Observations of the Fox

Sorry...rant in progress. I do things. I make those things public. Occasionally I hope to make a little bit of money from those things so I can focus more on those things rather than the day to day mundane tasks that earn me the necessary money to survive in the world. I look at what other people are asking for things. I don't think my requests are extravagant...in most cases I actually think my requests are quite modest. But people ignore my things...or they loot the free things I offer, and ignore any requests for support so that I can continue making new things...then to have sand kicked in my face while I'm already pretty low, I see things that I presented to the world offered by other people a year or two later, in mounds of adoration and heaped praise. Or I see other people making things that vary the themes I offered, and they pull in money by the bucketload. I can't pull the "I'm in a minority" card, I can't pull the "But I'm a femal...

I tried to do a live unboxing of my prototype, but that didn't quite work out. I was pleasantly surprised at the speed of the box's arrival, just over a week between finalising the imagery and having it arrive at my doorstep.  These things are always well packaged, but that's a good thing given the state of some packages I've received in this part of the world.   Naturally, the customs inspectors have to make sure anything brought into the house is thoroughly searched and given the "all-clear". On the whole, I'm pretty happy with the way the outside of the package has been presented. Curiously, the automated systems of "The Game Crafter" told me that the game components would be too big to fit in the selected game box, but I actually could have gotten away with a box half the size. The quality of the cards has seen an improvement with the UV coating, compared to the last cards I ordered as a part of the "Town...

Bug Hunt has been sent for proofing. Roughly $35 manufacturing cost, roughly $40 to get it sent from the US to my place in Australia. I really wanted to get the game ready as a Kickstarter or Indiegogo project, but with those costs and the way the Australian dollar is going at the moment, that works out to $100 a game in this part of the world. I'm looking at maybe running with a $50 retail for the game, with free shipping to the US. Then adding an extra $20 for shipping to Australia, which hopefully means I'll break even on the games shipped to Australia. I'm told shipping inside the US will cost $6-10, so I'll make a little bit of profit on those games. This project will only make me some money to cover a minimal level of additional stock to sell at conventions (and give to playtesters as a reward for their services), if bulk discounts kick in. According to rough estimates, by the time I've sold 10 units, I'd be able to cover the cost of an extra ga...