1st Printing Card Replacement Kit for Deep Regrets

Fufilment continues! Important errata info!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Apr 03, 2025 at 07:44:52 AM

Hello again, anglers!

What an exciting day at sea for international trade! Luckily all KS rewards have already been imported to the US and won't be affected by the higher 54% tariff rate just announced. WHEW! That's a bridge I'll just have to cross with the retail editions and my next game! Got a few important bits of info to share today:

Fulfilment continues!

Fulfilment is underway and games are shipping around the world! Many folks have received their games already and it's been so exciting watching these rewards land on people's tables. Here's the current status of fulfilment for all regions:

1. APAC: Fulfilment is complete! If you have not received your games or at least received an email notifying you of a shipment from VFI, please email [email protected] to check the status of your shipment.
2. Australia/New Zealand: Fulfilment is complete! If you have not received your games or at least received an email notifying you of a shipment from Let's Play Games, please email [email protected] to check the status of your shipment. As a reminder, there were issues with a few backers being sent the retail version of the game in place of the KS edition in error - if you were one of the affected recipients, please email [email protected] to discuss your options. The only difference is that the KS edition is wrapped in newsprint instead of sealed with stickers.
3. Canada: Fulfilment began yesterday! You should receive an email from Board Game Bliss with details of the shipment and tracking information. Fulfilment will continue for the next few weeks, so if you don't receive a notification immediately, stay tuned and hopefully it will arrive soon.
4. United States: Fulfilment began Tuesday! You should receive an email from Tettix Games with details of the shipment and tracking information. Fulfilment will continue for the next few weeks, so if you don't receive a notification immediately, stay tuned and hopefully it will arrive soon.
5. Germany/Austria/Switzerland: The shipping vessel (ONE TRIUMPH) is currently in the mediterranean after a detour around the cape of Africa and is scheduled to arrive in about 10 days. Once it's docked it'll take a few weeks to unload, process through customs, and move the inventory to the warehouse. I expect fulfilment will begin late April!
6. UK/EU/Rest of World: Fulfilment began last week! You should receive an email from Zatu Games with details of the shipment and tracking information The majority of shipments have already been sent out, but Zatu is still working through a few. If you have not received your games or at least received an email notifying you of a shipment from Zatu by the end of next week, please email [email protected] to check the status of your shipment.

Missing and damaged items

As I mentioned in the last update, if anything is missing or wrong with your rewards when they arrive, please send an email to [email protected] and we'll get you sorted out!

Errata info! Read before playing!

There are a few small errors that we've caught since manufacturing began that could not be adjusted with this print run. Here's a list of the five errata (revisions) you should be aware of:

1. The Psychic Interloper is missing the expansion icon in the lower left-hand corner. If you need to un-install the mini-expansion from the base game, make sure you pull out Psychic Interloper as well! It's a Depth II Small fish.

2. The ratio of Fair to Foul fish at Depth I should read 2:1, not 3:1. Not a huge impact on gameplay, but good to be aware of.

3. The setup page should show the madness cubes on the top row of the madness tracker, not the second row. The text description is correct. This technically doesn't have an impact on gameplay, since your madness should always match the number of regret cards you hold. You would instantly move your cube back to the top row at the start of the game.

4. Three fish are the incorrect size. This has no impact on gameplay and you may treat the fish as the size printed (the shadows on the back match sizes on the front). However, for the solo/co-op game, when documenting fish you should make the following changes:

• Box Jellyfish should be small (not middling)
• Corpse should be large (not middling)
• Sockeye Salmon should be small (not middling)

5. Getting cards out of the insert is troublesome. Not technically an errata, but something that irritates me for which I wanted to provide a solution. The divot that separates the two stacks of cards does not run to the bottom of the box and it means getting the last few cards out is tricky and more or less requires you to tip the box over.

As an inelegant but effective solution, I recommend using a craft knife/x-acto blade to cut out the separator between the two card wells like this:

This way you can easily reach your finger down to the bottom to grab the entire stack.

