TGC, PnP etc. Free vs. Paid

I'm not a big spender on board games myself, so not the right person to ask about pricing.

I will mention that having different versions available for different prices is known by the rather unfortunate name second-degree price discrimination. The way to do this profitably is to figure out several different plausible price points.

The cheapest version is priced at what the stingiest group (that you're willing to serve) is willing to pay. These folks get no discount off of their willingness to pay, or in economic-speak they get zero surplus.

Figure out a quality/feature that some are willing to pay for. Price it somewhat below that willingness-to-pay, but above the cheapest version for the stingiest customers. They get some surplus to entice them to buy this version rather than the cheapest.

Figure out a higher price point that goes even further on the original quality, or maybe adds a second one. Calibrate the price so a group of people get more surplus here than in the first two versions.

Keep building higher and higher versions as long as you can find an audience for each. Getting more than two versions with positive sales is really hard unless you're giving away a ladder of premium add-ons (like many Kickstarters) or dealing with such a huge market that there'll be someone out there willing to buy just about any level (see the many versions of Microsoft Office).

I'd be fine selling a PnP version of Horeman's Chess for a nominal price (right now as a WIP the fair price is about $0) and a full version with purpose-built pieces. I doubt anyone would want a super-premium hand-painted titanium set, though I wouldn't be upset to be wrong about that :)

You may also want to consider "pay-what-you-can" and "pay-what-you-want."

DTRPG and other sites like itch.io, charity sites like Humble Bundle, and even your fantasy stock art site, provide options for a contribution-based pay model, where a minimum price can be set but if the purchaser wants to they can add more to their own purchase price. This is also a variation on the "sliding scale" admission price for those "currently experiencing financial setbacks," or something to that effect.

In a way, it sets the bar at the minimum referred to by FrankM in his post, but opens the opportunity for those currently flush with cash and sufficiently generous to chip in a little extra.

Also, on DTRPG, there are folks who provide something for no-cost for maybe a week, and then charge a small fee afterward. The inverse of that is also true: charge $X for the first week or two, but set it as no-cost after that.

I can only speculate (as this is quite far outside my realm of interest and experience), but my assumption is that "free first, pay later" would eventually generate more income than the flipped version of that model. But you may be able to capitalize on the "cult of the new" who impulsively/compulsively purchase stuff because it's the newest, freshest game on the market... In which case the "pay first, free later" model would be worthwhile.

Personal anecdote... Earlier this year, just for the heckuvit, I decided to charge for my personal software projects (these are largely retro-style arcade games), which are normally no-cost. I set a minimum price of US$2, where people could have one day when my games would cost money.

Sure, it was only four people, and it was no one I didn't know at least as an acquaintance already, but I was actually paid far and above the US$2 I asked. I didn't follow-up and ask why people chose to pay me money, but they did: either they like my games, they had spare cash, they think I'm a nice person, the incentives I provided were worth it, or something else. I don't know.

Just did a rough estimate of what serviceable TGC versions of Horseman's Chess would cost under three options.

A PnP doesn't really cost anything other than the set-up cost of making the rules (already in hand) and illustrations (for which I'd budget a few hundred dollars).

For cut cardstock on plastic stands, a medium rulebook, a folding 16"x16" board, and a medium stout box, it's a production cost of $31.03 to $33.53.

Using custom acrylic pieces would have roughly double the production cost at $57.60 to $64.10.

Those are a big jump from *maybe* $5 for PnP (I see very few priced over that).

A high-volume solution with injection-molded plastic would require a Kickstarter that I don't have the time or marketing skills to do, so my three potential versions would cost $0-$5, the retail price for $32-ish cost, and retail price for $60-ish cost.

(Edit: typo)

(Edit 2: The board is the most mispriced part since I don't want anything fancy. Figured out I could actually use 4 square mats instead of a folding board for that middle version, which would bring the production cost down to $22.85.)

My only experience is that PnP paid games does not pay much. I made at most 100$ with in average 5-8$ per game.

I would go for game crafters with 1-2$ profit. And a free PnP version.

If it works well, then try a bigger print run if it can lower your cost.

Or like microcosm: Free pnp and commercial print run.

Instead of 100 unique cards, create A MINIMUM-SIZED deck of let's say 60 card. That deck (call it a "Starter-Kit") will have duplicates of many of the cards (let's say to a maximum of 4 per kit). So 60/4 = 15 UNIQUE cards.

Okay work with 15 UNIQUE cards and maybe ADD +10 others. So 25 UNIQUE cards. That's about $2,500 in art commissions! But $2,500 is VERY FAR from $10,000 for 100 unique cards.

