I don't usually cover video games on this site, but this news item involves D&D co-creator Gary Gygax. Gail Gygax (Gary's wife) contacted me last week about this -- unpublished work by Gary Gygax is to be made available for video game developers to develop using a "community publishing platform" named Fig.
Fig describes itself thus: "Fig is a community funding and publishing platform for independent video games. Fans back games on Fig to get exclusive rewards, or invest to earn returns from game sales." To be honest, I'm not quite sure I understand it, but it kind of looks like Kickstarter but your funds are an actual investment. The press release is below.
The Gygax Trust and Community Publishing Platform Fig Collaborate to Bring Unpublished Works To Life
Unpublished Works from Famed Game Designer and Co-Creator of Dungeons & Dragons Will Be Made into Video Games Using the Fig Platform
Fig, the only community publishing platform created by gamers for gamers that offers rewards and investment-based funding, and the Gygax Trust, who owns unpublished I.P. from Gary Gygax, the famed game Designer and Co-Creator of Dungeons & Dragon, are working to develop and publish video games based on Gary’s works that formed the inspiration for creating Dungeons & Dragons. Leveraging Fig’s community publishing platform, the Gygax Trust will work with Fig to find developers for Gary’s I.P., launch Fig campaigns, and publish several titles. Additional information will be announced later this year.
“The worlds and characters to be discovered in my husband’s unpublished intellectual property are an incredibly important part of his legacy,” commented Gail Gygax.
“Therefore, it was paramount that we partner with an advanced and innovative platform such as Fig that gave us complete control of his creative vision.”
“As a gamer, I wanted to bring my father’s works to life in a medium that I enjoy. I’m looking forward to working with talented developers who love my father’s work as much as I do,” said Alex Gygax, CEO of Gygax Games.
“At Fig we already offer our partners a full channel of services without forcing them to limit their creative endeavor, from helping them find the right developers for a project, to funding, and all through the development cycle to launch. Gary’s unpublished works were some of his most cherished, shared only with his closest friends, and now we will help the Gygax family bring them to gamers,” said Justin Bailey, CEO, Fig.
Fig is democratizing video game publishing by inviting the community to financially support the development and release of games they love. Fans can back a game funding campaign on Fig to get exclusive rewards or invest in Fig Game Shares to earn returns based on game sales. Fig Game Shares are available to both accredited and non-accredited investors, in accordance with the SEC’s Regulation A+ (JOBS Act).
Each series of Fig Game Shares generate returns from the sales of individual titles. Investors can earn returns from revenue shares from Fig’s publishing operations, distribution arrangements, publisher and first party buyouts, and advances on distributions. Since its inception in August 2015, Fig has had four of the top 10 most funded video game campaigns: Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity 2 ($4.4M), Psychonauts 2 ($3.8M), Wasteland 3 ($3.1M) and Phoenix Point ($766K).
Three Fig games have already driven positive returns for Fig investors: Fig investments related to Annapurna’s Outer Wilds (developed by Mobius Digital) more than doubled; sales from Kingdoms & Castles (developed by Lion Shield) tripled investments; and Trackless (developed by 12 East Games) and Solstice Chronicles: MIA (developed by Ironward) have generated sales, with Solstice Chronicles driving positive returns for Fig investors. In 2018, a dozen new releases will launch including the follow-up to
Obsidian’s Game of the Year title, Pillars of Eternity 2, Julian Gollop’s Phoenix Point, Make Sail, Flash Point and Solo in Q2.
Alex Gygax was interviewed by Polygon. He speaks a little about some of the available Gygax IP -- "One of the major ones that everyone knows about is his personal dungeon. It was his personal D&D campaign that he had never released to the public. He didn’t want his game nights being destroyed by publishing his work and then having his group go out and buy it and find out all of his secrets. So that’s one of the main things that we have to use, and all the little side derivatives of that.”
Alex says that "Pen and paper is a dying art. Computer games, video games, they’re the next generation, the next wave of games and I’ve always wanted to see them on that new medium and I’ve always wanted to be working with someone who’s excited as I am about it.”
Of course, the statistics from sources like ICv2 show that tabletop gaming -- and, indeed tabletop roleplaying games -- have been growing rapidly for years, not dying. Since 2013 the hobby game market has gone from $700 million to $1.4 billion, with tabletop RPGs leaping from $15 million to $45 million, a threefold growth in just the last five years.
