Justice for Developers and Players Alike!

GameCircular logo

Introduction

Have you ever languished, and longed for a better way?

  • You, game developer, worn from the abuse of the wider games industry, and the lack of local demand for decent, non-outsourcing work;

  • You, artist or composer or designer, seeing your creativity and individuality squeezed out of your work in the name of design-by-committee and an unreasonable commitment to mass appeal;

  • You, resume-wrangling but unemployed creative, passionate about your craft but desolate about its professional prospects, having sent hundreds of discarded job applications, received maybe a dozen or two interviews without follow-ups, and wasted dozens of hours setting up gig marketplace profiles only to get little traffic;

  • You, citizen of the world, including citizens of Brazil, worried about the decay of both the people’s rights in the world, and power to produce and broadcast culture, unjustifiable in the age of limitless information.

If you fit any of those categories or more, GameCircular hears you.

  • Overworked and burned out? We have a human approach to work, with flexible times, and bare minimum tracking and quotas. Your productivity is measured not mechanically, not by rule or by time tracker, but socially.

  • Unemployed, or need a voice? We are an all-inclusive family, with open registrations. We do not discard membership applications with AI or other such dystopian, anti-human processes. We appreciate résumés as a quick introduction to yourself, but you tread your own path at GameCircular. You don’t need to flaunt your own capacity; we judge you by your humanity. And we give you a platform to express it. You can join us in minutes.

  • Artistically stifled? Our design processes go to great lengths to preserve artistic integrity and expression while maintaining a consistent vision.

We are more than just a game development cooperative. We’re an artistic and creative collective. We give voice to the voiceless. We raise the pillars for those yet to stand. If the world binds you to shackles, we have the keys: profit-sharing, democratic control, and zero crunch.

Stick around and you’ll see why this is just as much of a big deal as I make it sound, or possibly more.

A Vision

GameCircular is a mission to find the best way to make video games, and to help improve the world along the way, a little bit at a time.

This organization was born out of, first things first, unbridled passion for video games. We firmly believe games can be more than just mindless entertainment.

  • As multimedia, they are the most powerful conduit for artistic expression from developers and impression onto players.

  • As products of labor, they sit among the cathedrals of the modern age, both in the sheer labor, hours, love, and scrutiny required to assemble, and in their influence and status as modern cultural beacons among the people.

But love for games isn’t our distinctive quality. There are many great studios out there who put out great games.

Far beyond just our games, we represent a solution to many problems we see developers face. We stand in solidarity with not just workers of the game development industry, but of the world. In the exercise of our labor at GameCircular, we empower ourselves in many ways beyond just culturally, even if they may seem invisible.

We seek to provide a stark contrast to both broader society, in its cultural reticence and socioeconomic decline, and in particular the tech industry with its yet more abysmal practices. It’s not just that games are influential cultural products: the success of an alternative, worker-first, humane model of game development, will have ripple effects and help elicit change internationally and in all fields.

Of course, we are not naive enough to believe that setting an example is enough. Not in an age of conflicting interests and exploitative practices. But where we can, we must do our part, not only in the message sent in our cultural exports, but also solidarity and activism beyond gaming. We shall invest our own time and effort to make the world a better place, one step at a time.

If this sounds exciting to you, you are more than welcome to join and help this vision prosper and materialize.

This isn’t idealism. It’s action. Gaming and the world are both full of unsolved questions. GameCircular is a rare, real attempt to answer them.

What We Are

We are a member run cooperative.

We are founded on values of equality, democracy, and empowerment.

In pursuit of embodying these ultimate goals, we do things differently at GameCircular, at every structural level and at every decision made.

Cooperatives 101

Cooperatives are a business model centered around member control, democracy, and fairness.

  • You elect. You don’t have superiors per se. You have representatives. True leaders and coordinators.

  • You can start motions - not manager initiated - to veto, impeach, and expel.

  • You get a share of the profit.

Pirates split the treasure. We split the joy of making games, and raise each other in the process.

Here’s some benefits.

  • Election isn’t a competition for power, it’s a choice for freedom.

  • We pay fairly. Gone are the astronomical salary disparities of old. The highest cargoes of the organization are restricted, by bylaw, to no more than 3 times the pay of the lowest cargo. This extends to both fixed salaries and profit shares - when we succeed, we succeed. All of us.

  • We value you as a person. You’re more than just a number of years of experience, or a resource to extract from. You are a human, and helping you lead a fulfilling and humane life is not just our desire; it is our obligation and prerogative.

  • We do not estrange you from your own lifetime. A fully realized GameCircular will have 20 hour work weeks, with lots of flexibility and leeway. Plus, we also accept different kinds of contribution without full membership.

  • The organization’s gradual start means we can calmly build momentum, from being a mostly volunteer movement, all the way to paying our members full stable wages that can alone sustain a decent life.

