Stories You Play

The guys at Harmonix, who created Rock Band, just summed up the biggest problem I see in indie RPGs.

Oh, a quick clarification: When I say indie RPGs I mean creator-owned publishing. I don’t necessarily mean “small press” although nearly all creator owners I know of are small press. Confused? Yeah, I know.

We naively believed that if we … created a game that was fun, it would be successful. What we failed to recognize was that you have to make games that are easily marketable.

This is strongly counter to approaches and philosophies that several of my pals and peers have, and counter to my own stated philosophies in recent years. I’m not saying people can’t or shouldn’t have different ideas about this.

Neither am I saying that creator-owned publishers aren’t profitable or successful on their creator’s terms. I know many that are both. My own games were remarkably profitable all considered, and I still own them which itself has value.

What I am saying is that creator-owned publishing has a big flaw. One of the defining characteristics of indie publishing is that the creator defines his own success. I’m still ok with that. I like that about creator-owned publishing.

However, suppose I define my success as “I will sell 2,000 units over the next 2 years” where a unit is a RPG “main” book/publication of some kind. Under the current definitions of creator-owned publishing, this is Herculean. I won’t say it’s impossible. I will say that almost no one has done it. Luke Crane, who’s a friend, leads the pack. Even he admitted it’s extremely difficult. I don’t think he sold 2,000 of any of Burning Wheel or Burning Empires in 2 years, but I’m not certain about that. He did it and more; it just took longer.

So, the problem is this: Creator-owned publishing doesn’t literally mean it’s impossible to achieve reasonable business goals. (I find it reasonable to have a part-time business that sells 1,000 things per year.) But, it does mean that it’s basically impossible in practical terms.

Why is this the problem? Well, just like those Harmonix guys said. Marketing. We don’t make games that the vast majority of gamers demand.

But wait!

Now, there are a couple arguments about this — which I argued in support of myself previously.

First, one argument is that the indie scene creates games for non-gamers (i.e. people who don’t play role-playing games much or at all). In other words, people are saying that indie publishers need to create a new market. Anecdotally, sure, people converted “regular folks” into players of indie games. In practical terms, these numbers are part of the reason it’s nigh-impossible to sell 1,000 units a year.

Indie publishers are terrible at creating new markets. They have no idea how. They have basically no resources (certainly no budgets). They rely on information tainted by confirmation bias and absurdly small samples of info from fellow enthusiasts. (When I say “they” here, I include myself. I preached this idea about new markets. I now view it as a bad idea, especially because it makes people who are already doing EVERYTHING in their operation to work harder than new product developers at big marketing departments. It’s crazy.)

Second, another argument is that the indie scene creates games for disaffected gamers, so “gamers” aren’t their market anyway. For hobbyists who don’t find what they want in the mainstream products. I find no flaw in this argument! I suspect it’s quite correct, as far as it goes. Which isn’t too far, and that’s the problem. Even if there are somewhere, out there, a bunch of these kinds of gamers that would be well suited to a bunch of indie games, I believe they are wholly ignorant about indie games! They don’t even know they exist, let alone what they’re like!

In all fairness, I’ve got no data to confirm this. I wish I had data to think better about this stuff. I have a bunch of anecdotes that lead me to conclude that the indie scene is so tiny and contained that well over 2,000 potential buyers over the next 2 years are certainly out there … buying mainstream games. The indie scene is <i>hardcore</i>. Ultra hardcore. When I look at, say, a guy I used to game with in college and keep in contact with, I see a guy who would love, I dunno, Agon or Lacuna. He has never heard of Agon. Hell, he’s never even cracked open Dust Devils as far as I know, and he’s a good friend of mine. I doubt he even knows what Savage Worlds is about. But, Pathfinder? He just told me he’s all interested. We haven’t played together in years. He just knew about it and is interested.

So what?

Now, there’s a giant, deserved “So what?” brewing here. It’s fair. So what, indeed. I’m not saying creator-owned publishing in general is doing it wrong. Given its resources in particular, it’s doing pretty damn well! Why change? I see no need for any individual to change. This is a goals issue — a matter of how one defines one’s success as a publisher.

