Ads

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.

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

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...

Launch

It's launch week.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

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...

Coming Soon!

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!

Maximise

I have limited time.

Around a day job and a family.

So I need to maximise it - get the biggest bang for my (time) buck.

We have two main ranges, FlickFleet and the roll and writes.

Our FlickFleet campaigns have raised tens of thousands of pounds.

That pretty much all goes on buying a year's worth of stock, and shipping.

And with half of the audience in America, we've been badly hurt by the De Minimus change and increased shipping costs/tariffs.

The roll and write campaigns are tiny by comparison.

£750-£1,200.

But once you take off the Gamefound collected EU VAT and their fees (about 11% for the roll and writes), the rest is cash in the bank.

Which we're short on.

Again.

I'm focusing on Gal4Xeon this quarter.

Then it'll be the next FlickFleet campaign.

Which is going to be much harder with the new US situation.

So how to I get the most bang for my time bucks for Gal4Xeon?

What's the most effective use of my time to bring Gal4Xeon as many people's attention as possible?

Postmark Games' first roll and write had over 12,000 backers.

We've managed at most 300.

How do we reach more roll and write fans?

Or sci-fi gaming fans?

Or print and play fans?

This week, I've been working on the campaign video.

And reaching out to reviewers.

Is that the best use of my time?

We've already got over 250 followers.

We're gaining 2-3 a day.

With over two months till launch.

I'm hoping half of them will back the campaign.

But it's all guesswork at this point!

Momentum

I'm mostly focussing on Gal4Xeon at the moment.

Tweaking the graphic design of the player sheets.

Playtesting with more people.

Getting more feedback.

And a couple of new ideas.

Trying to make it the best I can.

It's been in preview on Gamefound since just before Christmas.

Because I've been advised by Gamefound to get it up early.

It's been gaining more followers than I've been expecting.

It's now overtaken Exodus at launch.

With probably 3 months before the campaign goes live.

It could be our biggest roll and write campaign.

In terms of funding.

And backers.

Possibly our best ever campaign in terms of backers!

I need to keep improving things.

There's still time to make it even better.

Missed

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've a lot on.

So has Paul.

Our laser-cutter failed.

Two weeks before the Expo.

So Paul took up an offer from the amazing team at Harps Corp.

To use their laser-cutters for a couple of days.

So we had stock for the Expo.

And fortunately, our laser-cutter has been fixed already.

Meanwhile I've been working on the graphic design for Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

Dashboards are almost done.

And preparing for the Expo.

The Expo deadline cannot slip.

And it was Daughter the Youngest's birthday and party this weekend.

That couldn't slip either.

As feared, that means the graphic design had to, despite burning the midnight oil.

The P&P rewards are due on Saturday.

I think they will be a couple of weeks late :(

Guesswork

We crowdfund to raise money for print runs.

We print everything that we need for the next year.

In runs of 100-800 copies.

Tiny print runs.

Because they are small, they are expensive.

So we need a decent campaign total.

Some of that comes during the campaign.

Some during the pledge manager: shipping, extras, and late pledges.

We need to kick off manufacturing early. Boxes and wooden bits have long lead times.

Before we know what we’ve raised in the pledge manager.

We need to ensure the total raised is enough to fund the print runs and cover campaign shipping.

And VAT.

And Gamefound fees.

And royalties.

But also order enough to keep us in stock until the next campaign.

It’s a guess.

We’ve made our guesses.

Ordered boxes accordingly.

Now we are waiting to see if the pledge manager ends up where we guessed.

Or not.

Deadlines

I’ve got two pressing deadlines the moment.

The UK Games Expo.

We’ll be in Hall 2, stand 2-494

And Print and Play rewards for Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

The Expo starts on the 29th May for us - driving down to Birmingham and setting up.

The print and play rewards are due on the 31st.

The Expo deadline cannot move.

I really want to hit the other one too.

Lots to do still on both though.

I see some late evenings on the horizon…

Meanwhile Paul is down the laser-cutting mines. 

Cranking out copies of FlickFleet and the expansions.

To cover web sales. And the Expo. And the start of fulfilment.

He’s finishing last year’s print runs.

We’re running low!

Pledge Manager

Now I’m back from my holiday it’s time to focus.

