A Garden Update & The Road to Your Door 🌱
14 days ago
– Tue, Aug 04, 2026 at 08:27:36 AM
Hello CavernCritters!
Before we jump into discussing fulfillment, we wanted to take a moment to share a little bit of life from the Powell garden.
One of the things that inspired Vine was the joy of growing something together, and this summer we've been living that every day in our own backyard. Our garden has become a family project, with all four kids helping plant, water, weed, harvest, and of course... occasionally snack on vegetables before they ever make it inside.
This year we invested a lot into building out the infrastructure of our garden. While we've learned our soil isn't quite as nutrient-rich as we'd hoped (everything is growing a little slower than expected), it's been incredibly rewarding watching everything come to life nonetheless.
Our bean teepee is flourishing, the pumpkins are taking off, peppers and peas have been making their way to the dinner table, the tomatoes are ripe and plentiful, and we're even getting a second round of strawberries.
Gardening has reminded us that growing something worthwhile always takes patience. You prepare the soil, put in the work, adapt when things don't go according to plan, and keep moving forward. In many ways, this Kickstarter has felt remarkably similar. There has been plenty of excitement, a few unexpected setbacks, and a lot of growth along the way—but we're finally reaching the harvest.
Now, onto fulfillment.
🗽 United States Backers
The good news is that fulfillment officially begins this week!
Our fulfillment partner will begin with a small wave of orders, and those backers should begin receiving tracking numbers this week. This initial batch allows us to verify that everything is flowing smoothly before moving into full-scale fulfillment.
The remainder of U.S. orders are expected to begin shipping approximately 2–3 weeks later as inventory arrives at our fulfillment center and processing ramps up.
Before we get into the details, however, we wanted to address something many of you have been discussing: U.S. shipping costs.
First and foremost, we completely understand the frustration. We're frustrated by these costs as well.
When we originally estimated shipping during the campaign, we fully intended to fulfill these orders ourselves, as we've done with many of our previous projects. Unfortunately, the project ultimately reached fulfillment much later than we originally anticipated, and by that point our original fulfillment plan was no longer the right fit.
Rather than risk introducing additional delays while restructuring our operations, we made the difficult decision to partner with a third-party logistics company (3PL) to fulfill Vine.
This isn't how we normally operate. We strongly prefer fulfilling our own projects because it gives us greater control over the process while keeping costs lower whenever possible. In this case, however, partnering with an experienced fulfillment company was the best way to get games into your hands without delaying the project even further.
That decision unfortunately came with higher fulfillment costs than we originally anticipated.
We never want our backers to bear unexpected costs resulting from circumstances outside their control. Once fulfillment is complete and we've had an opportunity to review the project's final costs, we'll explore whether there's a meaningful way we can help offset some of these unexpected expenses. We can't make any promises today, but we wanted you to know we're actively looking into it.
Over the past several years, you've placed an incredible amount of trust in us, and we don't take that lightly. While we can't undo every challenge this project has faced, we want to continue earning that trust by being transparent, taking responsibility where we can, and doing everything possible to make this project right.
Please keep in mind that this issue is isolated to U.S. backers. If you're located outside the United States, please see the section below.
Thank you for your understanding, your patience, and your grace as we navigate this season of growth.
🌍 International Backers
For our international backers, we have some good news.
Your fulfillment is proceeding through the fulfillment network we originally planned to use, so shipping costs should remain consistent with what was originally expected. While the overall timeline has certainly been delayed, the shipping process itself has not encountered the same challenges as our U.S. fulfillment.
International orders are also expected to begin shipping over the next couple of weeks.
If, however, you notice anything that doesn't seem right—particularly if your shipping charges appear different than expected—please reach out to us directly at [email protected].
We'll gladly review your pledge individually to make sure everything is correct. We don't currently anticipate widespread issues with international shipping, so if something appears off, we'd much rather investigate it than have you worry about it.
🎲 Gen Con
We just returned from an incredible week at Gen Con!
Between running events, meeting so many of you in person, and introducing hundreds of players to Vine, it was an unforgettable convention. We even managed to survive a tornado lockdown, a flooded convention center, and the outdoor block party tents being completely destroyed by severe weather. It certainly wasn't a boring week!
The response to both Vine Standard and Pumpkins & Beetles was overwhelmingly positive, and seeing so many people genuinely enjoy the game was an incredibly encouraging reminder of why we've worked so hard to bring this project to life.
