It’s funny it only seems like a few weeks have passed since Tim and I first met while he was finishing up 101rst Airborne.  At the time I was almost finished with my tenure as head of Marketing and Business Development at Wargamer.com and we were interviewing Tim for the final release of his game to the general public.  Fast forward almost a year where Tim had just started Shrapnel Games.  I had started down the road to the gaming business by launching the product Red Thunder, for the now defunct EdenSoft Games, and was intrigued by Tim’s idea of how to change the face of wargaming.  I have never been one for conformity and I had been increasingly frustrating with the direction of the serious war and strategy gaming market.  Tim’s idea was to bypass retail and bring good games to the people and I felt it was an idea whose time had come.  And so a 9 year relationship with Shrapnel Games was born.

     I will always be indebted to Tim and the community for this opportunity over the last 9 years.  I can remember the early days where we struggled to find a reliable web host and spent several days down during the ice storms of late 99.  Recruiting and signing the first developers was a thrill and those early days of getting excited over an individual sale of a game or an individual post to our forums will always be special memories.  My favorite times were meeting with the people behind the forum posts and I will always cherish my visits to Connections or Origins and meeting our incredible community face to face. 

       If nothing else we did change the face of the industry.  Now the market blazed by a few small companies has blossomed into a way of doing business.  We also, in the process, developed a lively community of close to 10,000 registered members, who are passionate about gaming and each other.  We published some of the most award winning games in our genre and developed a reputation for excellence and close connection with our fans and community.  And I am glad for every moment I spent along that journey.

      Many of the newer members of the community probably will not remember any of this, and to be honest, probably will wonder who this Richard guy is .  That’s the other reason for leaving.  Over the last few years my real career has taken off and has increasingly asked for more of my time.  In that time other people have stepped in to take over many of the things I used to do and I think there will be opportunities in the future for more folks in the community to help continue to fill that void.  So that’s why it’s time for Mindi and I to step aside so we can concentrate on the other interests in our life and blaze our own path along the road.  That doesn’t mean we won’t be back from time to time but when we do it won’t be doing it as employees of Shrapnel Games, we’ll be doing it as supporters of the community.  Because if there’s nothing else that I treasure of the last 9 years it’s the folks I have met along the journey to where I am now.

       So thanks again for everything and hopefully we’ll see each other in the future.

A few months ago I posted the first blog of this series, which you can view below:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/blog/2005/04/15/a-blast-from-the-past-part-1/

The point of this series is to let our new friends know about the history of our company and our core principles. So, with that in mind, here is another article from our intrepid leader Tim Brooks. This was originally posted back in 1999:

What You Actually Pay for a Game
Or How the Big Boys Work

It was only a couple of months ago that I was having an ICQ conversation with a fan of 101: The 101st Airborne in Normandy. At least I assume he was a fan since he said some very nice things about 101. Of course he could have just been being kind. But, it is much better for my self-esteem to think that he truly liked the game so I’ll stick with that view. Anyhow, the conversation turned to the industry, the need for stronger computers, and the price of games. It was while discussing the price of games that this very likeable and knowledgeable (he liked 101, remember) gentleman said, “You know, I won’t pay more than $40.00 for a game. If it costs more than this, I just wait a couple of months and pick it up in the bargain bends.”

Well that got me to thinking, which is always a dangerous thing. So, I did a little research, went back over conversations in my mind (not conversations with myself, but conversations with Publishers), and came up with what shall be forever known as The Game Publishers’ Pricing Policy Guidelines.

You see, all the Big Boys have these guidelines. They don’t tell you they have the guidelines. And if you went into their very nicely furnished offices (paid for with profits from Hopscotch Wars) you wouldn’t see them posted anywhere. But they do exist. They keep them on their bookshelves in the black binder entitled: How To Make Really Bad Games. Or in the red binder with the title: How To Fool the Public Into Buying Really Bad Games. Either place, though, you will find the guidelines. Just sneak into one of their plush offices (paid for with profits from RoboWarrior XX, the Video Game) after work (say 2:00 pm) and you know what you will find? I mean besides the Windows solitaire game they having been studying so they can make their wargames more profitable. Yep, you will find The Game Publisher’s Pricing Guidelines right where I told you they would be. Just sit down (you have plenty of time – it’s only 2:00 pm and they won’t be back in until 9:00 the next morning) and read. They really do make interesting reading. If they didn’t, why would I write this article?

