Flash Duel

Yesterday, I mentioned Flash Duel from Sirlin Games.  It sells for $13-$16 in the normal version (cards and rules only) and $30+ for the deluxe version (includes cards, tokens, board, etc.).

Sirlin has moved from video games to boardgames, which is what I've done here, too.  He worked on the Street Fighter series, so the fighting card game angle is probably related to what he was doing for the other games.  I loved Street Fighter (E. Honda can head butt you back to the stone age, by the way).  It looks like Sirlin has some really high quality production values here - good art, nice components, etc. - and a consistent line of games that include the same characters, which could lead to the growth of a brand centered around his fighters.

The prices he's selling for are on the high side of what I'm trying to do - e.g., I could get a tuckbox version of my game made with more cards for probably $2-3 per copy, and then sell it for $9-10, while the nicer setup-box version (more like his Deluxe version, although without a board and tokens) would be more like $4-5 per copy and sell for $16-20.

Anyway, neat stuff, and another example of a guy having a go at this business on his own.

Awards != Sales

As I consider entering all these competitions, it's good also to heed what Tao over at Starlit Citadel writes - that award-winning game designs don't necessarily sell well.  I think that's true in a whole bunch of settings; commercial success and quality are correlated on a first-order basis, but one person's "quality" is another person's crap, and there are some pretty big second-order effects.  And what you play (and what would be fun) is very situational - I've probably played much more Barbie Uno than I have played better games that I like far more.

So, what's the key to marketplace success?  A great game, sure, and hopefully one that could win awards, but maybe more importantly, one that is eminently playable - not too long, accessible to newbies, easy to set up, visually attractive, cheap and available, and fun to play over and over again.

Hey, I just described Barbie Uno, didn't I?

Barriers to publication

The Boardgame Designers Guild of Utah apparently has a recurring newsletter now.  A recent issue has a neat article on the barriers to entry to the boardgame market by Benjamin Stanley - good stuff.

More on Spy Alley

I commented on Spy Alley yesterday.  Looking at their site some more, I found some sales figures and history:

Interesting Facts:

Spy Alley was created in 1988 under the name International Spy. It was turned down by all of the game companies that were approached for licensing. The name was changed to Spy Alley in 1992. In 1996 Spy Alley Partners was formed to market the game. The 1st year it sold 320 copies. As of 2008 it has sold over 170,000 copies in 7 countries and 3 languages.

I'd take that kind of success.  It does sound like a self-publishing deal, which gives me some hope.

Dang it!

Following my comments on one of my games, Galapagos, commenter Jay points out that the name has been adopted by a game that came out this year.  My game is completely different from the new one, which takes the Galapagos theme more literally by reenacting Darwin's visit, but that probably means the name is lost to me.  I'm not sure they'll have registered the trademark, so it might be legally possible to have the same name, but even so, it would probably be better to avoid the confusion and find a new one.

A bummer, because my game has been Galapagos in my head since I first came up with it back in the late 1990's, and it was a great fit for the evolutionary theme.  But, I'm not close to publishing that one, so I have time to cogitate.

Custom Dice

Chessex offers custom six-sided dice in relatively small quantities here.  Not too economical for a small run (a fully custom die with all six sides would be $6 per die up to 25 of them, with a minimum order of 10 or $60, and not too much of a bulk discount at $2.52 per die at 500 of them, a total order cost of $1260) but maybe worth it for prototyping or small-print-run hand-made games, especially if you only need custom sides for a few of them.

Another source for cards

Here's a link to PrinterStudio, another place that will do custom-printed playing cards.  54 card decks, come in a box, personalized boxes also available.  Probably wouldn't work for custom games that use lots of cards - TheGameCrafter.com is likely a better option there - but for standard card games, this might work, and it's not too costly.  Only 150 DPI, though, so they likely won't look as nice as some of the others.

Xinghui printing problems

James at Minion Games has given some more details about his Xinghui printing troubles (which I've discussed before) here at this BGDF post.  He also has pictures of misprinted cards at the links shown below, and I've hotlinked one at left so you can see the double printing.  I was tempted to use these guys initially, because their quote came in so far below the others, but apparently you get what you pay for.  Or rather, you get unsellable items that loosely resemble what you paid for.

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

Yoggity help cards

I ordered copies of Yoggity for the Rio Grande competition today.  I added some informational cards - I hope they help the players at the Memphis GameCon understand the game more quickly.  TGC has shifted their card sheets to 18 cards, so I had some extra cards available for free thanks to the reformat, so luckily I get more cards for the same price.

Images are below - many games now have this kind of thing, and I think it sums up what you're supposed to do pretty well.  People will still have to consult the rules for the details, but hopefully this will help the learning curve. I'm probably going to do it for Diggity, too.  These images include a margin on the edge that would be cut off in printing, so there's not as much blue as it seems.

Artist on board?

BoardgameNews.com reports on a new small Italian game company called Albe Pavo, which consists of a designer plus an artist.  That's something that could be really useful to me - an artist on board.  The art for the game looks neat - very ancient Rome.

It seems like you need three components to make a successful small game company:

1. A game designer
2. An artist
3. A business person

Now, these roles can be combined into one person.  I've known of folks who were 1 and 2 combined, although it's rare to see somebody who can do both well.  My guess is that if you were 2 and 3, you'd be running a graphic design shop and not worried about games.  I'm trying to be 1 and 3 together and outsourcing my art, which I hope will work. Tasty Minstrel seems to have a separate #1 and #3, although they're now outsourcing #1 some.

It looks like Albe Pavo have #1 and #2 - I wonder how they're covering #3?

