Diving deep into EU requirements, and prepping for the final print run.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve adopted the Agile development methodology to keep my focused and maintain my productivity as I churn through all the tasks needed to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign and start my publishing journey.
The theme of this sprint was figuring out EU requirements, which ended up being more complex than I had initially anticipated. But even with that I got some other key work done. All of a sudden the end of January feels really close!
- Write EU shipping requirements article. Like I said, this was a big one. This started because I’m getting close to final manufacturing files and I need to figure out what’s on my label. Finding no sources I liked online, I went to the actual standards to digest the requirements. This then also let to investigation Authorized Representatives and VAT and then a full write-up to hopefully help others who are as lost with this complex environment as I was. Check out the article here!
- Reorganize website blogs. I’m in a constant state of churn trying to find the best place to publish my blog. I started on my website then I transitioned to Substack since I thought that would have better find ability. It did not. I got up to 2 whole subscribers, with 7 posts. Not great numbers. I do really think that my EU article can be of use and may have better sharing ability. In case it does, I decided to host it on my website, to build domain authority and drive more people here, where they can learn about my games and follow along. We’ll see how it goes.
- NEW ART. That’s right! I got new art! And oh lordy is it beautiful. My artist, Cole Munro-Chitty, is absolutely incredible and did an amazing job with the rest of the art for Quickdraw. I’ll give you a little teaser here for being a loyal audience member, but get ready to see the rest as we get closer to the campaign!
- Order samples with complete art. Now that I have all the art, I want to have the most beautiful samples possible for any other reviews and also for when I head to the Midwinter Gaming Convention in Pewaukee, WI in a few weeks. I got the cards formatted with all the final art (one quick edit from Cole for framing) and then sent off an order to Make Playing Cards to get a few samples.
- Continue to finalize manufacturing files. I’m learning a lot about ho to prep files for print. Mainly how to export the file I see on my computer to look the same when it’s printed. This is mostly an issue with transparent layers. I tried to rasterize (or flatten) the whole card into a single bitmap to prevent any export/import funkiness, but that caused my text to be blurry. So instead I just rasterized the borders where the transparent layers are, and kept the rest as curves before exporting to PDF (my manufacturers preferred format). I also adjusted the size and position of the logo on the wallet to make it better centered.
- Launch new ad. Last Sprint I created a new add image with my board state and positioning of it to appeal to TCG fans. This Sprint I took that image and used it to make a new ad in my current Meta ad campaign.
- Reach out to Authorized Representative services. As I learned from writing my EU requirements article, if I want to ship into the EU I will need an Authorized Representative (AR). I also need to put the address and name of that AR on my game’s label. Which means I have to figured that out before the final print run or I’ll be delaying shipping the product. I reached out to several AR services to get quotes and determine which would be best.