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Just wondering...

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zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969

I was wondering how difficult and costly it actually is to self-produce and market a game.

Take for example my civ game. I think this is a game that is rather simple to produce with only a few components (no more elaborate than say Carcassonne).

The finished product would consist of:
- Around 70 triangular carboard tiles.
- 30 pawns in 5 different colors (6 per color)
- Rulebook
- Box

To produce this game you would need to:
- Get an artist to do the art for the tiles. There are 5 different tiles and 4 different symbols. The art can be really simple. I think an artist could do it all in 2 days or so. How much would this cost?
- Digitalize the art and make the tiles in digital format. I could do this myself in Photoshop and would take me a day or two.
- Get a printing company to print the triangular tiles on heavy cardboard. Can this be done in small printruns? How much would it cost?
- Order 30 pawns (per game, which is 90.000 for a printrun of 3000 copies!) from somewhere.
- Get a company to make/print the box
- Get a company to make/print the rulebook
- Putting all the components in the box (could do this myself I guess) and shrink-wrap it.

If I wanted to make, say, around 3000 copies, how much would this all cost? What if I made 1000 copies? Or 5000?

Then, of course, the game must be sold, but that

Krakit
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Joined: 11/26/2011
Just wondering...

Figure that producing below 5000 copies is between $1 and $3 per copy (with a 1000 unit min).

Carl

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Just wondering...

Quote:
14-04-2003 at 06:22, Krakit wrote:
Figure that producing below 5000 copies is between $1 and $3 per copy (with a 1000 unit min).

Carl

Really? 30 pawns alone already cost about $1 per game. And I would think printing the tiles on cardboard would be the most expensive part of the production proces.

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Just wondering...

And according to this thread: http://www.bgdf.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=Forums&file=viewtopic&topic=23&forum=2
a full-color, custom made box costs around $2.50, which would mean the game would already cost $3,50 for just a box with 30 pawns.

Anyone got any idea how much printing cardboard tiles (thick cardboard: think Carcassonne style) in a custom shape would cost?

FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Just wondering...

The last time I had any die cutting done -- and this was 10 years ago, so things could be quite different right now -- having a simple die made cost about $300 and having a complex die (which yours would be) cost about $1,000. Whatever the die cost, it

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Just wondering...

Thanks a lot FastLearner! I learned so much today about the production proces of games and the prices involved thanks to this forum and Google. From what I

FastLearner
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Just wondering...

First, take a look at Why Games Cost What They Do (the article is mostly about role playing games, however, and costs are higher for board games). According to several other game publishers I

doho123
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Joined: 07/21/2008
Just wondering...

Actually, I

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Just wondering...

Ah yes, I read that article before. So basically, if I wanted to produce a game that would retail for about $30, I have to make sure that production costs no more than around $3. That would probably mean no fancy box.

If you would only sell to online-shops, such as Adam-Spielt and FunAgain and not to real brick-and-mortar gamestores, would that cut out costs somewhere?

FastLearner
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Just wondering...

Quote:15-04-2003 at 00:20, zaiga wrote:
If you would only sell to online-shops, such as Adam-Spielt and FunAgain and not to real brick-and-mortar gamestores, would that cut out costs somewhere?
I

Anonymous
Just wondering...

I

FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Just wondering...

While it would be incredibly tedious, if the triangles don

zaiga
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Just wondering...

Thanks for the reply, all. I

phpbbadmin
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Joined: 04/23/2013
Just wondering...

Zaiga,

While I have not done this personally (although I plan to when I get a game worthy of it), you may want to consider self producing your games on an as needed basis. I know this is not exactly cost effective, or for that matter, a good use of your time, but it is (IMHO) a viable method for folks not willing or who can

Anonymous
Just wondering...

After reading this thread (which was VERY informative) I must say that I will definately go the route that Darkehorse just stated.

I figure I can print everything as cheaply as possible and spend my off hours from work fullfilling as many orders as I can (which shouldn

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Just wondering...

I

FastLearner
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Just wondering...

That

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