From the Ground Up - Building a Game Company

[Eosin the Red]

From the Ground Up!

Awhile back, I suggested to Morrus and Joseph Goodman that a good article for the Enworld Magazine would be the “Making of a Setting” series – where in an intrepid young homebrewer was given the possibility to make their homebrew game world into a true blue setting. The devil is in the details so they say, and the catch here is that the lucky (or unlucky) soul would be required to keep Enworld appraised of their progress as things went forward.

Never one to let a good idea go to waste, I decided I would take myself up on the offer. This is my little journal of creating a game company, creating a game world and the disasters that are sure to ensue. If you like rubbernecking, this is your sort of place.

I came up with this hairball idea on March 12th and the first thing I did was pitch it to a sucker…I mean partner.

Tune in soon for “Do you want to dance?” and “What is the name of that song?”

 

[Sir Elton]

From the Ground Up!

Tune in soon for “Do you want to dance?” and “What is the name of that song?”

Eosin,

I'm probably in the same boat. I'm actually getting a business degree so that I can run an RPG company in the "moonlight." The idea behind my company is that I already have game world: Earth. I want to write and sell modules based around a local, a period of history, or a theme set on Earth. I thought it would be cool.

 

[Eosin the Red]

Udate 1.5 - Why now?

Why now?
It’s sorta funny the way this all came together and has some small bearing on our story. I had made two decisions in the last month that were key to this – the first is having Dr Midnight of Enworld fame design a banner for my Wheel of Time site and the second was having Clay of Morningstar maps draw a region of my homebrew. This is doubly funny since most consider me an excellent cartographer but I am much too critical of my own stuff.

So here I am shelling out money to make my homebrew stuff look professional. I had also plunged into a brand new campaign and things were really clicking together well. I was inspired to “re-imagine” my fantasy world because of a few threads here on Enworld; the ones that have to do with the “origins of monsters,” the numerous “best way to start a game threads” and the various threads on the “rightful place of magic in D&D” also known as high magic vs. low magic and grim and gritty stuff. I had done buckets of research and brainstorming some of which uncovered some real gems, if I do say so myself.

Money, time, and effort. I was putting as much into this as any other print of PDF product. Why not make it one? Why not? Being an adult with adult responsibilities, I had to consult the wife before any decisions were finalized. I told her my ideas, I bribed her by watching our 3 children letting her get some personal things done, I promised golden toilets when I got rich and famous and in the end, I wooed her over. That must mean she knows nothing of RPG publishing

 

[Eosin the Red]

Do you want to dance - update 2.0

Do you want to dance?

Being a bear of little intelligence and even less courage, the very first idea in the little bears brain was to find someone to share the risk with and to commiserate.

I looked among my friends many of whom had often said “Dude, I could do this better!” I needed something different than a friend who would cheer me on like I was bench-pressing. I have run what I believe to be a decent website for several years now and had met a few people who had submitted stuff for Wheel of Time or helped me on a Netbook or two. The problem with this was that most of those folks were only interested in Wheel of Time.

I decided to contact Quillion who has decided to branch out and was submitting to several open calls. Rules wise he is pretty solid, like me his writing is good but could be better, especially if we had mastered grammar and spelling, and most importantly he brings a different style of game design-theory to the table. He tends to run fantastical things while I run mundane things. A good mix. Luckily, he fell for it and signed on board for the duration.

I hope that I can get us into current time quickly and then do daily updates.

 

[Salad Shooter]

Hope everything goes well for you. A little over a year ago a friend of mine and I had the brainiac idea to create our own world, with possibly posting PDFs of it on the web...now...200 pages or so later, its well on its way to going to the publisher to become an honest to god book. And we have book 2 in the creation stages. Just stick to it, and don't be afraid to enlist the help of others...

 

[Eosin the Red]

The Name of that Tune

What is the Name of that Tune?

