Translation
I wanted to share a great experience I've had trying to expand my board game's IP to other media. I hope you can use it as inspiration for your own work.
Around 5 years ago I started developing Burning Suns and it's currently in the final manufacturing phases (which is great, since it's been a long and demanding journey). Early on I started to look into potential ways to enhance the game experience or expand it beyond the board game itself.
So here are a few ideas I've used for my game. I know it's a board game but the principles are the same
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[IDEA] Burning Suns artbook
I wanted to create an artbook/conceptbook that would capture the journey from early development to final product, share thoughts behind the process, game play and some of the challenges I've had along the way, plus showing some of the never revealed sketches.
Result: A couple of months ago, as the final artwork was send to the manufacturers, I had the pleasure of revealing the artbook - a 150 pages PDF with over 400 illustrations, sketches and 3d models. I've sold over 100 copies of the PDF so far.
Lessons learned: I had a really easy time composing this book, since all sketch iterations and final files had been arranged after this very idea from the beginning. Without this setup it would have been a huge undertaking managing 400 separate illustrations. Ask the illustrators to give you all iterations of their work, so you have material from different stages of the process. An artbook is a great way to give back to the illustrators by promoting their work even further.
You can explore the result here: http://www.suntzugames.com/the-art-of-burning-suns.html
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[IDEA] Burning Suns stories
I wanted to create a novel or several short-stories that could capture the tension and conflicts in the universe from a character's perspective, in contrast to the empire builder overview the players have during play.
Result: 10 days ago we published the first issue of our novel Burning Suns: Conflagration. It's written together with a great Fanfic writer "Wyles77" from Fanfiction.net. It's been a smooth side-project and a real blast to have the universe unfold with a cool story at its foundation. It has currently been downloaded more than 150 times and we've received some great feedback on it.
Lessons learned: Not many people can live off royalties, so paying an author up front is essential if you want real commitment. Choosing an author that fits your working flow and way of approaching challenges is important (take your time). Help the author by providing all essential materials of reference (the game itself would not be enough).
You can explore the result here: http://www.suntzugames.com/burning-stories.html
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[IDEA] Burning Suns Wiki
To compliment the game's vast scope of empire building, I wanted to have a wiki that would list all the important aspects of the game, while also tying up events from the stories, essentially making this the third possible entry to the game for potential future gamers.
Result: This page has still to show its value, but it has now become the 5th most visited subpage of my site, despite not being exposed in the same manner as the rest of the pages.
Lessons learned: It's really not something you can do along the way, but something that will have to be done once the entire game is finished. It's hard to know exactly what people will be interested in having on a wiki. Having more than a game to tie the wiki to (like other media) is challenging since those things might force the wiki to change continuously.
You can explore the result here: http://www.suntzugames.com/burning-wiki
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Okay, that's all from me - I hope you can use it as inspiration for your own game development
Thanks and best of luck with your work,
