The Banner Saga 2 Interview

Stoic’s Arnie Jorgensen and John Watson have been busy telling us all about their strategy/RPG follow-up The Banner Saga 2 recently, and that’s led to a new Q&A on GameWatcher that focuses on the lessons they learned from the first title, their previous experience at BioWare, their plans to evolve the series into a trilogy, and more.  Here’s a little something on their financial situation:

GameWatcher: Speaking of finance, I think a lot of the community were expecting you to go back to Kickstarter for the sequel, how have you managed to bypass this?

Arnie Jorgensen: We made enough on the first game to make TBS2. On TBS1 we had our own funds and we could’ve made the game but because of the Kickstarter we could make a bigger game. We might not on the third Banner Saga either but we might, as it creates a big passionate community. There are also tough things about doing a Kickstarter. It does take months of time to put it all together.

John Watson: One shouldn’t underestimate how much work goes into running a Kickstarter campaign. You create a community and then you’re engaging with that community for the rest of development. It’s a full-time job! We discussed about whether to do another Kickstarter or whether to just get cracking.

Arnie Jorgensen: Would fans prefer a Kickstarter or the game three months early? I think they’d rather just get the game! I mean, money’s one thing but in a small team time is your biggest resource, and by running a campaign you’re giving up time.

John Watson: Preparation will take at least a month, campaign will take a month, and the aftermath will take a month. Then for the whole next year or two you have reward fulfilment, community management. out of a four person team one of those people will have to commit themselves to the backers and that’s a serious commitment. It was great though for getting us started, and for anyone with a great idea and maybe a playable prototype it could be a great experience. It was a slam-dunk for us.