Hi Reader,

How are you? It's been a long time! Two whole months. It was the height of summer, all sun and runaway flowers. Now the locust trees are draping our local park in thousands of tiny golden leaves. I scooped some up on the dog walk, and I've spread them across the table. Blow on them if you need room.

This summer, I went to Gen Con. Then I started a new job. After getting to concentrate solely on games for over a year, I went back to owing someone 40 hours a week. It swallowed me whole.

But I'm back! And game night is back on.

How can a shy person build a brand? How can an inexperienced game designer build a game other people want to play?

I find myself in a weird and incredibly lucky position. Improbably, I made a hit. This fall, I'll sell the last few hundred copies of Raccoon Sky Pirates in existence.

(This version of it, anyway. The deluxe edition waits its turn on my project list.)

And there are still so many people who haven't heard of it! Ballyhooing your own game is hard. Especially for a shy person.

So, I'm looking for help. Someone who likes enthusiastically getting the word out about someone else's games.

For Defy the Gods, I also need a graphic designer and an art director. It's too big for me to do myself. With Raccoon Sky Pirates, I was Bert from the start of Mary Poppins—with the big drum and squeezebox, two horns around my neck and cymbals on my knees. It fit the game's frenzy.

But this next game can't be a one-man band. To end up with the right thing to hold in your hands, it needs someone else's eye on it. Lots of someones.

I've already had excellent help. Lyla Fujiwara and Rae Nedjadi gave me extensive feedback born from their years of experience. But they're working on their own projects now—Rae on Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth, and Lyla on Jukebox and the Stormlight Archive RPG. (Check them out!)

I wonder if I can make this a real company, in the sense of a group of people working for a common goal.

And also in the sense of offering health insurance. 😅

I'll seek out folks who've done it. We don't like to talk about making money in this business, because it seems, well, kind of impossible. Making enough to pay your own salary, let alone anyone else's, is a high bar.

I'll let you know how it goes! But that'll be a while, if it happens. I'll see you again well before then. Promise.

Cheers,
Chris

P.S. What was your summer like? Did you go to any cons, or take other trips? Did you play any new games?