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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Got something coming out next week that's been in the oven for a while:UnCO3 posted:Do you like role-playing games? Do you like the works of Hitoshi Ashinano? Do you like map-drawing games? Do you like the peaceful twilight of this age of humanity (gently caress!) as the world changes into something new and our people find a new place for themselves in the strange and beautiful world to come?
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Jan 31, 2020 20:21
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SETTING UP YOUR FIRST DIGITAL GAME ON DRIVETHRURPG Before you do this, you need to set up your publisher account on DTRPG. You need an existing account, and then you need to click the ‘How to Sell on DriveThruRPG.com’ link in the footer of any page. This’ll bring you through the process of setting up your publisher account. Make sure to go ‘Non-exclusive’. If you go exclusive and then want to back out, you need to wait 6 months before being able to take anything you first published on DTRPG elsewhere, and the benefits of exclusivity are that they 'only' take 30% instead of 35% and you get a bit of on-site promotion. Once you’ve set up your publisher account you’ll see another option in the menu at the top of each page, marked ‘Publish’. That’ll take you to a page with this big set of drop-down menus:  From which you want to pick ‘Title Management’ -> ‘Set up a new title’. That takes you to the page for inputting all the details about your game – very similar to itch.io this is all on one long page aside from uploading the game files themselves.  Use template This lets you copy over all the details from an existing title listing – useful if you have a specific format you put the blurb in, or to keep track of which fields you use, or if you’re creating the next product in a line and want the settings to track. Title Data Title: what it says Author(s): these will show up in the ‘Authors’ section in the summary sidebar on the right of a product’s page Artist(s): as above for Author(s) Number of pages: as it says – I’m never sure whether that’s meant to include title pages etc. Price: The options are slightly different and not clearly laid out, but you can do most of the same things as itch’s pricing schemes: set a price to sell for that price, check the PWYW box to sell PWYW with that suggested price, or set price to 0 to make it free. Unlike itch there is no optional suggested higher price – either you sell at a single, fixed price, or you give it away for free, or you do PWYW. Product page text: a WYSIWYG text editor to write your blurb in; like itch’s, but with a few more options. Image uploads: standard image upload interface Cover image: a significant difference from itch! Basically you need the title/cover page of your game in an image format. It has to be portrait and it has to be 350-900px wide. If you’re not sure how to get from your game pdf to a title page (and it’s not already one single image that fits the format they want), here are a few options:
By the way, DTRPG can take a long time to add/change cover images. Audio product: there’s a final checkbox in this section if you’re uploading any kind of audio  Category Assignments This is basically the tag equivalent on DTRPG, but less flexible and with more guidance. You can check boxes to assign your game one or more items in each of these categories:
 Product File Information PDF Source: leave it on ‘electronic format’ unless you’re actually scanning in pages of old books File Security: a couple of security measures that don’t have an easy equivalent on itch. I feel like they’re more security theatre than anything enforceable, though Automatic Previews: different options for mini and full-size previews on the product page – you can select the page range for each. Obviously, if you’re selling something, don’t give it all away for free in a full-size pdf preview  Optional Information Scheduled release date: only useful if you’re putting up the page as a preview Stock number: mark the amount of stock to begin with (I don’t know if you need to update this, but I’d hope it updates automatically). Obviously for pdfs this is irrelevant unless you’re doing a limited promotion ISBN: again a mark of DTRPG’s role selling physical products Sort priority: this sets where the game appears in your DTRPG storefront. Lower numbers appear first/top-left, higher numbers appear after that in order. If you want products to appear in the order you published them, start with a very high number (e.g. 9999) and subtract 1 for each new product so you always have headroom and don’t have to edit everything’s priority just because you published something new Adult product: this basically restricts your audience Send to reviewers: sends a copy to all ‘DTRPG featured reviewers’. I guess check it if those people generally like products like yours, otherwise don't, seeing as bad reviews or ratings probably tank you if not algorithmically then socially. Purchase note: like download instructions on itch, you can use this to add a message to anyone who downloads the game Video url: works like the trailer video on itch That’s it! Except for uploading the game itself, that is. That’s separate from the title listing. Click ‘Save title listing’, then go back to the main menu page and click through ‘Title Management’ -> ‘Update digital download files for a title’. This takes you to a page with a drop-down menu field where you can find/search for your new title listing – click through and it’ll take you to the file upload page.  Upload Files This is another standard file upload interface. Drag and drop, or click and use a file explorer, then click the ‘begin upload’ link. Manage Files When the files are uploaded they’ll appear in the list below, where you can edit visible file names or delete files. Unfortunately you can’t reorder, so if you have multiple files and the order matters you may have to be precise when uploading or delete some and reupload until you get the right order. Below that you set the file type (e.g. watermarked pdf) and whether or not the files are available for sale. That’s it! Except for making the page itself public, that is. Go back to your publisher hub and look at the ‘Most Recent Title’ option (or ‘All Titles’). These are quick summaries that let you edit a few key properties – the product name, price, available formats, and page status (is it public or private?) As the publisher, you can always check out your own private pages, so you can double-check everything before making it public. You also have the option of viewing your own product pages as yourself (its publisher) or as a customer would see them. You can find this option on your products’ pages. Here’s a simple step-by-step list:
One more thing – when you share a link to your product’s page, either do it in ‘view as a customer’ viewing mode or delete the extra ‘?view_as_pub=1’ setting on the end of the url. I don’t think it’ll cause problems, but it will get rid of the extra characters, which matters if you’re tweeting about it (unless you use tinyurl or another url-shortening service).
