.) then please consider subscribing to the Jing Studio Email List.  Thanks again, and we will update you again at the end of the campaign!

Stretch Goal Unlocked!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 10:45:09 PM

First Stretch Goal Unlocked!

It has been a while since our last update. Thank you so much for all of your support and help sharing the campaign. We have unlocked our first stretch goal!

Every copy of the game will now come with 2 additional level 1 agency tiles. These tiles are the heart of the game as each represent a different bank that can be built in your banking empire. The agency tiles allow you to add different abilities that can only be used by the player that has built and unlocked that ability. These level 1 have a lot of abilities that allow you to mitigate the randomness of the dice rolls so that you can be sure to get the values that you want most as to take the actions you need. These agency tiles will increase the variability of the game so that you will find more strategies to employ in every game you play!

More Reviews and Previews!

We also wanted to highlight a couple of the new videos that content creators have made for the game that we feel you should check out!

First is the replay of the Meeple University Live Playthrough:

Next we have the 6 things you should know about Pingyao from Meeple Mountain:

We also have a new how to play video from the wonderful Aspie Gamer Girl (available in English and Spanish):

And finally we also have a new preview video from Board Game Rundown: 

We sincerely want to thank you for all of your support, we truly couldn't do this without you! Let's keep unlocking those stretch goals!

Another Stretch Goal Unlocked and Final 24 hours
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 10:42:14 PM

Stretch Goals

Well that was quick progress! In less than 24 hours we've unlocked the next stretch goal:

Now every copy of the Pingyao: First Chinese Banks will come with a customized silver-ingot to be used as the start player token. The start player token plays an important roll in this game since turn order is determined by dice placement, but often times you will have the same value die as other dice that were rolled. The start player token ensures that you know when to activate your preparation phase abilities and when your dice resolve. There is a lot of strategic planning that is attached to the start player token and so we are very happy to have a unique and beautiful component unlocked to help identify that player!

Up next to unlock is the upgraded custom shaped agent tokens:

We have only 24 hours left in the campaign, but with as quickly as we unlocked the last stretch goal we are very hopeful to be able to unlock this next one as well. If you have not yet, or if you want to again, please consider sharing this campaign on your social media to help us unlock these new custom components! Thank you for all of your help and support with this campaign we are so appreciative to have everybody on board!

UK Backers Only

This last part of the update is for the backers in the UK, so if this is not you, then feel free to skip it.

As we have been checking and double checking all of the details of the campaign before it concludes we have some news for UK Backers. We have been checking with our shipping partners and monitoring the situation closely around postage in the UK. 

It has been brought to our attention by our shipping partners that unfortunately the UK shipping will NOT be VAT friendly and this would be something that backers would have to cover.

We recognize that this is not something you wanted to hear and we are so sorry that we couldn't find a better way to accomplish this, but we did feel it was important to let backers know about this before the campaign concluded so that you can make your decisions accordingly. We are working to find UK retailers to help make it so that this game can be available to more people, but if this shipping situation impacts your ability to back the game we understand. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you so much for your support and help getting us funded, we really appreciate you as backers which is why we wanted to let you know before it was too late to adjust pledges.

Until the next update!

Final 48 and another stretch goal unlocked!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 06:12:56 AM

Final 48 hours!

It is amazing that we are in the final 48 hours of the campaign! This has been such a great experience for us at Jing Studio and we are so pleased to have you on board to share it with us. For all of those who have been with us from day 1 to those who just joined and helped us unlock a new stretch goal, we give you our most sincere thanks!

Jing Studio has been publishing board games since 2016 and have learned so much and are so excited to share our games with you. This experience with Kickstarter, while it is has been our first on this platform (and it won't be the last), and we are so pleased with how it has gone so far. 

Stretch Goals!

We are so happy that we have been able to unlock all of our extra agency tiles for the game. Now Pingyao: First Chinese Banks will have more options of bank tiles with new Kickstarter exclusive tiles with unique abilities adding to the different strategies you will be able to take each game.

Next up we for what we can unlock is a new metal start player sycee-like token to replace the cardboard start token.

Regarding other stretch goals, and in particular the final stretch goal of the Both-ways mini expansion, we at Jing Studio have heard your requests to try and make these additional stretch goals addons if they are unable to be unlocked. We want to let you know that we have heard your requests and are actively looking for a way to get these included as addons in the pledge manager.  After we check on the logistical issues and crunch some numbers, we will let you know if you will be able to addon any missed stretch goals when the pledge manager launches about 2-4 weeks after the campaign is completed.

What's Next?

We want to let you know that this campaign is only the beginning of bringing our games to a wider world audience and this will not be the last campaign you see from us this year. Pingyao: First Chinese Banks is the first game in our Chinese Cities Series from designer Wu Shuang, but we also have several other games to add to this series. As such, we will be announcing the next game in the Chinese Cities Series in one of our next updates to give you full details of what is next. 

For now, we will just tell you that the Chinese City Series is our series of games designed and created by a Chinese team. Each game in the series will focus on a specific city in ancient China that held great historical and/or cultural impact on China. Every game in the Chinese City Series makes a concerted effort to integrate theme and mechanics to expertly create a unique gaming experience designed to help you learn about Chinese history in a truly thematic and engaging way. We are so excited to share these games with you and look forward to more people experiencing the magnificent mind of designer Wu Shuang.

Tell us what famous cities in China that you know about and which ones you think might make for a great contestant for the Chinese City Series in the comments!