"Board game publishing" Topic

would it be be worth the money to attend a trade show such as GAMA to talk with representatives from board game companies to get advise and options to publishing a board game? Or would it be a waste of time and money?

I am looking more for guidelines rather trying to find a big company to publish. I do not want to wait on their pipelines to clear up.

Don't know for sure, but suspect you can gather a lot of info and opinions on-line, which would be less expensive.

Of course there is something to be said for having lots of people in one place to talk to, face-to-face, assuming they have the time to meet with you.

Thanks for your opinion.

I wouldn't do GAMA there going to be to busy taking care of business those days. I'd just shoot them off an e-mail and see who is willing to help when there not in Convention mode.

You might find some good advice from the folks on ConsimWorld.

link
Good, but long, write up from a guy that developed and published his own board game. Might offer some of what you are looking for.

Having done some BG publishing, maybe I can help. What do you need to know? I agree with Lone Gunman that GAMA is probably not the best place to talk to people.

I would not do the GAMA thing. The below link will take you to the 'company' page at consimworld. Have a look through for those companies that most closely resemble what you want to do.

For example, revolution games are a 'one man' outfit with supporting friends who pay up front for game production with their own money. They do not P500, but rather just go with their own instinct on what will sell. (disclosure – I have a game in print with them).

Flying Pig has just left Lock 'n Load and he is setting out on his own, but he does to pre-publishing offers and has a house magazine that supports his venture.

Legion Games started floor up and built his business from experiences in the DTP side of things, his product is fully professional, but I don't think it is his day job …. so just another angle that may fit in with your vision.

Anyway, there are plenty of folk from that list of companies who would give you some 'real life' advice on boardgame publishing.

LINK – link

My general take on boardgames is they are way overpriced, generally.

Many seem to run $50 USD – $80 USD, or more, in some cases.

I know quality printing is not cheap, but many games cost 5 – 10 times what they really should.

If you can come up with a PDF, and recommendations to people to go to the local copy shop, and/or to print their own at home, that might be a better option.

Of course, that is not without risk, given the frequency of PDF piracy nowadays as well. Of course, they could always just order a hard-copy, scan it, and then do the same if they really want to, so………

>My general take on boardgames is they are way overpriced, generally.

When you consider play value, not so much. For $50 USD-$80 you often get a game you can play dozens of times, sometimes more if it's a smaller or simpler game, sometimes less if it's a larger or more complex one. But either way the amount of entertainment you can get for your gaming $ is actually rather high. Especially in contrast to miniatures where it's not uncommon for a GM to spend literally thousands of dollars to run a 5 hour game. I buy, play and collect both board games and miniatures so I'm not partial to one or the other, but the value equation is most certainly on the side of board gaming.

I suppose it really depends on the kind of boardgame you want. This may be a bit obvious, and certainly off the top of my head, but it comes down to a number of decisions about items.
I don't know if this will help or just repeat what you already know, but some thoughts:

Do-it-yourself vs. general contractor: You can source all the individual pieces yourself, or, hire a company to put the entire package together for you. Seems a trade-off between time and money. Fees in addition to actual production costs will boost your total costs. There are several prototyping companies out there which will make one (pricey) copy of your game.

Board/map: mounted vs. paper. Paper is far less expensive than hardboard and plenty of printing companies are around to do the paper printing. Fewer are around to glue the paper to a board. Size also matters. My no-research-involved guess based on booklet printing prices: $3 USD to $5 USD per paper map, depending on quantity and quality (thickness, coatings), maybe $10 USD-$12 per hardboard map.

I can say that an 11x17-inch color cardstock-ish page at the local print on demand store, one side, runs about 50 cents each for a first timer, less in quantity, of course. You can probably shop around the internet for a better price, but being local allows me to correct the odd error in person.

Playing Pieces: paper counters, die-cut cardboard counters, common wooden cubes, wooden blocks, meeples, etc., or plastic pieces. This is variable when it comes to pricing. Die-cut counters are done by a number of companies around the US. Plastic – mould injection by fewer, although it is expensive to create the mould (I've heard anywhere from $8,000 USD in China to $40,000 USD in US) and cheap to knock out the pieces (pennies).

