I started supporting projects on Kickstarter back in 2017. One of the first projects I supported was a strategy board game called Trench.
But I had no idea that clicking that button would take me on a six-year journey that transformed from a simple bit of puzzly business to a heartwarming story of a father’s devotion to finishing his son’s work.
The story begins in October 19, 2017, when Trench was successfully funded by its backers. The projected delivery date was April 2018.
Inspired by trench warfare, the game was created by Rui Montero with a limited production run, primarily based in Portugal.
Here’s a brief description of the game:
The 8×8 grid board is diamond-shaped; each player sets up his army on opposing sides of the “trench”, which divides the board into two. As hostilities between the armies commanded by the players grow, each attempts to seize control over the trench in order to take full advantage of its strategic potential, hoping thus to breach the opponent’s defenses and capture the most valuable and important pieces.
From the Soldiers to the General, each piece being subject to specific maneuvers all will have to cooperate in order to occupy the trench, invade the enemy’s territory, and vanquish the foe. The army that manages to survive after two battles wins the game!
In the hopes of achieving greater exposure, a more successful print run for the game, and the creation of a hardcover strategy guide to accompany the game, Montero brought the project to Stan Strickland and his son Mike. With two successful Kickstarter campaigns already underway for their company Outer Limit Games, Stan and Mike accepted this new endeavor.
Stan was kind enough to share some insight into the project with me:
Rui was in the process of writing a book on strategies for Trench. He asked Mike if he could also help him put the book together. Mike was very talented graphically so he agreed. The reason Mike wanted to create a game was he loved graphic designing. His passion was not games but creativity through his graphic designing. He also loved creating music.
Rui said the book would be a little over a 100 pages but ended up being over 200 pages long. Mike and both were busy trying to complete Tau Ceti and Tradeworlds so it was an added responsibility for Mike. Mike always tried to lend a helping hand whenever he could so he agreed to help Rui. Rui had already had great success with Trench in Europe so the game garnered international attention.
The new Kickstarter campaign was a success, leading to production of three versions of Trench: a miniature version, a regular version, and a premium edition. By November of 2017, production was underway! Backers received regular progress updates. The game was nominated by Board Game Geek as one of the Most Anticipated Games of 2018.
As with any Kickstarter project in those days, there were production days. The estimated April 2018 delivery date came and went. The factory manufacturing the game pieces for the premium edition ended up changing locations. But the Trench team was optimistic production would be finished by May of 2018. The Strategy Guide was also behind schedule, but Mark and Stan were firm on the idea that the strategy guide would ship with the games.
Production on the premium version of the game was finally completed at the end of August (though the Strategy Guide continued to need revisions). By the end of September, the premium version was ready to ship, but the regular version and Strategy Guide still were not.
By the end of the year, fulfillment still hadn’t happened, due to logistical problems.
While all of this was going on, Rui was still writing the Strategy Guide. Because the cost of shipping had started to rise, we quickly realized we would have to ship the game and book together to save on shipping. We explained it to the backers and for the most part they understood. There were some complainers but we knew we had to do what we had to do to pull it off. Mike continued to work on the graphics for the game, while I worked on securing a manufacturer for the book and the mini version of the game. We were both working full time at the time as well. So needless to say, it was quite a task running 3 campaigns at once.
Mike was hit with a nasty bout of respiratory flu in early 2019. (An unfortunate consequence of 70+ hour weeks working on Trench and the other campaigns.) But the team was optimistic that everything would now ship by April 2019.
The team was incredibly honest about the delays, the challenges they faced, and the reasons why certain decisions were being made. Although a delay of more than a year is obviously frustrating, I firmly believe that such honesty and transparency goes a long way with backers, and the sincerity that suffused every update from Mike kept all of us enthusiastic and patient regarding Trench.
By June, the Strategy Guide was nearing completion and getting ready to head to the printers, marking the final piece of the fulfillment puzzle before shipping out the games in a financially feasible fashion. Communication and quality issues with the printers pushed things out further, with the end of July as the new projected deadline.
But in September, backers were informed that Mike would be stepping away from the project:
Fortunately, we’re a two-person business. However Mike is having to drop out for a bit due to health reasons. This project and others have taken a toll on all of us, but Mike especially. So for that reason, he is taking a step back to focus on getting himself back to a point where he is able to balance this business, and all the demands and pressures of life as well. He has been overloaded the past few years and has taken on far more stress than he probably should have, so I’m stepping in to take over all the obligations that he has been trying to handle.
