Another brief one this week, as I’m still on holiday with my family in Bristol at the moment.
I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has supported us in any way during 2019, especially those who bought our games or backed our Kickstarters - we literally couldn’t have done it without you.
And finally I’d like to wish you all a happy, healthy and successful 2020!
Monday, December 30
Monday, December 23
Merry Christmas!
Today’s blog post will be brief as I’m now on holiday for the Christmas break.
I’ve spent last week on the last few orders of FlickFleet materials and starting to catch up on the bookkeeping from the pledge manager. We’ve now placed all the orders except the Expansion rules and dashboards printing (2nd January) and are just waiting on the boxes, wooden bits and main acrylic order before we can start making and shipping rewards. It’s all coming together for a big push early in the New Year.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to the rest!
I’ve spent last week on the last few orders of FlickFleet materials and starting to catch up on the bookkeeping from the pledge manager. We’ve now placed all the orders except the Expansion rules and dashboards printing (2nd January) and are just waiting on the boxes, wooden bits and main acrylic order before we can start making and shipping rewards. It’s all coming together for a big push early in the New Year.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to the rest!
Monday, December 16
Orders, Please!
Last week the focus of my lunch breaks and evenings was mostly around getting quotes and placing orders for the FlickFleet reprint materials.
These are all done except the wooden bits now, and we’ve already received the dice and asteroid acrylic and the printing proofs. This week we hope to get the rest of the acrylic and the printing so then it’s just the boxes and the wooden bits outstanding. That and the printing for the expansion (rules and dashboards) which will follow in the New Year. Next up for me is making the first set of rewards (7 deluxe games with no extras). Paul meanwhile is flat out laser-cutting bits for the second set of rewards: deluxe games and expansions, which aren’t due until April, but there’s a lot of them.
Test cuts of the deluxe asteroids, ramming ship and round counter marker
Then we’ll have a break for Christmas before I start on the other tasks: website work and designing the next expansion for FlickFleet.
With the boxes (approx. 15 mins / game) and the dashboards (~4 mins / game) now being done on our behalf, a decent chunk of my time is freed up. Last year I really struggled to work on anything other than making and posting games, which is clearly not sustainable!
I’m looking forward to being able to spend time in 2020 on tasks that got neglected this year. Hopefully that will lead to noticeable improvements in our preparedness for the next project.
We're also getting some of the first Kickstarter left-over stock into Travelling Man, a small chain of game stores in the North of England. I'm delivering some stock to the Newcastle store at lunchtime!
These are all done except the wooden bits now, and we’ve already received the dice and asteroid acrylic and the printing proofs. This week we hope to get the rest of the acrylic and the printing so then it’s just the boxes and the wooden bits outstanding. That and the printing for the expansion (rules and dashboards) which will follow in the New Year. Next up for me is making the first set of rewards (7 deluxe games with no extras). Paul meanwhile is flat out laser-cutting bits for the second set of rewards: deluxe games and expansions, which aren’t due until April, but there’s a lot of them.
Test cuts of the deluxe asteroids, ramming ship and round counter marker
Then we’ll have a break for Christmas before I start on the other tasks: website work and designing the next expansion for FlickFleet.
With the boxes (approx. 15 mins / game) and the dashboards (~4 mins / game) now being done on our behalf, a decent chunk of my time is freed up. Last year I really struggled to work on anything other than making and posting games, which is clearly not sustainable!
I’m looking forward to being able to spend time in 2020 on tasks that got neglected this year. Hopefully that will lead to noticeable improvements in our preparedness for the next project.
We're also getting some of the first Kickstarter left-over stock into Travelling Man, a small chain of game stores in the North of England. I'm delivering some stock to the Newcastle store at lunchtime!
Tuesday, December 10
Spend! Spend! Spend!
With the pledge manager now closed we know what we’re on the hook for so I’ve been able to start placing the orders for materials. First up was the boxes - these have the longest lead time. Once they were ordered next up was the dice (a simple order) and the asteroid acrylic. We’ve also asked for fresh quotes on the printing (which came in yesterday) and the wooden pieces.
The last part of the puzzle is the main acrylic order which is dependent on me laying out all the components on cutting sheets (until now all I’ve just laid them out on small Print and Play sheets). Over the weekend I did the Imperium (grey), Uprising (red) and the Civilian ships (blue). Monday lunchtime I did the mines and the clear acrylic (mine blast template and cloaked ship). That just leaves the objective tokens and I can get a quote and place the order.
Once the orders are all placed things are ready to go. The dice have arrived and asteroid acrylic will arrive this week, the box proofs before Christmas. The printing and wooden bits I’m still waiting for a date on.
Our next deadline is shipping the deluxe only copies (down to 7 as several of those pledges got extra expansions in the pledge manager) by the middle of January. We’ve got almost everything we need to do those already as we can use the leftover stock from the first edition.
The last part of the puzzle is the main acrylic order which is dependent on me laying out all the components on cutting sheets (until now all I’ve just laid them out on small Print and Play sheets). Over the weekend I did the Imperium (grey), Uprising (red) and the Civilian ships (blue). Monday lunchtime I did the mines and the clear acrylic (mine blast template and cloaked ship). That just leaves the objective tokens and I can get a quote and place the order.
Once the orders are all placed things are ready to go. The dice have arrived and asteroid acrylic will arrive this week, the box proofs before Christmas. The printing and wooden bits I’m still waiting for a date on.
Our next deadline is shipping the deluxe only copies (down to 7 as several of those pledges got extra expansions in the pledge manager) by the middle of January. We’ve got almost everything we need to do those already as we can use the leftover stock from the first edition.
Monday, December 2
Three Times!
I’ve seen Paul three times in two weeks! Two weeks ago I spent the day in York playtesting FlickFleet scenarios with him; then last Monday I dropped in at a moment’s notice after my train travel to Manchester for work was heavily disrupted leaving me with some time to kill in York; and finally my family visited his this weekend as a pre-Christmas celebration.
It’s been great to see more of him - we used to game together two or three times a week at one point and now I only see him a few times a year.
We’ve spent the last couple of visits talking manufacturing and planning for the second Kickstarter fulfilment. The focus of last week was finishing off the print and play files and sharing them with P&P reward backers ahead of Saturday’s deadline. The trip to York meant the deadline was actually Friday lunchtime - we left Friday evening and then we’re busy all day Saturday. I managed it though - so it was all good and slightly less last minute than last time!
With the P&P rewards done the next focus is on placing orders for the games’ materials. First up is the boxes, then the asteroid acrylic, printing, wooden bits, other acrylic and finally dice. I’ve a decent chunk of work to do before placing the two acrylic orders and a little before the others. Better crack on!
It’s been great to see more of him - we used to game together two or three times a week at one point and now I only see him a few times a year.
We’ve spent the last couple of visits talking manufacturing and planning for the second Kickstarter fulfilment. The focus of last week was finishing off the print and play files and sharing them with P&P reward backers ahead of Saturday’s deadline. The trip to York meant the deadline was actually Friday lunchtime - we left Friday evening and then we’re busy all day Saturday. I managed it though - so it was all good and slightly less last minute than last time!
With the P&P rewards done the next focus is on placing orders for the games’ materials. First up is the boxes, then the asteroid acrylic, printing, wooden bits, other acrylic and finally dice. I’ve a decent chunk of work to do before placing the two acrylic orders and a little before the others. Better crack on!
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