We're ecstatic to announce we're giving away 5% of our studio to you, the Players, just as we promised in our founding statement!

We can finally reveal that everyone who pre-ordered a copy of the Summer Eternal Anthology is also entitled to membership in our Players Non-Profit, a brand-new community organization which will collaborate directly with our creatives and developers to strategically manage the studio.

Anthology pre-orders will officially close on 25th September 2026 at 8 PM CET, so if you want to participate in the synchronized global reveal of RPG Red Rooster, now is your final chance to grab your pre-orders.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH YOUR SHARE IN SUMMER ETERNAL?

You've supported us with your funds, so you deserve to have a say in how Summer Eternal operates. Once you claim your membership in the Players Non-Profit, your ownership in Summer Eternal entitles you to:

In 2026/2027:

1. Vote to elect representatives to attend Summer Eternal's Annual Plenary and shape our studio strategy.

2. Vote to call a General Assembly of all of Summer Eternal's representatives to discuss important issues at any time.

3. Vote on polls regarding company and project strategy.

4. Gain access to an exclusive Discord channel with Summer Eternal's core team and contributors.

5. Read early news and development updates we might not be ready to share with the wider public yet.

   
   

   And in the long run, over the next years:

   
   

6. Get early bird previews of Red Rooster (developer diaries, invitations for beta-testing, etc.)

7. Discounts on future purchases from Summer Eternal's shop with a revenue share planned to directly benefit creators.

8. Democratically decide how to spend the 5% of profits generated by sales of Red Rooster, e.g. by funding independent passion projects, fan conferences, award ceremonies, or whatever you decide as a community.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

1. Purchase a product from Summer Eternal's shop. (Currently, our only product is the Summer Eternal Anthology.)

2. Claim your membership in the Players Non-Profit by going to https://summereternal.com/players

3. Connect your Discord account on the same page (Optional!) to pre-register for our Discord server.

4. Participate in Players Non-Profit activities (voting, meetings, social events) via invites sent to your email address.

   
   

TO UNDERSTAND MORE, READ THE FOLLOWING DEEP DIVE FROM OUR ORGANISER, ALEKSANDAR GAVRILOVIĆ:

As opposed to shareholding structures we're all used to, the Summer Eternal governance model is slightly different, and based on the FairShares idea that the structure of the studio should reflect all the stakeholders of the studio. This includes the managing cooperative, our contributor cooperative with employees and freelancers, the investors, but also, most radically, players as well. The complexity is made simple by use of images, as seen previously in this wonderful infographic by Lur Noise:

The final piece of this dream was the Player Non-Profit. We made a simple automated system that checks your order number from our internal records, and grants an automated right of entry to a membership in the non-profit organisation. Down the line, we'll also activate a community Discord server for members where we can share updates earlier than with the general public, and have a more direct line of communication between developers and players.

We will use your registration email to send invitations to online platforms where Players can then hold assemblies to vote on various topics about Summer Eternal's governance and community decisions. For example, the Players will elect a delegate to attend the Summer Eternal Annual Plenary and General Assemblies and represent the interests of the community. In a number of years, when Red Rooster makes its profits, the Players will democratically vote on what to do with 5% of the game's profits.

The system has been tested internally, and after the Anthology is out, it will be field tested with the thousands of people who pre-ordered Anthology Volume One! This way we don't have to wait for the game to release to already start implementing this "workplace democracy 2.0". In this way, the organisation might have been more aptly called "Buyers Non-Profit", but we still prefer the term Players, as even though pressing vinyl and printing books has its charms, game development is the core of what we do.

If you're eager to learn more, I've included an excerpt from my article in the Anthology about the Player Non-Profit.

EXCERPT FROM THE ANTHOLOGY: THE SUMMER ETERNAL NON-PROFIT

Usually, consumer cooperatives are organisations where consumers own the enterprise they buy from, but in our case, we opted for the consumers to be in a non-profit organisation instead, meaning the players do not extract profit for themselves, but they can choose where the organisation’s income is invested. Generally, it’s a step in the direction of mending the trust broken in this industry a thousand times over. We hope to initiate a shift in the mentality where the accountability of the developer to the player ends the moment the ‘buy’ button is pressed.

So first and foremost, the goal of the Players Non-Profit is to provide transparency and actionable means of interception to those who’ve put their trust in us.

It’s the final piece of this complex puzzle you’ve been reading, all based on the FairShares model (developed by Social Enterprise Europe) that I’ve been eyeing since 2022 but have never had the opportunity to “field test”. The idea behind the model is that you create a company that has all the stakeholders (including investors, workers, and the broader community) as actual shareholders. The famous FairShares example is the detergent factory setting up in a rural area, and the community having a seat at the table telling them that “hey, maybe don’t dump your toxic waste up-stream of our river, please”.

This entity is legally the simplest - a basic non-profit, but organisationally, it will require us to set up online channels, rules of conduct, a system for membership verification via proof of purchase (cross referencing purchase emails with accounts and invites) and take care to administrate thousands of people from all over the world so that it does not deteriorate into noise.

We're excited to take part in this experiment with you, and we'll keep you posted on ways to get more involved! You can still place your order for the Anthology and gain access to the Players Non-Profit with your proof of purchase.

Yours in every season,