Supporting A Dungeon Game
I've been thinking about how to support a dungeon game long term. The obvious answer is "release stuff for it" but 'thinking about it' means actually drilling down into what that support looks like.
1: Regular Releases
Adventures are what I love to write, so why wouldn't I write them for my own game? Realistically I think 3 zine-length adventures a year, produced entirely by me, is both achievable and a decent schedule that doesn't result in oversaturation. I'd love to do something bigger like The Isle and I'd love to be able to bring on other writers but right now I don't have the resources and that's fine. Build slowly and sustainably. And with a number of small releases, there's always the option to anthologise later.
2: Consistent Branding
Thinking in terms of Product is always weird and icky but it has to be done. A Dungeon Game has a very distinctive look and I'm going to ensure that everything in the line looks like it fits. That means covers designed with simple geometry and bold colours evoke that Penguin/Puffin/textbook look, and it means printing them at the size of paperback novels rather than my normal A5 zines so that they're the same size as the game.
3: Make It An Event
Market the fuck out of things and lean into FOMO because it works. Print adventures will be print only and produced in limited runs initially. If I feel I want more content out there then I can put some small HTML dungeons on the site for free from time to time - the kind of thing that N8 does.
4: Put It In People's Hands
The game is free online and the print version is going to be something I give away at cons and include as a pack-in for web store orders rather than something I sell. This is how Jared has distributed Vanilla Game and I love it. It feels special. Owning a physical copy makes me feel like I'm in on a secret and that makes me want to run it for people.
I'm also going to be running this at cons from here on out. Normally I'd run Mörk Borg or Troika or Mausritter but I'm going to be exclusively running ADG at these events now.
And that's basically the entire long term plan in four steps. I also have a list of things I want to do in the short term:
- Write a good example of play. I'm running games this coming weekend and will be recording them to mine for this exact purpose.
- Write an introductory adventure. This one will see print but it was also be online for free. I want people to play the thing first and foremost. Money can come once that player base exists.
- Conversion guides. The best part of Trophy Gold was the guide to converting old modules and they stripped it out of the new version. Converting stuff to ADG is very easy because all you need at hit dice and AC plus a cool thing a monster does, but it'll help to have that written down.
I don't know how effective this will be but I do know that it's more than I've done to support my past work and more than most indies are doing to support their games so it seems worth a try.