Fig describes itself thus: "Fig is a community funding and publishing platform for independent video games. Fans back games on Fig to get exclusive rewards, or invest to earn returns from game sales." To be honest, I'm not quite sure I understand it, but it kind of looks like Kickstarter but your funds are an actual investment. The press release is below.
The Gygax Trust and Community Publishing Platform Fig Collaborate to Bring Unpublished Works To Life
Unpublished Works from Famed Game Designer and Co-Creator of Dungeons & Dragons Will Be Made into Video Games Using the Fig Platform
Fig, the only community publishing platform created by gamers for gamers that offers rewards and investment-based funding, and the Gygax Trust, who owns unpublished I.P. from Gary Gygax, the famed game Designer and Co-Creator of Dungeons & Dragon, are working to develop and publish video games based on Gary’s works that formed the inspiration for creating Dungeons & Dragons. Leveraging Fig’s community publishing platform, the Gygax Trust will work with Fig to find developers for Gary’s I.P., launch Fig campaigns, and publish several titles. Additional information will be announced later this year.
“The worlds and characters to be discovered in my husband’s unpublished intellectual property are an incredibly important part of his legacy,” commented Gail Gygax.
“Therefore, it was paramount that we partner with an advanced and innovative platform such as Fig that gave us complete control of his creative vision.”
“As a gamer, I wanted to bring my father’s works to life in a medium that I enjoy. I’m looking forward to working with talented developers who love my father’s work as much as I do,” said Alex Gygax, CEO of Gygax Games.
“At Fig we already offer our partners a full channel of services without forcing them to limit their creative endeavor, from helping them find the right developers for a project, to funding, and all through the development cycle to launch. Gary’s unpublished works were some of his most cherished, shared only with his closest friends, and now we will help the Gygax family bring them to gamers,” said Justin Bailey, CEO, Fig.
Fig is democratizing video game publishing by inviting the community to financially support the development and release of games they love. Fans can back a game funding campaign on Fig to get exclusive rewards or invest in Fig Game Shares to earn returns based on game sales. Fig Game Shares are available to both accredited and non-accredited investors, in accordance with the SEC’s Regulation A+ (JOBS Act).
Each series of Fig Game Shares generate returns from the sales of individual titles. Investors can earn returns from revenue shares from Fig’s publishing operations, distribution arrangements, publisher and first party buyouts, and advances on distributions. Since its inception in August 2015, Fig has had four of the top 10 most funded video game campaigns: Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity 2 ($4.4M), Psychonauts 2 ($3.8M), Wasteland 3 ($3.1M) and Phoenix Point ($766K).
Three Fig games have already driven positive returns for Fig investors: Fig investments related to Annapurna’s Outer Wilds (developed by Mobius Digital) more than doubled; sales from Kingdoms & Castles (developed by Lion Shield) tripled investments; and Trackless (developed by 12 East Games) and Solstice Chronicles: MIA (developed by Ironward) have generated sales, with Solstice Chronicles driving positive returns for Fig investors. In 2018, a dozen new releases will launch including the follow-up to
Obsidian’s Game of the Year title, Pillars of Eternity 2, Julian Gollop’s Phoenix Point, Make Sail, Flash Point and Solo in Q2.
Alex Gygax was interviewed by Polygon. He speaks a little about some of the available Gygax IP -- "One of the major ones that everyone knows about is his personal dungeon. It was his personal D&D campaign that he had never released to the public. He didn’t want his game nights being destroyed by publishing his work and then having his group go out and buy it and find out all of his secrets. So that’s one of the main things that we have to use, and all the little side derivatives of that.”
Alex says that "Pen and paper is a dying art. Computer games, video games, they’re the next generation, the next wave of games and I’ve always wanted to see them on that new medium and I’ve always wanted to be working with someone who’s excited as I am about it.”
Of course, the statistics from sources like ICv2 show that tabletop gaming -- and, indeed tabletop roleplaying games -- have been growing rapidly for years, not dying. Since 2013 the hobby game market has gone from $700 million to $1.4 billion, with tabletop RPGs leaping from $15 million to $45 million, a threefold growth in just the last five years.
