John Harper's "Universe Alice"

[Jonathan Walton]

Hot damn!  Give that man Ron's money! :)

Tell me that he's got larger version at 300dpi that you guys could use as a wraparound cover for the Second Edition.  Or at least one to stick on my desktop.  Pleasepleaseplease...

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Whoa, that is really good. And I hate almost everything.

[Mike Holmes]

Great-googly-moogly. That is schweeet! I agree with Jonathan on the cover idea. No dis on Mr. Hedgecock, but that's an awsome pic. How could folks pass up a book with that on it.

I was thinking that it's problematic as a cover, as you wouldn't want to have Alice on the back. But that could even work. Then, however, I thought that it would be cool to have a book in that shape. It would lay open easily, see.

Special hardcover edition?

Mike

[Jonathan Walton]

Hey, I think Storypunk/Ever-After's going to end up being 11 x 8.5" (to look like a children's book), so I don't see why Universalis couldn't go the same route.  Also, if you wanted to do an expanded edition as a PDF, all of Phil Reed's stuff goes landscape because it's easier to view on a computer screen.

[And if you don't know exactly what should go into an expanded edition, my RPGnet review of Universalis (which is getting longer and longer) will have a suggestion or 20... ;) ]

By the way, anybody know if the artist does freelance work?  I've got Ever-After covered, but I promised Shreyas I'd finish Fingers on the Firmament next and I'd love to have some art of people grabbing the stars...

[greyorm]

Whoa! It rocks with toast! (as Clinton might say)
That piece is an awesome bit of design.

[Bob McNamee]

Woah,

That's my official favorite now!

Great job!

[C. Edwards]

Damn that is evocative!  Just looking at it opens up whole new vistas of possibility.

-Chris

[John Harper]

Uh. Wow. Um.

I don't know what to say. Thanks for all the kind words, folks. I don't read the Forge for a few days, and look what I miss (Clinton clued me in tonight about this thread).

First, I would love for this image to became the new game cover. It would need to be altered for the correct size and orientation, of course, but it could work.

I have a larger version (not quite desktop size, but bigger) available here: http://www.shootingiron.com/feng/ps/alice_big_jsh.jpg (71k)

To answer Jonathan's question: yes, I do freelance work (and I work cheap when supporting indie games). Drop me a line and we can talk: feng@shootingiron.com.

The main hurdle in making this image into a real print cover is the stock photo of the girl. That pic is from Getty images, and would have to be licensed and bought at hi-res to be used in the final design. It wouldn't be a ton of money, but it's something to consider. If buying the Getty piece is totally out of the question, I have an excellent photographer friend who will probably be willing to lend his services to the cause.

Thanks again for the compliments. I'm glad you like the piece.

[John Harper]

I was goofing around with photoshop last night, and came up with this "cover" for Sorcerer, in a style similar to the Universalis piece. Thought you guys might like to take a look: Sorcerer cover

[Valamir]

That is a seriously spooky piece for Sorcerer John.  The shear darkness of it is pretty compelling.

[John Harper]

Thanks, Ralph. I was thinking it was perhaps a bit too dark... a lot of little details get lost in the black. Then again, Sorcerer = dark, in my mind. My housemate Christine (who is not a gamer) looked at the image while I was working on it and said, "That's creepy. I don't know if the demon-y guy is there to help her or hurt her." That put a big smile on my face.

[Bankuei]

"Oh yeah! Now that's the stuff!"

I remember a couple of months back emailing Ralph about the cover image not really feeling, "universal"...I don't care how you guys do it, you've got a winner with a cover like that.  Make it happen.  Hell, sell posters!

Chris

[Valamir]

Yeah, I REALLY REALLY like the image on our current cover, but it was not intended to be the cover originally.  Rather through a communication mix up (which I take full responsibility for) my hoped for cover image didn't happen (briefly, the artist understood that I had canceled the order for it...my fault entirely).

So at the last minute, I kit bashed one of the internal pieces into a cover image which Matt Snyder the layout dynamo reworked into what became the final cover.  I don't think its horrible as a cover shot.  The robo guy is just wierd enough to make people look twice, and the handful of Coins spilling into a starburst I think is quite cool.  But it certainly isn't the powerhouse cover I would have liked.

If (hopefully when) I do an expanded second edition an image like John's would be sweet.

If you guys want to see the expanded edition with John's cover on it sooner rather than later you need to all do the following:

1) buy a second copy
2) get all your friends to buy a copy
3) get all your FLGS to stock it

That way I'll need a third print run that much quicker ;-)

[Jonathan Walton]

3) get all your FLGS to stock it

Actually, I was wondering about that.  My FLGS here in Oberlin stocks a ton of indie comics and I think wants to stock more indie games (there's a copy of Starchildren on the shelf right now).  If I were to try to convince them to head in that direction, is there an easy way for them to get copies of Universalis and a bunch of indies at the same time, or would they simply have to talk to all you guys individually?

[Valamir]

That is actually a huge issue that I brought up in this this thread.

I'd LOVE to have a central place where indie interested game shops could go to get a bunch of games all at once, because right now it IS individually except for those few who manage to secure distribution through the traditional route (like Sorcerer and TROS).

Unfortuneately the number of shops who would be interested would probably pull too little volume for such a venture to be that profitable which I think is an understandable reason for the RPGNow not to have jumped all over it already.

What we may wind up needing is some sort of indie association where we spread the costs out over the participating publishers plus some compensation for the individual (probably only one at first) who handles the fulfillment end, but which essentially is not a profit center and thus doesn't have to meet a minimum gross margin before a business like RPGNow would be interested in tackling it.

Its an idea that has been batted around for a while, but now that interest in indie games is taking off the need is more urgent.