Red

It’s a good news/bad news week.

When we do a crowdfunding campaign I feel the weight of the pledges.

People have lent us money. Lots of money. In some cases, huge amounts of money.

We owe them. We’ve promised them something in return. I don’t like to break my word.

Until the pledges are all fulfilled I feel those loans. Weighing on me.

More so when we’re late. We’ve broken our word. Let people down.

This week I shipped the last of the non-EU deluxe rewards. Almost four months late.

Paul shipped the EU rewards to ShipQuest. Some almost four months late. Some over two months early.

On their way!

Then he parcelled up the non-EU standard rewards and either posted them or booked shipping for them for today.

Two months early.

The loan is repaid. 

A weight is lifted.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that I miscalculated. Shipping is more than we’d planned.

We’ve had to lend Eurydice some money again to tide us over until the Expo in a couple of weeks.

I’d love to get to the point where we’re not utterly dependant on crowdfunding cash injections.

Regular website sales covering our monthly overheads would be great.

Need to work on that.

After the Expo, and Rocky ‘Roid though.

Confluence

Lots going on this week.

I met Paul last Wednesday and he came up Saturday with the last of the non-EU deluxe rewards.

I’ve got to ship them this week.

Before my daughter’s birthday party on Saturday and then my parents visit for a week on Sunday.

We played a couple of prototypes 

that are improving too

We’ve also got an advisory board meeting Wednesday evening.

And the Rocky ‘Roid Gamefound campaign is only a couple of weeks away.

And the Expo is only 3 weeks away too.

Lots to do.

And not much time to do it.

Best crack on.

Delays

We’ve had some (more) problems with the laser-cutter.

It’s cost Paul time while he worked around them.

He phoned the manufacturer. They’ve discontinued this model.

I’m not surprised. 

It was the ‘newer version’ of the one that caught fire.

Newer isn’t always better

The old one was pretty good up until the fire.

This one has been nothing but trouble.

I spent last week helping Paul with the shipping again.

Then met Paul again on Friday night to collect more stuff to ship this week.

Rocky ‘Roid is slipping as a result.

Still, we’re getting there. 

The end of the Xeno Wars campaign is in sight…

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…

Rules

For the last couple of weeks my focus has been the Rocky ‘Roid rules.

Oh, and AireCon.

Oh, and shipping Gamefound rewards.

But mostly rules.

The rules have crystallised now.

But the old ones were very basic - few examples and no diagrams.

They were easy to edit while the rules were changing, but they weren’t good enough for release.

So I’ve been splitting them up. Adding more examples.

Adding diagrams.

The low ink rules are done now.

Got high ink maps done too!

I can share them with reviewers.

High ink rules should be quite quick.

Meanwhile, I’ve been shipping the stuff I brought back from Paul’s.

Ordering packaging for the big box orders.

I’m going to sort out some more to ship once Paul’s back from his holiday.

Let him focus on cutting the last of the deluxe and EU rewards.

Shipping

Xeno Wars is now shipping.

The non-EU playmats have all gone.

Simple orders to the UK have gone too. 

We’re ready to send the non-EU international simple orders.

But there’s been a ransomware attack on Royal Mail, so they aren’t shipping internationally at the moment.

Hopefully they’ll fix it soon.

Or we’ll need a backup plan.

In the meantime, it’s great to see peoples’ excitement when it arrives.

Wooooo! by Kris Mackie via Facebook

Thanks for sharing!

Theme II

The game boxes have arrived at Paul’s.

1,425 of them.

His house is rammed.

The focus now must be shipping rewards and clearing some space!

Since Wednesday’s playtest I’ve done nothing with the Roll & Write (Ursa Miner?)

But Mal’s name suggestion has given me ideas.

A slightly different theme is taking shape in my brain.

It’s percolating.

Meanwhile I’ve been going back to my roots.

Writing a little app to convert the Gamefound fulfilment spreadsheet into our fulfilment spreadsheet.

I used to do it by hand.

Silly really.

This will take some time, but save a lot.

Even more in the long run.

Now the boxes have arrived, Paul needs it now though.

Roll & Write will have to wait!

The TGWAG scores at the end of week 2 are:

Name	Rank	PIPs
Mal	Recycling Pipework Technician's Mate	3
Kylef	Recycling Pipework Technician's Mate	2

Deliveries

This week we're expecting stuff.

A lot of stuff.

We've already got 3/5 print runs (Xeno Wars, the freebies, and FlickFleet).

And the main acrylic order.

And the first wooden bits order.

We assemble the games at home - proper indie!

This week we're expecting the playmats.

And the rest of the acrylic.

And the fourth print run - both Boxes of Flicks.

And the all the cardboard boxes.

Which leaves just the packaging, Scenario booklets, the Big Boxes and the FlickFleet wooden bits.

Almost done.

We'll be able to ship a bunch of simpler orders once this week's orders arrive.

Arrivals

I’ve picked a box manufacturer.

Almost 5,000 dice have arrived at Paul’s house:

Lots of dice!

Three enormous boxes of wooden bits have arrived at mine (should have been Paul’s!) with two more on the way:

Did someone order some discs and cubes?

The next print run is taking shape.

Our FlickFleet print runs are usually 400 copies.

We’ve done three 400 copy FlickFleet runs and two 400 copy Expansion 1 runs.

The Boxes of Flicks were an aberration, smaller, more expensive runs.