This is BEING SMART! I work hard to reduce the amount of investment required by my games (or more so these days -- because finances are tight).

These are things that I am sharing... As ways to DRIVE the cost of production down to more affordable numbers. You've got to WORK, WORK, and WORK some more to drive down your figures (on art and components).

But this is one DEFINITE way of "looking" in a neutral way at your product and seeing how you can literally "trim off the fat"!

If I find out that the PNP is in any way limited, with less art or other things missing, I would definitely not pay for it. An optional low-ink version included is great, but if the game is good I do not mind printing the real version.

Otherwise, for something that I do not know much about or has any other high expectations on, that I know I will most likely end up not printing, I will not pay much. Probably not more than $1. It is not worth very much to me to just download a PDF and look at it and skim through the rulebook. Not that I do not find that entertaining, but it is not worth as much as actually printing and playing a game.

For an established game of some kind, that I feel confident I will actually get printed and played, I can happily go up to $5-$10, sometimes up to $20 (even for a RPG rulebook or miniature games rulebook PDF). I probably sunk at least $50 into print'n'play Car Wars and piles of PDF expansions for it, for instance. But this will only work for you once your game has become very successful and then been out of print for a few decades. This beats having to track down a used copy on ebay that is going to be way more expensive anyway, plus with a PNP version I can easily modify it and print extra components if I want to, and there is no risk of anything missing in the box.

Never bought anything from TGC as they are not very cheap PLUS international shipping is extreme. There was a small game I considered buying, that would have been $80, plus often games are caught in customs here and have some $20 or so added in extra taxes etc. I do not want to pay $100 for a game that would probably be around $15 if it had a large normal print-run. Until someone can work out how to do print on demand well internationally I will prefer print'n'play. I know I have ordered print on demand books that were printed and shipped from Europe somewhere, but I do not know of any company that do that for board games yet.

Maybe make a TableTop Simulator version of the game. I know TableTopia is another option. But you're limited to the number of games you can design until you have to pay a MONTHLY fee. You buy TableTop Simulator ONCE and then you design your own Module(s). I think you can even SELL the Module for a couple dollars like $5 USD or make it FREE for more Advertising and encourage people to buy the physical version of the game.

This is a BETTER option IMHO.

Regarding TableTopia:
I shied away from it as soon as I learned that it was subscription-based after a certain level. I immediately opted for Table Top Simulator instead, which required only a one-time purchase. TTS requiring premium purchases for only some games instead of a constant subscription was a move in favor of the player, which was nice to see and was instantly more attractive to me.

Regarding VASSAL:
I am impressed they've upped their game lately (pun not intended). I remember when they were THE big fish in a very small pond, so to speak, and I have a feeling they felt the need to focus development on user-friendliness and graphical improvements to stay relevant in the current field.

For those cheap -and- enterprising folks, they could simply use the TTS tools to cobble together their own version of Twilight Imperium or whatever, and be satisfied with their own no-cost version of that premium game, and still have the "perks" of the Steam interface, as you note above.

But I suspect that someone who really loves one of the premium games on offer for TTS will shell out the money for that one-time purchase. It still seems a better deal to go for that, instead of a monthly subscription.

You could even make an argument that the one-time purchase of the premium game in TTS is better than attempting to make your own in TTS or TableTopia, simply because the process can be time-consuming and likely wouldn't have the same custom features and components found in the premium version. The time not spent making your own version could be spent playing the game itself.

And typical fans of board games that we're talking about here aren't exactly the kind who would balk at a US $5 - $10 purchase, so the premium version provides a great return on investment.

Kinda leaving VASSAL out of this, but it has a reputation problem in terms of user-friendliness that will be tough to beat when it comes to competing with TTS or TT. In comparison, personally I still see that as more of a "niche" tool.

VASSAL IS ugly. I hope the planned rewrite for version 4.0 will bring it into this century because many will judge the engine from its looks probably. But it is very powerful, and it has a focus on allowing a module designer to make games as playable as possible, with game-specific shortcuts, and to add overlays and such to graphics to make them often much more userfriendly than the original game tokens. There is no attempt to make the game look and behave exactly like the physical game, as that is very suboptimal on a screen. No physics engine or 3D or other gimmicky distractions (big plus).

It is also the only serious FREE alternative we have. Free as in open source and all that. No gatekeeping what modules can be used, or preventing anyone from modifying a module to their liking (thus improving usability even further). Other than the two companies offering TTS and Tabletopia it is a win for everyone in the hobby if a free alternative can be more popular, preferably to set the standard (and eventually maybe lead the way to a standard module file format for easily sharing modules between different engines, as many have dreamed about for ages).