We’re halfway through our holiday.
We did a few days of trains and cities, and missed connections and delays.
Then four days canoeing the wilds of central Sweden.
Just the wind and the waves for company.
Glorious weather, camping on sandbanks.
It was super relaxing.
An amazing adventure.
Now we’re back in civilisation.
Hopefully with less travel disruption!
Die Speicherstadt is a board game I’ve owned for probably 15 years.
By Stefan Feld.
The art is by Harald Lieske, who I got to do the amazing art for Sumeria.
And today I’m in it.
It’s the old warehouse quarter of Hamburg in Germany.
We’re spending the day here on our train holiday around Europe.
In November I went down to four days a week in my day job.
I’m incredibly lucky that we can afford it.
It’s allowed me one day a week to focus on Eurydice and Tyneside Games Expo.
Previously they were consuming all my spare time around a full time job and a family.
Now I have some free time.
And I can work on the companies when I’m awake, not after a full day’s work and family responsibilities are done.
They’ve been amazing.
Then crack on until it’s time to collect my youngest from school.
We’re now into the holidays.
So Mondays are family time now.
Today I’ll do my walk with the girls.
And play games with the youngest while the eldest goes shopping with friends.
Progress will be slower for the next six weeks!
But it's time well spent.
I've spent the last week or so working on our next quarterly newsletter.
This one is focused around all the cool stuff fans of FlickFleet have done.
From scenarios to ships.
Guides to ...
Translations to holistic rulebooks.
So much cool stuff.
Done by fans of the game.
We're so grateful for all their contributions.
As usual there's a recommendation for something cool I've come across in their too.
If you're interested, scroll to the bottom of this page and subscribe here in the next few hours to get it!
One of my daily habits is now business development.
Every day I try to do something to drive Eurydice Games forward.
Some days it's tiny.
Some days it's big.
But progress. Every. Single. Day.
I group it into three categories:
We're still not at the point where we're sustainable outside of crowdfunding or conventions.
An ordinary month's web sales don't cover our overheads.
Last year I tried to fix that with ads.
It fixed the cashflow, but broke the profitability.
We spent way too much on ads.
This year I'm trying something different.
I've scaled the ads right back.
I'm trying to do more social media.
More reaching out to press.
Longer campaign previews.
I've even started a Tiktok.
It's pushing me out of my comfort zone.
But I'm giving it a try.
It's a low effort thing that might pay off given time.
A few weeks ago I had a new game idea.
Flip and write game using an ordinary deck of cards.
Inspired by War of the Worlds.
With a schlock 50's sci-fi vibe.
So far I've hand-sketched a few sheets and tried the first quarter of the game.
That bit kinda works now.
For the next bit I wanted to get something on the computer so I could crank out sheets.
That's done now.
Let the playtesting begin!
We've spent a lot of money on Meta ads over the years.
Slowly upping the ad spent on each FlickFleet campaign.
Even spending a little on the roll and writes.
It's brought in pledges, I'm sure of it.
Last year we tried something different.
Tried to run the company more traditionally.
Using (more) ads year-round to bring in enough sales to cover overheads.
It worked.
Sort of.
The overheads were covered.
Cashflow was mostly stable.
But the ads didn't perform well.
The ad spend was so high we made a massive loss.
This year is much better because we've recognised the sales from last year's campaign.
And all the costs hit last year.
And we're spending a lot less on ads.
The small amount we are running is performing pretty well.
... according to Meta.
In my experience, that doesn't scale well.
Our last crowdfunding campaign for Gal4Xeon was our best roll and write by a factor of more than 2.
And we spent nothing on ads.
Not a penny.
We're not quite covering our overheads.
Except for events and good weeks of web sales.
But we're not burning cash.
I'm considering not advertising the next FlickFleet campaign.
I'll need to do something else to bring in followers and backers though.
I've got a few months to think on that...
I'm working on a couple of new products at the moment.
Not new games, just new formats.
It's at the fun 'what are the possibilities' stage.
One is a printed version of Gal4Xeon.
I'm trying to price up a tiny run.
Not sure of the demand at this point.
Or what it will include.
I've asked for input from our Discord and Facebook followers.
Not what I would have expected.
Wondering if we can get something together for Tabletop Scotland in September.
At the moment our lowest priced product at conventions is the standard FlickFleet at £35.
Money's tight for a lot of people at the moment.
If we had a game for less than £20 it might be a good option.
And Gal4Xeon did well.
Got great reviews.
Worth a shot I think.
I saw a reel on Instagram the other week saying you should think of your birthdays as point releases and big ones as major version updates.
Think what is coming in the next version.
As a former Software Engineer, it amused me.
Jack 5.0 is released this week.
In the last 50 years I've achieved a lot.
Shared nearly 29 years with my lovely wife. Nearly 24 of them married.
Raised two wonderful girls to 9 and 13.
Got a degree and a PhD.