We also wanted to address something we know some backers may have wondered about.
Months ago, we committed to hosting official Gen Con events where attendees could purchase tickets that included a copy of Vine. At the time those commitments were made, we fully expected backer fulfillment to be well underway before Gen Con arrived. Unfortunately, production delays caused those timelines to overlap.
To honor those existing commitments, a limited number of copies were provided exclusively for the event space. We did not sell Vine in the main exhibit hall, and we intentionally limited availability to only what was necessary to run our event space.
We completely understand why seeing copies at Gen Con before receiving yours could be frustrating, and we sincerely appreciate your understanding as we honored commitments that had been made long before these delays occurred. All other retail orders and sales will be fulfilled after we have sent all of the Kickstarter rewards.
We'll share much more about Gen Con once we've had a chance to recover and debrief, but we wanted you to know just how excited people were to experience Vine for the very first time.
🎉 Local Pickup
As fulfillment gets underway, we'd love to celebrate this milestone with those of you who are nearby!
Join us for our Local Vine Pickup Event at Great Oaks Tavern in Wadsworth on August 18 beginning at 6:00 PM, where your copy of Vine will be ready and waiting for pickup.
If you're able to stick around afterward, we'd love for you to join us for a game night featuring Vine, along with great food, great company, and an evening celebrating the incredible journey that brought us here.
❤️ Thank You
Every Kickstarter project teaches us something, and this one has certainly taught us a lot.
While this journey hasn't unfolded exactly as we originally envisioned, we're incredibly grateful for your patience, your encouragement, and your belief in what we're building here at The Cavern.
Whether you've been with us since our very first campaign or Vine is your introduction to our family, thank you for trusting us with your support. It truly means more than we can express.
We're incredibly excited to finally get Vine into your hands.
As fulfillment continues, we'll send another update letting everyone know when tracking numbers are live in BackerKit and what to expect next.
Until then, thank you for helping us continue growing this little garden together.
We can't wait to start seeing photos of your vines, your tables, and your very first games of Vine making their way into homes around the world.
— Bobby & The Cavern Team 🌱
Fulfilment Imminent, final notice before shipment!
about 2 months ago
– Wed, Jul 01, 2026 at 08:32:10 AM
Hello Cavern Critters,
We're getting closer to the finish line, and we've got a few important updates to help make fulfillment go as smoothly as possible.
📦 BackerKit Shipping Update
We've officially updated shipping pricing in BackerKit, and the new rates are now live for everyone who has completed their pledge.
At this point, the biggest thing we need from everyone is to log into your BackerKit pledge manager and confirm your shipping address. Even if you don't think anything has changed, please take a moment to double check your information before fulfillment begins.
For those of you in Northeast Ohio, we're also happy to offer local pickup. Please email us, at [email protected] and we can assign you properly. This local pickup will be available at Great Oaks Tavern in Wadsworth Ohio.
We hope to click go, and then export by the end of the week, so we can start fulfilling orders in a few weeks.
One important note: we will not be offering pickups at conventions. As much as we'd love to, the logistics of tracking convention pickups alongside fulfillment quickly become unmanageable. Local pickups will be coordinated separately once fulfillment begins.
🚚 Production Progress Update
We're thrilled to say that fulfillment is just around the corner.
Many of the alternate components are already completed and in hand, including the enamel pins and playmat bags. Several other components are already on their way to our fulfillment partners, and final production is coming together quickly.
Every week brings us one step closer to getting Vine into your hands, and we couldn't be more excited.
🦝Raccoon Character Name Update
So, we thought we were going to get to announce the name of the raccoon from our previous poll in this update, but it turns out that all of your names were too good. Literally 1 vote separated the top 5 responses, which were all way ahead of the rest. We're doing a finale vote with only our top 5 submissions, because we got so many votes in the last poll.
Click here to cast your VOTE
🎲 Conventions
We had an incredible time showing off many of the final production components at Origins, and we'll be bringing them with us again to Gen Con.
This year you'll find us in the stadium as part of Bear Left HQ, where we'll be running Vine events and showcasing all of our newest storage solutions from CavernHold.
There are still a limited number of seats available for our Vine events. Some are simply free events, while others include a copy of Vine, or even Vine and the Pumpkins & Beetles expansion as part of your ticket.
If you backed only the base game and have been curious about the expansion, this is a great opportunity to try it. And if you're already getting everything, we'd still love for you to stop by, play a game, and say hello.
