YorCon

Last weekend I spent 46 hours in a building in the middle of nowhere:

For the last four years Paul has organised a small gaming convention there.

For him, his family and about 25 of his friends.

Including me :)

It was a fantastic weekend of gaming, lovely food, and great company.

I played 17 games.

Went for a couple of walks in the countryside.

Played some pool.

And even playtested a couple of my games and a couple of others.

The new roll and write was very well received :)

Had a great post-game discussion about the Troll prototype.

It was brilliant.

I'm tired now though.

Really appreciating the (official) first of my non-working Mondays.

I've some work to do on setting up our new convention.

And loads of playtesting feedback to process and work out how to incorporate.

Burnout

Eight years ago I was doing graphic design for the second run of Zombology with my sleeping daughter in my arms.

Since then I've raised two kids to the ages of 13 and 8.

Worked full time as a Software Engineer, manager of Software Engineers, or Product Owner.

And run Eurydice Games.

Which takes about 2 days a week.

Every week.

I've worked 7 days a week for 8 years.

Matthew Dunstan's recent video about burnout touched a nerve.

The last few weeks we've had advert issues.

Poor website sales.

Stress.

Last year we lost a load of money due to crowdfunding timing and advertising the website being unprofitable.

More stress.

Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash

The last couple of weeks I've lacked the mojo to sort out a few boring jobs about running a company.

They are starting to pile up.

Fortunately, I have an amazing wife of 22 years.

Even more fortunately, she has a new job. More hours. And a better salary.

So I've dropped Mondays at work.

I'm going part time.

I'm hoping that will free up some time to relax. 

Recuperate. 

Re-energise.

I'll be able to do some Eurydice work during daylight hours.

Not at the end of a long work day.

After family time and chores.

Hopefully, that'll help with both creativity, productivity and progress.

It starts today! 

Recovery

It's possible the website is fixed.

I think I've found the issue with the false orders.

And fixed it.

Meta is no longer reporting false sales.

And after a week and a half of no orders, we've had 5 in the last 5 days.

A return to normality.

And breathe.

Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash

With that load off my mind, I've been able to spend some time on the new roll and write.

The last few changes have been minimal.

It's stabilising.

Which means it's time to do a first cut of the written rules.

Which is required before I can start sending out playtest copies.

And getting some real feedback.

And hopefully some ideas for improvement.

Weirdness

It's been a bad week for the website and ads combo.

We normally get 7-10 orders a week.

Pretty reliably.

We spend a chunk of money on Facebook ads to get that.

Last week we had none.

Not one.

That hasn't happened for years.

We've been spending the same amount on ads though.

And here's where it gets really weird.

Facebook reckon their ads have brought in 21 sales this week.

21!

But we've had none.

What!?

I even placed an order myself to check the website was still working.

It is.

But the ads are screwed.

Need to fix that somehow...

Segue

The recent change to the De Minimis customs rule in the US is a real pain.

Historically, about half our sales have gone to the US.

Half!

Now, anyone buying from the US faces 10% tariffs (it's UK made at least - in Paul's garage).

Plus courier fees, which have been less than $10 from what I've seen so far.

It's a pain, and it'll make future US web sales harder.

So I've stopped advertising to the US.

Which is going to cost us a lot of sales.

But save us some advertising money.

How can we segue to keep things going?

Photo by Beth Macdonald on Unsplash

We've always sold the P&P files for FlickFleet.

And we've now four print and play roll and write games.

They are all tariff-free at least.

Perhaps we need to promote them more?

We can advertise those worldwide.

No shipping fees. No tariffs.

But ads for them haven't worked well in the past.

I wonder if I can improve them to work in future.

Something needs to change!

Aw[esome|ful]

It's the end of our 8th financial year on Tuesday.

We've done well to last this long, Reiver Games only managed 6 years, and it was on life-support for the last two.

If you run a business there's two things you really care about.

Cashflow.

And profit.

Historical we've done ok at the second one, managing around 11% profit on average over the last 7 years.

But cashflow was always a challenge.

Our overheads were initially small, but our web sales outside of campaigns were tiny.

We stayed alive through crowdfunding campaigns and the occasional convention.

But that put us on the clock - we needed to crowdfund frequently to keep us going.

Then Paul lost his job and we started paying him a (tiny!) salary.

Larger overheads meant worse cashflow - more pressure.

