Author Topic: Roguelike Business Ideas and Indie Press Revolution  (Read 8263 times)

njerpe

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Roguelike Business Ideas and Indie Press Revolution
« on: December 07, 2010, 12:28:49 AM »
Those of you familiar with Legerdemain (http://roguelikefiction.com) may be interested to know it has been picked up by Indie Press Revolution. These guys specialize in pen-and-paper roleplaying books produced by small publishers, and more often than not the content is creator-owned. They've been established in business for a few years now and evidently provide distribution services for over a hundred such companies.

You can check out the link here: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17432

They sell PDFs as well.

In the case of Legerdemain they've gone outside of their comfort zone with, in their mind, a very retro-styled CRPG offering. I'm pretty sure the reason they've done this is because when you order the game it comes with physical stuff. If you package together the CD, map, and cluebook and put it on a shelf, the form factor is very similar to many of their pen-and-paper products. If I had just handed them a video game on a CD I don't think they would have been able to sell it.

One reason I thought I'd mention this here is that, well, if they are interested in one product it stands to reason they'd be interested in two. I personally don't have another roguelike-ish/CRPG game with a printed book waiting in the queue, ready to be shipped, but I figured there might be folks at Roguetemple who'd consider shooting for that. The physical stuff needn't be a cluebook, of course, or even a book, but I think the key is to have something tangible that can sit on a shelf.

Anyhow, this could be an opportunity for a roguelike developer out there, and I'd be interested in participating or even just being a sounding board if the right project came along. I've had experience pitching Legerdemain to folks at gaming conventions, and even though I've yet to achieve the measure of psychedelic Boogadah domination I had originally hoped for, I have learned a few things.

And I think it would be fun to brainstorm, at the very least.
Legerdemain - A Tale Fraught with Peril and Wonder

http://roguelikefiction.com

Krice

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Re: Roguelike Business Ideas and Indie Press Revolution
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2010, 05:01:20 PM »
It's an interesting idea to sell a roguelike with that kind of marketing (creating a physical product) but it's not something I would be interested to do. I don't even plan to make commercial roguelikes, somehow it just doesn't sound right. Maybe if you can create something like Minecraft and handle the payment in free donations. For me money isn't that interesting. I don't want that stuff. Money is boring.