Let's Talk About Publishing - EC Indie Fund - Extra Credits

Hey there guys. Say hello to Andrew Gregoire, who's going to be helping us out this week. He runs a webcomic called I am Arg. There's a link down there, you should check it out. We got a lot to cover today, so let's get right to it. The outpouring of support from the Extra Credits community ever since Allison's shoulder injury has been overwhelming. Seriously, we cannot express our gratitude and appreciation enough. At the time of writing, we have raised $100,000 to help Allison. That That isn't just beyond our expectations, that is an order of magnitude beyond our wildest hopes. In fact, I have to confess, it's something we weren't really prepared for. Now, many of you have had some great questions for us regarding the fundraiser, which we tried to answer over Facebook and Twitter, but you all deserve a full-fledged response. So, here it goes. First, the bonus episode you donators get access to. Allison's expressed a desire to make the bonus episode herself once she's recovered, and I think that's a cool idea. It's literally the episode you guys paid to make possible. This puts it

down the road a little while, but I think that's worth it. As far as the rest of the rewards go, assuming you put valid information in when you signed up for RocketHub, we should have all of your info now that the fundraiser is officially ended. So, the t-shirts and such should be getting sent out shortly. If you wanted to protect your privacy and didn't use your real information, just send us an email at our usual address, [email protected], with the title wrong RocketHub information in all caps. Tell us the information you gave and we'll get it sorted out. Also, we're working to figure out how to do international shipping on the shirts. It looks like it should work out, but if for any reason we can't do it, we promise we'll figure out something else equally awesome for you guys. So, on to the big question. You guys handed us $100,000, that carries an immense responsibility. Even with the cost of additional surgeries, physical therapy, taxes, RocketHub takes out, the cost of printing and shipping thousands of shirts, it looks like we'll definitely have money left over, and we felt an incredible obligation to find the right use for it. We've spent many weeks thinking this over, trying to make sure we do the right thing with the funds provided. Something that's fun for everybody, but also might do some good. After thinking it over a while, we asked ourselves, all right, what was this

fundraiser really about? This fundraiser was about allowing someone to continue to do the work they love, and ensuring that they were never cut off from their passion. Once Allison is well, we'd like to use any excess money to pay that forward and help create jobs that allow others to build their dreams, and in doing so, maybe change the industry for the better. Basically, we would like to create a fund to publish quality games. Until I can come up with a better official name for it, let's just call it the EC Indie Fund. We won't be starting with big AAA titles or multi-million dollar projects, obviously. But, if after all the expenses, we end up with around $50,000 left over to work with, James believes we can start funding some independent developers that are small enough to take risks and to deliver experiences that might really have an impact on the medium as a whole. James, Allison, and I will contribute our expertise and our connections to help ensure that the money spent goes as far as possible, and has the best possible chance of making a difference. And we won't be taking any cut out of this, either. If the initial published titles are successful, all profits earned will go back into the fund to help kickstart additional games. Of course, planning and sorting out all the logistics of this sort of project has led us to take

a close look at how publishing generally works in the industry today, and ways we might do it better. In doing so, we came up with four very clear issues with publishing today that we think harm developers, harm fans, and in the end, harm the publishers themselves. Maybe we're wrong, but I think games as a whole would do a lot better if these practices were dropped. And we've got the unique opportunity here to actually give it a shot. Here we go. First, there's the issue of IP ownership. In almost every publishing deal I've seen involving small or independent game studio, the publisher has tried to own all the intellectual property behind a game. This means that the studio would have to ask the publisher if they wanted to make a sequel, a spin-off, a TV show, or a novel out of the world they created. Often, they'll even have to pay a fee for the privilege, and that's just not right. When you think about it, it's really pretty extortionist to demand that somebody hand over the rights to their creation in exchange for the tools to make that idea a reality. It just leads to bad blood, and honestly, it's one of the main reasons we see franchises handed off to second-tier studios and driven into the ground. We believe a better working relationship between game publishers and developers benefits everybody involved, and it's really hard to establish a good relationship with the person who forced

