Episode #68: Meet the Startup Bringing Blockbusters to Your Tabletop

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  Samantha Herrick:
  This is a podcast brought to you by Alumni Ventures. Welcome to the Tech Optimist. This is a show where we tell you the stories and people creating tomorrow.

  David T. Scott:
  I never thought I’d be building a business which is supporting this amazing industry, this $30 billion industry.

  Samantha Herrick:
  That is David T. Scott, CEO at Evil Genius Games.

  Jason Bird:
  How is Evil Genius Games aligning with current trends in the gaming and entertainment industries?

  Samantha Herrick:
  And that is Jason Bird. He is our guide for today, an associate at Alumni Ventures. It’s this game and the storytelling platform that has just taken the world by storm right now. And yeah, over 70,000 people played D&D remotely in 2018. And that’s me. My name is Samantha Herrick and I’m the editor for this show. You’ll hear my voice here in a few minutes.

  Okay, a bit more about the startup today, Evil Genius Games. It was founded in December of 2021, and they focus on developing tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), including Everyday Heroes, which we’re going to hear about—a reboot of the D20 Modern system based on D&D 5E rules. They have licensed adventure settings for movie franchises like Pacific Rim, Kong: Skull Island, Highlander, and more.

  They raised nearly $400,000 through Kickstarter in May of 2022, and they secured $1 million from venture capitalists and tech companies in 2023. As of June of this year, the company appears to be reengaging with cryptocurrency and NFT projects. They presented at a cryptocurrency convention discussing plans for NFTs related to their licensed products.

  But for now, we’ll let Dave and Jason take it away. First, we’re going to hop into a quick ad and then we’ll be right into the interview. So hang tight.

  Speaker 4:
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  Samantha Herrick:
  As a reminder, the Tech Optimist podcast is for informational purposes only. It is not personalized advice, and it’s not an offer to buy or sell securities. For additional important details, please see the text description accompanying this episode.

  Jason Bird:
  Hello everyone, and welcome to the Tech Optimist podcast. I’m Jason Bird, associate on the SEED Fund here at Alumni Ventures, and I’m here with Dave Scott, the CEO of Evil Genius Games. So let’s jump right in. Dave, can you tell us a bit about yourself and talk a bit about what you’re building over at Evil Genius Games?

  David T. Scott:
  Yeah, absolutely. My name is Dave Scott. I’m a serial entrepreneur. This is my fourth startup, and I’m always in learning mode for sure. I never thought I’d do this fourth startup, but I’ll tell you a little story about myself. I’m a lifelong Dungeons & Dragons fan.

  When I was 11 years old, I went away to sleepaway camp and they were playing this game called Dungeons & Dragons. I fell in love with it. Since then, I’ve been playing it every single week with my friends from high school and college. I never thought I’d be building a business that supports this amazing $30 billion industry.

  But I found myself with an opportunity to meet one of my idols, a guy named Jeff Grubb, who is, from my perspective, one of the fathers of modern-day Dungeons & Dragons—really responsible for a lot of the amazing stuff that was going on there.

  I never thought that I’d be running a game company—a game tech, game infrastructure company—because most of my career has been spent in B2B. What we found out was that during COVID, you couldn’t get together and play these games in person. So you needed technology to do it.

  The technology that I saw wasn’t great. It wasn’t really serving the purpose of being able to get me and my friends around the table to play these kinds of games. So we created Everyday Heroes and Evil Genius Games. Evil Genius Games is a gaming platform that allows you to play modern-day TTRPGs—tabletop role-playing games—using some of the most cutting-edge technology to facilitate that session, that event, that adventure gaming experience that allows you to have that with your friends online.

  Jason Bird:
  Awesome. How is Evil Genius Games aligning with current trends in the gaming and entertainment industries?

  David T. Scott:
  Interestingly enough, Evil Genius Games is based in the TTRPG space, which is 50 years old. If you take a look at Dungeons & Dragons back in the 1970s and compare it to today, you won’t see much change or evolution. It’s still pen, paper, dice, little miniatures—things like that.

  What we’re doing is taking a real digital-first approach to making this game work. That means creating a platform where people can log on, access their game library, find people to play with, and actually play games online. Those types of innovations require technology, and we’re using some of the most modern tools available to ensure customers have a frictionless experience playing these games together.