The last few years we've had to lend the company money a few times to keep it alive.

This year I've focused on fixing that.

Building up more cash in the company and trying to leave it in, not take it out.

Spending money on ads to boost website sales, so we can cover our monthly overheads.

And in some senses it's been successful.

Web sales are near double last year.

We've much better cashflow than the last couple of years.

That's awesome!

But the ads weren't as profitable as I'd hoped, and as I scaled them they got worse.

The ad spent brought in enough sales to cover the overheads and keep us afloat.

But not profitably.

Every year until now we've shipped a full crowdfunding campaign.

But this year we carried nothing over from last year and only shipped about 10% of the rewards of this year's campaign.

So sales are much lower. 

Coupled with the fact that we've paid the costs for a crowdfunding campaign this year: ads and fees.

So with the unprofitable website ads compounded by all of the costs and very few of the sales of crowdfunding we've made a massive loss this year.

That's awful.

I'm hoping next year will be better.

We've a lot of crowdfunding to ship in the next few months.

And I'm working with someone to improve our web ads.

Fingers crossed. 

Something needs to change.

Inception

The weekend before last I was down in York helping Paul bag up bits for Gamefound Fulfilment.

Last week he made up the first 35 copies of Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

Each one laser-cut in the garage.

Then bagged, boxed and shipped by hand.

Fulfilment has started in earnest.

Before I got my train home I told Paul that the campaign for Exodus from Reynoldsworld was the last roll and write game I had in progress.

There was nothing else in the pipeline.

No more ideas.

We left early for the train, as we'd had a very slow journey to Paul's from the station due to roadworks.

But it was fine.

I got there with half an hour to spare.

So I started designing a new roll and write.

I'm incorrigible.

I need to get the Exodus rewards out in the next week or so.

And cover Paul's holiday with shipping any orders we get.

But I've started on the next one.

And I could steal a few bits from The Planets My Destination and Away Team Bingo to knock up a very quick first prototype!

A bastardised first prototype, stealing bits from other games for speed.

Grafting

Paul makes all the FlickFleet games himself.

On a laser-cutter in his garage.

But that’s not all of it.

He sorts and packs the dashboards.

He counts and bags all the wooden bits.

Then the right ships in with them.

Then boxes everything.

Then parcels, addresses and ships all the orders.

It’s an enormous amount of work.

Especially when we have a crowdfunding campaign to fulfil.

Hundreds of orders.

All more or less at once.

My wife had friends round for her and the girls this weekend.

So I went to York.

And lent a hand.

For 24 hours only.

But we bagged hundreds of ships.

100 copies of FlickFleet.

And most of 100 copies of the new expansion.

And we managed to get a couple of games of Battle of Hoth in too :)

In other news, the Exodus campaign finishes tomorrow!

Last chance to back.

Retail-ish

We're back from Tabletop Scotland.

Where we had a good weekend.

Sales started very slow.

But ended strong, so a good weekend overall.

And we picked up another retail stockist for FlickFleet.

Mighty Minis in Whitburn, West Lothian, Scotland. 

Our first Scottish retailer.

We recently picked up one in Northern Ireland too: Roast & Roll, in Banbridge. 

And another in England, The Rogue Trader Warehouse in County Durham.

We make the games ourselves.

In Paul's garage.

We have neither the volume nor the margins to get into distribution.

Just a few direct sales to shops in the UK.

The new ones add to the few we've been working in previous years.

Travelling Man in Newcastle, York, Leeds and Manchester.

Roll It! in Scarborough where I did a demo day last year.

Bridge Command in London, a starship simulator.

Plus Farplace Games and Gloucester Geek Society who help us cover conventions we can't reach.

Small scale, but growing!

Back, Briefly

It's been a whirlwind few days.

First my father-in-law and his partner visited us for a few days.

Then we went off to the Lake District for a end of holiday weekend with friends.

Now The Wife is in Dublin for a week.

Then she gets back and Paul arrives and we're off to Tabletop Scotland in Edinburgh.

We're on stand C1-02!

We'll be running our FlickFleet competition for the first and last hour of each day, and demos the rest of the time.

While The Wife is away, I'll spend by evenings and possibly lunch breaks finishing off the Exodus from Reynoldsworld campaign page.

There's just over a week to go before it launches.

