News
Announcement to doorstep
Data last checked: · how we verify numbers
Defenders of Hogwarts ran on Kickstarter from 30 June to 23 July 2026, closed at £1,313,755 from 10,959 backers [official, project JSON], and its fulfilment window opened on 9 October, when surveys closed “so that we can start fulfillment” [official, Update #18]. This page pins every date between the project’s creation and the doorstep to Kickstarter’s own data — and flags the few rows that rest on press reporting instead.
The timeline
Three source types appear in the right-hand column. [official] rows come from Kickstarter’s project data, the campaign’s 19 updates or its 28-answer FAQ. [official comment] marks a statement by MinaLima Support in the public comments — official words, informal channel. [second-hand] rows come from press reporting or video uploads and are kept only where no official timestamp exists.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-19 | MinaLima creates the project on Kickstarter; the prelaunch page goes up and quietly collects followers (the free commemorative pin later ties to this list). | [official, project JSON] |
| 2026-06-08 | First press on the project-in-waiting: ScreenRant spots the prelaunch page — discovered early via LaunchOracle — and, in the same piece, mislabels the game an RPG. | [second-hand — ScreenRant] |
| 2026-06-30, 15:32 UTC | The campaign goes live: The Defender £58, The Guardian £115, The Collector £280, goal £50,000. | [official, project JSON] |
| 2026-07-01 | First independent video review lands: Bower’s Game Corner grades the campaign D− — mid-campaign, before final components existed. | [second-hand — YouTube] |
| 2026-07-12 | Press running tallies put pledges past $850,000 during the surge week (ComicBook.com had logged $850,000 on 5 July, with 18 days left). | [second-hand — press milestones] |
| 2026-07-23, 22:59 UTC | The campaign closes: £1,313,755 from 10,959 backers against the £50,000 goal. | [official, project JSON] |
| 2026-07-24 | “That’s a wrap!” update: backer surveys come next; the game is estimated to arrive in October 2026, with a second shipment in March 2027 for select items. | [official, Update #11] |
| 2026-08-21 | Post-campaign update: the pledge manager is being built with partner Hive; Collector-tier metal samples arrive from the factory. | [official, Update #12] |
| 2026-08-28 | The Hive pledge manager opens — shipping details, fees, upgrades, add-ons and late pledges — scheduled to close on 30 September. | [official, Update #13] |
| 2026-09-24 | Survey check-in: 85% complete; surveys finished by 30 September make the first shipping wave. | [official, Update #15] |
| 2026-09-30 | Cancellation cutoff: per the official FAQ, cancellations could only be processed before fulfilment begins on this day — and it is the survey deadline for wave one. | [official, FAQ] |
| 2026-10-03 | Pledge manager extended to 9 October; late pledging stays open. | [official, Update #16] |
| 2026-10-09 | Surveys close “so that we can start fulfillment”; the late-pledge window shuts the same day, ending the last direct purchase channel. | [official, Update #18] |
| 2026-10-12 | MinaLima Support, in the campaign comments: “Fulfilment is beginning next week, we will share an update when the first dispatches go out!” | [official comment, retrieved 2026-10-12] |
| 2026-10, mid to late | First shipments: every tier’s main box, Collector’s Box excepted. Not confirmed No dispatch update had appeared by our 2026-10-13 check. | [official estimate] |
| 2026, autumn | The base game reaches select House of MinaLima retail locations. Upcoming Not started when checked. | [official, FAQ] |
| 2027-03 | Second shipment: the Collector’s Box and select add-ons — metal pawns, the Dumbledore’s Army set, the token bag, the signed portfolio. | [official, Update #11 and FAQ] |
| 2027 | Wholesale opens to retailers, and translated editions follow “at a later date” — no month has ever been published. | [official, FAQ] |
Two dates this timeline corrects
The campaign did not launch on 9 June. A widely repeated ScreenRant piece (1 July 2026) put the launch three weeks early; the official project data is unambiguous — launched_at 1782833575, which is 30 June 2026 at 15:32 UTC [official]. June 9 belongs to the prelaunch window, when the page was collecting followers. We trace how that error and others propagated in the media index.
The £1,313,755 total is the only final number. Mid-campaign snapshots still circulate as totals — ScreenRant’s £1,269,635 (9 August), Hive’s late-pledge page showing 1,145,517 GBP and 9,436 backers weeks after close, Tabletop Analytics’ 1,224,885 — all of them readings taken before the end [second-hand]. Every monetary figure on this site is drawn from Kickstarter’s own project JSON instead.
How to read the tags
- [official] — Kickstarter’s project data (timestamps are machine-read from the embedded JSON:
launched_at 1782833575,deadline 1784847540), the 19 campaign updates, or the 28-answer FAQ. We restate, and link, never copy wholesale. - [official comment] — a MinaLima Support reply in the public comments: official statements, but an informal, undated channel; we record the retrieval date (2026-10-12) since the comment itself only shows “3 days ago”.
- [second-hand] — press or video claims. Where official data exists (launch, close, totals), we let the official row win; press rows survive only for events Kickstarter does not timestamp, like a review upload.
- [official estimate] — MinaLima’s own forward-looking dates (October delivery, autumn retail, 2027 shipments). Official in origin, unconfirmed in fact until they happen — hence the tags in the table.
The press coverage behind the second-hand rows is indexed wave by wave in the media index; what the tiers contained is restated in pledge tiers; and the buy-now-or-wait decision these dates feed is worked through in the retail calendar.
Sources
- Kickstarter project data (created_at 2026-05-19; launched_at 1782833575 = 30 June 2026, 15:32 UTC; deadline 1784847540 = 23 July 2026, 22:59 UTC; pledged £1,313,755; 10,959 backers): kickstarter.com/projects/minalima/defenders-of-hogwarts
- Campaign updates #11, #12, #13, #15, #16 and #18 (surveys, pledge manager, extension, fulfilment): kickstarter.com/…/posts
- Official FAQ (cancellation cutoff 30 September 2026; autumn 2026 House of MinaLima retail; 2027 wholesale; translations “at a later date”): kickstarter.com/…/faqs
- MinaLima Support comment (“Fulfilment is beginning next week”), campaign comments, retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Second-hand rows: ScreenRant, 2026-06-08; Bower’s Game Corner, 2026-07-01; ComicBook.com, 2026-07-05 ($850,000 with 18 days left); ScreenRant, 2026-08-09 (£1,269,635).