Pre-Order Store - Even Deeper Regrets: An Unfortunate Fishing Game Expansion

YOU get a player aid!! Register your interest in card replacements!
23 days ago – Fri, Mar 13, 2026 at 09:29:31 AM

Hello again, anglers!

We're getting very close to fulfilment now! Tariffs have been charged, addresses are beginning to lock in some regions and the others will be following in the coming weeks. It's all starting to kick off and the majority of fulfilment will take place in April. Very excited for people to experience the expanded world of Deep Regrets!

I've been having a rough time dealing with some recent hiccups in process and understandable frustrations from backers and I just want to thank everyone for their patience and for keeping me honest. It can be hard to read when you're letting people down, but it's important for me to understand so I can learn and be better. Being uncomfortable is the only way to grow. I'm feeling better this week and I've got some actual good news, born out of troubleshooting the situation:

Player Aids for everybody!

Off the back of feedback and frustrations that arose from the previous update, I made the decision to pull some strings and work VERY quickly to ensure that every backer gets at least one player aid in some form. Understandably, previous backers were frustrated that new backers were the only ones getting the in-box player aids that will be in all copies of the base game going forward and I wanted to find a solution that's more equitable. It was a bit of scramble and it wasn't free, but you folks are worth it. 

What I came up with was printing the player aids on-demand in each region individually, which will be packed into the shipping boxes with your rewards. These have already been ordered and will be with the warehouses before or on the day the games arrive. One of these will be placed loose in EVERY shipping box that goes out in the language that matches the rest of your order (EN or DE). This HOPEFULLY includes APAC, which is very close to beginning fulfilment already. My intent is that EVERYONE gets one of these flyers, but realistically there may be a few that slip through the cracks. Let me know if you don't receive one and I'l see if there's anything that can be done.

THINGS TO NOTE: Because these are printed using on-demand e-commerce printing services, they will not match the colours and paper of the rest of the game and I will not be able to review these before they go out; they are being shipped directly to the warehouses to save time. Also note that for US and Canadian backers, I needed to reformat the dimensions to be 5.5x8.5" instead of A5 because on-demand printers only offered preset sizes. So if you're receiving the base game with your rewards, you'll have two player aids that may not match exactly. 

I also can't guarantee the player aid will arrive undamaged, since it needs to be placed into the shipping box loose. Most of the fulfilment centres have agreed to waive the pick and pack fees for placing this additional item into the box because it's placed in all boxes universally, but adding sleeve/backing board protection to the sheet would be prohibitively expensive. This is the best I can do given the timeframe and costs to ensure fulfilment is not delayed.

Card Replacement Kits

NOTE: This ONLY concerns 1st printing base game holders, most of whom were backers of the first Kickstarter. If you don't have a 1st printing you can ignore this section. You can look at the bottom of your box to see if it does not say "2nd printing" below the legalese (or lot number DR-01-2024-DE indicates 1st edition on German boxes).

I've been working hard to find a solution that doesn't leave my earliest supporters in a lurch with cards that don't match the expansion, as described in this update. You helped me right at the start and you've continued to support me and I want to do everything I can to thank you for that. 

I've gotten a quote from the manufacturer to produce a card replacement kit for the base game, this would include new copies of ALL 108 fish from the base game, ALL 18 fish from Lamentable Tentacles, ALL 40 item cards and ALL 60 regret cards (166 cards, 60 mini cards) and would ensure that card backs closely match the expansion cards and would come in a cardboard tuckbox intended for recycling. The costs for this are not cheap, but they are affordable enough for me to cover and I'm asking the manufacturer to split the cost with me to acknowledge the mistakes on their part as well. You're worth it.

HOWEVER, the cost of shipping them to backers is where it becomes prohibitively expensive for me. I would love to be able to supply these for free, but because they are not flat like the errata kits, the costs are just too high. ~9,000 affected backers X $5 shipping costs = $45,000, and that's only thinking about the US and excluding the manufacturing and freight costs.

