From the Ground Up - Building a Game Company

[Eosin the Red]

Kyramus, I am sad to say that you will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow to get your answers. That will be a little bit of a story worth telling.

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Wulf!

A man who knows how to do things right. I appreciate the advice and for the sake of this article I will investigate that possibility. I assume that everyone would want to see how a complete novice goes about trying to get something printed?

I had a little yardwork to do today and the next article will need a little websurfing to look at some of the websites both of the "biggies" and the "littlies." Anybody have any pet peeves about company websites?

Personally, sites like Wulf's Badaxe Games are dynamite visually, plus it is easy to find since I found it without using a search engine (I just typed in Badaxegames.com). I have not investigated to see if it has more underneath the hood, but I have been to the site a dozen or more times in the last month while researching. Work this evening will involve some hearty websurfing so if you have a site put out the welcome mat - I will be stopping by.

A hint for Kyramus, a name should have more meaning than just being a name and Pecil Pushers carries with it a little "baggage" that you have astutely picked up on.

Now, I have mail. I have mail from Green Ronin and I am a little nervous to open it. I guess that I will have to tell this story also.

.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Now, I have mail. I have mail from Green Ronin and I am a little nervous to open it. I guess that I will have to tell this story also.

Well, knowing what I know of the good folks at Green Ronin, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

I'll play the guessing game:

An offer to incorporate material from their Medieval Player's Handbook?

An offer to help take you to print?


Wulf

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Wow. This is very interesting!

Eosin, please check the email account you have associated with ENWorld. I sent you a little something.

 

[Napftor]

Wow. This is very interesting!

You aren't kidding, Ashrem. I think people are very willing to root for the underdog and that Eosin may find a surprising number of helping hands on his way to the "I own a small publishing company" club.

 

[Eosin the Red]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I had wondered if this was a good idea or not but since I really did propose it to Goodman Games in the Publishers Forum year or so ago, I thought that people (like me) might still be interested.

This thread has already done allot for me, on the positive side it gives me a little more gusto to try things, it allows me to ask honest questions instead of hoping that I am doing the right thing and it is focusing me on what it is that I want. On the negative side, I still have a project to finish by Monday that I have not touched.

Today and last night was a mixed bag - I got together with two of the artists and got them rolling. One of the artists will need some direction on what it is that I want and that requires that I actually know what I need which I do not. I need to plot out parts of the first book to get some relevant art rather than haphazard art.

Speaking of art, I am going to have a phone conversation with Mystic Eye Games - Hal to be specific on Tuesday. We are going to talk some about art and I am going to check out cover-2-cover. The Mystic Eye Guys have always been super around here and are plenty involved in the community, I am looking forward to chatting with them.

I need to talk with my partner - Quillion. I don't think he knows about this thread yet

I have a second draft of some of his work in my inbox that needs some reviewing and I need to try and finish my Two-Fisted Action piece.

I was also thinking that I do not have a real good name for the setting. The company is "Pencil Pushers Publishing (3P). Mythical Gaming is the slogan but what do we call the setting? Forgotten Realms? Nah, already taken? I am still debating this one. It needs to be catchy and evocative but not mundane?

I may have to move up some plans - my wife is going back for surgery again on Monday so changing out the websites on Tuesday may be hard. I might need to do it Sunday.
-

 

[Eosin the Red]

Webstuff

Website stuff. Now you would think that after running 2-3 websites I would know something about design? Wrong. I use FrontPage for all my needs and that might be a little skimpy for a full-fledged company. I did what I always do when I have questions, I went to a pro.

Raflar.com

Raflar did the work on the Middle Earth site that was put together here at Enworld and until he offered it looked like I would be doing the design so I sort of look on him as my savior. I spoke with him for 2 reasons - 1 keeping money within the "industry" seems like a good thing to me and 2. because I really like his work. What did I learn? I really need to go into webdesign if I want to make a good living.

