4,000 Plays!

I joined BGG back in February 2006, when I was considering publishing Border Reivers. I finally got around to publishing Border Reivers in July that year, and started recording the games I played on BGG in August that year. In fact, Friday was the tenth anniversary of my first recorded game on BGG (it was one of five plays of Border Reivers that day at The Cast Are Dice in Stoke on Trent, the first convention I attended as a publisher).

Over the last ten years I've managed to rack up 4,000 plays on BGG - my 4,000th was Zombology at our lunchtime games club in the office last Wednesday. It's nice that the 4,000 are bookended by plays of games I've designed :-)

That's an average of 400 games a year or over one game a day for ten years! In fact, it's actually more than that, seeing as I didn't record plays of prototypes during my Reiver Games days and I only started recording mobile plays with humans a couple of years ago.

Clearly board gaming is a huge part of my life. There are six games I've recorded at least 100 plays of: unpublished prototypes, Carcassonne, Race for the Galaxy, 7 Wonders, Magic: The Gathering and It's Alive! and to be honest the numbers for Magic, unpublished prototypes and to a lesser degree Carcassonne are actually much higher than that, as I played them a lot before starting to record games. I've played over 500 different games during that period.

Here's to loads more gaming in the future!

In other news, I've been recently frustrated that Zombology is only available really in the US and Canada at the moment through Drive Thru Cards. There have been a couple of occasions when I could probably have sold a copy if I had one on me, and saying 'you can get it in the US for $12 plus $16 shipping' is not going to lead to any widespread adoption. It turns out I'm still rubbish at marketing though, so if I was got to do a reprint I'd need to seriously up my game at promotion, and maybe go down the KickStarter route, despite my previous KickStarter reticence.

Hmmmm.

BoardGameGeek and Game Ownership

BoardGameGeek allows people to keep track of which games they own. It's a useful feature that I use myself, and when meeting up with someone else you can always say 'Look at my BGG collection - is there anything of mine you fancy playing?' which is pretty cool too.

I know exactly how many games I've sold to distributors, but I don't know how many of those the distributors have sold to shops, nor how many of those the shops have sold to gamers. They same follows with direct sales to shops. A tiny fraction of my sales are direct to a gamer, so I know those have gone to gamers, but that's not much as a fraction of total sales.

Why am I interested? A game sold to a distributor that ends up sitting in their warehouse for months isn't doing me any favours at all. The distributor will be less inclined to buy more stock as it's costing them money (in the initial outlay to me and warehousing space) but not making them any. Similarly a game that ends up sitting on the shelf for a long time in a shop won't convince the shop to get more stock in. In the ideal world the game is in the hands of a gamer who loves it and plays it regularly with their friends.

It's hard to work out where the games are. I can ask my distributors how much stock they have left, but that still leaves me unsure whether the games are in the hands of shops or gamers. In the case of direct sales to shops things are a little better as I can ask them how many they've got left, but in that case again it's only a small proportion of the total sales at my end.

Here's where BGG's stats come in handy. The people listed as owning the game are gamers. So I can get some indication of how many of my sales to shops and distributors have reached actual gamers.

Of course, as with anything statistics they can't be relied on as a final number, but they are indicative. There will be people who've bought one of the games and don't have a BGG account, and others who do have BGG account but don't bother keeping track of the games they own. However, almost everyone who lists themselves as own a game will have it (some people might do it by accident or forget to remove it from their collection if they sell or trade it away).

Because I made a couple of small runs of Border Reivers and It's Alive! which almost entirely sold directly to gamers, I've got an idea about the ratio of gamers who list themselves as owning a game to the number of end customers I've sold it to.

If you look at the stats for Border Reivers (100 copies made) then it lists 42 people as owning it - 42% of the copies in circulation. Similarly, when I had sold out of the limited edition of It's Alive! about 110 people listed it as owned of the 300 copies made (37%). So I reckon I can extrapolate that about 40% of the copies in gamers' hands are listed as owned on BGG.

Assuming that 40% figure is evenly vaguely accurate, then approximately half the copies I've sold of the second edition of It's Alive! are in gamers' hands, and it's also about half for Carpe Astra. Sumeria (which is still fairly new) is around one third. Not sure what to do with this information, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Good Weekend

Since I decided that I was quitting my day job I've slacked off a bit. I figure I'll have plenty of time for Reiver Games stuff once I'm doing it full-time, and I've really enjoyed spending more time with The Wife as a result. We've been hanging out in the evenings more together, rather than me making games, on the computer trying to publicise It's Alive! or responding to emails.

