2016 you say? Where did that year go?
Let’s see what happened in 2015 for me.
Nefertiti Overdrive
On 13 January, the Nefertiti Overdrive Kickstarter began with a target of $3,000 Canadian dollars. It closed on 10 February having raised $4,892 CAD. The amount that made it into my bank account was $4,387.19 CAD
The costs? $5,381.15 CAD
Editing $711
Art $1836.95
Design $905.00
Printing $800.13
Shipping $1,128.07
So, yes, I was in the hole $993.96 and this was mostly due to the drop in value of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar. I lost about $1,200 on the difference in value, so I would have come away with a little money in my pocket if the exchange rate had held.
All’s well that ends well, as Nefertiti Overdrive has been selling well and we are on target to get out of the red relatively quickly.
Bundle of Holding
Centurion: Legionaries of Rome was part of the IGDN Bundle at Bundle of Holding in February. This was my first experience being included in a BoH. I’ve purchased a few of them. There’ve been so many great collections I just couldn’t pass up. It was a great experience, yet another reason to be happy to have joined the Indie Game Developer Network. I got to be in a bundle with curse the darkness by Matthew McFarland at Growling Door Games, Edara by Carl Harrison and Ryan Schoon at Caelestis Designs, Fortune’s Fool by Jay Stratton at Pantheon Press, Misspent Youth by Rob Bohl, Psi-punk by Jacob Wood at Accessible Games, S.P.L.I.N.T.E.R. by Devon Oratz at End Transmission Games, Wu Xing by Eloy Lasanta at Third Eye Games, issues 4-7 of The Fate Codex magazine from Magpie Games, and a local favourite, Spark by Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend.
Impressive company.
Gen Con
I was able to attend Gen Con 2015 and I had hoped to have the Nefertiti Overdrive books ready for it. Unfortunately, Gen Con was a couple of weeks early and the book was delayed in the layout phase. I had a PDF out to the backers before the convention, but no books. I was still able to run some games of Nefertiti Overdrive, and it was a great chance to get to know some of my colleagues at the Indie Game Developer Network.
Gen Con also provided the chance to sell a few books and it got me in touch with Indie Press Revolution, which now carries SEP’s systems.
Definitely a great investment!
Nefertiti Overdrive in Print!
And it was great to get the books out to the backers at the end of September. Much later than hoped, but there had been some issues with the cover and the time it took for proofs to get to me. Still, only one month late with delivering the book.
CGX
I attended Capitol Gaming Expo the first weekend in October with the plan to run some Nefertiti Overdrive and hangout with the crew from Ottawa Story Games community. I sold a few books – which was cool – met lots of awesome people, but didn’t actually get to run anything. This has not deterred me, and I plan on being at the next CGX in April of 2016 (and also at CanGames).
The Masters!
And I started a Masters program in October. It has taken up a huge amount of my free time, and so SEP and my Sword’s Edge blog have both suffered. I’m actually taking a break from schoolwork to write this. The program is set to take two years, but I hope to have it done by March 2017. We shall see.
Bundle of Holding, Take Two!
Nefertiti Overdrive was featured in the Indie Cornucopia +3 Bundle of Holding which kicked off 25 November. It was an insane collection of games, including Blood Red Sands, Circle of Hands, The Clay That Woke, The Gaean Reach, Starfall, and Urban Shadows. That puts me in company with Ralph Mazza, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege, Robin D. Laws, Paul Mitchener, Andrew Medeiros, and Mark Diaz Truman. Kind of makes one feel like one has arrived.
And that was my 2015. Next post I’ll share the numbers with you. Ignoring the Kickstarter, SEP did okay for sales in 2015. Nothing spectacular, but enough to make me happy.
As I hope you are in the coming year.
Stay frosty!
Fraser
