I was trying to start a company on a shoestring. So, I decided to produce games as cheaply as possible; on a photocopier, if necessary. And, instead of trying to excuse or hide behind my awful production values, as many people inexplicably do, I decided to flaunt them. Combine this with the fact that you can't really tell people that you're clever and edgy, you have to show them, and you'll understand why it's called "Cheapass Games" instead of "Clever and Edgy yet Inexpensive Enterprises." Or something equally stupid.
The other idea behind Cheapass Games is volume: Cheapass is the product I'm selling, not the individual games, and the company only survives because it can crank out new games every couple of months. This was part of the original plan. I knew I couldn't get by on one game, no matter how good it was.
When did you start to sell your games to the general public?
We went to a few small game shows in 1996, visited the GAMA Trade Show in early 1997, and took our first distribution accounts in August of that year.
Tell me about the development process for Button Men.
Dalmuti's restaurant, the add-on eatery at Wizards' flagship Game Center, called me for a set of microgames to give away at their restaurant. Games that would fit on business cards, coasters, take-out menus, and so forth. After delivering the first six, I was taken with the idea that they didn't really need to fit the rules on the coasters, just the essential game components. So I created a game I was calling "Killer" (or "Sinatra" or "Rumble," depending on the draft you look at) that had a character portrait and a set of stats. Rules to be posted elsewhere.
How did that idea develop?
I wanted to use dice, and I therefore wanted to create a dice-based system in which every die size was, more or less, fair. Traveling home from the GAMA Trade Show 1998, I sketched out the dice system more or less as it is today.
How long did it take to develop the dice system?
The basic system was solidified over the course of about six weeks, while I tried to get Dalmuti's interested in buying the game. It seemed like a perfect game for them, since they sold dice right next door, and they agreed. But they wanted to get some mileage out of the first six games before they bought any more.
Eventually, it became clear that they didn't want it. So I decided to publish it myself, as buttons. The name "Button Men" was hard to find: I stumbled upon it after weeks of searching. And, of course, once you find something that simple you wonder how you could ever have missed it. It's like "Star Wars."
Are you excited about the licensing opportunities (i.e. Lunch Money Button Men)?
Sure. I'm very excited to have created a platform on which characters from different universes can compete with each other. It is a great vehicle for a licensee like Five Rings, who is looking for a way to bring new players into their world without teaching them a new game. We created Focus Dice to the specifications of Five Rings, to give the players who picked up the buttons a peek into the game world. And it worked remarkably well.
How have players reacted to the game?
Five Rings sold (or gave away) about 350 sets of Samurai Button Men at GenCon for their on-site tournament. Those are amazing numbers. And, now that a few expansions have come out, I'm just beginning to get feedback from the players who picked them all up. Mostly, people think it's cool.
All of this is very heartening to me, because I plan to do the same kind of expansion with Brawl. Button Men is just an experiment to see if the licensing system will work.
Most companies license games as follows: The invent a game, pay someone else for rights to use characters, and produce the final product. This was the model for Wizards' Arc System games (Xena, Hercules, C23). It's also standard for licensed CCGs, RPGs, and so on.
What we're doing with Button Men and Brawl is licensing the mechanic, and letting the companies who already own the characters (or already have the license to use them) produce the product. It results in a huge flash of expansions, each reaching a slightly different audience, with less risk for us. Of course, the licensees keep the lion's share of the money, which makes them pretty happy. But until Button Men, no one I can think of had pulled it off.
What can you tell us about the upcoming Escape from Elba?
You're Napoleon, and so is everybody else. Escape from Elba is, believe it or not, a word game. It's also a board game, but you get around by forming words and you escape by forming specific escape words. It's sort of hard to describe, because it's set in an insane asylum and paced appropriately, but it plays very well and I'm looking forward to playing another game of it tonight. Elba will be out in mid-October, retailing for $5 I think.
