A question that needs an answer early in the conversation: Why start my own studio?
The short version: To see if I can and because I want to see stories told in their own way, at their own pace.
I’ve joked with overzealous GMs that if their cutscenes and monologues are so important to them that they should just write a novel. I feel the same way about writing games. Each of the Nerdhaus settings is a template for storytelling. Certain themes and character traits and tones are baked right in there. I want to let them flourish and continue to inspire and surprise my fellow gamers. Could we do that with a traditional publisher? Maybe. But it would be a shame to start down that road and find out that sales prevent a second printing and that the line was cut just as it started to gather followers. That the core audience was too small to warrant work on the project.
Imagine those last few MMO players when the last server gets turned off. I don’t want that to happen to you when you’ve invested a corner of your imagination to the riders of Running on Empty or freedom fighters on Mars. With the Nerdhaus model of designer-controlled content, it won’t. If nothing else, we’ll keep rolling out scenarios and tweaks and digital expansions right here on the site. Submitted work, too. And if it gets included in a print collection on a download service, we’ll have already worked out a contract with its author because you should be paid for your work.
We’ll keep the lights on and give you a space to tell stories. It’s a promise. That’s why Nerdhaus.