We are Dead Gentlemen Productions, makers of the films The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, and JourneyQuest. Ask Us Anything!

Have you considered something similar to a online "street team" to get the word out about your different projects? Something like an email list where people (like me) who like what you do can sign up to help promote things where we can (facebook, twitter, etc.). New kickstarter campaign about to start up, send a note to that list giving us a heads up. Then when it starts, we do what we can to get the word out.

Uh... let's do that. We're officially considering that now. :)

No seriously can we get back to this? We should talk.

What's the status of Gamers 4 and JourneyQuest 3?

We're in development on Gamers 4. We have a ways to go though. I'll let Zombie Orpheus answer that about JQ3. It's in the works too, but again, lots to do.

Another question... I've put together some decent money to do a small web series. Assembling the cast and crew and have recruited a second writer to work with in polishing the script. Any advice to a newblet film maker?

Don't plan on making it perfect. Get it done, learn from your mistakes, start building an audience, and then do it again, a little bit bigger and a little bit better.

What he said. DO IT. The rest will come. But I would offer this: Start with a good script. Get that exactly the way you want it before you plan anything else. Then, make sure you get really good sound. A lot of people say 50% of good directing is in casting the right actors. That can be a huge help. We ignored most of that in the beginning. :)

Do the project and learn. Failing is the best teacher. But you have to learn from the failure and do your best to not repeat it. That can be the hard part.

What is your favorite/funniest memory that has happened during the production of any of your projects? :)

there was that time that we used a church for a filming location on the condition that the pentagram didn't leave a mark on the floor, and then the tape pulled all the paint up.

Oh, and the graveyard fire...

I still feel bad about the pentagram incident. It was the weekend before Christmas, and there was to be a multi-denominational service the next day, and some parishioners walked into the room looking for decorations...

From what I understand, YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD!!! :)

Don Early here. One of the most memorable probably has to be when the generator caught fire in a cemetary while shooting Dorkness Rising. It was my boss' generator, and we got to see how good our production insurance was. :) Turns out... pretty good!

Can we expect a more D&D-ish plot in the upcoming Gamers movie?

Yes!

I got super excited to see that this RPG was going to be based somewhat off the Fate Core system. Out of the RPGs I've played, it is my favorite.

What are going to be the major differences though? Basically I just want to know if Game creation / character's stories / Fate Points, are going to be sticking around as they are what makes Fate my favorite system.

They better be! I specifically asked Cam to keep a Fate Point/Plot Point type economy integral to the system. :) The point is to have character creation be easy and fast, and motivate and reward the characters to make story decisions. So I would say that's going to continue to be the case. Cam will return shortly to answer this question more definitively. :)

Awesome! :) Then I'm looking forward to getting my copy even more now.

Please tell your Fate Loving Friends!

Oh, I have. I think I post something about your kickstarter, and invite friends to like your page so the get news about the kickstarter, at least once per day. :P

Thank you!!! They seem like great people. :)

Now that Dead Gentlemen has become active (more or less) on its own again where do you see the company going in the forseeable future?

Oh! Someone noticed. :) Surprised no one has asked why we were away yet.

For the foreseeable future:

• DH Webcomic, eventually a print edition

• DH RPG (Hopefully), with some awesome web support and community building

• DH LARP and Murder Mystery Party products if they are not unlocked through stretch goals

• Gamers 4

• Syphilitic Ninja Vampires webseries

• Possibly a sketch show

• Demon Hunters webseries being developed by Christian Doyle. Working title - Demon Hunters: Iota Initiative. Think Police Station Comedy meets The Office.

• DG Soundtrack

• A Super Secret feature film we're developing

And there's plenty more direction to go from there. Kind of would like to get our online store situation figured out too.

Been meaning to ask, why were you away? :)

OH! Well since you asked. :)

The Gamers: Dorkness Rising was a nightmare in the distribution end. We went through traditional channels, and ug. The project and the distribution got out of control and it wrecked Don Early (me).

Now I'll speak in the first person. I was too burnt out to lead anything new so I pretty much put DG on a self-sustain cost efficiency shell of a company. If anyone wanted to pipe up and lead a project they were welcome to it, but I wasn't really in a place to give much support. That experience scarred me good.

