Here at the Utah Microloan Fund when we get asked about what kind of companies we help with our small business loans and training we just have to smile. Part of the excitement and joy of working for the UMLF is that we get to help so many different kinds of businesses get their dream off the ground. Food trucks, barber shops, coffee roasters, dog treat and food producers, spas, gyms, restaurants, service providers and board games. Yep you read that right, board games! Our June Small Business of the Month winner is none other than Succubus Publishing, a powerhouse company that just officially launched their game, Middara. What makes this game so special? Keep reading as we sit down with owner Alex Hansen as we learn about his and Brooklynn Lundberg's journey in creating this vast universe, getting it off the ground and what they learned during the process.
UMLF: What are your backgrounds? What made you start your quest for creating your own board game company? Alex: Up until our 2015 Kickstarter for Middara, Brooklynn worked in the board game retail industry for Hastur Hobbies in Murray and later for Game Night Games in Sugarhouse. He was also a full-time playtester at Eat, Sleep, Play developing the latest Twisted Metal game. Salt Lake is a huge gaming town and through these jobs, he was able to make tons of connections in the world of board gaming. Before making board games for a living, I (Alex) was a salesman at a local wholesale florist, and before that, I taught guitar lessons full time. I had no real background in gaming other than I was obsessed with video games and drawing crazy fantasy characters in my free time. UMLF: Can you tell us about your journey from having the idea for the game to how you got to where you are today? Alex: Brooklynn and I are good friends from high school. Instead of paying attention in class, I would draw all day long in all of my classes. One day in English class, Brooklynn approached me, said he loved my art, and asked if I wanted to help him develop some ideas he had. I agreed. This was about 15 years ago. We've been working on this game for 15 years! We would meet up multiple times every week and just hash out ideas. I have piles and piles of sketches. It was a great time. Then in about 2014, after a failed Kickstarter totally unrelated to Middara called "Assemblage of Eternity", we decided to go big and make Middara happen. The game was still in it's phase of conception but we knew that in order to gain attention it needed to look good. So we borrowed some money from family and used it to quit or jobs for the summer and work on getting the Kickstarter campaign to look awesome. After tons of delays, we finally launched Middara in May 2015 and were able to raise almost $350,00 in that month. We were blown away. UMLF: This game Is huge! Can you tell us what players kind of experience they can expect from buying Middara? Alex: Middara is one of the heaviest (both literally and in complexity) board games ever made. And we purposefully made it this way and we love it! It isn't really made for a quick session to play with your kids on a Friday night. Middara is for the hardcore board gamer looking for a real campaign-driven adventure than spans the course of 6+ months. It draws a lot of inspiration from RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, JRPG video games like Final Fantasy, and tabletop games like Warhammer. You take on the role of an Adventurer and follow their storyline as you build you character up to be a true warrior to be reckoned with! If anyone is curious, they can check out our BGG forum where our customers are constantly discussing the game. Our Facebook group is also very active. You can see how passionate the community is. They are constantly posting pictures and interacting with each other. They paint all the miniatures to show off and even create their own homemade content. We also have an Instagram page. UMLF: You guys obviously put a lot of time and love into creating the universe and all of the characters of your game. Who are some of your favorite characters? What’s their story? Alex: Absolutely. We've been working on this non-stop for over 5 years! There are so many characters in the game that it's hard to choose. Middara functions like one of those old "choose-your-own-adventure" novels from the late 90's. While playing through the game, choices you make really matter and change the course of the game. So, to not risk spoiling anything for anyone interested in the game, I won't say too much about all the characters involved. But, if I had to choose, my favorite character would be Zeke. Brooklynn usually plays Nightingale. UMLF: Where can someone purchase Middara currently? Alex: Well, right now we are completely sold out and the only place to find a copy of the game is on aftermarket sites like Ebay. Of course this route isn't the most financially feasible since copies of the game are selling for upwards of $250! But! If you're interested in snagging a copy of the game, you're in luck! We are running a Kickstarter campaign on June 24, 2019 where we will be reprinting the original game and expanding on the product. It's going to be an amazing Kickstarter campaign and you won't want to miss it! We are even giving away free swag to backers that pledge on Day 1! UMLF: How do you feel like the Utah Microloan Fund helped your business? Alex: Even though we were able to raise $350,000 on our Middara Kickstarter campaign in 2015, our lack of business experience got us into a serious bind. It became clear that we would be unable to fulfill our promises to Kickstarter backers. The game was too massive and expensive. Our passion for making games blinded us to the financial reality of our situation. So, after shark-tanking it around Salt Lake for the good part of 2018, we were able to recruit an awesome team of supporters and investors to help Middara come to life! UMLF along with a number of other resources has been crucial to helping us get the game produced and shipped to our customers. Without them, we'd be stuck in development purgatory with nothing more than a cool idea. Thanks UMLF, you guys are awesome and we tell all of our entrepreneurial friends about you! Thanks for sitting down with us Succubus Publishing! To stay in touch with them:
Keep an eye out for their Kickstarter, launching June 24th! You can sign up for an email reminder here: https://mailchi.mp/succubuspublishing/entertheportal Comments are closed.
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