Sorry I've not blogged for a few days, I've been pretty busy.

It's been a really good week so far. Board and Bits an online shop in the US have picked up It's Alive! and are now offering it for pre-order. The two US distributors I'm in contact with both want to see a finished copy before they'll place an order so it'll be probably a couple of months after I get the boxes that it reaches widespread distribution in the US: a week for them to receive the sample, a week or two for them to make up their minds, two weeks to ship their order, two weeks in customs then another week for them to ship to shops. Getting one of the big US online shops to pick it up now is great, it means that US customers can get it without paying international shipping pretty much as soon as it's available.

This was followed by the German distributors (who operate throughout Europe) expressing an interest in thirty cases. They've not placed an order yet, but hopefully that's pretty close. They at least have seen (and played) a Limited Edition copy, so they know what they're getting into.

On the Carpe Astra front there's good news too. The third playtest copy has finally arrived in the US (over a week after the other one I sent to the US). I've also started getting some feedback from the copy I sent to Germany. Michael took it on holiday with him and has just returned. He played it once according the rules and thought he'd got something wrong (that's what comes of first draft rules - clear as mud!) so he played it again differently. He preferred the second (wrong) version. So I played a couple of solo games of his version and it's very different but I quite liked it. I played it twice (official version and Michael's version) on Tuesday night at a playtesting session I was holding and both versions worked. One of my playtesters preferred the new version, one preferred the old. I've asked my playtesters in the US to try out both versions and let me know which version they prefer.

I spent this morning playtesting with Paul and this afternoon publicising It's Alive! I'm still putting off doing my books, which The Wife is keen for me to put away, so that's a task for tomorrow (hot procrasination action!).

The Wife and I went for an early swim, and less than two hours later I was back at the gym to meet Paul for some playtesting. We were taking advantage of him having to spend a couple of hours there while his daughter attended an event. First up was Codename: Pilgrim, another new game. I read the rules in the break at home and then taught it to Paul when I got there. Considering it was a first play it was very quick - we got it done (including explaining the game and learning what to do) in about an hour - good sign. I'd imagine it would take longer with more players though. It's promising - needs more plays to make a real decision - plus I've a couple of rules queries to ask the designer. Next up was a quick game of Sumeria, using the new board and tiles I made just over a week ago. Functionally they are much the same, with a bit of extra information for clarity, but they feel much nicer to the touch, making the game more enjoyable to play. This came in at about 30 mins, and I creamed Paul, sweet revenge for beating me at Pilgrim. Finally, there was a quick Carpe Astra too, again around 30 minutes, so we managed to get all three games done in the two hour window. Carpe Astra was good, I tried a different strategy (stockpiling cash for the endgame) and although it looked like Paul would cream me it was pretty close in the end. Two hours well spent!

This afternoon I've been writing a preview of the second edition of It's Alive! for BoardGameGeek. I'm trying to bring it to more people's attention while the pre-order is still open, as that's a winner for everyone - the customer gets 30% off, and I get a larger margin than I would selling through a shop or distributor. It's Alive! is proving surprisingly expensive to manufacture, so to keep the price down to £15 I've got very slim margins. Including airmail shipping to the US though, it's no cheaper to get the pre-order and so most of the Americans who have enquired about it are waiting for it to be available in shops over there. With the American distributors wanting to see a finished copy it's likely to be two or three months until it reaches widespread US distribution.

Another option I'm considering is BGG or BoardGameNews advertising. It's guaranteed to reach the target audience (you've got to be quite keen on games to go to either URL) but I'm not sure if it's worth the cost, and money is tight at the moment. I'll have to think on it.

Both at home and at work :-)

While I was away I received the signed contract from Dirk Liekens so I can now confirm that Sumeria (formerly known as Codename: Ancient) will be released in time for Essen next year under the Reiver Games banner. I've a brief comment on my website, but with no artwork yet it will be a while before the game is properly listed. I now need something to slot in early next year (potentially a UK Games Expo release), something cheap to make (like a card game) is the order of the day.

I've spent most of today overhauling the Carpe Astra rules based on feedback from Ted's blind playtesting held in the States last week. It seems to have been well received and the rules feedback is invaluable - writing rules has got to be one of the hardest parts of games design.

In other news, I sent the last of the proofs back to Cartamundi yesterday, they should have it finished in three weeks time. I'm going to close the pre-order list when I receive the sample back from them, from then on I'll only be shipping to shops and distributors. It looks like the US distributors want to see a finished copy before they order any, so it's going to be a couple of months at least before it reaches widespread US distribution. Boards and Bits seem interested though, so if they order directly from me, it might be available over there sooner. Yesterday I also uploaded the artwork to another publisher who is interested in making It's Alive! available in another language, hopefully I'll hear back from them fairly soon.

I've got to decide on a pricing structure for Essen too. I'm getting a couple of press enquiries, which include a request for my prices at the fair. It's a difficult line to walk, I want to offer a discount, to draw people in, but at the same time I need to be careful not to step on the toes of my other stockists. It's Alive! will retail at 19.95 EUR and be available in shops before the show, so I think I'd better be especially careful with this one. Carpe Astra is likely to be £20 / 25 EUR and won't be available before the show. I'm thinking full price for It's Alive! and 5 EUR discount for Carpe Astra (down to 20 EUR), with maybe a further 5 EUR discount if you buy both. If you've been to Essen, how does this sound? Too tight? Too generous? Likely to get me in trouble?

Half the proofs arrived today (the corrected box, German rules and cards) with the rest not due to arrive until Monday morning.

This gives me a few days, and seeing as we're technically on holiday down here I'm going to take the next couple of days off. Tomorrow The Wife and I are going on a day-trip to an unspecified location (if I told you I'd have to kill you) and then on Saturday The Wife, my parents and I are going to Bath for the day. I've not been to Bath in about ten years (my last time there was a drunken weekend with a flatmate from University) but as kids my parents used to take us there fairly often. It'll be great to see it again.

In other news, the proofs were fine, I'm going to send them back on Monday all together. Ted's had a chance to play the Carpe Astra prototype and seems pretty happy with it so far. He's suggested an improvement which sounds good. He's going to get guys at his game group to blind-playtest it this evening.

I've received a line-drawn (but not yet coloured) draft of the Carpe Astra box art - I think it's awesome. I'll post it here on my return assuming I get the artist's permission.

Finally, the other publisher sounds quite keen on the other language version of It's Alive! I'm going to send them the artwork so they can make a prototype and try it out.