🌟 Editor's Note
Welcome to the very first Fair Play Collective newsletter! I’m Dylan, and I’ll be walking you through what’s new and what’s next. Thanks for being here from the start.
If somehow you got here and you don’t know what the Fair Play Collective is - well, it’s easy:
Video games are art, and we believe that art deserves to exist. So, we’re creating a new funding model for backers to fund indie developers, and to create a space where indie developers can develop outside of the pressures of publishers and popularity contests.
Want to learn more? Head to fairplaycollective.org!🚀 What’s been happening with FPC since we started?
TLDR: A Lot.
And Then There Were Six: It’s not just me any longer! I am extremely happy and fortunate to say that I’ve got five extremely talented folks helping me out with FPC - from legal, to business, to marketing, to communications, and editing. I’m calling it the “found” team, since they found me, reached out, and offered to help. We’re still very much open to any more help we can get, especially around project management/production.
Got me in a Vice: The amazing Shaun Cichacki wrote an article about FPC. Check it out and then follow Shaun wherever he goes.
Glizzy Gang: We chatted with the wonderful founders of Glizzy - a platform built for indie games, and I was even on their Devspotter Podcast.
DeGPT: My amazing community and marketing team, Tamara and Nathan, have been working hard to rewrite the GPT copy I originally put together. Since I’m no longer doing this solo, as promised, we’re no longer using AI.
Legal Status: The team and I spent a ton of time looking into all of the business models that FPC could establish as. Should we be a nonprofit, public benefit corporation, S corporation, LLC, Co-op? There was a ton of conversation, but at the end of the day, we decided to go with an LLC.
It’ll be the fastest way to get up and running and able to serve backers and developers - so, we filed! Last week actually. It should be another week or so before we’re opening our first business bank account and we’ll be able to make some real moves.
Oh Discordia!: You’ve all been asking for it, so we finally set up a Discord…an internal one. Sorry ☹ But, it’s been instrumental in talking amongst the team.
Fret ye not! We’ve also set up a public Discord, but it’s not live yet. We’re working out all the pieces to it and we’ll let you know when it’s ready to go!
All Talk: We’ve talked to SO MANY people in the last two months - from producers to developers to artists to CEOs to lawyers to writers to consumers. It’s been really remarkable. We want to keep talking to people. If you want to be part of things, have questions, have concerns, or just want to yap at us, reach out!
The Website
After testing out website generators, we decided to keep it simple and build a fast, clean static site that puts our mission front and center. Here’s a sneak peek.
FPC Website Teaser
📽️ The Podcast!
Every conversation I have with Lachlan Kitson is a great one, and this was no exception.
“But Dylan, when can we start paying you?!”
You’re all insatiable! And kind of amazing.
That question comes up a lot - a lot more than I thought anyone would ever ask me. And it comes in two forms generally.
So, let’s answer them both -
“When can I start backing games?” - That’s a great question. And honestly, I’m not sure what the answer to that one is yet. There’s a lot to put in place still to get this thing rolling, and we want to make sure that everything is in place that ensures developers are served as best as possible before we let this thing off its leash. However, I hope, in the next month or two, to come up with a solid timetable for launching all the parts of this. Stay tuned.
“Is there any way to contribute?” -
Monetarily? Almost. Once we’re officially incorporated (see legal status above), we’ll be able to open that business bank account and then we can officially take funding. That funding, for the time being, will go towards administrating/launch costs. Stuff like CPA fees, webhosting fees, Google Workspace subscriptions, artist payments for logos, etc. And every, SINGLE, dollar, will be accounted for and made transparent on the website. If things go nuts and we get way more than we need to run things, it’ll go into a pot for our first developers 🤩
Otherwise? Reach out. Like I mentioned earlier, we’re always looking to collaborate and work with others where we can.
The Team
Every newsletter, once a week (or whatever the cadence ends up becoming) we’re going to show off and talk about one of our amazing found-team members!
Dr. Andrew Bowman (on the right)
Andy is our Head of Development Things.
Dr. Bowman is an assistant professor of Management Information Systems at the College of Business in East Carolina University. His lifelong passion for gaming has driven him to use his background and research for the good of art instead of evil.
We found him in a friend group after he said “Oh, I love video games, and I’m a business professor.”
Andy brings both academic insight and deep passion for games to ensure our development approach stays grounded and forward-thinking.
Like what happened here? Subscribe and share it with some other folks?
Ready to be done with this adventure? That’s ok.
That’s a wrap for our first issue. Thanks for joining us on this journey - and please share FPC with anyone who believes games deserve better.