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Feb 1, 2020 16:24
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Actually, shamless self-promotion is good
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Feb 2, 2020 23:53
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I published another drat game! Here's the cross-post from the general chat thread, with some of the text cut:UnCO3 posted:
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Feb 12, 2020 01:42
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Agent Rush posted:This might be kind of a broad question, but does anyone have advice for using a pen name or handle? Or would it just be better to use my legal name for anything I'm trying to sell? As far as picking a name goes, of course, it’s gonna reflect things about the content you create (or, give people impressions about that).
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Feb 16, 2020 10:15
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There's been a bit of discourse on twitter about pricing (impact of free products on paid and vice versa, reasons for giving stuff away for free, accessible pricing, etc.), so I put together a thread on parallel accessible pricing. https://twitter.com/SpeaktheSky/status/1250038840514969603 Here's the details of that thread, but please give it a retweet if you have a twitter account, so more people become aware of this stuff. - There's (at least) five different ways to sell stuff at a regular price and have low/no-cost versions at the same time, each iwth their own advantages and disadvantages:
1) COMMUNITY COPIES First, you go to the "edit project" page, then open this menu on the right of the project toolbar:  Then, click "New reward". Despite the name, this is a possible way to give stuff away for free (as well as do limited-edition runs, etc.):   Now you can enter the details of your community copies. Set price to $0 (it's gotta be equal or higher than your base price, or 0). Set total quantity to however many you want to start with—I start with 10, then add 1 per sold copy, excluding big bundles and 100%-off sales. (Note: this is the total amount and there's no way to make it automatically track anything. Example: you start with 10 community copies and you have a policy to add one for each copy sold, then someone buys the game (+1), then two people download community copies (-2). The counter will still show 10, and you need to change it to 11, not 9.) You can also add some text explaining the idea of community copies (feel free to copy the text I've used Twilight Song) and change the section title if you want. Here's how all that looks on one of my pages:  2) VOLUNTARY/OPT-IN DISCOUNTS This one's probably the most involved to set up. This twitter thread (quoted in mine) shows how to do it:https://twitter.com/DeePennyway/status/1175023957369675776Basically you set a create a long-running sale with a decent-sized discount on a game, create a coupon code with unlimited coupons when setting up the sale, then add a notice somewhere on the game's page (preferably near the payment options) with a link to the sale and an explanation of who it's for. Put the coupon code on the sale page so anyone who needs it can get it. Making it coupon-only means the sale doesn't override the regular price, so you basically have two prices at the same time. You'll need to do this separately for every game you want the opt-in discount for, because if you put multiple games in the same sale it'll form a bundle that'll add a widget to the top of each game's page that'll take up a load of space. 3) DEMO SECTIONS This one's probably the easiest. Just upload files as normal, then take a look at the file upload details and check the 'demo' box:  That moves the file to a different section of the main page (you should probably add a note somewhere in the main body of text, since demos get shunted to the bottom):  I've used this for, among other things: teaser content (like the oracles from Twilight Song), text AP writeups (on The Cromlech Archives), limited-page previews (8-page previews for From Sea to Shining Sea), and earlier or playtest versions of games where the finished or significantly updated/overhauled versions are available at a cost (Pockets full of Stars). 4) PRICE TIERS You can put up a no-frills version (e.g. sans layout, art, clever formatting and so on, maybe even .txt) at a lower cost or for free, while also having the full version available for the full price. The way you set this up is very simple, as above, but not as clear as it could be. Again, upload the files as normal. Then, check the box marked "Set a different price":  This lets you set a higher price than the base price for the game, basically putting certain files on certain tiers in a roundabout way. For example, if you have 3 files for download, 1 for free and the other two marked as $6, then if someone pays $0-5.99 they can download the free file and if they pay $6+ they can download all three. 5) REGULAR SALES Probably the most involved option, but also very simple. Pick two prices for your game, a regular one and an accessible one (maybe 33-66% off). Set the higher price as the normal one and regularly do sales where you reduce the price to the lower one. 6) BASE+PWYW Not included in the tweet thread, but also technically a way to price accessibly: Itch lets you set a base price and a suggested price (check my post about setting up itch projects), which is different from regular PWYW (i.e. free with a suggested amount). In my experience, the majority of people who buy on itch will pay a bit extra if you're selling at base+PWYW and very few people will pay at all if you're selling at 0+PWYW. Right now my system is basically three tiers:
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Apr 14, 2020 15:40
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Also, I'm gonna neaten up the list of people in the third post (and cut down on the details), so if you want to be on the list, say what you do and provide any links for where people can find you and your work e.g. UnCO3/Speak the Sky designs and simulates games ([itch], [dtrpg], [twitter], [patreon], etc.). If you're specifically looking for or offering work (for money or for payment in kind), you can mention that too.