It, like our other print and play games, is tariff-free for our American fans, despite the recent changes :)

Tariffs

In a lot of ways we’re lucky.

We make FlickFleet in Paul’s garage.

In York. In the UK.

So it’s not getting hit by the made in China tariffs introduced in the US.

The UK was fairly quick to strike a trade deal.

And we got 10%.

But we’ve benefited a lot from De Minimis.

The exception for orders under $800.

Half our orders go to the US.

Half!

The De Minimis rules were due to end.

In July 2027.

We had a couple of years to formulate a plan.

A few weeks ago that changed. 

It’s now next weekend.

All our orders to the US will get hit by a 10% tariff.

And whatever charge the courier feels like passing on for the hassle.

Or maybe even a higher flat rate fee?

We’ve stopped advertising to the US.

It’s going to have a huge effect on us.

For the moment we’re recommending US customers contact us about folding their orders in with the crowdfunding rewards we’re shipping in bulk towards the end of October.

Preview

Our next campaign, for our 4th print at home roll & write game is now in preview.

Exodus from Reynoldsworld

Exodus is a 1-6 player roll and write that takes 15-30 minutes to play.

You're a starship captain, saving the population of a planet under threat from an approaching alien armada.

In the first half of the game you build a ship. Do you go for fast and sleek? Or slow and capacious?

Then you set out on the dangerous journey from Reynoldsworld to one of six nearby habitable worlds.

There's a big bonus for forming the first colony, plus arriving first at any of the six planets gets you another bonus, so watch where your opponents are heading.

After dropping off your cargo of colonists and supplies to get them started, you can return to Reynoldsworld for more, or head straight on to another nearby world to try to get there ahead of your competitors.

Will you end the game as the saviour of Reynoldsworld, or will they just name a park after you?

Follow the campaign to be notified when it launches in September.

While I've been focussing on Exodus, Paul has been busy too.

We've now started shipping the playmats from the Box of Xeno Flicks 1 campaign, and we're receiving the final materials for the campaign early this week, so manufacturing can begin in earnest shortly too.

Busy, busy!

Next

This weekend I’ve started work on the Gamefound campaign for our next print at home roll and write game.

It’s called Exodus From Reynoldsworld.

You have to save the population of a planet.

Under threat of an alien armada.

Build a ship.

Do you go small and fast? Or slow and capacious?

Over-index on engines and fuel to go faster?

Or cram in as many people as possible?

Build shields to protect your cargo?

Or accept the inevitable attrition of a dangerous crossing?

Once you built your ship, choose a destination.

Try to get there first and get the founding bonus?

It feels a little like Galaxy Trucker.

Coming to Gamefound next month I hope, assuming I can get the page finished in time.

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

Family

My parents are visiting for a week.

They live 300 miles away, and so I see them rarely.

Two or three times a year.

And dad is getting less mobile.

So it’s harder for them to travel.

It’s going to be lovely seeing them for a whole week.

Not just a brief video call.

But I run Eurydice Games in my spare time.

Around a full-time job.

And a youngish family.

So visitors pretty much pause game company work.

The print and play rewards are almost done though. Half a page left of the rulebook, then proofing and it’s ready to go.

It’ll be a month late :(

I have at least done some playtest of my mate Joe’s solo dungeon crawl (it’s very good!).

Loads of fun!

Mum, The Wife and Daughter the second joined in too!

Back

It's been a very busy week post-Expo.

There's been loads of Expo tasks to catch up on.

We've had a very busy week of UK sales (post Expo ones?).

So loads of bookkeeping.

And I'm back on the P&P rewards graphic design.

One thing I needed to do was physically print the dashboards.

And cut them out.

In their Print and Play configuration.

For two reasons.

One: it's easier to spot errors in physical form than on screen.

And two: I needed to check that I'd lined the backs and fronts up correctly for the P&P rewards.

In that the correct fronts and backs were together.

And the orientations were right too.

The good news is the P&P configuration was all correct.

But I spotted a few issues with the dashboards that needed fixing.

Cheaper to fix them now, than after printing 350 of them!

Conventions

I'm back from the UK Games Expo.

I'm knackered.

But it was so good.

We had our box manufacturer, W. MacCarthy & Sons, hand-deliver some Xeno Wars boxes to the Expo, from London!

We sold more games than ever before!

We demoed FlickFleet to loads of new people and could see how much fun they were having.

