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.