A fantasy worker placement game from Haakon Hoel Gaarder, designer & illustrator of Villagers, Streets, and Moon.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Yonder Progress Update #5
9 months ago
– Fri, Sep 12, 2025 at 07:31:26 PM
Hey everyone,
I'm sorry this update is late. We've had a hectic summer with kids at home and lots of Sinister stuff happening, but I finally have good news for you all: we have placed the manufacturing order for Yonder. Huzzah!
I currently have no start & finish dates, but as soon as I get that information, I will pass it on. At this stage of the game I don't like to estimate, because the manufacturing & shipping process is completely out of my hands. If it's OK with you guys, I will just report on what is happening and hold off on any guesswork.
That is literally the news for this update. Thankyou so much for your patience once again, and apologies to the nervous people in the comments - I do understand your frustration.
Now, if you were in a hurry, you can dip out here, and I thank you for your attention. But, if you want to know more, and especially if you need help sleeping, then I am here for you! The following wall of dry text that you have apparently elected to read will give you some insight into what riveting office work we've been forcing ourselves to do behind the scenes for the last couple of months...
There has been some upheaval with the way we distribute our games. This is about the retail side of the business and nothing much to do with crowdfunding, but there is some knock-on effect. Basically, our one & only distributor (or rather consolidator - Flat River Group - who sell our games to other distributors on our behalf) are getting out of the hobby games business, citing the instability caused by volatile US tariffs as the main driver behind their decision. Most of FRG's clients (including us) are now moving to Luma Imports for US distribution, leaving our existing retail stock in limbo while it moves to the new warehouse. Flat River Group used to handle our distribution sales for the entire world, and it was a very low-admin deal which suited us very well: we would release a game, FRG would take a bunch of copies and sell them for us worldwide. Amazing! But not so much when it suddenly stops. So rather than leave all our eggs in one basket again with Luma, we decided to let them handle the US only and we'd look for new partnerships with distributors in the UK, Europe, and around the world. Fast forward to now, and we have several deals in place, and waiting on a few more to finalise. We had hoped to get this done sooner and secure pre-orders for the retail edition of Yonder, which we wanted to print alongside the Kickstarter editions. However, we're not quite there with the pre-orders yet, so rather than make you guys wait even longer, we've taken the decision to delay the entire retail release until early next year. Other than the time lost these last two months, this won't effect Kickstarter fulfilment at all, it will just mean you get your copies well before the retail release (other than the retailers who backed the campaign of course!).
So there you have it - I should have talked about this stuff as it was happening but I naively thought we could navigate it without causing any complications with this campaign. It would have been good to print everything at the same time because it makes the shipping and some components cheaper, but I know many of you are done waiting, and so am I.
Inbetween meetings and waiting for people to email us back, we did get some other work done, so in very-brief-but-way-more-fun news:
Tulip Season is going to print with Yonder and will have a discounted pre-order soon.
We signed a really fun & mean little card game that I like more than Flip 7.
Work has started on Villagers: Big Box. I've done a new double-sided playmat, and Haakon is putting together a combined rulebook. This one will come to Kickstarter only when it's completely done & dusted!
We're in development on an unannounced card game which you can help playtest if you wish. Join us on Discord or Facebook and look out for announcements.
Yonder Progress Update #4
11 months ago
– Tue, Jul 01, 2025 at 02:27:20 PM
Hey everyone!
So I have the Yonder Deluxe Edition sample in hand, and it’s wonderful!
First up, I want to give you a condensed picture of where we are overall, and then I’ll share some more pictures of the sample.
We need to make a few improvements to the rulebook. Those will be done this week.
We’re waiting on new improved samples of the “1” value metal coins.
We’ll make the manufacturing order when these issues have been corrected.
We’re delaying the US retail release for a while, although retailers who backed Kickstarter copies will get theirs along with other backers.
US backers will be asked to pay any extra fees relating to tariffs on goods from China. We plan to charge for this via the pledge manager.
Deluxe Edition Bits
The view from the top. Everything fits so nicely! Yes, there's room for sleeved cards in there.
Resource trays are so cute! I can't fault them.
Boaty good worker trays.
The large "V" coins have the improved straight edges, and the smaller coins will be the same in the production version. Deluxe Arcana tokens look good enough to eat!
Deluxe Edition comes with four of these player component boxes. You'll need to put everything in them the first time, but who doesn't love organising game components!
Deluxe Edition atop the Kickstarter (and retail) edition box. It a heckin' chonk!
What Else is Happening?
With the delays to Yonder, we've managed to push on with some other projects:
We're expecting sample copies of our new direct to retail game, Tulip Season to arrive very soon. We'll do a pre-order for it via our website sooner or later, and I'll be showing more once the samples arrive.