Earnt a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Started four companies, two of which are still going (one pushing on 9 years!).
Held numerous jobs and earnt many promotions.
What does Jack 5.0 do better than Jack 4.9?
I've spent the last week feeling like an old man.
I put my back out during (but not at!) the Expo last week.
I've been moving slowly and gingerly, unable to sit for long before I seize up.
Plagued by stabbing pains if I bent or twisted too much.
It's improving steadily and I'm much better now than last week.
But it's put physical health into focus.
I exercise daily. But briefly.
I walk a lot, and fast, but don't do any real cardio.
And only bodyweight strength training.
I need to take better care of myself.
Including eating less junk.
Eurydice Games will be 9 in a couple of months.
The limited company with Paul will be 8.
In the last 9 years we've released 7 games. 8 if you include Xeno Wars.
And 6 FlickFleet expansions.
I practice games design daily.
Sometimes it's tiny.
I try to do something to help the business every day too, no matter how small.
But we've struggled.
We're barely affording Paul's pitiful salary.
I've not taken out any dividends in years.
We keep having to lend the company our savings to keep it afloat during tight periods.
I need to get it on a more sustainable footing.
Despite last week's injury I'm extremely grateful to reach 50 in good health.
On Friday 13th April 2006 I was diagnosed with active relapsing remitting MS. It's difficult to predict how it will go, but approaching my 30s the best guess, based on my early symptoms, was 50/50 on whether I'd be using a wheelchair within 10 years.
15 years later, at 45, I ran a 5k in 22 and a half minutes.
20 years later, at (almost!) 50 I'm still the fastest walker I know.
I've been very lucky.
And I'm very grateful.
The UK Games Expo was great.
We did almost as well as last year.
Met loads of fans of FlickFleet.
Made some new FlickFleet fans.
Hung out with Paul and friends.
Met Marc, the CEO of Grand Gamers Guild, who I've known online only for 20 years!
And had some interesting conversations.
I’m knackered now.
And I put my back out on Sunday morning.
Which made teardown interesting.
Need to rest up a bit now!
Then crack on.
I’m buzzing with ideas!
Paul is back from France.
The Wife is back from her week-long work trip.
So things are returning to normal.
So not yet.
And it's half-term, so the kids are off school.
We've got three days to get everything together, then we're off.
Paul has cut all the stock we're taking.
But still has to box it all up.
I've ordered all the printing we need from the printers.
Business cards.
Gal4Xeon tasters.
Posters.
And the dashboards and rules for the next FlickFleet print run.
Which can't wait until the next Gamefound campaign - we're running very low.
I've got to collect them on Wednesday.
And then Paul and I will meet up the night before we go to exchange materials again.
Then home again, and then off the next morning.
I'm excited to see how this year goes.
UK retail sales are down because of the cost of living crisis, exacerbated by the war in Iran.
But we've got a fantastic stand near the front of Hall 2 (2-622 if you're coming!).
So traffic should be good at least.
Fingers crossed for a good show...
The Wife is in The Netherlands for seven days.
So I'm solo parenting.
Paul's still in France.
So I'm fulfilling web orders.
Oh, and I might have broken a toe yesterday.
But I'm getting loads done regardless.
Gal4Xeon has been fulfilled.
It's up on the website now for anyone who missed the campaign.
Xeno Flicks 2 is in very early preview.
We're re-ordering FlickFleet before then, as we're likely to run out soon after the Expo.
I've been ordering rules, dashboards and boxes.
And posters and business cards for the Expo.
There's loads to do.
But I feel like I'm on a roll at the moment :)
Paul’s on (a well-deserved) holiday.
He’s been working crazy hours on Gamefound fulfilment.
Immediately followed by making stock for the UK Games Expo before his holiday.
He’s in France now, getting some gaming in.
And I'm getting ready for the Expo too.
We need a load of stuff printed.
That I need to do the design for.
And I’ve a VAT return to do.
Plus finishing the Gal4Xeon rules (almost done!) and fulfilling that.
And I’ve started on the next FlickFleet campaign page.
For the last couple of months I’ve been meeting my buddy Joe (of Word Dungeon fame) for playtesting on Monday afternoons.
I fear that’ll have to wait until after the Expo now.
He’s busy anyway though, with a new campaign for the excellent Word Dungeon live on Backerkit at the moment.
This will be brief today.
It’s a bank holiday in the UK, so the kids are off school.
And it’s our wedding anniversary.
But I had a new game idea on Thursday.
Got to try a bit of it yesterday.
Needs some work.
But I think it has potential.
I’m also doing a VAT return and finishing off Gal4Xeon.
And the UK Games Expo is at the end of the month.
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?
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!
It's launch week.
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...
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!
I’m away on holiday for a week.
With all of my family.
I’ll be playing some games.
Doing a bit of playtesting.
And taking it easy.
See you next week!
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.
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!
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.
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