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This is a thread for indie trad game designers to talk about games they’re working on and publishing, share resources, ask for advice, discuss common problems – and also a thread where we and other people can see what’s going on in the SA tradgames scene, as it were. That includes, but isn't limited to: rpgs (including LARPs); card games; board games; wargames; and also more peripheral stuff like CYOA books, ARGs, and game podcasts. If I've missed something, let me know. If you do any of this, post in the thread with your details and I'll add them to one of the posts below (see mine for a possible example, but use whatever format you like). Other than designers, who’s it for? Well, anyone else who's interested, but also anyone with skills on offer that are part of the game production process. That includes, but isn’t limited to: writing; editing; layout; visual art; any kind of audio work; sensitivity reading; and any other kind of game design, production, or publishing assistance. If you’re available for some kind of work like that (now or later) then post in the thread with the relevant info and I’ll add a reference in one of the posts below. If you’re working on a project and you like an aspect of someone else’s work on a project of theirs, feel free to ask them if they’re up for (reasonably-paid) work on yours. A lot of the time, if you have little-to-no exposure in a creative field then it’s hard to figure out when you’re doing something at a level people want and would pay money for – or to even realise it in the first place. If this thread actually gets frequent activity I’ll probably regularly close it and start a new one to keep things fresh (and stick any good advice into an open googledoc or something). UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Jun 22, 2020 |
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Jan 4, 2020 19:43
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FOR ANYONE INVOLVED IN MAKING GAMES What this thread is for:
FOR EVERYONE ELSE INTERESTED IN WHAT’S GOING ON What this thread is for:
You don’t have to be completely open about projects or finances or whatever. I recently posted a twitter thread where I went into some detail about 2019 (mainly the last few months) and where I’m looking ahead, but I’m not expecting people to do the equivalent just because they post here, or to post live feeds of their itch analytics or DTRPG sales reports or anything like that. Also: this thread itself is meant to be a resource, not the people who post in it. If you have something to contribute, then that’s great; you don’t owe anyone more than what you give. I generally trust people here not to do anything that’ll make me or anyone else have to tap this sign, though. WHAT THIS THREAD IS NOT FOR, AND WHERE ELSE TO POST This thread is not a silo to contain shameless self-promotion from elsewhere. Go hog wild in the general chat thread, the crowdfunding thread, the art thread, wherever else makes sense for what you’re doing. This thread is not for industry chat, gossip, or discussion of missing stairs, poor freelancer rates, etc. – see the TTRPG As An Industry thread. I know the OP there says it’s meant to include the kind of stuff I mentioned above, but that’s not how it’s panned out – for a long time it’s mainly been a running commentary on the state of the industry. This thread is also not for promotion of corporate products. It's pretty unlikely that anyone here is responsible for marketing at a major tabletop games company, but this also applies to freelancers doing work for those businesses – advertise your work that you were contracted to provide them, not their product that you contributed only part of. This doesn’t apply to worker co-ops like the San Jenaro Co-op or to looser alignments like the UK Indie RPG League. Finally, this is not a thread for people to join the forums just to post in and then leave. That's shameful self-promotion.