There are two potential solutions to this that don't delay the current fulfilment by half a year: either I charge people a subsidised shipping fee to send them out as soon as they can be printed (roughly Q3) OR I wait and send them out with people's pledges via my next Kickstarter, where there would be no additional cost to ship them and could be free. The first option is problematic because it's asking you to pay for my mistake. The second is problematic because it's similar to holding the kits ransom unless you buy my next, unrelated game and it means waiting about a year. Very Scylla & Charybdis situation. I don't like either option, but they're the only realistic options I can come up with and still be a responsible business owner.

It would be useful for me to hear your thoughts on how to approach this and so I've put together a very short survey to capture interest in the kit and to get a feel for your preferences in how you would prefer to see this handled. If you have three minutes, please follow this link to let me know you're interested in receiving this kit and how you'd prefer to get it. Keep in mind that these kits are expensive and cause a lot of waste, so be mindful in your responses:

📋 TAKE THE SURVEY HERE 👉

Thanks for your patience with me as I continue to troubleshoot this. And, on a final note, thank you so much for everyone who held me to account and kept me honest about this. I think it's important to challenge businesses and to expect better and your responses, while they were hard to hear, were important to my growth as a business owner. I learned, and am continuing to learn, a lot from this situation and your honesty and frustrations were key in that.

Next major print run, I'm off to China to press-check in person! Exciting and intimidating!

Fulfilment update

Everything is proceeding as mentioned in the update last month and there are no major changes to the timelines quoted at that point, but I'll reiterate everything here:

Australia/New Zealand:
The games are on the MAERSK SEMAKAU, due to make port in 12 April. ButtonShy Games and player aids are on their way. Addresses should lock and fulfilment should begin late April!

APAC:
Games are already with VFI, ButtonShy Games have already arrived, player aids will arrive next weekend. Addresses are locked and fulfilment should begin imminently and continue through the next few months.

Canada:
Games already landed in Vancouver and are travelling by land to the fulfilment centre on the east coast. They're due to arrive in Toronto on the 24th of March. Player aids are arriving next week, ButtonShy Games are arriving shortly after. Addresses should lock and fulfilment should begin in early April!

DACH:
Games are now aboard the MSC KATIEand are now due to make port on the 18th of April. ButtonShy Games have already arrived and player aids will be arriving in a week or two. Addresses should lock and fulfilment should begin early May!

UK/EU:
Games are en route to Felixstowe aboard the OOCL GDYNIA and are due to make port on the 5th of April. Player aids should arrive early next week and ButtonShy Games are making their way over now. Addresses should lock and fulfilment should begin mid April!

USA:
The games are heading to Baltimore aboard the VALIANT and should arrive on April 11th. Player aids are arriving now and ButtonShy Games will arrive soon via land freight. Addresses should lock and fulfilment should begin late April or early May!

What am I playing right now?

Mostly just a bunch of Personal Demons! I'm in heavy play-testing right now and haven't had much time to try new games. Hopefully next update I'll have something new I can showcase! In the meantime, here's a work-in-progress pic of some demon puppets I'm having made to use in the trailer!

That's all for now!

- Judson 🖤

US Tariffs locked in at 10%! Plus a special surprise!
about 1 month ago – Tue, Mar 03, 2026 at 07:11:01 AM

Hello again, anglers!

Apologies for the rapid updates back-to-back, but I wanted to get details about tariff rates to you, now that I have better clarity!

10% tariff rate for US Backers

Rob over at Naylor Games has been hard at work trying to unpick the tangle of recent international trade developments and spending time on the phone with US customs brokers to get a clearer picture of what we can expect when the goods make port in a month.

It sounds like everyone's best guess is that we will actually ONLY be charged the new 10% rate. Apparently the 15% rate that was threatened was never actually implemented and ALL other rates were deemed unconstitutional, so we're pretty certain I'll only get charged 10% of the manufactured goods cost at port.

That's about as good of news as we could hope for! The rate has gone down substantially from what was originally quoted in the KS (51%) and I'm happy that I don't have to pass on too much to backers in the US. The amount charged per backer will only be between $1-$3 for most, depending on your pledge level. Backers with larger orders will see that amount increase accordingly.

