Due to Covid-19, the governor of Wisconsin has issued an executive order to temporarily shut down in-person activities at all non-essential businesses. The good news is that we are not a non-essential business! The bad news for you is that we’re going to be processing orders slower due to new safety measures.
As of 8am March 25, The Game Crafter will be operating with a skeleton crew of essential workers (roughly half of our staff). We are taking lots of extra safety measures to protect our staff and you from Covid-19. Also, no staff are required to come in, so how many people we have from day to day will change.
=== How This Will Affect You ===
Will Call is 100% closed. If you come to pick up an order in person you will be turned away without your order.
We will be processing orders, but due to our new mandate, we will be giving priority to orders dealing with the government, military, work from home publishers, and other essential businesses. Also, due to the reduced staff size, we will not be processing orders as quickly as normal.
Our customer service staff will be available during this time to answer any questions you may have. Please understand that they may be inundated with questions and so a response may take a little extra time.
=== How You Can Help ===
First and foremost, please do not cancel your order unless you absolutely must. We depend on having that work for our people and the money from your order to pay them. And enough work so that we can bring back our full staff after the executive order has run its course (estimated to be April 24th).
Second, if you’ve got some spare cash that you were going to use to buy prototypes or parts, buy yourself a gift certificate.
Third, if you don’t already, please consider subscribing to Component Studio. It is a highly useful service, and your subscription fees will help us pay our bills during this reduced workforce period.
=== Thank You ===
Thank you for your patronage all these years. Thank you for your patience during this troubling time. Stay safe out there.
Comments
Are you.. making games for
Are you.. making games for doctors? How did TGC get categorized as essential?
Yes I am also curious. How
Yes I am also curious. How can game crafter be categorised essential?
You'd be surprised ..
As an example (obviously not the same as where TGC is located), here in Ontario (Canada) we had the government issue a mandatory closure of "all non-essential businesses"..
The list of businesses considered essential is basically everything but dine in restaurant/bar services and entertainment space (theaters, etc).
ALL manufacturing was deemed "essential".
I imagine it's similar in many jurisdictions that are doing this.
*Edit: The best Meme going around was one that said "We'll do everything in our power to protect the citizens of Ontario. In so doing, we're going to shut down 1 hot dog cart and an ice cream truck".
I heard that here in quebec,
I heard that here in quebec, "printers" were judged essential. So that is possiblly the reason why TGC is open.
But we added restriction on what kind of stuff you print like news paper and maybe packaging are allowed. So not all printers are judged essential.
Essentialness can be contagious
The order is pretty long, and in Section 13-v (that's the letter v, not a Roman numeral 5) it says that *suppliers* to government and essential businesses are themselves essential. I think it'd be sufficient for them to make serious games or other kinds of training material for any of several industries (including any layer of government) to keep TGC open.
The order in New York was more specific, saying that if an entity had essential and non-essential functions, only the essential part was allowed to operate (though anything that can be done 100% remotely was allowed regardless).
Edit: missing word.
Shut down until April 24..
https://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/613784861054992384/shutting-down-fo...
"We are completely shut down until April 24th, which is the date that the Wisconsin Governor’s shut down ends. So no orders will be filled during this time. However, when we return, we will pick up exactly where we left off. Urgent orders will be filled first, everything else will come quickly after that as we’ll be back up to full staff.
If you are one of our military or government clients who are considered to be essential and your needs are essential, please contact us at info@thegamecrafter.com.
Our customer service staff will still be working for this three week period answering questions.
You can still continue to make games on our web site and place orders. We will get to them as soon as we get back. "