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Apr 14, 2020 15:50
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:I finally pulled my poo poo together, completed a game, and got it up for sale on itch.io. As far as goons on itch.io go, here's a list in no particular order:
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Apr 15, 2020 16:23
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Minor correction to a few posts and tweets I made about community copies: you can see who's downloaded community copies (though not only should anyone who's offering community copies not give a poo poo anyway, and not only should publishers respect the privacy of the people who buy their content, itch's terms explicitly prohibit sharing purchaser info).
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Apr 19, 2020 11:35
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UnCO3 posted:Also, I'm gonna neaten up the list of people in the third post (and cut down on the details), so if you want to be on the list, say what you do and provide any links for where people can find you and your work e.g. UnCO3/Speak the Sky designs and simulates games ([itch], [dtrpg], [twitter], [patreon], etc.). If you're specifically looking for or offering work (for money or for payment in kind), you can mention that too.
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Apr 19, 2020 11:35
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Finally, for those who're curious, here's the personal data a seller receives in different scenarios on itch: When you buy a game individually (through a sale or otherwise), the seller receives your:
**this varies wildly—some places, like twitter and google, only tell you the site; others, like SA, give you the url of the page; this field also includes internal sources like 'the seller's user profile' or 'the download page of another game' ***this includes anyone with content in a co-op bundle; they all have access to analytics Itch prohibits publicly revealing this info or using it for unrelated marketing etc. Most of it's pretty straightforward. Nationality is there because it adds tax to the purchase for some nationalities due to international tax law, so you can see how much people are having to pay extra. I'd guess IP is there for troubleshooting certain digital games—I can't see why you'd need it otherwise. Side note, I have my itch payouts set up as collected by itch first, one upshot being that anyone who buys one of my products pays itch (via paypal or whatever), and itch sends a payout to me on request. That means I never see anyone's paypal account info. UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Apr 23, 2020 |
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Apr 19, 2020 13:01
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Just published my first piece of content for Trophy Dark, and my second thing for someone else's game overall (first was a Dialect backdrop about tech startup culture):UnCO3 posted:
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Apr 20, 2020 19:34
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Elblanco posted:Would I be allowed to toss out a couple ideas I've had for games and get some feedback? I mostly want to know if they're even practical to produce in the long run, but I don't have any experience actually producing games. potatocubed posted:I just posted a financial postmortem for the Bleak Spirit KS which explains where all the money went, in case people are interested.
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Apr 26, 2020 18:02
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Thanks—I'm considering asking for paid contributions on some future projects, so it's good to know. Current state of the list as I slowly work my way through the thread:
code:UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 09:17 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 19:46
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'Making enough to pay taxes'? What's that?
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May 14, 2020 20:29
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This might be of interest to people here, both experienced and new: the Wretched & Alone Game Jam (nothing to do with me). It's a game jam for games using the 'Wretched & Alone' SRD (free here), a 1-player Jenga tower/dice/card system for stories of inevitable, yet seemingly-avoidable decline and demise. The two games written before the jam are:
If you don't have a Jenga tower then here's a substitute mechanic I posted on twitter and on the jam's itch forum—for this one you only need access to an online dice roller like orokos or a discord dicebot. The system is simple but looks solid and can be easily ported to different settings and stories as-is, and the layout and style of the existing games is pretty simple too; black text on a white background with full-page cover images almost would fit right in. The only things you really need to do are:
I've got a few ideas myself, but I've also got 2 more game jams to publish for, so I may not be able to get around to any of the 3 ideas I have for WA. Pale Peril posted:I've been inspired to try to create some original setting content for a SRD/Creative Commons/open licensed based rules system by a small (but arguably prestigious) publisher.
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May 16, 2020 18:29
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Didn't the 7th Sea 2e. kickstarter kinda screw themselves over by giving out all their previous products for free to pretty much anyone who pledged?