IF there is a change in the rate and I wind up having to pay MORE at port, I will eat any additional costs. If there is a change and I wind up having to pay LESS at port, I will donate the difference to an ocean charity (thanks to those that recommended this, it's a perfect solution).

How do I pay the tariff?

This will be automatically charged to your payment method on file in BackerKit in the next week. You will get a notification before it happens allowing you to change your details if needed.

Naylor Games is going to begin applying the tariff to the relevant backers in Backerkit and you'll get an alert via email letting you know that you have 48 hours to update your payment method before the charge is applied.

If your payment method has gone out of date or the payment fails for some other reason, you'll get another email letting you know to update it and the payment will be retried regularly until it's successful. 

Don't worry, no pledges will be dropped if there are difficulties with this payment, you'll have plenty of time to deal with any issues! Do note that your order WILL NOT ship until this additional charge has been resolved, so make sure you're checking your email!

A Sneaky Surprise!

What's this hiding in the Deep Regrets box?? 

Oh, it's just an OFFICIAL ALL-IN-ONE PLAYER AID! 

That's right! No longer just a PDF, all copies of Deep Regrets via this KS will come with a player aid one-sheet in the box! It's two-sided and has clarification for pretty much everything you might need to know while playing. Thank you all for your input on the content last year in previous updates!

From this printing onwards, one player aid will always be included in all copies of Deep Regrets. If you have an earlier printing, don't worry, you can still get the PDF here and print your own at home!

APAC addresses are locking and fulfilment is beginning!

VFI came back into the office last week and let us know that the games DID arrive safely and things are progressing swiftly, so we jumped on locking addresses immediately since fulfilment will be beginning in parts of APAC very soon! VFI works from different hubs and needs to send goods to those hubs to fulfill, so while mainland China will probably get their games in the next few weeks, other parts of APAC may still be a month or more out from receiving theirs. VFI is the most difficult of the fulfilment centres to quote accurately because of how different their approach is for different regions.

Print quality solutions

I've taken on all your feedback from the last update regarding the colour shift from 1st edition to the others and I'm still working on solutions. I wanted to get this update out quickly to inform about tariffs, but I do want to let you know that I'm working on this. I'll just go over what to expect:

• TL;DR - There's nothing I can do as part of this Kickstarter this late in the process without substantially delaying fulfilment or creating extremely complicated logistical problems, so any solutions will be either ad hoc via my website or attached to my NEXT Kickstarter, Personal Demons, to keep things affordable for my business.
• The manufacturer feels equally bad about the situation and has offered, without me asking, to send me a final quality print sample ahead of mass manufacture for all of my future print runs so I can approve colours before we begin using a sample that is produced via the same processes as mass manufacture. I'm also looking into the costs of just flying to China to do in-person press checks from here on out to ensure this never happens again. I do love a press check, anyway!
• I've heard a lot of requests for custom sleeves to replace the sea card backs or tinted sleeves to obscure the colour shift. Thanks to everyone for these recommendations and helping to problem solve, I appreciate the passion. These are good solutions but stand against my strict company policy of no plastic. Doing custom back sleeves would also be too expensive, as nine unique backs would be required (three depths, three fish sizes each). Tinted sleeves are a more viable option but I worry would hamper accessibility by making the shadows hard to see... and are still against company plastics policy. 
• The best solution would be a full card replacement set for 1st edition owners. I've asked my manufacturer to provide me a quote for what a replacement kit might cost and they're working on it. There's a question of WHICH cards get replaced and my instinct would be ONLY sea fish and regret cards. These are the places where it impacts gameplay the most and I'm keen to keep waste and unrecoverable expenses to a minimum.
• The big questions is how I would get these replacements to backers. I feel terrible making people pay for my mistakes, so my hope is to keep them free like the errata kits, but the costs are much higher and it's less financially viable. The easiest way would be to give them free with the next Kickstarter so they don't incur additional shipping costs, which is what would cost my business the most. The other option would be to sell them on my website and to subsidise the costs as much as I can afford to, but again I just feel awful charging people any amount of money for something that's my fault. However, offering these two options is probably the best course of action: you can get it free if you're okay to wait a while, or you can get it sooner if you okay to pay a minimal amount. Hopefully that feels as fair as possible in a wait that doesn't take a heavy toll on my operating expenses.

