Game Design & Publishing Workshop - Sun, Nov 23rd
guildofblades:
The Guild of Blades Retail Group is hosting a FREE game design and independent publishing workshop on Sunday, November 23rd at our new Game Retail Store in Madison Heights
( http://www.guildofblades.com/gobstore-madisonheights-mi.php ),
Michigan. The workshop will run from noon to 5 or 6 pm and will go over the nuts and bolts of designing games destined for independent publication, plus a detailed overview of the many aspects of operating a small press game publishing company and attendees can see the GOB Retail POD operation first hand. Hosted by veteran game designer Ryan Johnson, a partner in the Guild of Blades Publishing Group, a prolific small press publisher since 1996.
Seating is limited to the first 20 attendees. To register drop by the store at 28736 John R Rd, Madison Heights, MI. For questions, give us a call at 248-430-4980.
Thanks,
Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.guildofblades.com/retailgroup.php
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com
Eero Tuovinen:
Heh, such a good idea. One thing I like about American game store culture is this low barrier to doing all sorts of culture coupled in with the commercial setting. At least to me it seems that our retail forces here in Finland are much more focused on single-track sales making. Might be because of the shallow markets, which make this sort of community outreach unnecessary.
How has the store startup been doing, Ryan, if you don't mind reporting on it? You've been at it what, a couple of weeks now?
guildofblades:
<<Heh, such a good idea. One thing I like about American game store culture is this low barrier to doing all sorts of culture coupled in with the commercial setting. At least to me it seems that our retail forces here in Finland are much more focused on single-track sales making. Might be because of the shallow markets, which make this sort of community outreach unnecessary.<<
Low barrier to do community type events? I am curious what sorts of additional barriers you would face there to host similar events? It seems to me, here at least, the largest barrier to hosting any such event is the challenges of getting the world out about the event. The larger the local populace or more scattered, the harder that is and more effort/money it takes.
With us, this sort of thing is sort of the first steps on the sales track for developing a strong business for our POD services in the local market.
>>How has the store startup been doing, Ryan, if you don't mind reporting on it? You've been at it what, a couple of weeks now?<<
Been a tad over 3 weeks now. Things are a bit slow with the games. So far we've actually made more money simply printing custom poker decks for folks compared to game sales. But I am seeing evidence that we are starting to reach more of the gamers in the local community, so things will pick up. PDF printing seems to be going over well and is driving some folks into the store, though I expect that to pick up more over time as knowledge of the store's existance spreads. We seem to be failing to find the active MTG base locally thus far, but I'm sure one exists and we've got open gaming here without another game store for another 11 miles and we're centered in a fairly highly populated area of the Detroit burbs, so its simply a matter of time.
Our store will continue to become more unique and more of a destination location as we continue to get more and more of the indie/small press titles printed and in stock under our retail program. I'm trying to support D&D 4th and OGl 3.5 equally, but in the long run hope to grow the customer base for independent RPGs and systems far more.
Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.guildofblades.com/retailgroup.php
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com
Eero Tuovinen:
Oh, I'm mostly thinking of psychological barriers and the basic conception of how things are done. Our game stores tend towards conceited when it comes to gaming culture - "We're already doing you a favor when we stock rpgs at all" is sort of the rallying cry, any outreach towards the market is usually in the form of prepackaged WotC initiatives. Or that's my overall impression, anyway. Nice seeing a game store do something different and interesting of their own initiative.
Seth M. Drebitko:
Sounds awesome, any hopes of a pod cast for those of us who live much to far away to attend?
Regards, Seth
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