TWENTY!

I realised on Saturday that I started this blog 20 years ago this month.

On the 5th February 2006.

After designing Border Reivers during 2002-04, I decided I wanted to self-publish it in 2006.

This blog charts a design and self-publishing journey of 20 years.

1,365 posts by me and a few others.

Starting and running two companies.

Designing 10s of games.

Of which nine will have seen the light of day once Gal4Xeon is released in May.

None of my games have been real breakout hits, but that’s still a huge achievement.

My Shelf of Pride, containing some of the games I’ve (self-)published.

Thanks to all of you for coming along on the journey too!

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 :)

Fauxmas

This weekend was the first of our four(!) Christmas celebrations.

Fauxmas.

Paul and his family came up for the weekend.

We had an early Christmas with them.

Complete with presents.

They got me River Valley Glassworks, which is a very full box!

Christmas dinner.

Drinks.

And games.

It was glorious.

We didn't get much time to talk business, or playtest new ideas.

But we've got a weekend in Leicester together at the end of January.

For To Boldly Game at the National Space Centre again.

It's also the start of my just over 2 week Christmas holiday from the day job.

Which I need.

It's been a crazy few weeks there.

Excited

I've had a new idea.

Inspired by For All Mankind.

I've been watching it in my spare time.

I.e. while washing up.

It's very much my jam.

Sci-fi.

Politicking.

Some alt-history.

Someone on Bluesky said in their mind it's in the same universe as The Expanse.

Which is a personal favourite.

NASA / Neil Armstrong (Public Domain)

So now I'm working on a moonbase game.

My second.

The first one didn't go anywhere.

Hopefully this one will.

I've a neat mechanism idea.

I'll see if I can knock up half a prototype to take away over Christmas.

And develop.

I'm excited to have a new project underway!

Limited

It's been a nightmare week or so in the day job.

As a result I've not made much progress on anything.

I have at least done the VAT return.

And created a Gamefound page for Gal4Xeon.

It's empty at the moment.

In draft so no one can see it.

But I'd like to get it up before Christmas if I can.

I doubt I'll have much time though, so it'll be a very early preview, with limited content to begin with.

Still, it's all progress.

Rules

For a long time the rules of my games live in the Apple Notes app.

I can read them whenever I want.

Tweak them easily.

Edit them easily.

Check them on my phone, when I'm pulling out a prototype I've not played in a while.

At some point they have to become official though.

Graphic design.

Diagrams.

That takes time and effort.

So I tend to leave it until near the end.

When I'm not expecting many more changes.

I'm doing the Gal4Xeon rules now.

In InDesign.

With diagrams.

And graphic design.

It's slow going.

But an important step.

Habits

I have a list of daily tasks I do.

To protect my health.

My mind.

My body.

But also to hone my craft.

Games design is one of them.

I do a bit every day.

Building my skills.

Making my games better.

I have a broad definition of games design.

Title ideas. Theme ideas. Mechanism ideas. Writing rules. Creating prototypes. Playtesting. Graphic design on a prototype or final version.

But a bit every day.

Sometimes a tiny bit.

Sometimes several big bits.

But each day I am practising.

Getting better.

And my games are moving forward.

Yesterday it was helping Daughter the Second with a game idea she had.

The first page of the Gal4Xeon rules taking shape in InDesign

Then a bit more work on the Gal4Xeon rules.

Today is my day off.

I'll make more progress.

Onwards! 

Gal4Xeon

I've been working on a fifth roll and write game for a few months now.

It's been coming together nicely.

It got great feedback at my last playtest.

And now it's got a name.

You have ten eons to expand across the galaxy. Explore new sectors. Develop new technologies. Exploit resources. Conquer or trade with the aliens you encounter. Will you make it to the precursor ruins at the edge of the galaxy, or focus on claiming the galactic core?

Still putting the finishing touches on it, but it feels like it's getting there.

The Wife is away this week, so I have the evenings to myself.

I hope to make some decent progress.

Wings

Two months ago, when I went down to York to help Paul with Gamefound fulfilment, I told him I had no more roll and writes under development.

Then I had an idea on the way home.

I was able to cannibalise bits from The Planets My Destination and Exodus from Reynoldsworld to knock up a quick prototype.

Since then I've played it and tweaked it 16 times.

It had its first public outing at Newcastle Playtest in early October.

That highlighted some overly complex bits.

I made changes.

Tweaked it some more.

At Yorcon just over a week ago it had its second outing.

And it was very well received.

They wanted to play it some more.

I've now got a rough and ready playtest kit together.

So I've prepared it for sharing.

No diagrams in the rules yet, but it's got rules and a player sheet as PDFs ready to download.

Anyone fancy giving it a try and providing feedback?

Either on the game or the clarity of the rules.

I would love to hear what you think...

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.

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!