What would you like to see from Clockwork Golem Workshop?

[arwink]

I'm in the process of putting together a rough plan for CGW's release schedule in the New Year, and to christen our new forums I thought I'd put forward the question for the people who are actually buying our products - What would you like to see from Clockwork Golem Workshop in 2006?

Some of the things we've already got planned:

* Regular releases for our product lines. While we've managed to maintain a steady pace with our Lost Books and Masterwork Characters/Monsters line, we let things slide with our OMNI Database and Magic Merchants line. We have at least four or five releases planned for each of these lines between January and July of 2006, and we'll keep producing as long as they continue to sell. We're also aiming to keep a steady pace for our new products lines such as After Sunset and our d20 modern support.

* Covers. While we've traditionally focused on text-based products with minimal art requirements, we're planning on putting together covers for all our releases from here on in. I'll be going back and upgrading the covers and layout for many of our older releases over the next couple of months.

*Independent Releases. While we'll be focusing a lot of our attention on our regular product lines, 2006 will see the release of our first one-off sourcebooks that have a higher page-count than anything we've released so far.

 

[Pinotage]

* Regular releases for our product lines. While we've managed to maintain a steady pace with our Lost Books and Masterwork Characters/Monsters line, we let things slide with our OMNI Database and Magic Merchants line. We have at least four or five releases planned for each of these lines between January and July of 2006, and we'll keep producing as long as they continue to sell. We're also aiming to keep a steady pace for our new products lines such as After Sunset and our d20 modern support.

* Covers. While we've traditionally focused on text-based products with minimal art requirements, we're planning on putting together covers for all our releases from here on in. I'll be going back and upgrading the covers and layout for many of our older releases over the next couple of months.

*Independent Releases. While we'll be focusing a lot of our attention on our regular product lines, 2006 will see the release of our first one-off sourcebooks that have a higher page-count than anything we've released so far.

More of the same sounds good for a start. I'm particularly pleased to see the independent releases focus, as I was hoping to see something like that from CGW. For the covers, do those that have purchased products get the updated versions for free?

CGW does a great job at what they're currently doing, so I'm quite looking forward to what else they have in store. Any hints as to what the independent releases will entail in terms of content?

Pinotage

 

[arwink]

For the covers, do those that have purchased products get the updated versions for free?

Everyone whose purchased one of our copies gets the updates to the prodoct for free. If you have any trouble getting the download re-sent from either RPGnow or from the ENworld Game Shop, e-mail me on Peter@clockworkgolem.com and I'll fix things up.

CGW does a great job at what they're currently doing, so I'm quite looking forward to what else they have in store. Any hints as to what the independent releases will entail in terms of content?

A selection from the short-list:

The Alienist: A modern horror adventure that sends the PC's in to investate the murder of a prominent psychiatrist whose body was found in a locked room with one of the cities most prominent mathamatician. Pressure from the authories suggests the players should hang the murder on the most obvious suspect, but it's obvious that there is more going on behind the scenes than anyone could guess. I'm in the process of working on this with Chris Slee, who wrote the lions share of Searwek: World of Tides, and we're aiming to have it ready for a February release.

Dwarven Arcana (Working Title: A collection of spells, feats and items focused on developing the spellcasting traditions of the dwarves. At the moment we're planning for about 60 spells with a dwarven focus, plus as much support material as we can cram into the product.

The Corruption of the Fey: A short monster collection of undead, outsiders and fey creatures that have been created by a minor demon-lord in his bid for power.

 

[philreed]

* Covers. While we've traditionally focused on text-based products with minimal art requirements, we're planning on putting together covers for all our releases from here on in. I'll be going back and upgrading the covers and layout for many of our older releases over the next couple of months.

I recommend being very careful with this. In my experience spending $20-$100 on a cover _never_ generates $20-$100 in additional sales. Especially on PDFs of 20-pages or less.

 

[arwink]

Hi Phil, thanks for the advice. The upgrade was largely a matter of necessity, as our text-only thumbnails were on the verge of running into the quality standards at RPGnow.

I have a very strict budget that I'll be working to for most of the covers, and we'll be using a generic design for most of our shorter products. They're fairly cheap to put together, and they should be fairly easy to sustain in the long-term. I've also seen a small surge in the number of sales I've gotten with new products since I've used them - not $20 worth of new sales, but enough to cover the added time and effort of putting the covers together.

 

[philreed]

Hi Phil, thanks for the advice. The upgrade was largely a matter of necessity, as our text-only thumbnails were on the verge of running into the quality standards at RPGnow.

I have a very strict budget that I'll be working to for most of the covers, and we'll be using a generic design for most of our shorter products. They're fairly cheap to put together, and they should be fairly easy to sustain in the long-term. I've also seen a small surge in the number of sales I've gotten with new products since I've used them - not $20 worth of new sales, but enough to cover the added time and effort of putting the covers together.

Okay. I hope you weren't offended by my post, I just have encountered a few people that didn't realize they were going to have a tough time making $100 more in sales to cover the additional art expenses.

I also use a standard design for a lot of products, and I've never worried about RPGNow's standards.

 

[arwink]

No problem. I'm always happy to listen to advice from folks that know what they're doing, If nothing else, it lets me know whether or not I've made a good decision