Tearing Down the Walls

When I was talking with all of the other publishers at Pete Figtree's last Hangout with all of those other publishers, there were a few things that came up that I want to talk a little bit more about. Here's one.

While we were talking about the advantages of Createspace in order to get on Amazon.com, I mentioned that when Oz the Great and Powerful came out, I got a notable surge in sales from that corner. (When I'm able to get caught up on my quarterly sales reports, you'll see the numbers.) I think most of the reaction I got from that statement was because the other publishers hadn't made a strong effort to reach outside the hobby.

To be clear, I don't think this was a flaw in any of their business or marketing plans. They have all done very good work and have found their own success and happiness, and I'm certainly not trying to stomp on that for them. And also, it is certainly true that selling a new game to an existing gamer is much easier than taking people off the street and turning them into gamers.

But I knew an RPG set in the land of Oz could be different. Nearly everyone knows about the Wizard of Oz. Even if they've never gotten around to watching the movie or reading any of the books, they all know about the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West and her Flying Monkeys. So part of my design process was to make sure the game was accessible to everyone who might want to play.

By and large, the strategy has worked. I've been interviewed on the Royal Podcast of Oz and the Atomic Array podcast. My game has been reviewed in Fight On! magazine as well as the Baum Bugle (a publication of the International Wizard of Oz Club).

For a little while there, I was the only Oz RPG on the market. But then competition started appearing. First Oz: Dark & Terrible, and now Savage Mojo has a project in the works. Now I realize that they are not really competition at all, because we're not competing for the same niche. Those products are trying to appeal, not only to a "more adult" audience, but to a specifically gamer audience. They make changes to the setting that make it feel a little more comfortable to action-movie oriented gaming sensibilities. Their iconic character is the Tin Woodman: strong, armored and ready to fight.

My iconic character is Dorothy. She's just a little girl from Kansas with no secret ninja training or magic powers. It's her heart that sets her apart. Her ability to make friends and stand up for what she believes in are what makes her special, not her ability to wield a railgun. And so it is in Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. Friendship is how characters grow. A well placed Impress action can turn the tide of battle, or end it altogether.

So to all of those indie designers out there, here's a little bit of advice. As part of your design process, put a little thought into who else might be interested in playing your game.It can lead you in some interesting directions.

The Best Things In Life Are Free

Last night, I was honored to attend another one of Pete Figtree's Google+ hangouts. This one featured a roundtable of self-published game designers. Sorry about the lack of advanced warning, but it was something of a spontaneous decision on my part. It was a lot of fun and a learning experience for everyone involved, I think. And a learning experience for you, too, we hope.

And for those who are interested in how Pay What You Want is working for me, it's actually going rather well. I've been getting a nice little bit of traffic to the game. It's also been bringing in some money, which is always nice.

Now, I'm not as brave as Ben Gerber (one of the other panelists from last night), who put his entire product line on PWYW. I also don't have as deep a catalog as he does. But I will show you how my numbers compare.

First off, the equivalent period last month. (May 11-20th)

Total sales: 2
Total $ Gross: 15.98
Total $ Net: 8.26

Now Ben has more free products than I do, so even though I got less traffic than him during this period, I still managed to out-earn him because every transaction brought some money in.

Now let's see what Pay What You Want has done for me. (June 11-20)

Total sales: 57
Total $ Gross: 35.96
Total $ Net: 23.37

Note that these numbers only reflect PWYW purchases. There has been a little activity in other quarters, which is good, but not accounted for here.

Now, I did not experience anything to confirm Ben's first hypothesis (that he made more money because his customers thought his product was worth more than he was originally charging for it). Only one of my customers paid the regular price for AiO with everyone else paying some lower value. The most common price paid being $1.00.

I think the other three do have some value, though. PWYW is the new hotness, so all the trendy people are jumping on it. The front page attention I got from having to create a new product was probably a big part of my sales spike right there. And since a PWYW product is basically a free product with a tip jar (Thank you Fred Hicks for that metaphor), it means that a lot of people are trying things out because they don't have to put money down before they see if a product is any good. And then they can pay what they feel is a fair price for a product once they have made a decision about what a fair price is.

Whether this turns into a viable business model remains to be seen. But I am looking.

Letting It All Hang Out

Well, I just got done with my first Google+ Hangout. Pete Figtree and I had a lot of fun talking about the magic rules and a lot of other parts of how AiO works. If you missed out on the fun as it was happening, you can see it here:

Part 2 of the Party

I just wanted to announce that Part 2 of the Ruthless Diastema Podcast series on Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is live over on Geeky & Genki. This one gives a basic rundown of the rules of the game. If you missed Part 1 from last Friday, it's here.

In other news, I have been invited to participate in a Google+ Hangout to discuss the intricacies of AiO's magic rules on May 13th. And if you aren't able to attend, it will be recorded and posted for later consumption.

It's been suggested that I get deeper in to this whole social media thing to try and promote the game. I've already got a fan page on Facebook and a small presence on Google+. I'm reluctant to join Twitter out of fear that I'll wind up posting a steady stream of inanities like everyone else there.

What do you think? Where do you get your social media buzz?

A Few Minor Notices

This last week, we have lost 2 actors with Oz connections.

Annette Funicello, while famous for a number of reasons, was cast as Princess Ozma in a proposed Disney Oz film entitled The Rainbow Road to Oz, that unfortunately was never produced. (Jared Davis at the Royal Blog of Oz has more on that, including footage of Annette and the other Mouseketeers in costume as various Oz characters singing some of the songs from the proposed film).

Today, we lost Jonathan Winters, a brilliant comedian and actor, who appeared on The Shirley Temple Show in an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz as Lord Nikidik.

On a brighter note, Pete Figtree at the Ruthless Diastema blogcast has begun a multipart series on Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. I don't know how many parts he's planning on, but part 1 went up today!