The first real conversation after “Dude that is Kewl” turned to one of “Ok, what do we do now?” When going into business you have to consider many things, none of which my degree in nursing prepared me for. Let us review them quickly:

1. A name?
2. Start up funding.
3. What do you mean S or C, perhaps an L.L.C. or dba? The gritty world of incorporation.
4. State of origin, federal id numbers.
5. Corporate organization.
6. The Power of the Law – yeap, got to speak with a lawyer.
7. Point of sale? PDF or Print and the costs for each.
8. Work for hire or freelance for art and writing.
9. Contracts? I don’t know nothing about contracts.
10. Need a webpage.
11. Hey that is a cool webpage, is it OGL and d20 STL compliant.
12. Speaking of OGL – have you read it lately and do you understand it?
13. Product schedule.
14. Speaking of product – what the heck are we going to write.

1. This was the initial conversation between Quillon and myself. We did settle on a name – Pencil Pushers Publishing. There were several others and several variants considered but in the end this seemed like a good name that could scale well. I really wanted to avoid the feel of a small PDF company. Did it work?

2. Start up funding – well, I scrounged together several hundred dollars.

[Pitifully short sighted for all of our start up expenses. I needed a PDF program, Domain Name, Money for Maps, Money for artists, Editors, and Layout folks. Now it is time to go talk to my investors (yes, believe it or not I have an investor – I have been putting this one off since I don’t know what kind of deal to offer him.)]

Side notes: It was helpful to read the PDF forum here and the Freelancers forum at RPG.net. The best tool however is the 19.95 PDF from RPG now called e-publishing.


Now that I had some of the questions, it was time to do some research to find some of the answers. In the mean time, I needed to get a logo design and settle on the web design. I also needed a few computer programs – pagemaker 7.0, I did some DTP with Pagemaker 6.0 several years ago – I hope the learning curve is not that steep. The second big hickey was Photoshop. These two, plus the various $20.00 nickel and diming items have busted the bankroll.

The 12th-15th were spent embroiled in these decisions and reading up on the various forums about publishing.

E-Publishing answered many of the questions and is an invaluable resource. The other great resource is reading the sometimes boring technical conversations on the PDF forums here at ENworld. Many of the folks are helpful and if you read many of your questions have already been answered.

I am still in the process of answering many of the other questions. I can say that Pencil Pushers website will come online the 7th of April and that we will be offering a introductory free product.

Find out what happens when I make first contact with the enemy (that would be the artsy guys).

Three or four more of these and I should be up to current time.

 

[Eosin the Red]

First Contact or Art For Sale!

First Contact

I am a neophyte in the art world. I mean, I don’t know jack. Lucky for me the fist two people I bumped into were darn helpful. First, like I mentioned earlier, I needed a map. I debated the possibilities and settled between two cartographers – Christopher West and Morningstar Maps. Christopher West tends to do more small location maps with very few large regional maps and truthfully, I suspected he might be a little rich for my blood. I had spoken to Clayton several times in the past when he started up Morningstar and his mapping is top notch. He also saved me some guesswork by listing his basic prices.

I wrote to Clayton and he is a swell fella. We talked about contracts since I asked fairly bluntly what type he preferred and he mentioned that he had a basic one. We discussed finances, one of the bummers about being new is that I need to put more upfront than someone who has established a reputation. It was nice speaking to someone as a regular fella since I am not real good at professional lingo, after all I call most of my customers “Honey” and I wear pajamas to work. I am more than just a little laid back. Clayton accommodated that well.

Next I wrote to Storn Cook. This took several days and when I got no reply after seven days, I sent a reminder note. Storn is also a really nice guy who indicated that he had responded to me earlier. So much for trusting my e-mail account. Storn gave me his basic prices but indicated that he was too busy to tackle my assignment right now. Rather than just head on down the road, I asked for suggestions. He recommends an open call at RPG.net Freelancers Forum.

I should mention that I am averse to telling good people “no.” A personality defect of mine that has proven bothersome at times, it was for this reason that I approached individual artists in the first place. I do have a cardinal rule in life – when you ask a pro for his advice about his profession, it is best to assume that some divinely inspired insight of your own is probably not as well thought out as the “Professional Opinion” after all they call them professional opinions for a reason. So, I found myself registering on RPG.net, I lurk there occasionally but had never posted before.

I placed this ad on Thursday:

Hey Everyone,

I am looking for some art.

After deciding to boldly and blindly jump into d20 publishing, I figured out that I would not get anywhere without shelling out for some nice looking pages. Color is optional, but a plus since this will be released as a PDF product. The figures should be 1/4 to 1/2 page.

