Action

I've been feeling a bit jaded the last few weeks.

It's sapped my enthusiasm.

I've not made much progress.

Things we're piling up in front of me.

I needed a change.

I took Wednesday off work.

Cracked on with those tasks.

New versions of a couple of roll and write prototypes.

Sorting out a couple of FlickFleet fulfilment tasks.

Started writing the 3rd edition rulebook.

Made decent progress.

Carried that into the weekend.

Had two hours to myself during Daughter the Second's dance rehearsal.

Spent it playtesting.

Made changes. Tried them out. More progress.

Got home. Made more changes.

I made a note once. I think I read it from Shane Parrish.

Action leads to Progress. Progress leads to Momentum. Momentum leads Motivation.

I think it might be true. 

It's been a good week. Things are picking up.

Deficit

Historically, our website sales have been very low.

Very low.

We lived from Kickstarter to Kickstarter.

Suddenly, last year we started getting some great FlickFleet reviews. 

And since May last year website sales have been amazing. Like two orders of magnitude better.

At times that made sense: a great review, some TikTok coverage, running ads during a campaign.

But it kept going. Once the ads stopped. 

Still amazing.

That great run finally came to an end in February.

Bit of a blessing really, we’ve run out of most things.

But now we’re running at a deficit.

Overheads outstripping sales.

It weighs on me. Saps my motivation. Eats away at our cash.

Takes me back to the dying days of Reiver Games, watching the money pour out of the account.

While I wallowed in self-pity.

Need to get my mojo back.

We should be getting the boxes and the baggies we need to start making everything again just after Paul gets back from his holiday.

That’ll help.

I’ll have to start running some ads again then.

Take some action.

See if we can get it to pick back up.

We need to be covering our overheads at a minimum. 

Again

I like to do things again.

I re-watch TV shows.

I re-read books.

I like to return to places I’ve been before.

I play games tens or even hundreds of times.

With the endless stream of new games coming out, I think that makes me a bit weird.

People try to play all the new stuff. Just once or twice and then move on.

I’m sure my terrible memory plays a part in it: I can enjoy a TV show or book again and I’ve forgotten a decent chunk. Even on the third or fourth time through.

Still, a bit odd.

Playtesting roll and write 3 in the pub last week

So why do I enjoy playtesting so much? Every play is different. 

Familiar, sure, but different. The rules change a bit every time.

My brain is strange.

After last week’s release of my second roll and write game, I’ve come up with a fourth roll and write idea.

Looking forward to starting testing of that shortly. It’s heavily inspired by Star Trek away teams :)

Seven

I've just published my seventh game.

The Planets My Destination.

It's another print at home roll & write game, like Rocky 'Roid.

This time it's a 3X (there's no eXplore!) game about colonising the solar system.

Like Rocky 'Roid I've aimed for more player interaction than you often see in roll and writes.

You share the dice each round, but can personally modify them.

There are bonuses for arriving first at any of the locations you can colonise.

You can work together to collaborate on projects more quickly that going alone.

And you can wade in with your fleet and conquer an opponent's colony.

I've been worth on it for about eighteen months.

The last couple of months have been finalising the graphic design and the rules.

It's done now.

I've an eighth underway now!

I love the pace you can achieve with roll and writes.

So quick to iterate an test.