I had a few really useful business meetings.

We had a crowd of spectators for most of the time.

We had people go out of their way to come to our stand, just to tell us how much they love FlickFleet.

And someone even came up to us during dinner, to tell us how much he loved it!

I've done conventions in four jobs now.

Games ones with Reiver Games and Eurydice Games.

Scientific ones in the day job.

And during my PhD.

I really enjoy them.

Games ones in particular feel like I'm among my people.

And I love meeting so many people I know.

Missed

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've a lot on.

So has Paul.

Our laser-cutter failed.

Two weeks before the Expo.

So Paul took up an offer from the amazing team at Harps Corp.

To use their laser-cutters for a couple of days.

So we had stock for the Expo.

And fortunately, our laser-cutter has been fixed already.

Meanwhile I've been working on the graphic design for Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

Dashboards are almost done.

And preparing for the Expo.

The Expo deadline cannot slip.

And it was Daughter the Youngest's birthday and party this weekend.

That couldn't slip either.

As feared, that means the graphic design had to, despite burning the midnight oil.

The P&P rewards are due on Saturday.

I think they will be a couple of weeks late :(

Guesswork

We crowdfund to raise money for print runs.

We print everything that we need for the next year.

In runs of 100-800 copies.

Tiny print runs.

Because they are small, they are expensive.

So we need a decent campaign total.

Some of that comes during the campaign.

Some during the pledge manager: shipping, extras, and late pledges.

We need to kick off manufacturing early. Boxes and wooden bits have long lead times.

Before we know what we’ve raised in the pledge manager.

We need to ensure the total raised is enough to fund the print runs and cover campaign shipping.

And VAT.

And Gamefound fees.

And royalties.

But also order enough to keep us in stock until the next campaign.

It’s a guess.

We’ve made our guesses.

Ordered boxes accordingly.

Now we are waiting to see if the pledge manager ends up where we guessed.

Or not.

Deadlines

I’ve got two pressing deadlines the moment.

The UK Games Expo.

We’ll be in Hall 2, stand 2-494

And Print and Play rewards for Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

The Expo starts on the 29th May for us - driving down to Birmingham and setting up.

The print and play rewards are due on the 31st.

The Expo deadline cannot move.

I really want to hit the other one too.

Lots to do still on both though.

I see some late evenings on the horizon…

Meanwhile Paul is down the laser-cutting mines. 

Cranking out copies of FlickFleet and the expansions.

To cover web sales. And the Expo. And the start of fulfilment.

He’s finishing last year’s print runs.

We’re running low!

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.

Launch Week

Our latest FlickFleet campaign goes live on Gamefound tomorrrow. 

The rollercoaster begins. 

We use crowdfunding to raise the funds to reprint most of the expansions at once. 

Amortising costs. 

Some small economies of scale. 

Because of that, we need a to raise a lot. 

Not millions.

Not hundreds of thousands.

But certainly tens of thousands. 

All but one of our FlickFleet campaigns have been the best ever (at the time). 

The last one was second best. 

We’re now in the lull, before the launch. 

Will it do well? 

Best ever? 

Enough to fund the print runs and shipping?

Not enough? 

Soon we’ll know. 

There are some encouraging signs. 

We already have our second best number of pre-launch followers. 

And we’re not far off best ever pre-launch follower count. 

Will it be enough? 

Soon find out…

Ticking

I've finally finished the campaign page for the sixth FlickFleet expansion: Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

It's been a long time coming.

Once again, real life got in the way.

It's been a hectic month or so in the day job, which has eaten into my Eurydice Games time.

But it's done now.

And sent for approval.

With just over a week to spare.

If you're interested in FlickFleet it's a great way to get the base game and/or Xeno Wars.

With discounts.

And subsidised shipping.

If you're already a fan of the game it introduces 14 all-new ships to the Xeno Wars factions.

Ten are already included in the box.

The remaining four can be unlocked as stretch goals.

The more backers we get, the more you all get in the box.

As two guys making a game in a garage we have very little capital.

The only way the company works is by using crowdfunding campaigns to combine our several small print runs into one larger one, getting us some small economies of scale.

Making the game affordable for us.

We really appreciate your help with that!

Thank you in advance if you're considering backing the campaign.

And please share it with any friends or family you think would enjoy FlickFleet.

Bleed Through

I have a full-time day job.

