Salutations from Shard! ...An Explanation...
Hello Everyone!
Scott Jones here, with greetings and salutations finally delivered after several years of relative silence. First, I'd like to reassure everyone that Shard Studios is still here, and has been quietly working on the next publication to be released within just a few months! Shard Studios had gone quiet over the recent few years as the result of major delays in the workflows of several primary products we had initially decided to create, namely the Magic and Martial Arts book, the World Guide, and most recently the Spiral Arena Card Game. Despite the delays in production, we are continuing with all of these products as planned, and have even expanded upon them in recent months to include more material than originally intended!
For the sake of making a humble attempt at open communication, however, allow me to explain the nature of these delays, and the relative silence that followed on all of our online sites. The founder of the Shard IP, Aaron de Orive, had given me the limited rights to create a tabletop RPG game version of Shard way back in the late 80's, though he had declined to be directly involved due to other obligations and interests at that time.
Over the next decade I slowly developed the game system and fiction even further, expanding upon the basis that Aaron had created while I simultaneously pursued a career in the computer-gaming industry. The progress could then only be counted in hours stolen every weekend or so from the kind of busy schedule for which the computer-gaming industry is infamous. Back then an incredible fountain of creative inspiration came from running several years-long gaming campaigns with local friends, and in the invaluable input from numerous different play-test groups here and abroad.
It was only a few years after I left that industry, with a limited degree of financial independence, that I was able to work on Shard full time, and even bring in the help of talented friends. It was then that I created Shard's first official website and forum, and prepared each of our initial products for final production and publication, attended tradeshows and conferences to familiarize the public with our products, and courted publishers and distributors with the idea of carrying them once the products were manufactured.
Around that time, Aaron expressed interest in joining with me as part of that process, and generously offered to make me half-owner of the IP (as opposed to merely licensing it to me) as a part of us expanding the company as an official LLC Partnership, instead of the sole proprietorship it had been before. It was also during this time that Aaron spearheaded the effort of a final re-write and editing pass on the Basic Compendium, which delayed the final printing process for nearly nine months, but resulted in a more refined product that made us both very proud. With the release of that first primary rulebook, along with a handful of other products such as a map, a GM screen, the Convenience Pack, a set of crystalline dice, and even an art book, the stage was set to begin touring the various conventions and tradeshows where our final product could be officially introduced.
In the midst of the second year of conventions and sales, our initial goal of publishing the next two books began to falter as the nation's economy took an enormous recessional downturn in 2009 and 2010. My own limited financial independence, which had at first enabled me to cover the costs of printing and production, as well as my own living expenses, had taken a severe blow to the investments that supported it because of the recession, and both Aaron and I felt the pressures to seek other sources of primary income.
Aaron, whose skills and interests had always tended more toward literary fiction and scripts for cinema, chose to pursue those interests right as we were beginning to ramp up into the full-scale re-write and production of the "Magic and Martial Arts" book. It's understandable that he needed to seek other opportunities, because of this being a somewhat niche market, but it came at a time when the production process really needed more than just my attention. The result was that I had to scale back on how much I could attend to Shard's needs while seeking supplemental employment. This meant that any Shard production had to go on an extreme backburner for awhile (with me literally working on it in my very limited spare time, much to my sadness).
Without a partner who could share the workload, it became evident over the next several years that trying to maintain the company as a "partnership" made very little sense, and was simply leading to a great deal of frustration with practically no progress toward future publication. Seeing this, Aaron offered to sell me his half of the IP and LLC. After considerable thought I realized that (despite the expense) if Shard was to have a chance to continue, it would need to pass fully into my hands. I eventually took his offer, made the purchase, and continued moving forward at a snail's pace due to once again working in the time-consuming industry of computer-gaming.
During all that time, and due to the delicate nature of such corporate changes (even in a company as small as Shard Studios), a decision was made not to openly discuss these events until they were complete and legally finalized. This kind of transition is never quick, and the time it took to build up the funds to make the transaction, to haggle over final details, to engage the lawyers back and forth, and to finally get everything approved and signed, took nearly three years. Once done, though I certainly could have announced the change in company ownership, I had no good news to share concerning the hope for progress and printing of new products. Because of this I decided to give myself time to see if it was possible to ramp up production during my personal hours in the hopes that I could build creative momentum once again.
