Any interest in video interviews with publishers and designers?

Gabe,

I personally believe there's a ready audience for that content, but it must be, to a greater or lesser degree, mutually beneficial to both sides. The content creator has to have an audience wide enough to be of interest to the publisher and the publisher has to be an interesting candidate to interview to broaden the audience.

Joe

Gabe,

You're absolutely right...knowing your audience, ala your Z-Man Games example, speaks to a portion of the issue. Not only do most designers not know necessarily what a publishing company will or will not publish, but moreover, even how to approach them. Over the past few years, especially with the advent of Kickstarter, it's easier, more cost effective, and timely for individuals to simply incorporate and publish under their own name. Take but a few names with whom I'm directly or indirectly connected: Mike and Stan Strickland's Outer Limit Games for TAU CETI, Randy Rathert's Brown Eyed Girl LLC for The King's Abbey, and of course Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone's Stonemaier Games for Viticulture, Euphoria, and Scythe.

Publishing houses have been notorious over the years for holding onto projects which often never see the light of day, which has moved innovative designers to publish their own games. Wingo and other major production houses have facilitated this move away from the old structure to this new, more nimble, environment.

As to interviews, I can certainly reach out to Mike Strickland if you want a first-hand account from someone who launched one KS and when it didn't successfully fund, he addressed the issues, relaunched and joined the leagues of wildly successful projects, having funded at over $100K and more importantly drew more than 1,500 Backers to his game.

Cheers,
Joe