🌱 Thank You
Vine will continue to grow, but this little seed of an idea is finally entering its harvest season, and that simply wouldn't have been possible without all of you.
We know we missed our original timeline, and we're incredibly grateful for your patience and understanding throughout the process. Seeing the final production pieces come together has only reinforced that taking the extra time was the right decision. We truly believe you're going to be delighted with the final product.
Thank you for believing in us, supporting CavernWire, and helping Vine grow into something special.
Best Regards,
The Vine Team at CavernWire Games
Fulfilment Timeline Update, Origins Game Fair Discounts, and Raccoon Poll now Live
3 months ago
– Sat, May 30, 2026 at 07:48:14 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Production Underway, Deluxe Components, Shipping, and a New Character
4 months ago
– Wed, Apr 29, 2026 at 12:46:11 PM
Hi Cavern Critters,
We’ve got a big milestone to share today, and it’s one we’ve been very excited to reach. 💚
🛠️ Base Game Production Is Underway
Everything for the Vine base game is officially in print. It has been for a little while, but we were waiting to share the news once we had enough information to warrant a full update.
That includes the rulebooks, tiles, cards, bags, and all wooden components. Full-scale production is now underway, and it feels great to see everything moving from planning into reality.
This is a huge step forward, and we’re excited with how smoothly things are progressing so far.
🎲 Deluxe Components Update
These items were the last to get approved since we had revisions that we needed to make in order to get them to the premium level that we wanted you to have.
First, the upgraded silicone water droplets. We are blown away by how fun and squishy these new water droplets are! They are more fun to play with than we ever imagined, but you gotta be careful, while they look appetizing, they ARE NOT EDIBLE!
We had to go through a couple of rounds of revisions to get the clarity just right for these droplets. With the final samples in, we're excited for you to be able to experience these final revisions at your table. They have a slight texture to them with a translucent coloring to give them a fun and vibrant tactile experience.
We also got in our finalized samples of acrylic tiles for our deluxe versions of the game. While we’re on the subject of acrylic tiles, we wanted to let everyone know that because oil prices have gone up as a result of current global conditions, the cost of acrylic has gone up significantly.
Rest assured we are still going to produce everyone’s deluxe versions of the game, but we’ll be ordering far fewer after the campaign. We just wanted to let you know that your deluxe versions are more rare than you may have initially imagined, and potentially more sought after until we’re able to do a second print run.
We also wanted to share images of what to expect for those of you that purchased deluxe pieces, there's just so much to be excited about at this stage! Look at these shiny acrylic tiles here:
🎒 Vine Playmat Bag Update
The next major update is about the Vine Playmat Bag. We wanted to let everyone know that it’s now bigger and better.
The bag will now be built to accommodate all 8 playmats. This is because we’ve seen an increasing number of you order all 8 playmats, and we didn’t want you to be forced to leave any behind.
This upgrade should allow the people who bought the core 6 to slide them in easier, while also making the bag more versatile for use overall.
📦 Pledge Manager and Shipping
We’re also getting ready for the next stage of the pledge manager, which is shipping.
We’re planning to get the rates locked in next month, so keep a lookout for your survey email. We’re also currently working out the logistics of offering some in-person pickup options for conventions, but that information will follow in future updates.
While we’re on the subject of the pledge manager, if anyone still needs to make final changes to their order, we're working on being able to unlock your order for a brief window of time. If you email [email protected] we can assist you in any changes that need to be made, it may be easier to go to our website and add pre-orders there. (same pricing applies) There's also about 8-9% of you that haven't filled out your surveys at all, and there's no better time than the present.
If we're successful in being able to unlock pledges, this can be for late additions or for people who have changed their minds after seeing the updates. We know at least some of you may want the additional playmats now that all 8 will fit into the bag, so now’s the time.
🌿 Pre-Orders and a New Friend
Lastly, in addition to the pledge manager finalizing, we’ve begun taking pre-orders for Vine on our website.
Check out the Pre-Order page Here.
If you check out the site, you’ll also find a new addition available for all of you enamel pin lovers.
🦝WE WANT YOUR HELP NAMING OUR RACCOON FRIEND🦝
If you comment your name suggestions below (in the comment section for this update) we'll put together a poll of the top suggestions in our next update, and let you all decide.
