podaskyban | 21 Jul 2018 9:28 p.m. PST |
I've been lurking these forums for some time and I really love army men. I also just like this real nice and chill atmosphere this forum brings out and how kind and honest you all are. I pretty much finished my wargame and I want to sell it for just 5-1$. Can anyone give me a guide? |
Oberlindes Sol LIC | 21 Jul 2018 10:47 p.m. PST |
When you say "finished", do you mean that you have -completed writing the rules -completed all charts and tables -completed writing examples of complex rules and rule interactions -completed layout of the rules book -completed artwork -completed in-house playtesting with your own team and revised the rules based on what you learned -completed field playtesting with experienced gamers who did not work on development and revised the rules -completed field playtesting without being involved as a player or referee, interviewed the playtesters, and revised the rules I'm sure I've left out many things that need to be done before you publish. I haven't touched on any of the things that are not related to the rules, like market research or research on suppliers of the game components. |
arthur1815 | 22 Jul 2018 1:58 a.m. PST |
My initial reaction was: does a 'fun' game with army men really require a 50+ page rulebook to play? If so, then IMHO the rules are unnecessarily detailed and/or complex for the purpose, or the explanations are too 'wordy' and would benefit from being edited to be more concise. Or are many of the pages devoted to 'fluff' – illustrations that may be attractive but don't actually help to explain the rules – in which case I'd suggest removing them to reduce the page count and cost. |
warwell | 22 Jul 2018 2:17 a.m. PST |
|
4DJones | 22 Jul 2018 5:59 a.m. PST |
Is this a wind up? Re-read the OP carefully. |
podaskyban | 22 Jul 2018 9:28 a.m. PST |
@oberlindes the bottom 2 are things I really can't get done. Also there's no real artwork what so ever besides the cover due to the fact that I don't have an artist and I don't really have a means to get one. I'll make a revised version that won't cost too much either though but i've played with let's say 3 people outside of my development team. So far they enjoyed it and think there enough variety and complexity that they can enjoy a few more matches of it. @arthur 20+ pages of lore 20+ pages of rules 10+ pages of references. The big reason why I made this is because alot of the games for army men are slightly too simplistic and didn't offer enough for 50+ games. I wanted to make something simple yet complex enough to warrant multiple playthroughs along with a narrative that I believe is silly and fun enough for every fan of army men to be satisfied with. @warwell Thanks I was looking for this. |
MajorB | 22 Jul 2018 10:02 a.m. PST |
I've been lurking these forums for some time He's been a member for all of 13 days … |
MajorB | 22 Jul 2018 10:04 a.m. PST |
the bottom 2 are things I really can't get done. Why not? I wanted to make something simple yet complex enough to warrant multiple playthroughs Simple? You call 20+ pages of rules simple? |
podaskyban | 22 Jul 2018 11:08 a.m. PST |
@Majaor You can view threads without a member ship. Can't do the bottom 2 because honestly bringing this to my local shop yields no results. No one wants to try it out and would rather play what there used to. Uh…wargames tend to have even more rules then 20+ pages. I've played plenty of games that had even more then that tbh. |
MajorB | 22 Jul 2018 11:25 a.m. PST |
Can't do the bottom 2 because honestly bringing this to my local shop yields no results. Don't you know any other wargamers? Uh…wargames tend to have even more rules then 20+ pages. Not in my experience they don't. There any number of really good games with 10 or less pages of actual rules. |
Shedman | 22 Jul 2018 11:37 a.m. PST |
I also just like this real nice and chill atmosphere this forum brings out and how kind and honest you all are @podaskyban there is also a flipside I agree with you about the local shop yielding no results. Mine is not a Games workshop but if it isn't one of the games they play then they are not interested in the slightest I also spent a few years, before the advent of the internet, living in a rural area that had zero gamers. I suggest you ask here for playtesters Good luck Alan |
podaskyban | 22 Jul 2018 12:17 p.m. PST |
@Majaor @shedman Hmm i'll definetly get some outside playtester on TTS and here to see if I need more refeined rules. Also I agree there are tons of rulebooks that don't bloat you with rules like the average wargame that do it better then say wh40k but hey with simplicity comes the problem of stagnation. Especially for the competitive side of things. I did do a little tourne with 4 people and hey they had fun but I definitely need more testing and maybe just look over the whole package before I release the game, but I don't want to spend too much time doing that. |
MajorB | 22 Jul 2018 1:07 p.m. PST |
but hey with simplicity comes the problem of stagnation. ??? |
Sgt Slag | 23 Jul 2018 1:36 p.m. PST |
I would recommend sizing up the market: look at what offerings are currently available. Buy their products, and see what their games offer; learn what, if any, similarities there are with your game. Next up is advertising, if you seriously wish to market it for profit. RPGNow.com has several rule sets for Army Men, on tap, ready for download, currently. The market for rules for Army Men, is potentially huge… China floods the US market with injection-molded Army Men figures by the metric ton, each year. Nearly every male child in the USA has several sets in his toy chest. The trick is to market a game which appeals to these boys, which will inspire them, and capture their imaginations. The rules also need to be scale-able, to grow with their sophistication, as they mature. Figure out the rules, and the marketing, and the sales will be huge. Until then, it will remain an untapped market. Cheers! |
greenknight4 | 08 Feb 2020 6:28 p.m. PST |
Conventions are great for playtesting a set of rules. |