For my own studio, Cabin Games, I have a game signed that's in development (actually we're moving to the refinement stage and art, so yay!). I gave myself a small starting fund to pay for this game's everything short of printing, as well as my studio's branding work, website & legal fees.

While we work on getting this first game done, which will be a year start to finish, I need something that I can sell to "keep the lights on" with the website and business license fees. Enter Merch.

Because my brand artist @Nosoulnoproblem is freaking amazing, he worked with me to make sure my branding was generically sellable.

I wanted my studio brand to be an almost lifestyle brand, because for me gaming is a lifestyle. Ben picked that up and ran with it.

He developed a logo and branding that is super easy to customize quickly for a variety of things. So now I have spooky and winter themed shirts, a super perfect tagline for sweats, and an amazing line of stuff people just wanna wear.

I definitely went into my business with a small merch line planned. I did not expect my branding to be this popular. I'm trying to be really picky about what types of items I make, but people just want it on everything.

I'm using Printful's on demand service which is extremely convenient, but it is pricey. If I don't have my prices set correctly, I could lose money on every purchase. Even with the prices I have now, I make less than 8% on most sales. It's a fine line.