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Jan 4, 2020 19:44
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People for referenceUnCO3 posted:
potatocubed posted:Hello, I am an indie RPG publisher. I appear as Chris Longhurst, potatocubed, or Certain Death, depending on which way the wind is blowing at the time. You may know me from such Kickstarters as Pigsmoke or Bleak Spirit. Elendil004 posted:I've been freelancing making maps for Delta Green for a little while now, and I've been itching to expand my creative mapmaking to other games. So if there's a goon working on a project or writing something that might need maps I'd love to talk to you. Some examples below. I tend to start most maps in GIS software which is a bit like using a 5lb sledge to drive a finish nail, but I find it really good when the map is based in reality. Setting up your first game/project on itch.io Setting up your first game on dtrpg How to price accessibly UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Apr 14, 2020 |
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Jan 4, 2020 19:45
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One of my goals for the coming year was to finish a few projects and ideas for projects that I had for a few years now. As part of that, I'd like to bring to fruition a game about a group of damned individuals with supernatural powers who are at the tail end of the Faustian bargain. It seems like a good fit for Zine Quest - the rules are simple, there isn't a lot background or setting information, and it would probably work best as a novelty one-shot or short campaign. I still need to edit the text into a coherent final form, and after that commission some artwork and figure out the layout, so things are very much in the early stages. I'm worried about two things, and I'm hoping to get some guidance from posters here: 1.) Does anybody have any guides, instructions, or layouts for publishing a zine they'd like to share? I've started doing my own research, of course, but if anybody has anything they think would be helpful I'd appreciate it. The only zine I've ever published was 50 copies of a hand-written zine photocopied back in High School, and while that has a certain appeal, I don't think it's the right way to go for this. 2.) Does anybody have any advice on running a Zine Quest kickstarter? I've started looking at various kickstarters from the last round, and while I've noticed a few things, I'd really appreciate any insight people could offer on running a kickstarter as someone with no real credibility or notoriety. I'll probably try and present some of my work here for feedback before Zine Quest 2 kicks off as well.
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Jan 4, 2020 21:00
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This is a good thread, thanks for making it!Tibalt posted:2.) Does anybody have any advice on running a Zine Quest kickstarter? I've started looking at various kickstarters from the last round, and while I've noticed a few things, I'd really appreciate any insight people could offer on running a kickstarter as someone with no real credibility or notoriety. Zine here, Tibalt: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3909000
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Jan 4, 2020 21:03
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slap me and kiss me posted:This is a good thread, thanks for making it!
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Jan 4, 2020 21:19
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Crosspost from chat thread: Just put out my weapon generator/picker, Humblebird's Modest Armory.  It's a departure from my usual style of exploring the fantastic corners of an enormous design space, which is why the Armory is Modest. I wanted a better way to pick various weird polearms than "browse the AD&D 1e list and end up taking the halberd anyway because it has the best stats" and there didn't seem to be one, so I made one myself. Along the way I learned a lot about medieval gunpowder weapons, which are very much included, and even if you don't buy it I want everyone to know that samurai used handheld rocket launchers. Next in the pipeline, I've got a cartoon villain plot generator (originally inspired by Pokemon plots but since expanded a bit), and on the back burner I've got a dream generator and fantasy industrial chemistry generator simmering.
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Jan 4, 2020 21:31
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Hello, I am an indie RPG publisher. I appear as Chris Longhurst, potatocubed, or Certain Death, depending on which way the wind is blowing at the time. You may know me from such Kickstarters as Pigsmoke or Bleak Spirit. Right now I'm working on a variety of things. Something for Zinequest. Unnamed Farming Game (a Stardew-Valley-inspired slice of life game). Unnamed Space Marine Game (W40K RPG with the serial numbers filed off). Something so unformed it doesn't even have an Unnamed Name yet, based on shounen anime fighting serieses like Baki and Kengan Ashura. And a solo card game about being an elder god waking from slumber and eating the world. I have no idea how far any of these are likely to go. Unnamed Farming Game at least is likely to reach completion one way or another.
