Castle Crashers

"I learnt a tonne about enamel pin manufacturing" – Brigador developer Stellar Jockeys on the secrets of selling video game merchandise

"I learnt a tonne about enamel pin manufacturing" – Brigador developer Stellar Jockeys on the secrets of selling video game merchandise Studio head Hugh Monahan tells us why T-shirts and posters are a bad idea, why pins are a solid bet, and why it's a bad time to be selling lighters internationally Since the indie boom of the 2010s, one piece of advice commonly given to smaller studios has been the value of merchandise. The logic broadly goes as follows: game development is a risky business, and even if your game is a success, it's not uncommon for the studio to still struggle financially. "Some of our merch packs are between $25 and $35, but our first game, which took ages to make, can be bought on sale for $5." The lesson: people will happily pay more money for "a physical, tangible thing." Legislative battles Selling merchandise hasn't been entirely smooth sailing, with lessons learned about what type of product will sell and how exactly it should be brought to market. "I would rather spend $10,000 making some cool merch and selling it, even if we're not making a profit off of it between the labour and cost of goods, because [it results in] a cool piece that someone has on their desk.