Thankfully Ben Dobyns and others formed Zombie Orpheus Entertainment and was able to take on the creative torch for things that might have originally been produced at DG. Especially Gamers 3.

I blame Jimmy McMichael for keeping Demon Hunters going. It's a place I think all of us DG find our root inspiration since it's the property that brought us together originally. Because of Jimmy's work, I finally found inspiration again, and for some reason it was the perfect storm. A lot of things started falling into place for creating new projects again. Ones I didn't have to spearhead. Sometimes everyone needs a breather.

But we're back! We got a lot of awesome stuff in the works. WE are all VERY excited about them too. And we're excited about ZOE's Strowlers and the various projects they're working on.

How's that? :)

I know ZOECon is happening in November, are there any sneak peeks or special guests that you can elaborate on?

ZOECon will include a performance of Gamers Live, at least one special musical guest, sneak peeks of Strowlers and Attacking the Darkness, and a lot more that we're not quite ready to tease. But we have confirmed that we'll livestream every mainstage event!

Wait, are we telling people about Attacking the Darkness now?

Apparently Ben is! :)

But I don't know if I'm allowed to, and I'm afraid that if I do he'll give me that look over the top of his glasses!

I know that look...

When you make a profit, are you grateful Dead Gentlemen..?

Every time. :)

Any discussion on a serious movie? I don't want you to go against a good thing, but I just though submissions would be pretty varied and at least one would have to be pretty good.

Well, for ZOE, it's Strowlers. For DG, nothing serious in the works so far but it's not... disallowed or anything. A concept just hasn't come up that we're all super stoked about. In the meantime, we're glad to support Zombie Orpheus' work on Strowlers, which will be crazy amazing and a giant world for everyone to play in.

Will you promise to never, ever, ever make another Fromage`a Trois video again?

No. :)

Wheee thread jumping its like having a TARDIS !! Will there be any more Natural One or other The Gamers universe shows or episodes ? All of them have been epic

Humans & Households we're definitely thinking about. There are other The Gamers webseries concepts we've been kicking around. Our lineup got busy fast, so we're working hard on prioritization, assessing feasibility, and probably the biggest issue of all: scheduling.

J. R. Ralls said in one of the bonus features of the Dark Dungeons dvd that he wants to make more movies. Do you see yourself working with him in the future?

That would be awesome. We would love that.

is matt still a part of the dead gentlemen? haven't heard anything from him in a long while. what happened to the gamers book he was writing?

Yep, he's still a member of DG. Last I checked the book is done, writing-wise, and it's off to layout and whatnot. He's very busy with his awesome new job. But he's still involved, don't you worry. :)

What’s with the pirates?

Everythings' better with pirates.

...EVERYTHING.

AMI RIGHT?

Any chance that we will see Matt Vancil in a Demon Hunters roleplaying hangout? What about Christian Doyle for that matter?

I wouldn't count either of them out. It really all comes down to availability. Christian is pretty much bound to show up eventually. That dude's been playing a weekly Demon Hunters game since the first RPG came out! Pretty sure he's the only person on the planet who can make that claim.

Don said that very thing about Christian in the Demon Hunters hangout. That's why I was surprised that he hasn't shown up so far.

He doesn't have time to hold our pleb hands when it comes to this game. He said "Call me when you level up, nerds." Then he skated away on 1,000 skateboards.

I was amazed.

Christian Doyle probably sooner than Matt Vancil. But trust me, they're both on the docket.

If current legal issues were resolved and you were given the resources and permission to make the Dungeons and Dragons movie, how would you do it? I'd love to hear your pitch.

Did you see our movie, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising?

Will we ever get a second DG podcast?

A few ideas are in the works. Nothing specific yet, but a podcast we think would be a great way to provide regular content and updates. Dont' want to overlap with ZOE's Rude Mechanical, so we're still hashing out what that might look like.

You guys are amazing! you already answered me in the other post, but I was wondering about new episodes of Humans and Households? also can we get a possible teaser about the plot of the gamers 4?

No teasers about Gamers 4 yet unfortunately. Humans & Households as some of you may know is a 3 episode series. For more beyond that we are definitely in development for future incarnations. It really rejuvenated a lot of our energy.

Who would win in a fight Cass or Gary?

