Interview with Charles Moylan and Steve Grammont of Battlefront.com

The Wargamer: What exactly is Battlefront.com?

Battlefront.com is a publisher of computer wargames designed to appeal directly to, oddly enough, wargamers. We provide a home for wargame developers, help them get the resources they need to make great games, promote their wares to the world, and offer them for sale at fair prices. We also have available a variety of cool stuff to explore on our website, from pics of camo uniforms to movies of flamethrowers in action. In addition to these resources, we also host forums to discuss our specific wargames and wargaming in general.

Currently we have five wargame developers on our roster: Big Time Software, Art of War Publishing, Boku Strategy Games, Major I.L. Holdridge, and Frontal Assaultware. We also have available seven fantastic tank prints by artist John Smith. We expect that the number of developers hopping on board will steadily increase over the next couple of years. In fact, we are in discussions with two more companies right now, and have several we wish to contact in the coming months. And we are just starting!!

The Wargamer: Please give us some personal background information.

Battlefront.com the company, at the moment, is just us: Charles Moylan and Steve Grammont. Charles comes with his own development company, Big Time Software, and Steve with his, Frontal Assaultware. Although we have been good friends for the last three years, we only started working together a year and a half ago in order to form what is now Battlefront.com. For almost the same length of time we've been working together on Combat Mission. Steve will restart Frontal Assaultware on its own course later this Fall.

While both of us obviously have the same love of wargaming, and have shared some similar experiences in the games industry, each of our backgrounds is quite different. After a short solo stint, Charles managed to land himself a nice deal with what was The Avalon Hill Game Company. Steve was self published for nearly 3 years but gradually became bankrupted by the realities of the games industry (everybody made money off of Onslaught but me - Steve). For about six months Steve shopped around his prototype for his second game, but was repeatedly passed over by other publishers in favor of the latest craze at the time; Real Time Strategy Games. "Great game, but it won't sell 100k units. It needs to be realtime. Sorry..." was all that he heard, even when he pointed out that not every RTS game was going to sell those numbers, no matter how much money they blew on their budgets (we both take satisfaction in Steve being right. Some sold less than a few thousand, others never made it to market, yet each cost 5-10 times what Steve was looking for).

So while Charles was busy creating more games, Steve was arguing with publishers against an unparalleled thirst for the easy buck. Since wargames weren't the easy buck, Steve called it quits and went to work for Impressions Software, part of Sierra On-Line. The experience working for a multi-billion dollar games company was, overall, a very good one. There he learned what the heck really happens in the games industry, but more importantly why. Meanwhile Charles was starting to realize that all was not well with his publisher, Avalon Hill. Reality was catching up with them faster than the rest. Around this time Steve left Impressions and Charles started to worry about who was going to publish what is now Combat Mission. It seemed like it was inevitable that we should join forces, and so that's exactly what happened when Avalon Hill announced it was acquired by Hasbro Interactive. This was a bad sign of things to come for wargaming, but we didn't understand just how bad. Unfortunately, it got far worse than we could have imagined, and, as hard as it is to believe, it is still getting worse. If a game can't sell hundreds of thousands of copies, bye-bye...

The Wargamer: So after developing several successful games on your own and for the corporate side of gaming, you decided to enter the publishing business yourself? Is it just natural greed, or what led to this decision?

The first thing we nailed down was that Battlefront.com would be about gaming, not greed. We have been on the wrong end of the gaming industry's greed equation for years. We aren't about to go from prisoner to executioner!

At first we shopped around. If a publisher had offered us a fair contract, we wouldn't have entered the publishing business ourselves. But the publishers we dealt with expected us to sign contracts that were little more than blatant attempts to rob us blind. They offered money up front, of course, as a temptation. But it took only one quick read of the contracts to realize that the fine print was completely unacceptable. One company actually had a clause - and we are not exaggerating here - that would have allowed them to take over full rights to Combat Mission and eject us from the project, for no reason at all, and not pay us a single dime. This was actually in the contract! We would not have believed it had we not seen it with our own eyes. Our lawyer didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and neither did we. It was downright insulting. The publisher honestly thought we were dumb enough to sign on to such a swindle. Not only did we not accept any of these shady deals, but the whole affair left us feeling that there was no such thing as simple trust or respect in the traditional developer/publisher relationship. The publishers clearly saw us as little more than disposable vehicles to line their pockets and then be tossed aside. And their lopsided contracts proved the point. Not wishing to be taken advantage of, we felt we had no choice but to go it alone. Whether we succeeded or failed, at least it would be by our own hand, and not because someone cheated us.

