Show013: Finances for Game Designers with Luke Crane
Man did I mess up at Origins. More about that later. Hopefully this sounds decent. It starts with some crunch and munch. I got Luke right before the fabled Burning Wheel game where he was too busy lopping off player character’s heads to collect up his Origins award. So I didn’t get to ask him the insightful question, “Dude, what’s it feel like to win an Origins award?” Next time Luke. Next time. Anyway, he needed Vietnamese noodles, unintended bugs, and something to drink. I needed words, so we put the two together. Kind of like your peanut filled chocolate cups.
Section One:
Luke and I briefly discuss, Dinner with Clyde, and the new Burning Wheel Setting, “The Blossoms Are Falling.”
Section Two:
We discuss finances mainly from the position of a beginning game designer, and / or the Indiepunk game designer. Luke talks about Lulu, versus a small print run, the dangers of large print runs, when to make semi larger print runs, how much to spend on art, editing, etc, and a whole lot more. Some examples Luke used are the Ennie award nominated Dictionary of Mu, and his upcoming “The Blossoms are Falling.”
After the jump Luke’s mysterious last words will be explained….
This video is not mine so is not subject to my creative commons share alike license.
10:43 am on July 25th, 2007
You just went from unedited to pure chaos!
I love your interviews, but perhaps chewing sounds is a bit too much.
With hopes of more Clyde-Crane interviews, Uffe
1:31 pm on July 25th, 2007
Hi Uffe,
Anarchy in the podcast - it’s coming sometime and maybe…
Point taken Uffe, I doubt you’ll hear chewing again. We were just having a bit of fun, and truly if I hadn’t of caught Luke during his dinner then this show might not have gotten made till Dreamation which is about 7 months away? I know we are both going to be extremely busy at Gen Con.
Thanks for listening, and commenting.
5:29 pm on July 25th, 2007
I know it’s hard to put this shit together. I also was a bit unsold on the chewing sounds, but as interview progresses Luke devours what he brought with him and rest is good and solid.
Good as usual Clyde. I tried to say something negative (like a good Pole I am) because I know you’re looking for constructive (and negative) feedback, but I just can’t. You’re getting better and better.
Like a germ in a microstope!
12:28 am on July 26th, 2007
I think this one *really* caught the conversational vibe this time around, and Luke brought some incredible content to the table. I was hugely happy to listen to this show, even if I won’t look at Luke Crane eating the same way ever again.
5:36 am on July 26th, 2007
Chewing was my favorite part!
7:02 pm on July 26th, 2007
I have a bad reaction to chewing noises. They put me into some kind of violent rage.
Next time I see you, Luke, we’re gonna have some words. Some words!
Lots of good information though.
2:34 pm on July 27th, 2007
Oh… Luke’s busted.
Hey Dro,
If the Poles like it what could be wrong with it?
Hey Fred,
I wonder if that has something to do with Jungle Speed bonding, and playing BW till 6:00 a.m?
7:57 pm on July 27th, 2007
Clyde and Luke, this was an excellent interview, both from the perspective of it truly coming across as a friendly chat, and because of the information dropped. I’ve been running my company, Highmoon Media Productions, for 3 years now and even after all this time “in the biz,” I found myself thinking many times “that’s a good way of tweaking what I already do,” or “man, I need to start doing that.” I do PDF only at the moment, so there are some costs I don’t need to figure out, but I am hoping to move into print stuff later this year, and this was the kind of info you’d normally have to pay to get from a consultant. I know this episode will directly help my company, I can tell you that much.
I very much look forward to meeting you both at Gen Con.
11:29 pm on July 27th, 2007
Score! That’s great to know Daniel. I’m incredibly happy it was helpful. I’ll definitely see you at Gen Con as my bet is we will be at many of the same events via the podcasting track and the Saturday night party.
6:20 pm on August 6th, 2007
Awesome. See you there.
7:45 pm on August 26th, 2007
(referring to my comments over on the Sons of Kryos)
The chewing was bad. I’m generally not that squeamish, but it definitely grossed me out. It also gives me the feeling that the listener is not being respected.
Maybe the term “insider-coolness” is too strong. I just threw it out there in my initial comment and reading back I realize that it has a lot of connotations, especially with some criticisms labelled at the “indie” movement. It was just that there was a lot of joking around that had nothing to do with anything. In small doses, that’s fine. But as a listener who doesn’t know either of you personally and has never met you in person, it just makes me feel at best bored and at worst excluded when it goes on for too long. It’s like, what the hell am I doing here? What’s my role as a listener? When I download a podcast, I want to be informed or feel included as part of the dialogue. This felt like neither of you really gave a shit about the listener.
Fortunately, you moved away from that and there was a ton of really good content in here, actual factual advice and it made the whole thing a success.