(...continued below...)
Hello Everyone!
Scott Jones here, with greetings and salutations finally delivered after several years of relative silence. First, I'd like to reassure everyone that Shard Studios is still here, and has been quietly working on the next publication to be released within just a few months! Shard Studios had gone quiet over the recent few years as the result of major delays in the workflows of several primary products we had initially decided to create, namely the Magic and Martial Arts book, the World Guide, and most recently the Spiral Arena Card Game. Despite the delays in production, we are continuing with all of these products as planned, and have even expanded upon them in recent months to include more material than originally intended!
For the sake of making a humble attempt at open communication, however, allow me to explain the nature of these delays, and the relative silence that followed on all of our online sites. The founder of the Shard IP, Aaron de Orive, had given me the limited rights to create a tabletop RPG game version of Shard way back in the late 80's, though he had declined to be directly involved due to other obligations and interests at that time.
Over the next decade I slowly developed the game system and fiction even further, expanding upon the basis that Aaron had created while I simultaneously pursued a career in the computer-gaming industry. The progress could then only be counted in hours stolen every weekend or so from the kind of busy schedule for which the computer-gaming industry is infamous. Back then an incredible fountain of creative inspiration came from running several years-long gaming campaigns with local friends, and in the invaluable input from numerous different play-test groups here and abroad.
It was only a few years after I left that industry, with a limited degree of financial independence, that I was able to work on Shard full time, and even bring in the help of talented friends. It was then that I created Shard's first official website and forum, and prepared each of our initial products for final production and publication, attended tradeshows and conferences to familiarize the public with our products, and courted publishers and distributors with the idea of carrying them once the products were manufactured.
Around that time, Aaron expressed interest in joining with me as part of that process, and generously offered to make me half-owner of the IP (as opposed to merely licensing it to me) as a part of us expanding the company as an official LLC Partnership, instead of the sole proprietorship it had been before. It was also during this time that Aaron spearheaded the effort of a final re-write and editing pass on the Basic Compendium, which delayed the final printing process for nearly nine months, but resulted in a more refined product that made us both very proud. With the release of that first primary rulebook, along with a handful of other products such as a map, a GM screen, the Convenience Pack, a set of crystalline dice, and even an art book, the stage was set to begin touring the various conventions and tradeshows where our final product could be officially introduced.
In the midst of the second year of conventions and sales, our initial goal of publishing the next two books began to falter as the nation's economy took an enormous recessional downturn in 2009 and 2010. My own limited financial independence, which had at first enabled me to cover the costs of printing and production, as well as my own living expenses, had taken a severe blow to the investments that supported it because of the recession, and both Aaron and I felt the pressures to seek other sources of primary income.
Aaron, whose skills and interests had always tended more toward literary fiction and scripts for cinema, chose to pursue those interests right as we were beginning to ramp up into the full-scale re-write and production of the "Magic and Martial Arts" book. It's understandable that he needed to seek other opportunities, because of this being a somewhat niche market, but it came at a time when the production process really needed more than just my attention. The result was that I had to scale back on how much I could attend to Shard's needs while seeking supplemental employment. This meant that any Shard production had to go on an extreme backburner for awhile (with me literally working on it in my very limited spare time, much to my sadness).
Without a partner who could share the workload, it became evident over the next several years that trying to maintain the company as a "partnership" made very little sense, and was simply leading to a great deal of frustration with practically no progress toward future publication. Seeing this, Aaron offered to sell me his half of the IP and LLC. After considerable thought I realized that (despite the expense) if Shard was to have a chance to continue, it would need to pass fully into my hands. I eventually took his offer, made the purchase, and continued moving forward at a snail's pace due to once again working in the time-consuming industry of computer-gaming.
During all that time, and due to the delicate nature of such corporate changes (even in a company as small as Shard Studios), a decision was made not to openly discuss these events until they were complete and legally finalized. This kind of transition is never quick, and the time it took to build up the funds to make the transaction, to haggle over final details, to engage the lawyers back and forth, and to finally get everything approved and signed, took nearly three years. Once done, though I certainly could have announced the change in company ownership, I had no good news to share concerning the hope for progress and printing of new products. Because of this I decided to give myself time to see if it was possible to ramp up production during my personal hours in the hopes that I could build creative momentum once again.
(...continued below...)