I got a terrific review from G33K-HQ for Doctor Esker's Notebook. Here's a link to the review:
G33K-HQ Review
Sounds like they had a great time with it. WARNING: There's a little bit of a spoiler for the first puzzle in their pictures.
Friday, June 21, 2019
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Doctor Esker's Notebook project financial update
I've been doing a series of posts about the financial end of my game project, and I haven't posted an update for a while. I'm nearly to the break-even point, which is great! I'm at $-194 by my calculation, with revenues of $3,454 offsetting expenses of $3,649.
I have sold 386 games and sent out 35 as promo or reviewer copies. I have 134 in stock at Amazon, and another 525 or so at home (uh, I mean in my warehouse 😀 ). I make about $9 per game depending on the sales channel, and I am not incurring too many new expenses at this point - the major expenses were printing and development, and I don't have many ongoing costs (other than the cut Amazon and PayPal take from each sale). So, I could make up to about $4,000-$4,500 on this if I just sell out the print run and don't do anything else.
Sales have taken a little bit of a hit over summer. I'm at about two sales a day, where from February to April I was at more like three a day. I hope that's just seasonal and not a trend. Nearly all sales now are through Amazon.
Here's the info in graph form. First, expenses and revenues by category:
On this one, the time axis is properly scaled. I'm almost back to zero, as you can see.
Of course, I'm not including the time I've put into this project. My hourly wage is something like negative fifty cents an hour. So, this isn't (yet) a good way to make a living, put food on the table, or pay for health insurance. It's not even a good investment relative to a good solid mutual fund, although it will be if I sell out the print run by the end of the year, which looks likely if sales pick up a little around the holidays.
Anyway, looking good. I should hit break even sometime later this month.
I have sold 386 games and sent out 35 as promo or reviewer copies. I have 134 in stock at Amazon, and another 525 or so at home (uh, I mean in my warehouse 😀 ). I make about $9 per game depending on the sales channel, and I am not incurring too many new expenses at this point - the major expenses were printing and development, and I don't have many ongoing costs (other than the cut Amazon and PayPal take from each sale). So, I could make up to about $4,000-$4,500 on this if I just sell out the print run and don't do anything else.
Sales have taken a little bit of a hit over summer. I'm at about two sales a day, where from February to April I was at more like three a day. I hope that's just seasonal and not a trend. Nearly all sales now are through Amazon.
Here's the info in graph form. First, expenses and revenues by category:
The picture above shows revenues (above zero, climbing) and expenses (below zero, mostly flat). Time progresses along the bottom, but not evenly - initially I was updating every day or two, but now I'm updating less frequently.
Next, net revenue (income minus expenses):
On this one, the time axis is properly scaled. I'm almost back to zero, as you can see.
Of course, I'm not including the time I've put into this project. My hourly wage is something like negative fifty cents an hour. So, this isn't (yet) a good way to make a living, put food on the table, or pay for health insurance. It's not even a good investment relative to a good solid mutual fund, although it will be if I sell out the print run by the end of the year, which looks likely if sales pick up a little around the holidays.
Anyway, looking good. I should hit break even sometime later this month.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Daggers Highschool by Jorge Zhang
One of the guys who reviewed Doctor Esker's Notebook is a game designer himself, and he's just launched a new Kickstarter for his game. The game is Daggers Highschool, a deckbuilding game that simulates a frenetic, comedic, and tremendously stressful high school, with deckbuilding mechanics. Looks like fun!
The link to see more is here: Daggers Highschool
Boardgame Geek link is here: Daggers Highschool BGG
Development version shown below:
/pic4325201.jpg)
The link to see more is here: Daggers Highschool
Boardgame Geek link is here: Daggers Highschool BGG
Development version shown below:
Monday, April 29, 2019
Excessive game box size
I've been really enjoying Splendor, which I was given for Christmas. I've played a couple times in the past week after playing it for the first time a few years back.
I've been thinking about box size. I've commissioned some cool art for my card game Horde, and I'd like to get that printed up for distribution. It uses cards plus some scoring tokens, so I need a box big enough for about 90 cards plus 11 tokens and a set of rules. I've been using TheGameCrafter's token chips, which are a satisfying size and weight. All of that could probably fit handily in a small box.
Interestingly enough, that's also about the same component set as Splendor, although it has more like 40 chips instead of 11. Still, it shouldn't need a big box. But they gave it one! Here is a comparative look at the game:
The top picture shows how it's packaged. It looks nice. Below that is the space all the components actually take up.
