The space for independent games is a rare place where your money goes a long way in affecting what you see in the market.
Less established properties can struggle to find an audience when they are starting out because of the large amount of sales in the market. To encourage the growth of their own communities on services like Discord and at in-person conventions, independent publishers are working to create a more inclusive and strategic investing strategy.
Tyler Crumrine is the founder of Possible Worlds Games. Crumrine told io9 that PWG is giving a grant to an author and an artist so that they can collaborate in order to create new TTRPGs. The first residents of the Forethought Initiative are comics artist Linnea Sterte and author Renee Gladman.
The MoCCA Arts Festival Award of excellence was won by the title Stages of Rot, which was nominated for an Eisner for best graphic album. Her sophomore release A Frog in the Fall raised over $160,000. Gladman is an artist and author of 13 published works, including a cycle of novels about the city-state Ravicka and its inhabitants. Gladman's work is described by an award-winning science fiction author as "more Kafka than Kafka..."
In the next 10 months, Gladman and Sterte will send pages of art and writing to each other, providing the other with inspiration for their work and creating a wholly unique setting. Crumrine will design a new game in that world as the authors create new art and fiction, at the end of the process, the residents will have final approval of that game, as well as the right to use any of the material generated in their own projects and portfolio.
Crumrine's approach is the result of years of work to help create and support accessible mentorship and financing for emerging artists. One of the earliest examples is the Emerging Designers mentorship program, which had its first cohort announcement. The Quiet Year, Monsterhearts, and Dream Askew are games that helped establish and popularize the Belonging Outside Belonging system.
The Gauntlet gave small, no-interest loans to designers who were making TrophyRPG supplements. This was expanded to include supplements from Brindlewood Bay. The ZQ2 program was particularly successful because the little Trophys got a big boost, according to an email from the man who administered the loans.
The designers who crowdfunded The Unquiet Dark told io9 that the loan meant that they could get some things in place before the campaign. The project would have likely failed if we hadn't had the money to get the initial art done.
If it weren't for the grant, Beakwood Bay wouldn't have happened, he said in an email. My game was funded on its first day thanks to the grant and support of the Gauntlet community.
Grants and scholarships have been offered to marginalized people who might not have the means to attend their events, which are considered crucial networking opportunities. Big Bad Con is giving 100 grants for $300 each to designers of marginalized background, including first time designers, to support the production of a browser-based story game via Story Synth, a free platform for designing and sharing TTRPGs online. The applications are still open until the grants are awarded.
Randy Lubin told io9 in an email that he hopes that the microgrants will enable a new wave of designers to make and share their games, which will then be quickly usable by the entire community. The microgrants are for designers of marginalized identities and empowering diverse designers will lead to more games that address a broader array of themes, topics, perspectives, mechanics, and more.
Big Bad Con's mission is to provide an inclusive place to grow the gaming community, and to support and empower marginalized voices within it, according to an email from Sean Nitter.
Games creators need a way to make games sustainable and worth their time and investment, but these one-off grants do a lot of good. To that end, they're also developing mutual aid programs and co-op game design groups in their own communities, where users find similar themes and values in each other.
Tony Vasinda started Plus One Experience which led to the creation of the mutual aid fund. Plus One invested in a print run for Laurie O'Connel's Heironymous and a formal playtest packet for Cloven Pine's Autumn Triduum. Plus One gathered support from their community to offer funding for other projects after the last minute delay of the project. I realized that this was not just about Plus One helping print games.
He said that the feedback they had gotten from people when they had offered funding was strong and that they wanted it to be more of a community of support. Sam is an amazing creator and he built a system that a lot of members of our team love.
The editor for the project has been acquired by Mutual RPGs. It will provide distribution and fund a physical print run of the book later this year. It can be intimidating for small-time creators, and by creating a co-op to support small TTRPG endeavors, more creators have a higher chance of succeeding.
Grants and mutual funds can be included within the stretch goals of a campaign with so many games funding on platforms. Sandy Pug Games received an overwhelming amount of money from its Monster Care Squad campaign, which led to the creation of the Ald-Amura Historical Society Grant.
Liam Ginty, the founder of Sandy Pug Games, said that the team decided that some of the wealth should go back into the community.
A lot of third-party content was created as a result of this grant program, and one of the hardest pieces of Monster Care Squad artwork was made by the man who accepted the commission.
The co-founders of Possum Creek Games, Jay Dragon and Ruby Lavin, were inspired by the grant to start their own program.
Dragon says the grant supported more than 40 creators as they pursued projects related to the game. Dragon said the grant funded third-party products, including new playbooks, expansions, a soundtrack, illustrations, play tools, and even a limited run of berry wine.
The bedrock of the fan community has been the Haeth Grant. With financial support and increased accessibility, Wanderhome accrued a thriving fan community, creating opportunities for many who might not have been otherwise able to access publishing.
Designers are working on similar projects. A game design jam hosted on itch.io and offering $50 minigrants to queer BIPOC who want to create a game during the event is being run by Lex Kim Bobrow. Bobrow isn't supported by a press or co-op, but they are focused on building a community and creating access. There are also initiatives like the itch bundle. The layout level-up bundle funds software purchases for those who would not be able to afford it otherwise.
Jackson Adams, who released Beakwood Bay with the support of a no-interest loan, says these programs are critical to creators.
When you see community-funded games like Thirsty Sword Lesbians becoming pillars of the scene, it lets marginalized groups know that they are not alone.
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