Well first off, congratulations! Managing a BackStory world is no mean feat, and we should know. It takes a special kind of person to successfully manage one of our worlds, so good on you for wanting to give it a go!
By now you will probably understand quite well what a BackStory world is and to a greater or lesser degree how it works under the hood. If not, please feel free to peruse our other blog posts here to get a feel for the idea.
First things first, let’s talk about you. What kind of person are you? Managing one of our worlds requires a few attributes that you should possess.
- Are you good at managing people?
- Are you good at recruiting people?
- Are you happy with working towards long-term goals and ambitions?
- Are you comfortable with putting in hard work to get eventual rewards?
- Are you good at spotting gaps in a market?
- Would you describe yourself as a visionary?
If your answers to these questions are all ‘yes’, then it looks like you have what it takes to manage a BackStory world. Hooray!
How a world is set up
Every world on our platform has a team of creatives who are organised into different roles. Each role has its own set of prerequisites, but you’re probably aware by now of what those are. If not, check out our other blog posts to get a better idea.
A BackStory world has 4 or sometimes 3 people, who together form its management team. The Administrator is always present, and will always be a member of BackStory staff. We know how our system works, and we can make sure everything is running smoothly for you and your team.
The other 3 roles are Architect, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Author. Sometimes a world won’t have a Chief Author, and the Editor-in-Chief will fill both roles.
From the diagram above you can see that all other team mates take on the roles of either author, builder or editor. Each of the management team is directly responsible for leading their individual team of creatives. However, since the world is a 100% collaborative effort, you’ll find that everyone knows everyone.
What you are trying to do
As a world manager your short-term aim is simple, build a fan base for your world. The way to do this is with franchises, which we sometimes refer to as storylines.
You, along with your manager compatriots, will be scouring your world’s rich and detailed history to find possible franchises that can be developed. Whether a franchise is picked up by your team or not is completely up to you and your colleagues. You need to weigh up whether you think it will be successful or not. Don’t forget that time is money.
There is a bit of a steep learning curve with doing this, but eventually you’ll get the hang of it. A quick hint is to consider what genres your current franchises cover, and what is missing. Remember, you’re growing a fan base, and you want that to be as wide as possible. Cover your bases!
Long-term? It’s time to get into the licensing game. Computer games, film, TV… This is where your multi-franchises can come to life and drastically grow your fan base, and where you can see greater revenue generation for all of your hard work. Don’t worry, BackStory handles this side of things directly, and we are actively promoting our worlds to potential licensing partners around the globe.
Anything else?
We’ve covered the basics of what managing a BackStory world is all about. This should give you a good grasp of what to expect, and to some degree, how to go about doing it.
Becoming a quality world manager takes a bit of time, as you need to get used to what exactly you’re supposed to do. If we could describe it simply we would say:
Imagine you are the director of Marvel before it went into the film industry. How would you handle that job?
If you can handle that job, then we’re sure you can handle a BackStory world!
Want to give it a go? Get in touch with us and let’s talk!