But, I do see opportunities for someone inclined to changed his or her philosophies about all this publishing stuff. That may include me. I don’t know. I have so little free time and resources these days it’s hard to commit to anything.

But, I think there’s a lot a person could do along a spectrum of publishing set-ups.

Before I spell out some ideas about that, let me say that each involves something I don’t think happens very much. It requires a publisher to make tough choices about what will get him the most sales and actual play. I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that all games are not created equal. I think it’s slightly controversial to say that some games should have been left on the cutting room floor.

It’s controversial to say that because who the fuck am I to say what an individual “should” do with his game? To answer that, I’m no one. Seriously, I don’t want to tell some publisher that. But, I just did, sorta. Damn. My point is that I think too few creator owners abandon a game for reasons of success metrics, rather than, say, artistic vision or something similar.

I digress. Now, on to my thoughts on publishing frameworks.

Individual creator-owners could create a kind of publishing co-operative, pool resources, and reach more gamers with those resources. I believe they’d have to make very, very hard decisions about what games to market. In fact, I suspet that’d be a deal-breaker for some.

Another example: Someone could create a marketing entity where creator-owners pay to have their games better marketed. This may or may not dismantle creator-ownership because I see the marketing agent making decisions about positioning and possibly even price to make it succeed.

There is of course the more drastic answer, which is to say relinquish true creator-ownership and go in another direction. It needn’t be the traditional model of hiring freelancers for content and so on. It could be co-op or partnership ideas where the group creates whole new products/properties. That is, some kind of shared ownership, rather than owner-freelancer. Again, hard decisions about creative vision would have to happen.

Good ideas

Assuming any of the above works, just putting any ol’ game out there because it has creative vision and passion behind it won’t work. What’d those guys say? “What we failed to recognize was that you have to make games that are easily marketable.”

I know this first hand. My game Nine Worlds fails this test. Hell, it failed that test within the indie scene alone! It’s a strange beast to the vast swath of potential games out there. I love it; it’s just not easily marketable.

So, just from a personal perspective, I’d love to see indie games and mainstream games cross-pollinate. Indie publishers have crazy, awesome ideas. Some are revolutionary, so much so they’d turn off many “mainstream” gamers. Still, a lot of those ideas have a place at the table of mainstream gamers. I can see a lot of play techniques developed for indie games working in D&D and Shadowrun and you name it. By and large, that’s not happening much.

And, looking from the other direction, there are lots of ways mainstream games can get indie publishers a wider audience for things they create. This is particularly true with open licenses for games like Savage Worlds or Pathfinder and others. Assuming he even wanted to (which I’m sure he doesn’t, by the way), could John Harper create a remarkable Savage Worlds product that would sell 2,000 units in 2 years? Probably. It’d certainly be easier to do than him selling 2,000 units of Agon in 2 years.

Wrap it up

If you bothered to read this far, then chances are you’re aware I stopped publishing my games in fall of 2008. The thinking above was a major reason why. I had other reasons, too. This article is not meant as a poke in the eye toward any of my friends and colleagues. You all are doing a hell of a lot more than me lately! I think you create incredibly cool things. I just changed my mind about some (not all) of the underpinnings of why I’d want to do likewise.

I have no idea what I do as a creator now. I have two thoughts about it. I do relatively little, maybe publish some free games and material on my site. The other is that I start something new, but I’m almost certain doing so requires me to collaborate with others. I can’t accomplish what I want on my own anymore, but I don’t have some devious plan cooked up.

I welcome a conversation about all this from any publisher’s perspective.

1st place: José Jiménez

José Jiménez cover

José Jiménez layout

José Jiménez character sheet

Judges Comments

• Has the design basics, but needs a few more passes. The Mouseguard size is an interesting choice, but doesn’t bring much to the layout. That said, there is a lot of promise in the layout overall and is just steps away from being cooked to perfection.
• In general, composition of the interior pages is open and organized, it breathes. Good. Styles use strong contrast to set off sections of text. Folios on bottom are helpful. In general, use  of illustrations is effective and contextual. Creative cropping sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.
• This person has a reasonable sense of design and a basic knowledge of layout programs. The layout shows promise.

