2008-12-09: New links and new horizons
by Emily
There are two new links to the Away section of Fairgame: the indie rpgs un-store and Cafe Game Exchange. They each represent new ways for indie games to reach people.
Vincent & Meg Baker are at it again. This site is a conglomeration of links for folks selling indie games, giving you a handy place for one-stop shopping place to find them. Good for retailers and individuals.
Also, they are working with a model for a coop fullfilment house, where groups of publishers sell their games through a small-scale operation that fulfills game orders from home. Maybe Meg will tell us more about how that has been going.
This is the brainchild of Epidiah Ravachol. It's a project to take small press role playing games and create reading libraries of them at cafes and coffee shops. The goal is to bring these games into the light and expose folks who might never wander into a gaming store to them. As well as to display the gorgeous book design and intriguing ideas the games offer.
Starting off in New York City, three cafes have been seeded with the games. The site gives descriptions of the mouth-watering fare found at the cafes, and directions for those who may wander their way. Each game has a page that the author can customize as they see fit. Both designers and cafe owners have been enthusiastic about this project and it looks set to expand out to other cities like Seattle, London, Chicago, Santa Monica and even here in western MA.
Yay innovation!
2008-12-15 02:54:57 Meguey
"Maybe Meg will tell us more about how that has been going."
Why, yes, I will, since you asked!
The Un-Store is going really well. We have a couple dozen games listed so far, and more are welcome. What I like about the Un-Store is the back-to-basics feel of it; it's links to games that people wrote and produced themselves. I'm looking forward to the next bits of the Un-Store going live.
The other thing you mention is Independently Fulfilling, our fulfillment model. It's a place where everyone is directly connected to their clients, yet the shipping and etc is handled by one person (me, in the case of this branch of IndepFul). Customer Mitch orders XYZ from GameAuthor, GameAuthor enters the info in Independently Fulfilling, I come along later and check for outstanding orders, and fill them. I don't ever e-mail customers, they don't ever e-mail me - unless they are buying my game!
So far, it's been a delight. We have four game companies that I currently fulfill orders for, and we could easily handle more. When I feel like I've maxed out on authors I can handle, we'll scout out someone who might make sense to be an Independently Fulfilling branch somewhere else. Eventually, it would be great to have IndepFul groups in several places, so whoever is 'local' to you can be the one fulfilling your orders. If, for example, the NYC crew wanted to do a local branch for their books, that would rock!
2008-12-18 17:22:09 Emily
Sweet! How does it work for retailers?
2008-12-19 04:03:17 Meguey
Well, eventually there will be a retailer portal on the UnStore. Vincent could say more about how that will work.
As for Independently Fulfilling, I just processed the first two large retailer orders. They work exactly the same as regular orders; Retailer Jane e-mails the author, orders 5 of everything - Author enters 5 of everything into IndepFul - I package it up and ship it off!