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SkyeAuroline posted:citation needed Find something you’re really passionate about and work on that. You kind of have to, since making pays-the-rent kind of money is extremely rare in the industry. You’re not going to be doing this for a paycheck, so you have to do it because you enjoy the act of making RPG content in itself. It’s going to be a hobby, and if you don’t enjoy it more than you hate it, then it’s not a very good hobby. (It also helps if it’s small and simple: forever-projects are thankless, while something you can actually show to people and get positive feedback on will give you that delicious drip of social interaction endorphins. And “small” doesn’t even have to mean “a small game”, like, you can start with your collection of D&D houserules.) Another advantage you’ll have is that focused roleplaying games are extremely fertile ground: you can pick a book or computer game or anime you’re passionate about and try to make something game-related for that. There are entire genres that are virtually unexplored by tabletop RPGs. If you have something you’re passionate about you can probably go in and make something neat for an unserved audience. All this stuff about burning passion letting you power through and succeed like a shounen protagonist aside, making something is also just really bloody difficult to begin with. If it doesn’t feel like a breeze that’s not because you’re in sufficiently passionate, it’s that seeing any project through is really bloody difficult. That’s where starting small and with something you care about really helps: small means the difficult humps aren’t going to be that big and caring will help you get over them. And then when you’ve done something, however small and simple, you’ll have the experience of like, seeing that there were some humps, but knowing that it was possible to get over them. Like for all we malign D&D and the hackneyed thing where people try to crowbar everything popular into D&D rules, D&D homebrew classes, if that’s something you’re comfortable with the design process of, is not a bad start: it has an existing mechanical framework to engage with and draw on, and if it gets you putting something together in a GoogleDoc you can show to other people that’s far better than nothing. Which I say not because I think the industry is served by more D&D homebrew classes, but because, if making D&D homebrew is what you need to build you confidence and skills, then that’s doing a million times more for getting you into game design than not making content for anything, D&D or not. If nothing else, you’ll come out of it knowing how to present things in a GoogleDoc, which is an invaluable skill when workshopping and passing around game content. (I keep coming back to D&D as an example not because I have any reason to think you care for the game, by the way: it’s just the most banal example.)
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Mar 9, 2021 06:44
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:I would also recommend stealing and then editing old, public domain victorian novel art. I've been keeping my eyes out for a game jam or contest grounded in Wootha's 90 GB of public domain art, myself. It lends itself to something surreal and travel-focused or modern fantasy.
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Mar 9, 2021 07:18
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The best advice anyone can give about game design is: don't try to do it as a job. Do it for yourself. Design games that you want to play and make that your goal. In the end, you'll have a game you can play and you'll be happy - and if you make some money, that's a bonus. Aiming for fame and fortune in this industry is a recipe for bitterness. You'll end up resenting other designers who have more success and then all those cool games that you might have otherwise loved become tainted. I'm made Strike! because I wanted to. Actually I felt like I had to. The farce of the 5e playtest and development demanded some response and that game was my response. I wanted D&D but better, and it was obvious that WotC wasn't going to even attempt to deliver on that, so I had to do it myself. I made some money off of Strike! I made more than I expected to. Not enough to quit my day job, but that's ok because I like my day job. But my goal was just to make the best D&D I could. Now I'm making a new game again because I want to. Because after a hiatus in which I had many fun ideas, I've stumbled onto an idea that just crystallized for me into something fun and different. Something that riffs off of Strike, and plays with it, but also feels totally new. And there is also an element of wanting to respond here, too. I loved Harry Potter for years, but its flaws have become more and more apparent over time, as have the author's. I'm not a novelist, but I can at least make a game for all the people who want to play fun wizard school adventures without TERFs and their bullshit. I don't know if I'll make money this time. Obviously I hope that I will. I think it should do well - it's already super fun and I'm not even done yet. But there are tons of games that should do well and don't. And I won't be bitter if it doesn't make money, because I wanted to make this game anyway.
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Mar 9, 2021 07:55
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SkyeAuroline posted:citation needed If you don't find it fun to do as a hobby then you probably shouldn't try to turn it into an income source, because the same level of time investment and effort will yield better rewards in almost any other field.
