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Game Designer's Guidelines Last revised 5 Aug 2000

What we're looking for

Secret Doors Web Press is looking for original adventure game material for Web publication. Roleplayers are our target audience. Original stand-alone games (including but not limited to board games, card games, roleplaying games), source material for existing games (assuming we can get permission to publish), articles on adventure gaming hobbies, reviews... anything that would appeal to adventure game players that can be published on the web. Secret Doors prefers games that are deceptively simple. Learning should be easy, but play should be engrossing.

You can look over the existing material to see what direction we're headed. But most of all we want to surprise our audience... so we want you to surprise us.

What you get out of it

At present, Secret Doors Web Press is a not-for-profit affair. You get:

• Exposure
  Your name gets "out there" and into the minds of players -- people who like and buy games -- and maybe some game manufacturers looking for clever designs and clever designers. Secret Doors puts your name on everything you write, and won't try to take away your copyright claims.
• Playtesting and feedback
  We offer a forum for players and game designers to discuss what they like and don't like about the games published on Secret Doors. And we'll work hard to help you edit and proofread your game material for publication on Secret Doors.
• A foot in the Secret Doors project
  Today, Secret Doors is a volunteer project, run by just one guy. Tomorrow, it may be something bigger. This is your opportunity to join a team that might eventually become a viable business, that might eventually be able to pay you to do what you love -- to design games.

What Secret Doors gets out of it

• A nifty site
  It's our site, but we need material to make it nifty. Your game designs are that material. Just like you, we want to make a name in the industry, and this is the vehicle we've come up with to make it happen.
• Networking
  We want to be part of a global community of game enthusiasts. We want to make friends and contacts among creative people with an interest in adventure games.
• Fun
  Yes, this site costs time and money. But it's something we enjoy doing. Frankly, this site has cost less so far than our D&D books, or our Werewolf: the Apocalypse books, or even our Cheapass Games, and we think we can derive more fun out of it in the long run.

Requirements

All material must be the exclusive property of the game designer offering the game to Secret Doors Web Press, or made available with the permission of the owner of the rights. Supplements for other games are fine, as long as they don't infringe upon the rights of other parties.

Material must be Internet-publishable. Printable components provided as part of a published game must be suitable for printing to 8.5x11 paper, and they should work in both color and black and white.

All games are subject to acceptance by Secret Doors Web Press.

How to submit

Email Secret Doors. Each email should contain information on only one submission. If you have lots of ideas, send a seperate email for each one.

• For a stand-alone game, send a proposal. Describe the game, the required components, and whatever "vital statistics" you feel are important. This is a pitch, so make an effort to catch our attention. If we're interested, we'll work out the details with you.
• For articles, supplements, and reviews, send the complete text of the material within the body of the email.

Never send attachments to an email without asking permission first! Can't stress this enough. Between viruses and file compatibility problems, there's a good chance we just won't open it.

What then?

After you've submitted your game, we'll get in touch with you, let you know whether or not we're interested, and arrange the rest of the details. Everything's open to discussion, but in general we ask that you give us non-exclusive permission to keep the material on our site for six months, after which you can revoke your permission or let us keep it online. We generally won't make any attempt to prevent you from publishing your material elsewhere, during or after the six-month contract.

Questions?

If you have any questions about our submission policies or publication requirements, please contact Secret Doors.