One Hour

I have a full-time job.

And a young family.

Time is tight.

Since Christmas we've settled into a rhythm where I have an hour a day to work on Eurydice Games.

After work we eat.

Then I do my chores.

Then it's bedtime for the kids and I usually do Daughter the Second's.

Then I have an hour to myself while The Wife does Daughter the First's.

One hour a day. Every day.

Though I often do more after the kids are asleep.

It's amazing what you can achieve if you apply yourself consistently.

I've mostly been focussed on Xeno Wars for the last month.

Playtesting. Graphic design. Preparing for prototypes.

I've now got a lot of what I need.

As long as you're using the time wisely, a little everyday soon compounds.

Genesis

Xeno Wars is a strange game design process.

We’re essentially designing new ships for an existing game, not starting from scratch.

Like the expansion and the two boxes of flicks before.

The expansion we tested in real life with friends.

The boxes of flicks were COVID-creations. And they changed a lot in flight as things were unlocked.

With this we’re trying to be a lot more organised. It has to work with FlickFleet, but also on its own.

And COVID is still a big problem here, I’m mostly testing solo.

This week has been about it taking shape.

I’ve cobbled together multiple copies of the ships, raiding my bits box for parts.

Box of Delights

Starting testing larger battles rather than just individual ships.

Looking into making a bunch of prototypes for testing elsewhere.

Getting orders together for bits and dice. Writing the rulebook.

Current challenge is our dice supplier’s minimum order changing from £50 to £750! 

Trying to workaround that now…

Design

We’re a company of two. We wear a lot of hats.

Paul is manufacturing and fulfilment. And stock management.

I’m sales and marketing. Graphic design and finance.

This week has flexed all of those skills.

A different look!

I’ve been doing a first cut of Xeno Wars dashboards for playtesting copies.

Writing the new rulebook too.

I’ve finally finished the 3D printing packs - so they are now up and we’re going to run some ads too.

And the last piece of the puzzle is end of the month bookkeeping.

I really enjoy the graphic design (though I do not have a flair for it).

It’s been a fun week.

Less fun for Paul though. He’s finally had his surgery, but the recovery is slower than he was expecting :(

Productivity

My games design streak ended on Friday after 22 days.

Achieving a 22-day streak would have been inconceivable last year or the year before.

Or probably any previous year since Reiver Games shut down.

I’ve started another now.

The productivity is spilling over.

I’ve got loads of Eurydice stuff done, not related to games design.

I’ve even been cranking through home chores on the weekends too.

We’re back in business

And our new laser-cutter arrived, so once Paul’s recovered from his surgery he can finish the Kickstarter fulfilment.

All systems go!

Pace

My game design languished during 2020.

The only other person I could playtest with was seven years old.

I hate solo playtesting.

Everything slowed to a crawl.

The pandemic robbed me of my headspace.

(Still, I was lucky that was all)

Towards the end of last year things picked up.

I was was able to host some playtesting nights.

I started making progress on a few games.

This year I’m trying to do some game design every day.

Coupled with a Roll & Write design that I can quickly iterate and share with playtesters, my pace has dramatically improved.

Cycle time is very short

I’m even solo playtesting FlickFleet: Xeno Wars to try to balance the ships and make sure they are fun.

I’m loving the productivity. The daily progress. The incremental gains.

Streak

Over Christmas I had an idea for a Roll & Write game.

I’m trying to do a little game design every day this year.

I’m on a 11-day streak so far.

The player sheet is taking shape

It’s coming along really well.

Already out with playtesters.

Getting useful feedback.

I’ve also been hard at work on 3D printing files for FlickFleet.

The game, expansion 1 and Box of Flicks 1 are all done.

Box of Flicks 2 is a big job, but I’ve started!

2022

And I still don't have a flying car or jetpack. How the 80s lied to me.

The start of another year usually brings resolutions. Or goals.

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

I prefer to work on habits.

What behaviours can I make habitual this year?

Habits take less effort (once formed).

Habits compound over time.

I need to make game design progress a habit.

Every week.

Solid progress.

Let's go!

Pause

We managed to get away.

After a 40,000 mile drive, we arrived in Bristol yesterday evening.

We have a couple of days with the in-laws and a couple of days with my full clan.

I might play some games.

I might just chill.

Hope you’re all enjoying the holidays.

The Wave

Omicron is breaking on our shores.

We plan to go to Bristol for Christmas to visit our families.

But my parents are in their 70s and my dad was shielding last year due to an auto-immune disease.

I'm really uncomfortable going, but they are really keen seeing as we missed last year.

We can take precautions of course. But they're not fool-proof.

And omicron is huge and spreading rapidly.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai

Of course, it might all get taken out of our hands.

Omicron is spreading so rapidly it will inevitably overwhelm hospitals and cause severe staff-shortages across key services - see the recent Major Incident declared in London.

We will need to tighten restrictions to minimise that.

I doubt our PM has the guts to do it before Christmas, though it might well happen soon afterwards.

We're supposed to be travelling on the 26th and meeting up on the 28th and 29th.

It might be illegal by then.

