As fun as working for Durdle Games can be, it is also…you know…work. Durdle Games hit the ground running full speed in 2023 and in this post I wanted to reflect on what that looks like in a day-to-day sense. If you’ve ever wondered what trying to start a game company entails, here’s a partial list of work we did in January.
- Scrub and update our publisher contact list before sending game pitches.
- Contact 15~ publishers to gauge interest in Trick City, Rowdy Partners, and Championchip.
- Build prototypes to mail to one of those publishers.
- Build more prototypes to replace the boxes we sent.
- Update Trick City artwork.
- Make sell sheets for Trick City.
- Complete the ruleset for Trick City. (Single page!)
- Fully art and update a ruleset to create Killer Looks.
- Submit Killer Looks to the Gamecrafter Single card design challenge.
- Join a Kickstarter campaign as a contributor.
- Test and iterate on our new roll & write game Rolling Acres. (Thanks Durdlers!)
- Prep and send files to Gamecrafter for prototypes. (Trick City & Constellé & Killer Looks)
- Shoot a video and revise a rule book to submit Championchip Cardboard Edison Design contest.
- Jump into several “fire drills” on some game consulting we are involved in. (We have secrets)
- Start planning and booking things for 2023 conventions.
- Update the Durdle website, like all the time.
- Create an entirely new game, just because the inspiration hit. (Surprise!)
- Playtest in person. Playtest online. Playtest at design meetups. Spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about how you should be playtesting more.
There’s more than what is listed here. There’s hours of interpersonal communications that take time and energy and creativity. There’s the hours Darren spent trying to figure out “how-to-taxes” for a small business. There’s the hours Jason spent moving 7 cards around, absolutely certain there was a game hiding in those 7 cards somewhere. But if that’s what it takes to succeed, it’s a pretty good problem to have.
Next time on the Durdle-Blog we’ll be talking about something way more interesting.
New games in the Durdle lineup!
If you are interested in a Durdle design send us a message through our Contact Page.