Alternate title: "We're Still Here, But Barely"
It's no secret that businesses in the US are struggling in an economy crippled by the spread of Covid-19. I've mentioned in previous posts that, despite the majority of Drowning Moon Studios’ catalog being PDF titles and digital sales, attending in-person conventions for demos and networking is the lifeblood of the tabletop gaming industry. After cancelling all our convention appearances from March 2020 on, Drowning Moon Studios' sales dropped 71%, even with increased participation in online conventions. That's a pretty scary number.
The fact that DMS operates with an extremely low overhead, mostly only produces digital titles, and doesn't have to worry about warehousing and distribution is, frankly, the only reason we're still solvent. We didn't make a profit this year, but we made enough to keep the lights on; that's more than numerous other small studios were able to do. We had three releases in 2020: the pick-up-and-play larp Elsewhere in January, which adapts well to online play, the short-form game anthology Distant Stations in May, with small games for 1-5 players, and the 2nd Ed. ashcan for tabletop roleplaying game Praedormitium in August.
The Kickstarter for Follow Me Down, originally intended to go live last October, was pushed to the fall of 2021, as was the digital-only release for Goblin Market. The ashcan and full manuscript for Follow Me Down are complete, and have been for a while. We're currently looking into hiring artists for the project, and everything should proceed on schedule for the fall. Goblin Market is also mostly complete, but is on the backburner until we finish fulfilling Mage to Order.
Loose plans are to complete these three projects in 2021, then look to finishing the full release for Praedormitium 2nd ed. for 2022, and a new #ZineQuest project in February, which will likely either be King of Cats, or a fairy tale-trope inspired game called Spindle & Thorn. There are also two digital pick-up-and-play larps, Be Who You Needed and Charlotte Sometimes, that have been written, revised and playtested, and will likely be folded into the Drowning Moon Studios Larp Omnibus, expected to be completed sometime next year. Wayfaring Strange is still in development, and will probably stay that way until physical conventions are more viable.
As for conventions in 2021, they are mostly not happening. Most showrunners I've spoken to don't feel safe enough to commit to holding large in-person gatherings until the end of the year, even with the promise of a vaccine. Many are adopting a "wait and see" approach, while others whose events normally occur early in the year have already suspended their conventions until 2022. While Drowning Moon Studios may occasionally participate in online conventions, they won’t be a high priority for the company, as online events made minimal impact upon digital sales last year.
So, overall, that's the plan. At the moment I'm working on fulfilling the Mage to Order Kickstarter, and that’s what’s capturing my sole attention. After PDFs are sent to backers, I'll start querying artists for work on Follow Me Down, to try to get that game ready for Kickstarter in October, while sending out physical rewards to Mage to Order backers. I'm expecting this year to be as difficult as 2020, but hopefully we're close enough to the end of the tunnel now, that we can see the light ahead.
Comments
Post a Comment