Alright, hiring a webdesigner won't work. That means that I will need to do it myself. Fortunately, I have some skills, I have front page and I already know a lot of the "stuff" that you need to know. I have my own message boards which are the home of the Wheel of Time d20 community since WotC kicked them out Actually, most folks understand that the contract expired.

I looked around for fantasy templates. Don't try this at work - you can get some pretty interesting results. I finally found something that I liked at Lipstick Monkey. It has imbedded pop ups, automated feedback, style sheets, and some good navigation.

Now all I have to do is modify it to suit my needs and publish it. I had a nice picture hanging out that my brother had drawn for me. I scanned that bad boy in and will use it as the company "mascot." That took something like 4 hours when you include stiching it.

Like Badaxe games, I desired my own DNS. Unfortunately, Pencilpushers.com is taken by an accounting firm. I did a search with my web host and came up with Pencilpushers.net. What is the difference between net, com, org, & us?
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http://www.weeno.com/art/0799/128.html

The dotcom.

The last three letters of the URL. It is known as the top level domain (TLD).

Top level domains consist of the generic .COM, .EDU, NET, ORG, GOV, MIL, and INT

.COM stand for "commercial", meaning the website serves a commercial purpose, and is used to make money. While it is the most common domain, it is also the most abused, since many .com websites aren't made for profit.

.EDU is intended for educational institutions. Universities, colleges, schools, etc,

.NET WAS intended to hold only the computers of network providers, but has become another over-used domain.

.ORG was supposed to be the "big" TLD, as it would have held anything that wasn't commercial, educational, or otherwise. However, it is one of the least used TLD's today.

.GOV This domain was originally intended for any kind of government office or agency. However, it was decided to register only agencies of the US Federal government in this domain.

.MIL is the all but extinct domain representing the US Military.

.INT This domain is for organizations established by international treaties, or international databases. It is also very rarely seen.
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I elected to grab the .net and go from there.

Anyway - now I have the name and the web template and a mascot, I should be all set! Wrong. Websites (in this instance) are just like the FLGS. You should buy stuff from them and be allowed to hang out and read a few pages of any interesting looking book. The site should also make you want to come back more often.

I suppose from here we should go buy a book on web design but being a bear of very little wit, I just plugged on through. These are the things that I found to be important.

1. I want a newsletter that allows you to offer a little something each month.
1.5 I also need regular features, like the news at Enworld that bring folks back to the site.
2. I have a forum so that issue is already solved.
3. If it can't be cool like Bad Axe then it should be clean. Not all of us can be the coolest looking site on the web. I would rather look clean and plain than noisy and garish in an attempt to be stylish.
4. Easy navigation.
5. Style Sheets!!! The Wheel of Time taught me that little lesson. It plain looks goofy when your text is 2 different fonts, colors, or sizes.


That about sums it up for my web stuff. I did do some surfing today, but in the end, I don't want to be a critic and the sites that I did look at were all steller so .... we can just skip that part.

Next....It slices, it dices, it is the mighty green katana of doom!!!

 

[Eosin the Red]

The Green Ronin story will have to wait until morning, I just spent 2 hours reading about contracts. I did talk on the phone with an accountant today - Here is another lesson, do NOT expect an accountant to do anything in the first few weeks of April.

I am also discussing partnership agreements with my partner and still trying to figure out how to handle other peoples money - as far as the "company" goes? I will need some of that money before the Accountant is free so this could become a problem.

Contracts......yuck. I wonder how come there are no contracts in Nursing? Actually, now that I think about it patients are required to sign those little forms that say "While we are clipping your toenails it is possible that you might die, lose your vision, or be maimed. Please sign below indicating that you are fine with that."

If you want to start a company, don't expect to get much sleep. Up in 5 hours See you then.

 

[Eosin the Red]

The Green Ronin Story.

Yep, I am playing with the big boys now! I am sure that they don't view themselves as being one of the kings of the hill but to someone like me, just a kid getting all spunky - they are the elder gods of the RPG. So, what was I doing writing them an e-mail?

