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.

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!

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.

Fauxmas

We've spent the weekend in York.

Visiting Paul and his family.

For Fauxmas, our fake Christmas.

Complete with Fauxmas Eve, Fauxmas Day (including presents and Fauxmas Dinner) and Foxing Day.

It was a lovely weekend.

A great chance to catch up.

Play games.

Drink.

Eat.

And be merry.

We played lots of games. Mostly including at least one of my kids.

So lighter games.

Lots of Apples to Apples, Codenames, Just One, A Fake Artist in New York and UNO.

But also Las Vegas.

And I got to try the latest version of Jotunsaga with Paul.

Get his feedback.

Discuss some new ideas.

I've got a new version to try now :)

Plus some weeding of the many ideas for FlickFleet: A Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

A great weekend :)

Sirens

This week has been all about sirens.

The Ancient Greek kind.

I had an idea for a Siren themed game a couple of years ago.

I wanted it to feel like Guillotine and 6 Nimmt.

Funny. Chaotic. Sweary.

I made a first version.

Tried it.

It was bad.

Made a second after chatting with Casey at work.

Better, but the cards were way off.

Then it languished for a year or two.

At Newcastle Gamers a couple of weeks ago there were six of us and that second version was the only six player game anyone had brought.

So we played it.

The cards were still way off.

So I started on a new version.

Got that ready last weekend.

Played it at work on Tuesday.

It went better.

New ideas for cards.

Made a new version Friday.

Soloed it Saturday.

Made a new version Saturday night.

Very quick turnaround.

Hopefully I can play this one at work tomorrow…

YorCon

I’ve spent the weekend in the middle of nowhere.

Playing games with an awesome bunch of people.

Lots of new games.

My favourites were Lord of the Rings Duel and Space Base.

We went for a couple of walks in the countryside.

I played a couple of games of Jotunsaga.

Gaming designing in progress

With other designers.

It got really good feedback.

And spawned a bunch of new ideas.

I took a Sharpie, a pen, and some blank cards.

So I could make a new version.

And try that too.

And there’s Newcastle Playtest tomorrow.

It’s coming on nicely…

Six/Seven

Our sixth financial year finishes today.

Seventh if you count the year I ran it on my own at the beginning.

Before Paul joined and we became the home of FlickFleet.

It’s been another pretty good year.

Made a profit.

But nearly ran out of cash twice.

Did ok.

What will next year bring?

Hopefully more conventions.

Maybe a new game?

I was playtesting Jotunsaga at the North East Tabletop Expo on Sunday.

Feedback was positive.

It’s improving.

Progress is being made.

Feaster

Paul and his family are visiting for the Easter weekend.

Feaster.

A weekend of feasting, catching up, and gaming.

It’s great to see them all.

Catch up.

Plus, play some games.

We’re teaching each other new games.

Playing a lot with the kids.

Plus a bit of playtesting.

Roll and Write 4 is only a couple of weeks old. But Paul’s enjoyed it and had very few suggestions for improvements.

I love that I can turn roll and writes around quick enough that we can play it again.

But different.

On the same weekend.

Action

I've been feeling a bit jaded the last few weeks.

It's sapped my enthusiasm.

I've not made much progress.

Things we're piling up in front of me.

I needed a change.

I took Wednesday off work.

Cracked on with those tasks.

New versions of a couple of roll and write prototypes.

Sorting out a couple of FlickFleet fulfilment tasks.

Started writing the 3rd edition rulebook.

Made decent progress.

Carried that into the weekend.

Had two hours to myself during Daughter the Second's dance rehearsal.

Spent it playtesting.

Made changes. Tried them out. More progress.

Got home. Made more changes.

I made a note once. I think I read it from Shane Parrish.

Action leads to Progress. Progress leads to Momentum. Momentum leads Motivation.

I think it might be true. 

It's been a good week. Things are picking up.

Again

I like to do things again.

I re-watch TV shows.

I re-read books.

I like to return to places I’ve been before.

I play games tens or even hundreds of times.

With the endless stream of new games coming out, I think that makes me a bit weird.

People try to play all the new stuff. Just once or twice and then move on.

I’m sure my terrible memory plays a part in it: I can enjoy a TV show or book again and I’ve forgotten a decent chunk. Even on the third or fourth time through.

Still, a bit odd.

Playtesting roll and write 3 in the pub last week

So why do I enjoy playtesting so much? Every play is different. 

Familiar, sure, but different. The rules change a bit every time.

My brain is strange.

After last week’s release of my second roll and write game, I’ve come up with a fourth roll and write idea.

Looking forward to starting testing of that shortly. It’s heavily inspired by Star Trek away teams :)

Purchase

Last Thursday at Games Night I asked my buddies if they would playtest a prototype.

It’s my second roll and write.

Currently known as The Planets My Destination.

A nod to Alfred Bester.

It’s about colonising the solar system.