And of course, there's

    4.  A pile of money to light on fire

Possible source for marketing/distribution help?

On the most recent edition of Paper Money, Ben and Rett talked with Rob Boyle, a guy who has done a lot of work on the Shadowrun RPG but is now working with a new company called Posthuman Studios.  The show was interesting - he's been in the game industry for years and years, but he's founding a new company now after leaving Catalyst Games, a company which I gather suffered a setback from some accounting irregularities.

One of the things Rob mentions in the show is working with Sandstorm LLC, a company that purports to handle the business end of the games industry, allowing the designers to spend their time designing.  That might be something worthwhile for me.  Their website is pretty barebones, and some of the links don't work, and others are pretty cutesy for a supposedly professional company, but they seem to have some clients, and their services would be right up my alley. I think I'll try to get in touch with them and at least see what their terms are.

Big step

I filed the Articles of Organization for Plankton Games LLC today.  Not a huge step in terms of what I had to do, but a big psychological step, and one that left me $125 poorer.  But if I'm producing manufactured goods, I really can't afford to be personally liable for problems or issues.

There's a $200 annual report fee for the LLC, so I guess this starts the bleeding - my games have to make more than $200 in the next year to cover that expense.  Of course, I also have already paid for the web hosting, artwork, samples from TGC, etc.  But some of that I'd have done anyway.

Exciting stuff.  Next step (assuming my LLC application is approved) will be to get a state sales tax ID and a local business license, and then I'll need a federal EIN so I can get a business bank account.  And I'll have to figure out how to collect, report, and pay state sales tax for in-state sales.

This is the part that's not so glamorous, but it's still part of the journey, and even a little fun at this point because of what it represents.

Game design blog

Here's a new blog, Inspiration to Publication (http://inspirationtopublication.wordpress.com) that looks at bringing a game to publication.  The author, whose name actually doesn't appear in the blog other than in the first post, is Jay Cormier, who (with his design partner Sen) has a few games coming out over the next year or so from Tasty Minstrel Games, who I've written about some before, and ToyVault, who I hadn't heard of but who seems to be a combination licensed-toy/boardgame manufacturer.

Some interesting ideas, and some good advice, but not a lot of specifics yet.  I've added him to my feed list.

Sample CPSIA statement

Here's a copy of the CPSIA statement that Koplow Games has posted on ACD (acdd.com), a game distributor.  Koplow makes a ton of dice, dice games, and educational game parts for schools, so they're not directly parallel to what I'm doing, but it's interesting nonetheless to see what they've come up with for the new regulations.

Even more on the CE mark

James from MinionGames.com implies, in response to my question over at BGDF.com, that the CE mark isn't a big deal.  I think I still need to do some research to make sure I meet the standards for card games, but I don't need to prove that independently to somebody in Europe, at least not until I get called on it by somebody over there.  So, my current understanding is, if I can figure out the standards for games, and figure out if I meet them, and do any requisite testing myself, then I can assert that I meet the standards and put the CE mark on without filing anything with a government agency.

Sound right?

Kickstarter

I've talked about several games that have used Kickstarter to raise funds (see here, here, and here), and (to my surprise) they've been successful.

Others are getting into the act, reports the Purple Pawn, and it's not apparently all roses and sunshine.  Some of the game projects they list are way below their targets, even as they approach their target dates.  I think for Kickstarter to work, you have to have a network of folks who are willing to get you started, and who know a bunch of other people who might be willing to contribute to the friend of a friend. Being willing to set a lower goal for funding is important, too, since Kickstarter only pays out if you surpass your goal.

More on the CE mark

Wow, there are a lot of skeezy CE Mark firms, eager to collect fees.  I've been wading through it some, and it sounds like my company can self-certify my product.  What this seems to mean is that Plankton Games declares its product safe officially (there's a form for this) and then it assumes all liability for the product, and then it can use the mark.  This is a good source; I'm looking for others.

Disclaimer: I'm NOT an expert - please do your own research. 

CE mark for European market?

As I'm getting closer to printing, I'm worrying more about what's on the outside of the box.  I've posted before on ISBN/EAN issues, but now I'm looking at the CPSIA regulations for the American market and the CE mark for Europe. I think I can avoid most of the CPSIA regulations by designating ages 12 and up for Diggity (and the game probably warrants that rating, although younger kids who are good with games can play - my 11-year old does).  The CE stuff is new to me - looks like the testing regulations are trickier, and I may have to do it in Europe.

Anybody have experience with these, or some resources they could point me to?

Slow progress

I sought my first quotes for Diggity back in December, although those were more exploratory than definite.  I got an artist signed on in May, and I've been collecting printing quotes for many months now.  I don't have the art yet (hopefully soon), but I've got (at last) some good printing options that I think I'm nearly ready to run with.  I'd like to get this process moving along faster, but it seems like it's stuck in molasses - whenever I have a good chunk of time, I'm waiting on folks; whenever it's time for me to do something, I have a million other things going on.

I guess this week I'll be working on some of the dull but necessary parts - founding an LLC, setting up a separate bank account, checking into a business license, maybe pulling the trigger on an ISBN/EAN.  Not the glamorous part, but required.

TGC + SuperiorPOD: Official Announcement

They've announced it officially; SuperiorPOD and TheGameCrafter have joined forces, with the web side managed by TGC and the production side mostly by SuperiorPOD.

Of course, readers of this blog knew this back on July 6.  Quite the intrepid neo-journalist I have become, right?  Trust Plankton Games Journal for all your trivial insidery game-self-publishing news tidbits of interest to tiny audiences.

Hopefully, this will mean more options for game production and better bulk discounts for micro print runs.