Hi! I'm Nick Ribera, and I'm trying something new.
I've got a few projects in the works, and one of them, working title of "Tarot by the Neon Light," is one that I've decided to NOT develop in a vacuum. I've been sharing the illustrations as I've been making them to instagram, facebook, and the Tarotholics discord server. The reception has been great, the feedback invaluable, and the organic growth of the brand- undeniable.
Therefore, I've decided to use this philosophy to the overall Chain Assembly brand and its email marketing. That brings me to this, the first entry in hopefully a steady blog.
There is a lot I could discuss- mostly topics I've shared with my wife and discussed as possible directions for my future projects. I could discuss them all in this post but that's probably too much, so I've got a few primary topics to bring up.
First- let's take back even further and introduce myself fully.
Chain Assembly IS Nick Ribera. I do art under the name Chain Assembly for a few reasons. Mainly, I like that it makes me seem like a larger entity housing multiple artists. I don't like spending too much time in the same art style, and pretending I'm multiple people allows me the flexibility to go in a completely different direction in each project's illustrations.
But because I am one person, I've had to learn marketing, social media and traditional, web design, product design, customer service, fulfillment, production and more.
It's a lot for one person to do, but I do it because I love it.
Second topic- Ready Play Games
You've probably see me post about this in the past. It was a crazy idea that was terribly marketed and positioned, but I 100% stand behind the product(s). It began as an idea for one-off role playing game scenarios released on a monthly basis via Patreon. I created 10 games before deciding to nix the ill-fated Patreon page (which had one patron for 4 of the months).
I decided to end it at Origins Game Fair. Not because it had a bad reception, but because it had an incredible reception. The physical printed games sold really well, teaching me that the audience is out there, but they don't want to print-and-play their own copies and they won't find it on Patreon. At Origins I also met a contact at World of Game Design, a game marketing company that focuses on small role playing games. They convinced me to give it a try as a kickstarter featured in this years ZineQuest. Therefore, I've handed them three of the games and they will be running this project on my behalf, and it launches on August 2nd.
Right now I'm impressed with the amount of attention the prelaunch page has and I can't wait to see the full potential of this project and to learn from their marketing and project design expertise, which I'll be able to utilize in my own subsequent projects.
Well, I think that's enough for this blog, but in the name of transparency, I'll share a short list of what I'm working on, in no particular order:
- Love is Love
- House Plant
- Tarot by the Neon Light
- A Coffee Lover's Coloring Book
- St Pete Pride Coloring Book
- The Assembly- a Demonology Divination Deck