AsteRace

Over the last couple of months I've been working on a game that was inspired by a tweet (on Bluesky, does that make it a skeet?).

In it Dan Thurot asked: "... I want a designer to tell me why roll-and-move sucks and they would never consider using it in their own game."

I answered it was the theme that bothered me.

If I can move 6 spaces, why do I sometimes move 3, and sometimes 1?

It gave me an idea for a game.

Note how I've immediately broken the premise of Dan's question.

I've spent the last 2 months designing that game.

It's a race through an asteroid belt.

AsteRace. Gettit?

The board spaces start blank, you fill them in as you move.

There are nine gates to visit.

First to visit all nine wins.

It's a simple roll & move & write game.

My playtesters have really enjoyed it.

But I can't see it becoming a 'product'.

So I'm giving it away in our next newsletter.

Free game!

Subscribe here if you're interested.

In other news, Gal4Xeon finishes soon and it's doing amazing!

Launch

It's launch week.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Just over 24 hours until the Gal4Xeon Gamefound campaign goes live.

At this point the signs are encouraging.

More followers than any of our previous roll and write campaigns.

Three good reviews.

Some great pull quotes.

More add-ons and a larger bundle, so probably a higher average pledge.

Fingers crossed.

It's been a rough few months for Eurydice off the back of shipping the last FlickFleet campaign.

We could do with a boost to help us fix our cashflow challenges.

Not much left to do now but wait and see...

Coming Soon!

I’m back from my holiday.

The girls are still on holiday though, so my Monday this week is parenting.

Not second and third jobs!

But it’s a busy week.

Gal4Xeon launches a week tomorrow.

It’s got nearly 450 followers!

Exodus only had 157 at launch.

Hopefully that’s a good sign.

While I was off, Paul finished fulfilling Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

That campaign was hard.

Done now, except for one pledge with a payment issue.

I’m hoping to get it up on the website this week for those of you who missed the campaign.

Finally, our costs have gone up a lot over the last couple of years.

I’m going to put some of our prices up in a week or so.

Now’s your chance to beat that!

Holiday!

I’m away on holiday for a week.

In Wales

With all of my family.

I’ll be playing some games.

Doing a bit of playtesting.

And taking it easy.

See you next week!

Solo

I've got loads to do at the moment.

Bookkeeping for Paul's epic fulfilment drive.

Organising exhibitors for Tyneside Games Expo.

End of month tasks.

The Gal4Xeon Gamefound campaign page.

Plus I'm trying to step up our social media.

And work on a new game.

This week The Wife is in Dublin again for work.

I have the evenings to myself once the kids are down.

Strangely, I find myself less productive when she's not here though.

Just having her in the house helps me concentrate.

When she's away I'm more easily distracted.

Need to lock in as Daughter the First would say!

Help!

I've mentioned a few times recently that cash is tight at the moment.

We're owed thousands of pounds by the government. Tax refunds.

We've almost finished fulfilling the last crowdfunding campaign.

We're just making up the standard rewards now.

But we priced up the campaign in early February 2025.

Then came US tariffs.

Then the removal of the De Minimis rule in the US.

Then threats to Greenland and war in Iran.

Half of the rewards are for the US.

And we've paid twice what we were expecting to for US shipping, plus the tariffs - because we promised customs-friendly shipping.

US web sales have dropped off a cliff for all the reasons above too.

Paul and I have had to lend the company money again.

And we're still very low on cash.

We'd really appreciate it if you could recommend our games to friends/family/games groups.

Or rate/review them on BGG.

Or follow and comment on our Gal4Xeon Gamefound campaign.

The roll & writes in particular are cheap, tariff-free, and have no shipping.

We appreciate anything you can do to help spread the word!

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.