I'll have further updates about this hopefully in the next update, but I wanted to just give you my current thinking instead of radio silence.

What am I playing right now?

Annulet! I'm incredibly fortunate to share my studio with the Eerie Idol team and I've been helping play-test their new small-box game set inside the universe of The Old King's Crown. A lot. Let me tell you, it's fantastic! It's like a pub game the people in the world of TOKC would play (think Gwent to The Witcher) and the gameplay is so simple and intuitive but with an incredible amount of a variety and complexity laid overtop of it through various systems and random set up components (if you've played TOKC, this will sound familiar). Plus, it's beautiful because Pablo's doing the art, as always. If it's something that you're interested in, it's part of The Old King's Crown 2nd reprint/expansion campaign that just launched TODAY on Gamefound and is absolute kicking ass! I'm obviously heavily biased here, but I think you should go check it out!

That's all for now! Speak to you soon!

- Judson 🖤

Freight, Tariffs and Fulfilment details!
about 1 month ago – Mon, Feb 23, 2026 at 08:17:03 AM

Hello, you slimy anglers!

It's been a hell of a month getting all the logistics sorted for Deep Regrets in advance of Lunar New Year and I owe a huge debt of gratitude for the folks at Naylor Games – they got it all sorted out and rode over a number of difficult bumps in the road with grace and poise. Big shout of to Rob, Dom and Jo from the Naylor team for their hard work in keeping things on time.

I'm sure recent news has your curiosity piqued and I've got a lot to cover. I don't have all the answers yet, but I didn't want to keep people nervous and waiting, so let's dive in!

Tariff update

The big questions on everyone's minds right now is tariffs. I'll do my best to distil recent events in as simple of language as possible and to the best of my understanding, but I am not an authority on these matters. 

If you missed the news, there's been a lot of activity since Friday, when the US Supreme Court ruled that a president may not implement tariffs without congressional approval under emergency law, meaning that all tariffs imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are unconstitutional. The previous tariff rate on goods entering the US from China was 20%, that rate was presumably stricken down by the Supreme Court ruling, meaning that for a few hours on Friday, there was a tariff rate of 0% of goods entering the US from China.

However, within a few hours of the ruling, the president imposed a 10% global tariff on ALL goods entering the US using a different law, Section 122, which enables the president to put tariffs of up to 15% in place for a period of 150 days, after which they must seek congressional approval.

Then, within a few hours of that, the president increased the global tariff to 15%, the maximum allowed under Section 122. Within a 24 hour span, the tariff rate went from 20% to 0% to 10% to 15%, and this means determining the correct rate for the goods for this Kickstarter, which already left port a week ago, is difficult to understand. Generally, goods are taxed at the rate when they left port – which in this case was 20%. However, this situation is decidedly more complex.

I believe there are five(!) possible tariff scenarios:

OPTION 1: The goods get taxed at 25% under NEW law. The old tariff was actually two different tariffs: a 10% universal tariff plus a 10% tariff on Chinese goods specifically. Some freight authorities we're working with believe that the 10% universal tariff was not affected by the Supreme Court ruling and that I could be due both that 10% AND the new 15% in combination. This appears to be the most likely scenario given current guidance, but even the authorities are unclear at this stage.
OPTION 2: The goods get taxed at the original 20% under IEEPA law. This is the rate that the goods left port under. However, I believe this to be the least likely scenario, since these tariffs have been declared unconstitutional and should be immediately defunct, even for goods already on the water.
OPTION 3: The goods are taxed at the new 15% rate. If it turns out the entire 20% previous tariff was affected by the supreme court ruling, there's a possibility the goods will be taxed a the new universal rate instead, even though they left port before this rate came into effect.
OPTION 4: The goods are taxed at the old universal 10% rate. If the supreme court decision overruled only PART of the tariffs in place, it's possible that only the tariffs that were in force when the goods left port that REMAIN in force after the ruling will be charged. That would be only one of the two 10% tariffs.
OPTION 5: The goods are not taxed at all. There's a possibility that, because the goods were already on the water when the new tariff rates were introduced, they will be exempt from the new rates and the old rates will not apply because of the Supreme Court ruling. This seems unlikely, but it's very difficult to gauge how port authorities will view things.

