Hi All
This Saturday we will go live with the production company. There are still much to do, but it looks like we will have at least something to show. 4 games are packed and nearly ready (small issues) and one is still to be printed).
I have loads of work that has been punched to next week as sending out contracts to both game designers and artists (for the art) to the next launch. Several test sessions has been put on hold, and I have some final tests to do for a game this autumn (YARG (Yet Another Racing Game)), before that artwork is completed on that one. When I'm home I feel like I'm connected to, living and breading my printer, computer and my paper cutter. I need more hours per day!!!
Still, we have not yet opened and it looks like it will work. We just print the games we need. To the launch we will have between 150-200 games with us. The games that not will be sold at the launch (4-day convent) are already booked by a distributor.
We have preorders on around 100 games and a first interest on 150-200 more. Not much but this will give me back 1/2 of my investments.
There is so much to learn. Here is some of it when it comes to home made production:
Papers: before I started with this I believed there was some difference in papers, but not so much. I have used 250g/square-meter paper for cards and did buy 2 different types. One was gloss and one was matt (same type). I could not feel the difference on the paper (if I got one of each paper I could not say that they was different). The result in the printing and the finish is significant, but the largest thing was that the printer could only handle the matt paper without any problem.
Boxes: We decided to go for video-boxes for this first 0-serie (3 card games and 2 board games). One of the board games could fit in the box, the other is put in Zip lock bags (we just print 15 games as a pre-launch and will do a large scale this autumn with new boxes). I did find a cool video-box (its great and the persons that have seen it like it) that the owner could not sell (nobody was interested to buy since video is out). I bought 800 boxes (all they had) to the price of $270 (3 for a $). To find standard boxes is still a major issue and a lot of contacts to get.
Cutting: Cutting cards (rules and so on) can be hell. You need a cutter that is easy to work with and is quick. You also need a cutter that can handle a deck of cards at the time. I bought a large cutter that did not function for out needs. The result was a disaster. Then I find another one (Ideal 3905) that worked perfectly. I can cut a deck of around 100+ cards with one cut.
Planning: This is the most important thing to do and I have done more work then necessary because I did not plan the job properly.
Fonts and files: We have used standard fonts in our work, but we don’t have the same machine types (both Mac and PC) and not the same versions of the programs (InDesign and Illustrator). A lot of problems.
Things that have been smoother then expected:
Set up the initial contracts: We worked with the contracts and our agreements. We are 3 different parts that will work together and we have now a first set of contracts that we can agree on. We divided the contracts into 3 different parts: the overview, one contract for each game and one decision for each printing.
Retailers: The sales have started and it works. Very much that we already have contacts. We have still a launch the sales via web.
The next set of games is in the final state of development and everything on that thing is working as expected (right now at least).
// Johan