CONGRATULATIONS JOSÉ! You win:

2nd place: Micah Bauer

Micah Bauer cover

Micah Bauer layout

Micah Bauer character sheet

Judges comments:

• This entry is killed by random styles and page breaks with little consideration to the readability of the document. Nothing is seamless here. Some fluff, but no fire.
• Nice work on the cover. While I like the texture of the interior pages, the layout lacks more helpful architecture. It has no folios or guides, which will make the reference-heavy text more readable and useful for players. Watch orphans, particularly on subheadings and headings.
• This person looked at Mouse Guard and built a layout based on its form and look. They built four, maybe five, style sheets and then blindly (and blandly applied them throughout). This entrant has overlooked the crucial art of layout — to take all the parts that don’t fit and make them look seamless and readable. 

3rd place: Bill Brown

Bill Browne covers (Bill split the lifepaths into a separate book)

Bill Browne layout

Bill Browne character sheet

Judges comments:

• It was a solid effort. Tried to layout the entire book to make it follow a single theme. Lacked nuance, but the effort was solid.
• The general layout of the interior pages is dense — needs more room to “breathe.” Notably, the gutter — the space between columns, needs more room, as do the margins. Also, I like the colored boxes for player reference, but they need more padding between text and box edges.
• This guy really tried. He tinkered with the layout for the whole book and really tried to make it work as a whole. The artistry is lacking, but the effort is clear and appreciated.

In my previous entry, I explained my initial steps for my book designs. I settled on type and some style sheets. I also mentioned sketching a page template. That’s what this entry’s all about.

I always have a mind’s eye view of my designs. I do my best to capture that imagined vision, but it isn’t always easy.

For Conspiracy of Shadows: Dirty Hands, I wanted to capture a gritty, horrific look and feel. And, I also wanted a medieval vibe. There are a number of ways to do both. Games Workshop does it to various effect in many of its Warhammer books (including the Black Industries cum Fantasy Flight Games versions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay).

For this project, I had a slightly different vision. I wanted the book to combine old typography with modern day grunge effects. I envisioned grungy scrollwork that’s been the rage the last couple years. Think stuff that looks like tatoos. Barbed scrollwork, maybe splatters of blood. But, I also wanted a more modern, “layered” look. It might still be some distressed boxes. The idea was how Keith presents his work. It has a very strong historical fantasy element. But, he also mixes it up with some modern elements. In the comic book dialog, for example, the medieval guys swear with modern words. I love that effect. It may seem anachronistic, but it works.

But, I face a challenge. Doing that kind of illustration is damn hard and tedious. I’m no illustrator, but I can use Adobe Illustrator with good results. So, I needed models. I started web searching. I was particularly interested in terms like “scrollwork” and “eastern european” and some others. I finally discovered a few inspiring pages from Serbian manuscripts and, oddly enough, the modern-day vestments of an Australian priest.

Inspiration from Serbian Manuscripts, a priest's vestments, and some lineart scrollwork.

Those helped me bring an imagined vision into some concrete terms, but I still had plenty of work ahead.

Choosing page and text sizes

For starters, I had to decide on a page size and text area. As always, I turned to my handy Bringhurst. The Elements of Tyopgraphic Style has some genius information about page size ratios, choosing text blocks, and choosing other page elements like folios, magins and so on.

I wanted to have a 2-column layout, because I never seem to make them work well. I wanted another stab at it (not to mention it’s much more like a medieval manuscript). But, I also didn’t want letter size. I’m just tired of letter size. So, I settled on one of my go-to sizes, half-legal. It’s a broad page size (7 inches x 8.5 inches). A nice, squat thing with plenty of horizontal space. From there, I had to choose a text block size and location. Bringhurst’s many ratios and ideas about “chords” of rectangles helped.

I confess I get wrapped up in the esoterric stuff with these ratios. It’s amusing to me. But, in truth, I fudge here and there. I just like to play around. Here’s my pencil sketches of page design:

My pencil sketches showing page size and text block ratios and measurements, plus some initial scrollwork ideas.

Here you can see a couple things. I sketched out the basic page (top left) and worked through the measurements (in picas — I always use picas, mainly because I'm used to them from way back). The star-pattern looking thing on the bottom left is mostly nonsense — me aping Bringhurst's stuff to learn. But, it did remind me that the page is divided evenly into thirds of 14 picas. Double that (and add a gutter) and – VOILA! – a "meaningful" column width.

