Hey, I'm brand new to this. I spent a year working on game and am 99% done. I'm looking for tips on selling it. Do I go to a corp.? Do they steal peoples ideas ever? Do I take a more organic approach, pay the upfront to publish it and start by selling it to friends and friends of friends?
How about some advice?
Thanks,
Tim
I am self-publishing a game at the moment. I am using social networking to get pre-orders to raise the capital to fun the first run, after the first run, I will have more capital to invest in a second run, or another game venture, depending on how wide spread interest in the game. Hope this helps.
there are books out there that (with a grain of salt, due to the time they were released) are very valuable.
"The Game Inventor's Handbook - by Steve Peek"
this book is not about game design, its about what to do once you have the game.
this is probably one of the most valuable books to read. It tells you everything you need to know in a very non-biased fashion, telling you the pro's and con's of every venue:
Self publishing vs. corporations
Indy style vs. getting an agent
printing overseas vs. printing local
how to market, how to sell (even though these might be outdated, the theories they teach are valuable)
pretty much anything "post-invention"...i seriously recommend reading it and deciding for yourself which path you wish to take, as there are many.
A website that has alot of information would be
http://www.discovergames.com/
however, the book is a very easy read, i recommend the book before the site.
Note that they'll take a percentage of your gross, as will Amazon web payments.
Several board games have successfully funded through Kickstarter. Look up Inevitable (Dystopian Holdings), Alien Frontiers (Clever Mojo Games), and Eminent Domain (Tasty Minstrel Games).
Best of luck!
I went the Angle investor route...But I wanted to learn how to publish and not be published...
And the aforementioned book is a must read...Think you can get it on kindle now as well.
But most of the business I have started, have been started with other people's money...just get excited about the idea and start talking to people about your Dream...someone will likely just give you start up capital (for a %). Smile...be happy...takes about a year or two each time. You should be done with the book in two years, all that smiling and talking would have put you in good order to sell it to a publisher. Its youe Dream!
no matter what you do. This forum is one of your biggest assets... I have found. I am not a computer guy and I hit walls in this brave new world...this is an important marketing medium.
Guys like Jon up there have put me on the right track more than once. For now, no matter what you do, hold to your dream...there is always time to sell out later.
Have you playtested the game enough? It's always a big question. I've found myself making a few games and playing them with friends and never finding a thing wrong. Then I explain it to a new person and they ask all these questions that have me saying... crap...
That out of the way, you might want to look at www.kickstarter.com . You pitch your idea and people back you. From what I hear, there is little-to-no loss. I was just introduced to it today so I can't really tell you anything about it.
Yes Tim this is the first game I have self-published. It was a long road. When you are working on things alone (i.e. without paid employees etc) you have to network well, find people who can be brutally honest and tell you not just something is or isn't fun but if it is broken. Many friends will not want to discourage you, but to have a solid project you need critique. After the game has solidified (concepts, mechanics, components, rules) You get to wear many hats. Marketing (cannot be ignored if you want success), co-coordinating with a manufacturer, and an artist(s). At times you have to rein in creativity to watch the unit cost while maintaining broad appeal.
As a hobby it takes the time you give it, and more. As a passion you have to remain committed to it and draw on the parts that give you energy to stick out the other parts (ordering spread sheets, staying on companies to get you quotes in a timely fashion, working with artists to hone their vision and yours into one.
In the end it was been a rewarding experience. As others have said play testing is a must, do it early, do it often. If the game is broken or needs changes the closer to production you get the more it costs. I am producing it in the U.S. which cuts into profits (which are small to begin with in this industry), but I am not doing this to get rich, I want people to be able to enjoy the game.
So in a nut shell, as with most dreams, dream big, plan reasonable and have fun along the way.
I checked them out, I am trying to keep the first run small (100 games) if this pans out I plan on scaling it up, and utilizing kickstarter. As it is a hobby I want to manage my time well, and be ready to embrace the possibility of success on a larger scale when the time is right. Only 9 more pre-orders to fun the first run of my game, so I am very excited about the path I have chosen.
...Just a quick FYI...
Have you had it blind playtested, i.e. tested by people that only read the rules and don't know you that well / at all?
Have you attempted an initial contact with any of the established publishers to see if they might be interested (Simple letter asking if they would be interested in X style game)?
Do you have >10k laying around waiting to be spent on the chance for razor thin margins?
Have you looked outside your group of friends to see if anyone else is interested in the game?
After you look at all of that, and if you decide to self-publish, you have a long long road ahead of you. I'm about 50% of the way there with the game I'm publishing through KickStarter, 1955:The War of Espionage. We are hitting the 75% mark in a few days and have the last bit left before Jan 5th. I have to tell you that you will need to network, network, network to get people to invest in a game they haven't heard of before and haven't heard of the designer before.
I enjoy the KickStarter process and would recommend it to people who have a firm grasp of producing a game, including having it professionally manufactured.
--------------
Will a 'corp.' steal peoples ideas ever? Maybe, maybe not. I've heard of one person who has had a game straight up stolen, but he refuses to release the name of the company or the game from what I can tell, so for the meantime, I chalk it up to sour-grapes. Others here, with their long history in the industry, may be able to give you more information on this but in general, it isn't worth the legal hassle to steal game ideas (Ideas aren't worth anything until they've been acted on). It really isn't worth the monetary hassle to steal entire game rule sets.
Hey Nick!
Good luck with the 1955! It takes courage to KS anything at this time of year :)
Hope to see more from you guys :)
I've read both the The Game Inventor's Handbook by Stephen Peek and the The Game Inventor's Guidebook by Brian Tinsman, and I would only suggest the latter. The guidebook is much more recent and has interviews from big names in the field.
Good luck with the 1955! It takes courage to KS anything at this time of year :)
Hope to see more from you guys :)
It does indeed. However, this is the time to do it in order to get the games manufactured before the GenCon / Essen push starts coming. That and it gives me time to make sure that all the kinks in the system are worked out without hitting any major deadlines.
You will definitely see more. Always follow up one success with another.
just to put my 2 cents in on the books, i'd actually recommend reading BOTH (and probably a few more in addition) to anyone who's asking "what should i do next", but the handbook by peek is the much more useful/functional book between the two, despite its age... by a large margin.
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Thanks for the info. Is this your first game? I'd like to hear from someone who made the whole journey.