This was the point where I was planning to lock in tariffs and was literally gearing up to charge 20% today, until the news broke on Friday. Given that option 5 is a possibility, I don't feel comfortable charging backers for tariffs yet and am going to hold off to seek further guidance and wait for clarity.  My instinct, if it remains unclear which scenario will play out, is to not charge backers any additional costs and to absorb any potential tariffs myself. I could not condone collecting money to cover tariffs from backers and then not having to pay those tariffs myself and the logistics for issuing refunds to everyone would be an enormous logistical nightmare. I need to make a call very soon because we're down to the wire. This is the second time split-second legislation has created a scenario where I have to make this sort of decision and I must admit it's a bit deflating.

It was always my intent to pass these costs on directly to US backers regardless of how things with tariffs progressed, and I did a lot of work to prepare and protect my business from damaging losses, but this was a scenario I could not have foreseen. The small chance that a 0% tariff is possible puts me at an impasse and the risk of a 25% tariff prevents me from just committing right now to absorb the costs. It's the Schrödinger's cat of tariffs. I miss mundane politics.

Look for more details in a future update. Hopefully next week.

Freight & Fulfilment Timelines!

The GOOD news is that everything got booked in before Lunar New Year began and everything has left port already EXCEPT the UK shipment headed to Zatu, which is being picked up on Friday, the 27th. It was hard to get confirmation and vessel info because of reduced staff at ports during the festivities, but I now have details on vessels and travel times and can give you estimated fulfilment windows for all regions! It's looking like fulfilment globally will take place between mid-April and end of May, depending on the region - check your region below for details!

The Button Shy games (Shallow Regrets) are coming from within the US and are being hand-assembled by the Button Shy team as we speak. Some of them are already on the way to fulfilment warehouses and the rest will be leaving soon. Everything looks on track to arrive at the same time or before the games from China, so we should be good to ship all simultaneously.

I'll be sharing the names of the vessels the Chinese goods are traveling on because I think it's fun to watch, but this is with a HEAVY caveat: the tracking is spotty and inaccurate and not truly representative of the vessel locations or ETAs. Please follow the links to vessels only for fun, not for accurate information.

Here's the details by destination, in alphabetical order:

Australia/New Zealand:

The goods, headed to VR Distribution in Australia, left China on the 17th on the HYUNDAI JUPITER but are unfortunately going via 'tranship', which means the goods are being offloaded in Singapore and put on a different vessel, which is due to arrive in Australia around the 29th of March. The anticipated next vessel is the MAERSK SHEKOU, but this is subject to change. This swap doesn't significantly delay AU/NZ fulfilment, fortunately. This puts address locking for AU/NZ at the end of March and fulfilment for AU/NZ beginning mid-April.

APAC:

The goods have MOST LIKELY already arrived at the VFI warehouse via land freight, but because VFI is closed for Lunar New Year, we won't know until they reopen. VFI have several fulfilment centre hubs and won't be sending out goods to their hubs until at least the 20th of March, in line with their reopening post festivities. So I anticipate addresses to lock for APAC at the end of March and fulfilment to begin mid-April.

Canada:

Canadian goods are travelling on the SM MUMBAI. The shipment, heading to Board Game Bliss, left China on the 18th of February and is due to arrive in Toronto on the 18th of March. That would put addresses locking for Canada mid March and fulfilment for Canada beginning at the start of April! 

DACH (Germany/Austria/Switzerland):

Goods headed to Fulfilment Europe left China last week aboard the MARGRETHE MAERSK and are due to arrive in Germany on the 27th of March. This puts addresses for DACH locking end of March and fulfilment for DACH beginning mid-April.