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Jan 4, 2020 21:35
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Hello, I'm not an official indie RPG publisher (yet). Somewhat working on it, though. I've had a bunch of flop ideas prior to this that I ended up scrapping, but right now I'm working on two things which are pretty far along. The current "main" project I have is Trespasser. The elevator pitch is "what if STALKER, but in 1990, and the disaster in question is the Exxon-Valdez spill". Right now it's on hold because I have 90% of a draft but I'm deeply second-guessing things about it mechanically (especially if it even needs the existing, involved combat system...I'm leaning towards "scrap it" right now). I think it's tradition for me to cheat on any given project with the next idea that pops into my head, which is why I'm currently working on a 13th age-based heartbreaker with the lovely working title 20th Path. I've switched from 1d20 to 3d6, I'm using a more 5e-ish Advantage/Disadvantage system, there are no traditional ability scores, Backgrounds/Rituals work differently, and I've overhauled basically every class thus far. That one's quite well along, the main things I'd need to add (prior to balancing, obviously) are magic items, a bestiary (which will largely be SRD-based), and I'd like to add in 2-6 classes (2 I know I want in for sure, the other 4 are less of a priority). Right now I'm doing some extremely basic layout stuff for the latter in Affinity Publisher (I like it though it's definitely got a few warts, happy to go into more detail if anyone's interested) between designing content. Is there a better way to find free, open-source fonts than Google Fonts? I've found a few through it that I like but most of them don't seem to have bold/italic variants, which I'd greatly prefer. Some opinions on section layout would also be appreciated. I assume the standard D&D setup (Intro -> Rolling -> Attributes -> Race -> Class -> etc) has been kept around out of inertia rather than some kind of logical layout reason but I can't in good conscience back that assertion up, nor can I think of what a better one would be.
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Jan 4, 2020 22:31
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01011001 posted:Right now I'm doing some extremely basic layout stuff for the latter in Affinity Publisher (I like it though it's definitely got a few warts, happy to go into more detail if anyone's interested) between designing content. Is there a better way to find free, open-source fonts than Google Fonts? I've found a few through it that I like but most of them don't seem to have bold/italic variants, which I'd greatly prefer. Not free, but grab a 1/mo subscription to an adobe product that gives access to adobe fonts when you're finished layout. I think the license is such that as long as you incorporate the font into a product during your subscription, permission to use is indefinite.
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Jan 4, 2020 22:40
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slap me and kiss me posted:Not free, but grab a 1/mo subscription to an adobe product that gives access to adobe fonts when you're finished layout. I think the license is such that as long as you incorporate the font into a product during your subscription, permission to use is indefinite. Good tip, thanks!
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Jan 4, 2020 22:43
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p. sure that adobe has ~5000 free fonts too*. * no caslon
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Jan 4, 2020 23:02
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I like dafont.com. You can filter by license if you want to, and there are lots of decent fonts in the 100% free category.
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Jan 4, 2020 23:06
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01011001 posted:Hello, I'm not an official indie RPG publisher (yet). Somewhat working on it, though. 01011001 posted:Right now I'm doing some extremely basic layout stuff for the latter in Affinity Publisher (I like it though it's definitely got a few warts, happy to go into more detail if anyone's interested) between designing content. Is there a better way to find free, open-source fonts than Google Fonts? I've found a few through it that I like but most of them don't seem to have bold/italic variants, which I'd greatly prefer. As far as fonts go, I mainly use 1001fonts and occasionally dafont. 1001fonts has a better tag system, but I've found good fonts elsewhere and not found them uploaded there. Just make sure you have 'free for commercial use' selected on 1001fonts (click the dollar icon in the search bar under the dollar tags - it'll go green when it's activated). They're not all guaranteed to have bold or italic variants, but a lot do. Most royalty-free ones require attribution. The only real issue I've had is that one or two don't embed properly into exported pdfs (so they get replaced by generic fonts in the exported files) - I did some research into why and I don't have a conclusive answer yet, but one possibility is that the designers set a setting (accidentally or without fully understanding it) preventing font embedding, despite allowing it in their license conditions. 01011001 posted:Some opinions on section layout would also be appreciated. I assume the standard D&D setup (Intro -> Rolling -> Attributes -> Race -> Class -> etc) has been kept around out of inertia rather than some kind of logical layout reason but I can't in good conscience back that assertion up, nor can I think of what a better one would be.
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Jan 4, 2020 23:13
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Yeah, at some point I'll throw crap on itch at the very least once I get something worth throwing. dafont/1001fonts are good refs too, so thanks for that. The biggest issues I've had with Affinity Publisher so far (as someone who also came from MS Word) are:
I can't think of much else offhand though. In general it's pretty solid and I don't think I'd go back to Word.