I've already adjusted the mould for the insert so that all future games will have the divot run all the way to the bottom, allowing better access, but no games received via this Kickstarter will have the updated mould, unfortunately.

That's all the errata to be aware of (hopefully no more is discovered)! Luckily nothing that has any meaningful impact on gameplay! No matter how many proofing passes you put a game through, something always slips the net. It's frustrating, but I've learned to take it in stride. The game is still great (at least in my unbiased opinion) and that's what matters.

Heirloom edition is nearly complete!

Hugh has been working hard the last month on getting the two heirloom edition boxes made. I'll share a making-of video once it's all done and the recipients have gotten a first look at it, but I thought I'd share a few stills of the process - it's a beauty!

What am I playing right now?

Moving Wild! Oink Games (creators of the magnificent Scout) have done it again with this fantastic drafting/collecting game. You're building and running a zoo and trying to ensure you have a solid balance of animals and habitats and that everyone gets along. It's easy to learn and extremely fast moving, but still incredibly strategic. Originally created by Chris Priscott as Zuuli, Oink Games has done a stunning rebrand that maintains the exact same fantastic gameplay. It's easily my new favourite of the Oink games catalogue.

That's all for now! I hope everyone enjoys their games!

- Judson 🖤

Fulfilment beginning soon in most regions!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 14, 2025 at 10:25:25 AM

Hello anglers!

Two updates in very quick succession because it's ALL KICKING OFF! Addresses are locking, games are making port, parcels are shipping out!

Fulfilment beginning for all regions!

ASIA: Already begun!

The games have already arrived at VFI and some customers have already received their games! Fulfilment will continue over the next few weeks with some of the further destionations, like the middle-east, taking a bit longer to arrive.

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND: Next week!

The games have arrived at Let's Play in Australia and the required paperwork has now been complete. Addresses have already been locked and I expect fulfilment for these regions to begin next week!

US/CANADA: in two weeks!

The games are waiting just off the port for traffic to clear and then will be unloaded and sent to Fulfilrite in New Jersey and Board Game Bliss in Ottawa. Addresses have already been locked and I expect fulfilment for both regions to begin the last week or March of first week of April.

UK/EU/ROW (except DACH): in three weeks!

The OOCL ZEEBRUGE boat is already docked in Felixstowe and should be onloading now. HOWEVER! The games are apparently no longer ON that boat! It seems they got moved to a different boat in Singapore and the new arrival date is the 19th of March so we'll still be waiting a few weeks. They're on the OOCL PIRAEUS now, and the tracking has it due to arrive the 15th, but the forwarder insists it's the 19th. Anyway, addresses will lock next week and fulfilment should begin at the start of April!

GERMANY/AUSTRIA/SWITZERLAND: next month!

The German-language games are delayed in shipping because they've had to travel around South Africa rather than go through the Suez Canal. On account of the Suez Canal Kraken. The boat is now due to arrive on the 14th of April and that would mean fulfilment would begin a few weeks later, in late April. Note that If you're in these regions but selected the English-language version, your order will be fulfilled at the same time as the UK/EU games, shipped by Zatu in the UK.

If your address has changed recently

If your address has changed in the last week or WILL change in the next few weeks, please email [email protected] to arrange the proper delivery address.

If there are problems with your game

Once you receive your game, if there are any missing parts or manufacturing errors within your game, please send a message to [email protected] and they can take care of any issues you have and send missing items along!

THANK YOU! I hope you deeply regret it!

Since many of you will receive your games before I post another update, I just want to take another moment here to say thanks for your support. You helped not only bring Deep Regrets to life, but to give Tettix Games a standing in the industry that I hope continues to grow over time! I very much hope you enjoy the game! Feel free to post your honest thoughts on BoardGameGeek once you've checked it out. The more people talking about the game there, the better for its visibility and growth!

