Summary
Evertide Games is an interactive entertainment developer committed to producing original mass-market, multiplayer, multimedia games for both entertainment and education.
Parameters
I founded Evertide Games because I am a game designer and entrepreneur. I have no programming experience myself but I have designed a number of conventional card and board game prototypes over the past few years, which I have decided are good enough to bring to the market.
Opportunity
However, as we both know, games are primarily digital these days. Although the boardgame market has grown slightly over the past few years, it has been vastly overshadowed by the video game market, which is now $28b or so strong. And, size of the video game market will continue to expand, with the greatest growth expected to occur in the next 5 years in the mobile, online and casual game sectors. So, from the beginning, I have conceived Evertide Games as more than just a traditional game company.
Concept
Evertide Games is a multimedia game company that develops original games for both print and digital media. We make games that provide an identical gameplay experience whether they are played on a table or on a computer. All of our games have both a print and digital version, and all of our games are multiplayer at their core. We not only develop games that are fun to play at home with friends and family, but we also bring the strategically dynamic, interactive environment of traditional multiplayer games to the increasing networked world of video gaming.
Strategy
With this mission in mind, I have so far only moved forward with game designs that I know can be played on both the computer and the table (ie. casual games). I am doing this for four major reasons:
(1) The casual game market is currently experiencing explosive growth
(2) There are not a lot of multiplayer games offered in this market
(3) I believe this offers mutually reinforcing promotional opportunities
(4) As a startup, I lack the budget to develop full feature length games for the console or PC
Progress
Right now, the company has begun to roll out the print version of our first product, Straw. The first, promo, edition of the game (50 decks total) was printed at the end of January, for the purposes of final stage playtesting, test marketing and early stage promotion. However, I am now in the process of putting together the final artwork, box design & rules revisions of Straw for the first, normal marketprice, print run. Meanwhile, I have been looking for a flash game programmer to help me develop the flash version of Straw. I need someone, who can (or is willing to learn to) program in flash action scripting and has some photoshop/illustrator familiarity, to translate the existing assets into a multiplayer game that can be played on a flash-enabled browser. (I have attached the job description). It is my hope that I can time the release of the first full market print edition with the distribution of the online game, so that I have a product to sell when people play the game online.
Revenue Model
I plan to release the flash version of Straw for free. Since this is the first product for the company, and the genre is more suited to free distribution, I am willing to accept the cost of programming the game as a loss for the purposes of promoting Evertide Games and the print version of the game. So, the schedule for Straw, and the simple monetization model for Straw looks like this:
1st. Single Player Flash Game (free) –> Click Through to Online Sales
2nd. Multiplayer Online Flash Game
3rd. Deluxe Version of Flash Game with expansion, and downloadable features (one-time purchase)
Meanwhile, I hope that the conventional efforts to promote the print version of Straw will drive greater traffic to the digital version, so that I can supplement online sales revenue of the physical product with (adSense or whatnot) advertising revenue.
Scope of Business
Of course, I am currently talking to distribution partners on both sides of the digital/print divide. If it becomes necessary, I will develop a hosting infrastructure to support all the different games that I have designed. But, ideally, this task would be assigned to strategic online partners with existing infrastructure, an existing player base and an ability to handle the traffic load in a revenue sharing arrangement. So, Flash Straw may be hosted on a game network such as AOL, MSN or Yahoo. While the print version may be published by a third party. Ultimately, that will allow Evertide Games to focus on its core value: R&D of original content.
Growth
I am also currently working on other games to follow Straw. The next product will probably be very similar to Straw (a light-hearted fast-paced, casual card game) so that we can exploit all the digital, distributional & promotional groundwork that has to been laid down to produce and sell Straw. But, other games will require slightly more complicated programming in order to be released in both print and digital. Both Lego Rally (a demolition derby hex map game) and Pax Romana (a trade negotiation board game) present additional programming challenges. So, the focus, at this point is on developing a line of card games for the family print game market, along with sophisticated AI and multiplayer networking in the digital version for the casual pc market.
Team
As the sole employee of the company at the moment, I wear many hats. I have done just about everything to get the product off the ground except draw the actual images on the cards and physically print the decks. And, for a while into the future, I plan to continue to contract out the art and printing. But, as far as everything else goes, I am currently working hard to decentralizing the work.
Recently, I have begun to farm out different parts of the project to people who are willing to contribute a little bit of their time to tackle a small piece of everything that needs to get done. But, there is still plenty to do, and ultimately, I will need to bring in someone with a complementary skill set, who is as passionate about the business concept as I am, to handle the work that I just can’t get to. In the end, I hope to thereby develop a kind of loose team of people asycronically organized around a core of passionate self-starters.
