Origin: Jack

I’ve always made games.

It started out as board games as a kid.

Then for a long time bits of computer games.

Then I had an epiphany.

Playing Mighty Empires. With Dunc and Tim. The best men at my wedding.

We played all weekend. Like 36 hours all weekend. Stopping only to sleep and eat.

A random event took the winner from 1st to 3rd place. He didn’t recover for the remaining 12 hours.

Then we ran out of time. And stopped.

“I can do better,” I thought.

So I did. Border Reivers. Took 20-45 mins to play.

Similar feel. Could be pretty swingy.

It sat unloved on a shelf for a couple of years.

Then I made 100 copies by hand.

And sold them all over the world.

Yehuda Berlinger sent me a game which I published as It’s Alive!

I made 300 copies by hand.

Sold them all over the world.

Then I won the lottery. Of sorts.

I got MS. My life insurance paid out. We paid off most of the mortgage on our tiny flat, and I went full time.

At times it was glorious. I made four games. Three professionally in factories. I had distribution on three continents. Sold thousands of games. Went to Essen twice and the first three UK Games Expos.

At times it was grim. The MS caused vision problems and I couldn’t drive for a while. It caused incredible fatigue. New symptoms every few months. I was glad I didn’t have a day job. And, once the 2009 financial crash hit, I watched my company die by a thousand cuts as overheads far outweighed sales.

Then I won the lottery again. Of sorts. I managed to get on a clinical trial for a new MS treatment. My MS has been in remission for fourteen years. Years!

I’m so lucky.

Three months after shutting down Reiver Games I started designing games again.

Then I co-founded Newcastle Playtest.

We played Zombology every month for years.

I decided to start another company to publish a small hand-made run of that.

Eurydice Games. Don’t look back.

Then Paul had the idea for FlickFleet.

We designed it together. He joined Eurydice Games. We kickstarted it (just).

The rest is history.

If I won the lottery a third time, with all that financial freedom I’d still make games. Ditch the day job and do what I love.

I spend a lot of my free time on Eurydice Games.

And I love it. The game design. The graphic design. Playtesting. Iterating. Demoing to people who love it. Even doing the books doesn’t sap my enthusiasm.

I’m lucky to be here. Doing this.