This weekend I got to do a bit of both. Friday night we went to the pub with some friends for a birthday do, then Saturday I went to Leeds for the day with The Wife and seven of her friends. The main goal was going for sushi at lunchtime, but I managed to nip off while they were lady-shopping to visit the games and comic shop: Travelling Man. I was going to a friend's house afterwards for a games afternoon, so I had a copy of It's Alive! in my bag. While I was in there looking at comics, the Managing Director walked in. I'd spoken to him a couple of times before about making games and got some really good advice and contacts. Seeing as I was there, with a copy of It's Alive! in my bag I asked him if he had time for a brief chat. I sat down with him and showed him It's Alive! He really liked the look of the game, and was interested in stocking it. He also suggested I come along to their games night and demo it, and also demo it in the store on Saturday for a small cut. Excellent! Interesting tidbit: he asked what the rating on BoardGameGeek was. They don't stock games with a lower average than six.

After sushi, I headed over to Hugo's for a games afternoon. There were five of us, so too many for the two games I'd brought: Race for the Galaxy and Philip duBarry's Revolution!, so instead we played Cleopatra and the Society of Architects. I'd been meaning to play it for ages so I was really happy to give it a try. It was fairly long, but chromed up to the nines, and I really enjoyed the corruption mechanic. Fantastic fun, I'd like to play it again soon.

Sunday was great too. I've been busy on the Geek, writing a Geeklist about turning pro, it's generated a lot of good wishes and a few sales of It's Alive! too. Excellent. It's also led to several extra submissions which is a great bonus. Things are ramping up nicely in preparation for the week after next.

What's In A Name?

Last night at the pub with Dave, we were chatting about Codename: Jorvik. He reckons it's nearly ready, and I was saying how the UK Games Expo guys offered the chance of a name-drop for my new game in their advertising, as long as I made up my mind soon. Dave reckoned I should bite the bullet, say it's going to be Jorvik, and then I'll pressure myself into doing the last bit of tweaking because I've now got a deadline.

Hmmm...

Why not!

Ok, so you heard it hear first (or second if you've been on BoardGameGeek this morning), Jorvik will be the next title from Reiver Games. Gulp. That was exciting. Panic!

The next thing to do is decide on a name. I started a thread on BGG to ask for ideas/advice. It's been pretty active with lots of feedback. At the moment it looks like sticking with 'Jorvik' is the way people are leaning. Got an opinion? Add it in the comments here, or over on the thread.

Once I've chosen a name I need to add it to the BGG database, update my website, tell the UK GamesExpo guys and start drawing some attention...

Almost!

I've got a few copies in stock so I've been pressing on with my accounts. I've done up to last July now, and seeing as this financial year has been much busier things are going much slower. Still, I now know that I had almost as much turnover in the first five months of this financial year as I got in the whole (nine months) of last year. Yeay!

I've been trying to be a bit more active on BoardGameGeek in an effort to bring It's Alive! to the attention of more people. It's working, I got two orders on Wednesday after posting it on a Geeklist, one from the US and one from Sweden. Went I went to the Post Office at lunchtime to post those copies I got talking to the Postmaster. It turns out he has a passing interest in party games, and was interested in seeing my catalogue. Ain't got no catalogue, but I promised to take a copy in next time I'm in there. After selling a couple of copies of Border Reivers to my bank last year, selling a copy to the Post Office would be the next logical step. I'm incorrigible.

I've also been thinking more about Codename: Jorvik and Codename: Network. I've had another idea for Jorvik which improves upon a previous idea. It's no longer a pure card game, but the addition of two wooden pieces won't push up the weight or price by much, and I think they add quite a lot to the game. Network I've still got issues with my scoring ideas, and I think I might boost the number of categories from six to seven, to improve player interaction.

Reprints

I'm considering re-printing games that are now out of print as a different avenue for Reiver Games.

I've started a Geeklist on BoardGameGeek for people to suggest games that need re-printing, and it's generating some interesting ideas.

In other news, I woke up at 6:20am this morning, and couldn't get back to sleep. Mal is visiting, so I couldn't go in the living room, and I didn't want to disturb The Wife seeing as we've a late night planned tonight, so I just lay there in the dark. My head was buzzing with ideas about Codename: Network, one of the submissions I've received, which could hopefully improve it...

