New board gaming company

Thanks for the feedback so far everyone. Please keep it coming!

The offbeat subject matter and "beer and pretzels" target market were the main reasons to self publish (plus the fact that we

I just wanted to post and say how impressed I was by the look of your games as well. These look very well done. Are they available anywhere besides the site?

Kid,
Your games look great! I'm going to try and save some sheckels and nab that office one. Seems like it'd be a winner for some of my non-gaming friends.

Quick question. Obviously all of us here are pretty interested in the WHOLE process of game production, design, etc. You want to give us a brief history of your company (for fun, and to make believers of us)?

Thanks again one and all for your kind words & advice! We're still a little inquisitive on the price point thing. So keep contributing if you will.

For those who really give a darn, I will try to walk you through a brief behind the scenes tour of the madness that goes on here. Just keep in mind that this only our small fry experience and it may/may not be indicative of the road others have taken in this industry.

The games originate from our own sick & twisted heads. We didn't use "play test focus groups" other than immediate friends & family who got roped into the job. This was partially due to some secrecy paranoia, but now that we know we can produce, we may enlist local help for future games.

Artwork was mostly done through local starving artists. In this day and age, it could happen stictly through e-mail & phone calls - but it would be a lot more work. In our case, we received the digital artwork from our artists and laid it out ourselves to the different printers' specs, which allowed us ultimate control of the look and feel of things. If you found the right artist, I suppose you could have them work directly with the printer - but again it's much more work for all.

The big boy manufacturers in the industry (those who do packaging, gameboards, cards, etc.) have pretty high minimum runs. Call around, and you'll find out soon enough. We had to dig really hard to find printers to work with us on the smaller runs. Some components were even done by local mom & pops. Even then, it's not cheap (sorry, can't get into numbers) and you may well be gambling on the quality.

After receiving all the various components here, the whip is brought out and the IG staff gets to work on assembling and packaging everything in house. Purchase our games and you might literally be receiving some of our own home grown blood, sweat, and tears. Should I be admitting that?

All in all, I would say the "hardest" part we've encountered is in gathering costs, trying to get manufacturers to work with us, and trying to beat them up on cost while still trying to maintain reasonable quality. No real advice there other than just be tenacious and be prepared to spend a fair amount of time, energy, and finally money on your dream before seeing any true results.

Nobody ever complains about this industry being too easy... :wink:

KidIrie, I want to be you when I grow up. :D :D :D

You don't take game submissions, do you?