Forming team to create RPG games

Hey Mike,

While I agree with previous posters that your initial offer was very off-putting, there's never any reason to get nasty or personal with feedback. At least when others post on threads, the community has visibility to those comments...private PMs on the other hand offer a "closed" forum, where some may take the opportunity to "go off..." so for that reason I'm sorry if you had to endure any offensive feedback. That's not what this community is about, though reality-checking and open honest criticism is important to finding success for our projects.

I checked out your site, and I have some questions:
1. How do you see your consultation working? Do you expect designers to pay, or will this be a free forum much like BGDF? We're all consultants to one another here, and it's been proven to be a successful forum at that. If what you're offering are trusted design consultants with a history of published and successful games under their belts, best to offer bios of each one as you build your group and really push the "trusted and successful" factor to attract business.

2. Beta testing...what exactly do you plan on offering here? This I see as the biggest opportunity, filling the greatest need of finding a diverse group of playtesters and gaining structured and valuable feedback. This is something which designers would likely pay for if the price and structure is right.

3. Production and distribution...interesting that you say you'll handle both, but until you have some examples of past projects which you've had demonstrated success at doing both, there are too many other trusted sources for both services. You're going up against Panda, AdMagic and other big companies who open the door for the little guy, so you need to offer something unique in addition to demonstrating your ability to follow through.

Contradiction: "we can assist you including branding, marketing, advertising, distribution and even sales through our online store," but then state that "what we don’t do is promote your product for you." HUH? How can you claim to offer marketing and advertising, but then say you won't do promotion? Makes no sense...and makes me think you don't have a full grasp of the services you're offering.

Lastly, and I assume this is just placeholder art, but seeing the LOTR movie artwork was a big turnoff as I also assume you don't have rights to use that imagery. If you're starting to reveal your site and build an audience, I'd take it down immediately.

Wow I can't believe I've never come across Coalition before...what an awesome resource! I'll definitely look at them for blind testing of one of my deeper game designs!

Don't get me wrong though, the whole specter of death approach actually facilitates less violence in games. My goal with fragility is to increase NPC interactions, convince players to run away from overwhelming odds, and to increase the general "role playing" element of the game. My last D&D game focused mostly on ethical dilemmas and the establishment of trade routes. It may just be that we've gotten older, but there were massive amounts of accountancy involved in the game.

I think my approach has resulted in the opposite. There's always way more depth and some non-lethal options, which get blown away in a series of triggerhappy explosions...

Maybe I need to work more to instill confidence that there *are* non-violent options in place.

On the other hand, my players do things like shooting someone for an insult and unloading on full-auto against someone for minor property damage. So I don't think it's entirely my fault...

@Soulfinger: How about Cyber-Phreaking where you are a cracker trying to solve the government secret about the sudden and tragic killing of your Father! You were given some final instructions from your father on his death bed - with only minutes of life left in him - he gives you a secret "Codename"... That's all you have as a start - but you know the death of your father was nor natural, nor an accident. He was brutally beaten to keep quiet... So much so his physical wounds caused internal hemorrhaging and the damage could not be healed...

Add to this a bit a paranoia (for the player's party) because the people responsible for your father's death are still at large and may come and track you down too!

Makes for amazing chases, intrigue and government plot... Yeah I know the plot is not "unique"... There have been movies in this genre too.

But if you want a LOW violence RPG - this might do the trick: "Global Espionage" in a Cyberpunk like setting...

Cheers!

I seriously don't believe I've given any bad advice to you, but note that these forums have been around for a long time and the reason why people have been so abrasive is that it's not uncommon for some new members to come in with a clear selfish motive in mind. While I'm not categorizing you in that, people here have been burned quite a bit here.

It's a two way street. Many "new" people just come here to hawk their Kickstarter or game, then just disappear; It's not really with the intention of learning and contributing in the community, but more to garner sales for themselves. This, of course, can lie in "standard business practices" under "advertising to communities who are more likely to buy your game". This is why I believe people were so reactive when you brought up "standard business practices" in the forum. As a result, we feel used. It is kinda messed up if you really look at it.

Personally, I'm not offended or angry, but I advise not to take it too personally. This community has a lot of really talented people and there's a lot of great gold nuggets lying around these forums.

Pulling off something like this, would likely require years of providing free services, just to build a portfolio, before you will find anyone willing to pay. Let alone paying the 100% up-front.

"Hi, I've never released a game, but I had 6 I was working on and off for the last X years" builds no confidence.

If your goal is to earn money - I`m 100% sure there are quicker and easier ways to earn it.

If your goal is to build something similar to coalitiongames, start with a website providing free services and build a portfolio for yourself first.

Btw, may I ask, what were the last 10 boardgames you've played?

I think you might have a chance to get this running as a free consultancy which _might_ become paid or introduce paid services much later.
I don't know if the result will be worth the time and effort though.

The main issue, as I've mentioned above, is that you lack experience in the industry. Your experience in running a different business will certainly help, but it's exactly that - different business.

Running a boardgame project from development to publication is a massive undertaking with tons of intricacies which you can't possibly learn, unless you've been researching this specific subject extensively and/or tried it. (I`m not talking about design here).

I personally know people who got burned because they believed that since they can run "other business" then surely they can handle a boardgame project.

This is why my advise is starting with free services. That way you might both build a portfolio and get a better understanding of the industry.

Though I`m pretty sure that even if it will be free, it won't be easy to find clients who would ask for consultancy.

From my observations, those who need it believe that they can do everything by themselves. And for those who already got burned and know how hard it is, you have nothing to offer since they already have more experience.

I know I sound pessimistic, but this is my honest opinion.

Find a "problem" and try to FIX it... That's New World way of thinking. How do you think Kickstarter started! It's a Billion Dollar company. Same general idea, they wanted to create a platform to find a way how to help people make products given investment from a crowd of people (Crowdsourcing).

Yeah little people suffer from NO marketing. It's a problem, that much is true.

But far from me to determine HOW to solve it. I'm not a pro in Sales, neither am I a master marketer. But you're definitely on to something...

Yeah, I've basically got both hands and my mouth full.
I love RPGs and would love to be part of a community dedicated to creating them when I have more time - and yes, I know that everybody has the same amount of time, it's how you use it... but 2 things:
1) I left my home and signed up as a volunteer working in adult education in a country which has had a less than ideal history, so that I can make a difference in people's lives and 2) I also have to eat.
So this leaves me little time to create my own games, much less become a part of other people's projects - I can't even write my stories any more! (although I have been complimented on my apparently imaginative lesson plans and activities which I approached as if designing games)

Yes, I would like to join you, but not right now.