United States:

American goods, heading to Flying Cloud Fulfilment, are changing vessel in Korea, but left China on the 19th of February traveling on the GSL MYNY and are due to shift to the VALIANT (but this is unconfirmed). The goods are due to arrive in Baltimore on the 9th of April. This change of vessel was not expected by the logistics team or the freight forwarded and will delay the delivery of goods to US backers. We're working to try to condense this timeline, but booking around Lunar New Year can apparently cause these sorts of disruptions. Right now, this would put addresses locking for the US mid-April and fulfilment for the US beginning at the start of May.

UK/EU:

The goods headed to Zatu in the UK are due to leave port this Friday on the EVER AEON. They're due to arrive at Felixstowe on the 3rd of April. This means addresses for UK/EU will lock mid April and fulfilment for the UK should begin around the end of April.

Production Update

Since the last update, I received and approved the mass-production copies of all the products. There was a hiccup in this process and I want to outline it for backers for full transparency.

All the manufactured products look fantastic and there are no errors or errata caught in QA (at least to my current knowledge). However, in reviewing the goods I spotted a discrepancy in the colour of the card backs between 1st printing of Deep Regrets/Lamentable Tentacles and ALL other products. All of them look great and some degree of print quality shift between printings is impossible to avoid, but these are greater shifts in the ink coverage than I would normally deem acceptable. This is usually a simple issue to be corrected by the manufacturer with reprints, but unfortunately it's more complicated because this problem reaches farther back than this print run.

There are now THREE print runs of Deep Regrets and the shift in print quality happened between 1st and 2nd printing and I missed it. I've always been impressed with the manufacturer's quality and assumed they would have matched to first printing, this is standard practice and what I specifically requested they do. I agreed to approve the 2nd printing last spring via a video sent by the manufacturer to save time and ensure we hit deadlines for UK Games Expo. Unfortunately, in the video, it was not evident that the print quality between 1st and 2nd printing had drifted and I did not compare the two in person directly UNTIL I received the 3rd printing and Even Deeper Regrets samples last month. I literally ran to Waterstones the day the samples arrived and bought a copy of my own game so I could quickly compare all the versions at once to see where the error had occurred. You can see everything side-by-side here:

As you can see, it's all very well matched EXCEPT 1st printing. They all look great, just different. Perhaps I'm just being a fussy designer about it all, but I believe in transparency, thus the long-winded explanation. These are the things that keep me up at night.

So, long story short, there is a colour discrepancy between versions that has already existed for about nine months that I only just became aware of and is now impossible to correct. No matter what I do, some of the games will not match the expansion because there are two different variations already out in the world in roughly equal quantities. The least wasteful solution was to stick with the goods as printed instead of throwing tens of thousands of games in the wood chipper, since it impacts the same number of people regardless.

One thing that I DID need to correct was the errata kit. Since this is made exclusively FOR 1st printing, it needed to match exactly. The manufacturer undertook the costs to correct and reprint and did it all in record time to ensure the goods still got loaded on ships for the scheduled dates, which was fantastic. I can confirm that I've reviewed them in person side-by-side and it's nearly impossible to tell the two apart. Very happy with this but also very frustrated to know that they COULD have matched everything all perfectly, somebody just dropped the ball in QA on press last spring… and then I dropped the ball by not reviewing the production sample in person. A mistake I won't make again.

I'm trying not to beat myself up too much about this because the impact on gameplay is so minimal (I'll explain it momentarily), but it's hard not to feel like I'm letting down the people that supported me the earliest and mean the most to me.

How do I know if my game will have this discrepancy?

If you have a first printing version of the game, there will be a discrepancy in colour between your game and Even Deeper Regrets. You can tell by looking at the bottom of your Deep Regrets box - if it does NOT say "2nd printing", your copy will have the discrepancy.

What impact will this have on gameplay?

Fortunately, relatively minimal from my testing. It's strictly down to being able to tell some cards are from the expansion and some are not, based on card backs and there are very few places in gameplay where this gives an advantage or disadvantage.

For items, you only see one card on top of the draw pile at a time, so it will be less obvious which are expansion cards vs. base game cards. You might be able to tell in a player's hand if they have two supply items that one is from the base game and one from the expansion, but I don't think the knowledge this provides would be useful, given the large variety of supply items.

