Hi everybody, here are some news from Flatlined Games HQ :
Company Status :
- Flatlined Games is alive and well. I run Flatlined Games during the evenings and weekends, along with my 'real' job that pays the bills. I am usually reactive on the various boardgames forums, but 'formal' communication on our website is a bit slower.
All money gained from sold games currently goes back into reprinting sold games and developing new games, as well of some money from my 'real' job to speed things up a little. This is a slow build-up process but it is safe and should guarantee that Flatlined Games will continue to operate for a very long time. The luxurious italian car will have to wait, I'm afraid. Ramen we can afford.
Sales :
- Dragon Rage is selling better than expected, with two thirds of the print run gone already. Our target was to sell the 1500 copies in 5 years, as this is a very niche game. We're doing better than expected with that title so far, and our recent US distribution deal should help us sell out faster than expected. Dragon rage is a niche product and a slow seller compared to most current releases, but it is unique and niche enough that we know it will have a very long shelf life (Heck, it's already 30 years old if you think about it!).
- Rumble in the House is also performing quite well. The initial print run of 3000 multilingual copies was sold out in three months and justified a second print run of 5000 copies.
Distribution :
- We have set up deals with distributors for Belgium, France, the Netherlands, UK, and recently Canada and U.S.A.
Current projects :
- Rumble in the House reprint. With the strong sales we are reprinting new copies of Rumble in the House to keep our distributors supplied during the holiday season.Third printing... Who would have known ?
- Rumble in the Dungeon. This is a stand-alone game that can be combined with Rumble in the House. It will be printed along with the Rumble in the House reprint, and should be available in October. Rumble in the Dungeon takes Rumble in the House to a dungeon setting with a new twist : a treasure chest hidden in the depths of the dungeon, filled with riches and glory! A separate announcement will follow with more details.
- Twin tin Bots. This diceless robot-programming game by acclaimed Belgian designer Philippe Keyaerts will be pushed back to early 2013. Development on the game is mostly finished (Jim Dunnigan, spi founder and Avalon Hill director said 'games are never finished, they just happen to be published at some point of their life.'), but we need to gather extra funds to make it happen in a timely fashion (see below).
- Crowdfunding campaign. We will soon launch a crowdfunding campaign to fund the printing of Twin Tin Bots. We decided against letting our other games go out of stock in order to print Twin tin Bots, and rather make a call to our fan base to fund the initial printing.
This is a common problem for small publishers : once the initial investment for a game has been made, you can use the money from games sold to either reprint the game as stocks diminishes, or to print new games and let the older release go out of print. It is exceptional that sales of a game bring in enough money to both reprint it and release new titles. We believe games should stay in print as long as there is interest for them, but this means each new release will take longer to be funded. Crowdfunding is a way to accelerate that funding (publishing the game Q1 2013 instead of Q4 2013 with money from sales and some personal money to speed things up). It also has the added benefit of allowing us to gauge demand for a game and rightsize the print run accordingly.
Essen Spiel'12 :
- Flatlined Games will be present at Essen Spiel '12, on booth 4-216 (same as last year).
- We should have Rumble in the Dungeon available at the fair (If the german printing gnomes can finish it in time)
- You will be able to play Twin Tin Bots during the fair, on preproduction copies (That is, a fancy way to say 'home-made'. They have cool 3-D playing pieces, however.)
The crystal ball :
- Dragon Rage expansion! The designer is working on an expansion. This will take a long time. Very long. Later than next year. It should take the form of a stand-alone game that can be mixed and matched with Dragon Rage. There might be elves involved. These are patient creatures, elves. They understand the meaning of 'it will take a long time.'