Sometimes games include the manufacturing company of the die-cut counters -- you can track them down and ask for a quote.

Other parts: Decks of cards, spinners, dice, and so on. Adds to you production cost, but also adds to the appeal of the game sometimes. Dice are cheap, but card decks can be less so.

I recall wandering around the web and found a US-based place to order Chinese toys (minimum 1000 pieces). It didn't have exact wargame stuff, but did have a number of more generic game items.

Rules: The easiest thing to use print on demand for and available everywhere at reasonable prices of 5 cents to 15 cents per page (depending on B/W or Color).

Charts: Same here. Cardstock printing at POD places.

Box: Costlier than you might think for four-color images pasted on a cardboard box. I heard one fellow say it was almost 40% of the production cost (hence the 1970s-80s rise of zipped-lock bags).

Artwork: Clip art only gets you so far…

Regulations: Game components, especially the smaller plastic pieces and colored pieces, have some regulations in effect -- labeling and otherwise. Labeling, not much of a problem. But toxic substances, problem. The US and EU have rules for the types of paint/coating, etc that can be included in a 'toy.' Chinese manufacturers often don't worry about such things if you go the overseas route, so pay attention to what they make any product out of.

Liability: If you plan to sell a game with pieces, you probably should form at least an LLC to protect your personal assets.

Distribution: Your biggest cost if you go that route. Selling direct over the internet avoids this, although you have to deal with customer service, customers inquiries, mailing trips, lost packages, etc. TMP is full of some companies that seem to ignore the customer service aspect of a business.

If you offer your product via stores, drop-shipped internet sites, etc., figure on at least a 35% to 45% discount from the retail price. If you go through a major distributor, add another 15%.

Now you know why boardgames cost 'so much' -- half the price is for distribution (which is also how internet sites can sell for 1/3 off).

Anything else I missed?

On the home printing of games from a PDF, it is the counters that really add to the cost here. There currently is no home printing option for that without purchasing a die cutting machine.

Good Summary Russ. One additional item that hits me is the need to buy artwork for the cover. That is costly as well as the set up charge by the printer on the format.

All of your cost projections are what I expected which makes venturing into the publishing field daunting.

First, if you haven't listen to everything boardgameuniversity.libsyn.com (spoiler alert play testing is the answer)

They talk about games sales, how many is considered good (1500-4500 if I remember correctly)

They have interviewed many people in that industry, distributors as well. I think one that specialized in distributing board games from independent publishers, so they would be someone to listen for and contact (eventually).

I'm in the do it yourself in it for the long run myself. I wanted to make plastic injected parts, I figured by the time I made 3-10 molds, I could have bought all of the equipment, and did, so you might not want to take my advice…

If you really only expect to sell 1500 copies of a game, I'd really try to do it all myself. I think per game you will have more time invested, but you gain the ability to react if it doesn't sell well. I would make sure that you can produce game after game with, hits, misses and late bloomers. It's all about having more products that sell over time. If after the initial selling spike, a game sells a copy a week, that's not a lot, but one you have 20 different games, that's not bad.

I would make sure I had something top quality worth of hard earned money. I'd buy used screen printer(s) and a clicker press (for die cutting), a laminator and shrink wrapping machine (L bar sealer and heat shrink tunnel). All of these can be bought on the used market much cheaper than new ones.

The reason I would go this route, is it gives you more flexibility. I feel like there are some questions you need to ask. If you outsource, what is the turn around time if you need more? How many do I need to order at a time? (If you have to order 1000, and sell 100, how much in the whole are you?).

Other thoughts:
Be prepared for some early games to not do as good as you think.
Don't go all in on your first game, make it or break it… break it is the outcome.
Find you favorite board game and weigh it. Now figure out how much it costs to ship it picking random countries. For direct sales, are you paying for some or all of the shipping? In Apocalypse Now, there was the line "the horror, the horror" it wasn't related to the movie, he was looking into the future seeing shipping prices!