March Report

Well, March is over and I did some stuff. Time to admit what exactly. I'll start with play, as is my want.

Play

A decidedly mediocre month in terms of number of games played. I didn't get to Beyond Monopoly, and due to various trips abroad I missed a load of my stalwart games nights with Paul and chums and Dave. Still I managed to get a few good nights of gaming in and this is what I played:

• Lost Cities: 8 plays
• Border Reivers: 3 plays
• Fluxx: 3 plays
• Carcassonne: 2 plays
• Caylus: 2 plays
• Space Hulk: 2 plays
• Memoir '44: 2 plays

Plus the shrapnel: Carcassonne: The Castle, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Spanish Main, Power Grid and Puerto Rico.

The only new game I played this month was Fluxx, which, to be honest, I really didn't enjoy that much - just a bit too random for my tastes. It was good to play more Space Hulk after a short break, and Lord of the Rings which I hadn't played in ages. Dave and I have agreed to play Lord of the Rings (and the Friends and Foes expansion) next time we get together - we've both not played it enough recently.

With 27 games in total it was a fairly average month, and that only because Paul G and I played nine games on the last night of the month. I really wish I was at home more to enable me to get more games in.

Creation

I had a week off work this month to allow me to make the most of The Wife's visit to Denmark. I wanted to get as much construction done as possible so that I can spend more time with her when she returns. This was counteracted by ten days when I was away from home for work (and visiting The Wife in Denmark :-) ).

Border Reivers

I only got six copies finished during my week off, but I did manage to get twelve copies almost finished in addition. This is pretty good progress, as that's nearly forty hours work right there. Sales wise it was an average month, which is ok, as I don't want to sell too many before the end of the tax year, to minimise my tax liability. After the end of the tax year (in just over a week), I'm going to step up efforts to sell out of Border Reivers, as I need the money from Border Reivers sales to pay for It's Alive! production.

It's Alive!

It's been an exciting month for It's Alive! I announced it to the world on March 4th, and since then it's been all go. I've had a boatload of pre-orders, it's been mentioned in a bunch of places including Board Game News, and I've received a few thumbnails of artwork from the artist, chose the ones I like and opened some of them up to my readers here for input. Once the financial year ends I'm going to step up Border Reivers promotion, in order to get enough cash to make It's Alive!

Codename: Jorvik

I finally got around to making the prototype of Dave's suggested rules change. Yesterday afternoon, Dave and I spent a few hours in a local pub testing it out. It's definitely much better than the last version, and fixes the problem I was worried about - lack of player interaction. The card balance is all wrong at the moment - but I can fix that by tweaking and playing repeatedly.

In other news, I wanted to go to the UK Games Expo and hopefully launch It's Alive! there. I ummed and ahhed, hoping to delay the decision until I knew I'd be able to get it ready in time. I checked that they still had space - and they didn't. D'oh. Fortunately I put myself on the waiting list, and a space came up, so I am going now. I'll just have to bust a gut to get it ready in time.