Hello dear Alterers,

Thank you for your infinite patience! We know many of you are eager to play Altered with your own cards or to experience new services, and we ourselves are eager to provide you with satisfaction!

So, today we have a big update for you and another announcement will follow on wednesday. A live AMA (Ask Me Anything) will take place on our Youtube channel on Wednesday, 15/05 at 6 PM CET to address all your questions.

2 months after the end of the Kickstarter, we finally have a better understanding of the delivery timelines. As initially announced, our aim is to deliver the Kickstarter as soon as possible, and we are doing our best to meet this goal. However, it has become impossible for us to synchronize deliveries entirely for each continent, so depending on where you live, you may observe some differences.

• EUROPE* Delivery: July (as originally planned)
• NORTHERN AMERICA Delivery: August
• REST OF THE WORLD Delivery: August/September (We have many different delivery partners, some of you will receive the KS sooner than others)

*As the Kickstarter cards are produced by Cartamundi in Belgium, we are naturally better positioned to deliver them in EUROPE first.

As a reminder, the official game release is scheduled for September 13, 2024.

Good news, these deliveries will be ready earlier than expected, and we should start shipping packages from June 15, 2024, with almost simultaneous delivery for everyone around June 24, 2024.

Following the immense success of the Kickstarter (thank you again!), and in order to minimize any product shortages upon the game's release in stores, we have chosen to significantly increase our production volumes, well beyond our initial estimates.

When producing a TCG, you need to find an industrial partner to manufacture your cards. For almost 3 years now, we’ve been in discussions with the world's leading playing card manufacturer, Cartamundi, due to its size and expertise. This is a huge industrial machine that requires anticipation and precision.

Before the start of the Kickstarter (end of 2023 to be precise) we’ve had to make a decision regarding the quantities to produce and so we based our reservation of Cartamundi's production lines on an estimate. This estimate has now been greatly exceeded due to the success of the game and we need a solution.

You might be thinking, "you could have anticipated!" Well, that's hopefully what we did! Several months before the start of the Kickstarter, we began parallel discussions with another card manufacturer, Ludo Fact. Based in Germany, Ludo Fact is a partner that offers us many advantages, including the ability to offer fully digital production. Without going into details, just know that producing large quantities in digital printing is slower but much more flexible. So, we decided to engage them to supplement the production already planned with Cartamundi and thus meet our deadlines. This change will have no impact on the recommended prices of boosters sold in stores (€3.99/$3.99).

All Kickstarter products will be produced by Cartamundi.

RETAIL products (sold in stores)

• EUROPE: Cartamundi
• REST OF THE WORLD: Ludo Fact

We are well aware of the crucial importance of this aspect of the product, and numerous back-and-forths have been made between Cartamundi and Ludo Fact to align the final outputs.

From Cartamundi's side:

• Given the very large ordered volumes, Cartamundi uses a printing technique called "offset," which involves very large traditional printing presses. These presses have the advantage of producing large volumes very quickly, but these quantities must all be identical. Due to the unique nature of the QR codes, common and rare cards printed in this way do not have a QR code once they come out of the machine. This QR code is added later, in a second factory, with another machine. Since this process is less precise than purely digital printing, it will occasionally happen that some QR codes are not perfectly centered on the white square intended for this purpose.
• Regarding unique cards, due to their low volume, these will be entirely produced digitally and thus will suffer from no printing offset.

From Ludo Fact's side:

• Since the entrusted volumes are lower, printing is possible in 100% digital, and thus all QR codes will be perfectly centered regardless of the rarity of the card.

In terms of paper quality, color accuracy, or varnish, you will not observe any significant differences between the two manufacturers. (However, it is interesting to note that even between two factories of the same manufacturer, you will always notice a slight difference in the product, due to differences in manufacturing conditions, humidity, altitude, origin of materials, etc.)

Just as we have a clearer view of card production, we are also better able to keep you updated on the availability of the digital features you are all eagerly awaiting.

As you will see below, the features in development for the Altered project will be released in a predetermined order, and as soon as possible for each of them. Altered is a project like no other, and each step represents a new challenge to achieve, especially technically. So rather than rushing and risking providing you with a service below your expectations, we prefer to opt for the wisdom of a slightly longer time to test each element in waves.

With the delivery of the Kickstarter product will come all the features you need to play for fun! After all, Altered is a game, and what do we expect from a game if not to be able to play it? By the first Kickstarter delivery you will be able to:

• Create your player accounts on Altered (this is available now)
• Create your store accounts (for retailers)
• Enjoy the functionality of scanning your cards in bulk (because without that, we can't even imagine asking you to scan cards one by one with your camera, it would take hours)
• Access your collection, with all your cards
• Access the lore of each card
• Trade cards with your friends via a friend list system (but without financial transactions via the platform)

On September 13, 2024, Altered will officially be released worldwide! On this occasion, the organized play program will begin, allowing you to regularly meet in your favorite stores and share moments around organized events, while collecting well-deserved prizes. And to ensure everything goes smoothly, by game launch you will have access to:

• A deck builder, to create your decklists and register them when participating in official Altered events.
• Stores will be able to publish their events, they will appear in the event finder, and players can register for them.
• A first version of the tournament management tool will be made available to manage and run events for stores, and record games played (start advancing on the Adventure Pass!)
• A notification system will be available to keep players informed of events near them.
• You will be able to play live on Board Game Arena with all the cards from your collection (including unique ones!)

By the end of the year, the Marketplace and Print On Demand will be available, allowing you to easily interact with any other community member, instantly!

Regarding these two specific features, we preferred to release them a little after the September 13 game launch for two very specific reasons that we want to share with you:

• These two features are heavily dependent on external partners. Whether it's the solution for managing financial flows, transactions, or the logistics of printing and sending cards, these are services provided by third parties and as such, generate much longer iteration times than when you do everything yourself.
• Like any innovative project, we regularly encounter new unexpected challenges that we need to take the time to address correctly. Don't worry, we know where we're going, but some technical aspects take time, and we prefer to communicate realistic dates, which are easier to refine today than a year ago.

At this stage, we will still have two major additions to deliver:

• A complete tournament management tool, linked to our desire to organize the first major events around Altered starting from February/March 2025 (more information to come). Including all the expected features for such a tool.
• The ability for users to use the app services in Bulk mode, meaning being able to perform certain actions in bulk rather than one by one. Especially useful when you want to handle large quantities of cards at once.

In this section, you will find some ideas that are not yet in development but will be added to the already available services at this stage. This list will be greatly influenced by your feedback, and we will be keen to listen to you to continue improving your experience with Altered!

Don't forget that a live AMA (Ask Me Anything) will take place on our Youtube channel on Wednesday, 15/05 at 6 PM CET to address all your questions.