Through all of our campaigns, we have had many questions arise that we’ve answered in updates, comment threads, blogs, etc. We wanted to consolidate the answers somewhere so that you wouldn’t have to look everywhere just to get an answer. What better way to do so than to start here.
WHO IS ARTISTIC JUSTICE?
Artistic Justice is our website, graphic design, and video production company based in Houston, Texas. We have been doing this for quite some time. During the course of this, several of us wanted to also get into the tabletop gaming industry. Thus, we opened the branch called Artistic Justice Games.
Artistic Justice Games was an extension of Artistic Justice during our first campaign, Martial Arts: The Trading Card Game. That was the first game under this label, though we had done a few smaller freelance game development gigs for others several months prior. It wasn’t until after Fairytale Games: The Minis Campaign (our 3rd campaign) did we upgrade our status and legally created Artistic Justice Games, LLC to separate completely from Artistic Justice. Artistic Justice Games going forward will handle all gaming aspects, starting from Martial Arts: The Trading Card Game, Fairytale Games: The Battle Royale, Fairytale Games: The Minis Campaign, and beyond.
WHO IS ALEXANDER LIM?
Alex Lim is one of the 3 owners of Artistic Justice who is also now the team leader and part owner of Artistic Justice Games. To be specific, every game that Artistic Justice Games develops will have their own team of 3-6 individuals. Alex is in charge of overseeing all of these teams while also playing an active role in communication, management, graphics, or wherever he is needed. Decisions are made per team and not solely on any 1 individual. Currently, there are 3 teams at Artistic Justice Games. the Martial Arts team, the Fairytale Games team, and the Super Hero team. Teams do not overlap with each other nor do they give input in each other’s projects (they actually rarely see each other). The only exception are artists, vendors, or affiliates who might be commissioned to multiple teams.
WHY ARE THE MARTIAL ARTS GAME AND THE FAIRYTALE GAMES UNDER DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS ON KICKSTARTER?
During the time Fairytale Games: The Battle Royale was about to launch it’s campaign, we had commissioned another company to help us with marketing, promotions, videos, writing, updates, and setting up of our actual campaign. We had set a date for the Launch Party and sent out print and web announcements about it. About a week before the campaign launch, Alex was shocked to find out that the campaign was not even set up as promised nor were any graphics complete. Because of his background in graphic design, he quickly created the graphics and layout of the first campaign. Because the commissioned company had updated the login information, he could not get access to the account. Fearful that the Kickstarter approval process of 3-7 days might delay the launch, and seeing how all the marketing material had already gone out, he used his own created account as the base of Fairytale Games: The Battle Royale. Of course the team understood and the campaign moved forward from that. The other company was removed from any affiliation with the campaign soon afterwards but a lot of questions about the integrity of two different accounts arose, though it was a very simple and unfortunate thing that happened. We also could not reuse the Artistic Justice Games icon for the Alexander Lim account in fears that Kickstarter ruling would pull the project for doing so.
WAS THERE OR IS THERE ANY INTENTION OF HIDING THE DIFFERENT IDENTITIES? IS THERE A REASON FOR SO MANY FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS?
There was never any intention to hide the fact that Artistic Justice Games is the game developer company of all three campaigns. In fact, we had been very transparent at the get-go, answering this question honestly to anyone who asked. Even when looking at the first campaign graphics, the game box graphic has the Artistic Justice Games logo. More apparently, in all campaigns, the logo appears at the beginning of EACH video! In the Risks and Challenges, Artistic Justice Games is also mentioned clearly with its intentions. And under Alexander Lim’s profile, you can see that he is a game developer of Artistic Justice Games. As well, if you go to the first campaign (Martial Arts: The Card Game) you can see that the facebook also links back to Alex Lim, who was the main communication representative for that team during their campaign.
Artistic Justice has been on Facebook for a long time under a “Friends Account”. Only a few years ago, did it try to develop a facebook “Business Page”. Due to Artistic Justice Games becoming a branch, a website and facebook was created for that identity (still linked to Artistic Justice). Later, when Martial Arts: The Card Game’s campaign was created, we wanted to have an identity for that, thinking that we could successfully manage all of the facebook pages in unison. When Fairytale Games: The Battle Royale came about, the commissioned company was supposed to create and run the facebook/twitter accounts. Because they created the account and completely bailed out on the updates, we had to quickly continue to utilize the facebook, confusing people because we had no website for Fairytale Games. As you can guess, this is where this website was born in order to separate the games from the different teams. But, everything about all these facebook/website pages are all linked in some way to each other may it be very “in your face” as it is on the Artistic Justice Games site or in the about section of the Fairytale Games facebook/website. Rest assured, all games are Artistic justice Games, LLC moving forward. Artistic Justice is now an equal entity that is separate and does something completely different.
BUT I DON’T GET WHY ALL THE CAMPAIGNS HAPPEN SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER!
As mentioned above, Martial Arts: The Card Game has a team that is in charge of that game. Fairytale Games has a team in charge of that one. So as close or far away as their campaigns may be, they will not affect each other with the exception of if there is a shared communication representative. The production of these games are facilitated by different distributors/vendors as it stands currently. Equivalent would be why Toyota would have the audacity to introduce their new Lexus if their Camry’s are just starting production of their new models.