Thanks again to everyone who offered to help cover tariffs, but it's well in hand. I think it makes much more sense for me to cover them to avoid the logistical headache and shifting backer expectations of costs. And I would never do a donation-based system for those who suggested it. I fear donators would skew towards people who disagree with the tariffs and that feels backwards. Don't worry, Tettix Games will still have plenty of operating funds after paying the tariffs. If you want to help, you can post reviews on BGG or follow my upcoming games! Speaking of which...

If you're still not regretting it…

Once you HAVE had a chance to play the game, if you feel like you still need MORE sea-faring insanity, you can head over and follow the Kickstarter for the upcoming EVEN DEEPER REGRETS expansion, planned for launch at the end of May!

And if you're wondering if there will be a sequel trailer, the answer is a big, sloppy YES. You know I love a short film.

Also, don't forget that my Buttonshy collaboration, Shallow Regrets, is coming to Kickstarter at the start of May! There will also be both a single-player expansion where you fish against Frod AND a four-player expansion that adds six more cards with new mechanics! May is going to be a VERY regrettable month!

What am I playing right now?

Honestly, just a lot of Even Deeper Regrets and Shallow Regrets! But to give a shout out to something else great:

Border Riding! This is an awesome little game published by Edinburgh locals, Stout Stoat Press. It's gorgeous, it comes with a short zine about Common Riding, and it's an interesting collaborative storytelling exercise. You draw maps as a team, each contributing a bit of lore to what the marks you're adding to the map mean and how they build upon the history of the region you're creating. As someone who's spent a lot of time drawing maps, it's speaks to me!

That's all for now! Enjoy your games when they arrive!

- Judson 🖤

Delivery beginning in APAC soon!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Mar 06, 2025 at 07:17:57 AM

Hello anglers!

It has begun!

A very short update today to make a quick announcement: fulfillment is beginning for APAC!

The games have arrived at VFI Asian in China and should dispatch to customers in Asia in the next week or so. The games have arrived in Sydney port and there's some paperwork that needs to be sorted out before they can get sent to Let's Play Fulfillment's warehouse, then they should be begin dispatching to Australia and New Zealand backers mid-March.

Addresses for all APAC backers have already been locked or are set to lock soon, per the emails you got from Backerkit.

Other regions! Addresses locking soon!

The other games are still travelling and should all be arriving mid-to-late March to their respective warehouses in CA/UK/US/DE and dispatch in early April. Expect to get an email asking you to lock your address for shipping in the next few weeks! If you're moving in the next few weeks, please contact [email protected] to determine what the best mailing address is to use.

More Tariffs.

As you've probably read, the US has introduced additional immediately effective tariffs on Chinese imports, bringing the total to 20%. I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it is to operate a business when your costs can fluctuate wildly from week to week without any way to plan. I won't lie, this is extremely frustrating, stressful and difficult to navigate. 

For perspective, between when my games left port in China and when they'll arrive in the US, the cost for shipping and importing them to the US went from about $15,000 to about $45,000. A 300% increase. For now, at least. Let's just hope there are no additional immediately effective tariffs introduced in the next few weeks. A grace period for shipments already in the water or some advance notice would be great, but there's no evidence to suggest we'll ever get advance notice. Snap decisions seem to be the standard operating procedure. Given how quickly these things are happening and how volatile things are, it's scary wondering what will actually be due when they make port in the US.

I'm still planning to cover these costs out of pocket for this campaign, but if things go much higher I will probably need to find a way to recover some of those costs from US backers.

For the future—at least for my Kickstarter campaigns—plan for shipping costs to go up sharply in the US, even if the tariffs are removed. The damage is already done. The risk of tariffs being reinstated with little or no warning is too great to make decisions without planning for this contingency. The easiest way to do this is to include broad margins on US shipping costs that offset the costs created by US tariffs. I'm sorry that these are the constraints we have to operate within.

- Judson 🖤

Freight Update and Delivery Timelines
over 1 year ago – Tue, Feb 18, 2025 at 05:08:07 AM

Good day, anglers!

Hope you're surviving the rough waters of 2025 alright. Lots of good news from the Deep Regrets land, at least!