Go National Express!

I had to go down to London on fairly short notice today. I get the train, which takes just under two hours. GNER used to have the franchise that allowed them to operate the London-Scotland (via York) trains, but lost it recently to National Express. I write this to you from the train, as National Express have decided to allow all customers free use of the WiFi on the trains - yeay!

As I'm still without boxes for It's Alive! I've had yet more time to think: What's Next? On BoardGameGeek last night I asked what games people thought were best for small publishers like myself to publish. It led to an interesting discussion, with the general feeling being things like It's Alive! quick and simple games that are easy to explain, fairly cheap and have fun themes. The next two games of my own that I've got in the pipeline are a historical 2-player game and an abstract game, so perhaps they are not the best games to be going with. This information will guide my choice for RG0003, the next game I publish.

What are your thoughts? Themed or abstract? Light or heavy? Short or long? Number of players? Cheap or expensive? Bear in mind som of the choices are mutually exclusive!

Back In The Country

Well, I'm back, and after another debacle where Delta lost my luggage again (two for two - outstanding!), I'm back in the saddle.

I arrived home around lunchtime yesterday, and promptly read my emails, caught up on the blogs I read and posted the game orders I'd received while in the States. I've been off work today as well, catching up on sleep and writing a GeekList on BoardGameGeek about where I've sold games to, and how my customers heard about my games. If you're making games yourself, the information might give you a few ideas, and will hopefully prove useful.

This afternoon I'm going to make a bunch more games, but I've only got seven more boxes left until the box manufacturer ships me the rest, so that will be the limiting factor.

In other news, the designer of Codename: Escape got back to me yesterday about his game. The email I'd sent him didn't enunciate why I wasn't willing to publish it very clearly, so if he's willing to move on a couple of things that might still be in the running.

I'm Famous!

I got an email today from one of last year's Border Reivers customers approaching me to see if I'd be interested in speaking about game design at a convention in the UK next year. I used to do a fair bit of public speaking, presenting research papers at computer science conferences, and I used to really enjoy it - so I'm definitely up for that. I've replied to the guy suggesting a talk on 'So You Want To Be A Game Designer? : From pipe-dream to shop shelves'. It's obviously very early days at the moment, but it will be really cool if it does happen.

In other news, The Wife is hosting a conference in York this week, so she's going to be out entertaining visitors this week. I'm going to make use of this time alone at home to make a metric ton of games, build up some decent stock. In an attempt to get rid of some of that stock I've done another Geeklist on BoardGameGeek describing my efforts publishing Yehuda's game. I did one last year on self-publishing Border Reivers which was very well received. It also led to Border Reivers appearing on the Hot Games list, and several sales, so it's not an entirely selfish act :-) Here's hoping the publicity drums up some interest and sales.

Geek Of The Week

I'm BoardGameGeek's Geek of the Week this week, following in the footsteps of Yehuda (It's Alive!'s designer) and Luke who occasionally posts here. The Geek of the Week posts a potted bio, mine has a humourous error, and two truths and a lie. Random members then get to ask them questions and guess which is the lie.

In other news I've received another submission and quite a lot of interest in Border Reivers, which is gone.

Border Reivers 1861st Best Game In The World

Border Reivers has finally got more than the thirty ratings needed to become ranked on BoardGameGeek. It is currently ranked 1861! The system of BGG rankings is intentionally biased against games with a small number of ratings to avoid small numbers of people (or indeed shillers) affecting the top ranked games. This is done using a Bayesian average - to get the ranking for a game the actual ratings are considered in addition to one hundred average ratings (the average rating for all games - currently around 5.3 I think). This means the thirty-one real ratings I have (average 6.9) are signficantly pulled down by the Bayesian spoof ratings. So please rate it!

This is one of the reasons why I've done a larger print run of It's Alive! as the larger print run should mean more people get a copy and hopefully I'll get more ratings. That way the ranking should be less affected by the Bayesian spoof ratings.

In other news I'm pressing on with the It's Alive! ordered copies and I've been revisiting Border Reivers. I had six copies of Border Reivers left at home: mine and five orders I've not sent yet because I'm waiting for the money. This week, two of those have gone - one to it's original orderer, and one to someone from my unofficial waiting list when one of the orders fell through. And another has started to move. I've only got four copies left at home. Weird. I've had the bits for it kicking around for nearly a year now, it's going to feel strange when it's all gone. I'll be very glad to have finished cutting out the tiles when that comes about though. As well as the remaining three copies (which are complete apart from their tiles) I also need to knock together another copy from the spares for another publisher who has expressed an interest.