  Samantha Herrick:
  Okay, so I want to provide a few more statistics on D&D and TTRPG trends. Like Dave said, TTRPG stands for tabletop role-playing game, and they are all the rage right now, especially for people of my generation.

  I’m a huge fan of the storytelling aspect of the game. I follow a lot of different groups that tell stories this way. Some big names out there include Critical Role and Dimension 20—I could go on and on. My friends and I even have our own little platform called Danger Sense, which is also a TTRPG streaming platform. Totally shameless plug there, but hop over if you want to hear some cool stories.

  Here are some stats on TTRPG popularity:

  • As of 2020, the market saw a 33% growth in sales.

  • Over 50 million people worldwide have played these types of games.

  • 40% of players are aged 25 or younger.

  • 39% of players identify as female, showing increased diversity in the player base compared to the 1970s and 1980s.

  • There have been 4.3 billion minutes of TTRPG content watched on Twitch.

  • Critical Role, a popular D&D live play show, generated nearly $10 million on Twitch over the past two years.

  Another catalyst for the surge in popularity is season four of Stranger Things, which heavily featured Dungeons & Dragons. The game has expanded into other media, including a recent Dungeons & Dragons movie and video games like Baldur’s Gate 3, which closely follows tabletop RPG mechanics.

  There are also dozens of storytelling podcasts based on homebrew TTRPG campaigns. It’s just a great platform for telling really cool fantasy stories.

  Okay, we’re going to hop into an ad and then finish out the interview. Hang tight.

  Speaker 4:
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  Jason Bird:
  Thank you. What makes Evil Genius Games distinct in the crowded RPG market?

  David T. Scott:
  Yes, it’s a bit crowded. What’s beautiful about our industry is that if you have an idea, you can create a game. But really, the industry is dominated by fantasy—particularly European fantasy. That doesn’t appeal to everyone, particularly people who are not of European descent, like myself.

  So we’ve created one of the very few modern-day role-playing games. Instead of playing an elf wizard, you could play John Wick or Vin Diesel’s character Toretto from Fast and Furious. This creates a more inclusive experience while allowing players to relive some of their favorite action films.

  We also work with Hollywood studios to continue the adventure after people leave the movie theater. We have partnerships for movies like Rambo, Pacific Rim, and Kong: Skull Island. Additionally, we embrace the community by giving them the ability to tell and publish their own stories, creating a marketplace for user-generated content.

  Thanks to our modern-day platform, anyone can tell a story and share it with their friends.

  Jason Bird:
  What are the primary needs or asks for Evil Genius Games at this stage of its growth?

  David T. Scott:
  Evil Genius Games is blessed with an amazing staff that helps us create games people love—we have over a thousand five-star reviews on sites like Amazon. But we struggle like any fledgling startup.

  First and foremost, we’re always fundraising, and we’d love to fill our cap table with people who believe in what we’re doing and want to see us solve this problem in a meaningful, thoughtful way.

  We also have great relationships with movie studios, but we could always use more as we build out our library of amazing entertainment-based IP. Introductions to people within Hollywood would help us tell our story and evangelize.

  Finally, we could use more cheerleaders to convince existing TTRPG players to try our game. We’ve found that when they do, they like it—and that’s good news. We just need to get as many people as possible to try it.

  Jason Bird:
  As the CEO, what has been the hardest challenge to overcome in leading Evil Genius Games, and how have you addressed this challenge?

  David T. Scott:
  I think the hardest challenge is leadership. I’ve been humbled by the leadership challenges of this company. You’d like to think people are people and every industry is the same, but this industry is a bit peculiar.

  Part of that is because it’s creatively led. The people who’ve been successful here started as game designers and eventually became company leaders. With so many creatives in the industry, communication, emotions, and professionalism are different—they’re artists.

  This has forced me to change the way I lead in this particular industry.

  Jason Bird:
  Well, that concludes this episode. Thank you, Dave, for joining today. I really enjoyed it.

  David T. Scott:
  My pleasure. Thanks, Jason.

  Jason Bird:
  Oh, it’s a pleasure.

  Samantha Herrick:
  Thanks again for tuning into the Tech Optimist. If you enjoyed this episode, we’d really appreciate it if you’d give us a rating on whichever podcast app you’re using, and remember to subscribe to keep up with each episode.

  The Tech Optimist welcomes any questions, comments, or segment suggestions. Please email us at [email protected] with any of those, and be sure to visit our website at av.vc. As always, keep building.