This part has me a bit puzzled.
We’ve talked a lot about Part 4: Competitor Market Analysis and Target Audience. That’s still very much a work in progress and subject to ongoing discussion here. I enjoy looking at different TTRPGs and discussing all of the different facets of them. It’s what I do every time I look on DriveThruRPG.com anyway.
Today I want to discuss Part 5: Production and Development Budget Proposal. It’s going to be a fairly straightforward discussion because I don’t have much of an operating budget to start with. Luckily, the criteria for the challenge involves discussing what we’d do with the money if we win. I have a few different possible plans.
I find myself in that delicate crossroads where Law of Attraction and my Vision Board collide with the contents of my real life coffers. We’re trying not to discuss lack here. Abundance is a great and wonderful thing.
Plan A: $2,500 prize.
First, $1,000 goes toward a new laptop for me. I think at that point I will have earned it.
Second, $1,000 goes toward art. I’m going to hire a handful of artists, one to design the cover, three to do most of the interior, and the last one to do the character art. I’m looking mostly for new artists who can work with non-fantasy characters.
Third, $450 is going toward upgrading my website here and buy an Affinity V2 full license. I want to advertise, but I want to do a lot of it here on The Game Box. If all goes well I will funnel my sales traffic to here or DriveThruRPG.com. DTRPG gives us free reign to sell on our own sites with the exclusive deal. (*Which has not been a concern yet because Shadowdark portrait character sheet is free.)
Whatever is left goes to Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter) and Threads for advertising. I will also be making multiple YouTube videos to promote my product. I’m also pretty good at creating daily posts on all socials when it counts. I’ll also be emailing select YouTubers free copies for review.
Public Relations class taught me to always come up with a best case and a worst case scenario. Law of Attraction teaches us to live in the Now moment as if the best case scenario has already been achieved and then some. (*No, I’m not going out to spend $1,300 like I already won.) By LoA standards, there is no such thing as a worst case scenario. We did it. We won the $2,500. We’re there.
Plan B: $2,500 prize.
I intend to pay for art before I do anything else. I’ve said it countless times here and in person elsewhere- Art sells TTRPG books! Even digital books sell better with outstanding art. I can’t stress this point enough.
We all know I’m not much of a graphic artist. I use the heck out of Bitmoji and Pexels here on the site. I can’t use that art for the BRP Design Challenge. (Maybe Pexels, but I’m trying not to.) I need to hire quality artists who will work with me relatively inexpensively on this one.
However, there will be an understanding that if an artist is willing to help with this one, I will be more than happy to hire them again in the future AND ask them to help with any kind of crowdfunding projects in the future. One of the best things someone can do with victory funds is help out friends, especially artists. I would never resort to AI art, and it’s not allowed in the challenge, anyway.
All of that having been said, $1,500- $1,750 goes to artwork. We’ll have an eye toward Print on Demand on DriveThruRPG and funnel as many sales toward that site as humanly possible.
Second, I might still upgrade the site here to the tune of $300 per year for all of the promotional power., but then all links for sales will go straight to DriveThruRPG.com.
Third, I’ll have to get Affinity Publisher V2 and pray that it runs on my current circuit baby (laptop.) PoD files apparently have to be done through Affinity or InDesign. Seeing that I currently use MS Publisher, that might be a problem. Then we have to have lots of profit from sales of the book. There goes at least $150.
Last, the remaining $300 or so goes into blasting social media with ads, and possibly sponsoring a YouTube video or two on channels other than my own. People will probably get tired of hearing from me and/or about the game by the time I’m finished. It’s gonna be huge.
What has not been calculated.
Now that I’ve been thinking about this, I haven’t accounted for how much this thing is going to sell for. We also haven’t talked about my time, etc. My preliminary plan calls for the book to be between 128 and 232 pages. I intend to price the digital product between $14.99 and $19.99 depending. Print on Demand will probably add $10 to the digital price for Print + Digital. This is subject to change during the course of production.
My time as a writer is worth approximately five cents per word right now. My time as an editor and layout artist has never been calculated and I would probably price it at about $12.00/hour. No deadlines and no min/max word count, though.
The price for my services is subject to change someday if/when other game companies take an interest in my work or if we get to the point of doing a crowdfunding project. I might also be interested in having some friends jump in and write a couple of adventures for this new book once it’s available. I might even send free copies of the book if people are willing to write adventures, depending. The whole thing from the Basic RolePlaying: Universal Game Engine on down is published under the ORC License, so it’s all fair game.
Ideally I would like the final price to reflect the 30% that DTRPG takes out to make calculating profit a little easier, but we’ll see. Maybe this book makes enough for me to buy a new computer. Maybe it makes enough for me to clear a few things off my huge DTRPG wish lists.
There’s a Plan C: $500.
Here’s where the plan changes dramatically. Now we’re talking digital only to begin with.
First, I commission some lucky artist to make a beautiful full cover color for around $100.
Second, I commission one or two more artists for black & white interior art, whatever I can get for $100 at $10-15 per piece.
Third, I spend $300 to for the yearly upgrade to this website.
Fourth, I spend a lot of time creating ads and doing some interior art/diagrams myself.
Last, I go on Instagram and other socials as well as YouTube to promote the heck out of the book.
Any additional money goes into promotion first, my computer upgrade second, then Affinity V2, and finally profit. Much of the profit will probably roll over into a second book for the same setting or for one of the other BRP setting ideas. Depending on how things go, the next project I do might very well be crowdfunded.
The other piece I should mention is that I’m considering pouring more time into Ko-Fi, Patreon, or both. I’m also going to be saving as much money as I can this year toward that computer upgrade. This equates to no more Kickstarters or additional gaming books for me until it’s paid for, with a couple of minor exceptions.
My old Surface Pro 2 isn’t long for this world, I fear. It’s not getting any younger. I’ve poured so much love and other emotions through this keyboard. I’ve also had a lot of fun playing Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Diablo 3 on this machine. This old computer has seen a lot of love and joy, to be sure.
All things considered; things are good. The extra money from winning the BRP Design Challenge at the $500 or $2,500 level would be blissful in terms of helping some artists and myself along. Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you joy today.
Jeff's Game Box 