Ideas

After cancelling meeting Paul due to feeling rough the previous week, we met up last Wednesday.

It was an opportunity to exchange 20 more Gamefound orders for me to ship from Newcastle.

And a chance to catch up.

I also brought two prototypes.

Troll and Wizard.

Both codenames pending real names.

Troll was an idea I had several months ago.

It has been slowly taking shape in note form.

But I knew Paul was interested in the idea when I pitched it to him.

Wizard was 5 days old at this point and I’d already played it twice.

We played both games.

Paul had great ideas for both.

I’ve made a new prototype for Troll incorporating the changes.

Subtle changes!

I might not need to change the components for Wizard.

Both games are still Sharpie on blank cards.

Makes it really quick to iterate the design.

I will hopefully test the new Troll today at lunchtime games.

Reborn

I’m constantly amazed at the changes I’ve experienced since the worst of COVID.

Over two years I did almost no games design.

I struggled to think of changes for the one or two ideas I had.

No new ideas.

Since November I’ve been completely transformed.

New ideas. Rapid progress on existing ones.

Lots of spinning plates and progress being made on all of them.

Friday I was supposed to meet Paul to collect more stock to help him ship.

I’d felt rubbish all day and cancelled so I could get an early night instead.

A game mechanism came to me while feeling awful, sat in bed at 8pm.

By 9 I’d designed a game. And written enough notes to make a first prototype.

I slept really badly. Body aches and a blocked nose keeping me awake a large chunk of the night.

The next morning I felt awful.

This idea didn’t exist 24 hours before I finished the prototype!

But I managed to make a prototype that day.

Filthy cold and I still managed to get from first idea to prototype in 24 hours.

The next day I started soloing it in public, a bunch of kids came to watch. One joined in and played it to the end.

Despite it begin an early, broken version, they wanted to make their own copy. 

They were fighting over who got to play a second 4-player game (before their parents, sat nearby, whisked them off for lunch).

It has potential.

In the last few months I’ve committed to doing four things daily: meditate, walk outside, some basic bodyweight exercises, and games design.

Is the transformation down to one of those? Two of them? All of them together?

I daren’t stop any of them. This feels awesome. So productive.

I’m a game designer reborn.

Mornings

I’ve spent the last week in a big house in the country with the entirety of my clan.

Nineteen of us. Aged 14 months to 77 years.

I’m still waking up early.

I was up first every day.

I did my chain of daily habits.

Then turned to games design.

Evolving rapidly

I finished the first Codename:Troll prototype.

Soloed it a couple of times.

Found a bunch of things to change.

Made a new version.

Soloed that a couple of times. It’s better.

Made some changes to Siren.

Tried them out.

They showed some issues.

I need to figure out how to address them.

Feels good to be prototyping.

Finding flaws.

Making progress.

Make games design a daily habit has been amazing.

My progress this year is night and day from the last couple of COVID years.

I have more headspace though, without the worry of that hanging over me.

Progress

I spent last week shipping the Xeno Wars rewards that Paul had brought up last weekend.

And starting to flesh out the Rocky ‘Roid Gamefound page.

Very rough at the beginning!

And starting to create a first prototype of a new game.

Paul’s been down the laser-cutting mines.

We’re making good progress on a number  of fronts.

I’m on holiday this week though.

So not much from me.

I still want to do my daily game design though.

Some days it’s just making a couple of quick notes.

Some days it’s writing rules.

Or prototyping.

Or playtesting.

But the daily commitment means I’m making continual progress.

My output has been way higher as a result.

Which is really motivating.

Hoping to make a start on the next FlickFleet thing soon…

Newcastle

Eurydice Games is run out of my house in Newcastle.

And Paul’s in York.

100 miles apart.

We don’t meet as much as we’d like as a result.

But I spent almost a week with Paul before AireCon and then during it.

Helping with shipping before Paul’s family holiday.

He’s just been to mine for 24 hours.

Dropping off more stock for me to ship.

Heading to a home near you this week!

And just our two families hanging out together.

It’s not often the fulfilment is done from Newcastle.

Paul does almost all of it from his house.

I’m glad I can help.

Free up some of his time for laser-cutting.

Rules

For the last couple of weeks my focus has been the Rocky ‘Roid rules.

Oh, and AireCon.

Oh, and shipping Gamefound rewards.

But mostly rules.

The rules have crystallised now.

But the old ones were very basic - few examples and no diagrams.

They were easy to edit while the rules were changing, but they weren’t good enough for release.

So I’ve been splitting them up. Adding more examples.

Adding diagrams.

The low ink rules are done now.

Got high ink maps done too!

I can share them with reviewers.

High ink rules should be quite quick.

Meanwhile, I’ve been shipping the stuff I brought back from Paul’s.

Ordering packaging for the big box orders.

I’m going to sort out some more to ship once Paul’s back from his holiday.

Let him focus on cutting the last of the deluxe and EU rewards.

AireCon

Last week was all about about AireCon.

And shipping.

I spent almost all week in York, staying with Paul and Mrs. Paul.

I came down early so I could spent two days helping out with Gamefound fulfilment.

I finished off 105 FlickFleets and Paul cut and finished 15 Box of Flicks 2.

Then we picked, packed and posted 33 complex orders.

Then off to AireCon to set-up. 

Ready to go!

The weather said heavy snow so we packed overnight bags just in case, but there was just a little sleet.

Friday there was a lot of snow on the ground and the trip over was a bit hairy.

The show was pretty quiet as a result.

Saturday was much busier.

It was great fun, but hard work.

Great meeting existing fans though. And creating new ones.

I’m back at work this week.

Need to catch up on some sleep!

Preparation

Last week was preparation.

We’ve made the decision to publish Rocky ‘Roid.

