Surfing the web, I found a great link with lots of information for game production & resources.....here is the link
Great link for production info....
Mon, 02/16/2004 - 02:24
Mon, 02/16/2004 - 13:17
#1
Yep
We've had that link in the web resources section of the site for quite some time. There's a lot more valuable information where that came from if you check it out.
-Darke
Mon, 02/16/2004 - 20:35
#2
Great link for production info....
Here's a new site (still under consruction) that looks interesting already. Apologies if it's already listed somehwere at BGDF. (I didn't see it anywhere.)
Thu, 02/19/2004 - 18:26
#4
Great link for production info....
Do you have any examples of any boardgame stuff you guys have done? Everything on your website seems to be about tins.
-- Matthew
Fri, 02/20/2004 - 12:04
#6
Great link for production info....
Hi Gamebuilders...
I hope you understand our vigilance. We have a shockingly good "signal to noise ratio" on these message boards, and recently we got a few posts that were just shills for various products that messed with the clarity of the forum.
While getting a good deal is important to all game desigers and publishers, you can really help us by describing the actual process a game goes through, from the time you receive its plans to the time you finish with it. What do you need from the designer (i.e. PDF files, Quark files, scribbles on a napkin, etc.)? What are some terms (bleed, ply, weight) that we should know when we talk with you?
I think one of the most often-asked questions is one of cost. I don't have a specific game of mine in mind; it's just that many of us on this board have never published a game, and we don't know if it will run up a bill of four, five, or even six digits.
So, about how much would it cost to make, say, a 104-card (poker-sized) game, and a simple board game, with one Monopoly-sized board, 52 poker-sized cards and 20 pawns (5 pawns of various designs x 4 colors)? I know the price will vary based on color, card thickness and design; like I said, this isn't an estimate, but a very vague ballpark figure that will let some of us know what to expect on the scary piece of paper we will get from you in exchange for our design.
Finally, if we were to go to you or any other game printer, what about the "non-game" printing stuff, like rulebooks, catalogs, plastic box trays, and the outer box? Do you or your peers offer assembly, shrinkwrapping, and warehousing? Can we expect special discounts if one company prints everything? Roughly how much does that add to the final tag?
Again, these are not questions about a specific game. Rather, they are questions that most people new to the game industry have. The more we know going in, the better off we all are!
Fri, 02/20/2004 - 15:35
#8
Great link for production info....
Thank you for the cost evaluation example. Do you do orders less than 5,000 pieces? Let's say 1000. I understand as in all things the cost per piece would be greater.
Fri, 02/20/2004 - 15:38
#9
Smaller Quantities
Correct me if me math is wrong, but based on the example quote (5,000 games) of farily typical game components it would cost $16,000 for the game itself and another $1,500 for all the set up charges. I presume you guys are in Asia somewhere (China or Hong Kong) so there would also be substantial shipping fees to bring it to the U.S. or Europe. It appears there is no labor costs in the quote. To give a ball park figure, it appears for 5,000 games the total cost in all would be over $20,000.
I don't want to speak for everyone in the forum, but I sure as hell don't have that money. I could put a down payment on a house for that much.
More realistically, and I imagine it would be the same deal for a lot of people on this forum, I could afford a number of games in the low hundreds for around the same component building and other associated development costs for much larger quantities. In other words, producing 200-300 games at around $1,500 to $3,000 for the total cost.
Another thing, if I were really serious in trying to market my game I would only create a few hundred games at the most and try to sell them. Only later if they sold well would I then go bigger.
In short, my question to you is does Gamebuilders still produce games in lower quantities of 100-500 games? If so, do you charge more per game than you would at higher quantities.
Thanks,
--DarkDream
Sat, 04/03/2004 - 05:01
#11
Great link for production info....
how come taitronics and gamebuilders have nothing to do with each other on a google search? taitronics is a high tech circuit board etc type company out of east asia and there are a few gamebuilders sights.... yours that boasts of ... well.. building games... yet shows us tins? no games, no links, nothing.
one of the other gamebuilders is a (pretty darn cool) sight about giant versions of popular boardgames for use outside or with kids or what the heck ever (you should check it out if you've not seen it.).
another is a sight that evaluates your game and offers services for production.. much as yours purports to do.. but they actually, you know, show us some game stuff...
just seems kind of funny is all...
--------
alright.. well... i did manage to find this at jollygames.net
Quote:
Gamebuilders, a division of Taitronics (no relation to "Game Builders" above)
Custom components for all game types, they've done stuff for the big guys.
[CONTACT INFORMATION]
"We are a contract manufacturer - with most of our manufacturing done in the Far East. We specialize in custom complete game board manufacturing. We have printing, plastics, die-cast, tin boxes, assembly etc." They've done work for Milton Bradley and Hasbro, among many others.
More on Taitronics; I got a very favorable report from the folks who did Vanished Planet. The cost vs retail came out to about 1:7, which is a good ratio, but they made a LOT of units, too. The production values were very good; nice, thick tokens and board, but it also meant the unit weighed a lot. Anyway, they did the entire job for these folks, and they were satisfied with it (done in China, of course).
so i suppose i take back the mean things i said....
it still just seems sort of weird to me....
Check out Gamebuilders.
Building games for over 30 years! Board games, Card games, Puzzles, Decorative tins, Eleactronic games.
They build for big & small game companies.
Contact: chris@gamebuilders.com, sales@gamebuilders.com, www.gamebuilders.com, 978-462-7343