Gareth – Page 87 – The Designer Monologues

November 12, 2013

Insurgent Creative: Independence

Valuable advice from filmmaker Gary Hustwit, excerpted from Tell Me Something: Advice from Documentary Filmmakers:

“Embrace the idea of releasing your work yourself, without a film distributor or record label or book publisher or other middleman involved. Don’t listen to people who try to convince you that you need them in order to get your work out there. You don’t.

The Internet is such an incredible gift to creative artists, one that allows us to reach the people who want our work directly. But I’m amazed at how quickly some people want to give that gift back and let someone else control how their art reaches the audience, and how they’re compensated for that art.

Build a direct relationship with the people who want to see your work, and run your own small company to produce and distribute it. I know, to some of you that doesn’t sound like a good thing. But it is. You might be thinking, I don’t want to be a businessperson. I’m an artist; I just want to focus on the creative stuff. Well, if you want to keep creating, you need to know where the funds are coming from. I know it sounds like a lot of work and responsibility dealing with the business issues yourself, but you’ll be much more knowledgeable about your industry if you learn how it works through doing it.

Yes, it would be convenient to hand off these responsibilities to someone else. But if your goal as an artist is to be self-sustaining – that is, to be able to work on whatever projects you want to without anyone else’s approval, and be able to make a living from that work – then I don’t really see any alternative. A catalog of work that you create over your career, and that you retain full rights to, is a long-term asset that will continue to benefit you in ways you can’t even imagine right now.”

To which I would only add:

The creative work is the hard part, and you’re already doing that. Building direct relationships with people who enjoy what you create? Running a small company to produce and distribute your own stuff? That’s comparatively simple.

November 8, 2013

Transmedia Call of Cthulhu

Cubicle 7 Entertainment is launching a Kickstarter for their newest release for Call of Cthulhu — a deluxe boxed set detailing London in the 1920s. The Kickstarter will go live on November 12th. The box set will feature a complete guide to London during the period, full-color maps, player hand-outs, adventures, a Keeper’s Guide, and more.

During the run of the Kickstarter, there’s a transmedia game underway as well — Investigator Neve Selcibuc is recovering from some recent unpleasantness by getting some much needed relaxation in London, and she’ll be sending out postcards apprising us of her progress, and asking for our advice on where to go and what to do. The first of the postcards has already been sent, and appears above (Click for a full-sized version). Answer her by emailing neveselcibuc@gmail.com. You can also follow her progress via Twitter:

Dear friends, my first postcard from London. http://t.co/zdxiRh7ERP pic.twitter.com/HP5SHxP3sh

— Neve Selcibuc (@NeveSelcibuc) November 8, 2013

So come along for the ride — it should be very, very interesting… and check out the London boxed set Kickstarter when it goes live.

October 22, 2013

Open or Die

Today, Margaret Weis Products revealed the language for their Cortex Plus license, which comes in two varieties: one for fans, and one for publishers. This is the end result of MWP’s Kickstarter of the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide — a stretch goal of which was described in this update as “an open license for Cortex Plus.” The only problem, however, is that this license isn’t open at all.

In practice, aside from some very odd language (including a requirement that publishers make their product available via DriveThruRPG, a separate company that is not connected to MWP in any way), the license actually more closely resembles the Savage Worlds license from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. (And, to be fair, in earlier updates, MWP said that the license would be similar to Savage Worlds — they only later used the “open” term.)

Monte Cook was one of the designers of 3rd edition D&D (the game which launched the Open Game License), and, once he left Wizards of the Cost, he founded Malhavoc Press which benefitted immensely from the Open Game License. In the past month, he released the licensing terms for his new work, Numenara, which has been the subject of criticism and backlash for, among other things, not being a true Open License.

It honestly stuns me that there are publishers who still have not learned the lesson of D&D 4th Edition. The title of this post may put it a bit dramatically, but the simple fact is this: If your system is not truly Open, you are dooming your game to a niche audience, and willingly giving up market share to systems that ARE open.

4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons wasn’t open — and ended up conceding their position at the top of the tabletop hobby games market to Pathfinder — ironically just a re-titled and tinkered-with version of the previous edition of D&D, which WAS open.

And yet, publishers still cling to the old ideas of their IP and their Brand, ignoring the lessons of the past decade.

Since 2000, a system paired with an open-use license, whether the familiar OGL or more widely-applicable licenses like Creative Commons, has become an expected standard for a majority of gamers — it’s driven the success of FATE, Pathfinder, the entire Old-School Renaissance, etc.

It’s a fairly simple formula:

At this point, there’s been 13 years for people to see this, and to see the fruits of this model doing great things for designers and companies that have taken advantage of it. But there’s still resistance, even in the face of evidence.

Publishers need to become comfortable with the idea that their systems are not their true IP — the expressions of their systems, through their game settings, are where that concentration should lie. The system itself should be viewed as part of your branding — and the more people you can get hawking your brand, the better your position in the market.

At this point, doing things the old way is telling gamers that you’re fine with a smaller audience. Which tells them that they’re not going to find it as easy to find other people to play with, if they use your system. I’m not sure why any publisher would choose to send that message.