I haven’t done this before, but I thought I would begin the year with a look back at the year that was 2023 – releases, sales and what I worked on. I don’t think this will be a particularly long post, but I am writing it as both a record of what has happened, and, perhaps, some other indie game designers will find something of use.
2023 was a quiet year in terms of releases. In fact, I put out exactly 1 new game – Star Scoundrels. My upcoming RPG, Tomorrow City, was meant to be released in October of ’23, but due to a host of reasons (not least of which was I kept adding to it), it has been pushed back to this month (I am so excited for you to see it!). Though I only released one game, that doesn’t mean I was idle. As well as lots of work on the aforementioned Tomorrow City, I worked on Strangeville, an RPG os supernatural monster hunting – you know, like Buffy, Supernaturual and umm… Scooby Doo. That will be out a little later in 2024. I also played around with a few other projects, including some mini games such as Star Scoundrels.
It was difficult to really knuckle-down and get into a rhythm of writing in 2023, which definitely had an impact on my output. I second-guessed a lot of choices I made, back-tracked on projects, and generally oscillated between writing more and thinking it was all garbage. I am hoping to be a little more consistent with output in 2024.
Sales
I am not sure who is interested, but I thought I would share some sales numbers for 2023. I am not sharing this information to brag (they are small numbers compared to full-time publishers!), but there may be some indie game designers (or potential indie game designers) who may find this information interesting, if not useful.
It was a good year, with amazing download numbers of FU, and continued support for Neon City Overdrive. I am so immensely proud of both these games, and seeing these numbers makes me feel really good. Just taking a quick look at this information has sparked a bunch of thoughts and raised some questions. Things like, “is 90 sales of Catacombs of Chaos a good conversion percentage (7%) of the 1235 free Blood Castles that were downloaded?” Or, “is The Beast of Limfjord a terrible game, or do I just need to change the way I present it?” Or, “how do I get sales of the NCO supplements to be closer to the sales of the core rules?” I have lots of these questions, which I might explore further with another blog post (along with some thoughts on what to do about them) – let me know if you would be interested.
Anyway, that’s all besides the point. I am really please with how my sales have gone this year. I certainly don’t make enough to quit my day job, but it is enough to cover the cost of my website, the art I purchase, and to buy a few new games to play. That is all icing on the cake.
Thank you so much to all of you who have supported me by buying a product or talking about one of my games that you have enjoyed.
I’m not sure how I missed this post, but better late than never.
I just want to comment that Beast of Limfjord is FAR from a terrible game.
When i first read it, it seemed a bit odd to me as I was much more familiar with FU and it seemed like quite the departure, but I actually rather like it. It is reminiscent of Savage Worlds in some ways, and that is not a bad thing.
My only small frustration is that I have been hoping to see FU2 for several years now but the emphasis seems to be on producing other books first. Given the popularity of the original FU shown in your sales, I would have thought that FU2 would be higher on the list of priorities but I recognize the time limitations you likely face, along with the way new ideas sometimes push older ones to the side.
Whenever FU2 arrives, I will snatch it up. Until then, I will grab whatever else you produce and I continue to recommend your games in the various RPG groups of which I am a member.