Back

I’m back.

The holiday comes to a close.

And, as is often the case after a good holiday, knackered.

It was amazing.

Four countries.

Six cities.

Sixteen trains (should have been 11, there were some issues!).

And four days canoeing and wild camping.

Now I’m back.

There’s loads to catch up on.

I’m ploughing through it.

Plus trying to incorporate the ideas I had for Planet 9 and Jotunsaga while I was away into new versions of those prototypes.

Plus, I need to crack on with the next FlickFleet campaign and the games convention.

Busy, busy!

Fauxmas

We've spent the weekend in York.

Visiting Paul and his family.

For Fauxmas, our fake Christmas.

Complete with Fauxmas Eve, Fauxmas Day (including presents and Fauxmas Dinner) and Foxing Day.

It was a lovely weekend.

A great chance to catch up.

Play games.

Drink.

Eat.

And be merry.

We played lots of games. Mostly including at least one of my kids.

So lighter games.

Lots of Apples to Apples, Codenames, Just One, A Fake Artist in New York and UNO.

But also Las Vegas.

And I got to try the latest version of Jotunsaga with Paul.

Get his feedback.

Discuss some new ideas.

I've got a new version to try now :)

Plus some weeding of the many ideas for FlickFleet: A Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

A great weekend :)

YorCon

I’ve spent the weekend in the middle of nowhere.

Playing games with an awesome bunch of people.

Lots of new games.

My favourites were Lord of the Rings Duel and Space Base.

We went for a couple of walks in the countryside.

I played a couple of games of Jotunsaga.

Gaming designing in progress

With other designers.

It got really good feedback.

And spawned a bunch of new ideas.

I took a Sharpie, a pen, and some blank cards.

So I could make a new version.

And try that too.

And there’s Newcastle Playtest tomorrow.

It’s coming on nicely…

Split

My focus has been split this week.

Photo by Lena Taranenko on Unsplash

Partly trying to fix the issues with the ads.

Partly preparing for next weekend.

For the third year running Paul has booked a remote lodge for a long weekend of gaming.

It's in the arse end of West Yorkshire.

Surrounded by the Yorkshire Three Peaks.

It sleeps about 40 people in bunks.

There's no mobile signal, and the first year there was no WiFi either.

Just gaming.

With great people.

All friends of Paul's.

I'll be there for 48 hours.

Driving down after work on Friday, coming home on Sunday night.

I'm really looking forward to a weekend of gaming with great people.

Some walking in the wilds.

And maybe even some playtesting.

When not focused on fixing the ads, I've been trying to get a new version of my troll game ready.

For the weekend.

Fingers crossed!

Rough

This week I've mostly felt rough.

Had a bad cold at the beginning of the week, and then my COVID and flu vaccines at the end.

I've taken a lot of Lemsip!

We've still made progress though.

Paul's been building up stock.

Including of the new Box of Pirate Flicks - so that's now up for sale on the website.

I've been finishing off the Away Team Bingo campaign, ready for Tuesday's launch.

At this point it looks like it's going to under-perform Rocky 'Roid.

I just hope it breaks even!

I've also opened a Gamefound store.

And been working on Jotunsaga.

#

New terrain cards, might make them hexes.

Incorporating feedback from last weekend's playtest with the public, and last Tuesday's trip to Newcastle Playtest.

There's no rest for the mildly ill!

Weird

It's been a weird week.

Didn't know what day it was at the beginning due to three days camping in a forest.

Thursday to Sunday.

Then a Bank Holiday Monday.

Since I've got back I've been working on Away Team Bingo's crowdfunding.

Got some initial sketches from the artist! 

And setting up a Gamefound store.

And trying to learn to Tiktok.

And planning a campaign video.

And thinking up a (fifth!) print at home roll and write while lying still for 45 minutes in an MRI.

And making some sizeable changes to Jotunsaga.

Feel a bit all over the place.

Not sure whether I'm coming or going!

Feedback

I have three games that I ought to be playtesting more widely.

Jotunsaga, about Vikings hunting trolls.

Colony, the new roll and write that’s only a few weeks old.

And Coalescence, which has been years in the making.

The next step is to get people playtesting without me there explaining the rules.

To do this I need to send physical (or at least digital!) copies of the games to people.

Troll is still sharpie on blank cards. Needs some work before it’s ready to send out.

Coalescence is a real pain to manufacturer. 

Needs a 5-layer board and 3D-printed planets.

So Colony was first out the door.

I already had everything I needed!

I’m off on holiday this week. Need to work on the others when I get back.

Sci-Fi

I’ve six games that I’m working on the at moment.

I started a new one a couple of weeks ago.

Another roll and write.

It’s on its fifth iteration already.

Three of the six are sci-fi themed.

There’s coalescence about making a solar system.

The Uprising Saga about the birth of The Uprising from FlickFleet.

And the new one: Colony about colonising the solar system.

I’ve also got three that aren’t:

Siren Song about capturing Greek sailors off triremes.

Wizard about duelling wizards in an arena.

Jotunsaga about Vikings hunting trolls.

I definitely tend to lean towards the sci-fi theme though.

I’ve more ideas in that direction too that I’m not actively working on too.

Ideas

After cancelling meeting Paul due to feeling rough the previous week, we met up last Wednesday.

It was an opportunity to exchange 20 more Gamefound orders for me to ship from Newcastle.

And a chance to catch up.

I also brought two prototypes.

Troll and Wizard.

Both codenames pending real names.

Troll was an idea I had several months ago.

It has been slowly taking shape in note form.

But I knew Paul was interested in the idea when I pitched it to him.

Wizard was 5 days old at this point and I’d already played it twice.

We played both games.

Paul had great ideas for both.

I’ve made a new prototype for Troll incorporating the changes.

Subtle changes!

I might not need to change the components for Wizard.

Both games are still Sharpie on blank cards.

Makes it really quick to iterate the design.

I will hopefully test the new Troll today at lunchtime games.

Mornings

I’ve spent the last week in a big house in the country with the entirety of my clan.

Nineteen of us. Aged 14 months to 77 years.

I’m still waking up early.

I was up first every day.

I did my chain of daily habits.

Then turned to games design.

Evolving rapidly

I finished the first Codename:Troll prototype.

Soloed it a couple of times.

Found a bunch of things to change.

Made a new version.

Soloed that a couple of times. It’s better.

Made some changes to Siren.

Tried them out.

They showed some issues.

I need to figure out how to address them.

Feels good to be prototyping.

Finding flaws.

Making progress.

Make games design a daily habit has been amazing.

My progress this year is night and day from the last couple of COVID years.

I have more headspace though, without the worry of that hanging over me.

Progress

I spent last week shipping the Xeno Wars rewards that Paul had brought up last weekend.

And starting to flesh out the Rocky ‘Roid Gamefound page.

Very rough at the beginning!

And starting to create a first prototype of a new game.

Paul’s been down the laser-cutting mines.

We’re making good progress on a number  of fronts.

I’m on holiday this week though.

So not much from me.

I still want to do my daily game design though.

Some days it’s just making a couple of quick notes.

Some days it’s writing rules.

Or prototyping.

Or playtesting.

But the daily commitment means I’m making continual progress.

My output has been way higher as a result.

Which is really motivating.

Hoping to make a start on the next FlickFleet thing soon…