I'm designing a game! Can't say much until I've tested it some more, but things are really starting to come together and I'm thoroughly enjoying the process. Art & design is happening alongside development, which is probably an odd way to do things, but I have access to a pre-existing trove of wonderful unreleased art so I figured it would be wrong to make a scrappy-looking prototype. More in good time...
Haakon and I are hatching up something that's still a HUGE secret. Oh I'll just tell you - it's a Villagers "big box" edition, which will include everything ever made for Villagers, plus some new villager cards and other fun stuff! I would put my money on a Kickstarter late this year / early next.
That's all for now!
If you need help with anything, you can reach me on [email protected] - we are backed up a bit, but I will get to you.
Until next time...
Take care, and play games!
Dave Clarke www.sinisterfish.com
Yonder Progress Update #3
about 1 year ago
– Sat, May 03, 2025 at 04:52:34 PM
Hey everyone - Dave here, and I'm sorry for the radio silence. I'm still having a rough time here with illness & lack of childcare keeping me from my desk, but Yonder lives on! I have had to make some difficult decisions around the dreaded tariffs however, so let's get that out of the way first.
US / China Tariffs
To be clear, the following only applies to backers in the USA.
The White House’s new import duty on Chinese goods now tops out at 145%. Board games (HS 9504) are currently caught in that net, which adds about $23 in duty to every Deluxe copy of Yonder.
Because the tariff rate can change with no notice, even while a container is on the water, I’m not comfortable shipping your games until things stabilise. So, I am proposing a delay on delivery of US Kickstarter pledges until the tariff situation eases or becomes more predictable.
The alternative is to ship ASAP and accept that I'm going to have to charge you 145% of the manufacturing cost of your pledge. I'd do this through BackerKit.
Why I'm Proposing a Delay
A mid‑voyage tariff hike could drop another bill on us all.
Re‑invoicing a thousand backers at the last minute would be an admin nightmare and could leave Sinister Fish holding a debt we can’t cover.
Talks between Washington and Beijing are underway, but no timeline yet. There’s a chance the tariff drops or our product code gets exempted.
Are There Other Alternatives?
Moving production of the game to another country - maybe Vietnam or Poland where tariffs are lower, would mean starting the production process again with a completely new partner. It would also add months to the schedule and almost certainly make the game more expensive to produce, possibly negating any benefit of lower tariffs.
Manufacturing in the US is not currently an option.
Shipping from China via another country and then on to the US doesn't change the origin of the goods. Claiming that the goods didn't originate in China would be illegal.
I'm Listening
I understand that US backers will be upset about this. I would be too. I'm open to suggestions as long as we can keep it civil & free of political arguments. Please feel free to hit the comments & let me know how you feel about all this, and what you'd do in my shoes. I am listening.
If you'd rather bail, I will honour refund requests until the games have been manufactured. You can reach me on [email protected]
Pre-Production Continues
I had a few tweaks to make to the rulebook and the deluxe edition player boxes - these have been delivered. We subsequently received and approved the latest e-proof (basically PDFs of the final print files) with a couple of simple errors to correct.
We also needed to change the size of the GameTrayz insert to allow for the thicker board I mentioned in the last update. This change took a while to be implemented, but these images are from the final files...
The next step is to get our hands on physical prototypes before we give the OK for mass production. I am hoping to get news of when that might be this coming week.
I have images of the new metal coin samples, which I hope you agree look much better than the first attempt. Our manufacturer was able to use a different process which eliminates the casting line around the edge of the coins - they're "Sample C" on the right in this image. I think they're a great representation of recently minted but heavily traded currency from a rapidly expanding fantasy city-state! I have approved them and am awaiting physical samples.
And that is all for now. I won't leave it so long next time!
Thanks for sticking with me while I navigate this bloody tariff mess!
Yonder Progress Update #2
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Jan 29, 2025 at 05:47:42 AM
Hello there!
It's been a while, I know. I hope you're all doing well.
We've been making steady progress on getting Yonder ready for manufacturing, and we're very close now. I'll detail all that shortly, but first, important pledge manager news!
Pledge Manager Closing
We are going to close the pledge manager and lock orders this coming Monday, February 3rd. Then on February 5th we'll charge cards for shipping fees and add-ons. If you haven't given us your payment and shipping address details yet, now is the time because we need to know final numbers for manufacturing.
You should have received an email from BackerKit with your unique survey URL for Yonder. We need you to complete the survey so we have your shipping address, and so we can collect shipping fees. If you don't have the URL, you can retrieve it here, using the same email address you use for Kickstarter.
