What Happened Last Year and Plans for 2016

I'm finally getting this update posted. A bit later then I wanted, but expect regular updates from here on out.


It's time for a State of the Games update!

2015

In no simple terms, 2015 ended up being the worst year of my life.

• The Robotic Age: Mars ran into constant production problems, artist problems, and terrible delays.
• Horrors was a lot less popular then I was sure it would be, just barely reaching its funding goal.
• The kickstarter for Directive: Invasion! required a lot more work then any of the previous ones and it turned out I was severely unprepared for it.
• Health issues afflicted myself and extended family members.
• And, most impactful, my father passed away.

That last one shut me down for months, I had zero motivation to get anything done. Then, months later, I thought I had recovered enough to get back into it and then realized I was still only at 50%.

Soon most of the year had passed and I had to decide if I was going to try to hit my goals for the year or just give up. So I tried I tried to get the Directive kickstarter together as fast as possible.
Terrible mistake.

After that debacle had passed I set my sights on Horrors. I gave myself more time to get the word out, I spread the art around, and I had a dedicated launch time at the start of the horror movie season. And Horrors just barely funded.
To my core I was sure it would do better. The art is amazing, it was launched at the right time, and most of it's competitors were Cthulu-Focused, about monster slayers, or uses really weird mechanics for the sake of having weird mechanics *cough DREDD cough*. I cannot tell you why it didn't do better; I just don't know.

And that almost became the last straw. I felt defeated. I felt stomped down. I felt like I was out. I'm not even sure I posted a "Yay we funded" update for Horrors, I was already disconnected.
I only recently came out of that mindset. 

2016

The depression that surrounded me like a fog is starting to clear.

I'm still not 100%, but I'm getting there. I'm answering emails, I'm working on the current projects again, and I'm coming up with my first new ideas since my father passed. Things are progressing again. 

• The Robotic Age: Mars is going to be shipping soon. It's going to be a weight off my mind to have this game out.
• Horrors beta playtest starts soon (as in, this week). It's been delayed due to a cold and that lingering depression.
• Directive: Invasion! is a bit up in the air. I'm waiting to have a clearer head, but I'm trying to decide if I want to run another kickstarter with a lot more prep or try to pitch the game to an existing board game company and let them handle it.

Depending on my decision for Directive, I will not have a kickstarter this year. This is a catch up year. This is a year for recovery. 

But that doesn't mean it will be a year without games.

• Troubles In Two Worlds the world guide for Robotic Age will be released later in the year without a kickstarter. Anyone who backed Mars will get a discount on this supplement as an apology for the delays.
• Horrors official launch date is in early October, but the artist is hoping to finish everything soon enough to get the book out sooner.
• I have a simple card game I am fleshing out that should be much easier to kickstart then Directive is.
• I'm going to be pitching my other board game ideas to existing board game companies, just so they can get out there without drawing too much of my focus.
• I have 2 rpg ideas i'm developing that are at the point where I need to decide which one to focus on. One is a Mad Max inspired post-apocalypse game set in the Directive:Invasion universe. The other is an early 1900 magician and stage performer game in a world with low level of magic and low amounts of steam punk tech. If one of these sounds more appealing to you please let me know.

I haven't felt this motivated to work in almost a year. There are good things brewing and I'll go more into details in future blog posts.
Oh, and I got engaged to my long time girlfriend. So, yeah, this year is looking up.