you to give up the rights to your own creation. Now, to be fair, a studio with a good lawyer can sometimes dodge giving up their intellectual property, but even in these cases, it's often used by the publisher as a big stick at the bargaining table to extract other concessions. So, that's the first thing we are going to fix. IP rights are off the table from the get-go. The developer keeps their IP. The only time where we'll ever ask for it is in the event that the developer simply fails to finish their game, in which case we'll hand it to another developer so that they can finish it. We want to ensure that all the hard-earned money you guys put in isn't just wasted. Second, let's talk about multiple game deals. James regularly hears small developers tell him excitedly about how they just landed a multi-game deal with a publisher, and it just breaks his heart. Multi-game deals are actually a trap. At first, it sounds like an altruistic offer to publish your next several games, but they are not. They're actually an agreement that basically says, "Hey, if your first game's wildly successful, we have the rights to publish your next one under the same terrible terms." And these deals are always at the option of the publisher, too. So, if they decide they don't want to publish your next game, even with a multi-game deal, they can drop you like a rock. Multi-game deals just lead to corner-cutting and

poor follow-up products that often doom fledgling developers. Suffice it to say, we are not doing any multi-game deals. If a developer works with us twice in a row, it should be because they want to, not because they're contractually obligated. Third, profits will be fairly split. Almost all game contracts come down to wrangling over how the revenue to the game's going to be split, with both the developer and the publisher trying to work each other over for as much as they can possibly get. From the very beginning, it sets up a relationship of suspicion rather than trust. It creates an us versus them mentality on both sides, rather than a feeling of partnership. Moreover, this often results in one side burning the other for short-term gains, rather than working together to establish long-running franchises, which are more beneficial to both parties in the end. So, we intend to do a 50/50 split with our developers on the net profits of any game we publish. The developer keeps half, and the other half goes right back into the publishing fund where it can be used to start future projects. This sets out a clear and equitable partnership from the very beginning. We assume the risk by putting up the money, they put in the labor and the time to build the game. Now, that'll also mean that we'll probably expect our developers to be more efficient than those working for

20/80 split of American box product sales or what have you. We are here to work with developers who love what they do and have a game they're burning to make. We're not going to have a lot of patience for someone who tries to take advantage of that trust. Finally, let's talk about transparency. At the end of the day, this is you guys' fund, so you will know everything. Our successes and our failures. We will try to engage in open and honest dialogue with everybody. There will be no carefully crafted spin, no marketing people with memorized bullet points talking to reporters. All communication will come directly from us or the developers themselves. We won't censor anything, we won't hold anything back. Even if a product is falling apart or a developer doesn't like working with us, you will know. And when things aren't going smoothly, we'll turn to you and ask for your patience rather than just continuing to tow the party line and keeping you guys in the dark. Now, that's not to say we won't advertise the game, but we'll do it with the honesty and sincerity befitting the trust you've placed in us. We do see this as a community, and even though we have every intention of running this like a proper business, we don't see you guys as a community we have to lie to. Better games sell better, and no amount of hype will change that. In the end, for all the minutia of how publishing works, and

for all the different practices that different companies use, one thing remains universally true. Publishing is about the relationship between the developer, the publisher, and the consumer. Trying to cheat one another all the time or squeezing out the last possible dollar just isn't worth it. It undercuts the one thing that separates a successful developer-publisher relationship from many of the horror stories you hear about. And we believe that trying to hide the truth from the consumer is, honestly, just far more trouble than it's worth. It may take us a year to find the right game to start with. We aren't going to make any hasty moves or jeopardize any of the funds you guys have raised. Since we don't need to make money off this, we're under no pressure for time. But, we do now have a chance, thanks to all of you guys, to do something potentially great. So, we do need to find the right title to launch with and the right people to stand behind to put money toward their dreams. With time, dedication, and a little luck, we'll be able to keep many people employed doing what they love. With time, dedication, and luck, we'll be able to change the industry just a little bit and create a space where games are measured on their merit rather than on their marketability. And if we are very, very lucky, we may even be able to expand who gets to make games. If any of you want to help further

support this endeavor, the Rocket Hub link is below with new prizes and rewards befitting this new journey. Thank you all again. None of this would be possible without you guys. Thanks for letting us get that bit of business out of the way. We will see you next week.