Maximise

I have limited time.

Around a day job and a family.

So I need to maximise it - get the biggest bang for my (time) buck.

We have two main ranges, FlickFleet and the roll and writes.

Our FlickFleet campaigns have raised tens of thousands of pounds.

That pretty much all goes on buying a year's worth of stock, and shipping.

And with half of the audience in America, we've been badly hurt by the De Minimus change and increased shipping costs/tariffs.

The roll and write campaigns are tiny by comparison.

£750-£1,200.

But once you take off the Gamefound collected EU VAT and their fees (about 11% for the roll and writes), the rest is cash in the bank.

Which we're short on.

Again.

I'm focusing on Gal4Xeon this quarter.

Then it'll be the next FlickFleet campaign.

Which is going to be much harder with the new US situation.

So how to I get the most bang for my time bucks for Gal4Xeon?

What's the most effective use of my time to bring Gal4Xeon as many people's attention as possible?

Postmark Games' first roll and write had over 12,000 backers.

We've managed at most 300.

How do we reach more roll and write fans?

Or sci-fi gaming fans?

Or print and play fans?

This week, I've been working on the campaign video.

And reaching out to reviewers.

Is that the best use of my time?

We've already got over 250 followers.

We're gaining 2-3 a day.

With over two months till launch.

I'm hoping half of them will back the campaign.

But it's all guesswork at this point!

Cashflow

Once again, cash is tight.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Because Gamefound fulfilment has been delayed, the tax man has temporarily taken £6,000.

We'll get in back in June.

And shipping has worked out much more expensive, because of the US tariffs and the tariffs paid up front shipping option.

Which is much more expensive.

I'm hoping Gal4Xeon will help, but that's still several months from paying out.

We need to get new ads up and working.

I need to get our monthly sales to cover our slowing growing overheads.

So we're not reliant on shows and crowdfunding to stay afloat.

A focus for my Mondays I think.

In other news, I'm on the organising committee for a convention in Gateshead.

We're planning for October this year.

It's slowly coming together!

Quieter

We’ve just got back from our third To Boldly Game at the National Space Centre.

   

All set up ready to begin! 

It felt a bit quieter this year. 

And there were more exhibitors. 

Which meant more friends to see! 

And more competition. 

Plus there seemed to be more young kids, too young for FlickFleet. 

We did less well as a result. 

Sales were about 90% of last year’s. 

But we still made a profit. 

And it was great to see some gaming friends. 

And I had the Gal4Xeon taster sheets to give away. 

We must have given away thirty-ish I think. 

I hope that leads to a bump in followers over the next week or so…

Stagnant

It's been a slow week.

Photo by Luismi Sánchez on Unsplash

With everything going on it's understandable.

But we need to get to the point where we're sustainable.

Which means more website sales.

And better crowdfunding campaigns.

Gal4Xeon got off to a great start.

Quickly passed the number of followers Exodus had at the beginning.

With 3 months to go before launch.

It was gaining 10 followers a day!

Then 9.

Then 8.

Then 5.

This week it was 1.4.

I tried running a competition, but it didn't get any entries!

I need to be using my Mondays to drive improvements in these areas.

Just need to work out what's the most effective use of my time...

At least I've made good progress on the Gal4Xeon graphic design and another game idea this week.

Free Game!

At the end of last week I had an idea of how to make a taster version of Gal4Xeon.

Half a game.

That I can give away at the National Space Centre next weekend to drum up Gamefound followers.

And share with followers to build excitement.

We’re even running a little competition!

It’s an opportunity to get some more early feedback on the rules.

In preparation, I spent the weekend making a new sheet and rulebook.

And then editing the rules over and over again.

First pass was typos and punctuation.

Second was clarity and brevity.

Third was more of the same.

You want the fewest words possible.

But also to cover all eventualities and questions.

It’s a hard line to walk.

In other news, President Trump’s threats to Greenland include doubling the UK tariffs from next month.

And possibly another (trade) war.

So we’re looking to ship the Gamefound rewards sooner.

At greater expense.

But hopefully a bunch will get there before the tariffs double.

Fun times.

Momentum

I'm mostly focussing on Gal4Xeon at the moment.

Tweaking the graphic design of the player sheets.

Playtesting with more people.

Getting more feedback.

And a couple of new ideas.

Trying to make it the best I can.

It's been in preview on Gamefound since just before Christmas.

Because I've been advised by Gamefound to get it up early.

It's been gaining more followers than I've been expecting.

It's now overtaken Exodus at launch.

With probably 3 months before the campaign goes live.

It could be our biggest roll and write campaign.

In terms of funding.

And backers.

Possibly our best ever campaign in terms of backers!

I need to keep improving things.

There's still time to make it even better.

2026!

Happy New Year all!

I hope those of you who celebrate it had a great Christmas, and I wish all of you a happy, healthy and game-filled 2026.

I feel like 2026 has started today, since we've been away visiting family.

I back now.

It's my first Monday off in a while, which gives me a chance to sort many things out.

I'll be doing some work on the Gal4Xeon campaign.

It's off to a great start with nearing as many followers as Exodus had at launch already.

With 3.5 months to go before launch.

Could this be our most successful roll and write campaign?

We'd really appreciate any follows or shares if you know people who might like a 30 minute 4X game.

I'll also be working on the Italian translation of the Exodus rules.

And planning the local convention I've taken over with a few other local gamers.

Progress.

Feels great after a decent break.

I even managed to maintain my daily game design habit over the break :)