Wales

I’m on holiday for a week.

In Wales.

With 18 members of my family.

Parents.

Brother and sisters and their partners.

Nieces and nephews.

Plus The Wife and our kids.

19 of us. And a dog.

Aged 3 to 79.

After a busy weeks at work and our Gamefound campaign, the break is welcome.

Some downtime.

I will keep up my games design streak though.

I’ve brought some prototypes.

And some prototyping materials.

I’ll make some things.

And do some playtesting.

Here.

Feaster

It’s hard to believe our campaign ended less than a week ago. 

It was our second best crowdfunding total with a really strong finish. 

Since then I’ve had my monthly playtest session. 

Numerous problems in the day job. 

Tariffs have completely up-ended the world trade regime, which will have a huge effect on the board games industry. 

I’ve had my weekly games night with friends. 

Paul and his family have been to visit for our yearly Feaster weekend. 

Feels like way more than a week. 

We’re lucky that the tariffs don’t affect us yet. 

The UK is only 10%, and the de minimis rules mean small orders aren’t affected. Yet. 

But the chaos is stressful. 

And many others in our space are affected much worse. 

I’ve started advertising our print and play games. 

At least they are safe!

Crescendo?

Our seventh crowdfunding campaign finishes tomorrow.

It started slower than the last few.

But we didn’t start advertising until a few days in.

It’s been doing better than the rest during the quiet period.

We’ve been ahead of Box of Pirate Flicks on the equivalent day for the last couple of days.

We might have a strong finish!

Could be our second or third best campaign, with luck!

Fingers crossed!

Just over 24 hours left if you're interested...

Adfound

Box of Xeno Flicks 1 is live.

And funded.

In 9 minutes.

Still doing worse than our last campaign, at the moment.

We've only just started running ads though.

Which is unusual.

Usually we run loads before the campaign starts.

Then more during.

This time we're pretty much only doing it during.

Which is interesting.

Because those early backers came from our mailing list.

Or Facebook group. Or Discord. Or Bluesky.

Or the nearly 200 followers we picked up during the week our campaign was approved and in the Upcoming section on Gamefound.

With our later ad spend this time, we might see a better second half of the campaign than we've had previously.

Also we're using Adfound.

It's Facebook ads. Managed by Gamefound.

They claim impressive performance.

Way better than we've managed in the past.

Will be interesting to see if that holds true for FlickFleet...

But it's off to a good start.

Launch Week

Our latest FlickFleet campaign goes live on Gamefound tomorrrow. 

The rollercoaster begins. 

We use crowdfunding to raise the funds to reprint most of the expansions at once. 

Amortising costs. 

Some small economies of scale. 

Because of that, we need a to raise a lot. 

Not millions.

Not hundreds of thousands.

But certainly tens of thousands. 

All but one of our FlickFleet campaigns have been the best ever (at the time). 

The last one was second best. 

We’re now in the lull, before the launch. 

Will it do well? 

Best ever? 

Enough to fund the print runs and shipping?

Not enough? 

Soon we’ll know. 

There are some encouraging signs. 

We already have our second best number of pre-launch followers. 

And we’re not far off best ever pre-launch follower count. 

Will it be enough? 

Soon find out…

Ticking

I've finally finished the campaign page for the sixth FlickFleet expansion: Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

It's been a long time coming.

Once again, real life got in the way.

It's been a hectic month or so in the day job, which has eaten into my Eurydice Games time.

But it's done now.

And sent for approval.

With just over a week to spare.

If you're interested in FlickFleet it's a great way to get the base game and/or Xeno Wars.

With discounts.

And subsidised shipping.

If you're already a fan of the game it introduces 14 all-new ships to the Xeno Wars factions.

Ten are already included in the box.

The remaining four can be unlocked as stretch goals.

The more backers we get, the more you all get in the box.

As two guys making a game in a garage we have very little capital.

The only way the company works is by using crowdfunding campaigns to combine our several small print runs into one larger one, getting us some small economies of scale.

Making the game affordable for us.

We really appreciate your help with that!

Thank you in advance if you're considering backing the campaign.

And please share it with any friends or family you think would enjoy FlickFleet.

Bleed Through

I have a full-time day job.

And a family with youngish kids.

And I run Eurydice Games in my spare time.

I try to keep them all separate.

Focusing on my day job during work hours.

Focusing on my family when I'm with them.

I'm very lucky that I work hybridly.

I can work from home or go into the office, which is only a 2 mile walk from my house.

I like going into the office. 

I enjoy the company.

We have a lunchtime games club.

I like working from home too.

I get to spend my lunch breaks with The Wife.

Get chores out of the way during the day so I have more time in the evenings for Eurydice Games.

For the last month I've been in the office every day because of a late-running project.

It's been stressful.

And it's eaten into my time.

Then Friday we had some issues too.

I was working until late.

And a bit on the weekend.

I don't like the bleed-through.

I'll be working from home again more next week.

And with The Wife travelling for work I'll be able to spend lunchbreaks catching up on Eurydice Games stuff.

Like the Gamefound campaign.

It's not all bad though. 

I played a lot of games in February.

Mostly at almost daily lunchtime games club.

Colds

Paul and I have both been feeling rough this week.

But we've managed to eek out some progress.

Paul continuing to churn out ships from the laser-cutter.

To fulfil our website orders.

Me, inching towards the completion of the crowdfunding page.

And, while feeling particularly rough this weekend, cranking out a first cut of the high-ink page for Exodus:

My fourth print at home roll and write.