Clearly, it doesn't need this big a box. It's bad for the environment and bad for storage. It's 80% empty space, and it needs a huge blow-mold plastic frame to hold it all. I wonder, though, if people are willing to pay more for it (and think more of it) if it looks like a bigger game than it is. At $25 retail, or $40 MSRP, I bet a big chunk of that price is actually the empty space in the box. I wonder if I can pitch a smaller box for Horde and convince people that it's as much of a value small as it would be with wasteful packaging. Sometimes when we shop we're just dumb sacks of meat, and I think this might be one of those times.
I've been thinking about box size. I've commissioned some cool art for my card game Horde, and I'd like to get that printed up for distribution. It uses cards plus some scoring tokens, so I need a box big enough for about 90 cards plus 11 tokens and a set of rules. I've been using TheGameCrafter's token chips, which are a satisfying size and weight. All of that could probably fit handily in a small box.
Interestingly enough, that's also about the same component set as Splendor, although it has more like 40 chips instead of 11. Still, it shouldn't need a big box. But they gave it one! Here is a comparative look at the game:
The top picture shows how it's packaged. It looks nice. Below that is the space all the components actually take up.
Clearly, it doesn't need this big a box. It's bad for the environment and bad for storage. It's 80% empty space, and it needs a huge blow-mold plastic frame to hold it all. I wonder, though, if people are willing to pay more for it (and think more of it) if it looks like a bigger game than it is. At $25 retail, or $40 MSRP, I bet a big chunk of that price is actually the empty space in the box. I wonder if I can pitch a smaller box for Horde and convince people that it's as much of a value small as it would be with wasteful packaging. Sometimes when we shop we're just dumb sacks of meat, and I think this might be one of those times.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
What's Eric Playing review of Doctor Esker's Notebook
A really nice review with lots of very nice pictures (nicer than I took myself).
What's Eric Playing review of Doctor Esker's Notebook
What's Eric Playing review of Doctor Esker's Notebook
Friday, April 12, 2019
A business milestone - $2K
This past week I crossed $2,000 in revenue for Dr. Esker's Notebook. The last bit of that came from a distribution deal in Canada with a game store, who bought forty copies at a steep discount and arranged for a U.S. cargo forwarder who I could send the games to, which saved a lot on shipping and complexity for me. I am very grateful for that.
I haven't tried to get into game stores directly other than this effort, and I think that might be a cool avenue to pursue, particularly if I do another print run. Here is the updated revenue and expense chart and net revenue track. I've had pretty healthy sales on Amazon for the past week (around 2-5 per day), so that's helped too. I've gone from being $3500 in the hole after printing to $1650 in the hole now, about two months later, so that's good progress.
I haven't tried to get into game stores directly other than this effort, and I think that might be a cool avenue to pursue, particularly if I do another print run. Here is the updated revenue and expense chart and net revenue track. I've had pretty healthy sales on Amazon for the past week (around 2-5 per day), so that's helped too. I've gone from being $3500 in the hole after printing to $1650 in the hole now, about two months later, so that's good progress.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Jorge Zhang Dr. Esker Review
Another great review of Doctor Esker's Notebook! Spoiler-free, too.
Jorge Zhang Dr. Esker's Notebook Review
Jorge Zhang Dr. Esker's Notebook Review
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Another positive Dr. Esker's Notebook review
Here's another one, this time from ISlayTheDragon.com:
http://islaythedragon.com/featured/review-doctor-eskers-notebook/
http://islaythedragon.com/featured/review-doctor-eskers-notebook/
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Video preview of Wrath
I made a video for my new boardgame design, Wrath. This is a game I've been working on for about a year. I'm entering it in a design contest which requires a video, so here's the video. The game is set on an island being destroyed by three angry gods. Players compete to survive the curses and save their villages by sucking up to the only remaining friendly god. The game involves buildings, worker placement, economic management, and being capriciously screwed by angry deities. I still have some changes and additions I want to make, but this describes the idea pretty well.
Facebook video for Dr. Esker - SPOILERS!
It looks like they've got Dr. Esker's Notebook available in their board game room at the Connect Games Escape Room in Fredericksburg, VA, which is totally cool. They posted a video about this to Facebook at the link below, but be careful - there are spoilers for one of the puzzles in the video if you look too closely.
James' Games Video (on Facebook)
James' Games Video (on Facebook)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
