Pocketfunding ScreenPlay: Making A Profit

Now we come to it, the third and final instalment of this pocketfunding trilogy. You can find the first two parts here and here, both of which deal with the role of stock art in a truly self-published game. But there’s more than just art to consider and when it comes down to it; you need to make a profit. In the case of ScreenPlay, I needed to make a profit as early as possible in order to afford additional adventures/supplements and turn it into a small product line.

It’s a big goal and one I wanted very early on. Even the development process was a learning phase on how to make this happen and became extremely informative on how I approach projects now compared to before that first draft. Yet without a streamlined budget and a low threshold for success, attempting a mini product line (assuming three to five additional products) would tank before even getting the core rulebook out the door.

Combine that with the demand for a professional product and you’re walking a fine line. I was very fortunate to have some experience under my belt and contacts willing to work with me on creating something to be proud of and working under a tight budget. After artwork, a damn good editor is key and I had Vincent Harper on my team to fill that role. I’ve worked with Vince in the past and we have a good working relationship when it comes to small budgets. Plus his literary background was useful in ensuring ScreenPlay‘s text was fluid and easy to read as well as assist in any possible writing terminology we could incorporate into the mechanics.

Unveiling the ScreenPlay Cost Projection Worksheet

Rather than ramble on about this much and that much, I’d rather show you the exact worksheet I used to work on ScreenPlay’s budget. It uses Jeff Timbal’s RPG budget projection worksheet provided for free on his website. There’s a screenshot below and you can click here to download a copy of my finished version for yourself.

There are a few key notes to address about my version of this spreadsheet.

• This one worksheet covers both ScreenPlay and Ironbound, the Pay What You Want preview.
• There are a couple of sections left blank, but not deleted, because removing them breaks other formulas below and I simply didn’t bother cleaning things up. Too busy calculatin’. The Crowdfunding section, as you will see, is filled with $0’s for that very reason.
• This spreadsheet was completed during the late stages of production and was used to a) ensure my math was similar compared to what its creator came up with, and b) take it a step further than I had considered. Luckily, my math held up fairly well and could now get specific. There’s also the benefit of quickly playing around with figures based on new ideas and corrections when you forgot to include something way back. This thing is incredibly useful and comes highly recommended.
• Because I paid flat rates for multiple pieces of stock art in advance (and used files from my old Emerald Press days), I listed them under Flat Rate Expenses instead of Illustration Expenses.

As mentioned, my goal was to have the opportunity to create a small product line with ScreenPlay and make the core rulebook affordable and profitable earlier. Cue the Heading 2 paragraph styles to showcase how I made that happen.

Word Count = Page Count

A hard lesson learned from Killshot was that more words requires more pages and more pages requires more money. Not gonna happen here. My goal from the very beginning was to keep the word count low until playtesting revealed it could take on a little more weight. This will save on production costs for the print on demand setup and keep the overall price affordable for customers. Even in a PDF as page counts can still reflect cover price if that’s how you operate.

It also means less money required for anything typically paid by the word (such as editing) and keeps the required number of art pieces low. As much as I was able to find an editor who could willingly work within my budget and use stock art, it also means I can live with myself a little bit better (though not by much of a stretch) knowing I could at least pay Vince at half the going rate instead of only a third or a quarter. Unfortunately, this is the hardest part of pocketfunding and something you can overcome with crowdfunding. While this is better than corners cut in projects from long past, it is only a single step on the staircase to full rates.

(Seeing as this post comes at a time when others are discussing paying people at professional rates and living wages, outright admitting to paying beneath that on purpose probably sounds quite monstrous. And I’m not going to deny it’s not my preferred way to go, nor am I going to get into the dilemmas here. If this is something you wish to address, I encourage discussion in the comment section or through Google+.)

There Was Still An Art Budget

One aspect of ScreenPlay spared no expense: the cover. While I was lucky to find the perfect piece of stock art for Ironbound, there was no way that would work for the core rules. It needed something unique to make it pop and I was blessed to work with Jeff Brown on this gorgeous and perfect representation of endless possibilities.

An original cover means spending mucho dollars but it allows you to craft everything into exactly what your product needs. In this case, ScreenPlay‘s quick rise to the #2 position on RPGNow last week was undoubtedly aided by Jeff’s work. Some things are worth the sticker price. It’s simply a matter of picking which sticker.

Hitting the Black in 275

For both ScreenPlay and Ironbound, I spent just over $1,150. Making that back quickly to start paying for future material while also selling the moneymaker at a low price to encourage higher sales demands a fine balance… and I think I hit it.

At $5 for PDF (and a projected price of $25 for the print on demand edition) and with $300 to be set aside to cover POD setup costs and playtesters rewards, I can expect to break even after 275 sales. That number will not be bang on because it all depends on 89% of all sales coming from PDF – it could be more, could be less. However, as a ballpark, I can live with that. Killshot broke 1,000 sales last year and that’s my comparison. And with ScreenPlay hitting 50 sales in its first week (plus nearly 150 downloads of Ironbound bringing in just over $50 in ka-ching), 275 is looking quite attainable.

(For bonus points, if I skipped POD altogether and went with a PDF exclusive product, it would be paid for after 291 sales.)