At least we had Fauxmas with Paul's family last week...

Fauxmas!

A couple of years ago my family and Paul’s family got together near Christmas.

So we had a fake Christmas: Fauxmas!

With presents and food and games.

We missed it last year because of COVID.

This year we did it again.

There was much playtesting.

All hands! Repel boarders!

Things are coming together nicely :)

Six

A week or so ago we asked for some free support from a bank of over 200 experienced business owners.

I hoped we might get one or two takers.

Paul didn’t expect any.

I found out this week that six people volunteered.

Six!

We now need to review them and see which ones we’d like to work with.

This is awesome. 

Dreams

Sometimes...

I dare to dream.

Eurydice Games is going so well.

Much better than last time.

It even employs Paul (on a small part-time salary).

How far can we go?

I need to remember last time.

Jumping off the deep end.

Living two years without a salary.

Losing a bunch of my 'investment'.

I must learn from my mistakes...

Guidance

When I started Eurydice Games I tried to set up a Advisory Board.

Photo by Nadir sYzYgY on Unsplash

Friends with relevant experience.

People who would hold us accountable and give us ideas and support.

It slowly died out.

A couple of months ago I found out about The Experience Bank.

Experienced business leaders from the North-East of England who want to give back.

Free business advice.

From successful business owners.

Last week I finally got round to creating a request.

We’ll see if we get any takers…

Lasers

Our laser cutter caught fire two weeks ago.

Our supplier had two in stock and could install in early December.

It took us a few days to consider some funding options. 

Look at a few alternatives.

By Friday we were ready to place an order.

But in those few days the lead time had gone from early December to mid-January - they’d sold their last stock.

I spent the weekend looking at more alternatives.

They had a bigger, more expensive model in stock - it was too big.

We considered other suppliers.

They didn’t have it in stock either.

We considered other machines.

Then we settled on a like-for-like replacement.

And mid-January.

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

At least Paul will be able to get up to speed quickly with it.

Setbacks

The week before last week everything was rosy.

Fulfilment was back on track.

I was enjoying game design and making progress.

This last week has taken a toll.

I found a discrepancy in the books and spent my evenings cross-checking three different spreadsheets to try to track it down.

No games design progress.

And then laser-cutter caught fire and was destroyed. 

An acrylic fire destroyed the internals

Paul, his family and his house are all fine, but fulfilment is stalled while we source a replacement and set it up.

Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

Enthused

Paul slaves like Vulcan/Hephaestus over the laser-cutter.

Churning out Kickstarter rewards.

For the first time we have paid him!

Meanwhile, 100 miles to the north I am deep in InDesign.

Updating prototypes.

Tweaking them.

Trying new things.

Progress is being made.

The last Kickstarter deluxe rewards go out today. 

Then there’s another 76 standards to follow. 

I’m testing, updating and iterating three designs.

Coalescence is coming along

After the long, dark tea-time of the Pandemic it finally feels like I’m flying again.

Firing on all cylinders.

This posts has been one long mixed metaphor.

Busy / Not

Last week after a huge amount of assembling for the last deluxe rewards, Paul shipped another 75 parcels.

Some of Friday’s shipments.

There’s about 30 left after that, which will go out shortly.

That’s the deluxes done, one month late.

I spent the week prototyping and catching up on the bookkeeping.

Now I’m away for a long weekend.

On my return it’ll be back to playtesting and iterating through the loop.

Cadence

As I mentioned last week, I’ve hardly done any playtesting since the pandemic began.

A little with Daughter the First at the beginning.

A couple of times with Paul when we were able to meet up.

To get a game ready in a sensible amount of time you need a decent cadence through this cycle:

Make stuff!

Before the pandemic I had monthly playtesting meetups and ad-hoc playtesting at lunchtime at work.

So at least once a month through the cycle.

During the last eighteen months it's sometimes been 6-9 months. 

And other things have just languished at the ideas stage.

That's too slow.

We're on the clock now.

Last week I tested three new designs with a couple of mates.

They need work.

I've got some decent ideas.

I'm making those changes now.

We're going to reconvene in 2-3 weeks.

I'm speeding up...

Mojo

I’ve struggled during the pandemic.

With games design.

I hate playing games solo.

And solo playtesting.

My games aren’t a good fit for Tabletop Simulator.

I lost my mojo.

My game design almost ground to a halt. Barely ticking over.

We’re starting to see the other side.

I’m vaccinated, careful, regularly masked and regularly test myself.

So I’m starting to do things again.

And with it, my mojo is returning.

I’ve made progress on three different designs in the last couple of weeks.

The pencils are to make changes!

To the playtesting table!

Three!

Eurydice Games Ltd. was incorporated three years ago.

I ran it on my own for a year before that.

It’s going well.

Need to fill in those outstanding orders!

It would have been better if it wasn’t for Brexit derailing the Kickstarter fulfilment.

But the orders we’ve still got to fulfill are enough to make next year better still.

Many of you will know this ain’t my first rodeo.

Reiver Games was my first publishing company.

That started well too.

Then went rapidly downhill.

Doing better than green!

We’re doing better this time.

Thanks Paul!