Love & Deepspace, a romance sim, has done over $1 billion in revenue.
Baldur's Gate 3, the most acclaimed game of the decade, is a playable fantasy novel.
Two very different audiences showed up for the same thing:
Stories they don’t just watch - they control.
That demand is a harbinger of what’s to come.
The next collision in the Creator Economy
I've written before about how Hollywood and the Creator Economy are merging. Creators are absorbing the role traditional studios used to play by producing and distributing content and developing and monetizing IP.
The next merger has also started - between social media (everything Creators already make: writing, photo, audio, short-form, long-form video) and interactive media (games).
The video game industry is bigger than movies and music combined - around $189 billion vs a combined $144 billion in revenue.
Up until very recently, building an interactive story (i.e. a game) required engineers, studios, and budgets the size of a Hollywood blockbuster.
As a result, 99.99% of people who already have worlds, characters, and fans (i.e. Creators, writers, artists, streamers, cosplayers, voice actors, etc.) were locked out of one of the most lucrative formats in entertainment.
A company called Dorian is now filling that gap - and that’s why I’ve added them to Creator Access Network.
What is Dorian?
Their website puts it best:
Dorian is a fast-growing game platform where multi-million dollar games can be built by solo creators within days instead of years!
We’re the best platform for female-first games and transmedia experiences where you can connect with passionate fans of romantasy, dating sims, cinematic games and interactive video series.
Their branching stories allow viewers to choose what happens, create characters that progress based on player decisions, and add animation, voice acting, and video - all without coding.
Monetization features include options like freemium, try-before-you-buy, and pay-per-episode. It’s lucrative - Creators with relatively small audiences have built multi-million dollar games on Dorian. Many more have turned their games into full-time businesses.
The CAN deal: up to $5,000 in your first 120 days
I am extremely bullish on the collision between gaming and social Creators, and am thrilled to add Dorian to Creator Access Networks' portfolio partners.
New Creators who join Dorian through Creator Access Network earn 100% of net revenue (up to $10,000) in their first 120 days. That's up to $5,000 in additional earnings only available to our members.
If you've fleshed out the world and characters for a romance, fantasy, or scifi story but are struggling to make them into a monetizable creative work, Dorian could be the answer.
One more thing
Dorian is also running a crowdfunding round that closes in one more day. Creators and fans can invest directly in the company, and 10% of the round is earmarked to accelerate games built with human-made art (worth a look for any artist or collaborator in this community).
If you want in on that side of it, you have to move now. (Disclosure: I invested.) Check it out here.
How to get started
To access the extra $5,000 in income from Dorian, become a member of Creator Access Network and navigate to the “CAN Earn” tab to sign up.
If you build something, I want to play it. Hit "Reply" and tell me what you're working on.