Even more intersting is the stuff on the right side. That's me sketching out those initial scrollwork ideas, as well as some "hanging" illustrations with magin captions. That should make for interesting options in layout, but there really aren't any captions. Hmmm. Well, an idea for stuff later on then.

Next, I have to take all these sketches into digital form. Since I know I'm doing the scrollwork (by far the trickiest part) in Adobe Illustrator, I started there. I created a 2-page spread (just a landscape legal page), and set guides for all my magins and text block sizes. I used some gray boxes to represent text and some other elements. That way, I knew the confines of my scrollwork and other elements so I could do a very, very rough digital sketch for the shape. Like so:

The page takes shape in Illustrator. Note the crudely drawn scrollwork border overlapping with the precisely drawn version.

Here, you can see my clumsy first sketch (just drawn with me dragging the mouse on the pencil or brush tool). And, the crisper, better looking version of me making it work in the pen tool, which is my secret weapon in illustrator. I did a similar process to this when I designed folios for Nine Worlds.

The page started taking shape. But, I knew I had a problem. So far, I couldn’t figure out how to give the page design that layered, more modern shape I was trying to capture. So, I just started drawing more rectangles, though not entirely without purpose. I was thinking about where chapter headings, even guide words could go. Here’s the result:

The final page prototype. Note the angled bars top left and horizontal bars top right. I placed the inspiration art to test illustration locations on the template.

The page finally takes shape. From vision to form. But, there’s still a lot of work to do, not least of all the scroll work. And, of course, pagination of the text itself. Both of those will take a lot of time to complete.

I kicked off the layout contest for Conspiracy of Shadows: Dirty Hands, hosted right here on StoriesYouPlay.com

Luke Crane, Keith Senkowski, and I challenge you to create an amazing book layout during the month of June, 2009. Each participant who meets the challenge receives Dust Devils and Nine Worlds PDFs. And, the big winner of the best book design receives free RPG books, including ENnie nominee Mouse Guard.

I’m really eager to see what people come up with for the contest. Meanwhile, I’ll be doing my own layout and posting here as I develop my own design. I’m just doing it for fun, maybe offering a few tips along the way. I’m not a participant in the contest.

UPDATE!

The winner for 2009 is José Jiménez. Check out the layout contest winners.

INTRODUCTION

We’ve seen many game design contests. Now, take a stab at designing a killer layout from an existing game.

Layout takes some creativity and a lot of work. The length of the text in this contest is significant. I deliberately designed this contest to mimic the hard work it takes to design a game. You will learn and improve as a book designer in this effort. Stick with it!

THE NAME OF THE GAME

You have until June 30 to complete an entire RPG book design for Conspiracy of Shadows: Dirty Hands by Keith Senkowski. This is a horror RPG with a pseudo-historical Europe background. It’s a wonderful, under-rated game, and the text is free.

For this contest, you’ll be using a specially edited version of the game text. It is the full game rules. However, I’ve trimmed the Life Paths and Rituals sections to help make the contest more manageable. (Don’t get too excited! The text is still robust, and Keith will release a full version with all Life Paths and Rituals soon.)

JUDGING & CRITERIA

Layout/art veterans Luke Crane (creator of Burning Wheel), Keith Senkowski, and Matt Snyder (creator of Dust Devils) will judge entries based on the following criteria:

• (40%) Information Design: Consistency, usability, & readability.
• (20%) Art Direction: Selection of artwork, contextual placement, cover design, overall vision, and original art or artwork modfications
• (20%) Use of Typography: Readability, composition, and “color”
• (20%) Aesthetic Appeal: Conveys color & atmosphere of the game, pleasing to look at

PRIZES!

Everyone who completes an entry receives free Dust Devils and Nine Worlds PDFs.

Besides fame and glory from the notoriously grumpy Luke, Keith, and Matt the winner will receive the following hard copy products:

• Agon by John Harper
• Dust Devils by Matt Snyder
• Mouse Guard by Luke Crane
• A print of artwork from Conspiracy of Shadows by Keith Senkowski

The winner will be announced near the first week of July, time permitting for judges to review entries.