Games on Boats!

That's the big headline! All the games are now on freight vessels heading to their respective warehouses. Lunar New Year caused a few delays, as I suspected would be the case, but as of last week everything has been loaded and is in transit across the world's oceans. Cross your fingers for no kraken encounters… until the games are on your tables, of course.

I always enjoy sharing the vessel tracking links, which are HIGHLY inaccurate and don't update very regularly, but still. It's cool to see the ship that has your game on it and get an idea of where it's been and where it's headed. Just remember that these are for fun only and aren't a very accurate tool for tracking progress!

There are five shipments out. If you want to follow along with YOUR boat, you can find it in the list below:

For the US: 

The games are on the good ship COSCO SHIPPING LOTUS.
You can track its progress here.

It's due to arrive in the US on March 17th and will be unloaded and sent to the Fulfillrite warehouse in New Jersey.

For Canada:

These games are sailing on the COSCO FORTUNE.
You can track its progress here.

It's due to make port in New York on March 1st and it will be unloaded and shipped over land to the Board Game Bliss warehouse in Ottawa.

For Australia and New Zealand: 

The games are on the fine vessel EVER ULYSSES.
You can track its progress here.

It's due to arrive in Sydney on March 5th and will be unloaded and sent to the Let's Play Games warehouse.

For Germany/Austria/Switzerland:

The games are on board the lovely PINK boat ONE TRIUMPH.
You can track its progress here.

They're due to arrive in Hamburg on March 28th and will be unloaded and sent to the Fulfillment Europe warehouse.

For Asia:

The games are travelling over land (yawn) to the VFI warehouse. VFI will be collecting them from the manufacturer in the coming weeks after they reopen post-Lunar New Year. No specific ETA but I suspect games for Asia will ship out to backers first!

For UK/EU/Rest of World:

The games are sailing on the craft OOCL ZEEBRUGGE.
You can track its progress here.

It's due to arrive in the UK on 13th of March and will be unloaded and set to the Zatu warehouse.

Shipping Update - when are the games getting to YOU?

Based on the freight update above, the games are on schedule to be delivered as intended by the end of March/Early April in most markets. The US and Germany will likely ship mid to late April, so just a few weeks off schedule.

Tariff Update

As you've probably seen in the news, 10% tariffs have now taken effect for goods entering the US from China. So the boats heading the US and CA will be dinged this import fee when they arrive. For transparency, that cost on my end will be about $12,000. It's much less bad than it could have been and well within the company's budget to cover. No costs will be passed on to you for this Kickstarter, these are just the risks of doing international business in a volatile political landscape. Thank you again to everyone who offered to cover your share, instead you can just go leave reviews on BoardGameGeek if you really want to help the company! 

Addresses Locking in March

I'll be locking shipping addresses around early to mid March, depending on your country, a few weeks before the games ship. I'll confirm the dates in the next update and you'll also get an email from Backerkit reminding you it's your last chance to update your address. Once they are locked, it will be too late to change your delivery address. If you're planning to move around that time, please contact the team at [email protected] to discuss your options.

Hey babe, we're almost there. Wake up and complete your survey.

There are still about 300 backers who have paid for their games but have not yet completed their surveys, provided their shipping addresses and paid for shipping. Your games cannot ship until you do so, so make sure you get those finalized soon!

What am I playing right now?

Umbrellas! I demoed this at Spiel Essen last year and had to pick it up. It's a great combination of colorful, beautiful design and engaging strategic game mechanics. Thematically you're coreographing a dance viewed from above, Gene Kelly style, but the theme just allows for pretty colors more than anything. It's the gameplay that really shines - you're pushing and pulling umbrellas from your own board onto crossings between the players and in the middle of the table and you have to be thinking several moves ahead and constantly paying attention to what your neighbors are doing to be effective. I really enjoy it! Great for players that love abstract strategy games like Azul or Sagrada.

That's all for now, speak soon!