My asteroid-mining roll and write.

I created a BGG page for it.

And a Gamefound campaign page.

And cracked on with the graphic design.

Lots of changes done for the low ink versions.

High ink sneak peak!

Then did the high ink versions.

And now working on proper rules. With diagrams.

This week I’m away almost all week.

It’s AireCon on the weekend, in Harrogate.

Our second convention.

And I’m going down a couple of days early to do a shift on the Gamefound fulfilment.

So that Paul can concentrate on laser-cutting.

Looking forward to spending the week with him.

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 :(

Filling

I’ve spent the week sorting out the website shop.

I’d offered to do it, rather than the web developers.

It’s taken a decent chunk of time.

But we’re getting there.

I need better images for the bundles.

Then I can add the boxes of flicks.

Then the extras, starting with asteroids.

Meanwhile Paul has been filling his house.

With finished extras.

A lot of Option 13s

He’s going to be shipping a bunch of stuff soon.

Then there’s base games and the expansion boxes to do.

Progress!

Confluence

It’s all coming together.

The new website is finally live.

I’ve spent the week populating the shop part - the basics are in there now, but there’s loads more to come.

The big boxes arrived and Paul has done a test assemble.

Both big and boxy!

They are the last delivery we were waiting for the Gamefound campaign.

Paul’s working flat out, pulling long days laser-cutting.

He’s now made 320 deluxe Xeno Wars and is moving on to the extras.

Feels like we’re starting to get there!

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.

Time

With the new job, time is tight.

I’m having to get my head back into programming.

As well as learning all the new domain and our suite of applications.

I’m tired and I’ve not been sleeping well.

There are several upsides though.

I’ve found a couple of gaming buddies and am frequently gaming at lunchtime before walking home.

We even playtested Rocky ‘Roid last week when I forgot to take in Lost Cities.

I’m getting loads of exercise.

I’m enjoying the job way more.

I’ve also arranged a FlickFleet tournament on our next Connection Day when they try to get everyone into the office :)

Let’s see how they fare at this!

In other news, Paul is frantically laser-cutting and we’re making progress on fulfilment.

Not helped by the Royal Mail ransomware attack though - they still can’t accept international parcels :(

And I’ve restarted the Newcastle Playtest group :)

My new daily habits mean I’m making decent progress on 2 games and have another ready for playtesting.

Plus another I’d like to get to prototype stage soon too!

Shipping

Xeno Wars is now shipping.

The non-EU playmats have all gone.

Simple orders to the UK have gone too. 

We’re ready to send the non-EU international simple orders.

But there’s been a ransomware attack on Royal Mail, so they aren’t shipping internationally at the moment.

Hopefully they’ll fix it soon.

Or we’ll need a backup plan.

In the meantime, it’s great to see peoples’ excitement when it arrives.

Wooooo! by Kris Mackie via Facebook

Thanks for sharing!

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.

Notes

After playing with Evernote and Notion I’ve gone back to the iPhone Notes app. 

The free one from Apple. 

In the last month I’ve taken notes on 7(!) different games. 

This is prolific for me!

Only two of those have been prototyped though.

It’s time to move from notes to games. 

Broken games. Dodgy games. Boring games. 

But no matter how much you think about it, it’s not until you make a prototype that you start finding the kinks and working them out. 

I’ve ordered 500 blank cards to save me some time.

New job starts tomorrow, so I’ll be tight for time again.

2023!

I hope all of you that celebrate it had a fantastic Christmas.

2023 is on the horizon.

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash

As a lad who grew up in the seventies it sounds very futuristic.

Looking forward to my flying car.

In all seriousness I'm really looking forward to 2023.

I have so many game ideas buzzing in my head now.

After some very slow years.

COVID and the job I wasn't enjoying sucked all the creative headspace out of me.

I've found my mojo again.

Hopefully I can get some of these ideas completed.

Fingers crossed!

Four

I'm actively working on four games.

Rocky 'Roid is with playtesters awaiting feedback.

Siren Song I've tried a couple of times solo. I'm making notes and I'm almost ready to update the prototype.

Border Reivers has a page of notes.

And I'm doing the Scenario Booklet for FlickFleet.

I'm loving this burst of creativity.

Really enjoying the designing and prototyping of games.

Paul gave me a 10x10 game tracker he'd made me for Christmas.

I'm using it to track prototype plays.

Plenty of space at the bottom!

Too much of my time over the last few years has been swallowed by running the business.

And trying to stay sane during COVID.

Creativity

Following some advice I got via Daniel Pink I’ve started a chain.

Just trying to keep a streak going of things that are important to me.

Game design. Exercise. Physio for my leg that is weakened by my MS. Meditation.

I've managed nine days so far.

And it’s been amazing.

I’ve made a new version of Rocky ‘Roid and sent it out to playtesters.

Written a load of notes for a second edition of Border Reivers.

Come up with a new idea for a game about sirens and Ancient Greek sailors.

And made notes.

And a quick hand-drawn prototype.

And played it at Paul’s this weekend.

And come up with ideas for a new version.

I haven’t been this creative in years.

Something about it is working for me!

Finished

National Game Design Month is over. 

The first half was great - loads of progress and fast iterations. 

After Paul’s mini-convention I stalled. 

There was urgent Eurydice work to be done. 

Plus the feedback I received at the convention has left me struggling to find a next step. 

I have ideas. Thoughts. Notes. 

Nothing concrete to implement though. 

On the plus side, I’ve made loads of progress on it this month. 

First since January. 

Now I need to unblock the market. 

TGWAG was disappointing this year. 

In previous years I’ve had many players who were quite engaged. 

Only two this year. 

Mal won it. 

I’m working on a prize for him now…