In a real fight? Cass, hands down. In a fight character against character? Tough call. Probably Gary then, just for unpredictability. But I think Cass is a better min-maxer.

Who is your favorite character out of all your series and why?

Tree

Can you run more of the Mask of Death modules at cons? 3 just isn't enough!

Mask of Death and The Shadow's Dungeon will be likely con fodder. Not to worry. It's just finding the best people to run them and getting them available.

My boyfriend is a mini addict. Can we look forward to any DHRPG minis? Or Barbie dolls? He'd be fine with those, too, as long as they come with weapons and Kung fu grip.

Hi! I'm Erick and I have a miniature addiction!

(in unison) Hi Erick

When a cost effective solution presents itself, yes. Happy to do that. So far... um... not cost effective... sad face.

Hey guys!! HUGE fan. I was wondering...

Do you ever include any Easter Eggs or inside jokes into your productions? Ones that would only be recognizable to those in your inner circle?

Do you own any of our DVDs? :) They are chock full of them. But mostly we stay away from too obscure of inside jokes. We want you all to be in on the joke.

The biggest inside joke of DG is the Purple Ninja.

Is there any chance of Hopjockey still being made? The teaser looked very promising.

As long as there is breath in Vancil's body, there is a chance of Hopjockey being made.

Truth.

What are your day time jobs? (I know that Ben is ZOE's only employee, but what about the rest?)

Don Early here. I tell stories, draw pictures, and give advice for a living.

Are you being serious there? If yes, what kind of pictures do you draw and in what medium do you tell those stories?

It just sounds way more interesting than saying "I help people with their financial strategies"

Which Gamers movie and character is your favorite and why?

Don Early likes Nimble. Why? Of course a production company of our level wouldn't have to answer why!

Hey guys, great job on the movies! What's the thing you're most proud of in The Gamers and Dorkness Rising?

That people are showing this to new gamers for instruction or to describe "what we do". This is who we are. And claiming it.

Thats exactly what i do and why we decided to start a fantasy game in a modern-setting favoring group! :D

I never get tired of hearing about that.

I know Kickstarter is good for a project but I've seen Patron oriented programs. Is there a way we can help out Dead Gentlemen's future projects outside of Kickstarter?

It also depends on how much "help" we're talking. :) In all seriously, it's getting our stuff in front of people that's always the biggest challenge.

Will there be any Dead Gentlemen collaborations with any YouTubers?

That would be awesome. We hope?

Who holds the rights of your different properties? For example, does Matt, Jimmy or DG as a company own the rights for Demon Hunters? Or is the question of rights not that important to you?

DG as a company owns Demon Hunters. Matt Vancil owns The Gamers but comes to us first to produce The Gamers works. If for some reason we're unable to he can go make it elsewhere. For the most part we all work together to make sure the project happens the best way it can happen.

Whatever happened to our promised robot unicorn?

That's definitely a question for Zoe Adastra.

Oh good, I was blanking.

Asking on this thread over here...Demon Hunters RPG: A Comedy of Terrors are dice involved? If so, can you elaborate?

Yeah, I specifically told Cam we didn't want unique dice for the game. But we're playing with some fun alternative rules you can use with good guy dice and bad guy dice.

Will you be doing a kickstarter for Gamers 4 ? What has been the best funding options you guys have used ?

We're open to a lot of ideas about this. A Kickstarter will likely be involved, but we need a script first. So we're working on ways to make the script happen.

Honestly though, as much of a pain as Kickstarter can be, we like it as a funding source. It is NOT without it's pitfalls. But it tells us a lot of valuable information. Private equity is just sticky and ulcer-inducing.

Besides the request for this Saturday (we will be at Welcome to Monkey Town, a belly dance performance in Renton) do you ever accept volunteers to help?

Yes! Don and Ben might have more specifics on how and when, but DG is built on the concept of doing this stuff because we all love it. We move fast and light so its not always possible, but if you love it too, come help make great stuff!

When he said. We'll try to keep things as advanced notice as possible, but we also need to keep things a bit limited. It's a lot of work to wrangle volunteers, so that's usually the first volunteer position we try to fill. :) Social media will probably be where we go for small productions like what we're doing this weekend. But for larger stuff, we'll go through usual proper posting boards and casting calls.