Whom do you thank?

I would say to thank key contributers and have a general "and to all who helped make this product what it is" kind of message.

My thanks would be simple enough.

Thanks to my wife for all her love and support.
Thanks to all who helped make this possible.

The End :)

For our first game, Coopetition, we included virtually everyone in the thank you list. The names actually appear on the sides of the inner box, not in the rules. We thanked everyone that playtested, or provided other types of advice. For anyone that hosted a testing session, played regularly, provided monetary support, or was worthy of additional consideration for some reason, their names appear in the special thank you section on the bottom of the box itself in plain view of anyone that picks up the game. (The other names can only be seen once the box is open.) In all, I suspect there are about 100 names on the box, about 10 to 15 appear as a special thank you. I intend to do something similar with our second game which will be introduced this holiday season.

I can't think of any games that I've given away (except those that were used as holiday gifts, not thank you gifts). I didn't have to draw the line and decide who received a complimentary copy and who didn't. I simply decided not to give any away. People that were involved in the development process, even those that were heavily involved, purchased the game rather than expecting to receive a complimentary copy. I think people recognized the financial importance from my perspective of people buying the game. They knew I couldn't afford to be giving games away. They were more than happy to purchase the game and to physically hold this product they had helped create. In many cases these people purchased multiple copies to give as gifts to friends and family for the holidays.

In subsequent printings of the game, Coopetition, I'll likely remove most of the thank you names expect those that deserve special recognition.

Chip

For my own testing, I'm appreciative of the time of all of the playtesters, however, some people were really just "warm bodies", people who played the game but didn't say anything of substance about the game afterwards, not even "I liked/disliked it". However, because I myself learned things about the game from each session, I feel like their efforts should still be acknowledged with a mention (although, this again doesn't distinguish between the people who were "truly helpful" and those who were just "a little helpful", but that's probably just the way it goes...)

FWIW, the credits for Scream Machine include the people without whom the game wouldn't have been there. Megan doesn't do much playtesting for me, but without her, the game would never have seen print. Frank Branham's the one who saw enough in it to bring it to Jolly Roger. Mark Jackson provided significant help in making the game manufacturable. Mike Kagen, Michael Tsuk, Ruben Castelino, and Ken Schalk put up with the initial version, and continued to playtest it anyway.

I've playtested a few dozen games that have eventually been published; I don't think my name appears in any of them, though to be fair I haven't paid close attention. And I believe I did provide significant feedback for some of them. But I don't think I've been slighted by not having my name appear; I wasn't playtesting so as to see my name in print, after all, but because it's fun...

You get some complimentary copies, yes; what you do with them is up to you.

A much harder question, IMHO...

I can tell you that Dan Blum will be getting a copy of Ice Cream. Why? He's the one that suggested that I show that game, in particular, to Face2Face - which deserves a copy if anything does.

In the case of Scream Machine, I kept some copies, gave a few to playtesters, gave a few to family, and a few to friends, and sent one to American Coaster Enthusiasts to see if they'd review it.

If I received enough copies of a game, I'd probably give one to each playtester - but you don't generally get that many copies.

At The Gathering of Friends this year, Richard Borg sold off a number of foreign-language copies of Heave-Ho! and Hera & Zeus he'd received from Kosmos; I picked up many of them for prototype parts and boxes...

Thank-you space is cheap but if you thank TOO many people you can cheapen the value of credit.

I think it's important to distinguish between designers, developers and playtesters -- but to credit all of them. It's (modestly) helpful for you to do so anyway, because a large playtest group sends a signal to anyone reading it that you've done some work on your game. Plus, they like it and are more likely to tell their family and friends about the game if it has a credit in it.

I also think that the credits page can be a good place to have fun if the flavor of your game allows it. My first game, Succession, has the following line in the credits page:

David Humpherys contributed nothing whatsoever to the making of this game.

It's a private joke that only a minority of Magic players will get, but even people who don't get it often laugh and then ask me what the joke is. There's also a heartfelt dedication to a good friend of ours who died shortly before I came back from Germany (and who otherwise would have been very involved in our game development) as well as a special thank-you to my best friend from high school, who inspired one of the game's characters back in the day when we played Dungeons and Dragons.

Regards,
Chad