Busy

It’s been a week.

Daughter the Second turned five.

So we decorated the house.

And then did everything for her party on Saturday.

On top of that, it’s the Expo this weekend.

We need to get everything ready for that. 

Including the review copies of Xeno Wars.

I’ve been flat out.

The Xeno Wars artwork is now with the printer.

Just got a couple of things left to do: send the newsletter and create our Zettle shop.

Then it’s off to the Expo.

It's hard work!

Our first time exhibiting.

It’s exhausting.

I remember from my Reiver Games days.

Long days.

On your feet.

Enthusiastic and interacting with people constantly.

Next Monday I have the day off.

With two young kids - both schools are shut.

Might not be the day of recuperation I’ll need!

Competition

We're running a competition at the UK Game Expo.

How many fighters can you destroy in 5 turns?

Each turn you can move and/or fire three times.

Move first or fire first. Your choice.

If your ship leaves the mat, your entry is over.

If a die leaves the mat it deals no damage.

If you collide with an asteroid or fighter that's the end of your turn. And you take damage from asteroids.

It'll be running for the first and last hour of every day.

Highest score at the end of the show wins all four deluxe boxes worth £220.

Ties will be broken by random number generator.

You're only allowed one entry per hour slot. First entries will be prioritised over repeat entrants.

It'll look like this!

Not going to the Expo? If you have the game and expansion 1 you can play along at home. You won't be able to enter the competition, but we'd love to see your scores! 

Expo

The UK Games Expo has been in the news this week for dropping its mask and vaccination requirements.

Three weeks before it starts.

We’re going though.

Our first con!

It’s our first ever convention.

It’s exciting.

And expensive.

We need to buy loads of things, on top of the cost of the stand.

Paul and I are working on those.

The Xeno Wars Gamefound campaign is slipping as a result.

At least a lot of stuff will be re-usable for our next convention.

I’ve not exhibited since 2009 I think.

Will be interesting to see how things have changed.

And how well FlickFleet will do at a convention.

We'll have loads of stock with us of FlickFleet, the Scenery and Scenario Pack, Box of Flicks 1 and Box of Flicks 2.

Plus we'll be running a competition where you can win a deluxe copy of all four of those.

That's £220 RRP!

Retail

We make small print runs.

On a laser-cutter.

In Paul’s garage.

Retail is out of reach.

We don’t have the margins to sell to distributors.

Or the large number of items ready to go.

Or shrink-wrap.

Or large, mostly empty, retail-focused boxes.

But we are carried in a local chain of comics and games shops.

And another store saw an ad and offered us a demo day.

Paul went down on Saturday.

He played a lot of FlickFleet. 

Sold a few copies. And they took some more for stock.

We have another retailer:

Geek Retreat Leicester

Review

We’re nearing review copy readiness.

It’s an exciting time.

We get ‘real-ish’ copies of the game for photography and then send them to reviewers.

Will they like it?

Hate it?

Don’t end up like this!

The playtesters have had ‘a lot of fun’ with it.

Now we need the reviewers to enjoy it too.

But that’s their call. Not ours.

We don’t do paid previews - just send a copy for an honest review.

We’re on tenterhooks.