And a family with youngish kids.

And I run Eurydice Games in my spare time.

I try to keep them all separate.

Focusing on my day job during work hours.

Focusing on my family when I'm with them.

I'm very lucky that I work hybridly.

I can work from home or go into the office, which is only a 2 mile walk from my house.

I like going into the office. 

I enjoy the company.

We have a lunchtime games club.

I like working from home too.

I get to spend my lunch breaks with The Wife.

Get chores out of the way during the day so I have more time in the evenings for Eurydice Games.

For the last month I've been in the office every day because of a late-running project.

It's been stressful.

And it's eaten into my time.

Then Friday we had some issues too.

I was working until late.

And a bit on the weekend.

I don't like the bleed-through.

I'll be working from home again more next week.

And with The Wife travelling for work I'll be able to spend lunchbreaks catching up on Eurydice Games stuff.

Like the Gamefound campaign.

It's not all bad though. 

I played a lot of games in February.

Mostly at almost daily lunchtime games club.

Colds

Paul and I have both been feeling rough this week.

But we've managed to eek out some progress.

Paul continuing to churn out ships from the laser-cutter.

To fulfil our website orders.

Me, inching towards the completion of the crowdfunding page.

And, while feeling particularly rough this weekend, cranking out a first cut of the high-ink page for Exodus:

My fourth print at home roll and write.

Community

I love the feeling of community.

I’m stuck in the office all month for February.

So I’m playing games every day in lunchtime games club.

We’re a small community of gamers at work.

I design games.

So we started a community of board game designers in and around Newcastle.

It’s doing the best it ever has.

My sister-in-law and her husband have been visiting this weekend.

We’ve been hanging out and playing games all weekend.

I love that feeling.

Being amongst my people.

One of the reasons I love conventions.

The sense of belonging.

We have a FlickFleet Facebook group.

This week we were asked for a FlickFleet Discord.

I don’t really use Discord.

But I’ve set one up.

If you’re looking for a FlickFleet community.

Rollercoaster

We call ourselves a publisher.

But really we're a self-publisher.

Zombology.

FlickFleet and its billion expansions.

Three print at home roll and write games.

All designed by me, or me and Paul.

Nothing by a different designer.

Yet.

We've signed a contract for a FlickFleet-related game.

And there was another chance this week.

I went to my monthly playtesting session in Newcastle. In the pub.

Played one of the other designer's games.

Loved it.

Told him I'd be interested in publishing it.

Spent the week thinking about it.

How to make my own copy for playing with Paul and my other friends.

Then a few days later the designer said he'd rather pitch to a big publisher.

Disappointing.

But fair.

I'd told him he'd be better off doing that at the beginning!

Still disappointing though.

I loved it.

Stealth

I’m working on the next FlickFleet Gamefound campaign.

Beavering away behind the scenes.

But there’s not much to show for it.

The draft has hardly changed in a couple of months.

I’d hoped to make really good progress this week.

The Wife was away for work for three and a half days.

But solo-parenting is time-intensive.

Didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped.

I think I need to push the campaign back a bit.

I have made progress this week though.

Getting prototype ship outlines designed.

Then Paul added etching.

And cut them.

Need these for the page design work.

It’s getting there.

Stealthily. Behind the scenes.

Together

Paul and I run Eurydice Games.

He does all the manufacturing and most of the shipping.

I do finances, marketing, and graphic design.

And we both do the FlickFleet game design.

Which is slightly awkward.

Because I live in Newcastle upon Tyne.

And he lives in York.

100 miles away.

Our families are friends, so we try to meet up in Newcastle or York several times a year.

To catch up and hang out.

We play games with each other and the kids.

Chat, eat, hang out.

And don't make a heap of progress on Eurydice things.

Like FlickFleet game design.

I've just spent the weekend in Leicester with Paul.

Due to a storm disrupting my travel, I had to change my travel plans last minute and travel to York on Thursday evening (no Games Night 😢).

So I got to hang out with Paul and his wife on Thursday evening.

Then Paul drove me to Leicester.

And we spent 72 hours together.

At the end, rather than getting my train in Leicester, Paul gave me a lift back to York and I boarded it there, as it went through.

Another 2.5 hours in the car together.

We got so much done.

A very productive weekend.

Plus we sold some games.

In a space museum.

How cool is that?