I usually like to do full posts but this is a short bit of signalboosting for this great article on Jeeyon Shim making games and building alternate business models outside the Kickstarter pre-funding system.
Jeeyon’s games often feel like they’re very much the idea of delivering an “experience” in all the sense that immersive videogames aim for, a deep theme park or a LARP, but often as a solo games or intimate small group settings.
While Vincent Baker has said he designed Apocalypse World with an eye towards people hacking together bits and new ideas, Jeeyon’s games feel like they’re more designed to be the experience you get from a deep novel or a book, one of those things you WANT to talk about to other people but also designed with an eye that you create a bit of art along the way, something you can share in turn. Obviously, more involved than playing Wordle, but as much as Wordle works on having people share their little score boxes, people often want to share their cool art, poetry or whatever came out of the game, and that draws more people to check it out.
As the article points out, this creates a good following and a sort of long tail of sales, which allows for some business ideas besides “go big hype Kickstarter” and get most of your sales within 1-3 months of launch.
Deeper in the Game 