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Jan 4, 2020 23:59
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Heck ye, this is a good thread! I’ve kinda taken the back half of last year off of designing stuff, so I have a bunch of stuff on the back burners ready to actually get written out. I’m currently working on an Oz game (using the public domain art from the first editions) for ZineQuest, and I have a bunch of other stuff just getting ready to be pushed through, but also I’m working on some pure mechanical development, which I’m hoping to publish as a toolkit for designers.
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Jan 5, 2020 02:14
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I really like this thread concept. I design assorted skirmish games and hope to actually feel confident enough to sell them to people, but I really get worried about their reception and out it off because I get really perfectionistic. My current projects are:
I’m also a (terrible) freelance miniature sculptor in the traditional/pushing around putty sense. Mostly been commissioned for one-off stuff, but it’s fun and I need to work on selling it better. If you can’t tell, I’m really not confident in my abilities as a writer or artist despite the work I’ve put in, so for actually-properly-releasing-stuff people: how do you get over that? It’s not criticism that’s the issue, as one of my volunteer editors is good at harsh-yet-effective criticism, but just a kind of block like “no one could ever possibly enjoy this, so why bother releasing anything?”
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Jan 5, 2020 06:24
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Untitled FPS project sounds unique and I would check that out
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Jan 5, 2020 06:28
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Hedningen posted:If you can’t tell, I’m really not confident in my abilities as a writer or artist despite the work I’ve put in, so for actually-properly-releasing-stuff people: how do you get over that? In the very, very large category of 'solutions that work for me but that I'd hesitate to recommend to anyone else': spite. It's pretty easy in the TTRPG sphere, to be honest. I look at someone like Monte Cook (for example), who has turned his mediocre game design skills into more money than I'm ever likely to see, and I am filled with motivation. Like... "I can do better than this, and by God I'll prove it." On a healthier level, one of the things I learned back when I was doing martial arts on the regular was that sometimes you just have to go for it and trust that you know enough to handle the result. Same thing goes for job interviews. And lots of other things in life. You find out if you're good enough by testing yourself. If you fail, you can improve, try again. But if you succeed -- that's a powerful confidence boost. As a tangential aside: The reason I named my company Certain Death is because I was sure that it would fail and lose me my whole initial investment within a year.
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Jan 5, 2020 11:08
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It honestly gets easier to make things as you make more things. My advice to new creators is always the same. Put everything you're working on aside for a moment. Open a new file. In the next hour, write an entire game. Make it a game you can write in one hour. Package it and sell it as quickly as you can. No later than seven days after you do the draft. There, now you're published. That's done. You can learn how to market, you can learn how to take criticism, you can learn to bear the crushing weight that is the absence of feedback. Everyone's first game is bad, so don't make your first game something you care about. (Btw, there's only 48 pieces of Flying Circus art left. Game will be done soon!!!)
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Jan 5, 2020 11:15
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Speaking of packaging and selling, any advice for first time indy publishing? It's intimidating to wade into, and while I'm pretty solid on the 'making the content' side of what I want to do I have zero experience in the 'selling it to people' portion.
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Jan 5, 2020 11:46
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open_sketchbook posted:It honestly gets easier to make things as you make more things. My advice to new creators is always the same. Game jams usually have a low bar for entry - anyone can show up and make something, even something incomplete or in playtest, during the jam period (a lot of ttrpg jams also let you submit existing work that matches the jam's themes - check to be sure). I think there's also no expectation of properly playtesting analog jam submissions because of the time constraints - how do you go through multiple design-playtest-review cycles when you have one month and you're working in your spare time with probably no ready playtesters? The benefits are that you have a deadline, a fixed theme, and some kind of promotion - first from getting your game on the submissions page and second, sometimes from the hosts postin about it on social media (this is what I'm doing with every just2jam entry). Another two running right now are:
Liquid Communism posted:Speaking of packaging and selling, any advice for first time indy publishing? It's intimidating to wade into, and while I'm pretty solid on the 'making the content' side of what I want to do I have zero experience in the 'selling it to people' portion.
