{"id":418,"date":"2023-06-05T14:25:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T13:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=418"},"modified":"2023-06-20T12:08:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T11:08:14","slug":"japanese-developer-of-aqua-garden-ostia-puts-retail-on-hold-for-new-game-biohack-despite-kickstarter-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/05\/japanese-developer-of-aqua-garden-ostia-puts-retail-on-hold-for-new-game-biohack-despite-kickstarter-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese developer of Aqua Garden, Ostia puts retail on hold for new game Biohack despite Kickstarter success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Uchibacoya<\/a>, the Japanese developer of Aqua Garden<\/a> and Ostia<\/a>, has soared past its crowdfunding goal for medium-weight eurogame BioHack – but is holding off launching retail distribution after suffering delivery delays for its last game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publisher has raised more than $91,000 so far BioHack<\/a>, which sees players taking the roles of scientists trying to manipulate DNA to create mythical creatures – well above its initial $9,900 goal, with 25 days left for the Kickstarter campaign to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BioHack follows Uchibacoya’s big crowdfunding successes for Aqua Garden in 2020<\/a>, which raised more than $220,000, and Ostia, which collected about $185,000 from backers last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both projects suffered severe delays, however, eventually making their way to backers several months after their expected delivery dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uchibacoya hit issues with Aqua Garden, its debut Kickstarter project, thanks to the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw its shipping costs increase by about $35,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company – at the time a two-person operation – managed to renegotiate that number down to $13,000, and covered the excess shipping itself to get the game delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later the company suffered delays for Ostia after pandemic-induced city closures affected its Chinese manufacturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uchibacoya apologised for those delays repeatedly during its previous campaigns, and said to retailers in a note on the BioHack campaign that its “limited capacity” was to blame for delays in getting the retail version of those games into distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said, “We want to make sure this never happens again. This time we have decided to focus on the development of the game and will not be distributing our games through retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We hope to expand our capacity to improve management. Once we are confident of our ability, we would like to resume dealing with retailers and distributors outside of Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We kindly ask you to wait until our team has grown enough.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uchibacoya was launched by Junpei Tanaka in 2019 due to his love of “cute wooden tokens and euro games”, with the company initially specialising in making and selling in-box organisers and the production, import and sale of wooden piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It published its debut game Amalfi <\/a>in 2020, quickly followed by The Arctic<\/a> and Age of Hunting<\/a>, before striking Kickstarter success the same year with Aqua Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BioHack is designed by Yofiandhy Indrayana, with artwork from Tatsuki Asano and Iqbal Ridzuan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Uchibacoya, the Japanese developer of Aqua Garden and Ostia, has soared past its crowdfunding goal for medium-weight eurogame BioHack – but is holding off launching retail distribution for the game after suffering delays to its previous Kickstarter campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[157,154,25,155,58,158,156],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-aqua-garden","tag-biohack","tag-crowdfunding","tag-japan","tag-kickstarter","tag-ostia","tag-uchibacoya"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t