One man game company?

[Madarin Dude]

Well one thing is to not overextend yourself also. I know someone who is pretty much a 1 man game company who made the game world of Synibar. (OK not the best but let me continue) He had 50K copies made up and lost quite a bit of cash on it he said if he had 10K instead he would have had a decent profit.

Anyways get a business license of some sort depending on the state. allow for some flexibility in the business model. Don't overextend yourself. As far as what you are making goes take it in steps and do things you can complete.

 

[ThunderChilde]

2 comments:
A. Lovely book, well printed, low to unnoticed typos.
B. Wretched game, we played it 3 times, thought the GM was the issue, until the 3 time with a different guy. GOD saves, Wide Attack Saves and Beam Saves and all the other chained saves still bring chuckles.

Did you ever read the encounter tables on what you will be attacked by getting to the beach, through the dunes but not yet into the killer brush and deadly forrest? Insane and nighmarish comes to mind.

 

[Vargas]

As Vargas said, wearing a seatbelt doesn't make you drive dangerously.

Thank you for putting it much more succinctly than I could.

 

[Trent]

IIRC - not only did she put hot coffee, which if served fresh is going to be at or near 100c/212F, between her legs, she then had the brainiac idea to turn around to deal with her toddler in the rear seat while still driving. Irregardless of the actual temperature of a drink which any moron should know is served at temperatures which will cause serious injury, i.e. nearly boiling hot, she had no business not paying attention to where the frak she was driving. She could have killed someone by her negligence and instead gets $3,000,000? I could care less about industry standards at that point- she deserved nothing for her stupidity and instead she got rich. I hope she chokes on a cheeseburger.....


then again, i could be mistaken, i which case i hope she chokes on a french fry because no way, no how, should she be rewarded for being stupid enough to drive with frigging hot coffee between her legs. even i am not that stupid.

If you'd read the article on the case you'd see the old woman was not driving, her grandson was.

 

[Trent]

The thing I hate about corporations, and I know wr're going OT here, is that basically they keep people from being accountable.

it's like this: "Well, we know that out car has a defect that causes it's gas tank to explode under some conditions, killing or horribly burning anyone inside, but it'd cost too much to fix it and it would be cheaper to pay off a few lawsuits, or pay off our legal team to wear out the people trying to sue us, than it is to fix the problem, so that's what we'll do."

When the truth is discovered, no one is jailed for MURDER, which is exactly what they did through their actions, because "See, it's the corporation's fault, and you can't put a corporation in prison! Any you can;t take MY assets either! Nyah! Nyah!"

I know people have good intent when they suggest incorporating, it's just too much like becoming something evil.

I could go with a company, or a studio, or a private enterprise may. The word "corporation" just has too much bad connotation with it, and I've even advocated banning corporations to force accountability onto the people who make decisions that result in unsafe products killing people.

 

[Trent]

Well one thing is to not overextend yourself also. I know someone who is pretty much a 1 man game company who made the game world of Synibar. (OK not the best but let me continue) He had 50K copies made up and lost quite a bit of cash on it he said if he had 10K instead he would have had a decent profit.

Anyways get a business license of some sort depending on the state. allow for some flexibility in the business model. Don't overextend yourself. As far as what you are making goes take it in steps and do things you can complete.

That's good advice, too many irons in the fire means nothing gets finished.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

IIRC - not only did she put hot coffee, which if served fresh is going to be at or near 100c/212F, between her legs, she then had the brainiac idea to turn around to deal with her toddler in the rear seat while still driving. Irregardless of the actual temperature of a drink which any moron should know is served at temperatures which will cause serious injury, i.e. nearly boiling hot, she had no business not paying attention to where the frak she was driving. She could have killed someone by her negligence and instead gets $3,000,000? I could care less about industry standards at that point- she deserved nothing for her stupidity and instead she got rich. I hope she chokes on a cheeseburger.....

Not quite. She was 79-year-old lady, didn't have a toddler in the car, wasn't driving (her grandson was behind the wheel), and it was parked at the time of the incident. She spilled the coffee while attempting to take the lid off so she could add cream and sugar to it.

And we don't know what she got from McDonalds (they settled out of court for an undisclosed sum), but it was definitely not in the $3 million range. Likely not even the same digits, in fact. She's also been dead now for about five years, so you can give up on that whole 'choking on a cheeseburger thing', too.

Not that I sympathise with her. I was in the coffee industry for the better part of a decade (and expect to be back in it again someday), so I know exactly how important it is to prepare coffee at the proper temperature ... which is, in fact, just a degree or two shy of boiling. Coffee prepared at less than 180 degrees is just plain swill, and too many places out there prepare it at that temperature (or lower) out of fear of liability issues.

And for Pete's sake, people have been handling hot coffee for centuries. I have had fresh coffee spilled on me many times, and it just ain't that lethal.

Sorry for the hijack there, but this was kinda in my area of expertise. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Traveller discussion, already in progress ...

 

[atpollard]

Let's assume he wanted to market it as a PDF for an existing game line that was more or less OGL like and had clearance from the guy at the top to do it.

Now, what does it take to declare one's self a game company? Do you just need a logo and a name? Assuming the person in question doesn't want to "incorporate" for various reasons what does he need to do? Just declare the company name and logo his IP?

I'm just curious...

As a PDF publisher at DTRPG (you said PDF was your preferred venue), you need no GAMA or ISBNs since you will not be selling books through stores.

DTRPG requires the purchase of a BUNDLE (was $40) of great advice to register to sell.

I strongly urge forming an LLC if possible. Lawsuits can find you even if you have done nothing wrong, and unless you have absolutely no assets to loose, you are risking them on this venture.

The alternative is to publish the product through another company or as a free product under a Fair Use Agreement.

Either treat it as a business or don't - treating it like 'sort-of a business' is just playing with fire.

 

[Appelcline]

10 ISBNs: $275.00
100 ISBNs: $995.00
1000 ISBNs: $1,750.00

If you just want to dip your toe in, you can find reputable people to resell you one ISBN. A friend did that for a couple of small press games he published.