If you want to move physical product then that's a whole other level, with much higher costs and more complex processes for production and marketing. I hope some of this stuff was useful, though! open_sketchbook posted:Package it and sell it as quickly as you can. No later than seven days after you do the draft. There, now you're published. That's done. You can learn how to market, you can learn how to take criticism, you can learn to bear the crushing weight that is the absence of feedback.
I'm gonna put together a guide on setting up pages on itch at some point today, since there are a lot of little things that aren't laid out in a handy FAQ from what I've seen.
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Jan 5, 2020 13:20
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And here: SETTING UP YOUR FIRST GAME/PROJECT PAGE ON ITCH There's a couple of ways to start this, but the simplest two are to use the 'Create new project' button on your itch dashboard or to use the 'Upload new project' option in the drop-down menu by your username in the top-right of the screen.  General Info Title: what it says Project URL: if your title is very long, you could cut down the url here; you probably don't need to Short description/tagline: a short sentence - describe the core idea, the genre, the number of players, anything else you think could attract people. Some people do this very matter-of-factly, others in a subjective style. Have a look around itch for examples. Classification: select 'Physical Games' so you show up in the right places on itch. Kind of Project: leave as 'Downloadable' - only changes for web-based videogames. Release status: leave as 'Released' unless you're specifically released something unfinished. Cover image: ideally a 630x500px image to show off your game's aesthetic. It'll appear when anyone links to the game page from elsewhere and the link embeds. That should mean you don't need to put the game's title in it, but a lot of people do regardless to tie it all together. Gameplay video or trailer: probably irrelevant, but if you've got something that works, you could try it. Screenshots: images that'll appear in a sidebar on the game's page. They'll be resized to be the same width, bear that in mind. itch recommends 3-5, but go with whatever works on your page.   Pricing and Uploads Pricing: your options are '$0 or donate'/Pay What You Want/PWYW, 'paid', or 'no payments'/free.
Uploads: As it says. Click and upload files. They show up like the right image. You can re-order, rename, set the type (use 'Book' for trad games), set them as demo or placeholder files (demos are available for free at the bottom of the game's page), and set a different, higher price for specific files (I think this is more so developers can do things like sell a game, or the game + soundtrack, or the game + soundtrack + artbook etc. all on the same page, incrementally adding different products at different prices). What if I want to upload a new version of a file? If the file has the same name as something you've already uploaded, upload it again and it'll slot in (you may need to re-order the files, but it'll keep all the same analytics). If it has a different name, you can hide the original and upload the new one as a new file. I'd advise against deleting stuff (kilo/megabyte-scale rpg files, anyway) unless you really want it gone.  Details Description: This is a WYSIWYG text editor. Fonts, font size, and font colour are handled elsewhere (see below, about 'Edit Theme'), but you can change other text properties, add hyperlinks, embed images, videos, Spotify playlists etc.. I have a consistent style across my games - intro fiction, then factual blurb, then credits - but you can do whatever you want for each individual project. Genre: As it says. (EDIT: this actually doesn't show up when you set the classification to 'Physical Games' - use tags for genre instead) Tags: You get up to 10. You can use existing ones or write your own. I usually do mostly the former. Type and hit enter to create a new one or apply an existing one.  Outer Presentation App store links: Irrelevant to rpgs, pretty much. Custom noun: you can change the way itch refers to your product, e.g. call it a 'supplement' or 'map pack' or 'bestiary' instead of a 'game'. Some people go more poetic, or use it to narrow down what sort of game it is. Community: Rarely used, but there's no harm in having a comments section. Visibility and access: As it says. At that point you can save and check out the page itself, where there are a few more editing options:  Edit Theme - visible on the page itself, accessible in the top bar Colour:Different options:
Layout: Currently doesn't do anything - your options are to have screenshots in a sidebar on the right, or hide the screenshots. Banner: Upload a banner image that replaces the header (which is normally just the title section of the game from way above). If it's wider than the text section, it'll be resized to fit. Background: Upload a background image that by default replaces BG1; as above you can make BG2, the background for the text, translucent or transparent so the BG comes through. You can align it, set it to repeat vertically or horizontally, and set it to fix in place (so the margins have the same banner no matter where you scroll). Save and click 'Edit Theme' again to get the menu to disappear. Exclusive Content: Community Copies, Early Bird Copies, etc. These are optional extra things you can do. Community copies are a thing that've sprung up on itch (I don't know where the actual idea came from, though). Basically, every copy of the game actually bought creates 1+ free copies with some or no conditions attached (if there are conditions, it's usually the the copies are for people with low-to-no income or otherwise in financial difficulties). Some people make a whole bunch (e.g. 100), others start off with say 10 and add 1 for each purchase, others start with 0 and only add them on purchase. Early Bird copies are a slightly simpler implementation that I did of the same thing - no-strings-attached free copies in a limited number that don't get replaced. Buyer-side info: when you 'claim' a reward like a community copy, it doesn't actually give your info to the seller, in case you were wondering. (  EDIT: actually it does )Here's a twitter thread that goes through how to set them up: https://twitter.com/DeePennyway/status/1175026730244984832 One important thing is that you need to manually increase the number of copies on a regular basis according to your sales - the twitter thread makes it sound like there's a special setting where you can make the number of copies automatically track sales, but that's not the case. The other thing is the number of copies in the reward is the total number, not the available number. If you put up 10, 5 people download copies, and 2 people buy the game, then you'll be changing the number from 10 to 12, but the available number will change from 5 to 7. SETTING UP TO GET PAID This is a whole separate issue, but basically if you're selling stuff and actually getting money then you'll want to fill out all the relevant details in the Publisher part of your settings ('Settings' in the top-right menu, then 'Publisher' on the left). Part of the way through you'll have to fill out some forms for the US government, but it's all digital. When you're done you'll be able to set your payout mode, among other things - either payments go directly to a bank account, paypal account, etc. (with itch taking its cut) or they go to a pool in itch, from which you can get bulk payouts on request (though it takes a little while for customer payments to be added to the pool you can withdraw from, and again for payouts to reach your account. You could set up a Paypal Business account or something like that, if so inclined. The important thing in all this is to make sure the US government and your own government (if different, like mine) aren't gonna withhold money or otherwise mess with you. Someone who has more experience doing taxes as an indie rpg designer or a freelancer should probably do a guide on this (or post a guide from elsewhere that makes sense). If anyone has any other tips or corrections to anything above, let me know. UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 11:33 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Jan 5, 2020 15:11
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Pay What You Want is bad. Both because it devalues your work, and also because it contributes to a consumer expectation that RPG products should be as cheap as they want them to be. Which is bad for people trying to make a living at this (to be clear, not me) Either set your price to zero and give things away for free (which is what most people do for price when they see PWYW pricing) or charge an actual price.
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Jan 5, 2020 15:56
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I think it depends on the framing: If you have PWYW products and free products, then you're asking people to pay for your higher end. If you set them to be paid and PWYW instead, then you're allowing people to pay for your lower end. So, in my opinion, paid-only, paid/PWYW, and paid/free are all fine (though PWYW-only and free-only are okay if you're still entering the market). The standard just needs to be paid at the top and PWYW or free at the bottom. Having all three on one storefront seems like a completely bad idea because PWYW would act as a bridge to blur together paid and free products. I do paid/PWYW and the only free game I have on itch is a not-massively-changed Lasers & Feelings hack, because technically the license requires that it be non-commercial. I think it can also help people who aren't completely confident in their own work starting out to ease into the idea that they can and should be paid - if you just put things out for free with no option to pay then you've got a wider gap to cross to mandatory payment.