As we planned our strategy for self-publishing (well over a year ago), it suddenly occurred to us that we shouldn't be so narrowly-focused. Other wargame developers out there are faced with the same problems as we are. Some, in fact most, are in worse positions and can't even afford to do gaming full time. Instead they have to hold down day jobs in "the real world". What a distraction from what really matters :-) So it occurred to us, if we are going to build a boat, why make it a dingy, and not a yacht? Between us we have more publishing experience than most of the developers we know, so why not leverage that knowledge to help our fellow developers? All for one sounded a lot more appealing than every man for himself! On that day Battlefront.com was born.

We can publish a developer's game more efficiently, with greater effect, often for less than it would cost them to do it on their own. This is where experience and economy of scale come into play. And over time we hope to lower these costs even further and pass the savings on to the developers and ultimately the customer.

The Wargamer: The name "Battlefront.com" implies that you are going to focus on wargames? Which sub-genres (WW2, Napoleon, Civil War etc.) are you going to cover? Are you going to offer anything besides games, like memorabilia, books etc?

Our focus is on quality wargames of any and all time periods. Personally, we are only going to contribute WWII tactical and strategic level wargames to the Battlefront.com lineup. Other genres will be filled in by other developers. We already have several games that are outside of the WWII timeframe, but we would obviously like to be able to offer more. In the near future you can expect other titles from Napoleonic, Civil War, and current eras of warfare.

The Wargamer: Fewer and fewer wargames seem to be published from year to year. One might think that the audience is losing interest, and wargames are forced into a niche in the software market (at least most publishers seem to think so). Do you think this is a good time to start a publishing company focused on wargames?

This is why we think our timing is so beneficial. Just as wargames are disappearing from the market place, and wargame developers are about to give up, Battlefront.com comes along to help reverse the trend. We are here to make sure that wargaming not only returns from the brink of extinction, but to also enter into a new era of creativity and responsibility to the gaming customer. We want to promote first-class war and strategy games, at fair prices. Geeze, when was the last time you saw THAT happen? :-)

The Wargamer: There is a large number of software shops on the Internet already. How are you planning to compete and distinguish Battlefront.com against them?

Simple... we have a combination of products, resources, experience, and focus that no other site out there has. Other "shops" merely resell what everybody else has, but what we carry is unique in quality and focus, and is available only through us. Our site is also packed with cool stuff to check out, like our page of camouflage uniforms or videos of us shooting off a flamethrower or MP44. Plus, what website do you know of that has a 1944 WWII M29c Weasel for its staff to drive around in?

We have been in this business since 1993, making, marketing, and getting great wargames into the hands of gamers. All of this adds up to a solid base of knowledge and experience, all focused squarely on the wargaming hobby. Most importantly, we're doing what we're doing because of our love of wargaming. No distractions, no selling out. We're in this for the long haul.

The Wargamer: What do you want to achieve with Battlefront.com?

To rebuild the demoralized wargaming community. Pretty simple, huh? :-)

Part of this community, a VERY important part, is the developers of wargames. Many of us have either gone out of business, are just barely making a living, or are floundering somewhere in between. And if we developers wink out, no more wargaming hobby! So we need to pull everybody together, gamers and game developers, so that we can not only survive, but THRIVE!

The second part of the community is, of course, the wargamers themselves (which also includes us!). For too long we have had to make do with what the big companies have seen fit to release. Some of these games are good, mind you, but recently the number of wargames (even bad ones) has slowed to a trickle. The flow of good wargames has almost stopped, and that of fantastic, ground breaking ones has all but dried up. We need to fix this, partly through more games and partly by providing a new home with hope for the future of our hobby.

