I recently read an interesting article about "getting in to the buisness" in the Jan-Feb 2002 issue of Scyre magazine (a magazine devoted to trading card games). The inventor of I think it was mageknights (Wizkids Games) said that he "aimed high" in design, creating a marketible liscence first for games, tv shows, t-shirts etc. before getting started on the game. I think it's interesting and I've been tring to follow that example somewhat for a current project I'm working on. What do you think of that?
Aiming High...
Fri, 08/22/2003 - 16:24
Sun, 08/24/2003 - 04:13
#4
Aiming High...
I don't think it did work for MageKnight. Clickable bases and a broadly-distributed collectible miniatures game worked for MageKnight, and that's the whole reason it worked, imo. I don't think their world is particularly compelling, and I think they could have slapped pretty much any old fantasy on it. Where are the MageKnight TV shows? Can you buy MageKnight shirts at Wal-Mart or Hot Topic or Spencers?
Aiming high may very well have given them the focus and drive to create something big in the sense that they "insisted" that MageKnight be successful and so had a certain zeal that swayed investors, but it's the clickable base and collectible pre-painted minis that are the reason people buy it. It was a product consumers were ready to buy, pure and simple, if you ask me.
Sun, 08/24/2003 - 08:36
#5
Aiming High...
Foolster41 wrote:
Drive and passion are good things to have, But my question was more about a marketing side. I was wondering what you thought about designing a world adn abckstory before working on the game. It seemd to work for MageKnights, but has anyone else tried this method?
To me, the idea of being a successful game designer, whether it's through self-publishing or selling your designs to established publishers, is ambitious enough. But I also think it's better to have as many different completed designs as possible. If you're self-publishing, it opens up your potential audience, and it makes distributors happy because they'll consider you more of a serious company than a dabbling hobbyist. If you're selling your designs, you have a wider scope of publishers to pitch your products to.
BTW, that's my own personal strategy, which I may not ever get off the ground. I'm happy just making the games right now; time will tell whether I'll be in a position to sell them. But I'm not trying to contradict WizKids, just offering up a counterpoint.
Here's a good example: James Ernest set out to make a company that sold games as cheaply as possible, with buyers providing common game components from other games they were assumed to own. He knew that in order to get his company off the ground, he'd have to come up with as many different designs as possible, and nowadays you can browse about 50 different games at his company, Cheapass Games.
Now it's strange that WizKids said they set out on their original games with the thought that they'd eventually be franchises that would branch out into other licenses (TV, video games, comic books, lunchboxes, deodorant, etc.). Seems like they're going in the other direction, in that they're making games out of other peoples' licenses (superheroes, Mechwarrior, Crimson Skies, to name a few). Still, I suppose it pays the bills...
~Gil
I believe that the #1 factor for being successful at anything is DRIVE. I believe that the most powerful force behind drive is PASSION. Furthermore, if you are brimming with both, you can set out to aim reeeeally high and be confident that you'll accomplish your goals. I think having talent is important, but it pales by comparison to DRIVE and PASSION. It's likely if you have drive and passion, you eventually develop enough experience to substitute for a lack of innate talent.
All that said, I have a terrible time-management problem, though I do have both drive and passion. Unfortunately, I've been letting distractions sidetrack my dream of creating games, published or not. For a while there the amount of time I spent here on the BGDF was a major distraction. Funny how something designed to facilitate our design goals actually inhibited mine. That's why I haven't been around as much, not that I plan on leaving. I just decided that rather than spend hours on this site and still have only a bunch of half-cocked ideas, I ought finish one. That's where I hope to spend my free time, actually designing games. (For that matter, PERSISTENCE is probably a great attribute to have.)
In any case, aim high definitely. It's more a matter of knowing yourself and how willing you are to back your dream despite the discourgement of others, than it is about being realistic. I believe that any one of us, with enough drive and passion could come along with the next Magic the Gathering or be the next Reiner Knizia. I really believe that. Shoot for the stars!