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!