If you used Apple's "Hide My Email" feature when you backed this project, we will need to update your BackerKit account to a regular email address. Please email [email protected] if that's the case.
GameTrayz Ahoy!
We finally got the production files from GameTrayz! We think the deluxe insert is going to look great and work well in getting the game out & ready to play quickly. The insert for the Kickstarter and Retail editions will be a much more spartan affair, in the tradition of many great Eurogames!
As soon as they come back from the Chinese New Year holiday, our manufacturer is going to make the insert moulds and do some test runs so we can double check everything fits properly. There's a chance we'll have to tweak the box size, but that's a simple job.
Deluxe Coins & Tokens
The Deluxe edition gets metal coins & nice acrylic Arcana tokens. This was the first sample of them we received...
Despite favourable lighting conditions for this photo, the coins look a bit too dull & dirty. We'd prefer them to look newer & shinier, so we'll be getting a new sample soon. Other than that, the size & weight of the coins is very pleasing!
There was a miscommunication about the colour of the Arcana tokens, which should be a transparent blue. The ones we were sent aren't transparent, so we're waiting on another sample. I'll show you those next time.
Rulebook
We made a few edits for clarity, plus we spotted a major goof - books have to have a page count divisible by four (of course!) and ours was 18 pages. Oops! We solved this by removing the solo rules from the book and putting them on a separate sheet, which should help single players learn the game a bit easier.
White Sample
Ahead of the insert being tested, the manufacturer has sent us a "white sample" of the Deluxe edition - that is, a copy of the game with no print on the components. This is so we can check the size & quailty of the components before we move on to fitting them in the insert. Only one thing needs to be changed - the 1.5mm card used for the board is a little too thin so we'll increase it to 2mm. Including the printed paper on each side, we'll end up with a much sturdier 2.5mm board.
The first test we did on receiving the sample, naturally, was to check if a cat fits in the box. Perkins was keen to oblige (without even being asked!), so that's one less thing to worry about. Very few publishers check this, and it's just one of the things we do differently here to look after you guys.
Customer Support
If you need help with any aspect of your pledge, please email [email protected] - the inbox is currently empty & hungry for messages!
I Said Good Day, Sir!
Thanks for reading, thanks for backing Yonder, and thanks for your patience!
We'll see you next time. Until then, take care & play games!
Yonder Progress Update #1
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 08:35:04 AM
Hello there!
I realise it's been a while since I updated, and I apologise. The short story is that everything on pre-production is going well, and despite some issues we are very close to having final print files.
The slightly longer version is that I've been facing a few family & health related challenges which have resulted in me not spending as much time at my desk as I'd like. Thankfully, Haakon and Anthony have been taking care of most of the file production and proofing, so work has progressed well in that area. For my part, I'm having to prioritise tasks which has meant I'm horribly behind on customer support, and the pledge manager is really late.
The only other real problem is that we don't yet have the final Deluxe edition insert files from GameTrayz. We can't give the green light for mass production until this happens, and even then we'll need to have moulds made and approve prototypes etc. So we are going to miss our preferred printing schedule which would have seen the game produced before Chinese New Year. The manufacturer tells us they can prioritise our print run after the holiday, which is from late January to early February.
I've done this enough times now not to trust any projected date suggested by anyone ever. It will be done when it's done, and I'll keep you all informed of progress along the way.
Deluxe Insert
Here's some work-in-progress pics of what GameTrayz are cooking up for us (in their slow cooker).
There's actually a surprise hidden in these images - those green boxes you see are cardboard tuckboxes we've added to keep player pieces in. This will make setting up the game even quicker!
Yes, sleeved cards will fit :D
The insert will contain 4 removable "Trayz"; two shaped like boats containing worker meeples, and 2 representing the Yonder city skyline containing all the resource tokens. Between them they hold all the necessary components to play the game and keep them accessible from two sides of the table!
In Other News...
Print files are all done apart from packaging for the free expansion content and the deluxe edition box, which depends on GameTrayz. The general box design is done so once we know the final size it will be a fast turnaround.
We have a final rulebook! You can read it here. Solo rules will be on a separate sheet, here.
Pledge manager will open this week if all goes according to plan. Watch out for emails from BackerKit!
Shipping prices will remain the same as advertised on the campaign.
Wizards & Co. & Coin Chests on Sale Now
If you're looking for some cheeky Christmas gifts for your loved ones or yourself, our latest releases are in our store now with shipping to most of the world. Check out Wizards & Co. and our funky new Coin Chests!
That is all for now my friends. You can reach me on [email protected] for help with any issues, but please be patient. I will get back to you but I am kind of swamped right now.
