From the Ground Up - Building a Game Company

[Eosin the Red]

Thought I forgot about, didn’t you

Well, I did not. I have been trying to get a free adventure put together. It should be 2-3 pages but has grown into a 10-page beast. For a free ditty, it has taken a little too much effort. I think I can finish up on it in the next few days and then get some editing done – then PDF the bad boy and off we go.

Conundrum: I have a pretty robust website but Morrus has proven to me in the past that it is not robust enough if something is offered for free on Enworld. So, now I have to figure out how to get the bad boy out to the public when the time comes.

We started working on the Friday Five for next week here on Enworld. I expect a boatload of comments. I think it is discouraging when no one makes any comments.

I managed to scoop up some artwork on the cheap. I did not have the money but looked at it as saving myself $300.00 over the next 3 months.

So, where were we? Oh yeah, I was gonna verbalize my crazy idea.

I have run a website for a long time. Nothing big but it was my corner of the universe. If I thought up some cool stuff, I posted and usually had feed back within a few hours. I miss that. I run a website – start a game company – write stuff because I want to share. That leaves me at a disadvantage because I want people to enjoy the Last Dominion Setting more than I want their money.

I got to thinking about making it a “SHAREWARE” world but I don’t know how you could do that and still break even at minimum. I think that I will have to ponder this issue some more. The idea is something like a shared world but without the shared part Too many cooks make piss poor stew.

Now, have you played RPG? That is what I have been doing when I am too whacked to write.

 

[Eosin the Red]

I have been busy typing away and trying to get a few projects done. You can expect the first free adventure in a week or two - the question now is art or no art? It is free and I find myself hard pressed to justify spending money on a give-away but you only get one first impression right?

Tough decision.

I have some more art! The desire to have good art has been something of a surprise to me. I suppose it should not be, I have a track record of being damn picky about what my name is on. When I write I do fine but during editing, I agonize over each word and punctuation. I take literally years researching the meanings of words, symbols, motifs, giving everything layers of depth that probably only I will ever see. Why wouldn't I be picky about art?

I had some cool thoughts on the commute home tonight, but alas they now elude me.

I was thinking about how many considered opinions like to tell me where I am wrong, why X will not work, or why the Last Dominion will not work. I can't recall exactly what thought pattern led me to this wonderful little happy place. I am gonna try to rework it out and write it up right after I finish my Friday Five interview. Dang, I have a crapload of writing.

Anyway here is a little something to oogle.

Please do not repost this image.

The artist is Lee Smith - Website

 

[Janx]

I think the way you do shareware RPGs is either PDF publishing, or volunteer donations for site hosting.


PDFs are like shareware, in that technically, they can be pirated, but honest fans will pay for it. The cost is pretty low compared to big-name publishers.

The other suggestion, making the site a donation site might work. That's kind of what enworld and RealmWorx sites are. Fan supported. There's risk in this plan, as it may not be clear on what your site is providing (therefore encouraging me to pay for it).

The PDF plan, which is pretty much what you're doing already seems solid enough. You make something somebody wants, somebody pays you for it. I'd probably make your site support that objective. In theory, you want to spawn interest in your product. Mostly then, fiction, map snippets, stuff that I could use to play in your world at a basic level would be good. Just enough to get me interested, but I'll have to pay money to really get the material. A conversion guide might be a useful freebie. A basic world or region map. Maybe a pantheon summary (showing god and domain) which doubles as a useful look-up sheet for a DM.

Janx

 

[Whisper72]

Hmmm... on the issue of shareware and wanting more to have ppl enjoy the setting then wanting their money. Why should those things conflict? If you produce good stuff, nobody is going to begrude you earning some money with it. The only thing to keep in mind is to have a good price/quality ratio.

If you really want to share some stuff for free, maybe create a sort of 'light' version of the campaignworld which is free for download together with some 'teaser' small adventures and locales, but the more in-depth stuff and the larger adventures are paid for stuff.

That way people can have a free sniff at your products but you're not giving away all your efforts for free.

As for the 'fan support' for the website, the two things do not bite eachother. You could easily do both. Have a paypal account to which ppl can support the site itself.

The basics of business is all about whether ppl like your product enuff to pay for it. If the price/quality ratio is good, nobody will feel ripped. And everybody understands that while you are putting time into all these nice products, you and your family need something to eat and drink every now and then...

 

[Eosin the Red]

Those are some good ideas!

I think mixing

You make something somebody wants, somebody pays you for it. I'd probably make your site support that objective. In theory, you want to spawn interest in your product. Mostly then, fiction, map snippets, stuff that I could use to play in your world at a basic level would be good. Just enough to get me interested, but I'll have to pay money to really get the material. A conversion guide might be a useful freebie. A basic world or region map. Maybe a pantheon summary (showing god and domain) which doubles as a useful look-up sheet for a DM.

AND

If you really want to share some stuff for free, maybe create a sort of 'light' version of the campaign world which is free for download together with some 'teaser' small adventures and locales, but the more in-depth stuff and the larger adventures are paid for stuff.

Might get me just the right mix.

A variant of this whole concept would be to create something like the community supporter accounts here at ENworld. Where $$ XX in donations would entitle the subscriber to all of the products in the year, you could also do things like providing members with blank maps, access to map libraries (like the stuff Dungeon did before it went to Piazo), and setting art (all of this for personal use, of course).

Hmmmm.? It might be an interesting experiment.

 

[Qwillion]

The thought I am having is a fan supproted city the way Raven's Bluff should have been done.

A place that can be built by submissions alone. Where we put out a small product that is entirely Open Content.

