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Machines for Prototyping

7 replies [Last post]
Fri, 09/14/2012 - 18:46
Red Wizard
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Hello Designers,

This is my first post here and I am excited to start participating actively in this great community.
I am applying for a small business grant which will give me $5,000 to spend on assets for my game design company. I want to focus on prototyping games that I can then demo at game shops and gaming meet ups.
I am wondering what you all would suggest as essential machines for prototyping?

Some machines and tools I am considering:

Makerbot cupcake CNC
High quality printer for cards
Router
Laminator

I am open to any and all suggestions and really appreciate all feedback. I am wondering also about constructing boards and board segments -hexes or triangles.

Thanks,
Tim

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Fri, 09/14/2012 - 19:06
#1
HPS74
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Well I'm in Australia, and as

Well I'm in Australia, and as far as I know, there are no dice manufacturing machines in Australia. If I had the money, I buy one of those (I don't even know the name for it ;) and a fancy laser engraver to make custom dice.

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Fri, 09/21/2012 - 15:29
#2
The Game Crafter
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As someone who owns a company

As someone who owns a company that does nothing but manufacture custom games, I can tell you that you aren't going to get anywhere near enough equipment for $5,000. I'd suggest using your business grant for buying components from the places that already manufacture them.

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Fri, 09/21/2012 - 20:54
#3
kos
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$100 printer and a pair of scissors

If you are planning to design your own games with the intent of becoming a profit-making venture, I'd strongly recommend looking back through the posts on these forums to give you a realistic expectation of return on investment. You also need to decide what business model you want to pursue and a solid business case -- before you even think about buying any equipment.

If your business model is to make prototypes to send to game production companies in the hope of getting published by one of them, then you don't need any fancy equipment. Stick with a $100 printer, a few sheets of cardboard, a glue-stick and pair of scissors. Spend $50 on a bunch of pawns, dice, and whatever else, and you're good to go. Fancy prototypes will NOT increase your chances of getting published. Save the rest of your money for postage to send samples to playtesters, reviewers, and publishers.

If you want something a bit fancier than paper and cardboard (but truthfully, for the purpose of play-testing and demos you DON'T need anything fancier than that), you could consider using a service like SuperiorPOD or TheGameCrafter. $5000 won't get you equipment even remotely close to production quality, whereas these guys have spent lots of dough and years of experience in setting up high quality print-on-demand services.

Regards,
kos

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Sat, 09/22/2012 - 11:39
#4
drktron
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What Kos said. Though I like

What Kos said. Though I like a cutting board better than scissors ;)

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Sun, 09/23/2012 - 22:09
#5
bluepantherllc
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Prototype Equipment

I would echo GameCrafter here.

$5k will buy you one decent printer that could do cards and maps and rules and hopefully handle some heavier stock and a good cutting board.

OR

$5k will buy you one Makerbot - keep in mind that you are trading your labor for lower cost here - it takes a while to put one together and your meeples will come out very slowly - a game with lots of meeples like Carcassone would take hours to make.

OR

$5k will buy you a very cheap laser cutter (hopefully reliable - need to be careful of exactly how they cool it off).

And you'd better reserve part of that $5k for supplies, especially good paper or plastic spools for your Makerbot

But $5k won't buy you everything you might want to accomplish most of the aspects of making a good looking game.

We make games, cards, boxes, boards and custom components but when we need high volume for one our own game launches or a customer wants a higher volume that our print-on-demand model is not designed to do, we find a place that specializes in the stuff we don't do in high volume - 500 games with 300 cards each is alot of cards - we'll go to a card printer or service too.

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Tue, 09/25/2012 - 14:00
#6
truekid games
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While I'll echo the above

While I'll echo the above sentiments for the most part, I think more importantly that before you apply for grants or loans, you should have your costs more thoroughly mapped out- as in, you're saying you're applying for $5000, but you aren't aware of the associated costs. I don't go to the bank and ask for a $250 loan so that I can buy a new car (or, at the other extreme, a million dollar loan for a car). The dollar value should depend on the needs, rather than fitting the needs to the dollar value.

----

However, all that said, aiming at a $5000 budget, I'd get a very nice color printer that prints double-sided and can handle cardstock (and perhaps matteboard too).

A hand die cutter with a basic card die and perhaps a hex die.

A ton of plastic cubes from EAI education, and pawns or meeples from Rolco/someplace else.

And expendable resources- matteboard/chipboard, cardstock, paper, label paper, and lots and lots of ink.

Anything left over, apply to your travel expenses.

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Tue, 09/25/2012 - 14:02
#7
Red Wizard
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Thank You, let me clarify.

Thanks all for the comments. I do agree with them all and realize that $5000 is not really enough to invest to make high quality components. The money however cannot be spent on inventory and so I cannot buy components that I plan to resell. I have also come to the decision to not create only prototypes but to create some sort of finished product. Again, you may all say that it is impossible with that amount. My current plan is to print high quality cards and source any additional components I may need from other manufacturers.

So if anyone has recommendations for high quality printers and paper I would greatly appreciate it. TGC and Blue Panther I will likely work with both of you and appreciate your experience and investment but would like to produce at least some portion of my product in house.

Thanks again everyone it was a good reality check and has helped me rethink my plan and objectives.

Tim

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