Report To The Stakeholders

[isf]

I'd like to see some additional mention of other SJ Games products like Gurps and In Nomine even if it is just "may release things in pdf".

[Grouchy Chris]

After Ogre finally ships, I would be interested to read an after-action report specifically about the Kickstarter. What went right, what didn't, and what it means for future Kickstarters the company may or may not run. I'm curious about the inside view on what Kickstarter makes possible for other products.

Also, it might be instructive to other companies who suddenly find themselves riding on a runaway success. If I were another publisher contemplating a Kickstarter and I heard that despite raising all that money Ogre may not be profitable, I'd want to know how I might avoid that.

[DocRailgun]

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling that Ogre was never really going to be profitable. It was already in the form it is now minus the special Kickstarter pieces before the Kickstarter began. I suspect it was already going to be a $300 game being sold for $100 as a vanity project (this is not a bad thing!) - a last fond farewell to Ogre (and Car Wars) and so on... but hey, people were so interested and face so much SJG was able to hire a line developer for the game!

Originally Posted by Grouchy Chris

After Ogre finally ships, I would be interested to read an after-action report specifically about the Kickstarter. What went right, what didn't, and what it means for future Kickstarters the company may or may not run. I'm curious about the inside view on what Kickstarter makes possible for other products.

Also, it might be instructive to other companies who suddenly find themselves riding on a runaway success. If I were another publisher contemplating a Kickstarter and I heard that despite raising all that money Ogre may not be profitable, I'd want to know how I might avoid that.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by DocRailgun

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling that Ogre was never really going to be profitable. It was already in the form it is now minus the special Kickstarter pieces before the Kickstarter began. I suspect it was already going to be a $300 game being sold for $100 as a vanity project (this is not a bad thing!) - a last fond farewell to Ogre (and Car Wars) and so on... but hey, people were so interested and face so much SJG was able to hire a line developer for the game!

Some profitability comes with scale, print sizes above a certain threshold cost less to produce per item, but you need a market for the product, otherwise you just have a larger amount of money tied up in less expensively produced stock.

[Steve Jackson]

There will definitely be an after-action report on Ogre.

It is correct that it was never intended to be significantly profitable. Yes, indeed, it was a vanity project / gift to the hobby / potlatch. But now it will be insignificantly profitable - or not profitable at all - on a larger scale.

There are indeed economies of scale, but also DISeconomies, the most significant being: we will have to rent space to park those 14 containers of STUFF, where if it had been four or five containers worth we could have accommodated it in our existing building. (Maybe we would have been lining the walls with cartons for a while, of course . . .)

[Anders]

Will there ever be a report to the steakholders, with all Steve's best recipes?

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Will there ever be a report to the steakholders, with all Steve's best recipes?

No, but if you catch him at a con, you can grill him for answers.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

No, but if you catch him at a con, you can grill him for answers.

That was well done.

[Cpt. Sqweky]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

No, but if you catch him at a con, you can grill him for answers.

Bravo, sir... Bravo.

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

No, but if you catch him at a con, you can grill him for answers.

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

That was well done.

A rare wit indeed!