Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
Wizard of Oz, The Wizard of Oz (1939)

I'm Patrick Sweeney, a freelance author in the game industry who has taken the plunge into publishing by starting Firefly Games. This monthly column will detail my travails and triumphs as a new publisher. I'm kind of hoping there are more triumphs than travails, but we'll see what happens.

The goal of this column is to take you behind the curtain to see what goes in to starting and running a small press game company. You might be thinking about starting your own someday, or perhaps you're just interested in finding out what goes into producing the games you enjoy playing. If so, I hope you find this column entertaining and informative.

Of course, there's more to it than that. Promoting your company and your products plays a big role in running a business. So I'm also hoping this column generates some buzz about Firefly Games and its upcoming products. I'd like to think I've already accomplished that through my other promotional efforts, but you can never have too much publicity.

While it may not be a very shocking revelation, there's your first glimpse behind the curtain - nearly everything I do in public as a publisher revolves to some degree around getting my company name and my products in front of people. Why do you think game publishers all have such long .sig files?

I began Firefly Games in January. I announced it in February, and started promoting the first game, Monster Island: The Game of Giant Monster Combat, in March. The game is set for release in July. As you've probably already figured out, that means this column is going to have to jump around a little in time before it gets up to date.

First, a few ground rules. Whenever possible, I'll provide figures for expenses, such as printing business cards or promo postcards. I'll also provide general information on my freelance pay rates and payment policies. But I won't be detailing what I've paid on specific projects. There's no way to do that without revealing what the people who work for me are being paid, and that's their private affair. I'm also not going to disclose my profits (there will be profits, right?) on products. Those are my private affair. I may also choose to keep my exact sales figures confidential - I haven't decided yet, but sales are still a few months and a few columns away, so there's plenty of time to decide.

I'm not going to bag on other companies or on people who work for me. It's unfair and unprofessional. Every publisher competes with other companies, sometimes politely, sometimes not. Every publisher deals with freelancers who flake out on projects or miss deadlines. Those problems are certainly worthy of discussion in a column about starting a game publishing business. Since this column talks directly about Firefly Games, however, there's no way to discuss them without naming names or making it too easy for readers to figure out the names. Neither possibility appeals to me.

Now, let's get started on, well, getting started.

I established Firefly Games in January, but the story doesn't start there. I can't imagine what kind of a horrible train wreck of a company I'd have founded if I didn't have several years of experience in the game industry first. So let's go back a bit further.

I have been playing roleplaying games since high school. In 1997, I got the chance to start writing them as a freelance author. My first book, San Angelo: City of Heroes, was nominated for an Origins Award. I have written for Gold Rush Games, Hero Games, Eden Studios, West End Games and Steve Jackson Games, so I've gotten to see a little bit of how different companies operate. The president of Gold Rush Games, Mark Arsenault, also became a personal friend. I've been closely involved with the company for several years now - working convention booths, discussing business decisions, helping plan product lines and generally getting an education in the game business.

In addition, I've participated on the Game Publishers Association mailing list for a year or so. It's a great place to learn a lot about the industry and get advice from other publishers.

All of this experience was invaluable in figuring out how to start a game company of my own. But why bother? Why not just keep freelancing?

There are two main reasons.

I've had some freelance projects that, for various reasons not entirely the fault of the publishers involved, have fallen into limbo after being completed. The best way to ensure that products I really care about get published is to publish them myself.

And I have some ideas about how to run a game company and promote games. I also have some ideas on how not to do those things. Finally, I have some ideas about reaching beyond the core gamer market to other, largely untapped, markets. The best way to implement all of these ideas is to start my own company.

This may sound like Firefly Games is just a vanity press, or an experiment. It's not. I intend to make Firefly Games a success. I intend to make at least some money at it. I don't think I can prove this to you with words. I can only prove it by how I conduct my business.

When I began my journalism career while still in college, as a part-time reporter covering City Hall, I knew that some of the officials I dealt with wouldn't take me seriously. I didn't let it bother me because I knew, in time, they would. They did. Same principle here.

After deciding to start a game company in the first place, I have to name it. I've liked fireflies ever since I saw some on a vacation to North Carolina a few years back. There aren't any fireflies here in Northern California, but Firefly Games sounds like a company that might make fun games and not take itself too seriously. And when I run my list of possible company names by some industry friends, Chris Pramas of Green Ronin Publishing points out that a class of World War II tanks with extra-powerful guns were nicknamed "fireflies." I like the imagery of a small company that makes a big impression, and a review of the adventure game industry doesn't turn up any similarly named companies, so Firefly Games it is.