Community

I love the feeling of community.

I’m stuck in the office all month for February.

So I’m playing games every day in lunchtime games club.

We’re a small community of gamers at work.

I design games.

So we started a community of board game designers in and around Newcastle.

It’s doing the best it ever has.

My sister-in-law and her husband have been visiting this weekend.

We’ve been hanging out and playing games all weekend.

I love that feeling.

Being amongst my people.

One of the reasons I love conventions.

The sense of belonging.

We have a FlickFleet Facebook group.

This week we were asked for a FlickFleet Discord.

I don’t really use Discord.

But I’ve set one up.

If you’re looking for a FlickFleet community.

Rollercoaster

We call ourselves a publisher.

But really we're a self-publisher.

Zombology.

FlickFleet and its billion expansions.

Three print at home roll and write games.

All designed by me, or me and Paul.

Nothing by a different designer.

Yet.

We've signed a contract for a FlickFleet-related game.

And there was another chance this week.

I went to my monthly playtesting session in Newcastle. In the pub.

Played one of the other designer's games.

Loved it.

Told him I'd be interested in publishing it.

Spent the week thinking about it.

How to make my own copy for playing with Paul and my other friends.

Then a few days later the designer said he'd rather pitch to a big publisher.

Disappointing.

But fair.

I'd told him he'd be better off doing that at the beginning!

Still disappointing though.

I loved it.

Stealth

I’m working on the next FlickFleet Gamefound campaign.

Beavering away behind the scenes.

But there’s not much to show for it.

The draft has hardly changed in a couple of months.

I’d hoped to make really good progress this week.

The Wife was away for work for three and a half days.

But solo-parenting is time-intensive.

Didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped.

I think I need to push the campaign back a bit.

I have made progress this week though.

Getting prototype ship outlines designed.

Then Paul added etching.

And cut them.

Need these for the page design work.

It’s getting there.

Stealthily. Behind the scenes.

Together

Paul and I run Eurydice Games.

He does all the manufacturing and most of the shipping.

I do finances, marketing, and graphic design.

And we both do the FlickFleet game design.

Which is slightly awkward.

Because I live in Newcastle upon Tyne.

And he lives in York.

100 miles away.

Our families are friends, so we try to meet up in Newcastle or York several times a year.

To catch up and hang out.

We play games with each other and the kids.

Chat, eat, hang out.

And don't make a heap of progress on Eurydice things.

Like FlickFleet game design.

I've just spent the weekend in Leicester with Paul.

Due to a storm disrupting my travel, I had to change my travel plans last minute and travel to York on Thursday evening (no Games Night 😢).

So I got to hang out with Paul and his wife on Thursday evening.

Then Paul drove me to Leicester.

And we spent 72 hours together.

At the end, rather than getting my train in Leicester, Paul gave me a lift back to York and I boarded it there, as it went through.

Another 2.5 hours in the car together.

We got so much done.

A very productive weekend.

Plus we sold some games.

In a space museum.

How cool is that?

Space!

I’m really interested in space.

In sci-fi.

Obsessed maybe?

I’ve published 7 or 8 games I’ve designed.

Border Reivers, set near where I live in the 1500s.

Then Carpe Astra (with Ted Cheatham) set in space.

Then Zombology about curing a disease with crazy things (not ivermectin or bleach though).

Then FlickFleet and Xeno Wars (with Paul), both set in space.

And three print and play roll and writes: Rocky ‘Roid, The Planets My Destination, and Away Team Bingo.

All set in space.

I’m working on another print at home roll and write too.

It’s set in space.

So you can imagine how excited I was when we were invited to demo and sell FlickFleet at the National Space Centre in Leicester last January. 

At their To Boldly Game event.

It was amazing! 

I’d been meaning to go there for years.

Plus, we sold way more games than I was expecting too.

They’ve invited us back for this year’s event.

It’s this weekend.

I’m so excited!

Comparison

Is the thief of joy.

Apparently.

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

I’ve seen a few people on the last week or two publishing their earnings in board games.

Or talking about it.

A few surprises.

A small publisher similar to us.

Who I’d assumed was doing much better than us.

Because they are in retail and distribution, unlike our hand-made-in-a-garage games.

They’d had their most profitable year yet.

Only a four-figure loss.

We’ve been profitable 5 out of 6 years!

Go us!

And a big name games designer who’d made over €150k in royalties this year! Which was worse than last year!

I had no idea that was even possible.

I assumed the full-time game designers were earning a small but comfortable salary.

That’s way more than I make in my day job as a manager of a team of programmers.

And way more than our revenue, let alone profit.

Another designer I’m aware of who had made $34k in royalties.

Again many times our profits.

I'd like to get to higher turnover.

And higher profits.

So we can fix our cashflow issues.

Have money to invest in new games.

Have enough cash left over for me to draw some of my dividends out.

Back!

I'm back!

Happy New Year all.

After a week or two of Christmas preparation and then visiting Paul, Christmas itself, then visiting my family and then the in-laws.

I'm back.

Cracking on with the Gamefound campaign for Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

Finally making good progress.

I'm loving their new import/export feature for rewards and add-ons.

It's saved me a ton of time.

I could export the rewards and add-ons from the last campaign.

Tweak them.

Then load them back in :)

Next up is the graphic design for the rewards/Box of Xeno Flicks/Shipping sections.

And getting some details up about the new ships you can vote on :)