For sea fish, if you're playing with ONLY the Even Deeper Regrets sea fish, this has no impact on gameplay. They completely replace the sea and there will be no discrepancy between cards.

The MAIN place this impacts gameplay is if you use a setup that mixes the base game sea fish with Even Deeper Regrets (and possibly Lamentable Tentacles, depending on which print of that you have). In these scenarios, you'll often be able to see the backs of both versions in the sea at once, and (depending on the lighting and your level of vision) it might be obvious which cards are from the expansion and which are from the base game. This doesn't really impact gameplay TOO much, since every fish is unique and guessing at what a fish might be is nearly impossible, but it does at least give you some information about the fish before you reveal it, which is not the gameplay as intended.

The other place this impacts gameplay is with Regrets cards. The colour shift is LESS noticeable here than on fish cards, but if you're paying attention you can still see the difference. This will let players know that you're holding EITHER a brief respite OR an even deeper regret card - but that's kind of fun. It's either a -1 or 4 and, if I'm being honest, I kind of wish I designed the expansion regret card backs to look completely different because I love the tainted knowledge of knowing someone has EITHER a really good or really bad card but not knowing which.

Again, all the impact is very minimal and won't affect your enjoyment of the game, but I want to ensure I'm being upfront about it all.

What am I playing right now?

Night Soil! What better way to celebrate a 💩 week than with a game about shovelling literal 💩? Billed as a "very mature game about sanitation in Tudor London", this is a worker placement game where you make your living taking human waste and dumping it in the Thames. A magnificent theme I can't applaud enough, a beautiful game with a fantastic style, and fairly deep and meaningful player choices and strategy with a LOT of 'take that' style mechanics that tie so nicely into the theme of dumping your crap on other people. Check it out!

Personal Demons!

Just a reminder that my next game, Personal Demons, has a pre-launch page on Kickstarter, go give it a follow!

That's all for now, I'll be back in touch when I have more details about tariffs, ETAs and when addresses begin locking. We're close now! There's a tug on the line, it's about time to reel this puppy in!

- Judson 🖤

Manufacturing is complete!
2 months ago – Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 05:23:15 AM

Hello anglers!

I hope 2026 has been treating you well so far! I had a nice break, got snowed in up in Aberdeenshire for a bit but not before I visited the fantastic Storybook Glen to hang out with some beloved age-old characters.

Since I got back, I've been hard at work finalising everything with this print run and simultaneously finishing up work on my next game, more on that further down!

Manufacturing Update! It's (basically) done!

All components for all games and languages are now manufactured!  I've already reviewed a video of the final products and samples are on their way via FedEx for approval. Then Whatz Games will assemble all the parts into their respective boxes and we'll be on our way! Freight is already booked in and everything is on schedule to depart before Lunar New Year begins (which is the biggest holiday in China and shuts everything down for a few weeks). 

Goods are due to be loaded onto boats the first week of February, then those ships should take around a month to travel to their respective warehouses (in APAC, UK, Germany and US) - barring any travel disruptions. Once they're arrived and checked in, fulfilment will begin in those regions ASAP! It's looking like mid-to-late March is the window for delivery to YOU!

I usually share vessel information so you can watch the boats travel around the world, I'll try to do this again once I have it - with the caveat that it's HIGHLY inaccurate and doesn't update correctly all the time. So it's just for fun.

Tariff Status for US backers

As things stand right now, the tariff for goods imported to the US from China is at 10%. There was an additional 25% tariff announced 'with immediate effect' for countries that do business with Iran, but it has yet to be actually implemented. So it's most likely the games will be imported under either at 10% or 35% tariff. Those percentages will be charged on the manufactured value of the game, not the retail price. Here's what those costs will look like for backers:

Approximate tariff additional cost to US backers at 10% rate:

• Even Deeper Regrets only: $0.40
• Deep Regrets + Expansions bundle: $1.50

Approximate tariff additional cost to US backers at 35% rate:

• Even Deeper Regrets only: $1.50
• Deep Regrets + Expansions bundle: $5.00

Fingers crossed it stays at 10% for the next month and that no additional immediate effect tariffs are introduced between now and then!