- Judson 🖤

A Leviathan start of 2025 Update!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jan 07, 2025 at 08:56:21 AM

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2025! Hopefully this game is the ONLY Deep Regret you get this year. I'd be jealous otherwise. I hope everyone had a restful December and a great [insert thing YOUR family celebrates in December here]. I was back in the states briefly for Christmas and had a great time seeing family, eating good food and playing great games.

There's a lot to cover in today's update, so strap on your life jackets!

Manufacturing is complete! MPCs have arrived!

The Manufacturing of all components is now complete! The German MPC (a "mass production copy", assembled for review and approval) arrived last week and the English MPC arrived to me today. I'll spend some time poring over them to make sure everything's happy and barring any significant problems, give the go ahead to box all the rest of the games and ship them out. Here's a cool videos to show the game being manufactured!

MPC Unboxing!

Here's a quick unboxing of the mass production version of the game! This is what YOUR copy of the game will look like! The paper wrapping is custom to the Kickstarter edition - retail versions will be sealed with transparent stickers on the edges instead.

Freight plans will be finalised this week! Delivery still slated for March!

Rob at Naylor Games has been hard at work prepping the packing lists and liaising with all the fulfilment centres and the manufacturer to sort out what needs to go where and we've arrived at what we think is the final plan. Once the MPCs have been approved, the games will be assembled (which will take a couple of days) and it should be loaded onto boats ahead of Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) as planned, then it'll need to sail round the world on various boats (which I'll share fun tracking links for) and then get loaded into the various warehouses - which should be a little over a month long process. So we're still on schedule for the originally quoted delivery to YOU in March!

Tariffs? Who knows!

I'm just going to operate assuming that if tariffs ARE implemented soon after the inauguration that there will be some sort of grace period for shipments already in progress or already planned - the chaos it would cause for so many companies to have it be instantaneous would hopefully be a deterrent to having them implemented immediately. So just cross your fingers and we'll find out more in February when the boat arrives in New York!

Dice Tower Names Deep Regrets #4 and #1 most anticipated game of 2025!

The generous folks at Dice Tower recognised Deep Regrets not once but TWICE in their recent "Top 10 anticipated games of 2025" video. Tom slotted it in at #4 and Zee gave it the incredibly humbling #1 spot! I couldn't be more flabbergasted!! Thanks so much if you're reading, fellas!

Shallow Regrets from Buttonshy!

If you follow Buttonshy or you watched my video on making games in the last update, you'll already know about this, but I thought it would be go to do a proper announcement now that the cat is properly out of the bag.... fish is out the bucket? Anyway:

I've partnered up with Buttonshy Games to create a wallet-sized travel game based on Deep Regrets called... Shallow Regrets! It has similar gameplay themes but is exactly 18 cards and plays in a few minutes, just like all of Buttonshy's amazing games. I've been a huge fan of their company for years (Tussie Mussie is my fave) and I've always thought it would be cool to work with them, so when they got in touch to chat I was immediately on board. It was such a fun design challenge to work with exactly 18 cards.

Once again, I did all the design and art myself (tried to make similar but more cartoonish art than the base game). Buttonshy are doing further development and testing on their end, so it'll play very smoothly once it's done.

If you're interested, they'll be running their own Kickstarter for Shallow Regrets later in the year (date TBD in May-ish). To stay informed, you can follow them on Instagram or sign up to the mailing list on their site. You've can even join their testing server on Discord if you want to help streamline the game! And check out their existing library while you're there! Lots of excellent stuff. In addition to Tussie Mussie, I can recommend Skulls of Sedlec, Tides and Sprawlopolis. Plus they have a single player sea horror game called "The Last Lighthouse"!

2025 Plans for Tettix Games!

If you think I've been resting on my laurels after the massive success of this Kickstarter, you're dead wrong. I've got two big announcements I'd like to officially make, after nodding to them in the making games presentation I shared last update.

