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...
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.
I love the gaming community.
I've been part of it since I started attending Beyond Monopoly in York in 2006.
Since then I've made gaming buddies in York, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Newcastle.
Plus loads of friends from around the country that I see at conventions.
This weekend I went to AireCon for the second time.
First time as a punter, not an exhibitor.
We were looking to see what they do well so we can make Tyneside Games Expo as amazing as possible.
We spoke to most of the exhibitors, pitching the show to them.
Lots of them were people I knew.
Or friends.
From UKGE, Tabletop Scotland, or our first AireCon.
Plus there were loads of people from Newcastle Gamers there.
And various other friends too.
I love that feeling, walking the halls and bumping into so many people I know.
And I even got to playtest my new game idea.
Jeremy thought it was excellent.
On it's third play!
I think it has potential.
I'll be trying it out again today with Joe of Word Dungeon fame.
Another gaming buddy.
It's been a very busy week post-Expo.
There's been loads of Expo tasks to catch up on.
We've had a very busy week of UK sales (post Expo ones?).
So loads of bookkeeping.
And I'm back on the P&P rewards graphic design.
One thing I needed to do was physically print the dashboards.
In their Print and Play configuration.
For two reasons.
One: it's easier to spot errors in physical form than on screen.
And two: I needed to check that I'd lined the backs and fronts up correctly for the P&P rewards.
In that the correct fronts and backs were together.
And the orientations were right too.
The good news is the P&P configuration was all correct.
But I spotted a few issues with the dashboards that needed fixing.
Cheaper to fix them now, than after printing 350 of them!
I'm back from the UK Games Expo.
I'm knackered.
But it was so good.
We had our box manufacturer, W. MacCarthy & Sons, hand-deliver some Xeno Wars boxes to the Expo, from London!
We sold more games than ever before!
We demoed FlickFleet to loads of new people and could see how much fun they were having.
I had a few really useful business meetings.
We had people go out of their way to come to our stand, just to tell us how much they love FlickFleet.
And someone even came up to us during dinner, to tell us how much he loved it!
I've done conventions in four jobs now.
Games ones with Reiver Games and Eurydice Games.
Scientific ones in the day job.
And during my PhD.
I really enjoy them.
Games ones in particular feel like I'm among my people.
And I love meeting so many people I know.
I’ve got two pressing deadlines the moment.
The UK Games Expo.
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!
We have a great product in FlickFleet.
It has loads of fans.
People love it when they are introduced to it at conventions.
But our ads perform pretty poorly.
I've tried something new this week.
15 second videos of the game.
It's way more successful at driving traffic to our website.
But not helping with sales at all.
I really wish I had the time to work out how to do advertising right - I'm sure we could do much better!
Things are flat out at the moment.
Paul is speedily shipping Gamefound rewards.
So I've got to do the bookkeeping for those shipped pledges.
We've had a run of website orders.
So I've got to do the bookkeeping for those too.
And there's a whole heap of post-Expo tasks to do too.
Plus there's a possible game changer that's looming with a deadline of the 19th.
There's loads to do!
We've just got back from the UK Games Expo.
Four full-on days of travel, demoing & selling FlickFleet, and hanging out with my best mate.
It was awesome.
We were both a bit worried about how it would go.
Last year we had a run of great reviews in the lead up to the show.
And it was our best year ever.
No reviews this year.
It could have been disappointing.
We had no idea what to expect really.
We needn't have worried.
It ran from Friday to Sunday, and by Friday lunchtime Paul had decided to go back to York to get more stock. We ran out of some things, and were very low on others.
By the end of the first day.
Paul's return to York was well worth it!
We had our best show ever again.
Sales were amazing.
But more than that, it was awesome to spend the time chatting to people who love FlickFleet or introducing people to FlickFleet for the first time and seeing them love it.
See FlickFleet spark joy.
Playing a game and having passing members of the public stop to tell others that the game is amazing and they need to buy it. Several times.
Getting our best ever score (12!) in the solo competition, not once but twice!
And many hours with Paul, catching up, making plans and working out our next steps.
I feel energized. And enthused. And utterly knackered.
The UK Games Expo is only a few weeks away.
It’s probably the only UK show we’re attending this year because of holiday clashes.
As usual, we’ll be running our competition to win lots of deluxe FlickFleet boxes.
Worth over £300!
It’s a solo tournament that takes about five minutes to play.
We run it during the first and last hour of each day.
Paul is making up stock for us to sell, alongside the rewards for the last crowdfunding campaign.
I’m sorting out everything on the UKGE portal, ordering walls and sorting out posters.
Hope to see some of you there!
Last year we attended 3 shows.
AireCon, UK Games Expo and Tabletop Scotland.
They were all good in their own ways and we enjoyed them all.
This year we can’t make AireCon or Tabletop Scotland due to family holidays.
This weekend at the National Space Centre was great.
But we might have room in the calendar for one more…
Could this be Eurydice Games’ first Essen?
There’s loads of things to work out. Tax. VAT. Customs. Costs.
But we’re looking into it for the first time…
I’ve known Paul for 17 years.
He brought two friends to my first ever public playtesting session.
All three of them ordered Border Reivers.
Reiver Games was born.
Paul invited me to his bi-weekly games night and we became friends.
When I moved away we stayed in touch and though I saw him infrequently, he was one of my best friends and playtesters.
We designed FlickFleet together in 2017.
He joined Eurydice Games in 2018.
Despite living 100 miles apart he’s my best friend.
We chat regularly on Slack, occasionally on FaceTime and meet up every few months.
We’ve just spent the last four days in each other’s pockets.
Breakfast and dinner together. On the stand all day together. Playtesting together in the evenings.
We evening shared a room and drove down from York together.
It’s been great.
It’s lovely to have a proper catch up.
Plan what’s next for Eurydice Games.
We don’t see enough of each other.
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.
And Rocky ‘Roid launches tomorrow lunchtime!
Got a fun few weeks ahead!
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.
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.
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.