Hello ghosties!

Last month we attended the launch of STREET UNI X by daffodil & friends——one of the first studios to go through our Baby Ghosts’ program. It was a pretty special event——combining communities of extreme unicyclists, screamo bands, and indie game devs, as well as folks just walking by. (We even pissed off a cop!)

The event was a wonderful representation of the way that daffodil & friends has built their values into every part of their game development and worked hard to make something that brings together and represents real world communities.

Get Street Uni X on Steam today!

But they’re not the only ones thinking about values.

In this month’s newsletter, we’re featuring Amelore, a cooperative game studio from our most recent cohort of Baby Ghosts——and one who really took to heart our program’s focus on studio values. Here’s a chat we had with them?

What’s your biggest takeaway from the Baby Ghosts program

Valerie: VALUES, community, VALUES, Canadian funding landscape, cooperative structure, organization, VALUES.

Jokes aside, the big thing I took away from Baby Ghosts is how to think about running a business——learning what the skills we need to learn even are and building structures/systems around what we want to accomplish.

Reese: V a l u e s (meme answer)

[But also] the importance of being in it together, being on the same page as well as understanding what each of us needs in order to create.

Donna: Baby Ghosts re-affirmed for me extra how important it is to really take time to figure out whats important to you as a co-op, what you value. Also that community slaps. It really hit home to always be reminded that you’re allowed to take accommodations or take care of yourself.

Mackenzie: Processes, how you organize decision making at different levels to back up the talk, where people feel real ownership and proactivity to make things better

And to reinforce our values and goals.

In your own words, who is Amelore?

Reese: A scrappy small group of deeply caring super duper cool artists trying to survive and making fun shit despite, waves hands in the air.

Donna: A buncha a silly ppl tryna make games and let the world be a little less icky.

Valerie: To me, Amelore is a bunch of awesome queers making cool art together, trying to make the gaming landscape better for both the people who make games and the marginalized people who consume games media.

Mackenzie: Caring for each other, our community and the world, caring for who we are and finding ways to better survive and thrive together through art.

What do you think we (all of us involved in game making) could do to make the video game industry better?

Donna: SUPPORT EACH OTHER. KEEP THE COMMUNITY THRIVING.BE RESOURCES FOR EACH OTHER. COLLABORATE.

Reese: Unionize.

Mackenzie: Create opportunities for people that wouldn’t otherwise normally get it, to grow into seniority and leadership and help foster change.

Donna: Forever referencing my video I did for the TikTok but my final statement was: "We aren't perfect because no one is, but what we can do is strive to be the change we wanna see."

Valerie: Four day work weeks (32 hours), because there's barely any return on productivity beyond that point anyway. [And] eliminate crunch forever.

Stop chasing profit and infinite growth so we can remain sustainable instead of fluctuating and leaving people without work.

Hire and mentor more junior artists in positions that are actually entry-level to foster long term health in the industry.

Amelore’s words are on point at this current moment. Actually, Emilee Kiefer said something similar recently in her message regarding the shutting down (or “restructuring”) of Humble Bundle: “I believe we have the power to create studios that benefit us as game developers and not people that only see us as money printing machines."

We believe that too and it’s why we created Baby Ghosts.

We’re excited to also welcome in our new board of directors: Adaora Ogbue, Edival Oliveira Lago Filho, Elisabeth Rose Astwood, John Rathiganthan, Kenzie Gordon, Nia St. Nicolous, and Thomas Dang. You can find out more about them on our website, but we’ll also be doing features on each of them in future newsletters.

If you believe in our mission, consider supporting us by donating or reaching out to talk about a sponsorship.

We’ll be back next month with more features and news.

Stay cool and hydrated! ☀️

- eileen & jennie