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Mar 9, 2021 08:59
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:I would also recommend stealing and then editing old, public domain victorian novel art. I can also highly recommend https://search.creativecommons.org/ (image search engine by Creative Commons which indexes the collections of a lot of museums and libraries who have made their work public domain. Filter by "Digitized Artwork" and "CC0" for these. A nice way to search through more modern collections that let users flag their work as creative commons too. Though double check stuff coming from archive.org, flickr, deviantart and others since you occasionally get people uploading copyrighted things there) And if you're making something a little more esoteric and need a load of public domain text, there's Project Gutenberg for books that have entered the public domain (https://www.gutenberg.org/). One example I've seen recently is the Parts Per Million Cut Up series, which splits public domain books up into very very large tables you roll on to get sentence fragments which you can combine and modify into procedurally generated paragraphs of thematic text:https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/342235/Cut-Up-Solo--A-Thin-Ghost-and-Others Macdoo fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 16:34
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SkyeAuroline posted:I can see Baker asking not to be identified with DitV since he's disavowed it. But not identifying him with Apocalypse World, progenitor of one of the most widespread design genres in the industry, and instead tying him to a joke game? That's weird. Why'd he disavow it? I thought people thought it was ok, though I haven't looked at it myself or anything. e: Nvm people answered! A bit surprising to me he'd think it was ok then realize it wasn't later, though. Acerbatus fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 21:24
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Hey, people change, and if they do it of their own volition and don't need outside pressure to recant, good for them.
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Mar 9, 2021 21:30
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Pretty much what V said. Like I've said (maybe not right here, but in the past) - I understand the reasoning, I just never agreed with it. His choice what he wants to sell, ultimately. e: I'll come back to the design posts in a little while, didn't forget yall's replies.
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Mar 9, 2021 21:33
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Hostile V posted:Hey, people change, and if they do it of their own volition and don't need outside pressure to recant, good for them. Yeah, honestly it seems like a pretty normal arc to go from "this seems like a cool idea" to "actually having looked deeper into this I overlooked a bunch of stuff, I no longer think this is cool, sorry." Like drat, that's an attitude a lot of other game designers could benefit from once in a while.
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Mar 9, 2021 22:34
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EverettLO posted:As someone running a semi-historical game that heavily involved Sumerian mythology and also a fan of Spelljammer, I am interested to hear more. Joe Slowboat posted:Please explain more, this is relevant to my interests So, for the San Jenaro Quarterly Games Digest, I'm working with James Barton, another member of the co-op, to make Spelljammer, but sumerian. Current plans are that you can play river pirates (in the space rivers, of course, probably made of Abzu), merchants, smugglers, envoys, and mercs, of course. of course. Current Playbook suggestions are Akkadian warrior, urukian prince, Babylonian Astrologer, Elamite sorcerer, Urian priest, Dilmun merchant, and some sort of nomad or wanderer. it's still very early stages, but it'll be fun.
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Mar 9, 2021 23:58
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Appreciate the commentary, but pretty sure I fall under the category of failing both of Nerdlingen's "do I keep working on it" categories for the things I want to work on. Don't have much of a hand for rules design, don't have much fun writing things that don't work. It's unfortunate because there are gaping holes in the hobby's "range" that need to be filled, but I'm not the one to do it, from the look of things.
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Mar 9, 2021 23:59
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Acerbatus posted:Why'd he disavow it? I thought people thought it was ok, though I haven't looked at it myself or anything. It came out 17 years ago. I disavow everything that came out of me 17 years ago.
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Mar 10, 2021 00:06
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admanb posted:It came out 17 years ago. I disavow everything that came out of me 17 years ago. I make so much better White Wolf characters now. 
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Mar 10, 2021 00:21
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I would argue that it is entirely possible to live a modest life on TTRPG sales. You just have to be constantly making new product and kickstarting it, and keeping a very close eye on your costs. You’ll never be able to afford living in a city, but you can cover a small apartment out in the ‘burbs.
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Mar 10, 2021 02:13
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Magnusth posted:So, for the San Jenaro Quarterly Games Digest, I'm working with James Barton, another member of the co-op, to make Spelljammer, but sumerian. Current plans are that you can play river pirates (in the space rivers, of course, probably made of Abzu), merchants, smugglers, envoys, and mercs, of course. of course. Current Playbook suggestions are Akkadian warrior, urukian prince, Babylonian Astrologer, Elamite sorcerer, Urian priest, Dilmun merchant, and some sort of nomad or wanderer. it's still very early stages, but it'll be fun. Martu/Amorite shepherds work great as anything from mysterious wanderers to country bumpkins. Plus you can go with proto-Apiru people to run with an anti-slavery/liberation theme for outsiders. I was also working on a historical take on this era and have put way too much thought into it.