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Jan 5, 2020 18:24
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Nah. PWYW is effectively free; barely anyone kicks in money for that tier of product. The difference between the two is that a free product is usually short and didn't require a lot of effort to our together, while a PWYW product gnerally took hours upon hours to create. Posting PWYW products devalue the industry, full stop. If you don't have confidence in your product, release it for free. If it took you any amount of time and effort, charge for it, even if it's just a couple bucks.
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Jan 5, 2020 18:29
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What people mistakenly or predatorially do right now is irrelevant - I'm not saying people should release well-considered and well-made work as PWYW instead of paid (they should do the opposite), I'm saying they should release small, quick, less- or non-tested work as PWYW instead of free. As I said above, agreeing with open_sketchbook, I think people's first or very early published games should fall in the second category rather than be big ideas they've been incubating for a while, even if not using the method they laid out.
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Jan 5, 2020 20:31
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Hedningen posted:If you can’t tell, I’m really not confident in my abilities as a writer or artist despite the work I’ve put in, so for actually-properly-releasing-stuff people: how do you get over that? It’s not criticism that’s the issue, as one of my volunteer editors is good at harsh-yet-effective criticism, but just a kind of block like “no one could ever possibly enjoy this, so why bother releasing anything?” For my first one (Humblebird's Lost Cities Generator), the whole project really just happened by accident and kept escalating. Started out just daydreaming about Atlantis, then I started taking notes, then I wound up with usable tables, then I decided to try making a PDF, then I learned more about making PDFs and made a point of making it not look like dogshit, then I polished it a bit more and by that point I had something that looked halfway professional. At that point, I figured there wasn't anything to lose by trying to sell it. Second project (Humblebird's Infinite Monsters), gotta agree with "spite" here. Any time I started worrying about flaws I might have missed or didn't have the energy to fix, I just had to remind myself that it'd be competing with "you summon a fungus demon with adhesive teats and gossamer fangs, that's it, that's the monster." For every project, just talking about it with friends is a good way to remind yourself that you're creating something of value. With my generators I have to admit it's relatively easy, because I can do a "playtest" by myself in some 15 minutes and then report the results ("hey imagine this monster: a walking clawfoot bathtub with a giant catfish in it, the bathtub can spray water from its showerhead and the catfish has prehensile barbels.") If you're designing a multiplayer game, playtesting it with a couple friends and then talking about the playtest with other people around can help you see for yourself that people appreciate your work and that you're creating something of value. Speaking of not getting hung up on flaws, remember that you can update PDFs even after publishing. You can fix typos, revise rules after more thorough playtesting, or implement new PDF features and nobody will care that it used to be less good before.
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Jan 6, 2020 02:05
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UnCO3 posted:What people mistakenly or predatorially do right now is irrelevant - I'm not saying people should release well-considered and well-made work as PWYW instead of paid (they should do the opposite), I'm saying they should release small, quick, less- or non-tested work as PWYW instead of free. As I said above, agreeing with open_sketchbook, I think people's first or very early published games should fall in the second category rather than be big ideas they've been incubating for a while, even if not using the method they laid out. I definitely agree that it's generally good for people to start small before writing their magnum opus. I strenuously disagree that their efforts should be PWYW. It's free without the confidence.
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Jan 6, 2020 04:07
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This thread (and specifically open_sketchbook's comment to just make a game that takes an hour to make) has inspired me to take on a challenge to make a new game every week this year. My first game is now live on itch.io: Apple Berry Canada.
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Jan 8, 2020 08:23
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Neat! Good luck with the rest. Sometimes when people do this (usually monthly games) they collect the results in a single file and sell it for a small amount, but that's up to you. In other news, I've updated the third post with some of the details from the thread. I'm not sure which things were meant to be "here's some stuff I'm working on" and "here's my details", so I took a pretty conservative approach. If anyone comes across any handy tutorials or anything, mention them here and I'll add them to the list.