1: EVEN DEEPER Regrets

I've been hard at work on a huge proper expansion for Deep Regrets that introduces 117 new fish for the sea (with which you can replace the existing fish entirely, or shuffle them together to make for some interesting mixes of mechanics). PLUS it adds an entirely new area to the game: Inland. Here you can fish in both the River and the Loch, each having a higher degree of risk than the Sea, but with the possibility of even better rewards. Inland also introduces a new "Clout" mechanic that catching certain fish increases - whoever has the most clout at the end of the game will get 10 points, second most will get 5 points, and everyone else will be left out in the cold. Each day you'll have to decide between one of the three locations: Sea, Inland and Port. So now you'll need to balance your strategy based on how much Regret you want to carry, how much time you want to spend Inland building up clout and when you'll squeeze in an essential trip to Port to mount your trophies and buy supplies. It adds a lot more depth to the game without extending the length!

There's also a slew of new Dinks and Items to keep things interesting, including pets! Here's a few spoiler-light bits of artwork you can feast your eyes on:

I've got most of the game design done and I'm in the processing of drawing and colouring all the artwork. I'd say I'm about halfway done with the art and it still needs more playtesting - so expect this to be ready for Kickstarter mid-year. Don't worry, I'll give you plenty of notice in these updates once plans are more definite. And by that time you'll have actually played the base game and can decided if you want to invest in MORE Regrets!

2. Personal Demons

My next game is already well under way, too! This one's a group therapy ritual where you all be working to identify and conquer your personal demons. It's a pick-and-pass style of game, similar to Seven Wonders, where you'll pass a hand of six cards in a circle, selecting one demon from it each time to place in your summoning circle. To seal your demons away, you need to create complete seals in the corners - only your sealed demons score at the end of each round. There are three rounds, with six cards each (get it?! 🤘). You'll also be building up Sins as you summon and seal away demons - once you've got enough you can use them to summon Greater Demons and Arch demons that give you new abilities and score even higher - if you can seal them! 

Each player has their own "summoning circle" where they can summon and seal up to 16 demons, with Greater and Arch Demons being played on top of 2 or 4 lesser demons, accordingly.

It's fast-paced, highly strategic but still ridiculous fun that plays in about 30 minutes with up to six players. Still lots of work to do, so expect this one to be coming to Kickstarter later in 2025 or possibly early 2026 - we'll see! I just know I'm dying to finish drawing all the fish so I can start drawing all the demons!

3. Fright House

....is not in the plans for 2025, sorry! I know someone will ask, so I'm heading it off at the pass! It's just a beast I can't seem to wrangle and will come back to when I have more experience.

4. UKGE and other Conventions

I haven't decided which other conventions I'll be attending this year, but UK Games Expo in May/June is a definite. I'm already booked in and my stand is #3-767! I'll be selling Deep Regrets and Hideous Abomination and running demos of Even Deeper Regrets and Personal Demons! And who knows what else by that point! I'll likely be at Tabletop Scotland again as well, and maybe some others - we'll see! Probably still not adventuring outside of the UK this year, but maybe in 2026. It feels like too big of logistical nightmare for me to wrap my head around at this stage of business development.

Hand-labour deep-dive

I asked Whatz Games, my manufacturer, to send pics and videos of the manufacturing process - which you saw compiled in the video above. There were a couple reasons for this: I love transparency, I love sharing process, I think it's fun to bring people on the journey, I'm fascinated by manufacturing and production, and I wanted to see what their facilities look like and the conditions their workers operate in when making my games.

The part I found the most fascinating was this bit right here:

That's a worker hand-screening every number onto the dice in the game.

I've visited a lot of manufacturing and printing facilities in the US, UK and Italy and I've seen these hand-assembly lines operating with dozens of people compiling books/boxes/etc, hand checking everything. I watched workers hand-sharpie any exposed white corners on a black Folio Society slipcover in Vicenza. But still, this video of hand-screening dice absolutely gobsmacked me. I knew the colours on the bottoms had to be hand-dipped, but I had no idea the numbers would be hand-screened onto every dice individually. I guess there's a threshold above which automation is cost effective and my game didn't hit. The craft and precision on display here are extremely satisfying to watch, and it gives me great joy to know that every die in every game was hand-made by a skilled craftsperson. Something as small as a single die still gets so much care.