Look at our website. It is full of revolutionary, take-no-prisoners energy and creativity. We want to make a difference, and thanks to our growing number of developers, this is assured. Gamers will get their games and hopefully a little bit more; a renewed sense of Community.

The Wargamer: What services are you going to provide for developers (advertising, shipping etc.) and for customers (tech support, hints, opponent listings, discussion boards etc.)?

We provide all basic marketing, web, and fulfillment (shipping) services. For these services Battlefront.com takes a very reasonable percentage of each sale. The developer gets to keep every cent above that. We also pay monthly, instead of quarterly (if you beg) like other publishers. Cash flow is as important to the developer as it is to the publisher, and don't we know that!!

However, some developers need a little more help than others, so we do offer our expertise, contacts, and financial services to those who want them. For example, we have already funded artwork and produced a manual that the developer could not have afforded otherwise. As their games sell we get paid back in the form of a slightly (and we stress SLIGHTLY) higher royalty rate. We aren't interested in making gobs of money off of other people's work. This is counter productive since every dollar we keep is denied to the developer, who needs those dollars to stay in business in order to make more games. Rob them blind like a normal publisher would and wargaming would be right back on the endangered species list.

The Wargamer: Can anyone seek to have you publish their game?

Yes and no. We prefer to have partners that have proven themselves by having created and released a game in the past. Budding game designers that have ideas, but no means to get them coded, need not apply. Having said that, Battlefront.com is VERY much interested in helping out new blood provided they already have at least the basic resources needed to bring their games to reality. This means having at least one good programmer, minimum.

The other thing is that Battlefront.com only carries good games at prices that are in line with their quality. This means that we do not take just any old wargame that someone happens to have developed. If we think the quality or interest isn't there, or that the developer values it higher than we do, we will respectfully decline to carry the game. We hate like Hell to turn down games, but if they aren't up to our standards or priced right, they would be better off self-published.

The Wargamer: Will you work solely on an exclusive contract, or can the same game be offered through Battlefront.com and through traditional retail channels? In other words, are you going to offer some of the existing wargames like Steel Panthers, West Front etc?

We have no interest in becoming a storefront. We sell only to get our developer's games into the hands of gamers. If a game is on the shelves, then it has no need for us and we have no need for it. Oh, we suppose in theory it would be good to sell other publisher's wargames, but the headaches that go along with that are simply not worth it.

The Wargamer: Tell us more about the games you are starting with. Which future games are you planning to offer through Battlefront.com?

We have several exciting games for this summer, three of which can be talked about now. Armies of Armageddon, a futuristic squad level top-down wargame. This game is great fun and packs a very powerful game editor. The second is a follow-up to the legendary TacOps. The Major hasn't filled us in on all the details, but we know it's going to be good. The third is Combat Mission. We won't go into any details about that here because you have more than adequately covered in the Combat Mission Interview

All of our games, including Combat Mission, are available only through Battlefront.com.

The Wargamer: Do you think that eventually Internet shops are going to replace traditional retail channels? Do you think players and customers will accept and get used to buying games over the net?

Slowly but surely more and more business will shift over to the Web. It's no accident that companies ill-served by the corporate brick-and-mortar marketplace are already here. We want to make games, but we also have to put food on our tables. Without the Web we would have to choose which was more important, but thankfully we don't have to (gee we sure would have missed food <g>).

People in general are getting used to buying over the Web. Computer gamers, being computer owners by definition, are obviously halfway there already. Now that Internet connections are as common as house plants, the rest of the equation is in place. But in the end, if someone really wants to find that unique something, in this case a quality wargame, they will have NO CHOICE but to go to the Web. Wargames are already hard to find on store shelves. Over the next year it is going to get even worse. Trust us, we learned the hard way...

The Wargamer: When are you officially starting with Battlefront.com?

We officially open for business Thursday, May 6th. Battlefront.com

The Wargamer: Thank you for the excellent interview. I think I can speak for the whole staff of The Wargamer that we are very thrilled by your undertaking and wish you the all the best!

No problem! Thanks for helping get the word out that wargaming is not dead!