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Mar 10, 2021 02:20
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RE: Money I'm pretty sure I saw a screencap of a reddit post by Kevin Crawford (SWN guy) saying that his elfgames workin' has earned a revenue of 1 million dollars, which is pretty neat.
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Mar 10, 2021 10:11
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:RE: Money Crawford seems to be one of the epitomes of professional game writers.
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Mar 10, 2021 11:19
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:RE: Money It's for this reason that I target an OSR chassis with my games. Almost everyone understands it, whether they like it or not. Modern 5e players can play OSR games with minimal adjustment, and anyone who makes it to PbtA or Fate or Storyteller games has very likely at least passed through an OSR-comprehensible game on the way. Even people who have no intention of using the rules can understand what they mean and translate the concepts into their own favorite systems. I write for money, and over the past decade OSR games have earned me more than a million dollars. I suppose it's theoretically possible that Kevin Crawford's Brilliant Game System (tm) might've surpassed this sum with its shocking innovations, thrilling novelty, and zesty taco crunch, but that's not how I'd bet the rent money. e: a later reply: But in point of fact, I really did only choose an OSR-style chassis for my games because it was comprehensible to the widest possible market without being hitched to a specific other company's IP. Right now, for example, 5e-conforming rules might well be more comprehensible to a wider audience. It's possible that the current batch of active 5e players outweighs the entire active pre-5e D&D fanbase, even dating back to B/X and the little brown books. But I still wouldn't target 5e because A) I have no experience designing for it and B) 5e is going to become the stale old thing before I end my writing career. If I'm going to be targeting a stale old thing, I'd do better to target one that isn't tightly wed to someone else's IP.
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Mar 10, 2021 11:32
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:RE: Money There's always someone at the top, but it doesn't mean that much compared to the bulk of authors. (Although there is the fact that I can't think of many independent RPG systems which are still supported after 12 years.)
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Mar 10, 2021 11:33
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I think one problem is that most indie designers release maybe one or possibly two books for most projects. I have played a ton of Blades in the Dark but have only bought it one time. Most of my favorite small press indie rpg writers do so little I can't imagine there is any real way to be successful in more than a modest way. Kevin Crawford makes lots of great stuff, but I would be much more interested in how people did with much lower output. Thinking of totally new things every time you do a project is just really hard.
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Mar 10, 2021 13:11
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I mean, I like that about being a small-time author -- I get bored pretty easily, so it's a positive for me to be able to draw a line under something and call it done, then move on to something completely different. From my observations of the indie RPG market I'd say some ways to make it big include:
And I think what those have in common is they get eyes on your work. The more people know about your stuff, the bigger your potential customer base is.
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Mar 10, 2021 13:58
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I certainly appreciate these insights into the design process! I've participated in a few contests myself, but it's easy to get discouraged when other entries are so much better than yours.
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Mar 10, 2021 20:52
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hyphz posted:There's always someone at the top, but it doesn't mean that much compared to the bulk of authors. DCC is getting up there
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Mar 11, 2021 00:46
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potatocubed posted:And I think what those have in common is they get eyes on your work. The more people know about your stuff, the bigger your potential customer base is. Every so often someone messages me to ask what my secret to funding big Kickstarters is and immediately deflates when I tell them "years of posting" 
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Mar 11, 2021 02:32
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All overnight success stories take ten years, and all that
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Mar 11, 2021 04:20
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Ettin posted:Every so often someone messages me to ask what my secret to funding big Kickstarters is and immediately deflates when I tell them "years of posting" Heh, same but podcasting. "How do you get started? Should I set up a Patreon right away? How many thousands of listeners am I gonna have?" What always bums me out is that they also tell me about the recording rig they bought for it and it's always like a thousand bucks more expensive than my entire setup including travel gear.
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Mar 11, 2021 04:49
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theironjef posted:Heh, same but podcasting. "How do you get started? Should I set up a Patreon right away? How many thousands of listeners am I gonna have?" It's so easy to think there's something magic about expensive gear. With new (to us) tech my family has a general philosophy of "get the cheap one, find out what features you wish it had" and that has been SO useful in all sorts of situations.