I understand that it’s not easy being on your side of the mic and you do a good job of making a relaxed atmosphere, but it’s a fine balance between casual and sloppy and in this one case, at least for me, it kind of felt like you fell on the wrong side of the line for the first ten minutes of the interview.
You have good content, a good vibe and you get good subjects for interviews. Nothing wrong with tightening things up as you get better at what you do.
8:08 pm on August 26th, 2007
Hi Walkerp,
Thanks for coming here and explaining more of what you were saying on the Sons of Kryos boards. I really appreciate you taking the time to fulfill my request.
I find your statement about the role of the listener amazingly on point. Your role is exactly what you are doing now. That’s exactly what I want. I think that the beauty of podcasting and what makes it different from radio is I don’t have to consider what the listener is going to find valid. I am very deliberately and consciously not taking the role of an editor trying to edit the show to what I think people want. I’m leaving it up to the listener to decide what is valid, and what is crap. I think this is the most respectful stance I can take to you the listener, me, and to my guests. This of course means that listeners will decide that parts of my show are crap. I’m cool with that.
I do understand your point though, and please don’t think I’m giving it short shift. I have carefully weighed the pros and cons, before deciding on continuing on the path I am now on regarding interviews.
8:35 pm on August 26th, 2007
Hmm. Interesting. Now that you’ve made it explicit that you are deliberately presenting a raw product to put the power of editing into your listener’s hands (or ears), it really changes the way I think about your podcast. I was never sure why you set it up the way you did, sometimes thinking it was honest naivete, sometimes disingenousness, sometimes lack of technical skills, sometimes just because you didn’t feel like editing stuff. Usually, you just say something like “I like to leave things in there like that because it makes me laugh.”
I wonder if it would be better if you were to declare your motivations up front in your podcast? Or would that ruin your experiment? Most people come to podcasts with some habits of listening and expectations. Maybe we aren’t prepared to be our own editors without knowing ahead of time?
8:56 pm on August 26th, 2007
Hi Walkerp,
Wow. I really don’t know. I haven’t thought about whether I should make the declaration of why I do things the way I do. I just thought about podcasts, why I don’t like radio, but enjoy podcasts, especially when they are less professional, and most especially why I’m such a big fan of what I’m doing. I listen to the shows more than anyone. The answer I came up with is that there wasn’t an editor standing between me and the medium.
Offhand I think I’ll lean to not mentioning it unless asked or it’s pertinent to a discussion, but I’ll have to take more time to think about it. Also I think all the reasons you list; naivety, disingenuousness, lack of technical skills, laziness, and my self deprecating sense of humor lead to the consideration of how I want to do things and why. I’m certain I’ve done all those on the show.
9:02 pm on August 26th, 2007
Cool. Thanks for the response. It’s a bit presumptious of me to suggest major changes. I’m just throwing my own responses out there, so keep doing what your doing. I’m no big proponent of professionalism, actually probably more of an opponent of it. Am I correct in my guess that you prefer podcasts because they aren’t chained to a high production level? That someone can just record and share that with the world? If so, I am with you on that.
9:44 pm on August 26th, 2007
Hi Walkerp,
Can I refer to you as Walker? It feels weird to have interesting conversations and not know someones first name. Not that you need to reveal yourself or anything.
I cringe when I hear someone say high production level, or polished. If I’m not screwing something up, or having to record in a noisy area I think there are not a lot of podcasts who are hitting the sound quality I am. I do screw up a lot though as I’m still learning. I was really happy with my latest podcast show018. You can hear me click buttons at the beginning. Some of the other stuff I did at Gen Con you’ll be able to hear a turning sheet of paper. I’m fairly certain you aren’t pointing a finger here, but I wanted to rant.
Anyway, yes I love that anyone can get on and say what they want, and the creme will rise to the top. There’s really no one getting in the way. Regular media is co-opted by the money that runs it. I think podcasting is wonderful, and something that will really benefit our hobby, as our voices would never make it to the radio or television besides as an interest piece.
That being said I think it’s cool to crash around while you learn, but that you should work on getting good sound. Maybe you don’t edit based on what we’ve already talked about, but you should try to get good sound.
10:37 pm on August 26th, 2007
Clyde,
Walker is fine. I’m not trying to be anonymous. If we met in person, I’d tell you my real name. I’m just paranoid about identity theft and marketing intelligence, so I try to keep my real name off the net as much as possible.
I’m really not an expert in sound, but I find your podcasts sound fine to me. I’m using those little earbuds and usually on my bike so I am also rarely in a good environment to judge quality even if I could. That’s funny, though, you control for sound quality, but not for content. Maybe you come from a musical background.
Keep up the good work. I’ll be listening.