Xeno Wars will be an 800 copy run. We’ve already sold over 400!

Paul’s house is going to be very full for a couple of months.

Relationship

In March I got new quotes for everything we'd need for the Xeno Wars print run. Including boxes.

Once the Gamefound campaign was complete I started getting those quotes refreshed to reflect price increases due to war in Ukraine and other global factors.

The box manufacturer had gone bust.

They'd made 2,150 boxes for us over three years. We had a relationship.

Not any more.

I frantically started hunting for a new manufacturer.

Several companies I contacted couldn't do it.

Some of those put us in contact with others.

Others just refused to answer emails and phone calls. 

I get that they might not want (or be able to) do what we need, but that's not a good way to do business.

It's been slow going.

Last week I reached out to a few more companies.

Much better this time. They all got back to me, all quoted for the work.

One stood out though.

He wanted to speak on the phone.

Discuss the project. He'd looked at our website.

Had some ideas to do things differently. Better. Maybe even cheaper than what I'd asked for. With further savings in future.

We spoke several times. Clearing things up. Asking and answering questions.

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

His quote came in cheapest of the five I'd got.

The company is 170 years old.

And, it turns out, I've used them before.

Guess which one I'm going with.

Clock

I’m back now.

Cracking on.

I want to shut the Pledge Manager but we still have 74 outstanding pledges.

I need to shut it so I know what to order from our suppliers.

Prices are likely to rise because of the energy crisis.

I’d like to get my orders in beforehand if I can.

It’s a race against time…

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Return

I’m driving home from Bristol today.

The Gower was lovely

Back at work tomorrow.

And back to Xeno Wars.

The pledge manager officially closes today but we still have 95 people who haven’t completed it.

Once that’s done we can place the orders.

We also need to finally choose a new box maker and place an order.

Lots to do…

Holiday

I’m away for the week.

In (old!) south Wales.

We’re taking some family time.

When I’m back I’ll be closing the pledge manager and starting to order everything.

Xeno Wars will begin to take shape.

Until then I’m relaxing.

‘Exciting’

… is one word for it.

Frustrating is another.

Worrying also works.

I’ve placed the order for all the wooden bits we need.

There’s a long lead time, so best to get the order in early.

Paid via Wise. It usually takes 3 hours and has low international fees.

It took eight days. For ‘verification’. Then at the end of all that they refunded me.

I need to fix the problem and try again.

I also contacted the box-maker to check the quote I got a couple of months ago is still valid.

They’ve gone out of business!

I need to find a new box-maker.

‘Exciting’.

Or frustrating.

Or worrying.

Culmination

Our first Gamefound campaign finishes in just under five hours.

Less than 5 hours left!

It’s been ahead of our last one since the beginning.

Our best ever campaign.

Again. The last was was too. And the one before that. They all have.

How much better will it end up? At one point it was looking like we might get £45,000!

Then the prediction dropped to £35,000.

It’s been pretty static since then.

We’ll see where we finish.

It’s been a rollercoaster.

It always is.

I need a rest.

Doldrums

We’re mid-campaign.

It’s slowed down as it always does.

We need to keep the momentum up.

We’re running some ads.

Bizarrely they are generating more website sales than Gamefound backers.

A FlickFleet playmat!

We’ve just unlocked the playmat, which people have been keen for.

That should help.

Next up is the big box.

Hopefully that will help too.

We’re at 63% of our previous best campaign with just over half the campaign left to go.

And shipping will be collected in the Pledge Manager.

It should be our best ever campaign.

We’re still in the doldrums though!

And it’s really slowed down the last few days.

Launch

It’s launch day.

Just over five hours to go.

A time of great excitement. And great nerves.

In eight hours I’ll have a pretty good idea of how it’s going.

We’ve got four Kickstarters’ worth of data to compare this against.

For now though: just possibilities. It could go well.

Or badly. Extremely well, or mediocre.

I’ll just have to wait and see.

In hindsight, choosing to launch the campaign when Paul is on holiday and my parents are visiting may have been … sub-optimal.

Lots to do.

Anxiety

A week today our next campaign goes live.

Our first Gamefound campaign.

Can we replicate the success of previous campaigns?

Will the switch to Gamefound help or hinder us?

Have people had enough of FlickFleet?

How will the cost of living crisis affect things?

In a week’s time I will have a rough idea of the answers to those questions.

For now they are worries I have no way of answering.

What little data I have at this point is promising.

But it’s far from concrete.

Just hints.

So I worry.

For another week.

It’s an anxious time…

Story

We have a weird way of making games.

Our factory

Paul does it himself, in his garage.

Why would we do such a thing?

Are we mad?

Possibly.

Judge for yourself!

We’ve done a couple of interviews in the last week.

Explaining ourselves.

Producing Fun with James Naylor.

And The Thoughtful Gamer with Marc Davis.

I hope you find them interesting.

It was a nice distraction from the Gamefound page - which is finally taking shape.

Refocus

I’ve been wholly focused on the UK Games Expo for a month or so.

There was a lot to prepare.

Because it was our first show.

Now the focus has changed.

The Xeno Wars Gamefound is the main focus.

I need to send out the review copies.

Review copies!

Calculate shipping prices.

Add more photos and video.

Mention it on the website.

Work out the stretch goals.

We’re hoping to launch on Independence Day. Y’know, because the aliens are coming.

Clock’s ticking…