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Mar 11, 2021 07:02
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To be fair, the one common bit of advice I do hear from actual career podcasters is "get a setup that doesn't sound like three dudes on a skype call with their onboard laptop mics", I could see people over-investing in audio stuff just because like, I sure as h*ck won't listen to bad audio podcasts anymore. Life is too short and there's too many nerd 'casts to spend time with ones that aren't crystal clear.
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Mar 11, 2021 14:17
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Countblanc posted:To be fair, the one common bit of advice I do hear from actual career podcasters is "get a setup that doesn't sound like three dudes on a skype call with their onboard laptop mics", I could see people over-investing in audio stuff just because like, I sure as h*ck won't listen to bad audio podcasts anymore. Life is too short and there's too many nerd 'casts to spend time with ones that aren't crystal clear. Agreed. $20-30 mic from Pyle Pro or Behringer, $20-30 mic boom from Neewer, $60-100 interface from Behringer or Scarlett, and a $5 or less mic sock or pop filter is more than enough for anyone to sound fantastic.
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Mar 11, 2021 15:11
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The old yarn has gone, people forgive bad video, but it's a lot harder to forgive truly bad audio. A lot of what you can do to make the audio sound better though is available with postprocessing tools but fancy recording gear that gets you as close to done as possible without doing lots of editing is what people pay the big bucks for.
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Mar 11, 2021 19:52
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I can forgive bad audio quality, but people talking over each other is where I draw the line. A certain amount of cross-talk is inevitable, especially when someone tells a joke or everyone gets excited. What's not okay is when people at the table have side conversations, which get picked up and mixed into the main audio stream by the recording setup. There's a related problem with podcasts recorded online, where the audio from the different sources isn't properly synced, so people's voices get stacked on top of each other and the recording becomes incomprehensible. I understand that editing is difficult, time consuming, and increases how long it takes to release each episode. But it has a dramatic impact on whether a piece of recorded audio is worth listening to for an hour.
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Mar 11, 2021 20:01
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aldantefax posted:The old yarn has gone, people forgive bad video, but it's a lot harder to forgive truly bad audio. A lot of what you can do to make the audio sound better though is available with postprocessing tools but fancy recording gear that gets you as close to done as possible without doing lots of editing is what people pay the big bucks for. Nah, they're paying to think they will get that. It's basically just Radio Shack selling gold cables again. A 300 dollar condenser mic is still gonna sound like rear end if you don't know how to sound baffle your space and run noise removal, compressors, silence truncation, and use your pop filters. People keep running across articles online about how to podcast and coming away thinking "This should cost me about 1500 dollars" and it's just a bold face lie.
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Mar 11, 2021 20:23
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Plenty of people do great jobs with a ~$100 USB mic and a bunch of cut up egg cartons or some blankets.
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Mar 11, 2021 22:23
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I'm too lazy to do a lot of sound dampening in my office, so I just use a dynamic mic instead of a condenser mic to mitigate a lot of it. Especially since it is a shared space with my partner and any kind of alteration to the room like that would need aesthetic approval from her.
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Mar 11, 2021 23:41
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Kibner posted:I'm too lazy to do a lot of sound dampening in my office, so I just use a dynamic mic instead of a condenser mic to mitigate a lot of it. Especially since it is a shared space with my partner and any kind of alteration to the room like that would need aesthetic approval from her. Exactly and dynamic mics are nice and cheap most of the time. It's what I recommend to everyone who, like us, lives in California and can't afford a room space to be a studio.
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Mar 12, 2021 02:25
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A pretty decent horror podcast, the Magnus Archives, managed to do a solid season and change with literally just a dude in a hallway with a mic covered by a comforter. And it's a horror podcast so silence and audio quality are at a premium. That said, they did get better when they got a proper recording set up. Even if that was correlated to them inexplicably getting really into stock sound effects.
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Mar 12, 2021 05:24
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im so incredibly tired of this industry
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Mar 12, 2021 05:57
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open_sketchbook posted:im so incredibly tired of this industry What did they do now?
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Mar 12, 2021 09:02
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open_sketchbook posted:im so incredibly tired of this industry I thought there were rules against vague posting
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Mar 14, 2021 15:56
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Xelkelvos posted:I thought there were rules against vague posting there is bitching when Mad Scientist Working does it does it count as a rule if it happens often?
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Mar 14, 2021 18:23
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