So without further ado,
____________________________________________________
The Game Publishers’ Pricing Policy Guidelines
Confidental
Privait
For your I’s only
Don’t show two any 1

Introduction:

These guidelines were developed over a period of days (ok, hours) in late 1993 at The Conference for Big Game Publishers and Used Car Salesmen. They are the Bible for our industry and must be taken out and have read to you before you release any new game. Please be aware that if this information fell into the gaming buyers’ hands that we would lose a lot of money and would have to give up our plush offices and wouldn’t be able to play Windows solitaire all day. Our expense accounts would be cut meaning that we would have to stay in the Holiday Inn when we went to E3. We would also not be able to tell developers that we want to publish their games and then see how bad we can screw them up so that we have interesting stories to tell each other about pissed off game designers at the Game Developers Conference. So, keep these Guidelines in a safe place (we suggest either the big red notebook like you had in hi-school or the big black notebook because it has that neat pocket on the inside front cover).

Introduction Number Two (uhhmmm, he said number two):

Whereby we have already fooled the general game buying public into thinking that good graphics mean a good game. And whereby we have found out that good graphics cost a bunch of money. And whereby we don’t know the first thing about how to make a good game. And whereby the people that do know how to make a good game don’t wear suits. And whereby we don’t want to associate with people who don’t wear suits because our wives will leave us for bankers and lawyers and used car salesmen. And whereby we couldn’t get into the country clubs anymore. And whereby we couldn’t drive expensive cars anymore. And whereby that would really piss our girlfriends off. We have set forth the following guidelines for pricing new game releases.

Guidelines for Pricing New Game Releases:

First Version of Game: $34.95 –39.95

Explanasion Xplanasion Why: This is only half a game. We didn’t know how to make a good game, so we took an overused, under developed game idea and put a lot of really pretty pictures with it. We then put the best of these pictures on the box and put a suggested retail price of $34.95 or $39.95 on it. The stores will sell it for almost 3 to 5 dollars cheaper because we pay them $50,000 to put it on their shelves and they don’t even need to make any money on the game. They will push it and sell it even though it stinks because they need to free up the shelf space so that they can sell that space to another Publisher.

Second Version of A Game: $39.95 -$44.95

Why: This only happens if we have fooled enough people into buying the first game and it made us a lot of money. Otherwise, we don’t release a second version, but repeat the process with another game that isn’t really a game but that has really nice pictures. But, if we fooled enough people into buying the First Version, then we have enough money to do a Second Version. Now, what we do is collect all the technical support calls and have one of our secretaries or interns that knows how to read to watch all the forums. We learn from the customer what changes we need to make to turn this into a game. Now, if we pay attention and don’t get too carried away with the Windows solitaire tournament, we will finally have a good game!

Summary:

This is a really good plan. What we have done is sold one game for $74.90 – $84.90. Of course, the gamers think they only spent $34.95 - $44.95, but we know they didn’t. This is how you make money.

Now, you ask what do we do if the Second Version is popular and makes us a lot of money? Well, what you do is to make a brand new game based on the theme of the Second Version, but it is really a First Version with pretty pictures and no gaming value. If it does well then you do a Fourth Version, which is really a Second Version. This way the gamer always pays us $80.00 for a game.

____________________________________________________

And so it goes…

We have made a lot of new friends recently, but a lot of those folks don’t really know about our companies history or philosophy. I would like to point some folks to the following webpage:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/about.htm

To continue to move towards this goal I thought I would post some articles from an old feature we used to post regularly on the website. This is the first, in a multi blog series, that will highlight some of the ramblings err thoughts from our intrepid leader Tim Brooks. I will continue to post these as long as Sarge will let me .

Enjoy:

Publishers Say the Darndest Things

Over the last seven years, I have been in literally hundreds of conversations with upper management folks (suits) in the Game Publishing Industry… errr… I mean the Multi-Media Entertainment Industry. I have been keeping records of the most interesting quotes that have come out of these meetings. Now, I didn’t always write these quotes down. Early on I just thought I had ran into a really ignorant person, it was only later that I realized that most of the suits in this industry are all alike. That’s when I started writing down what was said. So, although not all of the following quotes are verbatim, the grand majority of them are, and the ones that aren’t are pretty darned close. By the way, these are in no particular order, and names are withheld to protect the truly stupid.

“We don’t use game designers…” - Producer for major developer.

“Let’s see, we are giving you one more month to finish up those changes. Could you also make it so that we can see the backs of the buildings. You know, rotate the view.” - Producer for major publisher, asking us to take a 2D engine and turn it into a 3D engine in one month.

“We only hire game designers with no experience, so that we can train them.” – Producer. When I asked who trained them, he said, “They just learn by trial and error.”

“We don’t do your type of game. We try to stay away from accuracy.” – VP of Development of wargames publisher.

“You know what would make this fun. You should make it like Command & Conquer, or like Quake.” - Vice President of large publishing house in a conversation about the sequel to 101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy.

