Hello again, Broken Ones. What’s this? Two new posts in a single week. Since we’re not launching anything new this month, you might be wondering what kind of madness this is. Fear not, for this is but another chapter in my ongoing tradition of sharing our sales results for the year. Why? To help those who are also trying to break into the industry or simply want to feel better (or worse?) about their own results.
For those of you interested in the inner workings of indie RPG publishing, it’s time for another instalment of Measuring Success, my ongoing financial presentations for Broken Ruler Games. Rather than go quarterly or bi-annually, I’ve decided to keep things simple and go with annual presentations for the near future due to my very busy workload. And because of that very busy workload and in the interest of expanding on the meaning behind the numbers, I’ve decided to forego most of the writing for this year’s presentation and instead record my take on 2018’s results.
So here goes. Below are the Broken Ruler Games sales results for 2018, including quantities sold by product type, gross and net sales.
| PRODUCT | SALES | GROSS $ | NET $ |
| Killshot: The Director’s Cut | 40 | $223.39 | $138.26 |
| 39 | $203.40 | $132.21 | |
| Hardcover B&W | 0 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Hardcover B&W + PDF | 1 | $19.99 | $6.05 |
| Killshot: An Assassin’s Journal | 9 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| 9 | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
| Softcover B&W | 0 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Killshot: Direction | 1 | $5.00 | $3.25 |
| 1 | $5.00 | $3.25 | |
| Softcover B&W | 0 | ||
| Killshot Files #0 | 36 | $3.95 | $2.57 |
| 36 | $3.95 | $2.57 | |
| Killshot Files #1 | 12 | $22.91 | $14.89 |
| 12 | $22.91 | $14.89 | |
| Killshot Files #2 | 11 | $36.27 | $23.58 |
| 11 | $36.27 | $23.58 | |
| Ironbound | 138 | $1.40 | $0.91 |
| PDF (PWYW) | 65 | $1.40 | $0.91 |
| Blessed and the Damned | 73 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| ScreenPlay | 643 | $138.84 | $77.06 |
| 639 | $103.60 | $67.34 | |
| Softcover POD | 4 | $35.24 | $9.72 |
| Dial M for Monster | 626 | $21.90 | $14.24 |
| 626 | $21.90 | $14.24 | |
| Softcover POD | 0 | ||
| Fragments | 619 | $57.00 | $37.05 |
| Duel (PDF) | 619 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| By The General’s Hand (PDF) | 38 | $57.00 | $37.05 |
| High Plains Samurai: Legends | 1800 | $91.50 | $22.56 |
| 1793 | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
| Softcover B&W | 4 | $39.41 | $10.33 |
| Softcover CMYK | 3 | $52.09 | $12.23 |
| High Plains Samurai RPG | 34 | $435.00 | $273.29 |
| 31 | $330.00 | $214.50 | |
| Softcover B&W | 3 | $105.00 | $58.79 |
| TOTAL | 3980 | $1,073.43 | $631.24 |
| Killshot Directors Kit (Bundle) | 9 | ||
| The Ultimate ScreenPlay Bundle | 9 | ||
| IPR Sales | $276.01 | ||
| IGDN Convention Sales | $315.85 | ||
| TOTAL | $591.86 | ||
| ALL SALES COMBINED 2018 | $1,223.10 |
It’s important to note we participated in two charity bundles this year (the Puerto Rico Charity Bundle and ConTessa), which skews the sales to dollars ratio as we obviously didn’t actually make any money off those products.
And here is BRG’s overall results since I launched this company in 2012 with the past three years provided in detail. The total includes everything since day one.
| PRODUCT | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2018 | TOTAL |
| Killshot: The Director’s Cut | $140.08 | $75.42 | $138.26 | $1,688.43 |
| Killshot: An Assassin’s Journal | $5.95 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $22.64 |
| Killshot: Direction | $4.18 | $0.00 | $3.25 | $20.43 |
| Killshot Files #0 | $3.98 | $2.90 | $2.97 | $9.85 |
| Killshot Files #1 | $11.67 | $4.81 | $14.89 | $112.85 |
| Killshot Files #2 | $33.47 | $12.27 | $23.58 | $130.21 |
| ScreenPlay: The Rehearsal Edition | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Ironbound | $37.72 | $5.25 | $0.91 | $43.88 |
| ScreenPlay | $260.01 | $111.44 | $77.06 | $448.51 |
| Dial M for Monster | $0.00 | $40.08 | $14.24 | $54.32 |
| High Plains Samurai | $0.00 | $0.00 | $295.85 | $295.85 |
| Fragments | $0.00 | $0.00 | $37.05 | $37.05 |
| Killshot Directors Kit (Bundle) | ||||
| TOTAL | $497.06 | $252.17 | $608.06 | $2,864.02 |
Those annual totals have been divided up to showcase how they accounted for the overall percentage of BRG’s product lines and total earnings. For example, the total sales for Killshot equaled 8.19% of its overall earnings since the product was launched.
| PRODUCT | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2018 |
| Killshot | 8.30% | 4.47% | 8.19% |
| ScreenPlay | 57.97% | 24.85% | 17.18% |
| Ironbound | 85.96% | 11.96% | 2.07% |
| Dial M for Monster | 73.78% | 26.22% | |
| High Plains Samurai | 100.00% | ||
| Fragments | 100.00% | ||
| TOTAL | 17.36% | 8.80% | 21.23% |
Now for the analysis paralysis and this is where I’m going to save all of us the trouble of reading through my various thoughts on these numbers and record them for you. Feel free to scroll along as you listen (I tried to keep myself to a reasonable duration) and ask any questions you may have in the comments below.
Broken Ruler Games has won the Gold ENnie Award with High Plains Samurai: Legends for Best Free Game! Winning gold not only means we’ve received an award but that we received the most votes out of all the awesome candidates on the list this year and that astounds us the most. This was truly unexpected and we’re honoured to have received such esteemed recognition from the roleplaying community.