Once the boat to the US hits the water, we'll determine the correct tariff rate and that cost will be added to your pledge in Backerkit. You'll be notified to review the additional costs and then your card on file will be charged the remaining balance. Expect that to happen in mid February, but I'll give the exact date in my next update.

Personal Demons pre-launch page is up!

I've been hard at work on my next game about dealing with your inner demons - represented by literal demons - and I've gotten the pre-launch page live on KS! There's details and images of the game there you can go check out and obviously it's massively helpful for me and my business to have a whole bunch of followers, so please give it a follow if you're interested! You can also check it out on BGG!

What am I playing right now?

Moon Colony Bloodbath! I finally got to try this after seeing it alongside Deep Regrets on a bunch of 2025 best-of lists. Obviously it's a theme that deeply appeals to me. It's a very snappy and unique deck-builder where everyone's building a single deck that affects all players simultaneously. You're trying to build a colony and maintain a population of colonists longer than other players before rogue robots and accidents kill everyone. I did enjoy the theme and the lightning fast gameplay, but I found myself wanting just a tiny bit more agency as a player. It felt at times like I was just watching a game run itself and occasionally getting to back-seat drive.

That's all for now! I'll send an update in February once the games are on boats!

- Judson 🖤

Manufacturing under way!
4 months ago – Tue, Dec 16, 2025 at 03:53:07 AM

Hello anglers!

Happy festive season, whichever things you're celebrating over the next month or so! I'm in full Christmas mode and excited to take a few weeks off to play games and drink whisky by the fire.

Manufacturing on lock! Fulfilment slated to start in March!

Not much to update you on, except to say that manufacturing is now fully underway. The wooden components began production about a month ago, and all proofs for all languages (even those outside of this Kickstarter) have been approved and paper component printing is now underway as well.

Because wooden component production is what takes the longest and we began it early, we're still doing well on schedule. As of right now there's very little delay to the quoted delivery dates from the original Kickstarter - we're looking at March instead of February. The games are still anticipated to be ready for collection at the end of January, prior to the start of Lunar New Year (when all of China shuts down for two weeks to eat delicious food and set off fireworks and generally have a good time - not jealous). That means boats arriving in ports late February/Early March and fulfilment beginning mid-March!

We're in the freight planning stage to ensure the games all get to the right warehouses when they're ready for pick up in January, with the right amounts of overage to ensure everyone gets their copy and that we have replacements close to hand in case of damage or lost parcels. Rob from Naylor Games is on top of this.

This third manufacturing wave for Deep Regrets is the biggest I've ever managed and it's been a good learning experience. I'm dealing with nine languages and over 32,000 copies of the base game and logistically that's been challenging. Navigating comms with twelve different contacts in ten different countries to traffick proofs back and forth and get approvals from everyone and ensure it's all ready for launch. I've got a lot of good learnings to take with me into all future print runs that should ensure things go more smoothly in the future. Scaling up a business is complicated stuff! I love that I get to the opportunity to navigate challenging but rewarding problems like these. Like any board gamer, I love solving problems and I love learning about new problems to solve and MAN is this the right industry for that. Thanks to all of you for helping make my job so cool.

What am I playing right now?

Fruit Boss! I had to import this sucker from the US because I'm obsessed with Weast Coast's marketing and design and I've really enjoyed their other two games so far (Snakes of Wrath and Desperate Oasis). Fruit Boss is a great little set collection duel where making compromises and taking hits or giving up points to your opponent are essential to victory. The scoring is interesting, as well - highest value card in your set multiplied by the number of cards in that set. But every set you have over three counts against you, so you're incentivised to deny your opponent high value cards, even if it impacts your score. It's a delicate balance with a tonne of style. Plus, they wrote a jingle for it. (You know I love a jingle). Check it and their other games out! 

I'll admit I ALSO imported the CMYK version of Quacks from the US at about the same time. I just love the new art style so much and the game is obviously fantastic. No regrets.

That's it for now! Have a good final few weeks of 2025! Speak to you in 2026!

- Judson 🖤