Howdy Folks,
Wow! It has been a year since we proudly released our first adventure, Last Rites of the Black Guard. How well I remember that day, August 8th, 2003. Please allow me a trip down memory lane to revisit our successes and hard knocks from the past year.
Our journey actually began in February 2003 and we had come a long way to reach that first day on RPGNow. We had successfully done everything we planned. This consisted of a professional layout, art, maps, a great cover, and an adventure I was proud to have my name associated with. We were sure that this adventure would be successful. Very few companies were producing modern horror adventures, and our concept of using real world beliefs and following the traditions of horror would be a new twist in gaming and would provide folks with a great evening of roleplaying horror.
So we uploaded the file in the wee hours of the morning and waited for it to be listed on RPGNow. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, it showed up! We were in business. Our game creation dreams had come true. We waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, Emanuele S. became our first customer ever! Thanks Emanuele! However, we were destined to be disappointed that month, as sales were extremely low. Our earnings would not even cover the cover art! Now, we did not decide to go commercial with dreams of making big bucks (though it would be nice!), but we had at least hoped to make enough money to fund the next project.
We called a company meeting to decide if we should continue or close the door on 12 to Midnight. We decided to press on, though I think all of us had some reservations. We decided to produce Jerry’s convention game, Weekend Warriors, and sell it to the public. We devoted ourselves to this project during the months of September and October.
Surprisingly, Last Rites continued to sell on a fairly regular basis and soon we were showing a profit, albeit a small one. The high point of my entire year followed shortly afterward.
Bruce Baugh, one of the greats in the gaming industry and a professional author, purchased Last Rites and gave it a good review on RPGNow. Then JD Wiker purchased Last Rites and posted on our website how much he enjoyed the adventure. JD is responsible for many great products, including work on the design for d20 Modern for Wizards of the Coast. He is also a partner in The Game Mechanics–a leader for Modern game aids and adventures. JD gave us great feedback and clued us in on some rookie mistakes. Then Shane Hensley, the designer of Deadlands, Great Rail Wars, and most recently Savage Worlds, purchased Last Rites. Shane contacted us stating he really liked the adventure and would like to see it converted for Savage Worlds. We were thrilled! Here was a gaming guru who we all respected and wanted to emulate. Not only did he want Last Rites for Savage Worlds, but also he offered to personally convert the adventure for us. Wow! The guy is a gaming saint, folks! A saint!
When the Savage Worlds version of Last Rites hit the pdf market, it took off and became our best seller. It topped the charts at 7th for the month over at RPGNow if I remember correctly. It was a big deal to us as a small indie publisher with no name recognition. Great reviews continued to come in from www.Gamingreport.com , www.RPG-Resource.org.uk , www.ENWorld.com, and most importantly from our customers.
We released Weekend Warriors and were very proud of this product. There was a big discussion, I should say we had reservations, publishing the 50 maps it contained. Was it overkill? Would gamers appreciate it? Weekend Warriors sold well for d20 and we were pretty happy with it, but the Weekend Warriors for Savage Worlds met a few hurdles. People who purchased it could not get it to open and eventually we had to withdraw it from RPGNow. We decided the maps must be the problem, so we scaled it down and offered a majority of the maps as a free download from our website. Still the problem persisted. We continued to work with the staff of RPGNow for more than a week to determine the cause. Finally, we discovered that the obstacle was Acrobat 6.0. We reconfigured the file with Acrobat 5.0 and the problem went away. Bizarre.
Bloodlines was our next big project, and we decided early on that it would be our flagship. At three times the size of Last Rites, this was a massive undertaking for us. It contains more professional art and designs than we had previously attempted. One of goals for this product was to find a print publisher and expand our reach. We had wanted to release it in late January or early February, but the project would not be complete until April. It was the Bloodlines production cycle that we coined the phrase, “Why stop now? We’ve already given them so much…”
During this time, we also incorporated as a company and refined our business plan, forecast, and production schedule. The delay in releasing Bloodlines became an issue with us, and we decided henceforth not to promise release dates to our customers until we were sure we could achieve them.
February and March sales were very disappointing, leaving us shaking our heads and trying to understand why. We attribute the poor sales to a lack of new releases on our part and a drop in industry sales as a whole. In April we released of Bloodlines D20 and things looked up. We quickly followed in May with the release of the Savage Worlds version of Bloodlines. We were honored as Shane recognized our status as an official Licensee of Savage Worlds. We had also come to an agreement with the Game Mechanics to provide their award winning initiative card system with our gaming products.
Come June and July, we issued Innana’s Kiss for both d20 and Savage Worlds. Our sales snowballed. July proved to be our best sales month ever. However, we discovered that while Innana’s Kiss for Savage Worlds was good, the conversion was not up to our own personal standards. Jason Young, a Savage Shark (Savage Worlds author, developer and playtester), had flawlessly converted Bloodlines for us. We immediately asked him for his expert touch again upon realizing that Innana’s Kiss needed a second look. Once he is done (soon), customers who purchased Innana’s Kiss for Savage Worlds will receive the updated version. Despite the bumps in the road, we receive great comments and support from both the d20 gamers and the Savage World audience.
Also in July, Bruce Baugh surprised us with an awesome review on www.rpg.net of Last Rites. Almost a year after its initial release it continues to be a popular item. We had hoped to receive an honorable mention or nomination from the Ennies, but alas, we did not. Though, I personally believe our cover on Last Rites is better than any other pdf or print cover on the market! Anneth Lagamo is one heck of an artist and we hope she will grace our future covers with her efforts.
Now it is August again, and we are releasing Last Rites 1.2. This is an updated version of the original with tighter editing. We also have fixed several mechanical errors that were brought to our attention by JD Wiker and others. Everyone who purchased the original d20 version will receive a free download of the revised edition. The new issue of our newsletter, the Journal of American Paranormal Research, will be released very soon. It features “the Cradle Campaign”, a campaign setting for both fantasy and modern games. If you want to know more, you’ll have to download it to find out!
We have several projects under way, including the adventures No Trespassing, Weathered, Eden, and Last Rites II. We’re also working on an expansion of the Pinebox campaign setting, called Pinebox Places. The next five months will definitely be challenging for us, but I expect that our products shall improve and that our customers will enjoy the results.
Finally, I would like to say thanks to everyone who has purchased our products and supported us. Every sale is important to us, and we really appreciate those folks who are repeat customers. We appreciate your loyalty and we persevere to earn it everyday.
Thanks,
Ed Wetterman
