Bloody Business

Something's bloody wrong here!

Something was bothering me, but I couldn’t find out what it was. We had received the first print proofs of Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift Revised Edition from the manufacturer, LongPack Games. The table was covered with big paper sheets and original maps of PM:AR. At first glance the print proofs of maps had looked fine. But just to be sure, I checked every square and compared those to the original maps. It was the map ”Small Nest” where the truth finally hit me: the blood on the floor was grey!

We hunted the missing blood colour for hours. Eventually we found out that one specific effect in a layer in Photoshop files acted differently in CS5 vs. CS5.5. The error could be fixed only with version CS5.5, and only one of our team members had that. Fortunately he had time to help. Making the maps requires several technical steps and it took us two days to fix everything. Still, it was a relief to find and fix the error before actual production.

Nostalgic Moments

We had busy May: development week in Vienna and then 3 conventions in 3 different countries. From Vienna we headed straight north, to Brno. There was a small gaming weekend in a local board game bar. One of our team members, David, lives in Brno, and it was great to meet him again. We had two extra hours before the event, and we used those in the Technical Museum. I could have stayed there the whole day after I found the computer with Bubble Bobble! Oh, what a nostalgic moment!

It was kind of nostalgic to hear the Finnish language, too. A Finnish couple stayed at the same camping place near Brno. They had a boy, a few years younger than ours, but also named Väinö. While the two Väinös were playing, we parents had time to compare traveling experiences and - because Finland is such a small country – to find common friends. The lady was Finnish sculptor Heli Ryhänen, she knew the artists of my home village and had taught my cousin.

Murphy Strikes Again

Many people thought our problems with car and caravan ended when there were none mentioned in latests blog entries. The three flat tyres we had in Italy just didn’t seem like news. Mr. Murphy obviously agreed and created new tricks when we entered Poland, on our way to Pyrkon.

Polish roads are narrow, curvy and bumpy. A bit more bumpy than other countries. So somewhere in the middle of a Polish country road, we heard a loud crash. We stopped and found our 6 meter long awning lying on the road side. It required some geometrical appraisal and strong muscles to get that thing in the caravan. We found out that the distance from the end of our bed to the kitchen window is exactly same as our awning.

My dearest friend, Google, was again helpful. I couldn’t believe my eyes when my search gave me a 24/7 caravan repair shop just 40 km away in the direction we were going. Well, they didn’t speak any English there. And Google navigation directed us to the wrong place. But after three phone calls (mixing English and German), one false address and navigation based on a Facebook page, we eventually found the repair shop on a suburban backyard. There was an Ukrainian worker, no common language. He understood the problem after seeing the muddy and scratched awning on the kitchen table and the empty holders outside the caravan. It was soon fixed and costed less than 30 euros.

So Family Multamäki beat Mr. Murphy again, fast and furious. Murphy made his revenge the next morning and ripped one mudguard off the caravan with the help of bushes at the campsite. But who needs mudguards, anyway.

The Big Change

This is not a blog about a miraculous diet and losing weight - even if I might need that, too. It's not about getting rid of junk and cleaning your closets - even if that is going to happen as a side-effect. It's about doing what you really want to do, living like you think it would be cool to live, experiencing things you have never done.

Our family have now run a company for over a decade. It has been more of an "environment-to-do-cool-stuff" than earning a living. We have had our full time jobs elsewhere. Now, though, we have noticed that people like the "cool-stuff" we do. The amount of time and effort needed to take care of customer service and company paperwork is increasing. So it is time for me to jump to the full-time entrepreneur life. Not for the first time in my life, but hopefully for the rest of my life.

Family games

Our company Dragon Dawn Productions is a Finnish board game publisher. We have published four board games (Zanziar, Phantom League, Black Hat and Perdition's Mouth) and a couple of expansions. Even if board games were a part of my childhood, I hadn't played a real (or really good...) board game until I play-tested an early version of Zanziar, a game my husband had designed. Immediately I fell in love with the challenge and strategy variations a good board game offers.

We truly are a gaming family. Our son’s (now 11 years old) second full sentence was ”My turn to roll the dice”. He has been a part of testing and developing Black Hat and Perdition’s Mouth. At the moment we are working on a new product, a trick-taking game called Darwinning, for which I’m one of the designers.

It’s not my first design. Whilst cleaning our pile of board games I found a damaged board for Uusi finanssi. On the other side of the board was the only version of the game ”Hupaisat rosvonuolet” (Hilarious bandit arrows); I remember inventing it one summer in a tent at a neighbor's yard after my neighbor and I got fed up with the original game. I was about the same age my son is now and certainly had no clue I would be running a board game company in the future.

The grand tour of 2018

Since the very beginning our company’s markets have been outside of Finland. We sell games all over the world and have warehouses in three different continents. Yet there are still a lot of customers to be reached, and there’s a lot to be learned from foreign markets. We have decided to pack our family and games in a caravan and make a tour around Europe in order to participate in game fairs and conventions and to meet both gamers and distributors. We will be on the road for the whole of 2018.

Yes, it’s going to be an interesting and challenging year. We will share it with you in this blog. Following this blog you can also follow our route - perhaps we will meet and play a game.

Do come and meet me next month at the Essen Spiel (26th -29th Oct) at our booth 2F131. You can hear more about this tour and test play Darwinning with me!