Advertising

I’ve started running ads again.

We’ve not run any since the last Gamefound campaign closed.

Sales were great for a couple of months afterwards anyway, and then we almost completely ran out of FlickFleet stock.

So no ads.

Nothing to sell.

Except that’s not true.

New game!

We have our print at home roll and writes: Rocky ‘Roid and The Planets My Destination.

We can’t run out of stock of those - they’re digital downloads!

So I’ve started advertising them.

I’m hoping to get a few more sales of TPMD.

I think it’s a better game than Rocky ‘Roid and has had great feedback.

But we didn’t crowdfund it, or advertise it at all until now.

So sales have been about 1/100th of Rocky ‘Roid!

Crowdfunding works.

Might crowdfund the next one again :/

Seven

I've just published my seventh game.

The Planets My Destination.

It's another print at home roll & write game, like Rocky 'Roid.

This time it's a 3X (there's no eXplore!) game about colonising the solar system.

Like Rocky 'Roid I've aimed for more player interaction than you often see in roll and writes.

You share the dice each round, but can personally modify them.

There are bonuses for arriving first at any of the locations you can colonise.

You can work together to collaborate on projects more quickly that going alone.

And you can wade in with your fleet and conquer an opponent's colony.

I've been worth on it for about eighteen months.

The last couple of months have been finalising the graphic design and the rules.

It's done now.

I've an eighth underway now!

I love the pace you can achieve with roll and writes.

So quick to iterate an test.

Visitors

This week I fulfilled our Rocky ‘Roid campaign. It’s available from our website now.

Now available!

And spent a lot of time working on the website.

My goal at the moment is still financial stability.

The company needs to make enough cash every month to cover our overheads.

It’s never reliably done that.

We’ve survived by running crowdfunding campaigns.

And living off those.

For the last two months we’ve managed it though.

Website sales alone have been enough.

And I haven’t started running any ads yet.

It’s all been off the back of some great reviews.

The review traffic is drying up now though.

Need to get more visitors to the website.

So I’ve been doing some SEO work.

And starting to think about the ads.

Success

Rocky ‘Roid was over 500% funded.

The ads didn’t do very well though, probably broke even at best.

Still, FlickFleet is going great.

Website sales for the last five weeks are over 13 times our normal sales.

13. Times.

That’s crazy.

A run of great reviews.

More people finding out about FlickFleet.

The Expo. 

A bit of buzz.

It’s been great. 

At the beginning of the year we had 4 weeks without a sale. 

This week we had eight consecutive days of sales.

It’s our best ever week for sales outside of a convention or crowdfunding fulfilment.

Feels like we’re building momentum.

Finished

And yet not quite.

We shipped all the FlickFleet: Xeno Wars rewards. Including the ones due in July.

The EU ones are now with ShipQuest. We’re waiting to hear when then will be shipped.

Some of the US ones were returned because they thought they contained prohibited items :(

They don’t like the big boxes for some reason.

Need to work out how to accurately describe them that doesn’t fall foul of the rules.

But it’s nearly done.

I’ve had a slower week - since my parents were visiting.

Paul is still flat out, making stuff for the UK Games Expo this weekend (We'll be on stand 2-564 in Hall 2 if you're going - stop by and say hi!).

Then he can finally slow down.

Just over 24 hours till launch!

And Rocky ‘Roid launches tomorrow lunchtime!

Got a fun few weeks ahead!

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.

Preparation

Last week was preparation.

We’ve made the decision to publish Rocky ‘Roid.

My asteroid-mining roll and write.

I created a BGG page for it.

And a Gamefound campaign page.

And cracked on with the graphic design.

Lots of changes done for the low ink versions.

High ink sneak peak!

Then did the high ink versions.

And now working on proper rules. With diagrams.

This week I’m away almost all week.

It’s AireCon on the weekend, in Harrogate.

Our second convention.

And I’m going down a couple of days early to do a shift on the Gamefound fulfilment.

So that Paul can concentrate on laser-cutting.

Looking forward to spending the week with him.

Pretty

When you’re designing a game you want it to be functional.

And quick to iterate as you make changes.

And pretty to engage the testers.

But the first two are most important.

The game settles down and your changes become less frequent and smaller.

Then you can invest more time in pretty.

As you’re less likely to have to redo it.

Rocky ‘Roid is reaching that point.

This week has mostly been graphic design.

Getting prettier (low ink)

Paul has been shipping.

So I loaded all the invoices in to our accounts package using the app I wrote.

Found some bugs.

Only one lead to a shipping error and we fixed that before it arrived with the customer.

But I spent a lot of time checking for more.

And it cost us some money and Paul some time :(

Solo

I’ve been playing a lot of Rocky ‘Roid solo.

Mostly on my phone.

I made a webpage for it.

It’s not complete yet, but it’s mostly playable.

And it already lets me gather data.

I’m trying to work out a good way of grading the solo game.

Adding difficulty - so you can choose how much of a fight you want to automaton to provide.

I’m testing fuel load and automaton hold size to see which works best.

And learning JavaScript at the same time :)

For the first time in three years I’m hosting Newcastle Playtest this week too. I’ll be bringing three prototypes - including Rocky ‘Roid.

Time

With the new job, time is tight.

I’m having to get my head back into programming.

As well as learning all the new domain and our suite of applications.

I’m tired and I’ve not been sleeping well.

There are several upsides though.

I’ve found a couple of gaming buddies and am frequently gaming at lunchtime before walking home.

We even playtested Rocky ‘Roid last week when I forgot to take in Lost Cities.

I’m getting loads of exercise.

I’m enjoying the job way more.

I’ve also arranged a FlickFleet tournament on our next Connection Day when they try to get everyone into the office :)

Let’s see how they fare at this!

In other news, Paul is frantically laser-cutting and we’re making progress on fulfilment.

Not helped by the Royal Mail ransomware attack though - they still can’t accept international parcels :(

And I’ve restarted the Newcastle Playtest group :)

My new daily habits mean I’m making decent progress on 2 games and have another ready for playtesting.

Plus another I’d like to get to prototype stage soon too!

Changes

I started a new job on Tuesday. 

For the first time in a couple of years I’m in an office (in the morning at least!). 

I’m walking 4 miles a day which is great. 

Or will be, once I’ve broken in my new boots.

But I have less time for Eurydice Games. 

And it’s harder to work on it during my lunch break since that’s when I’m walking home. 

I need to find a new rhythm. 

I’ve managed to playtest Rocky ‘Roid a bunch of times last week though. 

Sat in the office cafe, eating my lunch. 

Under construction!

I’ve also spent several evenings this week testing the FlickFleet scenario booklet scenarios.

It’s coming together.

I’m going to be busy again soon though as Paul steps up shipping too.

I need to find my new rhythm.