Hello ghosties!
Last month, we attended the launch of STREET UNI X by daffodil & friends—one of the first studios to go through our Baby Ghosts program. It was a pretty special event, combining communities of extreme unicyclists, screamo bands, indie game devs, and folks just walking by. (We even pissed off a cop!)
The event was a wonderful representation of how daffodil & friends have built their values into every part of their game development, working hard to create something that brings together and represents real-world communities.
But they’re not the only ones thinking about values.
In this month’s newsletter, we’re featuring Amelore, a cooperative game studio from our most recent cohort of Baby Ghosts—one that truly embraced our program’s focus on studio values. Here’s a chat we had with them:
What’s your biggest takeaway from the Baby Ghosts program?
Valerie: VALUES, community, VALUES, Canadian funding landscape, cooperative structure, organization, VALUES.
Jokes aside, the big thing I took away from Baby Ghosts is how to think about running a business—learning what skills we need to learn and building structures/systems around what we want to accomplish.
Reese: V a l u e s (meme answer)
[But also] the importance of being in it together, being on the same page, and understanding what each of us needs in order to create.
Donna: Baby Ghosts re-affirmed for me how important it is to really take time to figure out what’s important to you as a co-op and what you value. Also, that community slaps. It really hit home that you’re allowed to take accommodations or take care of yourself.
Mackenzie: Processes, how you organize decision-making at different levels to back up the talk, where people feel real ownership and proactivity to make things better.
And to reinforce our values and goals.
In your own words, who is Amelore?
Reese: A scrappy small group of deeply caring, super-duper cool artists trying to survive and make fun stuff despite waves hands in the air.
Donna: A buncha silly people trying to make games and make the world a little less icky.
Valerie: To me, Amelore is a bunch of awesome queers making cool art together, trying to make the gaming landscape better for both the people who make games and the marginalized people who consume games media.
Mackenzie: Caring for each other, our community, and the world; caring for who we are and finding ways to better survive and thrive together through art.
What do you think we (all of us involved in game making) could do to make the video game industry better?
Donna: SUPPORT EACH OTHER. KEEP THE COMMUNITY THRIVING. BE RESOURCES FOR EACH OTHER. COLLABORATE.
Reese: Unionize.
Mackenzie: Create opportunities for people who wouldn’t otherwise normally get them, to grow into seniority and leadership and help foster change.
Donna: Forever referencing my video I did for TikTok, but my final statement was: “We aren’t perfect because no one is, but what we can do is strive to be the change we wanna see.”
Valerie: Four-day work weeks (32 hours), because there’s barely any return on productivity beyond that point anyway. [And] eliminate crunch forever.
Stop chasing profit and infinite growth so we can remain sustainable instead of fluctuating and leaving people without work.
Hire and mentor more junior artists in positions that are actually entry-level to foster long-term health in the industry.
Amelore’s words are on point at this moment. Actually, Emilee Kiefer said something similar recently in her message regarding the shutting down (or “restructuring”) of Humble Bundle: “I believe we have the power to create studios that benefit us as game developers and not people that only see us as money-printing machines.”
We believe that too, and it’s why we created Baby Ghosts.
If you believe in our mission, consider supporting us by donating or reaching out to talk about a sponsorship.
We’ll be back next month with more features and news.
Stay cool and hydrated! ☀️
- eileen and jennie