What does that mean? It means that I’ll be doing my best to fill in areas that he was handling, but things are just going to be a bit slower since I’m only one person. I know that’s not what everyone wants to hear, but it’s reality and I’m certainly going to do my best to keep the project moving along as quickly as possible.
At 66 years old, Stan stepped up, handling both the continued logistical challenges of dealing with Trench and communication with the Kickstarter backers through regular updates. Stan continued the tradition of honest, forthright posts, explaining that Trench was overbudget (mostly due to increased production expenses and the ballooning size of the Strategy Guide), but he still intended to deliver the game as planned.
But December caught everyone by surprise.
On December 2, 2019, Mike passed away unexpectedly due to heart failure. He was only 38 years old.
I was heartbroken when I read the update. Mike and Stan had worked so hard to try to deliver on all the promises made by the Kickstarter campaign. I had spent the last two years following all the ups and downs of the project, and honestly, I had grown to really like Mike. His passion, his dedication, his creativity… all of these wonderful qualities came through in every message, every progress update. His enthusiasm for the job was undeniable.
We were totally devastated. I tried to carry on with all three games even though I realized it would be a monumental task especially since I did not have the graphic skills that Mike had. I kept in touch with the backers and some were very kind and others complained because things were running behind. I was moving as fast as I could on all projects, trying to complete quotes, manufacturing, etc.
In April of that year, an official update went out to all Kickstarter backers about Mike’s passing:
It has been a very tough few months and we greatly miss him so much. My wife, daughter, and I struggle everyday with the reality that we no longer have Mike around. It is without a doubt the toughest thing a parent could ever deal with. And of course, our daughter Heather and Mike were very close so it’s been really hard on her.
On the bright side, we know we will see Mike again one day in Heaven. It is that assurance and our faith that has gotten us through this tough time. My wife, daughter and I are together in Upstate NY taking much needed time together in order that we might heal, reflect and deal with the loss of Mike.
…
Mike was the impetus of OLG [Outer Limit Games], and truly a creative genius. Unfortunately with Mike’s quick and unexpected passing, I had no time to prepare for the task ahead of me. I was his sidekick and truly a novice at all of this.
The project had stalled again due to the pandemic and worldwide lockdowns. But Stan continued to update the backers on how the family was doing, how the manufacturing process was changed during COVID, and wishing everyone well.
In October of 2020, we learned that the Strategy Guide was finally in the hands of the printers. Sadly, the anniversary of Mike’s passing was also the projected delivery date of Trench to all of the Kickstarter backers.
Unfortunately, both illness and COVID struck again early in 2021, as mentioned in this update:
I hope everyone is doing wonderful and staying safe and well. I ended up with Covid double pneumonia in January. It has been a very tough last few months as my wife, daughter and mother-in-law all ended up getting Covid too. Fortunately, they recovered quickly. Me on the other hand, with Covid double pneumonia, my heart became enlarged too. I am slowly but surely recovering.
It would take the lion’s share of 2021 for Stan to recover from double pneumonia.
At this point, to save on money, Trench would be shipped alongside another Outer Limit Games project, Tradewinds, in order to save on shipping costs. Tradewinds was projected to be fulfilled by late fall 2021.
But once again, December rolled around with some bad news in store.
The premium edition was done and ready to go. The miniature version of the game had already been scrapped, but there were now serious challenges regarding what was now known as the basic version of Trench.
I believe about 50+ backers backed this game. When it was conceived, it was to be a much smaller and basic version of the Trench game. The backers who backed it, paid $29 USD for it. That portion of the KS donated about $1500 USD to the campaign. As of today, we have spent over $4600 on the basic version. I recently contacted the manufacturer, to let them know we were getting ready for shipment. He surprised me with a storage fee of almost $1500. This caught me totally off guard because Mike wasn’t aware of it before he passed away, which was 2 years ago yesterday. Boy do I miss him!!
In short, to deliver the basic version of the game would cost $200 per copy of the game. It would catastrophically affect the entire campaign. The manufacturer gave Stan an ultimatum: either pay the $1500 or he would destroy the games.
Looking at his storage fee and the cost of shipping, and then fulfillment costs, I had only one decision I could honestly make. With that said, those of you that backed that level, I will gladly refund your money or give you a credit to purchase one of the deluxe games. I am so sorry about this but I am sure you would agree the basic version really is cost prohibited. We should have a limited number of the deluxe versions available. I hope you understand the tough decision I had to make.