Now Fairytale Games is a completely different story. Because the first campaign ended with the stretch goals to produce 40 miniature figures and because many backers requested for a follow-up campaign in order to expand the line of the miniatures, we felt it made more sense to create and produce all of them together. The savings in cost helps us deal with any loss we incurred from our first Fairytale Games Campaign. Especially since Greenbrier Games is developing and producing all of our miniatures. So think of the second campaign as a Follow-up or Expansion of the first fairytale games. Like Kill Bill 1 and Kill Bill 2 are actually one long movie. Seriously though, to understand the reasoning, you have to first see that both campaigns are only 2 months apart.
YOU TOOK A HUGE LOSS IN THE FIRST FAIRYTALE GAMES CAMPAIGN. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT?
As stated on Update#26 of the Fairytale Games: Battle Royale Campaign: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
So THIS is something that’s come up as well. And no, it’s not too good to be true, but it really is one really good deal. To be clear, our goal has always been to focus on backers and building a strong fan base and longevity in our relationship with you. Because we enjoy creating and developing games and intend to do so for quite some time. This campaign will definitely not render us a profit. Actually, we already planned on it eating away financial reserves Artistic Justice Games has put into the campaign ahead of time. We had a little bit of extra cushion, but we added more Fairytale Edition Stretch Goals and even a Battle Pack to show you that we sincerely appreciate you and your support for the game and campaign. The community you’ve all cultivated through the course of this campaign is really worth all the extras we’re providing to bring more value to your backing.
But if we don’t make a profit, that’s crazy! What kind of business decision is that???
Well, since we are running these games as one large print run, our vendors are giving us a great discount on overall inventory. This large inventory was something that we couldn’t have easily convinced ourselves to produce unless there was a reason to, like fulfilling 1,000+ backers! If you really examine the outcome, after establishing Zombie Edition, we have a total of 6 Standalone Games (Original, Horror, Steampunk, Zombie, Super Fairytale FIghters 2, Rumplestiltskin) as well as 2 Expansion Packs (Fairytale and Legends of TIme). Without this campaign and your support, it would have taken us a couple of years to slowly trickle these out. So for a business decision, this was an excellent one. This is what we see as a long-term decision rather than a short-term “rush to make a quick buck” methodology.
—– Additionally, you can find more info in Update#2 of our Minis Campaign here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/682539325/fairytale-games-the-miniatures-campaign/posts/602471
—– And more extensively at the bottom of Update#4 of our Minis Campaign here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/682539325/fairytale-games-the-miniatures-campaign/posts/604583
OK SO YOU PURPOSELY TOOK A LOSS ON YOUR FIRST FAIRYTALE GAMES CAMPAIGN. WHO IS YOUR INVESTOR AND HOW CAN YOU NOT GO BANKRUPT?!?
If you read the FAQs carefully, you’ll note that Artistic Justice Games began as a branch of Artistic Justice. It is obviously natural that Artistic Justice would reserve enough funding for a new segment of their business. It is also reasonable to understand that a marketing strategy to capture a large audience would be to intentionally take a loss to ensure that the fanbase would grow in order become an established tabletop gaming company quickly. This is an investment and a large risk, but we feel the connection to our backers and the sincerity in our offering as a new developer would grow a lasting and strong relationship. We accept that there would be both negative and positive opinions of thinking outside the box, but it is something we feel strongly about.
Now to not go bankrupt, we have a few things going. Because Artistic Justice deals with print vendors on medium to large scale projects overseas, it would also be reasonable to understand that by combining game production with print production from Artistic Justice would save on print costs, setup fees, shipping, etc… especially if these are vendors we already have long relationships with. Bulk means more cost efficiency. Plus, we are able to barter services with these vendors in order to help offset costs. That is an advantage we have for being born of a Graphic Design company.
For the Miniatures, we had them as stretch goals in the first campaign, divided by Factions of 5 per each $10k level. Because of completists suggestions, we reworked the minis into one complete set at the highest stretch goal mark. Originally, these minis were just player token replacements that would look pretty cool. Once we hit the minis stretch goals (because of the huge rush of miniature enthusiastic backers) we realized then that minis was an untapped industry for us. So we sought out who we thought was the best and most experienced that would be able to work with us in not only creating and producing beautifully detailed miniatures, but also guide us more into entering this market. This is Greenbrier Games.
With already delivered and successfully produced Miniature Games in their portfolio, they have guided us into strategically planning ahead for how these miniatures could be used. Since then, we have developed and co-developed a few game ideas that we will be introducing next year, to give people more mileage for their miniatures after our first 2 campaign shipment is delivered (Martial Arts: The Card Game and Fairytale Games: The Battle Royale).
For more information on the significant change in stretch goals of the first campaign (June 9th, 2013 Update#8):
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/682539325/fairytale-games-the-battle-royale/posts/505417
Also here (June 10th, 2013 Update#9):
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/682539325/fairytale-games-the-battle-royale/posts/506151
For information on Greenbrier Games and our Minis (September 24th, 2013 Update#50:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/682539325/fairytale-games-the-battle-royale/posts/608271
For information on Greenbrier Games and the actual Minis produced in our Minis Campaign (September 26th, 2013 Update#26):
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/682539325/fairytale-games-the-miniatures-campaign/posts/608943
Fairytale Games 