I want to spend $25.00 per piece on this portion of the art (which I understand is the going rate).

I am also going to need a color cover and this is more negotiable in price but I expect a much more substantial hickey.

Intended uses: on the company website, in the PDF adventure, in the PDF sourcebook, and if we ever get printed in the printed books. I do not need to hold copyright to the images, nor am I adverse to the artist using the work for other commercial purposes (prints, selling of the original, or publishing in other products).

Finally, I want to establish a brand look by using a single art style from one artist. I will consider the interior art separate from the cover but if I can use one person that will be slightly more attractive to me. That also means that clean but traditional work with a little character is also more attractive but I do not want a style that is so distinctive that using additional pieces of other artists would seem out of place.

I might also be interested in some second run art that I might be able to purchase cheaper (commissions, personal work and such) It would need to fit my needs and the overall style.

A little bit about me - I use the handle Eosin or Eosin the Red on several message boards (Enworld, Herogames, & Call of the Horn). I also run a website at The Mabinogin. I plan to have the company website up in a few days at Pencilpushers.net

The company is called Pencil Pushers Publishing and will focus on traditional fantasy stories set in a romanticized or fantasized era of the barbarian kingdoms (900-1200 AD).

You may contact me at Eosin_the_red@cox.net, I have looked at many of your galleries but feel free to post links. Payment will depend on notoriety, a pro or semi-pro will get payment up front while a relative unknown will get part on delivery of sketches and part delivery of finished product. I do not plan to release the first product until mid-May and other products are in the works. Please, do not just type a note indicating that you would be interested here on RPG net send me email letting me know a little bit about you.

PS – Storn recommended that I proceed down this route so he is looking out for you people.

Man was I overwhelmed. I got close to 30 submissions. I found out something weird in the process. I sent each person an e-mail thanking them for their submission and confirming that I had received it. Some of the artists were quite surprised that I had bothered to respond to them. To be honest, it was a pain in the kiester. Writing notes to a couple dozen artists took up a great portion of my allotted work time for several days. I guess that not many folks send confirmation letters.

You might also notice a few lessons to be learned in my ad – I never included my real name. That was a little embarrassing. I am always Eosin on the net cause there are no other Eosin’s but probably not the correct way to introduce yourself to professionals. Some people are also reluctant to send emails to you but feel perfectly fine posting to a message board? I can grok that.

I sent everyone the little note and gave myself until Monday to make the decision. That was not enough time. Yes, I have already made my decision and it is posted over at PRG.net but stick around here and find out some of the pains of making decisions between a horde of talented people.


Next article: You want HOW MUCH! Subtitled: “Honey, I just checked our bank statement. How much was this game stuff going to cost?”

 

[Derulbaskul]

If you're going to be a PDF publisher I would possibly suggest incorporating your company in the BVI or somewhere similar. That way you don't have to worry about filing accounts or paying tax. If the company grew to the point where it became a full-time job, you could simply become an independent contractor to the company and pay taxes on your now official salary.

In addition, a company like this provides you with a fair amount of protection from the sheer litigiousness of modern US society because if someone sues it because they fell over a copy of something the company published or got a nasty paper cut... let 'em! It will take them forever just to do the searches!

Of course, these are just brief comments by someone who is not familiar with US tax law but who does these sorts of structures in the course of his normal business.

 

[Mark]

Go Big Red! Good luck with your new venture!

 

[Aristotle]

I saw your advert over on rpg.net, good for you that you are serious about this and going ahead with it. I was over there shopping around for talented artists myself. I'm attempting to put my homebrew down on paper and sell it as a campaign setting. I'm a decent enough artist, but I'm hoping to get someone a little more refined to give my product a professional look.

I'd also be interested to hear what tools you use (my standard question to most people). I've got InDesign and Acrobat on the way... I'll be using them to put together the finished product. I tend to work things up in notepad (the plain text keeps me focused on the content).

I'm planning to do the writing and layout myself. I'm considering using contracted artists for cartography and art. I'd really like to find someone (who works cheap!) to do some proof reading and light editing. Heh... maybe some of us upstarts should form a little coalition and help each other out with some of the little details.

Good show, keep us updated!