(I wasn't sure where to post this)
I'm working on a new version/derivative of our first game, Coopetition. It's a more basic, travel friendly, stick it in your purse or pocket version.
(I need to digress a moment here and explain the underlying premise of the original game and what it got me thinking about.)
Coopetition is a party game whereby teams not only compete in variety of activities (drawing, acting, trivia, etc.), but must also cooperate in order to advance in the game. The concept came from early game theory writings and was used extensively beginning in the early 90's to describe businesses (such as Microsoft and Intel) that were both competing on some level in their industry as well as cooperating to grow markets, etc.
In some sense all of us here on the BGDF are in a state of Coopetition. We're helping one another develop ideas and grow the gaming industry, but we are on some level competing with one another to create the best games. We pick each other up, tear down ideas, and push one another to do better.
With that in mind I began thinking about whether I could incorporate something tangible into the game - either through packaging or marketing - that would show Coopetition in action. It occurred to me last week what this might be and I wanted to get some feedback.
This new version of the game Coopetition will have a set of game cards - perhaps 40 or 60 (each will be only 2" x 3" printed in black and white) - and some other components. After I've put the actual game elements on each card, there will be a space of approximately 2" x 1" left over in which I'm thinking I'll put product info for other people's games. There'd likely be a logo along with a web address and perhaps the category in which this game falls (i.e. family, party, abstract strategy, etc.).
Doing this seems as though it epitomizes the underlying premise of the game itself. It's providing an element of promotional cooperation in what would otherwise typically be a strictly competitive realm.
Any thoughts? Is this totally crazy?
Chip
The adverse "advertising" angle was the discussion my wife and I had when I first brought it up with her. And I would totally agree that placement of other logos might look like advertising even though this isn't the intention. And of course this would totally defeat the purpose and have an adverse effect on the game.
In addition to the regular game cards though, I hope to pair down the directions enough so that they'd fit on one of these 3"x2" cards as well (vs. having a separate sheet). And if I pursue this "other people's games" thing, I think I'd also include a note "About this Special Edition" on another one of these small cards. Games, DVD's, CD's, books, etc. often have special notes or acknowledgements about the item in question. Such notes point out the origins of an idea or something that's unique about the book or game and typically makes the owner of such book/game/cd/etc think they're holding something special.
I'm confident too that anyone that buys the game would read the "About this Special Edition" card and thus wouldn't view the logos as advertising. The trick would be to effectively explain/highlight the inclusion of other people's logos. (In addition to testing the normal game mechanics, I'll probably test this concept too and see what people say.)
Our latest game Stumblebum has 169 2"x3" cards. This number derives from the fact that the sheet of paper on which the cards were printed is 28"x40" (a set of 13x13 cards). This paper size I think is pretty standard. If I go with 40 cards (+ 1 for directions and 1 for the "Special" note) for the new game, I'll get 4 sets from one sheet. If I go with 60, I'll get 3 sets from a sheet.
Chip