It’s a busy time.

The print and play rewards are due by the end of May.

Which is also the UK Games Expo.

And I need to begin ordering materials for the physical copies.

First up was the boxes.

The print run has been ordered and the files sent over.

I also need to finish off the pledge manager.

We’re adding planets!

It’s almost there.

Should go live in a day or two I hope.

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…

Seven

This week has been bizarrely good for website sales.

Last three weeks have been within 50p of each other.

This week was more than double them!

And I’ve no idea why!

Not complaining though.

That’s eased our ongoing cashflow issues.

And it’s, in combination with the VAT rebate that’s coming shortly, means we can make some long over due payments :)

But that’s an aside.

The main focus of this week has been…

FlickFleet SEVEN.

Our seventh FlickFleet campaign.

The campaign is created.

There’s a very basic holding page.

Which already has over 100 followers!

In addition to starting work on the campaign, I’ve been reviewing the fan submissions.

Starting to shortlist them.

Playtesting is next :)

Gamble

Board game publishing, well any publishing really, is gambling.

You back a horse.

By choosing a game to publish.

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

You bet a stake.

By paying for marketing and artwork.

Kickstarter has improved things, since you no longer have to gamble the manufacturing and shipping costs upfront as well.

And then you find out how your bet did.

When you sell the print run, or run the crowdfunding campaign.

If you’re a big company, you hedge your bets.

Back many horses.

Hoping some of them win big enough to cover any losing bets.

We’re small.

One bet at a time.

Each one needs to cover the stake really.

Away Team Bingo is live on Gamefound now.

It finishes tomorrow.

And it’s tracking towards just covering its stake.

Rules

I’m now in fulfilment mode. 

First up is the print and play rewards due at the end of this month. 

They require the finished rulebook and dashboards. 

I’ve finished a first cut of the rules this week. 

Taking shape!

Next up are the dashboards and finalising the rules. 

The 3D printing and laser-cutting files are done. 

Looks on track at the moment. 

Hopefully early. 

Website sales are continuing very strongly. 

Still no idea why. 

But Paul has spent all weekend in hospital with a serious infection. 

He’s coming home this afternoon though.

Dichotomy

Website sales are up.

A lot.

Like, a lot a lot.

Average weekly sales since the beginning of October are double May-September and almost 30 times January-April.

Thirty!

It's been amazing.

The new website has helped a lot.

As have a lot of really good reviews.

We are featured in the latest Senet magazine too.

We're getting lots of new FlickFleet fans!

Yet the Gamefound campaign didn't do as well as the last two.

And the pledge manager is way lower than Xeno Wars.

I though the new fans might join in for Expansion 1 which is cheap and out of stock.

Or the great new reviews and cheaper shipping would convince more people to give it a try.

I want to understand why before the next campaign.

Phases

Crowdfunding is lots of different phases. 

There’s the page graphic design.

Then the constant checking of a live campaign. 

Then a brief respite. 

Then the pledge manager preparation. 

Then the P&P file preparation. 

Then the ordering of all the different components. 

Then it’s over to Paul for the manufacturing. 

Then shipping. 

Which is mostly Paul, but involves a decent chunk of bookkeeping for me. 

The pledge manager is in review. 

So I’ve started working on the P&P files.

The rulebook is taking shape...

Pledge Manager

My focus is now setting up the pledge manager.

It’s a bit of a faff.

Gamefound is getting better though.

We’re still a bit unusual though.

Lots of stuff that we re-enter every time.

Because it’s essentially the same game.

We can’t turn it on before the 15th.

I’m hoping to hit that date.

Or thereabouts.

Plus Paul and I have a date to finalise all the ships.

A day of playtesting on the horizon

So I can do the dashboards and rules.

Once the pledge manager is up.

Making solid progress.

Surprised

With much cheaper shipping, 

And double the ad budget, 

And better graphic design, 

And great new reviews, 

And Stretch Pay, 

I thought we’d get more backers who were new to FlickFleet. 

Not big pledges. Just the base game. 

Or maybe with Xeno Wars. 

At this point we have about 240 backers. Which is a lot less than last time. 

And 150 of those are existing fans getting the new stuff to add to their collections. 

Every time I run a campaign I’m surprised by something.

I wonder what put the new people off?