Trapped!

My email was broken yesterday: I didn't receive any, not even spam. When you run a business from home, predominantly using email you feel strangely cut off, knowing that all the emails that you've been sent are sitting on a server somewhere, waiting to be delivered. It didn't help that I was sending out emails to distributors pimping Carpe Astra, and I was unable to respond to any replies they might have been sending. It seems to be working today though, I'm getting a steady trickle of emails that were sent yesterday.

I got my books finished yesterday as planned, that's two months in a row that I've finished them within a sensible length of time from the end of the month. I can only assume that I've been abducted by aliens and replaced by a robot double. It's not something I'd do, at one point I was probably eighteen months behind!

With Carpe Astra nearly here I need to seriously start thinking: 'What next?' I've lined up Sumeria/Codename: Ancient for next Essen, but in the meantime, I'd like to get one or two games out early next year. I've spent fairly heavily on It's Alive! and Carpe Astra though, so I'm not going to have much cash-on-hand until I've sold a decent proportion of both print runs. This necessitates cheaper games for early next year.

I want more games so that I can balance the risk better (I'm less dependent on all my games selling out quickly as I'll have multiple income channels), but I can't afford large games which require a large capital investment. I think card games are the way to go. As a result, I'm going to look closer at Codenames: Jorvik, Backyard and Native as well as a few submissions from Reiner Knizia! Yeah, his agent stopped by my booth at Essen and asked if I was interested in publishing other designer's games. 'Yes, if they're his!' was my answer!

I'm also going to revisit a sci-fi television show license I was working on two or three years ago. I've no idea whether there's any chance of getting the license, but I bought Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game at Essen, and now I've played it a couple of times it has inspired me :-)

More...

... Production samples and more playtesting.

Today I received more samples for It's Alive! These are finished components, as will appear in the games bought in the shops. This time I got the slabs, player guides, shields and proof sheets (i.e. not glued or die-cut) for the boxes and the coins. The proofs were nothing new, I've received proofs before. Admittedly they're on the label paper that will be glued to the card, but that doesn't make them that interesting. The slabs, shields and guides were interesting though. They were on the final material, and in the case of the shields exhibited the die-cutting and folding. They're all fine, it's pretty cool to see the final components. The only ones I've yet to see now are the die-cut coin sheets and the assembled boxes. I doubt I'll see either of these until the final games turn up in three weeks time. The boxes in particular are made by a different company, and the packing is done there too.

I also held another playtest session last night with Carpe Astra (4-player) and Codename: Native hitting the table. Lots more good ideas for Carpe Astra, but I really need to stop fiddling with it and settle on some final rules. It's still improving though, which is a good sign.

Short Day

I'm having the afternoon off today to spend some time with The Wife. I figure I'll be playtesting on the weekend at Summer StabCon, which counts as work so, I'm due some time off.

Yesterday, Paul and I got some playtesting in, as he was busy on Wednesday afternoon. We managed a 3-player game of Codename: Native, the first time I'd played it with more than two. It's growing on me - the first time I played it I thought it was good, but more plays seems to make it more interesting. We also got to try a new prototype which had arrived the week before, Codename: Farm. First impressions were that it had some interesting ideas, but needed a bit of streamlining.

In the evening there was a limited turnout for Paul's games night (everyone's on holiday) so instead we introduced Spencer to Codename: Ancient. The scores were much tighter this time, as Paul, Lisa and I had all played it before. Spence came last, which implies a learning curve. Afterwards we thought of ways to improve the layout of the prototype to make things simpler to play and get your head around.

This morning I'm going to chase a few stockists and my potential US Distributors to try and drum up more orders for It's Alive! I'm also going to make a start on some new Carpe Astra prototypes. I'm going to send a couple to the US for playtesting - a first for me.

Tomorrow I'm off early to StabCon. I think I'll take the following prototypes with me: Ancient, Native, Rising, Match, Colony, Backyard and Carpe Astra. Should be a good weekend.

Playtest-O-Rama

I've been playtesting like a man possessed over the last few days. Of the 58 submissions I've received, 12 prototypes are in process. Some of the rest I've turned down at one stage or another, others I'm waiting on the rules or a prototype from a designer.

Of those twelve prototypes I've got, I've now played ten of them, with two still to hit the table.

While Mal was here on the weekend, we played seven games of four different prototypes, Codenames: Backyard, Native, Rising (x4) and Carpe Astra. Monday night I went round to Paul's as usual, and as he was expecting a quiet night he asked me to bring some prototypes. We usually play 'real games' at Paul's games nights, so that was quite unusual. We played a couple, one that I'd played a few times solo and then with Mal, one for the first time. First we had a 3-player game of Backyard, followed by a 4-player game of Special, after Vin arrived. Both went down well.

Last night I held another Tuesday night playtesting session at mine. Lisa and Paul G. made it, so we had another opportunity to play a game for at least 3-players. We played four different prototypes, one of which was the first play. Before Paul arrived, Lisa and I played a couple of games of Codename:Rising, she was keen to play it again after the first game (and so was Mal on Sunday) so that's got promise. We were just setting up Codename: Ancient when Paul arrived so we had a 3-player game of that. I really enjoyed this one - expect to hear more on that front! Next up was a 3-player game of Codename: Backyard. We finished off with a quick game of Codename: Match.

Today I'm going round to Paul's again for my weekly Wednesday afternoon playtest. That'll be four playtesting sessions in four days - fantastic! I'm going to take:

• Ancient - I really enjoyed this 3-player last night, it'll be good to see how it plays with 2;
• Backyard - I'm enjoying this one too;
• Rising - A 2-player abstract that Paul's not played yet;
• Madness - I've only played this solo so far.

and probably Carpe Astra too.

Now that It's Alive! is nearly ready to go to the printers, I can split my time between trying to get distributors and shops to pick up It's Alive!, finishing off the rules for Carpe Astra and getting my submissions tested and evaluated.