“Why don’t you do a game about D-Day. Now that would sell. Nobody wants to play a game about Normandy.” – Producer for major publisher after reading the Design Document for 101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy.

“They are two different things, this industry isn’t about games.” – Producer, answering my question as to why they don’t hire designers from the board game industry.

“I played that Doom game once.” – Producer for large publisher when I asked him what games he’s played in the last month.

“I’m way too busy to play games. I have to make sure that our developers turn out quality products.” - Another Producer, when I asked him how many game’s he’s played in the last month.

“You could be a good wargame designer if you just weren’t so interested in realism.” - In an employment interview with a major game developer.

“I was in the construction industry.” – New Producer, when I asked him what he did before he got his current job.

“It’s not supposed to end.” – Developer, when I asked him how to win the game they were showing me.

“Multi-media.” - Producer’s answer to my question “What type of games are you looking for?”

“You’re asking too much. We only pay $10,000 - $15,000 for our games.” – Producer who approached me about doing a game for his major wargame publishing company. He wanted to know how much we would charge them to design and develop the product. Needless to say, it was a lot more than $15,000.

“Turn-based games are dead.” - Producer with company whose largest hit at that time was a well-known turn-based game. I still wonder if he was aware that his company’s leading product was a turn-based game, then in the top-ten in sales. I didn’t have the courage to ask, I was afraid of what he might say.

All the above individuals still work in this industry, except one. And you wonder where all the really great games have gone…

So let’s say your addicted to crack….

Not the sort of article you were expecting huh? Well it’s a valid comparison. When your addicted to drugs you normally have to stay away from them permanently so that the old cravings don’t kick in. This can be said for retail in many ways. If you don’t kick the habit your going to let it dictate your life as a developer/publisher.

When a developer/publisher puts their game in retail they are growing the reputation and the profits of the dealers we know as traditional retail. You can become so dependent on them for sales and audience reach that you will start to do anything they ask for just for a little fix. If they want you to buy shelf space, you do it. If they want you to only get paid post 6 months or greater, and accept all returns, you do it. If they remove your titles, because they aren’t the hot drug of the moment, to the bargain bins and eventually out of the stores, you do it. And in the process you grow their clientele and prestige so that all of your customers go looking for their gaming fix in retail and look at anything else as 2nd rate.

So when you take one game and put into retail, because your trying to steal customers from them, you are again allowing the drug dealer to dictate terms to you and in the long run teach your audience that the only game in town for important games is in retail. Also you are dimishing the value of your spot in the marketplace and killing the chance for your product to develop a long term community.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t steal from them, but if your looking to grow audience wouldn’t it make more sense to wait until the product life cycle is through and put it in a shovelware pack and get folks that way. You will probably find lots of folks you would never see in your audience buying the game because it’s cheap, and when they get addicted for the next hit you can ask them to order it from your website exclusively. This way you control the terms and steal back from those who stole the industry from true gamers to begin with.

But just like kicking a habit it takes commitment to do this, a long term commitment that will be painful and full of withdrawal. But in the end you will have your life and industry back.

And as gamers isn’t that what we all want?

So what is this new graphic I am posting tonight? It’s from a recently signed game, but I am not at liberty to discuss it beyond that. Well I could but Sarge has his spies out there and I know what happened last time I disobeyed him. Remind me to tell you folks that story sometime….

You’ll hear more about this game in coming months.

So keep it tuned here to find out the latest information on your favorite independent game publisher first.

Hi everyone. For those that don’t know me my name is Richard Arnesen and I work for Shrapnel Games. As far as what I do, well I would tell you but then I would have to shoot you . Seriously though I fill a lot of different functions or whatever Sarge yells down the hall for me to do.

Oh you haven’t met Sarge…

Well that’s another story for another day.

When Shrapnel first started we used to post our thoughts on the industry, and our company, on the forums and in monthly articles on our website front page. Over the years we have gotten away from that, and we thought this would give us a good opportunity to share with everyone what’s going on in our company.

To start out with I can give you some updates on some projects we are working on:

82nd Airborne - Rest assured it is being worked on every day, and is coming along slowly. If wasn’t for Sarge expecting perfection it might actually be done by now. Err but you didn’t hear that from me…

Salvo - This game is looking great! The beta testers have really been giving it the one over.

I’ll leave some of the other updates for another day. We do have some new projects on the horizon including a fun strategy/RPG game and a yet unannounced Board Game title. These are external developer projects, but they are looking great.

So that’s it for now. Let us know what you think and we look forward to giving you the latest scoop on what is going on at Shrapnel to our current customers but also to those folks who get their daily dose of news from blogs.