I also need a business plan. I won't disclose my whole plan, but the basics are pretty universal for your average shoestring publishing operation in the game industry. I'm going to print games for sale to distributors and retailers - more on them later. I'm going to start small, with 32-page-or-so games, to keep initial expenses down. I have some money saved up to cover the cost of producing and promoting my first game. After that, the proceeds from one game will pay for the print run on the next, with the extra cash going to marketing or other expenses. I'm going to keep monthly expenses very low to avoid eating up my sales revenue before it's time to print the next game.

Finally, I'm not going to even consider trying to support myself via Firefly Games for at least two years. I'm going to gradually ramp up production, not over-extend myself, and then see where things stand.

This all took place in late 2001. Now we're ready to talk about the steps to formally create Firefly Games in January.

Assuming the idea of not getting arrested for fraud appeals to you, the first step in establishing a business is to legally establish it as a business.

Firefly Games is a sole proprietorship, which makes things very simple. Essentially, I am Firefly Games. Or, to look at it another way, Firefly Games is me, just under a different name.

So I don't need to incorporate or file other paperwork - not right now, anyway. I just register a fictitious business name statement at the county clerk's office. I pay a $20 filing fee, then pay a local newspaper about $20 to run the required legal notice for four weeks. That's simple, too. I just pick up a brochure from a rack at the county clerk's office, fill out the form, clip a copy of the fictitious business name statement to it, enclose a check and mail it to the newspaper.

Now I can do business as Firefly Games. I can sign contracts, write checks and so forth under the company name. But I'm not quite ready to announce Firefly Games to the world. First, I need a logo and a website. I also need to announce the release date of my first product - a game company without any games isn't going to be of much interest, or use, to anyone.

Likewise, having a logo and website ready as soon as I announce the formation of the company gives it a measure of credibility and seriousness. This is crucial. There are plenty of games, and game companies, out there, so distributors and retailers don't have to carry my games. If I don't look like I know what I'm doing, they won't carry them. I have to persuade them that Firefly Games is a professional company serious about creating good products and hitting its release dates.

A few quick definitions for the uninitiated - distributors are wholesalers who buy products from game companies and then sell them to retailers. Distributors base their purchases on orders from retailers. And retailers base their orders on their personal interest in a game plus the interests of their customers. This all means I have to promote my games to all three - distributors, retailers and gamers.

But before I can start selling them games, I need to sell them on Firefly Games itself.

So it's even worse - not only do I need a logo and website before I can start plugging Firefly Games, I need very polished and professional-looking ones. I know I can't do a professional logo. I suppose I could teach myself web design, but it would take a long time and the end result wouldn't be very good. I don't have a long time, and not very good is not good enough.

Besides, one of my guiding principles for Firefly Games is to find expert people to do expert things, whenever possible. I'll be expert at running the company, as well as at creating and promoting games. Well, if not expert then hopefully at least pretty good, or I won't have a company for very long.

In keeping with that philosophy, I hire Jeff Mackintosh, art director for Guardians of Order, to design a logo and Mark Arsenault, webmaster and president of Gold Rush Games, to design the website. My years as a freelancer come in handy here, too - they are both friends who are willing to give me a break on their normal rates for these services.

I also need someone to handle sales. Again, I could learn this myself, but it would take awhile and I wouldn't be very good at it. Also, many distributors and retailers are wary of new publishers at the moment. The d20 boom has spawned a lot of new companies in the industry. Some are very professional and very successful. Others are, well, less so. As a result, distributors and retailers are getting more picky about which companies they carry.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, by the way. It's just bad for me if I'm one of the companies that gets passed over, even though I'm not doing d20 products.

I have a number of choices. There are several fulfillment houses, such as Wizard's Attic, that handle your warehousing, shipping and sales needs in exchange for a percentage of your sales. Each offers a slightly different mix of services for a slightly different rate. But I'd still have the problem of being a new company amid a sea of new companies. I decide to have Firefly Games products distributed by Gold Rush Games. As an established company, GRG already has listings in games catalogs and accounts with most distributors. In addition, Tundra Sales Organization, a fulfillment house run by Woody Eblom, handles sales for GRG. Another bonus of waiting to start my company - I already know Mark and Woody well, so both are amenable to my proposal.

I'll be giving up some of my sales revenue under this arrangement, but it's probably going to come from sales I'd never in a million years have made if I'd struck out on my own. In addition, I've just moved Firefly Games up another notch on the credibility meter by starting out with a strong sales arrangement with recognized companies in place.

So I have my logo and website under construction, and I've handled the critical task of figuring out how to get my products to market. Now I just need some products.

I have to pick which game to produce first, choose a release date and then figure out how to get everything done in time to meet that date. And how to pay for it all. But that's another column. See you next time.