Greetings once again, oh curious one. The end of another quarter means it’s time for another instalment of How Much Money Did We Make? Also known as Measuring Success. And yes, this one comes at the end of a quarter. Right on time and there’s a reason for that which I’ll dive into momentarily.

Below are the numbers of products moved and gross sales amount for both the last quarter of 2017 (October to December) along with the overall numbers for 2017. This is the first year I’ve collected a calendar year’s sales, not just a fiscal year (as mine runs from September to August). There’s a few new things I’m trying out with my accounting and this is one of them. These numbers include sales from DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, convention & direct sales (including to groups such as Ottawa Story Games and GenCon), Indie Press Revolution, and the Open Gaming Store.

As stated in the last instalment of this series, 2017 was a lean year because so much effort was put into getting ready for this year (ahem, High Plains Samurai). There was also our donation of ScreenPlay‘s PDF into the Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief Bundle that has skewed some of the numbers (I’m a sucker for placing products into charity bundles once they’ve been out in distribution for a year). This amount is very acceptable because it’s enough to keep paying the bills, which are quite reasonable this time of year. Plus, these numbers do not include the Kickstarter funds raised in May-June 2017.

The last quarter of 2017 was… disappointing. It is possible the Bundle took out a lot of thunder for other sales, but I’ve spoken to a couple other publishers who have noticed a similar result in their Q4 sales. Even the uber massive Christmas sales were meh. To me, it’s a sign that new releases are in order as the pressure in this pipe is starting to fizzle out. This means there isn’t much more to cover with regards to sales and 2017 products that hasn’t been discussed already, so let’s move on.

A Few Extra Hours In The Day

Yes, the reason why I was able to actually produce quarterly results this time. BRG keeps me very busy and when combined with having a regular daytime job and some freelance work in between, my time is tightly managed to maintain my production schedule. If one of those things were to suddenly fade away, more time becomes available. And that’s exactly what happened.

As of the end of 2017, I am currently working full-time from home on BRG and my freelance graphic design. Doing so has allowed me to take the time to get things right and get back on track with HPS production after the expansion of High Plains Samurai: Legends, playtesting, and more. Along with some additional mini-games in the works (see Duel for a sample of our first product in the upcoming Fragments line). While the numbers you see above certainly do not come close to providing a solid income, this new year is going to be a game changer. Combine that with my freelance work and there’s only one way to find out, right?

We’re already moving forward with this expanded workflow, as shown by last year’s announcement of HPS Legends and Duel. Plus with more surprises along the way, we’ve set up a monthly newsletter to help our fans keep track of what’s going on. (Psst, you’ll receive a free PDF copy of Dial M For Monster if you do. Just sayin’.) These are exciting and terrifying times. We’ll see how it all pans out in three months’ time.