hello, friend
If you're reading this then it's likely you're an advisor and/or contributor to this unannounced new Superbrothers project and you were given a login to the website by staff at Superbrothers.
non-disclosure
Chances are you've already signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) but if for some reason you haven't yet then we must ask that you please keep secret all of the information you may encounter here. Pretty much nothing about this project is publicly known, and we'd very much like it to stay that way until we're ready to let people know, which won't be for a good long while. Information leaks can be awkward complications, they can create unwanted expectations and they could have an adverse effect on our plans and we much prefer the relative simplicity of creating in the shadows. You have our thanks for your understanding and discretion.
advisor and/or contributor
If you're an advisor then we are honored and extremely grateful to be chatting with you about our new project. If you're a contributor then we're also excited to be getting into some kind of a creative relationship with you. If you're not sure which category you fall into right now that's ok. At this early stage t might not be clear to either of us how/what/when you may contribute to this effort. Perhaps an opportunity will suggest itself in due time, or perhaps being an advisor is the most appropriate level of involvement. If an opportunity for contribution crops up and when we are able to firm up a batch of assets or 'deliverables' then we will of course arrive at a mutually-agreed upon and appropriate fee or compensation. If you feel as an advisor that your time and attention are worth some compensation or favor then that's perfectly natural too, and we'd be happy to talk.
long term scheme
It might be helpful for us to set up some context schedule-wise. This project will be in a prototype phase through 2013, hopefully moving into more of a production phase through 2014. Videogame creation can be unpredictable, and while we have carved out a rough path towards completion, part of the plan involves staying flexible and acknowledging that the release plan will be a whole lot more clear once we're closer to completion.
When 'version 1' of this project is eventually completed, our hope is that it will be both viable and creatively interesting to follow it up with releases and projects in a similar vein. While it would be foolish to commit to creating more than one project, our aim is to be able to build upon this project in some fashion, and as we move forward we'll be keeping in mind concepts that could be built out into follow-ups, spin-offs, side-stories. The point here is that we're thrilled to be chatting with you and we value and honor your time, perspective and skills... and we will be looking for opportunities to create worthwhile, interesting things with you sometime this year, or maybe next year, or at some point over the next few years.
loose quarterly schedule
We're operating on a loose quarterly schedule in 2013, so if we end up talking about a batch of deliverables, chances are they would be due when the season changes. Right now we're in Q3, ending in late September, so that's roughly when we'd want to get a hold of whatever you're cooking up, and that's also when you'd invoice us. Sooner is often better for us, but not always. There's no heavy pressure these days unless otherwise stated, and sometimes things need to take their time.
think small for now
It's still early days on this project, we're still busily experimenting, so at this point we're only looking for small contributions, and small commitments. To give you an idea of what to expect in terms of fee and workload: we're looking at individual budgets in the 500$ or 750$ range for a batch of deliverables, maybe going up to 1000$ if we end up getting excited about a more medium-sized contribution. Yes, those are small amounts, and we'd like to tailor whatever deliverables to fit. So what do we expect for that amount? Well... let's talk about what we think might be worth creating, then let's talk about your going rate, and then let's describe a batch of deliverables with a fee to fit. We can talk individually about that, and you can let us know what you feels appropriate.
To be honest we are kind of hoping that the relative interesting-ness of advising and contributing to this project (as well as eventual appropriate recognition) might help keep the creative conversation going and keep costs low... but we definitely do want to treat people the way we'd like to be treated, honest compensation for honest work... so let's talk, and keep talking as the project wears on.
big picture
On the money side of things, post Sword & Sworcery we have some money in the bank, but for a studio setting out on a new project it isn't a crazily large amount, and it does have to last. Our intention with this new project is for it to be viable, and our hope is that it will strike a chord and reach a broad audience, but it's entirely possible that it won't measure up to the unexpected success of Sword & Sworcery, and so we have to plan accordingly. We also know that the real challenges and pitfalls with this project lie ahead. At present we're in the honeymoon phase where anything is possible and we'll be in this phase for a while, but then there is the endless hard work of the production phase, which will of course go on too long, and be too expensive. And then there's the all-important awareness-raising phase leading up to and following launch. It's going to be a marathon and we're going to try to budget accordingly.
On the upside, our burn-rate is low. There is one full-time Superbrothers staffer, one regular part-time collaborator on the sound and music side, and our partner and co-creator is self-funding... so even with a long-ish creation process our total cost should be on the low-side. On the downside, it's our view that the videogame landscape is being re-shaped, and parts of the market are all but collapsing. Even if we imagine our project emerging as a brave, high quality, worthy experience it's still fairly unpredictable what that might mean in terms of audience size and viability.
looking for 'good ideas'
Deliverables for this project will come in variety of possible formats including text, images and sound... but all of them can be understood as different kinds of 'good ideas' for this project.
What do we mean by 'good idea'? As legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto once said:
"A good idea is something that does not solve just one single problem, but rather can solve multiple problems at once."
Of course, to be able to know a good idea from a bad idea and to gauge what is or isn't appropriate you'll want to know what's what, you'll need to gather some understanding of the various kinds of problems we're looking to solve with this project, what our creative goals are, what we're hoping to achieve and what our various constraints might be.
Chances are most of this situational awareness will come from in-person conversation, demonstration and maybe from playing a build or looking through related materials. In the interest of pouring a fresh foundation we've prepared a few posts that we think will get you roughly up to speed. The next post is linked below and they're also accessible from the menu at right.
So... to wrap-up, our goals in bringing you on as an advistor/contributor are:
- to have the pleasure of chatting with you, to get your take on things, and spark good ideas
- to maybe generate some tasty deliverables ie: voice recording, concept artwork or visual ideas, scraps of text
- to scout out some opportunities for continued conversation and contribution
Feel free to ask us a question on email or in-person. Also, feel free to point out errors and suggest improvements in these materials... these documents are liquid, they'll change over time, but we'll be using them to initiate new advistor/contributors, and eventually the presentation of our project in these documents may inform our broadcast and communication strategies later on down the line.
We hope this process will be pleasant for all involved, something to look forward to, something interesting to think about. Thanks in advance for your attention, your time, your advice and contributions, your patience and your faith.
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To get things going we'll tear down some expectations and pour a fresh foundation in the next post:
You can see other posts in the menu at top right.