When you receive your game – and maybe every time you roll one of those dice – I hope you'll think about the work that went into creating it. I did the easy part. A huge workforce did the hard stuff.

But let's fish a bit deeper!

...being the way I am, of course this got me wondering about the impact I'm having on the labour force so I started doing some fun maths and if you're still with me this far into the update, let's look at some fascinating theoretical figures together:

Every game has 40 dice in it. Each of those dice has 4 sides. That's 160 sides per game that need to be hand-screened onto the dice. I ordered 22,000 English versions of the game. That's 3,520,000 sides that needed to be screen-printed (🤯). The person in the video is doing them in batches of five at a time and working at a rate of a about 10 seconds per swipe, or 2 seconds per face. Let's round up and say every die takes 10 seconds to print the numbers on.

That's 400 seconds per game, or 6.66 minutes (🤘). So one worker can screen the numbers on dice for about 9 games in one hour.

2,444 hours of labour just to paint the numbers on all the dice. You'd need a workforce of 70 people to complete it in a week's time working 7 hour days, 5 days a week.

I looked up some figures on pay and living costs in China. The average hourly wage in Jiaxing, where the game is manufactured near Shanghai, is 24RMB (Rinminbi, the prefered term used to refer to the Chinese Yuan), which is roughly $3.30USD. This job requires quite a bit of precision and training, so I'd wager they are paid slightly above average. So let's say 360 dice/hour earns the worker in the video approximately $3.50USD. 

An average meal at McDonalds in Jiaxing costs about 30RMB ($4USD), but you can eat at local restaurants for cheaper, so every hour of work roughly equates to one meal for one person. One 7-hour day of work would roughly feed a family with one child three meals if Breakfast is something similar to cereal in cost. If you're single or both partners work, it gives you a reasonable household income. If you're a sole-earner with a family of three, that's living paycheck-to-paycheck with very slender margins for paying bills and would necessitate working two jobs or longer hours. The conditions and pay these workers operate on is equivalent to the same situation in other countries. A factory worker in the US would earn roughly the same rate of living expenses in the local currency. Take a minute to appreciate the time others have to invest to make your life worth living.

I'm providing these very-theoretical figures merely to provoke thought. I think it's easy to lose sight of where we stand in the world sometimes and think so little of the things we consume and enjoy. It's easy for me to make decisions about manufacturing games without thinking about how it impacts the workforce. I'm just trying to keep perspective, be critical, and make meaningful and informed choices.

When you decide to buy something, you're asking the workforce to produce it and that takes effort. I would humbly request that you make meaningful decisions about what you ask of the global workforce. Don't just buy my games (or other games) because of FOMO, buy them because you plan to actually play and enjoy them. Honour the work put in. I'm saying this as much to myself as I am to you.

It guess it wouldn't be a Deep Regrets post if I didn't get DEEP for a minute. Let's come back up for a last breath of air!

What Am I Playing Right Now?

Sleeping Queens 1 + 2! While I was back in North Carolina, I spent time with my niece and nephew playing not one but TWO Sleeping Queens games! These are kids games developed by Gamewright (of Sushi Go and Forbidden Island fame). I really enjoying seeing how games are designed for younger audiences, especially if they're designed to still be engaging for adults, too. The original game is very simple roll-and-act where you're trying to wake the most queens - the sequel adds complexity in the form of companions and knights and is much more dynamic (but also aimed at an older audience, my 3 year old niece struggled a bit more with it but still had fun). Kind of cool how the games are designed to grow with you - you play one when younger and then get the sequel a few years later! Very clever, indeed! I did, also, play a bit of Pretty Pretty Princess which, infuriatingly, no longer contains actual plastic jewelry - just cards. An absolute crime. 👎

That's it for now! Hope 2025 is as painless as possible for you!

- Judson 🖤