I love the BotR. I have loved it since it came out but it is completely untapped. There are no modules and no setting pieces that use the BotR as an integral part of their make up. I wanted to do that. I wrote to ask permission to use their IP or to license their IP for my game company. Audacious but really, the BotR is just wasting away on my shelf. Why not ask?

Chris was very nice and wished me well, then he told me what I should have known already. In order for me to use the IP they would need to use man power to supervise and approve that use. I asked for something that would have cost them and offered next to nothing concrete in return. I need to turn that around so that GR stands to make gains instead of a net loss. That will require a bit of thought.

I do already have my own cosmology that is similar to Green Ronin's but I thought that it would be cool to use my favorite RPG book for my own companies stuff. Not to mention that associating myself with a strong name like Green Ronin would have had a very real impact on sales.

Back to the drawing board. I want to work with Green Ronin, I just need to find the right angle.

My cosmology is part of my re-imagining of the basics. Something I plan to discuss in this evenings post. It could also be called how Enworld changed my view of gaming or inspired me to "get back to basics."

 

[Emiricol]

Speaking of art, I am going to have a phone conversation with Mystic Eye Games - Hal to be specific on Tuesday. We are going to talk some about art and I am going to check out cover-2-cover. The Mystic Eye Guys have always been super around here and are plenty involved in the community, I am looking forward to chatting with them.
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Hi! Following this thread with interest, and definitely cheering for you As to MEG and C2C - I'm not sure your results, but when I once tried to contact them to hire their services, I got no response. I emailed again saying I wasn't interested in working with a company that couldn't be bothered to reply to an inquiry on a sales matter, since it meant once they had my money they would likely be *more* unresponsive. That also got no reply. I shrugged and moved on.

MEG Hal has always been a great poster here, and I'm truly not trying to flame anyone, but for whatever it is worth that was my experience trying to give him money for services he advertised.

-Emiricol

 

[Eosin the Red]

I have two things to bring people up to speed for the day but it is already 1 am and I still have some other stuff to get done.

I finalized the artist contracts and sent them out this evening. It felt weird and some of the language is absolute. Many thanks (once again) goes to RPGnow for providing the sample contracts. I would have been lost without them – for that reason alone the e-publishers guide is worth the price. I did ask some of the artists [who are a pretty swell bunch of guys by the way] what they thought about contracts and their standard procedure. We will see what they say.

[Amended: I asked what they thought about the contract I sent to them, and what they normally did for contracts. Earlier I had asked an artist (Lee Smith) what he wanted to with contracts and he gave me some good insight.]

I spent a good part of last night writing descriptions for art pieces, by the time I got to my interior artist I was tapped out. I still need to describe two scenes to him but gave him enough that he can get started (I hope).

I am working on finishing up a partnership agreement with my partner. This is another area that seems queer. All of the “professional people” tell me that this is a must. We are setting down what decisions can be made and by who, what the disposition of the funds will be, managerial responsibilities, corporate planning….etc. These are things that will make you uncomfortable when discussing amongst friends. Should I have the power to veto his projects? Should he have the power to change mine? Who spends the money and has access to the bank? Can he “fire” me? If these things are not decided upon upfront then it can really become a nightmare (so I hear). Man, nursing is looking better all the time, maybe I should just work 2 jobs?

I worked on the name thing. The area will be called the Imbrian Dominion or more commonly, the Western States. The story arc is the “Night of Fire,” funny how I return to my roots. I ran a Birthright PBEM called the Night of Fire. I just think it is a good idea and rife with possibilities.

I am a name freak [and a map freak]. I spend hours looking at names and naming origins-conventions. I love planting information about stuff in the names I use. I would also like everyone to feel free to let me of names that just don’t work.

I spent some of this evening getting stuff together for the guys and gals who will be taking over my fansite. Speaking of that, Pencil Pushers Forums are officially up and running. The web site is still a few days off.

Now I get to re-read the OGL-STL and think about those other 2 pictures? Look at about a dozen emails and get some sleep.

No promises, but I will try to give a thought to products and what 3P (Pencil Pushers Publishing) will be doing.