What happens when you don't trust a third party to convey your idea properly? Or there aren't vendors interested in your idea? Or you just got locked out from those avenues?
Maybe there's another way- maybe you can do something your way- with the style, substance and scale you want.
Maybe you can do it yourself!
You're already doing a lot of the work yourself any way; why not self-publish, too?
Self publishing isn't just as easy as writing your idea down and printing it out of your laser printer. There are a lot of challenges that come with going it on your own.
I asked Ed Healey, Co-Creator of Eden Studios (Conspiracy X, All Flesh Must Be Eaten) about his experience starting in the industry.
Can you tell me how you started Eden Studios? Did you have partners or
products lined up before opening? What challenges did you face?
Eden was formed when Alex Jurkat and I put in money and George Vasilakos brought in Conspiracy X. The game was originally released by New Millennium Entertainment, which was about to implode, so we rescued those adorable alien invaders so they could live to abduct another day. Our first ConX release as Eden Studios was Cryptozoology.
I actually wrote a short version of the Eden story back in '07 on my blog: http://ephealy.com/2007/07/04/happy-birthday-eden-studios/
Challenges? Well, we had a game that was selling well. We had in-house line development (Alex) and art/design (George). I managed the books, keeping those guys clear to create. What we didn't have was a huge bank account, so cash flow was a big deal.
It's the issue publishers have today. How do they judge demand so they print enough copies to sell through quickly to maximize profits. The temptation is always to print too many because you get discounts (which translate into profits), but the flip side of warehousing that extra product is that that product could be cash in your account.
Cash is king. Without cash flow, you can't pay bills, and you can't take advantage of opportunities, and you could be dead in the water when the economy tanks (*look around*) and vendors stop paying their bills to you.
Ed's not the only one that had experiences to share.
Matthew Sears of Hyacinth Games was kind enough to spend some time talking about the process.
I'm very interested to hear about what led you to designing your own games.
I was drawn to the project primarily as a creative outlet, after a long conversation with Anton two years ago about the kind of games we would like to play that don't quite exist. Brian already has a history of game design with Killzone, but he was interested in working on something that he could call his own and joined up shortly after we started taking this seriously.
Outside of your Kickstarter, how did you go about funding?
Other than Kickstarter we are primarily self funded, although we have been lucky enough to get some distribution for our miniatures that lightens that burden a little bit. Both Anton and I have some background in DIY record labels, and there is a remarkable amount of similarity with pressing vinyl and casting pewter. That experience has helped us stretch the dollars we have quite a bit, but that isn't to say we wouldn't be adverse to an investor or two jumping in the mix ha ha.
The fact that Brian is a killer editor and Anton can perform magic in photoshop gives us a leg up as well. When those tasks can be taken care of in house you have more control of the product every step of the way, not to mention freelancers can be expensive! Right now we only have artists, sculptors and a few writers on the team outside of our core trio.
What have your found most surprising and most interesting in your process?
I would say the exposure and positive feedback we have gotten so far, and do quickly with so little shown, is what surprises me. The amount of people offering to help out in some capacity has been pretty shocking, we have even had to turn a few people down for the time being! We seem to draw some of the best kinds of gamers, and the fact that some of them have run demos at their LGS, helped us market the Kickstarter, even edit a video or two for us has been great. I think I made five good friends at Adepticon this past year, all because of their initial interest in our little game.
How did you find artists and sculptors?
At first artists and sculptors were difficult to come across and we spent a lot of time perusing conceptart.org and deviantart with mixed results. But once word gets out that you are a reputable business (so many game companies burn bridges with artists and sculptors that they are wary of new companies as a rule) you begin to get referrals through existing contacts and even people contacting you out of the blue looking to do some work for you. Eventually you end up with a stable of artists, sculptors and freelance writers that know the product pretty well and need less direction, which is much less of a headache for all involved.
Another member (Brian Nero) of Hyacinth answered some questions, including one I'm paraphrasing here:
What makes your game special?
In all my tabletop games (skirmish games included), I’ve always been quite persistent and greatly preferred games with a strong sense of narrative in them. Better yet, I really enjoy those tabletop encounters that have a narrative strung between them. I haven’t met a tabletop campaign of one kind or another that I didn’t accept unflinchingly. When none were at hand, I was always trying to invent motives for otherwise rather banal confrontations to occur. I wanted there to be a story in these games. And for me, this is what Wreck Age offers - the most compelling blend of tabletop game and RPG format. In this dynamic, the miniatures that I paint for my skirmish-level faction have real identities, and these personages have a genuine stake in the games we play. With the blend of RPG and tabletop dynamics, Wreck Age creates a simple way to invest narrative into tabletop encounters that only RPGs could offer otherwise, with complexity, character, and genuine meat in the matter. By assigning narrative identities to these characters, there is something more intriguing and a more simple kind of emotional investment in the game itself. Put simply, I care if my model dies.
Of course, one can play the game at either end, as an RPG or a tabletop skirmish game, and simply enjoy the game quite fully at that. But that blend is what got me most excited about working on the project.
Those problems are Cash/funding, distribution, and reputation. A small scale studio has to dump a lot of their own money into their project and/or seek outside sources, develop at least a small amount of respect in the industry so that writers and artists will work with them, and try to get it to the public (which is sales on a whole different level- cold calling's a BITCH, yo). All of this goes on with minimal staff and almost no experience in the industry, and often while working a day job as well.
So what's the upside, if it's so much work?
Ed Healey gives a little insight here:
Starting a business is like having a child. You nurture it and watch it grow. You lose sleep over it. You have dream for what it will become one day.
The benefit of seeing your dreams, your hard work and investment come to fruition is a big one; and many people chase after this elusive outcome with no other plan in mind than: "I want to see what this can become".
There are other ways to go about pursuing your dream. And there are solutions to the funding issue. I'll talk a little about the Kickstarter phenomenon next week, and how that fits into the whole picture.
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