Does anyone have any ideas how to keep the cost of a trivia game reasonable? I have to have a lot of cards if i want to create a trivia card game, so how do I keep the cost of the cards in check? Any ideas?
Trivia Game Card Costs
Sun, 11/23/2014 - 17:32
Sun, 11/23/2014 - 18:53
#1
Cards ARE cheap.
For the most part having 100 or so cards to a game makes for a cheap game. Take for example "Tradewars - Homeworld", it has just under 100 cards and it will cost to produce LESS than $5.00 in China (includes box, 35 page instruction booklet, 98 cards, plastic tray, etc.)
Yes - IF you want to SELL your game, you will HAVE to make it in China. Unless you use a service like The Game Crafter (http://www.thegamecrafter.com) where the price will be MORE expensive but still possible to produce and sell.
Most companies that make card game outsource to China also. So it may be a USA based company that deals with various Chinese manufacturers...
But don't forget there are COSTS in traditional distribution which include delivery of merchandise. So even if it ONLY costs $5.00 to make, it's not unreasonable to see the game priced at more than $30.00 (because of delivery costs). Same goes for a Kickstarter, 25% of the cost is shipping...
Sun, 11/23/2014 - 20:55
#2
The Game Crafter (TGC)
If you DIRECTLY want to reduce card costs on TGC, make sure the number of cards in your game is a multiple of 18. The unit price is $0.09 and the number of cards per sheet is 18...
So if you plan to use TGC it comes out to $1.56 per SHEET. Which is not too bad if you consider they handle all the manufacturing and people can buy your game one copy at a time!
Cheers!
Tue, 01/06/2015 - 02:46
#3
How to outsource to China
As I am also curious in game production costs, I ran a basic cost estimate on the game crafter site you mentioned and noticed for a game with roughly 100 cards, instruction booklet, and a card box, it would cost about $13.13 per copy or $8.65 per copy if you produced in bulk (250+ copies).
You also mention outsourcing to China can get the cost down to about $5.00 per copy, but then you have to deal with the shipping costs. Do you personally know/ recommend any card/ game production companies in China? I was curious as to what kind of pricing I could attain by going that route.
