Education for game designers......

This is a great question. Our company is currently publishing our first game as we speak. Duel of Ages Our timeline was as follows:

1999-2001 We spent this entire time working on the mechanics of the game. Our boards and cards were printed on HP printers for play testing purposes. At this point, we did not even develop any artwork. All the art was from clip art CDs.

Nov 2001 We contacted four different manufacturers for the game. We provided each of them a detailed components listing for the game. Out of the four, we selected two to travel to and meet in person. This gave us the chance to see their operations and people, and to discuss ways we could save money in the production of the game.

Dec 2001 We began the artwork development based on the revised specifications from the manufacturer. We chose to scoure the Internet for the best freelance artists we could find. We found a community at www.renderosity.com that met our needs. You can read about our experience with them here:

Art Effort

Oct 2002 This was the gut check part of the process. We hired an independant financial analyst to review our entire production/marketing budgets for the game. He then produced a pro-forma analysis of sales expected in 2003 when the game would be available to sell.

Nov 2002 At this point we sent all the completed artwork to the manufacturer to begin production. We also began the work of securing exhibit space at all the major gamers shows (GAMA, Origins, GENCON...etc)

Jan 2003 We launched the web community for Duel of Ages to promote discussion and interest in the game.

This is how we went about the business of developing our first game. Our success or failure will not be known until later this year once we have exposed the product to the marketplace. We feel confident that we have given ourselves every opportunity to succeed. Time will tell.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions related to anything mentioned here. I also encourgae you to buy a copy of Duel of Ages. This is one of the best ways to support the innovators in the industry.

It would be a pleasure for us to provide a detailed life cycle for DOA. I do think we have worked through many issues that would effect a first timer to the industry. Where would you like to display this? Should we contniue it here? I would like to elaborate on the points made above for this to be of use to others.

DrP

DrPennopolis,

I believe your effort is being paid off now. DoA is ranked as top and second in BoardGameGeek for couple of weeks. I read the rule. I didnot have chance to play, but it seems very fun to play.

I want to hear about your company. How many people were invovled? How did you manage your financial situation? I mean, it is your first product as I know. Your company did not make money for couple of years. How you could feed yourself? :-]

I just want to know how much it is possible to success for start-up game company.