 

[Whisper72]

Hmm... on the community supporter idea, you could create 'tiers' of supporters (i.e. silver, gold and platinum membership), with varied access to the stuff you put out. Problem with this is however the timing issue. If the membership is a yearly charge, then as a long time platinum member, I'd be pissed if someone went platinum some years down the line, and downloaded all the cool stuff on a single year's membership fee.

Another idea is to have the membership be a discount to your products. I.e. silver gets 20%, gold gets 40% and platinum gets 60% (figures natch only 'for example'). This way, through the memberhsip fees you have a guaranteed income stream from which to pay running operating costs. Now all you need to do is make some forecasts of expected sales and costs to establish the costs of these memberships such that membership provides a significant bonus for being a member without giving away everything for too little.

On the shareware/cocreation, I think Eosin's statement that many cooks make a poor stew is very true. Sure, some great stuff may be brought on, but you'll spend alot of time reviewing and editing to make everything fit together and of the right quality level. All of this will detract from precious time you should be spending on putting out money earning products... If you want input from fans, you can always run contests etc. (worked fine for WotC!). The Forge has one now, where ppl can enter locales for example.

Not a bad idea, if you want to flesh out the world with fan-input, ask ppl to write up a country / province / whatever, and take the same road as WotC did. First ask for a small, straightjacketed description (saves you time reading through hundreds of pages of stuff), and then ask a select few who show they 'have the stuff' in terms of quality and style to mesh with your campaign world, to write their ideas out in more detail.

As reward you can either give a free membership or royalties to some spin-off products (or just give some of your pay-for products to them for free).

Anyhoo, enuff talk, time to show us your stuff!!!

 

[Eosin the Red]

Today is the Friday Five Day.

Guess what? I vastly over estimated my ability to produce stuff. Between the responsibilities of coordinating everyone, being the art director, writing contracts and corporate documents, working with Steve, writing Two-Fisted Action (going to editing tomorrow or Monday) and this column, I am not quite half way into the rough draft of the first book of the Night of Fire. Well, sue me.

It is surprising how little time I get to spend writing the modules because I am writing something else. I am working on a glossary, filling in all the big holes in the setting, and still doing that nit-picky research that I love so much. I have polished up a fiction piece and hopefully will be able to put it up on the website after Dave, the editor for 3P tells me if I suck or not. This is my first attempt since college creative writing to tell a story through conversation.

Lee Smith has posted a few pieces of Artwork for the setting over at RPG.net – if you want to take a look at some of his stunning art just click here.

I have an interesting class this weekend – Advanced Hazmat Life Support. This should be fun but my boss is the instructor, uccch! I should really write some modern adventure stuff.....I know all kinds of crazy whacked out stuff. I thought about buying the book on poisons but I figured that I would just nit pick it so....

To sum up,

--- New Art
--- New Interview
--- New Fiction
--- No new product
--- More promises of “soon” for the free adventure
--- We are still truckin, just not real fast

 

[Whisper72]

Hmmm.... okay, some (unasked for) questions / advice...

From the looks of your last post, you need to get some focus. Make a to do list and work them off one by one. The most simple and straightforward way to keep yourself doing the things you need doing.

Some of the top prio things should prolly be:
- the website
- a first piece of free stuff (to let ppl sniff at stuff)
- a first piece of pay-for stuff (to let the cash flow towards you in stead of only away from you)

As to the website, the following comment I have. Why is the colorful wizard figure replaced on most parts of the site with the colorless 3P logo?? The site is already pretty dull and cold colorwise, the wizard pushing his pencil was a very fine 'logo' for the the site in terms of adding a bit of color without making the whole site garish. I do not know about others, but personally I liked the version before MUCH better then how it looks/feels now. Use the 3P logo purely a product logo, and put it on the website somewere in a lower corner for recognitive purposes, but keep the wizard in the left upper corner to spice up the site a bit.

I think it is pretty important for you to get a product to market fast. You are currently riding a wave of sympathy. Lots of ppl who read this thread, you just had the F5 interview thingy, and made a lot of noise across several boards. Now it is still news and at the forefront of ppl's minds. The attention span of consumers is deplorably short however. Within a few weeks most of this goodwill will have evaporated. There is even a risk of a downside. Having promised good stuff to come along soon, in a few weeks the first potential customers will already get this unfocused feeling of being somehow cheated / that you do not meet expectations, and will develop slight antipathy towards your company. It is best not to reach this state, as it will mean additional effort on your part to overcome this.

Anyhoo, just thought to give you some free advice (most of my clients pay me the equivalent of USD200 per hour for this type of advice....) cuz I think it would be a shame if an effort begun with so much energy flounders unnecessarily. Keep up the good work, and I hope to see stuff from you soon...

 

[Eosin the Red]

I think it is pretty important for you to get a product to market fast. You are currently riding a wave of sympathy. Lots of ppl who read this thread, you just had the F5 interview thingy, and made a lot of noise across several boards. Now it is still news and at the forefront of ppl's minds. The attention span of consumers is deplorably short however. Within a few weeks most of this goodwill will have evaporated. There is even a risk of a downside. Having promised good stuff to come along soon, in a few weeks the first potential customers will already get this unfocused feeling of being somehow cheated / that you do not meet expectations, and will develop slight antipathy towards your company. It is best not to reach this state, as it will mean additional effort on your part to overcome this.

Anyhoo, just thought to give you some free advice (most of my clients pay me the equivalent of USD200 per hour for this type of advice....) cuz I think it would be a shame if an effort begun with so much energy flounders unnecessarily. Keep up the good work, and I hope to see stuff from you soon...

This was exactly the conversation that I was having inside my own head last night during the 45 minute commute home from work.

You helped voice many of the things that been working in the back of my head. Thank you, I can see why you get the $200.00.

PS - I changed the wizard back and did some tweaking.

Randy -

PS - thank you again. Your post helped ground some important issues.