Production

It’s going to be a very busy month. 

I’ve got to do the graphic design for the Xeno Flicks rules and dashboards. 

I've made a start!

Work out all the quantities of things we need. 

Then get the manufacturing orders started. 

Boxes are being made as we speak.

Xeno Wars reprint has gone to the printer. 

Ideally, we’d like to have some Xeno Wars stock at the Expo. 

Need to place several orders for that though. 

Also need to finish Expo preparations. 

Progress is being made at least.

Pledge Manager

Now I’m back from my holiday it’s time to focus.

It’s a busy time.

The print and play rewards are due by the end of May.

Which is also the UK Games Expo.

And I need to begin ordering materials for the physical copies.

First up was the boxes.

The print run has been ordered and the files sent over.

I also need to finish off the pledge manager.

We’re adding planets!

It’s almost there.

Should go live in a day or two I hope.

Diversify

I’m back from my holiday.

Rested.

And raring to go.

I have two things to focus on.

The pledge manager for Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

And global diversity.

55% of our sales go to the US.

Trump’s tariffs don’t affect us yet.

But he’s unpredictable and anything could happen.

So we need to diversify.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Away from the US.

And our reliance on FlickFleet.

We have three other products. All print at home roll and write games.

Which are tariff-free.

And easy to sell to anywhere.

I’m advertising those in our top fifteen countries.

The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a chunk of Europe.

Added bonus: there’s no cost of goods sold or shipping to pay for.

So the ads don’t have to cover those costs.

But I also need to focus on the pledge manager.

Coming within a week or two I hope…

Wales

I’m on holiday for a week.

In Wales.

With 18 members of my family.

Parents.

Brother and sisters and their partners.

Nieces and nephews.

Plus The Wife and our kids.

19 of us. And a dog.

Aged 3 to 79.

After a busy weeks at work and our Gamefound campaign, the break is welcome.

Some downtime.

I will keep up my games design streak though.

I’ve brought some prototypes.

And some prototyping materials.

I’ll make some things.

And do some playtesting.

Here.

Feaster

It’s hard to believe our campaign ended less than a week ago. 

It was our second best crowdfunding total with a really strong finish. 

Since then I’ve had my monthly playtest session. 

Numerous problems in the day job. 

Tariffs have completely up-ended the world trade regime, which will have a huge effect on the board games industry. 

I’ve had my weekly games night with friends. 

Paul and his family have been to visit for our yearly Feaster weekend. 

Feels like way more than a week. 

We’re lucky that the tariffs don’t affect us yet. 

The UK is only 10%, and the de minimis rules mean small orders aren’t affected. Yet. 

But the chaos is stressful. 

And many others in our space are affected much worse. 

I’ve started advertising our print and play games. 

At least they are safe!

Crescendo?

Our seventh crowdfunding campaign finishes tomorrow.

It started slower than the last few.

But we didn’t start advertising until a few days in.

It’s been doing better than the rest during the quiet period.

We’ve been ahead of Box of Pirate Flicks on the equivalent day for the last couple of days.

We might have a strong finish!

Could be our second or third best campaign, with luck!

Fingers crossed!

Just over 24 hours left if you're interested...

Adfound

Box of Xeno Flicks 1 is live.

And funded.

In 9 minutes.

Still doing worse than our last campaign, at the moment.

We've only just started running ads though.

Which is unusual.

Usually we run loads before the campaign starts.

Then more during.

This time we're pretty much only doing it during.

Which is interesting.

Because those early backers came from our mailing list.

Or Facebook group. Or Discord. Or Bluesky.

Or the nearly 200 followers we picked up during the week our campaign was approved and in the Upcoming section on Gamefound.

With our later ad spend this time, we might see a better second half of the campaign than we've had previously.

Also we're using Adfound.

It's Facebook ads. Managed by Gamefound.

They claim impressive performance.

Way better than we've managed in the past.

Will be interesting to see if that holds true for FlickFleet...

But it's off to a good start.