It was a big ask.

Several months ago 2 out of 3 of them played an earlier version.

It was a disaster.

20 minute game. That lasted 1:40. And was way too complex. 

Complicated really. Not complex. Unnecessarily complicated.

But they humoured me.

We played again.

25 mins this time.

Much better.

And the new 3rd person?

He asked where he could buy it the next day.

It’s getting close I think…

Pretty

When you’re designing a game you want it to be functional.

And quick to iterate as you make changes.

And pretty to engage the testers.

But the first two are most important.

The game settles down and your changes become less frequent and smaller.

Then you can invest more time in pretty.

As you’re less likely to have to redo it.

Rocky ‘Roid is reaching that point.

This week has mostly been graphic design.

Getting prettier (low ink)

Paul has been shipping.

So I loaded all the invoices in to our accounts package using the app I wrote.

Found some bugs.

Only one lead to a shipping error and we fixed that before it arrived with the customer.

But I spent a lot of time checking for more.

And it cost us some money and Paul some time :(

Solo

I’ve been playing a lot of Rocky ‘Roid solo.

Mostly on my phone.

I made a webpage for it.

It’s not complete yet, but it’s mostly playable.

And it already lets me gather data.

I’m trying to work out a good way of grading the solo game.

Adding difficulty - so you can choose how much of a fight you want to automaton to provide.

I’m testing fuel load and automaton hold size to see which works best.

And learning JavaScript at the same time :)

For the first time in three years I’m hosting Newcastle Playtest this week too. I’ll be bringing three prototypes - including Rocky ‘Roid.

Progress

Paul has been sick between Christmas and New Year. 

He’s still not right now. 

But he’s getting better. 

The last few non-EU playmats shipped this week. 

Freeing up valuable space in his house. 

Next up is starting to tick off the deluxe rewards. 

Meanwhile I’ve been cracking on with the scenario booklet. 

The Rift

Testing the scenarios. 

Tweaking them. 

Testing again. 

I’ve almost finished. 

Next up is some more coding on our internal tooling. 

To save me time that I can then spend on game design. Or graphic design. Or Gamefound pages.

Changes

I started a new job on Tuesday. 

For the first time in a couple of years I’m in an office (in the morning at least!). 

I’m walking 4 miles a day which is great. 

Or will be, once I’ve broken in my new boots.

But I have less time for Eurydice Games. 

And it’s harder to work on it during my lunch break since that’s when I’m walking home. 

I need to find a new rhythm. 

I’ve managed to playtest Rocky ‘Roid a bunch of times last week though. 

Sat in the office cafe, eating my lunch. 

Under construction!

I’ve also spent several evenings this week testing the FlickFleet scenario booklet scenarios.

It’s coming together.

I’m going to be busy again soon though as Paul steps up shipping too.

I need to find my new rhythm.

Gaming

Paul organised a mini-convention this weekend.

In deepest, darkest Yorkshire.

Him and 20-odd of his friends including me.

I knew a couple of them beforehand, but they were all lovely.

I played a lot of games.

Many for the first time.

But even with the prospect of 48 hours of gaming (and optionally some sleep!), I found myself gravitating to shorter games.

I don’t play long games any more as ‘I don’t have the time’.

I think I need to change that.

I just prefer shorter games now.

I also playtested the roll and write with a couple of other designers and a roll and write fan.

Evolving again!

Got some useful feedback.

We completely changed endgame scoring. Twice.

And it’s better for it.

New version coming soon…

Test

The Wife is away.

I'm busier than usual.

Doing all the housework and parenting.

But also less busy.

I've no-one to hang out with once the kids are asleep.

So I've been making progress again.

New maps!

We now have five different map ideas. All drafted and included in the download.

I've still only tested the first one.

Hopefully getting some more testing in on Wednesday...

Review

We’re nearing review copy readiness.

It’s an exciting time.

We get ‘real-ish’ copies of the game for photography and then send them to reviewers.

Will they like it?

Hate it?

Don’t end up like this!

The playtesters have had ‘a lot of fun’ with it.

Now we need the reviewers to enjoy it too.

But that’s their call. Not ours.

We don’t do paid previews - just send a copy for an honest review.

We’re on tenterhooks.

Density

I’ve spent the last week in Shropshire with the entirety of my family.

Was great to see them all - we’ve not seen much of them for a couple of years.

The kids were delighted to spend time with all their cousins.

It was great to meet my youngest nephew.

I took a bag of games of course.

We played a couple of games of Outfoxed with the younger kids.

Century Golem Edition with the older ones.

And a lot of FlickFleet: Xeno Wars. A lot.

This kitchen island saw a lot of FlickFleet action!

It was great to really thrash Xeno Wars - trying out a few of the playtesters ideas and getting in a bunch of multiplayer games.

Then when I got back my next door neighbour came round for a Star Wars Rebellion rematch.

It’s been a gaming-dense week :)