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May 20, 2020 11:57
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Cross-posting from the general chat thread:UnCO3 posted:
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May 24, 2020 15:18
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Hostile V posted:Also congrats to Potatocubed for getting a four episode campaign of Pigsmoke played by some folks on RPPR's Tabletop Tales AP site. http://tabletoptales.roleplayingpublicradio.com/tag/pigsmoke/ Meinberg posted:My CATS-inspired game has a one-shot Actual Play! Nemesis Of Moles posted:Here's the current draft!
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May 30, 2020 10:48
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Anyone interested in pooling some existing games and other products into a bundle on itch.io and donating the proceeds to a bail fund or something similar? Alternatively, sending people download keys if they show transaction receipts for donations made in their own name (for the bundle or before the bundle)? It's easy to set up a publisher account if you're not already publishing on there.
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May 31, 2020 22:22
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Cool, I've set up a discord server where we can sort stuff out. Anyone else who wants to get in can join too (if you're reading this after the link's expired, post again for a new one).
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Jun 1, 2020 12:29
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Len posted:I'm not a dev but I'll throw in money day one and share the link around. MIGIZI Support Bundle MIGIZI is a Minneapolis organisation that supports Native American youth—unfortunately their building was damaged by fire last week, so they need donations to rebuild as well as run their usual program. So, here we've got a bundle with content from a bunch of game designers in Trad Games (Nemesis of Moles/Sandy Pug, Meinberg, Jimbozig, potatocubed, and myself). You can see all the games on the bundle page, a pretty diverse mix: some big, some small; some better-known, some a little obscure; a whole spread of genres and types. The bundle will run until a week from now, and the donation should be able to be made about two weeks after that (a week for itch to process payments, then about another week for itch to process a payout).
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Jun 3, 2020 01:44
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Congrats! That reminds me, I've got my own Final Bid hack in my WIP list (a drama-documentary about mountain climbers on the fictional tallest mountain on earth), but I started it when Final Bid was still just Law's Out. How much have the rules changed from one to the other?
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Jun 9, 2020 17:01
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gnome7 posted:Biggest change between them is Rises and Falls are no longer "early movie scene / late movie scene," but instead the Rise is "add more to the scope and possibilities of the movie" and the Fall is "answer questions/narrow the scope of the movie", and you can always either Rise or Fall when you get your major scene, regardless of who Rose or Fell before you. - Cross-posting from chat thread: UnCO3 posted:
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Jun 10, 2020 00:46
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Cross-posting from the general chat thread:UnCO3 posted:Sorry to interrupt the discussion about eggs etc. (eggsetera?) but I just both published an update for one of my bigger games and released a new playset for the same! UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Jun 17, 2020 |
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Jun 17, 2020 02:38
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The one person I'm aware of having an LLC here is potatocubed and as far as I remember it's a six of one half a dozen of the other situation (and they're at the level where they're running successful ~£10k kickstarters, not just starting out). They'd be able to tell you more, and correct me if I'm wrong somewhere.
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Jun 22, 2020 00:22
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Cross-posting some accountability from the general chat thread:UnCO3 posted:I couple weeks ago I and a bunch of SA-based designers ran the MIGIZI Support Bundle, an itch bundle in support of a Minneapolis org that supports Native American youth. For accountability, here's the donation receipt (just made today after ~2 weeks of payment and payout processing):
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Jun 25, 2020 12:28
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I helped out with some design and layout advice for PYTHIA and I can confirm it's worth your money! Cross-posting a game of my own, plus a summer sale with rising pricing: UnCO3 posted:I've just published the DEATH of NUMISMUS, a solo journal god-game about a dying god of coin, sundered by hungry adventurers breaking into their holy vaults and dethroned by jealous rival gods stealing back their facets of godhood! It's one of my entries into the Wretched and Alone Jam on itch.io,, and it uses tarot cards, a coin stack, and whatever journal-writing method you like. RTs very welcome, and give it a look if you're interested!
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Jul 3, 2020 00:51
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Yeah same, though that could just be the wording. 'Perspective' feels deeply intrinsic somehow. The other thing is how much you're expecting for the pitch section right at the bottom.
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Jul 10, 2020 23:03
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Avery Alder did a thread on business practices that people here might find useful or interesting: https://twitter.com/lackingceremony/status/1281790886532091909 Nemesis Of Moles posted:Speaking of forms, we launched the Ald-Amura Historical Society Grant Project today. The short of it is we put aside a chunk of money from our Monster Care Squad Kickstarter and created a grant to help fans of the setting and the game build their own fan works. More details in the form but I figure some people in here might wanna get an application in.
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Jul 11, 2020 10:29
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