In spite of every obstacle, Stan soldiered on.
In April of 2022, logistics finally began to fall into place for Trench. Printing of the Strategy Guide had been pushed to May to avoid potential damage to the books during storage or transit.
In May, Stan mentioned that the increase in fees, fuel costs, and shipping costs due to COVID might force him to reach out to the backers to help handle the final cost of fulfillment. Further updates followed in September and December.
In January of 2023, the backers were asked to cover the shipping of the games in order to complete fulfillment.
This is where I will need your help. As much as I would love to cover the costs of fulfillment, it just isn’t possible. I realize this was part of the plan in our KS campaign but all costs of shipping, fulfillment have skyrocketed. When my son Michael passed away unexpectedly in 2019, I was forced to make a tough decision on whether to cancel the project or continue. I decided I would do my best to complete the project. It has been anything but easy without him as I knew very little about this game or project. Needless to say; I wanted to see it come to fruition for Mike’s sake as well as yours.
At 69 and living on a fixed income, I don’t have the money to pay for fulfillment. There are just so many unknown and unexpected expenses that came along during this project. Not to mention, dealing with the ever changing global exchange rates. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion, the only way to get the game and Strategy Guide to you will be for you to cover your own shipping.
I asked Stan how the backers reacted to this, and he said, “For the most part, the backers were understanding. There were some games that weren’t shipped but most were delivered.”
As a backer myself, I was happy to contribute once more to this project to see Mike’s dream delivered.
But the question of the Strategy Guide still remained.
Originally budgeted for a physical printing at 100 pages, all the additional edits and changes more than doubled the size of the book.
Mike always had too much on his plate. I know he was stressed trying to complete the Strategy Guide for Trench because Rui continued to add more and more changes to the book. Even after Mike completed pages, he’d have to go back and redo them.
In April of 2023, the decision was finally made to cancel printing the Strategy Guide as a physical book and deliver it to backers as a PDF.
Stan explained the financials to the backers with his typical honesty:
Before the shipping/freight to the US, we had $3280.70 left in the KS Campaign funds. After paying the $4406 for freight, the campaign is -$1,125.30 in the red. I still have another $1939.31 to spend for storage and shipping to our local shipping service. I will have paid $3,064.61 out of my pocket when it’s all said and done. If I had spent the $1680 to print the Strategy Guide, I would be a little over -$4744.61 out of pocket. With me living on a fixed income I just can’t afford that.
With a confirmed deadline of May 31, 2023 to get the shipping paid for, the light at the end of the tunnel had finally neared.
My copy of Trench arrived that summer. It felt unreal to actually hold the game in my hands. I was so moved by the journey and effort that went into it.
On August 28th, Stan sent out his final email to Trench backers, nearly six years after the game had initially reached its funding goals:
I wanted to personally thank all of you that supported Trench. I wish you all the very best.
Trench has an average rating of 7.7/10 on Board Game Geek. Four hundred and sixty-four backers supported the project.
And one incredibly dedicated father worked his fingers to the bone to make sure his son’s promises were kept.
When all was said and done, I had lost thousands of dollars on the projects but knew I did the best I could to finish the projects, and more so, for the legacy of Mike. Some backers were still upset and I understood but I knew I did everything I could to make each project a reality. As much as a task it was, it was worth completing it for Mike’s sake. Before he passed away, he had put hundreds of hours in each project.
After playing Trench again recently, I went back through my emails and reread all of the updates from Mike and Stan over that six-year period. I decided to reach out to Stan, to see how he was… and to let him know I was thinking of him and Mike.
He was kind enough to not only respond, but share so many of his thoughts and insights on the project as a whole. I asked his permission to share this story with the world, and he very kindly obliged.
I asked him how he was doing, and his reply felt like the perfect conclusion to this post:
We are doing fine but miss Mike so much. We know we will see him again in Heaven. I am truly am thankful to be finished with all of the games. I was determined to finish each one the best I could in the memory of Mike. I know Mike is looking down from Heaven and smiling. As tough as it was, I am thankful God gave me the ability to complete them.
I hope this helps you understand more about Mike. I hope you and your family have a blessed Christmas and New Year.
Thank you, Stan, for everything.
PuzzCulture 