Community

I love the gaming community.

I've been part of it since I started attending Beyond Monopoly in York in 2006.

Since then I've made gaming buddies in York, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Newcastle.

Plus loads of friends from around the country that I see at conventions.

This weekend I went to AireCon for the second time.

First time as a punter, not an exhibitor.

We were looking to see what they do well so we can make Tyneside Games Expo as amazing as possible.

We spoke to most of the exhibitors, pitching the show to them.

Lots of them were people I knew.

Or friends.

From UKGE, Tabletop Scotland, or our first AireCon.

Plus there were loads of people from Newcastle Gamers there.

And various other friends too.

I love that feeling, walking the halls and bumping into so many people I know.

And I even got to playtest my new game idea.

Jeremy thought it was excellent.

On it's third play!

I think it has potential.

I'll be trying it out again today with Joe of Word Dungeon fame.

Another gaming buddy.

Thurospiration

Dan Thurot writes excellent reviews.

I follow him on Bluesky.

Where he asked for designers to explain why Roll and Move games suck.

Lots of answers about lack of player agency.

How it's associated with old games like Monopoly, Clue(do), etc.

I'm more concerned about the theming.

When I answered the question, it gave me an idea.

I quickly knocked up a sheet using a hex grid from the internet.

And took it with me when I met up with my buddy Joe, the designer of the excellent Word Dungeon. 

We tried out my loose idea.

Tweaked it.

Tried it again.

He had some great ideas.

So I've knocked up another version.

Very rough and ready prototype

Hoping to meet up with him again next week and maybe try it again.

Roll and move.

Who'd have thought!

Split

Four ways!*

Back in December I went part-time in my day job.

I now officially work 4 days a week.

Monday's "off".

I use my Mondays to work on Eurydice Games.

And Tyneside Games Expo.

A convention that I took over with 4 friends.

It ran for the last two years in Gateshead.

Under the name Northeast Tabletop Expo.

New team.

New name.

Hopefully we can build on its previous successes.

We're getting exhibitors signing up already.

Ticket sales coming soon.

Meanwhile Gal4Xeon continues gain followers.

And we're shipping FlickFleet rewards this week.

It's a busy time. 

*Family, Eurydice, Tyneside Games Expo, and day job.

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…