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Jan 9, 2020 14:40
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So, i'm putting together a kickstarter for my next game, Red Rook Revolt. What are some easy to do stretch goals and backer rewards that you generally enjoy? Or some more difficult ones, for that matter?
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Jan 13, 2020 18:23
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Magnusth posted:So, i'm putting together a kickstarter for my next game, Red Rook Revolt. What are some easy to do stretch goals and backer rewards that you generally enjoy? Or some more difficult ones, for that matter? I actually have a soft spot for cloth maps. I know they're not really useful per se, but they're fun and they're often aesthetically pleasing.
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Jan 13, 2020 20:29
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I don't do stretch goals. I've seen too many creators get dragged under by the weight of things they said they'd do, then realised they couldn't. I mean, a) that's leaving money on the table that you might otherwise be able to grab and b) perhaps someone with a less slapdash approach to accountancy than me could make a safer go of it. But it might be worth considering? As for backer rewards, 'get your face in this book' and 'work with me to add some content' are always popular, and relatively simple. Personalised copies are also super-popular (like the School Spirit tier for Pigsmoke) but are way more complex than you'd think to execute.
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Jan 13, 2020 20:56
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Stretch goal: pay your artists more money
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Jan 13, 2020 21:18
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slap me and kiss me posted:Stretch goal: pay your artists more money that's a given, of course!
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Jan 14, 2020 03:07
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Hey, thanks for this thread! I've learned a lot already, and I think I'll actually be able to make a go of this game design thing now. For your advice about selling on itch.io, would you say I should just use an existing account to sell stuff if I have one or would it be better to make a brand new one for that?
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Jan 19, 2020 00:59
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Magnusth posted:that's a given, of course! Agent Rush posted:Hey, thanks for this thread! I've learned a lot already, and I think I'll actually be able to make a go of this game design thing now. DTRPG is more fixed, I think - at least, I haven't found a way to change my storefront name after making my publisher account. Maybe there's a way to do it, though. -  In other news, I just released an almost completely re-designed version of my first-published game, Pockets full of Stars! Here's the devlog for the update, where I lay out my reasoning: quote:While it was good to publish the first version - as it was the first game I ever published, here or elsewhere - I was never really satisfied with how it came together. Some of the things I liked more (the scenario in the intro fiction, the idea of using what's around you (real or imaginary) as inspiration, the idea of occasionally approaching more mature themes through a cosier framework) didn't really pan out, partly because I felt like I had to be overly soft with the game and partly because I didn't have time to put everything together with the self-imposed deadline.
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Jan 21, 2020 17:51
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Hi, I write RPGs both as a freelancer and my own material for self-publication. My biggest game is Base Raiders, a FATE superhero RPG about claiming superpowers for yourself and dungeon crawling abandoned superhero and villain bases. I set up a website here http://www.baseraiders.com/about/ I've also done a bunch of freelancing over the years - Eclipse Phase, Monsters and Other Childish Things, and a bunch of d20 stuff - my writing credits are http://www.slangdesign.com/portfolio/ I do a tabletop RPG podcast called Role Playing Public Radio. If you're interested in game design, we do a series called Game Design Workshop - it started with my friend's journey to create a full RPG. He wound up publishing Red Markets, which began here http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2013/09/game-designer-workshop/game-designer-workshop-episode-1-concept/ I'm currently working on a horror RPG called Ruin The theme is architectural horror - think House of Leaves, Silent Hill and Control.
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Jan 21, 2020 23:19
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clockworkjoe posted:Hi, I write RPGs both as a freelancer and my own material for self-publication. My biggest game is Base Raiders, a FATE superhero RPG about claiming superpowers for yourself and dungeon crawling abandoned superhero and villain bases. I set up a website here http://www.baseraiders.com/about/ Tell me more
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Jan 22, 2020 01:40
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