In your life, this translates to:

  • You will have time to visit family, take the kids to school, and enjoy your personal life and projects, and the world around us all.

  • Fair, proportional pay to participate in this economy of prices and purchases.

  • Democratic processes mean you have a say in what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. Discussion with your "superiors" is not only allowed, but encouraged.

Why are we so different? Because we believe that the industry problems we face are so deeply rooted that simple reforms just won’t do. We’re not radical out of purist idealism or just for the heck of it. We are exploring avenues that are known to work (e.g. Motion Twin, French video game cooperative behind Dead Cells). And as a result, we have a real chance of uprooting these issues in a realistic time-frame.

What We Are Not

  • We are not a charity.

  • We are not a mere hobbyist clique.

  • We are not underdogs. We’re here to compete, and we put up a fight, without compromising on ethics.

  • We are not slackers and freeloaders. We banish crunch, but understand we also don’t get anywhere without effort, dedication, and collaborative work. We are distinct from other companies that ask employees to "give it their all", in having a healthy relationship to effort. Still, freeloaders are not tolerated.

  • We are not a political party. This does not stop us from believing we can change the world - through games, and outside of them - in pursuit of our vision.

A Mission Plan

GameCircular, as a nascent organization, needs your help to achieve its vision and become an integral part of a healthier future of gaming and world culture.

Concrete steps have already been taken to concretize our ideals into reality. Become a part of the next steps.

  • ✓ Founding and identity, and the definition of our values

  • ✓ Internal communication - the setting up of provisional channels, on Signal and Discord, as well as an online bulletin board

  • ✓ Development Kick-Off - good initial progress on our premiere productions: Loot & Roam for bold swashbucklers, and Fighting Game Simulator for chaotic minds and action engineers

  • ✓ Organization - Basic organizational bylaws, structure definitions, and business plan

  • ❏ ➜ *Membership process* - This is where YOU come in!

  • ❏ Development process restructuring, as new resources become available

  • ❏ Grassroots promotion efforts - spread our vision, starting by this very manifesto!

  • ❏ Financial stabilization - fixed salaries and hardware grants. (And a cat food program; we are only human.)
    Revenue sources:

    • Ancine / Lei Rouanet grants & municipal Porto Alegre cultural incentives

    • Donationware releases (Loot & Roam)

    • Monetized releases (Fighting Game Simulator)

  • ❏ Formal registration in Brazil! (requires 20 national members)

  • ❏ Partnerships and joint efforts, both in- and cross-industry

    • ❏ Broader activism

    • ❏ Extra-regional and international sprouting, like rhizomes

  • ❏ Educational programs and courses: gamedev, culture, social, technology…​

…​and much more!

Leave behind the arbitrary and anti-human race to the bottom; embark with us on this rocket ship, and liftoff to a new beginning.

Getting Started

Don’t know where to start? Fret not!

Whether you’re a developer, artist, or even just want to support, see ways in which you can help:

  • See, for reference, the Loot & Roam contribution guidelines - they give a good sense of how to contribute even before you join. Scroll down to Participation.

  • Join our community on Signal and get talking!

  • Subscribe to our Lemmy community and join our forums, to stay tuned to news and participate in community discussion!

  • Check our website for updates, devlogs, learning materials, projects, and so, so much more.

  • Support us financially! Like tardigrades, we survive in harsh environments, but this economy is harsh on us too sometimes.

    1. The payroll keeps us going and churning out stuff.

    2. We’ll face legal and registration fees.

    3. Collaborators will need the right tools to best contribute.

      You can help by donating to the organization.

      • Ko-fi

      • Liberapay

        Note
        		 Full disclosure. Until we are formally incorporated and financially stabilized, donations are temporarily managed personally by Gustavo (wallabra). All contributions are GUARANTEED to be transferred to GameCircular’s future treasury and documented publicly. See our public ledger, temporarily on Google Sheets.

Once you’re set on joining, send a formal membership request at our email inbox: gamecircular@protonmail.com

  • (optional) Send a résumé. We don’t filter by experience, but we are excited to see your portfolio. Plus, they help find the best match for your skill set.

How to Join in Five Seconds

Or two minutes, if you have to set up a Signal account first.

  1. Join our Signal chat.

  2. Say hello! :)

For the time being, that’s all there really is to it. If need be, we’ll take care of and guide any further onboarding .

Links

Conclusion

We are the release valve. The games industry can feel like a cruel race to the bottom. But you are not expendable when you are us.

Epigraph
People  with their last breath.
Ideas fade when last unspoken.
Cooperatives?…​
Until the Sun swallows the Earth.
— GameCircular

Thank you for reading all the way. I wish you a nice mocha today. Let’s circle the square!

-Gustavo <gr.wallabra@proton.me>, founder of GameCircular