Finished. Not Finished. Finished Again?

I've spent the last week in a treehouse in the woods.

And on bikes and beaches.

And enjoying pretty towns and villages.

And fresh seafood.

And working on Exodus again.

It was finished.

I'd done the graphic design.

And the final rulebook.

I took some blank sheets with me to work on some ideas for extra sheets.

And a few ordinary sheets too.

I had an idea.

Tried it out a few times.

It's an improvement.

Now I need to update everything with the changes.

Is it done now?

Woods

I’m in Devon.

In the woods again.

Away from the stressful day job.

And most of the Eurydice work.

Relaxing.

Recharging.

Spending time with the family.

Bracketed at either end with a visit to the in-laws and my parents.

It’s good to have a break.

Proof-reading

I'm off on holiday from the middle of this week.

Visiting family.

Then a week in Devon.

Then more family on the way home.

So I wanted to get the last print run sorted before I left.

Proofing it was delayed this week by Expo scheming.

But I managed to get it finished on the weekend.

Caught a few errors

And corrections sent to the printers.

They were all minor.

Which is good as this was the third time I'd proofed them.

And Paul's done it.

And Rob has done the rulebook too.

But I want it to be the best it can be before the printers do 350 copies.

Fulfilment is getting closer.

The penultimate box of wooden bits has arrived.

Playmat tubes.

Just this final print run, the playmats, the second acrylic order and the final box of wooden bits to arrive now.

I've started finishing the fulfilment spreadsheet off too. 

Venture

We had a fantastic weekend at the NETE in Gateshead.

We were pretty busy!

Did more than twice what I’d hoped for.

Others did less well. 

Several traders left on Saturday evening or during the day on Sunday.

Gareth is not going to run it again :(

Years ago I’d toyed with the idea of starting a con in Newcastle.

Then Gareth started this.

I’m now considering taking it over.

Making a few changes.

I’ve a few weeks to make a decision…

Resurrection

After the disappointment of yet another awesome game designed by a friend that they don't want us to publish I took one of my older designs to Newcastle Playtest last week.

Normally I take a bag with six or seven games, last week I took one.

And to be honest, I wasn't really looking to play it.

I'd not played it in about three years.

It was there as a fallback if we needed games to play.

As it turns out, we did.

So I got it out.

Tried to remind myself of the rules.

We had five players.

I had to tweak things as we went.

But there was some potential there.

And the great crowd of designers and playtesters gave me feedback.

Useful feedback.

And ideas.

My head has been fizzing with ideas all week.

I've been frantically crafting a new version since Tuesday.

I've got a slot at the Playtest Zone at the North East Tabletop Expo on Friday afternoon.

I was going to play Jotunsaga or Siren Song.

Now I think I'll play the new version of The Uprising: Saga instead.

Need to finish the prototype first!

Culmination

It feels like I’ve finally broken the back of my involvement in our latest Gamefound campaign.

The graphic design is done.

I’ve placed the final printing order.

I’ve order the playmats and tubes.

The last acrylic order is just awaiting final colour selection for the planets.

I’ve made the changes to the app that builds the fulfilment spreadsheet.

And tested that it works.

Just waiting on the last four backers to complete their pledges, so I can run it for real.

Then that’s me done until we start getting the orders in the books as they ship.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

I’m looking forward to having some free time again for game design.

And maybe starting the next Gamefound page.

For a fourth roll and write…

Excited

For the second time in a few months I’ve been really excited about a friend’s game.

Both created by designers at Newcastle Playtest.

Which is growing and gaining strength every month.

In both cases I’ve wanted to publish the game.

I’ve spent this week playtesting the latest with my mum, and The Wife and Daughter the Youngest a bit too.

Ideas fizzing.

Working on naming.

Playing with art styles.

But he’s not ready to hand it over to a publisher yet.

And the designer of the first one wants to try to find a bigger publisher.

Which is fair - we’re tiny.

Everything we’ve published so far I’ve designed or co-designed.

I’d love to branch out to other designer’s games.

But my time is very tight, so I don’t want to announce we’re open to submissions - I’ve not got the time to review them or do them justice.

Newcastle Playtest is perfect - I’m there already.

Hopefully at some point we’ll get there.

Maybe even with one of these two…

Me waiting patiently for the perfect game to drop into my lap...

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash