Board Game Prototype

It basicly comes down to how manny games you are looking to make. It it is 2000and up I would recomend contacting a proper manufacturer and get several quotes to se wich one is the best bang for the buck. But be aware if you decide to go to china, you might end up with a bad factory so you have to do some research here befor you decide wich one to use.

If you have lower quantities there is several difrent ways to go, one is ordering the parts from several difrent manufacturers and asembel the game by your self. And another is making the parts, board and cards, by youre self and by the other components from difrent stors. This is not recomended.

Also there is a site called the gamecrafter that you moght want to chek. They basicly make the game for you, you can even seööt it from there site and get som potensial money that way. But again not recomended if you want to sell the game by your self.

I ran a few numbers, and you may be right. Thinking back, I think what he meant was that each level should help pay for the next one up, and to re-invest your profits to make more games.

On the other hand, you are not going to make much money with a 50% markup. From what I have heard, most stores ask for a 40% discount off of msrp (distributors ask for 55% or 60%!). So, a game that costs $5 to produce, if you only mark it up 50%, will sell for $7.50. A store buying it at 40% off will pay only $4.50, so you'd actually lose money on each game. Even if you increased the markup to 100%, you would still lose money selling to distributors, who would pay $4 or $4.5 per game.

Now, if you could sell your $5 game for $15 or $20 (requiring an increase in quality), you would be in good shape. At $15, the stores would buy if from you at $9, and the distributors would buy it from you at $6/$6.75. You would make some money on each sale.

This is assuming that you want to make money. If you are just trying to get your game out there, then profit does not matter.

-Ed Wedig
edwedig.com
Graphic Design and Web Design Services

Artscow sold a 54 set of cards for 2.99 recently.

In the publisher - wholesale - retail - consumer chain, you can expect prices to work like this:

Retailer sells product to consumer for $50
Wholesaler sells same product to retailer for $25
Publisher sells same product to wholesaler for $20
Publisher (ideally) spent $10 or less to make product.

So, regardless of whether your plan is to sell to wholesalers, retailers, or direct to consumers, try to ensure that you can sell the game for at least twice what it cost you to make it. The market you're targeting has a big impact on how much you should spend per unit.

If you're going for small press, small runs, direct to consumer, consider Artscow (as previously mentioned) and Guild of Blades POD (currently not accepting new customers, but may accept new ones early in 2011).

If you're considering larger (500, 1,000, etc...) runs, talk to the printer. Different printers have different capabilities, so what may save $$$ with one printer may not save $$$ with another. Printers to consider: Panda Game Manufacturing., Ludofact, Marek.

Sorry to be short on specifics, but I don't have lots of time today. Best of luck!

The advice already given is good. If you're going to sell in retail game stores and online game stores, plan on an MSRP of 4x-5x your production cost.

Lower volumes are possible, but they may involve tradeoffs. Do you need a "regular" game box? Getting 100 or 500 boxes made is hard to do - it's even hard to find a traditional box mfr that will consider it, but there are one or two out there. Does it have to be a folding game board? Or can it be "puzzle cut"?

Are you willing to do the project management yourself? Order the pawns from one place, the dice from another? There are minimum order quantities for these things that make the unit prices reasonable. Pawns for 8 cents each, dice for 7 or 8 cents each, but you need to order a certain minimum quantity. How about assembling all the components into the box and shrink wrapping it yourself? You can trade your own labor for a lower unit cost.

How "fixed" is the design? Are you willing to make changes to reduce unit cost? Example, if you want a 12x20 playing board and we tell you that if you make it 12x16, it would be half the cost - would you change your design to take advantage of our "standard board size"? If you are flexible, you can often achieve significant cost reduction while still getting 95% of what you really want for your game.

Finally, the question of selling price from another perspective - where do you plan to sell it? How much money do you need to make? Do you want to break even or use the proceeds of the sales to go make your next game or a bigger print run of this game? If you go traditional you(or your agent) - distributor - retailer, you do need to sell for 4x-5x MSRP. If you're going to sell primarily at conventions and/or through the Internet then the math changes. You can accept a larger mfg cost for the same MSRP or a lower selling cost because you don't have two stops on the way between you and the customer.

You can pay $25 for your game and sell it for $50 if your only expense is a demo table at a con. Or you could pay $25 for your game and sell it for $30 - your choice....

We have a customer that we did a small print run for, they got a booth at a major convention, sold out - took pre-orders for a second printing at the next major convention. And their second printing was alot bigger. Rumors of a major publisher picking them up too. The only question is - why weren't we smart enough to offer to publish it? :-)So the scenario can work that way - but for every one of these, there are many more that don't get as far.

SJ