We fell so hard for our little raccoon friend from the illustrator of the moonlit wooded bramble playmat that we decided to add them to the pin family. If you checked out our Pintopia campaign, you saw them there first, but now they’ll also be available for purchase when the games arrive.
We’ll have more to share soon as shipping information is finalized, and production continues to move forward. Thank you again for your support and for being part of this journey with us.
Vine is growing into something special because of you. 🌿
Best Regards,
The Vine Team at Cavernwire Games
Vine Component Samples
6 months ago
– Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 10:11:43 AM
Hey CavernCritters!
We have something we’ve been so excited to share…
Factory samples of Vine have arrived! 🎉
Seeing this game fully assembled, bagged up, and sitting on the table feels surreal.
📦 First Look at the Box
The box is looking really good. The colors are rich, the finish feels great, and it looks beautiful sitting on a shelf.
That said, we discovered something important once we packed everything up for storage.
When the base game and the Pumpkins & Beetles expansion are stored in their corresponding drawstring bags (for quick setup), the box is just a little too snug.
And because we care deeply about fast, easy setup, we’ve decided to make the final box ½ inch deeper.
This gives everything room to fit, keeps setup effortless, and makes packing the game away feel satisfying instead of cramped.
🎃 Surprise #1 – More Pumpkins!
Originally, we planned to add just a couple extra pumpkins…
But once we started testing the full production version, we realized we could do something better.
Instead of a few extra pumpkins…
🌟 We’re adding 13.
That brings the total to 45 pumpkins of varying sizes and connection points.
This creates:
- More dynamic vine-building
- Better balance at different player counts
- Increased replayability
- More dramatic pumpkin patches 🌿🎃
It’s a small change that makes a big difference.
🐌🐞 Surprise #2 – A New Critter Joins the Garden
You already know and love the starting player snail meeple. Your votes made that clear!
But the garden needed one more tiny resident…
Meet the Beetle Meeple 🐞
The beetle comes with the Pumpkins & Beetles expansion and serves an important role:
As beetle leaves are drawn from the plant bag, the beetle meeple marks which vine will be targeted next.
- It’s functional.
- It’s adorable.
- It adds personality and clarity to gameplay.
And honestly… we just love how it looks crawling across the table.
🏆 Surprise #3 – More Objectives, More Variety
We’ve also expanded the objective system!
Base Game
Instead of 3 public objectives, the base game now includes:
🌟 6 total public objectives
This means each game will feel more unique depending on which objectives are in play.
Pumpkins & Beetles Expansion
We’ve also included:
🎃 3 bonus expansion-specific objectives
So every playthrough will feature a new combination of growth strategies and bonus scoring opportunities.
- More variety.
- More replayability.
- More reasons to try a new approach each time you plant your vine.
🌿 Component Highlights
We’ve been inspecting everything closely, and here are a few things that stood out:
🧺 Screenprinted Cotton Bags
These turned out fantastic.
They feel thick, durable, and high-quality.
They make setup fast and storage clean.
🌄 Playmats
The playmats are absolutely beautiful and vibrant.
The subtle grid overlay:
- Helps align tiles cleanly
- Keeps vines looking organized
- Doesn’t distract from the illustrated landscape
It’s exactly the balance we were hoping for.
🐛 Root Bugs
These look so good in person. They have a satisfying presence on the table and add a lot of thematic flavor to the underground portion of your vine.
💧 Growth Tokens
The blue hue on the woodengrowth tokens looks fantastic in person. It’s vibrant without feeling artificial, and it contrasts beautifully with the greens of the vines.
🌱 Assisting Icons
The assisting icons on the plant tiles and pumpkins turned out to be excellent visual aids.
They:
- Improve clarity
- Speed up play
- Stay subtle and non-distracting
Exactly what we hoped for.
⏳ What’s Next?
The final two items we’re waiting to review are:
💧 The 3D water droplets
✨ The acrylic tiles
These are the last pieces we need to inspect and approve before giving the factory the green light for full production.
As soon as those samples arrive, we’ll carefully review them for clarity, color, durability, and overall feel. If everything meets our standards, we’ll move directly into mass production.
We’re incredibly encouraged by how these samples have turned out. Seeing Vine fully assembled makes it clear that this game is becoming exactly what we envisioned.
Thank you for being part of this journey. Your trust allows us to make decisions that prioritize quality and long-term enjoyment.
We’ll share another update as soon as the final samples arrive.
— Bobby & the Vine Team