Pay-ving the Way Forward

Next is a yet-publicly-announced ScreenPlay treatment/adventure and the cover for High Plains Samurai, an epic ScreenPlay treatment destined to hit Kickstarter. Yeah, that one can only receive justice by going big and having an existing (and hopefully recognized) core product will give it a boost. Based on current projections, I can do both after another 225 sales. That means after 500 sales, I’ll be in the black on ScreenPlay with everything I need for a follow-up release and the much-needed cover art for an upcoming crowdfunding project. At 750 sales, I can pull together some interior early sketches for Samurai and/or a budget for another ScreenPlay follow-up (either another treatment or a supplement, likely a treatment to help attract more customers and players). At 1,000… well, that’s still getting ahead of myself. At that level, it could still be a few years from now. Even with Killshot‘s grand, it was only because of the Bundle of Holding’s 514 sales that pushed it to that mark. 750 for ScreenPlay is crossing that line if it only ever stays afloat in traditional online sales channels.

Already 20% of the way there means the plan is moving forward at a good pace and that pleases me greatly. There are sacrifices that come with pocketfunding your product and while this budget is nowhere near as much as others may be able to spend, it is a worth sacrifice that will allow me to make amends for the future of ScreenPlay: pay editors at a proper rate by word count and fill it with original art work also paid at full rates. Maybe someday there will a Lethal Weapon 4 for this trilogy where I take a look back at the success or collapse of this grand plan. Until then, it’s time to move on with the next project.

Game Chef!

Pocketfunding ScreenPlay: Didn’t I See That Cover Before?

If you haven’t read Part 1 of this mini-trilogy, take a moment to read about the benefits of using stock art when you’re pocketfunding a game (and also to see what in Hades I mean by “pocketfunding”).

Yep, stock art is a real lifesaver when you’re in the small scale independent tabletop game development like me. But it has its drawbacks too and it can all be encapsulated by Ironbound‘s cover.

Aside from those of you who have seen this cover repeatedly due to my promotional efforts, does this image look familiar to you? It should because here are two examples direct from DriveThruRPG’s current catalogue as of this posted date.

   

This piece is by Eric Lofgren, whose work can also be found in or on numerous Oone Games’ products, Numenera, and other games published over the last couple of years. I found it listed online for $100 on RPGNow several months ago and added it to my wishlist as a way to flag it for possible consideration. Two or three months ago, it went on sale for $35 and that made it a no-brainer. Unfortunately, it was also a no-brainer for other publishers but that itself is a no-brainer. A meta no-brainer, if you will. Of course other publishers will use it. Look at how awesome it is!

There was only one issue with this piece as an Ironbound cover. These holy warriors are forbidden from practising magick (spelled with a “k” so you know it’s serious), even though they study it extensively for ways to counter spells and rituals. In the bottom corner of this piece, there is clearly a character using a magic staff and when I showed off this piece to playtesters for a reaction, they instantly replied, “Hey, why is one of them using a magick staff?” Busted.

The trick to stock art is making it fit the subject of your game or supplement. Not only the individual page, but the product as a whole. For example, stock art of modern day soldiers locking and loading to go into battle wouldn’t fit with a historical RPG on agrarian land disputes nor do you want to use art focused on equipment in the spells chapter. This actually makes stock art harder to use than commissioned art because the latter is customized to suit your product, your chapter, your page, everything. In this particular case, everything about this piece fit the product… except for that magic staff.

Thinking Outside The Box While Pressing Right Up Against It

That’s when the idea struck like a bolt of lightning. Ironbound is a ScreenPlay preview/treatment focused on a group of Writers sitting around creating the first draft of a story. What if the cover highlighted the storytelling aspect of the game by inserting text boxes of descriptions highlighting the action as if from one round of play? This would allow me to explain why this particular member of the witch-hunting Ironbound was using the staff; despite damning herself and forcing her expulsion from the group, she uses the artefact to protect her comrades. What a sacrifice, am I right? Plus it has the added benefit of making this version of Eric’s work stand out from the others.

It’s a minor detail in two ways. First, the main focus of the cover remains the artwork. Second, the text boxes are barely noticeable in thumbnails, which is exactly how people first experience them on sites like DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. Still, it was a workable solution that was quite fun to do.

The effect has already been unfortunately expected. I’ve discovered two comments on other G+ threads not posted by me asking why that cover looks familiar or if the publisher possibly “borrowed” it from someone else. Even my publisher (because I’m no longer a publisher, I’m a development studio working with Mystical Throne Entertainment) wanted to make sure I was aware of current duplicates. And while I considered a back-up plan, nothing else in my radar came even close to Eric’s piece.

Grabbing Eyeballs

Mine is not the only case out there, nor will it be the last. There are definite benefits for little publishers/studios like mine in that they provide a cheap alternative for those small, indie projects not worth the trouble of kickstarting. Not everyone operates with the ability to hire original artists and it’s not always because of financial restrictions. That first product is a risky undertaking, especially when you’re learning the ropes about RPG publishing. Some people have the resources to take those risks; I am not one of them.

The big thing about cover art is that its primary job is to grab someone’s attention, force them to lock their eyes on your thumbnail version online or on the store shelf and take that next important step: clicking the link or flipping through pages. Then the layout takes over, then the content. It’s possible a fancy title on a generic backdrop can accomplish the same task and there are some very simple covers out there capable of doing exactly that and it was a consideration going into this project. But when I commissioned an original piece for ScreenPlay’s cover, that left the door jammed open for everything else to have cover art as well. And since Ironbound is basically a free giveaway (that’s how you have to look at selling a Pay What You Want product), I needed to keep my costs very reasonable.

Are there some who will look at this cover and say, “Oh, that one again?” Yep. But for every one of those reactions, there have been two enthusiastic thumbs up. And with over 120 downloads in the first week alone, the initial results are positive. Only time will tell the long term effects.