Hello everyone, and welcome to Newsletter #20! 🚀

In this newsletter, we’ll take a look at the latest developments in Prosperity Protocol, as well as some changes to my way of working inspired by a book I’ve been reading.

I’m almost finished with all the Sky Empire files—the solo deck, solo rulebook, and everything else—and I’m honestly quite ecstatic about it. It has taken a lot of determination to push through the final stretch, as this part of development doesn’t come as naturally to me as designing the multiplayer experience. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it—it has just been… exhausting!

But on the bright side, we also managed to put the new Prosperity Protocol systems to the test in Playtest #2!

The main goal of this playtest was to test the new core gameplay loop and the redesigned player board, which now divides each round into three distinct phases

1) Turn Order:

Move

Explore

Excavate

Energize (place electricity on Tesla Towers)

2) Simultaneous:

Trade

Develop technologies

Run production lines

Upgrade technologies and production

3) Turn Order

Build buildings and units

Collect income

Fulfill Government Contracts

The new system is definitely an improvement over the previous one. It’s easier to understand, more intuitive, and doesn’t sacrifice any strategic depth. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but the turns flow much more naturally now.

That said, the player engine is still far too slow. At the moment, players need to build a Refinery, then a Foundry, and finally a Factory before they can start producing advanced resources. In practice, it simply took too long before anyone even placed their first refinery, as players first had to establish electricity production to get the whole engine running.

Right now, I’m considering giving every player an extra production line that’s available from the very beginning. That way, players can immediately start refining the resources they discover in the early game. During this playtest, we almost emptied the supply of basic resources before anyone was really able to convert them into more advanced materials, which clearly isn’t the experience I’m aiming for.

Several other issues also surfaced, but I’m beginning to feel that the framework of the game is showing real potential—certainly enough that I’m now confident moving on and adding more systems on top of this foundation.

Current Design Takeaways

• Resources need to feel thematic. Producing Machine Parts to build units is far more satisfying than simply producing generic “Iron Bars.”

• One player’s trash should be another player’s treasure. The game should naturally give players resources, technologies, and opportunities that are less valuable to their own engine but highly valuable to someone else’s. That should create lots of rewarding win-win trading opportunities.

• Building placement currently isn’t interesting enough. Perhaps buildings should gain unique tile bonuses depending on where they’re constructed.

• Upgrade cubes and technologies need to provide meaningful value compared to simply earning more money.

• The game needs even more specialization, perhaps through unique converter cards tied to each playable character.

• Players should be able to pursue multiple viable strategies from the very beginning, rather than feeling like everyone starts down the same path.

What Felt Unique During This Playtest

• Everyone expands from the center of the map outward. Watching the central resource deposits become depleted and gradually pushing into new territory feels surprisingly fresh.

• Building a truly advanced production engine is incredibly satisfying.

• Upgrading the Excavator to harvest larger quantities of resources and exhaust resource tiles more quickly felt especially rewarding.

• Although the game is already fairly complex, it also feels surprisingly intuitive, which is one of the most encouraging signs so far.

Since most of the work at Greymarsh Games is done by me alone (with support from Nadia), the success of the company largely depends on my productivity, my focus, and ultimately how I choose to spend my time.

I also have a full-time job, so finding another 3–4 hours every evening to work on game development isn’t always easy. After a long day, it’s tempting to open Steam, find a good game, or relax with a Netflix series.

The problem was… those things didn’t actually make me happy.

Working on Greymarsh Games did.

So I decided I needed to make a change. After doing some research, I came across the book Deep Work by Cal Newport.

The basic idea behind Deep Work by Cal Newport is surprisingly simple:

The ability to focus without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks is becoming increasingly rare—and increasingly valuable.

People who develop this skill will produce far more valuable work in less time.

Some of you probably know the feeling of reading a great self-improvement book. For a moment, it feels like you’ve discovered the secret to changing your life forever. I’ve certainly experienced that many times, only to slowly drift back into my old habits a few weeks later.

I’m hoping that won’t be the case with Deep Work.

I already considered myself fairly good at protecting my focus while working, but the book still challenged many of my assumptions. Some of the ideas and systems really surprised me.

I don’t use Facebook or Instagram, which already removes a lot of distractions. But after reading the book, I became much more aware of just how often I interrupt myself while working—especially during tasks that require deep concentration, like proofreading rulebooks, writing rules, designing cards in InDesign, or repetitive production work such as placing icons and formatting components.

Normally I would:

Check every Discord notification immediately.

Read every text/e-mail message as soon as it arrived.

Get up to use the restroom.

Grab another glass of water.

Look for a snack.

Check what Nadia was doing.

And countless other tiny interruptions.

Individually, none of them seemed significant.

Together, they completely shattered my concentration.

So after finishing the book, I decided to run a little experiment.

My Deep Work Setup

Put my phone on Do Not Disturb.

Prevent Steam from launching automatically when I started my computer.

Log out of Discord.

Play calm focus music.

Commit to working for at least 2½ hours without leaving the room or allowing myself to be interrupted.

Push my brain to the highest level of concentration I could sustain.

The Results

The results honestly surprised me. I normally consider myself fairly productive, but:

I actually felt less mentally exhausted after working.

I finished each session with a genuine sense of accomplishment.

Before each session, I selected a few tasks that I already knew roughly how long they would normally take—proofreading, writing rules, editing card decks, and similar work.

To my surprise, I completed those tasks 200–300% faster than I normally would!

Over the last two weekends, I used this system for a total of 16 hours.

The amount of work I completed was roughly equivalent to what would normally have taken me 35 hours. That’s an incredible difference. Will it last? I honestly don’t know.

But if I can consistently double my productivity simply by protecting my focus, it could become one of the biggest improvements I’ve ever made—not just for Greymarsh Games, but for every creative project I’ll work on in the future.