Hey there,
Welcome to the very first edition of Inside the Box — my new weekly behind-the-scenes newsletter about making board games, running an indie publishing company, and everything that happens between prototypes and printed boxes.
If you’ve ever backed a Kickstarter, you probably know one of the biggest frustrations: the updates slow down, the communication fades… and you’re left wondering what’s actually happening.
I’ll be honest — I used to be that creator. Not because I didn’t care — I just got buried in the work, thinking, “I’ll send an update when there’s something big to say.”
But the truth is, small updates matter too.
And after hearing that feedback (more than once), I’m making a real change.
From now on, you’ll hear from me every week — real updates, real progress, and sometimes even the messy middle parts. Because if you’re backing these games, you deserve to see the whole journey, not just the highlight reel.
Where We Are Right Now: The Final 1%
Over the past year, I’ve been working on three games — DNA: The New Origin of Species, Habitopia, and Synthesis — all launched during our last Kickstarter campaign.
Now, after months of design, testing, art, and development, we’re finally down to the last stretch: what I call The Final 1%.
The big pieces are done. The games are designed, tested, polished. The art is finished. The rulebooks are proofed. It should feel like a victory lap.
Instead, it’s a strange kind of sprint — checking every token, every mat, every card one more time. Tweaking bleeds, fixing tiny inconsistencies, re-proofing the rulebooks after one minor edit changes everything.
I’ll be honest — The Final 1% is the least glamorous part of making a board game. It’s tedious. It’s repetitive. It’s mostly me staring at a computer screen, zooming in to 600% to check if a line is half a millimeter off.
But it’s also one of the most important parts of the entire journey because with physical games, there’s no “first-day patch.”
Once the files go to the factory, that’s it. Every mistake costs real money — for reprints, for reshipping — and for a small publisher, those costs can be brutal. Shipping alone is already the biggest hidden expense we face, and we cover a big chunk of it ourselves just to keep your pledge costs fair.
That’s why this last month has felt like a burnout marathon. And why sitting down to write this letter — to step back for a second — honestly feels like a breath of fresh air.
Even through the exhaustion, I can honestly say: I love what we made. The games are fun to play. They’re beautiful to look at. And they capture the feeling I hoped they would from the very beginning.
One funny side effect of this final push: for the last three months, my tiny basement office looked like a shipping warehouse exploded.
Boxes everywhere. Components everywhere. Half-measured tiles stacked on art books. I spent my weekends measuring packaging, comparing box inserts, digging through my own game collection for ideas on how to make our production better.
This weekend, I finally cleaned it all up — sorted, boxed, organized. The office is clear again. And it feels like a new chapter is about to start.
What’s Next?
If all goes well, I’ll be sending final files to the factory soon, and then we’ll shift into production tracking, freight planning, and lining up the next wave of projects.
Also: if you missed out on the Kickstarter campaigns, late pledges are still open for just a little longer:
👉 Late Pledge: DNA, Habitopia, Synthesis
🦊 Foxed Up: Weekly Comic About Board Game Chaos
Some of you might remember Foxed Up — the little webcomic series we started testing inside The Game Loop newsletter.
After playing around with different formats, I decided it deserves a proper home — right here inside Inside the Box.
Each week, you’ll find a quick comic about the ridiculous, relatable world of board games — starring Finn the Fox, who’s basically an indie publisher with worse shipping luck than me, and Grizz, his calm but brutally honest best friend who somehow always sees disaster coming.
Here’s the latest:
Hope it brings a grin to your day.
Take care,
— Eugene
Founder, Timashov Publishing