The first group included the casual players, people with an interest in the hobby, but are neither willing nor interested in spending an hour making ten decisions to create a character.
RS: Hey thanks! During design, I strove to please two groups of people so I could bring them to the same table and have a great experience. How did you crack the code of simple gameplay and limitless options? JI: Shadow of the Demon Lord is a wonderfully elegant game that’s easy to learn and play, but also provides players endless options when building characters. Not every company can do this and I understand and so it’s a knot I’m not sure will ever get untied. Of course, being the publisher and lead designer for my small company means I shoulder most of the writing largely to keep costs under control. I hope, in some small way, to nudge the publishers toward improving their rates, even if this means raising the prices of products by a modest amount to compensate. If we want great product, cool ideas, and more from the brightest minds in the business, publishers have to pony up for the talent. We make products for a very niche market.
RPG design and writing rates haven’t changed in the 15 years I’ve been working in the field and most companies still pay between four cents or less per word. RS: I clawed my way into the RPG design business the hard way, selling words for as little as two cents a word and there are still two large published projects I wrote but never saw a dime in compensation. Why is it important to you that designers be compensated in this way and what lesson do you hope consumers and other small game companies take from this example? JI: Recently on the Talking Tabletop podcast you said that you always pay freelancers who work for you at the top of the industry’s pay scale. This is an interview I conducted with Rob Schwalb of Schwalb Entertainment as part of the AetherCon V Convention Program.
John Paul Sundeen on Happy Holidays – Free Ho…
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