Well, That Was Unexpected

What a weekend! Friday night I decided to write a Geeklist on BoardGameGeek about my experiences self-publishing Border Reivers. I hoped that it would get a few thumbs and draw a few people to look into Border Reivers. I might even get a sale from it, if I was lucky.

Saturday morning I added a couple of items, posted it, and packed myself off to Beyond Monopoly! for only the second time this year. BM was great - I'd not been since early January, it was nice to catch up with everyone, and get to play a few games that were new to me. Thurn and Taxis in particular shone. Another worthy winner of Spiel des Jahres, the German Game of the Year.

I staggered back late in the afternoon, all gamed out, and checked out BGG to see what had become of my Geeklist. I was expecting the usual: a couple of thumbs up and dropped into obscurity. Instead it had all kicked off. I'd got over fifty thumbs, a bunch of GeekGold (BGG's currency), and a couple of orders from the States despite the truly awful exchange rate at the moment. It had been a slow news day, so my Geeklist had remained at the top of the list on the front page all day, gaining thumbs up (which keep it at the top) and getting read a lot.

It kept going, it was top all weekend and Monday. It's now got over 165 thumbs. Border Reivers entered the 'Hot Games' sidebar on the front page (today it was the eigth hottest game!). I got six orders over four days, and a bunch more interest. It totally blew me away. I've burnt through my finished stock, which is great, but I'm getting interviewed by the Yorkshire Post this week and I hoped to have some stock ready for that too. D'oh!

I also got a few more It's Alive! pre-orders, and I've nearly got enough capital now to publish It's Alive!, I should certainly be able to get the rest in time now, even assuming that none of the outstanding enquires turn into sales, and the Yorkshire Post interview doesn't generate any more. Yeay! Now I just need to get the rest of the artwork, finish the graphic design, blind-playtest it, send it to the printers and construct a few copies in the next five and a half weeks. Gulp!

Bizarrely, two of the recent Border Reivers orders were from the BBC MindGames magazine review in January. I'd given up on that as a slightly wasted effort as it had only generated a single sale. Turns out it might be three!

Border Reivers Review

Hello all,

After months of putting it off, I was finally roped into a game of Border Reivers (you may have heard of it) on saturday night round at Jack's games night.

I'd heard a lot about BR and was a bit wary about playing it, however my concerns were unfounded (obviously) and I was impressed (really impressed). As such, I thought i'd throw a review onto Board Game Geek. You can find it here.

Great game Jack, really enjoyed it. Now, about those expansions...

Back In The Game

Now I'm back I'm trying to settle things down and get back to normal. So far I've had mixed results.

I've started another batch of six copies of Border Reivers, my aim at the moment is to get all the copies constructed as soon as possible, freeing up my time for other projects. I've also made another sale - this one to America again, which is nice, since it is very expensive for Americans because of the awful exchange rate. I need more sales, they've been almost non-existant for the last five or six weeks. Without more sales I'll not have enough money to make any of the other games I'm considering, as all the money has gone into Border Reivers production for now. I'm really hoping that I just need to get some more exposure, and that I've not reached a plateau where everyone who wants a copy has now bought one.

Regardless of my sales worries, I've been pushing on with Codename:Monster. I've been in discussion with the designer, who is going to try out the changes I've made, and I've also approached an artist for the artwork. I'm afraid I won't be able to come close to affording the artist, but we're hopefully meeting in a pub next week to discuss the project, and he does sound interested so far.

Border Reivers has been getting some attention on The Geek too, thanks to a couple of recent listings in Geeklists. One by Van Overbay, designer of Tranquility Base has got a lot of thumbs ups, and I've now got almost as many people on The Geek listed as wanting a copy as I have people listed as owning a copy. Sadly, most of those are in America or Canada, and doubtless won't be able to afford it. Ho hum.

I was also contacted on The Geek, by a fellow designer based in Australia who had found this blog to be a really useful resource, and had a couple more questions for me. Feedback like that is nice - it's good to know that the exercise of blogging here semi-regularly is of some use, and not just a vanity exercise.

Still no interest (at least from a sales or enquiries point of view) from the BBC MindGames review, though I'm not totally writing it off yet...